IMO, the ZB gametype for Beta should make you start with a DMR primary and an AR secondary. What do you guys think?
Yea ill agree, even though i love the pistol its over used and since almost every map has one you can just go find it ^^.
I hate to say this, but I agree, I want my AR back, I get forced to play ZB slayer because of large parties, so that will help me a lot, I can drop my DMR for the Magnum when I find one.
I agree totally. I think they were just testing how the DMR and Pistol balanced against one another as starting weapons, but imo they're likely to have seen the obvious answer to that question from the evidence so far: badly. The Pistol is incredibly powerful and wildly inconsistent at the same time. The fact that it still has spread means that, even at close range, hitting a perfect 4 shot and not even killing them with all 8 shots are both very likely outcomes. But because it's so fast at killing it's worth risking it for a biscuit and pulling out your Pistol as soon as you're at anything approaching close range. I think it'll play alright as a pickup only, simply because they won't appear as much, and much better at 110% damage because this makes it a 5 shot just like the DMR, as well as toning down nades and rockets a little (also good for the 'classic' feel that these gametypes are meant to be going for). I hope 343 consider 110% damage, speed and jump height, with 125% shield recharge rate for the final ZB settings.
I hope they make ZB a seperate playlist. Frankly, I liked the bloom. Without it, the DMR will become an overused weapon, constantley rewarding its spamming users with a plethora of headshots. I think the grenades should lower shields quickly and do less actual damage. I also find it a bit ridiculous that one can 5 shot an enemy with the Magnum even when the enemy is within melee distance.
I'm in the weird position of having never liked bloom (or at least not liking the extreme randomness of it), but finding that I DID like how it made the game play to an extent, especially at mid to long range. The fact that you could be somewhat in the open and not instantly die was a big plus, and made some of the maps play a lot better (and freer) than they do in ZB games. I wonder if 343 would consider doing something as radical as removing bloom from Halo 4 but having bullets do literally less damage at long range. That's actually somewhat reality-based, since bullets lose velocity/kinetic energy as they travel. If someone was 4 shots to kill at close range, 5 shots at a long mid-range and 6-7 shots at very long range, but the aim was very precise, I think I might really like that game. Or really hate it, I dunno. I'm a waffler.
If MLG goes zero bloom I know where I'll be staying until Halo 4 comes out. [br][/br]Edited by merge: There's no way to properly communicate when you can or cannot someone with 4 or 5 shots.
MLG is almost definitely going Zero Bloom. You can find test versions of the MLG v6 gametypes, but with ZB, in KC's Fileshare. They've announced that bloom is remaining for Orlando (kinda obviously, since it starts tomorrow) but that the discussion on removing it for Nationals in Providence is very much open. The fact that they're being so vocal about considering it for Nats, as well as the huge amount of community and pro support, indicates that it's likely to be removed for this last event of the season, which is more than I was expecting tbh. Either way, I'd wager a large amount of money that it WILL be gone for next season, which is a pity really because we've only got 1 season left before Halo 4 comes out, and I'd say that ZB Reach is quite possibly the best 4v4 competitive Halo game we've ever seen for MLG. Lets hope Halo 4 starts strong and doesn't take a year to find its footing in the competitive scene.
I think in the final gametype it should be DMR/AR, but I think in a beta testing environment it makes sense to have people using the DMR/Mag as much as possible
As opposed to what we've had in Halos 2, 3 and Reach, between lag, bullet spread (especially with the BR burst), and bloom? I don't think that's a huge problem, personally. Maybe it would be in highly competitive games on a LAN. Personally I find that at least in pre-TU games, I mostly looked for the telltale shield shimmer and then shield drop; I don't think that would be much different for me with this proposed change. Maybe it would be less of an exact science and more of an art. I was also thinking of another way to address this, which could be (wait for it... you're gonna hate it!) recoil/reticule movement. The primary goal of bloom is supposedly to encourage pacing shots, especially at longer ranges, yes? With the directly related effect that it slows the game pace down a bit and makes it take longer to kill someone at a distance. But what people dislike about bloom is not knowing where their shot will go when they don't pace, and that sometimes you are rewarded for spamming anyway, and sometimes seemingly punished even when you do pace. How about adding a little more recoil to precision weapons, or making the reticule jump just a small amount the more you spam shots? So if you fire a lot of shots in rapid succession, near the end of the clip your spartan's hands would shake a little and the aim would be inconsistent. This would mimic, to an extent, what bloom is supposed to do; but the benefits would be that a) the shots would actually go where the reticule is aimed NO MATTER WHAT, instead of to a random point within a large circle; and b) if you were sufficiently skillful at compensating for the effect, you could still land some shots. It also might be interesting to incorporate this (again though, just a subtle amount) when players are running and jumping around - though I know that would drive the MLG players crazy. I'm not generally a proponent of realism in Halo, but it does strike me as kind of stupid that the best way to win a gun battle in this game has always been jerking back and forth and jumping up and down like a jackrabbit with spastic tremors, while still putting your shots on target. Some guys have that down to a science and more power to 'em, I guess, but I'm not crazy about the way it reduces the game at a high level to so much fidgeting. The tactical aspects of Halo are more interesting to me, I suppose, and if you were mildly encouraged by the game to be more tactical and less spazzy, I think I might like that. (It would definitely put a premium on using cover wisely and team shooting.)
Can't wait to see the insanely fast-paced matches now without bloom. Now if only Reach had good maps.
Have you watched/played V6 much at all? Its pretty damn good even with bloom, nice to have King back (and to see Instinct basically unbeatable on it) even if we're still missing Ball, and the maps are very solid. Oasis is awesome, Pit is better than I thought it'd be, Nexus is growing on me and Zealot is still as awesome as ever. Countdown CTF flag standoffs are down to a fine art now but its still a strong map overall.