I dislike spread as a range limiting mechanic, particularly random spread. Predictable spread would be kinda odd tbh, so even though I can see why they went with random spread in Halo I still dislike it. I don't like bloom either (or Reach bloom anyway), whilst it's not an absolute range limiting mechanic that's the basis of its purpose, and it's still random. I'd be interested to see Halo experiment with damage drop off as a range mechanic outside of just the Shotty, especially for stuff like the Pistol and AR. I can see why distinct ranges is something they've wanted to enforce, but I dislike how it's done with randomness based mechanics. Damage drop off would ensure consistency, not just for the sake of skill but for fulfilling the basic purpose of a range mechanic consistently as well, no more lucky cross map shots that happen purely because of chance. It shouldn't (imo) be a universal thing, but for weapons which are specifically designed to be used at closer ranges it could enforce that nicely, just expanding the Shotgun principle out a bit. The other clear choice is shot-lead/bullet travel time. Whilst Halo 3 is what comes to mind when this is mentioned, it's an awful example of what could be a really great mechanic. The fact that it was twinned with random spread and awful net code meant that it felt horrible, just stifling rather than making something harder for a proper reward. The main issue with this as a range mechanic is that it isn't absolute, even less so than bloom which (at least somewhat) enforces a range appropriate RoF. Shot-lead has the potential for weapons to be just as accurate at any range, just adding a level of difficulty to achieve that. I quite like this aspect, but I can see why it isn't the go-to choice in range mechanics for many.
I think this could work well and it's actually a bit realistic - bullets do lose velocity due to friction as they travel. Shot-leading still makes me cringe a bit because netcode has to be ****ing stellar to make it not an exercise in frustration (as it so often was in Halo 3).
In a perfect world, I would too. But I understand the impulse to go with hitscan after playing Halo 2 and 3 and wondering what was happening to my shots. Maybe they could rewrite their hit detection to be a FORM of hitscan - basically it would calculate all your shots on your own box (including shot leading) and send the hit info to host, rather than sending where you shot at to host and letting them calculate the hits. As I understand it, that's why shooting at range in Halo 3 was sometimes so retarded - people simply weren't where you thought they were, according to the host box, so your shots wouldn't register.
So... if there's no spread and the BR is hitscan, how are they going to make it a more effective weapon medium-close than the DMR, but less effective at long range? They're not really going to do damage drop off, are they?
That's what I was asking before. Maybe it's solely the recoil. If it's significant it will be hard to land an entire burst on a distant target, especially aiming for the head.
I want to punch you in the face so much right now. It still sounds like the BR has a silencer on it and not like the classic "braap" that I love. Dear God...
Frankie said on GAF that the audio for the Conan clip was lowered so the voices were easier to hear. It still sounded weird though.
Yeah, it never really sounded like the Halo 3 BR. Although I love the sound of the BR from the First look video, much more than the Halo 3 BR.
How did I know it was a link? Every time I see you post here cluckin I immediately check your post to see if it's a link. Thanks Too bad the videos off the GI website don't play on my iPhone fir some reason:/ gotta wait till I get home.
Can we start infracting for this at some point? It's getting seriously old. Is there any new info or anything interesting in that video? I can't get that to play at all, I've tried it in Firefox and Chrome.
Nothing really new, but it is worth watching IMO. @Skisma, it works on my iPod, so you should be able to watch it.
Nutduster, I don't think the DMR and BR will be redundant. One is a shot-to-mid-range burst fire and the other a long-distance single shot. Apparently they've made the DMR's RoF static as well. I think having both on you could be very useful. I love how everyone is already dismissing Halo 4 as crap when we hardly know that much about the game. When the GI issue came out, everyone jumped on every sentence and took them out of context. Almost all the major issues people had (the "random" weapon drops) have been explained to work differently than we thought they would and I expect this to hold true for a lot of aspects.
It's just my iPhone , it's messed up. Just watched it on my girls iPhone and @ Neo, there's a shot where the player is holding an AR while AFK and you can see what the weapon drop icon looks like. Also on the HUD the grenades are top right and something strange is on top left..
In that video about Spartan Ops that Cheeze posted, it looks like there is some sort of perk on the screen to the guy's left. We see the AR's silhouette, some triangles with exclamation points inside (probably hidden or locked stuff for the purposes of the video), and lastly an aiming reticule with a downward facing triangle above it. Perhaps this is some sort of AR related perk? Maybe some kind of stabilizer.
Well that touches on how they have explained that they will be used, but if the BR has no spread, how does that actually work in practice? And you must admit, they were essentially the same weapon if you compare the Halo 2/3 BR to the Reach DMR. I suspect that the loadouts/buying weapons thing will mean a much larger weapon sandbox where more of the weapons are functionally near-redundant - which is something that's never been true of Halo, but is certainly true of loadout shooters like CoD. Mind you, I'm not saying it will be a problem - just a weird left turn for the series, especially compared to where we started. Halo CE had, I believe, 8 weapons, each being completely distinct in purpose. It wasn't necessarily the only balanced/fun/competitive/whatever way to build a game, but it was elegant in its simplicity and clarity.