Because in a sea of white and grey these are green. I agree that the trees look strange, I don't understand the motive for them being so awkward other than maybe just that they are alien species of trees? Regardless they look absurd.
Ten new weapons..sounds pretty solid considering what we've seen. Stick, Scatter, Light, Storm, Rail and the other Forerunner weapon that was mentioned but not shown (Repeater I think?). So that's four remaining if I didn't forget any?
All the new weapons we know of: -Light Rifle -Scattershot -Sticky Pistol -Rail Gun -Storm Rifle -Forerunner Sniper -Forerunner AR -Forerunner Heavy Weapon Leaving us two weapons that we haven't seen yet at all, unless I've stuffed things up. Things that I want to see return: -Brute Shot/Concussion Rifle (or something similar) -Focus Rifle (or beefed up Sentinel Beam) -Gravity Hammer
I loved the Concussion Rifle, it was like the Elite's version of a Brute Shot. If the Brutes every make a return, I would love to play as one (as well as Elites). The focus rifle was fantastic as well! But it wasn't the equivalent as a sniper (which is good, since it was more of just a Sentinel Beam).
What's wrong with those two? Just wondering The Focus rifle is a good support gun (good for demoralizing the other team, despite that it isn't the greatest killing machine). I guess I just have a fetish for being a support troop, and if our team is dominating, I don't really mind. ;D The CR is just a fantastic weapon. It's a counter to the sword and shotgun, reduces their shields and can flip light vehicles. It doesn't have to kill if you don't want it to, and your buddy can clean up after you too...it's the perfect close quarters gun.
I might not mind the Focus rifle, but the concussion rifle was a horrible addition. Yes its good for countering enemy attacks, but its also very disorienting and crippling against whoever you are using it against. And the explosion range/power is too much. I liked the brute shot because it was a good defensive weapon, and didnt result in sending an entire team off a cliff by a couple of shots. Its very disruptive and shouldnt be on half of the maps its on currently, like countdown, due to the lack of fighting space and alot of close-quarters combat. As far as BTB goes, yes its useful. But in my biased opinion, its ugly, its obnoxiously loud and distracting, and I'm a fan of the old fashioned Bruteshot.
So let me get this straight, you don't want a weapon that is "disorienting and crippling" against someone you are trying to kill? Would you rather it surround them in snuggly blankets and read a bedtime story?
Whatever works. And I don't think it's too overpowered, at a certain range+ it requires skill to shoot it accurately and doesn't contain enough ammo to make you a public enemy.
I think a lower clip on the CR would really help. With the 6 in it currently, people can spam, miss every shot and get the kill om pure splash damage. A clip of 4 or so would require at least one direct shot and two near misses to kill without reloading. It could still damage vehicles as effective and would still be anti-sword as 3 direct hits kill. On Countdown, it was kinda annoying because on that CQB oriented map every power weapon was used in CQB. It was a giant mosh pit of punching and crouching in standard Slayer, so obviously the CR is going to go on a field day. I think it worked fine on Zealot and alright on Sword Base, and great on BTB maps (when people used them). I'd prefer keeping all of the unique weapons, while ditching all the duplicates. Keep the Focus Rifle OR the Sentinel Beam, keep the Nade Launcher (Probably won't happen with the Sticky Detonantor), etc. I liked the CR. It was a lot of fun to pop someone in the air, airshot them twice and be done with 'em.
Honestly, I think the CR could use a buff if anything. I noticed when the TU had bleedthrough enabled that the CR was significantly more useful and actually felt like a power weapon. Without bleedthrough it just feels like a very noisy, distracting bottom tier gun. Not to say it isn't useful, but it doesn't feel like a power weapon in the number of kills it can accumulate. Basically two or three. Circumstantially it can net more, but realistically three is what you should be shooting for. Bleedthrough made that more in the 4-5 range if you were scoring enough direct hits, and IMO made Countdown more fun to play on. I could stomach a smaller clip, provided the reload time was a tad shorter too of course, if bleedthrough was enabled.
The issue with the concussion rifle (on Big Team maps specifically) is that it has way too much flipping ability while at the same time also damaging the hog. Basically, if you drove around the corner and there was an enemy with a concussion rifle, you would be sent flying through the air, sometimes ridiculously far and high, and it almost always resulted in the hog being killed. I went through this when I had a concussion rifle on Embarcadero, and that was the ultimate reason I removed it. Hogs are already overbalanced against in Reach because of the way vehicles take damage, so adding a concussion rifle just removes any hope they have. (The brute shot in H3 was not as bad, because though it sometimes flipped the Hog it did not damage it permanently and the explosion was smaller.) I can't say for sure how it functions against infantry though, it just needs to stay out of BTB.
I think this is true when it's used on infantry as well. The problem with the CR (and I really like the gun overall) is how effective the stun mechanic is. It creates a self perpetuating damage scenario, where being able to even roughly land the first shot makes it way too easy to land subsequent shots because the player has very little ability to escape/turn the tide with their own skill. I generally dislike mechanics that put such a strong emphasis on making the right decision/being in the right place and entail a high likelihood of success on this basis. I feel that decision making and positioning should be integral to success of any approach, but such success should also have a strong requirement for continued display of skill whilst carrying out the action. Being in the right place/making the right decision should not, on its own, be such a strong path to success. That said, I don't feel that the CR is a gross example of this by any means. Like I said, I really like it overall. I think the clip size, damage, bullet velocity etc. make for an incredibly skilful gun that finds a great place within the sandbox. If the stun/immobilising/jumping effect were toned down a noticeable amount then I think it'd be damn near perfect.
@FlyingShoe - that's just the flimsy Reach vehicles. Yet another thing that doesn't play well because vehicles didn't get enough attention in the development stages. If they were going to change the functionality of the CR at all, I would hope they would fix the vehicles first. @Pegasi - as far as being relatively easy to land a kill with at close-ish range, are any other power weapons (barring the GL) that different? I mean, if you turn a corner and somebody's standing there with rockets.. lol Being in the right place is only half of it. You also have to secure the weapon from it's spawn location, and know enough about it to put yourself in an area where it will be effective. Some maps don't make it that hard, but that's the nature of variety.