Lol. Matter of opinion I suppose. In BTB their fine but in smaller settings like social slayer, I found them annoying.
If the game is balanced at the lower level, individual ability is still the deciding factor in matches because none of the players have reached full potential on any tool in the sandbox yet. That's why they are low level players. Now, assuming this is still balanced around the lower level, the higher leagues are going to have imbalances; probably easy to use weapons having too much effectiveness without many downsides. These need to be removed, creating a less interesting experience the higher you go and driving away the core crowd, as well as casuals who climb the skill ladder learning that less of the game is a available the higher you go. That's no fun for the top, but the bottom is satisfied. Certain weapons/tactics are completely impossible at different levels in order to keep them balanced in the tiers in which they excel. Let's assume you balance around the top level. Lower levels may see some variance in which weapons are used most and how effective everything is, but they are not skilled enough to fully take advantage of the imbalances caused by difficulty or lack thereof in using some tactics. The balance issues are less prominent, and players who do manage to take advantage are no longer lower tier, and they find counters to these tactics. Meanwhile, the top is balanced. The bottom is still fine because those that exploit tactics that work better early on get moved up and discover that counters await them. The top is the target of balance. Everyone's satisfied, at least on the balance part. Fun is another story, but that wasn't the main point. Right now, in SCII for example, Sentry/Immortal is very effective in the higher levels but lower players lack control. On the other hand, Mass Void Ray is a winning tactic in the lower levels because good early pressure only starts to show up in Gold or so. Players that can exploit the bottom become gold and enter a more balanced field, and the control of tactics that would normally require Sentry/Immortal to beat is lacking in the lower levels, so other methods can be applied in place of S/I because their opponent isn't skilled enough to shut down less viable options. Control is the deciding factor, not balance in the lower levels. Balance should be around the higher levels. I stand by that. On the Mantis, that thing looks like a one-man wrecking crew. Like Reach Banshee level damage, but without the tissue paper armor. It looks fun as hell to use and I expect awesome customs with it, but I really think you'd have a really hard time stopping one of those from eating all of your vehicles (besides your Mantis, obviously.
So it also looks like the Mantis drops back down to "sitting" mode when EMP'd, not allowing it the view it had while out of EMP or the ability to turn, even if it can fire (unknown if it will be able to like the wraith can after a few seconds of EMP time.) It looks like getting an EMP on the Mantis will be very debilitating, a good reason to run Pulse Grenade/ Plasma Pistol in BTB. Overall I can see a number of ways the Mantis could be possibly taken down if one team has theirs on the splazer hill. The other team has their own Mantis, a banshee for bombing runs on it, a warthog for gun and run tactics, a sniper to ping the cockpit (or wherever is weakest,) the ability to run plasma pistol or pulse grenade in the load outs, and finally ordinance drops. Even if one team has both Mantis's I don't think it will be impossible to take them down and get back in the game.
You,ve got a very good point. But then again, in reach the cannon of the wraith can be blown of, you can still splatter with it, but that begins to get pretty pointless. But you are right. But in some way, i can understand that the cannon stays at its place, i dont know, the legs of the mantis just seem weak. But the cannon of the scorpion can be blown of right? Not the cannon itself i actually mean the whole top piece. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Oh and then somenthing else. Did anyone noticed that 343 said there were 2 new vehicles to operate in H4. So the Mantis is one, any idea what the second vehicle might be? There were some speculations that the pelican is the second, the mammoth is not driveable (At least so i assume, that would be too crazy) Also not forgeable i guess.. Any idea,s?
It better be drivable. But I'd give it little to no chance of being on a multiplayer map. 343 has already shown a ton of large maps, so the likelyhood of there being an unreleased map big enough to house mammoth(s) is almost zero IMO EDIT: I guess they could give it to us for just customs/forge, but I kinda doubt that too
I'd prefer a new light vehicle over the mammoth. It's cool but at the same time so dumb for actual gameplay. Hang on guys, I'll be over to the fight eventually, and when I do, I'm going to sit there and spawn the occasional spartan at it and use my 1 mounted turret! I would love a small 1 or 2 person Promethian speeder that could go pretty fast and be somewhere between a ghost and warthog. Something like a Promethian mongoose that can hold 1 other person, go rather fast, and shoot hard-light shots.
Basically what I was thinking of was a brute chopper with a back seat. Either would be cool, but I really am a light vehicle guy, hogs and ghosts and stuff. Big heavy vehicles are cool but less versatile for design. You need a massive map for a Mammoth or Elephant, and we have not even seen one big enough yet. Especially not in forge, where I'll actually really use the vehicle set to its full extent.
I posted this in the maps discussion, but thought I might bring it here as well: I wonder if they're going to keep the holiday easter eggs from Valahalla... Valhalla signs Easter egg - Halo 3 - YouTube
Promethean vehicles don't make much sense seeing how they can blink and all. They would look badass though. Does anyone know when They are revealing the next vehicle? Or, better yet, when they're showing more forge?
All this aside forging with the Mantis is going to be awesome. I feel overall they look easier to fit into a map than other tank style things because of their maneuverability and field of view. An urban setting with 2 Mantis's would be amazing.
Oh god, here come the Mech Warrior maps. An urban environment would be amazing. 343, hop to it. I don't care if you already have three forge maps. Just DO IT. -Nike
Haha well Arena style Mantis battles will be badass. I wonder if we can tweak the settings so players can't shoot but can still drive and stomp with it for some epic battling XD
mantisees. I see a lot of real steel re-imaginations in the future. I also hope someone finds a way to make a fun heist minigame with all those sentry turrets.