The reason the atmosphere is angry is because it's so easy to do it the right way. Why fix matchmaking boltshot and cripple customs boltshot when you can have both? Would you be annoyed if the waiter at a restaurant, when you ask to have your glass of water refilled, fills it to the 1/3 (arbitrary non-full number) mark? A TU fixing things doesn't really fix the issue of things from Reach that have been removed either, but that's another story.
You're assuming that it was ever intended as a semi-power weapon. I would argue it's not. Halo 4's design has made something perfectly clear: the ecology of the game only supports two lifeforms, which are regular weapons and power weapons. Some weapons are better than others in each category, but there's not really any in-between territory any more, since having a semi- of either kind of weapon would disrupt the basic system of loadouts and ordnance drops. Basically, if it can be used in a loadout it's a regular weapon; if it comes in via a drop, it's a power weapon. With that in mind, the nerf makes perfect sense. They are only interested in fixing an imbalance in their intended ecology, not catering to another one that doesn't exist in matchmaking (and ergo, being something they don't care about). At some point, we customs players are just going to have to get over one simple fact: matchmaking drives this game. We are a secondary concern, on a GOOD day. And if you can't get past that, you're going to have to move on to another game. That's not me dismissing your concerns or saying your logic is bad, but just trying to be realistic about things. 343i has been pretty clear that customs and forge are low considerations for them. We still have parts of the game meant for us, but they're not going out of their way for us like Bungie did. And if we keep expecting it, we're going to keep on being disappointed. I mean really, if a needed feature like precision editing can't be patched back in, then nerfing the boltshot in a precise way that makes it OK for matchmaking but also caters to a TINY portion of the community that wants to use it as a replacement for the H3 mauler... clearly not going to happen. It's not even remotely something they would be concerned about.
SpinCycle... brother... 343 is focused like Bungie was when they first started making Halo games. They're focused on making that money, the matchmaking and campaign is where that money is at with the 1,000,000 followers. They're not worried about that 1,000 die-hard forgers such as us. If you get pissed and move on to something else I bet they could care less. Either way, Bungie obviously spoiled us and set to high of standards to even be grateful for what we have in Forge for Halo 4. It's still better than Halo 3, bungie's first attempt. Either way this is still the top editor for a console game and is dumb'd down to where even a dummy can make a map and it's intended that way b/c most of the console population consist of kids (ages 12-20)*. If you really want to express yourself get into a PC game with a great editor. You can even get into Halo 3 when it comes out on PC and make a Halo 4 mod and make all the maps you ever dreamed of there. But until a new Halo, not much of the forge mechanics will change. I bet we only get one new Forge map as well and it'll probably be one of the last maps they release. * Yeah I pulled that out of my ass, but still, more kids on consoles and adults on pc
Grouping everything like that together equates the DMR with a Carbine, Boltshot with Magnum, Concussion Rifle with Rocket Launcher, Needler and Binary Rifle, Speed Boost with Damage Boost, and so forth. I don't know how I would put this in a softer way, but it's just not true that there are only two levels of weapons. I'm not fooling myself. I know Matchmaking is more important than Customs to 343. If you frame the issue as not Matchmaking vs Customs with Matchmaking prioritized but as Matchmaking + Customs, you get my perspective.. Why benefit a primary interest at the expense of a secondary one when you could benefit both? It would have been so easy.. I'm not asking for a Mauler back either, and I would surmise that many of those asking for a boltshot change aren't as well. All players want is a weapon that can be used in customs effectively. No more Reach plasma repeaters. EDIT: Hulk, your post came up as I was typing. Let me address it; No one would have been nearly as upset as they are now if Forge was pretty much Reach with changed textures, duplicating, etc whatever. The issue is not that Forge didn't get better, it's that Forge became worse.. xyz glitch? pieces marked off-center in coordinate snaps? zoom? fine editing? (this is ignoring things that are not completely objective, like no flat piece of grass like we had with the Quarry in Reach) Someone made a conscious effort to remove already working features from the game... and it goes back to the point I made to Nutduster. Why do poorly when you could have done better without much extra effort?
You act like it's nothing but jumping on a computer and entering code and bamo! it's updated. It is sooo much more in-depth than that. 343 is getting in the updates as fast as humanly possible and do realize they work on a 9-5 schedule and probably only get in about 4-5 hours of quality work a day (plus weekends and holidays off). Everything they do to the game has to go all the way up the chain and all the way back down before any alterations can take place. Then testing needs to be done, over and over, and again up and down the chain. This takes weeks. I agree with the boltshot being nerfed was excellent. If it didn't get a nerf then it needed to be removed from the loadouts.
However you view that part of my argument, it's true enough that ANY loadout weapon would be out of place in an ordnance drop, and never picked over any of the power weapons; and any ordnance weapon ought to be picked over any regular weapon (as long as you can also have a regular primary) if it were offered as a loadout choice. That's the division I'm talking about, and Halo 4 has no room in between due to how it was designed. Yes, a binary rifle clearly is better than a needler and a boltshot is clearly better than a magnum; but both of the former fit comfortably in the category of "weapons you earn, that shift the balance of power in a game" and both of the latter OUGHT to fit in the category of "weapons everyone has, and it's no big deal; and you'd swap out either for any random power weapon." Only the boltshot screws up that system, which is why it got nerfed.
That actually would have been my preference. I love the weapon as is - just hate that everyone has it. But I predicted a while back that 343 felt married to the thing and would never take it away from all the people who want to use it off spawn, so nerfing it was the only realistic choice. And the particular nerf they did was probably the simplest to implement, understand, and test.
It's not entering code. It's just not deleting it in the development phase. As for as fast as humanly possible, most of the company went on break for a couple weeks around Christmas-New Years'. Really? When their game was in that state? If 343i had done this all before development, none of this would have needed to happen. Small changes in pre-beta (cough) stages don't need to be sent up and down, as you describe it. Why make it more difficult? Only the boltshot? The issue is that there's a third class awkwardly in the middle, comprising the boltshot, plasma pistol in BTB, concussion rifles outside of BTB, needlers, etc. It's not true that there are two blocks of weapons, in which all shift the balance of power, as you put it, equivalently. Everything depends on the boltshot war-friendliness of the map, Infinity vs high competitiveness settings, etc. By putting the boltshot to the loadout level (not to mention unskillfully), 343i hurt its viability in competitive play. Going back to an earlier point, both are possible at the same time; the DMR and LR are good examples. Speaking of weapons as "power" or "loadout" ignores the spectrum of power provided in sandbox, regardless of what ordnance options are. It does seem that we agree on the basic point; that loadouts including the boltshot were the problem rather than the boltshot itself.. EDIT: Nerf in range is pretty lame. 8.64 lowered to 7.34.. only 1.3 difference. Video here: Halo 4 Title Update! Boltshot NERF. - YouTube
Again, that's not really the point I'm making. It's that 343 literally created two classes of weapons, which creates a necessary power gap between them whether the two classes are themselves internally consistent or not. If there are ordnance weapons you wouldn't take over your secondary (or 2nd primary), they have failed as designers; those are wasted ordnance slots and players are getting cheated when they come up as choices. If there are secondary weapons you'd rather have over ordnance, same deal. And to me, the boltshot is the only significant counter-example, and their nerfing of it was to be expected. Plasma pistol in BTB is a problem but one they're stuck with thanks to the lack of regular weapons on maps and randomization of ordnance (it's also why the operator class is a thing - to attempt to offset a built-in problem). I would still dump my plasma pistol for almost any power weapon in BTB though. Even a weak weapon like a needler or concuss. rifle should be a couple guaranteed kills if you're decent; the PP is an emergency anti-vehicle measure only, only semi-useful against infantry and far from a guaranteed kill (far from guaranteed against vehicles, too, but better than nothing). I'd take a concussion rifle over a boltshot too; even on a campy CQC-heavy map (maybe especially on those) it's nasty and effective at disrupting whatever the other player is trying to do, though it doesn't kill as fast as other power weapons. If you want one better supporting example, I'd offer the splaser in non-BTB games. That's a design error; it basically shouldn't come up as ordnance on maps without vehicles. Otherwise I think the class division is pretty clear and consistent... except for the boltshot.
I think they need to rethink the Plasma Pistol and EMP entirely for Halo 5. The EMP still needs to exist but make it less populated on the battlefield but if you take away the EMP from the plasma pistol then that weapon is useless.
If you had to pick between your primary and frag grenades, which would you pick? Aside from that, I think we're on two different chapters of different books here. My initial assertion was that the boltshot nerf could have been done better, yours (as I am interpreting it) is that a boltshot nerf needed to happen to fit with ordnance vs loadout ideology. Both actually are compatible..
That is sooo off-base of what he is trying to say. Frag Grenades are aside from Small Arms. We're talking about small arms, either way you will always have grenades. On that note though, I think the Pulse grenade needs to become a Flash Bang. You would have better luck killing a spartan by throwing pillows at him than killing him with the garbage that is the current pulse grenade.
Maybe we're misunderstanding each other.. I meant frag grenades in an ordnance, but I forgot about getting frag grenades off spawn As for the Pulse nade, I agree it needs a buff. You can just walk through the thing...
It would work much better if it became an EMP grenade as well, same ending effect, but at any time if the Grenade's matrix field (once ignited) touched you, it would drop your shields almost instantly.
It would take someone with depth in software development to truly appreciate this statement. Either the code base will lend to an easy and obvious fix with minimal testing and risk to the rest of the gaming environment, or it doesn't. Everything is done by risk management. They are always going to balance the following: 1. How much time/resources ($$$) will it cost to fix? 2. How much risk is there to the rest of the environment? versus 3. How much risk is there to just leave it in (e.g., how much additional damage will we wind up doing if we don't fix this)?
That's too much. It'd become a new noob combo.. shoot and headshot. Dropping your health by ~2 shots worth seems like an OK number to me. That many shots can be made up by a good player. Has anyone tried the new Orange settings? Apparently 110% damage, 110% resistance gives you a 4shot LR scoped and unscoped, body snipe + 2 body shots to kill, six body shots to kill, while keeping the DMR 5 shot.
I was talking about the current situation, not the past mistakes. As I didn't diasgree with Spin on this one but making the change "Now" is much more complicated.