Yes, you read the title correctly. Yes, it may not seem logical, but it is. Trust me. So little back story here. I've had this thought at the back of my mind for some time now that, as law or percentages dictates, a percentage of X is greater numerical value or a larger number than it is of a smaller. By that logic, it should theoretically be possible to nerf the weapons in the sandbox that have higher Shot-To-Kill counts while remaining the integrity of the lower STK count weapons such as the Magnum and BR. Today I finally got around to testing it, and know what? It worked! Default Weapon STKs: Pistol: 5/7 BR: 4/6 DMR: 5/6 LR: 3/4 (scope/unscope headshots) 4/5 body Carbine: 7/10 AR: 12/15 Storm: 8 Modified Settings: Health 150% Melee 140% Pistol: 5/7 BR: 4/7 DMR: 5/7 LR: 3/4 (headshots) 1 scoped 5 body and 6 body Carbine: 7/12 Ar: 14/18 Storm: >8 (hard to count because of rate of fire) Also tested with beatdown + shots and shot + beatdowns, as well as different combos to see if they were consistent with default settings. They were. Now the benefits of these settings are fairly obvious. Most notable, the automatics have been dialed down considerably, which empowers the precision weapons relatively. More interested is the larger difference between Optimal STK and Max STK being larger, which results in the BR and DMR being less forgiving weapons. This naturally increases the skill gap of the weapons themselves. Hope y'all find this helpful. Bit of a hasty write up, but I really wanted to share this. Cheers!
I'm actually fine with default settings, but I know there's a ton of players that hate how powerful automatics are, and I do think these tweaks make an improvement.
Could be interesting. I'm all for increasing the average TTK. I don't think the game is in a dire need of a TU at this point however, which is a first for Halo. If nothing else, I'd make the Snipers harder to use and nerf the Storm Rifle and Railgun
There's only so much you can do with the options given without breaking the pistol. This reduces average ttks on all precision weapons outside of the pistol, and nerfs both opt and avg ttks of automatics.
Probably increases power of the boltshot even more though, given that it's rare for it to not kill with a headshot. Otherwise, interesting settings. I agree that the default settings are fairly well balanced, increasing TTK of automatic weapons is not strictly a good thing. Precision weapons should always (given optimally placed shots) beat out automatic weapons in a 1v1 duel where both players open fire at the same time. Even with the default settings, this generally occurs. These settings may end up with a more "classic" Halo experience, which I expect is part of the aim.
While it's possible to out pistol an AR user, this is exceedingly difficult due to theread being little difference between the Pistol opt ttks and AR body shot ttk. This alleviates that by expanding the difference between the two, while bringing their opt ttks closer together.
I am one of the people that hates the AR buff, for two imo good damn reasons, one of which not particularly pertaining to gameplay itself but more so the feeling of Halo for me based on my own experiences playing Halo since Halo 3, The AR is supposed to be crap. It just is. It's the weapon you spawn with and try to ditch ASAP, Hopefully to pick up a precision weapon. Now this like I said this is something of a nostalgia/core principle of Halo that I think has changed for the worse. The other reason being that I think the gun is just too strong because of the way I play Halo. I like to think that winning gun fights in Halo is almost mathematical. I see an enemy, I assess the situation, What weapon does he/she have? What weapon do I have? What distance are we from each other? My point being is that a buffed AR adds so much chaos to a gunfight I sometimes feel cheated when I'm killed by it. What happened? I did everything right to the best of my ability, I crouched, I boost strafed, I hit my shots, But somehow the strength of the AR changed the math somewhere and I end up dying simply because my opponent got lucky. /rantparagraphover. I like the idea of messing with the TTK with the settings available to us but disgustingly OP AR and all I like H5's sandbox fine, I guess it's just harder to adapt to than previous Halo titles. Which isn't bad necessarily, it's just different and people have a hard time with change, especially when its something they are passionate about that's doing the changing. Good post Schnitzel, we will have to try some different settings sometime!
The pistol is exactly the same, but the automatic weapon nerf subsequently increases the effectiveness of the magnum.
Regardless, the AR/Magnum balance right now is already good. Halo 5 is the first time since CE where the secondary was stronger than the primary. Does it really need to be more?
Yes. The time to kill with an ar, smg, or storm rifle is extremely quick without demanding precision like the pistol. They also have an absurd amount of range.
The AR completely out classes the Pistol in default as not only is its Opt TTK considerably faster, its alternative TTK from body shots is about equal to the Pistols Opt TTK. This results in a weapon that is both more forgiving to use and nets a benter kill time. With these settings, the AR and Pistol have nearly the same Opt TTK, but the AR still has a quicker alt TTK. It's still very powerful and capable of winning CQC engagements. These settings don't so much nerf it, but more regulate it jn to a niche role. And just because the pistol is a "sidearm" doesn't mean it shouldn't fill the role of a utility weapon. What's most important is the role of the weapon, not it's aesthetic depiction. If it was a rifle would you still be moaning about how it's "too strong"?