Hi everyone, I am trying to gather some information and would like to hear some opinions on BTB Heavies. What exactly does it mean to you? I see the term get thrown around a lot but never really understood how it differentiates form regular BTB. Is it just Heavy Vehicles such as Tanks/Wraiths that make a Heavies game type? Or is it the amount of power weapons? Starting weapons? Are there specific design choices you would consider defines a BTB map a Heavies map? If I recall correctly, Halo 3 had a BTB Heavies variant or even playlist, does anyone remember what the difference was? I would love to hear some opinions, thanks in advance for your feedback.
BTB Heavies.... *shudders* Hand's down one of the most awful experiences in Halo Reach. Honestly, BTB is BTB. The map should be designed with certain weapon's and vehicles in mind. You can't shoe horn in vehicles that don't fit that map. Halo Reach proved that well enough.
BTB Heavies is the mode that's meant to say "**** logic, let's have a badass war!" and deserves to be treated as such. Heavies on Valhalla are some of my favorite memories from h3 because of how laid back and generally fun the gametype was if you didn't go uber-sweaty, and that's something I'll stand by no matter how unpopular my opinion.
The thing with BTB in Halo 5 is that there are very few maps that place scorpions or wraiths on both sides, and even fewer maps that are well designed and do so. I didn't really like BTB heavies too much in past Halos, but considering how little tank/aircraft/mantis warfare we have in the game right now, I'd love to see a bit more heavy vehicles added to maps that could make them work.
The most appropriate place for BTB Heavies is action sack but even then it isn't interesting enough compared to other mini-games. It doesn't fit into the game at all. It's just incredibly unbalanced slayer with a high player count.
Action Sack isn't a place for BTB Heavies, in my opinion. Especially not for Halo 5. We've seen Action Sack be a mix of game modes for 4v4 or 8 player FFA game modes. It mixes different nonstandard game modes and maps for new types of game play that you just wouldn't find in regular matchmaking. BTB Heavies should belong in BTB, in a sense, like how if you search Arena you have a chance of finding Strongholds, Slayer, CTF, and Assault. There should maybe even just be maps that support heavier gameplay, which wouldn't be hard. Maps built for heavier combat would be nice, and BTB is severely lacking it right now. Not a tank to be found. I see BTB Heavies to be heavier vehicles, stronger power weapons across the map, and better use of the overall sandbox. In previous titles, we saw BTB Heavies to be on Coagulation we saw tanks, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, banshees, etc. An assortment of heavy hitting combinations. And man do I miss heavier BTB gameplay. BTB can already be unbalanced, in the first place. But if people wouldn't want it in the BTB playlist, we could see it as a weekly playlist, sort of like Team Snipers and Fiesta. I'd just like more gameplay options for BTB.
I may have been interpreted too literally. BTB Heavies doesn't belong in the BTB playlist because its extremely unbalanced. It doesn't belong in action sack either because there are more distinctively interesting game types that differ from our core modes. It just doesn't fit anywhere in my opinion, I'd rather play something designed to be different in a more creative way.
Personally, I'd love something in between Heavies and standard BTB. Just some heavier alternatives. Strong power weapons and large, imposing vehicles.
Heavies on Sandtrap was my absolute favourite back in the day, it's a cluster**** of a gametypes and that's what makes it so enjoyable. Everyone gets a chance to get a power weapon or an OP tank and I think halo 5 really needs that level of fun in btb right now.
An absurd gametype not worth the time it takes to finish a game. Speaking more seriously, it's just a really poor implementation of heavy vehicles into gameplay. If your map doesn't handle certain vehicles well as standard then hamming it up with a ton more vehicles, heavy weapons, and tacked on cover isn't going to improve the experience at all. I strongly believe that if you want heavy vehicles on your map then you need to do it right from the start and show some restraint. There's absolutely no need to ever be "heavier" than standard Avalanche (note: this is not an endorsement of Avalanche's super snowbally design). EDIT: I also really dislike the idea of categorising BTB into "squad", "regular", and "heavies". A map can be balanced for competition regardless of category and frankly I want to see at least a bit of Wraith action in H5. Might have to take it into my own hands; some ideas are forming.
Wreckage was my favorite BTB map in Halo 4 because it had a couple hogs and a ghost Wreckage heavies was on the far other end of the spectrum.
In my opinion the two wasps on Deadlock fall into the "Heavies" category. The map has a lot of open terrain and not much interior space for infantry to take cover in which makes the wasps extremely threatening. The current spawning system for the wasps is so misguided that its set to respawn over and over again, you could literally have 8 wasps in the air if you orchestrated this properly with your team. Furthermore the spawning system on Deadlock creates unwanted situations where Wasps can spawn kill players easily because of how open and exposed the terrain is. The wasps definitely fall into "heavier alternatives / imposing vehicles".