All throughout building an invasion map, I have been wondering about the loadouts for my particular gametype. I always found the evolution to 5 loadouts from 1 to be too much, and it gives away what could be advantages for the other team in terms of armor abilities. Having not played many custom invasion variants, I'm not sure what to expect when it comes to loadouts. So what is the proper number of loadouts-- how should they progress weaponwise-- how should they be balanced-- how should they be balanced when considering vehicles-- etc? After giving it some thought, in any given invasion map, wouldn't 3 loadouts that progress work just fine? Example: Assault Rifle Magnum x1 Frag DMR Assault Rifle x2 Frag Sniper Magnum x2 Frag And on another note, anyone who would like to help me break my map let me know!
I don't understand what you mean by, "it gives away what could be advantages for the other team in terms of armor abilities." Armor abilities are not meant to control the game, just to add some factors to it. I don't see how, for example, the addition of grenade launchers in phase 3 does that makes drop shield less effective. These loadouts were designed for balance as well as noticeable expansion, so I don't see what the problem with them is. Spawning with a sniper in invasion is a bad idea. Most people will choose that loadout because of it's power and popularity, allowing the team to easily tear up vehicles and control the battle from long range. All in all, it may seem like there are problems from your point of view, but the loadouts are all very balanced in game and are designed not only around countering each other but also the weapons and vehicles spawning in. Remember, these loadouts were designed by Bungie, so they are actually balanced very well.
I have always thought that the loadouts in the standard game type are balanced. The idea of going from 1 to 5 choices is the same as why you see only T1 during T1 and then the map appears to expand; why the power of weapons grows; why the number of vehicles grow; why the verticality of the game play grows. All of these grow toward a winning climax of the Round. In every case, you want to reward the players with more of everything. Otherwise, it can feel stale or boring as you progress the round, but some aspects do not progress as well.
Thanks, will remember this. The reason I was mainly tampering with the loadouts was because I wanted to remove the jetpack from my game.
If you're making a custom gametype, start with normal invasion and modify it. Make sure a change to either team has a reciprocal change to the other to keep things balanced.