I remember playing CTF on High Ground, the enemy was BRing us from their base, but it took 1 Grav Lift to break their defenses and to get my whole team in their base. Lovely.
Holy ****. I agree with Cade. What the ****? You're right... I did skim. I read the most of it and understood, but like my initial point was... it's simplified, so all of your explaining individual scenarios is irrelevant when it comes to comparing the different abilities in terms of balance. Each map is different, each forged map is different. You can't compare each Armour Abilities pros and cons in different environments where others excel. You simply cannot, because it is unfair, and biased. Instead. See the map simply as a grid, no cover, no objects, no enemies. What does each ability allow you to do, in a free environment? Jetpack: Movement on every axis (except downwards, obviously). Slow to start, increases in speed, and can potentially injure you if you can't slow yourself down when descending. Armour Lock: Incapacitates you, but makes you invulnerable to damage. Etc... etc... etc... Those are the simple comparisons that I made. Those three simple characteristics I addressed each of the armour abilities intersect with each other and categorise both Offensive and Defensive armour abilities that all either allow movement, or prevent movement and then all have their extra perk which is based on situational awareness and whether you enter those situations more commonly or not, depends entirely on how you play and the decisions you make in game. That is the only logical way the abilities could have been balanced out by Bungie in a blueprint form. The fact that they removed certain abilities from maps is mostly because the abilities are too powerful for that specific map or gametype. Evade for instance, is a speed-based powerup that is entirely unpredictable and allows for quick escape which is why it is not included in most Slayer gametypes. Armour Lock on the other hand, is allowed because it promotes teamwork (whether intentional or not), it contributes to the objective by keeping a player alive, but it incapacitates them until a team mate assists them or they run out of energy. If you look into all these abilities from a single plain environment, they are all perfectly balanced branching across a few similar categories that influence the game in a minor way. The biggest contribution to the game is based on the player and how they use that ability, not the ability itself. The other major contributions are based on the map and the gametype... again, not the the Armour Ability itself. If you take 90% of my maps made, a Jetpack would not be a good Armour Ability to choose, because I generally build fully enclosed maps, which makes that the worst AA out of all of them as it can't be used at all.
I like all the AA's. Sure some of them are kind of cheap, mainly armor lock, which I HATE, but they all come with thier disadvantages too remember. Spirt: Alerts the enemy your nearby. Evade: You only can roll twice and sometime gt suck or roll of the edge. Jetpack: Loud and makes an easy shot. Armor Lock: Huddle around and whack the spartan. (Still HATE) Hologram: You can tell who is the hologram and runs into rocks, wall, and basically everything else, except it runs through you. Drop Shield: takes forever to recharge and can be deisabled quickly with right tools. Active Camo: Jams your radar;Can't hear anthing, including the guy behind you who just wants to assinate you; Can't walk to quick or it will run out quickly and you'l become to visible. Some of them can be cheap, like Armor Lock angry:HATE FOREVER), but they have drawbacks. Besides The reason they can be annoying is because it's like rock paper scissors. just look for the right AA or weapon. For exaple, I only use Jetpack, so chose Active Camo and a type of precision weapon.