The Antitype said:
I'm sorry if your connection prevented you from using the BR or Carbine as the mid-range powerhouses they were. I can honestly say that I AR users are VERY easy to deal with at mid to mid-close range with either of those weapons. A skilled AR user will use grenades to push the BR/Carbine user out of position or force them out of zoom, allowing them to enter range where they are capable.
My connection was fine, the weapon's spread was a piece of shit. The netcode was also a piece of shit. I'm not the only one that echoes these sentiments. Plenty of people in HaloGAF have said the same thing. For a better example, go back and actually play Halo 3 and compare its netcode to Reach. The difference is night and day.
The Assault Rifle was also a piece of shit. It took a whole clip to kill someone with, some times needing a melee to follow it up with. It was a terrible starting weapon all around, even on smaller maps. I don't know what Bungie was thinking when they put that thing in there.
I didn't find running AR+melee to be particularly hard to deal with in Halo 3, and never really saw it again after reaching the higher ranks.
Dual-wielding was a bigger problem, because it hurt the overall balance of the game, not just the person choosing to use it. Too many weapon spawns were for dual-wieldable weapons that were generally useless UNLESS you were running around like an idiot.
I reached level 49 and there was still plenty of running and spraying and praying with the Assault Rifle before a prompt melee. It didn't matter how high the levels were, that was the only way the game could be played on some maps unless some guy was fortunate enough to find a BR laying on the ground somewhere.
Dual-wielding was absolutely useless in Halo 3. Dual spikers were the joke of the game. In Halo 2, it was an extremely viable option that could still be overcome with any number of methods. It wasn't "game breaking" as you put it because it could be counters in close quarters by shotgun, sword, a quick melee and BR headshot or dual wielding of your own. I didn't feel absolutely helpless on Lockout, for example, spawning with an SMG and picking up a Magnum or Plasma Rifle as I did spawning on Blackout with an Assault Rifle.
ALL of the weapons in Halo 3 could be used effectively with the shoot/grenade/melee system, provided the player was smart/skilled enough to direct the battle into a range or environment that benefited their weapon.
By contrast, the only effective weapons in Halo 2 were the BR, Rockets, Sniper, and dual-wielded weapons. Everything else was a death-sentence.
Halo 3 weapons that were utterly useless: Assault Rifle, Spiker, Magnum and Plasma Rifle. Unless you combined one of those with a grenade, then they're actually useful. But that's more of the grenade doing the damage and the weapon finishing them off.
As far as Halo 2, you named every weapon in the game short of the Sentinel Beam and the Brute Shot, which was admittedly useless against anything other than flipping a Warthog. Well, that and the shotgun as well, which I admit was completely random due to host factors and the limitations of the netcode. Play Halo 2 PC right now and the shotgun is the beast that it was always meant to be.
The Laser is very powerful. But it spawns on a timer, not according to when the team that has it runs out of ammo. So one team cannot dominate a map and keep vehicles at bay, simply by keeping their hands on the thing. Both teams will have multiple attempts at capturing and using that weapon. The Laser also gives it's position away to EVERYBODY on the map, vehicles and infantry alike. Using it paints a giant red target on your ass.
It spawning on a timer just gives the team controlling said area the best opportunity to have more than one laser. Valhalla, once touting as a "perfect box canyon" by some idiots on this board is the perfect example. A decent team can hold the high ground in the middle and snipe with the sniper and the damn laser, whether they're shooting vehicles or infantry. It was too damn powerful and too unbalanced. One team can dominate a map with that. Again, I'm convinced you hardly played any Halo 3, and must have done so either against terrible teams or in isolated incidents. And you would have a point about it painting a target on the vehicle if the netcode was actually up to snuff. Nine times out of 10, your vehicle just blew up by a laser and you never got a location where it was at. That's fine in a place like Valhalla, where you have a good idea of where they'll be. But nothing is worse than playing on Sandtrap and randomly dying from a laser coming out of nowhere only hoping that one of your teammates happened to get a quick glimpse of where the laser came from.
The equipment spawns on the same place on the map, every game. Just as the rockets, sniper, overshield, camo and all the rest of the game-changers in Halo have before. The fact that you and your team did not have the skill or the foresight to take that equipment, or do not have the ability to counter-act it through teamwork, is not a flaw of game design.
It's still a crutch of game design when you give a player a second chance to live when he shouldn't have. If I jump a guy with a BR and he shits out a regen after taking three shots and the fourth should have killed him. There's no foresight if he just happens to spawn near one and picks it up while he's running across the map. Equipment was originally supposed to be a rare occurrence, but there were at least three to four pieces, if not more, on each map. Equipment should have been as rare as a power weapon,b ut it wasn't.
You keep bringing up skill as if it means something in this light. Skill does not equate to hitting a single button and getting an extra life. That is the OPPOSITE of skill. I jump a guy because he didn't have the tactical awareness to know I was coming. You don't just shit out an equipment piece and live. That is a flaw of game design.
A weakened player that drops a bubble-shield is still weak inside the bubble-shield. If he wants the extra protection afforded, he is stuck in one place. This is the same for the health generator. If you are unable to 'dance' in and out of the shield, or to coordinate with your team to take out a single, stationary target, then so be it. It's not different than attempting to take out somebody with the overshield, or take out the guy with the rockets. You're at a disadvantage. It happens. It's what makes battles interesting...unless you'd rather just pistol snipe in a giant, open box.
And if you're BRing said weakened player and he drops the bubble shield, you have to get up there and enter what amounts to either a melee fest with the guy, which he will have the upper hand in, or you wait him out. You can pull out your trusty Assault Rifle and go spraying and praying like a fucking idiot. You can sit there and watch the bubble drop and he'll have full shields ready to fight again. Second life.
Again, you bring up team work as if the three other guys on the team are only trained on one person. There are also three other enemies on the field too that you have to account for. The heat of the battle is one on one and equipment is a crutch, no counter-argument or skill quip or random insult of being a scrub is going to change that fact. It doesn't make battles interesting. It makes them a dice toss because you never know what the guy is going to have when you jumped him. At least with Reach there are colored markers on the players so you can tell if the guy you're charging with a ghost has armor lock or if the guy you're about to snipe has evade. Bungie at least learned from their mistakes in one facet.
Haha, and it's no shock to me that Classic is one of, if not THE, least played playlists in Halo Reach right now. Few people, a very vocal minority, want to play the same game they played back in 2001.
What's your point? Going by that logic, Team Slayer with its god awful community maps and terrible Assault Rifle starts filled with spraying and praying is the best way to play Halo. Team Objective was killed in Halo 3 because few people played it. The huddled masses of Halo players want to kill things, plain and simple. They like having their precious armor abilities because it gives them an extra chance at living. I prefer to have a faster, more intense game sans Assault Rifles without the added garbage of armor abilities. It's the best way to play the game. Vocal minority or not, if you jump a guy in Classic, nine times out of 10 you will kill him. If he kills you, it's because he was the better player, at least if you factor out bloom, which is another issue altogether.
Armor lock is very easy to counter. You wait. Toss a grenade at the half-way point of the charge and watch pain unfold.
If there are other enemies in the area, you retreat, reqacuire the enemy later, and tell your teammates that <name> is using armor lock. Perhaps one of your teammates has Invis? It's hard to armor lock at the right time when you can't see the guy coming, for example. Or maybe just cross-shoot the fucker the next time.
You still ignore the fact the dude deserved to die. He got jumped. or you have the wonderful armor lock, melee, armor lock, melee that plagues Countdown and many other close quarters maps. Somehow, you're going to tell me that's not broken?
Cross shooting also doesn't work half the time because guess what, he has armor lock. Players that use it to their advantage with teamwork have my respect. That's what it's designed for. But that doesn't mean that it belongs in the game. It's still a second life to a player. And that's what Halo 3 and Halo Reach were all about. You keep talking about skill, but Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 were the purest games in the series when it comes to multiplayer. If you got beat in those games, more than likely you did something wrong.
Armor lock does give a player the ability to put off death for a few seconds and call in reinforcements. That's what it's for. It also has cons. The player is immobile, lights up like an xmas tree, and has a relatively slow recharge time.
He also can't cloak while he has AR equipped, so he can't be as effective a sniper, or sneak past enemies.
He also can't sprint, so he can't flank as effectively, he'll be out-run if he's being chased, and he won't get to power weapons as fast.
He can't use the jetpack to quickly ascend the map, break map control points, or get out of dodge quickly.
Choosing the benefits of one AA immediately disqualifies you from the benefits of the others. Players that adapt and play the game to their strengths, and use their AAs effectively will find success. Those that don't....die and then whine that they 'lost a kill'.
None of these things matter when it comes down to fighting a guy and he can enter invincible mode and survive a nuclear bomb. It's the ultimate ability to survive when he should be dead. Hence second life, hence game-breaking.
And I hate the 'map flow' argument. Somehow in Quake 3, players could rocket-jump their asses all over the damn map, whether they were going where iD intended or not. The game played fine. So does Reach with jetpacks. Halo CE players just whine cause they're used to playing the same tactic of locking down a particular section of the map, running a short route around the spawns, and winning. Boo hoo... no players can fuck up that strategy with the right AA. Adapt.
If you hate the map flow argument then there's no hope and you have no understanding of the game. We're not "whining," we're addressing a major issue. Jetpacks break maps like Pinnacle, Asylum, Breakpoint, Reflection and many others where it allows them to reach places no other armor ability can reach. It gives them a birds eye perch to look down and rain death on people. It's just as bad as superbouncing in Halo 2, only it's actually built into the game. You talk about adapting, but there's no reason to adapt to a broken gameplay idea that wasn't factored into the maps that were designed.
At the end of the day, two equally skilled, equally smart players will always have a battle settled by aim, and use of melees and grenades.
And whomever has the more useful armor ability at the time. Instead of skill, it comes down to a rock, paper and scissors battle.
