I do know where the power weapons spawn on Wayont, and of almost every Forge map in the game by now - why shouldn't that give me the competitive edge instead of everybody being handed that information instead of taking the two minutes to learn it? I don't know when they spawn, though, and a team that has that knowledge will wipe the floor with me and that is all well and good, because they earned it.
They can't and shouldn't be giving gameplay assistance to random players, instead they shouldn't be matching them with full teams. That's an issue that needs to be solved, but making the game artificially easier by removing an important skill isn't the way to go about it.
I addressed your thoughts on weapon spawn fighting not happening in Reach in an edit above, and I don't think that's the case. I see it all the time on good maps. Beaver Creek rockets are always a contested area, and honestly the same idea applies to all of the Anniversary maps and even some of the DLC maps like Anchor 9. Well designed maps will encourage that directed action and bad maps won't. Too bad Reach is mostly bad maps, huh? Weapon placement in this game is 90% awful and the game suffers for it.
Please direct me to where I can learn Wayont's power weapon spawn locations and timers in two minutes.
In a matchmaking game? Good luck.
In forge? Where do I download the maps? How do I know that is the current version and that it won't change next month?
Of course everyone knows
where the power weapons spawn on Anniversary maps. We've known that for 10 years. Even complete noobs can figure out where the rockets spawn on Anchor 9. But how do you figure out the timer?
The map selection in matchmaking is too fluid for a one-time research session. New maps are added, old maps get updated. Ideally Halo 4 will have a more streamlined system for creating and integrating community maps - this is an effort to make those more accessible. If anything, it makes it
easier for the best players to win on a strange new map.
This isn't going to magically eliminate the skill gap. Good players that have the map layout memorized will still have an advantage - they won't be wasting time in the HUD and will know the exact spawn time. I'm saying we give players an approximate window: "This sniper is going to respawn some time in the next 30 seconds. It could be 5 seconds, it could be 25."
After the inital rush at the start of the game, the struggle over weapon respawns disappears. The pros might know the timers, but I'm trying to find a way to bring that high-level play to the masses. I'm sorry if that takes away your trump card - you might actually have to win a power weapon through gunplay instead of respawn time memorization.
