Devolution said:
AAs as they are currently implemented are total fluff that add too much randomness and just plain break a bunch of maps, since most maps were made without any particular ability in mind. It would be one thing if the maps were designed around AAs but they aren't. Thus instead of actually being able to account for the AA and what it can do, you're left with a lot of guess work. That's what breaks it to me. If they were timed pickups or worked with the flow of a map instead of breaking a map, that would be a whole other story.
I don't see the armor abilities breaking map control as a particularly damaging thing. It just forces players and teams to take new attack strategies into account and react on the fly.
Whereas locking down a specific section of a map may have worked in previous Halo's now, players have the ability to circumvent choke-points with the jetpack, try to sneak past and attack from behind with the cloak, flank to the power weapons with a sprint, or charge in, disrupt the team, and then use armor lock to wait for back-up.
At the end of the day, the winner of the battle still comes down to who lands more shots first. The AAs just give players to ways to enter, exit, and change the momentum of the exchanges. I don't have a problem with that.
However, I DO wish Bungie had made it more obvious which AAs players were using, so it was less of a surprise. Honestly, I don't have much of a problem with it, cause the people I play with call out AAs the same way they do locations and weapons, so I usually have an idea of what's coming.
bobs99 ... said:
I know your not responding to me but I felt like replying.
I dont see AA's in the same way you see them. In my opinion they aren't subtle tactical wrinkles which make the gameplay more dynamic. They are the equivalent of using sledgehammers. They always play out in the same way and are basically brute force ways of changing the game. I have yet to really see the AA's be used in more interesting dynamic ways. (other than maybe Hologram and Jetpack, the least used AA's, even they seem to have limitations in what kind of scenarios they create).
Adding new stuff is good, but I think a lot of the stuff added in Reach is fluff, its not really good enough to push the core gameplay forward in itself.
Alright, but how is that any different than the weapons in the game. A battle between a player using the shotgun and another player using the DMR/BR will always play out the same way, generally. The shotgun will try to close the distance (using grenades, the environment, what have you), while the DMR/BR tries to pick him off and maintain safe distance.
Likewise the AAs. A Jetpack user will always attempt to seek the high-ground for an advantage in the fight. Where that fight is on the map, alters what the highground is, how long he'll be in the air, etc... and the weapons that he and the players shooting at him have will have an impact on how his journey upwards goes. Likewise, the players on the ground have their own AAs that they can respond with - they can fly up with a jetpack of their own, cloak and try to get out of the combat area before he lands and gets a handle of the area beneath him, sprint, etc.
All these factors lead to encounters playing out differently. Yes, in general, everybody uses the same strategies for the same AAs, but those strategies develop into different scenarios depending on how they mix with the other factors at play.
Anyway, I like AAs. I enjoy playing with them.