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[Gabotron ES]

There was a lot more anti-vehicle in the beta. I remember flipping over and pinning Warthogs against the gates on Boneyard in the beta with the focus rifle.




Ugh, don't remind me of that. Elite team is high disadvantaged in Invasion Slayer once the vehicle drops get going. The other team's guns tear your vehicles apart, your guns deflect off theirs..

The beta face melter was awesome.

IMO only thing which needed a nerf from the beta was Plasma Launcher's infantry lock on, shit was broken.

 

[squidhands]

I think this may have been talked about already, but whatever. What do you guys and gals think of an enemy spotting mechanism for the next Halo game? Either incorporate it into your armor system or make it an object to be picked up (think Target Locator without the orbital strike), and make it tie into assists. It could work especially well in objective games where poor schmucks like me prefer to hang back and play defend the base on your lonesome. Thoughts?

 

[Havok]

Alternately, I suggest a weapon that fires relatively slow moving but homing projectiles that give the pilot/driver a klaxon warning when they are locked onto. That way they know they are being targeted, and have a chance to initiate evasive maneuvers (or a bail out) before the instantly explode.

That's how the plasma launcher works in practice. It has a very identifiable chargeup sound that can be heard from anywhere within its lock range (as well as the bright lights of the muzzle/projectiles), so the driver of a Warthog knows that he needs to get behind a rock or hill. While I don't think the Missile Pod was implemented very well in terms of placement, I would have preferred its inclusion over the Laser in any situation since it and the PL work in pretty similar ways.

The warnings from the laser were what was touted as balancing the weapon for drivers, but a pixel thin red line easily lost against moving geometry just didn't cut it in the same way as that loud sound.

 

[GhaleonEB]

That's how the plasma launcher works in practice. It has a very identifiable chargeup sound that can be heard from anywhere within its lock range (as well as the bright lights of the muzzle/projectiles), so the driver of a Warthog knows that he needs to get behind a rock or hill. While I don't think the Missile Pod was implemented very well in terms of placement, I would have preferred its inclusion over the Laser in any situation since it and the PL work in pretty similar ways.

The warnings from the laser were what was touted as balancing the weapon for drivers, but a pixel thin red line easily lost against moving geometry just didn't cut it in the same way as that loud sound.

Yeah that was a thinly disguised description of the missile launcher from Halo 3 I was suggesting. While that weapon isn't needed verbatim, I think it hit the sweet spot in terms of still being an effective anti-vehicle weapon while still being fair to the target. With Reach the plasma launcher rounds are too easily evaded (especially by Banshees) and the laser seems to give ~1 second or less of warning, at least a warning that I can perceive (in Halo 3 as well). Neither weapon hits the sweet spot.

 

[Steelyuhas]

That's how the plasma launcher works in practice. It has a very identifiable chargeup sound that can be heard from anywhere within its lock range (as well as the bright lights of the muzzle/projectiles), so the driver of a Warthog knows that he needs to get behind a rock or hill. While I don't think the Missile Pod was implemented very well in terms of placement, I would have preferred its inclusion over the Laser in any situation since it and the PL work in pretty similar ways.

The warnings from the laser were what was touted as balancing the weapon for drivers, but a pixel thin red line easily lost against moving geometry just didn't cut it in the same way as that loud sound.

Also, in Halo 3, the red line commonly didn't even appear thanks to the awesome netcode, giving the driver literally no warning as they exploded.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

Also, in Halo 3, the red line commonly didn't even appear thanks to the awesome netcode, giving the driver literally no warning as they exploded.

Sometimes you would explode out of nowhere and than a split second later you see the laser shot.

 

[ncsuDuncan]

I think the concept of a sniper rifle for vehicles is poor design. A vehicle counter is one thing (plasma over charge, plasma grenade, etc.), but the laser is a vehicle trump card from across the map. It provides the vehicle driver virtually no notice that they are about to be instantaneously destroyed by an enemy they often cannot see. Given the role vehicles play in BTB, the counter moves to them should be more nuanced, along the lines that Duncan suggested.

I think the idea of having the Beam Rifle do significant, gradual damage to vehicles is the right direction. Alternately, I suggest a weapon that fires relatively slow moving but homing projectiles that give the pilot/driver a klaxon warning when they are locked onto. That way they know they are being targeted, and have a chance to initiate evasive maneuvers (or a bail out) before the instantly explode.

That's kind of what I was going for:

Rocket Launcher
- One-hit kill on impact with a vehicle.
- Can fire instantly (without charging), but the projectile is relatively slow and unguided.
- Can lock onto vehicles, but the enemy pilot/driver gets a klaxon informing him of the lock (but not of how close the missile is). Enemy pilot/driver must expertly time his evasive maneuvers to dodge the projectile.

Spluncan Laser
- NOT instant kill, but does significant constant damage.
- Must charge before firing, but the beam has an instant travel time.
- Enemy drivers and pilots can spot the targeting laser and move to evade. If they start taking damage they still have time to take cover before exploding and giving up a triple kill.
- Overheats if used for too long (i.e. the duration of half the weapon's full battery charge).

TLDR:
Rockets are slow but one-hit kill, Splaser is fast but NOT one-hit.

I think the Missile Pod is useless against infantry and the Plasma Launcher is useless without a lock-on (which makes it feel very inconsistent). They're both redundant if the roles can be filled with tweaks to Rockets and Laser.

 

[Havok]

Yeah that was a thinly disguised description of the missile launcher from Halo 3 I was suggesting. While that weapon isn't needed verbatim, I think it hit the sweet spot in terms of still being an effective anti-vehicle weapon while still being fair to the target. With Reach the plasma launcher rounds are too easily evaded (especially by Banshees) and the laser seems to give ~1 second or less of warning, at least a warning that I can perceive (in Halo 3 as well). Neither weapon hits the sweet spot.

There are some issues with the plasma launcher, yeah, but for vehicles that aren't totally broken in a thousand other ways (sup banshee), it's actually pretty great. With the Falcon, for instance, the only way for the pilot to dodge the Plasma Launcher rounds at range other than ducking behind a building (which happens slowly since the Falcon's descent takes so long) is for him to turn the vehicle in such a way that the rounds fly through the passenger compartment. It's really amazing to see. Its important to note how the weapon interacts with one of the four vehicles in the game that is actually tuned properly.

I don't think it's any easier for ground vehicles to dodge the Plasma Launcher than the Missile Pod, given that the turning radius for the launcher's projectiles is much tighter than the missiles.

I think the Missile Pod is useless against infantry and the Plasma Launcher is useless without a lock-on (which makes it feel very inconsistent).

Why is this a bad thing? The lock-on limits the effectiveness of the weapon by ensuring the driver knows he's in danger and preventing cross-map vehicle destruction. The Missile Pod is an anti-vehicle weapon, it shouldn't be effective against infantry in the first place. That's not its intended target.

 

[GhaleonEB]

There are some issues with the plasma launcher, yeah, but for vehicles that aren't totally broken in a thousand other ways (sup banshee), it's actually pretty great. With the Falcon, for instance, the only way for the pilot to dodge the Plasma Launcher rounds at range other than ducking behind a building is for him to turn the vehicle in such a way that the rounds fly through the passenger compartment. It's really amazing to see. I don't think it's any easier for ground vehicles to dodge the Plasma Launcher than the Missile Pod, given that the turning radius for the launcher's projectiles is much tighter than the missiles.

Might just be me, but I have a heck of a time nailing a Warthog with it. I was pretty successful in learning the tracking radius of the missile pod in Halo 3, but I can't tag Ghosts/Revenants/Warthogs with the plasma launcher at anything other than point blank range to save my life.

Then again, I'm often on the receiving end of it, so maybe it really is just me. :lol

In any instance, in a weapon set that includes a slowly tracking anti-vehicle weapon like the plasma launcher, a rocket launcher, and an EMP-enabled grenade launcher (on top of other anti-vehicle weapons like the plasma pistol, DMR and sniper rifle), the laser really jumps out as unneeded.

The Banshee is a whole other ball of wax. It should be removed from matchmaking, as it simply wasn't balanced for it.

 

[FyreWulff]

The Banshee is a whole other ball of wax. It should be removed from matchmaking, as it simply wasn't balanced for it.

At this point it only belongs on Boneyard, as the ship in the middle balances it out and has limited attack lines to use. If you pull up the BTB banshee trolls stats, you'll find that a very small portion of their banshee kills comes from Boneyard, with the big maps being Spire and Paradiso.

But yes, delete all that sumbitch. The falcon is the actually balanced air vehicle, so unless 343 plans on patching the banshee, delete delete delete. Still don't understand why it wasn't taken off Breakneck in the first update.

 

[The Librarian]

I don't see a need for the laser if you have a missile/plasma launcher.

 

[Havok]

Still don't understand why it wasn't taken off Breakneck in the first update.

See: Highlands update history.

Might just be me, but I have a heck of a time nailing a Warthog with it. I was pretty successful in learning the tracking radius of the missile pod in Halo 3, but I can't tag Ghosts/Revenants/Warthogs with the plasma launcher at anything other than point blank range to save my life.

Then again, I'm often on the receiving end of it, so maybe it really is just me. :lol

Understandable, it's got a weird learning curve. I find that it forces me to choose the location and timing of when to try and get the jump on the vehicle more carefully than antivehicle weapons have in the past (especially things like the laser, for obvious reasons). Otherwise, you end up overshooting or in that close-range panic.

 

[Steelyuhas]

Might just be me, but I have a heck of a time nailing a Warthog with it. I was pretty successful in learning the tracking radius of the missile pod in Halo 3, but I can't tag Ghosts/Revenants/Warthogs with the plasma launcher at anything other than point blank range to save my life.

Then again, I'm often on the receiving end of it, so maybe it really is just me. :lol

In any instance, in a weapon set that includes a slowly tracking anti-vehicle weapon like the plasma launcher, a rocket launcher, and an EMP-enabled grenade launcher (on top of other anti-vehicle weapons like the plasma pistol, DMR and sniper rifle), the laser really jumps out as unneeded.

The Banshee is a whole other ball of wax. It should be removed from matchmaking, as it simply wasn't balanced for it.

Nah its not just you, it could use a little buff for anti-vehicle.

 

[CyReN]

Heads up The Halo Council (Gandhi,DMAQ,Nexy,Best Man,Bravo) will be live at 4:30pm est today.

 

[blamite]

Look at this fucking Banner letters made me and tell me that's not the sickest thing you've ever seen. I love it.

Thus is awesome. Is there a wallpaper sized version of the image on the right?

All I care about is Halo 4 GAME FUEL. FUCK YEA!!!!

Spoiler

jk

Love this stuff Hope 343 can up the marketing level to the madness it was around Halo 3's launch. Seeing all that Halo stuff got me so hyped. Haven't had that excitement over any subsequent releases.

Looks like Waypoint has new player models now. Before and after:

I prefer the before.

 

[ncsuDuncan]

Why is this a bad thing? The lock-on limits the effectiveness of the weapon by ensuring the driver knows he's in danger and preventing cross-map vehicle destruction. The Missile Pod is an anti-vehicle weapon, it shouldn't be effective against infantry in the first place. That's not its intended target.

I'm all for the lock on, but that alone is not worthy of the effort put into creating art, animations, sound design, etc. for a weapon.

Would you carry a Missile Pod around with you if it could only target vehicles? Of course not, especially if there weren't any vehicles out at the time.

When the enemy team spawns a Banshee, where are they going to fly and camp? The Missile Pod spawn, because nobody carried that useless junk away from there before the aerial threat emerged. Boring.

Would you carry a Rocket Launcher around the map? Of course. Then when the enemy gets a Banshee he doesn't know where to expect a rocket from. Varied gameplay.

We already complain about the overabundance of power weapons cluttering the map. I'm trying to consolidate roles into into a smaller number of more versatile weapons.

-------
I'm in agreement with everyone on the Reach Banshee. I'm talking about Halo 4's anti-vehicle sandbox.

An instant-travel weapon is needed to combat a highly maneuverable air vehicle like the Banshee, even if you put an energy limit or cooldown on its aerobatics.

Warthogs are slow and can't easily dodge a rocket, but they have plenty of ground structures to hide behind to avoid a beam weapon. Banshees are fast and can roll or flip to dodge a rocket, but being in the air they have less geometry to hide behind and as such are more threatened by beam weapons.

You only need two well-tuned weapons in the sandbox to cover these needs, any more is just clutter. Otherwise I fear Halo 6 will have dozens of anti-vehicle power weapons that serve no other purpose.

 

[Hypertrooper]

Does anyone have about $3000 for me?

I just got a one-of-a kind Halo 4 concept piece signed by Sparth to donate to tomorrow's ChildsPlay auction. Yay! Want a sneak peek?

http://twitter.com/#!/alisonst/statuses/144495608793808896

 

[The Librarian]

An instant-travel weapon is needed to combat a highly maneuverable air vehicle like the Banshee, even if you put an energy limit or cooldown on its aerobatics.

I disagree. You didn't need a spartan laser to take out the Banshee in Halo 2/3.

 

[squidhands]

Looks like Waypoint has new player models now. Before and after:

I prefer the before.

what's up wit the change to the Assault Rifle? If 343 is gonna troll us, at least they could be cute and give us a Santa hat or something. :-\

 

[daedalius]

Does anyone have about $3000 for me?

http://twitter.com/#!/alisonst/statuses/144495608793808896

Oh man, where is the sneak peak? I went to her twitter and didn't see it.

Wow why am I holding an AR, 343troll

 

[lybertyboy]

Wow why am I holding an AR, 343troll

We have a new algorhythm that detects what weapon is closest to your heart.

 

[ncsuDuncan]

I disagree. You didn't need a spartan laser to take out the Banshee in Halo 2/3.

Whispers: "Ascension."

If that didn't trigger Banshee PTSD I don't know what will.

Any competent pilot actually paying attention to the game will easily dodge the rockets you send his way.

 

[Reagan's BR]

That's kind of what I was going for:

Rocket Launcher
- One-hit kill on impact with a vehicle.
- Can fire instantly (without charging), but the projectile is relatively slow and unguided.
- Can lock onto vehicles, but the enemy pilot/driver gets a klaxon informing him of the lock (but not of how close the missile is). Enemy pilot/driver must expertly time his evasive maneuvers to dodge the projectile.

Spluncan Laser
- NOT instant kill, but does significant constant damage.
- Must charge before firing, but the beam has an instant travel time.
- Enemy drivers and pilots can spot the targeting laser and move to evade. If they start taking damage they still have time to take cover before exploding and giving up a triple kill.
- Overheats if used for too long (i.e. the duration of half the weapon's full battery charge).

TLDR:
Rockets are slow but one-hit kill, Splaser is fast but NOT one-hit.

I think the Missile Pod is useless against infantry and the Plasma Launcher is useless without a lock-on (which makes it feel very inconsistent). They're both redundant if the roles can be filled with tweaks to Rockets and Laser.

I agree with everything you said about the rockets and the splazer. And I would be fine with no missile pod and plasma launcher.

 

[Hypertrooper]

Oh man, where is the sneak peak? I went to her twitter and didn't see it.

Wow why am I holding an AR, 343troll

One of the biggest problem 343i have, that nearly everyone is addicted to Chocolate. Give them just one chocolate and they have a break already.

We have a new algorhythm that detects what weapon is closest to your heart.

That's not the secret beer rifle.

 

[daedalius]

We have a new algorhythm that detects what weapon is closest to your heart.

I think its to make us forget about the DMR before you give us an awesome new weapon (battle rifle please) in Halo 4

Of course, AR is going to be in H4 as well; hopefully it will sound as awesome as it does in H1. Dat new sound guy!

For those that didn't see it here's the parts of MLG Halo Sundance mentioned last night. (If you don't want to hear the other guy Sundance starts at 1:33.

"Bungie left us with a game that was a disservice to the history of the franchise in a lot of ways..."

Sounds bad bro

 

[CyReN]

For those that didn't see it here's the parts of MLG Halo Sundance mentioned last night. (If you don't want to hear the other guy Sundance starts at 1:33.

"Bungie left us with a game that was a disservice to the history of the franchise in a lot of ways..."

 

[ncsuDuncan]

Algorhythm is the name of my Rush cover band.

 

[Tashi]

Just got my first no bloom overkill. Yay!

 

[lybertyboy]

Algorhythm is the name of my Rush cover band.

Too late.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorhythm

 

[ViewtifulJC]

For those that didn't see it here's the parts of MLG Halo Sundance mentioned last night. (If you don't want to hear the other guy Sundance starts at 1:33.

"Bungie left us with a game that was a disservice to the history of the franchise in a lot of ways..."

Half-ass Shadowrun/Halo on blast right now

 

[ncsuDuncan]

Too late.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorhythm

Blast.

There go my dreams of being a rock star. Or at least pretending to be one.

 

[NOKYARD]

Algorhythm is the name of my Rush cover band.

Really? It's also the name of my Al Gore look-alike Acapulco group.

 

[The Librarian]

Whispers: "Ascension."

If that didn't trigger Banshee PTSD I don't know what will.

Any competent pilot actually paying attention to the game will easily dodge the rockets you send his way.

A problem that would have been remedied with the plasma pistol overcharge/pro-pipe introduction.

When I said that I was thinking of BTB maps in mind, not a vehicle on a small-mid map.

 

[Hypertrooper]

Blast.

There go my dreams of being a rock star. Or at least pretending to be one.

Wait a second? Why did I record the vocal line for the band "ncsuDuncan and the HaloGaffers"? You are kidding now? I recorded the song "99 Grenades" for nothing? Seriously? FU!

 

[Kuroyume]

The Spartan Laser shouldn't return in Halo 4. Rockets should get it done assuming it has lock on for land vehicles and works as well as it did in H2. I also think they should have like special ammo around the maps for the BR/DMR that can deal heavy damage to vehicles and destroy them in a few hits. These bullets shouldn't deal significant damage to people on foot even if that doesn't make sense.

 

[Hydranockz]

Blast.

There go my dreams of being a rock star. Or at least pretending to be one.

HaloGaf Rush tribute band... assemble? (Tashi is a semi-pro musician)

 

[ncsuDuncan]

Wait a second? Why did I record the vocal line for the band "ncsuDuncan and the HaloGaffers"? You are kidding now? I recorded the song "99 Grenades" for nothing? Seriously? FU!

"ncsuDuncan and the HaloGaffers" wouldn't make it past the first practice session. If there was ever a band that split up over "creative differences" that would be it.

 

[Hypertrooper]

"ncsuDuncan and the HaloGaffers" wouldn't make it past the first practice session. If there was ever a band that split up over "creative differences" that would be it.

Then "Duncan, Hitmonchan and the useless Hyper"?

 

[Reagan's BR]

Finally!

Now we need Atlas on iOS.

 

[TheOddOne]

Half-ass Shadowrun/Halo on blast right now

Sad, but so true.

 

[daedalius]

Finally!

Now we need Atlas on iOS.

Hmm, hopefully they will put this on Android as well...

 

[ncsuDuncan]

Then "Duncan, Hitmonchan and the useless Hyper"?

Catchy! I'll start auditioning backup dancers - you start shopping for tour buses.

 

[Steelyuhas]

Can someone post the build number of their dashboard? I'm on the preview program, and I'm curious if we are on the same build now, because I still have all the pre-release stuff on my dash.

 

[darthbob]

Can someone post the build number of their dashboard? I'm on the preview program, and I'm curious if we are on the same build now, because I still have all the pre-release stuff on my dash.

14699, I'm in the Preview as well, but that is the dash version from Xbox.com.

 

[Hypertrooper]

Catchy! I'll start auditioning backup dancers - you start shopping for tour buses.

As a German I always have a VW Bus somewhere.


Btw. the german joke Video game show GameOne did a Halo Anniversary spoof.

If translation is needed, you have my sword.

 

[darthbob]

As a German I always have a VW Bus somewhere.


Btw. the german joke Video game show GameOne did a Halo Anniversary spoof.

If translation is needed, you have my sword.

Du haben meine Axt.

 

[Steelyuhas]

14699, I'm in the Preview as well, but that is the dash version from Xbox.com.

Alright same here, thanks.

Didn't know they posted the current dash build number on xbox.com.

 

[feel]

Finally!

Now we need Atlas on iOS.

Awesome!! Downloading...

Waypoint app now please, with full stats and game history, sometime before Halo 4.

 

[MrBig]

Someone messed up the smoothing groups on these new Waypoint spartan renders (also ARs )

 

[Hydranockz]

Catchy! I'll start auditioning backup dancers - you start shopping for tour buses.

If you ever want to do something in a semi serious manner, I play keyboard and Zalinkrow plays the geetah. I haven't done the Bard Training quests in Skyrim yet though.