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[Trasher]

-Focus rifle: It's the beam rifle with a scope

The beam rifle always had a scope. >_>

 

[Dirtbag]

Great article, great details. My only disappointment is the Spartan laser but if we have Armor Lock to counter it then it might be as threatening.

Yeah but its the vehicles that suffer the most from the splazer and the ensuing power shift on the team with the splazer. It's anti-infantry usage never really bothered me that much.

 

[NullPointer]

Man, I'm still waiting to hear some tidbit about the game I won't like. All these changes, and in theory they all sound great.

At this point the game seems to me to be Halo meets Shadowrun meets the "best of" in shooter norms. I love the loadouts and customization and challenges, but more than that, how Bungie's system differs from the other big shooters by focusing on balance, rather than unlocking the easy buttons.

Armor locking sounds nuts in terms of potential. I expect to see some really ingenious uses (and possible abuses) of it develop over time. I wonder if the knockback keeps a locked down player from being used as ad hoc cover... hmm.

I also hope we're able to choose our loadouts in campaign missions.

 

[nilam01]

Some comparison screens between halo 3 and reach spartans. I love comparisons

Biggest improvement seems to be the feet lol, I always thought halo 3 spartans had blocky feet. I also love all the scratches and dents on the armour gives it that gritty look. I can also see some selfshadowing. Hope they make the visor more shiny though..

 

[Spasm]

I can only hope that Armor Lock leaves you with zero shields when it's done. Sounds way too powerful otherwise.

 

[Kapura]

First matches are in about an hour. We're propping the build right now and I'm going to go up in a bit to put the rules on a whiteboard.

"Rule #1: [REDACTED]
Rule #2: No team is to make fun of the artists in any way... if there's anybody watching.
Rule #3: [REDACTED]
Rule #4: I don't want to catch anybody not drinking.
Rule #5: [REDACTED]
Rule #6: There is NOOOO... Rule Six
Rule #7: [REDACTED]"

Right that concludes the writing of the rules.

Spoiler

Thanks for the catch, trasher. Meant to say Sentinel Beam

 

[NG28]

So evade is the only elite ability? Or is it the only one to be announced?

And I hope a mid air assassination is pile driving someone.

 

[Hydranockz]

I'm going to pretend to be EazyB for a moment:


The plasma launcher tracking bipeds as well as vehicles. Depends on how strong the tracking is, but having a cluster of four homing plasma grenades on my ass does not sound exciting. Hopefully it's dodgable in ways other than the Elite's evade manuver.

Well cmon, we can go vertically with jetpacks, run horizontally much quicker with sprint or stand still and take them with the rmour lock

 

[Blueblur1]

Yeah but its the vehicles that suffer the most from the splazer and the ensuing power shift on the team with the splazer. It's anti-infantry usage never really bothered me that much.

That's one of, if not the primary Laser complaints use "laser haters" have.

 

[biosnake20]

I'm going to pretend to be EazyB for a moment:

Stuff I like

• The active camo balancing. Move quickly, it drains faster and makes you more visible. Activating it jams radars, but also alerts others that you're cloaked. Love it.
  
• Load outs. Like I said before, it's a great balancing between options and maintaining the importance of placed power weapons.
  
• The Focus Rifle. Long-range, sniper class Sentinel Beam. Counters like sprint and armor lock will be useful when you first get tagged by it.

Stuff I'm not so sure about

• The plasma launcher tracking bipeds as well as vehicles. Depends on how strong the tracking is, but having a cluster of four homing plasma grenades on my ass does not sound exciting. Hopefully it's dodgable in ways other than the Elite's evade manuver.
  
• Armor lock. Digging the idea of a counter, but one that 1) immobilizes you, 2) fires an EMP pulse, 3) pushes enemies back 4) breaks off needles and grenades, and 5) has multiple levels of power....dunno. Seems like a lot of variables being added to balance the ability. Hopefully it works out.
  
• The shield pop delimiter. Basically, there's no difference between someone with full health and minimal shield and someone with no health and minimal shield, for the purpose of headshots or melee. That seems to make health a lot less important. Not sure if want.
  
• Changing load outs at spawn. I understand why, I just think it's going to degenerate into shouting matches about who should use what, and even suicides so players can pick something different to counter the other team with.

DO NOT WANT

1. MERRILL: The Spartan laser is back and is basically unchanged.

Why. Not.

They should make it that if you commit suicide you cant change your class for that one death.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Well cmon, we can go vertically with jetpacks, run horizontally much quicker with sprint or stand still and take them with the rmour lock

Thus my use of the phrase, "Depends on how strong the tracking is..." I'm sure that is going to be a major factor in its balancing. The Needler, for instance, is a very well balanced tracking weapon. So if the PL is similar, that's fine.

 

[Trasher]

If the Spartan Laser hasn't been changed, and the battles between players are longer than that of Halo 3, then I see even more problems with the weapon. =/

 

[bobs...onGaf]

Im glad the lasers back, but there seems to be FAR too many anti vehicle weapons now.

I also wanted to say that everytime I go through a mancannon im going to activate Armour Lock, and if it doesnt drop my like a rock and kill anyone below me incredible hulk style I will be incredibly dissapointed :lol

 

[kylej]

MERRILL: Well there’s the notable absence of the battle rifle. The DMR is definitely intended to replace the BR. We didn’t want to create another “one gun to rule them all” which is what the battle rifle had become. We want to push the player to a particular play style based on distance and which weapon is being used. We’ve turned the skill requirements up in a lot of ways and the DMR is going to require a bit more precision (and less luck on account of a burst-fire spread) than the BR did.

 

[Kapura]

They should make it that if you commit suicide you cant change your class for that one death.

That would be silly. A suicide is a denial of a kill. It's a tactical decision. It takes you out of the game for longer than normal and sometimes nets your team a net loss of a point. If you feel that you can more than make up those disadvantages, it's a responsible decision and shouldn't be punished. It's not suicide for suicide's sake.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

That's one of, if not the primary Laser complaints use "laser haters" have.

The new shield system hopefully alleviates some of that, but it's the vehicle death traps / vehicle map control that's my biggest complaint/worry.

The laser reaches "BR"-levels of singular weapon importance on its own, it dominates a lot of discussion & focus on maps like Valhalla.

 

[Schmitty]

If the Spartan Laser hasn't been changed, and the battles between players are longer than that of Halo 3, then I see even more problems with the weapon. =/

True. Please nerf the laser Bungie, please!

 

[Kapura]

Im glad the lasers back, but there seems to be FAR too many anti vehicle weapons now.

I also wanted to say that everytime I go through a mancannon im going to activate Armour Lock, and if it doesnt drop my like a rock and kill anyone below me incredible hulk style I will be incredibly dissapointed :lol

We've got... Rockets, Pro Pipe, Plasma Launcher, Splaser and Plasma pistol.
Halo 3 had... Rockets, Brute Shot, Missile Pod, Splaser and Plasma pistol.

Somehow I don't think Armour Lock will increase your mass. I'm thinking locking over a Man Cannon will make you a nice glowing target for the enemy.

 

[2 Minutes Turkish]

So:

Load Outs are just the classes from Modern Warfare.

Also, Armour Lock sounds awesome strategically. I can SO see sending someone out as biat in armour lock, while snipers wait for the enemy to wait for the armour to finish. :lol :lol

 

[Kapura]

So:

Load Outs are just the classes from Modern Warfare.

Also, Armour Lock sounds awesome strategically. I can SO see sending someone out as biat in armour lock, while snipers wait for the enemy to wait for the armour to finish. :lol :lol

The Lukems 2v2 Strategy of Champions from the podcast. Sounds like a plan.

 

[Domino Theory]

Armor Lock has my pants all stiff. Sounds so awesome. Just imagine running into a room where you know there's a bunch of dudes camping, deploying the ability and holding it there so an EMP effect takes place removing their shields and knocks them all back, which cues your teammates to run in and pick off the team. Oh man...

I think this armor ability may be my replacement for Sprint.

Loving the sound of that. It's the ultimate bailout.gif Armor Ability. :lol

Also, WTF @ no changes to the Laser.

 

[Shishka]

If you can give us any updates on it, I'd appreciate it. How many people are participating?

I'll leave the updating to Urk, provided he doesn't do damage and spin for his own team.

That said, we've got 14 teams so far, with a new team e-mailing me every hour or so. People get interested when you mention prizes, it seems.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

We've got... Rockets, Pro Pipe, Plasma Launcher, Splaser and Plasma pistol.
Halo 3 had... Rockets, Brute Shot, Missile Pod, Splaser and Plasma pistol.

Somehow I don't think Armour Lock will increase your mass. I'm thinking locking over a Man Cannon will make you a nice glowing target for the enemy.

Its not like the Hulk changed his mass either, dont ruin this dream for me! :lol - Dropping on Hogs with the Armour lock ability on Meta style (From RvB) could be amazing.

We may still get the Brute Shot and Missile Pod back yet, although I doubt it, infact I wonder if ripping off turrets will still be a feature.

 

[2 Minutes Turkish]

Not necessarily a bad thing, but you can see how Modern Warfare has REALLY forced Bungie to rethink how they approach Multiplayer.

Wonder how Reach MP would be setup if Modern Warfare hadn't become the juggernaut it is.

We'll have to see how everything pans out, but I can still see some issues arising from certain things I've read.

 

[GarthVaderUK]

Really juicy interview there, can't wait to try all those new toys

 

[Schmitty]

Is it just me or is this Spartans' knee huge?

Linky

 

[Blueblur1]

I'll leave the updating to Urk, provided he doesn't do damage and spin for his own team.

That said, we've got 14 teams so far, with a new team e-mailing me every hour or so. People get interested when you mention prizes, it seems.

:lol Nice.

 

[MrDaravon]

Armor Lock and having the capacity to choose your Loadout (albiet only from a set of stock ones) sounds pretty neat.

Also the health care reform bill has now fundamentally changed certain timeframes and other things about my job that I can't legally talk about, so instead of being locked out of time off starting in November, now it's September, so I'm fucked on the Beta and the release of this game. Yaaaaaaay. -_- /bitching

 

[Domino Theory]

One thing I'm worried about is the fact that Bungie seems to be going the Gears 2 route in terms of combating a specific item in Multiplayer being overused.

In Gears 2, Epic added stopping power (slowing down a player as they're walking/running when they're getting shot at), a long-range Flamethrower, Meatshield, Boom Shield, Frag tagging and the Smoke grenades concussing ALL just to combat Shotgun Pop 'n' Shot players who just sprinted around with a Shotgun in Gears 1.

Bungie is now doing the same but to combat vehicles by keeping the overpowered Laser, introducing a lock-on Plasma Mortar, Rockets, an EMP effect on both the Armor Lock ability and the secondary EMP fire on the Grenade Launcher as well as stickies and what not.

But I'll give Bungie the benefit of the doubt because they're eons above Epic when it comes to balance, netcode and a bunch of other aspects as well as the fact that all those anti-vehicle tools may be required if they're planning to add A LOT of vehicles (not including the returning ones since they teased a bunch of unrevealed vehicles in the GI interview).

 

[Ten-Song]

Is it just me or is this Spartans' knee huge?

Linky

Ugh. Sharp knees.

 

[Justinian]

Is it just me or is this Spartans' knee huge?

Linky

its not so much the knee as the extreme clipping. The armour would not allow that level of bendage normally.

 

[urk]

Is it just me or is this Spartans' knee huge?

Linky

Articulatio genus enhancement is just one of the hallmarks of the Spartan-III augmentation procedure.

Spoiler

Bugged and fixed. Didn't want to hold up the asset gravy train.

 

[The Librarian]

Just finished the article. Overall it was pretty good, but the article definitely had me at points where I was really excited to see what I was reading to being really worried.

What I'm excited about.
1. The Plasma Repeater sounds like a really cool weapon. The mix of overheating and decreasing the rate of fire while simultaneously making it increase in accuracy will make gameplay very interesting with that weapon. Also: a Covenant version of the AR? Yes please.
2. The alt-fire on the "pro-tube" looks like it'll lead to a lot of hilarious stories come release. The most interesting tidbit about the grenade launcher is that it'll be in one of the loadouts. Hmmm.
3. Armor lock sounds epic. At first I thought I'd be using the jetpack the most out of all the armor abilities, but now I'm not so sure.
4. I love the subtle aspects of active camo as Ghal described.

Unsure.
1. Grenade launcher as a starting weapon for a load out.
2. The ability to switch classes during respawn. This could lead to some players committing suicide to get the class they want. Though, I can see the flip side of this: if you're not doing particularly well in a game, it's nice to be able to switch to a different loadout. I guess we'll see.
3. The Anti-Vehicle Covenant weapon. The most it has me worried about is that it can lock on to infantry.

What's leaving me wondering.
1. The Spartan Laser is basically unchanged. What? Why? How? Surely the folks at Bungie must see that the Spartan Laser seriously undermined vehicular combat in Halo 3, so why leave it unchanged? Sadly, it looks like the laser will be in the Beta, but I'll be really disappointed if it's in the final game in basically the same state was it is in Halo 3. I'm not going to form any conclusions until I actually play it, but what I hear has me really worried. I'll give Bungie the benefit of the doubt, though.

 

[Hydranockz]

So evade is the only elite ability? Or is it the only one to be announced?

I believe it is the only AA unique to the elite thus far.

Correct me if I am wrong but haven't we seen an elite use a jetpack?

 

[Shake Appeal]

Armor Lock and having the capacity to choose your Loadout (albiet only from a set of stock ones) sounds pretty neat.

Also the health care reform bill has now fundamentally changed certain timeframes and other things about my job that I can't legally talk about, so instead of being locked out of time off starting in November, now it's September, so I'm fucked on the Beta and the release of this game. Yaaaaaaay. -_- /bitching

Welcome to Europe. I hope you are okay with hugging other men in a typical social setting.

 

[Genesis Knight]

I missed it - what is Armor Lock? Can't be bothered checking.

 

[Domino Theory]

I missed it - what is Armor Lock? Can't be bothered checking.

The Bailout.gif Armor Ability.

 

[Hydranockz]

People have mentioned the armor colours. I think Reach will use a sort of jersey approach. It's the chest colour that matters in team games. It will be the one you see most of whereas the arms and legs variants replace the very hard to notice secondary colours from 3. IMO of course

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

I see the Bungie folk in the thread so I assume they will take a look at the Sp'laser.

Good article, I was waiting for some changes to the Halo formula, this seems to be what I was looking for.

 

[EazyB]

I find it laughable that Bungie tries to praise themselves at how well they balance their sandbox yet they don't touch the single most glaring defect in Halo 3's instead carry it right over "basically unchanged."

What a fucking joke... It didn't even cross my mind that they may not nerf the laser, wow.

There's got to be a reason they didn't catch this. Good God, I think I understand now:

"Pro players say that the Halo makers are shit at their own game - it’s true. I’m not that good on purpose," Griesemer said. Playing well at his own game makes him feel good, but he mustn’t confuse that with feeling good because the game's well balanced. He spends hours happily driving the Warthog around because it's already well balanced and an intrinsic part of the game, but he mustn't spend time 'imprinting' himself on elements of the game which don't work so well, learning to accept their rough edges when he should be considering cutting or overhauling them.

Edit: Wasn't this content supposed to come up on tomorrow was was bumped up for some reason. Maybe it's just a terribly unfunny april fools joke.

 

[MrDaravon]

Welcome to Europe. I hope you are okay with hugging other men in a typical social setting.

I'm okay with hugging other men in any setting.

 

[Shishka]

What's leaving me wondering.
1. The Spartan Laser is basically unchanged.

"Basically" unchanged. It has four shots, one less than than in Halo 3/ODST.

 

[FilthyLies]

I see the Bungie folk in the thread so I assume they will take a look at the Sp'laser.

Good article, I was waiting for some changes to the Halo formula, this seems to be what I was looking for.

I'm sure they took several long hard looks at the splazer and the community criticism of it before we even had a SNIFF of Reach, and decided they had the balance right. The complaints here are not going to make significant balance changes at this point :lol

Everything else sounds hot though.

 

[Gui_PT]

"Basically" unchanged. It has four shots, one less than than in Halo 3/ODST.

It should have one shot. Waste the shot and that's it.

 

[Dirtbag]

Maybe it will just take two shots to blow up a warthog with the lazer, or require you to shoot the actual gunner/driver out the vehicle. Would be a small step in the right direction.

 

[EazyB]

"Basically" unchanged. It has four shots, one less than than in Halo 3/ODST.

:lol

Instead of 5 free across the map without warning vehicle snipes you can now have 4 free vehicle kills.

Bungie balancing at its finest.

 

[Kapura]

It should have one shot. Waste the shot and that's it.

facepalm.jpg

Will the Bungie 2v2 tournament end tonight, or continue through the week?

 

[Spasm]

The Splaser tears, they are delicious.

 

[2 Minutes Turkish]

You guys really think the Laser is that much of a problem?

Clearly I just don't play Halo 3 online enough to notice. I've been on plenty of Warthog sprees and barely get taken out by the laser.

 

[Shishka]

Will the Bungie 2v2 tournament end tonight, or continue through the week?

First leg of the tournament ends Friday next week. We'll keep doing it so long as we can keep finding prizes. :lol