Title Update for Reach: Full list of reasonable changes.

[ENP No Trace]

Well, because all of us, including me, find that, although Reach is a fantastitic game, we have to understand it has many flaws. With a title update being established within a reasonable amount of time, I thought I might make a list of the BEST possible fixes. I'll adress the problems alot of people have with this game, aslo.

 

Armor lock: Seeing as 90% of us hate this God forsaken armor ability, let's see how we can fix it. It truly is a get out of death free-card. It slows gameplay nearly to a halt and frustrates the best of us. I could go on for hours about my undyeilding hatred for armor lock.

Possible solutions:

Remove EMP completely

One use per charge, no pulsing of the ability, once you activate it you need to wait the full 5 or so seconds to deactivate

How about get rid of the damn thing from matchmaking completely? (This is excluding firefight and custom games/forge)

 

Nasty betrayal system: Well, to be honest, I'm never really subject to this problem because I'm rarely in a game filled with weapon horders who fight over specific guns. But since I hear a lot of people complain about it's inconsistency, I thought I might adress it. Keep in mind, I don't know how it works.

Possible solutions:

After the first betrayal, no matter what, the betrayed victim has the option to boot the betrayer. No exceptions.

 

Overpowered Sniper/DMR against vehicles: This gets on my nerves, the banshee itself is overpowered because of it's bomb, but the Sniper can take it down in FIVE SHOTS! The DMR, with concentrated fire from a team, can destroy a banshee easily within ten seconds.

Possible solutions:

The power of the sniper and DMR against vehicles, nothing else, has to be severely reduced.

 

Heavily overpowered grenades: This was severe in the beta, and even with Sage's powerful nerfing beard, they still remained mini-nukes. A sliver of damage to a fully sheilded opponent followed by a poorly tossed grenade can kill someone. Plasma grenades do not bother the community nearly as much, however. The damage of plasmam grenades can remain the same.

Possible solutions:

Nerf grenades, a grenade to an opponent should take out only thier shields, and possibly one bar of health. Nothing more

An opponent with red health directly hit with a grenade should not die

 

Bloom: This, I have seen as a popular rumor: "343 is putting in an option to remove bloom!" While this may be true, I doubt it will make it's way into matchmaking quickly. What will most likely happen is a playlist or set of playlists in which bloom is absent. This will make the DMR and Needle Rifle overpowered beyond comprehension, but people will get what the wanted. It will bring reduced kill times, something that Reach is in desperate need of.

Possible solutions:

Playlists with absence of bloom (Could eventually spread to the majority of playlists)

Make blooms spread more predicatble

Remove it completely (risky move, not a fan of this option. This could ruin the game as opposed to fix it)

Add option to remove bloom for custom games

 

Active Camo: Without a doubt, Squad slayer became, in my opinion, the best playlist in the game with the removal of armor lock. However, I soon saw complaints about Active Camo soon into the playlists introduction. The community will never be satisfied. Though I somewhat agree, It can become annoying when all you see on your radar is incoherent flashing red dots.

Possible solutions:

Active Camo would now not jam radar, but instead, show the player using Camo as a red dot, now matter if they were not moving or crouching, this would not apply if the player did not have the ability activated.

 

Plasma launcher: It was feared in the beta, it was a real power weapon. Now? It's only a threat to stationary targets and opponents in narrow hallways. It is completely useless against vehicles unless they are heading directly for the player weilding it.

Possible solutions:

Increase tracking capability

Increase speed of projectiles

Recuce charge time

(These would not ALL be applied to the PL, instead they are sepparate ideas to bring back the capabilities of the Beta PL)

 

Please list your own ideas and suggestions for title update changes to Reach.

[Spectral Jester]

I didnt think i woudld agree with most of this but do you know what I do, seems most players have the same sort of issues.

Only changes I would make from the above is...

 

Leave Sniper & DMR power as they are. yes good team work with the DMR counters the Banshee, but if your not on a good team then the Banshee owns everybody, so for that reason alone I would leave it as it is

 

Grenades agree except last line if they are in the red grenade kills all.

 

Active Camo should not scramble radar but make the wearer disappear from the radar and thats it...

 

Other than that I agree with everything

 

Good work.

[Twinreaper]

Your ideas or understanding about bloom are wrong. Bloom is simply the visual aspect of the where you can expect a firing weapons projectiles to go. Bloom itself is not responsable for, in any way, the amount of shots you can make, or the amount of spread. All that type of data is written into the weapon tag seperatly. the "bloom" as people call it, is nothing more than a HUD widget that shows the player a better representation of where a constant firing wepaon is leading to. Adjusting, removing or improving the bloom would do nothing to effect the amount of a wepaons power or accuracy.

 

Every Halo game has a weapon draw back for firing it too many times. Reach is no different, except that now in Reach, everyone knows when and where the projectiles will go, thanks to the bloom widget.

 

Everything else you said though seems to be spot on, and I myself hate the armor lock ability. Worst addition ever!

[Exile]

Shees is there anything you dont want to change? <.<

 

Armor lock should indeed be a 1 charge AA, you go in and you stay in till your meter runs out or you jump out when you like and lose the rest of your charge meter.

 

Nades need a damage reduction aswell or make it like the melee system so that a sliver of shields will block nade damage from reaching your health.

 

Vehicles, especially warthogs, need more defense against simple rifle weapons.

Snipers are power weapons so they should do some damage.

 

Also, black screens, please fix all the back screens.

[Spectral Jester]

black screens that end sprees, respawn banshees (for the banshee whores)

and I've thought of another one which annoys the hell out of me.

You start a game of infection, someone quits straight away (cos they are a zombie) are you go black screen and remerge as a zombie most annoying.

 

Agree on trhe warthog it is so vulnerable its scary.

[Baykem]

As i said earlier, we need nore than small changes this game needs to be completly revamped, as i posted earlier, #1 Battle Rifle returns, #2 Bloom ON/OFF toggle for custom games and etc, #3 The return of ranked playlists, id rather have this than a overall BPR, #4 Fix to the Oversheild so we can see who has it besides in classic slayer, #5 Individual Weapon damage modification (being albe to change the damage of all the weapon individualy) and #5 The ability to toggle on real time physics or Hitscan (also should be able to do individualy) -my wishlist I want to see big changes because reach definatlry needs it, not small changes like the betrayl system and stuff, even though those things would be nice also

Baykem

 

Posts: 63

Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:07 pm

[Baykem]

Your ideas or understanding about bloom are wrong. Bloom is simply the visual aspect of the where you can expect a firing weapons projectiles to go. Bloom itself is not responsable for, in any way, the amount of shots you can make, or the amount of spread. All that type of data is written into the weapon tag seperatly. the "bloom" as people call it, is nothing more than a HUD widget that shows the player a better representation of where a constant firing wepaon is leading to. Adjusting, removing or improving the bloom would do nothing to effect the amount of a wepaons power or accuracy.

 

Every Halo game has a weapon draw back for firing it too many times. Reach is no different, except that now in Reach, everyone knows when and where the projectiles will go, thanks to the bloom widget.

 

Everything else you said though seems to be spot on, and I myself hate the armor lock ability. Worst addition ever!

The hell are you talking about? the BR you knew where it was going to hit every time, all YOU had to do is line up the shots and the BR was Real time in H3 so you had to do that too, the bloom on ANY WEAPON has to do with the percentage you will hit your target, the first shot from a DMR will ALWAYS hit you target if you wait for the bloom to reset then you still have 100% chance to hit your target, but if you dont wau for the bloom to recover before your next shot the your percentage drops, the more bloom, the less likley you are to hit your target, and dont forget the close your target is the more likley you are to hit it also, if you target is in your face, you cold proboly not have wait on your bloom to reset, but from medium to long range, youd have a better shot at your target if you paced your shots.

[Exile]

As i said earlier, we need nore than small changes this game needs to be completly revamped, as i posted earlier, #1 Battle Rifle returns, #2 Bloom ON/OFF toggle for custom games and etc, #3 The return of ranked playlists, id rather have this than a overall BPR, #4 Fix to the Oversheild so we can see who has it besides in classic slayer, #5 Individual Weapon damage modification (being albe to change the damage of all the weapon individualy) and #5 The ability to toggle on real time physics or Hitscan (also should be able to do individualy) -my wishlist I want to see big changes because reach definatlry needs it, not small changes like the betrayl system and stuff, even though those things would be nice also

Baykem

 

Posts: 63

Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:07 pm

 

You're unrealistic, do you even know how much programming would go into real time AND hitscan toggling?

Have you ever seen a multi player game that has both? no, because its simply not done.

And changing damage for all weapons is not needed, use what you get and adapt.

[Twinreaper]

Baykem, again, you have no understanding of the weap, hud or proj tag reflexives or the links between them using the scripting system of the blam! engine. Bloom is exactly what I defined it to be. Bloom is not some magical formula that the weapon uses to prevent the players from firing rapidly accurately. The spread of a weapon is pre-defined in the weap tag, by a min and max data value. The spread is random, and is not subject to if the bloom effect on the reticule is at rest or not.

 

As for your remarks for the battlerifle. The battle rifle was a "hitscan" weapon. If you know what "hitscan" is, then you know why it functioned the way it did in Halo2, and because of this, it cannot be thrown into the normal catagory you would throw other weapons that have a firing spread. Perhaps you should search for my very detailed, engine in-depth explination on how this works and why it is what it is.

 

As for the post about the real time physics vs hitscan. Do you even know what hitscan is? How it works, or why it has no place in the game? First off, you would not be able to toggle it on and off. The physics handling of the game objects and assets is hard coded into blam!, and would not be easily turned off and on as you suggested. Real time actaul physic calculations for weapons is unrealistic and could not be achieved using the current hardware. Those types of calculations would have to be done at the time the weapon is fired. the game would then have to reffer to player locations, trajectories, the pre-defined projectile spead, or (hitscan - infinite speed), then go thru the process of calculating how much damage based on range at firing, place of hit, and so on. It would have to do this for every single shot you made.

 

Even in Halo 2, there was a slight jitter in animation, which was caused by the collision detection system, to calculate the "hitscan". Hitscan is far less complex and it caused that slight drop in framerate due to calculating it. Could you imagine a 16 player match of people using all real time physics weapons? The game itself would seize due to the computational power needed to run all those game triggers. No weapon in the Halo franchise or the game itself uses a real time physics simulation codebase. Everything is pre-defined with a min max value, and everything that occurs is simply at random. Which is why sometimes you can do the same exact type of stunt one time, and the next it comes out completely different. Suggesting something like that, leans me towards believeing you are one of those lesser skilled players who is looking for someone to blame for your poor tactics or ability on the battlefield.

 

I have no shame in saying I suck at multiplayer, and just cannot get used to how it feels in Reach. My multiplayer skill has gone down roughly 200% compared to the skill I have and still use on HaloPC and Halo2PC. I do agree that things have to change, but before you throw ideas like these out there, you better do a little more research on the engine, it's map structure and architecture before you do.

[Exile]

Baykem, again, you have no understanding of the weap, hud or proj tag reflexives or the links between them using the scripting system of the blam! engine. Bloom is exactly what I defined it to be. Bloom is not some magical formula that the weapon uses to prevent the players from firing rapidly accurately. The spread of a weapon is pre-defined in the weap tag, by a min and max data value. The spread is random, and is not subject to if the bloom effect on the reticule is at rest or not.

 

As for your remarks for the battlerifle. The battle rifle was a "hitscan" weapon. If you know what "hitscan" is, then you know why it functioned the way it did in Halo2, and because of this, it cannot be thrown into the normal catagory you would throw other weapons that have a firing spread. Perhaps you should search for my very detailed, engine in-depth explination on how this works and why it is what it is.

 

As for the post about the real time physics vs hitscan. Do you even know what hitscan is? How it works, or why it has no place in the game? First off, you would not be able to toggle it on and off. The physics handling of the game objects and assets is hard coded into blam!, and would not be easily turned off and on as you suggested. Real time actaul physic calculations for weapons is unrealistic and could not be achieved using the current hardware. Those types of calculations would have to be done at the time the weapon is fired. the game would then have to reffer to player locations, trajectories, the pre-defined projectile spead, or (hitscan - infinite speed), then go thru the process of calculating how much damage based on range at firing, place of hit, and so on. It would have to do this for every single shot you made.

 

Even in Halo 2, there was a slight jitter in animation, which was caused by the collision detection system, to calculate the "hitscan". Hitscan is far less complex and it caused that slight drop in framerate due to calculating it. Could you imagine a 16 player match of people using all real time physics weapons? The game itself would seize due to the computational power needed to run all those game triggers. No weapon in the Halo franchise or the game itself uses a real time physics simulation codebase. Everything is pre-defined with a min max value, and everything that occurs is simply at random. Which is why sometimes you can do the same exact type of stunt one time, and the next it comes out completely different. Suggesting something like that, leans me towards believeing you are one of those lesser skilled players who is looking for someone to blame for your poor tactics or ability on the battlefield.

 

I have no shame in saying I suck at multiplayer, and just cannot get used to how it feels in Reach. My multiplayer skill has gone down roughly 200% compared to the skill I have and still use on HaloPC and Halo2PC. I do agree that things have to change, but before you throw ideas like these out there, you better do a little more research on the engine, it's map structure and architecture before you do.

 

You do know that Halo 3 had travel time for bullets right?

Halo 2 was hitscan, Halo 3 was real time, Reach is hitscan again.

It was one of the major changes Bungie did for Reach to go back to the hitscan system.

[Twinreaper]

You do know that Halo 3 had travel time for bullets right?

Halo 2 was hitscan, Halo 3 was real time, Reach is hitscan again.

It was one of the major changes Bungie did for Reach to go back to the hitscan system.

 

Uh no. All Halo titles use the projectiles defined speed located in the weapon tag. The only, and I say again only weapon to ever use or be close enough to be conscidered "hitscan", was the battle rifle. That is the only weapon.

 

I may have confused some people with the previous post. When we all say "real time" we are clearly talking about a different definition and use when it comes to the Halo games. I am quite aware that every weapon has a starting velocity, and a maximum velocity, both which are reflexives (32 bit floats) located inside the weap tags.

 

When I talk about real time, I am literally using it as it is meant...real. Real is all chance, all gravity, yattah yattah. Halo is pre-defined and bound to the limits of the engine itself.

 

Halo Reach does not use hitscan. They are using a method similar to hitscan, but make no mistake it is not hitscan. If that were the case, you would not have to lead enemies with your shots.

[Baykem]

Uh no. All Halo titles use the projectiles defined speed located in the weapon tag. The only, and I say again only weapon to ever use or be close enough to be conscidered "hitscan", was the battle rifle. That is the only weapon.

 

I may have confused some people with the previous post. When we all say "real time" we are clearly talking about a different definition and use when it comes to the Halo games. I am quite aware that every weapon has a starting velocity, and a maximum velocity, both which are reflexives (32 bit floats) located inside the weap tags.

 

When I talk about real time, I am literally using it as it is meant...real. Real is all chance, all gravity, yattah yattah. Halo is pre-defined and bound to the limits of the engine itself.

 

Halo Reach does not use hitscan. They are using a method similar to hitscan, but make no mistake it is not hitscan. If that were the case, you would not have to lead enemies with your shots.

What? halo reach DOES use histscan, go and watch some of there Doc VODs, they even say there using hitscan

[Baykem]

You do know that Halo 3 had travel time for bullets right?

Halo 2 was hitscan, Halo 3 was real time, Reach is hitscan again.

It was one of the major changes Bungie did for Reach to go back to the hitscan system.

T

[Baykem]

You're unrealistic, do you even know how much programming would go into real time AND hitscan toggling?

Have you ever seen a multi player game that has both? no, because its simply not done.

And changing damage for all weapons is not needed, use what you get and adapt.

Im only saying i want individual weapon modifiers for competitve play, say maybe i want the magnum to be a 4 shot instead of a five shot but i want everything else to stay the same.

[Baykem]

You're unrealistic, do you even know how much programming would go into real time AND hitscan toggling?

Have you ever seen a multi player game that has both? no, because its simply not done.

And changing damage for all weapons is not needed, use what you get and adapt.

No, i dont want you to be able to change back and forth in game, i mean as like a setting for your gametypes, like how in classic slayer you can enable or disable super shields

[Exile]

Uh no. All Halo titles use the projectiles defined speed located in the weapon tag. The only, and I say again only weapon to ever use or be close enough to be conscidered "hitscan", was the battle rifle. That is the only weapon.

 

I may have confused some people with the previous post. When we all say "real time" we are clearly talking about a different definition and use when it comes to the Halo games. I am quite aware that every weapon has a starting velocity, and a maximum velocity, both which are reflexives (32 bit floats) located inside the weap tags.

 

When I talk about real time, I am literally using it as it is meant...real. Real is all chance, all gravity, yattah yattah. Halo is pre-defined and bound to the limits of the engine itself.

 

Halo Reach does not use hitscan. They are using a method similar to hitscan, but make no mistake it is not hitscan. If that were the case, you would not have to lead enemies with your shots.

 

Reach DOES use hitscan, you do not need to lead your shots on long distances.

Halo 3 you DID have to lead your shots with the BR on long range or mid range (thats what i call real time AKA travel time)

Like the other person said, go check the vidocs they posted.

 

Wikipedia hitscan explenation, Halo 2 and Reach used as examples at the bottom of the page

You can just google "Halo Reach hitscan" and you will find many threads on various Halo/X box sites that discus the return of hitscan in Reach.

 

No, i dont want you to be able to change back and forth in game, i mean as like a setting for your gametypes, like how in classic slayer you can enable or disable super shields

 

I completely understand that people want this, mostly MLG players would want this.

Its just to much to ask though, Reach is already much more customizable then the previous Halo games.

 

And toggling the real time VS hitscan is also a huge programming demand for a title update.

And yes i understood that you meant in custom games and not as a setting like toggle crouch or inverted sticks.

[Twinreaper]

I have seen all the VidOc's. 3rd party sites that only have members or other people discussing weapons and other stuff hold no water unless a Bungie developer would come in a grant a "yay" or "nay" to the claims. As for sources from Bungie themselves, they admitted that it is simulated hitscan. If you really do understand what hitscan is, then you know that any weapon fired, hits it's target instantly, no matter the range, without any travel time. There is travel time with every weapon, but the difference is so slight, (by a mere 1 frame, according to Bungie) that calling them non-hitscan would be pointless because of the marginal error. Bungie did do a fantastic job with simulating it, but in the end they are still simulated, and takes away a lot of the skill involved with combat that pro players have come to know and love. Simply because of this, I never play Reach multi, and always go on and play H2 or H1 multi. But in the end for the sake of arguing over something so mere, I will just go ahead and say sorry, I was wrong.

 

I wasn't understanding the switching of the weapon style you were talking about, my bad on that. That would be a great addition in the custom game settings, it would really give you more control and balance when playing with new players or freinds that are just not use to Halo multiplayer. Just being able to tweak in a shotgun with those few 3 extra shots would be cool as hell. As far as I am concerned, they did let up a lot in giving the player control of settings, but still held back where it counted the most in the end.

 

I am with you on the betray, but you also have to keep in mind, that sometimes players will shoot by accident and hit a live grenade on the ground. When that happens you know all to well that it explodes, and if a teammate is near it and it kills him, you get a betrayal. Again though, it doesnt apply to me as I dont go into multi, but I do agree that it comes as a major fustration to a majority of other players. Some people just cant use teamwork...lol

 

I almost didn't notice the Plasma Launcher thing. I could not agree more. The plasma Launcher when weilded by covenant in campaign still makes you go "oh crap!". But for us in multiplayer or when turning it against the enemy, it just plain sucks. I would love to know what exactly they did to make it so much weaker then in the beta. What were your personal observations about it's performance? Besides the rediculous arming time to fire multiple nades. My god it takes so long! And everyone can dodge them so easily!

[SerpentofMetal]

reach needs more blood and scaring of land from exp,osions. its to plain with a head shot and a falling ragdoll body with no blood or bullet holes in walls.

[Exile]

reach needs more blood and scaring of land from exp,osions. its to plain with a head shot and a falling ragdoll body with no blood or bullet holes in walls.

 

 

Let me guess, you play modern warfare...

 

Looks arn't everything, Reach its graphics are fine as they are.

Halo has always been about the game play.

 

Besides you cant put that in a title update..

[Spectral Jester]

Blood and gore definetly a no no. That would see it turning into a Gears of War clone, which as a GOW fan as well is not a bad thing. But it just wouldnt suit the Halo games.

[ENP No Trace]

Blood and gore definetly a no no. That would see it turning into a Gears of War clone, which as a GOW fan as well is not a bad thing. But it just wouldnt suit the Halo games.

 

I think what Bungie tried to do was make this more of a military shooter, allow Halo to dive into a gameplay style that just didn't work. The Armor Ability idea... it was good, but they should be pickups, nothing else. The decreased jump height, decreased speed, and made way for Armor Abilities at the expense of gameplay without them. I love Bungie, but they tried to blend with the crowd on this one, and it was a horrible idea. I still play Reach, and I'm a (If I may brag) pretty damn good player. Bungie should've remained where the were with Halo 3. Reach dosen't even feel... like Halo. The reason is because, while you learn your actions in the campaign were very important and vital to Master Chiefs survival, it was set entirely on Reach. There were no forerunner hints, no constructs, and it just didn't feel like Halo. Loadouts were a bad idea from the start, and it was clear at this point in developement that Bungie wanted to steal some ideas from more prominent shooters. Halo needs to remain sepparate like the trilogy did, having no relations to other shooters other than to be a shooter. I hope 343 industries knows what Bungie did wrong and understands the key aspects on how to make Halo 4 successful. The hype is rediculous, and I hope to see gameplay footage soon.

[snakebug]

i really dont agree.armor lock is fine but some noobs dont know how to back up when somebody gets into armor lock.second bloom?its ok if you know how to pace your shots so basicly they shouldnt change all that.i know i seem like a hater but im really getting tired of people calling me out for us armor lock.just play the game the way it is.

[shookum33]

1. Toggle Bloom

2. Destroy Melee Animation

3. Destroy Season Ratings to add 1-50 ranking system

4. Nerf grenades and armor lock

5. Fix Theater

[HAMBURGLER]

Let me guess, you play modern warfare...

 

Looks arn't everything, Reach its graphics are fine as they are.

Halo has always been about the game play.

 

Besides you cant put that in a title update..

i agree with you. if we wanted reach to look like cod then we would just play cod

[Screech]

1 more thing I would ask them to fix are the host transfer/player quitting screen that we get ever-so-often in matchmaking. That alone is almost game breaking.