- Xx Mr Bill xX
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- Fabled Mythic Member
Clearly because the desktop uses a 3 prong plug and a laptop uses a 2 prong plug, the microwave will fill your car with tostitos better
First off, let me say that in no way do I think my views are superior to anyone other views. I just think so far that this seems to be the most logical way to remedy some of the "problems" that people have with Halo 3 in Reach. If you can present a logical argument backed up with facts, not complete opinion with things you think to be fact, but your opinion backed up with fact, I would love to hear it.
Intro
Around multiple forums on Bungie.net, and I'm sure other Halo related forums, people are constantly voicing their issues with the Battle Rifle. There are three groups of people who want things about the Battle Rifle changed. There are the people who want to nerf the BR (make it a less overall effective weapon), people who want the BR to stay the same, and the less common now, those who want to increase its effectiveness.
If you have been a fan of the Halo series since CE you will know that gameplay has always generally revolved around a versatile mid range weapon even though the default starting weapon has always been more of a short range weapon. Halo is a circular weapon tree for that reason. Another thing to note is that the most versatile mid range weapon of each Halo game has been nerfed (weakened in some way) in each new game. We went from having the Halo CE pistol which had the potential to deliver 3 shot kills from very long distances, to a 4 shot BR in Halo 2 that was slightly less accurate, to a less accurate and slower shooting BR in Halo 3. For those of you who don't remember, there was a time in 2004-mid 2005 where the H2 BR was extremely weak and practically useless (prepatch), this is a situation I strongly want to avoid.
There will always be one gun in Halo that is more effective than all the others. That's just the way it will be. I'm saying that gun is already well balanced and it does not need to be weakened to compensate for the uselessness of the short range aresenal of Halo, its time for new changes to be tried.
My Ideas
First of all, the main mid range weapon of Reach does not have to be a BR. I would be fine with them using a pistol or whatever. Hell they could use a potato gun for all I care, it just needs to work, and I'm just using the BR as a reference point of something they could do.
One important thing to keep in mind about the Battle Rifle is that in default settings, the fewest shots that you can kill someone with is 4 shots. This is the main part about the battle rifle that influenced my views. I myself have put over 21,000 games into the Halo series on XBL and LAN. To this day, in default settings, I still kill people with 5+ shots from the battle rifle far more often than I do in 4. Now, I know I'm an above average player, not to sound full of myself, but frankly I think I am quite distanced from the average Halo player in terms of aiming skill and in game smarts. This would only lead me to believe that the average Halo player is less skilled in aiming with the Battle Rifle than I am. In fact, I know I am, sorry, that's just what playing that much Halo will do to you. Factoring in everything you have to take into account when shooting the BR, I believe that the average user of the BR takes anywhere from 6-7 shots to kill an opponent with the BR.
All weapons have a maximum potential that you can reach with them. No human being will ever be able to reach the maximum potential that any gun has. You can come fairly close, but you can never reach the point where you literally can wield a weapon perfectly, to its full potential, in every situation possible in this game. Another important thing to keep in mind is that some weapons are easier to come close to reaching their full potential. Its no secret that in its melee/close, the AR is easier to use than the BR in the mid range domain.
I believe there are three good paths to go with the current Battle Rifle.
1. Keep it the same while decreasing the bullet magnetism/auto aim.
2. Decrease the spread of the Battle Rifle slightly and decrease the bullet magnetism/auto aim as well.
3. Keep it the same
For those of you who don't know about bullet magnetism (also called generally "Auto Aim), it is a form of Aim Assist
Now, I'm sure I've completely lost some people there and they are now pounding away at how the BR will be too effective at long range. Don't become one of those people, hear me out. Doing this will do several things. The first is that it will require the user of the battle rifle to have better aim. The second will require the user of the BR to have better aim than if only what was used in the first suggestion. Now when the average Halo player is definitely not killing people in 4 or even 5 shots a majority of the time, how will making it harder to aim by increasing the accuracy of the weapon slightly . I could go more into it, but all I will be saying over and over is make the battle rifle harder to aim to get the people to stop complaining about its potential when in reality no one is close to reaching its full potential.
The Assault Rifle and Magnum
These are two guns that I kind of like to throw in their own class. They have more range and overall capability than the short range weapons, but they most certainly aren't mid range weapons. I'm going to skip an into into these and just go straight into what I think we should see happen and my reasoning.
The Magnum
There are three things I would like to see with the magnum.
1. Increase the accuracy of the magnum.
2. Slightly increase the rate of fire of the magnum.
3. Add a 1.5x scope onto the magnum.
4. Don't allow the magnum to be dual wielded.
The reason I want the scope put on the magnum as well as the accuracy increase, is that I want it to stand a chance at mid range without encroaching on the Battle Rifles mid range dominance, or the sniper rifle in any way. These changes would make the gun more effective against the BR and close range weapons at distances, but it would still always lose to the battle rifle if each user hits all of their bullets, or even if the BR user misses one. I just want the rate of fire slightly increased on the magnum because it shoots so slow. The magnum pretty much gets beat up on at every range, with these changes, a skilled user can wield the magnum slightly more effectively but it still gets beat by the other mid range weapons at distances, and it will still lose most of the time in close range/melee combat.
The AR
The changes I want for the AR are simple. Make it a bit more accurate. That's it. Honestly, I just believe we shouldn't be starting off with a limited close range weapon that leaves people defenseless in certain situations. With a small increase in accuracy it becomes more effective against he battle rifle and magnum at a little farther distances, but it is not changed so much that we don't recognize it anymore. It would still lose to most of the many more powerful CQC weapons. In fact, it would be less effective against them because with the increased accuracy it is slightly harder to aim.
Some other reasons I want these things to occur.
- It isn't deminishing the already huge sandbox (in comparison to other range's sandbox) of CQC weapons. There are 9 CQC weapons not including the magnum/AR. (Spiker, Mauler, Shotgun, Grav hammer, SMGs, plamsa rifle, sword, Plasma Pistol+beatdown, flamethrower).
- Slightly distancing the AR and Magnum from these will actually increase the effectiveness of CQC weapons in close/melee range.
- There are more available weapons that a skilled user can take out a BR with from a range. This should prevent the utter dominance (which is a bit much, even I agree) that the BR has over the field without making it a half gun.
The Carbine
There are two non function related things I think should be changed with the carbine.
1. It should be allowed to be a starting weapon.
2. It should be more common on more maps.
The first reason should be pretty self explanatory. The second reason will also help decrease the overall effectiveness of the BR because another mid range dominant weapon that is actually stronger than it is now more common.
Conclusion
I believe my ideas would decrease the effectiveness of the BR without completely nerfing it while increasing the effectiveness of quite a few other guns in the game. I want to see Halo have a circular weapon tree in Reach, as it has in all the previous games. I just don't think the BR should be as dominant as it is, and nerfing it a 3rd time is not the answer.
Thanks for reading, please leave me some feedback.