Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Two main changes that should be implemented.
  • Subject: Two main changes that should be implemented.
Subject: Two main changes that should be implemented.

Halo 3 is a great game. Many aspects have improved greatly from Halo CE and Halo 2. There have been some drawbacks however. In an attempt to make the game more balanced, Halo 3 typically has an AR start. This makes gameplay more balanced than in Halo 2 by a lot but not nearly as balanced as Halo CE.

In CE you started with a pistol (BR equivalent to those who have never played it) and an assault rifle. This gave everyone a chance right off of there spawn to defend themselves against a sniper or someone else with a pistol. In Halo 3 you spawn with an AR and can do almost no damage to a sniper and very little damage to person with a BR at midrange. Instead of a fight right from your spawn, you have to retreat and find a battle rifle for an even match or just hide somewhere and wait for the opposing team to get closer to you in order to have a chance.

It has been argued that there is an AR start to adhere to new players so they will not get destroyed. If you think about it, if a new player is playing against an advanced player in a game of Team ARs, chances are the new player is either going to get a BR and die or stick with his AR and die. When he respawns, the newb will start with just an assault rifle with no way to defend himself unless he camps it up. If you start with a Battle Rifle in this same game, the new player would have the option of wielding a BR or using an AR every time they spawn. The only real difference is giving the new player the option of two weapons and allowing for better players to not get angry that they have to look for a BR. Also, how are players going to get better with the BR if they spawn they only get a select few chances to use it per game.

The battle rifle is treated like a power weapon on some maps like guardian when it should just be a given that you will spawn with one. Not having a battle rifle promotes camping on maps like guardian. Has anyone ever tried to defend the flag on standoff, die and spawn at the top of the base with an AR while the flag is being run out the bottom? The only thing you can do at this point is throw 2 frags and pray. If there was a BR start, you could actually have a chance at killing the flag carrier or you would be killed in your attempt. Either way, it would take more than just an initial kill to get the flag from one base to another.

One of the most fun things about Halo is leveling up. It is one of the main reasons that I (and many others) prefer it over the COD series. In Halo 3 I have not been able to level up since 2007 because it was so easy to gain a level in Halo 3 and I quickly achieved a 50. For those of you who do not know, in Halo 2 it was much harder to level up. My friend was a level 18 in H2 and managed to get a 40 in H3 when the game came out. Trust me, his skill did not go up 22 levels. Does that mean all players 28 from Halo 2 are able to obtain Halo 3 50s? If so, that is an astounding number.

In Halo 2, it was near impossible to get a 50. You used to be able to judge a person's skill level in Halo 2 by looking at there level (unless they cheated). In Halo 3 this is not possible. As a 50 over the past two years I have helped my friends get to 50s as well: a total of about 10 people. If everyone at my skill level did this, that means there are 10x more fifties than there should be. By making the leveling system a whole lot harder, like in H2, there would be much less second, third, fourth and fifth accounters.

People make new accounts because for a lot of players, it is really easy to get a fifty and sell it on the internet. By making it near impossible to get a 50, second accounters will become, for the most part, obsolete for two reasons. The first is that there will only be a select few who are able to get to a 50 instead of a huge portion of the Halo community. The second is that if they do become 50s it will actually be hard and take time and effort resulting in weeks and possibly months of gameplay rather than 2 days.

The Halo 3 level system, besides being easy to level up was very easy to manipulate (I wont go into the details). This resulted in a person on a new account to be able to get to a 50 in less than 10, mostly uncompetitive games. Point being, the level system should be more Halo2esque.

These two changes would add the awesome aspects of Halo CE and Halo 2 that were absent in Halo 3 to make an overall great Halo game.

[Edited on 11.11.2009 2:10 PM PST]

  • 11.11.2009 2:10 PM PDT

Actually AR pistol starts work pretty damn well for anything other than open big team battle style maps. Its not the starts that are the problem, its the maps they are on. Of course you should spawn with BR AR on the larger maps. But there is simply no reason to on the smaller maps that don't require mass medium range battles.

  • 11.11.2009 2:12 PM PDT

What do you think about the level system?

  • 11.11.2009 5:52 PM PDT

Posted by: BronzeBilygoat
What do you think about the level system?

It will still use trueskill to match up players either way, all xbox 360 games use trueskill, most just don't show you the number like halo does.

  • 11.11.2009 5:59 PM PDT