- fifthderelicte
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Fifthderelicte's guide to many important issues addressed and re-addressed in the modern Halo community: Insight for fixes in Reach
My goal here is to bring together some major posts that come up time and time again, and share with you some of the best discussions I have ever been in with others on these forums. It is inevitable that topics will continue to be repeated as we hash out issues, since the game we love so much experiences relatively few changes. My goal here is to point you to some good sources so as these issues come up again, you will have some good resources. On a final note, since I am writing this thread, I am obviously going to point you to my posts with my opinions, though they are often in threads where many disagree with me.
OMG RANKLOCK! Ranklock is for the cryptogamoeologists to study. It does not exist. The system works as it is intended, except for those who have ruined the system by stepping outside of its bounds, which perceptually and actually affects the rest of the community. Trueskill works in a system where everyone agrees to play by that system.
BETRAYAL BOOTINGSince griefers find ways around betraying, namely griefing through dealing damage only, and not death, a damage counter should be implemented for betrayal booting purposes.
RANK SYSTEMThe new rank system should aim to drop players quickly up and/or quickly down. Partnering with true skill, a perceived skill should be added to quickly get new accounts to where they should be. However, a minimum number of games (X) should be mandatory before attributing a high skill in a playlist or account to a particular player. This would prevent both bad sportsmanship where players beat up lower level players, as well as inflation of levels from booting via resetting sigma/mu.
See also why the ranking system of H2 was not perfect.Halo 2 had a lot of the same issues that H3 has in terms of ranking. However, H2 sorted players out on a much larger skill gap, which made every level count for something. But just as it would be foolish to want HCE back exactly as was, except with better graphics, so it is foolish to look to the H2 system for perfection as we seek to make a new system.
HEALTH AND HALO While health may be wonderful for creating an epic feel in campaign, it is a game slower in multiplayer that also promotes randomness in fights. The gameplay it brings has the potential to be overbearing, slow, and random and should not be incorporated into multiplayer.
The BR The H3 BR takes little skill. It often produces wins on a random basis, and at the same time, makes shieldless kills an expectation. The burst function allows for the easiest shot in the game (the BR headshot), and should be changed. A single shot weapon necessitates accuracy, especially for the final headshot - and if mixed with less autoaim, and many other factors, could be made very balanced and skilled.
HCE pistol in the BR Some argue for the HCE pistol to return, but they must realize that the game is different in many other aspects than CE. There are many changes that need to be made to the game before even thinking about returning this monster.
QUITTERSQuitting is not a "right," it is a privilege. If Bungie would have decided not to add a quit feature, or if they would punish you for quitting, it's their business. While individuals can do whatever they please, if it affects others, there can and should be punishment. A temporary lockout of MM until the game you were in would have finished would be fair for the first player or two who quit (or something of the sort), as if an emergency has truly arisen, you won't be playing the game for at least 10-15 minutes anyway. This would punish the jerks and do nothing to those who truly had emergencies.
MULTIACCOUNTERSMultiaccounters not only go outside the bounds of trueskill and mess with stats, they also ruin the experience of others. Whether it's making poor gameplay for lower levels or inflating the ranks of higher levels, their actions are deleterious to the community and to sportsmanship. There are legitimate reasons for creating more accounts, but that is not the scope of the linked thread. Implementation may be difficult for such a detection system, but we can still address the philosophical issue at hand and encourage/discourage actions as a community.
ELITE models are unfair in MMThere are many issues that are actually harmful to playing as an elite model, which include such things as model specific actions (spartans lunge farther with a sword, spartans can drop equipment from Hornet, etc) and several other things. The major problem is with perceived unfairness as opposed to actual unfairness.
ARs are skillessThis explores the fact that ARs take more skill than they are given credit for. They may not be on par with other weapons, but this shows that they do have place in a competitive game. Perhaps they shouldn't be the focal point of a competitive game, but they are not worthless.
COMPETITIVE COMMUNITY There are many biased people here both ways - for and against MLG. If you explore the thread I linked to, especially the post I highlighted, you'll see that moving gameplay more towards the competitive spectrum actually is unnoticeable in many ways to the casual players, and actually benefits them by creating a larger skill gap, therefore more equal matches.
Various other Multiplayer issuesThis thread (and the link inside of it) deals with weapon balancing as well as other things that could be added to the game to contribute to a better playing multiplayer experience.
LASER POWER : By request, I've added the laser topic. Anyone who's played H2 knows that grabbing the rockets and the banshee or hog was an automatic win. There were no counters other than getting the combo first. I propose that the current laser, with its ease of use and its power, is just like that combo. It kills vehicle usage by one team without question or effort, and in the same hand, it amplifies vehicle usage by the holding team by a lot. The game becomes very lopsided all because someone holds one weapon. We're not talking about an advantage here, we're talking about imbalance.
[YOUR HELP HERE:] If any of you have ideas of major themes of importance you've seen discussed on here, please let me know. Also, if you know of any good threads discussing the things above or other major issues, please provide me with a link so I can put them into the OP. Thanks!
[Edited on 11.18.2009 5:16 PM PST]