Another common piece of feedback we see is players wanting Big Team Battle to shift to AR starts. We have some significant reservations about a change like this due to several factors including on-map weapon pickup availability, vehicle balance, starting ammo counts, and more. However, we also acknowledge that DMR starts can feel unforgiving and lead to some stagnation, especially on some of the more open maps in the game. We'll come back to this topic in just a bit.
343, please, play your own game. DMR starts aren't "unforgiving". They kill Big Team Battle stone dead. It's even worse for BTB than other gametypes, due to larger maps and map control and making open-top vehicles on certain maps a practical death sentence. Mongeese, Warthogs, Ghosts, even Falcons to a lesser extent, all become completely irrelevant on open maps with any elevation. Scorpions and Wraiths are completely unaffected by this, and indeed, they benefit from DMR starts to an extent, as any potential boarders have to contend with DMR fire as they go. It's good to worry about vehicle balance, but at this point, the balance is weighted very heavily towards DMRs. A DMR is the one and only weapon you need most of the time, to the point that you ignore most weapon drops.
Needler? Irrelevant. Concussion rifle? Irrelevant. Plasma rifle/repeater? Worse than useless. Plasma pistol? Pointless save for stunning the occasional vehicle. Pistol? No point. Assault rifle? It's an inferior backup. Grenade launcher? A cute novelty. Having a DMR in your hands negates all those other options and limit Halo to a very narrow pool of weapons and gameplay.
I appreciate that you're working on a solution with an additional playlist, and that's wonderful. It's great that you're listening to player feedback, and you're moving to fix the issue. Still, please play your own game. All of this is easy enough to realise after only a handful of games. AR starts are hardly perfect, granted, but that's better than the mess that is BTB right now.
343, please, play your own game. DMR starts aren't "unforgiving". They kill Big Team Battle stone dead. It's even worse for BTB than other gametypes, due to larger maps and map control and making open-top vehicles on certain maps a practical death sentence. Mongeese, Warthogs, Ghosts, even Falcons to a lesser extent, all become completely irrelevant on open maps with any elevation. Scorpions and Wraiths are completely unaffected by this, and indeed, they benefit from DMR starts to an extent, as any potential boarders have to contend with DMR fire as they go. It's good to worry about vehicle balance, but at this point, the balance is weighted very heavily towards DMRs. A DMR is the one and only weapon you need most of the time, to the point that you ignore most weapon drops.
Needler? Irrelevant. Concussion rifle? Irrelevant. Plasma rifle/repeater? Worse than useless. Plasma pistol? Pointless save for stunning the occasional vehicle. Pistol? No point. Assault rifle? It's an inferior backup. Grenade launcher? A cute novelty. Having a DMR in your hands negates all those other options and limit Halo to a very narrow pool of weapons and gameplay.
I appreciate that you're working on a solution with an additional playlist, and that's wonderful. It's great that you're listening to player feedback, and you're moving to fix the issue. Still, please play your own game. All of this is easy enough to realise after only a handful of games. AR starts are hardly perfect, granted, but that's better than the mess that is BTB right now.
