Important notice!
I am not advocating for any weapon stat changes (damage, range ect). The only thing I want is to make DMR start a toggleable option in matchmaking. DMR start was not as prevalent in old Reach as it is today. In my opinion DMR start is a bad standard mode for social games (mostly team slayer/objectives/BTB) and here is why.
The Designated Marksman Rifle
DMR is a very “noob friendly” weapon that excels at all ranges; close, medium, long, and extreme (across the map), and is also very effective against vehicles. The previous “iterations” of this weapon has never been AS powerful overall. Halo CE Pistol is very powerful, but it has a much higher skill ceiling at most ranges, especially extreme range (shot leading ect), and other weapons like the AR and the plasma rifle can compete with, if not counter it at close range. The Halo 2 Battle Rifle is also an extremely powerful weapon, but at extreme ranges it is not as effective as the DMR and there are non-power weapons that can compete with it at close range.
Given how vehicles work in Halo CE the Pistol is not as effective against them unless you aim at the driver (It can be very wasteful otherwise). The driver can then move into cover to regen his shield. The same goes for Halo 2 where Battle Rifle is not very effective against most vehicles (Good luck shooting down a banshee with it). In Reach this is not the case. With the DMR you don’t really need to aim at the driver for it to be extremely effective and moving into cover isn’t as effective for the driver because of Reach vehicle health. Two people with the DMR can melt a banshee in seconds. If the banshee survives the initial encounter it is left in a very damage state with no possible recovery. Then some guy who just spawned can pick it off across the map with his DMR. In DMR starts this happens very often to the point it hurts the vehicle combat part of Halo. Overall the DMR starts give you less incentive to use vehicles and to know about power weapon spawns. With everybody having DMRs at the start it is often just too dangerous to stick your head out and head for power weapons and vehicles. I have been to many objective games/BTB where most players are just “plinking” at each other with DMRs across the map for the whole match. Not even Halo CE Blood Gulch had that problem.
The “leveling the playing field” argument:
A lot of people argue that non-DMR starts such as AR/Pistol will have one good team controlling power weapons/DMRs who will then proceed to trash the other team. The thing is that this has always been a part of Halo. A good team with knowledge of the power weapon spawns ect will win against a worse team. Also, a very important point is that a good map will have several DMRs/Battle rifles spawning on each side of the map. This has been the case in Halo 2 and 3. It is very hard for a team to control all DMR spawns and power weapon spawns at the same time for a considerable amount of time, especially with vehicles on the map. A good map “levels the playing field” on its own.
TO CLARIFY AGAIN: I do not want to remove DMR start from the game or change any weapon stats. I like using the DMR, but I think AR/pistol starts makes for better gameplay in most cases. I only want 343 Industries to give us more matchmaking options
I am not advocating for any weapon stat changes (damage, range ect). The only thing I want is to make DMR start a toggleable option in matchmaking. DMR start was not as prevalent in old Reach as it is today. In my opinion DMR start is a bad standard mode for social games (mostly team slayer/objectives/BTB) and here is why.
The Designated Marksman Rifle
DMR is a very “noob friendly” weapon that excels at all ranges; close, medium, long, and extreme (across the map), and is also very effective against vehicles. The previous “iterations” of this weapon has never been AS powerful overall. Halo CE Pistol is very powerful, but it has a much higher skill ceiling at most ranges, especially extreme range (shot leading ect), and other weapons like the AR and the plasma rifle can compete with, if not counter it at close range. The Halo 2 Battle Rifle is also an extremely powerful weapon, but at extreme ranges it is not as effective as the DMR and there are non-power weapons that can compete with it at close range.
Given how vehicles work in Halo CE the Pistol is not as effective against them unless you aim at the driver (It can be very wasteful otherwise). The driver can then move into cover to regen his shield. The same goes for Halo 2 where Battle Rifle is not very effective against most vehicles (Good luck shooting down a banshee with it). In Reach this is not the case. With the DMR you don’t really need to aim at the driver for it to be extremely effective and moving into cover isn’t as effective for the driver because of Reach vehicle health. Two people with the DMR can melt a banshee in seconds. If the banshee survives the initial encounter it is left in a very damage state with no possible recovery. Then some guy who just spawned can pick it off across the map with his DMR. In DMR starts this happens very often to the point it hurts the vehicle combat part of Halo. Overall the DMR starts give you less incentive to use vehicles and to know about power weapon spawns. With everybody having DMRs at the start it is often just too dangerous to stick your head out and head for power weapons and vehicles. I have been to many objective games/BTB where most players are just “plinking” at each other with DMRs across the map for the whole match. Not even Halo CE Blood Gulch had that problem.
The “leveling the playing field” argument:
A lot of people argue that non-DMR starts such as AR/Pistol will have one good team controlling power weapons/DMRs who will then proceed to trash the other team. The thing is that this has always been a part of Halo. A good team with knowledge of the power weapon spawns ect will win against a worse team. Also, a very important point is that a good map will have several DMRs/Battle rifles spawning on each side of the map. This has been the case in Halo 2 and 3. It is very hard for a team to control all DMR spawns and power weapon spawns at the same time for a considerable amount of time, especially with vehicles on the map. A good map “levels the playing field” on its own.
TO CLARIFY AGAIN: I do not want to remove DMR start from the game or change any weapon stats. I like using the DMR, but I think AR/pistol starts makes for better gameplay in most cases. I only want 343 Industries to give us more matchmaking options