first things first, what do we want to know?

[vokain]

shoot


and den, can you make this board accessible from the main message board page, like BF:BC2 and COD? i know the board's still in its infancy, but it needs all the exposure it can get to develop a base

[individual]

Things I want to know:

-The STK and TTK of every gun at every range
-Spartan vs. Covenant comparisons: The DMR vs. Needle Rifle, the AR vs. Plasma Repeater, and the Magnum vs. the Plasma Pistol.
-Whether it's true the GL only does an EMP blast if cooked and needs to bounce\go a certain distance to explode when not manually detonated
-Whether the sniper rifle, plasma pistol, and grenades have supposedly gotten buffed since Halo 3
-Whether grenades have the same arc when moving and standing still
-The mechanics of the plasma launcher
-The melee range and why sometimes your character does the dashing melee. For instance, does hovering with the jetpack increase melee range?
-The hitboxes and their multipliers for every enemy in the game (other players included)

To keep it short, I guess I'll just stop there.

[Aphoristic]

All I know for sure is that the DMR and Pistol take 4 shots anywhere to take out shields, then 1 headshot to kill with no shields (3 body shots otherwise).

Not sure on Needle Rifle. I think it's either the same or takes one more shot to take out shields (it for sure is 1 headshot/3 bodyshots without shields supercombine). Brutes fear the Needle Rifle as they don't have shields.

[individual]

Sept 19, 2010 11:46:34 GMT -5 Aphoristic said:

All I know for sure is that the DMR and Pistol take 4 shots anywhere to take out shields, then 1 headshot to kill with no shields (3 body shots otherwise).

Not sure on Needle Rifle. I think it's either the same or takes one more shot to take out shields (it for sure is 1 headshot/3 bodyshots without shields supercombine). Brutes fear the Needle Rifle as they don't have shields.

I think the needle rifle does less damage (1 or 2 more STK), but it fires quicker, it's full-auto, it has less bloom, and three needles cause a "supercombine" (needle explosion) that either drops shields or kills an unshielded opponent.

Overall, I think the needle rifle is easier to use, but if you both land all headshots, toe-to-toe vs. a needle rifle, the DMR will win.

[n1gh7]

The DMR and needle rifle are balanced much the same as the BR and Carbine were in Halo 3. Individual's post is right.

Either the hitboxes were made larger or the anti-lag system was improved or the anti-lag system was made more lenient because it definitely seems easier to hit people with the sniper.

If you melee someone with any amount of shield no damage with be done to their health (no damage bleed-through). (I don't like this.)

Up close a Pistol may be better than a DMR in some situations.

Traditionally in multiplayer for halo there are no multipliers for different body part's damage. The only things that are "unique" are needles exploding after so many are put in the enemy and some guns can kill with one head shot when the enemy has no shields. Oh and Plasma weapons do more damage against shields than health.

[individual]

What weapons are headshot-capable?

[skitrel]

Sept 19, 2010 19:13:08 GMT -5 individual said:

What weapons are headshot-capable?

Sniper, pistol, dmr, needle rifle. I think that's all of them.



I'd like a full list of respawn times on all weapons, particularly the power weapons.

Grenade launcher. Shotgun. Sniper. Rocket Launcher. Sword. Hammer. Respawn time on stationary gun emplacements after they've been removed would also be nice.
Having a monopoly on particular power weapons in a game is critical to winning, a sniper alone can give an entire team the advantage until the ammo is run dry, racking up easy kills. Being able to know the exact moment when each of these weapons respawns by noting the in game time at the time you picked it up will make this a viable tactic as it was in Halo 3.



I'd like a dmr versus needle rifle comparison too, my personal belief is that the needle rifle FAR out performs the dmr. If I have one of these I rack up kills incredibly quickly. For those of you who haven't realised yet, the needle rifle is automatic, you can hold down the trigger and it fires very fast, you can't on the dmr. I believe that the dmr might be completely balanced in comparisons but would require the shooter to be completely accurate AND very well timed against the new bloom(which I haven't entirely got the feel for yet, the fire rate on the needle rifle definitely makes up for any lost accuracy and the bloom is none-existent if fired in two shot bursts.


I'll do some tests with the dmr and rifle tomorrow, we all know that head/body damage doesn't matter unless unshielded. So what I'll do is start off with 2 players at point blank (aimed at head) and start firing at the same time. I'll test this multiple times at steadily increasing ranges for max fire rate.
I'll then do some tests at mid and long range of the dmr waiting for bloom to fully recentre, against the needle rifle on full auto, and vice versa.
I'll then do some tests for various burst techniques, I've seen a lot of arguments online over what the best technique for dmr is. People have argued various different techniques dependant on situation and range.
12345
1-2-3-4-5
12-34-5
1-2-3-45
etc. My personal belief here is that all of these patterns probably have their own specific uses, such as full speed firing being most useful at close range while slow firing with a quick final two shots would be most useful against an opponent who has cover he might duck into, this does not allow him to react to his shield pop as the fifth shot comes very quickly.

There's some maths that certainly needs doing when it comes to vehicle damage. Weapons, grenades, stuck grenades, splash of grenades etc.
I'd also like a test for grenade strengths, it feels like the blast radius has been drastically toned down since the beta, but I'm not certain, the player movement speed has definately increased so I may just think that the radius is smaller when in reality I'm just able to move fast enough to get away from them now compared to the beta.

I'd like some definitive tests for sword versus sword combat and for sword versus normal too, I have discovered that if you melee (with gun) against an opponent who attacks with a sword then the attack does not kill you. Understanding this mechanic entirely could mean hundreds of lives saved and epic luls against players who simply camp around corners with swords. It will also be massively useful against elites in invasion.

Speaking of elites, their melee attack is quicker than the Spartans right? It's not just me imagining it?

Oh, I'd also like some hitbox comparisons for different armours. Some of these create pretty big differences in player size and I'd like to know if it changes the hitbox size, if it does then I would like to know what armour gives the smallest hitboxes, for obvious reasons.

Some animation tests would also be useful, gun lower and raise speeds in particular, quick change between dmr and pistol to avoid bloom? They both have the same strength so it may be quicker to alternate between the two for each shot rather than waiting for bloom to decrease.

One last one, exact shield regen times compared with distance a sprinter can cover. People tend to hide when their shields pop, knowing what the exact distance I can cover versus the time it takes their shield to regen would certainly help my confidence when it comes to split second decisions on whether to chase those suckers into their holes or not.


I propose that for our testing we make good use of the fantastic video editor and fileshare we've been given, we can use specific filenames such as "Denkirson_DMRtest" 1, 2, 3 etc. This allows us to visibly see what a person is talking about when they say close, mid or long range, I find these are all VERY subjective terms. Anyone who does tests can post the name of their video and their gamertag in it's respective thread related to the test here, I think we should stick to using Denkirson at the beginning of all filenames, It allows easy search function within game. Certain users over on the bungie.net forums are able to convert these files to be viewable in the online fileshare for everyone too. If our research is good then we may attract the attention of a few of them.


Also, hello everyone. First post, long time MW and BC lurker. Halo is where my heart has always been though and I hope to help speed up the process here so we can all get our game on.

[hobbert]

shotguns range stk etc etc

[nimrod6134]

I was checking out the shotgun range in single player and it was quite long, farther than any CoD shotguns. It also left ~12 marks on the wall if I recall correctly, but who knows if it performs the same for multiplayer.

[vokain]

From what I noticed, every gun performs the same in single player as it does in multiplayer, with the exception of ammo limits for some guns. In COD single player, the guns were usually better than they are in MP

[individual]

I'd like to know the amount of health the different classes of enemies have, too.

Because the hunters seem ridiculous.

And some high-rank elites seem ridiculous as well, because they can survive a direct hit with a hammer, or two beat-downs even with their shield down.

[n1gh7]

Everything has more health now, that's for sure. (or guns do less damage)

[nimrod6134]

Is there any rhyme or rhythm to who becomes a zombie in the Infection/Safe Havens game types?

It seems to be random but a bunch of players I encountered tried to claim it was based off your previous rounds performance, which doesn't sound right to me.

[Aphoristic]

It's 3 random people in the game. This is most annoying when there are only 4 people left after everyone quits. =\

[Flubadoo]

Sept 19, 2010 22:05:31 GMT -5 skitrel said:

Sept 19, 2010 19:13:08 GMT -5 individual said:

What weapons are headshot-capable?

Sniper, pistol, dmr, needle rifle. I think that's all of them.



I'd like a full list of respawn times on all weapons, particularly the power weapons.

Grenade launcher. Shotgun. Sniper. Rocket Launcher. Sword. Hammer. Respawn time on stationary gun emplacements after they've been removed would also be nice.
Having a monopoly on particular power weapons in a game is critical to winning, a sniper alone can give an entire team the advantage until the ammo is run dry, racking up easy kills. Being able to know the exact moment when each of these weapons respawns by noting the in game time at the time you picked it up will make this a viable tactic as it was in Halo 3.



I'd like a dmr versus needle rifle comparison too, my personal belief is that the needle rifle FAR out performs the dmr. If I have one of these I rack up kills incredibly quickly. For those of you who haven't realised yet, the needle rifle is automatic, you can hold down the trigger and it fires very fast, you can't on the dmr. I believe that the dmr might be completely balanced in comparisons but would require the shooter to be completely accurate AND very well timed against the new bloom(which I haven't entirely got the feel for yet, the fire rate on the needle rifle definitely makes up for any lost accuracy and the bloom is none-existent if fired in two shot bursts.


I'll do some tests with the dmr and rifle tomorrow, we all know that head/body damage doesn't matter unless unshielded. So what I'll do is start off with 2 players at point blank (aimed at head) and start firing at the same time. I'll test this multiple times at steadily increasing ranges for max fire rate.
I'll then do some tests at mid and long range of the dmr waiting for bloom to fully recentre, against the needle rifle on full auto, and vice versa.
I'll then do some tests for various burst techniques, I've seen a lot of arguments online over what the best technique for dmr is. People have argued various different techniques dependant on situation and range.
12345
1-2-3-4-5
12-34-5
1-2-3-45
etc. My personal belief here is that all of these patterns probably have their own specific uses, such as full speed firing being most useful at close range while slow firing with a quick final two shots would be most useful against an opponent who has cover he might duck into, this does not allow him to react to his shield pop as the fifth shot comes very quickly.

There's some maths that certainly needs doing when it comes to vehicle damage. Weapons, grenades, stuck grenades, splash of grenades etc.
I'd also like a test for grenade strengths, it feels like the blast radius has been drastically toned down since the beta, but I'm not certain, the player movement speed has definately increased so I may just think that the radius is smaller when in reality I'm just able to move fast enough to get away from them now compared to the beta.

I'd like some definitive tests for sword versus sword combat and for sword versus normal too, I have discovered that if you melee (with gun) against an opponent who attacks with a sword then the attack does not kill you. Understanding this mechanic entirely could mean hundreds of lives saved and epic luls against players who simply camp around corners with swords. It will also be massively useful against elites in invasion.

Speaking of elites, their melee attack is quicker than the Spartans right? It's not just me imagining it?

Oh, I'd also like some hitbox comparisons for different armours. Some of these create pretty big differences in player size and I'd like to know if it changes the hitbox size, if it does then I would like to know what armour gives the smallest hitboxes, for obvious reasons.

Some animation tests would also be useful, gun lower and raise speeds in particular, quick change between dmr and pistol to avoid bloom? They both have the same strength so it may be quicker to alternate between the two for each shot rather than waiting for bloom to decrease.

One last one, exact shield regen times compared with distance a sprinter can cover. People tend to hide when their shields pop, knowing what the exact distance I can cover versus the time it takes their shield to regen would certainly help my confidence when it comes to split second decisions on whether to chase those suckers into their holes or not.


I propose that for our testing we make good use of the fantastic video editor and fileshare we've been given, we can use specific filenames such as "Denkirson_DMRtest" 1, 2, 3 etc. This allows us to visibly see what a person is talking about when they say close, mid or long range, I find these are all VERY subjective terms. Anyone who does tests can post the name of their video and their gamertag in it's respective thread related to the test here, I think we should stick to using Denkirson at the beginning of all filenames, It allows easy search function within game. Certain users over on the bungie.net forums are able to convert these files to be viewable in the online fileshare for everyone too. If our research is good then we may attract the attention of a few of them.


Also, hello everyone. First post, long time MW and BC lurker. Halo is where my heart has always been though and I hope to help speed up the process here so we can all get our game on.

Armor is purely visual. Larger armor like that grenadier one just means that if you shoot the extreme outer layer of it, it'll go right through the playermodel and do no damage.

[vokain]

but it still gives you a bigger profile. probably negligent but hey, that's what this board is for, to sift through all the minutiae

[mannon]

Bigger armor and brighter colors definitely make you easier to see, yet people regularly gravitate to both. I think some people just want to stand out, even if it does make them more of a target. Some people actually seem to use the most obnoxious combinations they can on purpose. *shrugs*

I tend to be a bit more muted. I want to look good, but not handicap myself.

[Flubadoo]

Oct 10, 2010 17:20:32 GMT -5 mannon said:

Bigger armor and brighter colors definitely make you easier to see, yet people regularly gravitate to both. I think some people just want to stand out, even if it does make them more of a target. Some people actually seem to use the most obnoxious combinations they can on purpose. *shrugs*

I tend to be a bit more muted. I want to look good, but not handicap myself.

Oh yeah, EVA with blue visor makes you stand out like...
MAD. I mean, the blue on the EVA is just so damn... vivid...

[Aphoristic]

You are going to stand out even if you had an all black/gray spartan with the smallest armor pieces and black visor.

The only time you ever won't stand out is if you are on a map with the filters on to make it dark, but that makes everyone hard to see.

Make your Spartan look cool, he can never be a ninja.

[mannon]

lol Naw I know you can't really camo up. I just tend to gravitate away from the over the top eye bleeding looks that I see many people use. Not my style. heh

I think a more muted look that's somewhat more military looking does look cool. But then some people like to be yellow or pink for giggles. ;p


Having said that I haven't seen the blue visored EVA helmet yet as I've not gone online and haven't unlocked the EVA helmet yet. I might like it though. >,> I like the EVA helmet, and I love blue. ;p

[hobbert]

The Meaning of life.