Halo4 loadout options as revealed at PAX (09/01)

[wittyscorpion]

Primary Weapons

Assault Rifle: Standard fully automatic firearm of all UNSC branches, effective at both close-range and mid-range combat
Battle Rifle: Utilizes precise, three-round burst functionality, making it a formidable mid-range, semi-automatic weapon
DMR: Premiere marksman rifle of the UNSC, offering impressive single-fire accuracy at reasonably long distances
Storm Rifle: Fully automatic energy weapon widely considered the successor to the traditional Plasma Rifle.
Covenant Carbine: Notable semi-automatic mid-range accuracy, firing ballistic rounds unlike most other Covenant weapons
Suppressor: Fully automatic Forerunner infantry weapon, firing bolts of hard light in rapidly accelerating succession.
Light Rifle: Precision weapon that fires beams of hard light for mid-range to long-range combat

Secondary Weapons

Magnum: UNSC's personal sidearm of choice due to its excellence at close-range to mid-range engagements
Plasma Pistol: Semi-automatic energy weapon capable of a scaled-burst effect which disables electronics
Boltshot: Forerunner particle dilator used for both its precision at mid-range and its burst functionality when up close

Grenade Type

Frag Grenade: an UNSC-issued grenade that functions in a manner very similar to contemporary hand grenades
Plasma Grenade: the Covenant anti-personnel weapon that explodes a short time after coming to rest.
Pulse Grenade: The Pulse Grenade forcefully detonates and forms a hazardous ionization sphere which eventually collapses, destroying any nearby targets

Armor Ability

None: No armor ability equipped
Thruster Pack: Enables a powerful burst of movement offering the ability to evade or quickly close the gap
Promethean Vision: Allows users to detect enemy signatures through walls and other hard surfaces
Hologram: Allows users to generate a nearly identical holographic decoy to deceive enemies during combat
Jetpack: Allows users limited flight through a vertical lift propulsion system similar to that of EVA reentry packs
Hardlight Shield:Allows users to generate a protective barrier of hard light which stops most small arms fire and some explosives
Active Camouflage: Allows users to generate a visual effect astonishingly close to invisibility
Autosentry: An automated turret which can be deployed to defend its user or command a key battlefield chokepoint
Regeneration Field: Allows users to release a short-range energy field that heals any nearby Spartans

Tactical Package

None: No modification equipped in the Tactical Package slot
Mobility: Mobility allows unlimited sprint
Shielding: Shielding speeds up your armor's energy shield recharge rate
Resupply: Resupply allows the recovery of grenades from fallen allies and foes
AA Efficiency: AA Efficiency increases the rate at which energy recharges for Armor Abilities
Grenadier: Grenadier increases grenade carrying capacity
Firepower: Firepower allows the use of a primary weapon in the secondary weapon slot
Fast Track: Fast Track allows user to advance quicker in rank
Requisition: In modes with personal ordnance, Requisition lets the player request new choices when an ordnance is granted
Wheelman: Wheelman increases the long term durability for your vehicle as well as how it reacts to EMP charges

Support Packages

None: No modification equipped in the Support Package slot
Stability: Stability steadies your weapon while being struck by incoming fire.
Ammo: Ammo increases the ammunition capacity for both starting weapons and ordnance drops
Dexterity: Dexterity speeds up reloads and weapon swapping
Sensor: Sensor increases motion range
Awareness: Awareness allows the use of motion sensors while using a scope
Explosives: Explosives alters grenade performance, increasing blast radius and decreasing grenade damage received
Ordnance Priority: In modes with personal ordnance, Ordnance Priority offers more frequent ordnance drops to user
Gunner: Gunner increases how long a mounted weapon can fire before overheating as well as speed with detached turrets

[wittyscorpion]

Also, as revealed earlier, the armor mods: denkirson.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=halor&action=display&thread=4887

Specialization armor mods

The Fast Track armor mod (from Pioneer Specialization) features armor that has wiring which runs throughout the armor to control temperatures in extreme conditions. Gameplay-wise, it gives the player more post-game experience. In-game, if you get 10 points per kill, you don’t get more at that exact moment, but after the game it modifies the amount of experience your Spartan earns to increase the speed at which you rank up. It’s not for everybody because it takes up a primary spot (that could be used for something like carrying an extra grenade or sprinting longer). And, in case you were wondering, you can’t change to it at the end of a game and get more experience for the entire match. Yes, we’re on to you...

The Stealth armor mod (from Wetwork Specialization) – which has very sharp shapes and angles, reminiscent of a knife or blade – does a number of things to help a player that likes to get up close and personal. It adds sound dampening when sprinting, animations are performed faster (to minimize the time you’re vulnerable), and it has a minor effect on Promethean Vision. Typically, when Promethean Vision is activated, people appear red. When you use Stealth, though, only your outline appears red. Many times when someone is using Promethean Vision, they scan quickly so if there’s a lot going on, they may miss you. Or you can hope, anyway.

The Drop Recon armor mod (from Engineer Specialization) – the helmet of which has four socket connections for add-ons, depending on the task – lets you know that Infinity Ordnance is coming and what the Infinity Ordnance is. You see the waypoint and type of weapon that is coming down prior to the weapon entering the game (the specific time is still being fine-tuned). Organized teams will find this armor mod useful because, with communication, there is the likelihood you can beat everybody to the weapon spawns your team finds most desirable.

The Requisition armor mod (from Tracker Specialization) – the helmet of which has a scanning device on the front of the visor – allows you to choose a new set of personal ordnance when personal ordnance is granted. When the menu for a personal ordnance appears on your screen, hitting left, down, or right on the D-pad selects the relevant option. When you have Requisition and hit “up”, you receive a new random selection of choices. This armor mod doesn’t have knowledge of what ordnance had previously, so while you’re not guaranteed better choices, you’re more likely to get the weapon you’re good with or your favorite power-up, if you didn’t get it the first time around.

The Stability armor mod (from Rogue Specialization) – which features several sharp fin elements and sharp angles – makes you flinch less when you’re zoomed in and getting hit. It will be valuable to players that prefer using precision weapons and often find themselves engaged in long-range battles. If two similarly skilled players, both with DMRs and using scopes go head-to-head, the person using Stability has a small advantage. Skill and steady hands will still win the day but Stability allows you to keep your aim on target when facing multiple bullet strikes. Similarly, the player with DMR and Stability will have a larger advantage over a player with AR at long range. But (and yes, there’s always a “but”) the player they're fighting may have made a choice for a different mod in that slot, which may come into play with an additional grenade or something else. Victory is never guaranteed…

The Nemesis armor mod (from Stalker Specialization) – which features lines that are both strong and stealthy – gives you an icon on your HUD of the last person that killed you. While some people utilize it to get revenge, others use it to avoid that person (for obvious reasons). It’s also useful when playing defense for seeing where an offensive player is going. On maps with limited visibility, Nemesis can provide a short window of intelligence in the movement of enemy players or teams, allowing a respawning team to react and steal a match. In play testing, we’ve seen players trusting the extra information implicitly and falling for feints or being target fixated with the extra information and being lured into unfavorable situations. As with everything in Halo, this upgrade allows you to tailor your play to your style but remember that the enemy team is aware of the ability and will be countering and often using it or another option to tip the scales back in their favor.

The Gunner armor mod (from Pathfinder Specialization) – which was designed to explore alien worlds – has two major functions: One, when you’re on a mounted anti-infantry gun (Warthog and the secondaries of Wraith, Scorpion, etc.), the guns overheat less quickly, allowing you to fire longer at the maximum rate of fire. And two, when you pull the gun off an emplaced mount, you move faster, allowing you to use those guns more effectively offensively instead of just defensively. You still won’t be able to use Armor Abilities or Sprint, but you can move faster, bringing some heavy firepower to any offensive attack.

The Wheelman armor mod (from Operator Specialization) – which features cylinder packs that could be preplaced with more oxygen or cooling material depending on the mission – makes you suffer the negative effects of an overcharged Plasma Pistol burst for less than the normal time. Vehicles you drive are also more durable over a longer period of time. You can still get hijacked, but the window for that is smaller.

[wittyscorpion]

(Note: there seem to be some overlaps between Tactical Package and Armor mods. The Tactical Package info listed above most likely contains inaccurate information)

To translate into CoD language:

Armor Ability ~= special tactical equipment that can be used unlimited number of times

Tactical Package, Support Package and Armor Mods can be viewed as 3 tiers of perks.

Ordinance Drop ~= Care Package earned through pointstreaks (only in game mode "Infinity Slayer, in other game modes they are randomly dropped)

[tiesieman]

I don't understand these loadout options

Why would anyone ever want to use automatic rifles over the burst/headshot rifles, if both are remotely the same as in other halos? Or have they changed how the AR functions?

[wittyscorpion]

No, in Halo4 players are free to create their own custom loadouts however they please, just like CoD.

Based on the game play footage seen so far, nobody in their right mind will choose the automatic weapons as primary because the semi-autos are far better. However, i can see some players wanting to go with 2 primaries (by selecting Firepower support package), with one semi-auto and one auto. Not something I would do though because the UNSC pistol looks pretty good.

[wittyscorpion]

It really depends on how good the plasma pistol can home in on target. In Halo2 it was too powerful and tagged as "noob combo", so my guess is that they'll keep it on the weak side.

If that's the case, the UNSC pistol might be more attractive. Pull it out to finish the opponent when the primary needs a reload.

[tiesieman]

Seems like they're gonna screw too much with the basics of Halo

Or, if you look at it differently, they're not screwing with it too much too incorporate a system like this

[wittyscorpion]

With the huge success of CoD series and their dominate positions in FPS genre, they have to do something to attract CoD crowd. Especially this is also an opportunity as some CoD fans have become a bit tired of CoD's formula and would like to at least have an alternative.

How well they can achieve that remains to be seen.

For die hard Halo fans, I am sure that they'll have "Classic" or "hard core" playlists that limit the loadout options to a much smaller subset.

Also, 343 industries has described their intention of creating these options as " They enhance a small part of the sandbox (meaning good players will still be good, and not good players will still be not good), allowing people to play the style they want to play and experience the parts of the sandbox they like on a more frequent basis. ", so they don't change the "classic halo experience" too much (Halo Reach failed in that regard).

Based on what I have seen so far, the Halo "pro" crowd who have played Halo4 are pretty positive about the game. One guy said something like "as soon as you play one game your doubts will go away. It feels like Halo".

We will see.

[tiesieman]

Well I guess there's not much difference in spawning with a BR or picking one of the many laying on the maps as soon as you spawn

But it still seems sorta stupid tricking new players into thinking all rifles are on par, when they're not

[wittyscorpion]

Sept 3, 2012 15:53:19 GMT -5 tiesieman said:

Well I guess there's not much difference in spawning with a BR or picking one of the many laying on the maps as soon as you spawn

But it still seems sorta stupid tricking new players into thinking all rifles are on par, when they're not

Shouldn't be problem as the new players will find on their first death how powerless he feels when trying to win a fight going with AR vs. BR :-)

[wittyscorpion]

Halo fan bros, here is gameplay video at PAX showing off many new things, with highly entertaining commentaries:



Q&A post PAX: blogs.halo.xbox.com/Headlines/post/2012/09/05/The-Halo-Bulletin-9512.aspx