halo 4 weapon analysis (i.e. which guns suck)

I've spent the past few days putting this together not really for anyone or anything in particular, but since it's done I might as well post it somewhere and fuck my ass shit if I'm going to go anywhere near Waypoint

I'm making it its own thread because it's too many words to spend on a forum this dead and like hell if I'm going to put that halfway down one of hundreds of pages of the existing one. If that's a problem then I invite a member of our friendly moderation staff to merge the metaphorical dick of this post to the meaty wrinkled vagina of the H4 thread, and everybody will be satisfied

anyway

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It's a Halo 4 weapon set analysis! But it's for multiplayer only since at least right now I really really cba to wrangle the campaign AI into letting me run tests on them on all four difficulties. I tallied up the rates of fire, shots to kill, and consequent kill-times for H4, compared them to relevant H3 & Reach stats, drew some conclusions, then took error cones and such factors into account to pit all the H4 guns against each other. Have a look:

I've omitted instakills (shotgun, rockets, sniper, etc.) because there's really no point in charting that and they're unbalanced by design anyway

H4 weapon stats:

E: screw vb4 and it's awful tables and the awful dead space it adds on that I can't delete

(LR1 is unzoomed, LR2 is zoomed)

-Shots to Kill-

Wep	Shields	Health
Cbn	6	5
DMR	4	3
BR	3	2
LR1	5	3
LR2	3	2
Pst	5	3
AR	8	5
StR	7	5
BS	10	6
Sup	10	6
PP	4	8
Ndl	ALWAYS	7
SAW	10	6

-Rate of Fire-

Wep	Rounds/Sec
Cbn	4.29
DMR	2.61
BR	2.31
LR1	2.31
LR2	2.61
Pst	4.29
AR	10
StR	10
Sup	15
PP	6
BS	6
Ndl	10
SAW	15

-Time to Kill-

Wep	SD Killtime	HP Killtime	Tot. Killtime	Head. Killtime
Cbn	1.40	1.17	2.57	1.64
DMR	1.53	1.15	2.68	1.92
BR	1.30	1.37	2.67	1.67
LR1	2.20	1.37	3.57	2.23
LR2	1.14	0.77	1.91	1.53
Pst	1.17	0.70	1.87	1.40
AR	0.80	0.50	1.30
StR	0.70	0.50	1.20
Sup	0.67	0.40	1.07
PP	0.67	1.33	2.00
BS	1.67	1.00	LONG	LONG
Ndl	IT'S	ALWAYS	0.70
SAW	0.67	0.40	1.07

And the notable H3/R points of comparison:

Wep	SD Killtime	HP Killtime	Tot. Killtime	Head. Killtime
H3 AR	1.00	0.60	1.60
HR AR	1.10	0.80	1.90
H4 AR	1.00	0.60	1.60
HR PRp	1.10	0.70	1.80
H4 StR	0.90	0.60	1.50
H3 BR	1.94	1.44	3.37	2.00
H4 BR	1.80	1.37	3.17	2.17
HR DMR	1.53	1.15	2.68	1.92
H4 DMR	1.53	1.15	2.68	1.92
H3 Cbn	1.86	0.93	2.80	1.86
HR NR	1.90	0.95	2.85	2.22
H4 Cbn	1.63	1.17	2.80	1.87

RoF was determined by counting frames between shots in Theater. Shots/kill was determined by shooting a guy until he was killed. Time to kill was then calculated using those two values, meaning that this is about as accurate as you're going to get w/o going all calculus and taking Reach's fire-rate accel on the Plasma Repeater & Needler into account, which'd be a little beyond the scope of my intention here.

RoF and kill-times are rounded to the nearest hundredth of a second. Extra time for burst-fire weapons is taken into account by adding 1/30 of a second per frame (1 frame/bullet for both BR and LR1). Keep in mind that non-hitscan weapons like the PP need a couple of 1/10 seconds to account for projectile travel time (not added to calculations because travel distance is so variable).

Before you look at the LR/Carbine and start changing all your loadouts, don't forget: taking into account network latency, missed shots, and all kinds of other shit the only head-to-heads that even have the potential make a difference are ones that are about .3 seconds or larger (like AR vs. BR or Pistol vs. Carbine).

There end the hard facts. The following are inferences and subjective analysis on my part.

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Immediate conclusions:

If you're looking purely at kill-times, H4 is much closer to H3; but looking at the entire weapon set and associated core mechanics holistically, H4 appears to be Reach with a few H3 weapons -- most of Reach's major changes (ex. armor abilities, no dual wielding, must pop shields to headshot, 2hit melee) are present and accounted for. The two most prominent reversions are that melee damage once again bleeds through shields and the AR (and new counterpart Storm Rifle dumping the Plasma Repeater's rate-of-fire gimmick) once again have a good leg up on headshot primaries.

Really the "big" change is that 343's abandoned Bungie's increasingly-thin "every weapon has a very unique role and character!" policy in favor of a more saturated approach that allows for considerable overlap. In practice, it means "more guns that are more useful," which (along with the AR reversion) is a pretty good way to sidestep the DMRs-only issue Reach had, even if it does techincally move away from a very core Halo tenent -- whether it's a worthwhile sarcifice depends on who you ask of course but it's not something I'm trying to judge here.

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Error cones:

From now on it's just H4 vs. H4. Because I don't have any kind of real-world frame of reference the most I can do is say how the spread is relative to the crosshairs. For this bit I'll just talk about the four headshot primaries; AR/StR/Sup is the only other really worthwhile comparison and I'll handle that in the next section

(oh wait no here are a couple more facts)

Carbine
min error: fills center circle when zoomed
max error: fills center circle when unzoomed, outer markings when zoomed

BR
min error: fills center circle when zoomed
max error: fills center circle when zoomed
slight upward kick too

DMR
min error: fills center circle when zoomed
max error: fills center circle when unzoomed, outer markings when zoomed

LR
min error (unzoomed fire): fills center markings when zoomed
max error (zoomed fire): near-pinpoint

Thankfully, most of the markings are the exact same size; there's about a 1px difference from the Carbine to the BR and 1px from the BR to the DMR/LR, so the only real difference is the DMR & LR's 3x zoom to the Carbine & BR's 2x; "fills center circle when zoomed" means the cone is a fair bit smaller than the others.

(okay facts over)

So as you can see the crosshairs are not necessarily indicative of each weapon's actual bullet spread -- the BR & LR's outer markings don't actually mean anything, the DMR's spread only fits properly when looking through the 3x zoom, and the Carbine even has a variable cone (like the DMR) that's not denoted by an animated crosshair.

On the BR/LR -- the outer markings on every weapon, including those two, indicate where the reticle magnetism ("sticking" to the target) half of Halo's autoaim kicks in, as with all weapons; the headshot primaries are somewhat unique in that their magnetism angle is greater than their max error cone. This still doesn't really explain why the Carbine doesn't get an animated crosshair to accompany its variable cone; my guess is either A. 343 is copying H3 for the sake of copying H3 or B. it's meant to be a long-range disadvantage pushing the player to use the Carbine in the more up-close situations it's indended to handle.

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Best Weapons to Use:

While the scoped LR technically gets the highest DPS & ammo efficiency (potential 3 kills per mag as opposed to 2 per mag for the other headshots), after a certain skill threshold, the DMR becomes what is probably the best weapon available. Killtimes are not significantly slower than the next-best headshot options of the Carbine and LR, so it's not lacking in DPS; the weapon's 3x scope allows it to handle a wider range of situations without compromising its DPS in more up-close circumstances like the LR; it's got the second-best accuracy next to the scoped LR, and = accuracy to the scoped LR when allowing the bloom to reset; the current error accel status is clearly marked by the reticle, unlike the Carbine; and the ammo efficiency is still higher than the Carbine, BR, and un-scoped LR

Below that skill threshold, the Carbine's rate-of-fire, the BR's burst, and both weapons' higher error cones and 2x scopes make them easier to handle in more mid-range-ish situations. On small maps like Haven, where there's almost no need for the long-range superiority the DMR and LR offer, the Carbine & BR's primary disadvantage disappears, making them equal if not superior options. Between the two, the BR's got better and more consistent accuracy, while the Carbine has better handling via the rapid semi-auto fire; the Carbine's long-range potential is hampered by its max error cone, and the BR suffers from a slight upward kick at high rates-of-fire in combination with the burst-fire. Essentially, it means which one you want largely depends on your personal playstyle, although players who can compensate for the recoil & burst will likely find the BR eaiser to use on a not-quite-small map like Abandon.

So why use the Light Rifle? It is basically a more limited BR and a more limited DMR in the same gun, i.e. individual firemodes become more inflexible than their full-weapon counterparts in exchange for the overall flexibility of switching between the two. It's probably a better option for a player who needs the long-range potential of a DMR but can't quite get it to work during up-close situations as well as a BR, but above the aforementioned skill threshold A. in big maps the DMR's consistency overtakes it, and B. in small maps the Carbine/BR are just better options.

So as far as heashot primaries go, there's a slight bias against the LR, but otherwise it's a pretty even balance assuming you're on an equally balanced diet of gametypes and map sizes (don't be surprised at a DMRfest if all you're doing is big team slayer). The automatics don't fare as well, though:

AR is constantly and consistently more accurate than the SR; while it reaches its max error cone in 5 shots as opposed to SR's 7 shots, the error cone at each shot is drastically smaller than the equivalent of the SR. Theoretically, this should mean that the SR is a bit more capable at closer ranges than the AR (whose higher accurary should make it more unwieldy up-close), but the AR's autoaim is so high by design that it hardly even matters, meaning the only real advantage the SR has is its ability to extend its "magazine" to infinite through control of the heat meter -- it's inferior to the AR in every other way.

The Suppressor is about massive DPS at a high error cone. There's no practical situation where you'll be able to actually take advantage of min error cone, since the INCREDIBLY slow projectiles render it ineffectual at those kinds of distances. Unfortunately, this is a comparitively narrow effective range when you look at what the AR and headshots are capable of, making it impractial as a primary, and the Boltshot and Magnum are already supremely effective as close-range secondaries, leaving the Suppressor without much of a place.

The secondaries all do very different things and do them pretty well (fuck yeah boltshot), and heavy weapons don't conform to petty concepts like "balance," so that pretty much covers it.

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A few other notables

-The Beam Rifle's big advantage over the Sniper Rifle is that magnetism works for it all the time, while the Sniper's magnetism doesn't kick in unless you're scoped (i.e. easier to noscope with the Beam Rifle)

-Want to draw attention to the fact that the Plasma Pistol depletes shields in 4 shots. It takes a good bit longer to overcharge and fire

-The Needler's only significant change from Reach to H4 is that needles stick even when hitting shields; it's still 6 shots to deplete shields and you still can't supercombine on an unshielded target. Basically that just means it can be the H2/H3 nutso 7-shot-kill while sidestepping overshield-related complications, but it's a pretty elegant solution imo

-If you hop in the Gauss hog turret on Exile and start wrecking, it's not you -- it's the autoaim. That shit is gonzo

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And thus concludes the analysis, and several hours of precious valuable time I can no longer use to cure AIDS or something

hope you enjoyed it I guess

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ag_41uvwYj9ydGF2WndmYVdyVTV3bl9ULWV2NnFRZ Xc&output=html


from: http://halo.bungie.org/news.html?item=38074

that's just the shots/kill + magazine totals and melees-to-kill (not sure why that one's necessary), along with perks; that amateur doesn't include rates of fire or killtimes or h3/r comparisons or most especially all the rambling !!

good to have the bits on the shotugn and scattershot though, hard to figure those two out through my awful adhoc methods

would be nice to be able to dig out the error cones and precise accel/decel rates though, wish he'd included those

I know, I was just adding more references to discussion, and to let you know you're not the only one...aiming to figure the weapon stats out

Ok so what I get from this is that all the guns suck. The DMR just sucks a bit less than the rest, so you should use that one.

Holy hell its like Halo 3 again. Go figure.

suppressor is the best gun in the game.

it's op as shit.

Until you run into a guy with armor lock hardlight shield