GnaM's Weapon Balance Mod for Halo Xbox

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GnaM





Posts: 33
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 2:04 am

GnaM's Weapon Balance Mod for Halo Xbox

Post by GnaM »

Finally got this thing released. Download it here:

http://files.filefront.com/GnaMsMod_Hal ... einfo.html

So far Filefront is the only place I have it up, if you guys know of any other good hosts let me know.

A good description of the mod can be found on my blog here:

http://my.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8116 ... Id=5704110

But here's the full description:

The goal of this mod is to address weapon balance issues observed and discussed by myself and other players since Halo CE's release years ago. Halo 1 is much better balanced than Halo 2, but that's not saying much.

My primary criticism is that the majority of the weapons in the game have a massive deficiency in accuracy which makes them useless compared to the Pistol, Rocket Launcher, and Sniper Rifle. Sure, there are niche situations where the Assault Rifle, Plasma Rifle, Plasma Pistol, and Needler are somewhat useful, but they are far and few between. They are meant for close range encounters, but with spreads of 5-6 degrees a significant portion of their damage output doesn't make it to the target even at shorter distances, and weapons like the Pistol can easily outgun them even where they are supposed to excel.

Thus, the majority of the changes in this mod are geared towards reducing the spread values of weapon set as a whole, making the non-pistol and non-sniper rifle weapons more evenly effective at mid-range so that using these weapons effectively is more skilled than rock-scissors-paper spray-and-pray, and the game is more varied than the pistol-exclusive duals we're used to.

Another issue I've never cared much for is the "fire and forget" nature of Halo's explosives. Sure, we don't want the useless fire-crackers of Halo 2's grenades, but both Halos' rocket launchers are purely a function of rescource control with little skill involved, and little accuracy is needed to score a kill with Halo CE's grenades.

So, explosives in my mod have been toned down a bit. If you are standing in the center of a blast from a rocket or grenade, you will die just as swiftly as before. However, if you're in the outer periphery of an explosion, you will only take partial damage.

As a result, only a grenade toss or rocket shot of exceptional skill will grant the coveted 1-hit kill, and explosives will more often be used as part of a combination attack in conjunction with weapons fire or melee attacks to score a kill, rather than having stray grenade blasts instantly settling entire firefights prematurely.

Also, the individual damage properties of each grenade type come into play; a plasma grenade will take your shields down even if you are in outer radius of the blast, and if your shields are down a frag grenade will kill your if you are anywhere in the blast area. In regular Halo, a grenade always takes your shields down and usually kills you regardless of the grenade type or how close you are to the blast.

Here's some screens:

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Enjoy.
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