373 Plasma Pistol kills and counting
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Despite all Bungie's efforts to promote teamwork, the weapons strongly discourage it.
Another problem with shallow clips in Halo Reach is that they discourage teamwork. Everything in this game is designed with teamwork in mind, from the loadouts, the callouts, the new and improved Assist formula, everything except the weapons. It is far too big of a risk to assist your teammates when being a lone wolf nets your team more kills as well as padding your K/D ratio.
For example, the other day I was playing on Sword Base. I had Sprint and my teammate on the ground, with Jetpack, asked me if the Shotgun was still there. I ran over, checked for him, and confirmed. "Cover me, I'm coming up." he says. So I run over to the edge, magnum in hand and get ready to protect him as he makes his ascent.
Sure enough, when he takes off, an enemy spots him and starts shooting him. I put four shots into him, my buddy with the jetpack turns around and finishes him off. Before I can even reload, he gets headshot by a guy with the DMR a couple of times and drops. I shot the DMR wielder on the bridge four times, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to kill him. I tried to switch to my secondary weapon, the Assault Rifle, but it was too late. End result, away team got 2 kills, 1 death. My team got 1 kill, 1 assist, 2 deaths.
Another match on Powerhouse, my team spawns at the top of the hill. I rush for the DMR, one of our guys heads for the rockets and my other two teammates book it towards the hammer. I scope in to provide some covering fire, and sure enough, two enemies are coming up the ramp towards the hammer as well. I shot eight times and wounded them, but the guys grenade spammed and both my teammates and the enemies end up dying. Then as I reload, an enemy with a Jetpack and a Needle Rifle start blasting me. I'm two shots behind him and he takes me down. End result, the away team gets 3 kills, 2 deaths. My team got 2 kills, and I got 2 assists, but we suffered 3 deaths.
In both situations I did the "team player" thing and tried to save my allies from getting killed. Had I fended for myself, I could have killed both opponents on Sword Base and walked out alive. On Powerhouse, if I just let my teammates die and threw a grenade at the weakened opponents I could have gotten a double kill and been able to engage the Needle Rifle dude without having to reload first.
With only one kill per magazine, helping out a teammate in need is almost suicide because not only is your attention focused somewhere besides your own surroundings but if someone gets the jump on you, you have no chance at defending yourself whatsoever. How is that fair? With a possible two kills in a magazine, you could shoot a few rounds at a teammate and if someone turns the corner and finds you, you aren't a sitting duck. If the enemy gets the jump on me and beats me, that is fine. He played smart and attacked me while I wasn't paying attention. However, I should at least have a fighting chance against him. If my skill is sufficient to do win such a situation, why should I not be allowed to?
Being a lone wolf is much safer. Traveling in a group is dangerous because one or two guys can just chuck grenades and wreck you. Splitting up and helping eachother out is too risky as well because as soon as you start shooting at someone near your teammate, you leave yourself completely defenseless. Larger clips would allow you to take potshots to assist teammates and defend yourself simultaneously, enhancing the teamwork aspect of the game.
The spawn weapons need to be capable in this game so that you can be a threat and a team player right off the spawn. Every second you hunt for weapons is a second you're not killing, flanking the enemy position or covering your teammates. If you want a power weapon, you can go get it if you like, but it shouldn't be a requirement. Again, risk / reward.
The reason the BR was so popular in Halo 3 was not because it was overpowered, but because the other weapons were underpowered. The BR was the only weapon in the game that you could effectively support your teammates and protect yourself simultaneously, which led to it's overuse.
Another problem with one kill per clip weapons is that the individual player isn't a threat. The power of the individual is what should be motivating teamwork, not because you are simply too weak to be out on your own. When a single Spartan can threaten an entire disorganized team, your team has to get it together or you'll get picked off one by one. If you have good teamwork, a single opponent won't be a problem.
In Reach a sloppy team of terrible players doesn't have to play well because an individual just isn't threatening. So that jetpack guy flanked you and killed one of your team members. You can run over with no risk whatsoever and kill him. No net loss in points. The only thing a team has to worry about is grenade spam because guns simply aren't threatening in this game.
Individual skill doesn't get you anywhere and team skill isn't rewarded because the only thing you need to worry about is grenades.
One kill per clip takes the strategy out of reloading.
My final complaint about the shallow clips is that it turns reloading into a chore, a forced response after every kill instead of a disadvantage to be worked around. The way it is now, with most weapons being one kill per clip, you might as well just prevent the player from shooting for a couple seconds after they kill someone. There is no strategy to timing reloads anymore unlike previous Halo games.
As I said in the OP, a larger clip would allow some flexibility with your reload. A player with good accuracy could have enough ammo left after a kill to engage a second opponent, or assist a teammate before he has to reload. Either of these is advantageous and rewards a skilled player for pacing his shots and aiming well. With the one kill per clip system, it doesn't matter if he spams bullets quickly but inaccurately, or takes steady shots. Either method kills in a similar amount of time, and both end the same way. You get your kill, you reload afterwards. The reticule bloom system is supposed to discourage spamming and promote steady, accurate shots, but it doesn't do anything to reward the steady shots. The only caveat to spam is that you use up a few more bullets, which is usually negligible. There is no upside to steady shots right now. It's harder to do and kills the same speed, if not slower, than a spammer. This does not promote skillful shooting at all. There needs to be some sort of payoff for skill and larger clips would provide just that.
Of course, I am not asking for no reloads, or massive magazines either. If the clip is too large, then accurate shooting wouldn't be rewarded, and bad shooting wouldn't be penalized. It has to be large enough that good accuracy allows multiple kills per magazine, while bad shooting limits you to one, just like we are accustomed to now.
[Edited on 05.18.2010 8:37 PM PDT]