GnaM's Weapon Balance Mod for Halo 2

[GnaM]

Download here:

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

Here's a description:

Almost everyone has their complaints of Halo 2's multiplayer balance. While there is already the Halo 2: Combat Evolved mod, GnaM's mod adresses things differently.

Unlike H2CE, dual-wielding and most other features unique to Halo 2 are not removed, they are fixed.

Almost all weapons are made to be much more accurate, they aren't the point-blank pea-shooters common to the series. When firing 2 weapons at once, you lose that accuracy, so dual-wielding is only an advantage at very close range, and single-wielding, even with the one-handed weapons, is more effective (particularly at mid-range). Additionally, grenades take longer to explode and have a much wider blast radius, and like the version 1.1 Auto-update, melee attacks are no longer the 6-hit kill jokes they were out of the box.

There are also other tweaks to the weapons to make them more skilful, such as:

- The battle rifle is single-shot with a 12 round magazine, so there's no more spray-and-pray headshots.
- The Plasma Pistol, Rocket Launcher, and Needler have no homing (the Needler is more powerful and is almost a completely new weapon).
- The SMG no longer fires in a ring-shaped spread, and the spread of the Shotgun has been tightened, making them effective beyond 3 feet.
- The magnum has a slower fire rate, but can kill in 6 headshots so you don't end up firing an entire mag into the enemy's head without killing him.
- Explosives now require much more accuracy to use, though all can still kill in one hit.
- The Carbine now has a much faster fire rate, with a 9 shot kill and weak body shot damage, making it a more unique and varied from the BR.

For those that got sick of Halo 2's n00bish mess of multiplayer weapon balance and stopped playing ages ago, this mod gives you a reason to play again.


Here's a complete list of changes:

AA

AA (for some reason when I type the actual word it gets replaced with "please ban me") has been removed in this mod, except on Vehicles and Gun Turrets (which would work incorrectly without it). Instead there is now only reticle magnetism (not bullet magnetism) to help with the imprecision of console controls compared to mouse and keyboard. Magnetism has been reduced over regular Halo 2, which should prevent tactics like "sweep-sniping".

Damage Scale

Originally, damage in this mod was meant to be much higher by default, since many weapons in the Halo 2 were nowhere near as damaging as their Halo 1 counterparts. However, when it became clear that Dual-wielding could not be 100% balanced with such heavy damage even with the adjustments I made, I decided to give players 2 choices...

Using the "Extra Damage" option in the gametype edit gives you damage as it was truly intended for the mod. For most weapons it is similar to damage in Halo 1, except only slightly lower in some cases to compensate for dual-wielding. The actual default damage (leaving the ED option off) is considered the secondary way to play the mod, with damage significantly reduced (particularly for the single-handed weapons) and closer to regular Halo 2, albeit with greatly increased accuracy and other adjustments to the weapons.

In addition to protecting against cheap Dual-wield kills, the default "nerfed" damage also tones down some of the two-handed weapons that might otherwise seem overpowered...for example the BR is a 4 shot kill (for those who hated the pistol in Halo 1) and the Rocket Launcher, with it's 4 round magazine, will only kill if the rocket directly hits the opponent in the body (using splash damage you will need at least 2 hits).

For some the default damage will feel suffocatingly conservative, while for some the weapons will feel overpowered in using "Extra Damage". The decision is up to your preferences. I did my best to make sure balance was maintained maintained as much as possible in both versions.

Melee and Grenades

As in the Bungie 1.1 Auto-update, the mod strengthens melee attacks far beyond the weak 6-hit kills from the out-of-the-box game. Grenades have an even longer fuse time than the 1.1 grenades, with an even wider blast radius, although they will only kill in 1 hit if the victim is standing in the middle of the blast.

The damage difference between grenades is also much more pronounced. Now, Fragmentation Grenades deal much more damage to health, while Plasma Grenades deal much more damage to shields.

A plasma grenade will remove shields or leave them with extremely low energy even if a victim is only in the very edge of a plasma grenade's blast. A frag grenade is guaranteed to kill an unshielded opponent if they are anywhere near the explosion. On the other hand, frag grenades may only deplete a victim's shields 1/4 or 1/2 of the way if they aren't very close to the blast, and it may take 2 or even 3 stray plasma grenade blasts to kill an unshielded opponent, unless it is stuck to them.

Dual Wielding

Dual-wielding has been balanced by more pronounced accuracy loss when firing two weapons at once. There was some accuracy loss during dual-fire in normal Halo 2, but the weapons were already so innacurate to begin with that it didn't really make much difference.

In the mod, all single-handed weapons have very little or next to no spread at all when fired on their own. However, when firing simultaneously with another weapon, spread quickly becomes just as wide as it was when dual-firing in normal Halo 2. Beyond a few yard's range, dual-fire does equal or less damage to firing a single weapon because only a fraction of your shots will hit the target.

Thus, simultaneously holding both triggers down till both weapons are empty is only usefull within point-blank range. By firing in alternating bursts from both weapons (fire left weapon, fire right weapon, fire left weapon, fire right weapon, repeat) your accuracy will degrade only about half-way, and you can do equal or slightly better damage to a single weapon over several yards.

You can still fire completely accurately during dual-wielding by firing exclusively one weapon at a time, but then the only advantage over single-wielding is that you can continue firing with your second weapon when the first weapon needs to be reloaded or overheats.

As a result, dual-wielding the one-handed weapons is not mandatory, and single-wielding the one-handed weapons can be just as effective as single-wielding the two-handed weapons; they aren't just half-guns. Most of the time, people blindly running around dual-firing spray and pray will get mowed down by a single-wield SMG or PR at mid-range before they ever get close enough to score a cheap kill.

There are two exceptions to the accuracy loss rule; the Plasma Pistol and the Magnum. Their accuracy stays the same whether they are fired simultaneously or not. However, the Plasma Pistol overheats twice as fast as other plasma weapons, and the Magnum only has half the magazine capacity (compared to how many shots it takes to kill) of other firearm weapons. The magnum is also the least accurate of the firearm weapons.

In the stats listed below, values changed in the mod are bolded, while the regular Halo 2 values are italicized and bracketed. Damage stats are listed in the format of "Extra Damage / Default Damage". Since it would take too long to determine all the damage values for regular Halo 2, and since they are changed by the Auto-update they wouldn't necessarily be accurate, the old regular Halo 2 values for damage are not listed.


Sub-Machine Gun

Rate of Fire: 15 shots per second (900 rounds per minute)
Magazine Capacity: 60 rounds
Spread: 1 degree, even spread [formerly 1 - 2.75 degrees, ring formation]
Projectile Speed: 240 units per second [400 units per second]
Shots to Kill: 18 / 25

In vanilla Halo 2, the SMG fired to a ring-shaped spread formation that made it imposible to hit targets in the center of your reticle beyond a certain distance. To make matters worse, the ring expanded during sustained fire.

Now, the SMG shoots to a normal-shaped 1 degree spread at all times. The only time it expands is when firing 2 weapons simultaneously. By single-wielding and controlling muzzle climb (pulse the trigger as fast as possible to eliminate it) you can kill targets much faster over a much further distance now; the SMG is no longer a point-blank pea-shooter.

Plasma Rifle

Rate of Fire: 9 shots per second [formerly 6-9 shots per second]
Heat Capacity: 22 rounds (at maximum fire rate)
Spread: 0.0 - 0.25 degrees [formerly 0.5 - 1.5 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 16 units per second [14 units per second]
Shots to Kill: 12 / 16

With a faster rate of fire, almost no spread, and no damage reduction over distance, the Plasma Rifle performs much better over mid-distance. Its damage using the "extra damage" option is also extremely close to it's Halo 1 iteration, though it is less by default to compensate for powerfull Dual-wield combos like SMG/PR.

Plasma Pistol

Rate of Fire: 20 rounds per second, semi-automatic
Heat Capacity: 15 rounds (at maximum fire rate)
Spread: 0 degrees
Projectile Speed: 12 units per second [11 units per second ]
Shots to Kill: 9 - 32 / 13 - 47

The primary change to the PP is removal of homing on the overcharge bolt. Instead, the bolt accelerates to double speed to help you nail your targets over distance. Additionally the normal shots can kill in 9 hits with headshots, giving you a incentive to actually continue using the PP after firing an overcharge shot.

Magnum

Rate of Fire: 6 shots per second, semi-automatic [10 shots per second, semi-automatic]
Magazine Capacity: 12 rounds
Spread: 1.25 degrees [formerly 1.5 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 120 units per second [400 units per second]
Shots to Kill: 6-9 / 9-12

The original H2 magnum was a mess; in version 1.0 it was able to kill in 9 rounds, which is at least less than an entire magazine, but in the 1.1 update damage was lowered so it required 13 rounds to kill, meaning you could fire your entire magazine into the target's head and not kill them.

In the mod, the Magnum's rate of fire has been slowed in exchange for more damage. It still fires almost twice as fast as the old Pistol, but it's possible to kill with only half of a magazine. It's also slightly more accurate, so scoring head shots feels less luck-based.

Needler

Rate of Fire: 3-10 shots per second [8 shots per second]
Magazine Capacity: 30 rounds
Spread: 0.5 degrees, random [0.5 -1.5 degrees, ring formation]
Projectile Speed: 8 units per second, no homing [6 units per second, homing]
Shots to Kill: 8 / 11

The needler poses a conundrum in that its concept is flawed to begin with. In a competitive multiplayer shooter, the power of a weapon must be proportional to the amount of skill required to use it. So, a weapon that homes in on opponents and removes the need to aim logically cannot be very effective, or it will feel overpowered.

My approach has been to avoid this by removing the homing. Of course, then the challenge is making the needler function differently from the plasma pistol and plasma rifle.

The Needler's projectiles travel slower than the plasma weapons, requiring a lot of leading on the target at distance, but their high damage grants a quick kill upon successfully hits. The needler should prove most effective at area denial and suppression at mid-range coupled with high power at close range. The ricochet of the needles also allows you to fire around corners and over ramps and obstructions in many instances.

Battle Rifle

Rate of Fire: 3.4 shots per second, semi-automatic [3.8 bursts per second, 3 rounds per burst]
Magazine Capacity: 12 rounds [36 rounds]
Spread: 0.15 degrees [formerly 0.3 - 0.6 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 240 units per second [400 units per second]
Shots to Kill: 3-5 / 4-7
Scope: 3x [formerly 1.8x]

Besides having inadequate accuracy and damage, the burst fire mode and high refire rate of the old Battle Rifle took much less skill to use than the Halo 1 pistol, because you could just spray in the general direction of the target's head and score a lucky headshot.

The BR has now been reconfigured as a single shot weapon with almost identical function to the H1 pistol, except without the sillyness of killing people with a dinky handgun from hundres of meters away. Using the Extra Damage gametype option, you can kill in 3 shots, but to accomodate those who felt the Halo 1 Pistol was overpowered, it is a 4 shot kill by default.

Covenant Carbine

Rate of Fire: 10 rounds per second, semi-automatic [7 rounds per second]
Magazine Capacity: 18 rounds
Spread: 0.075 degrees [0.6 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 600 units per second [400 units per second]
Shots to Kill: 9 - 32 / 13 - 47
Scope: 3x [formerly 1.8x]

Rather than just giving you a re-skin of the Battle Rifle with no functional differences, the Carbine provides a more balanced version of "headshot spam" aproach of the original H2 Battle Rifle and H2 Carbine. The fire rate is much faster than the original Carbine, but because its semi-automatic, it's harder to score headshots by just sweeping your crosshair to the left or right spraying bullets.

However, it is still a much spammier and less skilled headshot weapon than the single-shot BR, so to balance that, its magazine capacity is very low for the amount of shots required to kill, and body shot damage is extremely weak, so you NEED to score headshots to kill in a reasonable amount of time.

Shotgun

Rate of Fire: 1 shot per second (15 pellets per shot) [formerly 10 pellets per shot]
Magazine Capacity: 8 rounds [formerly 12 rounds]
Spread: 5 degrees [formerly 10 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 120 units per second

Like the SMG, the Shotgun originally fired in a donut-shaped spread pattern that caused your pellets to hit everything but your enemy past a few feet. This cannot be completely removed, but to compensate the spread has been tightened around the donut's "hole" and it fires more pellets per shot. Unlike before, where the Shotgun had equal or less range to the Energy Sword, sword wielders attempting to to rush down a shotgun user are likely to be gunned down before they ever get close enough to lunge.

Rocket Launcher

Rate of Fire: 1 shot per 2 seconds [1.2 shots per second]
Magazine Capacity: 4 rounds [formerly 2 rounds]
Spread: 0 degrees
Projectile Speed: 8 - 20 units per second
Scope: 2x [1.8x]

The rocket launcher of original Halo and Halo 2 were necessary to promote resource control as well as defeat vehicles in team games, but their huge blast damage required very little accuracy when shooting at players on foot. The only challenge to using the RL in smaller games was avoiding suicide.

In the mod, the blast damage has been reduced so stray hits will not kill in 1 hit. You must have exceptional accuracy to kill in 1 hit, or else hit repeatedly. To compensate, you are given 4 rockets per magazine in case vehicle-borne players survive the first shot.

Furthermore, the homing on vehicles has been removed. To hit vehicles, you have to aim and lead manually.

Brute Shot

Rate of Fire: 1 shot per 1.5 seconds [formerly 3.3 shots per second]
Magazine Capacity: 4 rounds
Spread: 0 degrees [formerly 0.5 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 20 - 10 units per second
Blast Radius: 0.1 - 2.0 units [formerly 0.5 - 1.5 units]
Damage: 1 direct hit kills [formerly 2 direct hits]

The old brute shot was very spammy and not very powerful. Now, it's rate of fire is much slower, but an accurate shot can kill in 1 hit. If necessary, I may slow the grenade down a bit and increase the fire rate to 1/1 second in future versions.

Sniper Rifle

Rate of Fire: 2 shots per second
Magazine Capacity: 4 rounds
Spread: 0 degrees unscoped, 0 degrees scoped [formerly 0.5 degrees unscoped]
Shots to Kill: 1-2 / 1-3
Scope: 2x - 10x [3.5x - 9.5x]

The Sniper Rifle now has the same scope configuration as in Halo 1, with a 2x scope to begin with, giving you increased peripheral vision and faster target aquisition against mid-range opponents. The only other change is that your shots used to splinter off course when the scope was not used. Now they fly perfectly on target in all situations.

In order to keep damage reasonably low in "Extra Damage" mode, the Sniper Rifle had to be made a 3 chest-shot kill in default mode, however this just means SR kills will take more skill to pull off...or you will have to rely more on your backup weapons to finish the job if you mess up your head shots.

Beam Rifle

Rate of Fire: 4 shots per second
Heat Capacity: 2 consecutive rounds
Spread: 0 degrees unscoped, 0 degrees scoped [formerly 0.5 degrees unscoped]
Shots to Kill: 1-3 / 1-4
Scope: 4x - 10x [3.5x - 9.5x]

The primary difference in the Beam Rifle is that it now takes at least 3 shots to the chest to kill, so players disregarding head shots and attempting to get a cheap kill with a quick double-shot to the body will just end up with an over-heated rifle and a pissed-off opponent. It also has a 4x starting scope to differentiate it further from the Sniper Rifle.

Brute Plasma Rifle

Rate of Fire: 7 - 10 shots per second [formerly 8-11 shots per second]
Heat Capacity: 15 rounds (at maximum fire rate)
Spread: 0.0 - 0.5 degrees [formerly 0.5 - degrees]
Projectile Speed: 12 units per second [14 units per second]
Shots to Kill: 9 - 32 / 13 - 47

Originally, I was just going to leave the Brute PR alone since it's not even featured on most maps, but after a while I decided to do something different with it as give it. It now accelerates to it's full rate of fire, and scores headshots like the Plasma Pistol.

Sentinel Beam

The only thing changed to the Sentinel Beam is it has more pushing force when it hits you; you can use it to hold people back or push them into a wall of off a ledge if they're close to it. You can also blow objects around...it's kind of like a plasma fire hose.

[Dragonfire]

Wow! You took a lot of time doing this and especially making the big post, hopefully this will make the game a little more interesting to play now.

Thanx

[x1OwNAnGe1x]

W0w just wow.

[xzodia]

i would like to know how you did the default/extra damage thing

[little_shadow]

Sweet so will it take more skill now to play rather than just using the right weapons?

[CRAZYKALEB]

Meh, I ain't going to download this. I don't really care about balance or whatever, but I got Halo2:CE, and that's all I need. Sorry, but good job on this tho, you took your time, and I hope you do good later on you other mod's.

[Kochon le best]

really nice!

[Jam_Cliche]

Trying changing that AA to Aim Assist, since that's the term Bungie decides to use. Downloading now!

[ExileDestruction]

Wow, it even has the new maps (Tombstone and Desolation!). Thanks, I'm definitely trying this out later. Wait, no ... I'm definitely burning this to a disc later!

[JacksonCougAr]

I can change my signature ^^
And now so can everyone else... VV

[Dootuz]

Finaly halo 2 might accalty be good!

[GnaM]

Wow, it's nice to see so much positive response, glad you guys like it.

xsodia - the extra damage is already an option in the gametype edit of regular Halo 2. All I did was make sure it was balanced whether you played with the option or not.

Were it not for the fact that the "damage reduction" option reduces damage way too much, I would have just made the current "extra damage" values the default, and relied on players to use the "damage reduction" option for slightly more nerfed weapons.

[xzodia]

^^is it only for juggernaught then?

[GnaM]

No, you just go to "Game Variants" in the settings menu, select "create new" then pick any gametype you want. Type in a name for the custom gametype, then under "player options" set "extra damage" to 'on'.

[GametagAeonFlux]

Sweet mod, I can tell you put a lot of time into this...it works wonders for LAN games.

[Shadow LAG]

Can I use this mod in my future Halo 3 mods? I will give credit.

[miroku1337]

this give modders the upperhand.

now modders can get better faster.

you should make this into a map pack if it isnt already.

if you know how you should make some h2 pro discs and sell them.

i dont know about the other modders out there but i would buy it

[G.I.R.]

if you know how you should make some h2 pro discs and sell them.

i dont know about the other modders out there but i would buy it

That would be pointless, and illegal.

[Agent ME]

if you know how you should make some h2 pro discs and sell them.

i dont know about the other modders out there but i would buy it

That would be pointless, and illegal.

It'd be legal if it was sold bundled with a retail Halo2 disk afaik - but it'd be useless unless you sold it to someone else that had a modded xbox.