Halo 4 developer charts weapon tuning progress, invites player feedback

In this week's Halo Bulletin, 343 Industries' community Jessica "BS Angel" Shea discussed the developer's progress during the early stages of rebalancing Halo 4's weapons.

Shea explained that 343 wants to share its "basic goals" with the community throughout the process before deploying the changes.

"TL;DR: The below tweaks are nowhere near final. In fact, they are as far from final as they can be without being not final," she wrote. "Please recognize this is a work-in-progress, we will clearly communicate our final plan once we know it, and until then, we'll provide weekly updates about its current status."

In the Bulletin, producer Andy "Bravo" Dudynsky characterized the "two schools of thought" about weapon tuning. One suggests reducing the power of primary weapons like the DMR, while another prefers increasing the power of the secondary weapons. 343 is currently exploring a middle ground based around leaving the DMR alone.

As it stands, the developer is experimenting with "decreasing the kill time" for the Battle Rifle, adjusting the Light Rifle's reticle so that it turns red at the same range as the DMR and tuning the Carbine to kill with seven shots, one less than its current tuning.

343 continues to refine all of Halo 4's weapons, including the Assault Rifle, Suppressor and Storm Rifle, which have each received "a slight damage buff along with an auto-aim decrease" to compensate for the adjustments of other weapons.

Those with questions or suggestions can visit the Weapons Feedback thread in the Halo 4 forums, where the developers will be tuning in.