[GnaM]

Finally got this thing released. Download it here:

GnaM's Mod for Halo Xbox v0.9 - FileFront.com

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 block here:

Julian Gnam's 1UP Blog: Fixing Halo CE Multiplayer

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 a full list of stats:


Pistol

Rate of Fire: 3 shots per second, semi-automatic [3.5 shots per second, automatic]
Magazine Capacity: 12 rounds
Spread: 0.1 degrees [formerly 0.2 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 10 units per second
Shots to Kill: 3-6 rounds total (2 in the shields, 1 in the head or 3 in the body) [3-5 rounds total (2 in the shields 1 in the head, 2 in the body)]

The Pistol has received only a few subtle tweaks to maximize balance; the mod focuses on bringing the other weapons up to par. It fires slightly slower, and holding the trigger down will not repeat fire. The spread is less random and without landing headshots you will need 6 shots to kill instead of only 5.

Also, the bullets from all weapons except for the Sniper Rifle used to spontaneously disappear when traveling past 40 units of distance (ie from base to base on Blood Gulch). Now almost all projectiles will travel completely across any map.

Assault Rifle

Rate of Fire: 15 shots per second (900 rounds per minute)
Magazine Capacity: 60 rounds
Spread: 0.4 - 3.0 degrees [formerly 2.0 - 6.5 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 10.8 units per second
Shots to Kill: 15 - 20 rounds total (10 in the shields, 5 in the head or 10 in the body) [formerly 16 total; 8 in the shields and 8 in the body]

The biggest change to the AR is increased accuracy; even during sustained fire your shots will not spread outside the reticle. Shorter bursts will land in the middle of the reticle, and rapid single shots will have almost equal accuracy to a Pistol round. Aiming for the head also does slightly more damage.

Plasma Rifle

Rate of Fire: 10 shots per second [formerly 7-10 shots per second]
Heat Capacity: 22 rounds (at maximum fire rate)
Spread: 0.0 - 0.5 degrees [formerly 0.5 - 5.0 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 1.6 - 0.83 units per second
Shots to Kill: 9-15 total (3 in the shields, 6 in the head or 12 in the body) from any range [formerly damage varied depending on damage]
Stun: 0 seconds per hit [formerly 0.15 seconds per hit]

With damage consistent over all ranges and almost no spread, the PR can now kill over as far a distance as you can effectively predict and lead the target to hit with its slow plasma bolts. It also does not need to warm up to it's maximum rate of fire, so at close range you can kill in under 1 second if you aim for the head (yes the PR has always killed in 9-15 rounds depending on shot location)

Because it can now hit at such a high rate of fire so accurately, the freeze effect would be overpowered. Extra freeze has been added to the Plasma Pistol to compensate.

Plasma Pistol

Rate of Fire: infinite, semi-automatic
Heat Capacity: 15 rounds (at maximum fire rate)
Spread: 0 degrees
Projectile Speed: 0.83 - 0.5 units per second
Shots to Kill: 15 total (7-8 in the shields, 7-8 in the body)
Stun: 0.22 seconds per hit [formerly 0.15 per hit]

While developing the PR, it became obvious that the freeze would be overpowered on such an accurate rapid fire weapon. Simultaneously, the normal PP shots were a bit useless on there own. Since the old freexing PR could only hit accurately by firing in single shots anyway, making the PP into the new freezing weapon by stepping up the stun effect was the perfect fit.

Fragmentation Grenade

Arming Time: 1.5 seconds
Timer: 0.5 seconds
Blast Radius: 0.25 - 2.5 units [formerly 1.5 - 2.5 units]
Damage: 20 - 165 points [formerly 80 - 120 points]

As described earlier, standing in the outer blast area of a grenade does less damage, and more proximity is needed for an instant kill. Frag grenades do less damage to shields, but if the targets shield is down a kill is guaranteed if the victim is anywhere in the blast area.

Plasma Grenade

Arming Time: 0 seconds
Timer: 2 seconds
Blast Radius: 0.25 - 2.5 units [formerly 0.5 - 2.0 units]
Damage: 10 - 165 points (EMP effect) [formerly 80 - 120 points]

The EMP effect of the plasma grenade deactivates targets' shields completely if the victim is anywhere in the damage area, regardless of the value done. However, plasma 'nades do only half damage to unshielded targets in their outer blast area. The total damage area of plasma grenades is also slightly wider than in regular Halo, though you are unlikely to receive a lethal blow within the extended area.

Needler (no auto-aim)

Rate of Fire: 3-10 shots per second
Magazine Capacity: 20 rounds
Spread: 2 degrees, random [4 degrees, ring formation]
Projectile Speed: 0.26 - 0.42 units per second, no homing [0.13 units per second, homing]
Shots to Kill: 6 total (3 in the shields, 3 in the body) [15 total, 7-8 in the shields, 7-8 in the body]

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 some instances, if the angle is oblique enough.

Unfortunately, the spread of the needler in Halo 1 is hard-coded and can't be lowered beyond a certain point; normally I would not put any spread on a weapon with such low projectile speeds. However the damage is high enough that enough needles will hit to kill at a pretty far distance even if the rest of the magazine misses.

Needler (auto-aim)

Rate of Fire: 3-10 shots per second
Magazine Capacity: 20 rounds
Spread: 2 degrees, random [4 degrees, ring formation]
Projectile Speed: 0.13 - 0.26 units per second, homing [0.13 - 0.13 units per second]
Shots to Kill: 15 total, 7-8 in the shields, 7-8 in the body

Since the homing-less needler is an experiment (as is the lack of auto-aim) I have provided the homing-less needler only on the non-auto-aim maps, and on the auto-aim maps, you have a regular needler with slightly upgraded needle speed. Since the spread is reduced, you can still try to ricochet needles around corners, but it won't home in and it won't do much damage.

(Refer to Version.rtf to find out which maps use auto-aim and which don't)

Rocket Launcher

Rate of Fire: 1 shot per 2 seconds
Magazine Capacity: 4 rounds [formerly 2 rounds]
Spread: 0 degrees
Projectile Speed: 0.4 - 0.3 units per second
Blast Radius: 0.2 - 2.0 units [formerly 0.5 - 2.0 units]
Damage: 10 - 165 points [formerly 80 - 330 points]

The rocket launcher of original Halo was necessary to promote resource control as well as defeat vehicles in team games, but it's 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.

Shotgun

Rate of Fire: 1 shot per second (15 pellets per shot)
Magazine Capacity: 8 rounds [formerly 12 rounds]
Spread: 5 degrees [formerly 10 degrees]
Projectile Speed: 4.6 - 3.3 units per second
Pellets to Kill: approximately 15 total (8-9 in the shields, 4-5 in the body) from any range [damage was scaled down over distance]

There were few flaws in the original Halo CE shotgun (unlike that of Halo 2), however with every other weapon receiving a huge accuracy upgrade in my mod, the shotgun needs a bit of an upgrade as well just to keep up.

The magazine capacity was reduced to 8 rounds, because 12 was completely unnecessary for a 1-shot kill weapon. If the SG proves to be too powerful, I will reduce the capacity even further, to 6 rounds.

Sniper Rifle

Rate of Fire: 2 shots per second
Magazine Capacity: 4 rounds
Spread: 0 degrees un-scoped, 0 degrees scoped [formerly 0.5 degrees un-scoped]
Shots to Kill: 1-2 total (1 in the head, or 1 in the shields and 1 in the body)

The only change in the sniper rifle is that your shots used to splinter off course when the scope was not used. Now they fly perfectly on target in all situations.

Finally, here's some screens:

Enjoy.