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his is the early stage of an ongoing weapon balance mod for Halo Custom Edition. The basic goal of the mod is to improve upon the balance of Halo 1 while using a very different aproach than Halo 2. Rather than strengthen weapons by increasing volume of fire, weapons will be strengthened via accuracy. Thus, players are rewarded for aiming better and playing more skillfully, rather than just blindly spraying more bullets. Because this emphasis on skill and competition harkens back somewhat to Halo's forefathers in the sci-fi/fantasy competative multiplayer FPS genre, such as Doom, Quake, and Unreal, this mod has been titled "Halo Deathmatch" (or HDM for short) for lack of a better title.

This mod is about changing the weapon balance of the original levels, not creating new ones; therefore, all the maps in this mod are direct copies of the Halo originals, with some slight changes to item placement for gamplay reasons. In maps where none were available, plasma pistol or needler pickups were added. The flamethrower, IMO, did not really fit into Halo and seemed to be just carelessly tossed into the PC version by Gearbox for the sake of having a bonus feature. It has been omited from this mod, and item placement adjusted accordingly. Since the normal pistol pickups have been replaced by battle rifle pickups, new pistol pickups were added.

What's New from Beta 1:

- now supports Damnation, Sidewinder, Chillout, Battle Creek and Hang 'em High. Item placements have been tweaked slightly on each map to better support HDM gamplay. For example, on Battle Creek, the item layout follows Halo 2's Beaver Creek, in order to get the Battle Rifle in.
- pistol fix (it will now kill in 4 headshots and 8 bodyshots, as it was intended in beta 1)
- shotgun fix (it will now kill in 1 headshot and 2 bodyshots from a respectable distance at close range, like it was intended in beta 1)
- BR tweak (6 bodyshots to kill instead of only 5)
- new Warthog Gun (slower fire rate, first shot accuracy, BR-class damage)
- new Scorpion MG (slightly faster fire rate, first shot accuracy, AR-class damage)
- new item placements (pistol, PP, needler added in most maps where they weren't before, flamethrower removed)
- improved needler (less homing, more damage, splash damage for individual needles)
- weapon support for custom game types (when you do all shotgun games, on HDM maps, you will get HDM shotguns, not default Halo shotguns)
- new HUD ammo meters for almost all weapons
- new BR crosshair and scope magnification reading ("3x")

Here is a general list of features:

- The pistol is still the starting weapon, but it has been toned down. With 4-headshot kills, an 8 round magazine, decreased rapid fire accuracy, slower bullets, and bull's-eye staggered fire accuracy (aprox. 1 shot a second is optimal); the HDM pistol is much weaker than the original Halo 1 pistol or Halo 2 Battle rifle, and thus more apropriate for a starting weapon... However it is still moderately powerfull, and does not leave you completely defenseless beyond 10 meters, as the Halo 2 SMG and Magnum do.

- The Battle Rifle has been added (thanks to Wave of Lag, The Spartan, and Ace), but instead of firing 3 rounds at once, which are too easy to use and cannot be allowed to kill in less than 4 bursts for risk of being unbalanced...in HDM it fires single rounds, kills in 3 headshots, and carries 12 rounds per magazine, just like the original Halo 1 pistol. However, since it is not a starting weapon, it does not risk being over-powered.

- The Assault Rifle is more accurate when fired in bursts and single rounds, and can score headshots. With 12 headshots or 20 body shots required to kill, and a slightly decreased magazine (48 rounds) it bears some similarity to the Halo 2 Battle Rifle, but the bursts of the AR are only moderately accurate in comparison, and the new BR is single-shot, so the AR is far from redundant. The AR is geared towards close-mid range, while the BR is geared towards mid-long range.

- The Plasma Rifle has no spread and can score headshots (9 to kill). It no longer has an accelerating ROF, and fires at 600 rounds a minute right off the bat. Also, the number of rounds to fire without overheating has been adjusted to 27 instead of 22, to equal 3x the killing dose of plasma. Thus, the PR is now a force to be reckoned with in the right hands, and killing from a distance is about predicting, leading, and aiming, rather than just blindly rushing to point-blank range.

- The Plasma Pistol can also score headshots.

- The homing of the Needler has been reduced to almost nothing, but the damage has been increased, and the little explosions of the needles do some radius damage even if they don't peirce you. Now, it is something of an area-denial weapon. While the slow speed of the needles ultimately limits it's range, leading helps a lot, and it can excell at filling a hallway with incoming fire to surpress enemies.

- The Rocket Launcher carries 4 rounds per magazine, but the splash damage is only about half as strong. It only kills instantly with a very close hit, but since you have extra ammo, it is not really weaker, it just takes a different technique. Ultimately, as in Quake, Unreal Tournament, and Doom 3, the rocket launcher should be a power weapon promoting rescource control, but still take accuracy skill to use.

- The Fuel Rod Gun has a much slower rate of fire, but power is on par with the rocket launcher. It requires skill at arcing the projectile over distance, but travels faster and has a slightly wider blast radius.

- Grenade blast radius has been adjusted, so that only very close hits will cause enough damage for an instant kill (similar to the grenades in Halo 2 after the Auto-Update). Additionally, frag grenades deal more damage to health and less damage to shields, while plasma grenades deal more damage to shields and less to health.

- Concussion jumps (ie rocket jumping) can be performed with most of the explosives, with minimal self-damage, providing you time your jumps right. Just remember there's always a risk that you could either kill yourself or leave yourself exposed to the enemy with no shields/health if you screw up.

- The shotgun has tighter spread (all pelets land inside the reticle), but requires a headshot for an instant kill. Thus, it is still a close range weapon, but it takes a little more skill to use, and has a little more effectiveness at mid range, ultimately promoting good aim all around.

- Many of the weapons have new precision mini-reticles added in the middle of the big old ones. They aren't big enough to get in the way or be distracting, and they give you better accuracy at long range since you don't have to guess where the center of the reticle is while simultaneously trying to dodge incoming fire and aim at the moving target.

- The pistol has no zoom, the Assault Rifle and Plasma Rifle have 2x zoom, and the Battle Rifle has 3x zoom.

- The only weapons which have a cap on how far the projectiles travel is the needle (and the needles have extended range over default Halo). Generally, if you can see something and aim at it, it is possible to hit it. However, since you need to lead the target and compensate for bullet drop, this can be quite difficult at extreme ranges. Previously the AR, PR, and BR could not hit past 40 world units...now they can hit anywhere on the map!

- Spawn times for the Rocket Launcher and Fuel Rod Gun are down to 30 seconds instead of 60 seconds. This is to emphasize winning by being the best rocket user, rather than winning by being the only rocket user.


Known Bugs:

- Ammo meters do not always work 100% correctly. On some weapons, certain parts of the meter don't 'empty' till further down in the meter.

- Battle rifle pickups can sometimes be invisible to clients even though they are still visible to the server. You can still pick them up even when they're invisible though; providing someone hasn't allready taken them and they have yet to respawn.

- Plasma Bolts become invisible after about 150 yards or so, even though they can still cause damage. You can still see them coming from far away, but if you're not paying attention, it can look like you're suddenly getting blasted with plasma out of no where (they still make visible impacts on walls and players). Once I figure out how to make them visible for the entire time they're in the air, I will. Untill then, look out for incoming plasma in the distance.

- brass casings eject from the front of the BR, rather than from the side.

- the BR sits on it's bottom rather than on it's side.

Hopefully these will all be fixed for the full version.


Some thoughts on future possibilities:

- I would like to bring in a good Grenade Launcher to diversify the power projectile weaponry. I will probably end up using a Brute Shot model (when I find one), but it will act more like a traditional Quake grenade launcher, with a slower firing rate and more lethal projectiles. The grenades ould be similar in damage and blast radius to the current HDM hand grenades, but they would be launched instantaneously, travel faster, bounce more, and explode instantly on contact with an enemy.

- In the future, I may speed up movement slightly to emphasize dodging and skillfull manuevering. However, if I do that, I will try to retain a sort of "slow, tactical" element, and not make it become quite as turbo-fast as other games.

- the SMG could be brought in as a weak full auto spawn weapon. It would have much lower recoil and tighter sustained bursts than the AR, and higher ammo capacity, but with only half the shield damage, and pistol/shotgun-speed bullets; causing heavy drop and limited long range accuracy.