What are your thoughts on semi-power weapons like the Brute Shot physics effects on vehicles?
So...I don't have much fondness for the Halo 3 Brute Shot, or its reskin the Concussion Rifle. A part of that is the huge physics impulse and its effect on vehicles (and players), but I think that's probably only half of the story. It's just really easy to use with extreme effectiveness - there's not much to it other than "aim at thing, mash trigger" because those physics impulses are additive and can have huge effect without a whole lot of effort. Now, you take the Halo 2 Brute Shot where it has to bounce before it detonates, and I think the story changes quite a bit. You add that little requirement that forces people to maybe have to position themselves better to get good use out of it since they need to get bounces, and it becomes a lot more interesting. It's not really that I think the H3 Brute Shot doesn't have merit or that it shouldn't have those physics effects, it's that it's so easy to use that it becomes a very one-note, spammy weapon. It's sort of mitigated by its magazine size, but at the point where you've hit three or four of the six rounds, you've probably already served your purpose and that Hog is likely off the cliff without any way to recover.
Having said that, it has more balancing factors than the Chopper guns did, namely the projectile travel time, so there's that. So I guess my thoughts are that it's okay as long as there's a good, strong ability curve to it along with it being more situational than all-purpose so people are more hesitant to spam. I do think you need to be really careful with that kind of thing, though. Bouncing a Warthog around is funny for the person in control, but it can be really frustrating for the people acting as the pinball, so it takes a good sense of moderation (probably in terms of spawn times and ammo count) that we don't see much in Halo these days.
