343 Industries has posted a rather lengthy update on its official site where it talks about some of the things set to come and change in 2015’s Halo 5. One big change set to come is the Halo 5 Warzone mode.

Here’s what 343 Lead Multiplayer Designer Lawrence Metten had to say about the big Halo 5 Warzone update.

Over time, the Warzone battlefield has changed as players have become more and more skilled at the game mode. However, not all of these changes have benefited all parties – since launch, we’ve slowly seen the Warzone “blowout rate” (how often matches end in lopsided or blowout scores) continue to rise. The Warzone team is experimenting with some significant changes to the way REQ Leveling works to facilitate more balanced Warzone matches.

“These changes adjust the REQ Level awarded for match actions and add a REQ Level “drip” that slowly increases everyone’s REQ Level over the course of each match. In our internal playtesting, these changes have resulted in more back-and-forth Warzone matches with considerably fewer players stuck at low REQ Levels over the course of each game.

“These experimental REQ Level changes do not impact Warzone Firefight or Warzone Assault. We’ll be monitoring game data closely and welcome players to share feedback regarding these changes over in the Waypoint forums.

Expect these changes to take effect sometime next week. 

As for weapon tuning updates and all that, 343 Industries has posted a refresher to the changes planned.

• Halo 5 will receive a Weapon Tuning Update later this Fall that includes adjustments to fourteen weapons and one power-up.
• The 343 Sandbox Team has two primary goals behind this tuning update:
  • Revitalize and re-balance the Halo 5 sandbox to a more desirable state
  • Establish/strengthen unique roles for each weapon and remove role redundancy
• As part of this process, players will get a chance to help play and test these changes in the wild to provide data and feedback to the 343 Sandbox Team. Timing and logistic details are still being finalized – stay tuned for more. 
• We will be sharing high level context around the weapons included in the Tuning Update in the weeks leading up to the public test. Note that we will not be sharing the exact specific details for what is being adjusted on each weapon – this is intentional to protect the integrity of the test data (and some of those finer details may change as work continues).
• When the test has concluded, the final re-tuned weapons will be rolled out across the entire game (Campaign, WZ, and MP).

For this update, 343 will take about tuning adjustments for the Fuel Rod Cannon, Grenade Launcher and Rail Gun.

FUEL ROD CANNON

The Fuel Rod Cannon fills the role of an explosive projectile power weapon with a high rate of fire. The projectiles’ blast radius, coupled with the high rate of fire, has yielded some problematic results in the heat of battle, so the tuning update aims to address that.   

GRENADE LAUNCHER

The Grenade Launcher was an awesome addition to the Halo 5 sandbox when it debuted with the Monitor’s Bounty update in December. This weapon fills a unique role – it fires ballistic grenades which detonate with explosive damage after one bounce. As a bonus, the trigger can be held and then released manually to detonate the grenade and add an EMP blast which can stun vehicles for a short time. The tuning update to the Grenade Launcher is aimed at further establishing its role as a mid-tier weapon that’s versatile at applying indirect damage through creative use. This includes how fast the grenade travels, how it bounces, etc…  

RAIL GUN

The intended role of the Rail Gun is a “sniper” style of weapon that can be charged up to kill an opponent from mid to long range in a single shot. Currently in Halo 5, the Rail Gun has excelled outside its intended role by being overly effective at close range, and as a snapshot weapon – instead of being a carefully planned, charging Sniper weapon. The tuning adjustments to the Rail Gun are designed to make the weapon require a bit more deliberate, planned usage in battle. 

Go check out the update to read up on more Halo 5 and Halo Wars 2 news.

Once the Halo 5 Warzone changes are out, we’ll be sure to let everyone know.

Source: Halo Waypoint via GameSpot