Get Better Fast: MLG Battle Rifle Project

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Get Better Fast: MLG Battle Rifle Project

By Brick | Published: March 5, 2008 9:53pm EST

Get Better Fast » Halo 3 Lesson Finder » Weapons & Items » Battle Rifle

Bungie recently linked to a video that a few MLG staffers put together demonstrating where to aim the Battle Rifle for maximum efficacy. That video was our first step in an ongoing effort to understand the primary weapon in MLG play. Because of the BR’s importance in competitive play we want to know every little thing about it. And we want your help.

The following screenshots should help put our community members on the path towards ultimate Battle Rifle Knowledge. The rest is up to you! Check it...

This picture has three parts: First, the Sniper is fired, by the next frame it travels over halfway across Sandtrap (Halo 3's largest map), and in the third it is well past the other end of the map. This shows that the sniper’s travel speed is so fast that leading is unnecessary.

This screenshot shows the Sniper Rifle is essentially a “hitscan” weapon. What does that mean? Hitscan weapons hit instantly so there’s no need to lead the target (go read more about it in a Wikipedia article). While the sniper actually has a travel speed that is below an instantaneous hit, these screenshots show that it’s so fast that there will never be an instance on any MLG map where you would need to lead the shot (so it's not hitscan technically, but for MLG purposes we can look at it that way). It gets there fast enough. What we wanted to find out is if the Battle Rifle behaves similarly.

As you can see, the BR travels much slower than the sniper. Here it has yet to reach its target after a frame or two of travel on a smaller map (Foundry). Each bullet travels one after the other and takes the same amount of time to reach the target.

Result: The battle rifle travels well below the fastest possible speed. As a result, techniques for firing it may have to be adjusted. Questions that come up: does a strafe cause these bullets to miss or are they fast enough that all three bullets hit before a strafe can dodge out of the way? How does distance impact the way a BR hits? At what distance does leading the shot become advantageous? When the BR aiming reticle is red does auto-aim and magnetism override the slower speeds causing it to hit regardless of movement?

In this shot you can see that the first bullet has hit and the second bullet is still on its way. Does a strafe cause the second bullet to miss because of its slower travel speed? Notice how there seems to be a damage box outside of the body, what impact does this have? We want you to help us find the answers!

That’s what we have so far. What we want is your help in finding some definitive answers. When should one lead their shots with a BR? By how much? What’s the best possible way to shoot this weapon under all scenarios? We’re starting a forum thread and we’d love your comments and more importantly video/text/screenshot evidence. Once more conclusive information comes in we’re going to compile a BR compendium.

One last thing, we recommend that you do as many tests as you can on an empty Foundry as it provides lines on the floor for standardizing distance and a completely flat surface. You can go download Empty Foundry here.

So that’s it, get to testing! Hit the forum link below to post your thoughts.

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