Halo Infinite radar tweaked to feel more like the motion tracker of old
Run for your life.
Halo Infinite developer 343 has tweaked the game's radar so it feels more like the motion tracker seen in previous Halo titles.
Infinite's combat sensor sparked a debate within the Halo community after it made its debut during the recent technical preview.
The combat sensor is the radar that sits in the bottom-left of your HUD. In the classic Halo games, the radar shows all movement except crouch-walking. But Halo Infinite's radar worked differently - it only displayed enemies when they were sprinting or shooting - a change that made it similar to Halo 5's Threat Tracker.
In a post discussing changes made based on feedback to the technical preview, 343 said it had noticed most players found Infinite's radar confusing.
"We knew that this implementation was going to feel different, maybe even a little contentious, and that's why we wanted to get feedback on it as soon as possible in the tech preview," 343 explained.
In response to the feedback, 343 has reverted Infinite's radar so it now shows all movement besides crouch-walking. This new radar will be in the next Halo Infinite test and of course in the game for its 8th December release date.
"While some appreciated the new approach, we found that most players missed the old properties in these social matches," 343 said.
"We've updated the combat sensor to feel more like the motion tracker of old, which shows all movement besides crouch-walking, and should have that ready for folks to test in the next flight. Be sure to keep an eye on it and let us know how it plays!"
The post is well worth a read if you're interested in Halo Infinite, as it outlines a raft of changes coming as well as 343's design philosophy. For example, 343 discusses Infinite's new outline readability - aka friend or foe recognition - saying players praised its accessibility, but felt it impacted shield and overshield readability.
"We've already made significant FX changes to better communicate the health of a target," 343 revealed.
"You should always know if you're fighting a player who has an overshield, full shields, weakened shields, or broken shields. You'll be able to see these improvements in our next flight."
Some players said they want to turn off outlines entirely. 343 said it'll explore how realistic this is in the time it has before launch.
"We're always in favour of providing more options to our players, but it's very likely we won't be able to provide this until after launch," 343 warned.
343 said players' gamertags didn't show up above their head when you looked at them due to a bug in the technical preview. A fix will be in for launch.