That was a thing of beauth.
Halo 5: Guardians Beta Thread | Hot Red on Blue Action
- Thread starter VisceralBowl
- Start date
That was a thing of beauth.
I won 9/10 of my placement matches (with some pretty convincing victories at that) and was placed Gold Tier 1. Went on to win 19/20 matches, only made it barely to Gold 3. Only getting matched with Onyx players, though. At one point between sessions, I lost half a progress bar for no reason, putting me back to only halfway through Gold 2. By the time the beta ended, I had won 38/46 matches (82% win rate!), and I still was in Gold 2.
I saw some of these Onyx Players only had won 6/16 matches in total, it's very strange to say the least.
I started playing the placement matches very early (got a special invitation code), before the preview program players joined even. So maybe that had something to do with it. It appeared as though everybody who played their placement matches a bit later into the beta would receive an initial onyx placement for as little as 7/10 matches won.
It definitely has nothing to do with the Kill/Death ratio. I had a 1.5 KD in the first 20 matches but still got the same ranking points added/deducted as my buddy, whom I was playing in a party with and who gets upwards of 2.5 KD most of the time. You gain and lose the same points as everybody else on your team.
Marky Mark
Member
If anybody from Bungie is reading this, or if anyone else knows, will the three-week beta have dedicated servers or still P2P? If still P2P, is there going to be any proper location-based peering so I don't always end up playing someone in England or the US?
I'm loving the game when I play on Aussie hosted games (I've played only three) but otherwise the lag is just way too tragic to have any level of enjoyment with it.
I'm loving the game when I play on Aussie hosted games (I've played only three) but otherwise the lag is just way too tragic to have any level of enjoyment with it.
B1gg_Randall
Member
Marvel
could never
CassidyIzABeast
Member
The Sprint is really good. really enjoy behind the scenes stuff like that.
Just to let you know, it's 343 Industries that are overlooking everything that is Halo-related, including the beta. Also, you are going to be pointed out, & possibly be ridiculed, by everyone.
Leyasu
Banned
Sad that its finished. The best multiplayer that I have played for a long time.
My opinions and some things for the full game, that I would like to see,
Ranked matchmaking on open servers. Then the net can be cast wide to evenly match people.
Social matchmaking on the datacenter of your choosing (like titanfall). This game needs a choose the datacenter option. I played a few games out of region this weekend and the performance hit was huge.
Mappable buttons would be nice.
The call outs were better than I thought, and for me add some life to the matches. The after match screen I actually like. For me it seems like they are trying to foster a team spirit. Also seeing it after the other team have won made me want to win the next.
The gunplay is fantastic. just some work to do with the sniper... Thats it.
The abilities and sprint I love... Dont change anything 343.
I really enjoyed the last two days, and cant wait for the three week beta. But it is going to be rough waiting til november for the full release.
My opinions and some things for the full game, that I would like to see,
Ranked matchmaking on open servers. Then the net can be cast wide to evenly match people.
Social matchmaking on the datacenter of your choosing (like titanfall). This game needs a choose the datacenter option. I played a few games out of region this weekend and the performance hit was huge.
Mappable buttons would be nice.
The call outs were better than I thought, and for me add some life to the matches. The after match screen I actually like. For me it seems like they are trying to foster a team spirit. Also seeing it after the other team have won made me want to win the next.
The gunplay is fantastic. just some work to do with the sniper... Thats it.
The abilities and sprint I love... Dont change anything 343.
I really enjoyed the last two days, and cant wait for the three week beta. But it is going to be rough waiting til november for the full release.
Hahahahahahaha man this killed me for some reason because I was thinking the same thing
Leyasu
Banned
I played a few games out of region, and it was noticeable. Hopefully it will be better for the full beta when there alot more people playing. Meaning more people playing per region.
samurai1226
Member
My impressions of the Early Access Beta (played about 4,5 hours)
Things I like:
Overall I never though H5G would make so much fun. It feels like good old Halo arena gameplay but with a few additions which dont change the core gameplay. The abilities dont break the game and sprint is finally not usefull to flee out of duels.
Im looking forward to the real Beta with 7 maps and more modes. And I really hope that things like Loadouts and Ordanance will not come back for the final game. If H5G will be a lot like the Beta, it can bring the saga back to the top.
I would give the Beta a 9/10 - Its rare that I had so much fun with playing in a 4on4 playlist on small maps without a premade group.
Things I like:
- BR and DMR both feel amazing
- Sprint is just a fast way to get back into the fight or to the weapons, its kinda useless in combat
- Thruster Pack is a lot of fun and brings a deepness into the movement, it takes some time to really use it wisely
- Sounddesign is outstanding, every weapon has a big punch
- Clamber fits great into the game, the movement through the map gets very fluid
- Ground stomp really makes you hang on a while in air and on ground, so its used very rarely and is extreme risky
- The chatting of the spartans is useful and creates a great atmosphere
- German dub of the multiplayer sounds great, in other Halo titles I always set the language to english, didnt feel the need of it here
- No instant respawn feel amazing. And you get the time to watch the killcam.
- The maps were kinda small, I personally prefer midsize maps for more DMR and BR duels
- The radius of the nade explosions is too big, duels often start or end with nadespam
- The AR is too strong compared to how easy it is to handle. Especially in ADS the range is too high. The SMG as a pickup weapon is fine.
- I would prefer spawning with BR
- The range of the prophets bane change is too far when scoped, and if you use the weapon it blinds the right half of your screen too much.
Overall I never though H5G would make so much fun. It feels like good old Halo arena gameplay but with a few additions which dont change the core gameplay. The abilities dont break the game and sprint is finally not usefull to flee out of duels.
Im looking forward to the real Beta with 7 maps and more modes. And I really hope that things like Loadouts and Ordanance will not come back for the final game. If H5G will be a lot like the Beta, it can bring the saga back to the top.
I would give the Beta a 9/10 - Its rare that I had so much fun with playing in a 4on4 playlist on small maps without a premade group.
soulassssns
Banned
lol, just lol
Leyasu
Banned
It's overthe wait to the 29th begins.
I'm just seeing this as a practice for the big wait after the beta
That ten month wait is going to be rough mate..
They should leave the beta running til release. lol
Yeah it's gone be long.
I can not believe how much I loved everything about he preview, the magnum is also there best thing ever.
The control scheme also really clicked with me, I still need to work out how to use it in all of the MCC games.
SuicidalSteve
Member
This I tend to use only when I am in close proximity to an enemy and run at him with either a sword at full speed or sprint then press the melee button for a boost punch knocking out his shield
apart from that I will never sprint out of a battle situation only when another enemy got distracted. I want my shield to last
What?? Come on mate. At least play the game first.
ADS isn't that bad honestly.
Nerf autos yes.
Clamber is fine.
BR does kinda feel like a single fire gun i guess.
Killcams are broken
Advocates for removing Sprint: WHY??! I'm sorry but no. It's time for Halo to evolve and if you're going to be this resistant to such a basic mechanic, one which has been really well balanced with the shield regen stalling, then I'm sorry but you guys are stuck in the past.
No sprint now would be completely jarring. It works and it works well and contrary to the belief of a few on here, Halo is still Halo with sprint included in it. The whole flow of the game is dependant on it.
Don't listen to these naysayers 343!
Dudebro spartans, because the little animation at the start and end bothers you that much? It's a minor gripe I guess.
Aside from balancing issues and some fixes, I'm loving it so far.
Leyasu
Banned
Totally. Super game, I loved it. Agreed on the control scheme. At first it was difficult, then it was no problem. The only thing that I do have trouble with is the melee button not being B. Apart from that...
Wow what a game
I reaaaaaaaaaallly dislike this game.
* AR if fucking nuts way too OP.
* Bumper jumper feels horrible, doesn't flow at all
* DAT SWORD LUNGE when scoped in is dumb.
* BR cosmetically when scoped is awful
* DMR feels weak
*Pistol having ridiculous fire rate makes it better than BR and DMR at close to mid.
* Movement feels sluggish, sprinting is far too quick
* Shield regen felt too fast
* It doesn't feel like a Halo game IMO
* AR if fucking nuts way too OP.
* Bumper jumper feels horrible, doesn't flow at all
* DAT SWORD LUNGE when scoped in is dumb.
* BR cosmetically when scoped is awful
* DMR feels weak
*Pistol having ridiculous fire rate makes it better than BR and DMR at close to mid.
* Movement feels sluggish, sprinting is far too quick
* Shield regen felt too fast
* It doesn't feel like a Halo game IMO
Recon control scheme. Helped me out a lot. Default layout was unplayable for me.
cartoon_soldier
Member
I expect another beta to start at E3
ebullientprism
Member
Man even the week long wait is hard. No idea how we will survive the almost year long wait after that.
Says volumes about the game. 343 finally got their shit together.
Well, almost. MCC is still broken for me.
Says volumes about the game. 343 finally got their shit together.
Well, almost. MCC is still broken for me.
samurai1226
Member
Sprint is really not an issue in H5. You just cant use it in combat anymore because you need your shield to recharge, its not like Reach or H4 where people are running away from every fight they are about to lose. Or even if you sprint across the map out of combat you have to find a save stop to recharge once you're hit.
I think BR was fine in the beta. Its shooting the burst really fast, but you can cleary feel the advantage in CQC/midrange and disavantage in longrange compared to the DMR.
Especially the reduced aim assist felt amazing. Magnum / BR / DMR battles were perfect.
343i is on the right way. It will be very long 11 months till november 15 after the beta.
I loved the DMR on truth, Empire is too small for a good use of it besides the outside area.
I think BR was fine in the beta. Its shooting the burst really fast, but you can cleary feel the advantage in CQC/midrange and disavantage in longrange compared to the DMR.
Especially the reduced aim assist felt amazing. Magnum / BR / DMR battles were perfect.
343i is on the right way. It will be very long 11 months till november 15 after the beta.
I think its great that BR and DMR are not a perfect weapon for every range anymore. Having allrounder weapons that beat every other non-powerweapons in every range is just a big balance issue.
I loved the DMR on truth, Empire is too small for a good use of it besides the outside area.
My main problems with the game are:
Sprint, it has to go. Up the base movement speed instead
Crouch Jumping, bring it back somehow. Change ground pound to different button.
ADS, classic scope is better. ADS on autos is stupid, autos are fine otherwise.
Flinch, why the hell is this even there? It's a horrible mechanic. Pls fix 343
And that's about it. I enjoyed my time wtih the beta, but the game needs some tweaking. It's a good start atleast.
Sprint, it has to go. Up the base movement speed instead
Crouch Jumping, bring it back somehow. Change ground pound to different button.
ADS, classic scope is better. ADS on autos is stupid, autos are fine otherwise.
Flinch, why the hell is this even there? It's a horrible mechanic. Pls fix 343
And that's about it. I enjoyed my time wtih the beta, but the game needs some tweaking. It's a good start atleast.
Sprint should be removed because it adds nothing to the game. It's only used in certain jumps and running from spawn. Upping the base movement speed would make strafing stronger and the games flow would be pretty much the same. Sprint changes Halo's gameplay from arena shooterish to a run or gun shooter, which isn't Halo. Sprint does nothing better than high base movement speed.
Edit. Double post fail
This. Up the base movement speed, will require more skill this way and they want to move into that esports direction anyway, right?
SuicidalSteve
Member
The thing is i want to keep sprint...it adds another tactical element to the gunfights and imo a natual evolution to the halo core gameplay...Do you run away and risk stopping your shield from regenerating? Do you sprint towards someone and lunge them in the face causing their shield to fail? it is quite a risk and reward set up with the sprint and it certainly adds something new to the sprinting we have seen in other games
Leyasu
Banned
If you up the base movement speed, then you run the risk of it becoming more like UT. Keep the sprint, even if it doesnt add lots to the game, it atleast lets you get back into the action, or catch up with your team quicker.
I like the ADS, it feels snappy and better for me atleast.
To the others misshng this already. I feel your pain fellas.
Promoting running away isn't evolution. In previous Halo's you could run away but your opponents could chase and shoot at you at the same speed. Now they have to choose either to chase or to shoot. You could say it's a new tactical element, or you could say it removes the element of moving fast AND shooting at the same time.
@Leyasu: Needing sprint to get into battle fast enough is a failure of map design and making Halo 5 more like UT is (or might be, we'd have to try it) is better than having sprint. Atleast fast movement speed increases the skill cap in combat.
I realize people haven't gotten that many hours in yet but I still gotta ask: how do you guys think it so far is compared to Halo 4?
It seems the sprint situation is at least a bit better (though I'm still for removing it) but how about the biggest things like loadouts and orbital whatever drops? They killed H4 for me, are they the same here?
It seems the sprint situation is at least a bit better (though I'm still for removing it) but how about the biggest things like loadouts and orbital whatever drops? They killed H4 for me, are they the same here?
SuicidalSteve
Member
Opinions are there to be respected and I respect your opinion wholeheartedly
I can understand why people may not like the sprint but I think it is a welcome addition. Thanks for sharing
samurai1226
Member
Opionion on sprint may differ, but I love it. You have the thuster pack for smart movement in fights but Sprint is really more about getting through the map instead of using it in a fight - It felt like the time to put your weapon up after sprinting is a bit longer than in H4, so if you run into an enemy while sprinting you're in a big disadvantage.
Loadouts and Oribital Drops are not in H5, all players start with AR + Magnum and Weapons drops are timed on specific map points. But the game now tells you when the next powerweapons spawns and shows you a marker to that location. also the spartans now chat that you know which team has which powerweapon in his hands.
Leyasu
Banned
With previous halos (the slower speed and smaller maps), it was still difficult to rejoin your team mates and help them out in a frefight.
This weekend, I was able to rejoin my team, and help them when they most needed it. Obviously it works both ways, and we come unstuck a few times when their reinforcements arrived. Also, I found that it prolonged some engagements as players would be able to get back quickly. Particulaly outside on empire.
The thing is, if halo starts getting close to UT speeds, then it is possible that it could enter twitch shooter territory. And that would kill the game imo.
Caayn
Member
Things I like:
- All weapons feel powerful and useful, I've never felt that I couldn't defend myself because I held the wrong weapon. I hope that this feeling goes for the entire weapon sandbox in H5.
- It feels great, although sometimes it has an identity crisis.
- Ground pound is hard but satisfying to pull off.
- Map size
- Damage when you're hit by the grenade itself not by the explosion.
- Bullets that bounce can hit and damage you, even your own.
- Female Spartan don't look like starving 12 year old boys anymore.
Things I'd like to see added in Halo 5 mp:
- Data center picker, ala Titanfall.
- Search criteria ala Halo 3/Reach.
Things I'd like to see changed / don't like:
- Sprint is still too cheap to use, there's no real downside for using it. Shields not recharging has almost zero effect on it, people still run away and sprint all over the map. Add a slight shield decrease for every meter a player sprints.
- Flynch, remove it please.
- The Prophets' Bane is a tad too bright please lower the brightness a bit.
- The beep when your shield is decreased or depleted is too high for comfort. Please lower the pitch a bit.
- Allows us to disable the Spartan Chatter in several steps. Step 1. All enabled. Step 2. Only combat sounds, no weapon pick-ups. Step 3. Disabled.
- The "X seconds till X weapon" is distracting for me. Allow me to disable it.
- Accuracy improvement when using ADS on automatic weapons, although the descope counters that a bit.
- Skybox animation stutter a lot, but I doubt that that has had a lot of priority yet in this stage.
- Assassination are still glitched just like in Halo 4.
- All weapons feel powerful and useful, I've never felt that I couldn't defend myself because I held the wrong weapon. I hope that this feeling goes for the entire weapon sandbox in H5.
- It feels great, although sometimes it has an identity crisis.
- Ground pound is hard but satisfying to pull off.
- Map size
- Damage when you're hit by the grenade itself not by the explosion.
- Bullets that bounce can hit and damage you, even your own.
- Female Spartan don't look like starving 12 year old boys anymore.
Things I'd like to see added in Halo 5 mp:
- Data center picker, ala Titanfall.
- Search criteria ala Halo 3/Reach.
Things I'd like to see changed / don't like:
- Sprint is still too cheap to use, there's no real downside for using it. Shields not recharging has almost zero effect on it, people still run away and sprint all over the map. Add a slight shield decrease for every meter a player sprints.
- Flynch, remove it please.
- The Prophets' Bane is a tad too bright please lower the brightness a bit.
- The beep when your shield is decreased or depleted is too high for comfort. Please lower the pitch a bit.
- Allows us to disable the Spartan Chatter in several steps. Step 1. All enabled. Step 2. Only combat sounds, no weapon pick-ups. Step 3. Disabled.
- The "X seconds till X weapon" is distracting for me. Allow me to disable it.
- Accuracy improvement when using ADS on automatic weapons, although the descope counters that a bit.
- Skybox animation stutter a lot, but I doubt that that has had a lot of priority yet in this stage.
- Assassination are still glitched just like in Halo 4.
ebullientprism
Member
Spartan chatter has probably been the biggest surprise for me. I went in expecting to dislike it (or be neutral at best towards it) and came out absolutely LOVING it. Its fucking phenomenal for people like me who often go solo in to TS and other game types cause I play at odd hours.
Well isn't this what essentially happens now anyway with the shield regen now stalling whilst sprinting?
Whilst you may not necessarily be shooting a sprinting enemy at the interim, you've got a longer cat and mouse game where you chase the enemy who has now stalled their shields. You can then hut your enemy down with depleted shields and get that final kill.
Also, whilst previously, if you were on the receiving end of getting shot, you really had no options but to just get killled, particularly if you were team BR'd down to no shields. Now, you can stand a chance with the thrusters allowing you a quick dodge during the battle and sprint allowing you to navigate to your friendly team or to out-maneouvre your enemies.
In fact, I've done the above a few times, where I've just had my shields popped as two guys BR (or DMR'd me), had to thruster away behind cover and then had to quickly run around the environment as these guys chased me. Then the whole time I had to think of a way to get my shields back using verticality and the like. The whole chase vs shoot mechanic isn't necessarily worse than the chase + shoot mechanic that came before it.
Also, the pacing. Playing the older games, the lack of sprint is just jarring to me. There's an ebb and flow to this game. It feels intuitive. Removing sprint would just severely compromise that and increasing the base movement speed just won't do.
ebullientprism
Member
Sprinting not only stalls shield regen, it also resets the timer.
So if your shields were about to recharge and you decided to sprint, the timer resets and they take even longer to recharge when you come out of sprint.
It takes a while to get used to this or even notice this. Once I did I was super careful about sprinting.
So if your shields were about to recharge and you decided to sprint, the timer resets and they take even longer to recharge when you come out of sprint.
It takes a while to get used to this or even notice this. Once I did I was super careful about sprinting.
NameGenerated
Who paid you to grab Dr. Pavel?
It's funny to see people who don't realize this. Turn a corner ready to fight someone you see only to kill them in one shot because they were sprinting around like a madman and you caught them off guard.
One thing I think that REALLY REALLY needs to be stated is the latency, particulary for us lot in Europe.
Seriously, I should NOT be conntecting to US servers. Nothing against our American neighbours of course, but the lag and all the associated bullshit arises immediately after I join a US lobby.
As soon as you enter a server lobby not in your region you know you're gonna get bullshitted as the tell-tale signs are as follows:
* A delay when lobbing your grenade and it actually coming out
* Killcams are delayed so they either just about show you getting killed, do not reflect what happened at all or just show you what your killer has done AFTER they've kllled you
* Shots not registering
* Sniper Scope acts up when you scope in (it'll snap the scope in twice if you know what I mean)
* Getting shot round corners etc (the basic b.s we're all used to).
THAT will severely compromise any enjoyment in Halo 5. The reason why so many rejoiced at the announcement of dedicated server support was because we need not have to put up with the above nonsense and this beta highlighted those last-gen problems and how annoying they are.
I know its a beta but PLEASE, guys at 343, sort this out, particularly for us in Europe/UK. It's a big problem and shouldn't rear its head in the final release, particularly in this day and age.
After playing against UK players for a while, once I encountered Americans, I honestly wondered whether 343 had released a stealth server side update changing the values of the weapons or something. Nothing worked like it did previously. The change was MASSIVE. All this talk of balance goes down the toilet once that happens.
Let us pick our regions.
Seriously, I should NOT be conntecting to US servers. Nothing against our American neighbours of course, but the lag and all the associated bullshit arises immediately after I join a US lobby.
As soon as you enter a server lobby not in your region you know you're gonna get bullshitted as the tell-tale signs are as follows:
* A delay when lobbing your grenade and it actually coming out
* Killcams are delayed so they either just about show you getting killed, do not reflect what happened at all or just show you what your killer has done AFTER they've kllled you
* Shots not registering
* Sniper Scope acts up when you scope in (it'll snap the scope in twice if you know what I mean)
* Getting shot round corners etc (the basic b.s we're all used to).
THAT will severely compromise any enjoyment in Halo 5. The reason why so many rejoiced at the announcement of dedicated server support was because we need not have to put up with the above nonsense and this beta highlighted those last-gen problems and how annoying they are.
I know its a beta but PLEASE, guys at 343, sort this out, particularly for us in Europe/UK. It's a big problem and shouldn't rear its head in the final release, particularly in this day and age.
After playing against UK players for a while, once I encountered Americans, I honestly wondered whether 343 had released a stealth server side update changing the values of the weapons or something. Nothing worked like it did previously. The change was MASSIVE. All this talk of balance goes down the toilet once that happens.
Let us pick our regions.
Answers in bold
I still liked my time with beta very much but it has alot of flaws, sprint being one of those.
What if you could sprint and shoot at the same time? (How this would work is beyond me) Would that alleviate the problem?
If you could sprint backwards/sideways, yes. Spartans could automatically accelerate to sprint after a few seconds of moving to the same direction.
Why backwards and sideways? Wasn't the concern about chasing fleeing enemies? Legit question (I'm just trying to understand your position better).
If it would be only forward it would be better than current iteration of sprint and solve the chasing problem. If you could sprint sideways/backwards sprint-jumps and other map movement would be more free (even better if you could clamber sideways/backwards). Forwards only would solve the biggest problem but it would still IMO be inferior to classic movement/direction free sprint.
ThankeeSai
Member
Apologies if this has been asked - Will preview programme folks get access to the beta on 29th, or is it only for MCC owners?
Leyasu
Banned
Seriously, so much this. The difference is enormous.! After changing and getting dumped four times into US servers, The first thing I was doing when I got into another server was lobbing a grenade to see where I was.
For me, ranked should be open region. So then the game can search wide to evenly match the players. And social should be on the datacenter of our choosing. Like titanfall.
This game is crying out for a choose the datacenter option. In all honesty we shouldnt even need to ask, it should be there.
BTB on the western europe datacenter will be delicious.
Anyway, it has got to be said, I dont think that they will give it to us. 343 like bungie think that they know best. Plus I dont think that they give a fuck. Ayoub already tweeted saying that the game puts us into the closest datacenter which is not true.
Microsoft could have a secret weapon with azure. Not the sci-fi 3 x more powerful with the cloud, but the chance to put latency sensitive genres on region filtered dedicated servers. But also give people an option to matchmake open region, if they have friends around the world.
Then advertise the fuck out of it. I am sure that that could help them. Particulaly in the EU/ANZ/ASIA. Hell I imagine that US players get sick of out of region gamers, lagging up there games.
I think that they could easily make a deal with activision to get cod and destiny on azure with that set-up. Which I am sure would influence platform buying.
Sorry, that last bit should probablxy have its own thread.
barneystuta83
Member
It will just be MCC owners, I think.
EDIT: I think you may need the MCC licence/disc in order to launch the beta. As preview program owners, we had a special token that worked for the weekend.