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Halo 4 |OT2| TURBO

D

Dramos

Member
So I decided to play Halo 4 lately and I can't seem to see any DLC playlist. I really want to have a chance to try out the maps I've paid for in the LE...
 
T

TCKaos

Member
squidhands said:
Did they remove the rotating DLC playlists? I know the population for those is abysmally low, but they should still be there.
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Why don't they have a DLC grab-bag playlist? Include all of the DLC, but require only one map pack. That way players with all of the DLC can play on any of the DLC maps and players that have just a single map pack can play on those maps.

We know they can do this because Forge Island and DLC maps are in other playlists in matchmaking.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
TCKaos said:
Why don't they have a DLC grab-bag playlist? Include all of the DLC, but require only one map pack. That way players with all of the DLC can play on any of the DLC maps and players that have just a single map pack can play on those maps.

We know they can do this because Forge Island and DLC maps are in other playlists in matchmaking.
Click to expand...

Depends on what you're asking here.. they can require map packs, they can mark them optional, but they can't mark a playlist as "you have to have at least one of these pieces of content, and we'll bring up the other ones optionally"

They can mark DLC as optional and crank up the DLC-match parameter really high.

The closest you could get is have a playlist require Forge Island and mark every other DLC map as optional, then weight them absurdly high, so Forge Island barely shows up.

Speaking of which.. last I checked, for some reason they don't require Forge Island like they should for any playlists that use it. Did they fix this now?
 
T

TCKaos

Member
Authoritative Shark said:
Depends on what you're asking here.. they can require map packs, they can mark them optional, but they can't mark a playlist as "you have to have at least one of these pieces of content, and we'll bring up the other ones optionally"
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That's a shame, because that made the most sense to me.

From what you understand of the under-the-hood networking architecture would you say that it's possible to actually implement such a thing?

I think it would bolster some courage in to their DLC implementation. The reason I've yet to purchase Halo 4 DLC is because I figured this would happen after the Reach debacle and didn't want to deal with it.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
TCKaos said:
That's a shame, because that made the most sense to me.

From what you understand of the under-the-hood networking architecture would you say that it's possible to actually implement such a thing?

I think it would bolster some courage in to their DLC implementation. The reason I've yet to purchase Halo 4 DLC is because I figured this would happen after the Reach debacle and didn't want to deal with it.
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They could do it ~~in theory~~ but they have to have to have someone implement it. 360 games can definitely check for ownership of content. It doesn't seem they've really changed the underlying mechanics of how matchmaking playlists are deployed TOO much. There's limitations you can trace back to Halo 2 and 3.

They still have to convert public forge variants into versions digestable by matchmaking for example (they can't just move a file from your file share into the playlist.. thing), 3 added the ability to mark maps as optional and have playlists autodeploy, Reach added the ability to use DLC as a matching parameter,, 4 added the fallback hoppers functionality to account for Azure outages, etc..


edit: A problem I could see with "one but not all" requirements is it could end up in absolutely tanked search times if everyone has content A that is looking for a match and you're looking only with content C.
 
T

TCKaos

Member
Authoritative Shark said:
They could do it ~~in theory~~ but they have to have to have someone implement it. 360 games can definitely check for ownership of content. It doesn't seem they've really changed the underlying mechanics of how matchmaking playlists are deployed TOO much. There's limitations you can trace back to Halo 2 and 3.

They still have to convert public forge variants into versions digestable by matchmaking for example (they can't just move a file from your file share into the playlist.. thing), 3 added the ability to mark maps as optional and have playlists autodeploy, Reach added the ability to use DLC as a matching parameter,, 4 added the fallback hoppers functionality to account for Azure outages, etc..


edit: A problem I could see with "one but not all" requirements is it could end up in absolutely tanked search times if everyone has content A that is looking for a match and you're looking only with content C.
Click to expand...

Oh, well. Hopefully next gen we'll get a server browser for social games and matchmaking for ranked games. A guy can dream.
 
B

Booshka

Member
TCKaos said:
Oh, well. Hopefully next gen we'll get a server browser for social games and matchmaking for ranked games. A guy can dream.
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Too confusing for the casual console gamer, need to make finding games wheelchair accessible. Select Matchmaking, Press A to play and be happy with whatever you get.

I remember browsing through game lobbies pre-Halo 2 on RTCW, Counter-Strike, Soldier of Fortune 2, Crimson Skies, etc. It was great, I could see the connection quality, player count, game mode and how many rounds/matches had been played. Once Halo 2 came out, most of that was abandoned for the more simpler Matchmaking structure based around strict playlists. Both have their advantages, which is why we I don't understand why don't get both, instead of just being stuck with Matchmaking and having to set up Customs via Friends list or Forums.
 
V

Veelk

Banned
Not halo 4, but might as well ask here anyway.

Is there any way I can get the exploding grunt skull for Halo Anniversary?
 
Y

YourExWife

Member
Veelk said:
Is that it? Because I'm not gonna pay $13 for a goddamn skull. 343 should just release it as a downloadable add-on. They can even charge for it, as long as it's a sane price. :/
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I can see MSFT's execs' reactions already...

PbrYXnV.gif
 
I

IHaveIce

Banned
Quite random thoughts but thinking why they said they did not include ranks ingame( cheating) I wonder why they kept these crappy network code for so long. Since Halo 2 I saw more people cheating through host glitches, standbying and knocking others out then in every other game.

Of course many did it for the rank, but the way they did it should be restricted not the Ranks.

Halo 3 with a hostbox and zonealarm kicked people's asses.

And it seems like it is the same way with Halo 4, 343 made that many backdoors possible to "cheat" or not make a game count so that is their fault if the ranking system is bad.

Dedicated servers hopefully will put a lock on these things
 
T

The Henery

Member
The connections in Halo 4 have been piss poor of late. I'd say 1 in 3 games yellow/red bar. Particularly since the FFA comp it seems. Its host selection is often atrocious; I have a local friend whose connection is probably one of the worst in the country with multiple people already hogging its bandwidth and it gave him host almost every game we played the other night. Basically forced him to get off because it was harming everyone else's experience. I've got a 60 down and 3 up and it's stopped giving me host.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
The Henery said:
The connections in Halo 4 have been piss poor of late. I'd say 1 in 3 games yellow/red bar. Particularly since the FFA comp it seems. Its host selection is often atrocious; I have a local friend whose connection is probably one of the worst in the country with multiple people already hogging its bandwidth and it gave him host almost every game we played the other night. Basically forced him to get off because it was harming everyone else's experience. I've got a 60 down and 3 up and it's stopped giving me host.
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Well the host record is about to get reset again with the upcoming TU.
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Was gonna record the Halo wish list podcast but had some issues and now I'm sick and sound like shit. Hopefully by the weekend if I get better. I think it's gonna be a really good one.
 
Z

Zeouterlimits

Member
The Henery said:
Nobody at MS/343 wants that awkward moment when the six year old predecessor takes over their latest effort on the xbl chart.
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Do you really think that's the motivation behind it?

I.. want to believe it's merely that 343 want to do some consolidation before putting it out.
Or that they've calculate the now consolidated server setup and went "oh bawls - 200000 people hitting the Halo 3 servers would knock them over" etc.
 
T

The Henery

Member
Zeouterlimits said:
Do you really think that's the motivation behind it?

I.. want to believe it's merely that 343 want to do some consolidation before putting it out.
Or that they've calculate the now consolidated server setup and went "oh bawls - 200000 people hitting the Halo 3 servers would knock them over" etc.
Click to expand...

It's possible. Assassins Creed 2 overtook Halo 4 and I'm sure Halo 3 will emulate that success when it goes free. When the idea was unveiled they heavily implied Halo 3 would be an early release on the program. Why mention it specifically if they knew they had other big titles coming sooner? Plus it took 343 by surprise enough for Frankie to come in here and plead ignorance to the scheme. We were assured of a Halo 3 (and Reach) update about a year ago. Then it was 'after' halo 4. Then it was either silence or workload excuse from a 300 person company tasked with one franchise.

MS announcing Halo 3 going free basically forces 343's hand on the playlist consolidation because the current playlist setup is shaped heavily around the ODST all DLC disk. I could definitely envisage a scenario where 343 made a panicky phonecall asking for more time to do a playlist update.

Also, The Pit (plus one guest) DLC is their last hurrah and salvo for their first game proper. If Halo 3 and The Pit in its original glory releases around the same time for free, it's a bit of a party crasher.
 
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