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[The Antitype]

Eh, I don't really mind losing. Playing better people is the only way you can get better, and this system is what I've wanted out of Halo for a long time.

Humbling if nothing else, heh.

The problem is that the matchmaking right now isn't very good, either by virtue of execution or by the limitations of a small userbase.

I'm a Platinum, and spent the bulk of last week playing with and against Diamonds and Onyxs, and getting curb-stomped and mocked. You learn playing against people better than you, because you see what they're doing, what's working for them, learning from your mistakes and replicating their patterns.

If you're dying too quickly and in too many ways to learn anything, then you're not going to get better. Certainly not at a faster rate than the rate of building frustration to the point of 'fuck this, I'm out'.

Lately I've been playing more against Platinums again, and am enjoying the game more. Even if I'm getting killed, the engagements and my average life span are actually long enough to learn and improve.

TL;DR - The average pee-wee ice hockey player will not learn much by going up against the best in the NHL playing with the intent to run up the score. They'll just learn to hate hockey.

 

[inoperativ]

I made a new HBO post: Halo 5's roots in the earliest Halo lore . Mentions major plot spoilers.

I'm really surprised no one's mentioned the

Spoiler

Cortana Letters

connection as far as I can see, here or elsewhere.

I can't believe I'd completely forgotten about these! That is really cool, thanks for pointing it out.

 

[BraXzy]

Doubles will be back regardless. I like it because it's the simplest way to teach perpetual randoms the effectiveness of teamwork.

PogChamp :O

Good to hear, I didn't get much chance to play it when it was here at the weekend.

 

[SicSemperTyrannis]

Some how I'm Gold 2 in Slayer and carry my team 18-15 (one quit). I get ranked down because a team mate Gold 4 goes an impressive 5-20.

I'm more surprised someone went 5-20.

5-20.

5 kills.
20 deaths.

I've had rough games as well and I'm Diamond 2 in Slayer. Not many people, if any, are immune to having a bad game here and there.

TL;DR - The average pee-wee ice hockey player will not learn much by going up against the best in the NHL playing with the intent to run up the score. They'll just learn to hate hockey.

I went into Team Arena solo for the first time in about a week yesterday and it went SO badly. I was D3 when I started and was paired against a team of three Onyx and one D6 player. My team got rolled on The Rig: Strongholds 100-51. After the game I got my first message about being a trash player since launch. I had barely any kills and a bunch of deaths, but I played the objective, was second on the scoreboard and had a metric tonne of assists compared to teammates. After the game ended I realized that I recognized a name on the enemy team...The Ogre Twitch. I was paired against a pro player and learned my place apparently :|

Thanks Halo for making me sad.

 

[Ramirez]

The problem is that the matchmaking right now isn't very good, either by virtue of execution or by the limitations of a small userbase.

I'm a Platinum, and spent the bulk of last week playing with and against Diamonds and Onyxs, and getting curb-stomped and mocked. You learn playing against people better than you, because you see what they're doing, what's working for them, learning from your mistakes and replicating their patterns.

If you're dying too quickly and in too many ways to learn anything, then you're not going to get better. Certainly not at a faster rate than the rate of building frustration to the point of 'fuck this, I'm out'.

Lately I've been playing more against Platinums again, and am enjoying the game more. Even if I'm getting killed, the engagements and my average life span are actually long enough to learn and improve.

TL;DR - The average pee-wee ice hockey player will not learn much by going up against the best in the NHL playing with the intent to run up the score. They'll just learn to hate hockey.

Have you considered that maybe your CSR is rising up to those levels, but then going back down when you lose? I get matched against Champions a lot, but if that website is correct, I'm no where near Champion.

I've also cost plenty of people a win by poor performance, and only one person has bothered to message me. But I mean, who cares? It's a game, no one in random matchmaking is going pro, shrug it off.

 

[Diablohead]

Doubles will be back regardless. I like it because it's the simplest way to teach perpetual randoms the effectiveness of teamwork.

frankie please please please add in a ping display or give us local servers only even if it means longer matchmaking, I beg you.

 

[Karl2177]

Does anyone else have an issue when the PGCR doesn't load and you can't even press B to leave the menu? Also, if I'm switching profiles, I have to quit the game and start it up again. Pretty annoying minor issues.

 

[The Antitype]

See, last shot kill bosses bug me a fair bit but imo they promote huge team play: Instead of all piling onto the boss, a handful of you take the boss, the rest run map / area control and stop the opposing team getting near. Basically team play massively increases your chance to win.

Sounds good in concept, but it's completely undermined in practice.

Which is why silly things like 'playtesting' are used to ensure that great ideas on paper actually make for great experiences.

You can spend the entire boss fight dealing damage and doing your best to manage the other team. Your team can be responsible for 99% of the bosses damage. And if one guy happens to get a single BR shot off before somebody can 4-shot him with a BR, or opts to snipe him from clear cross the map, all that work went to waste. And not in a fair 'they were better than us this time' way, but via cheap, unsatisfying robbery.

The fact is, when a lone, random shot can undermine a full coordinated team effort, the incentive to play as a team, dies.

It would be the equivalent of a hypothetical Arena match where Blue Team scores 49 kills as a unit, then one dude on Red Team scores a single kill worth 50 kills to win the match.

How many members of Blue Team would play the next match feeling as though working as a unit through those first 49 kills is worth their time, energy or investment?

 

[Detective]

Doubles will be back regardless. I like it because it's the simplest way to teach perpetual randoms the effectiveness of teamwork.

Frank. Any words on the server issue?
It's really a big problem. Like I said 100 times before. No matter what I do. What weapon I use. Most of the time the enemy won't die.

 

[Poodlestrike]

frankie please please please add in a ping display or give us local servers only even if it means longer matchmaking, I beg you.

Local servers ONLY would mean not being able to play with non-local friends, so that's clearly a nonoption.

 

[The Antitype]

Have you considered that maybe your CSR is rising up to those levels, but then going back down when you lose? I get matched against Champions a lot, but if that website is correct, I'm no where near Champion.

I've also cost plenty of people a win by poor performance, and only one person has bothered to message me. But I mean, who cares? It's a game, no one in random matchmaking is going pro, shrug it off.

You may be right, but if so, then the game definitely has a matchmaking or population problem.

Because there's no way that I should be up matching against Diamons and Onyxs before I've one enough matches post-placement to move from Platinum1 to Platinum3. There's no invisible skill wall where people go from coming out +5 to +8 in most cases, to jumping to playing people where I'm going -10 to -12 in the span of like, 10-15 matches.

The ideal pie-in-the-sky matchmaking system should ensure that everybody wins roughly 50% of their matches and comes away from every match somewhere within +3 to -3 K/D. That's obviously not possible since human beings aren't robots, they'll have outlier games, they'll have different play schedules and groupings, and yada yada. But that's the ideal.

Halo 5 matchmaking thus far has only demonstrated the opposite to me. Wild extremes on one side of the ledger or the other, with no middle ground at all.

 

[FUNKNOWN iXi]

Am I reading this right, does that mean I'm 710 overall in the Slayer playlist? I have been getting absolutely dunked here lately, rolling solo 99% of the time. But I mean, some games I'm lucky to break 6 kills and I'm getting shot by 2-3 people on spawn. Feels bad man.

That's what cracks me up when some of y'all complain about people going 5-17 or whatever, that shit happens to me on the regular, and I would have to imagine it does to you all as well. This game can be absolutely brutal if things start snowballing on you.

It's crazy, isn't it? Sometimes it's just circumstance and accepting the inevitable lol: "I have come to terms with this negbomb; I have embraced it."

Been wanting that since Overrun was even a thing.

Still want a PvE mode tho. Oh well.

Warzone was 343's first step in the right direction towards recapturing that casual market, and I strongly believe this kind of mode has a lot of potential for Halo.

Ordnance Drops could return from Reach, along with Personal Ordnance from Halo 4. The concept of packages dropping in from orbit is cool, so I'd like to see them return.

Doubles will be back regardless. I like it because it's the simplest way to teach perpetual randoms the effectiveness of teamwork.

It really is. There's something to be said about the intimacy of Doubles, that feeling you get from winning a close match. Even in defeat, it's a very humbling experience in that it helps you quickly realize your faults and where you need to improve.

 

[Trup1aya]

Sounds good in concept, but it's completely undermined in practice.

Which is why silly things like 'playtesting' are used to ensure that great ideas on paper actually make for great experiences.

You can spend the entire boss fight dealing damage and doing your best to manage the other team. Your team can be responsible for 99% of the bosses damage. And if one guy happens to get a single BR shot off before somebody can 4-shot him with a BR, or opts to snipe him from clear cross the map, all that work went to waste. And not in a fair 'they were better than us this time' way, but via cheap, unsatisfying robbery.

The fact is, when a lone, random shot can undermine a full coordinated team effort, the incentive to play as a team, dies.

It would be the equivalent of a hypothetical Arena match where Blue Team scores 49 kills as a unit, then one dude on Red Team scores a single kill worth 50 kills to win the match.

How many members of Blue Team would play the next match feeling as though working as a unit through those first 49 kills is worth their time, energy or investment?

are you implying that they didn't play test the game?

also I notice that whenever people complain about boss stealing, when they mention "full coordinated team effort" they usually mean "the entire team is focused solely on damaging the boss instead of actively hunting down and killing folks who may be trying to steal". that isn't a good strategy when you know last shot "steals" is a thing.

 

[The Antitype]

are you implying that they didn't play test the game?

also I notice that whenever people complain about boss stealing, when they mention "full coordinated team effort" they usually mean "the entire team is focused solely on damaging the boss instead of actively hunting down and killing folks who may be trying to steal". the latter isn't a good strategy when you know last shot "steals" is a thing.

No, I meant team efforts including cutting off opposing players from damaging the boss as well. Unfortunately, sometimes it's not possible to 4-shot every motherfucker in the goddamn area before one of them is able to get off a single BR shot. Imagine that. Gunning down several people takes longer than unloading a single shot.

Craziness.


I'd be interested to hear how much playtesting 343i did, and who did it. If they brought in third parties of any kind.

I get the sense through watching the Spring videos, that there was a lot of groupthink at 343i. Lots of back-patting and assuring each other of how great their vision was and how great the game they were making was, not enough hard looks at the decisions they were making.

Honestly, one objective outside voice probably would have said 'you can not ship a product in 2015, in the most competitive genre in the industry, with this little content'

 

[Trup1aya]

No, I meant team efforts including cutting off opposing players from damaging the boss as well. Unfortunately, sometimes it's not possible to 4-shot every motherfucker in the goddamn area before one of them is able to get off a single BR shot. Imagine that. Gunning down several people takes longer than unloading a single shot.

Craziness.

It's halo, random things are gonna happen from time to time. But if a "well coordinated" team is frequently getting their kills stolen, then they aren't as well coordinated as they think.

Do you think that the people who are less coordinated are somehow more lucky in this game?

Or are you one of those "every time I lose its the games fault" kind of people.

 

[The Antitype]

It's halo, random things are gonna happen from time to time. But if a "well coordinated" team is frequently getting their kills stolen, then they aren't as well coordinated as they think.

Do you think that the people who are less coordinated are somehow more lucky in this game?

Or are you one of those "every time I lose its the games fault" kind of people.

I've been on both sides of the ledger. My team and myself personally have stolen boss kills we had no right to, simply by running from spawn, getting off one last shot from the very edge of view.

Random things DO happen in Halo. They don't happen in the primary SCORING of Halo.

Kills in Arena do not randomly change to be worth 1 point, or 2 points, or 15 points. A team that scores 49 kills in a match will not see the other team awarded 50 kills and the win for their first kill. A captured flag will not randomly award a point to the other team, etc.

343i CHOSE to make the boss kills the single most important events in Warzone by virtue of the points they award. That they chose a system that ensures those points are awarded essentially randomly, rather than to the team that does the most damage or is doing the most damage, is such amateur-hour garbage, it boggles the mind.

And no, I'm not the kind of person that blames the game every time I lose. I am the kind of person with a very low tolerance for bullshit. So when it happens, there is a decent chance that I will simple choose to spawn at base, hold right on the right stick, switch inputs on my receiver and watch some netflix, and simply spin in place until the match ends and I'm awarded my points.

And when I'm on the other side of the equation, and we're attacking the core because a good portion of the other team have left by the half-way point, or booted for lack of activity after having watched all the vehicles and power weapons used amounting to nothing in the face of a single BR shot and deciding 'why bother', and the ranks haven't yet been filled, I don't begrudge them or think ill of them. I nod in mutual understanding, as I run past to the core.

'Perhaps, comrade, next game will be your turn for the roulette wheel of bullshit to come up on your number.'

 

[Magwik]

Can we nuke Recurve from rotation like we did with Orion please?

 

[buddha0991]

I made a new HBO post: Halo 5's roots in the earliest Halo lore . Mentions major plot spoilers.

I'm really surprised no one's mentioned the

Spoiler

Cortana Letters

connection as far as I can see, here or elsewhere.

thats pretty rad

 

[Monocle]

no stream for homblom or however you spell his name?

This dude is my favorite Halo player by far. I had no idea he existed until someone linked to his stream in an earlier thread. Thanks, whoever that was.

H0lmb0m has such a positive attitude. Every time I watch him play, I'm reminded not to take the competitive aspect so seriously. Even after really stupid deaths where he gets destroyed right after grabbing a great weapon, the kind of situation that would totally piss me off, he just laughs. I love how he can have fun no matter what.

If any of you haven't watched him play, check out his Youtube or Twitch channel. Awesome guy.

Halo has lore within the lore indeed, including the "would you do it" line Guilty spark alluded to the chief

makes me SMH when people call it bad

Yep, lots of totally uninformed opinions out there. Oh well, at least I'm not alone in noticing and enjoying this stuff.

 

[Ocarina_117]

I made a new HBO post: Halo 5's roots in the earliest Halo lore . Mentions major plot spoilers.

I'm really surprised no one's mentioned the

Spoiler

Cortana Letters

connection as far as I can see, here or elsewhere.

Reading through that gave me flash backs to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyPQDGmJoCk

Spoiler

SOOOO GOOOD

I am actually looking forward to the story in Halo 6 and where it goes from here. The story of halo 5 was a bit underwhelming, but it did manage to fix a lot of the mistakes made in halo 4 i felt. If 343 can build upon the multiplayer of halo 5 and make improvements to the halo 6 campaign - more cheif, improved squad a.i, more boss variety

Spoiler

Multiple forms of warden eternal would have been so cool

it could be quite special.

EDIT - Also some solo Chief would be great, have him wondering alone and keep the squad based missions to Osiris and their story with the Infinity.

 

[Trup1aya]

I've been on both sides of the ledger. My team and myself personally have stolen boss kills we had no right to, simply by running from spawn, getting off one last shot from the very edge of view.

Random things DO happen in Halo. They don't happen in the primary SCORING of Halo.

Kills in Arena do not randomly change to be worth 1 point, or 2 points, or 15 points. A team that scores 49 kills in a match will not see the other team awarded 50 kills and the win for their first kill. A captured flag will not randomly award a point to the other team, etc.

343i CHOSE to make the boss kills the single most important events in Warzone by virtue of the points they award. That they chose a system that ensures those points are awarded essentially randomly, rather than to the team that does the most damage or is doing the most damage, is such amateur-hour garbage, it boggles the mind.

And no, I'm not the kind of person that blames the game every time I lose. I am the kind of person with a very low tolerance for bullshit. So when it happens, there is a decent chance that I will simple choose to spawn at base, hold right on the right stick, switch inputs on my receiver and watch some netflix, and simply spin in place until the match ends and I'm awarded my points.

Just because you don't like the system doesn't mean that it's broken. Given the increase in firepower awarded to teams who are playing better, giving underdogs an opportunity to "throw hail Mary's" is an effective way to keep games interesting even if the scores aren't close. Otherwise, the winning team would ALWAYS get the legendary kill.

The way points are awarded is not "essentially random" by any stretch of the imagination. It consistently goes to who gets the last shot. And last shot odds are in the favor of the team who holds down the area. Luck favors the well prepared, or so they say. Can the odds be beaten? Certainly! But we shouldn't be surprised that there is an element of chance in a gametype that involves RNG. And even allows to spawn random weapons and vehicles.

If you want Arena scoring conventions, go play arena.

 

[Ramirez]

You may be right, but if so, then the game definitely has a matchmaking or population problem.

Because there's no way that I should be up matching against Diamons and Onyxs before I've one enough matches post-placement to move from Platinum1 to Platinum3. There's no invisible skill wall where people go from coming out +5 to +8 in most cases, to jumping to playing people where I'm going -10 to -12 in the span of like, 10-15 matches.

The ideal pie-in-the-sky matchmaking system should ensure that everybody wins roughly 50% of their matches and comes away from every match somewhere within +3 to -3 K/D. That's obviously not possible since human beings aren't robots, they'll have outlier games, they'll have different play schedules and groupings, and yada yada. But that's the ideal.

Halo 5 matchmaking thus far has only demonstrated the opposite to me. Wild extremes on one side of the ledger or the other, with no middle ground at all.

What is your winning percentage in Arena?

 

[Monocle]

I made a new HBO post: Halo 5's roots in the earliest Halo lore . Mentions major plot spoilers.

I'm really surprised no one's mentioned the

Spoiler

Cortana Letters

connection as far as I can see, here or elsewhere.

This is the kind of stuff that got me deep into Halo in the first place. Well, that and the first game's amazing setting. I was disappointed when Halo 3 made a few shallow references to the Cortana Letters without really tapping into Cortana's potential as a character. I never would have thought 343 would handle the lore so well in Halo 5.

 

[Magwik]

Lord the Standoff spawns are bad

 

[The Antitype]

What is your winning percentage in Arena?

According to Waypoint, 69%.

But that seems pretty high given the last weekend's worth of losing and rage quitting.

I'll PM you my profile.

 

[VeeP]

Pretty cool thing happened today, I was playing with my cousin in Halo 5.

We got matched against two of my friends we've been playing with since Halo 2 days. Haha they joined our party chat and we started talking trash. It was awesome.

 

[TheXbox]

Those letters are rad but I'm not sure how they excuse

Spoiler

Cortana's turn to antagonism. Someone tell me where in Halo 1, 2, 3, or 4 was this foreshadowed? When did Cortana ever indicate she had any ambition to rule the universe or liberate all AIs? I'm not opposed to Cortana becoming a villain, but I am opposed to how her turn was handled in the context of the narrative, which has otherwise given no indication that Cortana is anything other than a maternal, door-opening companion for the Master Chief. Relying on some obscure, derelict lore from over a decade ago doesn't excuse shitty storytelling. This is the same problem Halo 4 had.

 

[The Antitype]

Those letters are rad but I'm not sure how they excuse

Spoiler

Cortana's turn to antagonism. Someone tell me where in Halo 1, 2, 3, or 4 was this foreshadowed? When did Cortana ever indicate she had any ambition to rule the universe or liberate all AIs? I'm not opposed to Cortana becoming a villain, but I am opposed to how her turn was handled in the context of the narrative, which has otherwise given no indication that Cortana is anything other than a maternal, door-opening companion for the Master Chief. Relying on some obscure, derelict lore from over a decade ago doesn't excuse shitty storytelling. This is the same problem Halo 4 had.

Well, I mean, she did

Spoiler

go rampant in Halo 4. But I agree the transition from Cortana losing her grip on reality and going nuts, and Cortana the coherent super villain was not exactly smooth. My personal theory, based on nothing other than the plot of Halo 5 and the redesign of Cortana's face, is that we're meant to see Cortana becoming more and more like Halsey herself. The Guardians are the Spartan Program. Where Halsey was looking for the next stage of human evolution, Cortana says she wants to make all sentient life 'more' than they are now.

 

[op_ivy]

This dude is my favorite Halo player by far. I had no idea he existed until someone linked to his stream in an earlier thread. Thanks, whoever that was.

H0lmb0m has such a positive attitude. Every time I watch him play, I'm reminded not to take the competitive aspect so seriously. Even after really stupid deaths where he gets destroyed right after grabbing a great weapon, the kind of situation that would totally piss me off, he just laughs. I love how he can have fun no matter what.

If any of you haven't watched him play, check out his Youtube or Twitch channel. Awesome guy.

.

 

[Diablohead]

Local servers ONLY would mean not being able to play with non-local friends, so that's clearly a nonoption.

well we were going to get an option to select server location up until a few weeks before release, annoyed me so much when they pulled it.

 

[The Antitype]

This dude is my favorite Halo player by far. I had no idea he existed until someone linked to his stream in an earlier thread. Thanks, whoever that was.

H0lmb0m has such a positive attitude. Every time I watch him play, I'm reminded not to take the competitive aspect so seriously. Even after really stupid deaths where he gets destroyed right after grabbing a great weapon, the kind of situation that would totally piss me off, he just laughs. I love how he can have fun no matter what.

If any of you haven't watched him play, check out his Youtube or Twitch channel. Awesome guy.


Yep, lots of totally uninformed opinions out there. Oh well, at least I'm not alone in noticing and enjoying this stuff.

The lore itself is not bad.

The fan-fiction quality explorations of that lore, however, have been pretty bad.

There are great IDEAS in there. I love that

Spoiler

Cortana is becoming the big bad. Honestly I was thinking and hoping it would happen in Halo 4, based on the build up.

But dear god, the ridiculous space magic in Halo 4 was off the charts. Terrible. And they spend so much time talking about shit that happened millions of years ago, and expect us to care about what their paper thin characters are doing NOW because of what happened THEN. Lore and Story are not the same thing.

Halo's best stories are the games that only tell you what you need to know to recognize the stakes of the actions YOU are partaking in. That's why Halo:CE and Halo:Reach are the two best STORIES in the series, while the rest are experiments in spelunking their own asses.

 

[TheXbox]

Well, I mean, she did

Spoiler

go rampant in Halo 4. But I agree the transition from Cortana losing her grip on reality and going nuts, and Cortana the coherent super villain was not exactly smooth. My personal theory, based on nothing other than the plot of Halo 5 and the redesign of Cortana's face, is that we're meant to see Cortana becoming more and more like Halsey herself. The Guardians are the Spartan Program. Where Halsey was looking for the next stage of human evolution, Cortana says she wants to make all sentient life 'more' than they are now.

Spoiler

I mean, there are lots of reasons for Cortana to be evil. She's gone rampant, she's spent time with the Gravemind, the Domain might've fucked her up, the Warden might've manipulated her, who knows? They never suggest what caused it. There's no progression. I think your Halsey analysis could be on point, though. I just wish they'd make some attempt to spell that out, or whatever the reason is.

 

[op_ivy]

Those letters are rad but I'm not sure how they excuse

Spoiler

Cortana's turn to antagonism. Someone tell me where in Halo 1, 2, 3, or 4 was this foreshadowed? When did Cortana ever indicate she had any ambition to rule the universe or liberate all AIs? I'm not opposed to Cortana becoming a villain, but I am opposed to how her turn was handled in the context of the narrative, which has otherwise given no indication that Cortana is anything other than a maternal, door-opening companion for the Master Chief. Relying on some obscure, derelict lore from over a decade ago doesn't excuse shitty storytelling. This is the same problem Halo 4 had.

Spoiler

halo 4 was all about her approaching rampancy and ultimately death. in halo 5 cortana has figured out a way to survive indefinitely, but seems to have all the other characteristics of rampancy as "the AI develops delusions of godlike power, as well as utter contempt for its mentally inferior makers."

-http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Rampancy

i light of this i think her heel turn makes perfect sense

 

[Trup1aya]

Those letters are rad but I'm not sure how they excuse

Spoiler

Cortana's turn to antagonism. Someone tell me where in Halo 1, 2, 3, or 4 was this foreshadowed? When did Cortana ever indicate she had any ambition to rule the universe or liberate all AIs? I'm not opposed to Cortana becoming a villain, but I am opposed to how her turn was handled in the context of the narrative, which has otherwise given no indication that Cortana is anything other than a maternal, door-opening companion for the Master Chief. Relying on some obscure, derelict lore from over a decade ago doesn't excuse shitty storytelling. This is the same problem Halo 4 had.

Yes the story telling is poor, but

Spoiler

rampant AI getting a god complex is kind of a theme in the halo lore

.

It was never overt in the games, unfortunately. Just hinted at in terminals and extended lore.

 

[The Antitype]

Spoiler

Just as long as John doesn't try to turn her back in Halo 6.

I want her to be all like 'John, please, join me' and Chief to be 'No. You're rampant. I'm not here to save you. I'm here to end you. I'm sorry.

 

[Zeta Oni]

Spoiler

I mean, there are lots of reasons for Cortana to be evil. She's gone rampant, she's spent time with the Gravemind, the Domain might've fucked her up, the Warden might've manipulated her, who knows? They never suggest what caused it. There's no progression. I think your Halsey analysis could be on point, though. I just wish they'd make some attempt to spell that out, or whatever the reason is.

The problem with what your saying is the word "evil".

Spoiler

Cortana has not turned "evil", she is still the same logical being she was in the first game.

Spoiler

Difference between then and now is that she's learned enough to know that there's only one solution for the galaxies problems, and that's forced cooperation.

Her position by the end of Halo 5 is logical, and only comes off as "evil" if you have a very black and white view of the word.

Edit: And as poodlestrike said below,

Spoiler

now she has the actual power to do something. Previously it was just her and a guy in a suit of armor. Now she was world destroyers as loyal subjects, as well as almost every A.I. in existence.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Spoiler

halo 4 was all about her approaching rampancy and ultimately death. in halo 5 cortana has figured out a way to survive indefinitely, but seems to have all the other characteristics of rampancy as "the AI develops delusions of godlike power, as well as utter contempt for its mentally inferior makers."

-http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Rampancy

i light of this i think her heel turn makes perfect sense

Spoiler

The thing is, the rampancy trait is delusions of godhood. Cortana doesn't have delusions of godhood. She's the smartest person in the galaxy by a fair margin (well, the smartest who isn't Mendicant Bias or Offensive Bias, maybe), she commands an entirely unstoppable fleet of ridiculous powerful Forerunner constructs, she's tied into literally everybody's systems so she knows everything that's been recorded digitally, and she's effectively immortal. Godhood is less a delusion and more a reasonable aspiration to her at this point.

I think the "she's totally still rampant" theory is missing the mark by a wide margin. Cortana experienced a dramatic change in circumstances and ability. You know how winning the lottery tends to change people? Imagine if instead of getting X million dollars, winning the lottery made you president of the wold forever.

Yeah.

 

[The Antitype]

The problem with what your saying is the word "evil". Cortana has not turned "evil", she is still the same logical being she was in the first game.

Spoiler

Difference between then and now is that she's learned enough to know that there's only one solution for the galaxies problems, and that's forced cooperation.

Her position by the end of Halo 5 is logical, and only comes off as "evil" if you have a very black and white view of the word.

I think enforced obedience through fear and threat of destruction is pretty cut-and-dry evil. You have heard of Joseph Stalin, yes?

 

[Nori Chan]

Frankie, please bring back daily and weekly challenges from Halo 4

 

[Cranster]

So what was the title update for today?

 

[The Antitype]

So what was the title update for today?

Fixed the fact that two of the features in their game that didn't work since the BTB update.

Game saves aren't fucked and bookmarking in theatre actually does something again.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I think enforced obedience through fear and threat of destruction is pretty cut-and-dry evil. You have heard of Joseph Stalin, yes?

Politics and incompetence were responsible for most of his killings. Different beast.

 

[RobNBanks]

I am the kind of person with a very low tolerance for bullshit. '

Don't flatter yourself. This doesn't describe you at all.

You're still here.
You're still crying.

A real person with low tolerance would have been done with the game. I know people who are trying/have sold their Xbox already because of H5. Those are people with low tolerance for BS.

not complaining in the thread every day about warzone bosses

 

[Zeta Oni]

I think enforced obedience through fear and threat of destruction is pretty cut-and-dry evil. You have heard of Joseph Stalin, yes?

Spoiler

Comparing cortana to Stalin is a bit early, right?

And she has a point, regardless. She has seen the worst of humanity and every other species they interact with. She knows the entire history of each and every species.

If the conclusion she reaches is that the only way to bring "peace" is through force, then I dare say she might actually be right.

Double so if Halo 6 sees the flood return, because that lack of "peace" is what let the flood destroy almost every thing last time.

 

[The Antitype]

Politics and incompetence were responsible for most of his killings. Different beast.

The point was not the killings he carried out. The point was all the people living under him, who lived in fear of being killed if they did not obey.

Spoiler

No better than what Cortana is doing with the Guardians.

 

[Speedy Blue Dude]

I hate losing because I'm a winner and winning is for winners and losing is for losers and I'm not a loser I'm a winner.

Spoiler

jokes

 

[arimanius]

Frankie, please bring back daily and weekly challenges from Halo 4

Would love if they did that. Need some more pve content too.

 

[The Antitype]

Don't flatter yourself. This doesn't describe you at all.

You're still here.
You're still crying.

A real person with low tolerance would have been done with the game. I know people who are trying/have sold their Xbox already because of H5. Those are people with low tolerance for BS.

not complaining in the thread every day about warzone bosses

Why would I sell my Xbox because of Halo 5. There are other great games on the Xbox One.

I haven't given up on Halo. I've said again and again that I think the shooting and movement mechanics are fantastic, minus the deadzone on the sticks that are supposedly going to get fixed.

In the mean time, I still love Halo as a whole. 1, 2 3, ODST, Reach, theres untold hours of investment in this franchise. I would like to have fun with Halo 5 again eventually, once the clear flaws are addressed and the profound, embarrassing lack of content is addressed.

 

[op_ivy]

Spoiler

The thing is, the rampancy trait is delusions of godhood. Cortana doesn't have delusions of godhood. She's the smartest person in the galaxy by a fair margin (well, the smartest who isn't Mendicant Bias or Offensive Bias, maybe), she commands an entirely unstoppable fleet of ridiculous powerful Forerunner constructs, she's tied into literally everybody's systems so she knows everything that's been recorded digitally, and she's effectively immortal. Godhood is less a delusion and more a reasonable aspiration to her at this point.

I think the "she's totally still rampant" theory is missing the mark by a wide margin. Cortana experienced a dramatic change in circumstances and ability. You know how winning the lottery tends to change people? Imagine if instead of getting X million dollars, winning the lottery made you president of the wold forever.

Yeah.

Spoiler

ok, so her powers are literally godlike. still, fits rampancy in that, as you point out, she is now operating on an entirely other level. a bit like durandal in marathon. i think we are splitting hairs with a label, but both saying ultimately the same thing.

 

[op_ivy]

Frankie, please bring back daily and weekly challenges from Halo 4

this. would be a nice bonus for xp or req points