• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Halo 5: Guardians |OT2| All Hail The Conquering Hero

Status
Not open for further replies.
One of the UI artists from 343 posted them to ArtStation. I LOVE how this looks. You can tell how early this was, Tanaka and Vale have the same armour and Buck is still Thorne!

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BaL9z

Check out the post-game carnage report and medal list and stuff. Why didn't this make it into the game? This looks sleek and feels "next-gen" in a way that the current one feels like the mock up.

I'm dying inside. These look so much better than what's currently in the game. Even the character models looks so much better.
 

jem0208

Member
Pistols fine in its ttk. I'd put a few more bullets in the mag.
I don't think it's quite good enough against the BR, it's far more difficult to shoot and the TTK is about the same. Unless you get a perfect kill, 9 times out of 10 a BR user will win if they're a reasonable shot. I'm not suggesting knocking it down to a 4 shot or anything, just increase the fire rate slightly so you've got a better chance against the BR.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
One of the UI artists from 343 posted them to ArtStation. I LOVE how this looks. You can tell how early this was, Tanaka and Vale have the same armour and Buck is still Thorne!

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BaL9z

Check out the post-game carnage report and medal list and stuff. Why didn't this make it into the game? This looks sleek and feels "next-gen" in a way that the current one feels like the mock up.

I'd take Tanaka wearing near-identical armor to Vale as opposed to what she got. Tanaka and Fred both got the short end of the MJOLNIR stick.

(Also whenever I see the piping on her armor it makes me think of heatsinks and copper tubing on my electronics.)
 
Pistol definitely needs a .1 second reduction in time to kill. Hardest gun to use in the game, you should be able to beat a BR if you get a perfect 5.
 

arimanius

Member
One of the UI artists from 343 posted them to ArtStation. I LOVE how this looks. You can tell how early this was, Tanaka and Vale have the same armour and Buck is still Thorne!

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BaL9z

Check out the post-game carnage report and medal list and stuff. Why didn't this make it into the game? This looks sleek and feels "next-gen" in a way that the current one feels like the mock up.

Holy shit these are awesome. Wtf happened? These are 1000% better than the bare bones stuff we got.
 

BraXzy

Member
Holy shit these are awesome. Wtf happened? These are 1000% better than the bare bones stuff we got.

I'm hoping the UI tweaks mentioned in the community updates equates to moving back to something similar. At least with all the info it provides compared to the barebones report we get now. Even if the visual appearance doesn't change.
 
And yet I frequently have excellent matches. In fact, most of them are pretty good, with the odd stomp either way. What gives? Let me in on the secret!

I wish I knew what you were doing and I what I wasn't (or vice versa), because I'm quite confident your experience would make my time with Halo 5 much more enjoyable.

Things started fine. Out of the gate I got put into Platinum and most of the matches were close and competitive. Over the last two weeks or so, I've been losing 70-80% of my matches, often lop-sided, often against teams composed of combinations of Platinum and Diamond players, sometimes even Onyx players.

My KDA cratered from somewhere in the 3.0 range to somewhere in the 0.9 range, and it hasn't let up. The competition hasn't softened, the ranks I've been getting matched up with haven't changed, save the odd team of 4 that happens to include a gold player.

As an experiment, I started an alt account. Same settings on my elite controller, same settings in game, same player (me), still playing solo. Again placed into Platinum. Through 30 games, my KDA is in the 5.0 range. Obviously that's inflated and will fall, and I'll be interested to see when, how quickly, and if it craters to the same degree. But the 'git gud' argument falls flat when the same player, using the same settings, under the same conditions, placed in the same rank, can have wildly different experiences based purely on the disparity of who the game matches him with.
 

Strider

Member
1.0
 
Finished out bronze packs last night, I'm now getting REQ points instead of unlocks. time to move on to silver. This was a recent change in strategy for unlocking everything, I've already put a dent in silver/gold unlocks. I want to make sure Mk. V will be easily unlocked when it's added, which means unlocking everything else first. :p

I always thrust too far backwards to do ninjas in Halo 5. Such an example:
http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/Fata1moose/video/12594000
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Finished out bronze packs last night, I'm now getting REQ points instead of unlocks. time to move on to silver. This was a recent change in strategy for unlocking everything, I've already put a dent in silver/gold unlocks. I want to make sure Mk. V will be easily unlocked when it's added, which means unlocking everything else first. :p

I always thrust too far backwards to do ninjas in Halo 5. Such an example:
http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/Fata1moose/video/12594000

Yeah I'm not good at predicting it. Usually I just give my opponents an airsassination.
 

arimanius

Member
I'm hoping the UI tweaks mentioned in the community updates equates to moving back to something similar. At least with all the info it provides compared to the barebones report we get now. Even if the visual appearance doesn't change.

God I hope so. Just getting half of that would be such a major improvement.
 

Welfare

Member
One thing that definitely needs to change about the UI is how you see armor. I do not care when I unlocked a piece, I care about alphabetical order as well the same armor pieces being next to each other so it is easy to see the differences in the different types.

Halo Reach had it right. With so many different skins, there needs to be a master list of all the base armor pieces with sub menus showing the different skins. How it's ordered now is a mess.
 

BraXzy

Member
Are there any communities that run grassroots tournaments for Halo 5? Can't seem to find much out there.

I've seen a few run through TeamBeyond and MLG, small ones that have Astro's and such as prizes. The majority of them are used as official scrims for the top tier teams though :3
 

Sordid

Member
I love you guys and Halo. But please. Fix the dam lag.

EU servers..

Sorry for the complaints..

I know how you feel! Don't think a server fix/server choice is happening though:( they must be aware of the issues by now and they haven't said anything. If anything I'm getting even less EU servers than I was before.

That being said, I still love the game though. It's so satisfying when it clicks. Would love some Firefight/additional gamemodes in amongst more EU servers, it could really do with being fleshed out.
 

Blueblur1

Member
One of the UI artists from 343 posted them to ArtStation. I LOVE how this looks. You can tell how early this was, Tanaka and Vale have the same armour and Buck is still Thorne!

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/BaL9z

Check out the post-game carnage report and medal list and stuff. Why didn't this make it into the game? This looks sleek and feels "next-gen" in a way that the current one feels like the mock up.

That UI looks really slick and there's way more player data too (but not in the post-game carnage report). Even the medals look better than what's in the game right now [midmatch].

I really hope they work on the current UI and start giving us additional data in-game.
 
Suggestions for improving Halo 5

Controls

- Address deadzones and stick acceleration (apparently we're getting this, and possibly horizontal/vertical tuning too, so good on 343i)

- Double bonus points if we can set a separate sensitivity for free-aim and ADS (so, for example, I usually run a 3, when I zoom in with the DMR, drop it to 2 for precision aiming)



Playlists

- Please, for the love of all that is holy, give us social playlists. Hell, you could just start with two: Team Social and Big Team Social. Throw literally every gametype and map in there. You'd have to improve on it obviously, but even a start is better than nothing.

- Lone Wolves playlist if possible. I understand the fear that doing so may hurt the population of the Team Slayer and Team Arena playlists and impact matchmaking times.

- Take Breakout OUT of Team Arena. This mode already has a playlist for those who enjoy it. Personally, I would put Breakout and SWAT together in one 'quick kill' playlist. I feel like those two modes, with their shortened TTK and campier, twitchier gameplay have more in common than Breakout does with the other modes in Team Arena.

- Team Objective playlist. Add Oddball, KOTH, maybe even VIP, along with Strongholds and CTF. If you're worried about population, then jack up the rewards for this playlist. Give it double or triple the REQ and EXP payout per match as the other playlists. These matches tend to take longer and require more teamwork anyway.



Matchmaking

- Halo used to make it so easy for people to party up in a lobby after a match if they found they liked playing with each other. All you had to do was stick around, and the game would keep you together as it found other people to fill the gaps. It seems ridiculous that in 2015, everybody is immediately booted back to the matchmaking lobby to start the match search again. This alone would probably help the problem of solo players getting matched against teams a little bit.

- Make Spartan Companies more prominent and integrated IN GAME. It's crazy that we have to go to HaloWaypoint to join Spartan Companies, or dig through the friends list profiles to even see who is in a Spartan Company, and which ones. Let me search through Spartan Companies to join IN GAME, with member lists and stats as far as games played, in what modes, etc. Let me sort my friends list by Spartan Companies so I can see which ones are most active. Even the most basic clan feature set from the PREVIOUS generation would be a huge upgrade for Halo 5.

- The entire matchmaking UI needs an overhaul. It's so barebones and uninformative, both pre-game and post-game. Pre-game, we get a collection of emblems without any idea who they belong too. In Reach you could easily get a look at everybody in the game, get an idea of their relative experience, and see their armor loadout. Post game, show us the fun stuff like medals, the players that got the best/most in each medal category, etc.

- Give players some indication of when they're approaching the next rank, or about to fall a rank. The up/green and down/red is pretty vague and unappealing. Even if you wait till they're 3 matches away to give them a countdown '3 more matches to next rank!' that would be cool.

- Make the matchmaking more transparent, less obtuse. Right now I'm a Platinum and have no idea what that means anymore, since I'm getting matched up Diamonds half the time, and getting my ass kicked most of the time. If CSR is supposed to indicate wins or win percentage, and MMR is more concerned with skill and KDA, then that has to be made clearer somehow. Cause right now, you've got one front-facing rank, a backend rank, and half the time they seem to be in conflict.


Additional Features and Tweaks

- Let people hide their stats. There's literally no downside to an opt-out for broadcasting your K/D or W/L, while still using all the backend stats for matchmaking purposes. The player themselves would still always be able to see their K/D and W/L and work to improve them, they'd just have options like Public, Friends, Spartan Company, Private, etc. You've made Halo 5 a super competitive game. And the only element of persistence and progression outside Warzone REQs right now is the player's stat page. So players are quitting games like mad to try and preserve and enhance it. Let players hide it, work on their skills without having to broadcast where they are in their 'development' as a player, and then publicize it once they're proud or confident in the gains they've made. It's a simple, easy way to make people feel a little better about jumping in and getting their ass kicked as they learn the ropes.

- Add a PVE mode that lets players earn and use their REQ cards outside of Warzone. Firefight would be great.
 

Welfare

Member
A normal PVE mode has been a staple since ODST, so no Firefight/SO equivalent is a strange omission.

There are plenty of campaign spaces for Firefight, and the Warzone maps are perfect as well if you cut off the home bases.
 

E92 M3

Member
Suggestions for improving Halo 5

Controls

- Address deadzones and stick acceleration (apparently we're getting this, and possibly horizontal/vertical tuning too, so good on 343i)

- Double bonus points if we can set a separate sensitivity for free-aim and ADS (so, for example, I usually run a 3, when I zoom in with the DMR, drop it to 2 for precision aiming)



Playlists

- Please, for the love of all that is holy, give us social playlists. Hell, you could just start with two: Team Social and Big Team Social. Throw literally every gametype and map in there. You'd have to improve on it obviously, but even a start is better than nothing.

- Lone Wolves playlist if possible. I understand the fear that doing so may hurt the population of the Team Slayer and Team Arena playlists and impact matchmaking times.

- Take Breakout OUT of Team Arena. This mode already has a playlist for those who enjoy it. Personally, I would put Breakout and SWAT together in one 'quick kill' playlist. I feel like those two modes, with their shortened TTK and campier, twitchier gameplay have more in common than Breakout does with the other modes in Team Arena.

- Team Objective playlist. Add Oddball, KOTH, maybe even VIP, along with Strongholds and CTF. If you're worried about population, then jack up the rewards for this playlist. Give it double or triple the REQ and EXP payout per match as the other playlists. These matches tend to take longer and require more teamwork anyway.



Matchmaking

- Halo used to make it so easy for people to party up in a lobby after a match if they found they liked playing with each other. All you had to do was stick around, and the game would keep you together as it found other people to fill the gaps. It seems ridiculous that in 2015, everybody is immediately booted back to the matchmaking lobby to start the match search again. This alone would probably help the problem of solo players getting matched against teams a little bit.

- Make Spartan Companies more prominent and integrated IN GAME. It's crazy that we have to go to HaloWaypoint to join Spartan Companies, or dig through the friends list profiles to even see who is in a Spartan Company, and which ones. Let me search through Spartan Companies to join IN GAME, with member lists and stats as far as games played, in what modes, etc. Let me sort my friends list by Spartan Companies so I can see which ones are most active. Even the most basic clan feature set from the PREVIOUS generation would be a huge upgrade for Halo 5.

- The entire matchmaking UI needs an overhaul. It's so barebones and uninformative, both pre-game and post-game. Pre-game, we get a collection of emblems without any idea who they belong too. In Reach you could easily get a look at everybody in the game, get an idea of their relative experience, and see their armor loadout. Post game, show us the fun stuff like medals, the players that got the best/most in each medal category, etc.

- Give players some indication of when they're approaching the next rank, or about to fall a rank. The up/green and down/red is pretty vague and unappealing. Even if you wait till they're 3 matches away to give them a countdown '3 more matches to next rank!' that would be cool.

- Make the matchmaking more transparent, less obtuse. Right now I'm a Platinum and have no idea what that means anymore, since I'm getting matched up Diamonds half the time, and getting my ass kicked most of the time. If CSR is supposed to indicate wins or win percentage, and MMR is more concerned with skill and KDA, then that has to be made clearer somehow. Cause right now, you've got one front-facing rank, a backend rank, and half the time they seem to be in conflict.


Additional Features and Tweaks

- Let people hide their stats. There's literally no downside to an opt-out for broadcasting your K/D or W/L, while still using all the backend stats for matchmaking purposes. The player themselves would still always be able to see their K/D and W/L and work to improve them, they'd just have options like Public, Friends, Spartan Company, Private, etc. You've made Halo 5 a super competitive game. And the only element of persistence and progression outside Warzone REQs right now is the player's stat page. So players are quitting games like mad to try and preserve and enhance it. Let players hide it, work on their skills without having to broadcast where they are in their 'development' as a player, and then publicize it once they're proud or confident in the gains they've made. It's a simple, easy way to make people feel a little better about jumping in and getting their ass kicked as they learn the ropes.

- Add a PVE mode that lets players earn and use their REQ cards outside of Warzone. Firefight would be great.

Excellent suggestions, especially hiding stats. It would prevent a ton of quitting.
 
A

A More Normal Bird

Unconfirmed Member
I'd take Tanaka wearing near-identical armor to Vale as opposed to what she got. Tanaka and Fred both got the short end of the MJOLNIR stick.

(Also whenever I see the piping on her armor it makes me think of heatsinks and copper tubing on my electronics.)
Wow, I could not disagree more (except about the piping looking like heatsinks and tubing, which is true, and deliberate, and awesome). Tanaka's armour is a marriage between the white plastic 70s sci-fi style that Destiny leans on and Halo's more beefy, utilitarian style. If we're going to keep seeing more "futuristic" UNSC designs going forward, I'd much rather they look like Tanaka, the new Splaser and those frigates from Halo 4 than Super Spartan Sentai.

Fred looks like a slightly meaner Chief which is fine because that's pretty much what he is (although maybe his colours could've been a little less baby blue). That early concept art for him was bad-arse but too agressive imo, but having a visible knife (or two!) on his final design like Buck got would've been great. His helmet is my favourite in the game (looks great with the plated body of Helioskrill) and I'd love to see more classical elements to contrast the newer designs that the Spartan 4s mainly use; it's already there in the naming. Legionary doesn't count cos it's a bit weird looking ;)
 
I'll preface this post by saying two things: firstly, halo 5's gameplay is superb and the best MP Halo experience since H3. Secondly, I'm posting under the assumption that the game is performing relatively poorly judging by the tone of the posting in this thread. I haven't personally seen any hard data that H5 has under-performed in sales and player retention.

Reflecting on that Halo-Destiny article, it struck me just how difficult it is to make a single player Halo experience in 2015 particularly worthwhile. Consider other franchises that have been successful enough to thrive beyond a decade:

1) Mario. Same 'story' every game, reinvents platforming every 5-10 years then rests on its laurels for another 5-10.

2) Metal Gear Solid. Games 1 through 5 are connected but you're actually playing as different protagonists through each game (Big Boss, Solid Snake, Raiden). Series arguably peaked with 3.

3) Resident Evil. Relatively sensical storyline throughout the first 3 games then dives into absurdity thereafter.

4) Final Fantasy. Each entry gets to exist within its own universe and doesn't have to worry about continuity.

Having to invent new ways to keep the Halo narrative compelling and worthy of your interest is an unenviable task for 343. The fight was finished at the end of Halo 3 and the only reason it continues is because Halo continues to sell. I said a month or so before Halo 5 launched that the idea of playing through yet another Halo campaign in 2015 filled me with dread. I haven't even finished it yet. Halo campaigns have become so drearily predictable that they're essentially cut and paste jobs at this point. 8-12 levels, covie-forerunner/flood-brute level mix punctuated by the obligatory vehicle slog through the hoards. Separate cutscene for the story in between levels. Halo and its single player needs to do something radical to be even remotely relevant 15 years after its first campaign.

Another point to note about Halo's standing in 2015 is that you simply cannot treat your franchise's fans as poorly as Halo's fans have been since 2012 and not feel the ramifications of that down the line. I've seen so many posts in gaf threads explaining the so-called reasons for MCC's failure as if they are excuses for them. Calls for posters to be banned if they bring up MCC in pre-release Halo 5 threads as if the most recently released game by a studio is somehow not relevant. The fact is, The Master Chief Collection was a failure on a scale never seen before in video gaming history, an insult to consumers so gigantic it bled into the territory of hoodwinking and mass rip-off. That was a game I and many others purchased Microsoft's next generation of console for, not to mention repurchased Gold for, and it took them 6 months post launch to get it into a functional state. The actual in-game playlist and MM support for the game was nothing short of disgraceful for its entire lifespan. That this came after the joke of an affair that was Halo 4's multiplayer just extinguished many consumers faith in the brand from that point forward. If you've had your hands burnt twice taking a Halo game to the store counter in the recent past, you're gonna think twice before doing it again.

Thing is with Halo 5, the MP is actually supremely polished in its base mechanics and I want to see this game thrive for two years now. No supporting for 9 months then basic life support. Really push this fantastic engine and its mechanics into next year's fall like destiny's done with the taken king.

Still, there are elements of Halo 5's multiplayer suite which burningly frustrate. This:

So, 4 different times today I've been matched against 2 teams of 4, and we've gotten thoroughly thrashed in all 4. I also got matched against Scooby's team of 4 the other night.

I don't feel like this was happening much at all a few weeks ago. I need a playlist for solo play.

HAS to be addressed. I posted that the ranking system was essentially worthless whilst teams of four could play four randoms. In all of Bungie's online Halos there was party matching enabled in ranked playlists and the ability to see if the opposite team was partied up. 343 has disabled party matching in Halo 4, TMCC and now Halo 5 and it is a massive unaccounted for deterrent for solo players playing ranked now. 343 repeating the same, easily remedied mistakes. Which leads me to...

The UI. Sometimes, it feels like 343 is contractually obliged to fudge one element of the game for every element it corrects or improves. So they add great new stats like total damage dealt and accuracy rate. They then undermine this good work by inexplicably omitting the medals screen, the killed most/killed most by screen, the tool of destruction stat and the simple +/- KD stat. Not only do they remove these Halo staples but they relegate the post game carnage report to a third of the screen in the bottom right hand corner and force the player to scroll down to see the losing team's stats. Compare that approach with this:

game03b.jpg


Clear, bold, colourful and instantly readable, it relays all of the vital information immediately then offers a more detailed, personalised report if one clicks on an individual player. I'd urge 343 to be serious and proactive about their commitment to halo and patch the UI. After a match now a third of my screen is taken up by a useless image a spartan, another third is wasted on req/commendation guff and then the all important carnage report is sloping off the edge of the screen down the bottom.

Also, the req pack idea was a decent one in terms of rng addictiveness but I think the whole thing could be presented better. Why not have a Final Fantasy 10 style sphere grid where you earn different rng drops after each game and you unlock spheres as uncommon items on a gargantuan grid which can be zoomed out. Would be more addictive and visually grindy than simply opening packs.
 
- Make Spartan Companies more prominent and integrated IN GAME. It's crazy that we have to go to HaloWaypoint to join Spartan Companies, or dig through the friends list profiles to even see who is in a Spartan Company, and which ones. Let me search through Spartan Companies to join IN GAME, with member lists and stats as far as games played, in what modes, etc. Let me sort my friends list by Spartan Companies so I can see which ones are most active. Even the most basic clan feature set from the PREVIOUS generation would be a huge upgrade for Halo 5.

Whoa. I totally forgot about Spartan Companies. No wonder given that it has no in-game support.
 

singhr1

Member
I kind of like the carnage report showing off player's Spartan. There is so much investment with the REQ system for getting good armor and skins that having them visible when you go over someone's GT is great because during the game I probably won't notice someone's cool armor or helmet. They need to implement the Spartan's stance there too, though.

I love your point about how H3's UI was clear, bold, and visible. In many ways H5 is that, especially compared to H4. For those who are saying the concept UI's are "far better" than what we have now is crazy (outside of the more stats/medals, those need to return). The concept ones are far to reminiscent of H4 in which you can pretty up the UI a lot but functionally and visually it's really busy and distracting.
 

Ramirez

Member
I got the Plasma Caster pack & SAW pack today, I seriously wonder if I'm like one of the only people who have the PC pack, that weapon is such garbage. Even the tier 2 & 3 versions in WZ don't feel like power weapons, lol.
 

Hatchtag

Banned
Anyone else really want more Warzone gametypes? Like Warzone capture the flag would be fun as hell. Lot more fun than the default mode.
 
Damn BTB is so much fun. Love the matches I get into, and I don't seem to have a huge problem with quitters. Think I had one match with quitters this evening, and we still won down 2 players.
 
I got the Plasma Caster pack & SAW pack today, I seriously wonder if I'm like one of the only people who have the PC pack, that weapon is such garbage. Even the tier 2 & 3 versions in WZ don't feel like power weapons, lol.

I think I have it, but honestly I don't think I've ever spawned one in Warzone.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom