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Halo |OT13|

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Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
:lol

You couldn't be more wrong, which is some feat.

I'd actually put a server browser alongside things like emblem customisation, as a nice luxury to have, but in terms of prioritising, it's not what's going to make Halo play like Halo again. Nor is it going to improve the competitive experience. And I don't mean 'competitive' as in the high level, upper echelons of players, I mean in terms of casual players matching with casual players, instead of dropping into a game with experienced players who're just going to destroy them.

Server browsers do afford many novel things; as I said I used to play PC games almost exclusively in the early noughties, so I've experienced them. They allow sub-communities of players to develop, and they also offer these communities the ability to tailor the game to their preference. These things would be nice in Halo, especially for custom games, but you're making a far bigger deal out of this than it really deserves. Learn to walk before you can run, get the standard matchmaking experience in place before you throw this feature in.

It also needs pointing out that a ranking system as we know it in the franchise wouldn't work with a server browser, thus making it very much a social experience. If players aren't matched on skill, you can't rank them on skill, and have to stick to an experience system like we already have (something that's very much an issue).

Look at Starcraft 2, or DOTA 2, do they predominantly use server browsers to facilitate multiplayer activity? No.

A+ post.

Also, I firmly believe that if StarCraft 2 and Dota 2 did NOT have the matchmaking it has, it would hurt the experience.
 

Overdoziz

Banned
I still think having matchmaking alongside a way to set up your own online custom lobbies would be amazing. Especially for a game with so many different kinds of gametypes and maps like Halo.
 

Dirtbag

Member
give me matchmaking over server browsing any day of the week. I can't believe in 2012 people still want server browsing in console games.

Rotating opponents and ranking, or setup custom games.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
I still think having matchmaking alongside a way to set up your own custom lobbies would be amazing. Especially for a game with so many different kinds of gametypes and maps like Halo.

Agreed.

There were a lot of times in Halo 3 and Reach where the new MLG settings would be released but matchmaking wouldn't update until the next month. I always hated playing on the old settings when I knew there were new settings out. While I could definitely spend the time to find custom games on forums or twitter, it would have been much easier to just search threw lobbies to find MLG customs. Would have been great in the Halo 2 days with MLG FFA.

If I had to choose though, it would be matchmaking 100%. It's just so nice and easy to get your friend in a party and then join matchmaking.
 

Conor 419

Banned
You couldn't be more wrong, which is some feat.

I could, I could have made the following post.

I'd actually put a server browser alongside things like emblem customisation, as a nice luxury to have, but in terms of prioritising, it's not what's going to make Halo play like Halo again.

Yeah, you're totally right, but I'm assuming Halo 5 being a good Halo game is a given. I'd rather that the ultimate goal for 2015/16 Halo isn't to bring the series up to scratch with 2007, as believe it or not, Halo 4's goal was to recalibrate the series in respect to Reach. So whilst we got a title that was closer to Halo 3 in terms of 'Haloness', we gained absolutely nothing else which would move the IP forward except Spartan Op's, which turned out to be a complete fucking disaster. Meanwhile CoD continues to boast a wealth of new features, despite having kept its core gameplay pretty much the same. If we go into Halo 5 with the exclusive hope that it'll play like a Halo game again, and not that it'll feature anything that could genuinely improve Halo across the board (server browser), the state of the series will grow even worse.

Nor is it going to improve the competitive experience. And I don't mean 'competitive' as in the high level, upper echelons of players, I mean in terms of casual players matching with casual players, instead of dropping into a game with experienced players who're just going to destroy them.

How will it not? If you get destroyed, you leave and join a noob server. That's how server browsing has worked for the last 20 years, and it has worked.

Server browsers do afford many novel things; as I said I used to play PC games almost exclusively in the early noughties, so I've experienced them. They allow sub-communities of players to develop, and they also offer these communities the ability to tailor the game to their preference. These things would be nice in Halo, especially for custom games, but you're making a far bigger deal out of this than it really deserves.

The progressive loss of customisation in this series is a very big deal. The original trilogy thrived on it.

It also needs pointing out that a ranking system as we know it in the franchise wouldn't work with a server browser, thus making it very much a social experience. If players aren't matched on skill, you can't rank them on skill, and have to stick to an experience system like we already have (something that's very much an issue).

Non issue, you can either

A| Not have a ranking system and join servers exclusively for experienced players.
or
B| Have ranked matchmaking work in conjunction with a social server browser?

I mean, wrt A, I've always been under the impression that people want a visual ranking system, not because they give much of a shit about comparing stats, but more because they're happy with the knowledge that they're being matched against similarly leveled players, which gives better match quality.
 

Kuroyume

Banned
This is a stupid argument. Halo should have a server browser. Whether it's a priority or not depends on your viewpoint. You'll have to agree to disagree.
 

Louis Wu

Member
I know a bunch of you don't ever visit HBO, so I figured I'd drop this here, too:

halo4_wine.jpg

Gonna call the vineyard Monday to ask about a good time for opening this sucker. :)
 
Idea for Halo 5 War Games

War Games
-> opens to tree of three
Multiplayer
Forge
Theater

Multiplayer
-> opens to tree of three
Matchmaking
Custom Games
Match Browser

Matchmaking:
-Competitive
-Infinity
-Rec Room (one rotational Action Sack playlist as well as occasional DLC playlists)

Custom Games:
Create Game
Join Game
Quickmatch

Match Browser is a universal custom game browser.

Creating a game would function like normal. The only difference would be privacy options in a tab above the gametype settings.
Show in Browser: YES / NO / FRIENDS ONLY
Privacy: Open / Friends Only / Invite Only / Private ("Party Leader Invite Only")
Join-In-Progress: YES / NO / RESTRICTED
(Restricted prevents people from joining when a team is either halfway to victory, or when the time is halfway up.)
Max Players: 1-16
Minimum Players: Unchanged-16

Join Game would open a custom game browser that allows you to see servers that are being hosted by your friends, or being played by your friends.

Quickmatch would randomly pop you into a custom game match.

Competitive Matchmaking is Ranked, Infinity is social, and Rec Room is only one or two playlists. The plus of this is that it would allow matchmaking playlists to be heavily specific and few in number so playlists aren't fragmented; more extraneous stuff like Grifball would probably be plentiful in the custom game browser so it wouldn't need a matchmade playlist.
 

Kuroyume

Banned
Where's our bottle of whine? Years and years of supporting Halo. Giving support to good old 343. And what do we get? Ridicule. Spit on. No respect.
 
I still think having matchmaking alongside a way to set up your own online custom lobbies would be amazing. Especially for a game with so many different kinds of gametypes and maps like Halo.

I agree, that would be the ideal way going forward, I don't think it's a priority for console only devs though unfortunately. CS: GO on PC did this, and it was pretty nice.

Open it when the big patch comes out;)

It'd be over-aged then.
 
It's a leap to suggest that a 'classic' Halo game would have sold more of had a higher population than Reach did. Halo 3 was significantly behind COD4 by the end of 2008 (1 year post release) and continued dropping precipitously when MW2 came out. It was clear at that point we were witnessing the rise of one phenomenon and the decline of another, for no other reason than people were ready for something different.

The fact was, Reach (or whatever hypothetical Halo game released in it's place in 2010), was going up against a brand at the height of it's power, and it wasn't going to have the population numbers that Halo was used to.

It's an even bigger leap to suggest that Reach was an attempt to take COD's fanbase since Reach and COD have almost nothing in common. Longer kill times, the only class customization is one armor ability (all of which are available without any leveling), weapons spawn on the map, leveling system is for aesthetics only, ranking system is tied to both matches played AND skill tiers, etc.

Halo 4 is a clear attempt at drinking COD's milkshake, yes, not Reach.

COD4 did not kill Halo 3. If I had a dollar for every time I see this posted in here I'd be rich. Look at the XBL activity charts, Halo 3 was the most played game on Xbox Live in October of 2009, one month before Modern Warfare 2 was about to release. Halo's decline began with Reach, which turned away a lot of Halo fans. Halo 4 is doing an awesome job of eliminating many of those remaining fans.
 

Arnie

Member
Yeah, you're totally right, but I'm assuming Halo 5 being a good Halo game is a given. I'd rather that the ultimate goal for 2015/16 Halo isn't to bring the series up to scratch with 2007, as believe it or not, Halo 4's goal was to recalibrate the series in respect to Reach. So whilst we got a title that was closer to Halo 3 in terms of 'Haloness', we gained absolutely nothing else which would move the IP forward except Spartan Op's, which turned out to be a complete fucking disaster. Meanwhile CoD continues to boast a wealth of new features, despite having kept its core gameplay pretty much the same. If we go into Halo 5 with the exclusive hope that it'll play like a Halo game again, and not that it'll feature anything that could genuinely improve Halo across the board (server browser), the state of the series will grow even worse.

Firstly, you can't expect the bolded, you just can't. 343 have done little to assuage the sense that the franchise isn't in stable hands, so assuming Halo 5 is going to be killer is a little over optimistic from where I'm sitting.

Secondly, as I said in the previous post, it's about walking before you can run. 343 didn't get the matchmaking experience right this time, it needs hefty work, both in the UI, the way it matches players and demonstrates why it's putting said players together, and the way in which it groups players; as Wahrer has posted on this page, a distinction between War Games and Ranked playlists would work wonders. War Games could be a social environment that focusses on the individual, and Ranked could be a competitive environment that focusses on leveraging teamwork with a common goal, that goal being an overall, unified ranking system.

I agree that Spartan Ops fell flat on its face, and I'd concur that it was the only feature introduced in Halo 4 that even threatened to shift a paradigm. However, in terms of pushing the envelope for Halo 5, I don't think a server browser is popular enough within Halo players and console gamers in general to generate the buzz you're talking about, and renovating that sense of Halo being a driving force of originality within the genre.

What I'd rather they focussed on, alongside a sublime matchmaking system on a par with Starcraft, or DOTA 2, or League of Legends, is to push the envelope with Theatre, and Forge in a genuinely exciting way. Terrain deformation, video editing capabilities, push to Youtube, etc. I believe that those features should take priority over a server browser because a wider portion of the community will feel their effects, and take advantage of them.

What I'm talking about is adding new features to the franchise, what you're talking about is making it easier to accumulate a group of players to join customs.

How will it not? If you get destroyed, you leave and join a noob server. That's how server browsing has worked for the last 20 years, and it has worked.

An understandable suggestion, but a naive one, too.

Believe it or not, players don't like accepting that they're shit. They don't relish sitting in a baby seat, or strapping on a bib to eat. If dropping into games and getting destroyed almost immediately doesn't frustrate them to the point of abandoning the game altogether, asking them to play in a server titled 'Shit Players Only' will push them over the edge.



The progressive loss of customisation in this series is a very big deal. The original trilogy thrived on it.

But the original trilogy didn't have a server browser either, so why's it suddenly imperative (which is how you're suggesting it) to build one?

This is a stupid argument. Halo should have a server browser. Whether it's a priority or not depends on your viewpoint. You'll have to agree to disagree.

Nobody disagrees that in a perfect world it should, we're debating our reasons for why it should be prioritised either higher, or lower.

If Halo 4 taught us anything it's that 343 are a limited resource, they can't create and polish everything, they struggled massively with Halo 4. I'm arguing that demanding a server browser perhaps isn't the wisest move in terms of putting the franchise back on track.
 
Was driving around in the highway part of "Coastal Highway" and I got too near a Brute and he boarded me and threw me out of the Warthog. Another one proceeded to do the same to Buck. Had to scramble to fight them off on foot.

Nothing extraordinary in the context of Halo AI, but it's still cool to see it happen.
 
343s resolution: Really get to work and not outsource something to another company.

Its possibly a 2year resolution though as its a pretty lofty goal.
 

reggie

Banned
PD was amazing for its time, but c'mon.

It still is, though. The 360 port is amazing. 1080p, 60fps, high res textures, still the same old awesome game.

To be honest I posted PD just be contrary, but I honestly couldn't pick between Halo 1 or PD, both are equally just as good.
 
Was driving around in the highway part of "Coastal Highway" and I got too near a Brute that boarded me, threw me out of the Warthog. Another one proceeded to do the same to Buck.

Nothing extraordinary in the context of Halo AI, but it's still cool to see it happen.

I don't ever remember it happening to me.
 

Fuchsdh

Member

Fun fact: that's my crappy Photoshop of the Halo cover for Wikipedia, with the "Rated M" removed from the corner. There has and never will be a box that looks like that.


And that's a bad thing?

Not necessarily. You quickly get used to the movement one way or another. But I do think that Halo 4 was successful in giving the Chief more "heft". That was what they set out to do, and I've never really felt like I could get out of the way like in Reach, so I think it was a success.
 
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