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Halo |OT14| They call it Halo

Karl2177

Member
Systems Designer

343 Industries, Microsoft's internal Halo studio, is looking for an experienced Systems Designer who can design and build gameplay systems for our next big project.

We are looking for an agile and collaborative individual who has a passion for games, Halo, and trying new things. This is your chance to join one of the most talented teams in the industry!

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Work with the Lead Designer to understand the vision of the product and design gameplay systems that bring it to life
Work across disciplines to ensure the systems design vision has the support it needs
Use internal development tools and scripting systems to develop gameplay systems and experiences
Participate in creative discussions, offer helpful critique, and provide your own compelling ideas
Identify needs and inefficiencies with the engine, tools and overall process to improve quality and iteration of design
Develop testing plans for your designs to ensure proper feedback, iteration and polish

QUALIFICATIONS:
High school diploma or GED required, AA/BA/BS preferred
Five years of industry experience
At least one AAA title shipped as a systems designer or equivalent

Demonstrable system designs in shipped products that you can discuss
Very experienced with game content creation tools (Unreal, Radiant, Starcraft editor, etc.)
Great communication skills; comfortable working in a very communicative and passionate team environment
Rabid Halo fan - be prepared to demonstrate that you've played all of the games and thought a lot about the franchise

I swear these numbers only go up. Last time I looked at most companies' requirements, these were preferred. Now it's required? Oh you don't have a AAA title shipped. Good luck getting in the industry.
 
I swear these numbers only go up. Last time I looked at most companies' requirements, these were preferred. Now it's required? Oh you don't have a AAA title shipped. Good luck getting in the industry.
Eh... when you have a company that has an almost open wallet, they're allowed to be as picky as they want.
There's a difference between getting a start in the industry and joining the biggest first team that Xbox has.
 
Yea I hate when people use glitches and cheating as a point arguing against Halo 2. It was so early in Xbox Live they didnt have the means to prevent all that stuff. The game itself was still much better when it was being played correctly.
Yeah it's a product of the times, I don't fault the game for that. I compare the gameplay design and how it actually plays as intended.

My Halo 5 on-disc map wishlist:

15 maps.
Stopped right there, snowball's chance in hell.

I swear these numbers only go up. Last time I looked at most companies' requirements, these were preferred. Now it's required? Oh you don't have a AAA title shipped. Good luck getting in the industry.

Yeah if you want to be a designer/engineer for a game developer, you pretty much have to cut your teeth for a "lesser" developer for a lack of a better word in order to get the chance to work for one of the developers making the biggest and best AAA games.

Obviously there are exceptions, we even meet a 343 guy at PAX (a software engineer) that starting work there on Halo 4 straight out of college.

---------------------------

And now, because HaloGAF will find this supremely entertaining, Bungie even releases patch notes for their website.
 

Havok

Member
Wow, Abandon feels pretty unbalanced for Flag.
If they took out all the asymmetric maps from the CTF playlist, there would only be Adrift and Harvest left. It's a strange problem to have when they should know what gametypes they're developing maps for.
 

CyReN

Member
Wow, Abandon feels pretty unbalanced for Flag.


CTF is just not good, that's what happens when you do things just for the sake of change. They probably ran into the issues of people getting spoints for picking up the flag over and over again but instead of solving that dilemma someone thought it would be cool to hold the flag and the bastard idea was born.
 

789shadow

Banned
new page



So my friend over at SomethingAwful.com created this website: http://halocustoms.com/, which is a pretty useful place to arrange custom games quickly or plan sessions ahead of time with like-minded players. It has a small user base since it was just released, but has already shown to do exactly what it's intended for pretty well. My friend had at least one map put into MM for Halo: Reach and is an active member of Forge Hub and other nerd webpages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QkSa...layer_embedded
Looks cool
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I've been struggling with this as well. I mean I guess it makes sense since you're an ODST and you're weaker than a spartan, but with the scale and proportions the way they are, it feels like an ordinary human should be able to throw a bit farther.

Oddly enough, I seem to be better at sticking enemies in ODST.

Yay subjective validation!

Also, Sam avatar = win. What movie is that?
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Never. No company will ever admit it was wrong.

Bungie came down hard on themselves for Halo 2--to the point that I think they treated some of their successes as failures (gimping the Arbiter/Covenant storyline in Halo 3.)

Time certainly gives people space to talk more honestly about things. But game development is certainly a hard business to be honest.
 
Bungie came down hard on themselves for Halo 2--to the point that I think they treated some of their successes as failures (gimping the Arbiter/Covenant storyline in Halo 3.)

Time certainly gives people space to talk more honestly about things. But game development is certainly a hard business to be honest.


It was really refreshing to hear those stories. I absolutely love honest developer post mortems.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
It was really refreshing to hear those stories. I absolutely love honest developer post mortems.

Saber did a pretty good one in GD for Anniversary. Unsurprisingly, the bad lip sync was a result of motion capturing without properly reviewing the data. Pretty much screwed the pooch on that one, which was a shame--goofy Halo aside most of the revised visuals were pretty top-notch.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
CTF is just not good, that's what happens when you do things just for the sake of change. They probably ran into the issues of people getting spoints for picking up the flag over and over again but instead of solving that dilemma someone thought it would be cool to hold the flag and the bastard idea was born.

I actually really like the new CTF. I think the old style is better but this is still really good.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
I wonder if there will be a Halo game bundled with the new Xbox. Not Halo 5, but a spinoff game like ODST or Reach.

I would not consider Reach a spin off. Also I doubt it the earliest I think we will see a new Halo game on the new Xbox will be in 2014 with (hopefully) Halo 2 HD and then the year after that have Halo 5.
 
I actually really like the new CTF. I think the old style is better but this is still really good.

So you like the old way better, you should instead phrase your post like this:

"I like the old way better than the new way"

To sound more salty. Based off your limited amount of CTF games, cause lets be honest who the hell plays CTF? Its bad compared to what it used to be...

5v5...who is the ad wizard who came up with that one...that goes for all objective. Objective is 4v4, every Halo player knows that.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I actually really like the new CTF. I think the old style is better but this is still really good.

I like it too, although I would have rather had the carrier dedicated to holding the flag (and given full movement options) instead of pulling a magnum out of the aether.
 
I would not consider Reach a spin off. Also I doubt it the earliest I think we will see a new Halo game on the new Xbox will be in 2014 with (hopefully) Halo 2 HD and then the year after that have Halo 5.

Yeah, I mean Halo 3 came out almost 2 years after the Xbox 360 launched. If the console launch is this year, then a Halo 2 HD in 2014 and Halo 5 in 2015 makes sense. I wonder if there will be a Halo title developed for the NextBox launch... Also, will Halo 5 be on the 360 as well? Halo 4 was announced as the start of a trilogy for Xbox 360. I think Microsoft might have plans to sustain with the 360 for awhile as well.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
So you like the old way better, you should instead phrase your post like this:

"I like the old way better than the new way"

To sound more salty. Based off your limited amount of CTF games, cause lets be honest who the hell plays CTF? Its bad compared to what it used to be...

5v5...who is the ad wizard who came up with that one...that goes for all objective. Objective is 4v4, every Halo player knows that.

I'll put it this way. It's not as good as Halo 3 and earlier. But it's better than Halo Reach. Talking stock matchmaking gametypes here, not MLG.
 
What's wrong with ten players for objective games?

Objective used to be a little more methodical. Like finding all their players, getting them 3-4 man down and then compromising their field of play and taking their objective followed up by a strategic setup to pull the objective or secure a bomb plant.

Meanwhile on top of that they have respawn timers not working properly, with sprinters/jetpackers able to get to where they need to get to quickly, it becomes a much more chaotic frantic mess of who gets better location spawnage.

We have several examples of teams who all went neg while our team went completely positive but were able to hold the ball more...because respawn timer stunk, and they got better spawns. Even though we were clearly the superior team.

Also spawn sides are still funky. Which doesn't allow much team suppression and tactical positioning.

Still MLG is the only people to correctly understand the weighting of slaying in objective gametypes, if Bungie/343 had it their way everyone would be rushing Oddball in Sword Base for all of eternity only for us to get all those delicious kills.
 

Overdoziz

Banned
Objective used to be a little more methodical. Like finding all their players, getting them 3-4 man down and then compromising their field of play and taking their objective followed up by a strategic setup to pull the objective or secure a bomb plant.

Meanwhile on top of that they have respawn timers not working properly, with sprinters/jetpackers able to get to where they need to get to quickly, it becomes a much more chaotic frantic mess of who gets better location spawnage.

We have several examples of teams who all went neg while our team went completely positive but were able to hold the ball more...because respawn timer stunk, and they got better spawns. Even though we were clearly the superior team.

Also spawn sides are still funky. Which doesn't allow much team suppression and tactical positioning.

Still MLG is the only people to correctly understand the weighting of slaying in objective gametypes, if Bungie/343 had it their way everyone would be rushing Oddball in Sword Base for all of eternity only for us to get all those delicious kills.
People give MLG a lot of shit, but they know their way around objective maps and gametypes.
 
Next CTF should allow flag dropping with the switch weapons button and slow people down to previous games' carrier speeds. But you also get a Halo CE pistol with slightly nerfed range in solid gold.
 
On the objective discussion...

Over all Halo games I've never moved to play the MLG settings when discussing objective specifically. I understand many of you prefer that style of play and I fully understand the teamwork and practice involved for MLG objective.

Do I want to play that when I get on matchmaking? No

Why?

1. I don't want to organise my regular team of 4 or 5 players every time I play. I always compete to win but I'm not into having the same strategies and/or teammates every game I play.

2. I don't want the same experience every time I play. For me MLG objective is a small selection of maps, gametypes, sandbox and therefore experiences. I like the variety objective has throughout all Halo games. If you look at MLG objective over all the Halo games you'll understand my perspective here of far lesser experience variety.

3. I like vehicles, asymmetrical maps and more from the default sandbox with respect to objective.


I do prefer Halo 2 or 3 objective maps/gametypes/settings over Halo 4 but I've been enjoying CTF in Halo 4 all the same. There is still plenty of timing and skill in there but not as great as the previous objective. I do commend the changes for bringing back population to objective but that could just be the new smell of Halo 4 doing that all the same. Once again playlists provide the segmentation required here, MLG playlist is probably happy with some voting options between objective and slayer where default objective is pure all votes point to objective. Another point of difference I prefer default for.
 

Fracas

#fuckonami
Can someone post the Sarah Palmer origins 4chan post? I can't find it, and I need the lulz.

edit: nevermind
51ifP.png
 

Overdoziz

Banned
Variety, variety, variety...
Variety means ass if it means playing shitty objective gametypes on shitty maps. That's my MLG is so great, they only put objective gametypes on maps that work.
 
On the objective discussion...

Over all Halo games I've never moved to play the MLG settings when discussing objective specifically. I understand many of you prefer that style of play and I fully understand the teamwork and practice involved for MLG objective.

Do I want to play that when I get on matchmaking? No

Why?

1. I don't want to organise my regular team of 4 or 5 players every time I play. I always compete to win but I'm not into having the same strategies and/or teammates every game I play.

2. I don't want the same experience every time I play. For me MLG objective is a small selection of maps, gametypes, sandbox and therefore experiences. I like the variety objective has throughout all Halo games. If you look at MLG objective over all the Halo games you'll understand my perspective here of far lesser experience variety.

3. I like vehicles, asymmetrical maps and more from the default sandbox with respect to objective.


I do prefer Halo 2 or 3 objective maps/gametypes/settings over Halo 4 but I've been enjoying CTF in Halo 4 all the same. There is still plenty of timing and skill in there but not as great as the previous objective. I do commend the changes for bringing back population to objective but that could just be the new smell of Halo 4 doing that all the same. Once again playlists provide the segmentation required here, MLG playlist is probably happy with some voting options between objective and slayer where default objective is pure all votes point to objective. Another point of difference I prefer default for.

banshee_control.gif
 
On the objective discussion...

Over all Halo games I've never moved to play the MLG settings when discussing objective specifically. I understand many of you prefer that style of play and I fully understand the teamwork and practice involved for MLG objective.

Do I want to play that when I get on matchmaking? No

Why?

1. I don't want to organise my regular team of 4 or 5 players every time I play. I always compete to win but I'm not into having the same strategies and/or teammates every game I play.

2. I don't want the same experience every time I play. For me MLG objective is a small selection of maps, gametypes, sandbox and therefore experiences. I like the variety objective has throughout the all Halo games. If you look at MLG objective over all the Halo games you'll understand my perspective here of far lesser experience variety.

3. I like vehicles, asymmetrical maps and more from the default sandbox with respect to objective.


I do prefer Halo 2 or 3 objective maps/gametypes/settings over Halo 4 but I've been enjoying CTF in Halo 4 all the same. There is still plenty of timing and skill in there but not as great as the previous objective, I do commend the changes for bringing back population to objective but that could just be the new smell of Halo 4 doing that all the same.

That's great and all, and I tend to agree, but from the MLG guys perspective, they have nothing to play in matchmaking. A whole community relegated to the custom game lobby that for some reason no one has thought of including the courtesy of a browser. That sucks, even if you don't like that play style. A lot of people are just bored more than anything, because their game isn't in Halo 4. And they happen to be the more hardcore multiplayer fans, and so are also often the most vocal. Hell, my two favourite gametype are still not in yet, but are coming later, and I generally have never enjoyed 4v4 Halo, so I'm in the same camp of boredom and disappointment until that stuff is added - but the team could have most definitely operated quicker and more transparently. I choose to blame it on Halo 4 being their first title, and there being hiccups, but I seriously hope they can get on top of this stuff with reckless abandon in the future. I'll play more then, gametypes allowing (Doubles and BTB Skirmish).
 

dalVlatko

Member
My favorite playlists are always Objective. I enjoy 1 flag on High Ground just as much as I do MLG CTF on the Pit or Mulit Bomb on Waterworks

I don't have the option to play any of that in Halo 4
 
Guys snip his post please I really dont want to see it.

But lemme guess it says something like:

"I know people liek MLG but I like normal objective and vehicles so let me play that, also people are playing objective again cause 343 saved it (completely ignoring the fact that the objective playlists are practically dead)"
 
That's great and all, and I tend to agree, but from the MLG guys perspective, they have nothing to play in matchmaking.

I completely agree they deserve a playlist and their settings in matchmaking. I'm still gob smacked at the Forge and classic settings. Fuck I want assault back bad as well as the flag indicator removed from the top of my head.
 

Havok

Member
I'll put it this way. It's not as good as Halo 3 and earlier. But it's better than Halo Reach. Talking stock matchmaking gametypes here, not MLG.
Nah, out-of-the-box DMR start (I think that's fair, if not totally vanilla) Reach CTF on Zealot or Asylum beats any of the combinations in H4 CTF matchmaking.
 
Variety, variety, variety...
Variety means ass if it means playing shitty objective gametypes on shitty maps. That's my MLG is so great, they only put objective gametypes on maps that work.

Never saw MLG do:

Coagulation 2 or flag/bomb
Relic 1 flag/bomb
High ground 1 flag/bomb
Ivory tower 1 flag/bomb
Zanzibar 1 flag/1bomb
Hang Em High 1 flag/bomb
Sidewinder 2 flag/bomb
Burial Mounds 1 flag/bomb
Headlong 1 flag/bomb
Waterworks anything
Containment anything
Turf 1 flag/bomb
Terminal 1 flag/bomb
Valhalla 2 flag/bomb or 1 flag/bomb
Ghost town 1 flag/bomb
Longshore 1 flag/bomb
Boneyard
Boardwalk
Tempest
Powerhouse

Never seen MLG do a flag run in a hog

You get the point, there is plenty about objective that is great and non-MLG. Fine many of you love MLG objective, be my guest and play it, I totally agree is has the demand to warrant a playlist. Most likely as I stated before a playlist that has voting for slayer/objective.

I'd like to stick to default objective thanks.
 
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