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Halo |OT14| They call it Halo

Earlier today Bungie's David Candland linked to an old article he wrote for Adobe regarding Macromedia Director and his experience working with it. Really interesting read. I enjoyed this tidbit:

Article link: http://web.archive.org/web/20100604020121/http://www.adobe.com/devnet/director/articles/halo_ui.html

I'd like to think that in Halo 4's case sticking to the convention would have been smarter. Regardless, maybe the Halo 4 UI designers should read it. ;)

The Halo 4 UI would be fine if they just fix the baseball cards and put the temporary game history in the Theater section. I think the options that come up with 'Start' are great and makes it quicker to navigate.
 

Computer

Member
On the topic of sports. The Daytona 500 is on February 24 and it is by far one of the most exciting sporting events you will ever watch. I love it.
 
Field hockey is where it's at. Dem ladies

750182_253e67ad14_o.jpg
 

blamite

Member
The Halo 4 UI would be fine if they just fix the baseball cards and put the temporary game history in the Theater section. I think the options that come up with 'Start' are great and makes it quicker to navigate.

The problem with the start menu is the file browser is buried and hidden behind controls and screen settings. Probably because 33 knew it wouldn't work and wanted to hide it away in the meantime.
 
I actually do understand the drama, my father in law is MENTAL for North Carolina, and Mrs. Stinkles is mental for NorthWestern (lol) but I cannot make myself be interested in it. And I am forced to watch a LOT of it. I can't even watch the NBA these days. I switched to Football, period.

Well the NBA is the worst league, professionally or collegiate.

Here's what happens for Americans: Football ends and there is a dark dark period in the world of sports prior Spring Training.
 
Terrible friends list thingy and party. Wheres the party lobby? Just a bunch of cards...that are usually empty until you find a game and then its pointless. Blah.

Make Reachs UI blue and shift the resources somewhere useful.
 

heckfu

Banned
March Madness is the only sports event that ever matters ever.

Whos setting up the brackets this year people?

I actually do understand the drama, my father in law is MENTAL for North Carolina, and Mrs. Stinkles is mental for NorthWestern (lol) but I cannot make myself be interested in it. And I am forced to watch a LOT of it. I can't even watch the NBA these days. I switched to Football, period.

I'll set it up again. I hope I didn't scare people off last year with my absurd donging.

David...you need to redeem yourself.
 
The Halo 4 UI would be fine if they just fix the baseball cards and put the temporary game history in the Theater section. I think the options that come up with 'Start' are great and makes it quicker to navigate.

The baseball card system could have been used in a great way, as in pressing a on the player would flip the card over (with the GT at the top), it would then show the players K/D and win percentage and possibly fileshare options.

It could have been combined with the party system, in that once you flip over a card, if that person is in a party, the corresponding player cards would also simultaneously flip over. A nice easy way to establish what size of group you're playing with or against.
 

Havok

Member
The Halo 4 UI would be fine if they just fix the baseball cards and put the temporary game history in the Theater section. I think the options that come up with 'Start' are great and makes it quicker to navigate.
That'd be a nice first step, but fine? Eh. There's a ton of functionality that is just missing. Not being able to hit A on a challenge and have it take you straight to the lobby with all the settings premade so you don't have to fumble around with skulls is disappointing. The pullout roster not showing playlist or game session information is disappointing. The pregame lobby not displaying any information about the gametype is super disappointing - when the Community Forge Test CTF settings surfaced, it wasn't because the game said something to the player about what was different, it was because somebody noticed "oh shit, the return time is lower now and it goes down to 3 seconds when I stand on it." Now that they're pushing out per-map gametype settings, this is no longer optional. Players need to know the map's settings without having to dig into some fan's archive of what the settings are. The Service Record is still missing a bunch of useful information (why can I figure out K/D and not W/L from the data it gives me?). The way the game pushes out unlock notifications is crazy - notification when you've just scratched the surface of the required commendation but not when you've completed it? Instead of loading you into a lobby when you join a match in progress, it freezes up at the matchmaking screen, becomes unresponsive, then goes straight to the loading screen - why not let me see what the map and gametype and teams are like while you're getting the joining process set up, which sometimes seems to take forever? That it doesn't display who is in a party with who in the pregame lobby is a huge step backwards from Reach. Then you've got the way that the File Browser and Theater display the temporary history, which has been covered. I'm beating what little is left of a dead horse straight into the ground, but a lot of little things in the UI just ignore how players use the menus in Halo games.

It's grown on me a bit to the point where I can do most of the things I want to do without much trouble, but it still takes a bunch of extra steps to get there.
Love, love, love Team Objective. So good.
I'm really surprised it's been doing so well, nearly quadrupling the peak populations of any of its constituent gametypes' standalone playlists. I hope that holds up.
 
I wish the Librarian looked more like a semi-mechanical version of the blue administrator alien lady from Lilo and Stitch rather than Space Nurse Joy.
 
I wish the Librarian looked more like a semi-mechanical version of the blue administrator alien lady from Lilo and Stitch rather than Space Nurse Joy.
I don't feel seeing her or the Didacts face added much worthwhile in how their scenes were implemented or the narrative on the whole.

I kind of wish her and the Didact had been more akin to the Chief and we hadn't seen their faces, that the mystery of what the Forerunners looked like was maintained.
 
I don't feel seeing her or the Didacts face added much worthwhile in how their scenes were implemented or the narrative on the whole.

I kind of wish her and the Didact had been more akin to the Chief and we hadn't seen their faces, that the mystery of what the Forerunners looked like was maintained.

The didact looks nothing like they explained in the books. He looks diseased or has some flood influences in his look
 
I'm with you, seems perfect from the perspective of a Halo fan; unfortunately, despite their hollow insistence, 343 isn't actually a democratic extension of the Halo fanbase's every want and wish.

Hang on a minute, don't you remember when teeming hordes of posters from the community were demanding that reticle flinch be added to Halo? That was democratic; an overwhelming majority of the community felt that flinch was something that was missing from Halo and so 343 gave the Halo fans what they wanted.

I'm really surprised it's been doing so well, nearly quadrupling the peak populations of any of its constituent gametypes' standalone playlists. I hope that holds up.

Can't speak for Mon and Tues but today probably saw a boost because of an Oddball daily challenge.
 

m23

Member
So bulletin tonight, I guess we should be getting some details on Team Throwdown. Maybe a trailer for Majestic Pack?
 

Woorloog

Banned
I think bsangel said we would be.

I'm actually looking forward to this pack. I hope it doesn't suck. :(

Hopefully this map pack is playable in split-screen... the first one has way too many frame rate issues. Hell, the base maps have a tad too many frame rate issues.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
So bulletin tonight, I guess we should be getting some details on Team Throwdown. Maybe a trailer for Majestic Pack?

A trailer would be nice. Even if they don't do much beyond hype, I think that kind of material just shows a bit of excitement on the part of the dev team. "Hey we've got this awesome stuff you're going to play!" I appreciate enthusiasm.

At least I'd like more details about it :) Throw the walkthroughs on IGN if we must.
 

Havok

Member
Can't speak for Mon and Tues but today probably saw a boost because of an Oddball daily challenge.
Yeah, I figured, that's why I needed to pull up the Halocharts page for it to get that specific. Tuesday was a bit lower than today or Monday but even then peaked at over 2.5x the end-of-life peak Oddball population.

Interestingly, CTF has been dropping since Monday. It sat pretty comfortably between 4.5 and 6k at peak when there weren't challenges, but it's been down below 3.5k all week. Either folks aren't in love with Infinity CTF (a real shock) or Objective ate into that population (less likely, since it was doing fine when 2/3rds of those gametypes had their own playlists). No idea how it'll hold up long-term, but a three-day trend is a start.

I really hope Infinity CTF ends up being the culprit, because that monstrosity needs to go as soon as possible.
 

blamite

Member
Hope it wasn't the England match. That was a sloppy snooze fest. Like a night with Elzar's mother some might say.

It was USA 7s which I guess is a thing? I had never seen Rugby before and was surprised to discover it has everything I like in a sport; it's like 15 minutes long, no commercials, and they don't take a 5 minute break every time someone gets tackled.

Aussie Football seems pretty great too.
 
It was USA 7s which I guess is a thing? I had never seen Rugby before and was surprised to discover it has everything I like in a sport; it's like 15 minutes long, no commercials, and they don't take a 5 minute break every time someone gets tackled.

Aussie Football seems pretty great too.

I went to the wellington 7s a couple weeks ago, had one of the best weekends ever and only watched about two games the entire weekend.
 
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