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Halo |OT15| Beta-tested, GAF approved

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
I know the red X thing is associated with the "hardcore" player but even for someone like me who plays with a lot of casuals its really terrible without it. For example if I got on a game with some mic'd people and started shouting call outs like (one shot on my X) people would get the drift and help the team. It is a lot easier than some call out to a part of the map and they are like, uh, where is that?

What's funny in the competitive circles it was annoying when people said, "on my X!" because either there would be multiple X's on screen or it was not a good enough call out. So it's always better to call out map location. But, since the game is still new, it's tough to find callouts so "on my X" is the better callout. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that as time progresses the red X's will become more useless for the competitive but actually important for the "casual" players who don't know map callouts.
 
I am too old to lift. But I can do twenty pull ups. And effectively unlimited push ups. Somebody once told me you can get ripped just by doing push ups. They were lying.

Nonsense. I am 40 and squat almost twice my bodyweight for reps. I have a bum back and a brutal ride to work. Lifting, especially heavy is great for the core and losing weight. If trying to slim down Eat>Sleep>Lift. Add 20 minutes HIIT cardio on that little bike you have and Eat Low Carb for 3 months. Post some pics this summer of the new Frankie. PM, if you need any help.

Whoever told you you're too old is wrong. The reason you can't do it is because you don't do it. Go lift something and you'll feel better.

Yep. Squat - DeadLift - Flat bench - Pullups/Chins is all you need.

Although my back has been fucked for years, my DL is pathetic.
 
What's funny in the competitive circles it was annoying when people said, "on my X!" because either there would be multiple X's on screen or it was not a good enough call out. So it's always better to call out map location. But, since the game is still new, it's tough to find callouts so "on my X" is the better callout. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that as time progresses the red X's will become more useless for the competitive but actually important for the "casual" players who don't know map callouts.

Right, honestly to this day I don't know half the call out although when I hear them I know where they are referring too.
 
Re: Hive-mind her der drive Requiem into the sun pleze. Jesus, that's how they chose to resolve everything? That's their story development process? Can't say I'm a fan of that approach.

Regardless, I can't wait til I'm done rehabbing my elbow/wrist, get my cast and splint off, and can finally try Team Throwdown if it's still available. Hopefully, a real TU will be out by then as well.
 
It's because we care too much (tear). When it looks like the developers don't, that doesn't sit well with extreme fans like you have here. It feels like we care and treasure the franchise more than the people in charge of it do. I'm a MP guy, but I can totally relate to these guys who get pissed about "jokes" determining the In-Game Fiction.

When you guys laugh and joke about stuff that negatively affects us players, we dislike it. It's funny when the game is good, not so much when it's not. When you ruin MP and your only response is "IT GUN B K" and half-truths and empty promises in the bulletin, it makes us want to lash out at you in return. When you make it seem like the conclusions to the campaign is a joke, people don't like it. Even though most of us realize that making a game isn't so simple and straightforward, we still want you to at least give us the courtesy of explaining some of the major rationalizations.

Do you know why the Great Wizard of Oz was such a disappointment? Because he was a farce hiding behind a facade. He wasn't the man everyone expected and wanted him to be. When the great and powerful 343 reveals itself and all we see is a bunch of clowns shitting on our most treasured franchise and joking about it, even if they really do take it very seriously, it makes us sad and angry.

Think of politics. How often have you screamed inside at a politician begging them to just be straight with you, just tell the truth and explain it like an adult. That's how we feel.

If you're going to reveal the men and women behind the curtain, just tell us the straight truth about how and why decisions were made. You can color it with your jokes and the hilarity of the workplace environment, but unless that's really how the decisions were made, that's not where the revelations should end. You did a little of it in your post I quoted, and you know what, that tiny bit was more informative than any of the bulletins I've read so far.

I'm not posting this with any animosity or ill-will towards you or 343; I'm beyond that. I respect you enough to offer my insight and all we ask is that you do the same to us.

Catching up, great post. Despite my negative posting I still like Halo and like that Frankie is around. Bungie used to have this dynamic, idk, they sort of made Halo more fun with the jokes and the community stuff. I think the time they went on vacation when the game was having issues sort of started this weird wedge with the community. The lack of insight into decisions make it seem like dealing with a corporation or something instead of the "we are one of you" feeling I got from Bungie. Not being an asshole, just a little feedback. This game, not next game can still be great. If 343i could integrate itself with the communities more they can have the best of both worlds.

Funny part is, when Halo players are happy we sell the game for them.
 

Tawpgun

Member
Right, honestly to this day I don't know half the call out although when I hear them I know where they are referring too.

Doesn't help that a lot of the Halo 4 maps don't do a good job at making landmarks and distinguishable map areas.

Forge lights had to be added to the Throwdown versions of Haven. But they're still difficult to see. I would have just done light and dark, but everything is lit more or less the same.

In Solace you have the 2 bases, but the sides of the map look the same to me.

Abandon is rocks and trees everywhere.

In Adrift everything looks the same and the map has so many corridors its not like you have a line of sight on anyone ever.

and so on.
 
HLS doesn't touch Armor Lock. I would go into a deep discussion about it but I feel most are thinking the same thing, so. If needed, I will.

I'm interested to read your opinion on that if you want to share it.

You're in for a big show from BigShow.

Chill son. I'm the Halo 1 guy around here. BigShow's the Catwoman to my Batman.

No we don't. Folks in these communities need to stop overestimating their worth and influence.

Refer to the quote above this.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I loved ODST's campaign, especially on legendary. It's a tough battle between it and CE for best campaign.

I was talking with Wahrer and Deadly tonight about that (and touched on it a few weeks ago), but CE's campaign is I think fun in part because it's so easy (in a good way.) Enemies have no weapons to deal with you at range, the plasma rifle stuns Elites, and while your melees are weaker, there are no one-hit preemptive KOs like Reach's dropkicking Elites, so you can afford to get in closer more often. The later levels give you ample ammo for pistol and shotgun so you can deal with all the Flood that are thrown at you. The only part that constantly gives me problems is that I underestimate the chain radius of fallen grenades.

Doesn't help that a lot of the Halo 4 maps don't do a good job at making landmarks and distinguishable map areas.

Forge lights had to be added to the Throwdown versions of Haven. But they're still difficult to see. I would have just done light and dark, but everything is lit more or less the same.

In Solace you have the 2 bases, but the sides of the map look the same to me.

Abandon is rocks and trees everywhere.

In Adrift everything looks the same and the map has so many corridors its not like you have a line of sight on anyone ever.

and so on.

Never had an issue telling where I was on any of the maps, except Adrift. Having locations that are easy to describe to other players in another issue, but for the most part Halo 4's maps are pretty good in matters of orientation.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Doesn't help that a lot of the Halo 4 maps don't do a good job at making landmarks and distinguishable map areas.

Forge lights had to be added to the Throwdown versions of Haven. But they're still difficult to see. I would have just done light and dark, but everything is lit more or less the same.

In Solace you have the 2 bases, but the sides of the map look the same to me.

Abandon is rocks and trees everywhere.

In Adrift everything looks the same and the map has so many corridors its not like you have a line of sight on anyone ever.

and so on.

Agree with most except for Abandon. The callouts on that map are pretty clean. Gold, ring, beach, purple, magic tree, stairs and on.
 
Doesn't help that a lot of the Halo 4 maps don't do a good job at making landmarks and distinguishable map areas.

Forge lights had to be added to the Throwdown versions of Haven. But they're still difficult to see. I would have just done light and dark, but everything is lit more or less the same.

In Solace you have the 2 bases, but the sides of the map look the same to me.

Abandon is rocks and trees everywhere.

In Adrift everything looks the same and the map has so many corridors its not like you have a line of sight on anyone ever.

and so on.

True.
 
No we don't. Folks in these communities need to stop overestimating their worth and influence.

False. A healthy community (I dont mean just HaloGAF) sells games, DLC and keeps online populations going. CoD is one of the most shit on games as far as greed, same game everytime and their fans are dedicated and they LIKE it that way so the game crushes all.
 
KyleJ is cherry picking quotes to compound his opinion, which I do too, I suppose, but the ending wasn't a throwaway joke, it was a writer's room meeting whereby we needed something big enough to destroy Requiem, a heavily armored shield world, and agency by Jul. So while it is "absurd" Brian is simply describing a normal writer's room process, whereby tons of boring, medium and crazy ideas are passed around and digested and altered and adapted.

But noted for the future, we will describe these things in dry bullet point lists with no information about the process and we will avoid colorful lanuage and metaphor lest it befuddle the simple country folk of the community thread.

See this is where the disconnect between 343i and the community are right here. You are trying no doubt but why are you in this alone? I think exploring the creative process, more vidocs would be awesome. If I recall, Bungie had a lot of vidocs bringing the community into the creative process, maybe the bulletins just read wrong to a less than happy audience?

Because the story changes in construction. And when you think about the matrix of connected elements from Campaign that changed (also normal), and the knock-on effect that has on the series, you will probably get some idea of the complexity. It's a normal part of the process.

I think what they are implying is why such a grand story kicking off a trilogy is not more fleshed out from the beginning. The plot points at the end of Spartan Ops seem to hold some major implications going forward, with controversy (Which the Halo story has not seen much of) you can expect people asking why did you take the story in this directions?

That's the only other Halo story I've read besides the Fall of Reach.

I never had an issue with the story being confusing, but I do wish it was told better. I don't know if it's the overall story or if it's the gameplay/enemy encounters, but past Halos have always drawn me back into multiple replays of their campaigns time and time again. I have no such compunction in Halo 4, which is a real shame. I enjoyed parts of it, but not enough to want to slog through the bad stuff that overwhelms my opinion of the campaign.

Yeah, it was a little out there. When you introduce a new protangonist along with new allies and major canon changing plots you might have to go about it a new way. Never got an explanation on where these Convies came from. Where are the Brutes and Arbitor? The Forerunner stuff was messy. I liked it but I felt like there was a lot I needed to do outside the game to figure out what was going on.

The Cortana and Master Chief relationship in Halo 4 that seemed to grow much more strongly in a "loving" type way was awkward at times.

Yeah, not believable at all. You can still get by on that they basically complete each other kind of thing but romantic? Uncomfortable.

That's the definition of BAD storytelling, when you cannot explain what the hell is going on, without relying on outside sources. Say what you will about Bungie games, but I didn't need to read comics, books, watch live action series' to have a semblance of what's going on.

CJ, you just stated while you didn't think the storytelling was bad, NONE of your friends knew who the Didact was, or why he was doing this, etc. What does that say?

You need to explain things, use prior games as the ONLY main source, or explain it in game. Instead of that useless halsey in handcuffs, bullshit, why not give that scene more depth?

Say what you will about Reach (2010) retconning a book that was written in 2001 on Microsoft orders, and yes the book was great, but Reach was polished, had a self contained story. The only real questions were what happens next, or why did this happen/could stuff be prevented?

If there is one thing Frankie understands when reading my posts, it needs to be that halo 5 better ONLY draw on things from Halo 4. I shouldn't need to read the next few books or whatever else is planned to understand the game. And if it's not possible, explain Wtf happened so that the story is entirely self contained.

Is that what happened with Reach? Shame, such a good book but still a well contained story although they had 3 other games to draw from. Halo 4 suffers from, ok I am awake now what is going on? Who is that guy? Plus if you played the games and did not read the books you were always led to believe the Forerunners were human.

Since I hadn't checked before, I looked up what Kevin Franklin did before Halo 4. Lead designer on two SOCOM games... how and why is he a lead designer at 343?

Good question.

infinity slayer = fiesta mode

thank you kevin franklin for this horrible horrible base gametype.

Yes.
 

Fotos

Member
^ Holy shit so many words in one post. And is it bad that I think that Halo 3 has the best graphics in the series?
 
First game of Majestic FFA (ever). Skyline Rumble Pro. Delicious.


mrnTZ0f.png
 

rakka

Member
tiny detail but it's annoying how my teammates service tags don't show a speaker label when theyre talking in halo 4. I don't know who's talking half the time if I'm playing with randoms and I shouldn't have to memorize every players tag. also lack of death Xs, proximity chat, and so on
 

Gordon

Member
Not really. It's easily up there with the boltshot, AC and Jetpack in terms of 'annoying-ness'.
ARs are annoying. Swords are annoying. Teleporters can be pretty annoying. I don't think annoying is the best grounds for saying something ought to be removed from the game [Or omitted from Halo 5]. The HLS can be a real pain, but it can be countered plenty of ways, and being able to use simple strategies like flanking tells me it really just encourages deeper game play. AC doesn't deepen the game play as much as it creates a niche version of the game play that contrasts with the rest of it. The Boltshot has an element of that too, although I think to a lesser degree. It has more viability outside of that niche. Jet pack obviously changes the game play drastically - by a full dimension in many aspects.

That said, I don't like saying things should be removed. I'd just like to see gametype variants with different subsets of the sandbox. And not just a rifles only no AAs playlist - I think you could make an interesting playlist out of game types based on only secondaries, only automatics, or maybe just Promethean or covenant weapons. I haven't put that much thought into the game types, but I think the gametype system is really underused in MM. More gametype variety could help some underused parts of the sandbox see some use too. I imagine the pulse grenade achievement wouldn't have flustered as many people if they had been forced to use it in a gametype and got used to it.

Oh here - idea - 'Factions' playlist gametype template;
[UNSC/Promethean/Covenant] [Base gametype - eg. Slayer or CTF] -- Load out 1; [BR/LR/Carbine] [Magnum/BS/PP] [Frag/Pulse/Sticky] [Thruster/HLS/Camo] etc.
Load out 2, the same but with automatics in place of rifles, and maybe different AAs
^Carbines would actually see some action, beyond the occasional sarcastic kill. Storm rifles too. It would be weird. But cool. Imagine team shooting with H4 Carbines lol

Edit: if everybody's posting their maps, bit.ly/FuGuE

Edit again: pardon the spacing - my tablet has a hard-on for adding spaces to words.
 

Rubbish King

The gift that keeps on giving
Sup guys, anybody up for a few games? (UK Gaffer here) I'm not amazing and at the moment my controllers a bit fucked
 

heckfu

Banned
I have codes for a male and female Halo 4 Logo avatar shirt.

PM me something funny and I'll award based on that. I'm drunk so it should be like shooting fish in a barrel.
 

Omni

Member
2 guys told me that now, I didn't test it, but it would make things easier
I just tried the SAW one in customs and I didn't get it... Not sure if its worth going for a Crimson one

...


Edit. Just got the airassassination one. I wonder if the double kill one is possible... If only I had two backup controllers
 
I'm interested to read your opinion on that ["Hardlight is more powerful than Armor Lock"] if you want to share it.

Armor Lock - Hardlight

Instant invincibility on all sides - Instant invincibility only in the front, still vulnerable from the sides and back

Destroys vehicles on impact - Does not destroy vehicles on impact, the Hardlight user is killed, even when approached by the front

Recharges health during use - Recharges health during use

Invincibility from grenades - Vulnerable from well placed grenades on the sides or behind the player

Invincibility from explosive weapons in all directions (explosive vehicles as well) - Invincibility only from the front, still vulnerable to any Rocket/Tank shot on the sides or a wall behind them

Can't move around - Can move around

Reflects specific weapon/vehicle shots - Reflect specific weapon/vehicle shots

EMP blast that can be used twice and can then kill after one melee - No EMP effect

EMP blast that can disable vehicles - No EMP effect

Recharges health during use - Recharges health during use

Can look around - Can't look around

The move around mechanic is a huge advantage, but not nearly as strong to offset being vulnerable from all but the front. The movement is slow and even after they get behind cover, a well placed grenade will still take them out. The movement isn't effective if the opposing player has grenades or explosive weapons on him.

Hardlight being vulnerable to vehicle splatters while Armor Lock could destroy a Wraith after one hit is a large difference as well. No longer are we scared when we're about to splatter someone who isn't jumping.

The EMP blast/melee mechanic was overly effective. Regardless of how much health you and the Armor Lock user has, if they are hit by the EMP blast (which means they're close enough for a melee), they have a large disadvantage because only the AA user knows exactly when he's going to exit Armor Lock and time the melee perfectly, especially when accessed to a 360 degree view.

It's been said that the Hardlight isn't as complained about due to other problems in the game. That's not true. In Reach, there were vital problems such as bloom, jump height, and no-bleedthrough (double melee). There's also an argument that there's more powerful AA's to choose from in Halo 4. If anything, Jetpack has been nerfed in Halo 4. The initial launch is slower and the max height is significantly shorter. Thruster is an improvement from Evade. It's less distracting, slower, and the movement is shorter. Camo is significantly buffed in Halo 4. Sprint is no longer an AA. Promothean Vision is a new addition. The Dropshield provided cover and a shield recharge while the Regeneration Field just provides a shield recharge. Though, both of these are near nonexistent in the game. Hologram is buffed in Halo 4. So what do we have on each side?

Reach (more powerful AA's)
Sprint (easily the most used AA)
Jetpack
Evade
Dropshield

Halo 4 (more powerful AA's)
Camo
Hologram
Promethean Vision
Autosentry

The effectiveness of AA's outside of Armor Lock/Hardlight isn't that much different and I can't see an argument that supports Hardlight being clouded by other powerful AA's, which Armor Lock apparently didn't have. Reach had powerful AA's as well but didn't see much light due to Sprint and Armor Lock. When Armor Lock was an option in Reach, at least half of each team was using them (remember Reach Team Slayer).

343 also went out on Armor Lock in a Sparkcast and were literally laughing on how OP it is. They mentioned they would not implement such a powerful AA again and until now, I haven't heard anyone disputing this wasn't the case, at least on the level of Armor Lock.
 

IHaveIce

Banned
I just tried the SAW one in customs and I didn't get it... Not sure if its worth going for a Crimson one

...


Edit. Just got the airassassination one. I wonder if the double kill one is possible... If only I had two backup controllers

Huh? How is this programmed? How can one work but others don't.
But good to know
 

Fuchsdh

Member
All this talk of custom games is doing it wrong. Play FFA Skyline then just boost in the computer room, pausing just to grab rockets an smite anyone else who tries to enter besides your friends. Worked pretty well yesterday with Wahrer and Deadly and is much for fun :)
 
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