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Halo |OT15| Beta-tested, GAF approved
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MaximumFlipFlop
Banned
I should probably read more. My word count is most likely sub 1,000 now.
You just used The King of Queens to try and a prove a point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuK2B-O3xnM&t=0m8s
Truth bombs.
xxjuicesxx
Member
So now were just ripping on King of Queens? Is nothing sacred anymore?
User 73706
Banned
Doodled a shitload of concepts. No elaborate walls of text, only pics this time. The Sentinels were concept art I found on Halopedia, not mine.
He's using his dextrous hands to grab his chest plating or "coat" like Bane, if it's not obvious.
TheArcher Boltshot head is slightly out of date; the tusks aren't a thing anymore and it only withdraws the visor to reveal the facial circuitry to scare off people when they get in melee range (because it sucks at CQC).
The Dreadlock is meant to be a bit more stylized given he's more of a living vehicle like the Hunters. Seems weird, I know, but just think about how alien even the Hunters seem compared to some of the more "relatable" species like their Elite and Grunt counterparts. May have taken a little inspiration from Castle Crashers and an old Guardian Sentinel concept Bungie didn't use in Halo 3.
He's using his dextrous hands to grab his chest plating or "coat" like Bane, if it's not obvious.
The
The Dreadlock is meant to be a bit more stylized given he's more of a living vehicle like the Hunters. Seems weird, I know, but just think about how alien even the Hunters seem compared to some of the more "relatable" species like their Elite and Grunt counterparts. May have taken a little inspiration from Castle Crashers and an old Guardian Sentinel concept Bungie didn't use in Halo 3.
User 73706
Banned
:lol you're reading that wrong. My campaign dudeguys use my sandbox, and the Boltshot's scrapped in it. "Boltshot" is the name of the Sniper-class rank of Knight. It uses the two Promethean crossbow-looking things in the picture above it. The snipers are awkward as hell in CQC and will generally try and hold you, headbutt to daze you, and then run off. Their Crossbolts aren't all that good for actual melee attacks.
I have to admit it'd be a hilarious way to screw with people if high-ranking snipers had a Boltshot hidden in their damn face to charge up when people got close, though. I'd probably laugh and then cry on my first playthrough.
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
It's shit like this that makes me want to watch GoT.
I know right. For some reason the usually infuriating sound effect of the Boltshot charging seems like it'd be way more awesome and dreadful to hear if the sniper guy grabbed you in CQC and just blasted you with a kiss of death + scary-face.
I was like wut. Then I went ahh shit.
Garrett 2U
Member
The show is awesome, and it contains a bunch of water cooler moments.
RIP spartan ops
Please start watching. And watch walking dead as well. I believe you said you hadn't started yet. You're missing out on amazing television.
First season is great. I believe kittens has started reading the comics. Can't help to watch as well. Some people really hate the walking dead, I really like it. Don't know why. I loved the game as well.
Damn, is there something specific you hate? While I like the show, what grinds my gears is the stupidity of some characters and the coincidence/convenience factor thrown in.
The characters are just painfully stupid and unwilling to do a seemingly-logical thing, and there's absolutely no consistency with pacing. There are episodes that are just unreal in how amazing they are (Clear, most recently), but they're just swamped and surrounded by episodes where literally zero things happen.
The stupidity thing didn't really bother me that much until this season when I was coerced into yelling at my TV at certain characters about what should be happening, and then something terribly dumb happens and they continue being dumb.
Eh, it could be a lot worse, but TWD definitely doesn't hold a candle to Game of Thrones. There have been slow episodes of GoT, but none that I would consider absolutely bad, and there are characters I hate, but I hate them because of who they are, not because of the decisions they're unwilling to make. Game of Thrones season 2 spoilers:
The stupidity thing didn't really bother me that much until this season when I was coerced into yelling at my TV at certain characters about what should be happening, and then something terribly dumb happens and they continue being dumb.
Eh, it could be a lot worse, but TWD definitely doesn't hold a candle to Game of Thrones. There have been slow episodes of GoT, but none that I would consider absolutely bad, and there are characters I hate, but I hate them because of who they are, not because of the decisions they're unwilling to make. Game of Thrones season 2 spoilers:
theon can go fuck himself. i almost cried at the end of episode 7
I understand completely
the stupidity of characters is what I hate the most. And for some reason they kill off the characters I like most ie T-Dog, Shane, now Merle. Game of Thrones works better I think because there is a much larger cast and more variety in scenarios. For me, I don't hate Theon as much as say Cersei or Joffrey. But Ser Roderick said it best, gods help you theon, now you are truly lost. Everyone thinks he killed the stark boys, etc.
I've never seen TWD or GoT.
...
Was playing Delta Halo on Heroic and for the first time in years (possibly ever) decided to pick up the dual pistols towards the end of the level. Once the drones came I tore through them like butter. Rather satisfying.
Kinda sad that they removed dual wielding. Who didn't feel like a badass while holding two maulers?
...
Was playing Delta Halo on Heroic and for the first time in years (possibly ever) decided to pick up the dual pistols towards the end of the level. Once the drones came I tore through them like butter. Rather satisfying.
Kinda sad that they removed dual wielding. Who didn't feel like a badass while holding two maulers?
I'm only starting GoT s2 tonight, while all my friends get to enjoy a premier tomorrow. =/
One of the best gun sound effects in Halo.
One of the best gun sound effects in Halo.
The unranked playlists need to be minimal, if they ever do implement this ranked/unranked setting again. They had too many in Halo 3, most of them being just duplicates to their ranked counterpart (led to a very quick death for BTB, and later Team Objective). Create a simple Team Training playlist, 4v4, and allow guests. Multi-team also works in this area, and while I rather BTB be ranked so players actually try to win, it's probably a better idea to make it unranked. Seems to often be popular for guests. The rest, like FFA, 4v4 Slayer, 4v4 objectives, and others, fit under ranked and having party restrictions.
Basically, keep them low, and keep guests away from 90% of the playlists.
It would be nice if they would keep the playlist count as small as possible but keep the regular batch in (FFA, 4v4 slayer, 4v4 objective modes, etc.). Keeps them at a fairly healthy population. But for some reason, they get in this zone where they want to appease everybody and make SWAT, Living Dead/Flood, Grifball, Actionsack, etc. around all the time. If they ever did weekend playlists again, those are the types that should appear.
Yeah, they're already piling on playlists again. There's 16 of them right now, and we'll have 17 and probably 18 soon.
The please-everyone cool uncle strategy left Reach with a crapton of playlists (then it was acknowledged there was too many.. but they still refused to trim them down), Halo 4 seems to be going the same way.
The please-everyone cool uncle strategy left Reach with a crapton of playlists (then it was acknowledged there was too many.. but they still refused to trim them down), Halo 4 seems to be going the same way.
Weekend playlists are perfect for those gametypes. That's when most people who enjoy those types of gametypes come on anyway. Also with it only being on weekends, it should give a population increase to other playlists during the week. I doubt the people who frequent those playlists will stop playing.
Pop
Member
At this point in time you're probably right but overall absolutely wrong.
If H4 wasn't such a letdown and numbers so low the separate playlist with rank/social would be perfect. That's assuming if skill ranks were in since day 1(1-50). But since they want CSR only on waypoint, there really is no point. Just be a waste of time to split the playlists since all will be affected by CSR.
Decisions being made by 343i are just terrible. Literally change just for the hell of it.
Can you provide a justification why I'm absolutely wrong?
From my viewpoint, I don't know what problem the split intends to solve. It's a bandaid solution.
Are higher skilled players ruining lower skilled players constantly? Then you need to improve your skill matching system. Doesn't matter if it's visible or invisible.
Are players not figuring out how to play? Improve your training system. Implement bots so people can learn the mechanics in the game at their own pace and without the anxiety of throwing themselves into the pits of Xbox Live. Make all aspects discoverable.
Are players winning because they're bothing to google more meta-game tricks? Aggressively patch out exploits and balance-changing bugs.
All the ranked/social split does is kinda sorta wall off the different styles from each other, but it has downsides.
- You split the potential playerbase, impacting search times. Because some want a number and some don't.
- Since Team Slayer is pretty much the only gametype that can support being split, then lists either end up being Ranked or Social. You have everyone in one list now, but the people that don't want to screw with ranks won't play, or it negatively affects the playlist from boosting. Example: I still think that making Team SWAT ranked in Halo 3 was something I wouldn't have done, because I liked SWAT and wanted to play 2 Flag SWAT but had to stop because I spent every other game getting bridged out or standby'd. If SWAT had been made social like it was as a DEXP, it would have had a much bigger population and been a lot more.. normal.
- It tends to end up being used to mark 'no guests' and 'guests allowed here' which is why Team Doubles ended up ranked in Halo 3. So you solve one problem but inherit a bunch of others at the same time.
So what needs to happen is this:
- Improve the skillmatch system to keep serioustime players playing serioustime players and more casual players rarely play against them.
- Make the system match parties with guests versus parties with guests.
- Force party vs party and randoms versus randoms across the board. Halo Wars does this extremely well and I think it's probably why it's population is so relatively healthy for what the game is on the platform that it's on: in Halo Wars, randoms can't play parties. At all. Which means randoms don't get roflstomped by partied lifers and parties expect to go up against organized opponents. Trueskill gets to do it's thing with minimum of interference.
They've had the ability to do it since at LEAST Reach but I swear Halo 3 could do it too, but I'd like to see them try a Team Mercenaries at least once. Max Party Size 1, 4v4 or 5v5. Just please 343. Once.
- An option would be to have a ranking system in the game but make it so you can opt in or opt out. A long time ago I did this as a joke but since then I've actually wanted the option to hide ranks from the UI so I could just be oblivious to my current rank. You'd have ranks in-game, but since you'd have to opt in, you can only see the ranks of other people that have opted in. It's still tracked for all players regardless. Kind of a bandaid solution though.
Silly.Mikey
Banned
They're a new studio. They will have to make their own mistakes before really knowing where to go with it. Its the only way they'll learn and understand what it takes to make Halo.
Pop
Member
I said at this point in time you're correct. If they would have just followed what made Halo great then this wouldn't be such a mess.
Foundation was already set, there was no need to change every single little thing.
Hydranockz
Member
Silly.Mikey
Banned
Splitting the player base in a game with such a small population would be a terrible idea at the moment. But so would adding ranks to everything and having them only visible off the game. You're going to get people who play for rank and they will be paired with someone who just wants to play casually and not "sweat" for a higher rank. This is going to lead to player frustration as they get pissed about a loss, or loss of rank, because some guy on the team was pissing around. At least with split playlists you know that the players you match with are there to rank up and play as good as they possibly can.
I realise that you could counter this with "they should search as a team then" but this is a luxury not every player has. Feel free to go through the thread and look at how many Gaffers have said they are the only person playing Halo 4 because everyone else moved on.
I realise that you could counter this with "they should search as a team then" but this is a luxury not every player has. Feel free to go through the thread and look at how many Gaffers have said they are the only person playing Halo 4 because everyone else moved on.
Rand0m TAG
Member
honestly everyplaylist should have a rank except for action sack, grifball, dexp, infection, multi-team.
playlist that should double in both are: team slayer and ffa.
if it was up to me btb should be ranked but ultimately will go in social because of how many guests are present.
also mlg/team throwdown/team hardcore or whatever you want to call it should be the ranked team slayer. put objectives social and have team slayer/team objectives be the goto ranked playlist. mlg was how ranked ts should have been, how arena should have been
playlist that should double in both are: team slayer and ffa.
if it was up to me btb should be ranked but ultimately will go in social because of how many guests are present.
also mlg/team throwdown/team hardcore or whatever you want to call it should be the ranked team slayer. put objectives social and have team slayer/team objectives be the goto ranked playlist. mlg was how ranked ts should have been, how arena should have been
EagleBurnn
Banned
I'm far behind in season 3 in TWD, but it's kind of unfair to compare TWD to GoT. GoT is an instant classic and going to be considered iconic if HBO allows it to span throughout all 7 books. TWD is still a fantastic show.
Halo. Infinity sucks.
Pop
Member
Yeah, since they now seem to understand that splitting rank/social is best like in H3. But since they didn't follow any of the old guidelines already set for them to use, now splitting playlists would be a major waste. What I'm trying to say is, he's right about it now the way H4 is but if they would have followed H3 format since day 1 splitting playlists would be optimal.
HiredN00bs
Member
Do people really care about skill ranks in Halo 4?
Please try and understand...I know people care about Halo and I know people care about skill rankings, I'm just not sure who these people are that care about skill rankings in Halo 4? Anyone here?
I forsee some of the people chasing the CSR ranks to come back and heavily complain about the problems with the core game.
Please try and understand...I know people care about Halo and I know people care about skill rankings, I'm just not sure who these people are that care about skill rankings in Halo 4? Anyone here?
I forsee some of the people chasing the CSR ranks to come back and heavily complain about the problems with the core game.
Pop
Member
Rand0m TAG
Member
yes for team throwdown and doubles and snipes and swat and any playlist without p.o.d.
The Henery
Member
People can say that the ranked/social divide is to the detriment of MM all they like but the truth is it offers the clearest, most unmuddied distinction between what sort of gameplay you expect and wish to partake in. Not an ambiguous, hard-edge sounding 'Arena' with one playlist in which the metrics for ascendence are messily convoluted and un-obvious to the player. Certainly not how Halo 4 will be after CSR launches. All playlists are social on the surface but, conversely, will be considered ranked by whichever pool of players will be checking their CSR on Waypoint.
So, take a playlist like Action Sack. That's a social playlist, right? Full of wacky and facetious mimics of more serious gametypes. A place where a player goes to play in Halo's version of the travelling fun fair. Start to win too many, though, and you start facing teams of four (no team restrictions in the surface social landscape of Halo 4) who will play outside the spirit of the playlist and find exploitative ways to ensure the win. A player could potentially find themselves yo yo-ing on the trueskill scale between players who know about CSR and players who are unaware of it, giving a really uneven experience to the playlist. I recall a post Fyrewulff made about the effects of making SWAT ranked in Halo 3. It went from a free flowing blainfest to players hiding and being sure they weren't seen first, SWAT being a playlist where the penalty for being seen first is higher than any other. Now, regardless of which style of play you prefer, it's vital that each playlists spirit, style and nature are considered then carefully placed into MM areas which are most congruent with those values I.e RANKED or SOCIAL.
Of course, it's all for nought if there is no visual incentive for participating in ranked play. I'm talking an incentive that is visible in all playlists. It doesn't have to be tied to military rank. It needs to be on the front page of a players global record though ala Halo 3. Though I'd have a list of the ranked playlists on the global record card with the players respective ranked number next to each playlist name. It has to be coveted to a reasonable degree in order to get average players to venture into ranked.
'Wahhh, because it's coveted, some cheat to get it! Therefore remove it'
Most things in life that are coveted are hard to get. A person wants a BMW and a five bedroom house in a rural area. Therefore they work incredibly hard throughout their late teens and twenties to become a medical professional. Society is benefited by their hard work and the medical professional is rewarded for their graft with the BMW and house. They have something which society covets and therefore higher social status. Of course, unscrupulous people who do not have the intelligence and dilligence to reach a big salary or choose to get pissed and take drugs and do silly things through their youth (social) and not concentrate on self improvement, some of those will commit crime, sell drugs, steal the car etc in order to have those higher status symbols. How does society react to this? It punishes those who attain or seek to attain those status symbols through illicit means; it does not remove the status symbol.
If human society used the 343 method to the ranked conundrum then everyone would wear grey smocks, no jewellery allowed. Everyone would eat porridge at identikit restaurants, no Michilin stars allowed. Everyone would live in undifferentiated, terraced mud huts, no country estate allowed. There'd be no incentive to putting your youth into becoming a trained professional so society would degrade. It would be an Orwellian dystopia.
Happy Easter Halogaf.
So, take a playlist like Action Sack. That's a social playlist, right? Full of wacky and facetious mimics of more serious gametypes. A place where a player goes to play in Halo's version of the travelling fun fair. Start to win too many, though, and you start facing teams of four (no team restrictions in the surface social landscape of Halo 4) who will play outside the spirit of the playlist and find exploitative ways to ensure the win. A player could potentially find themselves yo yo-ing on the trueskill scale between players who know about CSR and players who are unaware of it, giving a really uneven experience to the playlist. I recall a post Fyrewulff made about the effects of making SWAT ranked in Halo 3. It went from a free flowing blainfest to players hiding and being sure they weren't seen first, SWAT being a playlist where the penalty for being seen first is higher than any other. Now, regardless of which style of play you prefer, it's vital that each playlists spirit, style and nature are considered then carefully placed into MM areas which are most congruent with those values I.e RANKED or SOCIAL.
Of course, it's all for nought if there is no visual incentive for participating in ranked play. I'm talking an incentive that is visible in all playlists. It doesn't have to be tied to military rank. It needs to be on the front page of a players global record though ala Halo 3. Though I'd have a list of the ranked playlists on the global record card with the players respective ranked number next to each playlist name. It has to be coveted to a reasonable degree in order to get average players to venture into ranked.
'Wahhh, because it's coveted, some cheat to get it! Therefore remove it'
Most things in life that are coveted are hard to get. A person wants a BMW and a five bedroom house in a rural area. Therefore they work incredibly hard throughout their late teens and twenties to become a medical professional. Society is benefited by their hard work and the medical professional is rewarded for their graft with the BMW and house. They have something which society covets and therefore higher social status. Of course, unscrupulous people who do not have the intelligence and dilligence to reach a big salary or choose to get pissed and take drugs and do silly things through their youth (social) and not concentrate on self improvement, some of those will commit crime, sell drugs, steal the car etc in order to have those higher status symbols. How does society react to this? It punishes those who attain or seek to attain those status symbols through illicit means; it does not remove the status symbol.
If human society used the 343 method to the ranked conundrum then everyone would wear grey smocks, no jewellery allowed. Everyone would eat porridge at identikit restaurants, no Michilin stars allowed. Everyone would live in undifferentiated, terraced mud huts, no country estate allowed. There'd be no incentive to putting your youth into becoming a trained professional so society would degrade. It would be an Orwellian dystopia.
Happy Easter Halogaf.
ElRenoRaven
Member
Yup. The show is an alternate take at this point because it resembles the comics pretty much very little now. I really enjoy the show and so does everyone I know. The ratings don't lie either. I will agree though they tend to have lost some IQ points on the show. However I really think the show suffers from being on cable TV. If it were on say HBO it would be vastly different and closer to the comics I think.
Still it's a damn good show that said.
bobs...onGaf
Member
I haven't read all the posts but I am pro ranked/social divide.
Personally I don't see what all the fuss is about with too many playlists, if the game is enjoyable enough to sustain a large population, it really is not a problem. Halo 3 in its prime had a ton of playlists and it worked well. I think the fact there was so many playlists and there was a ranked/ social divide meant that there was a larger population who enjoyed that feature sustaining the game.
Yeah Halo sucks now so more playlists equals larger search times, but a good Halo game can support it, and having it can lead to a higher population.
If anything, only FFA, Slayer, Snipes and MLG really needs to be ranked. You don't need to have a ranked and unranked version of every playlist. Slayer and perhaps FFA are the only modes than need a social and ranked version, simply because not everyone will want to put their rank on the line just to play a standard mode. Team Deathmatch and FFA deathmatch are core modes when it comes to shoot em ups and should be accessible at all times even when you don't want to play competitively.
yeah agreed, Halo 4 just couldn't sustain it.
If Halo 5 was a half decent game though, I feel like having that ranked/ social divide from the start would allow them to generate and hold on to a larger population from the get go.
Personally I don't see what all the fuss is about with too many playlists, if the game is enjoyable enough to sustain a large population, it really is not a problem. Halo 3 in its prime had a ton of playlists and it worked well. I think the fact there was so many playlists and there was a ranked/ social divide meant that there was a larger population who enjoyed that feature sustaining the game.
Yeah Halo sucks now so more playlists equals larger search times, but a good Halo game can support it, and having it can lead to a higher population.
If anything, only FFA, Slayer, Snipes and MLG really needs to be ranked. You don't need to have a ranked and unranked version of every playlist. Slayer and perhaps FFA are the only modes than need a social and ranked version, simply because not everyone will want to put their rank on the line just to play a standard mode. Team Deathmatch and FFA deathmatch are core modes when it comes to shoot em ups and should be accessible at all times even when you don't want to play competitively.
yeah agreed, Halo 4 just couldn't sustain it.
If Halo 5 was a half decent game though, I feel like having that ranked/ social divide from the start would allow them to generate and hold on to a larger population from the get go.