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[Risen]

In Halo 4 theater... can I please please please have the ability to watch videos with up to 4 players. I played a small amount of H3 last night and I forgot how much fun it was to go back with someone in the party at the same time and relive the awesomesauce.

Was such a big let down with Reach.

I would totally do without other things to have this feature.

 

[Tashi]

^^^^^ this is very important.

 

[Risen]

^^^^^ this is very important.

bold for emphasis

 

[Garrett 2U]

Would you guys be happy with spectator mode if you could only watch it via Halo 4?

Because if they do support large scale spectator mode, that'll probably be how it works.
Just because they'd probably host the streaming servers and it's a lot less bandwidth if they send you data and the Xbox renders it, verses sending you 720p video. (similarly to how theater mode works)

Unless you are able to boot up spectator mode via the Halo 4 disk onto your Windows PC..

That'd be interesting too...

 

[Risen]

Would you guys be happy with spectator mode if you could only watch it via Halo 4?

Because if they do support large scale spectator mode, that'll probably be how it works.
Just because they'd probably host the streaming servers and it's a lot less bandwidth if they send you data and the Xbox renders it, verses sending you 720p video.

Unless you are able to boot up spectator mode via the Halo 4 disk onto your Windows PC..

That'd be interesting too...

I guess that depends on how else it would be implemented. I want to be able to see the first person viewpoint of anyone in the game and be able to watch it with 4 players at the same time, minimum. I'd definitely prefer it being within H4 on my Xbox.

For the competitive side of me, it's where the real learning occurs. Being able to break down film with others in real time and show why something was done allows a lot of growth in team skills.

The fun side of me gets to relive awesome game plays and fails all at the same time... with others. Sharing that vid and watching it alone just doesn't cut it. I rarely touched the theater in Reach. It might as well have been cut completely without the ability to view the same vid with others at the same time.

The real time social aspect of it is key.

 

[Karl2177]

Spectator mode? I'd love it. It's one of the reasons why live MLG matches are difficult to follow.

 

[monome]

In Halo 4 theater... can I please please please have the ability to watch videos with up to 4 players.

^^^^^ this is very important.

Would you guys be happy with spectator mode if you could only watch it via Halo 4?
Unless you are able to boot up spectator mode via the Halo 4 disk onto your Windows PC..

That'd be interesting too...

I guess that depends on how else it would be implemented. I want to be able to see the first person viewpoint of anyone in the game and be able to watch it with 4 players at the same time, minimum. I'd definitely prefer it being within H4 on my Xbox.

The real time social aspect of it is key.

Isn't Waypoint meant to be the social Halo tool?
I can see a day where everything social runs through it rather than being implemented in the game and Waypoint just sugar coatting or dumbing down stuff.

Plus Waypoint can be run from almost every popular device.

Hell, I can even picture launching a game through Waypoint or it instantly running alongside the game when Halo X boots.

 

[Navidson REC]

In Halo 4 theater... can I please please please have the ability to watch videos with up to 4 players. I played a small amount of H3 last night and I forgot how much fun it was to go back with someone in the party at the same time and relive the awesomesauce.

Was such a big let down with Reach.

I would totally do without other things to have this feature.

Why did they take that out, anyway? Was it because of the enhanced Campaign theater mode that allowed winding back? That can't be the reason, can it?

 

[FyreWulff]

Why did they take that out, anyway? Was it because of the enhanced Campaign theater mode that allowed winding back? That can't be the reason, can it?

According to Achronos, it's because syncing the film data required uploading a rather large binary blob to each player in the party, so unless you watched a full game clip from the start (and it was only reliable if it was in everyone's recent history), you usually ended up starting at a black screen for 3 minutes and then everyone else timed out and dropped. Even when it worked you risked someone dropping out if you rewinded or fast forwarded.

I believe Luke Smith mentioned in one of the threads that if they knew how poorly multi-person viewing was going to perform on Live, it would have been cut completely from Halo 3. Reach 'fixed' it by forcing the Theater lobby to a single person, so I guess local-split viewing of films was a side casualty of that move.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

Why did they take that out, anyway? Was it because of the enhanced Campaign theater mode that allowed winding back? That can't be the reason, can it?

Edit: What Mr.Wulf said.

Anyway, I always found it funny that watching clips with friends in halo 3 would take ages, but loading the whole film was instant.

 

[TheOddOne]

Isn't Waypoint meant to be the social Halo tool?
I can see a day where everything social runs through it rather than being implemented in the game and Waypoint just sugar coatting or dumbing down stuff.

Plus Waypoint can be run from almost every popular device.

Hell, I can even picture launching a game through Waypoint or it instantly running alongside the game when Halo X boots.

I'm not trying to be a dick monome, but I have no idea what your saying.

 

[monome]

I'm not trying to be a dick monome, but I have no idea what your saying.

Waypoint could be used to watch game clips, edit them etc...

If Waypoint is developped in conjunction with Halo games, which it is, the end game could be to replace the game's menu with it. All online Halo activity would go through Waypoint, and thus Waypoint would cease to be a simple viewer but a social hub and tool and a persistent one at that since it would track players interest in Halo rather than the numbers of people having popped the disk.
I think going forward with social and online tools, discs will be made irrelevant because having to have the disc inside te console will prevent better online from happening.

Am I clear?

you could go to Waypoint before launching the game, see who is online, what gametypes are popolar now, or watch the clips from previous games, communicate with your clan etc...and then launch the game which would integrate Waypoint very tightly os that, for exemple, when you choose multiplayer you are instantly booted to Waypoint. I'm not saying it is feasible on 360 though.

 

[FyreWulff]

Edit: What Mr.Wulf said.

Anyway, I always found it funny that watching clips with friends in halo 3 would take ages, but loading the whole film was instant.

Yup, because full game films started from a neutral state (since the film carries the map and gametype inside of it). You don't need to send the entire game engine state. You can just start playing the inputs back from that neutral state onwards.

Clips required establishing a non-neutral state, then syncing everyone else's state to other boxes. Which could be HUGE (10-20MB or larger), and you're on a service that people can sign onto with 256/256 DSL or Cable with. The same issue is why you can't do Join in Progress on Campaign missions, it'd require uploading a huge state to the person joining, and that's way above MS's speed and bandwidth limits for 360 titles. This is one of the core limitations of lockstep networking, which is what Theater used.

It also plays into why player counts are lower on 360 and PS3 Battlefield versus PC Battlefield, the extra players push your game over Sony and MS's bandwidth limits (short of stuff like 64 v 64 or stuff like that, where the amount of player models being rendered would start setting the console on fire).

 

[wwm0nkey]

Not sure if anyone has brought this up but it seems 343 might be taking a lesson from Valve on Fog
(I say Valve because CS:GO is the only other game I know of that does this)

(example)

I didn't think much of this picture until now but the reason more developers are putting fog into their games is because when environments get more complex or enemies colors blend into the map fog makes them stand out A LOT more. Not sure if the picture is just showing off lighting or not but in the video it looks like fog and it would be a very very welcome improvement.

 

[Slightly Live]

Not sure if anyone has brought this up but it seems 343 might be taking a lesson from Valve on Fog
(I say Valve because CS:GO is the only other game I know of that does this)

(example)

I didn't think much of this picture until now but the reason more developers are putting fog into their games is because when environments get more complex or enemies colors blend into the map fog makes them stand out A LOT more. Not sure if the picture is just showing off lighting or not but in the video it looks like fog and it would be a very very welcome improvement.

This is silly.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Regardless of the issues it had, I have some great memories of multi-person film viewing in Halo 3. I really hope it returns in Halo 4.

 

[TheOddOne]

Waypoint could be used to watch game clips, edit them etc...

If Waypoint is developped in conjunction with Halo games, which it is, the end game could be to replace the game's menu with it. All online Halo activity would go through Waypoint, and thus Waypoint would cease to be a simple viewer but a social hub and tool.

Am I clear?

Ohh, you meant in regards to implementing Waypoint and Theater. Yeah, the way you described it makes a lot of sense.

Frankie said that Waypoint is gonna play a big role in the upcoming Halo's, cannot wait to see how and what they have done.

 

[wwm0nkey]

This is silly.

How is it silly? This is considering it is fog and not some lighting effect of course. The inclusion of Fog would be nice and would solve the problem of blue team blending into forerunner maps.

Again this is all a big IF.

EDIT: now two problems that do come with fog

-REALLY bad for BTB obviously
-Forces everything into a mid to close range encounter.

Depends on how its included really.

 

[Garrett 2U]

If they allowed you to watch videos through waypoint it would require them to add the whole Halo 4 rendering engine to it, which I doubt will happen.

 

[monome]

How is it silly? This is considering it is fog and not some lighting effect of course. The inclusion of Fog would be nice and would solve the problem of purple team blending into forerunner maps.

Again this is all a big IF.

fixed.

And why not, the better I see who I shoot at, the better i play.

If they allowed you to watch videos through waypoint it would require them to add the whole Halo 4 rendering engine to it, which I doubt will happen.

it's clearly not your Dad's Waypoint I'm talking about but a sort of branding of the complete halo online infrastructure and it would certainly be an app worth Gbs instead of Mbs like it is today. But it would inextracibly tie every coming halo games together within one evolving infrastructure. It's crazy talking but not undoable.
Maybe if it deals in both social, matchmaking, promotion etc. stuff it will compel MS to put a lot more money on the server side and the techs to deliver everybody's favorite features.

 

[Stinkles]

^^^^^ this is very important.

Really Tashi? FOUR people at once? I think you are over engineering it.

 

[op_ivy]

Really Tashi? FOUR people at once? I think you are over engineering it.

16 player theater confirmed

 

[Hypertrooper]

Really Tashi? FOUR people at once? I think you are over engineering it.

Really? These kinds of jokes AT these times?!

 

[FyreWulff]

Lockstep networking actually has an inherent delay of 3 frames of input. I am now submitting that we rename this to the Tashi Protocol. He'll have that Nobel in no time.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

Really Tashi? FOUR people at once? I think you are over engineering it.

Your quite funny for a Scottish person.

 

[TheOddOne]

Really Tashi? FOUR people at once? I think you are over engineering it.

*Slow clap*

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

Can someone quickly explain this tashi ceiling to me? From what I've gathered, Tashi is an excellent player, but fails to get more than triple kills?

 

[Slightly Live]

Can someone quickly explain this tashi ceiling to me? From what I've gathered, Tashi is an excellent player, but fails to get more than triple kills?

That is all the poor guy can ever manage. We cruelly mock him for it. Poor guy is in a constant state of choke.

 

[The Librarian]

^^^^^ this is very important.

That's beyond the Tashi Ceiling, bro. Can't go there.

Fake Edit: Frankie beat me.

Fake Edit 2: Watching full videos was fun, but watching clips, which what I wanted to do most of the time, was a chore. Took so long to load.

 

[TheOddOne]

Fake Edit 2: Watching full videos was fun, but watching clips, which what I wanted to do most of the time, was a chore. Took so long to load.

Fronkie must save us from slow loading. Top priority.

 

[Bregmann Roche]

Quick thoughts on the not-top-secret Media Blast we got this week:

I haven't seen people talking about the moving factory robot arms that are working on the Cyclops on Warhouse. Those could be fun to jump on/get smacked by. I'm hoping for more interactive map elements like that in whatever other MP play spaces we get.

Does the BR reticule look a little bit larger than the one from Halo 3? If so, that moves it further away from the DMR on the range chart which means DMRs could very well be in the game. This works for me as long as they are only pickups on larger maps.

Regarding ranks: I think 1-50 or 1-100 could work but just display rank as X/Y, where Y is max rank in the playlist while X is current rank in that playlist. Drop a player's rank by one (and only one) after 30 days. Never drop a player's rank as a result of a loss.

Armor "perks": seems like it could work. I'm sure this will be managed at the playlist level in such a way that classic halo will still be well represented. In terms of fairness, if a player is killed that player's "perk" would drop and any other player would be free to pick it up and use it.

Red vs. Blue justification: this doesn't have to be as elaborate as a civil war. Blues could be following certain orders from one leader while Reds could be following orders from a different leader. Before the game begins each side could hear a brief set of orders (similar to what we currently hear before a Firefight or Invasion game). Reds get Halsey's voice and Blues get Parangosky's.

I am hugely in favor of triple melees instead of double. If Halo 4 has melee power set to Vanilla Reach levels AND has sprint then please make the recovery from a melee twice as long as it is in Reach.

tl;dr -- in my house a "media blast" means something very different than it does around here.

 

[AllIsOneIsNone]

Does the BR reticule look a little bit larger than the one from Halo 3? If so, that moves it further away from the DMR on the range chart which means DMRs could very well be in the game. This works for me as long as they are only pickups on larger maps.

Even if it is slightly bigger, it appears there is a dot in the center now (which I like). So I wouldn't read too much into it based on that.

edit: watched it again, maybe there's not. still looks similar in size, only the lines don't go past the circle part of the reticule anymore.

 

[Karl2177]

Quick thoughts on the not-top-secret Media Blast we got this week:

Regarding ranks: I think 1-50 or 1-100 could work but just display rank as X/Y, where Y is max rank in the playlist while X is current rank in that playlist. Drop a player's rank by one (and only one) after 30 days. Never drop a player's rank as a result of a loss.

No. This doesn't discourage buying accounts. A single loss shouldn't demote a player, but multiple losses should.

 

[daedalius]

If the reticule is a problem, hopefully they will make the UI and some other base things easier to update with patches.

Would have been wonderful to get a pistol with 12 rounds for anni, but apparently UI changes are massively painful to do in the current architecture.

Anyone have links to those 3d models of Halo stuff? Like, that master chief helmet from Halo 4? I want to grab some of those.

 

[Bregmann Roche]

No. This doesn't discourage buying accounts. A single loss shouldn't demote a player, but multiple losses should.

Nothing short of a fascist Xbox Live Omnipotent Regime complete with a home-raiding squad is going to discourage people from buying accounts.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

For MP it's either kill barriers or invisible walls. I'll take kill barriers every time.

I'd rather see multiplayer maps with neither invisible walls nor kill barriers. Just good map design with scenic barriers that prevent you from going anywhere unintended for both enclosed and open maps. Campaign is where people should be doing their exploration. Also, I was never a fan of the light flashing pylons in Halo3 that set boundaries in areas that looked like I should be able to get further. Just doesn't give a good feel to a map in my opinion.

 

[thezerofire]

Even if it is slightly bigger, it appears there is a dot in the center now (which I like). So I wouldn't read too much into it based on that.

edit: watched it again, maybe there's not. still looks similar in size, only the lines don't go past the circle part of the reticule anymore.

There was always a dot in the center if you were aiming at someone's head

 

[Karl2177]

Nothing short of a fascist Xbox Live Omnipotent Regime complete with a home-raiding squad is going to discourage people from buying accounts.

Think of the account like a car though. You aren't going to buy a car that depreciates over time and has a large risk of being in an accident. Why would you buy an account that delevels over time as well as having the risk of deleveling because the skill level is too high?

Once you hit 50 in Halo 3, you never had to enter that ranked playlist again. There wasn't anything to discourage someone from buying the account and having a 50.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Drop a player's rank by one (and only one) after 30 days. Never drop a player's rank as a result of a loss.

Worst idea ever. Drop rank according to win, loss, skill, etc but never make rank drop just due to time.

 

[Bregmann Roche]

Worst idea ever. Drop rank according to win and loss. Never make rank drop just due to time.

Really? Worst idea ever? Worse than pogroms? Genocide? Reading posts on gaming side? It can't be the worst idea ever...can it?

 

[Tashi]

Really Tashi? FOUR people at once? I think you are over engineering it.

Wow really?

I'll never escape this huh?

There's nothing I can say that doesn't lead to a triple kill joke lol

 

[Tha Robbertster]

You should be able to see how many games you have to win in a row to level up a skill level. That was the worst in Halo 3, not knowing how many games there were still left to win. Just have a sub-menu that shows: 10 consecutive wins to level up/ 3 consecutive losses to go down one level.

 

[Karl2177]

Wow really?

I'll never escape this huh?

There's nothing I can say that doesn't lead to a triple kill joke lol

Because it is all you know.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Wow really?

I'll never escape this huh?

There's nothing I can say that doesn't lead to a triple kill joke lol

Pretty much.

 

[Bregmann Roche]

Wow really?

I'll never escape this huh?

There's nothing I can say that doesn't lead to a triple kill joke lol

The Tashi Ceiling is the .map or xbox-out-the-window-guy of OT2 it would appear. Just wait it out until OT3 when someone else will be the butt of all the jokes. I nominate myself!

 

[Zeouterlimits]

"Decaying" value? Interesting.

How about if Waypoint kept track of your highest ever reached, but in-game primarily showed the "current" decayable value (with the highest reached there too)?

Wow really?

I'll never escape this huh?

There's nothing I can say that doesn't lead to a triple kill joke lol

#inBeforePeopleStartBitchingThatItsGettingOld

 

[Rickenslacker]

For MP it's either kill barriers or invisible walls. I'll take kill barriers every time.

I'd prefer anything over Reach's soft kill barriers. Stepping on some completely harmless spots would end up triggering it at times. Very frustrating. It just seemed like a poor way of limiting jetpack, and if those lengths had to be made then why have jetpack in the first place.

 

[Bregmann Roche]

"Decaying" value? Interesting.

How about if Waypoint kept track of your highest ever reached, but in-game primarily showed the "current" decayable value (with the highest reached there too)?

I don't think it should decay very much, but having a 49/50 or a 99/100 would motivate many players to keep playing in playlists that they've already reached max rank in. Players who just wanted to see if they could hit 50 or 100 could just get the rank and ignore the decayed value.

 

[TheOddOne]

Wow really?

I'll never escape this huh?

There's nothing I can say that doesn't lead to a triple kill joke lol

Could not muster up a fourth line in post, huh?

Spoiler

Sorry bro.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

Wow really?

I'll never escape this huh?

There's nothing I can say that doesn't lead to a triple kill joke lol

Nice triple sentence brah, it was just right anymore would of been overkill