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Halo |OT3| Remember Reach?

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
Maybe they're complaining because they don't like the direction Halo 4 is going in. Just a wild guess.

right, but at a certain point, maybe the franchise is no longer for them and they should accept that and move on.
 
I don't like to think I'm on Team Downer. 'Team Passionate but Measured Expectations' maybe.
HaloGAF!

I had a job interview this morning. When I came back, I logged into my email with a message from the guy offering me the job. I am now a production technician on campus!
Awesome, congratulations Dax. Team SoonToBeWorking rocks :p
 

Overdoziz

Banned
right, but at a certain point, maybe the franchise is no longer for them and they should accept that and move on.
That moment will probably after Halo 4 is released. Not right now.
And if Halo 4 really turns out to be Halo Reach 2.0 I will probably give up on the franchise. Multiplayer-wise at least.
 

Trey

Member
HaloGAF!

I had a job interview this morning. When I came back, I logged into my email with a message from the guy offering me the job. I am now a production technician on campus!

Summer's off to a great start so far.

Edit: Don't mean to go off-topic. I'm just very excited and this will be my first "real" job. Lots of stuff to do!

Halo

Good fucking shit, Dax.

Someone really proposed a split? That would suck.
 
There are two problems with the idea of a split. Well, there are like forty problems, but the two main ones are:

1. There aren't enough people who just want to bitch about H4 and Reach to form this thread. It's like, five people who monomaniacally do this.
2. Even the most vocal complainers will still end up wanting to talk about H4 stuff.
2b. The drought of information will end soon and complaining won't stop, but at least there will be other things to talk about.
2c. You can create one of these threads immediately by putting four or five people on ignore, or dozens if you're on Team Downer.


soon
 
So I bought the German version of the non-existent US magazine Gamepro. The person who had played Halo 4 listed the point "some new additions like the weapon spawn" as negative one( or a point which has to improve till release). I do not have any interest to read the whole article, but maybe some people do want to hear the journalist's opinion about that case. At least I think it is the first journalist who complained about it and wrote it down. I'll write down the opinion if there is an interest.
 

Homeboyd

Member
I only read and care for the letters and words that support my arguments.

YOU WOULD!

Here,

mirror_by_Harp-02.jpg


Enjoy.
 

Trey

Member
So I bought the German version of the non-existent US magazine Gamepro. The person who had played Halo 4 listed the point "some new additions like the weapon spawn" as negative one( or a point which has to improve till release). I do not have any interest to read the whole article, but maybe some people do want to hear the journalist's opinion about that case. At least I think it is the first journalist who complained about it and wrote it down. I'll write down the opinion if there is an interest.

Do it anyways.

Talk about dedicated servers and recoil in upcoming Halo game - get yelled at

Think up ham related usernames - 3 pages of discussion.

Is it possible to make two different Halo threads in the community section?

So sensitive.
 
Put living dead and the other stuff like it back to weekend rotation! Lets get the actual playlists repopulated!
It doesn't work that way and things are not as easy as you're putting there.

You're assuming LD players will move to the "real" playlists but some of these folks actually play Zombies and nothing more, they play because it's fun, easy and even a brain dead would play it.

Sure you would see some subtle increase but it'd also be a failure, removing (even temporally) such a popular playlist? too risky imo.

Frankie/BS Angel already suggested H4 will have less, more focused playlist from where they can start to add/change/kill... luckily for us we won't have to deal with the whole TU/Vanilla/ZB thingy.

So as for Reach, leave the wacky playlists but please, add some damn mini games to Action Sack, the playlist IS SHIT!
 
Yes, I love action sack, but it needs an update. Skeeball and Hockey aren't fun anymore. Wheres mah H3 sumo?
Fyre made a remake of that map and it actually played great!

And yeah, these gametypes got old but they're still better than Shotty Snipers, Shotty Snipers in Action Sack, DA FUQ?
 
What the hell at this fall, first I have PAX to pay for, now all these games?

Sept 4 - Far Cry 3
Sept 18 - Borderlands 2
Oct 2 - Resident Evil 6
Oct 9 - Dishonored
Oct 16 - Breather week
Oct 23 - Medal of Honor: Warfighter
Oct 30 - Assassin's Creed 3
Nov 6 - Halo 4
Nov 13 - Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Nov 20 - Hitman: Absolution
Out of all that I can only see myself picking up Borderlands 2 and Halo 4. I don't know how anyone could plow through that many shooters and still have an interest in the genre.
 

Homeboyd

Member
Frankie/BS Angel already suggested H4 will have less, more focused playlist from where they can start to add/change/kill... luckily for us we won't have to deal with the whole TU/Vanilla/ZB thingy.
I actually had a question about this for Frankie/David/whoever. Someone else read those quotes from Frankie about the focused playlists from launch and took it totally different than I did, and I never even considered it the way they were reading it.

So the quote was something along the lines of having more focused playlists from H4's launch. Definitely don't recall specifics, but it was something along those lines.

I always thought that meant fewer playlists focused on the core gametypes everyone should expect from launch, but others brought up that it could mean each playlist is focused on a specific small set of gametypes which would mean there are more of them. With the way I took it, you would see something like:

Team Objective Playlist:
- CTF (and variants)
- Assault (and variants)
- KOTH (and variants)
etc...

With a focus on a few playlists with several selections in each.

...

With the way they took it, you would see:

CTF playlist
KOTH playlist
Assault playlist

With a more defined focus on each playlist to cater to a specific (or small set of specific) gametypes.

...

Now, obviously they aren't suggesting that there would be a CTF playlist next to a KOTH playlist next to an Assault playlist, etc.. those were just examples. They just read the comment from Frankie as if it meant playlists would be more abundant, but each would focus on more specific gametypes rather than lumping many gametypes into one hopper.

I'm still thinking I read it the right way the first time, but I could be wrong.

?
 

Brolic Gaoler

formerly Alienshogun
It doesn't work that way and things are not as easy as you're putting there.

You're assuming LD players will move to the "real" playlists but some of these folks actually play Zombies and nothing more, they play because it's fun, easy and even a brain dead would play it.

Sure you would see some subtle increase but it'd also be a failure, removing (even temporally) such a popular playlist? too risky imo.

Frankie/BS Angel already suggested H4 will have less, more focused playlist from where they can start to add/change/kill... luckily for us we won't have to deal with the whole TU/Vanilla/ZB thingy.

So as for Reach, leave the wacky playlists but please, add some damn mini games to Action Sack, the playlist IS SHIT!

Yeah, I know it's "more complicated than that" I simply think the playlists have gotten way out of hand and this suggestion of splitting threads seemed like a good tie in. ;)

I personally liked it better when the "non Halo" playlists were weekend rotation things that came up every few weeks. And yeah, I couldn't agree more about the 800 diferent levels of Slayer/OBJ we have now between Anniversery, TU, MLG, Arena, ZB, DLC, etc. It's absurd.

It feels like whomever is running the playlist is a fucking hoarder.
 

op_ivy

Fallen Xbot (cannot continue gaining levels in this class)
Custom Browser -> No more dumb minigame playlists

i would LOVE a customs browser for non-traditional halo modes (infection, rocket race, griffball, etc) and community maps. keep the matchmaking playlists to the standard slayer, ffa, objective, multiteam on official 343i/certain affinity maps.

really dont expect it though.
 

senador

Banned
Or just leave them as weekend playlists like in 3.

I'd rather have this and I think it'd actually work better too, as long as they kept the choices fresh and they didn't end up being Fiesta every other weekend. This would negate the need for playlists and since they aren't around all thr time to play, more people would (hopefully) be drawn in come the weekend.
 
Or just leave them as weekend playlists like in 3.
Agreed, we were talking about this before.
The weekend silly playlists (and having Team Slayer near the top of the selections) seemed to better stand to Halo 3, at least for the population counts of what I would consider the core Halo playlists.
 

Brolic Gaoler

formerly Alienshogun
All those guys standing around with guns, watching their buddies get hacked up. What are friends for?

Plus the dude on a horse with a sword leans away with his sword while dude jumps at him with a hatchet.

Deserves to die.

And I might be wrong, but I don't think an unarmored human body will stop a 50caliber ball from a muzzle loader at point blank range, just sayin' ;)
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
I actually had a question about this for Frankie/David/whoever. Someone else read those quotes from Frankie about the focused playlists from launch and took it totally different than I did, and I never even considered it the way they were reading it.

So the quote was something along the lines of having more focused playlists from H4's launch. Definitely don't recall specifics, but it was something along those lines.

I always thought that meant fewer playlists focused on the core gametypes everyone should expect from launch, but others brought up that it could mean each playlist is focused on a specific small set of gametypes which would mean there are more of them. With the way I took it, you would see something like:

Team Objective Playlist:
- CTF (and variants)
- Assault (and variants)
- KOTH (and variants)
etc...

With a focus on a few playlists with several selections in each.

...

With the way they took it, you would see:

CTF playlist
KOTH playlist
Assault playlist

With a more defined focus on each playlist to cater to a specific (or small set of specific) gametypes.

...

Now, obviously they aren't suggesting that there would be a CTF playlist next to a KOTH playlist next to an Assault playlist, etc.. those were just examples. They just read the comment from Frankie as if it meant playlists would be more abundant, but each would focus on more specific gametypes rather than lumping many gametypes into one hopper.

I'm still thinking I read it the right way the first time, but I could be wrong.

?

Honestly, too much granular thought at this point. The PHILOSOPHY is pretty easy. Content, balance and logic are going to be tinkered with right up to launch. I think fundamentally we want to make sure people feel like they have similar choices in general, but with less confusion, fewer branches and more logical semantics. Big, healthy populations and appropriate investments in things that tend to wither when they're not properly focused.

There's no perfect way to do this, there simply isn't, but it's a serious area of focus for the team, all the way up to Josh Holmes, the creative director and it's something people take hyper seriously.

Reach is imperfect here, but the fact is that it has stabilized, then slowly crept back up the charts. Stuff like the TU, general interest in Halo (4 and Anniversary), declines in popularity for other games, etc have helped, but you don't need to be a statistician to see that the trend, while full of issues for the discrete types of Halo player, is generally positive.

And it's a moving target. We'll continue to refine, adjust and support the Reach game up to and well beyond Halo 4 (although realistically you should expect to see fewer updates after that point). We're thinking seriously about how to bridge the gap between current playlists and stuff like Squad Slayer's absence. Silence does not mean ignorance. It never does. We have dozens of types of fan to keep happy and we have to balance that with keeping the thing rumbling along.
 
Agreed, we were talking about this before.
The weekend silly playlists (and having Team Slayer near the top of the selections) seemed to better stand to Halo 3.

If HCI has taught me anything it's that Reach's UI can be optimized. The less clicks it takes to get somewhere, the less used the feature should be. Similarly, the options the user does see first are the features the designer expects the user to use the most. In Reach, because Living Dead is so easy to get to, easier than any other playlist, most people will go there. It's so bad :/
 
If HCI has taught me anything it's that Reach's UI can be optimized. The less clicks it takes to get somewhere, the less used the feature should be. Similarly, the options the user does see first are the features the designer expects the user to use the most. In Reach, because Living Dead is so easy to get to, easier than any other playlist, most people will go there. It's so bad :/
Indeed. I even think the main menu in Reach (while pretty) dilutes this.

The Halo 2/Halo 3 style of Campaign, Multiplayer, etc was more effective and useful.
 

FyreWulff

Member
If HCI has taught me anything it's that Reach's UI can be optimized. The less clicks it takes to get somewhere, the less used the feature should be. Similarly, the options the user does see first are the features the designer expects the user to use the most. In Reach, because Living Dead is so easy to get to, easier than any other playlist, most people will go there. It's so bad :/

Well that and it's the purest form of Slayer out there.

- You don't have to help teammates.
- You spawn with one of three possible weapons.
- Zero objective play
- Exploitable maps remaining in the list means you have a good chance of getting a solid amount of kills

It's even more vanilla pudding than Team Slayer. And I still want to know who thought it was a good idea to give the humans pistols. Should be humans - shotgun, zombies - swords.


Indeed. I even think the main menu in Reach (while pretty) dilutes this.

The Halo 2/Halo 3 style of Campaign, Multiplayer, etc was more effective and useful.

They actually dropped the Switch Lobby mechanic of 3 because their telemetry showed people just backed out to the main menu and re-invited everyone. That's why Reach has the "Main Menu", they needed a top level to back out into. Direct response to how players used 3's UI.
 

Homeboyd

Member
Honestly, too much granular thought at this point. The PHILOSOPHY is pretty easy. Content, balance and logic are going to be tinkered with right up to launch. I think fundamentally we want to make sure people feel like they have similar choices in general, but with less confusion, fewer branches and more logical semantics. Big, healthy populations and appropriate investments in things that tend to wither when they're not properly focused.

There's no perfect way to do this, there simply isn't, but it's a serious area of focus for the team, all the way up to Josh Holmes, the creative director and it's something people take hyper seriously.

Reach is imperfect here, but the fact is that it has stabilized, then slowly crept back up the charts. Stuff like the TU, general interest in Halo (4 and Anniversary), declines in popularity for other games, etc have helped, but you don't need to be a statistician to see that the trend, while full of issues for the discrete types of Halo player, is generally positive.

And it's a moving target. We'll continue to refine, adjust and support the Reach game up to and well beyond Halo 4 (although realistically you should expect to see fewer updates after that point). We're thinking seriously about how to bridge the gap between current playlists and stuff like Squad Slayer's absence. Silence does not mean ignorance. It never does. We have dozens of types of fan to keep happy and we have to balance that with keeping the thing rumbling along.
Thanks for the comments.

The main reason I was asking about it was because I know you can get away with trying more options at launch, considering the huge population counts, than you can later down the road. I think the way you described adding clarity to each of these options will be a HUGE help (which I know you're already aware of that), and it should go down from explicit details of what each playlist offers (in-game) to the H2 style pre-game lobby match details once a game is voted on (and I'm hoping the "back" button we've seen in the UI is also there for these reasons).

The other descriptory stuff like (TU, ZB, NEP, etc..) also contribute to newer player's confusion... especially those who don't follow bulletins or simply zoom through the pop-up msg's as you guys update the playlists.

Looking forward to seeing these types of changes being implemented. It's obvious you guys are aware of the issues we face currently, it's just nice to hear you all talk about them from time to time.
 

Hey You

Member
Fyre made a remake of that map and it actually played great!

And yeah, these gametypes got old but they're still better than Shotty Snipers, Shotty Snipers in Action Sack, DA FUQ?

Lets hope Action Sack gets updated before Reach is forgotten.

I'd rather have this and I think it'd actually work better too, as long as they kept the choices fresh and they didn't end up being Fiesta every other weekend. This would negate the need for playlists and since they aren't around all thr time to play, more people would (hopefully) be drawn in come the weekend.

Yeah, even if it's not double Spartan points. It was fun jumping on the weekend and playing something fresh.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Lets hope Action Sack gets updated before Reach is forgotten.

I'll believe post-4 updates for Reach when I see it. As it stands, we have at most 5 updates guaranteed left for Reach (because I seriously doubt 343 is going to manage launching 4 AND a Reach update in the same month).

Hopefully 343 and the ComCartog can make good use of those. But 343 has to prove it, because so far, every online Halo title has had it's keys lost under the doormat as soon as the next one has come out. Shit, they never even came back and readjusted Halo 2 to not be so damn heavy on the Blastacular Map Pack. And most of us will agree that Halo 3 is in a subpar situation right now re: search times


Fyre made a remake of that map and it actually played great!

And yeah, these gametypes got old but they're still better than Shotty Snipers, Shotty Snipers in Action Sack, DA FUQ?

Thanks! And yeah, I hope Action Sack gets a round of updates. I was hoping Action Sack would have continued to be the Megalo Funhouse. I'll definitely be dropping that map in the very second they say "Action Sack".

Here's an idea 343: Hold a contest for a gametype concept for Reach. Winner gets their gametype Megalo'd up and released into Reach Actionsack.

Alternately: Give me access to Megalo. Alternately alternately: Give everyone access via some sort of XNA process.
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Congrats Daxy poo.

Halo 4 needs to be completely revealed already so we can have open and informed discussions about multiplayer, matchmaking and lots of other really important smaller details.

I hope all of multiplayer is revealed and fleshed out before the game comes out. I want to know about the finer details of the ranking system, all the weapons, spawns, forge and all that good stuff.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I'd prefer infection to make the zombs a little tougher--either by ramping up their
MS and getting rid of sprint and/or giving them a weak shield. If necessary humans could pick up dropped ammo, but it would force more human teamwork and make it easier for zomb ambushes.
 
Congrats Daxy poo.

Halo 4 needs to be completely revealed already so we can have open and informed discussions about multiplayer, matchmaking and lots of other really important smaller details.

I hope all of multiplayer is revealed and fleshed out before the game comes out. I want to know about the finer details of the ranking system, all the weapons, spawns, forge and all that good stuff.

I just hope it's not 1-50 exactly like it was in Halo 3. Nothing killed me more than getting stuck on 42 in Lone Wolves and winning so many games in a row and not moving at all. Then coming in the 4th in one and dropping. :/ None of my friends were good enough to play ranked team games unfortunately. It was social slayer all day most of the time. :(
 

CyReN

Member
I just hope it's not 1-50 exactly like it was in Halo 3. Nothing killed me more than getting stuck on 42 in Lone Wolves and winning so many games in a row and not moving at all. Then coming in the 4th in one and dropping. :/ None of my friends were good enough to play ranked team games unfortunately. It was social slayer all day most of the time. :(

Well from the sounds of it, it isn't going to be back and Arena ranks are gone in Halo 4.
 

kylej

Banned
right, but at a certain point, maybe the franchise is no longer for them and they should accept that and move on.

not sure what questions like "Why was Squad Slayer removed without notice?" or "Why won't Halo 4 have dedis like other games?" have to do with liking or disliking the franchise.
 

Overdoziz

Banned
Someone please fill me in on how squad slayer was different than normal team slayer or super slayer. I seriously don't remember it.
Matches up parties of 4-5 up with each other.
No Armor Lock
No community Forge maps, only Uncaged and Asylum
No Reflection and Sword Base
Practically no AR start matches

Pretty much every match was on a decent map (Powerhouse, Countdown, Zealot, Asylum, Boardwalk) with DMR starts against a team of 5.

Edit: I recall Camo being in Squad.
 
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