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[daedalius]

That's another reason why I think there should be ranked playlists with visible ranks. It makes it that much more important to stay in ranked games if something like a visible rank is at stake.

I play ranked playlists for either the competitive gametype or the rank. I play social playlists when I don't feel like trying to win. That was the distinction made in Halo 3 and I think that was one of the things H3 did rate. Those matchmaking hoppers were really effective.

The thing about visual ranks is that it ties everything in. If you want to play a ranked playlist, but don't actually care about the rank, then you'll be in the lower ranks with similar minded players. It's nothing against you as a player personally, it just sorts you out. Higher ranked players have played for that rank and care about winning, so they'll be matched up together.

Drop in drop out (we should call this DIDO, there will be no white flag above my door) will be AMAZING for social playlists.

However, there needs to be a reason why people won't quit out of ranked games as well, and that's where a visual rank plays a key role.

Well, even if it only penalized a rank only you could see, which is what they are talking about doing, people might take quitting a bit more seriously.

While I sort of liked the distinction of ranked and social, I'd rather all playlists be 'ranked' in some degree; just don't label it such. I think the label is more a source of stigma than anything.

Reach could have done this, but instead of making everything 'ranked' they made everything 'social' and then shoved 'ranked' into a corner with Arena.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

Do you guys think with JiP/DIDO there will be options to kick players who might be griefing/AFK?

I hope so.

I can understand AFK, say after a certain time limit is up, the option pops up.

How would you tackle griefing? Using a pre determined level of friendly fire affliction?

 

[u4iX]

Vote to kick would be abused a kick idle'ers system could work but then i can see people rubber banding.

I hate to bring up this game again (just kidding, I love doing this) but Shadowrun had a really good vote to kick system in place that I believe took into account who was calling the kick, the players stats such as betrayals and friendly fire, as well as other factors.

So a vote to kick would not only take into account votes, but current game stats and analytics as well.

 

[willow ve]

drop in drop out is a GOOD start but i really hope it doesn't replace quit bans. i hope quit bans become more strict even.

if you're losing to a better team, play hard til the end! don't bitch out and quit.

no gamesmanship in children these days i'm tellin ya.

I always thought the Quit Ban should make you sit until the game that you left is over. This way you can "leave for an emergency" or "leave for dinner" or all other manner of excuses the forums come up with, but it would actually punish those players who quit and try to get into another game right away.

If they really wanted to discourage quitting in Reach they should tack on an extra credit deduction for quitting. Make it a full 1/5th of the level you're currently on. IE you could lose up to 100,000 credits or more base on your current "rank".

Which brings us back to something I mentioned previously, use the Valve/DotA thing where quitters are sent to Quitter Purgatory to play against each other until they fight their way out, Sandman Slim style.

This NEEDS to be in Halo 4. Pretty please 343?

 

[StalkerUKCG]

I can understand AFK, say after a certain time limit is up, the option pops up.

How would you tackle griefing? Using a pre determined level of friendly fire affliction?

I hate to bring up this game again (just kidding, I love doing this) but Shadowrun had a really good vote to kick system in place that I believe took into account who was calling the kick, the players stats such as betrayals and friendly fire, as well as other factors.

So a vote to kick would not only take into account votes, but current game stats and analytics as well.

This could work.

A system that gives you the option to vote to kick a player and a period of time of inactivity.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Hmm, that would actually be pretty cool.

Railguns only, 150% player speed.

Man I've been saying Instagib should be a weekly for a bit in Halo foreverrrrr. They kind of just phoned it in for weeklies in H3 after Grifball and Living Dead hit, on repeat forever. Nothing innovative, great work Shishka.

Visual 1-50 should not come back and will probably will never be back. They should definitely make the TS matching more strict, though. They have the ability to turn it up on Reach, they just don't do it. Arena has TS matching cranked up but also has low population. All the benefits offered for visual 1-50 (hardcore get put with hardcore, clowning around gets put with others) still happens when TS is invisible.

Yes but you have to have some visual ranking or else noone is going to care and your game is going to lose players. People want to fight for something. Thats why people tried so hard to get them in H2 and H3. Nobody cheats to get Onyx because noone gives a fuck about it. Cheating can be viewed as an indicator of a good system IMO.

If you just say "yes trueskill is being used during the MM process but its invisible" well thats not good enough. Noone can know what caliber of player they are playing. They lose all motivation.

 

[FyreWulff]

Visual 1-50 should not come back and will probably will never be back. They should definitely make the TS matching more strict, though. They have the ability to turn it up on Reach, they just don't do it. Arena has TS matching cranked up but also has low population. All the benefits offered for visual 1-50 (hardcore get put with hardcore, clowning around gets put with others) still happens when TS is invisible.

 

[u4iX]

Visual 1-50 should not come back and will probably will never be back. They should definitely make the TS matching more strict, though. They have the ability to turn it up on Reach, they just don't do it. Arena has TS matching cranked up but also has low population. All the benefits offered for visual 1-50 (hardcore get put with hardcore, clowning around gets put with others) still happens when TS is invisible.

Visual ranks does not have to be 1-50.

Also saying they "should not come back ad will probably never be back" just sounds a bit ridiculous. They were good, not great, but if 343 takes the time to analyze and see what worked in Halo 2, 3, and Reach and what didn't I think a great ranking system could be developed.

I think it's fairly obvious looking at Reach that overly-diverse matchmaking hoppers coupled with the lack of visual ranked playlists crippled the matchmaking experience.

 

[jon bones]

I always thought the Quit Ban should make you sit until the game that you left is over. This way you can "leave for an emergency" or "leave for dinner" or all other manner of excuses the forums come up with, but it would actually punish those players who quit and try to get into another game right away.

If they really wanted to discourage quitting in Reach they should tack on an extra credit deduction for quitting. Make it a full 1/5th of the level you're currently on. IE you could lose up to 100,000 credits or more base on your current "rank".

1st point you made - This is what they do in LoL and it's Perfect.

2nd point you made - Brilliant! I never thought I'd request something of Frank who (from what I understand) is our resident Halo dev contact - but this is a genius idea to consider.

 

[Arnie]

Visual 1-50 should not come back and will probably will never be back. They should definitely make the TS matching more strict, though. They have the ability to turn it up on Reach, they just don't do it. Arena has TS matching cranked up but also has low population. All the benefits offered for visual 1-50 (hardcore get put with hardcore, clowning around gets put with others) still happens when TS is invisible.

But that's underestimating the power of the visual signifier of improvement over all players. I've got friends who'd happily sit for hours playing Big Team Battle and driving around in Warthogs, and they hated the lack of visual ranks in Reach, and not because they didn't feel they were being pared against opponents of appropriate skill.

 

[Tunavi]

Alright, made it larger, moved it up. Made it Seagreen just to see what it looked like on baseball 3/4 sleeve with seagreen. BADASS. Is this sizing better?

HALOGAF shirt test 2 SEAGREEN

ONCE AGAIN. DO NOT PURCHASE IT. IT IS A TEST.

Here is the Grey version just larger.

HaloGAF shirt large Grey logo

mmm just bought one!

 

[EvB]

I always come across 2 variations of quitters in Double team

Type A: Getting a 5 kill lead at the start or spoiling there plans to whore up every power weapon and quitting right at the start.

Type B : Let's the game run until there is 1 kill left for me to legitimately win, then they flip the bird at me by quitting on 24 kills.


I'd also like to see a system that deals with draws in the map voting list, I've seen it where people will just pick a naff map/gametype (Slayer) over something else (Slayer DMRs) just to spite the opposite team.

Alternatively they see that you WANT to play a particular map because you picked first and they will just pick the one above it to spite you. I hate how choosing a map has turned into a competition.

 

[daedalius]

If you just say "yes trueskill is being used during the MM process but its invisible" well thats not good enough. Noone can know what caliber of player they are playing. They lose all motivation.

I wouldn't say that, if you knew it was actually working. The rank you can see only for yourself would still be affected.

The problem is, it doesn't work in Reach, at all; or it only works in one playlist that was broken for half the game's life :| The only time I feel like I get good competitive matches is like 1/10 times in matchmaking, or customs. If it was 10/10 times for good matches, I'd probably take it a bit more seriously!

For map voting, I think you should be able to vote once then its locked in. Actually I'd rather have it back to 3's style where you get to veto once; voting tends to get the same shit over and over again.

 

[Tunavi]

drop in drop out is going to be amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing

Fuck yeah. Totally forgot.

Fuck yeah.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

Man I've been saying Instagib should be a weekly for a bit in Halo foreverrrrr. They kind of just phoned it in for weeklies in H3 after Grifball and Living Dead hit, on repeat forever. Nothing innovative, great work Shishka.

Its alot more viable now we have weapons that disintegrate you and its fairly simple.

Instant kill weapons.
Light Rifle/Pomethean Sniper.
200%-250% speed.
150%-200% jump height

 

[Karl2177]

I always thought the Quit Ban should make you sit until the game that you left is over. This way you can "leave for an emergency" or "leave for dinner" or all other manner of excuses the forums come up with, but it would actually punish those players who quit and try to get into another game right away.

I would love this if you could join the game you quit again. There's been many times where I disconnected and wanted to join again.

 

[Overdoziz]

Can't wait to brag to people about my invisible 50.

 

[Arnie]

Can't wait to brag to people about my invisible 50.

XxOVE12xX Sent You A Message

'get a (invisble) 50 u shit kid'

 

[daedalius]

Can't wait to brag to people about my invisible 50.

I wonder if they made it visible on Waypoint or something... not in game?

Maybe they should just do visible ranks, but it will seasonally reset; that would eliminate most of the desire for people to cheat, since you could really only stay on top for the season.

 

[u4iX]

Can't wait to brag to people about my invisible 50.

I'm a 50, just go to HaloWaypoint.com, search my gamertag in the upper right hand corner, be sure to capitalize the correct X's in my name as there are several, get the sequence of 3 to 5 numbers correctly, click on my profile, go to "Halo 4 Battle Ranking," scroll down to the "Infinity Slayer" playlist, click it... SEE I TOLD YOU SO.

 

[Tawpgun]

Only issue with the shadowrun system is if your running with a big party you can just kick someone from a game for no reason.

Also, Halo doesn't have rounds. How would it even work? Where would you vote?

Also, there needs to be some form of skill ranks. I know a lot of people who stopped playing reach because they got bored with it. Said there was no point. In CoD you at least have prestiging to unlock cool gold camos and more custom slots. In Reach you get armor. Wow.

You should be able to get cool things to show off if you reach 50/onyx.

 

[kylej]

Visual 1-50 should come back because there is no reason for it to not come back. The system wasn't abused, there were equal skill distributions throughout the 1-50 range, and you would almost always get a pretty close game in ranked playlists. 343 tries to spin it as being this broken mess of boosters and new accounts when it wasn't that way at all. I mean, if your goal is to have a 100% pure and perfect ranking system, shit ain't gonna happen.

I've already gone over this a million times, but boosters themselves aren't really a problem. If someone is skilled enough to get a 50 and wants to play on a new account, they will get that 50 at a rapid pace (which mitigates 343's fear of collateral damage). If someone buys a 50 or boosts there who doesn't have the skill to play at that level, they will lose their rank. The players control the ranks. The idea that the entirety of the Halo 3 ranking system was ruined by a shadowy illuminati that hovered around rank 25 solely to grief people is absurd. And yes, I'm aware that new accounts could crap on you as they were ascending the ranks, but what is the difference between someone legitimately playing the game for the first time versus someone playing on a new account? To the guy getting dumped on, there is no difference.

We still don't have a great explanation why 343 won't go back to it, nor do we know what they'll be doing for ranks in Halo 4, but not knowing is pretty much par for the course these days. Maybe Ogre 2 has some details on it, I'll check his Twitter.

 

[u4iX]

Only issue with the shadowrun system is if your running with a big party you can just kick someone from a game for no reason.

Also, Halo doesn't have rounds. How would it even work? Where would you vote?

You can't, I've Shadowrun takes a lot of factors into account when booting somone.

Deathscreen.

 

[Overdoziz]

I'm a 50, just go to HaloWaypoint.com, search my gamertag in the upper right hand corner, be sure to capitalize the correct X's in my name as there are several, get the sequence of 3 to 5 numbers correctly, click on my profile, go to "Halo 4 Battle Ranking," scroll down to the "Infinity Slayer" playlist, click it... SEE I TOLD YOU SO.

"Sorry, we encountered a problem"

 

[Arnie]

The idea that the entirety of the Halo 3 ranking system was ruined by a shadowy illuminati that hovered around rank 25 solely to grief people is absurd.

I'm laughing my tits off here.

 

[willow ve]

I wonder if they made it visible on Waypoint or something... not in game?

Maybe they should just do visible ranks, but it will seasonally reset; that would eliminate most of the desire for people to cheat, since you could really only stay on top for the season.

I'm a 50, just go to HaloWaypoint.com, search my gamertag in the upper right hand corner, be sure to capitalize the correct X's in my name as there are several, get the sequence of 3 to 5 numbers correctly, click on my profile, go to "Halo 4 Battle Ranking," scroll down to the "Infinity Slayer" playlist, click it... SEE I TOLD YOU SO.

Yeah - Waypoint fails as a way to show off your stats. Look how hard and obtuse it is to search and/or link anything from there right now. Granted it's supposed to be "getting better" as we go forward, but that place is a cluster of poor usability.

4 really does need to have universally VISIBLE ranks. I have never heard a truly valid argument for why a visible rank should not be included in a Halo game. Just think of the popularity of Arena if that rank was visible in every playlist at all times to every lobby...

The idea that the entirety of the Halo 3 ranking system was ruined by a shadowy illuminati that hovered around rank 25 solely to grief people is absurd.

For the first time in my brief HaloGAF life I can say I 100% agree with kylej on this.

 

[daedalius]

Yeah - Waypoint fails as a way to show off your stats. Look how hard and obtuse it is to search and/or link anything from there right now. Granted it's supposed to be "getting better" as we go forward, but that place is a cluster of poor usability.

4 really does need to have universally VISIBLE ranks. I have never heard a truly valid argument for why a visible rank should not be included in a Halo game. Just think of the popularity of Arena if that rank was visible in every playlist at all times to every lobby...

I think this probably would have made people a lot more interested in playing in Arena.

Should be on their name bar in Reach, or when you scroll over them instead of how much armory they have complete :eyeroll:

 

[FyreWulff]

Visual ranks does not have to be 1-50.

Also saying they "should not come back ad will probably never be back" just sounds a bit ridiculous. They were good, not great, but if 343 takes the time to analyze and see what worked in Halo 2, 3, and Reach and what didn't I think a great ranking system could be developed.

I think it's fairly obvious looking at Reach that overly-diverse matchmaking hoppers coupled with the lack of visual ranked playlists crippled the matchmaking experience.

Reach's problem, if anything, was too little diversity. It has too many playlists and too many of them are redundant to each other. Two BTB playlists that are both TU and one just has one map pack in it. Not even Halo 3 supported having two BTBs for very long (BTB and Mythic BTB). Two Rumble Pits, once again, one offers maps and gametypes you can already get in Rumble Pit and both are now TU. 4 4v4 Slayer-only playlists (Arena, Team Slayer, Super Slayer, Team Snipers). The BTB and RP situation would have made more sense if Anni BTB/AnniFFA had stayed TU and BTB/RP had stayed Vanilla but nope, had to be made redundant to each other. Anni FFA offers Infection.. which everyone is just going to play in Living Dead anyway with more players. Reach doesn't even have a single 100% Objective playlist anymore with 2 Flag Slayer in Team Objective. Premium Battle was prematurely killed by the poor decision to make it require Anniversary on top of Noble and Defiant which choked it right the fuck out, and it came back as a mixed Slayer/Objective playlist that was Vanilla.

Don't even get me started on serious gametypes being in Action Sack and Action Sack-style gametypes being in the more serious playlists. 2 Flag Slayer is an AS gametype, Shotty Snipers needs to GTFO Actionsack, for example.

Visual 1-50 should come back because there is no reason for it to not come back. The system wasn't abused, there were equal skill distributions throughout the 1-50 range

1-50 was heavily abused and exploited for nefarious reasons. I don't have exact numbers on hand, 343 and Bungie would have those, but it was pretty damn bad and devalued the ranking system. A matching system shouldn't be used as a ranking system. What I'd like to see come back though is per-playlist EXP (from launch onwards) so you can more easily judge how knowledgable people are at a certain playlist.

 

[Striker]

Shotty Snipes. Wasn't that in Ranked Team Slayer in H3 for like two years? It's probably still in there. Great stuff.

 

[FyreWulff]

Shotty Snipes. Wasn't that in Ranked Team Slayer in H3 for like two years? It's probably still in there. Great stuff.

Either way if I wanted to play Team Snipers I'd load up Team Snipers.

edit: Halo 3 had the same problem with Tug of War being in H3 Actionsack. You're having a good time then all of a sudden srstime BR start k/d gametype wut.

 

[Overdoziz]

Flag Slayer is a great gametype. We once got 150 points without getting a single flag cap.

 

[Beckx]

However, there needs to be a reason why people won't quit out of ranked games as well, and that's where a visual rank plays a key role.

Visual 1-50 should not come back and will probably will never be back. They should definitely make the TS matching more strict, though. They have the ability to turn it up on Reach, they just don't do it. Arena has TS matching cranked up but also has low population. All the benefits offered for visual 1-50 (hardcore get put with hardcore, clowning around gets put with others) still happens when TS is invisible.

I want visual rank b/c of what u4ix says, it makes people care about their performance and think twice before jeopardizing that. But I don't want 1-50, that much gradation causes too many problems. It looks too much like a level system in an RPG that people need to climb through, rather than a performance grade that's only affected by performance. I prefer A-E grade systems.

Since I'm dreaming about things that will never happen, I'd also like leaderboards and the ability to easily identify & follow the top ranked players.

 

[EvB]

Visual 1-50 should come back because there is no reason for it to not come back. The system wasn't abused, there were equal skill distributions throughout the 1-50 range, and you would almost always get a pretty close game in ranked playlists. 343 tries to spin it as being this broken mess of boosters and new accounts when it wasn't that way at all. I mean, if your goal is to have a 100% pure and perfect ranking system, shit ain't gonna happen.

I've already gone over this a million times, but boosters themselves aren't really a problem. If someone is skilled enough to get a 50 and wants to play on a new account, they will get that 50 at a rapid pace (which mitigates 343's fear of collateral damage).

My experience of Halo 3 was that it was really abused.

It wasn't the case of a new accounts being PURELY skilled enough to get to level 50,it was the case of people abusing the workings of the system that determined your rank.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there an issue with the algorithm that created the skill number that meant you could rocket straight from level 1 to level 50 in just a few games
Whereas if you had a long standing account that was say level 40 and had played several thousand games, putting the same above average player on this account and having them play the same games wouldn't actually result in them being levelled up to 50 as the new account would be.

It wasn't uncommon to see people that had played less than 100 games and were level 50.
I was a level 46 in my highest playlist and I'm quite happy to say that was the plateau I had reached and was actually a good representation of my skill level.

This meant that there were people who were also very low levels and they were on a constant basis being matchmade with people VASTLY better than them as they boosted their way up to their easy 50.
I always get the impression that people who defend the removal of visible skill in Reach is because these people are the ones who did participate in the boosting and the spoiling of the matchmaking system for other lesser skilled players and that they also don't actually deserve the level 50 badge of honour they have.


I'm guessing one solution would be to create an entirely different method of determining rank, but I presume it is always going to be open to abuse, which is why they have left it out.

 

[u4iX]

Reach's problem, if anything, was too little diversity. It has too many playlists and too many of them are redundant to each other. Two BTB playlists that are both TU and one just has one map pack in it. Not even Halo 3 supported having two BTBs for very long (BTB and Mythic BTB). Two Rumble Pits, once again, one offers maps and gametypes you can already get in Rumble Pit and both are now TU. 4 4v4 Slayer-only playlists (Arena, Team Slayer, Super Slayer, Team Snipers). The BTB and RP situation would have made more sense if Anni BTB/AnniFFA had stayed TU and BTB/RP had stayed Vanilla but nope, had to be made redundant to each other. Anni FFA offers Infection.. which everyone is just going to play in Living Dead anyway with more players. Reach doesn't even have a single 100% Objective playlist anymore with 2 Flag Slayer in Team Objective. Premium Battle was prematurely killed by the poor decision to make it require Anniversary on top of Noble and Defiant which choked it right the fuck out, and it came back as a mixed Slayer/Objective playlist that was Vanilla.

Don't even get me started on serious gametypes being in Action Sack and Action Sack-style gametypes being in the more serious playlists. 2 Flag Slayer is an AS gametype, Shotty Snipers needs to GTFO Actionsack, for example.



1-50 was heavily abused and exploited for nefarious reasons. I don't have exact numbers on hand, 343 and Bungie would have those, but it was pretty damn bad and devalued the ranking system. A matching system shouldn't be used as a ranking system. What I'd like to see come back though is per-playlist EXP (from launch onwards) so you can more easily judge how knowledgable people are at a certain playlist.

Good try, Tyson Green.

 

[YourExWife]

I'm a 50, just go to HaloWaypoint.com, search my gamertag in the upper right hand corner, be sure to capitalize the correct X's in my name as there are several, get the sequence of 3 to 5 numbers correctly, click on my profile, go to "Halo 4 Battle Ranking," scroll down to the "Infinity Slayer" playlist, click it... SEE I TOLD YOU SO.

*2 days later*

"Finally saw your rank. How many Microsoft Points did you pay someone for that rank, scrub? There's no way you got that (thing that no one else can see) legitimately. You're not good enough. Go back to CoD noob"

Flag Slayer is a great gametype. We once got 150 points without getting a single flag cap.

We always try to score 249. Good times.

 

[FyreWulff]

Good try, Tyson Green.

Tyson Green is a boss but I'm not sure what my post had to do with him.

I want visual rank b/c of what u4ix says, it makes people care about their performance and think twice before jeopardizing that. But I don't want 1-50, that much gradation causes too many problems. It looks too much like a level system in an RPG that people need to climb through, rather than a performance grade that's only affected by performance. I prefer A-E grade systems.

Since I'm dreaming about things that will never happen, I'd also like leaderboards and the ability to easily identify & follow the top ranked players.

There would be exactly 0 legitimate players on top of a leaderboard. Friends only leaderboard, sure. Global? You could pretty much F5 on the Halo 2 leaderboards when they were up and just collect cheater gamertags for reporting.

 

[Kujo]

Why are the weekly challenges still so garbage, they should be over 50,000cr by now. Not worth the effort

 

[Zeouterlimits]

I still think if you quit a game you should be locked out of team-based playlists until the game you quit is over.

Agreed, the way League of Legends does it!

 

[Tawpgun]

Biggest issue with 1-50 was rank locking. I remember donging my way up to 45, then wanting to chill in social for a bit. Big mistake. I only got as high as 47 I think, couldn't seem to go higher so I stopped caring and chased them gold bars for shits and gigs.

 

[FyreWulff]

Why are the weekly challenges still so garbage, they should be over 50,000cr by now. Not worth the effort

Wow, 13k cR for Tip of the Spear LASO? You could make .. way more than that just playing Firefight for the same amount of time.

It also appears it's payout has never been increased.. what happened to increased cR payouts? 13k for that long of a level in LASO these days is a joke.

 

[EvB]

The challenges are always pretty miserly with their payouts, I could play for an hour and earn 30k in a matchmaking game or I could spend easily twice as long as that crawling my way through a LASO mission.

 

[YourExWife]

Wow, 13k cR for Tip of the Spear LASO? You could make .. way more than that just playing Firefight for the same amount of time.

It also appears it's payout has never been increased.. what happened to increased cR payouts? 13k for that long of a level in LASO these days is a joke.

I get this much in almost every game of Objective nowadays. More in BTB. Granted I can't do anything with my credits now anyway, but still, once you reach about Hero or so the Weekly is hardly ever worth your time (if you're trying for credits/fun/time-spent efficiency).

I've gotten to the point I pretty much never look at any of the challenges anymore and I still get at least like 3 dailies (and an occasional weekly) when I play.

 

[daedalius]

Wow, 13k cR for Tip of the Spear LASO? You could make .. way more than that just playing Firefight for the same amount of time.

It also appears it's payout has never been increased.. what happened to increased cR payouts? 13k for that long of a level in LASO these days is a joke.

I hope filling the bar is more fun in Halo 4, right now as soon as you reach a decent rank it moves so little I find myself totally not caring about it.

Since it sounds like you can reset your rank, it appears you will indeed be able to fill the bar faster and more frequently. Why is it fun to fill bars? I have no idea.

 

[kylej]

This meant that there were people who were also very low levels and they were on a constant basis being matchmade with people VASTLY better than them as they boosted their way up to their easy 50.

What's the difference between this and someone buying Halo 3, playing it for the first time, and being vastly better than the lower ranks?

 

[PNut]

Biggest issue with 1-50 was rank locking. I remember donging my way up to 45, then wanting to chill in social for a bit. Big mistake. I only got as high as 47 I think, couldn't seem to go higher so I stopped caring and chased them gold bars for shits and gigs.

That is the biggest issue. Not cheaters or anything else. The majority of people got stuck at 35 and didn't understand why.

 

[Slightly Live]

What's the difference between this and someone buying Halo 3, playing it for the first time, and being vastly better than the lower ranks?

Higher skilled new players would rise quickly in the ranks and eventually bypass lesser skilled players.

De-rankers would be constantly going up against lesser skilled players with deliberate intent.

 

[willow ve]

It wasn't uncommon to see people that had played less than 100 games and were level 50.
I was a level 46 in my highest playlist and I'm quite happy to say that was the plateau I had reached and was actually a good representation of my skill level.

This meant that there were people who were also very low levels and they were on a constant basis being matchmade with people VASTLY better than them as they boosted their way up to their easy 50.
I always get the impression that people who defend the removal of visible skill in Reach is because these people are the ones who did participate in the boosting and the spoiling of the matchmaking system for other lesser skilled players and that they also don't actually deserve the level 50 badge of honour they have.

A simple solution for that would be to have your rank continually in flux. Let Waypoint handle the "highest rank ever reached" and use the lobby/game to present the current rank of a player at that exact moment.

Also add in decay to ranks. If a player doesn't play a single game in a three/four week period their rank would start to slowly fade away. Granted this might mean that you lose your precious 50 after 3 months of not playing... but by then the game might have gotten a title update, new maps, gametypes would be tweaked, etc., and you shouldn't still be a 50 anyway.

 

[Poker Face]

What's the difference between this and someone buying Halo 3, playing it for the first time, and being vastly better than the lower ranks?

there isn't a difference.

lol

 

[Risen]

Why is it fun to fill bars? I have no idea.

It's not... you are brainwashed by a culture that rewards mediocrity and creates a sense of entitlement that produces a situation in which you think you are accomplishing something by seeing a bar move when in fact you are doing nothing at all.

Suckit

De-rankers would be constantly going up against lesser skilled players with deliberate intent.

So punish the offenders, do not tie numbered rank into TrueSkill calculations, and leave the rest alone.

 

[Shake Appeal]

The system wasn't abused, there were equal skill distributions throughout the 1-50 range, and you would almost always get a pretty close game in ranked playlists. 343 tries to spin it as being this broken mess of boosters and new accounts when it wasn't that way at all.

On the other hand, 343/Bungie had access to masses and masses of hard statistics that you do not, so I'm inclined to believe them when they say things about such, rather than the anecdotal accounts of a few near the top of the food chain.