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Halo: Reach Beta Thread

Ya, so I was really bored on a Sunday.

I was thinking about everything people were saying about the difficulty in creating a rating formula for ctf. So, maybe instead of a precise formula, an approximation would be better.
formula-2.jpg


Perhaps, instead of calculating a rating at the end of the game based on specific events, there could be a calculation of the relative efficiency of play at set intervals - I've no idea what would be possible, but perhaps every thirty seconds.

Then the rating would be the approximation of the area under the points of efficiency, stretch from the start of the game to x, whenever the game ends for the player.

e could be a constantly decaying - it starts at 1 and decreases towards zero as the time from the last flag touch (for either team) increases.

a and i could be slayer factors - perhaps a is assists and i is kills.

I thought I heard in the last vidoc that the game takes line-of-sight into consideration when calculating spawning - perhaps c could be spawns blocked, or damage done, to account for that whole idea of the undervalued team player.

h could be medals, weighted at different values - the flag carrier killed, flag scored, etc. weighted highly, and things like melees functionally zero. The idea would be that clutch plays would be very highly reward - pull off a triple and a flag save? Huge bonus.

z can be whatever it needs to be - the multiplier that would scale the rest to fit in with the 2000 pt. cap, or anything else.

edit: just realized I used an integral instead of a summation. oh well. assume t is calculated in an ideal world, constantly and instantaneously, then make do when its not.
 

big ander

Member
Kibbles said:
Ahh yes, I love all the montages you guys have put together. It's a lot better than watching a bunch of noscopes and shit. Makes me want to go play some Halo :D

Obligatory.

2nl8ryo.gif
Was going to post the exact same gif :lol

Kapura said:
Holy cow, you can kill a guy in a single magazine without a beatdown!

And keep the non-quitter mentality strong, Frankie. If being one versus five won't scare you away, neither should your doucher teammates.
Reminds me of a game today: High Ground 1 Flag in Social Skirmish. Turns into a 1v4 after a round and a half, and I'm all by myself. I, of course, couldn't cap the flag in round 2, and in round 3 I let them grab the flag and then did laps in a mongoose. Then, for round 4, with them up 2-0 and with a 3-man advantage, I tried to mess around and drive a mongoose again, but they relentlessly killed me. I even honked and tried to get them on the back of the goose, but no dice. And with it being 1-flag, I just spawned beach side over and over and got repeatedly owned. :/ Just kinda pissed me off.
My other games were good today, though. Lots of Pit. And I agree with what people were saying earlier: Isolation isn't an awful map. It's not great, but it's fun for slayer.
 
Tashi0106 said:
I think Sage and some other designers have made it very clear that they don't want there to be an all purpose gun like the BR was for Halo 2 and 3 and even the Pistol for Halo CE. Each gun has a specific role with maybe a little overlapping with the DMR vs Magnum and Magnum vs AR. We'll see how this plays out though.

That's one of the things I'm loving the most. I Hated how the BR became THE weapon. Thanks are in order to Sage and anyone else on the development team who's tried to fix this.
 

Ten-Song

Member
Kapura said:
What, throw a bubble shield?

I've done that a few times to annoy snipers on my team that act like jerks. Bubble shield, power drainer, or even a well placed gravity lift. Provides much amusement.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Tashi0106 said:
I think Sage and some other designers have made it very clear that they don't want there to be an all purpose gun like the BR was for Halo 2 and 3 and even the Pistol for Halo CE. Each gun has a specific role with maybe a little overlapping with the DMR vs Magnum and Magnum vs AR. We'll see how this plays out though.
I probably shouldn't start something again, but I think of the split between the pistol and the DMR and think, hey, maybe MLG will start with two guns for their Reach games. :eek

Which, if the guns balance as intended, would actually be pretty interesting.
 
GhaleonEB said:
I probably shouldn't start something again, but I think of the split between the pistol and the DMR and think, hey, maybe MLG will start with two guns for their Reach games.
I am going to keep any concerns I have until I actually get some of these weapons in my hands, but I could see this working really well tbh.
 

Kapura

Banned
Self Induced said:
Swing and a miss.

I meant quick mute
Not gonna lie, I would never have gotten that. And you also have to press back to do that? And get some directional action to select the dudes?
 
Hydranockz said:
I thought you meant getting booted :p
Nah, messing up your teammates on purpose never helped anyone. If your teammates are talking shit to you without provocation or good reason, its probably just their daddy issues, not anything you're doing. It's always better to mute 'em and forget 'em rather than intentionally antagonizing them further.

But that's just me, you can go ahead and throw grenades at them and be a dick all you want cause its the fuckin internet :p

Kapura said:
Not gonna lie, I would never have gotten that. And you also have to press back to do that? And get some directional action to select the dudes?
Alright, maybe its slightly more than an X button away ;)
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Church RvB said:
That's one of the things I'm loving the most. I Hated how the BR became THE weapon. Thanks are in order to Sage and anyone else on the development team who's tried to fix this.

Well we'll see. One thing that Bungie has said, I don't remember who it was, was that the Rock Paper Scissor design was bad. Actually, it was Jaime Griesemer at his GDC talk.

EdgeOnline said:
It's about sitting between chaos and certainty, players neither blindly guessing what they should do next, nor feeling that whatever they chose has a set conclusion. And it's certainly not about engineering equal payoffs or fairness – that's why rock, paper scissors is a bad game: it leads to randomised choices.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/gdc-how-to-balance-halo

I don't know the extent of his role on Reach with Sage as the lead Sandbox designer. However, with every gun having a specific role it points in the direction of this rock, paper scissors design. Obviously it's not that cut and dry. It's not as though when you reach (pun intended?) close range with the DMR it becomes totally useless but it seems like if I have a gun that's superior to other guns in my specific range and inferior to others not in that specific range, I'm going to sit in my range because otherwise I'm completely fucked.

Again, I don't want to make it sound so plain and simple like that because I know that it isn't. I also don't want to draw any conclusions like, "Reach's design is bad" because I haven't played the game yet. Instead of saying things I don't know about Reach, how about I say what I think is great design about past Halo games. With a BR, I know that no matter what situation I get myself into, I know that I have a chance of not only survival but also a chance of getting the kill. In fact, everyone on the map does if it's BR starts. alsoI know that if I have a power weapon as it pertains to the guns range in that range, I'm going to need some skill to take down this guy with a BR but I definitely have the upper hand and should win the fight. This is obvious. If I'm fighting a guy close range with BR and he has a close range weapon like a mauler, shotgun, sword or even rockets and I kill him with my BR, it's worthy of a Tea bagging. He had the upper hand and his lack of skill and my greater skill allowed me to win that fight.

How often does that happen though? Not very often. It being tea-bag worthy proves that right? With Reach it seems to be making the guns more exclusive to their ranges. Actually, that seems intentional. The further you go with this idea the more the game turns into a, "I have this gun and you have that gun in this range so I win" I don't want to say automatically but it appears like the percentages are higher. That's what I'm afraid of.

I think the key to the balance of this game will be the LOADOUTS. Their importance is paramount.

Ghaleon said:
I probably shouldn't start something again, but I think of the split between the pistol and the DMR and think, hey, maybe MLG will start with two guns for their Reach games. :eek

Which, if the guns balance as intended, would actually be pretty interesting.

Hahahaha. This is almost exactly what I said months ago. I said that the DMR + Magnum = BR. The DMR + Magnum combo is all encompassing just like the BR. I think the most interesting part of Reach for the competitive guys will be Magnum vs DMR at mid range...who wins? At that range it's almost like 2 BR's going at each other. At least that's how it's been portrayed to us with Magnum being close to mid range and DMR being mid to long range.

I'll say it again, I'm not making any conclusions until I've had some extensive time with the game.
 

A Penguin

Member
Self Induced said:
Nah, messing up your teammates on purpose never helped anyone. If your teammates are talking shit to you without provocation or good reason, its probably just their daddy issues, not anything you're doing. It's always better to mute 'em and forget 'em rather than intentionally antagonizing them further.
I remember one incident where a teammate was ragging on me for my poor sniping after I miss a couple shots from the base in Valhalla. I spot him near the caves and land a perfect shot to the back of his head. Justice.
 
A Penguin said:
I remember one incidence where a teammate was ragging on me for my poor sniping after I miss a couple shots from the base in Valhalla. I spot him near the caves and land a perfect shot to the back of his head. Justice.
:lol

nicely done
 
Speaking of teammates, played a BTB game today with 7 people (2 flag Valhalla), we are all in party chat and the one guy on our team is in regular chat talking to the other team in the lobby. So I go to see what they are saying only to hear that he is going to help them out. So game starts he takes our Banshee and gives it to them. Got to love people who do stuff like that, however it was us who got the last laugh in.

They got owned!

I really hate people like that, it made the beginning of the game a pain but even with 2 banshee's we still maintained complete map control for the whole game.
 

neoism

Member
Kenak said:
Is it just me or do the graphics look better than the final game? :lol AR and the armor texture look a bit better to me.
My cousin and I have always said... " The Beta was better ":lol :lol :lol I wonder if I'll feel the same for REACH! :p
 

Ten-Song

Member
CrazedArabMan said:
Speaking of teammates, played a BTB game today with 7 people (2 flag Valhalla), we are all in party chat and the one guy on our team is in regular chat talking to the other team in the lobby. So I go to see what they are saying only to hear that he is going to help them out. So game starts he takes our Banshee and gives it to them. Got to love people who do stuff like that, however it was us who got the last laugh in.

They got owned!

I really hate people like that, it made the beginning of the game a pain but even with 2 banshee's we still maintained complete map control for the whole game.

Ugh. I hate people like that. They are the prime example as to why a concept like Kill Streaks in a multiplayer game is stupid.
 
Teknoman said:
Gotta ask, whats the point in using party chat over normal in game team chat?

We can talk when we're dead, also no push to talk in BTB, don't have to listen to the other people before or after the game, so yeah, my group of friends and I use it constantly for everything we do.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Tashi0106 said:
Hahahaha. This is almost exactly what I said months ago. I said that the DMR + Magnum = BR. The DMR + Magnum combo is all encompassing just like the BR. I think the most interesting part of Reach for the competitive guys will be Magnum vs DMR at mid range...who wins? At that range it's almost like 2 BR's going at each other. At least that's how it's been portrayed to us with Magnum being close to mid range and DMR being mid to long range.

I'll say it again, I'm not making any conclusions until I've had some extensive time with the game.
On paper at least, there's going to be this distance threshold where the two weapons are about equal, and it's going to come down to pure skill with aiming and the perfect firing rhythm. I think the MLG guys are going to find that distance and be able to toggle from pistol to DMR with skill, as needed. But it will make for some very interesting medium to close quarters shoot outs; I'm really looking forward to see how much overlap in functionality there are between the weapons.
Proven said:
And Halo is all about relatively short games. Even the gametypes with ten minute limits aren't ever meant to reach those limits. While every attack/defense objective is made to have short rounds. Keep with the tradition.
The more I think about it, the more I agree with this. Though I hope there's a toggle in custom games to try it both ways.
 

Natakuu

Banned
Teknoman said:
Gotta ask, whats the point in using party chat over normal in game team chat?
When you and your friends have a unique sense of humor and would probably freak others out?:lol

Also helps to avoid the people screaming about how they fucked my mom and what not.
 

Proven

Member
Sai-kun said:
That's how it works in TF2 and it works perfectly. For teams that take forever to push through it gives them time to keep going, and teams that do really well have more time to spare.

That's how it works for TF2 and makes people rage when you join a server and find that the team you were on all rage quit after being horrible and getting rolled and forcing you into a 12-20 minute defense on the final objective. That's when it stops being fun.

At the same time, you can't just join a match in progress, but this also means that if the defense loses one or two people near the beginning and it allows the offense to take the first or second point quickly, the defense has to scramble to hold with both a man and time disadvantage now. I'd like to avoid that.

And Halo is all about relatively short games. Even the gametypes with ten minute limits aren't ever meant to reach those limits. While every attack/defense objective is made to have short rounds. Keep with the tradition.
 

Ten-Song

Member
Teknoman said:
Gotta ask, whats the point in using party chat over normal in game team chat?

For one, it being global across not only a single game but the entire system. Instead of spamming voice messages and invites and all that nonsense, it makes getting a group together and coordinating a lot easier. Also useful for whenever something goofy happens. Get booted out of a game, you're still in the party, and can explain what happened.

CrazedArabMan said:
We can talk when we're dead, also no push to talk in BTB, don't have to listen to the other people before or after the game, so yeah, my group of friends and I use it constantly for everything we do.

Schmitty said:
When you only want to talk to your friends

Natakuu said:
When you and your friends have a unique sense of humor and would probably freak others out?:lol

Also helps to avoid the people screaming about how they fucked my mom and what not.

Also, this.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Striker said:
That seems like a credible source.
I thought it was speculated to be so from the targeting reticule - the outer portion turned red when on targeted, but the inner component didn't, leading to speculation that it had a lock on feature.

Edit: yup, still speculation stemming from that. Though I don't see how that shot confirms it. He's aiming at a player on foot. And doesn't he entire thing turn red? (Color blind dude here, it's hard to tell.)

Edit 2:
Schmitty said:
I love their forums. Check this out. :lol :lol
:lol
 
Church RvB said:
That's one of the things I'm loving the most. I Hated how the BR became THE weapon. Thanks are in order to Sage and anyone else on the development team who's tried to fix this.
I kind of view the go-to weapon in Halo as something that has set it apart from other shooters. Halo has always been this way since day one. The pistol in Halo:CE, and the Battle Rifle in Halo 2 and 3. I don't want to start a big war or anything, which I guess I'm sort of good at doing, but how is it that people have been fans of the game all this time, and yet have issues with what I consider one of the most fundamental or core aspects of what makes Halo, Halo. It's like people want Halo, but then they don't want it to be Halo. I can think of quite a few other first person shooters that do exactly what some people are pushing for, equality in all weapons, and I don't want that. And I don't understand why people play Halo if that is what they want. Aw well. I think I may have just stirred the pot.
 

Schmitty

Member
wwm0nkey said:
Hey guys jut saw this on Bungie.net forums, but it seems the Rocket has lock on again :D
I love their forums. Check this out. :lol :lol

Recon was once something special. It was worn by employees, and truly upstanding members of the community who did something great in Halo 3.

Simply put, everyone who "earned" recon through the vidmasters do not deserve it. They completed some unbelievably easy challenges, and have no dedication towards the game. These unlegit players ruined something great.

Players, like myself, who actually did something significant to earn their armor, have become diluted into the cesspool of players that have recon from the vidmasters. As soon as recon was released to the public with ODST, I switched back to the default armor.

Bungie, don't repeat your mistake of releasing armor to undeserving players. Keep it to yourself, and players who have proven themselves "worthy" of your exclusive armor. Giving recon out as a freebie to the community was a mistake, and those who got it through the vidmasters truly ruined something great.
 

feel

Member
I love it when some asshole makes the mistake of betraying me for a sniper rifle or something.. since I usually hang around on Social, or don't care too much about ranks, I just completely ignore the match from that moment on, and dedicate myself to annoying that poor soul in every possible way, until he either quits out of frustration, or gets himself booted after he inevitably betrays me a second time. It's one of my halo guilty pleasures. :D
 

Ten-Song

Member
GhaleonEB said:
I thought it was speculated to be so from the targeting reticule - the outer portion turned red when on targeted, but the inner component didn't, leading to speculation that it had a lock on feature.

Edit: yup, still speculation stemming from that.

Well, if it does have lock on, the Splazer has no reason to exist and Bungie should feel bad for still letting it exist. :mad:
 

Schmitty

Member
Letters said:
I love it when some asshole makes the mistake of betraying me for a sniper rifle or something.. I just completely ignore the match from that moment on, and dedicate myself to annoying that poor soul in every possible way, until he either quits out of frustration, or gets himself booted after he inevitably betrays me a second time. It's one of my halo guilty pleasures. :D
Nothing puts a smile on my face like egging someone on to betray me and then booting them.
 

neoism

Member
It's amazing how fast this thread is... it will not be followable come beta time!:lol :lol
So, the videos tomorrow... are they going to be stupid like in the GTTV show, or are they just going to play a game, and let us watch! I'm hoping for the latter.
Hell even bungle has been the same with their Vidocs ( which I love, mind you) but I just want to see a whole match with sound!!!!
 
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