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Halo: Reach Beta Thread

Having fun with invasion, tooks some shots today. I hope these aren't too big.

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Wow what a difference it makes to know how the game mechanics work.

Every since someone told me that head shots do not do any more damage at all when someone is shielded, but are one hit kills when the shields are off, I got the highest kill count in Team Slayer last night.
 
Son of Godzilla said:

That's how Halo 3 did it too. For whatever reason Bungie insists on maintain an odd aspect ratio or something. It's not even a proper aspect ratio.

(It's not nearly as bizarre as Modern Warfare 2, Spec Ops places both players into really scrunched corners, but local splitscreen multiplayer is perfectly fine? Wha?)
 
-PXG- said:
Didn't get much game time in yesterday. Plan on getting mah Captain rank today.
I beat the Beta, today.

Got all the armor permutations.
Got Onyx Division in Arena.
Got the highest available ranking (Warrant Officer Grade 3).
Got over 300 games, with positive win count.

Now I just gotta wait for the last game type to come out. :lol

Disclaimer:
The combined forces of me and my brother playing on the same account.
 
I still say based on my experience vehicles can last a healthy amount of time in Reach. What does everyone do when they spawn? I get in them and drive away immediately before hunting down fools. You just have to keep your eyes open for players and stay alert really. I promise that if someone as shitty as me can go on vehicle killing sprees all of you can too:lol
 
Natakuu said:
I still say based on my experience vehicles can last a healthy amount of time in Reach. What does everyone do when they spawn? I get in them and drive away immediately before hunting down fools. You just have to keep your eyes open for players and stay alert really. I promise that if someone as shitty as me can go on vehicle killing sprees all of you can too:lol

Yeah I'm still loving the ghost. I was always the designated splatterer for a group of my friends back in the day :D.
 
urk said:
There's a direct line straight to the developer here and instead of providing constructive criticism, plenty of people go with hyperbole and mudslinging (yeah, Internet). I'm not whining, just lamenting the lost opportunity.

We know full well that there are things that aren't ready for prime time. It might be surprising, but those are the things we're most interested in testing and getting feedback about. We'd love it if you'd participate in that sweet circle of love and mutual respect. Bitch.
Surely Bungie knows that all my complaints are born of love for the wonderful world you've created. Love, and the seething black bile of frustration that issues forth from my every orifice when bogus shit goes down in Matchmaking. But I get the message. Less broad recriminations, more specific feedback in concrete terms. <3
 
So, all the Spartan team members going Operator in Tier 3 and locking down the two tiny doors the core has to go out of? Awesome.

Wait. No, its not.

Edit: Also, my time with Invasion has taught me that a fireteam of two invis elites is awesome, especially since the radar jamming effects cancel out with two of you using it at the same time.
 
FTWer said:
Wow what a difference it makes to know how the game mechanics work.

Every since someone told me that head shots do not do any more damage at all when someone is shielded, but are one hit kills when the shields are off, I got the highest kill count in Team Slayer last night.
Is this true in halo games as well? I would honestly be shitting myself if that was the case. Because I always thought head shots caused more damage to armor.
 
wizword said:
Is this true in halo games as well? I would honestly be shitting myself if that was the case. Because I always thought head shots caused more damage to armor.
Since the beginning of time Halo.
 
I played 6 games of Invasion today and the Elites won 4 of them.

At first I was really turned off by the new mode, I especially hated the map at first, but after a few games it started to click. It's okay, but I'd rather play normal CTF or free-for-alls personally, which is what I did the rest of my time.

As people get more and more used to the game and it's mechanics I'm really starting to wonder about the AAs. They might need to limit how many of each type can spawn or something. Depending on the gametype most everybody seems to pick the same thing. In the first couple days the jetpack was not a popular option, now people are zooming around everywhere all the time. Whereas Armor Lock was sometimes annoying to begin with, now people know how to time and coordinate with teammates so that it can make some objective games very frustrating. Other people ignore the game objectives and pick stealth every time so they can hide in corners and assassinate people as much as possible because that's how they get their jollies. I've got no problem with dash or evade/roll.

I mean, I had a great time today, but I saw a lot of people using AAs with much greater skill, possibly to the point of exploiting them, and I'm not sure what the solution is. As people learn, it's definitely becoming a large part of the game.
 
BamYouHaveAids said:
I know it's probably extremely obvious but how do you take pictures and record film in the beta?
go into theater, start movie, hit x

Dr. Zoidberg said:
As people get more and more used to the game and it's mechanics I'm really starting to wonder about the AAs. They might need to limit how many of each type can spawn or something.

I think pretty much everyone sees this coming. I hope it doesn't happen, but totally understand why it would be necessary. First thought is that they need to beef up Camo if Jetpack/Shield are going to be limited. Immediate suggestion is to not give vertical positioning away on the radar scramble. Way too easy to know where people are. I managed to sticky someone who was perfectly cloaked in a game yesterday just by watching the radar.
 
GhaleonEB said:
I spawn right on top of some poor soul, and then have to hike to Timbuktu in order for my battle bro to spawn on me. And then a short time later...well, cool spawn, Squicken. :lol

Spawning near dax turned out to not work out very well for me most of the night. Somehow he and I were always bros, and my dying an enabler for his pro-piping
 
New vehicle health system is extremely confusing. They're actually stronger than their Halo 3 counterparts- they can take quite the beating. In a Warthog alone I've survived a direct hit from a Rocket and multiple stickies from the launcher.

But their health never regenerates, ever, which means it's a matter of when, not if a vehicle is going to go down :/ They're more fire and forget one-shot weapons than a viable strategy. Even the tank goes down quickly. It really makes it hard for me to enjoy vehicle play in Reach when this new system essentially guarantees after one or two fights I'm ALWAYS going to blow up. Escaping by the skin of my teeth isn't a victory any more, because I'll ALWAYS be fucked in round 2. And unlike ground combat, I can't pick up a health pack for my vehicle. At that point I'm essentially forced to abandon my vehicle or die, not something I consider fun or intuitive. Honestly the system in Halo 3 worked really well for me, this one seems backwards :/

Toggling fire modes on the Banshee is super pointless, I can't really fathom why that was changed. The Banshee in general is pretty bad now, worse than the other vehicles IMO, which is sad, because I love the H3 banshee.

Dunno, Invasion is fun, but the vehicle action we're seeing here makes me extremely concerned for how vehicles will be used in the final product.

On a lighter note, one of the coolest glitches I've seen: My armor lock makes a Warthog magnetize and stick to the ceiling on the Core score point :lol I'd love to get this rendered, as it's pretty weird.
 
Havok said:
So, all the Spartan team members going Operator in Tier 3 and locking down the two tiny doors the core has to go out of? Awesome.

Wait. No, its not.

Edit: Also, my time with Invasion has taught me that a fireteam of two invis elites is awesome, especially since the radar jamming effects cancel out with two of you using it at the same time.
Grenade spam with team members?
 
dIEHARD said:
Whats with all the DMR hate?

No idea myself, I've grown to absolutely love the weapon over the last couple of days. I tend to use the pistol more on a map like sword base, but on Powerhouse I'll always find myself hunting one down, and I shout with glee whenever I see myself being matched up on the Spartan side of Invasion, just because it means I can use a DMR at all times.
 
Lead Based Paint said:
After playing Boneyard, I am really worried about the state of vehicles for the final game :(
I'm really worried about the final state of Invasion on a map like Boneyard.

My complaint with Halo 3 was that all the maps were too big. Boneyard definitely fits this profile.

The other two maps are fine in terms of size and location of weapons. Boneyard is just ridiculously huge. I don't know any of the weapon spawn locations after playing it about 10 times.

If the core is placed out in the open with all the vehicles taken by the Spartans, and the Spartans are basically patrolling that area with the beam rifle, rocket launcher, covenant grenade launcher, spartan laser, banshees, and ghosts, your entire team is fucked.

Forget about winning as the Elites.

I also don't understand why when the Spartans win, there's an air-strike kick-in-the-face gesture. The elites don't have a covenant cruiser glassing Boneyard and dying flying Spartans when they win. Bungie should really add this.
 
Lead Based Paint said:
After playing Boneyard, I am really worried about the state of vehicles for the final game :(
Think of Heavies for Standoff. With the abundance of grenades and weapons like the pro pipe, Spartan Laser, Plasma Launcher, Plasma Pistol, and 2x grenades per player, it's really a small chance player(s) can successful perform very well in Boneyard. The map just isn't exactly suited, in my view, very well for tanks or a Banshee. Warthog and Ghost can survive a decent amount of time, given a good driver.

re: Plasma Launcher

My only despised weapon; shoot & forget weapon indeed.

My complaint with Halo 3 was that all the maps were too big.
Eh? Sandtrap was big, but mostly had useless, unused territory. Other "Big Team" maps weren't necessarily big, and lots of them, like a 6v6 map in Standoff, had tons of unused territory.
 
Striker said:
Eh? Sandtrap was big, but mostly had useless, unused territory. Other "Big Team" maps weren't necessarily big, and lots of them, like a 6v6 map in Standoff, had tons of unused territory.
So much empty space in comparison to Halo 2.

I don't understand it. You have to walk so far to get somewhere.
 
Played a match of Halo 3 with the Ms. Eazy tonight. Such a great game. Bungie could learn a thing or two from the people that made it.
 
The quitting has become epidemic in the last couple nights. It seems like I've barely played an even 4v4 in arena, or 6v6 in Invasion.
 
Pookaki said:
No way 1613 can be onyx. 0_o


How did this happen? A buddy of mine is 1620 and he is gold.

Is there something I am missing?

Your rating was against better players so you did that good in that division. Put your friend in that division and he will get owned.

Ex. 1700 in silver isn't better than 1600 in Onyx.
 
Pookaki said:
No way 1613 can be onyx. 0_o

http://i44.tinypic.com/uorqa.jpg

How did this happen? A buddy of mine is 1620 and he is gold.

Is there something I am missing?

Well it doesn't just judge you by the daily rating, but by all your games daily. But it also takes into account how good your opponents are. It's not gonna mean a great deal if you do well against bad players, but if you do well against good players, then you will go into a good division.

So really, the daily rating is absolutely pointless in it's current state.
 
EazyB said:
Played a match of Halo 3 with the Ms. Eazy tonight. Such a great game. Bungie could learn a thing or two from the people that made it.

I don't know how you can't have fun donging on people in Invasion. I think I get 20+ kills in every match I play, so easy to just sit back and pick people off with the DMR/NR.

I've also noticed that frags are not really a problem on Boneyard, I figured the tight spaces had a lot to do with their frustration on the other maps.

Overall I'm getting more acclimated to the changes and liking it a bit more, the bloom can still be infuriating at times, but what can ya do.
 
Not sure if it was because the game was still relatively new to people or not but I got like 2 Kill Frenzy things in Invasion with the Banshee within the first few games that I played. I don't understand the complaint about vehicles. It feels good. It feels like Halo 2. No more warthog ass rape. It's not like they're underpowered anyway. Touch the tank and it's like an instant splatter. Wtf?

I think they have some good ideas for invasion. They have to fix some stuff and make some adjustments but it could be good. Also, this isn't a replacement for BTB right? Or is it?
 
Bungie, often when a host drops and a new host is selected the Armour Abilities for some of the players go missing, like kaput. Vanished. Gone bye bye. Just thought you'd like to know.
 
claviertekky said:
Forget about winning as the Elites.

People are too afraid to die in this game and I think it's preventing people from winning these modes. You gotta get in those impossible situations and die trying.

-Respawn
-Carry objective 5 feet
-Die
-Repeat

Do that with another person and you can win.
 
Son of Godzilla said:
What the fuck, do you play nothing but Juggernaut and go around killing minions?
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From Invasion.. obviously die more from DMR in other gametypes.
 
Spirit3 said:
Bungie, often when a host drops and a new host is selected the Armour Abilities for some of the players go missing, like kaput. Vanished. Gone bye bye. Just thought you'd like to know.

Yeah, I actually noticed that happen in Invasion tonight when I was playing. Host quit, everything got set up again, and I couldn't sprint. Even the icon to indicate my armor ability was gone. When I respawned though, it worked just fine again. Still kind of weird.
 
Ramirez said:
I don't know how you can't have fun donging on people in Invasion. I think I get 20+ kills in every match I play, so easy to just sit back and pick people off with the DMR/NR.

I've also noticed that frags are not really a problem on Boneyard, I figured the tight spaces had a lot to do with their frustration on the other maps.

Overall I'm getting more acclimated to the changes and liking it a bit more, the bloom can still be infuriating at times, but what can ya do.
Oh, don't get me wrong I do. Here's my post from the first day invasion was out:
EazyB said:
I'm surprised most of the people that dig Reach's garbage in the other playlists are disliking this more than I am. Maybe it's just lower expectations because Invasion always looked like a glorified match of Territories and 1-flag to me. Anyways, Trasher and I played 6 quick matches and I had more fun with it than with anything else in the beta. The first 5 we were covie every single time but despite the disadvantage we won each match. I say disadvantage because against equally-skilled players the covie side would get destroyed due to some of the gametype choices. Our last game when we were finally spartans ended up 3v6 but we still managed to fend them off :lol

Things I don't like about it:
  • Covie loadouts blow: no long range at the beginning, shotty vs sword, grenade launcher vs... needler?, ghost vs warthog, wraith vs scorpian, and more.
  • As I predicted, vehicles are death traps, the only one I think is balanced properly is the tank but I don't have enough games under my belt to say that for certain.
  • The spawning system seems borderline broken. Incredibly inconsistent.

I just hope they iron out the party splitting thing then I'll spend the vast majority of my time in there destroying terrible players. I may think Reach is poop when playing competitively but destroying players that are worse than you is still just as fun.
The shooting mechanics feel better at long range and you don't have to worry about 1v1 DMR fights with good players. I could definitely see myself becoming a BTB warrior once Reach comes out if the rest of the game isn't improved.
 
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