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Halo: Reach Beta Thread

Mr. B Natural said:
Ya know what would be a better feature? Calling them A and B. This is Game Design 101 here.
Why is A called A? Is that the one by the office building or the Silo? Oh it's by the Silo... I'm at B.
 
Mr. B Natural said:
I know this is complicated for most, but if you stay in the game AFTER the first game is over, you get to start fresh. As long as the game you joined half-way through doesn't count for your w/l ratio, it's a better and the ONLY solution to quitters in games.

^ If you stop and think for half a second, you will realize that it IS a useless idea that will not work.

11+ days of MW2 talking here. I vastly prefer Halo's solution to this problem than MW2's. I'd rather deal with quitters than deal with being put into a completely unwinnable game where the enemy has the high ground and wads of air support. Or deal with teammates quitting when they get killed in the first round of Search and Destroy.

Dax01 said:
*Grenade stick*
*Pro Pipe Kill! Pro Pipe Kill!*
Announcer Dude: Double Kill!
*Pro Pipe Kill!*
*Pro Pipe Kill!*
Announcer Dude: Killing Spree!

How many more pages of this topic are you going to spend by fellating the grenade launcher? :lol

It is a damn sweet weapon though!

Mr. B Natural said:
Ya know what would be a better feature? Calling them A and B. This is Game Design 101 here.

No. Stern and Bow are the perfect names. Look it up.
 
I don't see the quitting ban helping out the issue too much IMO

At best, it might get those kind of people to go AFK instead.
 
Cerrius said:
I don't see the quitting ban helping out the issue too much IMO

At best, it might get those kind of people to go AFK instead.

Why not be more passive about it?

Make sure that serial quitters are always and only matched up against other serial quitters. Give them a taste of their own medicine.
 
I've wrote this up but I'm not including it in my article. Just some thoughts about Invasion which I may add as an appendix. It really doesn't fit in with some of the stuff I've put to paper so far so I'm throwing it out here in case anyone fancies to read some ramblings.

====

I've been looking at and thinking about certain Invasion mechanics, such as the capture territories, the weapon cache spawns, the Tier triggers for the collapsing shield doors and at the objects themselves as they spawn, when they spawn, etc.

It looks like the Invasion specific items on the level aren't pre-existing items on the level itself, like the geometry, but are added there by Forge or whatever tool Bungie uses.

Take a look at the Data Core. It rests clearly above the floor geometry.

reach_955709_Medium.jpg


The territory isn't exactly perfectly aligned seems like it was done by hand. Also take note of the red large object which nestles the territory. On the Commonwealth both of these objects are identical, but feature slightly different alignments on the environment. It could simply be a case of a reused asset or an indication that these objects may or may not be removable/editable.

reach_955532_Medium.jpg


One thing to note, I'm undecided whether the computer terminals, the one thing all the territory locations have in common, are also moveable/editable. Decide for yourself.

reach_955632_Medium.jpg


These concrete blocks look hastily added to provide some cover to this area which the actual level geometry lacks. Like the Data core, they look out of place.

reach_955634_Medium.jpg


Assuming Invasion could be modified in Forge 2.0 or just as easily by Bungie, it opens up the possibility for alterations to address some common criticisms. Whilst the approach to address these criticisms is vast indeed (changing territory positions, spawn locations, Loadouts options, etc), here is a quick example.

reach_955631_Medium.jpg


You can see the starting spawn locations for the Elites during Tier 1 of Invasion. They are split into three groups of two, mirroring the Fireteams setup, and spread across the far end of the map. Each of these locations dictates the behaviour of the players that spawn there. In the picture above, the Elites on the bottom spawn in the furtherest left of the area and generally proceed to the left entrance to the Commonwealth ("left" being the the natural left of spawning Elites facing the ship from their spawning locations). The Elites on the top (or furtherest right from their own perspective) will enter the right entrance and the group in the middle have a choice - there is a middle entrance to the ship but it's a walkway that leads to the left entrance.

What generally happens is, due the layout of the level and the amount of cover available, usually four Elites head towards the right entrance (right and middle teams) and two go the left (left team). That is, if the Elites are not picked off my DMR fire first.

If you look at the top and bottom you'll notice two cabins. They see little to no use in Invasion and play no significant role other than to exist. Occasionally you might see a player wander aimlessly around looking for cover.

If Invasion can be edited easily, then why not move the spawning locations to inside these cabins and maybe add a similar structure or wall for the middle group and place their spawns behind it shielding them from fire when they spawn.

The extra cover would go a long way towards halting spawn camping - no one likes to spawn into gun fire.

Additionally adding more cover along the left hand route would promote a more even split in the routes taken by the middle spawning group.

In all honesty, if Invasion is fully customisable by the player then I wouldn't make these changes. I'd make larger, more drastic changes to everything. Changing the setup completely, moving the initial spawn zones from one part of the map to the other, changing the Data Core location, changing the vehicle availability and more.

Seeing the Phantoms above the starting spawn points don't fill me with confidence that this is the case. It would be highly unlikely we get to change to affect that Phantom locations (or behaviours since they move forward during the transitions of each Tier).

I'm going to hold out hope. When I look at the end goal of the Elites during Invasion you can see the Phantom hover above the territory waiting to pick up the Data Core for extraction, who is to say that come this fall the second Phantom may not serve as a second end goal territory in our own custom Invasion?

====
 
Hydranockz said:
Why is A called A? Is that the one by the office building or the Silo? Oh it's by the Silo... I'm at B.

You call it A cause there's a big A on your map ala every decently designed multiplayer game that has multiple points at one time. Invasion doesn't have that. Again, this is design 101. If you have multiple objectives, you name them and you put them in a spot that's easy to see. Nobody has to memorize or inform players to what they are talking about.

I'm not mocking your name convention, I'm mocking bungie for forcing you guys to even think of one. Bungie can name one Poo and the other Face for all I care. Poo and face would be used and there would be no ambiguity whatsoever.

Imagine playing Cod4's domination where A, B and C are just universal markers. Or TF2. Ugh. C'mon guys.
 
Why doesn't Invasion play 2 rounds in one game? It feels superfluous to have to play a whole new game to experience the other side if you're lucky, 2 rounds feels much nicer. I kinda wish i could control when I'd spawn too, having some time yourself is nice. Maybe i've been playing Battlefield too much though.
 
Mr. B Natural said:
You call it A cause there's a big A on your map ala every decently designed multiplayer game that has multiple points at one time. Invasion doesn't have that. Again, this is design 101. If you have multiple objectives, you name them and you put them in a spot that's easy to see. Nobody has to memorize or inform players to what they are talking about.

I'm not mocking your name convention, I'm mocking bungie for forcing you guys to even think of one. Bungie can name one Poo and the other Face for all I care. Poo and face would be used and there would be no ambiguity whatsoever.

Imagine playing Cod4's domination where A, B and C are just universal markers. Or TF2. Ugh. C'mon guys.
You suck at cohesion. Call the Rocket Launcer by the callout F so. Watch out for the guy with F!!! That is bull and you know it. The same applies here. Rather than 2 highly ambiguous points, they have chosen visual landmarks as reference points, something us humans do naturally. I don't need to think where the fuck point J is in relation to the map when the word Office will do.
 
blanky said:
Why doesn't Invasion play 2 rounds in one game? It feels superfluous to have to play a whole new game to experience the other side if you're lucky, 2 rounds feels much nicer. I kinda wish i could control when I'd spawn too, having some time yourself is nice. Maybe i've been playing Battlefield too much though.
..............

It's been said COUNTLESS times now. In the retail version it will be round based. The only reason they don't have it like this in the beta is because they want people to play as many games as possible.
 
blanky said:
Why doesn't Invasion play 2 rounds in one game? It feels superfluous to have to play a whole new game to experience the other side if you're lucky, 2 rounds feels much nicer. I kinda wish i could control when I'd spawn too, having some time yourself is nice. Maybe i've been playing Battlefield too much though.

Two rounds are in the full game and you choose a spawning location or spawn on your partner when the respawn counter (which has always been present) counts down. There's a bug at the moment that extends the respawn time past the countdown in Invasion which won't be present in the final game.
 
Hydranockz said:
You suck at cohesion. Call the Rocket Launcer by the callout F so. Watch out for the guy with F!!! That is bull and you know it. The same applies here. Rather than 2 highly ambiguous points, they have chosen visual landmarks as reference points, something us humans do naturally. I don't need to think where the fuck point J is in relation to the map when the word Office will do.

What in the hell are you going on? There are two points to capture/defend at one time in invasion. Bungie, rather than making an A and B (or 1 and 2) on your screen show up, they put * and *. Are you that daft to understand why that is just not thought out?


Again, when I say "that's design 101" i'm not talking to you, cause you didn't design the game now did you?

The names to every location is a nice touch, but it does not solve the issue the player was talking about when he couldn't call out each terminal's name when he needed to. Most people don't even pay attention to those names bungie added. There should NEVER be ambiguity to who is defending and attacking what. I should be able to play with absolute strangers from all sorts of educations and cultures and get my point across with absolute assurance. He/she will understand that "we need to defend A" and what that means. If you passed kindergarten and can see the A on your screen, you know where to go.
 
Dani said:
Two rounds are in the full game and you choose a spawning location or spawn on your partner when the respawn counter (which has always been present) counts down. There's a bug at the moment that extends the respawn time past the countdown in Invasion which won't be present in the final game.

alright, makes sense i guess. dont meant to upset anyone with ignorant statements, too lazy with reading the thread.
 
Dani said:
There's a bug at the moment that extends the respawn time past the countdown in Invasion which won't be present in the final game.

They've confirmed this? Ugh, one of my many complaints about Invasion.
 
Deadly Cyclone said:
Wow, serious glitches and lag going on right now, anyone else seeing this? Two games in a row it wouldn't give me an armor ability.
Me, Zeouterlimits and my bro were all spartans playin Invasion. My friend was on the opposing side as an elite, yet everyone in the ame spawned with ARs and sprint, elites including.
 
Who says Elites can't Amour Lock? If you recall the host migration bug that starts a second round of Invasion with Elites defending, someone finally got to check out Elites doing the dirty.

reach_651757_Medium.jpg


reach_651758_Medium.jpg
 
Also before I forget, there's a place where you could choose to re-spawn in boneyard called "hold". I could see how this can cause some confusion with players actually holding down the D-pad because it says "hold". Sadly I might actually have done this.
 
Dani said:
Big 'ol writeup
Awesome writeup Dani.

I definitely agree with you, I think the computer terminals are forge objects for 'territories'.

It would be amazing if you could re-route the drop ships, though I somehow doubt that would be possible...
 
Dani said:
Who says Elites can't Amour Lock? If you recall the host migration bug that starts a second round of Invasion with Elites defending, someone finally got to check out Elites doing the dirty.

reach_651757_Medium.jpg


reach_651758_Medium.jpg

The fact that the pose and color of the shields are different from the Spartan's is proof enough to me that Elites will have AL in the final.

Before someone heads me off at the pass (I HATE that cliche!), when this is done with Sprint, there is no third-person animation change- the elites legs just move rather absurdly fast, implying to me that the game doesn't know what to do, as movement in Reach is physics based, and is just changing the animation in what it "thinks" is the correct way
 
Jack Scofield said:
It has nothing to do with what you're actually saying, it's just because some sore loser decided to give you bad feedback. I do it all the time. Makes me feel good about myself.

And a massive "LOL" at Bungie for their quitting ban. Halo is serious business, apparently. Nothing's gonna stop people from quitting, especially if you're being forced to play a shitty gametype on a shitty map. I guess MW2 has spoiled me, but jeez, at least give me the option of backing out if the pregame lobby. Because when I inevitably quit, my former teammates are the players who suffer most, not me. Or get with the times and include join-in-progress, cause there's no way I'm staying for Stockpile on Swordbase.

It will give me simple pleasure knowing that you're taking a timeout in the corner.
 
Anyone else notice a bug where you drop a guys shield but it still looks like he has some left? It's Really annoying when trying to time that headshot, or mêlée.
 
Thagomizer said:
The fact that the pose and color of the shields are different from the Spartan's is proof enough to me that Elites will have AL in the final.
I bet that there will be maps in which Elites
or Brutes when they are revealed as the third playable race
are on defense. On these maps I'd be willing to say that Spartans would get active camo and Elites would get AL.
 
I'm really enjoying Invasion so far. I just got two shut-outs in a row, first time Elites didn't even touch the capture points, second time they were pretty close. Next game was a Slayer, and I left a Scorpion sitting on the capture point, then when a new one spawned the old one launched into the air :lol I'll get some screens in a bit.
 
Hydranockz said:
Me, Zeouterlimits and my bro were all spartans playin Invasion. My friend was on the opposing side as an elite, yet everyone in the ame spawned with ARs and sprint, elites including.
We just had this happen in an Invasion Slayer game. I was on the Elite side, couldn't even touch the loadout menu, had AR spawns, no armor abilities at all, we could capture the territories, but the countdown to receive the reinforcements would be stuck at 0, and we could only spawn on our battle bro.

Once we hit 25 kills, everything switch over to being normal, except spawning.
 
Butane123 said:
We just had this happen in an Invasion Slayer game. I was on the Elite side, couldn't even touch the loadout menu, had AR spawns, no armor abilities at all, we could capture the territories, but the countdown to receive the reinforcements would be stuck at 0, and we could only spawn on our battle bro.

Once we hit 25 kills, everything switch over to being normal, except spawning.

Our first game of Invasion Slayer was like this. And if I remember correctly it was all people from GAF too.
 
Spawn selection in Invasion Slayer was a horrible idea, I just got done playing 4 matches in a row that were nothing but Spartans spawn camping with shotguns and a tank.

This is mainly due to the fact that there aren't enough spawn point selections for the Elites, only 2 total. Really really takes the fun out of the game.
 
Not a Jellyfish said:
Spawn selection in Invasion Slayer was a horrible idea, I just got done playing 4 matches in a row that were nothing but Spartans spawn camping with shotguns and a tank.

The system isn't the problem. But letting Spartans spawn with shotguns is a bad idea.
 
divisionbyzorro said:
The system isn't the problem. But letting Spartans spawn with shotguns is a bad idea.

I think the system is part of the problem because their are only 2 spawns to choose from when your "battle bro" is in combat.
 
Cuban Legend said:
I thought it was 3 daily ratings? Was this in the update? How did i miss this? When will I stop asking stupid questions?

Several people in this thread have previously said five, and I myself have only had 3 daily ratings and am not placed in a division, so I assume five is correct.
 
Armor lock on the elite looks awesome. I wonder if the spartans can roll? :lol

Its pretty crazy how many awkward and funny bugs are revealing really weird things in Reach.
 
Demoncarnotaur said:
Armor lock on the elite looks awesome. I wonder if the spartans can roll? :lol

Its pretty crazy how many awkward and funny bugs are revealing really weird things in Reach.

Pics (or video) or it didn't happen!

edit: wow I'm stupid. How did I miss the pics up there ^ :lol My bad.
 
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