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[GhaleonEB]

I left wrap-up thoughts on the Firefight Arcade playlist here on b.net. The general consensus seems to be 1) disable pickups and 2) make Arcade permanent alongside a Limited playlist to allow separation between crazy twitch and survival game types. Which is the direction I also hope they're moving in. The two playlists seem designed to test out the two sides of spectrum.

 

[Hey You]

Not a huge fan of Grifball. I wasn't in H3 either, only playing it for the Weekly.

 

[Major Williams]

Regarding people not watching the Reach thread continuously, I have a few reasons -

- this is out of the public eye here in the community area, so we get less random people coming and mixing it up a bit.

- Bungie folks frequent less and less. Halo 3 thread had regulars.

- Frankie doesn't make fun of us as often.

- Less contributing members - in the past year we've lost some of our best and most interesting/left wing: voc, cocop, Eazy, etc. thank God we still have some regulars - Louis Wu, Ghaleon, KyleJ/Juices, Ram, Shake, etc.

- Speaking of which, what made the thread so interesting was the interesting banter between hardcore, middle of the road, and casual players. Losing that dynamic through so-called 'Bungie-balance' and the complete lack of updates and dialogue with Bungie members has led to a plague in the thread with endless debate that goes nowhere. It's not only exhausting, but boring without direct feedback that we were so used to. It didn't help that on the podcasts they were almost mocking fans' detailed views on balance and the new weapons. I've seen entire posts that I could tell were carefully crafted over hours of thought and planning, and only to be completely ignored by the entire GAF community and the Bungie employees it should have been seen by. Instead we get posts like 'meet me in customs' or DMR vs BR or Armor lock posts written right over it.

It's painful to watch, and I remember this happening in the Halo 3 thread about 2 years after development, but then some folks stepped in and we got some interesting posts and some legitimate 343 material to sink our teeth into. I think we are all waiting on baited breath to see something new come out gaming-wise from either studio.

 

[Falagard]

Unrelated: So I assume we'll get another couple map packs from Bungie, but what does that leave 343 doing? On an 8-4 podcast, Ryan Payton said that they would be supporting Reach for the forseeable future, but what does that really mean? I'm sure they're probably doing at least preliminary work on another title, but what he said rang odd to me, since having two studios supporting one game is kind of strange.

343 is nose to the grind working on Halo 4 and has been for a while now, I'm thinking. Preliminary my ass.

 

[Slightly Live]

Regarding people not watching the Reach thread continuously, I have a few reasons -

- this is out of the public eye here in the community area, so we get less random people coming and mixing it up a bit.

- Bungie folks frequent less and less. Halo 3 thread had regulars.

- Frankie doesn't make fun of us as often.

- Less contributing members - in the past year we've lost some of our best and most interesting/left wing: voc, cocop, Eazy, etc. thank God we still have some regulars - Louis Wu, Ghaleon, KyleJ/Juices, Ram, Shake, etc.

- Speaking of which, what made the thread so interesting was the interesting banter between hardcore, middle of the road, and casual players. Losing that dynamic through so-called 'Bungie-balance' and the complete lack of updates and dialogue with Bungie members has led to a plague in the thread with endless debate that goes nowhere. It's not only exhausting, but boring without direct feedback that we were so used to. I've seen entire posts that I could tell were carefully crafted over hours of thought and planning, and only to be completely ignored by the entire GAF community and the Bungie employees it should have been seen by. Instead we get posts like 'meet me in customs' or DMR vs BR or Armor lock posts written right over it.

It's painful to watch, and I remember this happening in the Halo 3 thread about 2 years after development, but then some folks stepped in and we got some interesting posts and some legitimate 343 material to sink our teeth into. I think we are all waiting on baited breath to see something new come out gaming-wise from either studio.

There little we can do to remedy any of the issues you are bringing up. Although I disagree with how heavily focused you are weighing the Bungie presence and it's importance in past Halo threads. They popped in once in a blue moon, the day to day burning of the coal was done almost exclusively by the regular folks.

Also, it's fine being critical of the community here, but participation and contribution are just as important as analysis and criticism.

The Bungie and 343 folks are still here, still reading. Believe. =)

 

[NOKYARD]

Eh, unfortunately, I like Halo 3's Griffball better. And I still have the same connection disadvantage =\

Would be better if they used the proper variants/maps we supplied. The variants deployed in the playlist were from September. We've improved the settings several times since then.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Thought I'd link to this post I just made in the Forge thread regarding the Community Cartographers.

 

[Gui_PT]

Would be better if they used the proper variants/maps we supplied. The variants deployed in the playlist were from September. We've improved the settings several times since then.

That's weird.

Thank you for the link. Will definitely try those out

 

[bobs...onGaf]

No the only reason Reach has low population is noone gives a shit about getting an Onyx. They want to grind in the 1-50, especially the bad kids who can never get there. Its there carrot on a string.

Seriously MLG is in a social playlist...theres shit thats wrong with this game. Look on JTV there is almost no streams of Reach the competitive community has all but left the game pretty much. Arena populations are low and hard to find good close games in... its just a shitball of a system and could have been utilized a lot better but nothing changed from the beta to the final.

Let us fight for 50s again, introduce new gametypes in double credit weekends and you'll definitely start seeing people coming back to Reach.

Use a piece of armor (maybe that purple flame thing if possible?) as Recon give it to community pillars, JTV streamers, so the game doesn't appear to be completely dead.

Bulldoze the playlists and really start over, force the kids who don't care to use DMR more so the people who do care don't have to have their brains almost explode every voting process. Throw retarded gametypes like rocket race into grab bag, not Rumble pit and Multi-Team. These games are SO different from normal Halo you can't put them in the same playlist it makes for people having to play gametypes they REALLLLY don't wanna play.

Wheres the Reach montages in the Bungie feed? Is anyone playing this game? Is Bungie?

I agree to an extent, but I actually started off really wanting to get an Onyx - it was the gameplay mechanics, and Arena FFA rating system that put me off more than the phycology of not having a carrot on a stick.

The 1-50 system was more fun from a phycological level aswell though!

Quite frankly I think the competative community left Reach for more reasons than just the Arena system, personally I feel that the core gameplay doesnt promote good competition. I just dont enjoy playing Reach competetivly.

Don't see the correlation between the competitive community not being there and the low population. How big was that community in Halo 3? The difference of a couple hundred thousand? No. Let's not kid ourselves. Halo Reach is just an example of Halo fatigue. It's also a bit more complex than that and I understand people have issues with certain things in the game but the overall problem has to be fatigue. Even before the game was revealed I recall the excitement being lukewarm compared to the previous games. Hell, some people were annoyed Bungie was doing yet another Halo game. All this is kind of funny when you consider how many people in here are fantasizing about 343 returning Halo back to what it was. It's not going to matter. The formula is old and even though some people here feel Reach is a huge departure others outside the community clearly don't feel it is big enough of a change.

I strongly disagree with this post. Myself and many of my friends still play Halo 3 a lot. Other dudes on this thread ive talked to have mentioned being in a similar position.

If 343 announced the next Halo game tomorow, you can bet your ass it would make tidal waves, Halo feels a lot less abused than CoD does lol - CoD has pretty much had the same amount of releases in the last 4 years compared to Halo over 10.

So yeah gamer fatigue is far from the issue - Reach has a few problems, most of which have been slowly improving since game release thank god.

 

[Sai-kun]

What if playing arena and achieving a certain rank gave you a bonus to credits? That would definitely get me to play and try and get arena if I got like...150% bonus or something.

 

[Domino Theory]

It is depressing that I don't follow this thread relgiously like I used to with the Halo 3 thread. Tugs on my heart strings everything I see this as the top thread in the community section.

Who needs Reach when you have an intersect?

 

[Slightly Live]

What if playing arena and achieving a certain rank gave you a bonus to credits? That would definitely get me to play and try and get arena if I got like...150% bonus or something.

Not much chance of that, but earning potential cR multipliers or modifiers as rewards would be pretty sweet.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

I just realized after reading LunaticPuma's post that if its true that more people play Reach, but less people seem to be on at any 1 time, maybe the average Reach player plays less hours of video games? Halo 3 might have had higher playlist population rates (with less people) simply because the people that where on played for longer, with Reach someone might pop on for a couple of games and then head off.

Reach does definately seem to appeal less to the more hardcore gamers I know, maybe thats just a corrolation of that.

Thats not nessicarily a bad thing, it just means Reach also caters to a different audiance, I know guys that hated Halo 3 and couldnt stand to play it, but play Reach when they rarely jump on theyre xboxes.

 

[MrBig]

I just realized after reading LunaticPuma's post that if its true that more people play Reach, but less people seem to be on at any 1 time, maybe the average Reach player plays less hours of video games? Halo 3 might have had higher playlist population rates (with less people) simply because the people that where on played for longer, with Reach someone might pop on for a couple of games and then head off.

Reach does definately seem to appeal less to the more hardcore gamers I know, maybe thats just a corrolation of that.

Thats not nessicarily a bad thing, it just means Reach also caters to a different audiance, I know guys that hated Halo 3 and couldnt stand to play it, but play Reach when they rarely jump on theyre xboxes.

They're like me where the game makes you rage but I always come back.
Like just now I loaded the game up played a single game of Grifball with shitty team mates, threw my controller at a chair and went outside to read a book.

 

[NOKYARD]

The variants deployed in the playlist were from September.

A fix may be in the works. Thanks Urk.

 

[Kuroyume]

I strongly disagree with this post. Myself and many of my friends still play Halo 3 a lot. Other dudes on this thread ive talked to have mentioned being in a similar position.

Well that changes everything.

 

[Stackboy]

So is the general thought that we will get another map pack in the coming months?

 

[The Librarian]

So is the general thought that we will get another map pack in the coming months?

If Reach's schedule follows Halo 3, it won't be until April.

 

[Arnie]

Well that changes everything.

His post was as subjective as yours, yet he wasn't being a dick with his reply.

 

[Domino Theory]

If Reach's schedule follows Halo 3, it won't be until April.

Well it already hasn't going by the Noble Map Pack (Nov 30th) compared to the Heroic Map Pack (late December).

 

[user_nat]

Well it already hasn't going by the Noble Map Pack (Nov 30th) compared to the Heroic Map Pack (late December).

Halo Reach came out about 2 weeks earlier also. So fairly similar schedule so far.

 

[The Librarian]

Well it already hasn't going by the Noble Map Pack (Nov 30th) compared to the Heroic Map Pack (late December).

Didn't the Heroic Map Pack come out December 11th? That's not late December. And as User_nat said, Reach came out two weeks earlier, and November 30th is about two weeks earlier than December 11th. Similar schedule.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Didn't the Heroic Map Pack come out December 11th? That's not late December. And as User_nat said, Reach came out two weeks earlier, and November 30th is about two weeks earlier than December 11th. Similar schedule.

Identical schedule - the first map pack hit 77 days after the game released in both cases. (Wu pointed this out originally a while back.)

I hope there are more on a similar cadence. The Noble was very good, and most of Halo 3's best maps came in the form of DLC.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

His post was as subjective as yours, yet he wasn't being a dick with his reply.

This.

He also selectively cut out that sentence from my entire post. I went on to say that CoD has had about the same number of releases in the last 4 years as Halo has had in the last 10 years. Surely game fatigue would have kicked in there if fatigue could even be a case?

I know you cant draw parallels between isolated cases, but using a blanket statement over the entire community such as claiming 'fatigue' is just as obnoxious.

The Noble map pack was excellent, I think because the limitations of share maps from campaign spaces wasn't there. Im looking forward to the next map pack.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Whats with grifball restarting player selection after finding players and voting?

Thanks guy betraying me over and over for the ball in Grifball, I wasn't strategically waiting for an opening at all! but yea you go on ahead and rush everyone and give them the ball, great job guy, GOD DAMNIT TURN BETRAYELS OFF

 

[MrBig]

This.

He also selectively cut out that sentence from my entire post. I went on to say that CoD has had about the same number of releases in the last 4 years as Halo has had in the last 10 years. Surely game fatigue would have kicked in there if fatigue could even be a case?

I know you cant draw parallels between isolated cases, but using a blanket statement over the entire community such as claiming 'fatigue' is just as obnoxious.

CoD's releases are more of a map pack than anything. Gameplay, engine, and mechanics haven't changed since MW.

 

[Striker]

Phase one voting:

Team Headhunter
BTB Slayer
Team Headhunter

None of the above plz.

Phase two voting:

Team Headhunter
Team Headhunter
Team Headhunter

 

[7echnicolor]

I dont want to look stupid or anything, but wasn't a new Firefight playlist supposed to go up today? Like.. Firefight with limited lives or something?

 

[MrBig]

I dont want to look stupid or anything, but wasn't a new Firefight playlist supposed to go up today? Like.. Firefight with limited lives or something?

Grifball was today, firefight limited is next week

 

[Jack Scofield]

What is Firefight Arcade? I haven't had XBL Gold for a few months, so I can't hop online and try out the playlist for myself. Anyone mind explaining it to me?

 

[MrBig]

What is Firefight Arcade? I haven't had XBL Gold for a few months, so I can't hop online and try out the playlist for myself. Anyone mind explaining it to me?

It was a bunch of action sack-esque gametypes like fist fight (sword/hammer starts) and grenade fight (grenade luancher/concussion rifle starts w/ extra grenades) on top of firefight with more randomized encounters.

 

[Bregmann Roche]

played a single game of Grifball with shitty team mates, threw my controller at a chair and went outside to read a book.

... This is also not how this kind of story usually ends.

I think this game could benefit greatly from a title update. The same things many people were saying during the beta: drop grenade damage, increase movement speed, change melee. I have completely adjusted to the way Reach does things and I don't feel like it's hurting my "competitive play" to have things this way, but the game would be more fun.

I still feel like I'm wearing cement blocks on my feet. I still feel like CQC is silly and completely removed from the rest of the encounter (as I close on my enemy the number of bullets I put in him doesn't matter). I still feel like grenades are a power weapon that do not reward skill as much as they should.

All of the above could be fixed in a Title Update, but I'm losing faith that it will happen since, as has been stated many times by Bungie folks and people on this board, Bungie doesn't agree with me.

I still love this game and will continue to play it.

EDIT:

Yeah, really. Who would expect someone who plays video games to go outside, let alone read a book (that isn't about videogames)

I was more referring to raging and then going to read a book as opposed to raging and breaking things/writing an angry post on GAF.

 

[7echnicolor]

Grifball was today, firefight limited is next week

Ah ok, thanks!

 

[MrBig]

... This is also not how this kind of story usually ends.

Yeah, really. Who would expect someone who plays video games to go outside, let alone read a book (that isn't about videogames) :lol

 

[Kuroyume]

His post was as subjective as yours, yet he wasn't being a dick with his reply.

What the hell are you talking about? How was that response harsh?

I understand you don't like Reach for a myriad of reasons but at the very least try to be rational about it. If doing the same thing over and over meant getting the same results then Doom would still be the king of FPS. After a while most people get tired of playing the same game. You may feel differently but that's the way things go.

Btw, on a completely different topic...

Best thing about Firefight Arcade was not having to wait for drop ships. Change that for regular Firefight.

Phase one voting:

Team Headhunter
BTB Slayer
Team Headhunter

None of the above plz.

Phase two voting:

Team Headhunter
Team Headhunter
Team Headhunter

Matchmaking lol

 

[ElRenoRaven]

well that's half way to the weekly thanks to Grifball. The downside to doing it that way is that your kill death ratio takes a serious dive. Oh well.

Also got my last avatar helmet unlocked thanks to getting a multikill in griffball. lol

 

[Ramirez]

Phase one voting:

Team Headhunter
BTB Slayer
Team Headhunter

None of the above plz.

Phase two voting:

Team Headhunter
Team Headhunter
Team Headhunter

But NinjaOnFire will save us!

 

[feel]

After a few miserable games of Reach went to Halo 3 to wash the AA filth off, got destroyed there too. Not a good halo night for me, oh well..

 

[ElRenoRaven]

You know the more I play the more I'm convinced that Griffball brings out the brain dead drooling morons who can't do the most basic of things.

Blue Team member: Durrr that blue guy sure is pretty I must kill him.

Blue Team Member: Durrr that mean red guy has a big bomb I must run the opposite way with 2 other members of the team instead of trying to stop him.

*3 members proceed to run away from the bomb carrier coming into our goal after having clearly seen him coming toward in*

This is almost exactly what it is every damn game. That or they wait till you kill guys and then proceed to kill you just for shits and giggles.

*edit*

WooHoo at least I have something to show for my pain. Just got my Mark V shoulders. Only the visor color left and my little Master Chief will be done. lol

 

[vhfive]

firefight is to long.
bring back the short version please

 

[cool_dude_2049]

I love you Grifball. I had 51 multikills yesterday and in a few hours, I finished the weekly and became a general.

 

[Kuroyume]

Was it always two strikes with the sword in Griffball?

 

[GhaleonEB]

So I knocked off the three non-MP Challenges today on a single game of Tip of the Spear, with a few skulls turned on to juice the score to over 30k. And I continued to try and find new ways to approach things.

Usually when I get to the second gun, I work my way from the front of the gun - with it on my right - around to the back, taking out the Wraiths and infantry as I go. Then blow the AA gun when everything is cleared out.

This time around, I did the opposite, and decided to blow the gun up before I even took out most of the enemies guarding it. I found a way to hop up the ledge in back after taking out the rear Wraith, and destroyed the gun while a Wraith, both Hunters and nearly all of the infantry were still out front.

Fortunately, taking out the gun triggers the Marines to come storming in, so I had some help finishing the job.

 

[Plywood]

How awesome it was to get matched up with people from outside of my country at least 3 times and to get matched with people who contribute nothing to the team but deaths unable to get even 1 fucking kill. How I got matched up with them I do not know.

 

[CougRon]

Fortunately, taking out the gun triggers the Marines to come storming in, so I had some help finishing the job.

LOL :-D

 

[Not a Jellyfish]

Was it always two strikes with the sword in Griffball?

Not that I can recall...I haven't played Griffball in Reach yet but if that is the case, fuck that. lol

 

[Trasher]

Regarding people not watching the Reach thread continuously, I have a few reasons -

- this is out of the public eye here in the community area, so we get less random people coming and mixing it up a bit.

- Bungie folks frequent less and less. Halo 3 thread had regulars.

- Frankie doesn't make fun of us as often.

- Less contributing members - in the past year we've lost some of our best and most interesting/left wing: voc, cocop, Eazy, etc. thank God we still have some regulars - Louis Wu, Ghaleon, KyleJ/Juices, Ram, Shake, etc.

- Speaking of which, what made the thread so interesting was the interesting banter between hardcore, middle of the road, and casual players. Losing that dynamic through so-called 'Bungie-balance' and the complete lack of updates and dialogue with Bungie members has led to a plague in the thread with endless debate that goes nowhere. It's not only exhausting, but boring without direct feedback that we were so used to. It didn't help that on the podcasts they were almost mocking fans' detailed views on balance and the new weapons. I've seen entire posts that I could tell were carefully crafted over hours of thought and planning, and only to be completely ignored by the entire GAF community and the Bungie employees it should have been seen by. Instead we get posts like 'meet me in customs' or DMR vs BR or Armor lock posts written right over it.

It's painful to watch, and I remember this happening in the Halo 3 thread about 2 years after development, but then some folks stepped in and we got some interesting posts and some legitimate 343 material to sink our teeth into. I think we are all waiting on baited breath to see something new come out gaming-wise from either studio.

Those are all interesting ideas, but the main reason for this thread being extra lame now is because the game is dead for most people.

 

[Plywood]

Those are all interesting ideas, but the main reason for this thread being extra lame now is because the game is dead for most people.

Plywood likes this.

 

[Tashi]

Those are all interesting ideas, but the main reason for this thread being extra lame now is because the game is dead for most people.

It's MLG with my teammates or close friends or I don't even play. I want to play more though.

 

[Ajemsuhgao]

Blastin' and Relaxin' - 2000cR

Kill 180 enemies in any game mode in Reach.

Fourth Horseman - 1900cR

Earn 4 multikills in a multiplayer Matchmaking game.

Golden Tree City - 3500cR

Find and kill the Gold Ranger-class Elite in a Banshee, fast and low, while on New Alexandria, on Legendary.

On the Sixth Respawn... - 1000cR

Complete a Firefight Matchmaking game with fewer than 5 deaths.


Wtf at the Golden Tree City one.