Support NeoGAF

[Trasher]

Also... what is the secret of the purple box?

No one will truly ever know! The purple box is a mysterious one. It can save you, or it can betray you! It also doesn't roll very well...

 

[Plywood]

At the very least fixing the atrocious spawns on that Warlock remake because it's really gotten out of hand.

Also Noble Creek cause holy shit I have an entire film where I'm getting nothing but spawned on and killed by Rockets, Snipers and Shotguns.

 

[ncsuDuncan]

So...

Any chance of Classic receiving updates to fix all of it?

I just hope Bungie cuts initial grenade count down to one...

And only one grenade at each point on the maps. Tired of mini-nukes.

 

[feel]

And it's so true...

Retroactive, Nexus, Android and Element say hey what's up!

 

[Barrow Roll]

Retroactive, Nexus, Android and Element say hey what's up!

Are those the new MLG maps? I think I saw some of them in Tashi's montage, they looked pretty cool. MLG really sounds like a solid playlist, but I dare not enter it alone and no one on my list really enjoys it.

 

[Tashi]

Are those the new MLG maps? I think I saw some of them in Tashi's montage, they looked pretty cool. MLG really sounds like a solid playlist, but I dare not enter it alone and no one on my list really enjoys it.

Nexus and Element are ones they use at the event. The others were put in the playlist by MLG to test them I guess.

 

[Barrow Roll]

Nexus and Element are ones they use at the event. The others were put in the playlist by MLG to test them I guess.

What's the general consensus? Good, bad? How do they play?

 

[neclas]

At the very least fixing the atrocious spawns on every map in Reach because it's really gotten out of hand.

Fixed that for you.

 

[Tashi]

What's the general consensus? Good, bad? How do they play?

I'd say that people enjoy the maps a lot. They're also just happy that there are brand new maps to play on. I think people like Element more than they like Nexus. I feel the same way. Element is a lot of fun, especially when you're playing CTF. Good times.

 

[Barrow Roll]

I'd say that people enjoy the maps a lot. They're also just happy that there are brand new maps to play on. I think people like Element more than they like Nexus. I feel the same way. Element is a lot of fun, especially when you're playing CTF. Good times.

Shiiiiit, they should throw those maps in regular matchmaking so I don't have to get stomped in MLG to enjoy new maps.

 

[blamite]

Just played my first game of 4SK in Team Classic. Sooooo bad. It's painfully obvious that the DMR was never meant to be a 4 shot kill weapon, and it's rhythm just feels terrible with those settings. To be fair though, it probably didn't help that the game was on Dreadnaught, so the enemy team just rained death down from the upper ring.

 

[GhaleonEB]

As close as I'll get to the 188 kill Challenge. I cleared it once, but vehicles don't count. Here I had a beastly game - zero deaths, 166 kills. Mopped the floor most of the game. Still can't get it.

Did I mention I'm grumpy about this? Not for the Challenge or cR so much. But because from day one I've been asking for a way to play a longer game of Firefight in Matchmaking, at the very least solo. There's a pretty steady chorus on Optimatch asking for it, lots of viable solutions. And no one from Bungie has even commented on it, ever, in six months. And then they drop a Challenge like today's that all but demands one, as a tease. Not cool. :\

Is it essentially only doable of you steal all the kills in a match? I tried to do it in score attack and there just aren't enough enemies, I finished all waves and came up short.

Does seem like a pretty flawed challenge.

In Score Attack you'll top out at around 128 enemies, assuming you get lucky and get two drop pods. There's 120 to a base set, a few less to boss and Hunter waves in Limited and Arcade. In the game I linked, there were 354 total enemies, including ~50 from the bonus round. So I'd have to get 53% of them to clear the Challenge.

Done grumping for the day. I look forward to the Thursday Firefight Challenges, but this one was rather cruel.

(Part of me wonders whether it was typo - the House of Blue Leaves was the location of the Crazy 88's fight, not the Crazy 188's.)

 

[randomlyrossy]

As close as I'll get to the 188 kill Challenge. I cleared it once, but vehicles don't count. Here I had a beastly game - zero deaths, 166 kills. Mopped the floor most of the game. Still can't get it.

Did I mention I'm grumpy about this? Not for the Challenge or cR so much. But because from day one I've been asking for a way to play a longer game of Firefight in Matchmaking, at the very least solo. There's a pretty steady chorus on Optimatch asking for it, lots of viable solutions. And no one from Bungie has even commented on it, ever, in six months. And then they drop a Challenge like today's that all but demands one, as a tease. Not cool. :\

Is it essentially only doable of you steal all the kills in a match? I tried to do it in score attack and there just aren't enough enemies, I finished all waves and came up short.

Does seem like a pretty flawed challenge.

 

[Barrow Roll]

I already posted in BST, but maybe one of the fine folks in HaloGAF can help me out as well?

Since Canada sucks and I really want a Razer Onza Tournament Edition, maybe BST can help me out? I hear they have been trickling into US Best Buys, if someone would kindly pick one up for me and ship it to me I would gladly compensate all costs and even a little extra for your time and effort.

Short and skinny, want to buy Razer Onza Tournament Edition, brand new only please.
Will be pay all costs and shipping, will add a little extra for time and effort if required. Can pay through PayPal. PM me if you'd like to help me out.

 

[Tunavi]

I'm playing Team Objective for the first time since launch. Its awesome. Reminds me of the awesome 1-flag games from the beta

 

[JonCha]

I'm playing Team Objective for the first time since launch. Its awesome. Reminds me of the awesome 1-flag games from the beta

Shame that it's such an easy playlist to get a positive K/D spread.

 

[Slightly Live]

Teh pretties... Where did that tutorial on making panaorama shots like that go?

Also... what is the secret of the purple box?

Tutorial? Ah, I dunno. Use google or maybe check HBO. There seems to be a lot of pan's popping up there so you'll probably find something.

The secret of the purple box is

 

[Striker]

Fixed that for you.

Reach isn't the only game that has had bad spawns. Welcome to the series, friend.

 

[Trasher]

Tutorial? Ah, I dunno. Use google or maybe check HBO. There seems to be a lot of pan's popping up there so you'll probably find something.

The secret of the purple box is

I think he's talking about these guys. They had a panorama "how-to" back in the day (as in the Halo 3 days I think haha).

 

[Crucio]

Got a game on Beachhead - my best map - where one player quit out right away. The other two are playing, but not that good, lots of deaths early. I get 60 kills in the first Round. That's about on pace to clear the 188 Challenge.

Several last man standing episodes later, including facing off a heavy Elite wave with two Hunters and a Wraith - all taken down solo, some at the same time - I finish the game with 192 kills. My hands hurt and it was intense as hell, but I did it. The game would have gone on longer, but we ran out of time.

Except 10 (!!) of those kills were Wraiths, which don't count toward the Challenge, so I don't get it. 192 kills, 10 Wraiths, 2 deaths, ran out of time, Challenge failed.

Sad. Face.

Urk - please. This Challenge more than any other made it clear there needs to be a longer game of Firefight. Even if it's just a solo game. Please mention this to Lars/Jeremiah. Please? It's a pretty cruel thing to dangle this so.

Seriously? The Wraiths didn't count? I would've been pissed! After all that intense gameplay and survival.. Wow! I feel sorry for you man. WTF.

I only managed it because of Courtyards spawning system lines up grunts. I was sitting on the middle bridge the whole game, the bonus round lines up so many one shot multiples. I was really lucky to hit 189.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Weren't the OGRE brothers always on the team together? Did 2 outshine 1 at some point?

If I recall Ogre 1 always outshined 2, Ogre 1 was always getting best sniper on the circuit awards in H2, dunno about H3 but that game was shit and required the skill of a chimpanzee.

Halo 2 was a mans game. Halo 3 is for boys.

Also there is this quiz post on Facebook about which cereal is the best and Cinnamon Toast Crunch is fucking destroying Golden Grahams. Righfully so...Rightfully so.

Tiny vessels. All about getting it wet. Probably one of their best songs.

 

[Miggytronz]

wow at the Piano cover of Ashes from the OST. So well done.

 

[equil]

Shame that it's such an easy playlist to get a positive K/D spread.

For some reason i do the worst in objective. AR's don't like me.

 

[squidhands]

I see what you're saying, but then again, Reach is about the fall of a planet and the death of millions and millions of people (though mostly through implication). We do see evac ships shot down which crash with thousands aboard. I don't think a human versus human skirmish would have darkened things too much.

I liked the ruse of the first mission, and how it gave a glimpse of the kind of missions Spartans were sent on before the Covenants shows up, though it certainly could have been fleshed out one way or another. But I still can't get over my disappointment that the arrival of the Covenant is portrayed as....not that big of a deal. Kind of neat, even. It sets the completely wrong tone for the game.

Definitely. Bungie treated their arrival as if The Covenant were completely expected party crashers ("aw dammit, it's The Covenant! Put away the good alcohol!"). As I spend more time on the campaign looking for subtle things to help me enjoy it more, I end up finding/listening to things that really get on my nerves. I cannot claim to be a great writer of stories, but even I could come up with better dialog to convey how terrifying The Covenant's arrival should have been. Really liked Duncan's idea of fighting insurrectionists first, then be blindsided by a Covie strike team.

Poster of a very good album on the wall.

Indeed. I listen to it on my way in to work in the early mornings.

edit: A painting of the cover is even better.

 

[Wizman23]

I agree with the complaints in regards to longer games. I love score attack, but the games are over way too quick. Would it be that difficult to add a longer score attack playlist? Playlist population doesn't even matter since it is all solo.

Also when FF was announced one of the main sticking points was the limitless amount of options for the game. Reach has been out almost 8 months now and we still get the same old predictable order of Grunts, Jackals, Brutes, Skirmishers, and then the final wave with the occasional drop pod here or there. Spice it up a bit and add some variety already. Yeah I know I can do it myself in the FF options but without matchmaking you don't get jack shit for credits so its pretty much pointless.

 

[JonCha]

Honestly, apart form the IGN gamemodes (and it's spin-offs) that cames out I don't think I've played a single custom Firefight game. Seems like Bungie put all this effort in, and the idea just has not delivered.

 

[Pennybags]

Yeah, enemy wave variance in MM firefight becomes a bit grating during repeat sessions.

Honestly, apart form the IGN gamemodes (and it's spin-offs) that cames out I don't think I've played a single custom Firefight game. Seems like Bungie put all this effort in, and the idea just has not delivered.

Maybe because you admittedly haven't taken advantage of it?

 

[Hey You]

I'm playing Team Objective for the first time since launch. Its awesome. Reminds me of the awesome 1-flag games from the beta

Yeah, but play it enough and you'll find Stockpile and Headhunter shows up too often and Flag games hardly show up.

Shame that it's such an easy playlist to get a positive K/D spread.

Yeah, I hate people on my team who only go for kills.

You have to go in with a Full team to fully enjoy the playlist.

 

[Tha Robbertster]

So my friend and I went back in campaign today to check out if the switch we found was still there on normal difficult and using a rally point and it was still there.
Here is a picture and a video(renderd) of it:
(pic) http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=16244354&player=yanno900

(video) http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=16244363&player=yanno900

I do think that it's too big of a coincidense that there is a pelican whose turret is usable and a switch to deactivate the shielddoors when you shouldn't be able to do it at that time of the mission.
It's a shame I'm not a Eastern Egg hunter or something like that but I think this has potential.

Shame that it's such an easy playlist to get a positive K/D spread.

What I think that could help is make it so that your K/D only goes up/down in slayer playlists.
I mean, when I play MLG and I go for the objective, I may go -10 but we will win that game. And this is a problem for many people, they just don't dare to go for the objective becasue of the K/D.
When it's gennerally know that only your slayer K/D counts, people will be encouraged to actually go for the objective and not be encouraged to camp in the base with their shotgun.

But then, you still have the problem with the easy credits that you can get for kill whoring in objective.
This is very, very eazy to solve: Just make it so that you get around 1500 credits for actually winning a game. It doens't matter in which playlist. Getting so many credits for just comleting a game is quite stupid and, as many have said before me, promotes kill whoring.

THAT would be one step to solving the objective playlist but then there is the low population which is a lot harder to battle at this time

 

[KidA Seven]

If I recall Ogre 1 always outshined 2, Ogre 1 was always getting best sniper on the circuit awards in H2, dunno about H3 but that game was shit and required the skill of a chimpanzee.

Halo 2 was a mans game. Halo 3 is for boys.

Also there is this quiz post on Facebook about which cereal is the best and Cinnamon Toast Crunch is fucking destroying Golden Grahams. Righfully so...Rightfully so.

Tiny vessels. All about getting it wet. Probably one of their best songs.

Ogre 1 was the best H:CE player (followed by Ogre 2) in my opinion with a beast sniper. In Halo 2, I think Ogre 1 had the better sniper but Ogre 2 was flat out the better player. He was voted by other pros as the game's best player all 3 years Halo 2 was on the circuit. Complete dominance.

In Halo 3, Ogre 2 was the better player of the 2 again (Ogre 1 didn't play Halo 3 much even when he was actually competing), but wasn't the best player in the league. Yet, he only managed to go negative in one event out of the 3 years Halo 3 was on the circuit (I think like -2 or something like that). So, he wasn't the best player, but very consistent.

 

[Willeth]

So my friend and I went back in campaign today to check out if the switch we found was still there on normal difficult and using a rally point and it was still there.
Here is a picture and a video(renderd) of it:
(pic) http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=16244354&player=yanno900

(video) http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=16244363&player=yanno900

I do think that it's too big of a coincidense that there is a pelican whose turret is usable and a switch to deactivate the shielddoors when you shouldn't be able to do it at that time of the mission.
It's a shame I'm not a Eastern Egg hunter or something like that but I think this has potential.

This is the switch you hit as part of the mission. It enables to you shut down the shield doors so that the Pelican can fly in.

 

[The Real Napsta]

If I recall Ogre 1 always outshined 2, Ogre 1 was always getting best sniper on the circuit awards in H2, dunno about H3 but that game was shit and required the skill of a chimpanzee.

Halo 2 was a mans game. Halo 3 is for boys.

Also there is this quiz post on Facebook about which cereal is the best and Cinnamon Toast Crunch is fucking destroying Golden Grahams. Righfully so...Rightfully so.

Tiny vessels. All about getting it wet. Probably one of their best songs.

Never mind that Halo 2 had way more aim assist than Halo 3 and the noob combo. A chimp could snipe in Halo 2 with the huge amounts of sticky aim and huge hitboxes.

 

[Tha Robbertster]

This is the switch you hit as part of the mission. It enables to you shut down the shield doors so that the Pelican can fly in.

Well yes ofcourse it is, but why does it still say I can activate it when I'm past that part. Remember, this is the part where you have to defend the pelican....

 

[Hey You]

Man I'm surprised the gametypes people are coming up with the Haloball variant.

Golf,Bowling, Avalanche type game where you have to run to the top while tons of Golf balls are rolling down at you and another gametype where you have to shoot these trip mines and the golf balls fall into these slots at the bottom. Each slot is worth different points.


I'll throw them up in my fileshare later today in case some people want to try them out.

 

[O D I N]

It's actually a painting of a very good album my girlfriend did for my birthday. :^)

Did you actually read Retribution? I hope you did. It was my favorite of the books.

 

[Hitmonchan107]

Did you actually read Retribution? I hope you did. It was my favorite of the books.

I bought it at Borders during its blowout sale (R.I.P.), and I loved it.

But my order goes Ascension -> Retribution -> Revelation (I didn't like this one at all. I kept reading through the books, because I love Mass Effect.)

I still need to read the Illusive Man comics. And I need to play all of ME2's DLC. I'm so broke, lol.

News: Halo: Reach won 13 awards at the MI6 conference last night, which includes eight Gold awards, three Silver awards and two Bronze awards. Some of those awards were in the same category: Reach won both the Gold and Bronze awards in the Outstanding Promotional Trailer category.

CheeseJam over at Forge Hub posted a Halo Wars 2 gametype. If this works half as well as it does on paper, this will be awesome.

 

[Blue Ninja]

I bought it at Borders during its blowout sale (R.I.P.), and I loved it.

But my order goes Ascension -> Retribution -> Revelation (I didn't like this one at all. I kept reading through the books, because I love Mass Effect.)

I still need to read the Illusive Man comics. And I need to play all of ME2's DLC. I'm so broke, lol.

Eh, Ascension never got me interested. I started reading, and gave up about halfway through. Maybe I'll go back to it eventually, but it just didn't work for me. I liked Revelation, and haven't tried Retribution yet.

 

[eeblogue]

TrueSkill does not seem to be as prominent in clashing you with similarly skilled team mates and opponents like it did in the ranked playlists of Halo 3. This is actually an issue that spans all playlists outside of Arena, but due to the higher skill level of players seen in the MLG playlist the problem is just more apparent.

Parties/teams of 'X' amount of players should only match up against their equivalent (eg. A team of four players should only match up against another team of four). - Fixing this issue alone would also make matches more competitive.

With the scoring in Arena now solely being based off whoever wins, why can’t we see the MLG playlist and objective playlists being moved to Arena?

Also, opposing teams should not be able to hear each other in-game. Players are forced to mute the other team pre-game, resulting in many avid MLG gamers being automatically mic muted. This results in me having a diluted communication experience when dabbling in other playlists.

 

[feel]

Also, opposing teams should not be able to hear each other in-game. Players are forced to mute the other team pre-game, resulting in many avid MLG gamers being automatically mic muted. This results in me having a diluted communication experience when dabbling in other playlists.

This is a big issue. Every MLG MM lobby is full of auto-muted players now.

And yeah, I hope when 343 takes over, they have players display the (currently hidden) 1-50 truskill rank in select playlists like mlg and swat, even if it moves up and down very easily.

 

[neclas]

Reach isn't the only game that has had bad spawns. Welcome to the series, friend.

I completely agree. But it seems to be the first one that kept almost the exact same spawn algorithm from the previous game. I got pissed at the spawns in Halo 3, but I always remember saying to myself, "at least they tried to make it better than Halo 2." For Reach, it feels like they said to themselves, "Halo 3 was good enough, let's keep it the same."

 

[ncsuDuncan]

Also, opposing teams should not be able to hear each other in-game. Players are forced to mute the other team pre-game, resulting in many avid MLG gamers being automatically mic muted. This results in me having a diluted communication experience when dabbling in other playlists.

Forgive my ignorance, but why is it important that proximity chat be turned off in the MLG playlist? Are you annoyed that you can hear the other team, or that they can hear you? Worried about people hearing your strategies or locating you by voice?

If it's the former, I thought there was an option in the menu to set voice chat to "Party and team only."

For the latter, if every MLG team in matchmaking just joined an Xbox Chat Party, the other team wouldn't be able to hear any of you... I guess that doesn't work for randoms, but if you're going into MLG as a random are you really that worried about chat?

 

[neclas]

If it's the former, I thought there was an option in the menu to set voice chat to "Party and team only."

The "team and party" option solves both problems (in matchmaking, anyway). You can't hear the enemy and the enemy can't hear you. XBL chat parties solve the custom game problem. So yeah, I'm with you in not understanding the mute problem.

 

[Hitmonchan107]

One more thing, and then it's class time:

Halo3Helpers uploaded a YouTube video demonstrating what it calls the "Stone Angel Glitch," which removes your weapon and walking animations while in Forge. Pretty cool!

 

[LosDaddie]

Anybody still need the Weekly Challenge done and want to join up tonight?

 

[see5harp]

Anybody still need the Weekly Challenge done and want to join up tonight?

I'm down tonight. What time will you be playing?

 

[eeblogue]

The "team and party" option solves both problems (in matchmaking, anyway). You can't hear the enemy and the enemy can't hear you. XBL chat parties solve the custom game problem. So yeah, I'm with you in not understanding the mute problem.

People don’t know about/use that feature. And even if people did, you would still have the option to mute the other team at the start of the game. To solve this problem Bungie just need to apply the Arena settings where you’re unable to communicate with the other team until the game is over.

 

[Tashi]

Forgive my ignorance, but why is it important that proximity chat be turned off in the MLG playlist? Are you annoyed that you can hear the other team, or that they can hear you? Worried about people hearing your strategies or locating you by voice?

If it's the former, I thought there was an option in the menu to set voice chat to "Party and team only."

For the latter, if every MLG team in matchmaking just joined an Xbox Chat Party, the other team wouldn't be able to hear any of you... I guess that doesn't work for randoms, but if you're going into MLG as a random are you really that worried about chat?

I just mute everyone on the other team. I don't want anyone to hear my callouts or know that I'm near. I go into MLG alone pretty often these days and I still don't want anyone to hear me. I want to win when I play.

 

[O D I N]

I bought it at Borders during its blowout sale (R.I.P.), and I loved it.

But my order goes Ascension -> Retribution -> Revelation (I didn't like this one at all. I kept reading through the books, because I love Mass Effect.)

I still need to read the Illusive Man comics. And I need to play all of ME2's DLC. I'm so broke, lol.

News: Halo: Reach won 13 awards at the MI6 conference last night, which includes eight Gold awards, three Silver awards and two Bronze awards. Some of those awards were in the same category: Reach won both the Gold and Bronze awards in the Outstanding Promotional Trailer category.

CheeseJam over at Forge Hub posted a Halo Wars 2 gametype. If this works half as well as it does on paper, this will be awesome.

Lair of the Shadow Broker is my favorite. I liked Ascension a lot too, but Retribution had a lot of setup for 3 IMHO.

Back on topic. Uhhh... I think Onyx would make a good mm map, and doesn't afraid of anything. >.>

 

[neclas]

People don’t know about/use that feature.

I was going respond by saying how hard it is for me to believe that. But then I read the post immediately following yours:

I just mute everyone on the other team. I don't want anyone to hear my callouts or know that I'm near.

This is exactly what the "team and party" option is for.

 

[vhfive]

I was going respond by saying how hard it is for me to believe that. But then I read the post immediately following yours:


This is exactly what the "team and party" option is for.

Pretty sure he knows about the feature. He uses mute just in case he wants to talk to the other team after the match is over.