Support NeoGAF

[Sikamikanico]

Got a bit further into Halo: Cryptum, for those of you who haven't read it, I highly recommend it

Just about to start it, looking forward to it.

 

[wwm0nkey]

Just about to start it, looking forward to it.

I was a bit hesitant to get into it because some people said the writing was hard to get into.

I don't understand any of those complaints, the writing style is awesome.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Anyone reading Cryptum should try to be patient with the first half, it starts off kind of slow/confusingly.

It's good though. Damn good.

 

[NOKYARD]

Halo Reach |OT 6|: I am TU… I am salvation.

I wanted to throw them an easy question and ask the Grifball people what they thought of the TU's new option for Sword blocking.

It's the shield bleed-through we are excited about. The Bonk Stop (killing the bomb carrier using the butt of your hammer right before he scores so as to not betray your entire team) was an important part of Halo 3 Grifball. In Reach it takes 4 bonks to kill the runner.

Well yeah the amount of creepers there too is quite off putting as well. Couple of my gal pals cosplayed as DOA characters one year, I swear they got drooled on.

Sorry. Will keep my distance next time.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

The music in those videos is really annoying.

 

[JMizzlin]

I realise this doesn't help, but seriously, don't play Reach on your own.

Thing is I'm not. That NEVER bodes well, so I play with one of my friends almost always. This afternoon we kept running into much higher ranks, groups and the same betrayers. It was great.

I'm also not a fan of the fact I'm matching with fellow Australians. I'd seriously much rather play with you American guys. Oh well Rage is over now, at least.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Thing is I'm not. That NEVER bodes well, so I play with one of my friends almost always. This afternoon we kept running into much higher ranks, groups and the same betrayers. It was great.

I'm also not a fan of the fact I'm matching with fellow Australians. I'd seriously much rather play with you American guys. Oh well Rage is over now, at least.

Damn. Can you change match priority from best connection to closest rank?

 

[Blue Ninja]

I was a bit hesitant to get into it because some people said the writing was hard to get into.

I don't understand any of those complaints, the writing style is awesome.

Well, Greg Bear likes to use very difficult words. I think that put a lot of people off, even though you can often deduce the meanings through the context.

I had to look up what "rictus" meant, though. At least I think it was "rictus". :lol

 

[Gabotron ES]

Now that I think about it... all of the architecture does look like forge objects. Not in the low-detail, shades of gray sense, but look at some of the columns and the "tombstones" on the ground. All of those are the exact same. All I know is that being able to forge hard-light bridges is going to be amazing.

I was thinking the same, once you delete all those columns, pillars and ramps what you get is an empty flat rectangular box. Good looking forge maps, BELI343!

 

[bobs...onGaf]

Wow so im trying to catch up on everything from Halofest now that im at a computer, and a lot of the smaller stuff isnt covered by most sites.

Just randomly flicking through pages I noticed the Cortana Avatar prop: http://mediamindfield.com/2011/08/2...ip-avatar-prop-being-handed-out-at-halo-fest/

What other stuff happened which was maybe small enough to slip through the gaps?

 

[blamite]

Got a bit further into Halo: Cryptum, for those of you who haven't read it, I highly recommend it

It is really really awesome. It could definitely be harder to get into if you're too used to the style of the other Halo books, but it rewards you by blowing your mind on nearly every page.

 

[JMizzlin]

Damn. Can you change match priority from best connection to closest rank?

Good thinking, thanks man

 

[Gabotron ES]

hell noo jet pack should be left alone. jet packers are actually the best thing that happened to reach matchmaking. how could you hate on them? when ever i am in need of those extra 3 or 4 kills to win the match, u just take out the jet packers. i hope they live it the way it is.

I can honestly say that 343 is dumbing Halo down, they're trying to make dieing easier like in COD wt f? I like long kill times it's more fun.

Please don't modify armor lock to not throw stickies off. I think it will make the ability useless. There are still plenty of ways to kill someone in armor lock.......

DON'T PLEASE DON'T RUIN REACH FOR. Halo was moving in a new direction like people wanted but when it happened they changed their minds WT F!? Stick with it you idiots change in games is good, especially when it changes the core of the tactics

From the TU feedback thread, I really hope 343 is not really listening to these kids, most of them don't even know what they are talking about.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

From the TU feedback thread, I really hope 343 is not really listening to these kids, most of them don't even know what they are talking about.

343 can handle it. They have plenty of data.

The adoption of the TU playlists over the next 6-8 months will show how diverse (or not) the feeling on vanilla Reach is.

 

[wwm0nkey]

That TU thread really should be closed till the beta hoppers, every time I read it I want to punch something.

 

[FyreWulff]

That TU thread really should be closed till the beta hoppers, every time I read it I want to punch something.

"Somebody has a different opinion than I do! Stop him!"

 

[Tha Robbertster]

bit LTTP but for OT6: This game has made us enemies, but this TU will make us brothers.

Those kids on the waypoint forums have NO idea what they are talking about.

OT:And apperently, my email password was hacked or changed since I couldn't sign in on the 343 forums or my hotmail. I've changed everything now but still weird, can't remember logging in anywhere suspicous.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

"Somebody has a different opinion than I do! Stop him!"

If those people could explain they're point of view in a coherent way I would have a lot more respect for them. People who just blindly type stuff out in caps lock aren't exactly doing they're opinions justice.

 

[JMizzlin]

Pro tip: Don't search for 'similarly skilled players'. You'll actually get worse players than normal.

Game in point.

Myself (Kakansho) and my friend (Miget) met a Colonel and a Hero and got trashed by a team of three + 1 random. Brilliant system.

Guess I just need more friends who are good.

 

[Rickenslacker]

343 can handle it. They have plenty of data.

The adoption of the TU playlists over the next 6-8 months will show how diverse (or not) the feeling on vanilla Reach is.

I have a theory that in matchmaking it doesn't matter what the settings are if it's listed as Team Slayer people will flock to it and give a shit about little else.

 

[FyreWulff]

I have a theory that in matchmaking it doesn't matter what the settings are if it's listed as Team Slayer people will flock to it and give a shit about little else.

They can tell. When Team Objective changed to 100% DMR starts, the population dropped significantly.

People do pay attention to settings beyond the name. I think if you piss off 100% Team Slayer players though, they either end up in Squad or stop playing the game completely.

Hence why even having Objective as a voting option will drop a playlist's population if introduced later.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

I have a theory that in matchmaking it doesn't matter what the settings are if it's listed as Team Slayer people will flock to it and give a shit about little else.

There are certainly elements of truth to this, but "were it so easy".

Made for Dani?

 

[Ken]

If those people could explain they're point of view in a coherent way I would have a lot more respect for them. People who just blindly type stuff out in caps lock aren't exactly doing they're opinions justice.

Their not they're.

Please Bs Angel make the game to give us a commendation in Campaign and Firefight for wheelman!!!! It's almost an assist and i get nothing!!!!! Oh and fix these red dots that appear for no reason when i drive the falcon thank you

Sounds like a quality question for the panel.

 

[Rickenslacker]

They can tell. When Team Objective changed to 100% DMR starts, the population dropped significantly.

That does bring to mind though, I guess they're not reducing the scope of the DMR in the TU? Makes me think that the pistol will be the better weapon to incorporate into BTB or Objective gametypes with the no bloom settings. Remove Nerfle and DMR altogether.

Mmm, that sounds so good. Can't wait for Anniversary playlists.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

Their not they're.



Sounds like a quality question for the panel.

lol you got me.

That said, I wasnt being a grammer nazi with my post. Not everyones first language is English, and to be honest a lot of the people posting either cant be bothered or just cant use correct grammer etc, thats not a problem as long as they can back up theyre opinions in the content of the post itself right? Theres a world of difference between using correct English and actually having the ability to coherently explain your point of view.

My point still stands, if your explanation for your point of view is simply "because its fun" your not really explaining your opinion well. When you look at a post from someone on Ghaleon here who disects the impact of things like Armour Lock on the gameplay and compare it to a post on the official forums which simply say "Armour lock is super amazingly fun, please dont nerf it because its so much fun, the fun will be lost". You can see the difference. If your in charge of changing the game I really hope you would want to read more than "because its fun" before considering making changes.

Watching some of the videos im very worried that bloomless Halo is going to suck as much as Halo with bloom. It looks like theres no Rate of Fire at all. In some of the videos I have watched the player has simply shot his pistol non stop without aiming lol. It didnt get him the kill but I can imagine the gameplay being pretty spammy if people can just unload an entire clip into someones torso within a second.

 

[reggie]

.

 

[FyreWulff]

That does bring to mind though, I guess they're not reducing the scope of the DMR in the TU? Makes me think that the pistol will be the better weapon to incorporate into BTB or Objective gametypes with the no bloom settings. Remove Nerfle and DMR altogether.

Mmm, that sounds so good. Can't wait for Anniversary playlists.

From what they said at the TU panel, the scope of actually changing clip sizes and zoom levels was beyond the time they had for the TU, since it's apparently one guy doing it. Heh.

So the Halo 1 pistol still has the Reach pistol clip size, for example.

I honestly didn't have much fun with Halo 1 Pistol. There was a session of BTB where I was on the 'pubbie' team and HaloGAF showed up at the other stations and had the gametype switched to 2 Flag Anniversary. It was basically a bunch of spartans sitting on hills pinging a bunch of giant-target Elites to death each time we spawned. I didn't really get much of a chance to see how the map flowed in that one in the Reach setting, besides the new sidehuts for Rockets.

Really wish the Anniversary gametypes were Spartan vs Spartan, it was kind of hard to tell what I should be thinking when one team had bigger targets than the other one.

If they really want the Halo 1 Pistol in they really need to find a ROF cap. Hell, the nbDMR needs a ROF cap. As it is, all the bloomless weapons and the Halo 1 Pistol Magnum were extremely overpowered to the point that the only weapons I saw picked up in those sessions were Rockets. I picked up the needler once, but only because I was trying to get a joke kill.

The banshee is the most overpowered piece of shit ever. I sometimes wonder if Bungie even played their game before they shit it out the door.

It seems like 343 'gets it' with the new TU, but please for the love of fuck fix the banshee.

Yeah, I mad.

Banshee needs to be considered as the Scorpion of the Sky, and placed on maps thusly. As it is, it's fine on Boneyard, because Boneyard balances it. It definitely needs to be off any map on the Island and off of Spire.

 

[FyreWulff]

-facking double post-

 

[Zoolader]

The banshee is the most overpowered piece of shit ever. I sometimes wonder if Bungie even played their game before they shit it out the door.

It seems like 343 'gets it' with the new TU, but please for the love of fuck fix the banshee.

Yeah, I mad.

I'm usually playing with randoms as teammates and often find myself taking banshees down single handedly, mostly with the dmr. Perhaps there should be a slightly longer delay between aerial maneuvers, but it's not that overpowered. If you are playing with friends just tell them all to start firing at the banshee and in a few seconds it will be destroyed.

 

[Blueblur1]

Seemingly random thought: I miss the Halo 3 Banshee.

 

[reggie]

.

 

[king picollo]

Slightly random question i know, but....

..Does anyone know why there's been a change to what you're allowed in the service tag field on Reach?

I have a mate that's been using BASE for ages and in the last month or so it's not been allowed.

We're really scratching our heads as to why. Any thoughts or ideas?

 

[reggie]

.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

I'll try and track down some codes for Halo GAF.

I guess I missed this?


Someone mentioned a jetpack nerf, im skimming through the last 50 odd pages so I must have missed the details? Anyone wanna fill me in?

 

[Tha Robbertster]

The halo 3 banshee was perfect imo.

You could take it out with concentrated fire or missle pots, the weapons on it weren't over powered and it was fun to use.

 

[Ken]

That said, I wasnt being a grammer nazi with my post. Not everyones first language is English, and to be honest a lot of the people posting either cant be bothered or just cant use correct grammer etc, thats not a problem as long as they can back up theyre opinions in the content of the post itself right? Theres a world of difference between using correct English and actually having the ability to coherently explain your point of view.

There's nothing wrong with being ESL, but I do think it's wrong to be corrected, not learn anything from it, and continue to make the same mistake in your future writing.

Anyways, Crimson: Steam Pirates comes out on Thursday. Did anyone get to play it at PAX?

Someone mentioned a jetpack nerf, im skimming through the last 50 odd pages so I must have missed the details? Anyone wanna fill me in?

I think someone said that the jetpack's maximum altitude has been lowered.

 

[Gabotron ES]

I'm curious, where are you from bobs?

I usually find difficulties while trying to explain myself and specially on an english speaking forum, not a big deal tough. Speaking it is even harder, you will usually find me screaming some spanish gibberish you don't even understand or

Spoiler

nearly always

things like "fucking nades" or "this map sucks" .
Someday I will keep a well founded argument with my fellow GAFers!

 

[bobs...onGaf]

There's nothing wrong with being ESL, but I do think it's wrong to be corrected, not learn anything from it, and continue to make the same mistake in your future writing.

Anyways, Crimson: Steam Pirates comes out on Thursday. Did anyone get to play it at PAX?



I think someone said that the jetpack's maximum altitude has been lowered.

I type quick, I dont really focus on the specific grammer, I do try and make it readable but im not going to spend time making it perfect, to be honest I did kind of ignore your advice, I was more focused on the point in hand.

If that annoys people on here ill change it up, but I think the content of posts is more important? I sure know its worked better for me professionally to be quick than focus on the English, thank god im not a writer lol. If you want to carry on educating me do it by PM, no need to spam up the thread with such nonsense.

Out of curiosity Ken do you agree with the people on the official forums? Want to explain why? I dont understand some of those posts at all and they haven't exactly explained it for us.

Gabotron PM sent.

Also I noticed Frankies post, sweet I cant wait for the full TU changelist.

 

[Ken]

Out of curiosity Ken do you agree with the people on the official forums? Want to explain why? I dont understand some of those posts at all and they haven't exactly explained it for us.

I don't visit the official forums unless links to it get posted here, and I don't recall ever stating my stance on the opinions found on those forums. Why do you ask?

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I guess I missed this?


Someone mentioned a jetpack nerf, im skimming through the last 50 odd pages so I must have missed the details? Anyone wanna fill me in?

I think Ram or Captain Blood mentioned that they could only jetpack high enough to get on the bases during play on Beaver Creek. I don't think there was any official confirmation or announcements about it at PAX, just some random observations.

If they really want the Halo 1 Pistol in they really need to find a ROF cap. Hell, the nbDMR needs a ROF cap. As it is, all the bloomless weapons and the Halo 1 Pistol Magnum were extremely overpowered to the point that the only weapons I saw picked up in those sessions were Rockets. I picked up the needler once, but only because I was trying to get a joke kill.

I still don't agree with this, regarding people only picking up one weapon. Shotgun/sword/hammer for CQC. Sniper rifle for easy distance kills. Rockets for the uber powered bonus kills. Assault rifle for clean-up duty. Pistol/DMR for primary weapon. Even the needler can compete with the pistol/dmr in its current state. Combat Evolved had the best all-around weapon of any Halo game and people still went for rockets, the sniper rifle, and the shotgun, regularly. The assault rifle, while not used all the time, was an excellent cleanup weapon, especially for big groups of players. And the plasma rifle was a great weapon to pick up when out of ammo or for being dirty and maneuvering behind players that couldn't move when being fired at for an assassination.

All the changes are supposed to commemorate the original Halo and its game play. These weapon changes should be expected.

How many weapons do people want to use in a game, anyway? Seriously... I guess I just don't understand the desire to be able to go around a map from weapon to weapon to weapon. That's just an over-saturation of weapons that aren't needed. It seems more likely that people want to use the assault rifle as their main weapon and now it's not going to be as viable of an option (only in the classic++ playlist mind you). But saying that no other weapons are going to be picked up is far from the truth, imo.

Bottom line, though, is that the TU is far from finalized. And if the past is anything to go by, it won't be as bad as you guys are thinking. Why? Because it would be far too in-line with something I really want to happen and I can't remember anything ever happening that I was really excited about since the release of Halo2 (aside from cool new halo2 maps). You guys are probably concerned for nothing

 

[Striker]

It has been awhile since I've played Halo 3, but if I remember correctly it wasn't much better. The only reason it wasn't as bad is because in Halo 3 all the vehicle maps were literally covered in anti-vehicle weapons - which is a poor way of balancing vehicles.

Halo 2 was perfect. It didn't have a bomb and could be taken out with a fucking SMG+Pistol combo, but it was powerful.

The SMG was a weapon that shredded a Banshee in Halo 2. Dual SMG's were a common tactic people used in Ascension, and they had Rockets for counter in Coag, Headlong, and other BTB maps.

The issue here is Reach's Headlong has a Banshee and while Halo 2's had lock-on Rockets, the lock-on in Reach for Rockets is not effective because the lock goes away when the Banshee user flicks his right analog up or down. I would hope they nerf the Banshee a bit, notably the bomb's splash damage, homing, and the spinning manuevers causing its boost to get drained. In CEA Headlong, I would place a Plasma Launcher on the map, preferrably under the Seventh Column bridge where offensive team's rockets previously sat.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

If that annoys people on here ill change it up, but I think the content of posts is more important? I sure know its worked better for me professionally to be quick than focus on the English, thank god im not a writer lol.

Don't change, bobs! It's not a big deal.

 

[FyreWulff]

Well of course these are for Classic, but even at that point they were extremely overpowered. You can fire the Reach Halo 1 Pistol faster than the original at this moment in the builds that we had at PAX. Add in the fact that you didn't even need to go for headshots with the now dropped zero-bloom Needle Rifle and they might as well have set the weapons-on-map to "None". It played EXACTLY like I thought it would from the impressions I got from the video. As I've already said, the only thing that re-assured me was that they revealed it's a scalar and not a switch for the amount of bloom they can adjust for Classic. They went on about how bloom reduction of 15% made the weapon "that much more reliable", when you can already MAKE the DMR reliable by pacing your shots correctly.

I want to play these maps in normal MM, but it remains to be seen how well the DLC adoption will go for Anniversary. I hope the Anniversary Pack is 800msp at most.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

I think Ram or Captain Blood mentioned that they could only jetpack high enough to get on the bases during play on Beaver Creek. I don't think there was any official confirmation or announcements about it at PAX, just some random observations.
I still don't agree with this, regarding people only picking up one weapon. Shotgun/sword/hammer for CQC. Sniper rifle for easy distance kills. Rockets for the uber powered bonus kills. Assault rifle for clean-up duty. Pistol/DMR for primary weapon. Even the needler can compete with the pistol/dmr in its current state. Combat Evolved had the best all-around weapon of any Halo game and people still went for rockets, the sniper rifle, and the shotgun, regularly. The assault rifle, while not used all the time, was an excellent cleanup weapon, especially for big groups of players. And the plasma rifle was a great weapon to pick up when out of ammo or for being dirty and maneuvering behind players that couldn't move when being fired at for an assassination.

All the changes are supposed to commemorate the original Halo and its game play. These weapon changes should be expected.

How many weapons do people want to use in a game, anyway? Seriously... I guess I just don't understand the desire to be able to go around a map from weapon to weapon to weapon. That's just an over-saturation of weapons that aren't needed. It seems more likely that people want to use the assault rifle as their main weapon and now it's not going to be as viable of an option (only in the classic++ playlist mind you). But saying that no other weapons are going to be picked up is far from the truth, imo.

Bottom line, though, is that the TU is far from finalized. And if the past is anything to go by, it won't be as bad as you guys are thinking. Why? Because it would be far too in-line with something I really want to happen and I can't remember anything ever happening that I was really excited about since the release of Halo2 (aside from cool new halo2 maps). You guys are probably concerned for nothing

I have never got that, the variety should come from the gameplay, not from having to use different weapons in different situations.

The way I see it versatile weapons promote variety as you can use them in different combat situations. Weapons which have a very specific purpose tend to only be used in specific situations leading to some very dull rock paper scissors type gameplay.

It might not be visually as varied but I would prefer to see what works better for the gameplay.

That said Fyrewulff is right, if the weapons dont at least have a fixed RoF the combat is going to suck. :/ Hopefully all this information will come out soon?

I don't visit the official forums unless links to it get posted here, and I don't recall ever stating my stance on the opinions found on those forums. Why do you ask?

I just assumed you were pointing out the English flaws out of perhaps having an opinion on the subject in hand.

 

[The Librarian]

Ghaleon, awesome pictures! Thank you!

 

[Deputy Moonman]

Well of course these are for Classic, but even at that point they were extremely overpowered. You can fire the Reach Halo 1 Pistol faster than the original at this moment in the builds that we had at PAX.

I want to play these maps in normal MM, but it remains to be seen how well the DLC adoption will go for Anniversary. I hope the Anniversary Pack is 800msp at most.

I haven't had a chance to try the new changes where at least you have. I should probably keep my mouth closed until the beta hoppers.

 

[FyreWulff]

I haven't had a chance to try the new changes where at least you have. I should probably keep my mouth closed until the beta hoppers.

They did say that the zero-bloom NR was already gone. The DMR will also need to be backed off 0% if they can't implement an ROF cap.

I think this will all depend on how soon we get Beta Hoppers and how fast the Beta Hoppers will be 'refreshed' for us to try new parameters for testing.

I would like to see a Beta Hopper with 50% bloom on the DMR as a setting for classic. I think that would be near Classicy enough while making the other classic weapons still viable like they were in Halo 1.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

They did say that the zero-bloom NR was already gone. The DMR will also need to be backed off 0% if they can't implement an ROF cap.

I think this will all depend on how soon we get Beta Hoppers and how fast the Beta Hoppers will be 'refreshed' for us to try new parameters for testing.

I would like to see a Beta Hopper with 50% bloom on the DMR as a setting for classic.

50% bloom is going to be just as bad as 100% bloom in terms of how bloom changes the fundamental gameplay. Sure it might not kick in as much, but when it does its still going to play out the same as it does now right?

 

[Gabotron ES]

All the easter egg talk from the Anniversary MP panel made me think about this, wouldn't it be cool if CA/ 343 actually hid a golden warthog on Headlong?

 

[FyreWulff]

50% bloom is going to be just as bad as 100% bloom in terms of how bloom changes the fundamental gameplay. Sure it might not kick in as much, but when it does its still going to play out the same as it does now right?

I think it'd be closer to how the Halo 1 pistol's intended bloom and spread works. From what I can tell on the DMR timing as it is, this would let you get off 3 shots while still inside the reticule, like the Halo 1 pistol's bloom bug. Currently you can get 2 inside the reticule with the current DMR. Continuing to pound the trigger past Shot #4 would start going outside the reticule.

The issue with 0% bloom is you're going to see everyone just buying and going to autofire controllers for optimal kill times. With no ROF cap, you need SOME bloom in there to counter autofire controllers, or you're going to have a Team Classic black market. If we had an ROF cap then I could see zero-bloom staying in. But there wasn't one.


But I guess this also goes back where I can't figure out if they want the Magnum to emulate the Halo 1 pistol or if they're going for the DMR emulating the Halo 1 pistol. It seems like they want both of them to be the Halo 1 pistol, and I don't quite get what they are going for there. Do they want variants where there's Bungie DMR and the Halo 1 Pistol? Variants with the 343 DMR and the Bungie pistol? Because if both the bloomless DMR and the Halo 1 Pistol are in the same game, nobody is even going to pick up the H1P because of the DMR's scope.