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Halo: Reach |OT5| A Monument to All Our Sins

MrBig

Member
Falt said:
Go on...

We currently have 3 360s set up in our house. We run into problems in matchmaking quite a bit, not finding games and also d/c'ing from games randomly but not losing our connection to XBL. It's frustrating, to say the least.
It's dependent on your router and firmware. On mine it was as simple as adding my 360's machine ID to the DMZ list.

This was the first google result http://www.seasonedgamers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=21472
 

senador

Banned
Also, beta Plasma Repeater. I had fun with that and being rewarded for bursting and leading my shots. It actually killed people instead of shooting nerd balls IIRC.
 
I accidentally started a bloom debate on Twitter.

CruelLEGACEY said:
I've never understood why anyone has a problem with bloom. No gun in any Halo game has been 100% predictable with it's targeting....

Bloom just shows you the variables involved. Look at the size of the pistol's reticule... Every single shot has a slightly random trajectory

aVeryEasyTarget said:
Never understood the hate for Reticle Bloom in Reach. Learn to slow down and pace your shots - problem resolved!
My problem with bloom is not the predictability of shooting. That's not an issue at all. The player knows the shots are going to land somewhere within the reticle, as opposed to Halo 3's BR spread where it's a toss up if all of the shots hit.

It's the predictability of the combat that frustrates me. It pisses me off to no end when a spammer beats me if I'm pacing my shots. That'd be fine if it rarely occurred, but it happens in nearly every game, and for me, it happens several times a game.

Am I a part of the minority opinion?

If 343 doesn't change bloom, that's fine. The game doesn't have to cater to my every whim. I understand that it's an issue that would require a monumental effort to change.

My two overall concerns:

1) I'm worried it's an issue where the work required outweighs the demand. If 343 incorporates bloomless playlists, and they bomb because only the hardcore forumgoers wanted it in the first place, would that affect the future of forum feedback?

2) I'm worried that I'm a bitchy, entitled jackass who can't get over his issues with a game and just enjoy it.
 
Hitmonchan107 said:
I accidentally started a bloom debate on Twitter.

My problem with bloom is not the predictability of shooting. That's not an issue at all. The player knows the shots are going to land somewhere within the reticle, as opposed to Halo 3's BR spread where it's a toss up if all of the shots hit.

It's the predictability of the combat that frustrates me. It pisses me off to no end when a spammer beats me if I'm pacing my shots. That'd be fine if it rarely occurred, but it happens in nearly every game, and for me, it happens several times a game.

Am I a part of the minority opinion?

If 343 doesn't change bloom, that's fine. The game doesn't have to cater to my every whim. I understand that it's an issue that would require a monumental effort to change.

My two overall concerns:

1) I'm worried it's an issue where the work required outweighs the demand. If 343 incorporates bloomless playlists, and they bomb because only the hardcore forumgoers wanted it in the first place, would that affect the future of forum feedback?

2) I'm worried that I'm a bitchy, entitled jackass who can't get over his issues with a game and just enjoy it.
Who's to say if you're in the minority or not, but I'd say you're in good company around these parts with that opinion. Myself included. I was open to the concept in Reach originally, but I've come to feel that I don't want it in a Halo at all, even if it was implemented properly. Reducing it or removing it entirely can only help Reach's playability. Of course, I would think some further refinements would have to be made. If the DMR just worked at minimal bloom at all times it would make for an incredibly bad time, it really would just be a gimped sniper rifle at that point. I think that segregating it to its own playlist will make for a tiny population, but on the other hand if they made it something across the board I don't think the numbers in TS or LD would drop, for instance.

But who knows, time will tell.
 

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
Hitmonchan107 said:
I accidentally started a bloom debate on Twitter.

My problem with bloom is not the predictability of shooting. That's not an issue at all. The player knows the shots are going to land somewhere within the reticle, as opposed to Halo 3's BR spread where it's a toss up if all of the shots hit.

It's the predictability of the combat that frustrates me. It pisses me off to no end when a spammer beats me if I'm pacing my shots. That'd be fine if it rarely occurred, but it happens in nearly every game, and for me, it happens several times a game.

Am I a part of the minority opinion?

If 343 doesn't change bloom, that's fine. The game doesn't have to cater to my every whim. I understand that it's an issue that would require a monumental effort to change.

My two overall concerns:

1) I'm worried it's an issue where the work required outweighs the demand. If 343 incorporates bloomless playlists, and they bomb because only the hardcore forumgoers wanted it in the first place, would that affect the future of forum feedback?

2) I'm worried that I'm a bitchy, entitled jackass who can't get over his issues with a game and just enjoy it.

Games with bloom: Reach, Shadowrun
Games without bloom: every other game ever made

FPS's doesn't need bloom, the lack of which in other games haven't harmed them. The majority of Halo players probably don't even care for bloom or even have an opinion on it, whilst a large portion of the hardcore folks are either for or against it (with more folks seemingly against it).

Other Halo games did fine without it. As someone that plays regularly with other folks who play regularly it only serves to frustrate me and them repeatedly.

Get rid of it and those that care will be thankful, some might still want it and the majority won't care either way. It's a very safe bet.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Counterstrike has bloom.

I don't care if 343 removes bloom.. for Halo 4. Don't touch Reach. If bloom is (somehow) removed, they'd just throttle all the bloom weapons to the slowest firing rate as it is.

Unless people seriously think no bloom + the current firing rate of the pistol, nerfle and the DMR isn't just going to making picking any other weapon up completely fucking pointless.
 
FyreWulff said:
Counterstrike has bloom.
Counter-Strike had a set pattern for spread that you could adjust to, CS:S went with something a bit more randomized. The fans of CS complained about that one too.


FyreWulff said:
Unless people seriously think no bloom + the current firing rate of the pistol, nerfle and the DMR isn't just going to making picking any other weapon up completely fucking pointless.
I don't think it would be an issue personally, people are killing with those weapons pretty regularly firing at full speed anyway. I just ask for something more consistent.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
FyreWulff said:
Counterstrike has bloom.

I don't care if 343 removes bloom.. for Halo 4. Don't touch Reach. If bloom is (somehow) removed, they'd just throttle all the bloom weapons to the slowest firing rate as it is.

Unless people seriously think no bloom + the current firing rate of the pistol, nerfle and the DMR isn't just going to making picking any other weapon up completely fucking pointless.
This isnt Counter Strike.....
 
Risen said:
The Reach Beta pistol was close to being perfect prior to the nerf... it needed a couple extra bullets. I just don't understand the reasoning behind the change to the pistol from beta to final release...

again... make other guns STRONGER if you feel there is an issue with imbalance power-wise. I see justification from developers using statistical analysis to come to a conclusion that a gun is "overpowered". They will look at the number of kills by a given weapon, or number of people playing with a given weapon, and if it is above a certain percentage conclude it is overpowered.

If a bunch of people are using a given weapon, it's because the developer did something RIGHT with it, not wrong.

Whether it's the 74u and Famas in Black Ops, or the Pistol and BR/DMR in Halo - buff the other weapons, don't nerf those that you got right.

This so so much. I really don't like that in the last 2 Halo games, in order to balance the sandbox, Bungie just continues to nerf all the weapons until they all suck enough to be "balanced".
 

FyreWulff

Member
wwm0nkey said:
This isnt Counter Strike.....

I think you missed the post I was replying to, which explains the relevance.

Also, once again, bloom is in Halo 2.

halo2pistol_steady.jpg


halo2pistol_fast.jpg


Nobody has yet to disprove me on this.
 
FyreWulff said:
Nobody has yet to disprove me on this.
I seem to remember HaloGAF going over this just before Reach released. That bloom was already in Halo, but they made it visible in Reach.

Am I remembering that wrong?
 
The problem isn't that bloom has always been in Halo, it's that in Reach, Bungie made it a main component of the combat, whereas before, it was a side consideration at best.
 
FyreWulff said:
Also, once again, bloom is in Halo 2.

http://halo.bungie.org/images/fyrewulff_reticlebloom/halo2pistol_steady.jpg[img]

[img]http://halo.bungie.org/images/fyrewulff_reticlebloom/halo2pistol_fast.jpg[img]

Nobody has yet to disprove me on this.[/QUOTE]Huh. I was curious so I just loaded up H2V and gave this a whirl.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/FkBdk.jpg

One set was at longer range, the other at shorter range. But can you guess within the set which one was shot fast and which one was shot slow?

NullPointer said:
I seem to remember HaloGAF going over this just before Reach released. That bloom was already in Halo, but they made it visible in Reach.

Am I remembering that wrong?
People kept talking about this and I had to give it a shot to see if my memories of Halo CE were off or something, but here were my results.

I did come to the realization that there was one key to how Halo CE handled spread. Tapping the trigger had a tighter spread, holding the trigger was wild.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
NullPointer said:
I seem to remember HaloGAF going over this just before Reach released. That bloom was already in Halo, but they made it visible in Reach.

Am I remembering that wrong?
No.

Fyrewulf, we have gone over this before. You are correct that spread has been in past Halo games. What your reminders miss is the way it was implemented in Reach, and extended to the primary precision weapons. And as Dani said above, spread is not the same thing as bloom.

Your pictures are a good starting point to discuss those differences, but just posting them and saying, hey Halo 2 had bloom doesn't mean a lot. The two games handled bullet precision totally differently.
 

Tawpgun

Member
Hitmonchan107 said:
My phone doesn't support flash... Mind telling what clip it is? As in what happens in it?

@Fyrewulff

Halo CE also had pistol bloom if you held ot down like an idiot. The point is that the DMR has bloom. The primary weapon in Reach. You want to expose bloom in past Halo games? You need to show CE pistol bloom and BR bloom.

CE bloom is negates by individual trigger pulls so that's irrelevant. H2 BR was a laser. H3 BR had its range limited by spread, not bloom.

In reach bloom makes midrange combat random and annoying. This is incredibley apparent at higher levels of play.
 

Karl2177

Member
There is a difference between reticle bloom and bullet spread. Bloom directly involves the reticle. Spread was coined to the BR and since then people have the mentality that it only applies to burst fire weapons, but it's wherever the bullets spread to.

EDIT: I like how most people forget the bullet in bullet spread and the reticule in reticle bloom.
 

senador

Banned
<--- Absolutely prefers bloom to bullet spread.

I only have a problem with bloom sometimes. Not every battle or every game even. I understand the rage at it, but I also don't.
 

Risen

Member
FyreWulff said:
I don't care if 343 removes bloom.. for Halo 4. Don't touch Reach. If bloom is (somehow) removed, they'd just throttle all the bloom weapons to the slowest firing rate as it is.

I'm not sure I see the logic... Urk has posted (on these very forums) that the time to kill with the DMR is within 1/10th of a second to that of the H3 BR - given perfect shots. That being the case, I'd have a hard time believing anyone would throttle all bloom weapons to the slowest firing rate.

FyreWulff said:
Unless people seriously think no bloom + the current firing rate of the pistol, nerfle and the DMR isn't just going to making picking any other weapon up completely fucking pointless.


Again... boost other weapons if needed... picking any other weapon up is already completely fucking pointless.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Removing bloom while not throttling the weapon fire rate would be worse thing you could do to this game.

Fuck, Team Objective with DMR start would just become a cesspool of autofire controllers.

@Rickenslacker My shots are from Halo 2 Xbox, not Halo 2 Vista, which Bungie had nothing to do with.

Tunavi said:
Did you show us Halo 2 BR bloom?

I actually did, where I demonstrated that the 1.1 patch removed it's bloom completely and gave it less spread than even the sniper rifle. IE, made it broken. Even the designers that made that decision said they regretted making it.

The Halo 2 BR in 1.1 is probably one of the most broken weapons in the history of any FPS. More accurate than a sniper rifle + a ton of glitches that let you use it at all ranges + glitches that let you exceed it's firing rate = Bungie and 343 are wise to not imitate the weapon for future Halo titles.

I could see removing bloom if all the weapons in the game were forced to the slowest firing speed. Removing bloom AND retaining the ROF is just silly. It'd be like having the ODST Magnum in versus multiplayer.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
FyreWulff said:
Removing bloom while not throttling the weapon fire rate would be worse thing you could do to this game.

Fuck, Team Objective with DMR start would just become a cesspool of autofire controllers.

@Rickenslacker My shots are from Halo 2 Xbox, not Halo 2 Vista, which Bungie had nothing to do with.
Halo 2 vista is pretty much a direct port of the code ;)
 
FyreWulff said:
Removing bloom while not throttling the weapon fire rate would be worse thing you could do to this game.

Fuck, Team Objective with DMR start would just become a cesspool of autofire controllers.
The weapons already have a set ROF even at the fastest shot speed. An autofire controller wouldn't do much I think. I don't have any capture equipment, but for my own sake I'ma give H2X a shot with the bloom test as well.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
FyreWulff said:
I actually did, where I demonstrated that the 1.1 patch removed it's bloom completely and gave it less spread than even the sniper rifle. IE, made it broken. Even the designers that made that decision said they regretted making it.

The Halo 2 BR in 1.1 is probably one of the most broken weapons in the history of any FPS. More accurate than a sniper rifle + a ton of glitches that let you use it at all ranges + glitches that let you exceed it's firing rate = Bungie and 343 are wise to not imitate the weapon for future Halo titles.
Incorrect. The patch removed the bullet spread. Spread and bloom are not the same things.

The purpose of bullet spread is to limit the effective range of a weapon. Distance is the variable behind it.

Bloom has no impact on effective range - the DMR is a laser beam at very long distances. Bloom is a game mechanic to differentiate various firing cadences.

The BR had spread. The DMR has bloom. It's like comparing a turkey to a gummy bear. They are not the same things. You keep confusing the two, but they have very different purposes and effects on combat.
 

feel

Member
FyreWulff said:
Removing bloom while not throttling the weapon fire rate would be worse thing you could do to this game.
I'm almost sure noone here is asking for bloom removal while keeping the same minimum time between shots, we just want everyone firing at the same speed with no random luck involved.
 

senador

Banned
GhaleonEB said:
Incorrect. The patch removed the bullet spread.Spread and bloom are not the same things.

The purpose of bullet spread is to limit the effective range of a weapon. Distance is the primary driver behind it.

Bloom has no impact on effective range - the DMR is a laser beam at very long distances. Bloom is a game mechanic to differentiate various firing cadences.

The BR had spread. The DMR has bloom. It's like comparing a turkey to a gummy bear. They are not the same things.

True, but I find at certain ranges, it tough to see the guy I am shooting and thus hit him. Teleport exit to cliff side on Hemo is hard for me to do. Do to zoom and reticule size, plus you have to make tiny movements to adjust or you over aim. So while its true the DMR can shoot at really long ranges, its not necessarily easy IMO.

If bloom is removed, I would think adjusting the magnetism/aim assist at certain ranges would be enough to pull the reigns in on the range of the DMR (or future guns in).

I absolutely do not want spread back. I have to concentrate enough as is to shoot dudes, but if I have to guess how much to lead by and fight lag....ugh. Halo really needs to keep hitscan IMO.
 
FyreWulff said:
The Halo 2 BR in 1.1 is probably one of the most broken weapons in the history of any FPS. More accurate than a sniper rifle + a ton of glitches that let you use it at all ranges + glitches that let you exceed it's firing rate = Bungie and 343 are wise to not imitate the weapon for future Halo titles.
Heh, I think the Farsight has it beat in being broken. I find that I'm happy with how the BR turned out, it's four shots so it's not broken in the sense that it's a brainless weapon to use. It doesn't necessarily overpower the power weapons either-- but it's insanely versatile and I feel that the rest of the weapons were just underpowered, I assume for the sake of dual wielding. Never really liked the feature to be honest.

However I gave the Xbox version a try and I'm finding the same results with the pistol spread. ROF doesn't seem to make a difference.
 

FyreWulff

Member
GhaleonEB said:
Incorrect. The patch removed the bullet spread. Spread and bloom are not the same things.

The purpose of bullet spread is to limit the effective range of a weapon. Distance is the variable behind it.

Bloom has no impact on effective range - the DMR is a laser beam at very long distances. Bloom is a game mechanic to differentiate various firing cadences.

The BR had spread. The DMR has bloom. It's like comparing a turkey to a gummy bear. They are not the same things. You keep confusing the two, but they have very different purposes and effects on combat.

It had both before 1.1. It has neither after 1.1. Even the Halo 3 BR gets slightly (keyword: slightly) wider bullet groups if you're firing as fast as you can at range.

Halo 1 tried to have it but they programmed it in the wrong way, ie it was based off input frequency, which let you get around it by trigger mashing. I even thought it did have any spread or bloom for the longest time, and only found out that every single weapon in Halo 1 keeps firing if you hold down the trigger like.. 2-3 years ago.

Fortunately, since these are client-side things and would require making the .map incompatible, we can be safe in knowing that any bloomless Halo 1 pistol (to imitate the original Blam! engine bug) is restricted to the Classic++ playlist and we won't have to worry about an extremely small minority of the playerbase ruining the game for the majority.

Rickenslacker said:
Heh, I think the Farsight has it beat in being broken.

You had to explicitly put the Farsight into the game on Perfect Dark as a pickup. It wasn't available by default. It's nowhere in the XBLA version's matchmaking, either. Plus the tracking mode was easily defeated by either strafing or punching the user of it. Now that I think about it, socking people in the arm kept Halo 1 "balanced" for the most part aswell.
 
FyreWulff said:
I could see removing bloom if all the weapons in the game were forced to the slowest firing speed. Removing bloom AND retaining the ROF is just silly. It'd be like having the ODST Magnum in versus multiplayer.
What if the weapons adopted some form of recoil? Recoil would stop spamming, as it would require people to pace their shots.

I think it would achieve the same means without the randomness of bloom.

FyreWulff said:
And then people will bitch about the recoil and the circle will be complete because now you've divided by zero.
:lol :^)
 

FyreWulff

Member
Hitmonchan107 said:
What if the weapons adopted some form of recoil? Recoil would stop spamming, as it would require people to pace their shots.

I think it would achieve the same means without the randomness of bloom.

And then people will bitch about the recoil and the circle will be complete because now you've divided by zero.

I think what everyone secretly wants is just Halo: Reach: Instagib. Super accurate weapons, first firer always wins, and we can mod the game to say "MUH MUH MUH MUH MUH MULTIKILL" when you're doing well.
 
FyreWulff said:
You had to explicitly put the Farsight into the game on Perfect Dark as a pickup. It wasn't available by default. It's nowhere in the XBLA version's matchmaking, either. Plus the tracking mode was easily defeated by either strafing or punching the user of it. Now that I think about it, socking people in the arm kept Halo 1 "balanced" for the most part aswell.
I was talking about in terms of weapon capability. Even without tracking, you had a wall hacking instant kill shoots through walls weapon built into the game. Jesus Christ!
 
senador said:
Also, beta plasma rifle. I had fun with that and being rewarded for bursting and leading my shots. It actually killed people instead of shooting nerd balls IIRC.
You mean the plasma repeater right? ;)
 
FyreWulff said:
And then people will bitch about the recoil and the circle will be complete because now you've divided by zero.

I think what everyone secretly wants is just Halo: Reach: Instagib. Super accurate weapons, first firer always wins, and we can mod the game to say "MUH MUH MUH MUH MUH MULTIKILL" when you're doing well.

People don't just bitch about bloom for shit and gigs. You are not properly rewarded by pacing shots in this game as people can blow right through the bloom and still hits their shots. That is not competitive, luck is brought into hitting shots with the guns.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Rickenslacker said:
I was talking about in terms of weapon capability. Even without tracking, you had a wall hacking instant kill shoots through walls weapon built into the game. Jesus Christ!

The whole point of the weapon was if you played with a camper, it was to encourage him to keep moving by dropping it into the rotation.

Let's just be happy that the Darksims didn't know how to use it through walls.
 
FyreWulff said:
I think what everyone secretly wants is just Halo: Reach: Instagib. Super accurate weapons, first firer always wins, and we can mod the game to say "MUH MUH MUH MUH MUH MULTIKILL" when you're doing well.
I don't think we want SWAT actually. Maybe tone down the aim-assist levels, but I feel that you shouldn't have integral parts of shootouts come down to chance. If it's super accurate and the player doesn't miss, they won because they don't miss. Then again, it's not like people actually fire with perfect accuracy.
 

Karl2177

Member
FyreWulff said:
And then people will bitch about the recoil and the circle will be complete because now you've divided by zero.

I think what everyone secretly wants is just Halo: Reach: Instagib. Super accurate weapons, first firer always wins, and we can mod the game to say "MUH MUH MUH MUH MUH MULTIKILL" when you're doing well.
What? Hitmonchan actually provided a decent alternative, so you say Halo fans will bitch and then lump everybody together in one idiotic generalization. Meanwhile you ignore almost every attempt at explaining the difference between bullet spread and reticule bloom. I honestly don't understand you at all.
 

FyreWulff

Member
Karl2177 said:
What? Hitmonchan actually provided a decent alternative, so you say Halo fans will bitch and then lump everybody together in one idiotic generalization. Meanwhile you ignore almost every attempt at explaining the difference between bullet spread and reticule bloom. I honestly don't understand you at all.

No, I like his idea. It is a good option. But it is inevitable that people will complain about recoil just like they complained about the SMG's recoil in Halo 2. Because this is the internet.

I really feel like the sniper rifle should have distinctly obvious recoil, for instance, so you actually have to re-acquire between each shot. I seem to remember it was rumored at one point that the H2 sniper had extreme recoil during development, but I guess they went back on that before the game came out. Would really add a level of skill to using it. The bloom on the Reach sniper seems to be purely for show, as it resets so fast to be a non-factor (and you can't fire during reloading, which makes having the reticule go super-wide while doing it just a graphical frill)
 
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