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[Spasm]

bleahy, any word on drop-in, drop-out? That is still one of the biggest headaches with H3, especially in Big Team.

Edit: Thanks dude. Will keep my fingers crossed. Can't wait for your full write-up.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

I don't understand why the 'Y' button is on a few of the screens with 2 different purposes... :-/

 

[bleahy]

bleahy, any word on drop-in, drop-out? That is still one of the biggest headaches with H3, especially in Big Team.

No word.
Speculation: Drop-in/out still not possible for matchmaking. Still possible for custom games.

 

[Chinner]

hopefully the map will load AFTER the veto.

 

[BladedExpert]

Bladed out of interest what IP are you on? After watching Tashi's video and your Youtube videos of the ForgeHub matches I can really tell my connection is not upto scratch. I HAVE to pull host to get smooth games like that, and thats pretty rare. Im on Tiscalli at the moment but they suck, I can barely download and im pretty sure my online gaming is suffering from latency issues I shouldnt be having.

Im looking to switch ISP's, any UK'ers with any advice?

I'm with Virgin Media. XL package (up to 20mb). A friend of mine was with Be and has since been with Virgin media too. He thought Be was far superior. He had control over his upload/download ratio. Virgin don't let you mess about with it. Having said that, the line is stable and consistent and I cant complain.

 

[popsicle_sundays]

You know how I know I'm terrible? I lost my ODST disks.

 

[Rad-]

I'm not a Halo fan at all but for some reason I'm getting more and more hyped for this. Have to go buy ODST for the beta. :lol

 

[Devin Olsen]

I don't understand why the 'Y' button is on a few of the screens with 2 different purposes... :-/

You're referring to 'select network'?

Pressing y will select the 'network' of friends... Which is why the is the y button above the group of players shown on screen.

I think that's what you're talking about.

You know how I know I'm terrible? I lost my Reach beta code that came with ODST.

You lost an entire disk? Impressive

 

[Tashi]

You know how I know I'm terrible? I lost my Reach beta code that came with ODST.

You mean the disc? You lost the disc?

 

[JaggedSac]

I fully understand not wanting to be punished because you had assholes team killing and doing stupid shit in a match. However, I feel as though the best solution (because you can't stop all the assholes in the world) would be a mix of the two. If your team loses because you had a guy on your team jumping off the map every time he spawned while you were out there busting your ass and going way positive, I believe that you should lose exp for the loss but that the amount should be effected by your individual performance. (Losing exp less than the normal amount) While on the other hand the shitty teammates you had would lose the normal amount of exp in addition to the exp lost because of their terrible performance. I think if you fully open it up to have ranks based exclusively on individual performance you'll see a totally different problem open up where players are playing just for K/D.

BUT. I don't think that'll happen. If ranks are indeed based on individual performance, I don't see Bungie making them based on just k/d. It looks like things like assists and some other stuff will be taken into account as well. What other things though? Shots hit percentage? Kills with weaker standard weapons rather than power weapons? Kills with normal shields vs kills with camo or overshield? Multikills? What about objective gametypes? Ball time, hill time, flag stolen and flags capped?

That seems like a good idea to lessen the amount of XP lost based on performance, and probably lessen the amount of XP gained based on performance(mainly because someone riding team coat tails and luck would be breaking the whole purpose of a ranking system anyway).

But I do think the losing team should get something, perhaps the credits that are mostly confirmed. A reward based system keeps people coming back and playing the game more often than a skill/ranked based system. Bungie has stated this opinion in one of their presentations(I think at 2008 GDC). People like getting a little bit of stuff whenever they play. Credits would also be more noticeable as well. An after game report would total up your credits and provide you with an incentive to play just one more to gather some more credits and maybe you could now afford that cool grenade belt(visual only, no gameplay alteration) for your Spartan.

 

[Wizman23]

Also don't know if its been mentioned but those UI screens show the max party size at 16. I think the only mode that may get an increase in player count will be Invasion. Hopefully this is answered soon.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

I'm with Virgin Media. XL package (up to 20mb). A friend of mine was with Be and has since been with Virgin media too. He thought Be was far superior. He had control over his upload/download ratio. Virgin don't let you mess about with it. Having said that, the line is stable and consistent and I cant complain.

Thanks for the info, this is the first ive heard of Be so ill check them out, im not so fussed about the customization, I just want a good consistant provider so may prefer Virgin. I was looking at Sky (the deals seem good) but customer reviews wernt.

Out of interest with Virgin do they have any sort of intrusive 'customer share' program or whatever where they limit you to speeds based on number of users online? Thats what I hate most about Tiscalli, unlimited downloading should mean that!


FuttBuck - Firstly how the hell did that name get approved :lol - but the Reach beta is accessed through the ODST disk. Losing a entire game would suck so I hope thats not what you meant

 

[electricpirate]

No word.
Speculation: Drop-in/out still not possible for matchmaking. Still possible for custom games.

I think this new system of remaining with your friends actually better allows drop in/drop out than the old. I think it may appear, at least in the non - ranked mode.

Bleahy, did they say anything about the future of bungie.net?

 

[zumphry]

Everything sounds really awesome. Looking forward to the new veto system and Arena (might make me actually play if it does actually keep you in your own skill range, don't want to be donged on when I'm actually trying to be semi-competitive :lol ). Queue System too.

Now lets just see what the respawn system is like :lol

Also, UI= so good

 

[DiabolicalBagel]

Out of interest with Virgin do they have any sort of intrusive 'customer share' program or whatever where they limit you to speeds based on number of users online? Thats what I hate most about Tiscalli, unlimited downloading should mean that!

Virgin XXL is exempt from fair usage policy, I believe. Was the last time I checked anyway.
Other packages are not exempt but even if you get shaping/a cap slapped on you, you'll still be outperforming the majority of providers' best offers.

 

[DeadFalling]

Digging the concept around The Arena, and the subsequent intelligent selection of social vs. ranked play. The constant monthly refresh of Arena ranks sounds like something to discourage alt accounts; I'm curious what kind of carry-over there is from each monthly round.

Me too. I really hope there's some sort of system to show what ranks you have obtained in past months. Similar to the "highest level obtained" in Halo 3 I think. Otherwise what's the point of doing it if your rank will be forever lost after 30 days?

 

[enzo_gt]

Holy crap the UI is miles ahead of Halo 2/3 in looks. Best menu and lobby screens evar.

 

[bleahy]

Me too. I really hope there's some sort of system to show what ranks you have obtained in past months. Similar to the "highest level obtained" in Halo 3 I think. Otherwise what's the point of doing it if your rank will be forever lost after 30 days?

You will see previous season rankings on your profile. Not sure if this is only on Bungie.net or in-game at this point.

 

[DeadFalling]

You will see previous season rankings on your profile. Not sure if this is only on Bungie.net or in-game at this point.

Ah, alright thanks. Hopefully there's some way to see in-game.

 

[Subitai]

Holy crap the UI is miles ahead of Halo 2/3 in looks. Best menu and lobby screens evar.

Not sure I'd go that far, but they do look really good.

 

[EazyB]

Thanks for all the info bleahy. So much awesome, can't fucking wait

No longer have to use the guide as a middleman
Being able to select between 4 map/gametype combination
Seemingly no incentive to make alt accounts
A more flexible ranking system
Glad active roster wasn't join in-game

Alright, fun times over.
Concerns:

• Arena only slayer matches?
• Will there be party splitting for parties less than max players per team?
• Don't really want to have someone's 5th who could act as a saboteur.
• The one good thing about social playlists in Halo 3 were that my buds and I could find matches quickly because it didn't always look for a group of similar size and skill. Since Bungie gave up on social in 3 and their support for it in Reach is questionable, is searching for an objective game in Reach going to be like finding a match in Team Throwback with a full party?
• It sounds like the new social/ranked hybrid playlists just bring the worst aspects of each together: the long search times of ranked, with the lack of ranking up (ala arena) of ranked.
• Little wary about the individual-based ranking up system. That'll only motivate players to sacrifice their team's well-being for the well-being of their K/D ratio. Whoring/stealing power weapons and not wanting to assist with driving because assists net you less "ranked points" than getting kills, etc.
• Why are the number of votes still on display before the voting is done. Who does this benefit? If they're really gun-hoe on displaying numbers at least hide the other team's votes. I don't want it to turn into another game of "vote against the other team's vote" or "vote at the last second for the lulz." I really don't understand this. The veto system should only be about what you, or maybe your team, wants to play.

 

[2 Minutes Turkish]

stunning stunning STUNNING UI on the MP.

Also, I'm ignorant to the hardcore segment of Halo's MP, but I know a couple of guys who go all the way. Alts that they sell and all that bizarre garbage you hear about.

Can someone please explain in laymans/noob terms how Arena will eradicate the alts. He'll be devastated to hear about it :lol :lol :lol

edit: it's cool, just read it. I think I get it.

It should also help alleviate the epidemic of smurfing (creating new Xbox Live accounts) to give maxed out players something to do in Halo 3. Instead of starting over, destroying noobs and reclimbing the skill charts, these top-level players will be encouraged to play season-after-season in the Arena and be meaningfully compared to each other. It's a system that has been a long-time-coming to a first-person shooter.

They basically get reset every month? with a long term standing always prevalent in the background? Or am I reading wrong?

 

[electricpirate]

stunning stunning STUNNING UI on the MP.

Also, I'm ignorant to the hardcore segment of Halo's MP, but I know a couple of guys who go all the way. Alts that they sell and all that bizarre garbage you hear about.

Can someone please explain in laymans/noob terms how Arena will eradicate the alts. He'll be devastated to hear about it :lol :lol :lol

edit: it's cool, just read it. I think I get it.



They basically get reset every month? with a long term standing always prevalent in the background? Or am I reading wrong?

I think you've got it right. I'm not sure though if it will stop those who rank accounts for sale, but it should tamp down the "drop my rank to pwn noobs." effect.

 

[Slightly Live]

Thanks for the info, this is the first ive heard of Be so ill check them out, im not so fussed about the customization, I just want a good consistant provider so may prefer Virgin. I was looking at Sky (the deals seem good) but customer reviews wernt.

Out of interest with Virgin do they have any sort of intrusive 'customer share' program or whatever where they limit you to speeds based on number of users online? Thats what I hate most about Tiscalli, unlimited downloading should mean that!

I use TalkTalk, very cheap and reliable and good value for money. Out of the 8mb pipe they supply me with, I usually get 650-750kb/s down and about 150/200kb/s up. Although the up does drop during peak times, 6-11pm, to around 100kb/s or less.

As long as you keep I don't download a lot during peak times (say using all my bandwidth extensively for more than 30+ mins), it's very good and you have no limit caps and no speed limiting at all.

If you are on the BT network (anything that isn't Virgin) you can migrate very quickly and painlessly and they provide a decent wifi router in case you don't have one.

For Halo and online gaming it's great, you have more than enough bandwidth for sufficient gaming needs.

 

[backflip10019]

Thoughts:

-UI is bomb. Word up.
-Me likely improved veto. Though, as Eazy said, why are all the votes shown? I feel like certain maps and gametypes will NEVER be chosen.
-Queue joining sounds incredible. I would hate having to go back and forth waiting for friends to get out of games in H3.
-Arena sounds good ... as long as Bungie keeps all non-skill spray and pray weapons like the AR out of the playlist. Wait, Arena is slayer only? Man, that's lame. Why remove flag, hill and oddball from the rotation?
-Why are Social and Ranked playlists combined? This doesn't seem to make sense to me. So players who don't like hardcore but want to play ranked games will play in non-Arena matches which are ranked but also social-ish based on how many people are in the party? Huh?
-:lol :lol at the new matchmaking options. Will "Prefer Good Connection" actually work this time and not match me up with some kids playing in the Netherlands? Probably not.
-I guess the new ranking system is cool. Like Eazy said, there will be less motivation for people to create multiple accounts, so matchmaking should be a little bit more effective. Though I hope that there is some other kind of ranking incentive besides just moving up to Onyx level each season.

 

[The Librarian]

Will there be party splitting for less than max players?

If you enter a playlist in which the max number is eight, and you have 5 to 7 people in your party (including yourself), of course your party is going to be split. Not sure if you just meant with, say, four or less people in your party.

Edit - nevermind. You probably meant max players for your party, not for the game (as in, max players is eight for a 4v4 playlist).

 

[vhfive]

Thanks for all the info bleahy. So much awesome, can't fucking wait

No longer have to use the guide as a middleman
Being able to select between 4 map/gametype combination
Seemingly no incentive to make alt accounts
A more flexible ranking system
Glad active roster wasn't join in-game

Alright, fun times over.
Concerns:

• Arena only slayer matches?
• Will there be party splitting for less than max players?
• Don't really want to have someone's 5th who could act as a saboteur.
• The one good thing about social playlists in Halo 3 were that my buds and I could find matches quickly because it didn't always look for a group of similar size and skill. Since Bungie gave up on social in 3 and their support for it in Reach is questionable, is searching for an objective game in Reach going to be like finding a match in Team Throwback with a full party?
• It sounds like the new social/ranked hybrid playlists just bring the worst aspects of each together: the long search times of ranked, with the lack of ranking up (ala arena) of ranked.
• Little wary about the individual-based ranking up system. That'll only motivate players to sacrifice their team's well-being for the well-being of their K/D ratio. Whoring/stealing power weapons and not wanting to assist with driving because assists net you less "ranked points" than getting kills, etc.
• Why are the number of votes still on display before the voting is done. Who does this benefit? If they're really gun-hoe on displaying numbers at least hide the other team's votes. I don't want it to turn into another game of "vote against the other team's vote" or "vote at the last second for the lulz." I really don't understand this. The veto system should only be about what you, or maybe your team, wants to play.

Agree with the list except the bolded. Its the same thing with halo 3 and I very rarely see this. The only time this really happens (to me at least) is in multi-team when some douche goes into the playlist with 2 guests.

 

[backflip10019]

If you enter a playlist in which the max number is eight, and you have 5 to 7 people in your party (including yourself), of course your party is going to be split. Not sure if you just meant with, say, four or less people in your party.

Why is this (or why should it be) the case? I think Eazy is concerned about parties being split in, say, BTB when you have less than 8 players ... which shouldn't ever be the case.

 

[Thagomizer]

Objective gametypes shouldn't even factor into your K/D ration. It just discourages teamwork; sometimes, you need to have a person die to give the flag/bomb runner the time to score.

 

[The Librarian]

Why is this (or why should it be) the case? I think Eazy is concerned about parties being split in, say, BTB when you have less than 8 players ... which shouldn't ever be the case.

I said that if you enter a playlist in which the max number of players is eight (as in, a 4v4 playlist) and if you bring in a party that has 5-7 players including yourself, of course your party is going to be split.

Must've misread his post. He probably meant max players as in your party, not the gametype (max players is eight in a 4v4 playlist).

 

[FFChris]

Objective gametypes shouldn't even factor into your K/D ration. It just discourages teamwork; sometimes, you need to have a person die to give the flag/bomb runner the time to score.

I agree. I know my friend that just sits back and BR/Snipes people while letting others get the objectives. Very annoying, especially since he compares k/d scores at the end.

 

[popsicle_sundays]

You mean the disc? You lost the disc?

Yea I meant the disk, lol.

EDIT - Both actually , I think there was foul play

 

[backflip10019]

I said that if you enter a playlist in which the max number of players is eight (as in, a 4v4 playlist) and if you bring in a party that has 5-7 players including yourself, of course your party is going to be split.

Yeah, I understand what you wrote. I'm just curious as to why you think that the party should be split with 5 or 7 players in an 8 player gametype. I mean, why not just find another group of 5 or 7 to play against and then add randoms until the lobby is full? Might take a little bit more time but at least you'll all be able to play on the same team.

Also, I know that this is the way it is in H3. I'm just talking about what Reach should be like.

 

[Kapura]

Dear shishka: Thank you.

I'm very glad that there isn't drop-in/drop-out MP. The autojoin is nicer. I'm also glad to see that there is a league system coming to Halo. It'd be interesting how they separate the leagues: Is it a pop percentage? Over a threshold of win/loss? Kill/death? Arbitrary numbers? It'll be interesting to see how exclusive Onyx becomes.

EDIT: Sword base? wat kinda name be that

 

[backflip10019]

EDIT: Sword base? wat kinda name be that

A bad-ass one. All maps should be named like that. Almost as cool as Moon Base Alpha.

 

[Slightly Live]

We should save the bitching until we try out the Beta although I can understand some of the minor concerns such as party splitting and visable veto counts.

What will this mean for MLG? I can already imagine a huge backlash from this community over any threat to their norm.

 

[The Librarian]

Yeah, I understand what you wrote. I'm just curious as to why you think that the party should be split with 5 or 7 players in an 8 player gametype. I mean, why not just find another group of 5 or 7 to play against and then add randoms until the lobby is full? Might take a little bit more time but at least you'll all be able to play on the same team.

Because the max player count per team, in a 4v4 playlist, is four people.

 

[Spasm]

Dear shishka: Thank you.

I'm very glad that there isn't drop-in/drop-out MP. The autojoin is nicer. I'm also glad to see that there is a league system coming to Halo. It'd be interesting how they separate the leagues: Is it a pop percentage? Over a threshold of win/loss? Kill/death? Arbitrary numbers? It'll be interesting to see how exclusive Onyx becomes.

EDIT: Sword base? wat kinda name be that

And no, that guest did not finish the game without his host.

This is far too common in BTB. The match was pretty much 8 on 1 after the first round since it was a party of 8 45-50s vs randoms. I'd be OK with no Drop-in if I wasn't EXP penalized for not wanting to put up with this.

 

[backflip10019]

We should save the bitching until we try out the Beta although I can understand some of the minor concerns such as party splitting and visable veto counts.

What will this mean for MLG? I can already imagine a huge backlash from this community over any threat to their norm.

I guess it means that maybe Arena will be the MLG playlist and the seasons could be looked at competitively from that community. The thing that really irks me is that there won't be any objective games in Arena. Apparently you're only allowed to enjoy objective gametypes in a more social setting.

@dax: Ohhhhhh, max number in the entire playlist. I thought you were referring to max players on a team.

 

[EazyB]

We should save the bitching until we try out the Beta although I can understand some of the minor concerns such as party splitting and visable veto counts.

We should only make nice jumps to conclusions until we know with 100% certainty that our negative concerns have not been addressed.

This is far too common in BTB. The match was pretty much 8 on 1 after the first round since it was a party of 8 45-50s vs randoms. I'd be OK with no Drop-in if I wasn't EXP penalized for not wanting to put up with this.

Solution: penalize quitters in a harsher fashion as has been discussed in this thread. No one enjoys joining a game mid-game.

 

[FourDoor]

Sword Base looks like Prisoner 5.0

This.

 

[CrazedArabMan]

I would love me some BTB in the beta, hopefully it will be a playlist.

And WTF at arena not having objective matches?

Other than that, I can't wait for this to come out.

 

[Slightly Live]

The thing that really irks me is that there won't be any objective games in Arena. Apparently you're only allowed to enjoy objective gametypes in a more social setting.

Way to early to make assumptions, particularly with the beta not even out yet. Plans change and if the community wants it, it will be there.

Shishka/Bungie don't hate Objectives, Shishka was saying about looking into the final state of the Halo 3 playlists in the near future when attention finally shifts fully over to Reach and I remember him saying that he wanted to ensure that when the playlist updates for 3 stop, he wants to see if he can keep Throwback up for the future to ensure Ranked Objectives have a future permanent home but that the non-existent population of said playlist was making that a challenge.

It's not his exact words and I'm sure he can and will clarify when the time comes, but clearly there is no bias against Objective gametype in matchmaking and it's doubtful there will be any such bias in Reach. It's wait and see at this point.

We also don't know everything, there's the whole Invasion stuff we know nothing about plus who knows what other potential surprises which may make an appearance.

We should be enjoying what appears to be a potentially brilliant evolution of Halo 3's matchmaking, which, like it or not, has kept Halo 3 going strong against competent online rivals for the past three years and Reach, at this point, looks to be able to do the same or maybe better.

Also, I just can't get enough of that sexy UI!

We should only make nice jumps to conclusions until we know with 100% certainty that our negative concerns have not been addressed.

Play nice! I actually agree with most of what you said. I just can't find it within to me to be too concerned at this point. You may very well hear me sing a different tune during or after the beta.

 

[bleahy]

Finished transcribing. Oww.
Now to turn it into news.

 

[Slightly Live]

Finished transcribing. Oww.
Now to turn it into news.

Your sweat and pain is very much appreciated. =)

 

[EazyB]

Finished transcribing. Oww.
Now to turn it into news.

I'd read a 40 minute long transcription of phone calls

Don't hold anything back. Or make an alternate, 10 page long version that would bore anyone but the biggest Halo nerds to tears.

Play nice! I actually agree with most of what you said. I just can't find it within to me to be too concerned at this point. You may very well hear me sing a different tune during or after the beta.

As excited as I am and agree that, on a whole, everything looks 10x better I still think it's worth posting negative concerns. Who knows, if they aren't worth getting concerned about maybe someone at Bungie will hop on the GAF and address them.

 

[MirageDwarf]

Jesus Christ!! There was a time when I relied on GAF for latest Halo news. Now even major news items are lumped in this mega thread which lots of casual Halo fans skip.

 

[EazyB]

Jesus Christ!! There was a time when I relied on GAF for latest Halo news. Now even major news items are lumped in this mega thread which lots of casual Halo fans skip.

No one's stopping anyone from creating additional threads. It's just there's a big "HaloGAF" community that's hardcore enough to check this thread daily, all play together, and would rather not discuss Halo with the general GAF population that, as a whole, have a irrational hatred for Halo.

 

[Slightly Live]

Jesus Christ!! There was a time when I relied on GAF for latest Halo news. Now even major news items are lumped in this mega thread which lots of casual Halo fans skip.

HaloGAF seems to stick to just one Halo thread at a time, guess it keeps thing nice and tidy and prevents the inevitable trolls from coming in for a good flame.

Feel free to start a new topic to post whatever new updates Halo wise if you want.

The Halo regulars will disseminate and discuss all the latest news in whatever the main Halo thread is at the time. There's not a single piece of major Halo news that doesn't get discussed and talked about in here or in the past threads or will be discussed in future threads.

Edit: Beaten like the red head I am.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

Jesus Christ!! There was a time when I relied on GAF for latest Halo news. Now even major news items are lumped in this mega thread which lots of casual Halo fans skip.

I prefer keeping it all lumped into one Halo mega thread, its pretty annoying having simultaneus converstions about an announcment. Im also with Eazy in that I would much rather discuss things with core HaloGaf than get pages of spam.

I would also gladly read a full transcript :lol

Anyway I was thinking, with the new ranking system it would be quite nice if they show the highest rank someones achieved, and how many times theyve achieved it. Is it wrong that I secretly think Onyx being the highest rank points towards the Onyx planet being shown in Reach, Shield world and all? I know its a Gem but I just think it would be awesome if they tied the story up in such a way that Chief ends up at Onyx at the end of Halo 3 and they do a timeskip and you see him at the end of Reach.

That actually sounds pretty aweful :lol