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[AwesomeSyrup]

So would anyone here be up for doing Endure? I miss having Recon so I need to do it again, I'm sure at this point everyone has it but just in case let me know. It would have to be Friday night around 10 est as that's the only time I can play for extended periods at this point.

 

[vhfive]

Never underestimate the appeal playing dress-up has for some grown-ass men

Spoiler

vhfive

too true
I cannot wait to play dress-up with my character. Sounds a lot like Rainbow Six:Vegas 2 but improved and with challenges.

 

[squidhands]

Interesting that they're only showing Spartan perms. No Elite love, or is that a surprise?

Spoiler

Poor EazyB

 

[RebornYeti]

Commendation unlocked: "Pretty in Pink"

Yes! Exactly! I wouldn't mind having that to show off to everyone.

 

[feel]

So, can someone explain to me what the ranking system is now? I know there's an invisible TruSkill ranking, this credit system, but how are they going to show a real ranking? Are the Onyx/Gold/Bronze/Silver the only 4 rankings we are going to get this time around? ;_;

Yes, what's the problem? Good players, will have to actually keep doing good every month in the Arena so they can keeping bragging about their extreme awesomeness, and not just get a new account to 50 in a day with the help of their buddies just for the lulz and then coast. Also discourages people from buying new high level accounts because they will not be able to keep it up at onyx for the next months (and if they can, they won't be buying then). It's perfect for the rest of us who don't give a shit if others are much better/top level, but are annoyed by new alt accounts ruining matchmaking in our lower ranks.

 

[Sai]

So... Downloadable armor permutations?

 

[Pennybags]

Interesting that they're only showing Spartan perms. No Elite love, or is that a surprise?

Spoiler

Poor EazyB

From the last Bungie update:

And if you're already in a party and just want to check people out, the Player Details display right there in the lobby now. Less navigating sub-screens. All of the customized Spartan and Elite models look hot on display, too.

Maybe...

I like this picture. The helmet looks like those worn by the troopers from the campaign screenshots, but with a camera/gadget mounted to the side. It also seems that the kneepad is missing. Hopefully player customization goes across many categories, and not just helmet, shoulders and chest.

Edit: In another picture, an option called 'File Browser' is shown. This lends a little bit more credence to the notion that we may be able to have functionality similar to the Bungie.net file share system.

 

[DeadFalling]

Yes, what's the problem? Good players, will have to actually keep doing good every month in the Arena so they can keeping bragging about their extreme awesomeness, and not just get a new account to 50 in a day with the help of their buddies just for the lulz and then coast. Also discourages people from buying new high level accounts because they will not be able to keep it up at onyx for the next months (and if they can, they won't be buying then). It's perfect for the rest of us who don't give a shit if others are much better/top level, but are annoyed by new alt accounts ruining matchmaking in our lower ranks.

No real problem, just only 4 possible rankings isn't much of a differentiator

 

[Mark V]

So it turns out Oonsk's real name is "Mark V " :lol

 

[methodman]

So can you still play 4 player online with same xbox?

 

[chess]

Doing all the things Halo should evolve to, great! Now I hope the gameplay feels more like it's roots in CE. If gameplay is like Halo: Combat MORE Evolved, then Halo will be back on top of the COD series in number of players for sure. Which has me excited to play more since finding friends playing Halo are hard to come by.

 

[electricpirate]

So can you still play 4 player online with same xbox?

I'm not sure if it's been totally confirmed but bungie's statements have been pretty positive in that regard.

 

[Schmitty]

Wow, this is exactly what I've wanted in Halo for a while now. Of course, now we will have to listen to Call of Duty players stress how Bungie copied everything. The thing I'm loving is that everything is just visual upgrades. MM should be a lot more fun now.

 

[Magni]

Hopefully with Commendations we'll be able to have a different weapon in our hands

 

[JaggedSac]

Edit: In another picture, an option called 'File Browser' is shown. This lends a little bit more credence to the notion that we may be able to have functionality similar to the Bungie.net file share system.

I believe Bungie said that the community file shares will be searchable in game.

 

[Kapura]

Hmm. I wonder how many people will just save up their cR for the most expensive item in every field just to prove how "pro" they are. I hope the top tier item in each category is ugly, as it has potential to become "new Hayabusa." This will be cool; you say 'I want that piece of armour' and then you work towards it and get it! Rinse and repeat. I wonder how this system will carry over from the beta to the fall release. Hopefully, it will carry over fully.

 

[squidhands]

From the last Bungie update:


Maybe...

I do remember that, I was more commenting on the lack of visual stimulus on the Elite's perms that'll be available. I'm sure it'll all be shown soon enough.

In regards to having customization expand into the campaign: if you prefer to play as an Elite (in multiplayer), it would be funny as hell to see it riding shotgun in a Warthog, ready to meet up with the rest of Noble Team.

 

[AwesomeSyrup]

I believe Bungie said that the community file shares will be searchable in game.

I'm really excited about this, now if they can just announce the ability to search for custom games, Reach will never leave my 360.

 

[Blueblur1]

I'm really excited about this, now if they can just announce the ability to search for custom games, Reach will never leave my 360.

Not gonna happen. It would defeat the purpose of matchmaking.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Customised Spartan in Cut-Scenes? Hell yes.
Oonsk close up preview? Hell yes.

Commendations & Challenges: A huge step in the right direction, but I'm taking a wait & see approach to how well it turns out / how deep it is.
I hope it really goes far beyond kill x dudes, or odd challenges for special days/events, etc.

 

[Pennybags]

Hmm. I wonder how many people will just save up their cR for the most expensive item in every field just to prove how "pro" they are. I hope the top tier item in each category is ugly, as it has potential to become "new Hayabusa." This will be cool; you say 'I want that piece of armour' and then you work towards it and get it! Rinse and repeat. I wonder how this system will carry over from the beta to the fall release. Hopefully, it will carry over fully.

Purely speculation on my part, but I'd be willing to bet a dime or two that the majority of unlocks are cheap smaller pieces like helmet cameras and shoulderpads, while base helmets and chestpieces are expensive and require one or more prerequisites.

If you prefer to play as an Elite (in multiplayer), it would be funny as hell to see it riding shotgun in a Warthog, ready to meet up with the rest of Noble Team.

:lol Noble Team is horrified at the end to find out that Noble 6 is an alien.

 

[AwesomeSyrup]

Not gonna happen. It would defeat the purpose of matchmaking.

Not really, if you can't rank up in customs people will still play matchmaking.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Was there a spin off thread for the new infoz? I can fire one up for the masses. I didn't see one, but then I seem to have fits of blindness in my old age.

 

[wwm0nkey]

Hopefully with Commendations we'll be able to have a different weapon in our hands

That would be awesome.

 

[Shake Appeal]

Was there a spin off thread for the new infoz? I can fire one up for the masses. I didn't see one, but then I seem to have fits of blindness in my old age.

No, I always leave these things to you (or Dani, I suppose, in this strange new world).

But I have a feeling GAF will be largely indifferent to this stuff; it feels more lightweight than the Arena/matchmaking stuff from last week, especially if you're not already (heh) invested. Expect posts along the lines of: "Good to see Bungie trying to catch up to Infinity Ward."

 

[Major Williams]

Is anyone else seeing what I'm seeing? I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but I see a prettied up Halo 3 rewards system for armor. Maybe with more stuff, but nothing fundamentally changed. Try hard for an armor perk, earn it, wear it. Nothing else. No other benefits to be seen for the 'cR' system. The argument 'if it isn't broke don't fix it' doesn't apply IMO because this type of rewards system is commonplace now. I see no spin on it so far.

Kind of dashed whatever hopes I had for Reach being multi-dimensional on this front.

 

[Spasm]

Hearing about the credits stystem... Damn it's such a relief they're not giving out competitive advantages. That's probably one of the more addictive elements of CoD (leveling), and I was terrified they'd be aping it for Reach. It's great they came up with their own meta-grind that doesn't completely break multi.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I'm just delighted you can't buy scopes for your BR or "perks" or any of that sort of thing!

Tangible relief!

 

[Slightly Live]

Really great news with the credits and ranking information. Seems like they've stayed true to the gameplay whilst adding a very robust, entertaining and addictive layer of depth.

It looks like outside of the daily/weekly challenges, credits will be in short supply, at least going from the list that has been read in the background. If players are still unlocking new options years down the line, it'd be great.

If Luke has been heading this particular area, I'm actually very impressed. He seems to have hit the nail on the head with this. I especially like the Comendations, folks such as the Halo Wheelmen get to carve out a great identity for themselves with this kind of system which also seems to reward skilled snipers just as much. It's really well rounded.

Looking forward to Urk's extra words on the matter tomorrow.

 

[Pete Rock]

Try hard for an armor perk, earn it, wear it. Nothing else. No other benefits to be seen for the 'cR' system.

Would you have liked to see it carry over into File Shares as well, similar to the way Forza 3 storefront works? I could see that having interesting possibilities.

 

[feel]

Hmm. I wonder how many people will just save up their cR for the most expensive item in every field just to prove how "pro" they are. I hope the top tier item in each category is ugly, as it has potential to become "new Hayabusa." This will be cool; you say 'I want that piece of armour' and then you work towards it and get it! Rinse and repeat. I wonder how this system will carry over from the beta to the fall release. Hopefully, it will carry over fully.

Wait, you actually spend your cR?? I thought it was persistent, and just made stuff unlock when you reached a certain amount.

 

[Captain Blood]

I'm just delighted you can't buy scopes for your BR or "perks" or any of that sort of thing!

Tangible relief!

No joke. I really didn't expect them to fall into the CoD trap, but having it confirmed makes me very very happy.

 

[Demoncarnotaur]

I really like the way the new cR feature functions. It will be an interesting way to customize our Spartans, and overall just have some fun earning cR with a goal in mind. Obviously having no effect on the player is right way to go.

Although, I am curious how Elites will fit into the picture. Obviously they are only included in specific gametypes, so I wonder how we will go about customizing them. Hopefully they allow some of the more unique armor perms.

 

[electricpirate]

Is anyone else seeing what I'm seeing? I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but I see a prettied up Halo 3 rewards system for armor. Maybe with more stuff, but nothing fundamentally changed. Try hard for an armor perk, earn it, wear it. Nothing else. No other benefits to be seen for the 'cR' system. The argument 'if it isn't broke don't fix it' doesn't apply IMO because this type of rewards system is commonplace now. I see no spin on it so far.

Kind of dashed whatever hopes I had for Reach being multi-dimensional on this front.

I agree up to a point... fundamentally I don't really care about playing dress up with my spartan. I'll mess around with it every month for 10 minutes, but otherwise it's not a big deal for me.

What excites me in a big way though is the idea that they can drop chunks of single player into challenges with changed parameters. It sounds like they could set a challenge that they find cool or unique. For example, "Beat the brute pack on crows nest with black eye skull enabled alone or in co-op." I would have never thought to tweak the game that way, but maybe it's really awesome, and I get rewarded in some way for doing it, even if it's a piddly reward, it'll still get me to play it. Something like that can keep the single player fresh for years.

 

[Major Williams]

I really like the way the new cR feature functions. It will be an interesting way to customize our Spartans, and overall just have some fun earning cR with a goal in mind. Obviously having no effect on the player is right way to go.

Although, I am curious how Elites will fit into the picture. Obviously they are only included in specific gametypes, so I wonder how we will go about customizing them. Hopefully they allow some of the more unique armor perms.

This.

I am hoping for the Elite councilor head dress. I would rather look that awesome and have the potential to die by headshot easier than to not have it at all.

I don't know why I am being so pessimistic, maybe it has something to do with getting a speeding ticket this morning. Blegh. Thought I was going 7 over the speed limit, but the speed limit was actually 5 mph lower than I thought it was. So I was 12 over. Lame.

 

[NJ Shlice]

I hope they still have armor elements that unlock after certain tasks and everything is not buyabke with credits. There will be the people who complete every friggin challenge and have all the armors.

I would like everyone to know that I completed a specific task just by the armor I'm wearing.

 

[Deputy Moonman]

I imagine that doing the challenges will be entertaining enough, but the amount of excitement I have for the game doesn't really change knowing about the credit system. It will make things easier on the more casual player, but we all had the ability to unlock new armor permutations in Halo3, just in a different way. Nothing new here.

It will be cool to look like your character in campaign I suppose, if you ever do stuff with friends or like watching videos of your campaign progress.

Cool tidbit of news if nothing else.

 

[Pennybags]

I hope they still have armor elements that unlock after certain tasks and everything is not buyable with credits. There will be the people who complete every friggin challenge and have all the armors.

I would like everyone to know that I completed a specific task just by the armor I'm wearing.

In the pictures, certain armor pieces had prerequisites that had to be fulfilled before purchase. We just don't know yet whether they are tied to rank and/or other factors.

 

[DragoNZ DZ]

So definitely appears that Luke will be that old friend that was spoken about, and NOT the BR.

It's Oonsk, dudebrahs!

 

[squidhands]

Kind of dashed whatever hopes I had for Reach being multi-dimensional on this front.

What exactly were you hoping for? At least we won't have to rely on a youtube tutorial on how to jump through hoops in a specific order.

 

[Captain Blood]

It's Oonsk, dudebrahs!

I threw up in my mouth a little when I saw that shoulder armor perm.

 

[Chrange]

My bet: you earn credits to spend on armor customization pieces, something like the Rainbow Six Vegas 2 customization system. Unlike that game, the pieces are cosmetic only, offering no performance boost.

 

[Blueblur1]

Yeah, all they'd have to do is pop up a screen that effectively says, "Wanna quit? You're letting your team down and this is going to cost you 200cR."

And they could raise the cost in competitive gametypes (including the Arena and MLG), lower it in sillier playlists, and remove it completely in FFA.

That sounds awesome.

 

[Kapura]

That sounds awesome.

Until you get to the people who have naught to show in their cR score, and they just wuit for shits. I'm hoping the new heat-seeking Ban radar will be able to shut them down more quickly when it gets to that, but if there is a will (to troll) there is a way.

I also hope the cred loss scales depending on the amount of games quit in the previous, say, week. That way if people are ahbitual quitters, they'll lose more and more each time.

 

[SpudBud]

I threw up in my mouth a little when I saw that shoulder armor perm.

.

Anyway, all this stuff sounds great. Bungie FTW.

 

[kylej]

Who is the UI guy at Bungie? He's killing it with Reach. Menus are beautiful.

 

[Major Williams]

What exactly were you hoping for? At least we won't have to rely on a youtube tutorial on how to jump through hoops in a specific order.

I guarantee you'll still have to for certain things. It's the nature of RPG-styled rewards - especially challenging ones.

Look, it appears to me that you still only change the base 4 parts: Helmet, Chest and the 2 shoulder pads. Equipment adds 1 more thing, but has an entirely different purpose. The point remains that we are still changing the same things. I hope we get some more compelling things they throw in there - the Councilor Elite headpiece for one - and that they definitely add support for DLC to be put in there.

When you think about a perk/reward system for a sequel to a great game, you hope against hope that they improve things that were weak or lacking in feature parity with other compelling titles. It's how they get you to keep one disc in your box for a long time, and keep the shelf life prices high. With this cR system, it is a copy and paste of Halo 3 with reward points slapped on top. People who think Halo 3's reward system is up to date and still awesome compared to other first-person RPG styled rewards systems, or even in general, needs their eyes checked and nostalgia left at the door.

I do really think the UI is fantastic and the improvements that they have made are great! It just seems like the bar should have been pushed farther. Maybe leg armor? Different colored HUDs? Cosmetic upgrades to starting weapons? Minor details? Camo patterns of armor? Different battle damaged armor? I had more ideas, but am strapped for time to struggle to remember them. I was just hoping to be wow-ed in similar fashion to everything else, but the content of the rewards system didn't do it for me. The UI and cR idea is wonderful though.

 

[LukeSmith]

Who is the UI guy at Bungie? He's killing it with Reach. Menus are beautiful.

David Candland and Andrew Davis (with special guest star Noah Kaarbo earlier on). Primary Engineers are Brad Fish and Gareth Lough. All of these guys are awesome.

 

[Stinkles]

David Candland and Andrew Davis (with special guest star Noah Kaarbo earlier on). Primary Engineers are Brad Fish and Gareth Lough. All of these guys are awesome.

Except Candland. He is the King of Awesome and he can get you pregnant just by looking at you.

 

[Nutter]

So perhaps I completely overlooked it, but was it explained how the "rank" system works? How do you advance your rank bar?

Hmm. If I am understanding it correctly, as you unlock credits it also advances your rank bar. [along side giving you credits to use]??