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[The Librarian]

Re: matchmaking times in Halo 3. While it's pretty bearable because I love Halo so much, I'd love to see a decrease in the amount of time it takes to find a game.

 

[Kuroyume]

The matchmaking times in Halo Reach will be doubled since people love Halo 3 so much. Look at how many people still play it.

 

[electricpirate]

Matchmaking is a billion times better than server browsers, but that doesn't excuse Bungie's failures at expressing the customized experience their community has created a satisfactory way.

 

[rar]

You add the HaloGAF list to your Friends List - takes up one slot, and adds 100 people who like to play Halo more than the average player.

Then you add community lists like this from other communities (Tied the Leader, Good Game Network, HBO, whoever) - for each one slot you take up on your Friends List, you add another 100 players to choose from.

The likelihood that you won't be able to pull together a group falls the wider you're willing to spread your net. I play alone a lot of the time - but that's MY choice. There's almost ALWAYS dozens of people to choose from playing Halo on my FL, or my Friends of Friends.

so i have to jump through hoops, cool!

 

[dslgunstar]

Matchmaking is terrible. It's right up there with the current DLC model and episodic gaming as one of the worst things to happen in console gaming over the past decade. It's fine in most games because you're often given a base soldier and have an option of giving that soldier a fairly exstensive combination of weapons that you like, but in Halo Bungie decides all that. Playing AR starts on anything isn't fun at all. Duals is even worse. All this talk of load outs in Reach is good, but I'm remaining cautious. Nothing beats giving gamers all the control. If people want to play Avalanche BRs all the time... Then let them. That's what they want. They don't want to play Duals on Snowbound or Swords on Sandtrap. That is crap. Some of you dudes really overstate the difficulty of dealing with a list. The one hope I have for Reach is that the matchmaking is as good and fast as the one that was in Halo 2.

The problem with that model is that you have people coming in and out of every match. The actual speed of the process isn't any better, how long did it take rooms of 8 to fill in Gears of War, let alone rooms of up to 32.

I guess I'm too laid back to be hurt by the weaknesses of matchmaking. I don't mind getting a map or a mode that's not my favorite, cause I'll probably have fun with it anyway, and there's a good chance the next match will be something I love. Being able to actually choose the next map/mode instead of just vetoing the current one for some mystery selection will help too.

Similar player skill is more important to me than map, [specific] mode or weapon set.

 

[EazyB]

Matchmaking is terrible. It's right up there with the current DLC model and episodic gaming as one of the worst things to happen in console gaming over the past decade. It's fine in most games because you're often given a base soldier and have an option of giving that soldier a fairly exstensive combination of weapons that you like, but in Halo Bungie decides all that. Playing AR starts on anything isn't fun at all. Duals is even worse. All this talk of load outs in Reach is good, but I'm remaining cautious. Nothing beats giving gamers all the control. If people want to play Avalanche BRs all the time... Then let them. That's what they want. They don't want to play Duals on Snowbound or Swords on Sandtrap. That is crap. Some of you dudes really overstate the difficulty of dealing with a list. The one hope I have for Reach is that the matchmaking is as good and fast as the one that was in Halo 2.

While I agree that it's less frustrating to jump into MM in a game like CoD where there are only about 5 different gametype variations and the pallet of starting weapons is constant across all modes, I think Reach will be better than Halo 3 in this regard. First and most importantly the veto system is revamped to offer 3 clear options and 1 random one so you won't veto ARs on gaurdian not knowing you'll get rockets on snowbound. I still wish they'd hide the votes as that'd make it a perfect veto system. Secondly we'll now have some options as to what we'll spawn with, Dream Crusher made it sound like there wasn't a very big variety of weapon loadouts and I doubt you'll be able to spawn with a DMR and pistol if you wanted to but at the very least the Reach magnum will be better than the god-awful shit we put up with in Halo 3 AR-starts.

Things I don't like about server lists:
1) when you have a full party and you all want to be on the same team, you create a room and whenever someone joins they see 5 people on one team and 0 on the other and back out immediately. Oftentimes it makes waiting for matches take even longer than it would had you gone through MM.

2) 1000 rooms on map A and 0 on the rest. The most recent game I've played with server lists is RS:V and every single server just played the casino map over and over again. I don't care if it's the best map, oftentimes playing 3 worse maps (not bad maps) between every game on your favorite map makes the entire experience more fun.

Matchmaking is a billion times better than server browsers, but that doesn't excuse Bungie's failures at expressing the customized experience their community has created a satisfactory way.

Yup, when Bungie chooses to implement MM they take on a huge responsibility. They're responsible for making sure that players can hop in and MM will find something that tailors to their desired experience and provides the large variety of customized maps and gametypes users would want to play had the game used server lists. Halo 3 does an abysmal job at this. Like I said above, Reach will be undoubtedly better just from the new system in place, regardless of what garbage gets spawned to tailor to Joe AR and his frat buddies.

 

[Neverender]

so i have to jump through hoops, cool!

It's pretty fucking simple, dude. Yes, it's exterior to the game itself but don't pretend you have to 'jump through hoops' to do it.

 

[Slightly Live]

I don't care if it's the best map, oftentimes playing 3 worse maps (not bad maps) between every game on your favorite map makes the entire experience more fun.

You've hit the nail on head, dude.

Whenever I hop on TF2, I usually jump servers a lot due to fact that I like some variety, even if it means I play on maps I don't blindly adore.

 

[vhfive]

fuck the haters.
go play pc games if you don't like it.

 

[Hydranockz]

Matchmaking is terrible. It's right up there with the current DLC model and episodic gaming as one of the worst things to happen in console gaming over the past decade. It's fine in most games because you're often given a base soldier and have an option of giving that soldier a fairly exstensive combination of weapons that you like, but in Halo Bungie decides all that. Playing AR starts on anything isn't fun at all. Duals is even worse. All this talk of load outs in Reach is good, but I'm remaining cautious. Nothing beats giving gamers all the control. If people want to play Avalanche BRs all the time... Then let them. That's what they want. They don't want to play Duals on Snowbound or Swords on Sandtrap. That is crap. Some of you dudes really overstate the difficulty of dealing with a list. The one hope I have for Reach is that the matchmaking is as good and fast as the one that was in Halo 2.

And that would lead to people only playing Avalanche.



Here we go, a Hydranockz Anology;
It's like going to a chinese every week and always getting a Sweet & Sour Chicken with fried rice. Damn right that is one awesome dish and why would you have it any other way? Me? I just want good food. So I tell the Chef to give me something good. Sometimes he will give me a crap dish, other times you realise you love it a lot more than the chicken. The chef doesn't leave it up to the customers to add the dish they want on the menu, because all that you would see is S&S chicken etc etc.

In Halo terms;

Spoiler

MM makes me play on maps I wouldn't usually want to play on, using weapons I would rather not use but I'd be damned if I said I wasn't getting my money's worth. I've had some fantastic matches on MM. If I had the choice, it'd be Avalanche all the way, with BR spawns, and to be quite honest, I am quite happy not having to scroll through a list of many servers that are all on that map. Choice is all well and good, but Bungie knows what they are doing

 

[Apath]

So terrible that millions of player constantly go back to the experience time after time, year after year. Yep, you're right.

You may not like it, but try staying away from making blanket statements that clearly not everyone shares.

I think that is more of a testament to Halo 3's fantastic gameplay and feature set, rather than matchmaking itself.

The matchmaking in Halo 3 sucks. I sometimes sit there for 5 minutes waiting for a game, only for it to be full of a bunch of red bars. Other times I get matched up instantly with perfect connection. Sometimes I wish it were like COD where I can count on joining a game instantly, even if it's already in progress or the teams are imbalanced ;_;

 

[big ander]

so i have to jump through hoops, cool!

I have to walk over and turn my xbox on to play Halo? Nice hoops, bungle/MS! Fuck it, I'll go play CS.

 

[Hydranockz]

so i have to jump through hoops, cool!

Didn't you say Bungie were lazy?

 

[Kapura]

Matchmaking is terrible. It's right up there with the current DLC model and episodic gaming as one of the worst things to happen in console gaming over the past decade. It's fine in most games because you're often given a base soldier and have an option of giving that soldier a fairly exstensive combination of weapons that you like, but in Halo Bungie decides all that. Playing AR starts on anything isn't fun at all. Duals is even worse. All this talk of load outs in Reach is good, but I'm remaining cautious. Nothing beats giving gamers all the control. If people want to play Avalanche BRs all the time... Then let them. That's what they want. They don't want to play Duals on Snowbound or Swords on Sandtrap. That is crap. Some of you dudes really overstate the difficulty of dealing with a list. The one hope I have for Reach is that the matchmaking is as good and fast as the one that was in Halo 2.

You're making Froman's sausage cry. He worked soooo hard.

You seem to be hating a lot on the weapon set, which has less to do with matchmaking and more to do with how Bungie intended the game to be played. I'm sure they would admit there are some mistakes in the shipped defaults, but overall it is a supremely well tuned and balanced weapon set compared to those in other games. Bungie had a few weapon placement errors that were corrected after ship, but they never had to say, release a patch because a weapon or loadout was highly overpowered (*shakes fist at 1887's*).

In an unrelated note, I'm wishing that Custom Weapon Loadout Options (henceforth called "weapon sets") will be separate from the Custom Gametype and Custom Map options. There are already like a bazillion dials and knobs to tweak in the Custom Game Settings, we don't need to further complicate that with a variable number of slots for weapons that at the bare minimum will probably contain primary, secondary, grenades, and AA. Maybe weapons on map, but probably not.

Separating weapons sets and gametypes would also allow for easier prototyping of custom content. Say you want people to be forced to spawn with the DMR to test how the sight lines work in the map. You could go into the gametype and change every weapon to the DMR for the weapon set (I'm guessing the GAF players though will all have the DMR on every loadout standard, though), or you could keep the same gametype open but switch the weapon set from "Fair and Balanced" (AR/Pistol Starts) to "reDeeMeR." You could then have your favourite weapon set for any gametype, from Flag to Slayer without having to delve through the nested menus or saving an individual copy of each gametype (n00b CTF, n00b TS, CTF DMR, Deemer Slayer). Too late now to put it in, I'm sure, but I think that weapons would be a nice segment to dissociate the people angry at the starts from the people angry at the gametype.

 

[Gui_PT]

I have to walk over and turn my xbox on to play Halo? Nice hoops, bungle/MS! Fuck it, I'll go play CS.

You have to turn on your computer and log into your valve account

 

[big ander]

You have to turn on your computer and log into your valve account

/death

 

[Striker]

I think that is more of a testament to Halo 3's fantastic gameplay and feature set, rather than matchmaking itself.

The matchmaking in Halo 3 sucks. I sometimes sit there for 5 minutes waiting for a game, only for it to be full of a bunch of red bars. Other times I get matched up instantly with perfect connection. Sometimes I wish it were like COD where I can count on joining a game instantly, even if it's already in progress or the teams are imbalanced ;_;

I would hate joining a game in progress, especially if the teams were unbalanced. BC2 also does this, and it is an extremely team oriented game. My qualms with that is notably the poor players who worry about their K/D rather than the objective itself. If I were to join a game already in progress, I rather it be a custom game being launched from a custom game browser. Because in that situation, I'm not going to be penalized with a loss, or if I were to quit out (and you know damn well people would once they're down a bit; hell, this happens now in Halo 3 with Slayer and Flag).

The "If its so bad, why do people still play it so much" theory is so bunk. Reminds me of the joke, or lack thereof, when Halo 3 would get #1 in the Live Activity charts and the playlists would be the word of praise.

 

[Hydranockz]

You have to turn on your computer and log into your valve account

Gui... sometimes I forget that gif is animated and it freaks me out

Kapura. Nicely said.

 

[Captain Blood]

Speaking of maps I wonder how they are going to shoehorn The Pit into Reach's campaign so we can have it in multiplayer

 

[Hydranockz]

Speaking of maps I wonder how they are going to shoehorn The Pit into Reach's campaign so we can have it in multiplayer

Prologue/Training sequence? :3

 

[Slightly Live]

Speaking of maps I wonder how they are going to shoehorn The Pit into Reach's campaign so we can have it in multiplayer

It had better be in there. I don't care how, it just needs to be in there.

 

[Spasm]

And that would lead to people only playing Avalanche.

I've been guilty of pissing and moaning that I don't get to play Avalanche, my favorite map, enough. Then I loaded up H3Ostats.

Quite the eye-opener.

 

[Thermite]

Speaking of maps I wonder how they are going to shoehorn Headlong into Reach's campaign so we can have it in multiplayer

Fixed.

Spoiler

A man can dream, right? ;(

 

[Hydranockz]

Fixed.

Spoiler

A man can dream, right? ;(

Well yeah actually. I think the vertical spaces in that level would really work with the jetpack and whatnot.

 

[Captain Blood]

Well yeah actually. I think the vertical spaces in that level would really work with the jetpack and whatnot.

And The Pit wouldn't??

Spoiler

That is right I don't plan on letting the Boba Fett playlist go anytime soon.

 

[PedroLumpy]

Yeah, screw that guy!

Alright... So yeah I think that quote attributed to you is bullshit.

 

[Oozer3993]

And The Pit wouldn't??

Spoiler

That is right I don't plan on letting the Boba Fett playlist go anytime soon.

They should include a Boba Fett helmet for your Spartan to sport on the battlefield.

 

[Apath]

I would hate joining a game in progress, especially if the teams were unbalanced. BC2 also does this, and it is an extremely team oriented game. My qualms with that is notably the poor players who worry about their K/D rather than the objective itself. If I were to join a game already in progress, I rather it be a custom game being launched from a custom game browser. Because in that situation, I'm not going to be penalized with a loss, or if I were to quit out (and you know damn well people would once they're down a bit; hell, this happens now in Halo 3 with Slayer and Flag).

The "If its so bad, why do people still play it so much" theory is so bunk. Reminds me of the joke, or lack thereof, when Halo 3 would get #1 in the Live Activity charts and the playlists would be the word of praise.

I agree. I'm just sayin' that sometimes when I'm waiting around 5 minutes to get into a game, I start wishing it were like COD.

 

[Tashi]

Speaking of maps I wonder how they are going to shoehorn The Pit, Midship and Narrows into Reach's campaign so we can have it in multiplayer

Fixed


Also, L-O fucking L at Matchmaking being "terrible".

 

[feel]

Finally ManCannon will be visible outside of quotes.

Achronos showing up = LOL



Btw, no update today?

 

[PedroLumpy]

Things I don't like about server lists:
1) when you have a full party and you all want to be on the same team, you create a room and whenever someone joins they see 5 people on one team and 0 on the other and back out immediately. Oftentimes it makes waiting for matches take even longer than it would had you gone through MM.

It always seemed logical to me that a blended MM/server list system would have groups go into the matchmaking system, so that prefab teams would be match against each other, while loners would go into server list to choose exactly what they want to play.

If people don't want to fight a prefab team, that's not really a fault of server lists.

 

[Devin Olsen]

Btw, no update today?

Sounds like there will be one...

I only found out today that Good Friday isn't recognized as a Stat holiday in America (I think?)... I always just assumed it was.

 

[EazyB]

Sounds like there will be one...

I only found out today that Good Friday isn't recognized as a Stat holiday in America (I think?)... I always just assumed it was.

What the fuck's a Good Friday? Every Friday seems pretty damn good to me.

edit: oh, religion. lol

It always seemed logical to me that a blended MM/server list system would have groups go into the matchmaking system, so that prefab teams would be match against each other, while loners would go into server list to choose exactly what they want to play.

If people don't want to fight a prefab team, that's not really a fault of server lists.

What?

 

[Not a Jellyfish]

Sounds like there will be one...

I only found out today that Good Friday isn't recognized as a Stat holiday in America (I think?)... I always just assumed it was.

Yeah I realized this when I hit college and I no longer was given the day off from classes for it, always had the day off in school up until that point.

 

[PedroLumpy]

What?

What what? Just hypothetical of course.

 

[InvincibleAgent]

Some countries will create a holiday for anything :lol

 

[vhfive]

They should include a Boba Fett helmet for your Spartan to sport on the battlefield.

that would be so fucking badass

Some countries will create a holiday for anything :lol

facepalm.gif

Spoiler

i really hope you don't think good friday is a holiday made up by some country

 

[Popeck]

Some countries will create a holiday for anything :lol

In Finland, mostly for getting drunk with different excuses. And Good Friday is called "Long Friday". Yeah, this has nothing to with Halo.

Spoiler

Yay, it's April already, the month in which I get to play Halo: Reach!

 

[InvincibleAgent]

that would be so fucking badass

Or how about a Rocketeer helmet :lol

 

[big ander]

In Finland, mostly for getting drunk with different excuses. And Good Friday is called "Long Friday". Yeah, this has nothing to with Halo.

Spoiler

Yay, it's April already, the month in which I get to play Halo: Reach!

WhatHowWhereWhen

They should include a Boba Fett helmet for your Spartan to sport on the battlefield.

More like Jango Fett am I right

 

[Hydranockz]

Spoiler

Yay, it's April already, the month in which I get to play Halo: Reach!

Less than 30 days

 

[feel]

Spoiler

Yay, it's April already, the month in which I get to play Halo: Reach!

Spoiler

beta starts May 3rd

 

[DeadFalling]

Yeah I realized this when I hit college and I no longer was given the day off from classes for it, always had the day off in school up until that point.

I didn't get any time off for the day UNTIL college. :lol Thursday AND Friday at that!

 

[The Librarian]

Spoiler

beta starts May 3rd

F&F most likely. Popeck gets all the good stuff early.

 

[zumphry]

Anyone up for matchmaking? :/

 

[Devin Olsen]

It's Up!

 

[Kibbles]

Oooo one meaty update. Scrolled through, <3 urk for providing us with things like the loadouts. Reading now.

 

[big ander]

It's Up!

Reading now, thanks for the link Sage-Devin.

Edit:
Good update, really clears up a lot of the things we've had questions about these past few days. Loadouts sound more and more perfect the more you guys talk about them.
Thanks Urk!

 

[Nutter]

By the gods YES, FUCKING YES.. A DMR load out.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

So its been confirmed that you cant change armour abilities on the fly, your stuck with what you spawn with. Im not sure I like that, I guess I will have to spawn with the Jetpack and find a DMR on the map based on the few examples Bungie showed :lol

For others, it might mean that as the game goes on, you’ll have access to more and more choices based on a number of factors we can fiddle with.

Interesting...