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[AltogetherAndrews]

Out of curiousity, why the love for Reach when you have been so harsh on past Halo games? Are the core mechanics that much different?

This feels like Halo. Not like Halo 2, Halo 3 or ODST, but Halo. Big alien world, lots of alienkilling and such, neat weapons and the story has been kept in check (so far).

 

[Trasher]

I can't believe I'm in the top ~3% as a captain grade 3. I dunno what to think about that :/

Also, the weekly update says you face four Hunters on Legendary Nightfall. This isn't true - you still only face 2.

Edit: Aren't both Blame Stosh videos from GAF?

Remember that the stats from that graph are from almost a week ago. October 2nd to be exact.

 

[Sill4]

This feels like Halo. Not like Halo 2, Halo 3 or ODST, but Halo. Big alien world, lots of alienkilling and such, neat weapons and the story has been kept in check (so far).

Agreed. I love all the games, but Reach really trimmed the fat and modernized what made the first game so much fun.

Speaking in terms of single player, btw.

 

[GDJustin]

Re: Map testing -

Bungie should just put up a "testing" playlist. Give people a pop-up message (Arena proves they can do this) that says that these are maps bungie is CONSIDERING for proper matchmaking. That they might be unbalanced, or have bugs, etc. And that people could get any gametype - 2v2 snipers, or Invasion, etc.

Then they can use that data to examine maps.

 

[Photolysis]

Ok, so why is there a level cap in the first place?
Luke: “There’s a level cap in place for a number of reasons.
First, security: We’ve seen a bunch of games come and go where investment systems got exploited and broken early, completely throwing off the game economy (even though Reach progression is aesthetic only, it’s still important to us to preserve the ecosystem to the best of our ability) so one reason was certainly security. To use a hyperbolic example: If it turned out that teabagging players was giving mountains of Credits (try it, it gives nothing!), we’d have a failsafe in place to make a fix and continue the progression path

This is a crock of shit. At pointed out, it's irrelevant in terms of gameplay. Secondly, THERE IS NO ECOSYSTEM. There's no economy. There's no transactions. There's no trading with other players. All you do is fill up a number, and once you do you unlock stuff exclusively for you. You are the sole earner, producer, and spender. This does not make an economy.

Thirdly, Bungie already have enough tools to deal with exploits. You didn't save the world from a meltdown with a cap when people were resetting challenges. Wow, so some cheating punk didn't get a gold visor before he was reset, thank fucking god for that.

Second: We had some ideas on cool ways to lift it via communal effort.”

Translation: grind even more before we give you permission to make those trivial changes.

if I were a betting man I’d say that the current cap will be lifted in the next month or two, give or take.

What? At that rate I'll instantly hit General. I'm already about 25K off Colonel.

So let's just clarify here.

You have a player investment system that offers trivial rewards and involves more playtime for them than the most grind-tastic MMO game out there, for cosmetic rewards you can see for minutes of the hours of gameplay, and you then force the players who rank up faster to wait for arbitrary community goals to be achieved and sit at an entirely meaningless rank cap?

What was all that fuss about allowing players to catch up then if credits roll over?

And in the meantime, you've essentially ruined all the work Lars and co did on Firefight by completely discouraging the mode (lack of credits + commendations), and manage to screw people over who want to try Halo online for a weekend by permanently locking them from gaining new armour.

How the hell did this even make it past the first design meeting again?

 

[Hugbot]

Re: Map testing -

Bungie should just put up a "testing" playlist. Give people a pop-up message (Arena proves they can do this) that says that these are maps bungie is CONSIDERING for proper matchmaking. That they might be unbalanced, or have bugs, etc. And that people could get any gametype - 2v2 snipers, or Invasion, etc.

Then they can use that data to examine maps.

That's what they're doing with the FW playlist, no? Unless you mean a playlist for candidates for that, but I'd think the process of allowing the maps to be vetted initially in the forging communities before adding them to that hopper would be fine.


Edit:

This is a crock of shit.

Not to mention the reason he gives - having a failsafe - is absolutely wrong since you earn past the cap anyway. If there were to be a loophole found it would be no different with the soft cap in place.

 

[electricpirate]

Isn't that Bob99s clip in the Weekly update?

 

[cuevas. PhD.]

Wooh my request made it on the BWU!

 

[electricpirate]

This game is a joke.

Without a title update its going to die fast.

And I'm a huge Halo fanboy

People make this claim at the release of each Halo title.

And it's always wrong.

 

[Glowingmonx]

Isn't that Bob99s clip in the Weekly update?

It is, he mentioned it earlier ;p .
Great clip

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Over 17% of players have earned “Heat in the Pipe” by scoring 1,000,000 points in a Firefight game. Estimated percentage of those who did it WITHOUT “cheesing” (making a custom gametype with infinite ammo, unlimited shields, etc…) = .0001%.

I couldn't help but laugh for two reasons. 1st the wording of it is just funny. 2nd I'm guilty as charged and won't deny it.

 

[Shake Appeal]

The second I read 'next month or two' for the level cap release I dumped 100K on the black visor. No longer need to worry about keeping some cR aside for the Commando armour. :lol

 

[Tashi]

MLG Customs!!!

http://www.justin.tv/washington_ferret#/w/451527984

 

[cuevas. PhD.]

People make this claim at the release of each Halo title.

And it's always wrong.

there is so much variety in every halo it makes it a very hard game to die.

 

[Trasher]

MLG Campers!!!

http://www.justin.tv/washington_ferret#/w/451527984

Corrected that spelling error for you, bro.

 

[Sean P.]

But could you explain why you think that about MP?

Yea I will when I get home I posted that right before I went to class

 

[Popeck]

We had a pretty awesome moment yesterday in a Zealot slayer game. I got face to face with an enemy, we fired some shots and I got the upper hand. He engaged armor lock and two of my friends came to help. We three stood there watching and waiting for him to unclock. Then he did - no, he died! He quit! We bursted laughing out loud. A wonderful moment, and a great victory for all armor lock haters around the world. Sadly we didn't save the film, something I really should start to do more often.

 

[Tashi]

Corrected that spelling error for you, bro.

lol thanks bro

 

[Lothars]

We had a pretty awesome moment yesterday in a Zealot slayer game. I got face to face with an enemy, we fired some shots and I got the upper hand. He engaged armor lock and two of my friends came to help. We three stood there watching and waiting for him to unclock. Then he did - no, he died! He quit! We bursted laughing out loud. A wonderful moment, and a great victory for all armor lock haters around the world. Sadly we didn't save the film, something I really should start to do more often.

It sucks he quit but Armor lock is fantastic and I hope they don't really nerf it because there's still lot's of way to stop someone using it but Its a great experience to user armor lock get a rejection and have a teammates come and back you up.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Nice update: stats, some previews, some teases and a couple of hilarious videos. Very eager to see the Firefight updates from LarzyB next week and the scope of the mid-month update.

Gee I wonder why only 5% have beaten the game on Legendary solo.

I've only done two levels and I have to be honest, I'm not looking forward to the rest. =(

I've done the first two, and it's Nightfall that's holding me back from going further. I haven't started it because I keep thinking about the Hunter encounter, and the invisible Elites with the bacon wave. Most of the rest of the levels I think I'll be okay on.

But I will perservere. This weekend's to-do list:

• Finish the co-op Legendary romp.
  
• Sketch out the ideas for my next map.
  
• Clear Nightfall on solo Legendary.
  
• Do a lot of writing.

I should probably interact with my family at some point as well.

 

[Neuromancer]

Gee I wonder why only 5% have beaten the game on Legendary solo.

I've only done two levels and I have to be honest, I'm not looking forward to the rest. =(

 

[bobs...onGaf]

Isn't that Bob99s clip in the Weekly update?

Hey yeah, thats really cool of them, thanks Bungie people (especially Stosh)! The comments on the Youtube side of it are hilarious, im going to have a big head reading some of that stuff, I didnt do anything that special though. The dudes claiming to be the driver are funny as hell. Im pretty sure the other video in the WWU is from a Gaffer aswell, I remember seeing that on here before.

Nice update, I love seeing stats on achievment completion and stuff. I will say that the player chart chart is a bit skewed, because once people get over the Warrant office grind they will probably shoot upto the higher ranks really quickly. Im guessing the cap will be lifted once a certain percentage of the population reaches Captain?

(I also wonder what the community effort will be to actually lift the cap)

 

[vhfive]

the problem is that when I hit the cap (I'm at lt. colonel right now) I'm not going to want to play anymore. I'm already not doing challenges on purpose because the whole point of getting creds is seeing your bar fill up and unlocking new shit. When the cap lifts and I all of a sudden skip past multiple ranks that sucks because I missed the joy of hitting those ranks myself.

for now I'll just limit my matchmaking time (I love forge) and skip challenges just so I can drag these last couple ranks out as long as possible.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Gee I wonder why only 5% have beaten the game on Legendary solo.

I've only done two levels and I have to be honest, I'm not looking forward to the rest. =(

It's really not that bad. I'm no pro but I only averaged about an hour and a half to two hours per level minus the last level which took me 4 hours.

 

[GDJustin]

Gee I wonder why only 5% have beaten the game on Legendary solo.

I've only done two levels and I have to be honest, I'm not looking forward to the rest. =(

I've done 4/9 and I already can picture what moment(s) will suck in the back half of the campaign, ha. Control room fight on LNoS, Hunters on New Alexandria (will probably cheese them), etc.

To cheer you up, I found Tip of the Spear to be much easier than Oni and Nightfall. It was actually... fun.

 

[Oozer3993]

I can't believe I'm in the top ~3% as a captain grade 3. I dunno what to think about that :/

Also, the weekly update says you face four Hunters on Legendary Nightfall. This isn't true - you still only face 2.

Edit: Aren't both Blame Stosh videos from GAF?

There were 4 when I played it.

 

[Devin Olsen]

This may sound stupid, but tomorrow Daily Achievements are going to be the first ones that I'll be able to complete since October 21st!

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on Reach again, hopefully we can do some GAF Customs on Sunday?

 

[Santiako]

Gee I wonder why only 5% have beaten the game on Legendary solo.

I've only done two levels and I have to be honest, I'm not looking forward to the rest. =(

It's not that hard, a lot of the hardest encounters you can just skip. (Like the hunters on the last level and in the night club or when you have to defend Halsey's lab door).

 

[bobs...onGaf]

the problem is that when I hit the cap (I'm at lt. colonel right now) I'm not going to want to play anymore. I'm already not doing challenges on purpose because the whole point of getting creds is seeing your bar fill up and unlocking new shit. When the cap lifts and I all of a sudden skip past multiple ranks that sucks because I missed the joy of hitting those ranks myself.

for now I'll just limit my matchmaking time (I love forge) and skip challenges just so I can drag these last couple ranks out as long as possible.

Im kind of the opposite, I wanna get as many credits as I can before the cap is lifted just so I can rank up LOADS all at once. :lol

The cap put me off when I thought I was wasting commendations, but right now im kinda fine with it, theres nothing I really want to buy till Colenal anyway I think.

 

[Raide]

This may sound stupid, but tomorrow Daily Achievements are going to be the first ones that I'll be able to complete since October 21st!

I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on Reach again, hopefully we can do some GAF Customs on Sunday?

Sat and Sunday seem to be customs, either for HaloGAF or ForgeGAF.

 

[LukeSmith]

Not to mention the reason he gives - having a failsafe - is absolutely wrong since you earn past the cap anyway. If there were to be a loophole found it would be no different with the soft cap in place.

The progression curve post-cap is a part of a file that gets passed down via networking, so theoretically the military ranks after the cap could have the deltas between them change.

Another reason for this, in the event that player earn rates were off from what we posited - i.e. players earned tons more or tons less than we believed they would in-game - we could've made adjustments to the military ranks beyond the cap.

Interesting feedback, though

 

[GDJustin]

There were 4 when I played it.

Solo? I am 100% certain that only two hunters were dropped off when I did Solo Nightfall Legendary.

Unless the sandbox did something crazy like drop off two of them into the canyon, or something.

 

[Hugbot]

The progression curve post-cap is a part of a file that gets passed down via networking, so theoretically the military ranks after the cap could have the deltas between them change.

Another reason for this, in the event that player earn rates were off from what we posited - i.e. players earned tons more or tons less than we believed they would in-game - we could've made adjustments to the military ranks beyond the cap.

Interesting feedback, though

:lol I finally get what you meant by that. An "adjust the rates people go through the upper ranks" fail-safe, rather than a "plug a leak before too many people abuse it" fail-safe. I'm still against it in general but that's a much more understandable objective.

 

[neoism]

Well, here it is. :lol

Babby's First Cutting Crew!

Rendered in HD because I have nowhere else to spend my minutes. :lol So awesome.

:lol :lol :lol so awesome

 

[The Librarian]

I think whatever Mancannon is referring to that will be revealed next week is Double XP (er, credits).

I guess I should've asked, but I wonder who the next Humpday challenger is.

 

[NH Apache]

I want the EVA helmet so bad I can taste it.

Offtopic: Crazy race war going on in Gaf offtopic. Big shit seems to be happening.

 

[Magni]

Heart Attack bought, I can go to bed now

 

[The Librarian]

the problem is that when I hit the cap (I'm at lt. colonel right now) I'm not going to want to play anymore. I'm already not doing challenges on purpose because the whole point of getting creds is seeing your bar fill up and unlocking new shit. When the cap lifts and I all of a sudden skip past multiple ranks that sucks because I missed the joy of hitting those ranks myself.

for now I'll just limit my matchmaking time (I love forge) and skip challenges just so I can drag these last couple ranks out as long as possible.

You don't play Halo: Reach to have fun?

 

[Photolysis]

Im kind of the opposite, I wanna get as many credits as I can before the cap is lifted just so I can rank up LOADS all at once. :lol

The cap put me off when I thought I was wasting commendations, but right now im kinda fine with it, theres nothing I really want to buy till Colenal anyway I think.

The cap really irritates the hell out of me as everyone around here has probably realised by now.

At the end of the day, I'd just like to get my Spartan looking how I'd like, but because of the rank cap, hidden options, and my own personal preferences on what armour looks the best, I can't, simply because I have the misfortune to prefer a Mark VI over an EVA, or a gold visor over a silver one.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

You don't play Halo: Reach to have fun?

I see what he's saying, the whole satisfaction of seeing the bar fill up and ranking up adds to the experiance for him. Personally I would love to see myself boost up like 5 ranks (I will never get the Cr for that though). :lol

So yeah its kinda phycological, at least the level cap doesnt restrict earnings. Im all for the level cap after reading Lukes explanation, it makes a ton more sense now - I didnt think they could adjust Cr needed per rank for the later ranks.

 

[GDJustin]

You don't play Halo: Reach to have fun?

Didn't you know? We're all playing Halo: Reach to watch bars fill. Same reason I played WoW for 2+ years.

 

[cuevas. PhD.]

Didn't you know? We're all playing Halo: Reach to watch bars fill. Same reason I played WoW for 2+ years.

I played wow for all that armor...oh god...reach...NOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

[Tashi]

I bought Birthday Party

YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Havok]

I've done 4/9 and I already can picture what moment(s) will suck in the back half of the campaign, ha. Control room fight on LNoS, Hunters on New Alexandria (will probably cheese them), etc.

To cheer you up, I found Tip of the Spear to be much easier than Oni and Nightfall. It was actually... fun.

You can stealth kill every single enemy on the LNoS bridge if you time it right and are even halfway decent at stealth. It's not bad at all.

 

[theultimo]

Wow, I am in the top 10 percent in ranking? I blame those addictin dailies :\ Have to try arena though.

 

[MrBig]

I bought Birthday Party

YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a lot of people that have it now. This makes me sad. I can't wait till they all get pestilence and the lightning one so that I'm the only one with it again.

 

[mittelos]

It's not that hard, a lot of the hardest encounters you can just skip. (Like the hunters on the last level and in the night club or when you have to defend Halsey's lab door).

I'm at Halsey's Lab now on legendary solo- what's the best way to get through it?

So far the end of Exodus has been the hardest for me. I'm thinking if you can hijack one of the wraiths, it'd be much easier. I wasn't able to and suffered the consequences. I was dreading a couple spots in New Alexandria but got through them pretty easily. I think it's probably the easiest mission on legendary, along with Winter Contingency.

 

[bobs...onGaf]

The progression curve post-cap is a part of a file that gets passed down via networking, so theoretically the military ranks after the cap could have the deltas between them change.

Another reason for this, in the event that player earn rates were off from what we posited - i.e. players earned tons more or tons less than we believed they would in-game - we could've made adjustments to the military ranks beyond the cap.
Interesting feedback, though

This should get edited into the BWU - a lot of people dont understand the cap and I have seen people whinge about the cap even now. I would be among them if I hadnt read this!

 

[Tashi]

There's a lot of people that have it now. This makes me sad. I can't wait till they all get pestilence and the lightning one so that I'm the only one with it again.

I don't care about that. I just love hearing it...YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

 

[thunker 9000]

I'm at Halsey's Lab now on legendary solo- what's the best way to get through it?

So far the end of Exodus has been the hardest for me. I'm thinking if you can hijack one of the wraiths, it'd be much easier. I wasn't able to and suffered the consequences. I was dreading a couple spots in New Alexandria but got through them pretty easily. I think it's probably the easiest mission on legendary, along with Winter Contingency.

I just jacked a banshee and nuked them from orbit. <3