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Halo: Reach Beta Thread

N

Not a Jellyfish

but I am a sheep
Captain Blood said:
Halo LANs were the shit but to be honest I don't think I have done more than four Halo 3 LANs since it's release.
Click to expand...

I know, they have lost their appeal now that most people rather just sit on live and play. I just always loved getting friends, TVs, and rinks together for Halo 1 LANs or playing them with entire dorm halls. :D
 
S

Subtervotion

Member
GhaleonEB said:
That's what I thought before Luke filled in some blanks for me yesterday.


So subsequent play, in addition to population shifts changing your relative standing, can affect both intra-Divisional standing and the Division you land in. Which makes sense: you don't want the first three Daily Ratings to define what Division you're in. It should be a comprehensive rating based on entire Season.

Read this post:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=21004772&postcount=5236

I said every game counts for TrueSkill, but only Daily Ratings - top three games on each qualifying day - affect Divisional standing. Luke corrected me to say every game affects your Division. Which breaks my understanding of how the model works completely.
Click to expand...

Thats what I'm saying. Every game affects your division because if you go down in truskill, a 1700 won't carry as much weight as it did when you were a lvl 50. That's just what I think.
 
C

Calm Killer

In all media, only true fans who consume every book, film, game, or pog collection deserve to know what's going on.
Oozer3993 said:
P.S. Halo 1 on a college dorm LAN was gaming nirvana. Sidewinder CTF was pure bliss.
Click to expand...

This was the greatest thing. YES!! I haven't done 1 Halo 3 lan party. Halo 1 lan parties were amazing. Even halo 2 was fun. Just not the same fun from 3 for me. I am hoping that reach brings back the fun I have lost.
 
C

chess

Member
Mizzou Gaming said:
A bit off the main topic but is there any chance REACH will ship on 2 discs. The campaign on disc 1, multiplayer on disc 2.

I am no expert on compression tech and all that shit. I just call it like I see it, and I see a shit-ton of content coming along with REACH. I am still amazed they got all of HALO 3 on one disc.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt it. MP maps are integrated into campaign spaces so if anything, map wise, it may take up less space. But then add all the new stuff and engine and I'm sure it will mostly fill up ONE disk nicely but no need for 2.
 
F

Falagard

Member
Here's the simplest explanation of Arena that I've found, which comes from Tyson Green:

Every game, you will get a Rating.
E.g., 1340

Every day that you play at least X games (say, 3 games), your best X games will be averaged to give you a Day Rating.
E.g., 1314

Every Season that you get rated in Y days (say, 5 days), you will be assigned to a Division based on your performance across all games in the entire Season.
E.g., Silver Division
Click to expand...

If you read it through carefully, it's fairly simple and matches Ghaleon's flowchart.
 
M

Mo0

Member
So are the divisions shown to you automatically during the season, or is it a semi-ranking thing only shown after the season ends?
 
S

Slightly Live

Dirty tag dodger
Anyone interested in the TV ad should give this a read.

Welcome to Noble Team- UPDATED

Cocop noticed it last night, it's a good analysis of the advert from a fictional point of view written by SixOkay - the former Halo Wapoint Community dude, and he's even updated it now to reflect the extended footage. It's a good read, there's definitely some points in there that I missed the first time I watched.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Falagard said:
Here's the simplest explanation of Arena that I've found, which comes from Tyson Green:

If you read it through carefully, it's fairly simple and matches Ghaleon's flowchart.
Click to expand...
Not quite. The key phrase is: you will be assigned to a Division based on your performance across all games in the entire Season.

So it sounds like Daily Ratings are used only for qualifying for a Division, while all games Divisional standing. I think the importance of the Daily Rating is overstated - it's for qualifying only.
 
L

Louis Wu

Member
Shishka said:
Well done.
Click to expand...
Hmm... I was gonna ask whether TrueSkill was actually divorced from your Division Rankings, as Ghaleon's chart suggests (by "divorced" I mean "doesn't act as a direct input anywhere in the system") - but I guess this means it IS. Weird.

Shake Appeal said:
Ghaleon gets a Gold star!

At least until someone makes a better chart tomorrow and he's downgraded to Silver.
Click to expand...
:lol :lol :lol
 
F

Falagard

Member
Mo0 said:
So are the divisions shown to you automatically during the season, or is it a semi-ranking thing only shown after the season ends?
Click to expand...

You know what division you're in. It tells you as you are first assigned to a division, and (probably) if your division changes based on your performance or the performance of the rest of the population.
 
Lazslo

Lazslo

Member
If this isn't a computer generated spartan suit, I really hope Bungie gets to show it off in their lobby, it looks amazing. The commercial was good, but I bet it gets better once you actually see it on a television.
yclyd.jpg

Sixokay.com said:
He was, for all intents and purposes, already a Spartan before he entered this operating room.
Click to expand...
:lol
 
D

dslgunstar

Banned
urk said:
Only the Arena playlist is ranked.
Click to expand...

What? Arent you guys bringing SOME Of the matchmaking over to Invasion? I dont need the divisions or anything, but I still want to be matched up with similarly skilled players and earn Cr for my performance.

But Natural is right that there are definitely players that take Halo and their skills at the game a little too seriously. It's great to be good at something, but on the list of things I care about being amazing at, a videogame is pretty far down the list.

So Im aiming for the Gold Division :D
 
S

Shake Appeal

Member
Louis Wu said:
Hmm... I was gonna ask whether TrueSkill was actually divorced from your Division Rankings, as Ghaleon's chart suggests (by "divorced" I mean "doesn't act as a direct input anywhere in the system") - but I guess this means it IS. Weird.
Click to expand...
My understanding was that TrueSkill was used to decide matchups but had no bearing on the formula or on the Ratings... at least until the provisional Division rating kicked in, and then you are matched predominantly against people within your Division? But is TrueSkill reset every Season, along with everything else?

I'm sure all will become clear once we've spent the next few weeks in Preseason.
 
Genesis Knight

Genesis Knight

Member
What? Arent you guys bringing SOME Of the matchmaking over to Invasion? I dont need the divisions or anything, but I still want to be matched up with similarly skilled players and earn Cr for my performance.
Click to expand...

Ranked != Trueskill. All the non-Arena playlists will still be based of TrueSkill to some extent. Amiright?
 
S

Shake Appeal

Member
dslgunstar said:
What? Arent you guys bringing SOME Of the matchmaking over to Invasion? I dont need the divisions or anything, but I still want to be matched up with similarly skilled players and earn Cr for my performance.
Click to expand...
TrueSkill still works in the background to some extent in all playlists, but players can't access or see it.

You will also earn cR and level up your military rank (rank, not "ranking") across all playlists and gametypes, and even through playing campaign.

But only Arena has visible, comparable rankings for players to bitch and brag about.
 
F

Falagard

Member
GhaleonEB said:
Not quite. The key phrase is: you will be assigned to a Division based on your performance across all games in the entire Season.

So it sounds like Daily Ratings are used only for qualifying for a Division, while all games affect that standing. I think the importance of the Daily Rating is overstated - it's for qualifying only.
Click to expand...

Ah, so if what Tyson (and Luke) said then the part in your flow chart where it says "All Daily Ratings" would read "All games this season".

I wonder what's the point of your Daily Rating after you've qualified for a Division? Seems like it'd just be fluff.
 
D

Doodis

Member
Captain Blood said:
Halo LANs were the shit but to be honest I don't think I have done more than four Halo 3 LANs since it's release.
Click to expand...
I have a group of buddies that has a bi-annual Halo 3 LAN party. Sure, we could all play each other via Live, but it's good times to "spawn on our bros real-life style" in the same house stuffing our faces with a smorgasbord of junk food.
 
The Wise Old Man

The Wise Old Man

Member
BTW, with the exception of the Spartan III armor shot, that Reach commercial is pure garbage. Ever since Gears of War, ad companies have apparently decided that moody emo commercials that don't explain much of anything are perfect for selling games. Nobody wants somber. We want a balls-out goddamned apocalypse in "Reach." Screw the artsy crap and give me some good bombast. What a waste of a 30 second tv spot.
 
S

Sai-kun

Banned
The Wise Old Man said:
BTW, with the exception of the Spartan III armor shot, that Reach commercial is pure garbage. Ever since Gears of War, ad companies have apparently decided that moody emo commercials that don't explain much of anything are perfect for selling games. Nobody wants somber. We want a balls-out goddamned apocalypse in "Reach." Screw the artsy crap and give me some good bombast. What a waste of a 30 second tv spot.
Click to expand...

You know this is only the first part of the campaign, right?
 
F

Falagard

Member
The Wise Old Man said:
BTW, with the exception of the Spartan III armor shot, that Reach commercial is pure garbage. Ever since Gears of War, ad companies have apparently decided that moody emo commercials that don't explain much of anything are perfect for selling games. Nobody wants somber. We want a balls-out goddamned apocalypse in "Reach." Screw the artsy crap and give me some good bombast. What a waste of a 30 second tv spot.
Click to expand...

It's a teaser commercial for a larger ad campaign that coincides with a beta launch for a game that isn't releasing for another 5 months.
 
B

bobs...onGaf

Member
The Wise Old Man said:
BTW, with the exception of the Spartan III armor shot, that Reach commercial is pure garbage. Ever since Gears of War, ad companies have apparently decided that moody emo commercials that don't explain much of anything are perfect for selling games. Nobody wants somber. We want a balls-out goddamned apocalypse in "Reach." Screw the artsy crap and give me some good bombast. What a waste of a 30 second tv spot.
Click to expand...

U DNT SPEAK FOR ME NOOB!

I disagree, im loving the attention to detail to the books and quite honestly prefer the artsy stuff to just seeing explosions and crap. This advert was underwheling but was full of nice subtle references. I cant wait for the rest which should hopefully deliver on the promise.
 
S

squidhands

Member
Falagard said:
Ah, so if what Tyson (and Luke) said then the part in your flow chart where it says "All Daily Ratings" would read "All games this season".

I wonder what's the point of your Daily Rating after you've qualified for a Division? Seems like it'd just be fluff.
Click to expand...
Doesn't that further determine your standing (percentile) in a particular Division?
 
D

dslgunstar

Banned
The Wise Old Man said:
BTW, with the exception of the Spartan III armor shot, that Reach commercial is pure garbage. Ever since Gears of War, ad companies have apparently decided that moody emo commercials that don't explain much of anything are perfect for selling games. Nobody wants somber. We want a balls-out goddamned apocalypse in "Reach." Screw the artsy crap and give me some good bombast. What a waste of a 30 second tv spot.
Click to expand...

Well, quite frankly if these moody commercials were pulled off as well as the 'Mad World' Gears of War commercial, nobody would be complaining.
 
H

Hydranockz

Member
Time to find those damned audio logs. Haven't played ODST in months! I have to get used to actually being able to see things in the dark now :p Loading does take its time eh? haha
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Falagard said:
Ah, so if what Tyson (and Luke) said then the part in your flow chart where it says "All Daily Ratings" would read "All games this season".

I wonder what's the point of your Daily Rating after you've qualified for a Division? Seems like it'd just be fluff.
Click to expand...
That's what I'm thinking.

Revised (more complex) model:

http://i40.tinypic.com/fz98wx.jpg

If the above is correct, then the Daily Ratings are a needless complexity. If the Divisional standing is based on all games played in a Season, and you need to play X games to qualify for a Division, then there is no need to force those games to be clustered into Daily Ratings. Simply requiring (for instance) 10 games to be played in a Season in order to qualify for a Division would suffice. Because as is, once you qualify for a Division, there is no utility to the model for any subsequent Daily Ratings.

The Daily Rating could still be retained as an added analytic tool, but since it does not affect Divisional standing I don't see the value in having it placed between between games and qualification for Divisional standing. If that aspect of the system could be expanded on - hypothetically in a BWU - it would be neat.

Shorter Ghaleon: right now you need to play nine games in blocks of three per day to qualify for a Division. Why not just make the threshold be nine games, played any time during the Season?
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Schmitty said:
Forget trying to understand the math behind Arena, and just accept that if you play well, you will be ranked high.
Click to expand...

lol why?

I wanna know exactly what I have to do in matches to earn a certain rating. It's important to know this, not just for us but for Bungie too. We have to try to break the shit out of that formula in the beta to make sure it's good to go in the final release.
 
The Wise Old Man

The Wise Old Man

Member
dslgunstar said:
Well, quite frankly if these moody commercials were pulled off as well as the 'Mad World' Gears of War commercial, nobody would be complaining.
Click to expand...

Yeah we would--it would be a blatant ripoff. When they ripped themselves off for the Gears 2 trainer the results weren't pretty (remember Cole Train gazing at the flower???)

If you're just going to do something cryptic, leave it viral for now. If you want to pimp the Beta, then just show 30 second quick cuts of in-game crazy multiplayer shit going down. That's what generates interest.
 
B

bobs...onGaf

Member
Tashi0106 said:
lol why?

I wanna know exactly what I have to do in matches to earn a certain rating. It's important to know this, not just for us but for Bungie. We have to try to break the shit out of that formula in the beta to make sure it's good to go in the final release.
Click to expand...

I just hope that releasing the formulae isnt going to lead to a lot of very mechanical play - "oh I have to pick up a power weapon to boost my rating." I hope your rated on stuff like getting multikills which you will get if your good enough but wont effect your playstyle.

The Wise Old Man said:
Yeah we would--it would be a blatant ripoff. When they ripped themselves off for the Gears 2 trainer the results weren't pretty (remember Cole Train gazing at the flower???)

If you're just going to do something cryptic, leave it viral for now. If you want to pimp the Beta, then just show 30 second quick cuts of in-game crazy multiplayer shit going down. That's what generates interest.
Click to expand...

Releasing the Warthog footage from the Giantbomb video would have been a much better as an ad for the beta actually. Your right, that looked amazing and would have got a lot of people interested.
 
C

chapel

Banned
GhaleonEB said:
That's what I'm thinking.

Revised (more complex) model:

http://i40.tinypic.com/fz98wx.jpg

If the above is correct, then the Daily Ratings are a needless complexity. If the Divisional standing is based on all games played in a Season, and you need to play X games to qualify for a Division, then there is no need to force those games to be clustered into Daily Ratings. Simply requiring (for instance) 10 games to be played in a Season in order to qualify for a Division would suffice. Because as is, once you qualify for a Division, there is no utility to the model for any subsequent Daily Ratings.

The Daily Rating could still be retained as an added analytic tool, but since it does not affect Divisional standing I don't see the value in having it placed between between games and qualification for Divisional standing. If that aspect of the system could be expanded on - hypothetically in a BWU - it would be neat.

Shorter Ghaleon: right now you need to play nine games in blocks of three per day to qualify for a Division. Why not just make the threshold be nine games, played any time during the Season?
Click to expand...
Maybe requiring play on three different days is to have a broader sample of games to base the ratings off of. If you are on a streak, with a good team, or just bad opponents, and you rock out 9 games in a row, that isn't as qualified as 3 games each day over 3 days. More things to affect your play, and further qualify you as a skilled (or not) player.


OuterWorldVoice said:
Onyx Chart
Click to expand...
Looks like I am Onyx bound!
 
H

Hydranockz

Member
Hmm, I seem to have a mental block when it comes to wanting to play through the streets of Mombasa. The other ODST's missions are alll grand. I'll be honest, I just get freaked out :p I can't play it alone anyway haha. Same thing when I play Halo 2 and when you go through Hotel Zanzibar. Freaks the bejesus outta me. I blame Marty too! Those eery strings!

I wonder if we will see night variants of the multiplayer areas. Darker than Blackout like. Backwash remake? :p
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
bobs99 ... said:
I just hope that releasing the formulae isnt going to lead to a lot of very mechanical play - "oh I have to pick up a power weapon to boost my rating." I hope your rated on stuff like getting multikills which you will get if your good enough but wont effect your playstyle.
Click to expand...

We'll see. I think that's something that Bungie has already taken into account. Maybe getting a kill with a default gun has more weighting than getting one with a power weapon. Maybe sniper headshots have more weighting than normal body shot sniper kills.
 
The Wise Old Man

The Wise Old Man

Member
bobs99 ... said:
Releasing the Warthog footage from the Giantbomb video would have been a much better as an ad for the beta actually. Your right, that looked amazing and would have got a lot of people interested.
Click to expand...

Either way, I'm ridiculously pumped for the Beta and the game's eventual release (being a hopeless geek, I have the Legendary Edition paid off in full). It just makes no sense to me not to publicize the Beta footage in a tv commercial if the ad itself makes a point of referring to it.

Another thought while I'm giving Bungie my two cents: expand the scope of the single player. I agree that the "15 seconds of fun" formula works, but I think this approach has limited Bungie to scripting small engagements against 10-20 AI enemies at once.

And yes that's enjoyable, but if they're going to do the Fall of Reach story any justice, they need to script hundreds of bad guys onscreen simultaneously. Pull the camera back a bit and show us something epic. Like 200 suicide grunts charging over a hill wielding plasma grenades. You take one down and watch the glorious explosions occur. Moments like that would be terrific fun.
 
H

Hydranockz

Member
Tashi0106 said:
We'll see. I think that's something that Bungie has already taken into account. Maybe getting a kill with a default gun has more weighting than getting one with a power weapon. Maybe sniper headshots have more weighting than normal body shot sniper kills.
Click to expand...
I wonder if anyone is curious enough to test a few cases during the beta. What affect would zeroes have on your skill? Say I went in, didn't kill, didn't die, yet the team won? :p Would I get anything I wonder?
 
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