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Halo: Reach Beta Thread

D

dilatedmuscle

Member
MagniHarvald said:
You've never played a PC game before.

FUCK one hit kills with Objectives. FUCK EM, no fucking skill.
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MagniHarvald said:
Could we please please please see ping numbers? WHY can't we see them? Seriously!
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MagniHarvald said:
FUCK YOU if you're in chat
FUCK YOU if you quit
FUCK YOU if you grenade spam your teammates.

Party Chat better be disabled in the arena..
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MagniHarvald said:
If you're in chat in a team game (I don't care if it's FFA), then I'm giving bad feedback.
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Sounds like you are having a terrible time.
 
D

dslgunstar

Banned
kylej said:
It's not that Sword Base is 'too complicated', it's that it sucks to play in. It has terrible choke points, no flow, no easily identifiable areas, it looks terrible and you're forced to use a specific ability (jetpack) if you want to have a chance. The DMR and pistol suck not because you have to learn how to use them but because they provide zero feedback to the player and the blooming reticule is a worse mechanic than bullet spread. The idea behind spread or reticule bloom is to prevent one weapon from dominating across all gametypes. It doesn't work this way. Instead it creates an element of randomness and uncertainty that cheapens the satisfaction of getting a kill. It stops being a pure 1v1 battle and instead turns into a coin toss to see whether your reticule was .047 milliseconds smaller than the other guy.
Click to expand...

The reticule bloom isn't a new mechanic, its a visual representation of a bullet-spread system that's been in place and iterated upon since Halo 2. They could add the reticule bloom to Halo 2 and Halo 3 and nothing would change, players would just know exactly how precise their shots were at any given time (the bloom would grow with each shot of the BR burst, for example).
 
B

backflip10019

Member
Ugh, I hate hate hate the reticule bloom. What the hell was the point of making the weapons hitscan if they're going to rely, as kylej said, a good amount of the time on what ends up being a coin toss?
 
F

FourDoor

Member
Smokey said:
Correct.

Also, where is the Sniper Rifle on Sword Base? And I agree about the motion blur. Shit gave me a headache and was making my eyes water (or that could of just been tears of joy from what I was playing).
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Sniper Rifle is on the bottom floor in between the 2 columns on one end of the base.
 
G

GodfatherX

Member
Smokey said:
Correct.

Also, where is the Sniper Rifle on Sword Base? And I agree about the motion blur. Shit gave me a headache and was making my eyes water (or that could of just been tears of joy from what I was playing).
Click to expand...
Ground level of the middle of the map between the buoldings, aganst the far wall
 
S

skip

Member
Doodis said:
My first game of CTF on Sword Base, there was no indicator where we were supposed to take our flag to. I wandered around aimlessly with the flag trying to find our "base" to no avail. Finally, a teammate who was escorting me betrayed me and took the flag because he was impatient.

A) Don't use effing party chat with your bros if you have teammates you need to communicate with.

B) After the game, the douchebag admitted he had no idea where to take the flag either. Thanks for killing me, then, dude.
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same thing happened to me on my first Sword Base CTF. I grabbed the flag, then proceeded to run around with it for the entire duration of the round, unable to find where I was supposed to take it. time ran out with the flag in my hands. no indicator (but indicator came back in later CTF matches).
 
A

Apath

Member
S1kkZ said:
only because of that terrible filter. the game would look MUCH better without it.
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How do you disable the filter?

And Bungie needs to fix Invisibility with split screen. It ends up muting both players on the system, which is very annoying.

After a couple of SWAT games I am now MUCH more competent with the pistol and DMR. Both are my weapons of choice, as the AR sucks even at close range.

EDIT: DERP, read that as "the game looks much better without it".
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
dslgunstar said:
The reticule bloom isn't a new mechanic, its a visual representation of a bullet-spread system that's been in place and iterated upon since Halo 2. They could add the reticule bloom to Halo 2 and Halo 3 and nothing would change, players would just know exactly how precise their shots were at any given time (the bloom would grow with each shot of the BR burst, for example).
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Yup. I like having that information displayed, it's empowering.
 
M

Magni

Member
dilatedmuscle said:
Sounds like you are having a terrible time.
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I haven't played a single good game today. Shitty randoms all day long. Shitty shitty shitty. OPed nades aren't helping at all.
 
N

Not a Jellyfish

but I am a sheep
Anyone wanting to party up right now??? Play some Grab Bag or as I like to call it "1 Flag on Powerhouse because people don't realize they can vote to play something else". :D
 
K

kylej

Banned
dslgunstar said:
The reticule bloom isn't a new mechanic, its a visual representation of a bullet-spread system that's been in place and iterated upon since Halo 2. They could add the reticule bloom to Halo 2 and Halo 3 and nothing would change, players would just know exactly how precise their shots were at any given time (the bloom would grow with each shot of the BR burst, for example).
Click to expand...

Oh, the BR becomes more inaccurate the faster you fire it in Halo 2 and 3? No.
 
A

Apath

Member
Not a Jellyfish said:
Anyone wanting to party up right now??? Play some Grab Bag or as I like to call it "1 Flag on Powerhouse because people don't realize they can vote to play something else". :D
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I don't think I've ever played 1-Flag on Powerhouse. It's always Stockpile on Powerhouse and 1-Flag on Sword Base.
 
T

TommyT

Member
Kholdstare said:
Home come my rank sprinkles after some games with stars?


All of the starter ranks remind me of underwear.
4.png
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It means you just ranked up when it shines.
 
N

Not a Jellyfish

but I am a sheep
Kenak said:
I don't think I've ever played 1-Flag on Powerhouse. It's always Stockpile of Powerhouse and 1-Flag on Sword Base.
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Really??? Yesterday and today have played it constantly, starting to feel like Shotty Snipes on High Ground in the H3 beta.
 
T

TommyT

Member
MagniHarvald said:
I haven't played a single good game today. Shitty randoms all day long. Shitty shitty shitty. OPed nades aren't helping at all.
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Not a Jellyfish said:
Anyone wanting to party up right now??? Play some Grab Bag or as I like to call it "1 Flag on Powerhouse because people don't realize they can vote to play something else". :D
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JaggedSac said:
:lol I am right there with ya dude.
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Add TommyTSquared. I'm partied up with Diablohead right now and we're doing ok. Don't forget to add HALOGAFBETA2 if you haven't so can do friends of friends!
 
S

Shake Appeal

Member
I am frankly baffled that anyone could think that reticle bloom, which constantly and immediately updates you with accurate feedback about the pocket of space in which your coming shot will land, is worse than the invisible and entirely opaque "spread" of the BR in Halo 3.

But then I'm pretty sure that once kylej gets good at anticipating and controlling the bloom and starts donging on BKs, as he inevitably will, then he will forget all about his complaints.
 
K

kylej

Banned
Shake Appeal said:
How is something you control with your rate of fire a coin toss?
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Because a gimmick trumps pure aiming skill, which goes against the entire point of competitive multiplayer. Reticule bloom is a creation solely to prevent people who have great aim from pummeling people who are worse than them. It adds nothing to the game except a layer of uncertainty.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Ramirez said:
I feel like some of you just wanted Halo 3.5, which is basically what 3 felt like to me coming from 2. After about 20K games of those games, I was ready for the next step or evolution of the series, this is it. :)
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Personally, few of my issues with Reach (based on just one day of play, which is obviously not enough) have to do with the top level changes. Armor abilities, load outs, the new spawn system, lobby and veto systems, the Active Roster, netcode, new gametypes, new weapons and weapon balance, health and targeting systems....all pretty much peachy from my perspective.

My problem is with the basics: how player movement and weapon feedback feel, the mêlée system, map design (Sword Base), some UI issues. Rather than build up on Halo's core gameplay, they broke some of the basics that weren't broken in any of the previous games. That's a problem.

Still hoping I get used to it over the weekend, and may revise that view. But right now that's how it feels to me.
 
A

Apath

Member
kylej said:
Because a gimmick trumps pure aiming skill, which goes against the entire point of competitive multiplayer. Reticule bloom is a creation solely to prevent people who have great aim from pummeling people who are worse than them. It adds nothing to the game except a layer of uncertainty.
Click to expand...
Or you can just time it so the reticule isn't bloomed when you fire?
 
N

Neverender

Member
Pretty much what kylej says, especially regarding weapon feedback. That was a huge part of Halo 3 that ifeel reach fails at so far. In a 1v1 br duel in halo 3 you could always tell whether you were winning or losing, when you were going to die, when your opponent was going to die. So far in reach I have no idea how many more shots I can take and even less of an idea how much more my opponent can take before he dies. I feel like I've got the upper hand when all of a sudden I die and I have no idea what I did wrong, where in halo 3 I felt it was always clear. Every weapon just feels like I'm shooting the enemy until they die without any clear indicators that I'm doing it right.

Also I wasn't expecting reach to be halo 3.5, I want a differnt game, it just seems like reach is changing some things that halo 3 had very right.
 
B

bobs...onGaf

Member
dslgunstar said:
The reticule bloom isn't a new mechanic, its a visual representation of a bullet-spread system that's been in place and iterated upon since Halo 2. They could add the reticule bloom to Halo 2 and Halo 3 and nothing would change, players would just know exactly how precise their shots were at any given time (the bloom would grow with each shot of the BR burst, for example).
Click to expand...

Even if theres reticule bloom in Halo 3 its a lot less than the bloom in Reach, for all intents and purposes it really is a new mechanic. Reticule bloom in Halo 3 didnt affect the gameplay at all as you could fire as fast as possible and predict where your shots would land with most precision weapons.

Reticule bloom is the WORST thing ever for the pistol in Reach. I noticed that you either have to be slow and steady to land the shots before you run out of bullets or you have to spam the trigger and hope your quicker than the other guy. I dont enjoy it much, its almost luck, I can be VERY methodological with the bloom but if the other guy is lucky he doesnt even have to manage his.

If one player spams bullets as fast as possible and the other is methodological, the spammer can get lucky, adding this element of luck isnt a good thing.
 
N

Not a Jellyfish

but I am a sheep
TommyT said:
Add TommyTSquared. I'm partied up with Diablohead right now and we're doing ok. Don't forget to add HALOGAFBETA2 if you haven't so can do friends of friends!
Click to expand...

FR sent, have HALOGAFBETA and HALOGAFBETA2 was sending invites last night but no too many people responded. :/
 
D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
I'm not going to post huge impressions unless someone actually wants to read it, but I am liking the beta so far, but there are improvements to be made.

Dislikes:
Grenade damage
DMR feels like I am shooting an Airsoft rifle
The unused portion of Powerhouse - The entire back portion of the map behind the ridges isn't used at all. Love the map, but need to use more of it.
Short time to pick loadout/spawn - Just make it so when 3 seconds is up you can click a button to spawn, but if you don't you get more time to pick.

Like:
Saving/Being saved from assassination animation - I has this happen last night, I was running up to a teammate and he had just begun to get knifed in the animation and i shot the attacker and saved him, very cool.

Covie Weapons - These all feel good, I know I am in the minority but I really like the covie assault rifle and the needle rifle.

Menus and Netcode - No lag, slick menus


This sums it up so far. Can't wait t play more (and to see the other two maps and gametypes).
 
P

Proven

Member
kylej said:
It's not that Sword Base is 'too complicated', it's that it sucks to play in. It has terrible choke points, no flow, no easily identifiable areas, it looks terrible and you're forced to use a specific ability (jetpack) if you want to have a chance. The DMR and pistol suck not because you have to learn how to use them but because they provide zero feedback to the player and the blooming reticule is a worse mechanic than bullet spread. The idea behind spread or reticule bloom is to prevent one weapon from dominating across all gametypes. It doesn't work this way. Instead it creates an element of randomness and uncertainty that cheapens the satisfaction of getting a kill. It stops being a pure 1v1 battle and instead turns into a coin toss to see whether your reticule was .047 milliseconds smaller than the other guy.

The beauty of Halo's gameplay is that you start with similar weapons (BRs) and build strategies to get power weapons. It's as close to chess as you can get in a videogame. The mental battle you face when trying to decide when to push, grab rockets or OS, etc adds to the reward of becoming better and better at the game. I can see why people who don't play or suck at Halo like Reach because they can spam grenades and pick up the shiny purple gun and get kills. To me it feels like all the nuance is gone.
Click to expand...

Disagree on Swordbase. Chokepoints are terrible, and the flanks take a while, but I'm learning the map and learning the different sections, learning when I need to run out or back and in, and it's not that bad. When you're playing a gametype with elevators in play, Stalker and Armor Lock are still very useful, and with Sprint you can use the gravlift to get to almost any level easy. Jetpack just gets you to the easiest flanks on the sections with interior stairs. I almost never use Jetpack on Swordbase now.

The one thing I'll admit about Swordbase is the fact that the colors change on the upper floors instead of it being the same color all on one side and a different color all on the other side. This has caused me to call out the wrong side at times, and it's annoying. It'd be nice if when you died, the callout location stayed in the bottom corner of the screen.
 
M

Mr. B Natural

Member
kylej said:
Because a gimmick trumps pure aiming skill, which goes against the entire point of competitive multiplayer. Reticule bloom is a creation solely to prevent people who have great aim from pummeling people who are worse than them. It adds nothing to the game except a layer of uncertainty.
Click to expand...

God forbid they implement some real recoil on something that isn't an automatic.
 
P

PedroLumpy

Member
Yeah I always assumed each burst of the BR was at the same level of accuracy, since the forced delay between bursts was the sort of 'recoil time'

Gears of War 2 had something where the Hammerburst (semi auto rifle) would should at a steady rate if you held down the right trigger. However you could also press the trigger really fast to shoot faster but lose accuracy. In theory that could be done with the DMR.
 
A

Apath

Member
Deadly Cyclone said:
Covie Weapons - These all feel good, I know I am in the minority but I really like the covie assault rifle and the needle rifle.
Click to expand...
I basically never use the Plasma Repeater. In Covy Slayer, why pick the Plasma Repeater when you have the Needle Rifle? When I'm a Spartan and I default to Assault Rifle, why switch for the Plasma Repeater when they're essentially the same weapon? I've used the Plasma Repeater maybe 4 times in total.
 
W

Willeth

Member
Ramirez said:
I feel like some of you just wanted Halo 3.5, which is basically what 3 felt like to me coming from 2.
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If Halo 3 is Halo 2.5 then Halo Reach is actually Halo 3, which is what everyone really wants anyway!
 
B

bobs...onGaf

Member
Shake Appeal said:
I am frankly baffled that anyone could think that reticle bloom, which constantly and immediately updates you with accurate feedback about the pocket of space in which your coming shot will land, is worse than the invisible and entirely opaque "spread" of the BR in Halo 3.

But then I'm pretty sure that once kylej gets good at anticipating and controlling the bloom and starts donging on BKs, as he inevitably will, then he will forget all about his complaints.
Click to expand...

Well If one player spams bullets as fast as possible and the other is methodological, the spammer can get lucky, adding this element of luck isnt a good thing. It just takes too long to kill the methodological way.

Mr. B Natural said:
God forbid they implement some real recoil on something that isn't an automatic.
Click to expand...

Yep, im glad you agree because it just doesnt work well in Halo.
 
K

kylej

Banned
Mr. B Natural said:
God forbid they implement some real recoil on something that isn't an automatic.
Click to expand...

You're a fucking metal super soldier fighting giant monkeys with hammers and aliens who have purple needle guns on ring planets. I could give two shits about 'recoil'. I want fun gunplay.
 
M

Major Williams

Member
Well fellas sounds like everyone is having fun with the beta! Have a blast starting next week for the others who didn't get to start it yesterday. I'm definitely going to need some catch up time before I fire up Reach to figure out all the glitches/lessons learned you guys will begin figuring out. I'm getting married tomorrow, so this is my last post for awhile.

Have fun guys!
 
S

Shake Appeal

Member
kylej said:
Because a gimmick trumps pure aiming skill, which goes against the entire point of competitive multiplayer. Reticule bloom is a creation solely to prevent people who have great aim from pummeling people who are worse than them. It adds nothing to the game except a layer of uncertainty.
Click to expand...
Rhetorical question coming up.

Which is more skillful: lining up a fixed reticle on a target and pulling the trigger, knowing that your bullet will always hit that spot, unless you are at range, in which case your bullets may diverge and "spread" in an unanticipated and arbitrary fashion...

...or not only lining up a reticle as before, but adapting to and anticipating the changing size of the reticle, a size you control by pacing your shots appropriately to the (shifting) range between you and your opponent, knowing that your bullet will always, always land within the reticle as it is revealed to you?

The latter has removed the random element! It has put you in charge of every aspect of your weapon's accuracy, only with more variables to consider and assess ahead of every trigger pull. You, the player, are being asked to do more. More skillful players will do it better!
 
B

backflip10019

Member
Mr. B Natural said:
God forbid they implement some real recoil on something that isn't an automatic.
Click to expand...
But it's not recoil at all. I would be fine with some recoil that you had to learn to adjust to with every subsequent shot because you can control that to an extent even while firing at a fast rate. Reticule bloom adds an element of randomness to the mix which as Kyle said was meant to be somewhat of an equalizer of skill.
 
N

Neverender

Member
Also I think they need to change the text when you kill someone to red or distinguish it in some other way. Find myself glancing at the text after throwing a grenade or something and noticing I got a kill without even realizing it.
 
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