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Halo: Reach Beta Thread

S

Subtervotion

Member
Letters said:
Nah, I was for sure one of the guys running after that one that was moving a flag away from our own zone screaming "WHAT ARE YOU DOIN!". :lol

I'm for sure I spent most of the time in that match just roaming some random ass part of the map looking at the textures because that was in one of my first 3 or 4 games, the first day of the F&F beta, that's why you also see some bungie employees playing. Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

Haha. Yeah I noticed the weird Bungie GTs. I was shocked to see your GT in the vid. I had to go back and see it again just to make sure.

Willeth said:
Welp, those films have an estimated finish time of half an hour ago. Ah well, at least I tried. My first Running Riot :cry:
Click to expand...

Bungie did say something about trying to break the game for all those still on. I guess Fileshare counts too. :-/
 
E

EazyB

Banned
My Final Beta Impressions

What I really liked:
  • Graphics: The game’s pretty, the AA isn’t where it could be but it’s much better and no longer a huge distraction.
  • Netcode is much better. Out of almost 500 games I’ve run into very little lag. The co-op netcode still leaves a lot to be desired but it’s not a huge concern for me personally.
  • More useful, non-power weapons.
  • Quitters ban – never thought Bungie would punish quitters as harshly as they plan on doing.

Biggest three complaints:
  1. Slow movement speed
  2. Short jump height
  3. Randomness introduced with the reticule bloom

Movement: See Ghaleon's post.
Bloom: Read this post I made or Ghaleon's post.

Melee:
  • Increase the time between subsequent melees and decrease the “simultaneous” beatdown period. There is currently almost no incentive to try and fire your weapon after taking one’s shield down by the first melee unless you have one of those melees where the players (randomly) bounce away from each other.
  • I’m not sold on the new melee damage system. I like the fact that AR spray + beatdown isn’t as effective but don’t like the wildly varying amount of damage it now inflicts. I’d rather a single melee taking down 1/2 of whatever the max amount of health + shield Spartans have in the game. You’d still need to take the shields all the way down if you wanted to kill them in a single melee but putting in more bullets into someone before a melee exchange would leave the player going in with less shield with less health coming out instead of suddenly

Visual feedback:
  • For some reason I have a tougher time telling where I’m getting shot from so I have a hard time reacting appropriately to defend myself.
  • I don’t have too much trouble seeing when the enemy shields pop when they’re far away (it seems to be an extravagant explosion of shield popping) but for whatever reason the effect is much harder for me to see when they’re closer.
  • I also find it’s harder to tell if a player is unshielded or not. It’s easy enough if you’re staring them down as you can see their slowly pulsing emergency lights but this is rarely the case and I often don’t know their shields are down until and shoot them and the shields don’t flare up. Never had a problem with the Halo 3 system so I’m not sure why it’s changed.
  • I don’t know if this is a glitch but I’ll often see corpses flying through the air with their shields flaring for some time. It happens mostly when they’ve died and been tossed up in the air from an explosion. It psyches me out on occasion when I don’t realize they’re already dead.


Armor Abilities:
Armor Lock: The most broken and annoying of the bunch. Here are my proposed AL qualities: The armor lock duration is set in stone so that they will come out after a half charge or if the player chooses a full charge. Players would obviously have to wait for the AA to charge to at least half to use it. It’ll be easier to predict when they’ll come out and they won’t be able to quickly lock + melee people. Making the player vulnerable right as they come out of AL could go a long way as well. Maybe keeping it in first person, even making the screen go black (simulating their visor shutting down) could make things interesting and balance it a bit. So really there’s a lot of things they could do with it and I’m interested to see which route they’ll go down.

Invis:
  • I don’t think it’s overpowered I just think it’s annoying and isn’t fun to fight against. I personally don’t find it fun to use (definitely the AA I used the least) but I’m sure they are some that love it. I just can’t stand the movement-based visibility. I know it’s there to balance it and I agree, without that it’d be unbalanced, but it makes it not fun because it boils down to people camping with invis. Makes both me and the invis player slow down to a crawl while I slowly scan the area for him and he sits in his corner waiting to shotgun me. Here’s my suggestion for a invis type armor ability that I think would be more fun for both sides:
  • This stealth AA removes you from the radar no matter your movement. Puts you in a distance-based invisibility so when you’re close you’re about half-visible but from afar it’s much harder for the enemy to see you unless they scope in on you. It’d work kind of like an artificial LoD that players could control. Could make it so the reticule doesn’t turn red when placed on them, make the enemies see them as their own teammate’s color, and maybe keep the deafening effect. Just spit-balling suggestions now. I also think it players using this AA should have to anticipate when they really need it more so reduce its duration. It’d be great for avoiding snipers, and even closing the distance between a mid-range weapon user and a stealth shotgun user. Being off the radar (but still probably visible inside this radar range) would make it just as good or maybe even better for sneaking into an enemy area undetected (making sure you’re out of their line of sight).
  • Maybe I’m alone in thinking this would be a worthwhile alternative for a stealth class. But as it is, I think most players view the Invis class in the beta as largely worthless and it slows the pace of the game for everyone involved ultimately leading to a dull experience.

Sprint: I don’t have much issue with sprint. For whatever reason though it seems to be a bit finicky in turning off and on when I don’t expect it. Could be a result of nicking a player or piece of geometry but it doesn’t feel as smooth as it could. My suggestion is to have the sprint toggle tolerance upped a bit so it’s only interrupted when I want it to be or in more obvious situations. Another thing that’d make it a more fun is to avoid the stun effect when you have sprint enabled. One thing I think needs to be nerfed is the time it takes to fire/swing a CQC weapon coming out of sprint. It really gives the other player no chance in fighting back and seems a bit overpowered when I envision sprint being more a maneuverability perk as opposed to a combat perk. Think it should be weapon dependent though (larger delay for the CQC weapons) as nerfing their ability to whip out the pistol would really hurt the class’s combat effectiveness.

Evade: Almost perfect, love it, definitely the most (balanced) fun I’ve had using an AA in the beta. Sometimes I believe it allowed me to shoot while rolling (IIRC it was when I was shooting going into it) while other times it didn’t. It’d be nice if this was made more consistent. I’m leaning towards the not being able to shoot while rolling because it’d become even more overpowered in cases where their wielding a CQC weapon like the shotgun. Could a weapon dependent delay coming out of evade ala my sprint suggestions for similar reasons but the thought of no scoping someone as you roll past a doorway seems too great to pass up.

Jetpack: Really don’t know what to do with this one. It definitely has its uses but I find it more annoying to fight against than it’s worth. It really breaks the balance of a map sometimes when 2 or more opponents fly into the air and have uninterrupted lines of sight on you. It doesn’t feel like these maps were designed with the vertical cover necessary to make for fun and interesting jetpack vs pedestrian combat nor do I think it’d be beneficial to design maps around this single AA. Maybe they’ll be less annoying if grenades get nerfed because flying into the air, tossing two nades, and spamming the AR or pistol is probably the #1 way scrubs were able to get a kill on me. It’s not some personal grievance resulting from this fact that makes me believe it should be altered, but many of the people I’ve played with have had similar complaints. I really am at a loss at how it should be altered though and can’t decide if its absence would be worth the loss of an AA many find fun, so you get a free pass at shipping this less-than-ideal AA in the final game from me, Bungie.​


The decreasing importance of precise shots (headshots):
  • With each Halo time the precise headshot has become less and less important: In CE you’d spend 2/3 of your time with pistol body shots and the third shot could always be a killing-headshot. If the player’s health was already knocked down a lot already you had the option of body-shotting them to death but the 3 shot was a sure thing and could be relied on heavily. Halo 2 moved to 3/4 body shots where the 4th shot would be a death dealing headshot where Halo 2 added more emphasis on body shots because of how long it took to take someone’s shields down, that was balanced by the regenerating health so only rarely could you rely on the opponent having a reduced amount of health that would allow you to drop him quickly with body shots. Halo 3 works much like 2 but unless you’re on lan or playing MLG you likely have to place 4/5 shots on someone to drop their shields.
  • The gameplay elements of Reach have gone the furthest in removing the importance of precise headshots and in its place a greater emphasis in body shot spam. First, the DMR and pistol take 4 shots to drop the shield even without lag and the NR takes 5. That fact alone doesn’t differentiate it from Halo 3 very much but the next few do. With the bloom it becomes riskier to aim for that headshot as you’re banking on having the time to wait for the bloom to shrink down. Then you have CE’s health system reintroduced which allows one to at least cripple their opponent through body shot spam if you don’t kill them. That leaves them vulnerable to an easily spammed death in the next encounter provided they don’t track down a health pack. Yes, going for the headshot is still important, but its importance is less significant than ever and it makes the gunplay feel sloppier to me.
  • Some suggestions that could potentially alleviate this are:
    • Bring back health regen (not going to happen)
    • Removing the bloom (see above)
    • Heavily reducing the bloom
    • Or decreasing the amount of shield strength while increasing the amount of unshielded health players have. This would really improve the significance of headshots and even allow players to go clutch more often in 1v2 situations.

Weapons:
Pistol:
  • Great and versatile weapon. #1 tool of destruction during the beta with over 1.5k kills with it alone. That said, 1v1 pistol on pistol battles are some of the sloppiest things about the beta. The bloom is the cause but I’ll get to that later.
  • Increase the clip size. The 8 shots in the clip are barely enough to take someone down without a headshot (7/8 bullets landed) and still the vast majority of the clip for a single clean kill (6/8 bullets). Unlike every Halo game of the past (and every single other shooter out there) there is no possible way for someone to take down multiple opponents without reloading. Hell, it’s tough to take down one person without reloading. This leaves players staring at each other while reloading far to often or limiting its versatility by having to switch to your other gun (probably a non-precision guy) to finish someone off. Maybe increasing the reload time would help but its relatively quick but not enough to relieve this awkwardness or allow a pistol wielder to go clutch in 2v1 situations.

DMR/NR:
Similar praise, complaints, and suggestions as the pistol. The bloom is much better with as with its slightly larger clip size but both could be better.

Shotgun:
Far too powerful. Decrease the range, the Halo 3 shotgun was fine, I found plenty of uses for it and didn’t think it was too weak for semi-power weapon. If they plan on keeping it as a loadout weapon for a few gametypes it definitely needs to be toned down to fit better alongside the pistol/DMR. It’s laughably more powerful than the sword right now when the sword is expected to be its covie counterpart.

Sword:
Don’t feel like I have a good grasp for how it works in the sandbox. The melee counter seems good in theory but in my limited experience I haven’t been able to get a feel for how reliable a well timed melee will counter it. It’s still a power weapon though and I’m largely against power weapons as starts in loadouts.

Grenade launcher:
Surprisingly well balanced for a power weapon please don’t allow player to spawn with it in normal gametypes. Kills vehicle combat and too easy to get kills with for a starting weapon.

Plasma launcher:
If you thought it couldn’t get worse than the laser, you thought wrong. If you start charging it don’t allow players to switch it out to save the ammo. Give players a lock on warning (whether on foot or in vehicle). Decrease the bullet velocity even further. I think the player lock-on could actually work, but it has to be nerfed quite a bit.

Rocket launcher:
Way too powerful now. I’m not sure what differences it has to the Halo 3 counterpart but it’s not even funny how much easier it is to get rocket kills/multikills than in Halo 3. It could be player speed or jump height but whatever it is it should change. Decrease the blast radius as well as the rocket velocity. I have a feeling they increased these things to make it easier to take down vehicles with it but vehicles practically destroy themselves already so it’s not necessary. Glad they added the lock on to the flying vehicles because they’re the only ones that really needed something like that in Halo 3 so although I didn’t get to test it much in the beta it sounds great in concept.

Focus Rifle:
Doesn’t really fit into the sandbox where I thought they meant it too. I’ve abused the shit out of the weapon and have found it much easier to use and mid to close range than zoomed in at long range. Not sure what I’d change about it though. I think the sniper rifle is significantly more powerful at long range but its close quarters uses are a little much.​

Grenades [the following adapted from this postso it may appear out of contex]:
  • The grenades may've been plentiful in Halo 3 but you weren't going to get a ton of kills with them unless you utilized them well. Making the decision to toss a nade in a firefight wasn't always the best idea because unless you anticipated the opponent's movement very well you would loss valuable time during which the enemy would've BRed you. Nades in Reach are almost always the go to solution in a firefight, the damage and especially the radius make the risk of relying on it very minimal.
  • Leaving the grenades as they are would give players who've spawned an even greater advantage against players who've been through a firefight or two (spending their grenades and maybe having less health). It’d also continue to allow players to toss them haphazardly, with little anticipation, and be rewarded for such "efforts." Instead limiting the amount of grenades at play, removing that facet of the sandbox out more often instead of nerfing them.
  • Slightly reduce damage, heavily reduce radius, and keep the same amount on the map.

Vehicles:
  • They were a mess in the beta but I think this is something everyone recognizes already.
  • I was fine with the Halo 3 system of the player’s health being linked to the vehicle’s because you could often kill the vehicle’s occupants while not blowing the vehicle up and be rewarded by being able to steal the vehicle. Reach’s Invasion system of spawning vehicles behind shield doors and not killing the driver without blowing up the vehicle means it’s neigh impossible for elites to steal an enemy tank for example.
  • I’ll be alright with the Halo CE campaign style health provided we don’t have to rely on abstract visual cues and instead have a traditional health bar for the vehicle.
  • I don’t see what switching to thebanshee’s fuel rod with Y adds to the game but if you want to keep it this way add back CE’s little display for when the next fuel rod shot could be fired. It was fine in 3 because you could just spam the fuel rod button while shooting the main guns but when I have to switch the main guns off it sucks not knowing for sure that the fuel rod is ready.

Other stuff:
  • Why did the weapons despawn so much quicker than in Halo 3? If I was to die with a weapon, by the time I respawned and ran back it’d often be gone already. Once I tossed the shotgun on the ground for a teammate and in no more than 5 seconds I watched it despawn right in front of my eyes. Not sure if this stuff is a result of a glitch but it should be fixed.
  • I should be able to select someone from my active roster and see who’s in their party and get match progress without queuing up. Most of the time those on my friend’s list have their party set to invite only and other times I just want to see how close a group is to finishing while not necessarily wanting to join them.
  • Custom filing/sorting options for saved screens/films/gametypes. Its implementation in the beta was probably far from finished; just want to make sure it gets into the final game.
  • Remove or significantly decrease the amount of time a player has to fire back after he’s received the killing shot. The system in the beta resulted in way too many simultaneous shootouts and the delay between death shot and death made the gunplay feel that much looser. Many times I’d send a shot their way after they were actually dead just because the delay made me think they were still alive.
  • Elites are fun to be, not as fun to fight against (whether you’re Spartan or elite). The thing is their shields recharge way too quickly and their so fast (especially with evade) that they can dip around a corner in a mid-range fight and by the time you get around that corner their shields will be up. Increase the recharge time delay and rate to match the Spartan qualities (while keeping their base strength) and maybe even bump up the rate at which elite’s health regens to increase the importance of headshotting elites (which is pretty easy anyways).
 
Kibbles

Kibbles

Member
Not too impressive, but here's my contribution to the Betatage. Needs to be rendered by some kind fella. Only do it if you have a ton of spare minutes. I feel really bad when I have to ask for stuff like this.

Long stick, short stick: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=1464057
Scorching Overkill: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=1461964
Plasma Rifle Repeater Overkill: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=1462007

I didn't save many films, wish I would've now to go back and look for cool stuff. Betas over already. Ah well.
 
B

bobs...onGaf

Member
Hey thanks for the games tonight Monkey, Prophet and Juices - sorry I went all silent mode, was a bit exausted after uni and had a few people trying to sleep nearby.

I maaaay have some problems with the Beta, but you know what - I already miss it, so I get the feeling I will be addicted to the final game. my problems with the beta have been expressed in better ways by Ghaleon and Eazy (and Shake through parody) than I could, and im actually really looking forward to it.

<3
 
Bryant

Bryant

Member
GhaleonEB said:
Summary Thoughts

Bloom

Classic Reach Beta situation: two players are near each other and both have the Magnum. Who wins? It won't be the guy who fires methodically, since at close range, you can get most shots to land no matter how fast you pull the trigger. This means both players are motivated to "trigger spam" while pointing in the general area of the opponent's face. Whoever gets the lucky headshot first wins, because pacing your shots means getting off far, far fewer of them.

Two Spartans enter. The lucky one leaves.
Click to expand...



I was going to post my breakdown of the beta's one flaw, bloom, but there is no need, this pretty much sums up how I felt about bloom. This exact situation happened to me multiple times in the beta, and I was on both sides. It doesn't feel good one either side. I mean, I like bloom, but it kinda does break the halo formula at times, it adds in random dumb luck. All other problems I had with the beta are allready being addressed by bungie.
 
F

feel

Member
Domino Theory said:
DO NOT nerf the Shotgun. Please. It's perfect as is.

:D
Click to expand...
I think it's perfect too. And the new range actually makes people come out of hiding places and run around shooting it recklessly trying to get kills instead of just camping in corners exclusively.
 
E

EazyB

Banned
Letters said:
I think it's perfect too. And the new range actually makes people come out of hiding places and run around shooting it recklessly trying to get kills instead of just camping in corners exclusively.
Click to expand...
Umm, what?

It's increased range means it's far less risky for them to run around in the open with it. Maybe a cocky shotgun wielder will run out in the open with it more often but it's just as powerful as a corner camp weapon and a smart player won't put themselves in the (now more rare) situation where the shotgun won't take someone down in one or two shots. Shotgun + sprint and it becomes far too versatile. It'd be alright if they amount of ammo in it was limited but there's a shitton in it at pickup and people can get up to 10 kills in a row with it with very little skill necessary.
 
T

Trasher

Member
EazyB said:
Umm, what?

It's increased range means it's far less risky for them to run around in the open with it. Maybe a cocky shotgun wielder will run out in the open with it more often but it's just as powerful as a corner camp weapon and a smart player won't put themselves in the (now more rare) situation where the shotgun won't take someone down in one or two shots. Shotgun + sprint and it becomes far too versatile. It'd be alright if they amount of ammo in it was limited but there's a shitton in it at pickup and people can get up to 10 kills in a row with it with very little skill necessary.
Click to expand...
I disagree. I used the shotgun A LOT in the beta unlike most people it seems, and I see nothing wrong with it. It is a great counter weapon to the sword and hammer. Sprint does not make it OP because when you stop sprinting there is quite the delay until the gun comes out leaving you vulnerable for a second. I hardly ever combined the shotgun with sprint because of this said delay. Bottom line is that IT'S A SHOTGUN. It should be very powerful at close range, and it should be decently powerful at semi-close range. And by that I mean it should be a one-shot kill at close range, and if they are at semi-close range WITHOUT shields then it should finish them off, which is exactly what it does. The one thing I may agree with you on is the ammo count. Take away maybe six shots or something, not a lot though. If you nerf the damage of the gun itself then it becomes worthless considering the power of melees in this game. There would be no point in using it.

Examples of the range: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=1434024

The double and triple kills are pretty much the maximum range of the gun for a killshot when a player has low shields/health.
 
E

EazyB

Banned
Trasher said:
I disagree. I used the shotgun A LOT in the beta unlike most people it seems, and I see nothing wrong with it. It is a great counter weapon to the sword and hammer. Sprint does not make it OP because when you stop sprinting there is quite the delay until the gun comes out leaving you vulnerable for a second. I hardly ever combined the shotgun with sprint because of this said delay. Bottom line is that IT'S A SHOTGUN. It should be very powerful at close range, and it should be decently powerful at semi-close range. And by that I mean it should be a one-shot kill at close range, and if they are at semi-close range WITHOUT shields then it should finish them off, which is exactly what it does. The one thing I may agree with you on is the ammo count. Take away maybe six shots or something, not a lot though. If you nerf the damage of the gun itself then it becomes worthless considering the power of melees in this game. There would be no point in using it.

Examples of the range: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=1434024

The double and triple kills are pretty much the maximum range of the gun for a killshot when a player has low shields/health.
Click to expand...
I'd be fine with a simple ammo count drop and maybe a clip size reduction would help (a little). Still think it's too powerful to be a starting weapon though. I thought the Halo 3 shotgun was perfect. I rarely ever felt like I got sniped with it and it definitely had its place. I saw more shotgun sprees and open season in my few weeks with the beta than I have my entire Halo 3 playtime. I'm pretty sure Omlet got like 3 open season in one night or something :lol

Do people really feel like that Halo 3 shotgun was useless?
 
T

Trasher

Member
EazyB said:
I'd be fine with a simple ammo count drop. Still think it's too powerful to be a starting weapon though. I thought the Halo 3 shotgun was perfect. I rarely ever felt like I got sniped with it and it definitely had its place.

Do people really feel like that Halo 3 shotgun was useless?
Click to expand...
Oh for sure. I will definitely side with you on that. It's a friggin power weapon. I thought we were talking about 4 vs 4 stuff though. I think it's safe to say that some of the Invasion loadouts are quite mind boggling. =/ That's a different subject though.

I still feel like the shotguns from both games are very similar. Maybe the reason it feels like the Reach shotgun has a bit more range is because of the health system. Or maybe they really did extend the range a little bit. If they did it doesn't seem like much. Maybe a few feet. I like it though. Feels more realistic compared to the Halo 3 shotgun which I thought maybe did lack a little range.
 
T

Trasher

Member
Domino Theory said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RnR2unwPtI

:D
Click to expand...
Haha, we each had quite the amount of use with the shotgun. You had 19 sprees and 3 open seasons, and I had 27 sprees and 2 open seasons. Also, we each have Melee as our second highest "weapon" for kills, most likely due to all of those shotgun/melee kill combos. :lol Man, I actually had quite the handful of games where I was at 9 straight with the thing, but ended up dying before the tenth. :(

Edit: Was just thinking of how badass it would be if you could click on your medals (on your Bungie stats page) and have it bring up the list of games where those medals came from. One day maybe...
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
I played Halo 3 today for the first time in while. The game feels pretty damn different. I felt like the gun play was a little tighter than in Reach but the jumping was floaty as hell. I felt like I didn't know where I was going to land. The whole player movement felt a little sloppy to be honest. I also noticed I didn't feel any longing for some Armor Ability. I didn't accidentally try to sprint or anything like that.
 
L

Louis Wu

Member
electricpirate said:
I could never get in a game voting for slayer :(.

But I did generally like the Asymetric fights that were going on, except in SvE slayer.
Click to expand...
I played my first pair of SvE Slayer games on May 13, both as a Spartan, and lost both.

I played my next pair on the morning of May 19th - both as an Elite, both losses.

Something changed after that. I played 7 more games of the gametype - 2 as a Spartan, 5 as an Elite - and won all 7. I asked urk if the balance had been tweaked, yesterday - it was such a dramatic change for me that I thought there MUST have been some nerfing of the Elites... but nope. It's the same game it was when it was introduced. It just took me 4 games to adapt to it, I guess.

The teams I helped beat yesterday (my last game I was a Spartan, went 13-8) had NOT adapted.

I decided I liked it a LOT - not sure if it'll actually show up in Reach, but the idea of beating an inherently better-equipped team is pretty fun. :D (And when you lose as an Elite, it's because you REALLY aren't taking advantage of your starting benefits.)
 
B

bobs...onGaf

Member
Louis Wu said:
I played my first pair of SvE Slayer games on May 13, both as a Spartan, and lost both.

I played my next pair on the morning of May 19th - both as an Elite, both losses.

Something changed after that. I played 7 more games of the gametype - 2 as a Spartan, 5 as an Elite - and won all 7. I asked urk if the balance had been tweaked, yesterday - it was such a dramatic change for me that I thought there MUST have been some nerfing of the Elites... but nope. It's the same game it was when it was introduced. It just took me 4 games to adapt to it, I guess.

The teams I helped beat yesterday (my last game I was a Spartan, went 13-8) had NOT adapted.

I decided I liked it a LOT - not sure if it'll actually show up in Reach, but the idea of beating an inherently better-equipped team is pretty fun. :D (And when you lose as an Elite, it's because you REALLY aren't taking advantage of your starting benefits.)
Click to expand...

Agreed, it should be very rare, but its actually a lot of fun. I think its fun for both sides, being an all powerful Elite is nice, but being a Spartan is actually exciting - going against the odds and winning is always nice.

Also I dont think anyone mentioned it, but I LOVE the way Bungie are handling custom films and screenshots, being able to access the full database of stuff and even search it in game is AMAZING. I assume that this will extend to allowing forge maps and gametypes in the full game and im REALLY excited. The days of "Who has gametype X?" will be over as we literally will have access to millions of maps and gametypes. Im suprised this feature has gone under the radar a little, its insane.
 
A

AllIsOneIsNone

Banned
Just went back to halo 3 last night, so weird how there are so many fewer frustrations than in the beta. I think the AAs really change the pacing of the game in a less than optimal way. I still think halo 3's melee system is leaps and bounds beyond the beta's, and the battle rifle just makes more sense than the dmr. Been said a million times, but going back just supported these opinions. I don't know what it is about halo 3...shotgun kills feel better, grenades, battle rifle, assault rifle even feels better to me; here's to hoping that they realize if it aint broke, don't fix it....or maybe its too late. I know people have been getting hate for saying they want halo 3.5, but consider me one of them. Halo 3 with a better pistol, no duel weilding, better graphics and possibly sprinting; thats all I could ever want.
 
J

JaggedSac

Member
electricpirate said:
I didn't intend to make another bloom post but heeeerrrrreeee we goooo.

I like bloom because:

1) it allows weapons with wider roles in the sandbox
2) it adds a layer of depth to the combat for those that can master it
3) I like the "Risk vs. reward gameplay"

I think Bloom needs tweaking because:
1) Visual expansion of reticules does not always correspond to actual accuracy. For example, the DMR when zoomed is much more accurate then the visual indication bloom would have you believe.
2) reticles are hard to see, and the 4 point pistol reticle dosesn't give enough feedback for the range of inaccuracy.
3) red reticle should be a guarantee of a hit, with a dot for a guarnteed headshot. The system goes in this direction, but it doesn't go far enough.
4) DMR isn't accurate enough when unzoomed/standing
5) Bloom should shoot out farther on one shot, and retract more quickly. This would reward better shooting.
Click to expand...

I concur.
 
S

squidhands

Member
Louis Wu said:
I played my first pair of SvE Slayer games on May 13, both as a Spartan, and lost both.

I played my next pair on the morning of May 19th - both as an Elite, both losses.

Something changed after that. I played 7 more games of the gametype - 2 as a Spartan, 5 as an Elite - and won all 7. I asked urk if the balance had been tweaked, yesterday - it was such a dramatic change for me that I thought there MUST have been some nerfing of the Elites... but nope. It's the same game it was when it was introduced. It just took me 4 games to adapt to it, I guess.

The teams I helped beat yesterday (my last game I was a Spartan, went 13-8) had NOT adapted.

I decided I liked it a LOT - not sure if it'll actually show up in Reach, but the idea of beating an inherently better-equipped team is pretty fun. :D (And when you lose as an Elite, it's because you REALLY aren't taking advantage of your starting benefits.)
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I ended up playing some more SvE games and kind of ended up liking it. One of the main reasons was because they were on Powerhouse rather than Sword Base, which was where my first SvE game happened. The gametype works much better for that open map, where it's easier for Spartans to gain some distance and pull off some decent kills. The close quarters of Sword Base were just too confining for me to be able to do anything against an evading Elite.
 
V

vhfive

Member
EazyB said:
My Final Beta Impressions

What I really liked:
  • Graphics: The game’s pretty, the AA isn’t where it could be but it’s much better and no longer a huge distraction.
  • Netcode is much better. Out of almost 500 games I’ve run into very little lag. The co-op netcode still leaves a lot to be desired but it’s not a huge concern for me personally.
  • More useful, non-power weapons.
  • Quitters ban – never thought Bungie would punish quitters as harshly as they plan on doing.

Biggest three complaints:
  1. Slow movement speed
  2. Short jump height
  3. Randomness introduced with the reticule bloom

more things
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very good post. Agree with basically everything you said.
bloom on all weapons is fine except pistol
 
B

bobs...onGaf

Member
So I was playing Halo 3 and my internet dropped totally, im not sure if I got host booted or kicked offline but if I did how long would it take for my internet to start working again?

=(
 
B

BladedExpert

Member
Tashi0106 said:
I played Halo 3 today for the first time in while. The game feels pretty damn different. I felt like the gun play was a little tighter than in Reach but the jumping was floaty as hell. I felt like I didn't know where I was going to land. The whole player movement felt a little sloppy to be honest. I also noticed I didn't feel any longing for some Armor Ability. I didn't accidentally try to sprint or anything like that.
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I played some last night and it took me a couple games before I got used to the jumping again. I also realised how much I missed my trusty BR. It took about 3 games before I stopped thinking about Sprint too :lol Once I got it all out of my system it was like I'd never left the old girl and good times were had. The only thing I missed was the sweet, sweet netcode from Reach, but I only missed it in maybe 2 games where the host was a bit shitty.
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
BladedExpert said:
I played some last night and it took me a couple games before I got used to the jumping again. I also realised how much I missed my trusty BR. It took about 3 games before I stopped thinking about Sprint too :lol Once I got it all out of my system it was like I'd never left the old girl and good times were had. The only thing I missed was the sweet, sweet netcode from Reach, but I only missed it in maybe 2 games where the host was a bit shitty.
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Holy shit this. I still had some shot registration problems with Reach, which is unavoidable but wow it is so much better than Halo 3 in that regard.
 
D

Devin Olsen

Member
Domino Theory said:
Hop on and try it out.
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Quite smart, aren't you. ;)

I realize that the beta is good and gone, but I was just wondering if perhaps someone had tried it... Seems like it could lead to interesting things happening.

urk!
 
R

Ramirez

Member
urk said:
Waiting for Ramirez to confirm official numbers.
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You didn't take the criticism very well in the beta, don't be mad at me. :)

Any complaining I did was out of love for the franchise, I want this game to be nothing but the best when it's released.
 
D

Domino Theory

Crystal Dynamics
Dax01 said:
There better be mancannons in Reach, Bungie.

Or put 'em in Firefight. I'll hurl myself at a group of Elites MC-style like in the commercial.
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And then lose all your shields when you land, be immobile from the stun and be triple donged by Elites because u iz a SIII.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Ramirez said:
You didn't take the criticism very well in the beta, don't be mad at me. :)
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To be fair, the commentary from HaloGAF was a served with a heaping pile of vitriol, profanity and general nastiness this time around. That's mostly died down now and some good wrap up thoughts are coming out. But what used to be a side dish was very much an entrée this time around.

Now, that's partly due to the Beta being in much rougher shape than its predecessor's; reaction was more negative as a result. But I've been doing the HaloGAF thing long before that particular term was coined, and the standard for discussion in HaloGAF has taken a turn for the worse in the past few years. More hostile, more personal, a greater sense of entitlement. I try to stay out of it, but got caught up by that first one a bit early in the Beta.

The observations about discussion in the Halo 3 Beta thread being more civil are correct. It's perfectly fair for someone from Bungie to point that out, given their participation (and in Urk's case, origin) in this particular community.
 
H

Hydranockz

Member
GhaleonEB said:
To be fair, the commentary from HaloGAF was a served with a heaping pile of vitriol, profanity and general nastiness this time around. That's mostly died down now and some good wrap up thoughts are coming out. But what used to be a side dish was very much an entrée this time around.

Now, that's partly due to the Beta being in much rougher shape than its predecessor's reaction was more negative as a result. But I've been doing the HaloGAF thing long before that particular term was coined, and the standard for discussion in HaloGAF has taken a turn for the worse in the past few years. More hostile, more personal, a greater sense of entitlement. I try to stay out of it, but got caught up by that first one a bit early in the Beta.

The observations about discussion in the Halo 3 Beta thread being more civil are correct. It's It's perfectly fair for someone from Bungie to point that out, given their participation (and in Urk's case, origin) in this particular community.
Click to expand...

Indeed. If Bungie were our parent's they would turned the car around many miles ago :p We'd all be left looking at each other as siblings, knowing who behaved well and who didn't.
 
S

Subtervotion

Member
So out of curiosity, I looked at my death percentages from grenades in Halo 3 and Halo Reach.

Halo 3 - 9.47%
Halo Reach - 17.00%

Yeah.... about those grenades.

Just for fun, here's my Kill percentages:

Halo 3 - 6.96%
Halo Reach - 12.38%
 
B

bobs...onGaf

Member
GhaleonEB said:
To be fair, the commentary from HaloGAF was a served with a heaping pile of vitriol, profanity and general nastiness this time around. That's mostly died down now and some good wrap up thoughts are coming out. But what used to be a side dish was very much an entrée this time around.

Now, that's partly due to the Beta being in much rougher shape than its predecessor's; reaction was more negative as a result. But I've been doing the HaloGAF thing long before that particular term was coined, and the standard for discussion in HaloGAF has taken a turn for the worse in the past few years. More hostile, more personal, a greater sense of entitlement. I try to stay out of it, but got caught up by that first one a bit early in the Beta.

The observations about discussion in the Halo 3 Beta thread being more civil are correct. It's perfectly fair for someone from Bungie to point that out, given their participation (and in Urk's case, origin) in this particular community.
Click to expand...

Its hard to give feedback on something without coming across like a prick especially on the internet, and personally ive probably come across a lot worse than I have intended to. I guess most of HaloGaf just wanted to give critism with positive intentions (too help improve the final game), but with just text to get my point across I know ive probably come across athe wrong way.

Honestly Urk and the other Bungie guys, sorry if I have come across as a prick, as Hydraknockz said were lucky to have you around and posting!

With that said, the beta was a bit dissapointing and frustrating, it was certainly a different flavour of Halo than I was expecting, and it felt like I kept dieing in really cheap ways (Damn nades! :lol ), ultimatly I ended the beta on a positive note, but as you would expect from any beta - there are flaws.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Letters said:
Man Cannon Armor Ability, special safe landing boots, jump in any direction you want, believe.
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On a serious note: What other kinds of Armor Abilities would you like to see? I'm kind of surprised to say I'm drawing a blank.

They've got player movement covered: speed (Sprint), vertical movement (Jetpack) and agility (Evade). Then there's ways to avoid being seen (Camo) or protect ones self from combat (Armor Lock).

I was thinking back on Halo 3 as a reference, and that didn't help, as all the features of Equipment that are applicable seem to have carried over.

Jetpack is basically a Grav Lift strapped to your back. Camo blends the Active Camo power up with the Radar Jammer. Armor Lock is a personal Bubble Shield of sort, with the EMP from the Power Drain thrown in for good measure.

After that, we're down to the kind of effects that were not tied to player traits: stuff like the Trip Mine and Turret (from campaign). Those aren't abilities that can be located on your person, so they won't work with AA. I suppose they could do a Human Flare but that seems a bit silly.

I know Bungie said there are more AA's in the game, but I'm honestly not sure what they could be.
bobs99 ... said:
Its hard to give feedback on something without coming across like a prick especially on the internet, and personally ive probably come across a lot worse than I have intended to.
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Same. I take a small bit of pride in not being an asshole, but still remaining constructively critical. I didn't quite thread that needle this time around, to put it mildly.
Willeth said:
Overshield, more grenades, a quick sidestep similar to Evade. Just off the top of my head.
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Yeah, I'd thought of those a well. More grenades were part of a load out (the ones that let you spawn with three instead of two or one). Overshield I can see, but the idea of a player being able to buff their shields over and over sounds like a balance breaker. The dodge maneuver could work, but that would eliminate one of the key distinctions between Spartans and Elites.
 
W

Willeth

Member
GhaleonEB said:
I know Bungie said there are more AA's in the game, but I'm honestly not sure what they could be.
Click to expand...
Overshield, more grenades, a quick sidestep similar to Evade. Just off the top of my head.

EDIT: Magnetism. Activate to repel metal objects - grenades would veer away from you, bullets would do less damage. Very short period of deployment.
 
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