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[Fuchsdh]

Forge maps with weapons are going to be glorious if people still don't act like there are weapons on the map and leave the sniper and sword to me all game

 

[Moa]

Explain

The whole outside area of the map, like the station pieces, you can just Jetpack on top of there, chill up there for just short of ten seconds, and jump back in the map before you get killed by the softkill.

Relay also needs some weapon pickups like the other maps have.

 

[GrizzNKev]

The whole outside area of the map, like the station pieces, you can just Jetpack on top of there, chill up there for just short of ten seconds, and jump back in the map before you get killed by the softkill.

Relay also needs some weapon pickups like the other maps have.

The needler is actually useful on Relay. It's cool.

 

[Akai__]

Anybody know what those flying things in the distance were at the last section of chapter 1? They were not Banshee's as far as I can tell.

That's what I was wondering, too, but then I saw the huge Forerunner weapons firing these things out, so I guess they are projectiles.

 

[FyreWulff]

The whole outside area of the map, like the station pieces, you can just Jetpack on top of there, chill up there for just short of ten seconds, and jump back in the map before you get killed by the softkill.

Relay also needs some weapon pickups like the other maps have.

Sounds like they're functioning as designed. It's intended to keep people from just camping on top of them but not being so harsh as to instantly kill them. There's a hard kill right behind them that prevents you from going too far back.

 

[TheOddOne]

That's what I was wondering, too, but then I saw the huge Forerunner weapons firing these things out, so I guess they are projectiles.

What is strange about them is that they acted like jets. Really weird, they were in perfect sync too. Will play that section again for sure.

 

[IHaveIce]

Ok despair can really be a pain because of all these desintegrating things. Also people getting laser on the map lol.

SWAT on Shutout was great, infinity slayer terrible

 

[Overdoziz]

Sounds like they're functioning as designed. It's intended to keep people from just camping on top of them but not being so harsh as to instantly kill them. There's a hard kill right behind them that prevents you from going too far back.

With the implementation of Jetpack Bungie (and now 343) should've really added invisible walls/volumes to Forge.

 

[Omni]

I have to say, episode 3 (need to know) has the best looking environment in the entire game... even if the water is just painted on and isn't interactive in any way possible. The start reminds me of TotS from Reach and then it transforms into blue caves and then into areas with nice green grass.

Something like that really should have been in the campaign, IMO.

All in all, I have to give it to 343i. This is a hell of a start to the second half of the season. I'm really enjoying it all.

 

[Moa]

Sounds like they're functioning as designed. It's intended to keep people from just camping on top of them but not being so harsh as to instantly kill them. There's a hard kill right behind them that prevents you from going too far back.

My main issue is just Jetpack on Relay in general, with that spot being a softkill, it could get a bit chaotic.

Also, did you only change/fix the soft & hard kills on the map or were the other changes made from the on-disc variant?

 

[GrizzNKev]

Yeah, I am genuinely surprised at how good Episode 6 was. Far from perfect of course, especially on that 5th mission, but the scale of the environments, varied encounters, vehicles (banshees!) and weapons (grav hammers!) are much improved. Keep it up 343, I wish you hadn't scared off so many players with the first half.

 

[FyreWulff]

My main issue is just Jetpack on Relay in general, with that spot being a softkill, it could get a bit chaotic.

Also, did you only change/fix the soft & hard kills on the map or were the other changes made from the on-disc variant?

Only changes to the hard/soft kills so far. Other incoming changes pending (ie, the oddball dome I posted earlier) and also depending on what people do to the map in MM.

 

[The Henery]

Wait, these new forge maps (sans relay) have set weapon spawns on a timer ala CE-Reach? There's no global ordnance? If so that's very encouraging news.

Positive impressions of spops bode well for the TU too. I'm really hoping that the game was simply launched too early and the late Feb TU will give us all the stuff we should've had anyway, particualarly custom game options, film rendering etc. Hopefully a radical overhaul of the MM philosophy, especially in regards to the loadout system. If I'm being silly optimistic then I'd like a completely new UI too.

 

[Moa]

Wait, these new forge maps (sans relay) have set weapon spawns on a timer ala CE-Reach? There's no global ordnance? If so that's very encouraging news.

Depends on the map, Simplex has an ordnance Rail Gun but a timed Sticky Detonator.

Might not be true, can't remember completely.

 

[FyreWulff]

Off to a good start

 

[The Librarian]

Reposting what I said in the Halo 4 story thread in case anyone wants to discuss it.

In response to the Librarian gene song scene:

I think you're sort of missing the point as to why so many fans of the lore take issue with that scene over others.

It's the implications on the Master Chief as a character, the existence of Cortana, and all of their accomplishments.

John is set up very thoroughly in the novel The Fall of Reach, as well as the game Halo 3, as a man who has faced and overcome an incredible amount of hardship to become a shining beacon, a hero of humanity. Kidnapped as a child, put through impossibly rigorous training, barely surviving experimental augmentations - these were the cause - and winning the toughest battles, stopping multiple Halos, severing the head of the Covenant and ending the war - effects. Cortana as his partner describes him as special. Not the fastest or strongest, but the luckiest. Always pulling through adversity against all odds. This defined his character and created someone who players could place themselves in the shoes of. Someone more believable and likable, even if the slightest more human just because he wasn't truly the best at anything.

The concept of predestination introduced by Halo 4 directly conflict with 343's attempt at exploring the humanity of tue Chief, and the potential of Cortana's humanity. What significance do their choices hold, what characteristics make them human or human-like, how could they ever be related to if all they do is an eventuality rather than luck created by free will? I feel my desire to be the Chief fade because to me, that is no longer a human characteristic, but instead a mechanic to progress the story and facilitate things not conceived by the minds who originally brought him to life.

Hopefully you don't turn around and dismiss my feelings as nitpicking, because I know I'm not alone in this sentiment. What exactly he was predestined to do doesn't matter, because any predestination removes the feeling that he or Cortana have earned anything they had done in the greater context of the universe.

I wonder if everything Preston J. Cole did was predestined. If it was

So THAT thing is not a Sacarab.

I don't know why people here were expecting – or hoping – it to be something like a Scarab.

 

[TheOddOne]

My only fear now of Spartan Ops is that we have seen all the major environments. Hope it doesn't go the route as the first part of the season where the same stuff is repeated verbatim every week.

 

[Moa]

My only fear now of Spartan Ops is that we have seen all the major environments. Hope it doesn't go the route as the first part of the season where the same stuff is repeated verbatim every week.

Would you smile if I told you that there are actually 13 new environments?

Vortex not being one of them.

 

[TheOddOne]

Would you smile if I told you that there are actually 13 new environments?

Vortex not being one of them.

 

[NOKYARD]

To quote mastrbiggy, "'Scythe'? More like 'Shit.'"

I endorse his sentiments.

Please keep in mind Scythe is a candidate for the Team Doubles playlist and may not be ideal when playing 4v4 Infinity Slayer.

 

[FyreWulff]

I have a hunch that Microsoft products are going to be very Ford-themed this year. First a Ford truck given away in Halo, now a Ford car being hawked by Nelson on the dashboard..

14 Day Ford & Play Majestic DLC brought to you by the Ford Fusion?

 

[Poker Face]

Thank you CCs for putting simplex and lockout in the playlist. I've only played those two so far and they were swell.

 

[Hypertrooper]

European HaloGAFfers: I have some ONI patches. If someone wants one, please send me a private message.

 

[no bullets hans]

Reposting what I said in the Halo 4 story thread in case anyone wants to discuss it.

In response to the Librarian gene song scene:

I think you're sort of missing the point as to why so many fans of the lore take issue with that scene over others.

It's the implications on the Master Chief as a character, the existence of Cortana, and all of their accomplishments.

John is set up very thoroughly in the novel The Fall of Reach, as well as the game Halo 3, as a man who has faced and overcome an incredible amount of hardship to become a shining beacon, a hero of humanity. Kidnapped as a child, put through impossibly rigorous training, barely surviving experimental augmentations - these were the cause - and winning the toughest battles, stopping multiple Halos, severing the head of the Covenant and ending the war - effects. Cortana as his partner describes him as special. Not the fastest or strongest, but the luckiest. Always pulling through adversity against all odds. This defined his character and created someone who players could place themselves in the shoes of. Someone more believable and likable, even if the slightest more human just because he wasn't truly the best at anything.

The concept of predestination introduced by Halo 4 directly conflict with 343's attempt at exploring the humanity of tue Chief, and the potential of Cortana's humanity. What significance do their choices hold, what characteristics make them human or human-like, how could they ever be related to if all they do is an eventuality rather than luck created by free will? I feel my desire to be the Chief fade because to me, that is no longer a human characteristic, but instead a mechanic to progress the story and facilitate things not conceived by the minds who originally brought him to life.

Hopefully you don't turn around and dismiss my feelings as nitpicking, because I know I'm not alone in this sentiment. What exactly he was predestined to do doesn't matter, because any predestination removes the feeling that he or Cortana have earned anything they had done in the greater context of the universe.

Maybe I was wrong or willfully ignoring the obvious, but I interpreted that whole bit to mean humanity as a whole and not MC specifically. They've established the geas pretty well in the books and Chief doesn't seem to ever experience the voices or memory sharing that those other characters do, per the Librarian's gene manipulation.

Stating the obvious, but there were lots of Spartans using combat suits and engaging with AI's, so I took that as a very general statement about how humanity was evolving to incorporate intelligence into their armor like the Forerunner (which its important to note here that the Covenant don't).

I agree, the thing thing that makes Chief awesome is that he is all heart and courage. Making him some kind of prophesied messiah diminishes that. That's why I chose to take that scene in a different way and I think there's room within the narrative to do that.


Also, finally activated. First post. Loooooong time lurker. Hi GAF.

 

[Havok]

All right, you guys win. CTF Garrotte is pretty decent. Waypoint CTF works pretty well with it, which makes the tally of times I've found it to be good a total of one. I wasn't expecting adjusted return times or flag at home to be turned on going in, and was pleasantly surprised. That stuff really needs to be better presented to the player so they know what settings they're getting before the match starts, because randoms are waaaay too stupid to realize that they can't just run back and forth over the flag spot.

Static weapon spawns are rad.

 

[Moa]

I had constant Rocket ordnances this game, ToD was actually Rockets with eight kills.

 

[Tha Robbertster]

So,

Spoiler

What the hell is a Harvester? It either wasn't explained or I missed it. It looked pretty damn weird

 

[Blueblur1]

Initial impressions: Forge maps are more enjoyable than the standard maps. I had a great time.

 

[Blue Ninja]

My summary of Spartan Ops Episode 6:

Spoiler

"Crimson, go kill that Harvester."
- "What's a Harvester?"
"Remember how we introduced Liches, which nobody had seen before and suddenly everyone knew what they were called?"
- "Yeah..?"
"Yeah. Go kill it."

 

[Gazzawa]

Shit really is the end of an era - keep us in the loop with how things turn out man.

Wanted to make a joke about how soon enough you will have a throne out there - but too depressed that you're bailing. It was good times.

in2 days i got 2 random across the map tomahawks in black ops1.

 

[Havok]

Playing Halo 4 on Lockout is rough. Bunch of jerks using camo at the bottom of the map with their boltshots waiting for my dumbass teammates to rush them.

 

[Omni]

SO: Chapter 5...

Spoiler

So that thing was a Harvester. When we got inside, I was expecting to find the soft chewy centre (ie, Hunter guts/worms)... but we didn't. It was odd. I saw no worms at all, but on the ceiling there was a spine (I think)... So it was organic/part machine.

Kinda confused.

 

[Moa]

I don't know if this counts as meta discussion, but it is related to Waypoint & 343i.

https://twitter.com/UNSCMC_Raven

Guy wants to sue 343 because the forums mods are 'abusing' their power.

This is actually hilarious.

 

[MrGreencastle]

My summary of Spartan Ops Episode 6:

Spoiler

"Crimson, go kill that Harvester."
- "What's a Harvester?"
"Remember how we introduced Liches, which nobody had seen before and suddenly everyone knew what they were called?"
- "Yeah..?"
"Yeah. Go kill it."

343 likes to introduce things that they don't explain until way later a little too much.

 

[FyreWulff]

I don't know if this counts as meta discussion, but it is related to Waypoint & 343i.

https://twitter.com/UNSCMC_Raven

Guy wants to sue 343 because the forums mods are 'abusing' their power.

This is actually hilarious.

Freedom of speech doesn't apply to private servers, which forums like Waypoint and NeoGAF are on

So

Yeah. Dude needs to chill

 

[squidhands]

Ask and ye shall receive.

In short: a significant step up in quality from the first half of the season, most of which I wasn't exactly in love with.

The chapters actually feel like snippets from a campaign mission rather than "Here's an area, go hit buttons and oh PS drop pods incoming!" There's a logical progression and flow through the playspaces that the first half of the season just didn't have. However, I do not see these spaces being as reusable as the first, because they are much less like generic combat arenas and more like actual levels than before.

I feel like the encounters are much more manageable solo and more well-designed than the first half's, with a more careful hand than the established Spartan Ops trend of dumping an assload of enemies out all at once, often on top of the player. That happened to me once during this episode, but it wasn't the annoying enemy composition that we saw previously. In general, there is a much higher percentage of enemies wielding rifles now, so expect Storm Rifle/Carbine Elites and Light Rifle/Suppressor Knights more than anything. Those types of encounters are where I think Halo combat excels rather than the instakill FRG/Incineration/Binary moments, so it's really encouraging to see them focus on it more in this episode.

Fuel Rod Guns are still in use, and still pretty obnoxious. They're usually on Grunts now, though, rather than Elites, which is a good change. There are still Binary Rifles (a lot of them) and Incineration Cannons galore on one of the missions, and they're still not fun to fight against. There is also a moment where 6+ Beam Rifle Jackals drop in and immediately start blasting you. That totally sucks. Please don't do that.

There is asset reuse, from both campaign and multiplayer. I think it works better than the first half of the season. I'll detail the reuse in spoiler tags at the bottom of this post for those that are interested.

Interesting to note that they seem to be balancing out their commendation progress this episode, where the last half of the season didn't have many Jackal Majors, Knight Battlewagons and Commanders, and certain Elite classes, there are plenty now. As someone who is stupidly trying to max those out, I appreciate it.

The talking head dialogue snippets is still a little hit or miss, though I think it is markedly better than before (not a single mention of eggheads). The combat dialogue from Miller and Palmer is still grating ("I still see targets!" "Drop pod incoming!" "Get to work, Crimson.") if only because of how frequently it occurs.

This is much closer to the quality bar than the majority of the first half of the season. I don't know if this upward trend will last, but this is a pretty strong start to the second half of the season.

Locations and asset reuse:

Spoiler

Chapter 1: All new.
Chapter 2: Reuses the big pyramid structure from the end of the level Requiem, but at night. It's cool.
Chapter 3: All new.
Chapter 4: Vortex.
Chapter 5: All new, and really disappointing given the hype surrounding it.

Dumbest line of dialogue ever:

Spoiler

Player is standing surrounded by green boxes and ammo crates filled with Battle Rifles, Assault Rifles, and DMRs.

Miller: "Yep, that's UNSC gear, all right."

Okay, some good news. Now I have something to look forward to tonight, as well as some forge playlist shenanigans.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Maybe I was wrong or willfully ignoring the obvious, but I interpreted that whole bit to mean humanity as a whole and not MC specifically. They've established the geas pretty well in the books and Chief doesn't seem to ever experience the voices or memory sharing that those other characters do, per the Librarian's gene manipulation.

Stating the obvious, but there were lots of Spartans using combat suits and engaging with AI's, so I took that as a very general statement about how humanity was evolving to incorporate intelligence into their armor like the Forerunner (which its important to note here that the Covenant don't).

I agree, the thing thing that makes Chief awesome is that he is all heart and courage. Making him some kind of prophesied messiah diminishes that. That's why I chose to take that scene in a different way and I think there's room within the narrative to do that.


Also, finally activated. First post. Loooooong time lurker. Hi GAF.

Hello and welcome.

I agree with your appraisal of the Librarian's speech, but its given in such muddled terms I can see why fans take it to mean "I made you Chief lols". The writing for that suffered from trying to cram too much into one cutscene.

 

[Havok]

I don't know if this counts as meta discussion, but it is related to Waypoint & 343i.

https://twitter.com/UNSCMC_Raven

Guy wants to sue 343 because the forums mods are 'abusing' their power.

This is actually hilarious.

Him tweeting legal threats at a bogus 343 Industries account that seemingly only retweets Kourtney Kardashian and Nicole Richie is hilarious.

 

[ElRenoRaven]

2 months later.

Oh wow I'm listening and I never knew about the muting of people. I actually when it first came out tried using headset and wanted to mute someone and couldn't figure it out to save my life. I was like why isn't the stick working and was like fuck it. I then went back to just not playing without a headset again. Hell listening to more they're 100 percent on the money on everything. 343 really should listen to it if they haven't.

 

[Raad]

The real question:

Should I put Halo 4 back in my disk tray to play SpartanOps or should I stick with Borderlands 2?

 

[Akai__]

There are too many power weapons, in combination with ordnance drops, on the Forge maps, especially on Dispair.

 

[The Henery]

OMG. I just got a killionaire in Regicide where I died at the overkill then carried it on. Laul. Would upload it to my fileshare and ask one of you guys to cap it but I can't upload to fileshare on a 48 hour trial so I'll upload it at a later date when I have Gold.

 

[Omni]

Kill cams don't like those Forge maps, eh? Framerate slows considerably.

Plus I just played on a map that was so, so, so terrible. I know you guys like small maps, but it was like less than 5 seconds after spawn and the other team were crawling around our flag area 0_o Forgot the name though. Really didn't help that I had no idea how to navigate the brownish monotone Forge pieces.

 

[MrGreencastle]

First game 24-7 on Scythe SWAT. I can see this map being great for Doubles for sure.

 

[Havok]

Halo 4.

Ordnance, cool.

But then...

That spot is covered with a hard kill zone. I found out the hard way.

Why would it do that.

 

[TheOddOne]

Bhahahhaha... that is indeed bad.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

It's Lockout rejecting Halo 4 updates. It knows its place was in Halo 2, so it's fighting back!

 

[IHaveIce]

There are too many power weapons, in combination with ordnance drops, on the Forge maps, especially on Dispair.

Yep.. Infinity Slayer is just bad, normal Slayer would be really cool on some of the maps

OMG. I just got a killionaire in Regicide where I died at the overkill then carried it on. Laul. Would upload it to my fileshare and ask one of you guys to cap it but I can't upload to fileshare on a 48 hour trial so I'll upload it at a later date when I have Gold.

Can't wait to see it, sounds awesome.

 

[dmXbox]

I have a hunch that Microsoft products are going to be very Ford-themed this year. First a Ford truck given away in Halo, now a Ford car being hawked by Nelson on the dashboard..

14 Day Ford & Play Majestic DLC brought to you by the Ford Fusion?

Dont forget this Ford Sync Thing back in 2007. They (Ford&Microsoft) are working together on this even now.

 

[MrGreencastle]

Dont forget this Ford Sync Thing back in 2007. They (Ford&Microsoft) are working together on this even now.

Hey, Sync is actually pretty cool. About time cars started having good software.