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[YourExWife]

So, first time getting on here today. And boy what a day! More on that in a moment. Semi-long post incoming.

SWAT isn't in any way "easy" - it's incredibly simple, but that's not the same as easy. It's hard and sort of terrifying. I am also pleased to see that it's a three gun game in pratise, with no clear winner. Pistol, DMR and BR all serve different in-SWAT roles and I enjoy using all of them.

Just a general "wat" to all of this. I use the pistol in SWAT at all times unless wide open map (read: Derplex) because it kills the fastest, especially if you goof and miss first shot or if I'm behind the person. Quicker to fire a few pistol shots in someone's back than take the chance that the headshot doesn't happen and they turn on you. Rifle usage is a rare occasion. In any case, easy/hard is relative. Meaning if you can't aim, SWAT can be hard (but then so is every other playlist pretty much), but if that's not an issue, connection/first sight is much of the battle.

It'll be back, im sure. I'd rather they axe Team Reg eventually though because Regicide fills an action sack gametype role and doesn't get dragged down by a fool king.

FTFY. Having an idiot in TR is similar to having one in regular slayer. The poor play is just exemplified. TR requires the king and, by extension, the team, to play selectively aggressive depending on if the king has OS/damage boost/whatever.

I don't think they should scrap Spartan Ops. They should just do it right next time. The current implementation is embarrassing. Reusing environments. No story integration. No moments. Just dump players in a gulch and have them shoot dudes. It's dry.

You providing actual criticism. I thought I'd never see the day. My feels.

Lol, someone at 343 hire this guy, it'll only take him a couple hours to fix what you worked for years on!

In one sense he's right. Some of it is simple code substitutions or ommisions. Other cases not so much. In the same vein, someone at PopCap needs to let me fix their (and a couple other companies') leaderboard bullshit already. Integer overflow with easily obtainable scores or XP should NOT be an issue in FUCKING 2012!

Which is a good segway to my day. Stupid people doing shit I can't tell you that fucked up half my day. I got to dangle in a full-on body harness from a few hundred feet up (no pics) for reasons. 'Twas awesome. Then, working on a honeypot server with a customer, encountered the most fucked up logic error I've seen in a while.

My fellow programmers in this thread will appreciate this more than most but this sums it up pretty well (I didn't know this could happen):

 

[Booties]

Went with rogue. I can't believe I had to google that. Don't give me canon. Give me a real description.

 

[blamite]

Ok unlocked the specs. Which is which?

Click

 

[HigherLevel]

I wonder if when we get NPD numbers for Halo 4, and they turn out lower than Halo 3 and Reach what will happen. Will they bring back classic Halo hoping to bring back everyone they've lost, or if they will make it more like Call of Duty?

 

[Silly.Mikey]

Went with rogue. I can't believe I had to google that. Don't give me canon. Give me a real description.

Oh god, so does that mean ill have to google them too? I was hoping that it would tell me exactly what they all did...guess not.

 

[enzo_gt]

I wonder if when we get NPD numbers for Halo 4, and they turn out lower than Halo 3 and Reach what will happen. Will they bring back classic Halo hoping to bring back everyone they've lost, or if they will make it more like Call of Duty?

It already did more than 4 million. Drastic changes will not be made considering all the other variables involved (change of developers, end of gen, etc.)

 

[scar tissue]

I wonder if when we get NPD numbers for Halo 4, and they turn out lower than Halo 3 and Reach what will happen. Will they bring back classic Halo hoping to bring back everyone they've lost, or if they will make it more like Call of Duty?

We all know the answer.

"Call of Duty outsold Halo AGAIN??....wait, I got it! Halo 4 wasn't like Call of Duty enough!"

 

[Silly.Mikey]

I wonder if when we get NPD numbers for Halo 4, and they turn out lower than Halo 3 and Reach what will happen. Will they bring back classic Halo hoping to bring back everyone they've lost, or if they will make it more like Call of Duty?

Na i think its just the neogaf community that is just overly sensitive in general. The game isnt bad, it just needs some little fixes here and there. It isnt the "im trading in my game" exaggeration that some people are making it out to be. And im sure itll do better than those.

They already started fixing it with the first TU. People need to be patient. It going to take more time than a god damn month people lol

 

[BlueScrote]

Which is a good segway to my day. Stupid people doing shit I can't tell you that fucked up half my day. I got to dangle in a full-on body harness from a few hundred feet up (no pics) for reasons. 'Twas awesome. Then, working on a honeypot server with a customer, encountered the most fucked up logic error I've seen in a while.

My fellow programmers in this thread will appreciate this more than most but this sums it up pretty well (I didn't know this could happen):

PHP in general is despised for it's gotchas. I can't find it now, but a project lead at the largest PHP house in the area has a website with all the reasons he hates PHP. this isn't is, but it's similar Why PHP Sucks.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

The individual playlists per gametype was nice to get everyone new introduced to the new objective mechanics Halo 4 had to offer, and I'm guessing, and praying, that they'll soon make Team Objective once they feel players have *gulp* adapted.

From pages ago...I disagree with this. I much prefer the new Halo 4 playlists and actually getting to choose what you play without it having the ability to not be voted for.

In 3 & Reach objective you would end up playing KOTH or oddball when you want to play CTF. I do NOT want a return of this.

You want slayer you choose slayer, you want big team you choose big team, you want flood you choose flood.

Objective should have the same distinction. I do not want to play dominion or extraction when I want to play CTF.

It's this reasons alone you can see the population for objective games is doing much better with Halo 4 than it did with Reach.

Who the fuck wants to be stuck with oddball on swordbase over and over and never actually get to play CTF?

Do not change this 343, please.

 

[Caja 117]

We all know the answer.

"Call of Duty outsold Halo AGAIN??....wait, I got it! Halo 4 wasn't like Call of Duty enough!"

Shield system and high jumps to be scraped for halo 5. Called it.

 

[Petrichor]

I wonder if when we get NPD numbers for Halo 4, and they turn out lower than Halo 3 and Reach what will happen. Will they bring back classic Halo hoping to bring back everyone they've lost, or if they will make it more like Call of Duty?

The sales figures have more to do with the crappy marketing campaign and the quality of Halo Reach than people's post-launch problems with the multiplayer, I'd wager - in the same way that they're going to have to make Halo 5 look like a huge leap forward if they expect people to jump in again after Halo 4.

 

[DeadNames]

Shield system and high jumps to be scraped for halo 5. Called it.

Ordnance evolved to "banshee strikes" and "attack crawlers".

Evolution(tm).

 

[scar tissue]

Shield system and high jumps to be scraped for halo 5. Called it.

I just heard shields will still be in - as a perk.
Also, Iron sights and killstreaks.

Ordnance evolved to "banshee strikes" and "attack crawlers".

Evolution(tm).

I'd be laughing right now if it wasn't so sad

 

[Silly.Mikey]

From pages ago...I disagree with this. I much prefer the new Halo 4 playlists and actually getting to choose what you play without it having the ability to not be voted for.

In 3 & Reach objective you would end up playing KOTH or oddball when you want to play CTF. I do NOT want a return of this.

You want slayer you choose slayer, you want big team you choose big team, you want flood you choose flood.

Objective should have the same distinction. I do not want to play dominion or extraction when I want to play CTF.

It's this reasons alone you can see the population for objective games is doing much better with Halo 4 than it did with Reach.

Who the fuck wants to be stuck with oddball on swordbase over and over and never actually get to play CTF?

Do not change this 343, please.

Ya, going back to the old method would just make me stop playing all together to be honest. Im already getting the same Ragnarok maps all the time, all i need is to get the same gametypes too and that will be enough for me to move on from the game altogether.

 

[NullPointer]

You can feel some of the 360 hardware imposed limits on Halo 4. Graphical fidelity meant smaller areas overall, and less active AI at a time.

I expect a Halo 5 on new hardware to blow us all away, and I'll expect scale to be the biggest difference. For Spartan Ops to really work I think the maps need to be at least 5-6 times their current size.

 

[Caja 117]

Ordnance evolved to "banshee strikes" and "attack crawlers".

Evolution(tm).

Is going to be a sad sight if Destiny end up a better Halo than 343 efforts.

 

[willow ve]

Can't wait for the Big Team DLC next week. Finally I'll be able to play Raganrok AND Exile back to back.

Voting seriously needs to change. Give us two maps. Only two. And any time Ragnorok is one of the maps it MUST be put up against Exile. Please.

Hey i got Ragnarok back to back today, take that!

Played around 15 BTB games today. Only once was the map not Exile or Ragnarok. 2012.

 

[The Real Napsta]

Do we even know what the first tu did?

 

[Silly.Mikey]

Can't wait for the Big Team DLC next week. Finally I'll be able to play Ragnarok AND Exile back to back.

Hey i got Ragnarok back to back today, take that!

 

[scar tissue]

Is going to be a sad sight if Destiny end up a better Halo than 343 efforts.

If Destiny goes in the same direction as Halo (I haven't kept up with any Destiny news, no idea what we know about it by now) this is pretty much a given.
Bungie is a highly competent developer. 343 is a jumbled mess of highly talented individuals that lack a cohesive vision and therefore went the "me too" route instead.

 

[Havok]

From pages ago...I disagree with this. I much prefer the new Halo 4 playlists and actually getting to choose what you play without it having the ability to not be voted for.

In 3 & Reach objective you would end up playing KOTH or oddball when you want to play CTF. I do NOT want a return of this.

You want slayer you choose slayer, you want big team you choose big team, you want flood you choose flood.

Objective should have the same distinction. I do not want to play dominion or extraction when I want to play CTF.

It's this reasons alone you can see the population for objective games is doing much better with Halo 4 than it did with Reach.

Who the fuck wants to be stuck with oddball on swordbase over and over and never actually get to play CTF?

Do not change this 343, please.

Enjoy having CTF as the only objective playlist in the game then, because it's the only gametype that can support a playlist on its own. Voting experiences predicted this, and now we're seeing that prediction being lived out as King is getting cut already. Ball and King are (yet again) sitting at 2% of the total online population, which isn't acceptable long-term. I predict that Ball will follow King into the guillotine soon. Dominion's population has been cut in half in the last month, but the same happened with Invasion, so it's not terribly surprising. It'll stick around in some form or another, though I hope it is drastically revised. The populations for objective playlists are fine as straight numbers now, but the game is only a month old and the population has been steadily declining. I suspect in a few months it'll be a different story unless the new maps bring a population boom (they won't).

The issues you outline can be avoided if the playlist management team properly weights the gametype/map combinations. They didn't with Reach Objective, especially not when 343 gave each gametype its own guaranteed slot using some of the worst categorization I've ever seen instead of allowing the weightings to work properly and filter those slots by math. Past Objective handling has been poor because of a lack of proper care given to those weightings, but I don't think this current model is any better. Giving filler gametypes their own playlists isn't the answer.

 

[Silly.Mikey]

If Destiny goes in the same direction as Halo (I haven't kept up with any Destiny news, no idea what we know about it by now) this is pretty much a given.
Bungie is a highly competent developer. 343 is a jumbled mess of highly talented individuals that lack a cohesive vision.

Did everyone forget about Reach? Selective memory or....

 

[HigherLevel]

Did everyone forget about Reach? Selective memory or....

B-Team

How many times does this have to be posted?

 

[Caja 117]

Did everyone forget about Reach? Selective memory or....

Bungie lacked inspiration? Either way even if you considered halo 4 to be better, the quality of Reach is superior.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

B-Team

How many times does this have to be posted?

That's not exactly an excuse, they put it out and had their name on it.

I don't care for a Reach vs 4 dick waving contest.

 

[HiredN00bs]

Did everyone forget about Reach? Selective memory or....

Stupid posters.

Just to clarify for the slightly less-stupid posters with Jump to Conclusions mats, I'm not calling every critic of Reach stupid, just the ones that call it a bad game or call Bungie incompetent.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

I wonder if when we get NPD numbers for Halo 4, and they turn out lower than Halo 3 and Reach what will happen. Will they bring back classic Halo hoping to bring back everyone they've lost, or if they will make it more like Call of Duty?

Depends if they look at those sales. Or if they look at the plane crash population numbers.

I'm going to bet the former cause thats what the Microsoft fat cats care about. So yes more like CoD coming soon.

 

[NullPointer]

Did everyone forget about Reach? Selective memory or....

Reach is one of the best shooters this generation. So yeah, Bungie gets the benefit of the doubt for me.

 

[HigherLevel]

That's not exactly an excuse, they put it out and had their name on it.

It's not even a bad game though. It is the worst Bungie Halo game, but I still had more fun playing the MP than I've had with 4 so far.

Also, it needs to be said when discussing Halo MP games, the "worst" one is still better than 90% of the other games released.

 

[Silly.Mikey]

B-Team

How many times does this have to be posted?

If you think Destiny (an MMO with probable classes) will be a better Halo than Halo4 is, then i think you're setting yourself up for a huge disappointment. There is no way thats going to happen. People in here are bitching about the big maps, classes creating uneven starts in MP but yes, an MMO will fix all of that.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

If you think Destiny (an MMO with probable classes) will be a better Halo than Halo4 is, then i think you're setting yourself up for a huge disappointment. There is no way thats going to happen. People in here are bitching about the big maps, classes creating uneven starts in MP but yes, an MMO will fix all of that.

A better Halo game? That's a dumb comment, but I assume what they really mean, even if they don't realise it, is that Destiny might be a game they enjoy more than 4.

 

[Karl2177]

If you think Destiny (an MMO with probable classes) will be a better Halo than Halo4 is, then i think you're setting yourself up for a huge disappointment. There is no way thats going to happen. People in here are bitching about the big maps, classes creating uneven starts in MP but yes, an MMO will fix all of that.

Halo is meant to be an arena styled shooter. Destiny is meant to be a persistent world. There's a big difference between what both games are setting themselves out to do.

 

[heckfu]

Can't wait for Halo 5. Shouldn't take em more than a few hours to get it done.

 

[HiredN00bs]

If you think Destiny (an MMO with probable classes) will be a better Halo than Halo4 is, then i think you're setting yourself up for a huge disappointment. There is no way thats going to happen. People in here are bitching about the big maps, classes creating uneven starts in MP but yes, an MMO will fix all of that.

Destiny is an action game. Halo was always an action game. People are too hung up on the MMO speculation, and too often our brains translate "MMO" to "WoW". Destiny will be far closer to Halo than WoW. Have you read all the leaks? Check out man Duncan's article on halogaf.com.

 

[FyreWulff]

It's not even a bad game though. It is the worst Bungie Halo game, but I still had more fun playing the MP than I've had with 4 so far.

Also, it needs to be said when discussing Halo MP games, the "worst" one is still better than 90% of the other games released.

No that'd be Halo 2. Unfinished, buggy mess.

 

[Silly.Mikey]

Destiny is an action game. Halo was always an action game. People are too hung up on the MMO speculation, and too often our brains translate "MMO" to "WoW". Destiny will be far closer to Halo than Wow. Have you read all the leaks? Check out man Duncan's article on halogaf.com.

I have yet to play an MMO action or not, that i really enjoyed. I seriously doubt Bungie will change that. If its a true MMO a la wow, then its over before it even began for me.

No i havent read the leaks cause honestly, when i heard MMO i was immediately turned off.

 

[CyReN]

Can't wait for Halo 5. Shouldn't take em more than a few hours to get it done.

"In Halo 5 we wanted to expand on teamwork from Halo 4, this time around when you pick up the flag you get "blind vision". You use your teammates calls outs and sounds to find yourself back to their base while your screen is completely black."

 

[Fracas]

I have yet to play an MMO action or not, that i really enjoyed. I seriously doubt Bungie will change that. If its a true MMO a la wow, then its over before it even began for me.

No i havent read the leaks cause honestly, when i heard MMO i was immediately turned off.

So you chose to ignore something, and now you are arguing on a subject that you just admitted you know nothing about?

 

[willow ve]

Serious question: Does Red Team ever win on Ragnarok?

 

[Caja 117]

If you think Destiny (an MMO with probable classes) will be a better Halo than Halo4 is, then i think you're setting yourself up for a huge disappointment. There is no way thats going to happen. People in here are bitching about the big maps, classes creating uneven starts in MP but yes, an MMO will fix all of that.

I think those are the least of people problem with H4

 

[NullPointer]

Can't wait for Halo 5. Shouldn't take em more than a few hours to get it done.

I look forward to the migration of players back to good ole Halo 4.

 

[Brolic Gaoler]

I can feel myself getting less intelligent reading this page.

MMO duuuur, bungie durrrrr, must talk nonsense durrrr.

 

[HiredN00bs]

I have yet to play an MMO action or not, that i really enjoyed. I seriously doubt Bungie will change that. If its a true MMO a la wow, then its over before it even began for me.

No i havent read the leaks cause honestly, when i heard MMO i was immediately turned off.

It's not an MMORPG. We don't even know if it's an MMO at all although I would speculate that it will have some persistent world qualities, an economy, and servers controlling some aspects of the game environment. Read the leaks!

 

[Homeboyd]

I have yet to play an MMO action or not, that i really enjoyed. I seriously doubt Bungie will change that. If its a true MMO a la wow, then its over before it even began for me.

No i havent read the leaks cause honestly, when i heard MMO i was immediately turned off.

It's a side-scroller actually. Please don't check any resources though.

 

[Caja 117]

I look forward to the migration of players back to good ole Halo 4.

H5 is going to have a solid population considering is going to be the first of the next gen consoles

 

[Silly.Mikey]

So you chose to ignore something, and now you are arguing on a subject that you just admitted you know nothing about?

I choose to ignore it on the fact that those style of games have yet to impress me. What more do i need? Its Bungie? So fokin what. They made one game i really loved (CE) and spent the next decade letting me down. Now suddenly im supposed to be all excited cause theyre working on a game genre that i hate? They couldn't impress me passed CE on a genre i love let alone one i dislike.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Enjoy having CTF as the only objective playlist in the game then, because it's the only gametype that can support a playlist on its own. Voting experiences predicted this, and now we're seeing that prediction being lived out as King is getting cut already. Ball and King are (yet again) sitting at 2% of the total online population, which isn't acceptable long-term. I predict that Ball will follow King into the guillotine soon. Dominion's population has been cut in half in the last month, but the same happened with Invasion, so it's not terribly surprising. It'll stick around in some form or another, though I hope it is drastically revised. The populations for objective playlists are fine as straight numbers now, but the game is only a month old and the population has been steadily declining. I suspect in a few months it'll be a different story unless the new maps bring a population boom (they won't).

The issues you outline can be avoided if the playlist management team properly weights the gametype/map combinations. They didn't with Reach Objective, especially not when 343 gave each gametype its own guaranteed slot using some of the worst categorization I've ever seen instead of allowing the weightings to work properly and filter those slots by math. Past Objective handling has been poor because of a lack of proper care given to those weightings, but I don't think this current model is any better. Giving filler gametypes their own playlists isn't the answer.

Perhaps making Dominion and Extraction into one playlist would be fine but CTF should definitely stay separated, especially in light that assault isn't in. After all the Flood & Dominion regular have the same population so I don't see your point really. Fact remains I want to select a gametype then I shouldn't have to vote between 3 different types and have approx. a 1 in 3 chance of actually playing what I want.

Further the MLG playlist and players are often the ones who enjoy Oddball and KOTH so there is some double up there and I'm sure if there's an MLG playlist those numbers will be affected/duplicated anyhow. It was absurd in Reach and it showed with the population back then. Things are better now and they should stay on that track.

 

[Fracas]

Oh my god, I just discovered a really handy tool.

NeoGAF Super Ignore (Chrome only)

I need to look up more GAF plug ins.

 

[Ken]

Action MMOs are fun.

I have yet to play an MMO action or not, that i really enjoyed. I seriously doubt Bungie will change that. If its a true MMO a la wow, then its over before it even began for me.

No i havent read the leaks cause honestly, when i heard MMO i was immediately turned off.