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Halo |OT13|

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D

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
aPK said:
I feel more cheated paying $60 for Halo 4: Beta than I felt buying ODST.
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lol.

Game is fun. Only "beta" thing aggravating me is lag occasionally. That "$60 beta" line is played out and really not true.

Also ODST is one of the best Halo games by far. Shame on you.
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Arnie said:
But COD built features over the course of the franchise, and Halo has taken them away. A COD fan can't be dissatisfied when features are added, especially when they foster a competitive community like skill based ranks. Halo fans can, and are, disappointed with features being cut, especially when they've been synonymous with the franchise in the past. That's the logical view of all this.

And in regards to the MLG playlist I agree with the sentiment that MLG should find a weapon and stick with it, be that BR, DMR, Lightrifle, or whatever. If 343 aren't going to prioritise balance (and that's not a dig, they made their design decision and we have to accept it), then MLG should step in and balance the game to fit their competitive playlist. That includes a standardised weapon set from spawn, as well as standardised player attributes. No AA on spawn, same weapon, no armour mods (is that even possible?).

More than ever, and this is ironically something the MLG playlist has been criticised for in the past, MLG has to distill the game down to its core elements. 343 built a load of stuff and employed it clumsily, and without clear intent. There's so much random stuff knocking about that the game feels really arbitrary and fiestaesque.

BR or DMR, pick, but don't include both. Strip out the AA's that have a negative impact, and if you're going to include jetpack have it as a pickup like in Reach that offers a risk/reward nature to the match, and can never be used by an entire team.
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No I get that. And I'm frustrated by it as well. It's just the constant comparison to CoD that I was calling out.

I think we should wait and see some more what 343 is going to do with the patch. I don't see how they would look at an unbalanced game, with tons of outcry for patches and balances and ignore it as far as prioritizing balance is concerned. I do think that's a priority to them. If it weren't then why would they add all of these new elements to the game? I still need to see the patches and changes to playlists in the coming months before I really dig into it.

With MLG, I like Walshy's approach. It's still early, let's see how the game plays out some more before we start cutting everything.

Jack Scofield said:
Haha, just someone calling out some pretty pathetic defensive bullshit.
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Just expressing my opinion on how tired I am of these comparisons to Treyarch and CoD. I feel like people have short term memory loss when it comes to CoD. I would rather just focus on Halo. I'm sure I've been guilty of it in the past but I'm tired of that shit now.
 
D

DesertFox

Member
bobs99 ... said:
Nah dude I loved the Power Rangers.

Hopefully Halo 5 uses the Power Rangers theme.
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But... Halo 4 already has:

halo4helms.jpg
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I kid.... the art style has grown on me.
 
H

Hydranockz

Member
bobs99 ... said:
Nah dude I loved the Power Rangers.

Hopefully Halo 5 uses the Power Rangers theme.
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I too liked Power Rangers but this doesn't grab my fancy at all. What was that movie with Hugh Jackman and the robots? It literally looks like that scaled up to a crazy degree. Monsters look cool though.
 
K

Kuroyume

Banned
That price drop for the game seems to be official/permanent. Saw an ad for H4 last night for the first time in weeks and it was advertising the new price point.
 
Ozzy Onya A2Z

Ozzy Onya A2Z

Member
Kuroyume said:
That price drop for the game seems to be official/permanent. Saw an ad for H4 last night for the first time in weeks and it was advertising the new price point.
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This is a good thing for XMAS season, drop the price as far as MS/343i are willing to go I say. Increase the population as much as possible. They should also do a bundle map pack with the game to really sell this mutha. Hell throw in some armour unlock while you're at it, you know for the kids :)

EDIT: I still stand by they should really have their next TU out before XMAS to retain as much of the population as possible and present a complete and working game to new customers. The Forge maps should also be in MM and maybe an XMAS playlist of some mixed bag stuff, sort of like Action Sack. Bring some casual goodness with very little work into the fray.

Bring the MLG playlist online for XMAS as well, you really want to cover as many community segments with XMAS season, it's gift season, the height of games release and the free time kids/adults have to really play games a lot. Capture and retain as much as Halo can now.

We all know next gen will ramp up next year so now is strike time.
 
G

Gucci Messiah

Banned
Kuroyume said:
That price drop for the game seems to be official/permanent. Saw an ad for H4 last night for the first time in weeks and it was advertising the new price point.
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Yes!!! I've been eyeballing Halo 4 on Amazon, praying that the price wouldn't change before I get paid on Friday. Is this price only for online retailers or do you think I'll be able to walk into a walmart or gamestop this weekend and grab it for $40?
 
T

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
u4iX said:
Addressed in bold.
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Ugh, I wish you didn't put it like that. When I quote I can't see your post to refer to lol. I'm on my phone, will reply later. But basically still not the worst it could possibly be which is what the argument original was.
 
Deputy Moonman

Deputy Moonman

Member
NullPointer said:
What is it that jetpackers are doing in particular though? Besides flying through the air that is, because that's dangerous as hell for the jetpacker to do.

I've heard the complaint about breaking the maps, but I don't entertain that one because the maps certainly seem made with jetpacks in mind. That's more of a complaint against Halo 4 on the whole than jetpacks in particular. So toss that in with intrinsic sprint and larger levels too.

Not liking jetpacks is something else though.

I hate camo.
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To some it's not an issue, but to others it feels cheap simply because jetpackers have no restrictions. Map boundaries and obstructions mean nothing, which eliminates what would normally be expected routes to defend. A person with a jetpack can move from any point directly toward the flag, and then just fly over a wall to get to the flag. Makes the whole layout of a map pointless. I know it's not the end of the world, but I have yet to see a map that really felt like it was designed to counter the advantages of flying around with a jetpack. I do agree that camo is worse, though.
 
T

The Henery

Member
Lol at this obsessive twitter account and the pictures on the left

https://twitter.com/70_at

As far as the patching stuff goes I'd say

Calm the fuck down: Sandbox balancing TU's. Game's only been out 6 weeks. They'll probably do it late Jan/February. I think any earlier and it looks like knee jerk balancing that could shit something else up. I hope they nerf Camo and PV, hard. Hopefully include classic CTF options and an option to be removed from scope when fired at, amongst other things.

Feel free to tear them a new one: Fileshares not working on Waypoint and the so called 'glitched' timers in Oddball and KOTH. Should have been day one and there's really no excuse as far as I'm concerned. Oh and a fix for instant respawn in Slayer should have been day one too.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
Deputy Moonman said:
I know it's not the end of the world, but I have yet to see a map that really felt like it was designed to counter the advantages of flying around with a jetpack. .
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Interesting point, that I'm not sure I fully understand. We do get claustrophobic in hallways, so there's that.

I just see the natural balance for somebody who jetpacks into the air being that, well, they're a nice ripe target for everybody in the world to shoot at when they do so, and their trajectory is pretty easy to determine and exploit. So every advantage they open up exposes them to the same risk. They're also useless in some indoors scenarios.
 
Deputy Moonman

Deputy Moonman

Member
The Henery said:
Lol at this obsessive twitter account and the pictures on the left

https://twitter.com/70_at

As far as the patching stuff goes I'd say

Calm the fuck down: Sandbox balancing TU's. Game's only been out 6 weeks. They'll probably do it late Jan/February. I think any earlier and it looks like knee jerk balancing that could shit something else up. I hope they nerf Camo and PV, hard. Hopefully include classic CTF options and an option to be removed from scope when fired at, amongst other things.

Feel free to tear them a new one: Fileshares not working on Waypoint and the so called 'glitched' timers in Oddball and KOTH. Should have been day one and there's really no excuse as far as I'm concerned. Oh and a fix for instant respawn in Slayer should have been day one too.
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This one was good lol:
http://twitter.com/70_at/status/278675798892879872/photo/1
 
Y

YourExWife

Member
NullPointer said:
Interesting point, that I'm not sure I fully understand. We do get claustrophobic in hallways, so there's that.

I just see the natural balance for somebody who jetpacks into the air being that, well, they're a nice ripe target for everybody in the world to shoot at when they do so, and their trajectory is pretty easy to determine and exploit. So every advantage they open up exposes them to the same risk. They're also useless in some indoors scenarios.
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You and a couple others keep saying this, but this only applies to total idiots. Jetpacks in the hands of even the least competent players is beastly. Using Haven for an example, jetpackers can access multiple spots and take tons of routes that others either can't at all, or have to do special jumps or tricks to pull off. All of this with little to no exposure. Not all jetpackers spend half the game jumping straight up in the air or out in the open as you seem to want to believe.
 
N

NullPointer

Member
YourExWife said:
You and a couple others keep saying this, but this only applies to total idiots. Jetpacks in the hands of even the least competent players is beastly. Using Haven for an example, jetpackers can access multiple spots and take tons of routes that others either can't at all, or have to do special jumps or tricks to pull off. All of this with little to no exposure. Not all jetpackers spend half the game jumping straight up in the air or out in the open as you seem to want to believe.
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Well I'm not saying you guys are full of shit, just that I've never seen it. I'd love to see some of these low/no exposure routes. Maybe then I could understand the rage.

I've seen stuff on haven that just acts as a nice boost to the normal jumps, and you're still exposed, using the jet pack as a thrust pack with some more oomph to it. Wouldnt consider that imbalanced though just because other players can't do it as well. Jetpackers also can't pull out hardlight shields, or go invisible, or see through walls, or spout holograms, etc.
 
B

Blinding

Member
Tashi said:
-Each bulletin we know which playlists are coming and which are going. When there's news on the patch, we've received it and got the full notes for it
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Which is nice, but not nearly on the same level of communication that was standard with Bungie. We should be hearing about how they recognize x, y, z exploits and relevant information (like specifics behind playlist update, such as why x playlist got put in ahead of y, etc.,) not about caption contests and Halo Forza designs.

-I've had no fiasco with my limited edition. Wish I could have downloaded my maps a little earlier but that's no big deal.
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And you can choose to feel that way, but that doesn't negate that the vast majority feel wronged by not just what happened with the map pack, but by Microsoft handing out specialization codes that were suppose to be exclusive to LE holders.

-I don't know what they were doing with the specialization. I feel like they wanted to release them over time and then last second decided to give them to early adopters. Weird.
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This is a good example of lack of communication from 343i. Taking away the exclusivity of something that was a bullet point for the Limited Edition, even if temporary, deserves an explanation behind why that decision was made.

-Theater is not broken, it's got some bugs (I'm assuming you're talking about the announcers voice). I'm sure they're aware and want to fix it but it's low priority. Don't act like it's not.
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It's not broken but something as standard as hearing the announcer in film clips shouldn't be broken in the first place, and is yet another thing that points to Halo 4 having been in development hell.

-Ya DLC didn't go smooth but they at least tried to make it right by making it free for a few days. I do think though that those who paid for it day 1 should get reimbursed in some way(800 points back or next map pack for free)
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The initial support response on this is what should have sticked imo. It's bad business practice to screw over map pass and LE holders alike and admit that it was a mistake, it's another to turn around and say it was intentional and lie to your userbase about a promotion in an attempt to save face. You could argue that they didn't care so much about righting the wrong as they did about assuring they seem under control and getting money they potentially lost back, which isn't surprising considering it's Microsoft.

-API is also not a big deal and I was actually impressed by quickly the reacted to the situation. I kind of expected the situation to be fixed if at all, much later.
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This is oppinion base and I have to say I heavily disagree. With how terrible Waypoint's interface, I'd argue that the stats API is more important now then it ever was for any previous Halo game, since it's through the API that we're going to get useful stats and data presented in a non-clusterfuck manner.

-Don't know what's up with the Euro situation.
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AFAIK Europeans didn't get access to DXP promotions, or the Nov. 30th specialization codes, and I'm assuming the map pack glitch. I'm pretty sure they got shafted on some pre-order bonuses, though I could very well be wrong about that.

Sorry for the wall of text.
 
Deputy Moonman

Deputy Moonman

Member
NullPointer said:
Interesting point, that I'm not sure I fully understand. We do get claustrophobic in hallways, so there's that.

I just see the natural balance for somebody who jetpacks into the air being that, well, they're a nice ripe target for everybody in the world to shoot at when they do so, and their trajectory is pretty easy to determine and exploit. So every advantage they open up exposes them to the same risk. They're also useless in some indoors scenarios.
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This is true. For me, a lot of the time I don't even realize someone with a jetpack is up in the air until I'm already being pinged from above which always stinks. Perhaps if they gave the jetpack some really obnoxious noise to notify the world that they're flying or a different dot on the radar to show someone is in the air, it wouldn't bother me quite as much. One thing is for sure, jetpacks in 4 are not nearly as annoying as they were in Reach. So I can always be grateful for that :)

Regarding what I was saying earlier, I think I would just like to have some maps that have certain areas that aren't instantly accessible to a jet pack. Jet packs can get to the top of any structure on any map it seems with ease. But I have no idea how'd you make a good map with that in mind since it would make jet packs less useful.
 
K

Karl2177

Member
Here are some selected quotes from the survey I had a while back. These are in response to the "How do you feel Spartan Ops could be improved?" question.

"- More variety in missions (i.e., stealth, sniper mission, bomb-carrying assault)
- More vehicle levels (flying level, anyone?)
- Get Palmer, Miller, and Majestic off the mic and on the ground
- Improved netcode (seriously, why is it so bad?)

The following should only be added IF NETCODE IS PATCHED, otherwise it makes the mode even more frustrating:
- Limited lives or co-op campaign style checkpoints"
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...
2) Focused objectives. Defend the object or person and or reach the waypoint gets tiring. Add a wave like system make one more similar to firefight. Have a level where we need to collect something like 1 flag. Use extermination like mechanics to add lives and make a more compelling tense match.
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"The mode as a whole needs a few things. Either the mode needs to be scaled for player count, or the encounter design needs to be drastically overhauled and made better. Preferably both. A solo player who is excellent at Halo should not need to knock down the difficulty to start having fun with the mode. Fuel Rod Guns, Binary Rifles, Incineration Cannons - these should not be on every third enemy in each chapter. It's goddamn ridiculous. Those weapons, or their analogues, have always been used sparingly for a reason. They're not fun in bulk. They shake up the normal combat loop which is fun for making specific encounters that are designed around them more intense. The gold sword Elite on the Assault on the Control Room bridge is a fantastic example. He is a single enemy, but it feels like you're just barely scraping by every time. They don't throw a dozen of them at you at once because, well, fuck that.

The designers need to either add an indicator for where the landing zones for Covenant are going to be, or just stop putting them anywhere that the player is going to be. Preferably both. It's cheap as shit. Having a dozen Elites drop in on top of your head from one of those drop pods isn't intense, it's infuriating. Same with the Prometheans that teleport in and immediately surround you (see Episode 4's Complex mission). Kind of a reverse situation, but Random Transport from Episode 4 drops the player into a maw of high-level Covenant, including a Gold FRG Elite and 4+ Jackal Snipers where the player has no control at all until they land, at which time they will promptly be fucked by the dozen enemies staring at them.

Asset reuse I don't honestly have that big of a problem with, as long as the reuse is smart. We have now played Sniper Alley three times forwards (once in campaign) and twice backwards (incl. episode 4's ""okay now get to the dropship!"" latter half). It has been roughly the same style of encounter design each time. Snipers, a bunch of Grunts, some Elites dropping in. Heavier enemies at the large Forerunner structure near the end. Hacksaw is a good reuse of assets - it goes from Promethean enemies gangbanging you to a large Firefight-esque mission where you're rescuing Marines and holing up in the center structure. Quarry, I think, has been reused smartly. The first use was a huge Warthog sequence, the second was infantry combat transitioning to Scorpions, the third was infantry combat against vehicles, which doesn't happen often. It has variety in its reuse. The other 90% is the same old poorly designed shit in the same old shitty levels.

In a lot of ways, I think that the Spartan Ops designers, at least those who are coming up with the vast majority of the waves that come in the vast majority of levels, just don't understand what makes Halo encounters fun. If they did, they'd realize that 1HKO weapons are not fun in bulk. They'd realize that spawning while under heavy, often explosive fire is not fun. I think some of them totally get the idea. There are certainly gems in most episodes - Land Grab, Hacksaw, Shootout in Valhalla, Episode 4 was a total stinker, then the latter half of Episode 5 are all decent enough, but they're almost always overpowered by the bad missions in them."
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"- Incentive not to die
- Reduced input lag
- More unique environments
- Less ""eggheads"""
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...
more friendly A.I.
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More vehicle oriented maps. Spawn system where you can choose to spawn with an ally, or selected areas on the map (away from danger). Less of "push this button" scenarios. Larger areas where you defend a building, shield, or a generator would be more entertaining.
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-Different mission setups. Right now, we're mostly doing the same stuff over and over again, which gets pretty boring after a while. Spartan Ops is a great mode to try and experiment with new gameplay ideas.
-Better incorporation of the story in the missions. Right now, the missions feel way to detached from the cutscenes."
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Right now Spartan Ops is a weird mish-mash of campaign, firefight, and multiplayer and it has no idea about what direction it wants to go. Campaign was more of a directed experience and while it had some gameplay variation I feel like Spartan Ops is leaning too heavily on that. Spartan Ops should include some of the more ridiculous balls-to-the-wall adventures that Reach tried to tell, like the infamous "SHADOW SQUAD, WE'RE SENDING YOU TO GO BOARD THAT COVENANT CRUISER WHILE MAJESTIC HERE DEFENDS A RECYCLED CAMPAIGN AREA FOR FIVE MINUTES" thing in Episode 5. That, and so far there's very little way to really "fail" most missions. I think there should be a definite way the matches can be lost, whether it's just having a certain number of lives or losing generators/civilians or what have you. If they're going for the Firefight experience it's by all means possible, they just aren't really doing it. That, and having hordes of max-rank AI bombard you since there's no real challenge otherwise is really stupid from a gameplay perspective. It highlights some of the weaknesses of the AI in situations that aren't straight from campaign and really illustrates that there's not a real challenge otherwise. I think they should have limited lives but huge numbers of low-class enemies, working their way up to the stronger ones as the level progresses.
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Make it playable on legendary for solo play. As it stand, it's really aimed at the multiplayer experience.
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The biggest flaw in Spartan Ops for me (playing solo) is the respawn points are generally random and quite poor.
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...Different enviroments, more dynamic missions, perhaps a mission where you have to drive a Pelican, or rescue a squad, take down a corvette, or something more exciting. Score and penalties for deaths. Theater. More unique dialogues.
it needs a penalty for dying
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Having what you do in the spartan ops relate more to the episode of the week. More environments, objectives.
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Some type of dedicated servers. There hasn't been a single episode where I did not experience lag. Plus, the whole thing feels subpar at best. The writing is poor. I can choose to stand Sarah Palmer or these dude-bro Marines trying to be Spartans. Please make the encounters more fun. Instead of having 30 guys just be randomly dropped in, why not vary it up. Why notnot be enemies spawn at different areas. Take Valhalla for example. Instead of 10 elites and 20 grunts just be put as once. Why not have smaller pods but around the map? Make them take up defensive positions and dig in. Have jackal snipers up top or away so we have e to take them out first etc.
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More variety in the maps. I would also like the see more video cutscenes in the chapters
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Less buttons, and more unique objectives (defending the generators was nice). Also, less OHK weapons for the AI and more unique environments (place priority over the rest though). As of now SpOps to me is just a mode where I can turn off my brain to watch a bar fill up, might wanna fix that too.
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And for the graph:
6Fa6G.png
 
N

NullPointer

Member
Blinding said:
And you can choose to feel that way, but that doesn't negate that the vast majority feel wronged by not just what happened with the map pack, but by Microsoft handing out specialization codes that were suppose to be exclusive to LE holders.
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I wonder what the game would be like if they hadn't opened up the other specializations. You'd have a shitload of people capped at 70 and upset since the XP carrot would hold no real sway.

So 343 would unlock another specialization, and then players would be satiated for just another 10 levels and the majority of the community would be unlocking the same specializations.

I don't blame them for opening up specializations, but I do blame them for not adequately planning ahead and being ready for prime time.
 
M

MaximumFlipFlop

Banned
How do Specializations fit into canon? Because only allowing certain demgraphics to rise in rank is going to cause turmoil within the Spartan IV program. Is the UNSC a bunch racists? Is ONI a bunch of racists? Is 343i a bunch of racists?!
 
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