Bungie Speaks About October Playlist

Hello and welcome to the inaugural edition of the October Bungie Weekly Update! Let’s skip the formalities and dig right in.





October Playlist Update, Inbound Imminent

We’ve already promised a big mid-month Matchmaking deployment, but Jeremiah and the core team responsible for Reach’s playlist management have decided to fast track some of the “easier” implementations and break October’s update into two distinct and meaty halves. The first round of playlist updates, barring any unforeseen shenanigans, will go live on Tuesday of next week.







Spaaaaaaaaace!





Here’s what you can expect when we pull the trigger:



Team Slayer

SWAT is taking one in the face (being removed) and the weighting for all other gametypes will be adjusted to fall in line with voting data. Expect – surprise, surprise – more traditional Slayer offerings to appear.



Team SWAT

SWAT gametypes that are removed from other playlists are being incorporated into their own, unique playlist with adjustments made to modes and maps based on voting data (farewell SWAT on Hemorrhage, you sucked and everybody hated you).



Team Objective

Powerhouse will now feature several more gametypes, including 1 Flag and Stockpile. Because Powerhouse is awesome and we don’t get to play it enough.



Multi Team

Rocket Race is being added. You win by staying on the Mongoose and racing to the checkpoints. (Oh, who am I kidding, you’re just going to hop off and try to assassinate people, aren’t you?)



Big Team Battle

SWAT and Classic are being removed and the frequency of Snipers is being reduced based on – you guessed it – voting data.



Arena Doubles

Boardwalk and “Pro” options are both being removed. Default Zealot is being replaced with Arena Zealot, a map variant which features modified initial player spawns and a soft-kill zone in spaaaaaace.



Team Arena

“Pro” options are being removed. Arena Zealot (details above), is being added.



Score Attack

Credit earn rates for Gruntpocalypse are being reduced to fall more in line with other modes.



General Matchmaking

Alongside the major alterations listed above, a myriad of much needed fixes and tweaks to the experience will also go into effect on Tuesday, including a metric ton of small, but annoying bugs and gameplay issues that we’ve identified and earmarked for eradication. As these updates go live, Jeremiah will publish the full details to our Optimatch forum so you can pore over the subtle nuances of each individual change.



Make sure to pop in and tell him that you agree with every single decision we’ve made! We prepped a pile of official discussion threads and bucketed them by playlist to facilitate polite and mature discussion. You can weigh in here.







Loud and Clear





The second salvo for October will include the fix to the current betrayal booting system, bringing it back in line with Halo 3 (three strikes and you’re out), and it will also introduce some significant changes to the Firefight experience, including the removal of friendly fire. Also on the way, a proper Team Snipers playlist, the possibility of a radar-less “Pro” experience in Season 3 of Arena, and more love spread out over all of our offerings, with a strong focus on Rumble Pit and Multi Team (all barring any unforeseen issues).



Already mentioned and still planned is the introduction of Campaign Matchmaking and some substantially awesome changes to the Firefight Matchmaking experience, the latter by way of cooperative multiplayer maestro, Larzy B. We’ll talk more about these updates next week.



Long story short, we’re evaluating all of our playlists and we’re acting fast to make sure feedback from voting data and the community-at-large is being evaluated and implemented.





Firefight Matchmaking 101

While we’re on the Firefight tip, we should talk a little Matchmaking Best Practices. As more and more players roll through Firefight Matchmaking, the network experience should continue to improve. We’re able to record your proximity to other players on the network and link you up with low latency players.



That said, the networking model used for Firefight (and soon enough, Campaign Matchmaking) is different than the multiplayer model and by default, the effects of latency are experienced a little bit differently as well. One sure fire way to ensure that your experience is impacted dramatically is to party up with other players thousands of miles across the globe from you (or with players who have demonstrably poor connections). While Matchmaking can and will make great connections, if you’re forcing a poor match-up through a party, there’s literally nothing our algorithm can do to lessen the impact of a bad connection.





It should go without saying that in every multiplayer mode you play, you should turn off torrents, stop streaming music, and make sure your network is running at optimal conditions. If you’re on a shared network, check to see that someone else isn’t killing your throughput. Every last megabit is precious.



For a more in depth look at how you can improve or troubleshoot your network, check into our Networking 101 article, previously posted to our Project Page.





Also on the playlist front, we’ve begun the monumental task of evaluating the early crop of user submitted map variants. For now, it’s a piecemeal affair, with several of us tasked with exploring File Shares and community hot-spots in search of well-made community maps. I still plan on detailing the process in a much more transparent fashion, but my own amateur offering, Riptide (formerly known as Jurkout), has yet to be put through the official paces. When we do run it through the grinder, I’ll resurrect the Incompetent Cartographer series so you can see exactly what we’re looking for.







It's a World...for Forging!





It’s a huge undertaking. Even while Halo: Reach was still on hot approach, we were still receiving nearly 100,000 unique Halo 3 map variants each and every month. Obviously, downloading and playtesting each and every offering would require a level of manpower and patience far beyond our limits and capabilities.



That said, we’ve got several us-yet-unveiled programs in the works to aid us in our quest and we’ll be making a lot of noise about all of them soon. We’ve already pushed one community map variant through several phases of our internal gut checks and test passes, and it looks like you’ll actually be playing on some sweet community maps before the year is out. Maybe even as soon as next month. (No promises.) One in particular has been a blast to play in both Big Team Battle and 4v4 Stockpile. Hopefully, you'll get a chance to play it soon yourself.



In addition, Sketch has been hard at work to bring a massive community Forge competition to fruition, where we'll pit our finest Forgers against one another in one of several broad map categories for fame, glory, and some truly fabulous prizes. Of course, the ultimate prize will be getting your map into matchmaking where we can all partake in your design genius, so if you want to get an early jump on the competition you should start thinking about building maps that would fit into the existing Halo: Reach ecosystem. Team Slayer is a great place to start, but we’ll also be looking at maps well suited for Invasion, Big Team Battle, Team Objective, Race, and several other playlist options we already have on offer.



More on this front soon, including map design primers and Forge tutorials. Stay Tuned™.

The online team is still hard at work to bring Bungie.net up to full strength in the immediate aftermath of launch. One of the hot discussion items that continues to pop up in our forums is the player model featured in every player’s Service Record (or rather, the lack thereof). Rest assured your cries are being heard and the team is steadily working towards a solution. Keep your fingers crossed and we’ll keep you update.




If you’ve devised an ingeniously elaborate method to circumvent our credit cap or exploit our challenge system, all of your “hard work” is soon to be for naught. While we understand the compulsion to race to the top and earn all the good gear before any of your friends do, network manipulation and other easily detectable workarounds that fall well outside of standard gameplay will result in a credit reset and several other punitive measures designed to knock you back down to a level playing field with all the rest of us who are playing the game without having to resort to exploits. We're watching you.












Without calling attention to specific methods, here are a couple of examples to help you wrap your mind around what we consider acceptable behavior and what we consider the machinations of people with way too much time on their hands:



Example 1: Laziness is Next to Godliness

You’ve commissioned your little brother to play through the same section of ONI: Sword Base over and over again, wielding the Target Locator like a barbarian’s cudgel in a quest to hit your daily credit cap without ever having to lay a finger on the controller.



This is a little bit sad, but it is not an offense we’re going to punish. *You* are playing the game. Keep your credits (but please go easy on your little brother).



Example Deuce: Communication Breakdown

You’ve written a crafty piece of code in your spare time that plays the same section of ONI: Sword Base over and over, wielding the Target Locator like a mechanical death ray in a sad, robotic quest to hit your daily credit cap while you’re busy doing something that isn’t playing the game.



This is really sad and you can expect to have your credits wiped and your armor items reset (and you can possibly expect to be banned, depending on the severity of the manipulation). We’ve already got a sizable list of offenders gathered up and the Banhammer is being heaved high into the air as soon as this afternoon. Make your peace. You get no warning. We’ll see you on the forums real soon!

The Best And Worst Of THe Halo Maps

 We all know that maps make the multiplayer experience and most Halo fans would concur with me that Halo 2 had the best multiplayer experience because of the quality maps available for gameplay. If you have great maps in a game, then everything is more enjoyable and the action is non-stop!! We all remember Headlong, Valhalla, And Sanctuary and the awesome moments that we shared with our friends on  those maps. Then we frown at the maps Epitaph, Snowbound, And Backwash because of their cheap design or outlandish design. So , what makes a good map. A good map has to have two bases; one for each team, it has to have strategic weapon spawns that bring out the battle from the beginning, and they have to evoke open, combative game play that has certain characteristics fitting for team play. Well, for starters I give you the worst maps of Halo Through Halo 3 and then move on to categorizing the new maps of Halo Reach.










Hemmorhage

Swordbase

Worst maps in Halo series:

Backwash

Elongation

Epitaph [Worst]

Isolation

Powerhouse

Snowbound

Guardian

Assembly

Foundry

 Rat's Nest


Reflection



Gemini

Boneyard

Desolation



Spire

 Chiron TL34

Sandtrap

Paradiso

Best maps in Halo series:

Beaver Creek


Hang em' high


Midship

Zealot

Burial Mounds


Lockout


Coagulation


Warlock


Pinnacle

Ascension

Sanctuary

Sidewinder


Ivory Tower


Relic

The Cage

Containment

Halo Reach Maps
 
The Good:
 
Boneyard
 
Paradiso
 

Asylum

Countdown
 
Boardwalk
 
Hemorrage
 
The Cage
 
Pinnacle
 
Swordbase
 
Powerhouse
 
 The Bad


Boardwalk



 

Countdown

Asylum

 

Zealot

 

Spire

 

Reflection


Halo Reach Gaming Gear Below!!! Sale!!



Hemmorhage



The Good And Bad Encumbering Halo Reach

With the release of Halo Reach just around the corner, let’s take a look at the good and the bad. Keep in mind that I am speaking from a competitive aspect and I don’t mean to bash the “fun” additions Bungie has decided to waste their time on.

The Good:

3). The Elites Don't Look like dinosaurs:
   Seriously, a big reason why COD outsold Halo 3 was because of the quality of the graphics and personnel. Halo 3 got a little too crazy when they designed the Elites, and made them look like dinosaurs. Despite the huge contrast in looks, the Elites didn't have any special or unique abilities; just a big head to to shoot at. Elites in Halo 3 were for the jokesters, MLG players, and the noobs. In Halo Reach, the playing field is level with unique abilities, loadouts, and physical attributes being assigned to each kind of personnel. The Elites look a lot more sleek, formidable, and fast in Halo Reach which is going to create some strategy aversions and awesome Elites Vs Spartans game play.Thumbs up to keeping the Elites relevant in Halo Reach.

2). The Elites And Spartans Have their Unique Attributes:

In Halo Reach a rift has already been pronounced between Elite And Spartan Personnel. The Covenant attack the Spartans on Planet Reach, the last stronghold before Planet Earth. Well, Bungie added on to this rivalry and made Elites And Spartans completely different in matchmaking. Spartans have low hops, more health, farther lunging ability,and a sleeker design. Elites have Unsurpassed Speed [there regular speed is that of Spartan in Sprint], more maneuverability with larger jumping and roiling ranges, more shields [less health], and overall the advantage with wielding close- range weapons because of their stealth and speed. Yes, the strategy pf whether to play as a Spartan or as an Elite is huge and can be adaptable to certain maps. For example, on a small map like Zealot; you would choose an Elite because of their attributes fit that level better and on Reflection choose a Spartan because their attributes go better in that level.

1). Strategy Is A Staple:

In Halo Reach, everything you do is based on strategy: whether to choose a Spartan Or An Elite for a particular map, which loadout to start out with, hat gametype to play to achieve the greatest credits so you can upgrade your armor, when to use your grenades, which load-out combination to have for different game situations, and the general gaming tactics.

1.) Single shot marksman weapons return.

Are you one those people who thought the Battle Rifle was good? Think again. The spread on the Battle Rifle made Halo gameplay extremely inconsistent which ruined one of the best and most consistent games on the console. Bungie FINALLY realized that simple games are better games. Halo: Reach introduces the Designated Marksman Rifle or DMR which is the Battle Rilfe’s replacement. The new mid to long range weapon will take 5 shots to kill your opponent (the last one being a head-shot of course). I am very excited to use the DMR and see how well it compares to the Battle Rifle. The pistol makes a return as a close range weapon which also takes 5 shots to kill, hopefully this time around they make the pistol useful. Thank you Bungie for going back to your roots.

2.) Fall Damage and Health are back

I am so glad Bungie is adding fall damage & health as it adds another component to manage which makes the game require more strategy and skill instead of “hide for 5 seconds then push.” When fall damage was removed it made players reckless and random, now players have to actually be aware of their surroundings and move around with caution. Bungie hasn’t said anything about reducing fall damage by crouching like in Combat Evolved so we just have to wait and see.

3.) Spartans don’t have hops anymore! (Reduced Jump Height)

From the beta preview you can clearly see that the jump height is greatly reduced. I am not going to say much more but if your armor weighed a ton, would you float like you did in Halo 2 or 3? I didn’t think so.

The Bad:

1.) My armor does what???? Lock it up. Literally.

Bungie is introducing new armor abilities kind of like the Arbiter was in Halo 2. In Reach you can turn on your choice of a cloak, jetpack, armor lock, sprint, or a barrel roll. I am not a fan of this at all, imagine 2 or 3 guys with camo whenever they choose. It is not like in Halo: Combat Evolved where you and your team would actually work for the power ups and weapons. These “abilities” make the game less difficult so now just press x to become invisible instead of fight for who gets it every minute. Halo Reach has similar traits to a RPG which is very different fro mall 1st person shooters.

2.) Loadouts….

Why? Halo is different than Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Killzone. Just because the other games do it doesn’t mean it is good. Classes or loadouts is simply not how Halo is, there is a particular strategy when your given certain weapons and have to make your way through the map to get better weapons before the other team does. Bungie needs to stay as a trend setter and quit worrying about following what their competition does.

3.) Assassination Animations

The new animations are fancy but take away from the stealth factor. Lets say your behind 3 opponents, there is no way your going to be able to kill all 3 quickly and quietly. Instead your going to go into a 4 second animation that totally gives away your position. I’m not a fan of the fancy assassinations, Bungie should stop wasting time on the flashy garbage and make the game good, not fancy.

So the hype locomotive is storming down the tracks and the next stop looks to be Halo:Reach. The Halo series is unquestionably one of the biggest franchises out there and anything they do is bound to be newsworthy. So now that they have started to role out the tid-bits about their newest venture, gamers everywhere have started to get that familiar foaming at the mouth sensation…..just me?…..moving on. Past the break are my five reasons that Halo:Reach is going to be good like a solid gold candy bar and 5 reasons why it’ll suck.

5)It is set on Reach, humanities main military planet

Inside of the Halo canon Reach is probably the second most important planet, the first being earth (overrated planet if you ask me). And it is the foremost planet in military research. So if you do the word math, you are pretty much adding up to a awesome planet. With awesome new toys to play with. Like civilian vehicles. It will be like in a cop show where they yell, “Stop, Police! I need to borrow your vehicle” except since it is halo it will be without sissy things like informing them of what you are doing and more kicking them in the face while you commandeer their vehicle.

4)New enemy types

Oh Grunts, at least you show up...right?

New enemy types are going to be a sweet addition to any game. I don’t know about all of you out there in internetlandia but I do get a little tired of killing the same enemies all of the time. So with new enemy types, such as the Skirmisher, I look forward to bashing new heads in. Cause that's what I do in Halo. I bash heads in. Ya dig

3)New Weapons

You know what people need in shooters? Guns. You know what Halo:Reach is going to have? Guns. I know earth shattering. And nothing gets us excited like bigger and better guns. That picture above used to be new and exciting. Now it is old news. So get pumped, because new guns equal new ways to kill people. And that is always good news.

2) New Engine

Now I know a lot of people were a little upset about the amount of content Halo 3: ODST had to offer for the price. One thing most people weren’t to upset about was how much more the team at Bungie managed to squeeze out of the Halo 3 engine. But for the new game they have completely scrapped it for a new improved engine. Nothing says next gen like brown levels! Here’s hoping guys!

1) A Whole Team of Spartans

Master Chief is cool. We get it. He saves the universe and looks good doing it. But he must get lonely all alone. No other super-strong super soldier friends to hang out with. Well Halo Reach fixes that. A whole team of Spartans to pal around with, bashing in alien skulls and taking names! Now that is what I am talking about. Can I get a what what up in here?

On the other hand there is reason to be concerned. The last entry wasn’t exactly ground breaking. So here are my five reasons Halo: Reach might blow like Louis Armstrong.

5)It’s not really based of the Eric Nylund novel

You remember paper pages? Me neither

So if you have read any of the Halo books Eric Nylund is pretty much the bee’s knees of the novels. His novels make the Covenant look scary and the Spartans look scary. And that is just the way we like it. The new game, while taking inspiration from the novel, is striking its own course through Reach. I hope that was a wise decision.

4) Got a case of the same old same old

Everyone has heard the jokes about space marines every time a new shooter comes out. But there is some truth in the jokes. And this is another Halo game where you play as a soldier shooting some Covenant. Nobody was sure how long Bungie was going to keep making games in the Halo universe. Should they have branched out a little more? I guess we will find out.

3)How is the Story Going to Be

.......get it.......west side STORY.....heh heh

I know I already touched on the fact that it doesn’t really follow the novel. And that’s a shame, because it is quite good. Does anyone remember the story lines for Halo 2 and Halo 3? As Gwen Stefani would say, it was B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Serious case of “yea man, that’s awesome. What if some more stuff that doesn’t make sense happens and we add some explosions. High five!” (yea they yelled high five). Who knows how they are going to handle Reach.

2) You Kind Of Already Know how it Ends

Fitting no?

Even if you haven’t read the book (have I said book enough yet?) you know how it ends. Master Chief is the only Spartan left in the Halo series. And I believe it was Confucius who once said that one is the loneliest number that you’ll ever know. So knowing the ending might put a damper on your party.

1) No Master Chief

I know that we are supposed to branch out and make new friends. But don’t you miss the big lug. I mean we’ve been through a lot together. Bashed some skulls, rode on some bombs, good times. Now that he isn’t the star for the third straight game my hearts got a little Spartan shaped hole in it. Well it’s not really that small, more like a Shaq sized whole. And that a lot of heart hole to fill.

Halo Reach Available For Free Shipping Here