I haven't yet played it in the Community section. When I heard MLG was being brought to the table I automatically assumed it would be introduced into the Arena so it was worth fighting for the win in. I'm not sure if they've implemented a sort of ranking and skill based system for the playlist as I've not played it.. but it just seems a bit pointless putting the most competitive halo playlist, in a non-competitive section.
No and double no. I didn't like v1 at all (no AA starts, pickups, 120% speed), and think that the v2 settings were the best that can be done right now, I really like how the Sprint start dynamic works and think that Evade and JP are by far the best AAs for pickup and both work nicely in their own ways. QFT. Basically it seems like Bungie looked at Halo (shortly after CE if you believe the MLG critics, and more so ever since, though I think the post H3 step is probably the biggest) and said 'you know what the worst thing about this game is? The better player always wins, I hate that.' Before release, bloom was touted as an added level of skill to precision weaponry, whereas in fact it's just another way to level the skill gap. If it functioned in a way which consistently punished spamming then it would be just what they said, albeit still slowing the game pace somewhat, but as it is it's just a significant (just how significant has become more and more apparent since release, initially I was very optimistic about it) element of random chance added in to any 1v1 battle, made much worse as soon as anything close to a teamshot comes in to play. Bungie, if you don't want to change it and alienate many of your desired audience (the reasoning that the game should be fun for as many people as possible is fine tbh, can't criticise that, just don't pretend you're increasing the skill gap when you're doing the opposite), just let us turn it off. Right now, my top 3 desired changes for Reach are bloom, nade damage and melee bleed, in that order. But even then, if just the bloom was able to be removed I'd still love Reach infinitely more in an MLG setting, with all 3 I'd be happy to call it by far and away the best Halo game for competitive purposes. I couldn't disagree more, the bolded part in particular. My main issue with Arena is that it's not worth fighting for the win as an individual player, that stats are rewarded over the win in a team game. It's what puts me off Arena, and the only bearable way to play Arena is as a To4 (although dubs is OK since I never go in without a partner) so you can rely on your team mates not screwing you over for a rating rather than a win. I think MLG being in Competitive is the better way purely for people playing the game for the game rather than for stats. A max party limit of 4 would be nice, but hardly a big issue. Furthermore, Bungie have stated countless times that Arena is inherently Slayer only, which means that any MLG iteration of it would be missing all objective gametypes. Imo objective is where competitive, team based Halo really comes in to its own, and having a Slayer only playlist would disappoint me massively. As for ranking, Bungie have also stated repeatedly that there is still trueskill working in the background even outside of Arena, attempting to match you with similarly skilled opponents. I've heard that it's playlist specific, which would make sense and even benefit the playlist further, though that could be incorrect. I can vouch for this being true even in H3. When I played Social Slayer on my main I'd come up against 45-50s every game, but when I went in on one months it would be so easy I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I don't know if H3 social affected your true skill rating, but it was certainly matched based on the one you already had.
I just played my first game of Halo Reach that actually felt like Halo. Why has Bungie pretty much removed Multiflag from regular MM? Its pretty much the best gametype in Halo. I'm still a bit iffy with the settings, particularly with the AAs. I don't know if I like starting with sprint, although I do like jetpack and evade especially as pickups. \ Also just played a game of territories on Zealot, I didn't like it. It played kind of like Stockpile, where the teams aren't really going for each other, and whenever they do run into each other, its just because they were at the territories at the same time. I dunno, maybe thats because it was low-level with little coordination, and the other team sucked. We ended up winning 1100 - 300 or something. So much for playing in any other playlist though, these settings are so much better.
Yet another pet peeve to add to the things Pegasi whines about: Teams of 4. Seriously, do Bungie not realise that repeatedly putting To4s against randoms is a stupid idea in a highly competitive playlist? I'm not even playing badly but am getting steaked most games of TS simply because the other team are actually communicating and working together. I haven't run up against the same team twice yet, or got paired with the same randoms, so it's not as if there aren't by far enough people for it to put parties against parties and randoms against randoms. Honestly, do Bungie deliberately try to screw up MLG or are they really just that blind to how their own damn game works in a team setting? Also, they STILL haven't fixed the spawns on power weapons. It's not actually the respawn times that are the problem as far as I can tell, but that the runtime maximums are set at the number of that weapon on the map (for example, the Sniper max on Sanc should be at 8, but it's at 2). That was the FIRST thing I thought was likely the problem when I noticed that weapon spawns were off yesterday, since it played like default maps where you have to drop your Sniper for the new one to appear. You would have thought that the people who designed the system itself would be able to reach the same, pretty obvious conclusion and check the runtimes when things weren't spawning as they're supposed to. You boggle the mind sometimes, Bungie, you really do. EDIT: I've made a thread on Bungie.net explaining the weapon problem. To anyone who has an interest in this, posts keeping this at the top of the forum and in direct line of sight for those who can fix this would be much appreciated, as well as any further information if you notice something I've missed regarding this issue. Thanks in advance, hopefully this will be fixed soon.
Thread bumped. The gametype settings got screwed up by mistake when Bungie went through redoing all of MLG's gametypes so the correct gametype would show up in the corner and players were forced to be Spartans, and apparently they did some under the hood work on the maps too. Bungie was probably trying to head off potential performance issues, and some tech guy thought the runtime max was an error.
I'm not at mine so I can't get at my xbox, but out of interest does anyone know how many DMRs there are on MLG Reflection? I could have sworn it was 4, but the MM version has 3.
Finally got to try out the playlist (LOL first time trying out REACH MLG too) and it was pretty awesome. First game (MLG Assualt 5 on Sanctuary) I went +47. But we tied... Insane sucks Couple of thoughts: - Loving the Sprint ability along with the 5 second respawn delay that come with it (Awesome idea) - Sanctuary > Asylum - I'm a ****ing ninja - Shanon's back.
It's unfortunate that v2 moderately sucks..otherwise they would have a good playlist finally. *Note I will not argue with Peg in this thread. Sprint is terrible. The only time sprint is ever used is when players run away. This majorly an issue because most of the default maps of Reach are far too cluttered and easy to escape in. The only reason people like sprint is because it "speeds up the game" (doesn't) and because they have another button to press. The spawn timer on Sprint is also relatively stupid. It just helps spawn traps and players being unprepared for a battle off spawn. If they really want sprint there should be a short spawn timer that allows you to sprint off spawn, but then is removed in ten seconds. I still hate the DMR as a weapon. The needler rifle remedies slow gameplay to a degree but not completely. I don't like having loadouts, they should just move it all to NR starts. Most of the maps aren't great MLG maps. Reflection just does not play good slayer, I'm sorry. AA's on maps are meh. They're never contested and are generally just annoying to look at. They need to bring powerups back. All in all, v2 is kind of disappointing. It's still okay to play..had a couple good games playing with Shad0w but it's not going to bring me back to Reach.
Schweet, we need to play together sometime. My communication is finally coming back after having a good few games where the randoms on my team have mics. Its turned a losing streak in to a winning streak. Similarly, whilst typing this: First time back in TS since the playlist came out (going for the multikill challenge): -Asylum < Sanc, but still owns -Sharpshooter (though I was one kill away from a Rampage and a Be the Bullet...) -Perfection -2fer1 double to bring the final score to 51-20 -The stat ***** is back
Thing is, since the maps are all relatively new, I haven't a clue what the call-outs for the majority of maps are. I'll send you an invite whenever we're in need of some peeps.
Me neither, I'm pretty much just making them up as I go along based on easily understandable terms, or working with what I pick up from my team mates' calls so they know what I'm talking about. Tbh I learned all my H3 calls from watching pro circuit gameplay, as well as a good portion of how I approached the game, hoping I can glean a similar range of things from the pros once the 2011 season starts.
Anchor 9 needs to go in ASAP as well as a Forge variant or two if possible (basically, v3 nao!), waaaay too much Zealot and Reflection right now, though I could play Sanc till the cows come home .
No fair! It's waaaaaaaay to much Sanctuary for me. I have not been able to play any Reflection, or Zealot. I've only played one game of Countdown CTF (Which, you wouldn't be surprised, but I carried the team). All the rest is Sanctuary. Also, I choked on an insane triple kill. I'm really pissed off, so I won't be playing MLG for awhile. UGH. Anyone want to add me for later? I broke my mic, but I'm getting a new one soon. I seriously need good teammates. No, I'm not that good.
Oh yeah, it's fun. But not fun enough to play 30 games in a row on it. Especially when they always pair me up with idiots.
Sanc is fun, but I just played flag and got 3-0'd in less than two minutes. Could be pros Especially since there names where Hysteria, tD, but whatever could be good players posing as pros.
I'm not sure who Richard is (coach?), but yup, that does seem to be Hysteria, Neighbor, and Best Man. Sweet
Yeah I went in afterwards, and to be honest, I did find it pretty bland with it being there. I went in with just another friend for a warm up for Team Arena... and we got random language talking idiots that would rather spam chat and knock the english language rather than actually work as a team for the win. That's probably just my bad luck and time of day for playing the playlist like, but still... I've met randoms in Arena that don't purposely sacrifice the win just to get at you for speaking a different language. And there may be a true - skill system still in effect, but it doesn't seem to be working all that great in any other playlists either, as when I go in Team Snipers, I often get 20+ kills, and my team mates barely make double figures and end up going - k/d spread with 0 assists. I'm pretty sure skill boundaries there are a little broken. As for the Slayer only Arena... Seriously? that ****ing sucks... I'm already bored of having just either Team Doubles or Team Slayer. Whatever happened to Halo's variety?!? Bungie really do know how to burn a game and their fans dreams ¬_¬ EDIT: P.s. TZ, I lol'd.. you got pwned