I've noticed one thing with armor lock: If you don't have shields while activating it, people can throw a grenade at you and take out even more shields while it's active. Now that's fuuuuuu-worthy.
All I'm pointing out is that it's odd people use the game's pace against AL but are content with games that go the full time limit. Any time AL may or may not actually add would still pale in comparison to such games, so one would assume a game with any kind of standoff must be down right vessel-bursting if we follow the same train of thought. Of course it is, but isn't that always the case? You know, the whole vocal minority situation? People don't generally bother going to a game's various websites or forums if they're content, so the negative is what you read about, more often than not. I've had to deal with it first-hand having moderated such forums in the past. That's fine; as I said, I'm sure there are other possible ways for weapons and abilities to be different than they are now and still work in a relatively balanced manner, I just don't think it's necessary to make any changes. Not quite; as I mentioned earlier, the other abilities offer more offensive power as well as a few defensive options, and all I was saying is that AL offers more defensive power than the others to make up for it's absence of offensive power. This difference makes it more unique than the other abilities, but not actually unbalanced. Keep in mind, this would mean the EMP would be stronger sooner, and the rate of popping shields would probably go up a fair bit as a result.
I just discovered the arena playlist. No armor lock. No active camo. No evade. It's almost like real Halo.
Now if only a few more people would follow suit then it may actually be viable to consistently get games in there. I'm still in favour of a Team Hardcore style playlist, and actually think that name would still work fine. DMR and Pro gametypes (preferably without AL but I wouldn't object too much to it being included since it'd still be a casual playlist in a sense), both Objective and Slayer, but just a regular competitive playlist so as to avoid the apparent stigma that surrounds Arena and the like.
Players such as myself have no desire to make the game overly competitive. I don't think there's much behind it.
In terms of competitive players on MLG, Arena has always been a joke since the majority want their 1-50 back. In terms of the MLG playlist I can kinda see their point since what they are in effect asking for is the reliability of closer skilled matches that H3 ranked MLG had. The reason most people seem to object to Arena not having 1-50 is that they're the kind of people who just played for the number next to their name more than anything, and a division just isn't as satisfying for them (tbh I do think that having someone's division visible outside of Arena would be nice, and having the percentiles visible without having to visit B.net too), but by dint of both parties calling for 1-50 the MLG complainers seem to have concluded that there's something inherently wrong with the Arena ranking system just because it isn't 1-50. I actually think that if MLG were just another Arena playlist it'd work fine in terms of matchups, the speed with which I start getting really equal matches in Arena puts even H3 ranked to shame (I say equal, I rather mean difficult, since I don't really consider desperately trying to carry 3 massively negative players whilst going +10 or higher myself then losing by 5 kills fair, though at least the final score is close so in a sense it is). Even on B.net it's true. I think it's actually pretty unfair tbh. Bungie have made some pretty big mistakes with Arena (FFA ranking systems, putting AL and Camo in etc.), but this latest iteration is great imo. I think that Sprint, JP and Holo work very well (though JP is still quite strong on Reflection even more so on The Cage), and now that it's purely win/loss ranked all the rating complaints are gone. Map selection is meh, I'm still not a fan of Sword Base in any Arena setting (I know we've had this discussion about why people find it fun, but surely you can agree that it's pretty flawed for high level competitive games), and am pretty tired of Reflection too, but overall I think it's pretty sweet. However, it seems like the majority of people decided that Arena sucked pretty early on and won't change their minds despite any change unless they just revert back to 1-50 or something. The consensus I see on B.net every time I visit is that it still fails, but my opinion on it has been totally turned around since the revamp and it's now my favourite playlist below MLG by far, and easier to go in without getting decked by To4's than MLG too. As a result the population is cripplingly low most of the time, especially since I'm UK and search mainly around the afternoons/evenings for UK/EU. I tend to roll Good Connection too when playing Arena or MLG since anything less than that just leaves me at a serious disadvantage in DMR fights, having to pace more heavily to ensure proper registration, and I just lose too many battles that way. Overall I spend more time searching for games in comparison to playing them in Arena than any other playlist, which is really gutting considering how much I like it now. What do you mean? Don't think there's much behind what? I'm talking about stigma from competitive players who think that Arena isn't what it should be. Obviously those not in to the competitive side won't be too fond of it, fair enough, but I'll admit it does annoy the hell out of me when people object to competitive players having their own playlists just because they don't enjoy the game in that way. That "everyone must think of the game in the same way as I do" attitude is supposed to be what's wrong with competitive players, the ones who go around bitching at people just for using something other than a DMR. Yet honestly I get this kind of attitude more from casual folks who seem to take some kind of personal offence from people who take the game seriously, even if those same people are actually totally OK with casuals doing their own thing too. They just seem to thrust this sense of pomposity on to competitive players and judge them based off of it, following up by objecting to their very presence and ironically becoming the pompous ones themselves.
Play the odd game of RP, or TS....but mostly MLG. From what i've played I gather the following: Jet Pack - Waste of ****ing time Armor Lock - Grenade/Sword/Half shield people use it then stick you Camo - Buy a HD tele and its worthless I only use Sprint, but thats just probably habit when playing MLG etc. Evade is pretty fun, very balanced in MLG where its used like a powerup. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Arena is there to keep the materialistic players happy. Its not for competitive players, only people who value a rating or rank more than general competitive nature of the game. They took a few things out, Camo/Evade etc, but thats it. Apart from the DMR starts, it doesnt appeal to me at all. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Very good point, this would appeal to alot more players than simply sticking a DMR start on regular maps and settings.
I just meant that the stigma isn't that complicated or anything. Now that you mention it though, I'm definitely competitive, but the so-called competitive level of play is just a turn-off to me. Nothing wrong with it, I just don't enjoy how it changes the game.
I still have to disagree. For one, there wasn't as strong a rejection of ranked in H3 by the social crowd as there is of Arena in Reach, people who never/barely ever went in to ranked seemed happier to look at a TS 50 and say 'yeah, not my thing but fair play' than is the the case with an Onyx Arena player. Past that there are also the major issues of rejection with Arena even from within the competitive side of the community that enjoyed ranked TS etc. in H3. Fair enough, it definitely does change the game, and I can see how that's either a turn on or a turn off.
I think that you are being way too general. Like I said in an earlier post, I just discovered the arena playlist. I don't know what it was before, but I like what it is now. I have very little interest in rank. I just want to play competitive games. That is, I don't want to lose by 30 and I don't want to win by 30. and I want to play without the power ups that in my opinion ruin the game.
It's something you find in any game though, even if it's minor. In TF2, no one would actually play the ranked option; it was just sort of understood that everyone would choose the player games despite there being no real difference aside from who you played. People just shy away from it whether it's different gameplay-wise or not. I imagine everyone has their reasons, but it's not an uncommon trend.
As I said, I understand that it's often not picked up by the majority, it's inherently going to be that way because the majority are genuinely casual. My point is that even within the context of Halo, Arena in Reach is less well looked upon, even from within those that enjoyed and gravitated to ranked in H3. There seems to be a feeling that Bungie failed with the changes made to how ranked works with Arena, and whilst I feel that was warranted at first I think it's endured despite the changes for the better that we've seen.