Just saw the article on MLGPro.com announcing the release of the v7 Halo 3 gametypes and settings in advance of MLG Anaheim (6th-8th of November). You can check out the full official listing and settings rundown here. The main points, however, are that Heretic is in (win) with Flag, TS and Ball (epic, epic win), nicely unifying Flag with MLG CTF Ons to create the new MLG CTF 5Flag gametype. Lockdown Ball and Guardian Ball are both out, as is Guardian TS. Now about Onslaught, I'm actually pretty happy to see it remain, even though the unified 5Flag gametype is rather telling of the main arguments behind axing it, most of which boiled down to the expected addition of Heretic (once again, win). Even after Salot's rather crass thread throwing the emotional card down with respect to the questions surrounding Onslaught's future on the circuit, I still wanted to see it remain. And it did, so I'm happy. Lockdown ball was meh for me tbh. It had it's charm by all means, and the added variety to Ball was very welcome. But, at the end of the day, Midship is here now (fine.......Heretic), and I just see Lockdown as rather redundant in this sense. It wasn't a bad map by any means (and yes it had spawn problems, but still), but the setup of structural work is so similar to Midship, yet just..better done in the real thing (again not that Lockdown is bad, but it's limited by Forge to recreate something we now have again in proper form). The fact is, I didn't actually have that crystal clear memory and knowledge of Midship that's a common fixture of MLG fans, I never really played Halo 2 at all. But I learned Heretic within a day (layout, nice flows around the map, moment to moment basic tactics), and as far as callouts and basic movement principles go, Lockdown was what made it so quick, I kinda just transferred what I knew of that map across where applicable and filled in the rest with my small experience of Midship and what I could see about the map itself in H3. So yeah, no qualms with that decision, and Heretic Ball is gonna be sweeeeeeeeeeet. But now comes the kicker: No More Guardian. I didn't believe it when I saw a gossip thread on the MLG forums talking about v7, yet I followed the front page alert link and there was the truth, staring me in the face. Now Guardian TS, I'm not too sad to see removed. I loved it, it had it's moments, and it was beautifully unique in that way that Guardian is. Some of its strongest moments were when games came right down to the wire and everything slowed right down (though, if Mackeo was in the game then he at least could be relied upon to charge out like a madman in these kinda situations, gotta love Mackeo), but then I can see Heretic filling a similar role in a certain sense, though obviously playing out in a different way. But still, I hold hope that Heretic TS will bring some really entertaining slow-down moments when the scores are close and in the 40's, and not just be another Amp TS as some seem to think. But Ball, man. You took away my Guardian Ball.... Sure it had problems, sure Blue was overwieighted in a weird way as a spawn even when Gold was occupied by enemies, sure Snipe/Green/Elbow set up had a really dominant position. But all these things, together, they just kinda worked. A decent Snipe setup was hard to break as long as Green man knew what he was doing (watch Str8 when they were rocking that gametype), but screw it, I never watched matches and thought that it was broken, or even close to removal. I'm honestly gonna miss Guardian Ball, and even though, with the departure of Guardian TS, it had to go to maintain Slayer/Objective weighting or whatever, I think this is a sad day indeed. R.I.P MLG Guardian, you gave us many happy times, and it'll be a cold day in hell before I delete that prized MLG Guard v6.1 from my hard drive, now a sadly dying breed. You shall be missed.
I feel the same way about Guardian. What the hell, man. I may have to meander down to KC's desk and stab him in the face with a soldering iron. Oh, I'll have my chat with him. *signs on to AIM* Meh, but everything else seems fine. They didn't tank Amplified, which is good. They stuck with Onslaught. I'm sort of neutral on this one, but it's not a horrible thing. Although I do wish I had Heretic to play on and reminisce about the glorious days of MLG Bomb on Midship. What a burning burst of nostalgia....it still plagues me to think that they just disregarded Bomb. OH WELL. I suppose it's for the best in terms of avoiding gameplay issues.
Give him an extra stab for me . As for the other stuff, I hear ya. Tbh I wasn't really a H2 kid like I said (didn't want to give up my precious Pistol...), so I never knew the joys of MLG Bomb, but it sounds like it was real fun back in the day.
I'm not really that big of a fan of MLG but, how long do you guys think it will take till the official version meets my custom title? They'll probably bring your favorite map back in the future, just so Agamer can have a truthful custom title. Amirite or amirite? Also, my custom title is a complete joke.
I'm very disappointed Guardian's gone. I know, some setups were tough to beat, but that was the charm of it all. I feel like we don't get anything close to the originality we got in that map, some great lines of sight and the counterclockwise flow pattern. True, Slayer could get ridiculous, but Ball is totally different. I can't really defend it that much, but I felt like Guardian was much more than what they're giving it's worth. I hope it comes back in v8, at least. Also, maybe it's just me but it sounds like the move was way too rushed. I can't see myself playing Ball as efficiently as before, because of all the STICKIES. They're everywhere and nothing like Halo 2's. It's a nice throwback, but come on Bungie, this is a different game. And hardwiring it into the map? ...really? Also, I love my grenade bounces on LDown. All in all, I'll still be playing LDown and Guardian in customs...they're some of my favorite maps. I just feel like this move was yet another one that wasn't thought out enough and could have been definitely altered to fit something more favorable (like MLG Blackout..."bad spawns"? That's a lame excuse for being lazy...)
Agamer, they'd have to maintain their current pace of 3.5 versions per year for 10.57 years for your custom title to be accurate, without ever resetting their version counts for a new game. Good luck with that =P As for my feelings on the changes, I am VERY disappointed to see no new forged maps included. I feel like they probably don't want to shake the boat that much late in the season, so they didn't give anything truly new. Just Heretic/Midship, which everyone already knows thoroughly, except maybe '08 kids like me and apparently Pegasi who didn't play much H2. I think that is probably also a contributing factor to why we don't see Citadel in there, they don't want to throw a brand new map at people late in the season. Guardian I really don't care about being gone. If it stayed I would've liked it to be oddball only, but even that gets repetitive. I won't miss it. I'm glad that Onslaught stays though. There were people who said Onslaught would definitely be gone since it was a "dumbed down" midship remake, but I don't think the two maps are as similar as that statement would make it seem, gameplay wise. Onslaught fills a niche nicely. Onslaught is an MLG fixture at this point. Amplified too, is a good map that fills its own niche, but unlike Onslaught, I don't think it couldn't be done significantly better on another map. Surely there are other BR arena style maps out there that would work. I'm pissed that they only have one oddball and one king map now though. I was really hoping they'd give us another king while maintaining two oddballs, instead they go the other direction and cut an oddball map. edit: Invite me to those customs!
Agreed. Completely. I kinda know what you mean, but I think it's still gonna be beast. I've found so far that the lack of Frags on start tends to draw out some seriously nice pure BR battles. This, together with the beautiful elevations of Heretic, makes for some seriously fun fast paced BR matches in its own right, like Amp but with the character of a truly great map. It is a worry, and I agree at least that Bungie just plain screwed up not giving us the option to choose, but I still think it's gonna be great, truly epic times are ahead imo. Thing is, one of the other, less directly spoken of arguments against MLG Blackout (aside from the changes which, whilst small in appearance, are notable in terms of gameplay, even I can see that) is (or rather, was) MLG Guardian. Now that it's gone, I wonder if we'll see renewed discussion on the Blackout front, I know there are still some hardcore supporters of it floating around. EDIT: Ladnil, your points about late season changes with possible additions of new maps like Citadel are pretty convincing I suppose, hopefully this offers promise of a good ol Shakeup after Orlando. As for the other stuff, pretty much agree all round, particularly this: Exactly, needs more Hill and Ball maps. I dunno how I feel about Forged maps tbh, and I do love my Forge (in principle if not in personal practice ), there are just limitations of design and finetuning of geo that are inherent in Forge. That said, the sky bubble offers some solid hope there imo, seriously solid in principle. But it's gonna be damn difficult to pull of a Forged MLG sky bubble map that compares to something like Guardian, which is what it's really gonna be put against if it's even going to be considered for inclusion. I certainly haven't seen anything that's given me even a strong hint of this yet, though I've yet to pick through the new MLG Forge Forums map pack to be fair. But, as you say, bigger changes were never gonna happen now, with only 1 event and the Championships left to go in this season. Oh, and tbh 3.5 versions a year is pretty generous. The first few months of H3 saw versions come out much quicker than they do new as MLG toyed around with the new Halo and got used to what would work with the direction they wanted to take. At the current rate, I don't think you've got much of a shot at all gamer .
Personally, I would have rather kept Guard. Ball in the circuit than Heretic Ball. In my opinion, Heretic plays well for Slayer and Flag. Ball isn't my thing on Heretic. I'm going to miss Guardian in v7. Guardian requires so much more teamwork and set-ups than Heretic. And Lockdown? Lockdown quickly became my favorite MLG map on the circuit. I really would have liked to see a more diverse selection of maps stay/join the circuit. EDIT: Insane, I'll be with you all the way on those customs.
All I have to say is...the suicide grenade. If it wasn't for that martydom throw, it would be great. But you know it's going to happen...teams that kill you anytime you get close to finish a kill, being afraid to run into an area and get swarmed with random stickies... It's just that lessened time gives the thrower so much more power (and is considered a mini power weapon in MLG, like in uh...Guardian [haha], and Lockdown), you don't have to time it anywhere near as well as you had to Halo 2. I can see long range battles being fun, but imagine playing Onslaught with sticky starts. That's what I'm seeing. Random sticky kills galore, suicide grenades, grenades keeping you from progressing with the team. There's one of my biggest complaints with MLG. Halo 2 was better than Halo 3 in terms of "pro-ness", yes. There were glitches and no BR spread. But you've got to adjust to Halo 3, you have what you have. If you can't take Blackout, you should take Blockout (by MickRaider). But it's all about adjusting. Claiming the "spawns were bad" was a lame excuse...sure, tell me about your jump and your window. I see the changes are beneficial to the H3 gameplay, because it IS different. It's like Cold Storage...remember that? The thing MLG players wanted SOOO bad was "a remake of Chill Out because it was SOOOOO awesome". And a remake they got, and it sucked. Halo 1 is different than Halo 2 is different than Halo 3....and I think MLG is trying to avoid that fact...but Blackout is a necessity, especially with Guardian now gone. And yes, needs more Hill maps. I'm still glad Pit is gone from Hill (hated that), but there's so much Forged maps to choose from. I just want ONE more Hill map...it's such a great gametype, that you never get to play.
Me too . I'll still be up for playing Lockdown tbh, and Guardian is always gonna be something I want to chuck on quite a lot in customs. There should be some manner of Farewell v6 Maps TGIF or something, say goodbye properly . You're right, I can't deny it. But there is always the possibility, albeit a rather farfetched one, that Heretic gametypes could remove grenade starts altogether.... Not sure how I feel about that, but I suppose it could happen I wouldn't say 'pro-ness' personally, more 'individual skill'. As far as I can tell, H2 promoted individual prowess within a team, multiple players displaying this at once being a sure fire factor in a dominating team. H3 is all about the team, you're a cog really, when it comes to objective anyway, I suppose Slayer is kinda different. But yeah, I still see what you're getting at, for me, I much prefer that insanely deep teamwork aspect of H3 (but, again, never having been a H2 guy I suppose I can never really say), thus I prefer H3. But as for your following points, agreed. I think Blackout could work, much as I don't like the map all that much right now, I could see it growing on me with the right spawning and work done to it. Indeed, and tbh, I reckon if any gametype brings the most promise in Forged maps it's Hill. Even more reason to spice up what used to be a really solid objective set not so long ago. And, for me, Halo 3 is objective really.
No, and Guardian Team Slayer. Where have you been. Insane I'm your man for those customs. Lockdown + Orange = +26 and Overkill Exterm. Guardian ball was also another favorite of mine.
Schweeeeet. Always preferred Midship for 2v2's and FFA's but i know it plays 4v4 fantastic and it's the best map to throw into the mix. Can't wait to see how people fare. Glad that Ons stayed because it's the most original out of the bunch, and with extremely balanced teams it works. I'm ok with no Lockdown, i always thought it was too slow for strategies because whatever you planned, the situation would just change before people made contact. Also there was so much 'run straight down the middle' in that map it felt amateur at times. Finally, no more Guardian is a good move. Lockout was only in the circuit for fairly brief moments, and was majorly used for warmups, 1v1's and 2v2's. That's exactly how Guardian should be used, along with Midship.
I'm glad to see a new weapon finally made it in, the sword. I was getting sick of ONLY snipes and rocket. Shame the plasma rifle couldn't make it in too.
The Plasma Rifle is approved, but only used in extreme cases. With a good team, a PR can be ridiculously powerful (used as both a better plasma pistol that shoots farther, and a shotgun for close range with a few shots+melee). That's why you'll rarely, if ever, see it even in MLG customs.
Wait what? Sword!?!? :| Anyways, I too am sad that Guardian Ball and Guardian TS were removed from the MLG gametypes. Regardless of what other people may think, I have always liked those two. Good times...good times. Switching to the Lockdown Ball removal topic, I kind of approve with this one. The gameplay could get exciting sometimes, but there is always a time where it slows down. I just did not like the feeling of the map, to be honest. As Onslaught still remains standing, I am happy. This map is, without a doubt, one of my favorite maps on the Pro Circuit. I really like how the gameplay is so intense when one person is carrying your flag towards his base. Heretic...wow...I just love this map. It has been expected by many that an MLG version of Heretic will be made soon, and here it is, making its very first appearance in MLG Anaheim this November. On a side note, I'm also disappointed facing the fact that MLG Amplified is still present in the circuit. I never really liked it due to its fast-paced gameplay and bad spawns. I simply can't wait for Ignition.
Guardian TS games were a bit too slow. Guardian Ball was really fun and required more though in set-ups. Lockdown was probably one of my favorite maps in MLG. Heretic ball was, meh. I'll have to try it out some more I guess. Sword? .Wat?
Does anyone think that the more veteran teams have any advantage on Heretic due to their midship experience? I'm thinking specifically of Carbon here. I didn't watch any MLG till halfway through the 08 season, but the fact that Carbon is a team full of guys 21 years old and over, who have been with MLG for years at the pro level, would seem to me to be an advantage with the two new gametypes on that map. On the other hand, it may not work out so well if they instinctively fall back on their Halo 2 ways and continue to use strategies that prove to just not work in Halo 3. Same with guardian. Will its removal overly hurt a team like Final Boss, which is 26-8 in both of the map's former gametypes? I haven't placed FB high on any of my predictions yet this year, so this doesn't necessarily break my heart that they are losing their best map, but it could effect the standings. And I'd mention Lockdown Ball and Triggers Down's dominance on it, but tD is a damn good team with or without Lockdown.
can someone tell me why they took out guardian and why no sandbox maps? i liked guardian the most out of all of them and they didnt even say why they took it out.. also the community has made some awesome mlg maps and they still havent added a sandbox varient? They take out an oddball map, add in flag, and havent added koth when the opposite should have happened? wow.