Update: 10/11/2018 cut and paste on account of short and lazy Exciting work continues on Halo: The Master Chief Collection as the team continues to address issues and make further improvements based on player feedback. Since our last Community Update, two patches have been released for MCC which included a few critical fixes and several updates to Matchmaking playlists. Here’s a quick recap of those most recent game updates: 10/3 PATCH Improvements to game stability (notably in Halo: CE campaign) Playlist adjustments Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur in Halo 4: Spartan Ops, Mission 9, Episode 1 10/10 PATCH Updated Snipers playlist Update Halo 3 Team Hardcore Doubles Updated Team Slayer in HCE Team Arena to be to 50 kills Ban Hammer has been unleashed on rampant quitters Rank matching adjustments for high levels Party matching adjustments so it only forces party restrictions in ranked for teams of 4 vs other teams of 4. BAN HAMMER Since the September update, the team has been tuning the rules behind the scenes for our auto-ban system to better address players who repeatedly quit out of matchmade games. Even though the automated version isn’t quite ready for prime time, the Ban HammerTM definitely is. Following this week’s game update, the team has issued the first wave of matchmaking suspensions to players who are actively and repeatedly quitting games. If you are worried that this could impact you, we suggest, well, not quitting out of games. Repeatedly quitting out of matches really creates a poor experience for the rest of the players in the game. Don’t do it. If you don’t like the maps or modes being offered, spin up a custom game with the settings you enjoy (check out the “Looking for Group” feature in the Official Halo Club to find like-minded players!). NEW FEATURES In addition to squashing bugs and fine-tuning playlists, the team is also hard at work on two exciting new features – both of which are the direct result of player feedback. First up, we have the “Match Composer”, which will offer players more control over the types of game experiences they want in Social Matchmaking. This is the “mix tape” matchmaking option that so many of you have been requesting and we’re excited to roll this out into an MCC Insider Build for testing and feedback very soon. Here’s how the Match Composer currently looks in our internal game builds: Once released, players can choose the player count, the game(s), and the mode(s) they wish to play and then Matchmaking will do the rest. This should be a great next step towards helping players tailor their matchmaking experience to their specific tastes. Looking further ahead, the team is still working on bringing a robust Custom Game browser to MCC but that feature is going to take more time to implement. In addition to the Match Composer, the team is also implementing expanded controller customization options to allow players to better fine-tune their experience. Some players have expressed that some games within MCC don’t “feel right” compared to the Xbox 360 originals and while the code itself is identical between the OG and MCC versions of each title, the “feel” of each game can vary based on a number of factors including TV latency, 60FPS frame rate, online latency, and the nuanced differences between the Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles and controllers. The team hopes that by offering more refined controller settings options, players will be able to better find the sweet spot that feels right to them. COMING SOON: MCC INSIDER FLIGHTING & SPOOKY SHENANIGANS The Match Composer and the updated controller settings options are currently going through internal testing and the team is getting ready to roll out a new MCC Insider build in the near future (potentially as early as next week, pending final testing). But that's not all! With Halloween right around the corner, keep an eye out for the return of Infection – targeted for a return to MCC with next week’s update. Stay tuned to Halo Waypoint for additional details on how, when, and where you can participate in the next MCC Insider flight and share your feedback on these new updates. And remember to bookmark the MCC Support Trello Board to stay up to date on current patch notes, known issues, and upcoming releases.
re: Match Composer yo, tell them they HAVE to do this for custom games too. Yuu could have some randoms join open customs that meet certain criteria set by the Party as something they'd like to add into the mix of what they are playing. If they don't cancel the rest of the queue, they would get carried to their next match as a group, but at least the custom game would have enjoyed their company for a match. Bridge the gap.
New update is out - https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/mcc-october-update I'll let Preacher put out a full rundown, if he's interested. The part that's of the most interest to me is that they apparently are still exploring the idea of integrating Custom Edition, which would theoretically allow us to build custom maps for Halo 1. Classic sounds. Importing these require some Saber3D tools to be brought back to life. The engine is very different from the Halo engine so there’s a non-zero engineering tax for this work. It’s not as straight forward as A) copy the classic sounds B) press a button to rebuild sounds C) push out an update. If it was, we would have included it in the first update earlier this year. Halo Custom Edition. In order to properly support Custom Edition, it requires re-adding texture systems to the Halo engine in H1A for DirectX 11. I worked on a prototype of this earlier in the year, but it still doesn’t solve for the other issue which are sounds. Custom Edition was PC only, and it uses audio codecs like oggvorbis which you would normally not use on the Xbox One. In the event that we want to support a Custom Edition map with sounds that never shipped in Halo 1, we need to re-enable parts of the old sound system in the Halo engine, plus support decompressing/playing the sounds in a way that works with H1A’s FMOD implementation. This work is still ongoing.
I'm always trying to get up the motivation to do it, it's the hour I know it will take to edit it down where I lose interest. Now if they put in something like, "Now adding all remaining Halo FPS titles in 4k" or "Now adding Halo 3 Anniversary remaster" or "Now adding Halo Reach remastered" or "Now changing Master Chief Collection to Halo Chronicles and will include any and all things Halo over 1 year old" or "Now removing Loadouts and replacing Ordinance with the traditional weapons on map in Halo 4" or "Now adding 3D back to Halo CE Anniversary and maybe coming to new titles" or "Now adding customs map playlist creator" or " Updated Halo 3's Forge controls to (at least) Halo Reach layout". . . This honestly could go on for a while. Anyway, still happy their working on it and I do appreciate some of the new features they're working on. Haha, see this still took me a while to write but I didn't mind because I started getting excited about all the things I want.
Update: 1/16/2019 edited WINTER TAKEOVER Back in October, the team brought back Infection where over 50,000 players participated in a matchmaking event to earn the new Flood Nameplate.Then in November, we introduced an updated Flood-themed splash screen and main menu refresh that tied back to the October Flood event. Moving forward, we will have periodic event-based menu takeovers with different in-game challenges or goals for the community to achieve. In our November update, we asked that between November 19-30, players help us deal with the Infection that took over MCC by playing the Flooded Campaign Playlist. Many players heard this call to action and with your help, the flood have been successfully driven back. FLOODED BY THE NUMBERS Total number of players who played the ‘Flooded’ playlist between 11/19 and 11/30: 18,042 Total time played: Over 4 years and 4 months of game time Friendworthy: 2,520 played with a friend Now that the flood has been handled, we can enjoy the snowy winter wonderland that has taken over our menus. The team is working on some additional special events and game takeovers for the future. Back in December, we asked players to come play at least 12 matchmade games in the MCC Insider build prior to the holidays during the scheduled playtest times. Those who participated and played 12 complete games will receive their new Ugly Sweater Nameplate unlocks this week. For everyone else, don't fret - you can earn the Ugly Sweater Namplate! Anyone who played at least 12 complete matches during December will be granted the nameplate later this month. And, everyone who plays at least 12 complete matches in January, will receive the nameplate in early February. So, get out there and have some fun! NEW FEATURE: "MODERN AIMING" This feature is designed to help address feedback from some players that aim acceleration in MCC doesn’t “feel right.” The “modern aiming” option helps to smooth out the aim acceleration zones on your controller by using values that are more like H2A and H4 than the older legacy titles. The big difference you will notice is that the movement of your cursor is much smoother with these settings turned on and the aim acceleration zones in the diagonals are much harder to activate. This new setting feels so good that it is turned on by default in the older titles. You can change this back to legacy via the Controller Settings menus. NEW SKULLS FOR HALO: CE Ramp up the challenge and further customize your Halo: CE Campaign experience with the addition of eight more skulls! Anger – Enemies and allies fire their weapons faster and more frequently. Bandana – Fixed a bug with this skull so now energy-based weapons have infinite ammo as well. Catch – Enemies throw and drop more grenades. Ghost – A.I. characters will not flinch from attacks, melee or otherwise. Sputnik – the Mass of objects is decreased, making them more easily displaced That's Just Wrong – Strengthens the hearing of both allies and enemies. They will now notice the slightest sound of reloading or drawing a weapon, footsteps, etc. A.I. also have increased accuracy. Thunderstorm – Field Promotions to the ranks of all A.I. characters so they are more difficult to fight, smarter, and more dangerous. Tough Luck – Enemies always go berserk, always dive out of the way, and never flee. PLAYLIST UPDATES Along with today’s update, we are also making some changes inside of Social Matchmaking. We would like to welcome our latest rotational playlist to the lineup: “Super Duper Fiesta!” This preset includes a mix of Fiesta variants across H2C, H3, H4, and H2A. This will be replacing the “Team Action Sack” option for the time being (don't fret Action Sack fans, it's a temporary refresh). To play Super Duper Fiesta, go to "Social Games" and you'll find it in the "GAME PRESET" option - note that it's using the Action Sack icon but the description displays "SUPER DUPER FIESTA!" We are also moving some of the game types that were in Action Sack to new homes. Full details below. Match Composer Settings Changes: Removed Action Sack and replaced with Super Duper Fiesta! [4v4] Added a Super Duper Fiesta! Game preset. [4v4] H2, H2A, H3, H4 Added Super Duper Fiesta! Entries. [8v8] H3, H4 Moved BTB Heavies entries from Action Sack to Slayer at low weighting [8v8] H4 Moved Dominion entries from Action Sack to King of the Hill. With today's update, Jan. 16, there's only one notable change to the Matchmaking playlists - H3 Hardcore Team Doubles is being removed for now since the tournaments that relied on it are now complete and engagement has slowed. BUG FIXES Here are the key bug fixes included in the January update: Global Cleansed the Flood infection from the main menu Added error handling to prevent users from joining each other from different versions of the game Fixed an issue where players could not enter gameplay using custom map or game variants in offline LAN Fixed an issue where menu music volume slider changes were not respected while in a squad Fixed some navigation inconsistencies in the main menu Fixed an issue where the descriptions for some campaign killstreak medals were inaccurate in the medal chest Halo: CE Fixed an issue that resulted in inconsistent hit detection against players with poor connections Fixed an issue where the Bandana skull did not grant infinite ammo to energy weapons in Campaign Halo 2 Fixed an issue where the Bandana skull did not grant infinite ammo to energy weapons in Campaign Halo 3 Fixed an issue where the Shade Turret was not appropriately displayed as the tool of destruction in the post-game carnage report ODST Improved messaging around which playlists support co-op play Forge & Films Fixed an issue where incorrect file sizes were being displayed for films Fixed an issue where the character limit for map variant names was displayed inaccurately in Halo 3 Fixed an issue where players were forced to re-enter a map variant name after inputting an invalid description KNOWN ISSUES Below are a handful of known issues that the team is aware of with the January update. Each of these issues is on the radar so no need to sound the alarm when providing feedback. These issues were initially messaged back in early December, so hopefully players have had adequate notice and time to plan accordingly. Campaign Checkpoint Loss - Halo: Combat Evolved & Halo 3 Due to work being done in the campaigns for both Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 3, the mid-mission checkpoints for both HCE and H3 will be invalidated upon the installation of the January update. Please complete them prior to installing the patch or you will lose the checkpoint progress. Spartan Ops mission completion badges missing The team has found a bug in this update that causes Spartan Ops mission completion badges to not appear if they were earned in a previous version of the game (prior to the current updated build) or after the title is relaunched after they have been earned. The stats are being tracked appropriately and badges are awarded, but it's just that they aren't visibly appearing at this time. We are looking into a fix for this but wanted to inform players as this bug will be is in the January update. Career Stats In this build certain career stats may appear temporarily blank or not populate without first navigating to another stats page. Campaign Playlist Progression Achievements We have been investigating Achievement related queries players have been discussing in the MCC support forums for a while and have found an issue that is present with this update. Currently the ODST, Halo 4, and Halo 2 Campaign Playlists will not grant Achievements correctly when the playlist is started in a previous build, a player takes a new update, and then completes the Campaign Playlist on the updated build. We are investigating solutions for this currently. As a reminder, bookmark the MCC Support Page on Trello for the latest known issues and overall MCC development status. THE SCOOP Once again, our main man in the MCC engineering trenches Sean “Scoops” Cooper is here with some interesting insights and technical talk: For this update I think I had far more code checked in that was not directly user facing. One of the bigger tasks I had, to make future life easier, was cleaning up how we define and interface with all the different types of game maps in our Universal UI's code. This was complicated due to things like how maps are referenced in pre-existing data for stats, etc. I had to refactor the map list code to provide a straightforward interface for querying the information we need while at the same time keeping their existing, hard coded IDs in place. It's really bland to talk about compared to all the other Scoop(TM) stuff we've done so far, but it was a lot of code that had to be fixed up and/or deleted and then replaced. It was a much smoother task than anticipated, except for a case which ended up causing Greg's dev profile to get populated with bad data. Sorry, Greg! However, there is a set of things that I wanted to get out to The Peoples that IS user facing. More Skulls in Halo: CE! Besides what we listed above there are of course more skulls in Halo 2 which have not made their way over to Halo: CE yet, but some of them with good reason. Some have no equivalent features to change (eg, there's no vehicle boarding in the first game so Jacked is off the table). Others require data or code which did not exist originally and would risk breaking the baseline game trying to make them work. Then a few others haven’t been brought over yet as they require more time and testing. One came very close to being officially added: Feather. What's so special about Feather? Well, as it turns out it in code it really is just Sputnik. The description states "Player and enemy melee strikes impart more movement physics". Well, except that's not *entirely* the case. What the code is doing under the hood is: "Is the thing causing damage to a unit? Does the unit have a weapon in hand? Profit!". That is, so long as you or another biped in the game is wielding a weapon when they do damage, Feather will multiply the physics involved 3x. Which is also how much Sputnik is modifying things. If these two are active at the same time, that's 6x. Well, given that the skull was NOT implemented to the published spec in Halo 2, QA and I decided to back off on this skull for Halo CE: for now. We either need to update the description, or the code to accurately match it. I'm hoping to find time next year to start fleshing out the existing skulls into the later games as well. And who knows, you may even see some entirely new things come into the mix relating to skulls . LOOKING AHEAD There's plenty more MCC goodness coming this year! In general, the team's goal is to continue with a weekly cadence of adjusting playlists and responding to feedback with larger patches and updates dropping once per month. Player feedback is hugely important and the team is always reviewing the needs and wants of the community along with opportunities to continue enhancing and improving the MCC experience. As we look ahead to 2019, here are a few of the key areas the team is initially focusing on: "IP Masking" - We know there are some vulnerabilities and issues that allow some nefarious jerks to ruin players good times by kicking them out of a session. This is a priority area the team is working on. Some additional details can be found on the Trello board. Custom Game Browser - It's been a while since this was announced, but rest assured that this is still happening and should make an appearance in the MCC Insider build for community testing sometime in the next few months. Post Game Carnage Report - Various updates and improvements to the MCC PGCR are in the works. We'll have more details to share later. For a bit more perspective on 2018 and 2019 for MCC, check out producer Sean Swidersky's post HERE. Report issues in our MCC Support Forums.