halo-discussion

[keen silo]

They also said no to Doom guy I think. Who knows why Microsoft makes the choices they make

[west rock]

To both, the episode that the writers for Secret Level wanted to do was a Master Chief and Doomguy team up.

And a lot of people were understandably upset about Microsoft telling them no.

I can see why, the premise alone sounds like the coolest thing ever.

[keen silo]

I disagree but I don’t super care for doom so eh

[west rock]

Fair enough, you gotta be a fan of both for the idea to sound super exciting.

[civic sundial]

The show we got was set in its own timeline, not within the world that we see in the games. The Fallout show is set in the same world as the games

An adaptation is still remaking the story. I know the difference

[west rock]

Yeah and the Fallout show is also canon to the games, it's meant to take place after Fallout 4.

So as a result they're required to follow the source material and know the events of the games. They can't do their own thing entirely.

[civic sundial]

I literally said the Fallout show was set within the same universe

And you can still do plenty within an already established universe

[west rock]

Yeah so why can't Halo do something like that on top of adapting the games?

Like a TV Show about Buck's first team he had before ODST or something.

[civic sundial]

You were claiming the show should've just been an adaptation of CE

[west rock]

It's a good starting point for sure.

[civic sundial]

So do you want the show to be a CE adaptation or a completely new story? I'm confused

[west rock]

Both can be true. You can start by adapting CE and then expand into new stories later on.

Starting with CE is just a safe option

[coarse dagger]

Tbf, Paramount is in the midst of being taken over by / merging with Skydance. Lots of things up in the air due to this. Show may still land on another platform for future seasons

[west rock]

Wasn't aware of that. I thought the show was basically canned since some of the writing staff left.

[civic sundial]

I'd rather just have a completely new story than trying to retell CE in a show format

It'd be like saying "You can't make a Star Wars show about a Mandolorian, you need to remake the films as a show"

[west rock]

When adapting a pre-existing series to a different medium it's usually good to adapt one of the games as a safe start.

[civic sundial]

The Fallout show didn't adapt the first game

[west rock]

Plus using Star Wars as an example isnt a good comparison because Star Wars was always a film series.

[civic sundial]

It wasn't a franchise with multiple live action TV shows though

[west rock]

It heavily referenced events from previous games.

[civic sundial]

That's different to retelling those games

[west rock]

While the first game in a TV show would have been cool (mostly because nobody new to Fallout is gonna play the first two)

I was pleasantly surprised to see the show worked.

And unlike Halo, Fallout stories tend to be relatively self-contained.

You dont need to play Fallout 3 to understand the plot of New Vegas.

And you dont need to play any of the other games to understand 4

Halo's story more or less expects you to have played at least one game to understand what's going on.

[keen silo]

All the fallout games heavily reference other titles.

Fallout is definitely not self contained. Sure the “main plot” isn’t as linear compared to Halo, but they’re definitely connected. Just look at the Enclave’s rapidly waning power in the wasteland

[west rock]

They reference other titles yes but you dont need to play them to understand plot elements of the game you're on.

You dont need to play Fallout 2 or 3 to understand the Enclave Remnants in New Vegas

[keen silo]

I guess but it really helps

You can play Halo three without needing to play CE or 2

[west rock]

It does, but New Vegas does a good enough job of explaning what the Enclave was on its own.

[keen silo]

Heck that’s what I did for almost a decade until the MCC.

[west rock]

Ehh, only if you dont care about the story.

Otherwise you're constantly asking questions throughout Halo 3's campaign

[civic sundial]

That's more down to Halo 3 not handling its story anywhere near as well as the games before it

[west rock]

Who's Cortana? What's a Gravemind? Who's Guilty Spark and why did he try to kill Master Chief? Why are humans and Elites working together?

All stuff you dont know unless you played the two games that preceded it

[civic sundial]

Like, Halo 2 doesn't require you to play CE as you get a pretty good recap of what happened in the first cutscene

And Halo 2's story is just a really good story, regardless of if you've played CE or not

[west rock]

It's an okay story.

It still suffers from having loads of the original script cut out due to the development problems

[civic sundial]

I don't think we needed things like Miranda betraying Chief in Halo 2

[west rock]

We didnt need that lame cliffhanger ending either

How can you criticize Reach for its story and then go to bat for Halo 2 when the only good part of Halo 2's storytelling was with all the Arbiter missions?

[civic sundial]

When did I critque Reach?

[west rock]

Yesterday

[civic sundial]

I'm gonna be real, I don't keep track of literally everything I say here

And just because I think Halo 2 has a great story, that doesn't mean I think it's flawless

[west rock]

Halo 2 has glaring plotholes of its own and we really have no reason to care about Miranda as a character.

[west rock]

I dont understand her emotional connection to Johnson in Halo 3 either.

They only did one mission together on Delta Halo, so why is she so hesitant to shoot him when they're surrounded by Brutes?

[celest heron]

because she's still a human and not a mindless super soldier and they're also in a high stress situation.

[civic sundial]

Also Johnson was one of the last humans to see Miranda's father alive

Like, if nothing else, you're gonna want to make sure the last human who saw your father doesn't end up dead

Obviously that is dependant on the relationship you have with your father, but I imagine Miranda and Jacob was on good terms

[keen silo]

Plus Johnson is cool as heck so like, why not get attached to him in the middle of a war of eradication

[lusty wraith]

Halo 3’s cutscene direction was just terrible sometimes, especially the one where Miranda dies. In an ideal world, an H3A done right would fix that

[civic sundial]

Oh the cutscene is itself terrible for sure. Like, Miranda goes in solo with a Pelican against some of the most heavily armed Brutes

But the idea she's trying to save the last person who saw her father is at least understandable. I just wish instead they captured her and Chief and Arby saved both her and Johnson

Like, imagine if instead of dying, Miranda went on to become the captain of the Infinity. Or was at the very least, stationed on the Infinity

But alas, a certain someone formerly of Bungie decided that both Miranda and Johnson had to die

[west rock]

Making her Captain of the Infinity makes Lasky as a character pointless.

And Lasky is one of the few Reclaimer trilogy characters I genuinely liked.

[civic sundial]

I was spitballing an idea

[keen silo]

Yes and?
It would make Chief’s Man vs Machine an internal debate a bit more touching I would think.

[west rock]

That Man or Machine dialogue was the most forced an unnatural part of Halo 4 I've ever heard.

[civic sundial]

I think it makes sense for Chief to begin questioning what it means to be human and whether he was more like a machine considering most of his life being spent fighting in war

[west rock]

Chief doesnt need to be an emotionally complex and deep character.

He never did, he was good BECAUSE he was simple and a vector for the player.

[keen silo]

No he doesn’t NEED to be emotionally complex, but it adds depth. Homeboy with stolen away as a child and honed into a super solider. He’s gonna have some internal thoughts about it at some point

Idk. I like having characters with some depth to them. I understand the appeal for them not to have depth but that’s not my thing

[west rock]

Keep that stuff confined to the books, the games dont need it.

If anything they suffered for it in my opinion.

[keen silo]

Maybe. I’ve always thought Reach suffered by having Noble team be Spartan 3s but oh well

[west rock]

I never had a problem with it honestly.

It made sense from a lore perspective since there was way more Spartan-III's that survived augmentation

[rocky oasis]

is there a spops mission thats similar to firefight? i assume not just asking since its a huge selection of missions.

[civic sundial]

The closest I can think of are chapter 1 of episode 3 and chapter 5 of the same episode but I still would hesitate to call them similar to Firefight

[celest heron]

I mean they're all basically firefight cause it's just waves of enemies.

[civic sundial]

The problem wasn't that they survived augmentation, the problem is that Spartan IIIs being on Reach and interacting with Halsey is a major contradiction to already established lore regarding Halsey and how she hadn't discovered the existance of or met any Spartan III until the events of Ghosts of Onyx

[ruby lake]

mmm

[rocky oasis]

hrmm, thanks. ill try them. itd be nice if the final spops was an actual firefight or something.

[west rock]

Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx were written super early into the lifespan of Halo as a franchise. Personally I dont even think all of Fall of Reach should be considered canon anymore.

Only segments that dont contradict with Halo Reach

[civic sundial]

The final mission of Spartan Ops, while it's not a Firefight-like mission by any means, is pretty fun. Much better paced than other Spartan Ops missions

[keen silo]

I like this idea. I too could like to de-canonize the spartan 2 program since no spartan 2s are present in Halo reach

[west rock]

Jorge

[keen silo]

shucks

[west rock]

Jorge was a Spartan-II

[keen silo]

I forgot Jorge existed

[rocky oasis]

im sure it is. im just saying it wouldve been a nice little bonus
so far the vip is pretty firefight like i like it! ty.

i wonder if we will ever get a firefight mod. thatd be so cool

[civic sundial]

Someone is no doubt working on a Firefight mod

[west rock]

Halo 4 isnt popular enough to get a lot of mods compared to the other games on the MCC

[rocky oasis]

for halo 4? 😵 once in a blue moon perhaps

[civic sundial]

The idea that they should be retconned because they were written early into Halo's lifespan is terrible

[rocky oasis]

operation longbow is the closest and it doesnt even utilise the 1 thing a halo 4 firefight wouodve been cool with: custom loadouts

[west rock]

I didnt say retcon them

[ruby lake]

-# i feel like im the only one who likes halo 4 and 5 (for different reasons)

[civic sundial]

It's been getting an uptick in mods as of late, which I appreciate

[west rock]

I said the books shouldnt supercede the canon of the games and the contradictions should be removed from canon.

[rocky oasis]

i like 4! i cant like 5 on priciple though sadly

[civic sundial]

I like Halo 4 and I like aspects of Halo 5

[ruby lake]

i just like 5 for its music, artstyle, weapons, and gameplay

[west rock]

Bungie even fixed one of the major contradictions already with the Cortana seen in Reach only being a fragment

[ruby lake]

same with 4.. but its gameplay? ehhhhh

[civic sundial]

Bungie didn't make that fix

[rocky oasis]

thats awesome! i feel like a firefight mod wouldnt even necessarily be that hard. you could just repurpose assets and systems already in place in spartan ops

[west rock]

They did.

[ruby lake]

feels a little primitive to me but i can still play it

[civic sundial]

That's called retconning

Like even if you're retconning part of something, that's still retconning it

[west rock]

4's biggest problem for me is how its ammo economy is so absurdly small

Your weapons run out of ammo super fast in 4

[rocky oasis]

why is it? the ammo caps are the same as reach right?

[civic sundial]

And going "Oh, so these chapters are now not canon in this book" would be really annoying

[west rock]

Smaller than Reach's actually.

[ruby lake]

but my favorite 343 game is infinite

because i can have an opinion and it will not be devalued

[civic sundial]

Some weapons have it lower than Reach's

[rocky oasis]

oh i never noticed

[ruby lake]

i noticed that during my replays in the game

i was like "why did this weapon run out of ammo so quick??" so im like running around trying to get more ammo by beating up covenant for their weapons

[rocky oasis]

bro the halo 4 drop pods are nasty work 🤢 what is THAT lol

[ruby lake]

you mean for the multiplayer thing?

[civic sundial]

You mean the Covenant drop pods?

[celest heron]

so I don't get spam deleted again. Use the ammo perk for it.

[rocky oasis]

yeah lol its an egg that plops down then goes back up

[ruby lake]

ohhh i know what youre talking abt

[civic sundial]

Oh those are the reusable ones, I kinda like those

[ruby lake]

jelly fact 387367: always clean up after yourself

[rocky oasis]

in campaign? lol

[west rock]

I'll just give an example from two guns

Magnum
Halo CE: 12/120 = 132. 11 total Mags
Halo 2: 12/48 = 60. 5 total Mags
Halo 3: 8/40 = 48. 6 total Mags
ODST: 12/60 = 72. 6 total Mags
Halo Reach: 8/40 = 48. 6 total Mags
Halo 4: 8/32 = 40. 5 total Mags

Assault Rifle
Halo CE: 60/600 = 660. 11 total Mags
Halo 3: 32/352 = 384. 12 total Mags
Halo Reach: 32/288 = 320. 10 total Mags
Halo 4: 32/224 = 256. 8 total Mags

[celest heron]

in sp ops

[west rock]

Every gun in Halo 4 has one to two mags less than their Reach counterparts.

[civic sundial]

BR still has 108 in reserve in Halo 4, just like how it was in Halo 2 and 3

[rocky oasis]

i wasnt the one who complained about ammo tho haha and im pretty sure they meant campaign

[civic sundial]

Pretty sure the Carbine's the same too

[west rock]

The Carbine and the BR are the only guns that are unchanged but they nerfed the crap out of the BR in Halo 4

[celest heron]

oh, I misread then

[rocky oasis]

haha np

[civic sundial]

What version of Halo 4 are you playing? The BR's just fine

[west rock]

Also guns like the plasma pistol had their total number of shots cut in half

You could fire 100 shots in Reach before it ran out

Halo 4? Only 50

I dont know why the ammo economy was nerfed in Halo 4 so badly

[solemn portal]

Because of the perks.

[civic sundial]

Loadouts

Spawning with a Plasma Pistol is a thing you could do with the custom loadouts in the game

[west rock]

Removing all the map drop weapons for the sake of custom loadouts was part of 4 I really didnt like

[celest heron]

most likely a design choice for the campaign so we had to use the whole sandbox.

[west rock]

The problem is that tiny ammo economy makes the campaign a grind on any difficulty above Normal

[celest heron]

also, we're in forerunner areas more so human weapons would be a lot less likely. I don't really agree with it, but I get why'd do that if that's the reasoning.

[west rock]

The problem in 4 was most of the forerunner weapons that werent the light rifle, boltshot, or power weapons just werent good.

Suppressor was total cheeks in 4 and the shotgun was extremely meh

[celest heron]

shattershot was good

[rocky oasis]

is there a way to play spartan ops back to back? it keeps kicking me to the main menu when one ends lol

[west rock]

Unless there's a playlist function for it I dont think so

[rocky oasis]

mcc jank i suppose lol. ty

[civic sundial]

There isn't a way to do that and it's how it was on the 360 version of Halo 4 too

[rocky oasis]

weird, thanks anyway

[west rock]

I hope MCC gets some quality of life updates since more and more people are going back to it

[lusty wraith]

Really hope they add back credits. Major part of the experience imo, cutting straight to the menu after finishing a game feels awful

[ruby lake]

imo the exchange should be bigger and have sections for which cosmetics you're looking for instead of just using a horizontal list of items plastered everywhereee

[west rock]

See some people didnt like the Credits system in Reach, I personally liked it

[lusty wraith]

I meant end-campaign credits 😅

[ruby lake]

like if theres new helmets, the tab should have an exclamation mark beside it or something

[west rock]

That I can agree on, make the Exchange larger and rotate more frequently.

[ruby lake]

or just one big store without rotating stuff

[west rock]

Ah, I'd say to start by replacing the loading screens for the campaigns

Because some of the campaign loading screens have actual spoilers in them

[ruby lake]

like put every single free item on the Sp store and organize it so players wont have to go into the customizaton menu and SCROLL for minutes just to find one thing

[lusty wraith]

Yea that too, along with obscuring mission titles on first playthrough like the original games

[west rock]

Replace the spoiler images by re-adding the legacy loading screens.

[ruby lake]

i hate the horizontal cosmetic lists in infinite

[lusty wraith]

CE is missing a whole scene without the end credits too, like there’s probably a good percentage of Halo players who’ve never seen the 343 gs surviving tease

[civic sundial]

I don't see the old loading screens being added to MCC

[west rock]

I actually forgot that was absent holy crap.

[ruby knoll]

i could possibly see them changing static graphics but not ui elements

[west rock]

They should give us the video files for the OG Halo menu screens as selectable options for the video menu

Right now you need a mod to get those

[lusty wraith]

Also a music menu selector, I’m tired of the H2A chant

[civic sundial]

Aye, that's what I could see them doing, as that's significantly easier to do than recreating the original loading screens and adding those in

[west rock]

That too, selectable menu music would be cool

If I want the classic H2 orchestra to play when I decide to select the Halo 2 campaign it should let me.

Or if I want to get myself pumped up by setting Mjolnir Mix as the matchmaking menu music I should have that option

Halo music has the ability to get you insanely hyped, so customizable menu music would be an amazing QoL update.

[ruby lake]

i wanna see if they could add older music into infinite and toggle them for a main menu music or when you're fighting waves of enemies in firefight

[ruby lake]

true

[west rock]

Also they should add back map voting to MCC matchmaking

[ruby lake]

VETO SNOWBOUND NOW

[west rock]

Everyone veto snowbound!

[ruby lake]

i hate snowbound

[west rock]

I love the map, but early Halo 3 had that map EVERYWHERE in the map selection

[ruby lake]

yeaaahhgh

[west rock]

That got fixed later on

But snowbound is a great 4v4 and FFA map, I never disliked it.

[ruby lake]

bluhh

i never understood armor coatings

in infinite

at least let me rotate them for different patterns instead of just

sticking onto them on my spartan and pray it looks good

[west rock]

Im pretty sure the coatings is the most disliked customization feature in Infinite.

[ruby lake]

it is

[west rock]

Some armor kits also havent been updated either

[ruby lake]

YEP

[west rock]

We literally have all the proper armor pieces that match Rosenda's concept art and yet her armor kit hasnt been updated to reflect that.

[ruby lake]

we shouldve have gotten the ability to make our own armor kits now

[west rock]

Okay that would be cool

[ruby lake]

so like

we dont gotta scramble for certain armor parts to pull off a favorite spartan look

[west rock]

Make your own custom armor kits for easy switching.

[ruby lake]

but the horizontal list for the customization menu takes sooo long to get 1 single armor peice

why not just put the boxes on the left side of your spartan and make it vertical instead

[west rock]

Facts

[ruby lake]

but theyll prob put that in a future update or somethingg

[west rock]

Considering how severely Infinite's content updates have slowed I dont see that being a thing sadly.

[ruby lake]

thats why i said future

[west rock]

I think more armor pieces should be added to the Exchange in Infinite as well

No way I'd pay 10 dollars for a single chest piece, but I'd absolutely get on and play to get enough Spartan Points for that chest piece.

[ruby lake]

just add all the items that are unlocked by spartan points in the exchange and organize them into separate selectable lists

so i wont have to go on a duck hunt to find a single armor piece

[west rock]

Thats also a good idea

I cant even tell you how many times I had to dig through the menus just to find which armor perms and coatings can be bought with spartan points.

[ruby lake]

example:
helmets [10]
armor attachments [30+]
coatings [30+]
nameplates [40+]

just put them in labeled lists

[ruby lake]

i had to squint my eyes just to find scorpion punch (coating)

[west rock]

I had to literally go one by one just to find Rosenda's armor coating.

[fossil harbor]

its a crappy solution but favoriting stuff can prevent you some precious time spent scrolling

[ruby lake]

yeaahh

but i still hate this horizontal scrolling thing

it takes way too dang long

[fossil harbor]

it really is terrible

[west rock]

We should be able to have more than one helmet attachment too

I can't make my Halo Reach spartan 1 to 1 in Infinite because some of the attachments weren't done that way.

[ruby lake]

separate thigh attachments and waist attachments

[fossil harbor]

I just want them to make all the grey armor attachments colored, I never use them because they look so out of place

[celest heron]

vertical would take just as long.

[west rock]

The fact they moved the wrist attachments to the right wrist is criminal imo

[ruby lake]

like oh my god

LET ME PUT A BELT ON WITH A COMPUTER ON MY LEG, GAMEE

[west rock]

Some of the Reach chest pieces need to be fixed too

the HP Halo and Assault/Sapper chest pieces are missing their grenade belts

[ruby lake]

has the bell toll (visor) ever reached the exchange yet

haven't seen the light of day since S1

[west rock]

Don't know

[ruby lake]

ughh
they prob forgot it by now

[rocky oasis]

has anyone actually ever listened to allied callouts in reaches campaign and coop firefight? they make some of the most useless radios ever lol

some of them are literally just turning on their walkie talkies to grunt into the microphone lol
“huh!”
“urgh!”

[neon onyx]

That's something fun for me jsjsj

[keen silo]

Some of the callouts are less than useless and I love it.

[rocky oasis]

loooooooooool me too id have it no other way

[west rock]

I love Carter's callout in the first level

"Spartans, assist!"

Like no duh dude I've already dropped 4 of them by the time you're done speaking.

Also cold take

The Noble Team armor kits in Infinite need to be reworked

I feel like the whole point of the pre-made and unlockable armor kits should be that they allow you to have appearances that arent normally possible with the regular customization

[junior matrix]

Working through Reach (again), and I'm just before ||the mission where you just survive as long as possible||. Would a spiker be a good weapon to keep on hand for that part or is just running and grabing what you can more effective?

[civic sundial]

Spiker's terrible

[rocky oasis]

lol i had emile radio me to say “lucky hit” once. as if hes a teammate annoyed he was shot in a game lol

yeah spiker is one of those “(slightly) better than nothing”s

[junior matrix]

Gotcha. Basically just looking for tips on what to usen whatnot

[celest heron]

tip is to just die asap and get it over with.

[torpid bobcat]

y'know what's strange? in halo reach and 3 we had the falcon and hornet, airborn troop transport vehicles/air support vehicles that seat up between 2 to 5 players, how come we never got covenant versions of airborn troop transport/air support vehicles?

[junior matrix]

That definitely would be cool. You talking like the Phantoms or the Seraphs?

[west rock]

The Hornet was basically the UNSC answer to the Banshee.

Falcon being an earlier version if I had to guess.

[solemn portal]

The Hornet and the Falcon aren't in the same class at all. Hell, the Hornet is way too slow to be an actual answer to the Banshee, though it is nearly a flying tank.

[west rock]

I would say the Wasp is a newer take on the hornet but that thing isnt tanky at all

It's a glass cannon vehicle, probably the glassiest glass cannon vehicle in the series.

[sharp summit]

The trailer for frontlines looks like a forge map I’ve played on which is literally just the frontlines WWII

Trench war with tanks and stuff it’s actually really fun so I hope it’s a full scale version of it

[rocky oasis]

for the longest time i just stuck to default firefight settings however im looking to shake things up a bit. does anyone know how it works?
like theres 5 waves but about 9 different “squad” slots?

does it choose 1 of the 3 for wave 1, 3 of the 5 for wave 2 to 4 and 1 of the 3 for wave 5?

[fossil harbor]

each wave uses every single squad

I lied, I just tested it and it selects in the order like you said

[deep valve]

please vote to bring MCC to GOG 🙏

we need to preserve this gem

[civic sundial]

I don't think MCC is about to suddenly disappear off the face of the world

[inland minnow]

i dont think mcc can be sufficiently unlinked from msoft services for GOG anyway

[deep valve]

yea but GOG is amazing and I love what CDPR is doing

[west rock]

Im not sure about MCC but I can see the legacy versions being ported to GOG maybe.

[vast nova]

i hope the Bomb mode comes to infinite

[signal ivy]

assault?

it's coming

[west rock]

TU Slayer needs to be a separate category in Reach MCC

Singlehandedly the worst addition to the entire game when half the maps on Reach were never designed for the TU healthpool

[glacial tartan]

Maybe besides Invasion, isnt all of reach mm using the TU?

and I dont remember the title update altering the healthpool, not sure what you mean by that

Checked all the 4v4s besides Grifball / CE Anniversary

[west rock]

It switches between normal and TU, and it does. Precision weapons are buffed and your total health pool is smaller because of bleedthrough damage.

Considering precision weapons were already extremely strong in Reach, I dont think whoever made the TU modes knew about game balance.

[glacial tartan]

What switches between normal and TU? everything I see in the playlist gametypes (besides Grifball/Anniversary as I mentioned before) use the _tu versions of the files.

So health isnt actually different, just feels different.

The TU is overwhelmingly positively received, no?

Besides that bleedthrough effect is mainly for melees anyway, doesnt really impact using the DMR for example 😄

maybe the needle rifle? I dont play reach as much anymore

[civic sundial]

TU reduced much of the bloom that was present on most weapons

[glacial tartan]

Thats the main one, yeah

[civic sundial]

They're not gonna port the original versions of the old Halo games to GOG. There's zero reason to when MCC exists

[west rock]

Better hit registration, less bugs, less problems with the increased tickrate that were never addressed. No TU mode.

[west rock]

No its for headshots too

Once your shields hit a certain percentage, headshots ignore the shield meter.

[west rock]

Also no, TU is hated by most Reach veterans and it's a widely known talking point that they would rather have classic Reach Slayer back

I would too, at the very least TU should be a selectable gametype on the matchmaking screen. Then I wouldnt have to play it since I could just shut it off.

[civic sundial]

Ok but that doesn't mean they're gonna spend time porting the original versions of those games onto PC for GOG. MCC exists and while there are bugs, it's still the best way of accessing those games these days

And they aren't gonna host servers dedicated to a PC port of 360 Reach either when there's already the MCC servers

[west rock]

They didnt have a problem doing it up until last year.

Even when Reach was added to MCC, the 360 servers were active until 2024

[civic sundial]

The servers for the 360 Halo games were shut down in 2022

[west rock]

That long? Seriously?

It felt like it was only last year

[glacial tartan]

I was Inheritor twice back in the day and I've never heard it, but maybe I'm missing the conversation 😄

Not sure what makes someone a Reach veteran

[west rock]

You can disengage from fights a lot less

If anything the TU balancing encourages grenade spam more than ever.

Plus armor lock's main use of counterplay was nerfed for no reason

[civic sundial]

Armour lock was a horrid armour ability to go up against

[west rock]

Skill issue

[glacial tartan]

Alright nvm

This persons just trolling lmao

[west rock]

Unironically a skill issue if you didnt know how to counter an armor lock spammer.

[west rock]

Sorry that an objectively correct opinion is seen as trolling to you but hopefully you'll be open to an actual discussion next time.

Armor Lock's biggest appeal was its ability to counter explosives. Nowadays you cant counter getting stuck with it because the TU changes removed that and if anything made it STRONGER because your shields actually recharge while in lock

[glacial tartan]

Having a discussion over a change made over a decade ago is a bit of a moot point when the second someone brought it up you typed Skill issue within 2 seconds 😄

[west rock]

It is a skill issue, I dont really know how else to describe it.

[glacial tartan]

I guess 343 are clueless then

[west rock]

You reached Inheritor rank twice for crying out loud, you of all people should know Armor Lock is pretty easy to play around if someone's mindlessly spamming it lol.

[glacial tartan]

I also know the "nerfs" were positively received

[west rock]

For a short time, yes.

[glacial tartan]

Pretty much for the last decade yeah

[west rock]

Not for that long lol

[celest heron]

doesn't like tu and defends default armor lock. oof

[glacial tartan]

If you only play a few custom games of reach every now and then I get it

[west rock]

I made it to general grade 2 on OG Reach back when I was grinding the matchmaking like nothing else.

[magic night]

"You skillfully managed to land a plasma grenade on me? Ha, watch as I press this get out of jail free button."

[glacial tartan]

Who cares about title update nonsense, lets talk about the real issue - that god awful visual lighting petroleum jelly smear

[west rock]

"Oh no, this guy used armor lock to counter my plasma grenade. I'd better just wait it out and finish him off since armor lock doesn't recharge your shields."

[civic sundial]

It's basically the "I have a button that makes me impossible to kill" thing that kids would pull out when playing games on the playground. And it was never fun to deal with since it slowed the pace of combat to a complete halt

[west rock]

Or better yet

Time when you know he's going to exit and throw a grenade at his foot.

Just like that, you countered their "get out of jail free button." 👍

[civic sundial]

Since you just had to wait for them to disengage armour lock

[celest heron]

yes, let's stand around now halting combat completely. great mechanic

[west rock]

You mean an opponent willingly taking themselves out of the game by burning the entire meter? Therefore making it easier for your teammates?

[glacial tartan]

This is one of those theoretical conversations about Halo that always kills me

"simply outwit your opponents on the battlefield" this isnt a book

[west rock]

Dang, such a tragedy. If only there were ways to punish them for using armor lock.

Oh wait, there was.

And people managed to punish people for using armor lock all the time for the entirety of OG Reach's lifespan with no issues.

[celest heron]

you actually don't have to use the entire meter. and it was nerfed for good reason.

[celest heron]

I agree

[west rock]

The problem with Armor Lock is you have to commit once you actually use it in an engagement.

And if you use it in a bad position you're basically screwed.

[civic sundial]

You can't just ignore the armour locked player as they are still a threat to consider. If I look away from them to go chase after someone else, I'm allowing them to get an easy kill

[west rock]

Sure you could ignore a rocket and counter getting stuck. But what if your opponent knows how to punish you? You basically served yourself up on a silver platter to them.

[glacial tartan]

I enjoy your enthusiasm but you're on an island

[west rock]

Almost every Reach discussion about balancing always goes like this, it never changes.

People will never stop waffling about armor lock and making it sound like a bigger problem than it actually was.

[glacial tartan]

If the title update changes were so horrible, they would have been tweaked when Reach was the main title. Not to mention when MCC became a thing they had the option to tweak it or not use it and didnt hesitate 😄

[civic sundial]

It's because it was one of the big problems with the balancing in Reach, alongside the bloom that was horrible on most weapons

[west rock]

Dont hold down the trigger like a 6 year old then. Actually time your shots instead of running in a straight line hosing the entire mag of a full auto weapon at once.

[glacial tartan]

I am dying to see your matchmaking stats and I dont usually ask about that

[civic sundial]

The DMR isn't full auto and didn't shoot straight in Reach until the TU changes

[west rock]

1.2 K/D

[glacial tartan]

Thats what I expected

[west rock]

Across all modes.

[glacial tartan]

Actually a bit higher tbh

[civic sundial]

Like, if I'm shooting at an enemy in red reticle range, my shots shouldn't be 45 degrees off target

[west rock]

If you're missing someone at red reticle range with the DMR then you definitely didnt have your reticle on them besides just the edge for the color to change.

[glacial tartan]

At least you're above the 1.0 line. But still, the conversation is a bit overdone at this point

Reachs bloom at launch was horrible, it was changed for a reason (W 343) and then when MCC came out on PC they finally removed that god awful visual blur and they randomly added it back a few years later and THAT is unforgivable (L 343)

[civic sundial]

It was a close-mid range engagement and their entire body was within the reticle. My shot still went wide

[west rock]

You're definitely lying then.

If their body was larger than your reticle then you were either not pacing your shots or you're flat out lying.

[west rock]

Better bloom isnt the issue of TU for me

[glacial tartan]

Throw in all of the TU changes, they are better 😄

[west rock]

If anything the reduction made close range weapons more viable, but precision weapons should have less bloom reduction.

Bleedthrough is stupid, full stop.

[glacial tartan]

Even removing the sword blocking b/c meleeing a sword person and blocking was kind of dumb, although I wish sword vs sword still clashed

[west rock]

If I still have shield left I should be able to survive a shield breaking headshot or a grenade blast if im not directly on top of it.

[civic sundial]

I was not lying and I was pacing my shots. I'm sorry but my shots shouldn't be going 45 degrees off from where I'm aiming if I'm using a weapon that's meant for precision. How can you not see the issue with that?

[west rock]

Removing sword blocking was dumb, that actually took timing and skill to do it consistently.

[civic sundial]

Like imagine if the sniper rifle had a chance to just fire a round off in a direction other than the one you point it. It'd be horrid

[glacial tartan]

You do know that they did a ton of data collection around the TU and it wasnt a random decision

[west rock]

Data collection from who? Twitch streamers who never played Halo? People who's only experience with the franchise was Halo 5?

Because it definitely shows.

[glacial tartan]

What

[magic night]

The 2010 Twitch streamer and Halo 5 players

[west rock]

Because not a single OG Reach player you'll find now does or has ever approved of bleedthrough.

[glacial tartan]

Yeah what are you talking about

The title update was in 2011 are you serious or not

They went back in time after Halo 5 to adjust Reach mechanics is a bold argument

[west rock]

Title Update slayer was almost never voted on in OG Reach lmao.

It was the least popular gametype then, and it shouldnt have been added to MCC either.

Sorry but nobody wants Social Slayer to be SWAT-lite

Add TU as a selectable gametype to the menu, then watch the data and see how fast people turn it off for MCC Reach.

[keen silo]

I want social slayer to be swat like

[west rock]

They already have SWAT as a selectable gametype, just pick that.

[west rock]

The OG title update may have been introduced in 2011 but very few people were happy to see it return to MCC

[keen silo]

No

[west rock]

During the period where you could vote for classic and TU in the Reach playlists, the classic modes won 9 out of 10 times.

[glacial tartan]

Can you show that pls

[west rock]

If it was possible I would, I speak from experience since I played Reach very frequently during that time.

I never voted for TU, neither did anyone on my friends list nor randoms i'd party up with.

Only time we ever played TU was if a full squad was queued and voted for it and a random just voted for it because it had the most votes.

[keen silo]

I did too, TU won Very frequently in my experience

[glacial tartan]

Yeah but you're nobody (and so am I) and decisions are made using data

[west rock]

And I question the validity of said data.

MCC Reach didnt even get a full month with classic Reach slayer before they ruined it by bringing those changes back

[civic sundial]

I don't remember Halo 5 being out in 2010. Do you have a source for this? And Twitch was definitely not big back then. I can share some insight into how data was gathered, it was by devs analysing data they gathered by looking at stats within the game itself. This is commonly used to inform decisions regarding balance

[glacial tartan]

You are questioning the validity of data you've never seen. Its possible everyone hated the changes yet 343 forced them through. Its also possible everyone loved the changes. You seemingly have no idea, other than you hate them? On the contrary, I prefer them. Now we're stuck!

[west rock]

Who said anything about 2010 in a discussion about MCC Reach?

You see more discussion posts trashing TU Slayer on MCC than approval

[west rock]

Wouldnt be the first time 343 ignored all feedback and pushed a change through.

They did it with Halo 5 when they had brought on pro players to test new maps.

[civic sundial]

The TU changes happened back in 2011. Halo 5 was released in 2015. So I'm not sure how Halo 5 streamers on Twitch were providing feedback for changes back in 2010/2011

[west rock]

Again I didnt say that.

You're badly fishing for a gotcha moment and it's not working.

[glacial tartan]

The entire time we’d been discussing the TU from launch but he added MCC Reach later but either way it’s pointless

[west rock]

What data points did they have for them to be convinced TU was liked enough to return to MCC?

[glacial tartan]

It’s not a debate talk like a human lol

Clearly they had some reason to believe it was preferred

[west rock]

This entire discussion has been about MCC Reach? You brought up the 360 version before to talk about rank and armor lock.

[glacial tartan]

The title update happened a year after reaches launch

[west rock]

Because the previous management at the time was out of touch with the community.

[glacial tartan]

The period of time without it is such a narrow window

So yeah, when comparing TU vs non-TU I’m going to compare the only period where non-TU existed

[west rock]

My entire discussion started because I want TU as an optional gametype I can select on the matchmaking menu before queuing up.

[civic sundial]

When discussing the changes the TU brought to Reach, you can't just ignore that the TU happened because of data from 360 Reach. It was not a change made exclusively for MCC's version of Reach

So bringing up Halo 5 streamers is what has us all confused. Because those streamers were not playing Halo 5 in 2010/2011

[west rock]

And nobody I knew liked it even then dude. In fact the TU changes didnt exist outside of that playlist.

Not until they started implementing it into the vote rotation, and barely ever did I get it because I'd always be part of the common majority that voted against.

[glacial tartan]

343 clearly hates you

[west rock]

Not to mention I was equally as active in custom games lobbies and those TU changes didnt exist then either when we all played vanilla gametypes.

And we played those a lot.

[west rock]

Didn't say that.

Halo Studios just needs to give us the option to choose whether we want to play the TU modes or not in matchmaking.

[glacial tartan]

At this stage of MCC they need to be consolidating lists. Not dividing players further. Make it a rotational playlist, boom

[west rock]

How is it divisive to give people the option to pick if they want TU slayer or not? Thats the dumbest excuse I've ever heard.

If anything putting more focus on MCC would be good for them since it's currently more popular than Halo Infinite.

[glacial tartan]

How would you force that option into the composer?

[west rock]

By making it selectable on the menu for Reach the same way I can choose SWAT, Action Sack, or Griffball.

[civic sundial]

Cool, so now there's twice as many gamemodes for Reach, dividing the playerbase further

[west rock]

My god you're full of excuses.

Never have I heard that making an unpopular mode optional is divisive.

[civic sundial]

TU isn't a single mode

It was a rebalance of Reach that affected multiple modes

That'd be like saying the Halo 5 weapon tuning update was just a mode, it wasn't

[west rock]

By your logic, deselecting stuff like Precision Slayer or Objective Mode on the menu is "dividing the playerbase"

It's not divisive at all.

Nothing divisive about giving people the ability to choose which modes they want to queue up for.

[glacial tartan]

The composer selections arent game specific. I shifted to pragmatism.

[west rock]

Composer selections change depending on which games you have selected.

[glacial tartan]

By definition having a separate selection would be divisive 😄

[west rock]

Not in the way Eon is suggesting it is.

Besides, the options change depending on whether you pick 4v4 or 8v8 in thr match composer.

I can't select Grifball when I go to 8v8.

Does that mean Grifball is dividing the playerbase?

Short answer:

No, it doesn't. Because the people who still have Grifball selected are still queuing up to get Grifball.

The same way people who would still have TU selected would still be queuing up for gametypes with the TU balancing.

[glacial tartan]

Thats why I said rotational might work

[west rock]

You mean TU being rotated out? Because I agree.

Classic Reach game modes shouldnt be the ones on rotation

[glacial tartan]

"Classic" being rotational would be interesting

[west rock]

No, classic should be the standard. TU should be rotational.

[civic sundial]

That's different because Grifball was never a 8v8 mode when it was matchmade. That'd be like complaining I'm not getting to play on Boneyard when I selected SWAT as the mode I wanted to play

[west rock]

Everyone complains about the DMR being broken in Reach even though TU is what made it broken lmao.

Yet when I say TU is the issue people get defensive.

[grave ether]

[west rock]

Im not saying remove TU from MCC, but at the very least we should be able to play the versions of the gamemodes without TU changes in the social playlists.

[civic sundial]

Hey Skyfi. How nice is that popcorn?

[glacial tartan]

"For MCC, we aligned on TU being the core foundation for the game’s matchmaking settings. TU was built on learnings from the vanilla settings, but still retained the same core mechanics and balance the game shipped with; alterations were evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Aside from a reduction in bloom, TU settings also introduced bleedthrough where a hit can punch through a player’s shields and damage their health. There was a bug in legacy Reach exposed by bleedthrough where a player’s head took damage and was healed independently from their body which resulted in inconsistent time-to-kill (TTK) against players who had taken damage and then healed. We fixed this issue in MCC, so bleedthrough was the natural choice given that it brings more consistency with the other titles in MCC.

TU settings are the core settings across Reach matchmaking in MCC. This applies to all core Slayer and objective categories as well as niche categories like SWAT, Snipers, and Action Sack. The only exceptions are Infection, Grifball, Invasion, and Hardcore."

[grave ether]

buttery

[civic sundial]

Oh that does sound nice

[west rock]

Consistency with other titles is meaningless.

I don't play Reach because it feels like other titles.

[glacial tartan]

Copied from the 2019 patch notes from 343

[west rock]

I play Reach because it felt like Reach.

Not like I'm Halo 2 levels of fragile because a DMR headshot will ignore the remaining portion of my shield and insta-kill me with no counterplay.

Or that my options to disengage are limited because all they have to do is chuck a grenade and the splash damage alone ignores my remaining shields as a factor and kills me anyway.

[glacial tartan]

Luckily the vanilla settings are in matchmaking right now - Grifball 😄

(and infection is always around)

[civic sundial]

Never forget, no matter who wins, Grif loses

Apart from the two times Grif survived the explosion

[keen silo]

I was always under the impression that the real losers were the friends we made along the way

[civic sundial]

Nah, Grif is the real loser in Grifball

[west rock]

I don't play Grifball.

[civic sundial]

https://tenor.com/view/redvsblue-rvb-what-gif-12643001

[celest heron]

I like how they were asking for the data points, but their justification for wanting it gone was only their personal experiences. cause you know, thousands of other people don't play it I guess.

[keen silo]

I’d love to see Infinite’s take on grifball. Then I might actually use the action sack playlist :p

Its been consistently fun in every halo title except reach specifically

[civic sundial]

Well considering Assault seems to be coming back, Grifball could very well be on the menu too

Though Grif not being orange anymore is a shame. I can already hear Sarge's weaping from beyond the grave

It's as if he never died at all...

[celest heron]

I thought they already made grifball.

[rocky oasis]

it can btw. you can still regen in lock, it just doesnt last long enough to see it

[civic sundial]

They have?

[rocky oasis]

so if you wait before locking you can regen while in it

[west rock]

The problem with Grifball is that it's only fun for maybe a game or too.

[celest heron]

I don't know for sure, but thought maybe it was in customs

[west rock]

The novelty wears off quick when it devolves into a stand-off.

[fossil harbor]

I hate grifball 30 seconds into a match

[west rock]

If anything I think Grifball courts need to stop being flat and small arenas.

[civic sundial]

Someone clearly has never played in the big leagues of Grifball. So many dead Grifs, all for Sarge's entertainment

[west rock]

Big leagues Grifball would actually put me to sleep.

[fossil harbor]

Agreed, absolute yawn fest of a mode that takes zero skill when all you did was somehow hit your hammer in a closer radius than me

[glacial tartan]

I dont like Grifball, my friends dont like Grifball, I think it should be removed

[celest heron]

they had a grifball league so I think it's more than a novelty if you know how to play it.

[west rock]

Grifball is up there with Assassination Tower in the realms of "why does this exist the way it does?"

[civic sundial]

It's meant to be like a football pitch, it's not meant to be a traditional arena mode

[west rock]

Yeah but thats exactly what makes it boring

Its like every other sport ever.

[celest heron]

H5 also had maps that weren't flat. think it was a different version though.

[civic sundial]

Because Burnie Burns was terrible at Halo, so he decided to make Grifball inspired by a line in Red Vs Blue. He then turned out to be terrible at Grifball

[fossil harbor]

Yeah and it was low gravity iirc

[west rock]

That sounds like more fun than standard grifball

Because there's actual obstacles and more way to go besides left, right, and center.

[fossil harbor]

It was, and it was also in action sack so it never overstayed its welcome

[west rock]

Low gravity grifball with actual arenas with ramps, hills, and ledges and stuff is something I'd want to play. It sounds like it gives the mode depth.

[fossil harbor]

I still understand why grifball is the way it is tho, it’s like Eon said, supposed to be a simple rugby inspired game.

[celest heron]

oh, I forgot about that. that was pretty fun

[civic sundial]

I think maybe it's best that the cast of Red Vs Blue explains the rules (Spoilers, kill Gif is really important) https://youtu.be/rmOzAE-CbLY?si=A3pMEygbW_3hjhKb

[west rock]

Man rooster teeth was an OG for machinima.

I wonder where they are now.

The company's probably doing super good and having much deserved success with no problems at all.

[civic sundial]

I can't tell if you're trying to be sarcastic or not

[signal ivy]

oh I can, it's sarcastic

[civic sundial]

Thanks Aegis

[vernal crystal]

I would like to say that I hope the topic that I dub "player-operated Sangheili" gets addressed in this upcoming developer livestream and given a solid "yes, it is happening" or "no, they will never be coming".

And yes, I am very much a delusional individual.

Perhaps even utterly insane.

[coarse dagger]

You're not going to get a definitive answer

We've told you this multiple times

[civic sundial]

I don't think the stream tomorrow is gonna be addressing that since it's just gonna be talking about what the next three operations will feature

And something like playable Elites is something most likely to be saved for whatever the next game will be at this point

[coarse dagger]

^ exactly this

[civic sundial]

And it'd be given its own dedicated announcement if it was coming

[vernal crystal]

I completely understand this, I'm just confused as to why they can't give a definitive answer.

[ruby lake]

i wonder if a video can help infinite get more players.. (advertisement?)

[coarse dagger]

In the event they have to walk back the decision later

They won't confirm anything solid like this until the feature, if it's happening, is locked in and shipping

[vernal crystal]

I get that, but this late into the game's life span? That logic just feels kinda iffy to me.

[ruby lake]

wair- did something get announced today?

[coarse dagger]

Don't look for it happening in Infinite

[coarse dagger]

No

[vernal crystal]

I'm trying not to, but it's hard for me.

[coarse dagger]

You need to stop asking, the current answer is not changing

[vernal crystal]

I will try my absolute best.

[civic sundial]

Infinite isn't exactly the only thing being worked on by HS these days, they have other projects going on as well. If we are ever to get playable Elites again, it'd likely be in one of those if they decide it is worth doing so

And Infinite's mainly getting monthly operations that add in forge maps and new modes to matchmaking alongside free armour to earn. Sure every three months we are getting something more than that, but it's not a game that's being supported to the same extent as say Destiny 2 is whenever a new season or episode releases there

[ruby lake]

mmm
i wonder if playable elites will help with playercounts though

despite the game's reputation

[fossil harbor]

What does 343 get from making an announcement that something ISNT happening anyways lol, unless it was something they mentioned previously they have zero reason to address it

[ruby lake]

and a very rocky barebones start..

[civic sundial]

You usually don't make announcements of what isn't in a game

And if they did make an announcement like that, it'd just get plenty of people attacking them

Like, let's say hypothetically they made an announcement where Halo isn't coming to PC back when there was all the rumours, it'd just be completely terrible press for them

[fossil harbor]

All 7 elite preferred species fans will suddenly start playing and enjoying the game. Just kidding they won’t lol.

[keen silo]

Even if it did, it would probably just be temporary

[civic sundial]

Doubt it would change much at this point

[fossil harbor]

Exactly.

[civic sundial]

Aye

And here's the thing, I ain't against playable Elites coming back, but there's plenty of reasons for why they haven't been in any of the games. They need to be properly balanced and not include issues like missing neck hitboxes for most of their helmets (Oh how I wish that was fixed for MCC Halo 3)

So I ain't gonna throw my arms up in anger or sadness if they don't do playable Elites for the next game

[balmy wedge]

They're also one of those elements far easier to develop with a starting intent to be playable characters, than something retroactively added. The only time we've technically seen them retroactively added is Halo 2: Anniversary, being brought to Halo 4's engine, and even that barely counts. That's probably why Halo Reach never got an expansion to cosmetics for the Master Chief Collection: The enemies from the campaign and the players from multiplayer are tied together too closely.

That said, I'll definitely throw my arms up in sadness if we don't get playable Elites. I like my boys and it's such a great way to make them feel fresh.

[vernal crystal]

Beef jerky pizza.

[civic sundial]

See, with Reach, I honestly think Bungie should've given them as much love as Spartans got in the customisation department. It has always annoyed me that the only things I could change on them was a full armour set

Like, imagine if we could choose different shoulders, chest pieces, thigh armour, etc on our Elites in Reach at launch back in 2010

[balmy wedge]

It's so odd they didn't, especially since, in terms of how the game functions, even ODSTs from Halo 3: ODST feature more customization than Reach's Elites.

[civic sundial]

ODST had you choose preset armour based on each member of Alpha Nine (Plus Johnson) and armour colours. It's pretty much the same as what the Elites were in Reach but with emblems on their chest

[glacial tartan]

Give me an H2 Honor Guard skin in MCC and I’ll be an elite main

When they had the entire elite season and that didn’t come I was disappointed

[civic sundial]

Keepward is reminiscent of Honour Guard armour

Unless you mean adding Honour Guard armour into Halo 2 classic, that wouldn't have happened since Halo 2 doesn't support armour customisation outside of player colours and emblems

[onyx latch]

Elites honestly weren't that popular.

[ruby lake]

pinging me 3 hourz later

shame

[keen silo]

I really liked them as a kid and hope they come back but realistically I can take it or leave it. I’d rather elites get their own game instead of being a MP feature

[west rock]

The LASO community is completely insane

[glacial tartan]

This is Honor Guard from wish lets be honest

[west rock]

Some crazy person just dared the community to complete a challenge that sounds completely impossible.

Trilogy LASO deathless

[civic sundial]

Some people are crazy

[west rock]

You cant take breaks between games either

It has to be a single run

The original 3 campaigns, full LASO, and you have to start all the way back at CE if you die at any point.

[west rock]

I liked it because it made Halo stand out.

Excuses like "oh it's a Spartan story" and then giving us Elite themed armor months later just feels like a slap in the face.

I'd rather they just say "No we're not doing playable Elites this game" than get an excuse that tries to walk on eggshells.

[civic sundial]

I mean, they literally did say multiple times in livestreams that playable Elites wouldn't be in the game

I remember Sketch saying Infinite wouldn't have them

[coarse dagger]

They said in an #Ask343 video before launch that they didn't have plans to add them, and have said multiple times since the that there are no current plans to add them to Infinite

[balmy wedge]

Not in the engine, the engine has different helmets, different chests, different overall gear, and I think different left shoulders. So even though in the surface level it's just helmet and player, there's a little more behind the scenes I think.

[balmy wedge]

Agreed. Especially since there are so many good reasons not to include them, while the whole "Spartan story" undermines the universe.
The work would be doubled minimum across testing, animations, and compatibility with existing Elites from Campaign or Firefight, there's a question of game balance, technical information like that is cool because it takes a peak into game development itself.

[civic sundial]

There's the base ODST helmet and body shared across all the members of Alpha Nine and Johnson (Dare has a slightly different body). The shoulders are different yes, but the different helmets are all done via attachments to the base helmet

But even then, you cannot mix and match the shoulders from one preset with the helmet of another

[west rock]

To make playable Elites they'd probably have to either cut down the number of total customization options or pull a Halo Reach where you can only select pre-made armor sets.

Otherwise it's double the workload on EVERY facet.

[balmy wedge]

Oh I forgot about Dare, yeah she's the wrench in things and doesn't have the same in-engine functionality as the others.
I think that's only true for the right shoulder, but not the left, but it causes issued with the blood-type stamp, it's not a part of the shoulder model. It's been a while since I played with ODST assets though.

[balmy wedge]

I would be 100% okay with armor set selection.

[west rock]

Same, we actually got some pretty awesome sets in Reach

Still love how the Ranger armor looked.

[balmy wedge]

Though there's no world that'd happen - if they went to the efforts of adding Elites, they're absolutely gonna market that baby, they'll sell anything and everything, from shoulders to helmets.

[west rock]

I mean they did that with the announcement of new Elite armor customization options for Halo 3 MCC.

But to be honest I'd be fine with just having the Blur design Elites with the default armor for a time. I just love the Elites.

[balmy wedge]

Us Elite fans will take anything.

[west rock]

Pretty much, even if we had no customization I'd still take it.

Elites are a core part of the Halo universe, so it is a bit upsetting to see a series staple feature since Halo 2 be neglected for so long.

[warped yew]

Why not just let us control the elite biped in forge and custom games for the next game

If that happens, just let us control every biped in the next game

[tulip tusk]

i hope there is a deep foggy jungle level in next halo

[keen silo]

Only if the deep foggy jungle contains

• A crashed pelican
• Large Maze like forerunner structure filled with hard light bridges
• A strange, galaxy threatening species of indeterminate origin
• Frog

[tulip tusk]

🐸

[west rock]

I gotta try some modded campaigns

I keep forgetting I can do that since MCC has steam workshop support.

[west rock]

Odd how Republic Commando was able to keep a T rating despite having blood and gore in it.

If blood can still keep you within a T rating I dont understand the lack of it in 5 or Infinite MP

If I had to guess it was the Flood and their body horror element that gave Halo the M rating in the Bungie era.

[coarse dagger]

It's only T in the US via the ESRB, it largely didn't change in other regions. PEGI still had Halo 5 at 16

[west rock]

Really? I figured the level of violence being toned down is what contributed to the ratings change.

[civic sundial]

It's true

And honestly Halo was always a game that barely deserved the M rating

[wooden briar]

https://tenor.com/view/master-chief-halo-booty-master-chief-fortnite-shaking-ass-gif-12236647373332085527

This is how it got jacked up from an E to a T rating. Too hardcore.

[tepid wagon]

I will never forgive them.

[west rock]

That I disagree on heavily.

In fact I'd consider that the hottest of hot takes.

[civic sundial]

They couldn't handle Chief's dance moves

[wooden briar]

Most consumers don't care about ESRB ratings: if they did, GTA, CoD, and others would not hit the sales numbers they've had.

[civic sundial]

Aye, and regardless, outside of the Flood stuff, there isn't really much that would make Halo match up to M rating

[wooden briar]

Should be rated M for Mesmerizing.

[civic sundial]

Agreed

[west rock]

True but I'd at least like to see blood splatters make a return to form. It was an effective damage indicator prior to 5 and Infinite.

I'd argue it was better than hitmarkers.

We don't need the borderline comedic amounts from CE, just enough to get the idea.

[wooden briar]

Wouldn't mind the option for sure.

[civic sundial]

I am so indifferent on whether or not there's lots of blood because it's not something I spend time thinking about when I'm playing

[west rock]

CE had such a comedic amount of blood splatter that you could fill a swimming pool with a small cluster of grunts.

[civic sundial]

Like, I'm there to fight aliens, not to stare at puddles of blood

[wooden briar]

I always turn off gore if I can because I like a clean field of view and feedback.

[west rock]

I mean the blood is what added to that cool detail.

At the very least it could be a toggle imo.

[wooden briar]

Yeah a toggle to give people options is always nice.

You know what toggle I'd like to have back: assassinations

[west rock]

Because in the earlier games you could tell how severe a battlefield was based on some of the blood splatter. It was a good method of visual storytelling and visual feedback.

[west rock]

The fact even staff roles want assassinations back makes me question why we never got that.

They were easily the coolest part of Reach and I was glad to see them return in 5.

[wooden briar]

https://tenor.com/view/halo-assassination-gif-22926484

[west rock]

Nothing beats the raw brutality of the Reach neck snap one for me.

[wooden briar]

Collecting them was one of my favorite parts of the H5 grind.

[west rock]

I didnt have many because I never cared for REQ packs unless I got the occasional free gold pack.

[wooden briar]

now I have to collect them in BO6 and they are not as cool as Halo's

[west rock]

Titanfall 2's executions are better than anything BO6 came up with

Love the one where you phase into your opponent and make them explode.

[shadow turret]

Idk why this immediately reminded me of the Super Mario 64 (I think) bowser fight lol

[civic sundial]

I remember when I first got to a point where I had everything unlocked when new stuff was still being added. It felt so satisfying knowing that I could just save up points to get packs with only the new stuff

[wooden briar]

Now that you say that, I get that vibe too haha.

[wooden briar]

yeahhhh that content add cadence was awesome, especially as a Warzone player (OG Warzone, CoD copied the name I'll always say )

Although, one cool feature of BO6 assassinations is that, if you equip one where an animal (e.g. hyena or wolf) is part of it, that animal will be with you in your lobby animation. Which is freaking awesome.

[civic sundial]

There are some things I wish we got for Halo 5, like skins for the H2 BR but honestly, we had so much good stuff over the course of its life

[wooden briar]

Yeah H5 content was outrageously awesome.

[west rock]

I will admit the game got a lot better after the release of Forge and popular legacy modes.

Thats why I rate it higher than Halo 4 nowadays.

[civic sundial]

I honestly wouldn't mind HS porting some of the stuff in Halo 5 forward to Infinite too. Like, imagine getting to use the Carbine, Scattershot or Incineration Cannon in Infinite

[wooden briar]

Loved the carbine: was my go-to lvl 2 Req for supporting teammates rushing a base.

[civic sundial]

Aye. I remember using it a bunch too

But then you had the Blood of Suban which was fantastic to use

[west rock]

People have been asking for the classic weapons to return to Infinite for a while now.

[civic sundial]

If they ever brought back the Needle Rifle, I'd want it to function basically the same as the Blood of Suban

[west rock]

I could see the Needler Rifle and Carbine being able to co-exist

Carbine does more shield damage while Needler Rifle has a faster ROF and better health damage

[civic sundial]

Well the Needle Rifle has supercombines as well so you need to balance it around that

[sturdy kernel]

Carbine are the best weapon on Halo 5

[civic sundial]

Especially since it's a precision weapon unlike the Needler

[wooden briar]

Blood of Suban appreciator

[civic sundial]

https://tenor.com/view/predator-handshake-muscle-strong-man-gif-5783927

[west rock]

I didnt get the supercombine often since it could get headshots.

I always went for that since it was better at mid to close range than the DMR in Reach

[wooden briar]

You know what supercombine weapon was underrated: Razor's Edge. At lvl 3, you could get a mild tracking supercombine suppressor for insane base defense.

[west rock]

I only ever used the variant weapons from H5 in Warzone Firefight.

I never touched PVP Warzone after trying it.

[wooden briar]

I enjoyed how fleshed out the different options were for different tastes. For me and friends, the PvP element of WZ was the attractive part: like a BTB + AI enemies mixed in + MOBA elements.

man I miss it.

[civic sundial]

Oh that thing was so good

[west rock]

I preferred warzone firefight because of the scale

Though some bosses were straight up just damage sponges.

[fossil harbor]

Sound design 👌😮‍💨

[west rock]

Lowkey I want the old gravity hammer sound design from 3 and Reach back

It sounded so heavy and thunderous, I loved it.

[fossil harbor]

I wanna know why the halo 4 hammer sounds the way it does

[west rock]

I want to know why the Infinite hammer just sounds like someone punching a table.

For such a strong weapon, the sound doesnt do enough to convey it.

[west rock]

Would it be an unreasonable request to say that Halo Studios should stop focusing on making Halo a competitive game first for a while? I feel like that hasn't been doing it any favors since player retention is super low right now.

A competitive scene is something that kinda spawns naturally from a grassroots level.

[glacial tartan]

Have they really been doing that? Every game of theirs seems far more mass appeal focused as opposed to focused on competition

[west rock]

"We are a very competitive game. That's who we are, That's our DNA. If you go all the way back to the very first Halo it was very competitive."

-Sean Baron, 343i/Halo Studios employee

A fundamental misunderstanding of Halo as a series that warps how it can be handled.

Halo was about being fun and being a party game first for quite some time.

Being a competitive game is fine but that shouldn't be what takes precedent during development. A competitive game is a FUN game first and foremost.

[rocky oasis]

did a grunt just called me a f*ng monkey?!

“you f*ng monkey” 😭

unbelievable lol

[west rock]

Dang, that grunt was beefing hard to drop that insult.

[rocky oasis]

i was just testing something and got called that 😭

[west rock]

And I thought Elites being called split-lip was out of pocket.

[grave ether]

Pretty sure that's not what they say and it just kinda sounds like it lol

[rocky oasis]

dreamcrusher 🔨

[west rock]

Could be worse

Remember that Back 4 Blood audio glitch that caused two zombie grunt files to overlap and made it sound like they were saying the gamer word?

[rocky oasis]

no lol i got into back4blood after it became good

[west rock]

That's an audio bug that got viral really quick during its early stages.

I dont think I've seen an audio bug that bad in Halo yet lol.

[rocky oasis]

odst pain sounds overlapping is pretty close lol

[west rock]

I know the bots in Infinite can t-bag you if they kill you though.

[fossil harbor]

literally the only thing I remember from that game

[west rock]

I tried the beta and then went back to Left 4 Dead 2.

Turned it into a Halo themed survival game.

[fossil harbor]

crazy how we haven't gotten a better zombie game since l4d2

[west rock]

Yeah but like I said.

I modded it so its Noble Team surviving against hordes of Flood.

[edgy forum]

I honestly like how the Gravity Hammer in Infinite is compared to the other games

Gives you time to swing it like Babe Ruth does at the world championship

Energy Sword has felt more agile and swift, I’d say 4’s was alright and not enough for that slice n dice movement

[keen silo]

Same. I like the Infinite Gravity hammer. Feels good

[edgy forum]

Hot take: Jega ‘Rdomnai is essentially the Shadow the Hedgehog version of the Arbiter

[civic sundial]

He looks even more like that in some of his concept art

Specifically the middle one

[balmy wedge]

I agree. I think it needs a new Melee attack, 4 had the best using its blade, but its primary fire feels more unique than ever.

[west rock]

The problem I have with it is that it came at the cost of the god tier gravity physics

So you can't play Jenga in Infinite anymore.

[balmy wedge]

Gives me Arbiter Halo Wars vibes. I get why they didn't roll with it, but it's still good.

[edgy forum]

No way! Shadow the Sangheili

[civic sundial]

I also really want the next mainline game to basically be divided into two campaigns, one following Chief continuing his fight on Zeta, the other following Jega in a very Sonic Adventure 2-like way

[west rock]

Nah

[civic sundial]

Sure Chief isn't the Sonic to Jega's Shadow but I doubt Arbiter would show up on Zeta

[west rock]

If you're gonna put a playable Elite in the campaign give us a new Arbiter story finally.

[civic sundial]

See, everyone wants Arbiter to just show up Zeta without thinking about the fact he's kinda real busy on his home planet keeping the peace

[edgy forum]

True

[west rock]

Didn't they WIN the civil war on Sanghelios though?

[edgy forum]

Someone’s gotta keep the Sangheili in check because of civil war unrest

[civic sundial]

And like, playing as Jega would provide us with a new perspective

[edgy forum]

I haven’t read the novel with him and Vale but it sounds like he’s progressing

[west rock]

The problem I have with Jega is that he has nothing to work with as a playable character.

[edgy forum]

I think Jega was some Sangheili mercenary Escharum hired

[civic sundial]

He won against Jul's Covenant, that doesn't mean there's complete peace on Sanghelios

[west rock]

He's just a guy who kills Spartans.

Like, cool

He's Locke but as an Elite.

And Locke was so poorly received that he basically doesn't exist anymore.

[civic sundial]

He has made progress, but Cortana messed things up when she took control of the galaxy

[civic sundial]

Locke wasn't a dedicated Spartan killer

[edgy forum]

I wonder what the Arbiter thinks

[civic sundial]

And Jega could definitely be fleshed out in a campaign

[west rock]

I'd actually like to get an Arbiter focused spin-off about the Sanghelios civil war.

[edgy forum]

Been slacking on my Halo literacy

[civic sundial]

In fact, pretty sure the only time Locke ever "hunted" another Spartan is the events of Halo 5, where he was on orders to bring Chief and Blue Team back alive

[west rock]

And Halo 5's campaign unironically put me to sleep.

A playthrough of that story works better than melatonin.

[balmy wedge]

Prove it. Every night, play Halo 5's campaign in bed.

[west rock]

I sold my Xbox One X quite some time ago, couldn't even if I wanted to.

[civic sundial]

Some people really love to overdramatise how bad Halo 5's campaign is. Yeah the story itself isn't good, but it's got plenty of solid gameplay

[west rock]

Sold it to help pay for my current PC rig.

[west rock]

Levels where you basically walk around talking to NPCs and nothing else arent exactly good ideas to me.

Pretty sure Halo 5 had at least two of those.

[balmy wedge]

That's only... Two? Three?
And you can find GOODIES. Skip the NPCs and go for the TREASURES.

[civic sundial]

That's 3 out of 15 levels, the game had plenty of shooting action

[west rock]

Halo 5 campaign? Absolutely forgettable, and honestly nothing was really lost when it got retconned by Infinite.

Multiplayer? That's actually worth revisiting in its completed state.

[civic sundial]

The events of Halo 5 are canon to Infinite though

[west rock]

SOME events are, if I recall others were made non-canon.

So it more or less exists in a semi-canon state.

[balmy wedge]

A lot of the things Halo 5 did wrong, Halo Infinite did right. Like the movement, the whole secondary aiming function, enemy AI, I think Halo 5 had to have a few missteps for Halo Infinite to be as solid as it is.

[edgy forum]

I admire the squad based mechanics in 5 like how they followed with Star Wars Republic Commando, at least that was implemented once

[civic sundial]

If I recall, the guy behind the squad mechanics on Republic Commando worked on Halo 5

[edgy forum]

They brought back the Spartan (ground) pound as the Grapple Hook’s upgrades into Infinite which is fun

[west rock]

Really? Because Halo 5's squad mechanics felt like an afterthought compared to Republic Commando's

[balmy wedge]

I felt like it was more frustrating than helpful, but rather than being thrown out completely, I think they should polish it and bring it back to another game. It feels like the natural next step to the current micromanagement of swapping out ally's weapons.

[edgy forum]

True, it’s not the worst story to be conceived but it’s certainly not very friendly

The gameplay was quick and easy to adapt to

[edgy forum]

Oh yeah that is definitely an idea that could be improved

[west rock]

Delta Squad AI also actually was useful.

When playing through with Blue Team and Osiris I felt like I was the one doing all the work

[edgy forum]

“Give me your weapon”
“But you have a plasma pistol”
“Yes :)”

[civic sundial]

It's easily one of the weaker stories in Halo, but I have seen so many worse stories elsewhere

[edgy forum]

Yeah objectively other games have had worse stories than Halo 5 like COD MWIII (2023), DA: The Veilguard, SSKTJL, etc.

[west rock]

One thing that helped Republic Commando a lot was the multi-purpose blaster your entire squad had and the special role orders you could give that were highlighted.

So specific marked covers let you order your teammates to take a sniper position and others a demo position.

With Halo 5 it feels way less natural, and more akin to micromanagement

[white birch]

And you cant even hand your AI teammates power weapons and make a rolling death ball with a Warthog.

You can make em pick it up but like, bro, Vale, please, drop the plasma pistol, there is an Incineration Cannon right there

[west rock]

If Halo 5 were to ever get moved to a new generation (which basically means getting remade entirely since the Halo 5 writer was fired) I'd recommend sticking to the Bungie/Infinite artstyle and basically overhauling the squad mechanics

[civic sundial]

I don't think the writer was fired, he left of his own accord

[west rock]

I dont trust corporate speak

As someone who works in the business world and directly interacts with it. Saying someone left or stepped down is basically a polite way of saying they were let go so they can keep their reputation.

[coarse dagger]

Sometimes people just decide to move on

[civic sundial]

Yeah

[west rock]

It doesnt happen often, so if he actually did just leave that's fine.

I've just seen it happen enough to question if thats the truth.

[coarse dagger]

It's not always the case that folk get fired or forced out

[west rock]

Either way Halo 5 could use a remake later down the line imo.

The multiplayer is worth revisiting for sure.

But thats a long shot off, Halo 3 doesnt even have an Anniversary release in consideration yet.

[civic sundial]

I don't see Halo 5 getting a remake

[west rock]

Honestly I want a Halo 3 Anniversary just so I can see Blur Studios come back to remake the cutscenes.

The H2A cutscenes are amazing.

[short flower]

I know!!!

UE5 remake would be so gorgeous. 20 years of the game in 2 years.

[coarse dagger]

https://aka.ms/SpringUpdate25

[edgy forum]

Nice

[civic sundial]

Confirmation of a Brute Shotgun coming for Summer

[coarse dagger]

Sweet!

[edgy forum]

I think Bip Bap took down the stream

For this he must be punished in the simulations

[civic sundial]

Strafe changes coming

[west rock]

Ha, no fuel rod cannon or classic shotgun.

Looks like one of my friends owes me 40 bucks

And they were absolutely convinced both weapons were coming.

[coarse dagger]

There is a fuel rod coming next week

SPNKR fuel rod

[west rock]

Fuel Rod SPNKR isnt gonna count towards the bet, it's not the fuel rod cannon

He bet on both legacy weapons returning the way they've been known.

[edgy forum]

I have a question what does this statement imply:

This expanded pass will be available in the first Operation of each Update. The second and third Operations will offer the traditional 20-tier Operation Pass offering.

So first Operation will be 50 and the next two will be 20 format?

[wooden briar]

Expanded Pass = 50 tiers, including 4 armor sets.

[edgy forum]

Right

I mean that’s good there’s more to earn and unlock from 20 to 50 where it’s not too much nor too little. However I feel anybody that can’t afford the Pass, if they don’t grind MS points and convert them to money, will miss their shot and have to afford a steep price discount at the shop. Hoping that in good faith the price will not be expensive.

Because sometimes people have busy schedules and won’t be able to play the game due to real life circumstances

[keen silo]

I have mixed feelings on the fuel rod SPNKR. It feels like a Halo 5 weapon variant

[edgy forum]

I think it’s pretty cool

A fresh take on the original weapon but in a more variant way sort of

[west rock]

I question why they didnt just add the classic fuel rod back

[edgy forum]

I’ll take any new weapon to crush the Banished in Firefight

[civic sundial]

It's very much a product of the team working on Infinite having limited resources.

[edgy forum]

Yeah which means they’ll have to get creative

[west rock]

The model already exists in the game, this just feels like they either couldnt be bothered or weren't allowed to add it.

[edgy forum]

Adaptability with the limited resources

[civic sundial]

What do you mean the Fuel Rod Cannon already exists in the game?

[edgy forum]

That was during development hell for the game

I don’t believe in that balarky code talk with video game weapons

[civic sundial]

Ah, so likely something that isn't in the files of the game that released

[edgy forum]

Yeah assuming there’s a strict hold it’s best to just make something with what’s given rather than having to wait longer and take time to release it

[civic sundial]

Aye, it's why the MA5K Avenger shares animations with the MA40

[edgy forum]

Which isn’t a bad thing honestly, tons of video games reuse a lot of assets or resources

[civic sundial]

Though there's more of a reason for those two to share animations since the MA5K is a variant of the MA5 series of rifles

[edgy forum]

Yeah basically lore wise and mechanically

[civic sundial]

Aye, that is true as well

[edgy forum]

The MA5K with 60 rounds also reminds me of that CE AR mechanic

[civic sundial]

Like, imagine if a game like Destiny tried to give every weapon unique animations. The large number of animations would bloat the file size too much

[edgy forum]

Yeah which is typically why every other weapon share the same reloading animation

[civic sundial]

Aye, though it's mainly based gameplay-wise off of Halo 2 and Halo 5's SMGs

[edgy forum]

Overall, Operation Pass is a nice change. Sandbox overhaul is nice, Forge is adding more and yeah should be a grand ol time with Frontlines

My friend is eager for the Operation Blue Team in March

[civic sundial]

I'm definitely buying that Operation when it comes out

[edgy forum]

Same although I’ve been contend with everything I needed like my Halo CE armor, Halo 2 Armor, and soon Halo 2 Magnum or weaponry

[civic sundial]

Huh, I had a thought, they could bring in the Magnum model from the UE demo last October as a new weapon, reuse Sidekick animations and I don't think anyone would mind

[edgy forum]

True

[wispy helm]

Hey guys, i’m at a good spot as i am just about to finish H: CE for the first time. Currently on Two betrayals on Heroic.

[edgy forum]

I’m wanting that Halo 2 Magnum model

[west rock]

The model is in the game files.

So it makes you question why they couldnt take the fuel rod cannon model in the game files and just add the fuel rod cannon instead of making it a spnkr variant.

[west rock]

The one that dataminers found?

[wispy helm]

I was definitely mentally prepared doing The Library beforehand, a third of the level was waiting for the monitor to open doors and i was like “Open the door. Open the door. Open the door”

[narrow sedge]

wow they actually listened to Favyns videos im so happy!

[wispy helm]

CE features 9 missions and a mental stability test.

[civic sundial]

I know there's skips speedrunners do to get through those doors faster, but they take some practice to get right

And just be glad you don't have to do a maths quiz once you reach the final door like in Cursed Halo

[wispy helm]

i’ve really only played CE casually, those parts are the gaming equivalent of anxiety.

Which begs the question “Why are you playing the game on something higher than normal if this is your first runthrough?” And you’d be justified to ask me that.

[west rock]

But yeah the Halo 5 fuel rod already exists in Halo Infinite's files. Fully modeled and textured too, even has the animations.

[wispy helm]

Going in Two Betrayals, i had a slight panic attack in the first bridge where the Banshee straight up charged in on me when i wanted to shoot it down and suddenly left me with 1 red health and no shields. I was deathly scared by that inconvenience.

[lavish minnow]

will atriox ever return or not since rebranding halo

[sturdy kernel]

Atriox is still alive, so maybe yes, and he returned on the end of Halo Infinite campaign

[west rock]

Atriox should have been in the actual campaign imo.

[lavish minnow]

what about captin cutter in halo wars 2

[west rock]

The Spirit of Fire is still stranded at the Ark if I recall.

They can't go anywhere because they have no slipspace drive.

[lavish minnow]

do u like the halo infininte atriox voice actor or halo wars 2 one

[west rock]

Halo Wars 2.

We didn't get enough time with the Infinite one for me to grow attached to them

He appeared only in the beginning cutscene and then was basically handwaived out and "killed" offscreen

[lavish minnow]

why didnt they kept the the halo wars 2 one

[west rock]

Infinite's development was such a mess I dont even know why.

[lavish minnow]

if he was a b oss fight idk how chief would deafet him bc hes very powerful asf

[west rock]

Hopefully the switch to Unreal 5 helps to fix things.

[lavish minnow]

i hope they change the voice actor to the halo wars 2 one

cuz the voice sounds more brutal

[west rock]

Im pretty sure you can remake the Blam engine physics in UE5 too.

[lavish minnow]

if atriox returns should he be a boss fight or team up with chief

is halo wars 3 ever going to exist

[west rock]

No, Atriox has no reason to team up with Chief. That would be such a terrible idea. Just make him a boss fight.

[sturdy kernel]

Also Endless will be new enemy

[lavish minnow]

idk how he would die

when the boss fight ends there should be a cutscene where atriox and chief finishing the fight

[west rock]

He dies because you killed him in the boss fight lmao

[lavish minnow]

no the final line like eschrum

before he dies

[west rock]

Dont give him one.

Eschrum's death scene was probably the worst part of the campaign imo.

[lavish minnow]

i mean atriox could survive still he is very strong like in halo wars 2

unless chief breaks his armour

[west rock]

Pretty sure that would piss off everyone who killed him in the boss fight if you just went "nah, he somehow survived."

[edgy forum]

Which one?

Also I think Atriox got sent in the past at the end of Halo Infinite

So there’s time traveling???

[west rock]

Unfortunately yes

And I have a gut feeling it's not gonna be good because time travel plots are EXTREMELY hard to do well.

[sturdy kernel]

No and how?

It's impossible

He just found where Endless cylics are been contained ob Zeta Halo

[edgy forum]

It's been awhile since I've seen the legendary ending

[west rock]

Pretty sure Chief got time displaced in the ending after he killed the Harbinger or whatever her name was.

[sturdy kernel]

The Harbinger her real name. you right

[west rock]

I really hope they dont introduce time travel.

[sturdy kernel]

Did you believe in what you came up with yourself or what?

There will be no time travel, it's unreal to make in Halo

[tulip tusk]

Unreal engine!

[celest heron]

strafe changes!

https://tenor.com/view/spongebob-squarepants-horray-finally-about-time-gif-5909754397376002885

[celest heron]

should've happened a long time ago tbh. the nade changes are good as well, but seemed to be a lot of nerfs this time around.

[kind rose]

more excited about a few balance changes than this new Fuel Rod Spnkr

wish they chose to do unique weapons or lore accurate ones tbh.

[celest heron]

oh, and ranked squad battle is giving me bad flashbacks of h5 ranked btb facing full sweat squads, lol.

[west rock]

It's still gonna be against sweat squads with how awful the SBMM still is.

[edgy forum]

I’m stoked for the Fuel Rod SPNKR

Can’t wait to wreck lobbies and Banished with it

[deep obsidian]

does anyone know if the fuel rod spnkr bounces

[left snow]

Isn't ranked supposed to be sweaty?

[west rock]

Even in ranked SBMM doesnt work correctly so its more like

HCS grand finals level when you're only in low to mid rank

[left snow]

Teams tend to be matched evenly. And the MMR weighting for squads is good.

But the skill range within lobbies is too wide. Especially in allowed squads.

I can only imagine that will be exponential in 8v8

[celest heron]

my point was about playing full onyx parties against solos which was almost always one sided in h5.

[left snow]

Was that related to the fixed +7/-7 CSR change at high ranks.

Normally if you have the best team on the server you will get wins - but your MMR won't go up and thus you get very low CSR gains. And lose heaps on losses.

But now teams are encouraged to manipulate squads and milk the fixed CSR gains.

[celest heron]

don't remember, but mainly referring to the lack of high enough solo players to make the game balanced against a party. whether it will be the same in infinite remains to be seen.

[full sluice]

Well my time has come to do all the LASOs. I’m gonna be a madman and do halo 2 first so all the other ones will be easy

This is gonna suck

[pliant pier]

If you’re looking for a group of players that are dedicated to immersive gameplay, tight knit friendship, and Halo 3: ODST roleplay, then i urge you to please DM me! We are always looking for more members to join us while we play numerous games that fit these vibes! We mainly play, but are not limited to, Helldivers 2! We are a great community and offer lots of support to fellow players. We would love to see you in there! DM me and decide to jump feet first into hell today!

[crystal iron]

How good do you have to be? Also do you have an age limit?

[white birch]

It sure ain't from what I've seen

[white birch]

Wrong server for the wrong game, pal

[west rock]

Hot take but the BR in Infinite should have damage falloff after a set distance.

Its almost absurd getting mini-sniped from the other end of the map.

[white birch]

Don't stand in a sight line

[left snow]

Tend to agree. It's accuracy over distance plus burst fire make it deadly at long range.

It's hard to traverse the map with a bunch of enemies mini sniping you from multiple directions.

It's pretty much why it had to make way for the Bandit in ranked.

[civic sundial]

You know, I forgot how clunky the Banshee was in Halo 4

Like, compared to how it handles in 5 and Infinite, Halo 4's feels so sluggish to pilot

[bleak nymph]

It's so crazy how every time they do something right, they attach a massive "but we are also gonna ruin it".

Like the balance changes are awesome, except the Bulldog and Disruptor getting completely unnecessary nerfs.

The new tri-monthly 50-tier pass is awesome. Except if you don't buy it in a certain window of time it goes away and you have to wait for it's content to rotate into the shop with a price hike.

The Fuel Rod Gun getting added is awesome. Except it's a SPNKr reskin instead of the actual gun.

Every single step forward was accompanied by an equal step backwards it's satirical.

[civic sundial]

They don't have a full team working on Infinite stuff

And calling it a reskin would imply it works exactly like the SPNKr

It's got different projectiles and carries more shots. Not sure how it stacks up in terms of damage numbers but I doubt it's just that

I do think it would've been nice if it was the classic Fuel Rod Gun, but it's basically a skeleton crew working on Infinite these days, they're making do with what they have

And it's not like the devs are doing this because they don't care, they clearly do. But alas, they have higherups to answer to

I don't think it helps that this was the weapon we got after the MA5K Avenger back in November, which is a weapon where it's easier to handwave the reuse of animations, but the reality is that the people that would work on animating new weapons are not working on Infinite, they'll be working on the new projects

[bleak nymph]

The Avenger was pretty excusable, since the lore already supported the design.

But if spending extra time animating is the issue, since modelling clearly isn't or we wouldn't see so many new armor sets per month, they could have just ripped the animations out of H4 or 5. Even kitbashed the H5 model to speed things up quickly, the model has been in the files since launch.

[civic sundial]

They'd likely need animators to make sure those animations work fine in Infinite

Like, it's not as simple as dragging and dropping the rigged model from Halo 5 into Infinite

And like I said, those animators are most likely working on the new projects, not Infinite

[bleak nymph]

I'm just sick of everything coming with caveats in this game, man. That excuse works now that we know Halo Studios is moving on. But it doesn't excuse the content-dryness of the first two years of Infinite's lifecycle.

Like to compare this game to Destiny, they are also working with a relative skeleton crew at the moment while most of the studio focuses on Marathon, and they still bring out plenty of new content on a regular basis. Complete with multiple new weapons, animations, play spaces, game modes, armors, etc every few months. And D2's engine is just as notoriously difficult to work with as Infinite's.

When you compare what other, even older, just as currently dead games are doing to what Infinite is doing, it's actually a joke.

I like Infinite enough to care that it's doing poorly right now. I never cared enough about Halo 5 to bother groaning over stuff like this. That says something about why I want better life support for it to bridge the gap to the next game.

[west rock]

There's a difference between the two I would say.

[civic sundial]

Allot of people had contracts end right after Infinite shipped, meaning the game didn't have the staff to properly support it during that first year

[west rock]

I'm not sure if its still the case but Infinite's team was basically never consistent since it was usually contracted developers.

Destiny was almost always the same team.

[civic sundial]

Like, Infinite's issues have never been due to a lack of passion or devs being lazy, it's been because of things decided at levels above the people who actually make the games

[west rock]

Which lead to a lot of problems because when ine groups contracts expired, the new people coming in had to figure out how the Slipspace engine works before they could do anything.

Which is why I dont mind the change to Unreal.

[civic sundial]

It's just a game engine at the end of the day. One which is much more accessable for most people

Like, I used UE4 throughout my university degree because it was the best engine for students at the time

[west rock]

Unreal is more accessible because it's the industry standard.

Which means more developers know how to use it.

So at the very least while I dont like or agree with the idea of them using contracted help instead of just hiring a team to stay on, Halo being on Unreal going forward removes that time that has to be spent just figuring out how Slipspace works.

[coarse dagger]

Infinite has, and always had, a compliment off FTEs. The use of contractors is no different from most AAA studios these days, who partner with multiple other companies/studios

[solemn owl]

Yo anyone use halo 5 forge on pc these days? Seems dead sadly

[civic sundial]

It's basically standard across multiple industries to hire contractors. That's not to say there aren't people who are hired for more permanent roles, it's just that not everyone wants to be staying at one studio for their entire career

[ruby lake]

ugh

i dont know how to feel about this upcoming operation

[west rock]

I don't like it personally

The fuel rod cannon being reduced to a variant weapon for the SPNKr doesn't sit right with me.

[full sluice]

I agree

[civic sundial]

I'll admit I'm more interested in the Blue Team operation

[civic sundial]

Didn't we just go over why it is the way it is?

[ruby lake]

(instead of getting credits from the BP to buy the future ones, theres spartan points)

[west rock]

You can go over it for a million years that won't make me dislike it any less.

[ruby lake]

man

this bowl of fries will get cold

[ruby lake]

dont repeat yourself
i hate it when folks do that

[west rock]

You still can't buy all the Reach armor pieces with spartan points either

[civic sundial]

That was never something they said would happen

[ruby lake]

man

this shake will get cold too

[west rock]

Sttuff like the hazop shoulders still only cost credits.

[ruby lake]

i domt think they ever said that

[civic sundial]

Like, there was never any promise that all the Reach stuff would be obtainable via Spartan Points

[west rock]

They didnt, doesnt mean I have to like it though.

[ruby lake]

[?!]

[civic sundial]

You're acting like something that was never promised was promised

[ruby lake]

yeah i think my brain lagged there

[west rock]

Im saying I dont like that these armor pieces that were free in previous games cost irl money.

[civic sundial]

Then just say that instead of claiming that Reach stuff should be obtainable via Spartan Points

[west rock]

Only other Reach armor I dont have that actually costs spartan points is the commando shoulders.

[west rock]

I personally believe that it should be.

They SHOULD make all the legacy Reach armor pieces obtainable via spartan points.

Gives me a reason to actually reinstall Infinite.

[ruby lake]

i still remember being told that i should return to play infinite just because a master chief armor kit is on the store

i wanna punch them in the face

[west rock]

I still regret getting the CE mark v kit as an impulse buy.

Not worth it at all.

That was pretty much what made me remove my card and paypal from my steam account, so I couldn't do more impulse buys

[ruby lake]

bruh

i would get the incoming operation's pass if it had credits to buy future ones but... ehhhhh

[west rock]

Cant you play whatever the active operation pass is for free?

[ruby lake]

⚙️

[west rock]

Only thing buying does is give you a free weapon skin or something and lets you finish it after the season is over.

[ruby lake]

yeah but theres a problem

timed battlepasses arent my thing and i dont always have time for vidya games with those

sure i can just buy previous missed out ones that used to be free during its current operation but

[west rock]

Fair enough

The upcoming one lasts for three months though so there is more time than with the normal ones.

[ruby lake]

that means i gotta forklift over 80$

since i took a break from the game

[west rock]

Nah dont do that.

I didnt even complete operations passes when they were free if I thought the rewards weren't worth it.

[ruby lake]

what makes you think ill go blind and buy it like how you impulse buy CE chief?

like thats a waste of my m0ney

[west rock]

CE chief was my first and last impulse buy

[ruby lake]

shame

[west rock]

Not really, if anything I just paid closer attention to what came with each season and decided if it was worth coming back or not.

Did so when the Fleetcom operations pass dropped and when the brute armor for the Rakhshasha core or however its spelled dropped.

[ruby lake]

rakshasa

(watching the spring community live stream again)

..?!

[west rock]

Shalashaska.

[ruby lake]

frontline's battlepass free tiers ends at 20 until you fork over money to earn more stuff till tier 50

i dont know how to feel about that

reckoning's battlepass had free tiers and it only had 50 tiers
i dont see why they changed it

im having very conflicting thoughts about this now

[west rock]

Wait they locked the remaining 30 tiers behind the paywall?

[ruby lake]

yep

realizes if you dont pay for the paid cosmetics in the upcoming BP, theyll end up in the shop

<<WHAT IN THE SANDY HILL?>>

[west rock]

Yeah this operation is cooked.

"Buy our season pass to get these cosmetics now or we'll charge you 10 to 20 dollars each for them later."

[ruby lake]

BUT you'll still get 1 (free) armor set out of the 4 which uh

makes it slightly
slightly better?

[west rock]

Does it though? Like does it really?

I still feel like this is kinda underhanded.

[ruby lake]

but then again im keeping my wallet away from infinite soo

i miss out on 3 upcoming 50-tier operations

i miss out on 3 armor sets per pass

and if those armor sets end up in the shop..

[west rock]

Looks like I will not be reinstalling Infinite this season.