[360] Halo Reach: Ghosts of GFF

My first Arena match got me a rating of 1,336. One better and I'd have never played Arena again so it never changed.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

OH NO, JAGUAR LEADER IS DOWN

Garr, Toku, Skills, fucking AWESOME games despite the fact that we've all been up all day and are absurdly tired. We went 5 wins 4 losses, and that last game man, holy shit. I don't think I've ever played a game where we've managed to hold the open area on top of the office so well for almost the entire match.

BIG APPLE 5AM CREW > *

Jam it back in, in the dark.

::furious jetpack noises::

There's nowhere I can't reach.

::gets owned at the rockets::
::quits::

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Next time, he's at the rockets on vacation.

How ya doing, buddy?

He was probably mad because he didn't wanna punch out there.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Tails

He was probably mad because he didn't wanna punch out there.

I must know what this is about, it sounds hilarious

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Tails I'm going to be joining you in Gold pretty soon if today's Arena was indicative of the calibre of players I'm going to have to play against from now on.

Also you better be getting online for Invasion because I've only got ~90 minutes if it goes up on time.

FELIPE NO

Provisional Division assignments, like the ones you received, are derived from qualifying population. At some point you were Gold among those who'd qualified. Now, as more people have qualified you've moved back.

Among your 1550 or whatever yesterday, you probably laid a few eggs, those games counted, too.

Additionally, your daily rating doesn't take into account the quality of opponents (the formula is on bungie.net there's no value for 'Am I playing Steel or Onyx dudes'). So even in Steel - guys are going to have big games and put up 1700s - and that's good.

A high Day Rating is like being a great minor league pitcher, your Mom is proud, but you aren't on SportsCenter.

From Luke Smith, over on GAF, in case anyone's curious.

Oh! I just read the BWU closer, and I think this is how it works.

1. Play 3 games in a day to get a daily rating. This lets you compare how you're doing on a day versus another day, but otherwise doesn't do much.
2. During each of those games, you're ranked based on your rating, rather than your kills, as you can see during a game. This is what's put into TrueSkill.
3. TrueSkill is used to determine the divisions.
4. As more people start playing, the threeshhold for the divisions changes. As more and more people qualify better than you, you start to risk dropping down a division.

How ya doing, buddy?

That entire last game we played this morning was just all
:grenade explosions:
:jetpack noise:

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Invasion is Big Team Battle, but double crazy.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

OH MY GOD. Invasion Mode. You're the Elites, and you're all PEW PEW PEW with the lasers and the Spartans are all POW POW POW with the rifles, then your bro goes down and you're like FUUUUUUUUUUCK so you stab a Spartan to avenge him and then you hide till he respawns, then you ROLL IN THERE AND BLOW SHIT UP and the Spartans are all OH SHIT NIGGA and grab tanks and shit, but you grab the Comedy Gun and it's all GOOSH GOOSH GOOSH and then BOOM those motherfuckers are dead then you run in and grab the core and it's a fucking epic scene as 6 big ass aliens roll out, surrounded by dead Spartans to motherfucking VICTORY.

(invasion rules)

How ya doing, buddy?

Judging from that post, Invasion only aight huh?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Desert why are you such a busta.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Ok now that I've played it I agree with you that rolling your way to victory is ballin. Gonna have to shed that busta status now.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Invasion Slayer is my new favorite anything EVER. Just the right mix up, just the right mechanics and balance. And the map they showcase is FANTASTIC.

Holy motherfucker this mode is all I'm ever gonna play ever.

EVER

FELIPE NO

At first I was going to say you're fucking crazy, but then I see how you were a Spartan every Invasion game you played but one, so that makes sense. I'm going to make a post in a bit when I update the OP, but Invasion is totally unbalanced giving the Spartans the advantage (they have ranged weapons in first Phase when Elites do not, and get the Grenade Launcher Loadout which lets easily nerf any enemy vehicle while the Elites have nothing even close to comparable). At first I thought I just sucked or something, but then when I started playing as the Spartans I was kicking ass or something, then I look and basically almost everyone has the exact same complaints. I'll get into that later though, but ultimately I'm really disappointed in the mode.

I think the map is fine but waaaay too big for 6v6, especially in Invasion Slayer (and especially in Phase 1 when you have no ranged loadouts except magnums for the Spartans arguably).

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

ULTIMATELY I'M DISAPPOINTED IN YOUR FACE

nah nigga you just mad I rocketed you

really though you're right, they should have a needle rifle for every instance Spartans have a DMR!

Map size may be too big but that's only because half of it is never used. No one was ever on that far side though so 'eh! The front half of it was pretty awesome, though. Invasion Slayer is infinitely more ballin than Invasion regular though!

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I totally deserved the rocket, I have no idea how I fucked up driving that badly. I very very rarely ever drive the Warthog in Halo multiplayer, and it shows. My gunner was fucking terrible though.

Most amazing jew boots

I was so furiously reloading you have no idea

"OH GOD I AM SO FUCKED GO GO GO GO SHOOT SHOOT SHO-"

::explosion destroys all four of us::

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

I was so furiously reloading you have no idea

"OH GOD I AM SO FUCKED GO GO GO GO SHOOT SHOOT SHO-"

::explosion destroys all four of us::

I didn't realize that you had died in that as well, awesome.

Anyway, OP massively updated, and I put my impressions of everything in there as appropriate. There's a bunch of little new things in there, but the only thing in particular I'll point out is a new section I put at the top of things Bungie has confirmed have been already fixed/adjusted or will be before the final game comes out. Current listing:

Quote:

-No more party splitting in Invasion/Invasion Slayer (this is a bug).
-The announcer constantly calling out things like "FLAG TAKEN FLAG DROPPED" etc will be addressed (not clear on specifically how).
-It will no longer be possible for teammates to take flags out of their own Stockpile base. It was originally as-is to allow for flags to be grabbed for beatdown kills against attackers, but has turned into people taking flags out then putting them back in to get the points for themselves, or to grief their own team.
-The weapon reticules (which have been much bitched about, especially on the Magnum/DMR) are "placeholder".
-Damage indicators are "lighter" than intended in the Beta, leading to a lot of people complaining that they can't tell where they are being hit from; will be much easier to tell in the final game, apparently this was a last minute bug.
-The severe "ghosting" effect of many graphics in the game will be fixed.
-In the Beta you can do a second melee attack very quickly after the first; this was not intended and will be fixed.
-The melee "contest window" is currently larger than intended, which is what leads to all of the current mutual beatdown deaths; this will be improved and not as prevalent in the final game.
-Nothing specific yet, but they're well aware that grenades are seen as vastly overpowered by pretty much everyone. Bungie is clear that grenades will still ultimately be different than they were in Halo 3, there will be some tweaks made in the final version; TBD if they will adjust radius, damage, spawns/drops, etc.
-BANHAMMER TIME: In the final game (and to be implemented late in the Beta cycle) they have a new "Quitter ban." It will be used aggressively since it is a "soft ban," and essentially after a handful of quits, it will prevent players from rejoining matchmaking for 15-30 minutes. They are also playing around with some gametypes that will end early if the majority of a team quits out, to avoid 8v1 slayer matches that are forced to continue until time runs out.

Also it's largely redundant, but I'm just going to mostly copy/paste my GAF post on Invasion and why it's disappointing:

Quote:

Played 3 games of Invasion, 2 games of Invasion Slayer. I wouldn't say it's complete garbage, but it's pretty close. The idea is sound, but it's unbalanced and broken for a number of reasons right now; many of them seem to have already been addressed or certainly will be before release. However that doesn't help me enjoy the game now, and quite frankly I'm pretty disappointed. I would have thought the new backend stuff (like bnet connectivity, Party/lobby system and filters, etc.) would be way more broken and buggy than the main gameplay itself.

My personal problems with Invasion:
-Spawns seem to be broken and inconsistent; it will take me eons to spawn in the back of my base, or my teammate will be nowhere near combat and take forever to spawn. Alternatively I've had multiple people (on the enemy team) spawn literally right in my face, and not as a result of a fireteam spawn or anything.
-Heavily favors Spartans right now. Elites get no ranged starting weapons, but more importantly later on Spartans get access to Grenade Launchers, which make it ridiculously easy to effectively nerf vehicles. All it seems to take is Spartans getting a good Warthog or Scorpion up, and assuming they don't completely suck they can prevent you from getting a weapon drop, which is your best chance to actually get something to stop them with. And one time a Spartan stole our Banshee, and just completely destroyed our team with it, absolutely nothing we could do against it.
-Map is ridiculously large for 6v6. This is less of a problem in regular Invasion, but in Invasion Slayer it makes the first phase goddamn ridiculous. Later phases are not much better, even with ranged weapons I was literally spending 30 seconds trying to spot anyone from anywhere. Regular Invasion's objectives essentially funnel combat which helps alleviate this, but the map is still way too big for 6v6, and it's borderline terrible in Slayer since there's no single focus.
-The team splitting is ridiculous. We played 3 games with a guy and his guest. Not only did he and his guest not get put on the same fireteam, all 3 games they were on completely opposite sides. Seriously, how do you fuck this up that bad? We had a few randoms in each game, and they were really confused and didn't understand why they had gotten split up.
-The in-game scoreboard could be split up better with headers or something to indicate sides. Could also be put maybe side-by-side, having to scroll down to see your kills if you're on the bottom third or so of the scoreboard teams seems ridiculous.

It's basically unbalanced, the map is too big for the player count, and honestly it's just not a lot of fun right now. If I've got a group on but they're one or two short of 12 players I'll probably be willing to hop on, but other than that I think I'm pretty much done here. Generator Defense has no appeal to me with being only 3v3, and given how they fucked up party splitting and game balance in Invasion, I don't even know that I'd trust they'd get that right. I'm sure when the final game comes out this stuff will all be addressed or mostly addressed, but right now I'm super bummed out and disappointed. I think playing it a lot more (like I have been) is only going to make it worse, so I'm going to stop now while I still have some excitement left for the final product and not let problems that will likely only exist in this Beta get me down. Sorry urk p

If you guys are short a couple of 12 I'm willing to hop on. I'll check out Generator Defense when it hits next week, and at some point I need to play 3 more Arena games to get my final Daily Ranking and division placement, but I'm largely done with the Beta. I know that most/all of this will be addressed in the final game, and I think the more I play the Beta the more it's just going to bum me out towards the actual release of the game, so I think I'll refrain. If we've got a large crew going though I'm down if I'm around, but most of what I'm tackling next is not on 360 so I don't know how much that'll be.

I will continue to update the OP though as relevant (probably on Fridays with the Bungie Weekly Update, depending on what's hit or not hit that week).

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by SailorDaravon

If you guys are short a couple of 12 I'm willing to hop on. I'll check out Generator Defense when it hits next week, and at some point I need to play 3 more Arena games to get my final Daily Ranking and division placement, but I'm largely done with the Beta. I know that most/all of this will be addressed in the final game, and I think the more I play the Beta the more it's just going to bum me out towards the actual release of the game, so I think I'll refrain. If we've got a large crew going though I'm down if I'm around, but most of what I'm tackling next is not on 360 so I don't know how much that'll be.

Honestly, I don't know how you guys played so much of the beta before today as it is. I got burned out on it after 30 games or so, let alone 170 or whatever. Invasion I may have just experienced too much of the one side, which may explain my enthusiasm, but outside of that, I understand this totally.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

Honestly, I don't know how you guys played so much of the beta before today as it is. I got burned out on it after 30 games or so, let alone 170 or whatever. Invasion I may have just experienced too much of the one side, which may explain my enthusiasm, but outside of that, I understand this totally.

In all honesty, I'm sorta burned out, but I'm not too much further from hitting Warrant Officer Grade 3, and I finally saw on my stats page how the Commendations work, and that I'm not too far from what I think is maxing out at least Assistant and Technician, and my Headshot is about to level up. I'm thinking those were some of the reasons why I was getting 500-1000 cR at times, so if I try to max em out, I can probably rank up quickly and be done with it.


It's good to know they acknowledge the beat-down bullshit is a bug and will be fixed. Now I really don't have a reason to get pissed about it next time it happens to me.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Sometimes, when I play Halo, I feel like I need to be taking copious amounts of drugs. Psychotropics and maybe some Hallucinogens. Good games tonight Devo. I wonder when Bungie will give me my division?

FELIPE NO

Also forgot to mention TEAM ROFFLE SHAKE went 8-3 in Invasion this afternoon.



Would all the posers please leave the room.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?