Halo 3 playlist updates

[Guest alisdair]

Team Hardcore slayer really is amazing fun with a good team. I played a few games last night with two guys who are much better than me, and just about managed to keep up. The only problem is that you really need to be able to communicate well, so you need to find good players who can call out positions (and not call out their double kills, as one random guy hilariously did).

HC Oddball is still broken, though!

[redman]

for Valentines Day weekend: http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?ty...s&cid=13250

[Chaz]

Cool, I wonder what the prizes will be given out for, and what the prizes will be.

RECON OMGZ

[redman]

you probably know this but the auto update is avaiable: <a href="http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?ty...s&cid=13280" target="_blank">http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?ty...s&cid=13280</a>

they mentioned a while ago that they were going to cater for people this side of the atlantic by improving the 'good connection' option, so that might be worth a go for a while in matchmaking.

EDIT, heres what they said: Our playerbase across the sea has oft leveled a completely reasonable and sound complaint about the performance of peer to peer hosting in Halo 3: when entering Matchmaking, often times, they are matched up with U.S. players and their game quality may suffer depending on the strength of the U.S. players’ host, resulting in higher pings and latency. In the auto update, we’ve retooled the Matchmaking option “Prefer Good Connection” to cast a wider net to find better hosts for players in Halo 3, and will also improve host conditions for players outside of America.

In order to access “Prefer Good Connection,” the host for a matchmaking game needs to press X once at the Matchmaking Menu to adjust “Matchmaking Options.” This will bring up a menu that includes “Quickest,” “Good Connection,” and “My Language.” Scroll down to the option you want to use in Matchmaking and Press A. Each time you enter a new hopper, the setting will clear, so make sure to reselect it.

[Chaz]

I'm skeptical whether it will change anything, last time I searched for my language I got Swedish people in my lobby with shit connections.

Anyway, what are people's thoughts on the update? Melee is probably slighty better now, annoying when you die at the same time as someone else, but perhaps less annoying than dying because they had a fraction more health than you. Not sure what other changes there are if any.

[Chaz]

I'm skeptical whether it will change anything, last time I searched for my language I got Swedish people in my lobby with shit connections.

Anyway, what are people's thoughts on the update? Melee is probably slighty better now, annoying when you die at the same time as someone else, but perhaps less annoying than dying because they had a fraction more health than you. Not sure what other changes there are if any.

[redman]

yeah that last time I tried good connection it was shit, more lag. But we can always hope....

I haven't tried the changes yet, interested to see melee.

here are the changes from Bungie, so we have 'em in the thread:

Melee contests have been rebalanced

Dying while performing a melee or weapon lunge will no longer accelerate the dead player

The Elite Commando shoulder armor variant has been unlocked for all players

Improved the “Prefer Good Connection” option

Added backend hopper support for DLC custom game variants

Fixed a problem with the Theater when a player tried to view a saved film for a DLC map he or she doesn’t own

Fixed a UI error in the Theater when a party leader selects a film that is invalid for a party client

Fixed a bug that under rare conditions could allow a BXB sequence

Fixed a Dirty Disc Error that could occur when loading the same DLC map twice in a row

Added a visible version string to the Halo 3 main menu

[Guest alisdair]

Connections will be shit for the next few days because the auto-update reset the hosting records. Once that's sorted out, hopefully we'll see Good Connection actually doing something worthwhile.

The new melee is awesome, although that's coming from someone who was fine with the old system (1.09 k/d by melee).

[Talvalin]

Connections will be shit for the next few days because the auto-update reset the hosting records. Once that's sorted out, hopefully we'll see Good Connection actually doing something worthwhile.

The new melee is awesome, although that's coming from someone who was fine with the old system (1.09 k/d by melee).

One of us should have made a clip of our double backflip on Guardian.

I thought that my melee k/d would be rubbish, but I checked and it's something like 1.43. Maybe the majority were assassinations or something.

[Uzi]

Sorry to be off topic, but do any of you dudes still play? My friends list is all but Halo 3 with the exception of Tavalin. Feels awful lonely, if you seen me on Halo and don't mind send us an invite yah?

[Talvalin]

Sorry to be off topic, but do any of you dudes still play? My friends list is all but Halo 3 with the exception of Tavalin. Feels awful lonely, if you seen me on Halo and don't mind send us an invite yah?

Apologies, as I did see you playing the other night but forgot to send you an invite. Alisdair, Atarian and I play regularly, and every so often other members of Pizzown honour us with their presence. We've been tackling BTB of late and it's been surprisingly fun (when not laggy).

[Uzi]

Apologies, as I did see you playing the other night but forgot to send you an invite. Alisdair, Atarian and I play regularly, and every so often other members of Pizzown honour us with their presence. We've been tackling BTB of late and it's been surprisingly fun (when not laggy).

No problem. I never bug anyone when it seems like they're playing in a team/team playlist as I may be disrupting and I know that can be annoying. I'm always up for it if you have a spare spot. I was off live for about six weeks and its funny before I went it at least half the peeps used to be on Halo, now its about 2% .

Warning though! Might not be anywhere near as good as you guys

Pop me a PM when you guys have a planned game and need another member.

[Ben]

March Playlist Update from Bungie; Grifball Playlist this weekend!

The March playlist update to Halo 3 features a number of tweaks to the matchmaking experience (more on those later) and the introduction of DoubleXP Weekend playlists as well as some tweaks to the DLC playlists.

We're introducing two Weekend Hoppers DoubleXP playlists this month, with the first hopper launching Thursday, March 6 at midnight.

Grifball, the game created by Burnie Burns of Red vs. Blue will be an unranked, weekend-long social playlist awarding DoubleXP to winning teams. We've slightly adjusted some of the rules for Grifball (unlimited round times make for unlimited griefing potential), but kept the game's core intact. You'll be able to go in with party configurations ranging from one to eight people. This playlist will be available from Thursday, March 6 at midnight until March 10 at midnight (all times Pacific Standard). I apparently forgot to mention that the Grifball hopper is being treated like a Tournament hopper -- a hopper where there will be prizes. Tournament prizes.

Beginning March 20 at midnight will be the return of Team SWAT in the Social, DoubleXP variety. Team SWAT is an old Halo 2 gametype where players have no shields, increased body health and do not have the luxury of radar. This eight-player maximum hopper will be completely Team Slayer focused with the SWAT ruleset. This weekend playlist will be available from March 20 at midnight until March 23 at midnight (all times Pacific Standard).

The Heroic DLC hopper has underwent some revisions as well. The hopper has been split into DLC Slayer (4v4) and DLC Objective (6v6) featuring a mix of various gametypes on the DLC maps. Slayer variants include Team Snipers, Team Rockets, Team BRs, Team Duel and Team Duals. Objective variants include Multi Flag CTF, Multi Flag BR, One Flag, Assault, Neutral Bomb Assault and Team King.

A number of other changes to maps and Matchmaking were included in today's rollout:

Fixed map exploit on The Pit

Fixed map exploit on Construct

Fixed map exploit on Epitaph

Reduced Ranked Big Team Battle "Large party" size to six players and increased Big Team threshold to two*

Fixed Spartan Laser falling through map

Fixes to matchmaking to allow more even leveling for players

Disabled Mixed Skill restrictions for RBTB and Team Slayer**

These changes are all live, now.

*The reduction in "Large Party" size for Ranked Big Team battle does not affect the total amount of players in a given game, but rather is a change to the system and what it "considers" a big party. A few weeks ago we changed that number to seven and found that it did not decrease matching times significantly, and so we're adjusting that number. Ultimately, we want to have Ranked Big Team evolve into a playlist where you go as a large team to fight other large teams -- now we've changed the system so that Large Teams are considered parties of six or more instead of seven or more.

We've adjusted the threshold to allow teams of six to now match with teams of six, seven, and eight players, where before, an eight-player team would only match against a team of seven or eight, now an eight player will match against a six, seven or eight player team. We're still keeping some restriction because we don't want the Ranked Experience to be a bunch of "organized teams" steamrolling a collection of solo players. We hope that these two changes (along with the below change) will improve the Ranked Big Team matching experience. We'll be monitoring this closely, going forward.

**Parties are considered "Mixed Skill" when there is a spread between the highest skill and lowest skill is greater than 10 levels. In matchmaking, when your party has mixed skill the system tries to match you up with similarly mixed skill parties. Now, in Ranked Big Team and Team Slayer when your party is "Mixed" you will be able to match against parties that do not have "mixed skills" associated with them.

[Talvalin]

March Playlist Update from Bungie; Grifball Playlist this weekend!

Re: tweaking of BTB matching - hurrah!

The Heroic DLC hopper has underwent some revisions as well. The hopper has been split into DLC Slayer (4v4) and DLC Objective (6v6) featuring a mix of various gametypes on the DLC maps. Slayer variants include Team Snipers, Team Rockets, Team BRs, Team Duel and Team Duals.

Is there a difference between Team Duel and Team Duels, or was that a massive typo?

[Guest alisdair]

Team Duel isn't in the default gametypes, but Duel is. It's a variant where there's a HUD indicator (like the VIP one) for the current leader. So that might work in team games the same way: the losing team gets indicators for where the winning team is.

Most important thing: social 4v4! When you don't feel like the stress of Team Slayer, or bilco's in the party, we can still play a game with open-mic voice chat. Awesome!

[_dumb_numpty_]

Played a couple of games of Griffball (my first two games ever) on the new matchmaking hoppers with a guest.

First game was ok but over too quickly. On the 2nd one, two of their team (it was 4x4) weren't playing so it was boring/too easy.

Hope it gets better than that....

[Chaz]

I take it the Grifball playlist is Foundry only then? I don't have the new maps, and i'll be damned if i'm buying them now when they're going to be free imminently.

[_dumb_numpty_]

I take it the Grifball playlist is Foundry only then? I don't have the new maps, and i'll be damned if i'm buying them now when they're going to be free imminently.

Yeah, it specifically said DLC only and ours was in Foundry so I think it's a safe bet that they always are.

[Atreyu]

The Grifball court is a Foundry creation and only exists there.

[Straps]

There is actually a Last Resort version for the paupers, but it's not the same.

[Atreyu]

Oh yes - the beach Grifball court.

No, not the same. Significantly worse, in fact.

[Guest alisdair]

Worse than classic CTF on Epitaph, in fact.

[Talvalin]

Worse than classic CTF on Epitaph, in fact.

I missed that legendary game so I can't comment. Was it bad enough that it would have, say, made Chaz physically ill?

[_dumb_numpty_]

Would it be feasible to block off an area in, say, Valhalla or Sandtrap? (EDIT: For Griffball, that is)

Not really much of a point if the new maps are imminent, I suppose.

[Guest alisdair]

I missed that legendary game so I can't comment. Was it bad enough that it would have, say, made Chaz physically ill?

It got to a 5-minute stalemate, at 2-1 to my team, where we were both holding the enemy flag at our flagspot. Eventually Little Joe started crying and jumped off the map to end it all.

So, yeah. Maybe we can try it in the custom games next week!

[Chaz]

The Grifball court is a Foundry creation and only exists there.

Which is stupid, considering it is just an empty square with arm points at either ends. I can think of a load of other maps it could be done on, if you forged boxes and walls onto other maps.

[Atreyu]

Nah, it's much better on Foundry. Give it a few weeks and you'll see what I mean.

[Chaz]

Nah, it's much better on Foundry. Give it a few weeks and you'll see what I mean.

Oh I don't doubt that it is, it would just be nice if Bungie at least waited until the DLC was free to add all this crap to matchmaking, or at least make Grifball and option for people who don't want to pay for three shit maps, by making a version which can be played on the free maps. As it is, I now feel like i'm massivey missing out, and the fact that the maps will be free in a matter of weeks puts me in a catch twenty-two situation.

[Soi]

Oh I don't doubt that it is, it would just be nice if Bungie at least waited until the DLC was free to add all this crap to matchmaking, or at least make Grifball and option for people who don't want to pay for three shit maps, by making a version which can be played on the free maps. As it is, I now feel like i'm massivey missing out, and the fact that the maps will be free in a matter of weeks puts me in a catch twenty-two situation.

I see where you are coming from, but obviously they do want to sell these maps. Putting up incentives to buy them seems fair game to me.

Anyway, if Grifball works as a playlist, it will be back soon enough.

[Straps]

Oh I don't doubt that it is, it would just be nice if Bungie at least waited until the DLC was free to add all this crap to matchmaking, or at least make Grifball and option for people who don't want to pay for three shit maps, by making a version which can be played on the free maps. As it is, I now feel like i'm massivey missing out, and the fact that the maps will be free in a matter of weeks puts me in a catch twenty-two situation.

Such is the size of the carrot being dangled!