Halo 3 - now coming to Xbox One. MC Collection.

[Phelan]

I thought that was good sniping. Whole lot better than me.

Now, having not played Halo 2 on Live. I'm basically new to this whole thing.

I've discovered that I mostly play with my bars on yellow for connection, as opposed to green which everyone in the US seems to be on.

When it comes to melee this means they usually kill me first

I didn't notice it at first, but my mate was over last night and kept asking why I kept dying in melee when I seemed to hit the guy first - then i realised they were that little bit ahead of where I thought they were.

I also discovered that in Team Slayer working with a good team is the best thing ever, while working with four randoms who all want to play as Rambo is a nightmare. They never want to drive the hog but always want to shoot the chain gun on the back, they never want to work together but are happy to constantly hang about waiting for the sniper rifle to spawn. Grrr.

Sorry just venting. Played during the day with a group of Americans who were superb and great fun. We worked well together and I'd be happy to team up with them again.

I have also grown to hate, with a vengeance, people who pull out of games when they are losing. I ended up playing a game of shooty snipers last night with just myself versus four other guys not fun in the slightest.

[Chaz]

I thought that was good sniping. Whole lot better than me.

Now, having not played Halo 2 on Live. I'm basically new to this whole thing.

I've discovered that I mostly play with my bars on yellow for connection, as opposed to green which everyone in the US seems to be on.

When it comes to melee this means they usually kill me first

I didn't notice it at first, but my mate was over last night and kept asking why I kept dying in melee when I seemed to hit the guy first - then i realised they were that little bit ahead of where I thought they were.

I also discovered that in Team Slayer working with a good team is the best thing ever, while working with four randoms who all want to play as Rambo is a nightmare. They never want to drive the hog but always want to shoot the chain gun on the back, they never want to work together but are happy to constantly hang about waiting for the sniper rifle to spawn. Grrr.

Sorry just venting. Played during the day with a group of Americans who were superb and great fun. We worked well together and I'd be happy to team up with them again.

I have also grown to hate, with a vengeance, people who pull out of games when they are losing. I ended up playing a game of shooty snipers last night with just myself versus four other guys not fun in the slightest.

It's a growing problem on Halo 2 especially, recently (since the resetting of the ranks) i've probably not had a game where, if we've gone 10 or more kills behind even right at the beginning because the other team managed to nab some good weapons or whatever, everyone on the losing team has quit out. I'd assume this is because most people's ranks are lower than they were, so they feel they can afford to lose the experience points or whatever.

[Preacher]

It's a growing problem on Halo 2 especially, recently (since the resetting of the ranks) i've probably not had a game where, if we've gone 10 or more kills behind even right at the beginning because the other team managed to nab some good weapons or whatever, everyone on the losing team has quit out. I'd assume this is because most people's ranks are lower than they were, so they feel they can afford to lose the experience points or whatever.

Bungie did a lot of whining about the ranks. They said they were used for matchmaking purposes only, and that they shouldn't be taken as some sort of measure of a players skill - like that's ever likely to happen so long as they're displayed for all to see.

Lesson learned from Halo 2? If the beta's anything to go by, apparently not.

[Phelan]

It's infuriating.

Being left alone to fight against four people can make you sad

And will lower your kill ratio so fast because you can be killed forty times in one match - but god damn it I don't believe in just leaving games!

[tyler]

Yeah it's poor form. I had it in my first ever game on Halo 3 and ended up going minus twenty something. I don't think I've played MM on my own since.

[Phelan]

Yeah it's poor form. I had it in my first ever game on Halo 3 and ended up going minus twenty something. I don't think I've played MM on my own since.

I think that there should be something in place to prevent it.

Or at least you should be docked 20 kills or something if you simply leave a game. I realise on the odd occasion you may have to do it like a phone call comes in or terrible lag but these people that do it all the time should be penalised.

What does MM mean Tyler?

[tyler]

Matchmaking

[Phelan]

Matchmaking

Cheers.

Being in Aus I find it difficult to get people online so I have to MM which causes the problems.

Last night was the worst though. I dropped onto the Bungie site and looked at my profile and my last seven games are all 2nd in Team Slayers.

And nearly every game had one of our team drop out.

[jonathanhoey]

shooty snipers

not fun in the slightest.

Fixed.

[LongHairStu]

I had my first games of Shotty Snipers last night, and really enjoyed them. I came first in the first (on High Ground), and was pipped to the post in the second (Valhalla). I guess I was just lucky in terms of where people appeared and so on, but I'd typically use the Sniper Rifle and Shotgun less than any other weapon. So I like the fact I was forced to use them in this game, as it pushed different strategies to the fore.

[Ketchup]

I think that there should be something in place to prevent it.

Or at least you should be docked 20 kills or something if you simply leave a game. I realise on the odd occasion you may have to do it like a phone call comes in or terrible lag but these people that do it all the time should be penalised.

What does MM mean Tyler?

You do realise you can rate players within the xbl dash and say they quit early and to avoid this player again in future. If everyone keeps saying they leave then they'll have a crap rating and possibly a word from MS about it.

[hoot]

You do realise you can rate players within the xbl dash and say they quit early and to avoid this player again in future. If everyone keeps saying they leave then they'll have a crap rating and possibly a word from MS about it.

Definitely worth doing this, with the amount of people that are playing even now, if you set people to avoid it make it pretty unlikely you'll come up against them again. The system only works if people use it though. The quick mute facility is excellent too, hopefully every online Live game will get that feature.

[Chaz]

You do realise you can rate players within the xbl dash and say they quit early and to avoid this player again in future. If everyone keeps saying they leave then they'll have a crap rating and possibly a word from MS about it.

No such features in place for Halo 2 though, unfortunately. I've had more of a problem in H2 than H3, especially recently. The thing is, i've come back from 15-20 kills behind before on Team Slayer on rare occasions, yet if the other team gets ahead by anything more than 7-8 kills or has all the good weapons then 90% of the time your team members drop out.

[Ben]

You do realise you can rate players within the xbl dash and say they quit early and to avoid this player again in future. If everyone keeps saying they leave then they'll have a crap rating and possibly a word from MS about it.

Exactly, just send them negative feedback. The fact it's a Beta makes it worse as your rank is worthless as it'll be deleted in a couple of weeks. I've found that you got very few quitters in Halo 2 once you reach a decent level as there's too much of a negative impact on your rank - I quite regularly play Team Slayer on my own without too many problems.

[sweetdaddyg]

As much as I like it, it really is just Halo 2.

[BeeJay]

As much as I like it, it really is just Halo 2.

Halo 3 = Halo 2 ?????

[sir stiff_one]

Haha, good one.

[Pilotwings]

Exactly, just send them negative feedback. The fact it's a Beta makes it worse as your rank is worthless as it'll be deleted in a couple of weeks. I've found that you got very few quitters in Halo 2 once you reach a decent level as there's too much of a negative impact on your rank - I quite regularly play Team Slayer on my own without too many problems.

I never liked the way halo 2 done the ranks. I think the ranks should be based on invidual merit rather than how the whole team does. For example i met this group of people online and we all played big team battle for months and we all got to around the 36 - 40 ranks. But the thing is one of the guys was super shit and only killed about 3 people max every game and died millions even making us lose on occasions so he hardly merited a 36 rank.

[MalevolentPanda]

I never liked the way halo 2 done the ranks. I think the ranks should be based on invidual merit rather than how the whole team does. For example i met this group of people online and we all played big team battle for months and we all got to around the 36 - 40 ranks. But the thing is one of the guys was super shit and only killed about 3 people max every game and died millions even making us lose on occasions so he hardly merited a 36 rank.

Wow, what a horrendous idea.

[BeeJay]

Perhaps people should be ranked based on their kill stealing, sniper spawning or noob combo ability only.

[srgbilco]

Wow, what a horrendous idea.

Yeah, this is a terrible idea.

[dan_tm]

Wow, what a horrendous idea.

Well they seem have it in Halo 3 anyway. We've mostly been playing as a team but tyler has been ranking up a bit faster than me/wolf/krypt/etc, He was at 28 when we were around 18-20ish.

[McCoy]

I never liked the way halo 2 done the ranks. I think the ranks should be based on invidual merit rather than how the whole team does. For example i met this group of people online and we all played big team battle for months and we all got to around the 36 - 40 ranks. But the thing is one of the guys was super shit and only killed about 3 people max every game and died millions even making us lose on occasions so he hardly merited a 36 rank.

Well Big Team battle is not really about the killing in games like Bomb and capture the flag. You can be a killing machine but unless you work with the team you are not helping at all. the best players are the ones who play witht he team and perhaps sacrifice themselves so you can steal that flag/ plant that bomb. A suicide mission to grab the flag and keep it from respawning can be far mor ehelpful that the oh so useful people who just stand back and snipe seemingly foegetting that it's called capture the flag. I'm not against ranking on intervidual merit but for BTB kills really aren't all that.

[MalevolentPanda]

Well they seem have it in Halo 3 anyway. We've mostly been playing as a team but tyler has been ranking up a bit faster than me/wolf/krypt/etc, He was at 28 when we were around 18-20ish.

Oh god, are you sure? That better not stay. It's like they all got together and said: "Right guys, has anyone got any ideas about how we could make the Halo community even worse next time around?"

[dan_tm]

What makes it worse is that it's virtually impossible to find a ranked game with a 'mixed' party where there's more than about 10 ranks separating the players in your team. Unless we've just been really unlucky.

[Pilotwings]

Perhaps people should be ranked based on their kill stealing, sniper spawning or noob combo ability only.

Yeah your right actually thats a good point against it. Although that sort of stuff does go on in rumble pit style games were your rank is your own.

[BeeJay]

What makes it worse is that it's virtually impossible to find a ranked game with a 'mixed' party where there's more than about 10 ranks separating the players in your team. Unless we've just been really unlucky.

yaw, you n00b, no other teams are that high up the ranks yet. You're bound to be pushing the limits. That's the thing with the Halo ranking system, if you're really good then you are constantly going to be waiting for other players to catch up to play against.

I'd love to be able to get some people I play with up that high but we nearly always have 5 or more online so have played very little team slayer, all sodding laggy BTB.

[BeeJay]

matchmaking does seem to be really random at the moment though. Maybe it's the lack of numbers playing but I'm getting matched with people anywhere from 1 to 16 and you honestly couldn'y tell who were the 1's and who the 16's.

[Kryptonian]

yaw, you n00b, no other teams are that high up the ranks yet. You're bound to be pushing the limits. That's the thing with the Halo ranking system, if you're really good then you are constantly going to be waiting for other players to catch up to play against.

No that's bollocks.

There's loads of players level 20+. The problem is that Tyler was 25, Yawdib was 20, I was 19 and Wolf was 15 iirc so it said we were a 'mixed' party. If Wolf wasn't there, it would search for another party in a range - say 18-25.

I've played against a level 50 already too.

[BeeJay]

No that's bollocks.

There's loads of players level 20+. The problem is that Tyler was 25, Yawdib was 20, I was 19 and Wolf was 15 iirc so it said we were a 'mixed' party. If Wolf wasn't there, it would search for another party in a range - say 18-25.

I've played against a level 50 already too.

I know what you're saying. It seems like Halo 3 tries to match pretty exactely. So if you have a 1,1, 5, 9 then it will try and find a good match for each player, not the team. I don't know if that is the case but it seems that way.