I noticed the other day that 343 has removed Team Skirmish from the social playlists due to a “low population.”
I feel like that isn’t true because Team Skirmish was one of the playlists where a game was always found immediately.
Unfortunately, there will never be any proof showing whether they’re right or wrong as there is no player count in the game for some reason.
Removing Team Skirmish is a bad move for 343i, whether there is low population or not. It is the only playlist where you can play unranked Team Arena.
Objective based modes are my friends and my favorite. We all have different skill levels though. I usually rank anywhere from high platinum to mid diamond, while my friends rank low silver to low gold. In order to find a good game balance, we would play Team Skirmish to make sure that I don’t get ranked lower and they don’t get ranked higher. Now that 343 has removed Team Skirmish, to play with my friends in Team Arena I will have to create a Smurf Account to make sure that I don’t get ranked lower on my main account. They have acknowledged that smurfing is bad, but then do stuff like this that encourages it. Another option would be to carry them into higher ranks, but the game would be ruined because they would not be able to play as well if they were against people of their rank.
I also fail to see how 343 will integrate all of the mode/map combos into other social playlists. BTB will only use BTB maps, and the rest of the playlists are mode specific. I don’t want to see them made into another rotational playlist (which are just lame to begin with).
What are your thoughts on 343 removing Team Skirmish? Do you think that it encourages smurfing?
Note: If there are grammatical errors in here, I apologize as this is my first topic post.
Idk if you read the whole post but, he said that their working on something to replace team skirmish in the future (or something like that). i think we’ll see some sort of permanent social obj playlist return in the future.
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> Another option would be to carry them into higher ranks, but the game would be ruined because they would not be able to play as well if they were against people of their rank.
I am talking about my rank for a couple of reasons.
I play the most - I play with another group of friends that have a similar rank than me in order to get better at the game. - It is a lot easier for me to smurf than my friends (the ones in the Original Post) getting better at the game.We all play Halo to have fun, but if I were to play with them on ranked then they would get matched against players that they cannot compete with. Getting repetitively destroyed is not fun for anyone.
Another thing I should address is the question: Why not play other playlists?
Team Arena is now the only playlist that offers what Team Arena has.
We like to play objective based gametypes, which only two playlists have:
Breakout 2.0, which I cannot stand since they updated it.
BTB, where there are vehicles and larger teams when my friends and I would prefer to be a team by ourselves.
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> Idk if you read the whole post but, he said that their working on something to replace team skirmish in the future (or something like that). i think we’ll see some sort of permanent social obj playlist return in the future.
I just hope that it is a permanent one and not just added in to the current playlists or made into a rotational one.
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> I find games immediately in every playlist I have played so I fail to see how that reflects population.
I guess your lucky.
Here’s how time searching for players reflects player population:
More time waiting = Less players to connect to near you (it takes longer to connect someone from California to UK than California to Arizona)
Conversely, Less time waiting = faster connection = more players to play with (potentially near you)
If I go play Halo Reach, and try to play the MLG playlist, I will never find a game as there is less than 20 people on that playlist as opposed to trying to play Team Slayer which has close to a thousand.
> 2533274857098445;7:
> > 2533274816788253;3:
> > I find games immediately in every playlist I have played so I fail to see how that reflects population.
>
> I guess your lucky.
>
> Here’s how time searching for players reflects player population:
>
> More time waiting = Less players to connect to near you (it takes longer to connect someone from California to UK than California to Arizona)
>
> Conversely, Less time waiting = faster connection = more players to play with (potentially near you)
>
> If I go play Halo Reach, and try to play the MLG playlist, I will never find a game as there is less than 20 people on that playlist as opposed to trying to play Team Slayer which has close to a thousand.
Theres a thousand people playing Reach? Wow, I figured there’d be less than 500…
> 2533274857098445;1:
> I noticed the other day that 343 has removed Team Skirmish from the social playlists due to a “low population.”
> I feel like that isn’t true because Team Skirmish was one of the playlists where a game was always found immediately.
> Unfortunately, there will never be any proof showing whether they’re right or wrong as there is no player count in the game for some reason.
>
> Removing Team Skirmish is a bad move for 343i, whether there is low population or not. It is the only playlist where you can play unranked Team Arena.
> Objective based modes are my friends and my favorite. We all have different skill levels though. I usually rank anywhere from high platinum to mid diamond, while my friends rank low silver to low gold. In order to find a good game balance, we would play Team Skirmish to make sure that I don’t get ranked lower and they don’t get ranked higher. Now that 343 has removed Team Skirmish, to play with my friends in Team Arena I will have to create a Smurf Account to make sure that I don’t get ranked lower on my main account. They have acknowledged that smurfing is bad, but then do stuff like this that encourages it. Another option would be to carry them into higher ranks, but the game would be ruined because they would not be able to play as well if they were against people of their rank.
>
> I also fail to see how 343 will integrate all of the mode/map combos into other social playlists. BTB will only use BTB maps, and the rest of the playlists are mode specific. I don’t want to see them made into another rotational playlist (which are just lame to begin with).
>
> What are your thoughts on 343 removing Team Skirmish? Do you think that it encourages smurfing?
>
> Note: If there are grammatical errors in here, I apologize as this is my first topic post.
Surely your performance alone won’t put your friends in a division that is too high for them? I don’t know, but I just don’t really think that this will turn out to be a huge issue. If it makes you feel any better, at least you can always play custom games with your friends against people of whatever skill you want.
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> > 2533274857098445;7:
> > > 2533274816788253;3:
> > >
>
> There’s a thousand people playing Reach? Wow, I figured there’d be less than 500…
There’s still a fair amount of people playing Reach. Found games in Reach BTB in a minute or 2
> 2533274907200114;8:
> > 2533274857098445;7:
> > > 2533274816788253;3:
> > >
>
> Theres a thousand people playing Reach? Wow, I figured there’d be less than 500…
There’s usually around six thousand whenever I play.
> 2533274907200114;8:
> > 2533274857098445;7:
> > > 2533274816788253;3:
> > > I find games immediately in every playlist I have played so I fail to see how that reflects population.
> >
> > I guess your lucky.
> >
> > Here’s how time searching for players reflects player population:
> >
> > More time waiting = Less players to connect to near you (it takes longer to connect someone from California to UK than California to Arizona)
> >
> > Conversely, Less time waiting = faster connection = more players to play with (potentially near you)
> >
> > If I go play Halo Reach, and try to play the MLG playlist, I will never find a game as there is less than 20 people on that playlist as opposed to trying to play Team Slayer which has close to a thousand.
>
> Theres a thousand people playing Reach? Wow, I figured there’d be less than 500…
I see 10k on there every now and then.
@op: 343 removing skirmish is a mistake low populated or not, it’s still an extra social playlist and it just gives people more ammunition that they only care to support the ranked stuff.
It’s worth pointing out that just because you were able to find a match quickly when playing Skirmish doesn’t mean that the playlist was well-populated. Could have been a mixture of your rank, region, and time of day that contributed to you finding quick matches, making it seem like a healthy playlist to you. But for others, it could have been a bad playlist.
That’s the key to realize: you’re experience is not necessarily representative of the general player experience.
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> It’s worth pointing out that just because you were able to find a match quickly when playing Skirmish doesn’t mean that the playlist was well-populated. Could have been a mixture of your rank, region, and time of day that contributed to you finding quick matches, making it seem like a healthy playlist to you. But for others, it could have been a bad playlist.
> That’s the key to realize: you’re experience is not necessarily representative of the general player experience.
Neither is 343’s explanation. They directly said it was interfering with HCS & Ranked playlists. They’re forcing people into the crappy ranked lists, for the sake of support. Not from the player base, but from HCS/Esports. I won’t be buying another Halo game. The social factor doesn’t seem to be the focus, & the love that was shown when bungie was developing seems to have fled. (but not to destiny).
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> > 2533274817408735;13:
> > It’s worth pointing out that just because you were able to find a match quickly when playing Skirmish doesn’t mean that the playlist was well-populated. Could have been a mixture of your rank, region, and time of day that contributed to you finding quick matches, making it seem like a healthy playlist to you. But for others, it could have been a bad playlist.
> > That’s the key to realize: you’re experience is not necessarily representative of the general player experience.
>
> Neither is 343’s explanation. They directly said it was interfering with HCS & Ranked playlists. They’re forcing people into the crappy ranked lists, for the sake of support. Not from the player base, but from HCS/Esports. I won’t be buying another Halo game. The social factor doesn’t seem to be the focus, & the love that was shown when bungie was developing seems to have fled. (but not to destiny).
They cited multiple reasons that Team Skirmish was put aside, including playlist population and playlist redundancy. Yeah, Skirmish was likely taking away players that could make HCS and Arena healthier playlists. But those lists, being healthier, suggest they aren’t viewed as “crappy” by everyone. You may not like the focus on ranked and pro play (I don’t either, personally), but again, it’s not about any one player’s desires. The data showed a low populated redundant playlist; for most multiplayer games, playlist consolidation is normal late in a game’s lifespan when population dwindles. The sad part is that Halo 5 started with a dismal variety of playlists to begin with, so the amount of time when playlist diversity was at a maximum was less than it should have been.
The focus of ranked & “pro” play (as I understood Halos of the past), was never what the franchise stood for. Removal of split screen, the rank/pro focus, the list goes on. This was a game about being able to sit around with your buddies, having fun. Now it’s far too concerned with “keeping up” with the other FPS’s, forgetting what made this game unique. & It feels like 343 is also forgetting what truly made this one of the most potent franchises in gaming. The Playerbase.
Dude I completely agree with you, I mean sometimes I do wanna sweat with friends and play to win, but the fact that now basically all game modes filter into your overall KDA, Halo 5 has just become a sweat fest. When I play Warzone or BTB, or even super fiesta (of all things) I can’t go 2 games without finding a group of tryhard sweats, and there’s nothing I can personally do when the already cap our armory in the first two minutes. I personally believe the intense marketing of halo 5 as a competitive shooter, and the integration of things like the Achilles armor has really created a toxic nature in a community that used to be known for being the only FPS community that wasn’t toxic