343 is clueless

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I would like to preface this with I was a huge 343 fan. I thought that the Defiant map pack for Halo: Reach was awesome. I loved what they did with the title update, and looked forward to what they would do with the Halo franchise once Bungie left.

I actually enjoyed Halo 4. I thought the gameplay was refreshing, and at least they gave load-outs a try (and saw that it did not work well). They listened to the community and made a decent number of positive changes for Halo 5.

Unfortunately, the only two things they got right with Halo 5 were gameplay and Forge. Don’t get me wrong, gameplay is incredibly important (obviously) and it is excellent in Halo 5. It continued the evolution of the franchise while bringing back the competitive spirit of Halo 3. Forge speaks for itself - though I’ll add more on this point later.
The largest gripe I have about Halo 5 is that it seems as though 343 released an unfinished game. There is no denying that Microsoft is at least partially responsible for this - they set a date for the release and any sort of postponement would not only anger many fans of Halo, but also could potentially affect their stocks, etc. That is completely understandable. Big team battle was released the following month along with Forge - GREAT! However, since then, what has changed? It has been over 2 months and nothing of substance has been added to Halo 5.

The new maps are essentially remakes of current maps, few people actually give a crap about having a pizza skin for the AR, and…I’m having difficulty coming up with what else has changed since. There are many, many more things that they could have done with their time during December and January, but instead it seems as though they were simply lazy. Where is king of the hill? Where is assault? How about oddball? Grifball? Infection? SOCIAL PLAYLISTS!? Post-game medals?? A UI that makes having a spartan stance relevant? How about incorporating the awesome Forge maps that the community has created into some playlists? Oh great, they added community maps into Breakout, which is the least popular playlist (next to FFA). They said that they would have community maps in the doubles playlist this weekend, but instead we get reskinned breakout maps. How long did that take for them to do? Maybe a team of 4 people worked on it for a few hours yesterday, then another couple hours today (since when it initially was launched, there were issues).

Yes there are grumblings that some sort of “ball” mode will be out by the end of the month. I’ll refrain from making any judgments about this, but I must say that I will not be surprised whatsoever if the community finds itself incredibly disappointed with how it is implemented considering 343’s recent track record. After all, there were many topics that requested team doubles, and 343 can’t even get that right! They could have literally taken the exact same maps that are in slayer, and instead had it be 2v2 and people would be more pleased than with the junk we were given. In addition, 343 should not be praised for the upcoming update. It includes what should have been in the game in the first place!

343 is not listening to the community. It is not taking any of the excellent ideas that Halo fans come up with and implementing them into their game. They don’t even post in their own forums. How difficult would it be for 1 or 2 members of 343 to post here and at least make it seem as though they are listening to their fans? Maybe they would learn a thing or two about what the community actually wants as far as weekend playlists go. Personally, I am growing impatient with the slow progress that 343 has made with Halo 5 since its release. Why wasn’t I allowed to pay 20 dollars for the initial game, then 5 dollars here and there as I please until the full 60 is paid? That is basically what 343 is doing to us - releasing an incomplete game and sporadically giving us content until the game is complete some undetermined amount of time later. Meanwhile, the population of halo 5 is decreasing and all their future updates will be enjoyed by only what is left of the halo 5 community as the more casual fans move on. This is getting ridiculous.

2

I agree

3

well many of the “excellent” idea are actually not possible or create such a divide of opinion that if they were implemented they would just get -Yoink- on more. This forum in general is not very productive and is very animalistic so it makes sense why 343 tends to well not participate in it. They are very active on other forms of media so it is apparent they are seeing everything people are saying. As to the hole “ball” modes things, it has been confirmed multiple times and the changes have been discussed in the previous community update so the community should be aware what they are getting or how it will play. Doubles has basically not been implemeted because during the holiday it was one of the least played modes, which someone who can think logically would come to the conclusion that it is not deserving of its own playlist due to its unpopularity. One could say that the posts on this forum show the opposite but you can assume the majority wants it because the minority of players use the forums. Now 343 has fumbled in areas, there is no doubting that but halo 5 not a failure by any means. What would paying 60 bucks upfront and 60 bucks over time have done? its the same exact amount and I guarantee less players would pay that extra 5 bucks for content than you would think. You can say they are not listening, but there is more evidence to show that they are and are working on things the community wants (may not be what you want per say).

I was upset about the whole remixing maps things too, but I realized something. Making original maps take time (time depends on the size and detail of the map of course) if all the maps we got were originals we would have no additional maps until this update and people were pissed with what we originally got. Remixes already have some core features of the maps already done making them a quick turn around for release to well hold the player base over until the originals. For all we know the original maps we are getting have been in development since november/december. Myself am glad than we got remixes to at least add some variety even if its minor while waiting for new original maps. (same thing goes with forge maps, though with varying success.)

Again i am not saying your wrong, most of what you said are legit problems that most of the community are aware of. Im just saying that there could be a reason/explanation for it that people seem to ignore. Is what I am saying correct? I have no idea but its possible

4

Ball/bomb game types are coming this month. Have you read the community update? https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/a-whole-new-ball-game

I agree with you on some of the other points. I never really understood why 343i doesn’t post more stuff here on their own forums but I think its because sites like reddit and twitter have far more exposure to a larger audience than these forums do so from that standpoint it makes more sense to post things there instead.

5

> Doubles has basically not been implemeted because during the holiday it was one of the least played modes, which someone who can think logically would come to the conclusion that it is not deserving of its own playlist due to its unpopularity.

FFA had a lower population yet remains. What about other halo games such as Reach? The population is much lower than Halo 5 (I would hope!) yet has many more playlists and you can actually find games in those playlists. What is the problem with having doubles if it has a population of say…1000 or 2000?

> Now 343 has fumbled in areas, there is no doubting that but halo 5 not a failure by any means. What would paying 60 bucks upfront and 60 bucks over time have done? its the same exact amount and I guarantee less players would pay that extra 5 bucks for content than you would think. You can say they are not listening, but there is more evidence to show that they are and are working on things the community wants (may not be what you want per say).

I never said that halo 5 is a failure. Instead, what I meant to imply was that it is failing to live up to its potential because 343 fails to listen to the community. It has been 4 months and no new game modes have been added - something that halo ALWAYS had a plethora of and something that the community has begged for. The money comment is a bit more difficult to understand, i’ll try to clarify: personally, I paid 60 dollars to get a complete game. I did not want a product that was 50% complete, even if “free” updates were given every month for 6 months guaranteed. The problem with this is that, yes the game will be complete one day, but by then we may not be able to truly enjoy all of the game types, maps, etc that are added. By then, the next big game may be out (new COD, etc.) and most of our friends will move on to that. Therefore, the value of the game has decreased (would you buy this game if the community were very weak/nonexistent?) whereas 343 still received the full 60 dollars for it. Does that make more sense?

> I was upset about the whole remixing maps things too, but I realized something. Making original maps take time (time depends on the size and detail of the map of course) if all the maps we got were originals we would have no additional maps until this update and people were pissed with what we originally got. Remixes already have some core features of the maps already done making them a quick turn around for release to well hold the player base over until the originals. For all we know the original maps we are getting have been in development since november/december. Myself am glad than we got remixes to at least add some variety even if its minor while waiting for new original maps. (same thing goes with forge maps, though with varying success.)

I agree, at least we get new maps. I’m sure that making new maps is difficult, but then again…THAT’S THEIR JOB! THEY GET A LOT OF MONEY TO DO THIS. 2 maps (that are basically remakes or existing maps) in 4 months is pathetic. The community makes better forge maps than they do, yet these have not been added yet? What is taking so long?

6

<mark>Hi -</mark>
<mark>Unfortunately I have to ask that you repost in English as we are not equipped to handle other languages at this time.</mark>
<mark>Apologies for the inconvenience.</mark>

in welchem ​​zusammenhang ist 343 ideenlos???

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> 2533274840624875;3:
> well many of the “excellent” idea are actually not possible or create such a divide of opinion that if they were implemented they would just get -Yoink- on more. This forum in general is not very productive and is very animalistic so it makes sense why 343 tends to well not participate in it. They are very active on other forms of media so it is apparent they are seeing everything people are saying. As to the hole “ball” modes things, it has been confirmed multiple times and the changes have been discussed in the previous community update so the community should be aware what they are getting or how it will play. Doubles has basically not been implemeted because during the holiday it was one of the least played modes, which someone who can think logically would come to the conclusion that it is not deserving of its own playlist due to its unpopularity. One could say that the posts on this forum show the opposite but you can assume the majority wants it because the minority of players use the forums. Now 343 has fumbled in areas, there is no doubting that but halo 5 not a failure by any means. What would paying 60 bucks upfront and 60 bucks over time have done? its the same exact amount and I guarantee less players would pay that extra 5 bucks for content than you would think. You can say they are not listening, but there is more evidence to show that they are and are working on things the community wants (may not be what you want per say).
>
> I was upset about the whole remixing maps things too, but I realized something. Making original maps take time (time depends on the size and detail of the map of course) if all the maps we got were originals we would have no additional maps until this update and people were pissed with what we originally got. Remixes already have some core features of the maps already done making them a quick turn around for release to well hold the player base over until the originals. For all we know the original maps we are getting have been in development since november/december. Myself am glad than we got remixes to at least add some variety even if its minor while waiting for new original maps. (same thing goes with forge maps, though with varying success.)
>
> Again i am not saying your wrong, most of what you said are legit problems that most of the community are aware of. Im just saying that there could be a reason/explanation for it that people seem to ignore. Is what I am saying correct? I have no idea but its possible

Is his opinion, let him be

8

Hm. I feel like I’ve seen this thread before…

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> 2533274811958118;8:
> Hm. I feel like I’ve seen this thread before…

I’m sure, I have also read threads that are similar to this. Do you think that if there is an issue, it should only be addressed once and then dropped - even if no action is taken? Sometimes persistence is key, and I would hope that you agree. 343 needs to persistently see the issues with what they are doing (or lack thereof) in order to make meaningful changes. Ideally, that would be the purpose of these forums - to read what the community thinks of their game in order to make improvements. Unfortunately, it is impossible to reverse what has already been done, but assuming they are under contract to make halo 6, they need to know that this is absolutely unacceptable.

Also this is a forum for discussion, so if you have nothing to contribute then feel free not to post

10

Microsoft and 343 had such a great opportunity with Halo 5 to make amends after all the crap with Halo 4 and in a lot of ways (gameplay, mostly), 343 actually delivered!
But it´s no secret that it´s unfinished, and here I obviously blame Microsoft, they surely “asked” for a 2015 release from 343 and they, of course, did what they had to do.

From the top of my head, and in short, here´s the general stuff that bother me in all this:

-Campaign; In my opinion, the best advertised campaign (Hunt the Truth was incredible) but at the same time, falsely so. I could simply blame MS here but they had 3 years and all they brought back was great level design and variety. The story was very forgettable and the formula didn´t change, despite classic Halo being a good thing, I was hoping that with a squad with you the whole time the campaign would have a different tone instead of bigger scenarios with more enemies on screen.

-Warzone; Great idea that 343 simply left unattended. There´s big potential in this mode, especially if they decide to change things a little in order to make it less predictable. “Incoming Prometheans! z0mg! itz WARDEN ETERNAL!” :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

-Maps; 18 FREE MAPS POST LAUNCH?!! HELL YEAH 343 4EVER N EVER N EVER N EVER!!! Of course, these are all (so far) remixes, forged or Warzone Assault variants.
And where are those open, colorful, beautiful maps? Why is it all industrial and UNSC based? 343 sure has some -Yoink!- with UNSC, that logo gets slapped in everything.
Also, BTB comes late and it´s forge-exclusive? No excuse.

-Modes; This has been so discussed and dissected and beaten to death I won´t even touch…but again, no excuse. Why do you tease good weekend modes and remove them forever? Why not have at least social slayer/fiesta in there? One playlist…one.

-Menus; They´re mostly alright but when you have 54858353495734 items unlocked, you want to able to view them differently and faster. Also, no medals post-match?..Why? And Warzone REQ stations that lag so bad while you try to pick the only BR you´ll ever use out of 509545 variants…so bad.
Stances for spartans, alright, they´re cool but you only get to see them if you go to the individual player POST-MATCH. Why is the lobby so naked? You worked on Reach and saw how -Yoink!- those menus were, why complicate? No excuse.

-REQ Packs; You went straight to those people who don´t mind paying for stuff with no shame at all. I mean, at least pretend you weren´t by having every emblem unlocked, but no, Halo has an established fanbase, so you think that for the most part you can get away with it. Well, you´re not wrong. Shame on you.
P.S.: At least Reach allowed me to unlock whatever I wanted.

Unlockables; So many armor pieces and helmets, oh boy! Nevermind the aesthetics since it´s all subjective but why is Armor X a Common piece but the same Armor X with an ugly decal a Legendary? So lazy. Where are the attachable pieces? Halo has always brought something new to the table, that stopped after Reach. No excuse.

There´s a lot more but I think that wall´s enough and very much repeated. In short, what saves Halo 5 is the excellent gameplay and weapon balance. Everything else needs a serious overhaul.

EDIT: I realize my post didn´t exactly go to what the OP was about but I just wanted to get this out.

11

They need to add community maps into big team. Hands down the best part of h4. Would love to see the haven remake into arena slayer too

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> 2533274838663634;11:
> They need to add community maps into big team. Hands down the best part of h4. Would love to see the haven remake into arena slayer too

That would be awesome. There have been amazing forge maps since the day after it was released. Unfortunately, 343 logic is:

“We will include community forge maps in the March update, ‘Captain Wamik’s Wrath’. The reason we do not want to include it now is because we need to space the updates in order to keep the community wanting more. It is what’s best to keep the population strong”

Reality: The population drops off another 100k over the next month as people move onto something else since nothing has changed and the game is getting stale. Meanwhile, instead of 400k people enjoying the awesome community maps and possibly staying around to play the game because of them, only 300k people will ever even see them and most of them would have continued playing regardless.