343i, Thanks for the unplayable matchmaking.

I’m trying to be patient and hoping 343i will get their game fixed, but right now I can’t play matchmaking because it’s so horribly implemented. And I doubt anything will get fixed if nobody raises up these issues.

You want to play with friends? Maybe your best friend just got Xbox and Halo 4 and is learning the ways of the game? Well, he is up for a unpleasant surprise when matchmaking lacks SOCIAL PLAYLISTS that don’t take account the trueskill rating.

I’m fairly good, was 45 in Halo 3, had an alt that was 50, 3.00+ k/d in Reach, around 2 in Halo 4, but I am not a competitive gamer, neither are my friends, a lot of them are lot worse players than I am, why does the matchmaking only take account of the highest True Skill of the party when searching for players? Same thing with guests, play with 3 guys who just occasionally play video games and just want to have some fun, you get matched against players who just laugh their way to victory.

I can manage against highly skilled players, but my friends can’t, it’s either I play with them and we lose every game and they go all around -10-20, or I play alone. I didn’t buy this game to get rated that “Aha, you should always play players who are on your level”, especially when the TS rating is incredibly inaccurate, it can’t be a coincidence that I almost always am the MVP of my team, while our team still lost by a large margin. Does the invisible trueskill only find enemies worth your TS, and just pick random teammates?

Don’t get me wrong, I love the gameplay and have no complaints on that department, but if I honestly can’t play with my friends without them getting completely stomped, this game isn’t worth my time.

And because I don’t want only to rant, I give out a suggestion, a suggestion that hopefully gets a lot of support since I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one:

3 SIMPLE fixes.

1.Party vs Party, Randoms vs Randoms.
Either make an option to find games that don’t consist of other team being a full party, and other being randoms who quit the game because of other team totally taking control of the game, I am so tired of joining games against full party where my team is already losing and other team controls every single power weapon and vehicle on the map.

This will make the games a lot more even, and reduce the quitting.

For an example, a blue team in Exile gets control of gauss hog, banshee, rockets and sniper, and if they play their cards right, scorpion too, or at least destroy it.

2. Options for matchmaking, good connection, my language etc.
There are tons of players playing Europe, Tons playing in US, why do they mix us up? Australians are who suffer the most about the lack of options, I can’t imagine how horrible it is to play with a foreign host to them.

3.Make social playlists
Not everyone in my friendlist is on the same level at playing Halo as I am. I’m a vet, some have gotten Halo on Halo 3, others even later. When playing with friends, who’s trueskill does it take account to when searching for players? Mine.
Full party of 40-60s, against people who are still figuring out how to do flips with banshee or why you should use precision weapons over Assault/Storm Rifle. Games often end up with other team controlling all power weapons and vehicles. Needless to say, this isn’t exactly enjoyable.

I think this is a fair suggestion, isn’t changing gameplay in a single way, just making the games more even and enjoyable. I really hope this is going to happen in future Title Update, It’d be disappointing to quit a game with this much potential to be the greatest Halo game.

I’ll appreciate all opinions, bumps, support to keep this thread alive.

This post has been edited by a moderator. Please refrain from making non-constructive posts.

*Original post. Click at your own discretion.

Too long didn’t read don’t care

Social playlists would be nice. It’s not fun to have to sweat it out every game. Yes, ranks are important, but it is also important to have a place where people can actually play socially.

> Too long didn’t read don’t care

You could’ve just read the 3 points I posted, but I appreciate the bump. Thanks.

Unplayable? I was just playing it a few hours ago.

IDK maybe its just me and my friends but we seem to get matched against players around our skill level most of the time. Sure we will get that occasional match where we completely destroy them or vis versa. But that doesn’t happen very often.

I wouldn’t expect the TS system to be 100% accurate this early anyway. New people are getting on halo 4 everyday. I bet a few months from now it will be a lot more accurate. All i know is i have more of a challenge playing against people in halo 4 then i ever did in halo reach. Its nice to be challenged.

> Unplayable? I was just playing it a few hours ago.
>
> IDK maybe its just me and my friends but we seem to get matched against players around our skill level most of the time. Sure we will get that occasional match where we completely destroy them or vis versa. But that doesn’t happen very often.
>
> I wouldn’t expect the TS system to be 100% accurate this early anyway. New people are getting on halo 4 everyday. I bet a few months from now it will be a lot more accurate. All i know is i have more of a challenge playing against people in halo 4 then i ever did in halo reach. Its nice to be challenged.

You obviously did not read the thread. Are you and your friends on different levels? To the point of where it is impossible to find a fair match for one party?

> > Too long didn’t read don’t care
>
> You could’ve just read the 3 points I posted, but I appreciate the bump. Thanks.

Your welcome! and still not caring. I can play the game just fine but I read in another post you had a Randomvsrandom system and partyvsparty also social gaming, when the -Yoink- dud we have those?!

> Unplayable? I was just playing it a few hours ago.
>
> IDK maybe its just me and my friends but we seem to get matched against players around our skill level most of the time. Sure we will get that occasional match where we completely destroy them or vis versa. But that doesn’t happen very often.
>
> I wouldn’t expect the TS system to be 100% accurate this early anyway. New people are getting on halo 4 everyday. I bet a few months from now it will be a lot more accurate. All i know is i have more of a challenge playing against people in halo 4 then i ever did in halo reach. Its nice to be challenged.

As the person above me summed it up nicely, are you and your friends similary skilled?

Agreed, multiple 40+ playlister here from Halo 3 (never had the patience to hit 50 in anything lol) including Lone Wolves, Doubles, Team Slayer and MLG, I like to play with my friends who didn’t get as into Halo as I have. They’re just starting to get into it, and while I’m trying to explain game mechanics and what to use and when etc. former Generals are roflstomping them to the point they won’t even play with me anymore. In such a team-based game as Halo, its NO fun playing by yourself constantly, as you’re basically limited to Slayer which even THEN manages to match me with people going 8 and 20 that I can’t talk to or help. PLEASE 343i, add seperated Social/Ranked playlists that have VISIBLE skill ranks, it was a beautiful thing in Halo 3, why on Earth would you remove it?

> I read in another post you had a Randomvsrandom system and partyvsparty also social gaming, when the -Yoink!- dud we have those?!

You’re probably too young to remember, but Halo 3.

> > I read in another post you had a Randomvsrandom system and partyvsparty also social gaming, when the -Yoink!- dud we have those?!
>
> You’re probably too young to remember, but Halo 3.

Ooh the burn! lol

but OT: I completely agree this game needs social playlists. I used to play with friends all the time in Reach, but now in H4 I have stopped playing with friends. I have some friends who are better than me, and some who are worse. I almost never get a fun game when searching with friends.

I also used to play with my brother all the time in past halos, but as he doesn’t play as much as me, he isn’t up to his full potential. He was going to get the game, but I’ve just told him not to bother until a social playlist system is implemented, because I know he won’t enjoy it.

It is a shame that 343 neglected this side of halo.

> Agreed, multiple 40+ playlister here from Halo 3 (never had the patience to hit 50 in anything lol) including Lone Wolves, Doubles, Team Slayer and MLG, I like to play with my friends who didn’t get as into Halo as I have. They’re just starting to get into it, and while I’m trying to explain game mechanics and what to use and when etc. former Generals are roflstomping them to the point they won’t even play with me anymore. In such a team-based game as Halo, its NO fun playing by yourself constantly, as you’re basically limited to Slayer which even THEN manages to match me with people going 8 and 20 that I can’t talk to or help. PLEASE 343i, add seperated Social/Ranked playlists that have VISIBLE skill ranks, it was a beautiful thing in Halo 3, why on Earth would you remove it?

We’re like in, exactly same position, go ahead and try to explain “It’s not always like this, it’s just when you play with friends who are better than you” that sure is some good logic right there.

I wonder what the hell made them get rid of the system in the first place? Did they want to take the Call of Duty with Reach when they removed the True Skill in the first place? That obviously didn’t work as competitive players hated it, and even non-competitives hated the unbalanced gameplay.

Now Halo 4, “Learned” from Reach’s mistake, and added TS to all playlists, invisible 1-50, that takes account to highest TS in the party, “It’s like Call of Duty + Halo”

Only problem? There hardly is a skill gap in newer call of duty games, that’s why it doesn’t need that heavy ranking system to match players.

Overall, the current matchmaking set up is a failure, bring ranked/social would please both competitives, casuals and people who are good but just want to fool around with friends.

I really miss social playlists, and would really like something like them added. Before you had ranked playlists for when you wanted to seriously and enjoy a more competitive experience, and social playlists for when you wanted to play casually or socially and enjoy a laid back experience.

Now you can’t get a consistently serious and competitive experience because you get players that would rather be playing social in your matches, and you can’t get a consistently social and laid back experience because you get players that would rather be playing ranked playlists in your matches.

> I really miss social playlists, and would really like something like them added. Before you had ranked playlists for when you wanted to seriously and enjoy a more competitive experience, and social playlists for when you wanted to play casually or socially and enjoy a laid back experience.
>
> Now you can’t get a consistently serious and competitive experience because you get players that would rather be playing social in your matches, and you can’t get a consistently social and laid back experience because you get players that would rather be playing ranked playlists in your matches.

This man sums up why “Global” playlists with TS ranking is wrong and flawed.

I think the main reason the ranks never got visible was because the playlists are all ranked and global, nobody who cares for their rank wants to see their rank get decreased because they got guests or social players as teammates.

> > I read in another post you had a Randomvsrandom system and partyvsparty also social gaming, when the -Yoink!- dud we have those?!
>
> You’re probably too young to remember, but Halo 3.

Yes because Halo 3 was a perfection of gaming also yes burn for amusing someone is too young and yet clearly has put more though into studying games and just enjoying them instead of producing fanboy rage agents them because there to the game he imagined in his head prelaunch.

I think that the worse thing of the matchmaking system is the absence of conditions(good connection,my language etc).Many times I find lag(I have optic fiber 10mbit and i live in Italy,does 343 already stated something about ? For example,they already planned to insert some options ?
Thank you !

Patience? You don;t know that meaning of patience. Give it at least up to early 2013. It’s only been a few weeks you can’t expect all the changes to just come at an instant.

> > > I read in another post you had a Randomvsrandom system and partyvsparty also social gaming, when the -Yoink!- dud we have those?!
> >
> > You’re probably too young to remember, but Halo 3.
>
> Yes because Halo 3 was a perfection of gaming also yes burn for amusing someone is too young and yet clearly has put more though into studying games and just enjoying them instead of producing fanboy rage agents them because there to the game he imagined in his head prelaunch.

Halo 3 was far from perfection, but it’s matchmaking and playlist system was almost perfect.

Clearly you’ve put more thought into studying games, because you didn’t even know such matchmaking system existed, didn’t bother to point out a single reason why my suggestion is pointless or “Fanboy whining”. Don’t get me wrong gameplay wise I’ve enjoyed Halo 4, but I just wanted to raise the issue me and other players who play with unevenly skilled friends occur. There is nothing wrong with gameplay, it’s the matchmaking that bothers me.

This suggestion clearly doesn’t affect you, so I don’t understand why’d you show up into thread in the first place to post that you don’t care? I appreciate the bumps, but I really wouldn’t want to turn this into childish argument or name calling such as “Fanboy”.

> Patience? You don;t know that meaning of patience. Give it at least up to early 2013. It’s only been a few weeks you can’t expect all the changes to just come at an instant.

Read the highlighted part:

> I’m trying to be patient and hoping 343i will get their game fixed, but right now I can’t play matchmaking because it’s so horribly implemented. <mark>And I doubt anything will get fixed if nobody raises up these issues.</mark>

My point was to bring this issue up, before the update. If everyone is quiet and sits twiddling their thumbs, nothing will happen. I’m not saying 343i has to do the fix today, but as soon as they release the Title Update.

Im not trowing your point away to fanboy wining. Iv been reading so many of this same post Iv gotten vary tired I have read your post and I agree and disagree on points. Im still playing Halo 4 and having fun with my girlfriend and poping it out for a few games of blackops and AC3(ahg!) I get were some people are coming from with lag and connection problems and I get the kill came problems Hell Iv had some myself, but I’m not letting it kill my fun in halo.

You have your point I have mine lets end this on a happy note and not bicker over pointless -Yoink-.