I was playing reach last night and a couple of things about the way reach’s matchmaking works kind of annoy me. Im sure many of you will feel the same when I flesh them out a bit. As like most people, I feel that the way MM was set up in previous halo games were vastly superior to the way they are now with reach. I have 5 main problems with the Matchmaking system in place.
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I believe that there are too many playlists right now in reach. Too many, you say? Yes, too many. Team slayer, team objective, infection, premium battle, Arena, Action sac, grifball, score attack, firefight this, firefight that. Everytime a new playlist is introduced, players from other playlists leave a previous playlist, further spreading out the community. My solution, consolidate where ever possible.
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Halo MM has always thrived on the Ranked + Social way of dividing up the “hardcore” from the ?Fool around…ers? but reach has dropped the ball in that department. I don’t know what playlist will be serious and what playlist I’ll be chasing around rings with a rocket launcher and a warthog. The new version of ranked is arena but it offers little variation in terms of gametypes and many players, myself included, don’t have the time to play EVERY SINGLE DAY to get the ranks they deserve. Ranked and social is a clearcut way to say “whos serious today and who just wants to chill”
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Speaking of ranked. 343 needs to bring back the 1-50 ranking system. Its awesome to have ranks like colonel grade 2 or whatever but that doesn’t show how skilled a player is. If im against a player and I see that he is a level 50 in team slayer, I know that this guy is the real deal and my K/D for the game will probably be negative something. But if I see a guy in reach thats a general, I think, “wow… that guy has played alot.” 1-50 ranking purely shows how skilled you are, not how long you have been playing. The 1-50 ranking also tells other players about YOUR POTENTIAL SKILL. I was decent at H3 but I never got above a 45 in any playlist because I wasn’t good enough to be above a 45. In reach, if you play enough, all the ranks will eventually come your way… or 343 could just have both systems like H3. hmm
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Bring back the veto!!! Why? Look at your recent game history guys. If you play mlg or TS or any other playlist where there are a mix of gametypes, what gametype do people 99% of the time pick? Thats right, slayer. Im the guy who votes for CTF and the other 7 vote for slayer. Halo 3’s voting system was amazing because if people didn’t want oddball on construct, the game could then give them CTF on the Pit. There, done, no questions asked. Sometimes players got slayer, after a veto, sometimes KOTH, and maybe sometimes guardian instead of valhala. With the veto, all gametimes (and maps for that matter) were played. Now im lucky if i can convince a few people to vote CTF with me. Give me a veto or don’t give me any choice at all.
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Finally, map variation. In previous halo’s, I truely never knew what map I was going to play. Lockout? maybe Beaver Creek? nope its Midship. I got to see every map, know its ins and outs, know where the weapons spawn. In reach I can say that I will 9 times out of ten play zealot, countdown, or asylum. I don’t even know what some of the other maps look like because in most playlists only 3-4 maps are actually used. Other halo games gave you this “sometimes you win, sometimes you dont” thing with maps. Maybe the game didn’t give you your favorite map but if you play ten matches, you might get it 2-3 times. In reach only the very popular maps are chosen so other maps don’t get love. Give the maps love, 343!
I want to stress that these five points are my opinion and you guys may have different thoughts. If 343 makes some of these changes though, I can promise that H4 will be a better MM experience