I don’t want to make any opening comments because I usually anger people and get called a troll. Just post your honest opinions on the state of the arena and the job bungie has done handling it.
I loved the idea when I first learned of it. It just didn’t grab me though. I really think they need some kind of incentive to play it. A number is just a number I know. However, I love little things to shoot for. They could have least had a few achievements centered around it to get people to play. I also don’t like seasons. I would like a number kinda like the BPR or ranked number that can go up or down depending on how I do.
NOTE: Reposted from my B.net Thread
Alright, I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of Arena out there, mainly because it is a pure Slayer playlist. However, watching the forums around here, its obvious that its a big deal to quite a few people.
Watching the forums also leads to one realizing how both Bungie and the community must be near blind, because the comfortable middle grounds between the demands of both sides is fairly easily obtainable, and its almost shocking it has been reached yet.
Lets take a look, shall we?
Placement
Make Arena its own set-off category again. It doesn’t really make sense to have 2 Slayer-only playlists under the same category, particularly when one is Arena-ranked and the other isn’t.
Gameplay
Honestly, there isn’t much wrong with Arena gameplay. However, it could use a few common sense tweaks, as below.
Melee Damage - 75% - It really just makes more sense, and its to combat Sprint being the most common loadout.
Motion Tracer - 25m, Friendlies Only
Loadouts - The four loadouts should be as follows.
Sprint
DMR
Magnum
1 Frag
Sprint
Needle Rifle
Magnum
1 Frag
Hologram
DMR
Magnum
1 Frag
Hologram
Needle Rifle
Magnum
1 Frag
No Evade, no Jetpack, just Sprint or Hologram.
Ranking
Having taken care of the two easy steps, I jump straight into the minefield here. Bungie’s divisional ranking system is mathematically and logically superior to the 1-50 system, no matter how hard the H2/H3 rankers may cry and scream their lungs out.
However, the two biggest issues that can be solved are visibility and permanence[/i.] The former, visibility, could be solved by simply giving us an option; we can display our Arena rank next to our name instead of things like the “ODST” or “DMR” symbols by selecting it from our profiles here on B.net. We just choose “Arena Ranking” instead of the other options. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.
As for the other problem, permanence, thats a bit harder to solve. However, a decent compromise I believe would be this:
Your Arena rank will no longer reset, so long as you play at least 14 games of Arena each week. Should you not meet that requirement, your rank will start to degrade, regardless of performance. If you do not meet the requirement for 3 weeks in a row, your Arena rank will be completely reset. You will then have to re-earn it. To prevent cheating and system manipulation, your Trueskill will not reset, and you will face opponents no more than 1 division below you when you got reset. (IE: If you were Onyx when you got reset, when you start playing again you will be playing against High-Level Gold and Low-Level Onyx players, not Bronze/Steel players)
TL;DRAs long as you play Arena regularly, your Arena rank will never reset. However, should you stop playing for an extended period, you will be reset.
Variety
Variety is a hard issue to solve without a lot of (probable) significant changes to the Arena ranking system. However, where I to make a suggestion, I would say that King of the Hill, Oddball and Multi-Flag should be added to the Arena playlist as voting options. To manage griefing/stat boosting issues, only W/L from these gametypes would count, and kills/medals/assists would have no impact on your Arena ranking.
When you look at it, this solves most, if not all of the issues with Arena.
-People get to keep their ranks, so long as they actually play Arena.
-They can go around showing their ranks outside Arena, if they really want to.
-Takes care of most gameplay complaints about Arena.
Yeah, people will still whine up a storm…but people will whine up a storm if you gave them pure platinum-gold bars delivered by gorgeous supermodels, so it doesn’t pay to listen to the whining much.
50s felt like you accomplished so much more than gaining into a division.
A pleasure to read Paragan Fury. As a whole, I think it’s worth a try.
i personally feel like arena is the worst playlist in the game. Especially when you’re onyx all kids do is camp the whole game. ever game is like one big stand still. By far the most boring playlist.
> I loved the idea when I first learned of it. It just didn’t grab me though. I really think they need some kind of incentive to play it. A number is just a number I know. However, I love little things to shoot for. They could have least had a few achievements centered around it to get people to play. I also don’t like seasons. I would like a number kinda like the BPR or ranked number that can go up or down depending on how I do.
I would never play the Arena if BPR was the system. I would have no chance of getting better unless I started a new account which I don’t want to.
> 50s felt like you accomplished so much more than gaining into a division.
1-50 should return in the next Halo, except its 1-150 highest rank. 
Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I thought winning the game was the incentive?
> Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I thought winning the game was the incentive?
That is not old fashioned, I don’t even know what to call it. People always do something for an incentive(hello cR system?). Are you old enough to have a job? What if I told you I am not gonna pay you and your incentive was just to do a good job and that’s your payment?
It’s about progress. Some players work hard to meet new challenges and “ranks” are a way to reward the hard work. As it is now its work work work good job your onyx oh wait bye bye onyx!!! Start over please.
It would be like working hard in a company and becoming the boss then you get fired. Who would enjoy that?
May I also remind you that fun is subjective(gasp!).
May I also remind you that the hundreds of recruits that match against me in doubles or slayer are probably not having “fun”(hahaha I know I am though PR as tool of destruction!?!?).
Arena is a fail.
> i personally feel like arena is the worst playlist in the game. Especially when you’re onyx all kids do is camp the whole game. ever game is like one big stand still. By far the most boring playlist.
This is one of my major issues. The people who think they are good play cheap. In a fair scenario the skill gap on reach is not enough. The only way to make a skill gap is to excel in the art of cheapness.
> 50s felt like you accomplished so much more than gaining into a division.
“Feeling” like you accomplished something and actually accomplishing something are two different things.
The Arena Divisional System is a far more accurate representation of how the Trueskill system actually sees players.
> > i personally feel like arena is the worst playlist in the game. Especially when you’re onyx all kids do is camp the whole game. ever game is like one big stand still. By far the most boring playlist.
>
> This is one of my major issues. The people who think they are good play cheap. In a fair scenario the skill gap on reach is not enough. The only way to make a skill gap is to excel in the art of cheapness.
That’s funny because I hear what makes the skill gap so high in Halo2 is the ability to use button-combos that are actually glitches removed in later installments.
Isn’t the proclaimed idea of competitive playing to use the most cheap, I mean effective ways to kill the enemy? Cause I know it isn’t to have a balanced sandbox (at least not in Halo). I’ve heard it’s mostly a fight over the cheap–Yoink- powerweapons too. One heck of a way to sink your own boat.
I think the Arena and TS systems work much better than before. Personally, I don’t care to rumble with people looking for bragging rights. They tend to spend more time scrubbing a game than playing it and prefer limited skillset play to actual skilled play.
> > > i personally feel like arena is the worst playlist in the game. Especially when you’re onyx all kids do is camp the whole game. ever game is like one big stand still. By far the most boring playlist.
> >
> > This is one of my major issues. The people who think they are good play cheap. In a fair scenario the skill gap on reach is not enough. The only way to make a skill gap is to excel in the art of cheapness.
>
> That’s funny because I hear what makes the skill gap so high in Halo2 is the ability to use button-combos that are actually glitches removed in later installments.
>
> Isn’t the proclaimed idea of competitive playing to use the most cheap, I mean effective ways to kill the enemy? Cause I know it isn’t to have a balanced sandbox (at least not in Halo). I’ve heard it’s mostly a fight over the cheap-Yoink! powerweapons too. One heck of a way to sink your own boat.
>
> I think the Arena and TS systems work much better than before. Personally, I don’t care to rumble with people looking for bragging rights. They tend to spend more time scrubbing a game than playing it and prefer limited skillset play to actual skilled play.
So you are a casual/social player? Of course you enjoy reach. Just go play the game that was designed for you. The fans of ranked gameplay will continue to be upset.
Not what I said but that does help us figure out your mindset now doesn’t? I’ll reword, I don’t view Can’t Have Fun Guys, Scrubs or God Modders as competitors. I find real competitors doing just that competing. I don’t find them complaining how it’s harder to feel self-satisfied.
I find that a majority of the competitive crowd has left halo reach. The people that can tolerate social and flawed gameplay continue to play. I hold halo games to a standard and reach hasn’t met that. Flaws include:
A.) map design
B.) balancing of maps
c.) too many forge maps
d.) melee bleed through
e.) ranking system ( team and individual skill should be separate but both should be present)
f.) spartan movement doesn’t allow evasion
d.) gernades are overpowered
e.) AA’s could work but are not balanced correctly
f.) Sniper is too easy to use
g.) too many power weapons
h.) bloom removes the skill gap, leads to back of the map camping, and adds the luck factor
I.) Nobody knows why they get their rank
J.) Ranks don’t instantly update
K.) No incentives to play
L.) Lack of balance between ranked and competitive gametypes
M.) You get matched up against full teams going solo in matchmaking
O.) doubles was taken out of the arena
P.) snipers, swat, and mlg aren’t in the arena
Q.) The arena has a population of around a thousand consistenly
R.) Jet pack leads to spawn killing
S.) Armor lock doesn’t require good timing or skill
T.) evasion wold work if you couldn’t use it twice and jump halfway across the map
U.) The weekly updates are a joke
V.) critics= trolls
W.) the game gets boring quickly
X.) NO TITLE, GAMEPLAY, OR MAJOR BALANCING UPDATES
Y.) I’m pretty good at the game and I hate it
Z.) I’m a halo fanboy and I hate the game
But if “they” left for CoD, they couldn’t have been that competitive now could they? At least in the eyes of a Halo player, not a videogame player. There is definitely some map knowledge skill needed for CoD… not so much any other skill but at least knowing the angles really helps anyone play.
I’d like to know why there isn’t a group out there that has:
Weapon Spawn 1: NR
Weapon Spawn 2: Pistol
AA Spawn: Evade
Grenade Spawn: 1 Frag
Speed: Default, 110% is fine
Shields: 50%
Damage resistance: 200%
Melee: 50%
Jump height: Unchanged, but 110% is fine (CE had very limited height)
Gravity: Unchanged but 150% is fine.
Health Regen: Default but slow regen is fine.
Making Jetpacks spawn at depots at bases that have long timers associated to them. Active and Hologram would be placed on the map with AL or DS being alternated on some maps. That’s one way of making things more active.
I tell ya, I’ve played a bit of x2 FF for the speed of the game, not the fun of it. I rack up daily challenge credit quickly when playing x2 FF, but honestly, it’s not much fun popping hordes of enemies so quickly with little effort. I can’t imagine all of Halo MP being fun if I am able to do to a player like a I can the AI. I might as well be playing SWAT or Snipers if I want to play a game like that (IMO).
I agree 100%. Call of duty is horrible and requires no skill at all. Battlefield, Gears, and Crysis (without lag) are skill games that I would consider playing instead of reach. If you say call of duty is more skilled and balanced than reach you are a fool. Regardless, reach is still not good in comparison to past halo games. It could be…but the guys in charge right now are not doing their jobs. Technically call of duty fans should like reach more because it caters to the casuals more than the ranked fans.
Reaper are you a fan of ranked gameplay? If so, what do you think about it? I saw you as a ignorant fanboy/ troll caller at first but I see that you are a legit responder. Sorry about that
I’d be a fan of ranked gameplay if it felt like I was playing against those I played against in PC games. The difference between a PC player and a console player can be summed up by comparing the Quake Nail-Gun to Halo’s AR.
Both require tremendous skill to use in actual gameplay circumstances because they require the user to remain alive long enough to inflict enough hits to cause significant damage and even death. This feat requires the users to not only traverse the environment while avoiding fire, they must also maintain a better tracking reticle than a precision user while doing so as to maintain their hit %.
In Quake, you’re awesome if you can Nail-Gun someone of even reasonable skill at mid-range (and sometimes long) and known to be automatically deadly at close. In Halo, you’re a nOOb for using the AR… period.
That is my main reason for staying out of the “ranked” playlists. I find the players in those lists care more about rank than actual skill and it leads to unimaginative gameplay that scrubs things away to match said unimagination. And then there is the whole “if you’re not the best with the sniper, you suck.” attitude. Because in a 4x4 mathup, someone has to go and get the enemy sniper for there to be 2 snipers on the team. You’re telling me the guy who retrieved the Sniper from the other team sucks or is lucky the enemy sucked(rhetorical)? Or the other 2 teammates are just there for the lols?
I don’t like how players seem to mix team and lonewolf gameplay mechanics together. So I remove myself almost entirely from the obvious equation and play what I feel will test my knowledge as a player, not an interface tool.
The reason I am happy with Reach’s weapon balance and bloom’s effect across range can summed up in these 2 video series: