Beta Ranks (Early Access Version) Is Fun, But...

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

First off, I just have to say that I realize this is only the Beta and I’m not going to complain like the minority whose only concern is to bash the game for none other than being different, in fact, I love what I’m seeing thus far. And also, as a warning, I’m just putting out there my initial thoughts, it’s not an indefinite outlook on the game or something that is meant to steer people into thinking as I do, just remember, it’s only an opinion!

So, for anyone who hasn’t gotten lucky enough to get into this sneak peek into the Beta, I will enlighten you on a few specifics before I get to the “but…” because to run down the whole list, I could ramble on for a good while, even with all we get (which is a lot to ask from a Beta, in most Beta’s I’ve participated in). Now, it seems like a solid ranking system, although I certainly expect changes come launch day. It feels a lot like Halo: Reach’s Arena or Black Ops II’s League Play in that you play for 10 ‘Qualifying’ matches in Team Slayer before you’re plopped into a Division, (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Onyx, Semi-Pro, Pro) within each Division there are 3 Tier’s; Obviously, we have yet to see what’s up with the other playlists. So this is all great, we’ve got something as competitive player’s we can all enjoy (here comes the butt – I mean “but”). BUT… there are concerns I have as they are now, that was apparent from the title, yes, so here it is. Again, this is only my first impression. The system allows too much room for interpretation, as in it seems a lot like League Play where if your team drops and it’s a 2v4 you lose 90 points, which is about a quarter of your tier progress. Not a huge loss but it’s enough of a difference that it could cost you from being in Semi-Pro back to Onyx. And those points don’t come easy, in an average game you probably see between 9 to 12 points (sometimes even if you pull off a massive KDA spread) which is something I like, actually, it makes you work harder for the ranks.

I need an example to make my case better; I was just in a game where I was teamed up with a fellow Onyx, a Silver and an Unranked (to be expected this early). Going up against an Onyx, two Gold’s and an Unranked once again. So this seems like a fair fight, right up until my Onyx and Unranked teammate’s quit. So me and the Silver are doing really well to keep up actually, the final score was something like 27 to 32 but the entire game was a chess match, baring only a 1 to 3 kill lead between us (they lead most of the way). Anyway, the match ends and I lost 90 points, and for what? I did okay with the Neutral KD, my silver went negative but we all in all had a fair game, despite our quitter teammates. But it felt like I was punished for the laziness of my teammates, I understand that if one goes down, we all go with it, but sometimes that might not be always applicable to games like this, especially not when it’s a Public Match as a opposed to a full team of 4 on 4. Anyway, I hope this ranking system can dictate better who get’s punished for losses like this because while it’s not the end of all things, it’s nothing to scoff at.

So, take this post as you will, I just had to get it out there. Thanks 343i for the wonderful work you’re putting into this amazing game!

2

Just a few quick points:

  1. Whatever division you end up in after your qualifying matches, you stay in that division, regardless of how many points you might lose. I lost a game here and there and at one point ended up at the bottom of the Onyx division, but didn’t rank down to Gold III. It’s the same for Semi-Pro. Once you obtain that status, you keep it for the rest of the Season. The only status you could potentially lose is Pro, which is always the top 200 players based on Skill points.

  2. Yes, it is a pain to see players who lose teammates due to quitting experience a large point loss. But one of my buddies decided to quit in a game I was in and I stayed in till it ended, I lost, and ultimately lost 15 points or so in the game. However, my friend and I were at the exact same level in Onyx tier before the match and afterward he was lower than I was, suggesting that quitting matches has more of a penalty than those who stay in-game and end up losing. So yeah, it does suck, but ultimately you aren’t losing as many points as the people who ended up quitting. Sure, maybe they can incorporate a system where the game knows it’s 2v4, which is an uneven matchup. and then determine at the end of the game that you should lose less points because of it.

Remember, it is a beta, and I’m sure 343 will work on it. They look like they’ve done a pretty good job with it so far.

3

> 2533274840471901;2:
> Just a few quick points:
>
> 1. Whatever division you end up in after your qualifying matches, you stay in that division, regardless of how many points you might lose. I lost a game here and there and at one point ended up at the bottom of the Onyx division, but didn’t rank down to Gold III. It’s the same for Semi-Pro. Once you obtain that status, you keep it for the rest of the Season. The only status you could potentially lose is Pro, which is always the top 200 players based on Skill points.
>
> 2. Yes, it is a pain to see players who lose teammates due to quitting experience a large point loss. But one of my buddies decided to quit in a game I was in and I stayed in till it ended, I lost, and ultimately lost 15 points or so in the game. However, my friend and I were at the exact same level in Onyx tier before the match and afterward he was lower than I was, suggesting that quitting matches has more of a penalty than those who stay in-game and end up losing. So yeah, it does suck, but ultimately you aren’t losing as many points as the people who ended up quitting. Sure, maybe they can incorporate a system where the game knows it’s 2v4, which is an uneven matchup. and then determine at the end of the game that you should lose less points because of it.
>
> Remember, it is a beta, and I’m sure 343 will work on it. They look like they’ve done a pretty good job with it so far.

Thanks for the tips, I had suspected as much about the penalty for quitting. I just want to see a good system work and see results like people not quitting a match so often and if they do after 2 matches, put them into a quitters pool or something. And as I said before, I know how Beta’s are, this is just me trying to contribute, which may or may not get to 343. Either way, I’m thankful for what they’ve done with the game and I love it regardless, Halo will always be my baby.

4

So wait, there are 7 ranks i’m guessing unranked counts? and how hard is it to make that leap from onyx to semi-pro? and if you ever make pro you can rank down because of only a max of 200 players at a time with the rank of pro? and one more question completely irreverent to ranks, how is the game? is it more like halo 4 or halo 2?
Thanks!

5

The game is neither. It’s old Halo with new tricks. The gunplay is still fundamental to Halo but the dynamics are more fast paced. Basically, it’s the best of the first 3 games with some slight tweaks to make the game feel new. So far it’s great. No loadouts or armor abilities, everyone has more mobility and sprint, but it’s balanced because you can’t recover shields while sprinting; you have to return to a walking state in order to recover shields. So you can’t use it as a cop out if you’re losing a 1v1 without potentially being punished for it.

The new ranking system is the best I’ve seen yet. Basically an improved version of the Reach system with no skill point cap. So you can’t get stuck at level 45 in the 1-50 system like you did before in Halo 2/3 if you played too many games, and there’s a more visible skill gap; 50’s in Halo 3 were not all the same skill level. And yes, if you don’t play for a few days while being in the Pro level status, you can lose your rank because it is always based on the top 200 players in terms of skill points. So if you’re rank 200 with 2500 points or so and after a few days the top 200 have a minimum of 2600, then you’re back to Semi-Pro. It’s basically a leaderboard setup. And 343 said they would give players the ability to see the top 200 at any one time, so you can know for sure what score you need to break into the top division.

6

> 2533274873210923;4:
> So wait, there are 7 ranks i’m guessing unranked counts? and how hard is it to make that leap from onyx to semi-pro? and if you ever make pro you can rank down because of only a max of 200 players at a time with the rank of pro? and one more question completely irreverent to ranks, how is the game? is it more like halo 4 or halo 2?
> Thanks!

Here you go. Enjoy.

7

> 2533274854370129;3:
> > 2533274840471901;2:
> > Just a few quick points:
> >
> > 1. Whatever division you end up in after your qualifying matches, you stay in that division, regardless of how many points you might lose. I lost a game here and there and at one point ended up at the bottom of the Onyx division, but didn’t rank down to Gold III. It’s the same for Semi-Pro. Once you obtain that status, you keep it for the rest of the Season. The only status you could potentially lose is Pro, which is always the top 200 players based on Skill points.
> >
> > 2. Yes, it is a pain to see players who lose teammates due to quitting experience a large point loss. But one of my buddies decided to quit in a game I was in and I stayed in till it ended, I lost, and ultimately lost 15 points or so in the game. However, my friend and I were at the exact same level in Onyx tier before the match and afterward he was lower than I was, suggesting that quitting matches has more of a penalty than those who stay in-game and end up losing. So yeah, it does suck, but ultimately you aren’t losing as many points as the people who ended up quitting. Sure, maybe they can incorporate a system where the game knows it’s 2v4, which is an uneven matchup. and then determine at the end of the game that you should lose less points because of it.
> >
> > Remember, it is a beta, and I’m sure 343 will work on it. They look like they’ve done a pretty good job with it so far.
>
>
> Thanks for the tips, I had suspected as much about the penalty for quitting. I just want to see a good system work and see results like people not quitting a match so often and if they do after 2 matches, put them into a quitters pool or something. And as I said before, I know how Beta’s are, this is just me trying to contribute, which may or may not get to 343. Either way, I’m thankful for what they’ve done with the game and I love it regardless, Halo will always be my baby.

Also, your loss of 90 points is a bug. You really only lost 15, because you probably went down a tier level: