We were wrong… and we just can’t live without you.
Alright, jokes aside, consider this a cry for help.
I am really getting fed up with what is happening to this game. I see 343 using their time and resources into making more useless content instead of making this game better. Also, any actions that they have made to make the game “better” end up making it much much worse. What I am about to write may seem like I’m just complaining and whining, but I have bottled a lot of these thoughts and opinions up for some time, and I think it is time for them to be known. The following are the grievances I have with this game and, mainly, 343 Industries, in no particular order.
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Changes to the Warzone Assault Playlist, the main change being a change in fireteam limits. I used to run with full lobbies of 12 and would win most of our matches (and quick core, back to that point in a minute). However, since the playlist now has a fireteam limit of 6, we can no longer run lobbies together, my friends and I. I have played a few matches in fireteams of six, and I have to say that I am reluctant to even play this playlist anymore. Those of us in the actual fireteam will outslay the enemy and play highly strategically and still lose because of our inability to communicate with the other team. Now, the reason for the fireteam limit change was brought on as a “temporary” change, as mentioned in the forum team’s post on the changes. However, we have not heard, after well over a month, if these changes would become permanent, even after many requests in the comment feed by members of our community to receive an update on the situation. These requests, at least since the last time I checked, have been ignored. The reduction in fireteam limits was in response to reported incidents of farming in this playlist. I have been on both sides of the equation, both winning and losing. I have also been in just about every type of warzone lobby imaginable, running farming strats and quick core strats. I can tell you that there are way more lobbies intent on getting the game done as fast as possible than farming lobbies in this playlist. Only a small fraction of lobbies farmed. I am friends with both people who farm and quick core, and those who farmed were punished with red rep. There were also reports on teams being too strong with 12 people, leaving the losing team no chance to win. I can say that with the lobbies that I ran with, this was brutally true :)But here’s a secret for all of you… You too can form a full lobby! I know this may seem a bit insane to a lot of you guys (especially those of you who expressed your opinions on this matter) There are forums and websites out there so you can make your own squads and destroy your foes just as we did. Halo LFG, Waypoint forums, halotracker forums, and many many more. Before I move onto the next point, I will say this: 343 screwed with a playlist in which farming is not relevant and ignored the playlist in which it’s a “problem.” (Warzone Regular)
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And with that, we will move onto Warzone. For this section, I will mostly be focusing on one map in particular and leave you guys to make any similarities and differences to other maps. The map we will be focusing on is Battle of Noctus. 343 has made slightly less noticeable moves to prevent farming in Warzone, mainly on this monstrosity of a map. With Warzone Assault having gone down the drain, I mostly run quick-core lobbies in this playlist, and encounter this map a lot in our searches. Since our goal is to quick-core, we try to capture all of the bases as quickly as possible. For the first 3 minutes (sometimes less) everything usually goes to plan, with the occasional back-cap which is quickly taken back. However, once 4 or 5 minutes hits the clock, our efforts become fruitless. Their core is now unreachable. This is not due to the enemy team (as you have all read how fast we dispose of them). The problem is now the Soldier Commando that is now patrolling up and down the strip outside their base, and in effect, defending the enemy core for the enemy team. Now, this early in the game, power weapons that will efficiently take down this thing are not usually available to us (Plasma pistol, yes, but as our other weapon is usually a loadout, and as we cannot jack this vehicle, we may as well just EMP the thing, anger the beast, wait next to it, wave and take the -Yoink–woopin we are about to recieve.) Meanwhile, as the Commando is mowing us down, half the enemy team is sniping us with scoped BRs and the other half is sitting to the side laughing at our frutile attempts for victory. Fast forward 2 minutes, and we have finally taken out the Soldier commando and his driver, Padro (because if you think the spartans you are playing against have mexican connection, you should check out some of the AI we go up against.) Now we will for sure overtake these kids! But wait… what is that? It’s Yoinking mantis twins on both sides of the map, one to replace the Commando on guard duty, and the other to watch our spawns. The amount of armor on these things is way over 9000! I should also mention that by this point, a few of the enemies had obtained camos and had claimed one of the garages. With no hope of quickly eliminating the mantis outside their core, or the one outside of ours, we are forced to face the truth that we are in this for the long haul. The goal is now not to core, but to stay alive and prevent any more bases from being capped. Fast forward 7 minutes. We’re stuck in Monument, pinned down by the mantises watching our garage and core. Exhausted but well equipped, we spawn the best weapons and vehicles REQs can buy and ready up for full frontal assault. But wait… BOOM! we feel the ground shake, turn around, and see the largest grunt imaginable. At his feet is tommy, whom was just crushed by the gargantuan (It should be known that he had just spawned with a fresh OV and answer) Immediately we scatter to escape the grasp of the giant. We quickly learn that he has no intent of grabbing us, and instead he lets his waves of needles do the work for him. The first volley takes down two of our guys, who I assure you were pissed to lose their Nornfang and Salene’s Lance. The grunt fires a second volley, taking down One of our Banshee Ultra’s. In all the chaos, our scorpions, while trying to shoot the monster have now been boarded by the enemy and destroyed. I will cut to the end, as we have still won the match, but not without heavy losses and heavy hearts. (Our hearts were mostly heavy as we thought of all the quick cores we could have done during the course of the half hour match. So long story, NERF ALL AI.
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I am also frustrated with the path 343 is taking. More content is being released while more important aspects of game function are being ignored. It seems to me that the lag issue is growing ever more present. I am hearing countless reports, as well as experiencing issues, about people lagging out of the game and thus not only being unable to help his teammates, but also taking a loss for lagging out of the match. I would be willing to receive one less content update if 343 instead put more effort into fixing crashing, lagging, and other bugs. This is all for now.
Noodle