First and foremost, I think Slayer and Tactical slayer should be added to ranked matchmaking. Tactical slayer though, imo, doesn’t need to be its own playlist in quickplay. Instead, it could be added to the Slayer playlist. There it could have different variants as well, such as one with sidearm as the starting weapon (this I would be interested to try out). Ranked, however, should only have BR starts imo.
I guess the reason why these playlists aren’t in ranked yet is because 343 wants to test them on different maps and such and to see how people receive the Tactical slayer (essentially SWAT) in infinite. But 343 imo could just at least add Slayer to ranked matchmaking because we already have tested it aplenty in the Arena playlist. They can keep testing different variants for quickplay as much as they like and need to (more variants in quickplay would only be healthy for the game and differentiate casual/social matchmaking better from the competitive side).
FFA I never liked as a ranked gametype though. Reason being that when it becomes “sweaty” at higher ranks, people most of the time try to wait and let other players engage in fights so that they can pick an easy kill or two from players that are already weakened. It’s basically the most efficient way to win in FFA regularly and it made a lot of ranked/comp matches very stale in previous titles. When FFA is played casually though, it’s really fun. And, again, 343 could try different FFA variants in quickplay.
On a side note, the multiplayer matchmaking should have a “veto” option like Halo 3 had. Voting could be added into matchmaking when there are more maps/gametypes added, but it would be nice to have at least a say on what I don’t want to play next.
Anyways, with these gametypes we now have I’d like the matchmaking structure eventually to be as follows:
QUICKPLAY:
FFA
Slayer (several Slayer variants, including different variants of Tactical slayer as well)
Objective (could also include different loadouts etc)
Fiesta
RANKED:
Tactical slayer (BR starts only)
Slayer (BR starts only)
Team Arena
(NOTE: the reason why I wouldn’t make Tactical slayer its own playlist in quickplay is that the multiplayer matchmaking should be fairly compact from the start, and I don’t think Tactical slayer needs to be its own playlist in quickplay tbh. In ranked it should be because on higher ranks and in competitive environment it requires very different kind of skill and knowledge compared to other gametypes.
I know there will be people who disagree with me on adding Tactical slayer to the Slayer playlist in quickplay and that’s ok. This is just my opinion and I’m not forcing it. I’m only voicing my opinion.)
It’s only reasonable these are added to ranked eventually. It always has been like that since Halo 3. 343 probably even have it planned to happen once they’ve gathered feedback.
I’m not complaining here. I appreciate what 343 have done so far and are still doing. I’m just giving feedback (it’s what 343 have been asking for) and I explain how and why I would do these things.
I am not being a narcissist. And I am not complaining. There is a difference between feedback and complaints.
I dislike hateful posts as much as you do because there are other ways to voice one’s opinions. And there was not a single hateful part in my post. 343 constantly ask for feedback and here you can clearly see I’m only saying what I think would be good for the game and why I think so. I’m also giving suggestions for how to do those things. That’s constructive feedback. Not complaints.
Swat is hugely different from normal slayer, I think they should be separate. But I don’t think we need swat in both social and ranked. I don’t care which pool it goes into, it’s very competitive either way.
I can understand that. Which is why I think it should be a ranked gametype like it’s always been since Halo 3.
But I personally think different Tactical slayer variants would be cool in quickplay Slayer. I wouldn’t mind even though it’s so much different from standard Slayer because people who play it more competitively would be in the ranked playlist anyway, so it would be more laid back (especially with different variants than the one with BR loadouts).
For me the next evolution needs to be an MCC style Match Composer for Social.
Personally I’m also really not a fan of the new ‘points-based’ playlist dependent challenges as without medals having points attached to them it reduces the experience and (as someone who isn’t a fan of FFA/SWAT) it does just seem like you’re being made to play what you don’t want or endlessly burn your swaps
MCC has several games worth of content though, so that sort of matchmaking works there. We’d have to wait for several content updates for that to work with infinite to some extent.
Regardless, I personally don’t think Infinite needs as complex of a matchmaking. Just a complete, well-structured one imo.
As for the challenges, I’m fine either with or without playlist-specific challenges as long as they’re reasonable. The focus on FFA and Tactical slayer challenges currently is probably there so that 343 can gather more data and feedback on those playlists.
However, gametype-specific like “win a ranked Oddball match” can be frustrating because you don’t have any power over what gametype you’ll get to play in ranked Arena. A veto-system would be nice to have (maybe a voting system later on when there are more maps).
I think they’ve gone away from veto/voting systems because of the way it seems to always end with objective gametypes being overlooked and certain maps getting played far less
Veto system would be the better option in that sense, as players in the lobby could choose not to play a gametype they don’t like. Voting with several options available often results in the most popular maps/gametypes being played 70 % of the time, even if the other available options at that time were good too. In the current Ranked arena cycle, I only dislike Behemoth CTF so I’d veto that in a heartbeat
