Forum terminology glossary.

Community General Discussion
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This post is to help the newer members of the forum with terminology they may not have heard of and don’t have to feel silly asking other people.

Feel free to post terminology, abbreviations and acronyms.

*Explained later

> OP: This can either stand for “Original poster” or “Over powered”

> OSK/4SK/5SK: ****
__> OSK is “One shot kill,” 4SK is “Four shot kill,” usually refering to the BR 5SK: “Five shot kill,” Usually refering to the DMR or Magnum.__
> One shot: Letting other players know an enemy is desheilded
> Absolute: Call out for when a player has only three or one red bar of health and a bullet anywhere on the player will kill them.
> Weapons
> BR: “Battle Rifle.” Precision weapon in Halo 3 and soon to be Halo 4
>
> DMR: “Designated Marksman Rifle.” Precision weapon in Halo Reach.
>
> NR: “Needle rifle” Covenant precision weapon in Halo Reach
>
> PP: "Plasma Pistol"
>
> AR: "Assault rifle"
>
> GL: "Grenade Launcher"
>
> RL: "Rocket Launcher"
>
> Splaser: "Spartan Laser"
>
> Noob Combo: Halo2/3 term for duel wielding the plasma pistol and magnum at the same time
>
> Magnum: human pistol
> ToD: “Tool of Destruction” Most used weapon wheter it be in a specific game, overall or playlist etc.
> Hitscan: If an object is in the path of a fired weapon it will always hit where shot. There is no bullet movement over long distances the instant you shoot the shot it connects at the other end. Can someone help me define this better?
> Bloom: Bloom is a feature that is affected by RoF.* The faster you fire the bigger the reticle* expands. This bring luck and randomness into your shots. The shot can go off within any random point within the reticle.*
> RoF: “Rate of fire” This refers to how fast a gun can fire. The Max RoF cannot be altered no matter how fast you pull the trigger.
> Reticle: This is the ‘crosshairs’ It’s located in the middle of the screen and it determines where you are aiming/shooting.
> Bloom (sometimes referred to as light bloom or glow) is a computer graphics effect used in video games, demos and high dynamic range rendering (HDR) to reproduce an imaging artifact of real-world cameras. The effect produces fringes (or feathers) of light around very bright objects in an image, obscuring fine details. Basically, if an object has a light behind it, the light will look more realistic and will somewhat overlap the front of the object from the 3rd person perspective.
>
> Anti-aliasing which is also known as AA.
**> K/D:****
> Kills/Deaths.
<strong>> W/L: Wins/Total games. This stands for win loss. But it is usually represented a perecentage of games won.</strong>
<strong>> OT: “On topic”</strong>
<strong>> T4R: “Title for reference”</strong>
<strong>> FTFY: “Fixed that for you” used when someone fixes a quote of another person</strong>
<strong>> TL;DR:“Too long didn’t read” This is used when saying a post is too long and you didn’t read it. Also when you read the post but are telling OP* to add a Tl;dr or when there is a short summary at the end of a long post.</strong>
<strong>> QFT: “quoted for truth,” used to agree with something that has been posted. Quoting the quote before posting this.</strong>
<strong>> Inb4: This is used when predicting what people will post.</strong>
<strong>> Black screen/Host migration: This is used to describe when the host* leaves the game. A black screen usually causes all weapons and all veichles that are not already in use to respawn.</strong>
<strong>> Host: The host is running the game on his/her home connection.</strong>
<strong>> Spawn kill: This is when a player is killed immediately after spawning without a chance to fight back</strong>
<strong>> Spawn trapping: this is usually when all/nearly all of a team is getting spawn killed(see above) The team spawn trapping has complete map control* and usually all power weapons and veichles</strong>
<strong>> Spawn camping: Where a player or more than one player camps on a place where they know players will spawn and kills them easily. Happens alot in invasion due to minimal spawn points.</strong>
<strong>> Map control: Where one team usually has every power weapon and veichle(if plausible) and have pushed the other team into their side of the map/base/spawns.</strong>
<strong>> TU: “Title update” This is a an update that has 85% bloom, no bleed through and changes to AL* and AC*</strong>
<strong>> ZB: “Zero Bloom”</strong>
<strong>> NS: “No sprint” Only seen in the MLG* Playlist</strong>
<strong>> TS: This can stand for “True skill” or “Team Slayer” Depending on the context.</strong>
<strong>> BXR: A glitch that was profound in Halo 2, where (assuming one is using the default control scheme), by pressing “B”, “X”, and “RT” in smooth succession, it will kill an enemy extremely quickly</strong>
<strong>> 'Playlist names’</strong>
<strong>> Ts: “Team slayer.”</strong>
<strong>> BTB: “Big team battle”</strong>
<strong>> TO: “Team objective”</strong>
<strong>> LD: “Living dead”</strong>
<strong>> MLG: "Major leauge gaming</strong>
<strong>> AS: "Action sack</strong>
<strong>> 'Armour Ablities(Halo Reach)</strong>
<strong>> AA: “Armour ability”</strong>
<strong>> AL: “Armour lock”</strong>
<strong>> AC-Camo: “Active camoflage”</strong>
<strong>> Gametypes:</strong>
>
<strong>> FFA: free for all</strong>
<strong>> CTF: capture the flag</strong>
<strong>> KotH: king of the hill</strong>
<strong>> Zombies: Any game in the Living Dead playlist</strong>
<strong>> CQC: “close quarters combat”</strong>
<strong>> Noob: If you don’t know what this means you definitely are one, I believe its derived from the term ‘newbie’. Can refer to someone who is lacking skill, unfamiliar or new to something. Very similar to rookie in a sports context.</strong>
<strong>> Spread: Kill Death spread, (K-D)</strong>
<strong>> DLC: “downloadable content”</strong>
<strong>See DAVIDJCOBB’s two posts below for more Helpful tips (they won’t fit in OP*)</strong>
If this is accepted by the communtity and gets lots of love: Possible pin?

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Feel free to post this in the Helpful Hints for New Members thread. :slight_smile:

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You forgot BK which means Burger King.

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You forgot AA, which is Armor Abilities and Anti Aliasing.

Also, Bloom as dual meanings here, Bloom is what you said, as well as a Graphical feature in most game engines the simulate realistic looking lighting.

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=/= this doesnt make any sense to me. I mean, I know what the = with the / through it means “does not equal” from Stats, is this the only way it cant be written?

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> You forgot BK which means Burger King.

Lol, that’s actually what I thought it meant the first time I heard that term being used.

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TS = True Skill.

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> =/= this doesnt make any sense to me. I mean, I know what the = with the / through it means “does not equal” from Stats, is this the only way it cant be written?

I’ve seen it written as “=/=” and “!=”. I use both interchangeably.

Also, I believe this deserves a place in the Helpful Hints for New Members thread :slight_smile:

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I always thought QFT meant quoted for truth.

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> I always thought QFT meant quoted for truth.

It does. There’s no reason for the profanity in it…

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> > I always thought QFT meant quoted for truth.
>
> It does. There’s no reason for the profanity in it…

Thanks:)

I have updated and added more to OP

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AFK - Originated as a PC-gaming term meaning “Away from Keyboard”, but has since made it’s way into console gaming meaning a player in your match or lobby is currently away from their controller, their in-game character is idle, and cannot be reached until they return.

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Good thread for fine gentlemen!
Anyone saw what I did there?

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Spamming= To use something repetitively, to the point its considered overuse.

Bump= To intentionally post in order to bring a thread to the top of forum for the purpose of drawing attention to the subject.

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What? You haven’t included GG yet?

GG - Good Game. Said after matches to teammates and opponents as a sign of respect. You do not have to be the winner or loser to say it, anyone can.

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Underlined terms are defined either here or in someone else’s post in this thread.

(im)balance
A game that favors one team over the other to a significant extent is imbalanced. In an imbalanced game, one essentially has a 50% chance of not having any fun; imbalance is a bad thing. Imbalance can be caused by a map’s geometry, weapon placement, a game variant’s settings, et cetera.

callouts
In a game, callouts are bits of information that you relay to your team through voice chat. You might alert them to a group of enemies coming up a stairwell, or a power weapon that just respawned on a bridge, or five hostiles that spawned up north (compass)… et cetera. If all else fails – and if you’re very quick about it – you can simply say, “On my X!”

compass
You probably know what a compass is, but you might not know that Reach gives you one during matches. It’s above your health bar, and letters are used to show what direction you’re looking in. On most maps, each compass direction has some notable feature (i.e. North on Cage is a cliff face); this can help you learn the directions, which is useful when calling out.

drop spawns
A “drop-spawned” weapon spawns differently from a normal weapon.

Normally, a weapon’s respawn timer will only start when the weapon is moved or picked up. A drop-spawned weapon, however, spawns in midair and drops, which makes its respawn timer start immediately. What this means is that a drop-spawned weapon with a Respawn Time of 30 seconds will always respawn every thirty seconds in the match, like clockwork, even if no one’s touched it.

game variants and map variants
The proper term for “gametypes” and “maps”. Infection is a gametype, whereas Safe Havens and Alpha Zombies are game variants of Infection. Forge World is a map, whereas Pinnacle and Asylum are map variants of Forge World.

This can get a bit confusing at times: an unmodified copy of a map or gametype is just another variant, so “Infection” could refer to the entire gametype, to the on-disc game variant called Infection, or to the Matchmaking game variant called Infection.

lunge
A movement performed by your in-game character as part of a melee.

In Halo 1, it was often difficult to melee enemy players over an Internet connection due to lag and latency. The lunge was introduced to solve this: aim at a player, tap your melee button, and you will automatically move in their direction before hitting them.

Lunges are very useful, but also very quirky. You can perform them in mid-air, “deleting” your momentum (sometimes to the point of defying gravity and reversing a fifty-foot fall!) and propelling yourself off of thin air. Some weapons let you lunge from a huge distance: Reach’s Energy Sword allows you to lunge at a target from twenty-two feet away! There is no real-life movement that behaves like an in-game lunge, so they can often be counterintuitive. If someone beats your Spartan to death in a way that shouldn’t be possible, blame lunges, not lag.

map exploit
An area in a map that players are not supposed to reach, and that gives them an unfair advantage when they get to it anyway. To use Bungie’s own words, these are “not part of the intended playable space”: the fact that a player can get to these spots is purely accidental, and in most cases they produce imbalance.

Megalo
A scripting engine that Reach uses for gametypes.

In past Halo games, a gametype’s code was stored on the disc, and the game variants only contained settings. In Reach, however, each game variant contains its own copy of a gametype’s Megalo script. This means that 343i can release updates, new features, and bugfixes for a gametype by modifying the script in a particular game variant. To use the updates, you just play the modified variant in Matchmaking, and save it from your Temporary History.

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mute ban
A ban introduced in Reach. If you are muted by several players, then everyone that sees you will have you muted by default. No one knows how long the ban lasts, and the only way to know you’re affected is if someone else tells you that you’re auto-muted, or if a normally-chatty lobby (like Customs with friends) is suddenly quieter than it should be.

rank
An in-game measurement of your progress. Halo 3 used TrueSkill-based ranks (also called 1-50 ranks), which were based on your win/loss ratio (skill). Halo: Reach uses a credit system, which is (very) loosely-based on your play time (experience).

spawn hive
A cluster of respawn points. Spawn hives are usually discussed in the context of team games. For example, in a Red-versus-Blue game on Halo 3’s Valhalla, each team has one spawn hive in their base, another behind their base, and one more in a rocky cliff section to the side of their base.

strafe
Unpredictable, dance-like movements used to dodge shots. Experienced Halo players move randomly in gun battles, strafing from side to side (hence the name) to make it harder for enemies to aim at them. Some players throw in crouches or jumps to make their movements more unpredictable. Imagine an old-timey cartoon where a character dodges bullets fired at their feet by literally dancing.

strafe inertia
A feature introduced in Reach. In past games, if you moved your joystick in a different direction, you would instantly change direction in-game. In Reach, your strafing is affected by inertia, which means that it takes a short bit to change direction – you “curve” in the new direction, rather than “snapping” to it. This makes strafing much less effective when trying to dodge bullets, as your movements are inevitably a lot less sudden.

tags
Search keywords that people can apply to map and game variants and screenshots that are hosted online. These were meant to be used to find files, but in practice, they’re worthless. They’re more often used as a comment system or to flame the author of a file, and some users have even gone out of their way to “sabotage” certain tags by applying them to irrelevant files, so that searches for those tags yield nothing of use.

Just a tip: never apply a tag that says “author rams”. You could end up being banned from applying tags forever.

Temporary History
A section of the Halo: Reach File Browser. The last few map and game variants you’ve played, along with Theater Films of your last few games, are stored in your Temporary History (if you have a hard drive). You can copy them from here to your Local Files if you want to keep them; if you don’t copy them, you’ll lose them eventually.

X
A red “X” marker that is placed directly above the location where a teammate has died. Only a player’s teammates can see that player’s X, and an X will vanish when its “owner” respawns. People often use their X when calling out, but this isn’t a good idea because most people aren’t looking at an X when it’s called, and it’ll often vanish before anyone can turn to look for it.

> =/= this doesnt make any sense to me. I mean, I know what the = with the / through it means “does not equal” from Stats, is this the only way it cant be written?

Most people use =/= because it’s fast. Programmers habitually use != (where “!” means “not”), and people with enough free time to open up Charmap and dig through it use ≠.

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I haven’t seen it used a whole lot, but BXR isn’t on the list!

Definition of BXR: A glitch that was profound in Halo 2, where (assuming one is using the default control scheme), by pressing “B”, “X”, and “RT” in smooth succession, it will kill an enemy extremely quickly.

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I would alter the Spawn Trapping definition slightly. Spawn Trapping doesn’t require spawn killing. It’s more of a funneling tactic to predict where the other team is.

Example: Killing the last man on the opposing team in Rocks on Sanctuary/Asylum, and then blocking the spawns in Rocks with your team, allowing you to safely run the objective knowing your opponents will be spawning in Snipe Hut/Courtyard.

Yes, often there is Spawn Killing in a Spawn Trap, but a spawn trap doesn’t require spawn killing to function.

Other terms to add:
-One Shot: A callout for an opponent who is vulnerable to a death via one headshot with a precision weapon (See BR/DMR)

-Courtyard: A callout for the area around a reflected sniper spawn in a symmetrical/inversely symmetrical map (Courtyard on Pit and Sanctuary/Asylum)

-Nerd: adj- Nerdy - Describes quirky things about the game/maps, such as nade-spots, tactical jumps, strategies, etc.
noun- Nerd - A player who is an expert on the “nerdy” features of the game (See MLG Pro RyaNoob)

-OS: Overshield

-OT: Off topic

Also, side note, maybe you should bold the actual terms so they standout better.

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OP updated will add post #18 and #19 in soon :slight_smile: