Halo: Reach Consolidation for Halo 4 Wishlist

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Preparing for Halo 4: Consolidating Halo: Reach Wishlist Thread
With Halo 4 a few months away, Halo: Reach is nearing the end of its active life as the primary Halo game. Since the population will drop, search times will be affected. Should players hop onto Reach from time to time, here is the question: how would you like to see Halo: Reach left in terms of playlists, gametypes and settings?

Since there are a few playlist updates for Halo: Reach between now and Halo 4, feel free to return to this thread and update any part of your wishlist based on the changes.

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EDIT: This is outdated. Look to my next post for a more cleaned up version

  1. Peel back the TU from all playlists but the Anniversary one’s. Those who hate Reach will have moved on, but those who love it for what it is may stay behind.
  2. Remove Super Slayer (This playlist can’t be saved at all)
  3. Remove Squad DLC (Pop. too low)
  4. Remove FF Doubles.
  5. Combine SWAT and Snipers with Team Slayer.
  6. Remove LD and combine Infection and Rumble Pit (It’ll be more balanced with only 5 humans instead of 9, if necessary, the initial count can drop to two). Keep all the maps, but Infection should not be on a base map.
  7. Change Arena back to TS with all 5 loadouts but with DMR/Magnum starts (Competitive players will move on). Offer a Slayer Pro gametype to compensate (Add NR but with no grenades on either loadout). It’s not like we have much to lose as this playlist can’t really be any worse in terms of population.
  8. Remove Slayer Pro from TS (It’s in Arena now).
  9. Add Grifball gametypes to Action Sack. Remove Grifball.
  10. Noble DLC on all playlists that don’t have on disk achievements. Require Defiant as well if it is made free with Noble. Hard press MS for this one. They will NOT make any more money from Reach DLC aftre Halo 4 drops.
  11. Add Objective gametypes to Arena. Base Objective gametypes should represent Reach by using all 5 loadouts from TS (Drop Shield and Evade were OP, I’ll give them that). Retain Pro gametypes (Add NR but with no grenades on either loadout). DMR/Magnum starts aside from pro. All Objectives should be included.
  12. Rank MLG with the Arena system.
  13. Fix the classic settings to make them more accurate (Less movement, more jump). Increase damage to power up all weapons while tweaking the Pistol to stay a 3sk (Try for 6 body shots to kill as well). Remove Grenades off spawn. Objective holders should move at full speed and have radar.
  14. Balance the spawns and weapon placement of Sword Base, Reflection, and Pinnacle so they are balanced with all AA’s and power weapons as well as with the Slayer Pro gametype (Removes Blue Sword on two of the maps).
  15. Add new Objective maps to the Arena. IF AND ONLY IF they are balanced for Slayer, play slayer on those maps as well.
  16. Only 1 grenade should be available off spawn in all gamtypes.
  17. Increase Objective move speed to 100% in all Objective gametypes along with 10m of radar for Objective holders.
  18. Fix softkill exploit spots on Asylum and reduce the number of pieces to prevent lag. Add Refuge to at least Arena.
  19. Consider removing the Shotgun and Sword as loadouts in Invasion.
  20. Move Hotshot and Power Slayer to Team Slayer. Move Speedpile and Speedflag to the Arena.
  21. Configure Hotshot so that players move faster but have a slower shield recharge as they get to higher heats. Current version allows one team to dominate and the other team have no chance at coming back.
  22. Change melee damage to 75% in all gametypes including Anniversary. Leave MLG to itself though.
  23. Find a way to stop players from getting into the Score Zones in Haloball.
  24. Allow community maps to be in any slot in both BTB and TS again, or at least for slot 2. TS weighting should be Slayer or Slayer DMRs (60-40 in favor of AR’s) slot 1, Slayer slot 2 (With a good weighting to Elite Slayer), and SWAT/Snipers for Slot 3 (55-45 in favor of Snipers).
  25. Lessen the weighting of Heavies in BTB. Buff Objective.
  26. Rumble Pit should have Objective only in Slot 3. Weaken the Juggernaut’s stats a little bit though.
  27. Turn on radar in FFA Slayer Pro.
  28. Add a DMR start gametype to Multi Team (Hard to get one due to the amount of people).
  29. Remove Co-Op Campaign if possible. Consider removing Anniversary Firefight as well, as I believe it is just FF Arcade on one map.
  30. Firefight changes: Re-weight the playlist Firefight to the following: Slot 1 Limited NEP, Slot 2 Arcade NEP, Slot 3 either Limited or Arcade (No NEP).
    Limited: Buff shield recharge, damage, and damage resistance to 110% in Firefight Limited gametypes.

Arcade: Apply the increased shield recharge and damage resist to Arcadefight for consistancy. Reduce damage to 125% in Arcade gametypes but consider adding a skull that weakens enemy damage resist to 90% if it is too much of a change. We’re trying to nerf the explosive loadouts here. Replace the underused shotgun/ grenade launcher/AL loadout with a Spartan Laser/ Grenade Launcher/Evade. Replace the PL with an FRG in the Hologram Loadout and replace FRG with a PL in the Jetpack loadout.
31. Increase shield recharge rate to 110% in all gametypes including Anniversary (I know it’s not classic but the fast Pistol kill times don’t work with the slow shield recharge). Remove Health regeneration from Anniversary.

This leaves us with 16 playlists (Including MM Campaign and 3 FF playlists). It will be 14 if CO-Op Campaign and Anniversary Firefight is removed. For comparison, Halo 3 currently has only 14 playlists.

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> 1. Peel back the TU from all playlists but the Anniversary one’s. Those who hate Reach will have moved on, but those who love it for what it is may stay behind.
> 2. Remove Super Slayer (This playlist can’t be saved at all)
> 3. Remove Squad DLC (Pop. too low)
> 4. Remove FF Doubles.
> 5. Combine SWAT and Snipers with Team Slayer
> 6. Remove LD and combine Infection and Rumble Pit
> 7. Change Arena back to TS with all 5 loadouts but with DMR/Magnum starts (Competitive players will move on). Offer a Slayer Pro gametype to compensate.
> 8. Remove Slayer Pro from TS (It’s in Arena now)
> 9. Add Grifball gametypes to Action Sack. Remove Grifball.
> 10. Noble DLC on all playlists that don’t have on disk achievements. Require Defiant as well if it is made free with Noble.
>
> I’m not sure what else we can do…

Basically this. Maybe even combine BTB and Invasion. But the overall population of Reach will be tiny when Halo 4 comes out so there needs to be a tiny amount of playlists.

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> > 1. Peel back the TU from all playlists but the Anniversary one’s. Those who hate Reach will have moved on, but those who love it for what it is may stay behind.
> > 2. Remove Super Slayer (This playlist can’t be saved at all)
> > 3. Remove Squad DLC (Pop. too low)
> > 4. Remove FF Doubles.
> > 5. Combine SWAT and Snipers with Team Slayer
> > 6. Remove LD and combine Infection and Rumble Pit
> > 7. Change Arena back to TS with all 5 loadouts but with DMR/Magnum starts (Competitive players will move on). Offer a Slayer Pro gametype to compensate.
> > 8. Remove Slayer Pro from TS (It’s in Arena now)
> > 9. Add Grifball gametypes to Action Sack. Remove Grifball.
> > 10. Noble DLC on all playlists that don’t have on disk achievements. Require Defiant as well if it is made free with Noble.
> >
> > I’m not sure what else we can do…
>
> Basically this. Maybe even combine BTB and Invasion. But the overall population of Reach will be tiny when Halo 4 comes out so there needs to be a tiny amount of playlists.

Can’t be done since Invasion only supports 3 fireteams and likely plays sup-par with 8 players per team.

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#1 priority for Reach consolidation: DLC restrictions / DLC required in core playlists like Halo 3 has it.

DLC better be required or at least in one core team slayer / BTB playlist. I would be sad if during consolidation they made no playlists require DLC. Then we’d never get to play on the newer maps.

I know someone will try and quote me with some rebuttal / excuse why we shouldn’t have dlc restrictions in the consolidation so I’m going to future refute them right now: If you don’t have the DLC yet then tough luck, they are dirt cheap and it’s time to get with the times. Halo 3 has a lot of DLC restrictions and is doing still fine despite it never having had a playlist reduction done yet.

If you can buy a new $60 game you can easily buy dlc for halo reach … no excuses. It’s time we make Halo Reach at least somewhat enjoyable instead of getting sword base voted 90% of the time. I want my anchor 9 / tempest / and other dlc maps in regular rotation playlists. No more of this getting lucky once a month to play on a new map deal. Time to be able to play those maps every day!

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> > > 1. Peel back the TU from all playlists but the Anniversary one’s. Those who hate Reach will have moved on, but those who love it for what it is may stay behind.
> > > 2. Remove Super Slayer (This playlist can’t be saved at all)
> > > 3. Remove Squad DLC (Pop. too low)
> > > 4. Remove FF Doubles.
> > > 5. Combine SWAT and Snipers with Team Slayer
> > > 6. Remove LD and combine Infection and Rumble Pit
> > > 7. Change Arena back to TS with all 5 loadouts but with DMR/Magnum starts (Competitive players will move on). Offer a Slayer Pro gametype to compensate.
> > > 8. Remove Slayer Pro from TS (It’s in Arena now)
> > > 9. Add Grifball gametypes to Action Sack. Remove Grifball.
> > > 10. Noble DLC on all playlists that don’t have on disk achievements. Require Defiant as well if it is made free with Noble.
> > >
> > > I’m not sure what else we can do…
> >
> > Basically this. Maybe even combine BTB and Invasion. But the overall population of Reach will be tiny when Halo 4 comes out so there needs to be a tiny amount of playlists.
>
> Can’t be done since Invasion only supports 3 fireteams and likely plays sup-par with 8 players per team.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that…

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  1. Remove Squad DLC, make more playlists DLC-required
  2. Move Grifball into Action Sack, Living Dead into the Community playlist.
  3. Move MLG into the Competitive playlist. Why it’s in Community and not Competitive baffles me.
  4. Make all but one or two playlists Vanilla again, since most people who didn’t like Vanilla Reach (me included) will be most likely be playing Halo 4 anyway.
  5. Remove Super Slayer, replace it with TU Squad Slayer.
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  • Leave the Anniversary playlists alone, they are essentially their own game.
  • Remove Double Team, Living Dead, Team Snipers, Team SWAT, Squad DLC and Super Slayer.
  • Add Living gametypes to Rumble Pit.
  • Add Team Snipers and Team SWAT gametypes to Team Slayer.
  • Make DLC required on all competitive playlists except Rumble Pit and Team Slayer.
  • Remove Grifball when a Halo 4 alternative comes out.
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-Kill Super Slayer, bring back Squad Slayer. Put objective game-types in it to (change name if necessary).

-Un-TU team objective and make it 4v4.

-Make BTB DLC required, remove some forge maps also (keep Abriged though). Not sure wether to keep TU or remove it.

-Fix Anniversary settings (jump height, gravity, no health recharge and other things people have mentioned).

-Kill Squad DLC

-Bring back assassinations in Hockey or remove it.

That’s all I can think of for now.

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Consolodation should be saved for November. There’s no point getting rid of key playlists before the population drop. But when we do get to November:

Remove Anniversary FFA, Anniversary Firefight, Super Slayer, Team SWAT, Team Snipers, Invasion, Squad DLC, Firefight Doubles, Living Dead, Co-op Campaign and Grifball.

Add Grifball to Action Sack. 25% chance of appearing in Slot 3. Normal, lower weighting for other Slots.

Add SWAT and Snipers gametypes to Team Slayer Slot 3. The Arena is for pure Slayer.

Add all DLC maps and default maps to the Anniversary playlists, so if all players have all maps, there is more variety. Always Anniversary maps on second round of voting.

Move Infection into Rumble Pit. The majority of players who enjoy Infection will most likely move on to new games.

Team Objective becomes 6v6 with Invasion gametypes added.

Remove TU from all non-Anniversary playlists, except MLG. The majority of players who prefer TU will move to H4, and even if they don’t, 3 playlists will remain TU.

Leaving 13 playlists:
Anniversary Anniversary Classic, Anniversary BTB
Competitive Team Slayer, The Arena, Rumble Pit, Team Objective, Double Team, Multi Team, Big Team Battle
Firefight Score Attack, Firefight
Community MLG, Action Sack

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I would say have a 5v5 team DLC playlist and an FFA DLC playlist. Require all DLC packs including the Anniversary ones. Have Slayer and objective in the team playlist and slayer/objective/infection on the FFA one. The focus of these playlists would be to provide players that don’t have the added DLC map-specific achievements with a playlist that gives them a reasonable chance of earning them.

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General Changes

  • Increase shield recharge rate to 110% in all gametypes including Anniversary.
  • Remove the TU from all playlists except Anniversary. Those who hate Reach will have moved on, but those who love it for what it is may stay behind.
  • Only 1 grenade should be available off spawn in all gamtypes
  • Change melee damage to 75% in all gametypes including Anniversary to compromise with Bleed-through supporters and beef up the weak melee in Anniversary. Leave MLG to itself though.
  • Move all ranked playlists (The Arena, MLG, Squad Arena) into their own category called “Ranked” with a permanent Jackpot.

Super Slayer Changes

  • Replace with Squad Slayer just the way it was except without Bleed-through (but still TU) or Jetpack. DMR/Magnum starts. Add the Arena ranking system (Name it “Squad Arena”). Add current Objective gametypes, reduce MLP to 2 and add community maps for Objective gametypes (Wayont and Affinity would work). ZB gametypes as voting options?

DLC changes

  • Remove Squad DLC
  • Apply Noble DLC requirements on all playlists it would be wise to. Require Defiant as well if it is made free with Noble. Hard press MS for this one. MS will NOT make any more money from Reach DLC.

Snipers Changes

  • Remove it and add it to Team Slayer (See TS)

SWAT changes

  • Remove it and add it to Team Slayer (See TS)

Living Dead changes

  • Remove LD and add it to Rumble Pit. If necessary, the initial zombie count can drop to 2. Keep all the maps, but Infection or Alpha Zombies shouldn’t be on a base map. The former shouldn’t be on Uncongealed due to Evading off ledges. Zombie Ghosts should only be on a base map aside from Sword Base.

The Arena Changes

  • Change Arena back to TS with all 5 loadouts but with DMR/AR starts. Offer a Slayer Pro gametype to compensate (Add NR loadouts but with no grenades on either loadout).
  • Add Objective gametypes to Arena. Base Objective gametypes should represent Reach by using all 5 loadouts from TS (Drop Shield and Evade were OP, I’ll give them that). Retain Pro gametypes (Add NR but with no grenades on either loadout). DMR/AR starts aside from pro. All Objectives should be included.
  • Add new Objective maps to the Arena. IF AND ONLY IF they are balanced for Slayer, play slayer on those maps as well.
  • Move Speedpile and Speedflag to the Arena (No Hemmorhage though)
  • Slow down the speed of the flag carrier in Speedpile.

Team Slayer changes

  • Remove Slayer Pro from TS (It’s in Arena now).
  • Add larger BTB-style maps to Team Slayer for Team Snipers only. Play SWAT on any map in Team Slayer that suits it. Do NOT add Hemmorhage for Snipers and Zealot is NOT a Sniper map (Too small).
  • Move Hotshot and Power Slayer to TS.
  • Configure Hotshot so that players move faster but have a slower shield recharge as they get to higher heats. Current version allows one team to dominate and the other team has no chance at coming back.
  • SWAT/Snipers should always be in Slot 3.
  • Any map should be able to appear in any slot, however, give a more fovorable weighting to the base maps in slot 1. Buff the weighting of Zealot and Powerhouse since I only ever seem to get Sword Base and Countdown.

AS Changes

  • Add Grifball gametypes to Action Sack. Remove Grifball.
  • Add community stuff. Remove Shotty Snipers.
  • Splockets should only have Evade, AL, and Drop Shield.
  • Move a few gametypes to TS (See TS).

Invasion Changes

Objective Changes

  • Increase Objective carrier move speed to 100% in all Objective gametypes along with full radar.

Anniversary Changes

  • Fix the classic settings to make them more accurate (Less movement, more jump). Increase damage to power up all weapons while tweaking the Pistol to stay a 3sk (Try for 6 body shots to kill as well). Remove Grenades off spawn. Objective holders should move at full speed and have radar.
  • Remove Health regeneration.

Map Changes

  • Balance the spawns and weapon placement of Sword Base and Reflection so they are balanced with all AA’s and power weapons as well as with the Slayer Pro gametype (Removes Blue Sword).
  • Fix softkill exploit spots on Asylum and reduce the number of pieces to prevent lag.
  • Find a way to stop players from getting into the Score Zones in Haloball.
  • Update all community maps to their latest versions (Mt Lam Lam for example).
  • Replace the Sword on Countdown with a Sniper (1 spare clip) and replace the Shotgun with a Grenade Launcher. Not too sure about the Concussion Rifle.
  • Use Overkill’s map “Boneless” on place of Boneyard and “Spiral” in place of Spire in all gamtypes outside of Invasion.
  • Replace Pinnacle with Overkill’s Ascension Remake.
  • Add Refuge to The Arena and Squad Arena.
  • Remove Uncaged (We’ve been dealing with it for too long).
  • Remove Sword from all 2 v 2 maps
  • Only 2 power weapons MAX should be on all 2 v 2 maps.

FFA changes

  • Rumble Pit should have Objective always and only in Slot 3. Weaken the Juggernaut’s stats a little bit though.
  • Turn on radar in FFA Slayer Pro. Add the NR Loadout and Remove Grenades.
  • Remove Anniversary FFA.
  • Remove AL.

Multi Team Changes

  • Add a DMR start gametype to Multi Team (Hard to pick up a DMR due to the amount of people).
  • Anyone think that 4 Way Neutral Flag would be fun (On the right maps?)

Firefight/ Co-Op changes

  • Re-weight the playlist Firefight to the following: Slot 1 Limited NEP, Slot 2 Arcade NEP, Slot 3 either Limited or Arcade (No NEP).
  • Limited: Buff shield recharge, damage, and damage resistance to 110%.
  • Arcade: Apply the increased shield recharge and damage resist to Arcadefight for consistency. Reduce damage to 125% in Arcade gametypes (Nerfs explosives) Replace the underused shotgun/ grenade launcher/AL loadout with a Spartan Laser/ Grenade Launcher/Evade. Replace the PL with an FRG in the Hologram Loadout and replace FRG with a PL in the Jetpack loadout.
  • Remove FF Doubles and Co-Op Campaign

BTB Changes

  • Experiment with a few grids as a floor on Asphalt to hopefully cause less of the lightspeed glitch.
  • Move the teleporters on Hemmorhage to where they were originally. Replace the Snipers with Focus Rifles. Add more precision weapons (Currently there’s only a DMR and NR in each base). Replace the Plasma Repeaters with Concussion Rifles, the Shotguns for Grenade Launchers, and the current Concussion Rifles on the cliffs for Plasma Launchers. Replace the current PL spawn with a neutral Sniper (1 spare clip). Add a Rocket Launcher (also 1 spare clip) to the exact center of the map like the past versions. Add Falcons and change one Chaingun Hog to a Rocket Hog for taking Falcons down. Lower the spawn times of all Warthogs to 90. Reduce Reverent spawn time (Not sure what it is right now but it takes too long). Mongooses and Ghosts every 15-30 seconds.
  • Drop the BTB Heavies gametype and play normal slayer and Objective games on Heavy maps. However, apply 110% speed as a default setting in BTB.
  • Buff the weighting of Objective.
  • Base maps should always be in Slot 1 and should not be in any other slot.

This leaves us with 15 playlists. For comparison, Halo 3 also has 14 playlists. That’s impressive considering Reach has so much new stuff to make into playlists.

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Make a map in Forge based on one from Halo 4, if possible?

Otherwise, bring Squad Slayer back and remove Armor lock from Team Slayer.

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  • Create consistant gameplay across all competitive playlists (All TU or all default settings) and remove the TU prefix from gametype names if TU is not removed.

  • Remove Super Slayer.

  • Add Highlands, Breakneck, and Ridgeline to Invasion.

  • Split Firefight Arcade and standard Firefight into separate playlists. Regular Firefight should have Firefight as the first option and generator defence as the second.

  • Add an armour lock and jetpack loadout to NEP Firefight Limited. Remove the evade loadout.

  • Remove ZB Slayer from all playlists except from MLG.

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August is presumably the last month for Reach’s Matchmaking Updates. So this is our last chance to point out what we want/need to change before Reach is done with. This thread will consist of a giant list of all the things in Matchmaking that are requested to be changed. All voices and opinions are wanted!

August Update:

  • Community Maps (Objective)
  • Objective reduced to 4 player team limit
  • Original Community Maps for Infection
  • Replace the settings of Team Slayer to those of Super Slayer and removed Super Slayer.
  • Replace Asylum with Community Map Refuge
  • Community Maps/Gametypes (Action Sack)
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-Remove Team Slayer, rename Super Slayer as Team Slayer
*No duplicate playlists and more consistent gameplay among all playlists with TU.

-Remove Squad DLC
*Noble and Defiant sales lead to a tiny population in playlist and warrants removal.

-Remove Anniversary Firefight
*Installation 04 shows up as the first option in voting process if players have DLC.

-Remove Multi Team
*Streamlining of matchmaking requires sacrifice of less integral experiences.

-Update Actions Sack with new gametypes
*There are MANY great gametypes out there that are very deserving of matchmaking.

-Update Living Dead with Spartan vs Elite across all gametypes
*Popular mod makes infection much more balanced and enjoyable.

-Update Team Objective with community maps and better settings
*5v5 may work but not with maps and settings created with 4v4

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Refuge to replace Asylum.

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SWAT NEEDS MORE MAPS

Six maps, half of which are terrible, is not enough.

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> -Remove Team Slayer, rename Super Slayer as Team Slayer
> *No duplicate playlists and more consistent gameplay among all playlists with TU.
>
>
> -Remove Anniversary Firefight
> *Installation 04 shows up as the first option in voting process if players have DLC.
>
> -Remove Multi Team
> *Streamlining of matchmaking requires sacrifice of less integral experiences.

These three I’d say are unlikely to happen.

1.) Team Slayer will likely remain as it is part of the whole stance of leaving some of the original game intact.

2.) Anniversary Firefight is the only version of Firefight that is present for those who may only own Halo CEA.

  1. Multi-Team has Rockethog Race, which is used for the Offensive Driver Achievement and therefore will likely not be removed.
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How about a Halo 4 inspired Team Slayer playlist maybe to replace super slayer? Let 343i replicate some of the feel of H4 in Reach with movement and jump height that resemble what we can expect in 4, and maybe even 85% bloom.

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I don’t understand the hate on people have for certain gametypes. All dlc playlists won’t be going anywhere, all gametypes which unlock achievements won’t be going anywhere either. Multi Team happens to be one of my favourite playlists.