This could just as easily belong in the Halo 4 forum, but regardless.
Head to Head in Halo 3 was one of my favourite playlists. Nothing got me more focused on the game than a good mano-a-mano. Very scary and frustrating at times, too - just as any ranked playlist should be.
1v1 playlist, yes/no; if no, why not?
I think the only reason Head to Head ceased to exist in Halo 3 was due to its manipulative qualities.
Unfortunately far too many of Halo 4’s maps are built for more players than less, so a Head to Head playlist would have very few good maps.
If the map quality is revived in Halo on Xbox One, with more maps being focused on the classical 2v2-4v4 gameplay, the Head to Head playlist returning wouldn’t be something completely out of reach.
Head to Head in Halo 3 lasted maybe a month at most before it was removed, simply due to its low population and people cheating/boosting in it (when it was first introduced, you could go into it with a full party of 2 people and just play each other to rank up to a 50).
> Head to Head in Halo 3 lasted maybe a month at most before it was removed, simply due to its low population and people cheating/boosting in it (when it was first introduced, you could go into it with a full party of 2 people and just play each other to rank up to a 50).
Easily remedied. A low population isn’t a problem when you’re only looking for one person - I certainly don’t recall having any problems with matching up. Boosting could easily be made impossible. With waypoints over everyone’s heads, as it was in Halo 3, there would be no hiding. Remove the power weapons and there would be no camping.
> > Head to Head in Halo 3 lasted maybe a month at most before it was removed, simply due to its low population and people cheating/boosting in it (when it was first introduced, you could go into it with a full party of 2 people and just play each other to rank up to a 50).
>
> Easily remedied. A low population isn’t a problem when you’re only looking for one person - I certainly don’t recall having any problems with matching up. Boosting could easily be made impossible. <mark>With waypoints over everyone’s heads, as it was in Halo 3, there would be no hiding</mark>. Remove the power weapons and there would be no camping.
This didn’t stop people hiding. Trust me, I’m friends with many people in the HLG community. They used to just break out of the map to places the other guy couldn’t get to. Same thing happened in Reach and Halo 4 too. When all the other spots failed, they just broke the maps. Seen it so many times (and it still happens).
There’s a reason it was removed from H2, added to H3 only to be removed again, and then purposefully left out of not only Reach but H4 as well.
The problem I had with Halo 3’s Head-to-Head playlist was the waypoints over the players’ heads. What’s the fun in not being able to outsmart and outplay your opponent?
> The problem I had with Halo 3’s Head-to-Head playlist was the waypoints over the players’ heads. What’s the fun in not being able to outsmart and outplay your opponent?
That was mainly to fight off the camping that is usually involved, which was a common problem in the playlists back in Halo 2 and 3. However, it never did not address the power weapon issue.
On topic: There are many issues that need to be addressed before a 1v1 playlist could work. We got:
1- Camping.
2- Hiding in, or out, of the maps.
3- Power Weapon hoarding having a bigger impact than in 2v2.
4- Many maps not suited for 1v1 due size, making problems 1 and 2 more of an issue.
5- Host having advantages.
6- Player Interest.
There could be more, but I can’t think of them at the moment. However, those 6 issues I listed did have a major contribution to the eventual removal of Head-to-Head in both Halo 2 and Halo 3, and kept them out of Halo: Reach, and Halo 4.
While Halo XB1 will have dedicated servers to help beat the host issue, and Forge that can help make maps more suited for 2 players, we got to work on the others.