Hi Sarge221 – I’d appreciate some advice on how to give constructive feedback to 343 for Halo Infinite BTB & where I can send this post.
I’m an adult (40+) and a new player to Xbox Series X and Halo Infinite. This is my first game system and first FPS game in 20+ years. As an adult new player with no previous FPS gaming experience, I bought the Xbox Series X & Halo Infinite believing this would be the premier system and game since Microsoft owned both & Halo was the flagship Xbox game. Halo Infinite campaign was awesome. I played through it 3x to completion (normal, hard & legendary). The music, graphics, funny comments, and everything about Halo Infinite campaign was terrific!
Unfortunately, my BTB experience is poor. I’ve played over 200+ BTB matches, but the poor matchmaking and inability to communicate with my teammates make BTB either an extremely boring or an extremely boring & demoralizing experience.
I’d really appreciate the forums advice on what multiplayer FPS shooter is a true multiplayer teamwork shooter where communication and team strategy is functionally available, has a player pool that works together as a team and puts together strategies & tactics to win.
Two BTB Problems Destroying BTB
IMO, Halo Infinite’s BTB problems are the 1) Unbalanced BTB team matchups and 2) Inability to communicate with teammates. Unless these two problems are solved, BTB will continue to decline. New weapons, vehicles, map changes or vanity upgrades can’t make-up for these major problems. Especially the inability to put together a team strategy because you can’t talk to your teammates.
Problem 1: Poor Matchmaking - Amazing Team v. Terrible Team 60-70% of the time
Out of the 200+ BTB games, 60-70% that I’ve played are unbalanced with an Amazing Team v. Terrible Team. So, more than half of my games are either extremely boring because we are crushing the other team or extremely boring, frustrating + demoralizing because we are being crushed. In other words, out of 200 games, 140 sucked & I wanted to quit after 5min. Only 60 were awesomely fun with balanced teams & a good game that often went down to the last second.
When I’m on the Amazing Team, I’m sooooooo bored. No challenge, no learning, no fun, and I feel bad for the Terrible Team being crushed (because I’ll be on that team half the time too).
For example, Amazing Team will send 6-8 players to grab the flag immediately and will succeed because Terrible Team has 2 people guarding the flag and 2 zombies standing in the background. Amazing Team crushes the 2 Terrible Team guards, steals the flag, and scores before the 2min mark. Same situations occur with Total Control and the Power Cell game.
The worst is the power cell game because not only does the Terrible Team not challenge or collect the power cells, but the Amazing Team, so bored out of their minds, starts to camp out at TT base and steal their cells. So, the TT players, like me, who are actually trying to play the objective are utterly demoralized. I mean, I’ve seen / been on an Amazing Team that stacked their power cells at the base having already won, but not insert them. Then they left to and steal and crush the other team. Sometimes even letting the TT score a point and then, bam, inserting all their collected power cells in 30 seconds to win.
Anyway, when I’m on the Terrible Team, I spend about 3min trying to complete the objectives and get my teammates to help. I try to show them, for example, that you can attach 2 power cells to the back of the Razorback and pickup four teammates and basically make one run to complete the cells in under 1 min instead of the throw the power cells all the way back to the base. Unfortunately, because I can’t talk to my teammates, I usually can only get 1 or 2 teammates to join me to pickup the Power Cells. And a Terrible Teammate often steals the Razorback without unloading the 2 attached power cells and then leaves it somewhere on the map that I have to trackdown again. I’ve loaded all the power cells to score 1 point solo by using the Razorback and loading it with 2 power cells. We still lose, but I feel good.
Note: So far, I’ve only seen 2 other players use the Razorback and attach power cells to it. Out of all these matches, how can it be that 3 players know how to do this? Again, a reason I’m so frustrated I can’t communicate with my team & send a simple message “We can carry back 6 power cells in one run using the Razorback. You can attach 2 power cells to the back and carry four passengers each holding a power cell.”
Note 2: Since Season 2, I’ve noticed more “zombie” players standing by the base on both sides. I have no idea if this is a glitch, if these are players AFC/AFK, hackers, or what.
About 3min into the game, if I’m on the Terrible Team & no one is helping me complete the objectives, I continue trying to solo the objectives myself hoping that my actions will show my team what to do (because I can’t talk to them??).
Today, I just completed my 50th (probably more, but I lost count) “capture the flag” solo run attempt game. During the whole game, I was able to get 3 players to jump in the car to try and capture the flag. I saw another 2 make a run (they could have been the same players, IDK). Trying to steal the flag solo a few times sometimes kicks my team into gear. It’s rare, but it does happen. If it does wakeup my teammates, it’s already too late as we’re so far behind. Same with the other BTB games.
[Rant: What are my Terrible Teammates doing? Are they even real people? AI Bots should be able to figure out that “capture the flag” means you have to try to get the flag from the other team and bring it back. I’ve noticed my Terrible Teammates go exploring the map, stealing good vehicles (wasps, tanks, etc) to go solo without regard for the objective, driving vehicles off cliffs, driving around honking the horn to annoy everyone, etc.
I’ve also played probably 5-10 CTF games where we steal the flag, get all the way back to the base and then watch the flag carrier try to put the flag on our flag instead of going up the stairs/path to the delivery spot. Then you agonizingly have to wait for the other team to kill the flag carrier and try to take back the flag & put it in the right place.
Sorry for the rant, but I think I’ve hit my limit of BTB games where I spend half the game respawning because I’m trying to complete a team objective with no team and have NO ABILITY to teach my team how to complete the objectives so maybe next time the game will be fun.
Matchmaking Problem Summary: Currently, 60-70% of my Halo Infinite BTB games are going to be an absolute beatdown. Boring because we are crushing or boring, frustrating & demoralizing because we are being crushed. These are not the emotions I should be feeling 60-70% of the time for a “game” that is supposed to be fun. 10% ok. Fair. But not having to play 10 BTBs have fun on 3 of them.
On the positive side, 3 out of 10 games are awesome with nail biter endings (last minute flag captures, 100 to 99 kills, etc.) This is what has kept me playing the last few weeks with hopes that Season 2 patch would fix this. And that maybe new players need to learn. But, I’ve been very disappointed the last few days not seeing any improvement.
Matchmaking Recommendations
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343 should replace the BTB game start glamor shots with a short video showing how complete the objective You can show Capture, Control, and Fuel Cell BTB game objectives in 10-15 sec. (e.g. show a 10 sec clip of a player taking the enemy flag, cut to the player arriving at their base, running up the stairs and putting it in the hole at the top of the base). Similar quick 10-15 sec vids for the other objectives. Simple, easy, explanatory. And, 343, if you’re reading this, for the Fuel Cell BTB, please show the player using the Razorback loaded with their team to attach 2 power cells to the back and have all 4 players pickup fuel cells and jump in, then have them all unload them.
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In addition to #1, if the player is new, show a longer instructional video for the BTB game they are playing. Include how to communicate with teammates (if/whenver it becomes available).
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Match up experienced players that play the objectives with each other to balance out the teams.
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Add coaching games & “learn from the masters” where the team is led by top Halo players and/or Halo coaches.
Problem #2: Inability to communicate with teammates. No team communication = NOT A TEAM GAME.
343 has a false advertising lawsuit on its hands and needs to change the “Big Team Battle” title to “Big Battle.” How can you call it a team game when you can’t communicate with your teammates? Especially when I’m on the Terrible Team and more than half of my team is not playing the objective?
(I’ve searched everywhere & put in a support ticket asking how to map “push-to-talk” to the controller. PC users have it on their settings while Xbox users can select it in the drop-down, but there is no button nor the ability to map the button to the controller. If anyone reading this knows how to map the push-to-talk button to the Xbox Controller on the Xbox Series X, please let me know.)
Moreover, I’ve turned on all the communication settings for the Xbox and spent a few hours making sure I had them right because, so far, out of the last 20 BTB games, I’ve heard only 1 person (not 1 team, but only 1 player) speak. And he was being helpful. I even selected the “hear the other team” button, but, nothing. Silence. Again, it’s not a team game if you can’t communicate to work together as a team.
[Rant#2: I really like the additional aircraft & tanks spawning in season 2. But it is making the unbalanced games even worse because the Terrible Teammates don’t know how to defend against them while the Amazing Team beats you down as I previously mentioned. Seriously, I’m a new player, so how is it that I’m consistently the only player that knows to use the Hydra w/ Guidance or Sniper Rifles to take down the planes? Or use the hydra/hardlight weapons/explosives to take out tanks? Again, it makes me wonder if I’m really playing with real players.
Reading this forum, I’m honestly shocked that it’s been a year since Halo Infinite’s BTB launch. Yet, there is still no ability to communicate with your teammates & still unbalanced teams? Seriously Microsoft multi-billion dollar company - How hard is it to add “push-to-talk” for your Microsoft Xbox Console Controller in your Microsoft Halo Infinite Game that you developed specifically for your Xbox? End Rant#2]
I like to get better and help everyone get better at whatever I do. So, a little piece of me is crushed each game when I can’t tell my team to “Please use the Hydra w/ Guidance or a sniper rifle to take out the wasp/banshee.” Instead, I have to make solo runs to find the dang weapons that my Terrible Teammates are using somewhere else to not complete the objective (Amazing Teammates usually know what to do & usually take all the weapons from the racks so they can completely beat you down). If I could have sent out a global message teaching my team how to defend against aircraft and tanks, I know it would have made at least 10 games this last week fun and competitive instead of crushing beatdowns.
For example, in my last game (that prompted me to write this post due to utter frustration) the Amazing Team had 2 wasps because the other 11 teammates kept trying to shoot them. Then the Amazing Team stole our wasp and used the 3 wasps to wipe the board. I was killed 3x trying to find a Hydra or sniper rifle to take out the planes and had a Terrible Teammate run in & steal the sniper rifle even though I was waiting watching it respawn. Then, they didn’t use the rifle to shoot the aircraft but disappeared to solo snipe….
Communication Problem Summary: It’s not a team game if you can’t talk with your teammates to act as a team. And, without being able to communicate, you can’t teach players / teammates how to get better. The Hydra to destroy the wasp/banshee and using the Razorback to quickly pickup 2+ power cells are 2 major game changers that would make the games more fun & balanced.
Communication Recommendations
- Introduce a way players can communicate with their teammates for the regular BTB games (e.g not the custom we-are-all-friends). When the button is pressed, they can say something to their team.
- Allow a toggle so that you can choose to hear your teammates voice or just see a global text message of what they said (E.g. Use speech-to-text)
So, please let me know how to send this post to 343 to assist in improving the game. And please let me know if there is a way to communicate with my teammates using Xbox console. Finally, please let me know of any recommended multiplayer team FPS games where the teams are really teams.
Thanks!
Mark
All I can say is that keep posting your grievances on the forums and hope that 343 sees it and take sit under advisement along with the rest of the complaints/criticisms here.
I just want to casually play my games of BTB without hearing how high someone is or how trash I am which is what the majority of “team communication” tends to be in Halo, at least in my experience.