Ideal Halo 5 Ranking System

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

This is the “official” thread for Nak3d Eli’s “Ideal Halo 5 Ranking System.”

FIRST:
37 minute video of my sultry voice discussing the topic: http://youtu.be/FQLM8rsL3PY
SECOND:
My entire discussion in outline form (for those who can read good): Ideal Halo 5 Ranking System - Google Docs

I’ll be directing the coolest employees at 343 Industries to this thread, so please post your feedback! Particularly, do you have strong opinions on these new features:

  1. Conditions for ranked access
  2. Divisions
  3. Individual Slayer Rank
  4. MVP status affecting ranking system
2

first

Anyways, I really like this. I hope 343 does something similar.

3

Beast! So much common sense :smiley:

4

I would love this.

5

Ranked/Social split? Check.

IN-game ranks/Ranked Divisions? Check.

Already amazing in my book.

6

> Ranked/Social split? Check.
>
> IN-game ranks/Ranked Divisions? Check.
>
> Already amazing in my book.

Exactly xD. Very few issues with this video so far.

7

I did not like that you would have to play social X amount of times before playing ranked, if you would have that campain should also be counted in.
i think that you should rank up a little more if you are maby a 40 and get on a good winning streak.
Otherwise i thought it was good.
If you have 3-4 ranked playlists they all should have a seperate rank as it is now. slayer should be avalible in social to like in halo 3

8

Amazing video and I hope 343 takes notice. I couldn’t agree more with everything said in this video.

Great work man.

9

Great video, I agree with everything you’ve said. Only option I would add is for a playlist that doesn’t keep track of any stats. It would be nice to have a playlist that I could go into after having a string of terrible games or if I’m playing with some of my friends who aren’t very good, or maybe just feel like playing MP but not really trying and not need to worry that my overall stats are going to be hurt because of it.

Most of the time people play to win but sometimes you wanna play just to goof around.

10

Love it man! Great video. My only suggestion to this would be cut the " Infinity " out of ranked pl, or just have a infinity mashup as one of the ranked playlists. I love what 343i is doing and trying to do with the game, however, when it’s time for ranked, I personally would like a more “Legendary” style of gp.

11

very well said, hope 343 has a good look at this!

12

Agree with this video so far. (20 minutes in)

However there is another point I want to make and I really REALLY want to make it clear to both people here and 343 in general.

Do not, and please, DO NOT, make Multiplayer cannon to the game. In Halo 4 multiplayer was a spartan training simulator that took place on the Infinity. I feel that this not only makes multiplayer awkward, but that is also limits the possibilities in multiplayer as well and makes it have less freedom.

That’s all I have to say. Nice video.

EDIT: Actually, there is one thing I don’t agree with in the video. I don’t think it would be a good idea to restrict ranked playlists for people who’ve played x amount of time. It would be a good idea for an eSport type of playlist/environment though… but not all ranked playlists. I like how it was done in Halo 3, but wouldn’t want the exact same system. But I feel that players need a sense of progression and see where they stand and get encouraged to play more to become better if they play in ranked. I like the ladder system (Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc) for an Arena/eSports type of thing, but if players have no other way to feel progression I feel like maybe they wouldn’t bother with ranked or maybe even the game at all. The social ranking idea will only show how much time you put in but not how good you are. Unless I am missing something here. This is just my opinion though.

13

Naked Eli reputedly went to Yale. Cool stuff eh?

Anyhoo, not quite sure why I included that, but I think it comes to say that he knows what he’s talking about, especially when you look at all that MLG stuff of his career.

Hopefully this topic stays alive, because he actually has things of value to say, and 343i desperately need to listen to advice from people like him.

14

I have not watched the video yet but I will leave a quick comment (even if it’s counter-intuitive)

I would say bring back the 1-50 system from Halo 2. Yes, divisional systems are more accurate and correct, but the foreseeable size of the community will not allow for their to be a top 1% division like in Starcraft. The reasoning for Halo 2’s ranking system is that 3’s was far too easy to achieve a 50-- only the elite players should be able to get to the max rank.

Now, it’s important to note the 1-50 system was very broken (in Halo 3). Cheaters and derankers ruined the ranked experience for a lot of people. So MODIFY IT! Your teammates true skill should not be used in determining whether you get a strong win or not. This eliminates boosting and therefore there is no point to deranking.

I would keep some sort of XP progression system so people feel accomplished at the end of every game. Perhaps if you were a 50 you would be a General, but you would need a certain amount of progression XP to be a 5 star General. Note, much like Halo 3, you wouldn’t be able to rank up past a certain point without actually achieving the next number mile-stone rank. Players could use XP to buy armor and whatever gimmicks 343 puts in.

This, along with a ranked and social split, would please everybody in my opinion. Also, teams of 4 should match up against other 4s, 3s and 3s, etc etc.

15

This deserves a lot of attention.
Please take it into consideration.

16

First off, your video and document were well done (although you should review the process for enumerating your paragraphs :wink:

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you are a competitive player. You really care about rank, and you want it done right. I get that, and I’m not against what you want. You may, however, have put a bit too much thought into it. Let me explain.

> Social Ranks
> - A progression system based on experience or time playing game.
> i. EXP, Credits, etc. per game played
> - Should NEVER max out.- Should be publicly available as status symbol on profile and next to gamertag in matchmaking- Winning team gets 10% boost
> ii. Use EXP, Credits, etc. to buy COSMETIC upgrades
> - Cosmetic items are sustainable; gameplay-changing items are not (players buying your game after release will be at disadvantage in matchmaking)- Halo magic includes even playing field… shouldn’t be able to buy weapons, abilities, armor, health, etc. (Guy who plays basketball a lot doesn’t have a shorter hoop, right?)
> - Should comprise global social rank AND playlist-specific ranks
> i. Rewards players who specialize in SWAT, BTB, etc.
> ii. Helps players make friends over Xbox Live
>
> - Global social rank should require 800-1200 hours to max out
> i. EXAMPLE: Halo Reach Inheritor
>
> - Playlist-specific social ranks should require 400-600 hours to max.
>
> - Social ranking system should tie in cohesively with competitive ranks.
> i. See: Competitive ranks
> ii. EXAMPLE: Halo 3 global EXP, global rank, playlist EXP, playlist rank
> iii. Keeps players interested in both systems
>
> - Playlist Count
> i. Social playlists should comprise ~75% of playlist choices

All this was well thought out, but it only matters if you are a competitive player. If you are a casual player you will spend most of your time in a social playlist playing other casual gamers. None of us care about rank. To be sure, if there is a rank, and it goes up, that’s kinda cool. But if there is no rank at all, we won’t notice. We also don’t care what your rank is. We’re in the social playlists to get away from all that. How you get a rank or how long it takes to get a rank just doesn’t matter. If rank matters to you, you play a ranked playlist. That’s what they’re for. What you’re proposing here is to have just as much pressure to win in a social game as a ranked game, and that’s just -Yoink-. At the end of every Halo match there is a score and a leaderboard. That’s all we need, thank you.

Matchmaking

Halo 2 was the last time the developer was allowed to make their own matchmaking system. Bungie used Elo. Starting with Halo 3, every Halo game, every game on Xbox Live that has matchmaking, used TrueSkill. Bungie used TrueSkill’s results to assign a rank, and the term “skill-based rank” was coined. To this day people still look at your rank to assume your ability to play, even though Bungie detached rank from TrueSkill with Reach. TrueSkill still does the matchmaking, but it hasn’t had anything whatsoever to do with rank since Reach.

None of that matters any more, because now Microsoft has a new algorithm called Smart Match. Notice that they avoided the word skill and featured the word match. There are not a lot of details available at the moment, but the hype suggests that Smart Match will do a better job of finding players that a)play like you do and b)want to play what you want to play. I don’t know if individual developers can modify any of the parameters, but I certainly hope not. What will be most interesting is whether or not Smart Match can tell if you are playing on an account that you personally leveled up. Leveling up new accounts for the express purpose of selling them, and people playing on those accounts is what led to the demise of the “visible skill rank”. If Smart Match can detect bogus accounts then we can have VSR again. If it can’t, it’s not likely.

The main point in this instance is that you are basing your matchmaking wishes on TrueSkill’s capabilities, and Smart Match will probably work better anyway. However, if developers are allowed to tweak Smart Match, 343i should consider your proposal

17

> First off, your video and document were well done (although you should review the process for enumerating your paragraphs :wink:

So if you do not care about ranks and do not notice they are there, what is the problem? There is no pressure to win a social game other than 10% boost of xp. If you never look at rank, why would that even matter?

18

Yes. All of this. If you haven’t heard of Naked Eli before, you should definitely go check out some of his content on youtube. All of his videos are high quality and well thought out. Not to mention he’s a homie of 343, so they might even look at this.

19

Not bad Eli. I just have one question - where’s the special rank one attains for beating you at air hockey? You must have left that out on accident!

20

> > First off, your video and document were well done (although you should review the process for enumerating your paragraphs :wink:
>
> So if you do not care about ranks and do not notice they are there, what is the problem? There is no pressure to win a social game other than 10% boost of xp. If you never look at rank, why would that even matter?

The problem is that when ranks are present gamers that do care tend to play social games as if they are ranked games. Players in the game that are not quite up to the task are… admonished. These players mostly stay out of ranked playlists for that very reason, and it’s just not fair to have to put up with that in social playlists.

This forum is filled with threads and posts that suggest separate ranked and social playlists. The idea being that one is ranked (competition oriented) and the other is not(just play the damn game oriented).