First Id like to start by saying thank you for a chance at testing this game. It was so much fun! As per being part of the Halo Community, I of course have some nit picks!
The menu UI: It functionally feels like a downgrade from MCC. I think the tiles for the battle pass make sense, but for the customization menus, it’s too crowded. A listed tree structure like in MCC or HCE - HR I think just make more sense.
Something that I didn’t really enjoy that carried over from halo 5 is how you have hard borders around every menu “button” where as in MCC H2 and H3 you have a floating list or an area that is a “paper like” designated section for a floating list/menu and then the selection has a nice contrasted orange hue that fades out past the end of the words. There are some parts of the menu where its so close, like if you’re in the customize menu and you can pick between armor hall, weapons bench ect… instead of that hard white behind the text selection, make it a nice fadeout, easy on the eyes. and
I’m not sure if the UI art is not final as to not give away spoilers, but the background just has no pull. When I log onto MCC and that -Yoink!- banshee art starts floating in the background… I get the feel every time, which is such a shame because you guys yoinking killed it on the UI Menu music. I got chills while playing the beta.
you gotta move the game newsletter and updates box in the multiplayer menu, when were partying up, the spartan sitting on the box is totally covered by it.
classic pregame lobby menu where you have the enemy team list and your team with a pic of the map and the game mode. you can still have all the Spartan’s in the background. I love that feature, but if you could make the team lists like something you could pin so its either pinned to the right side or hidden if you’d like. I think it only make sense if were going to have nameplates, clans, and emblems.
Post game report could be a little smaller and then have some added space to see how the rest of your team did so you can compare.
The new friend and foe shield and outlines are super distracting and at times confusing. mainly in intense close up battles, you can easily mistake someone’s shield for being down when you go in for the melee while on the flip side also when deciphering if someone was just being shot or if they have overshields up. I’d personally prefer an option to kill the effect of the regular shield by like 50% and trace it for just a red or chosen color nameplate above their head. Plus the whole point of the system is to better show off a Spartan’s armor and it still distracts from the customization.
The challenge swap inventory count should by directly in the challenge menu. I had to get on the Beta Waypoint app to see how many I had. Also make it clear that some challenges cannot be swapped? seemed like only weekly ones could be and not dailies.
I don’t really care where you have the ammo counter at. If you put it in the classic position I’d be totally cool with it. But please bring back showing the actual bullets instead of numbers on the equipped weapon
Lastly, Im not sure if this is totally a UI comment, but I think the radar should always display enemy locations. During the PvP session. It was so incredibly infuriating turning the corner and running into a 3 team or full team and just getting destroyed. maybe this could be a game mode to game mode change since it would make the threat sensor less useful.
Despite having these criticisms, the game was still extremely fun and I cannot wait to play this Holiday!
I’m just gonna do a repeat of my feedback on the menus, just like I posted on Twitter before: Switch Left-Click/Right-Click functions for the Item Customization menus. Specifically the select and inspect item functions. Some users might not know the right-click is actually useful, since it’s uncommon for games to even use that button in UIs. But when they do, it’s usually to examine, not select an item.
It’s a minor, stupid suggestion, but one I think would benefit greatly new, or non-tech/PC-savvy players, or just people in general scrolling through and finding out which of their options look the best, more intuitively. Windows uses Left-Click to select a folder/file, no? Why not make it so double-click also inspects too(Or just plain equips the item)?
Pressing F to equip an item is fine. It takes only a bit getting used to, and shouldn’t be a burden.
Ping. No, not the C button that pings objects to other players, but showing the actual Ping/server latency, in numbers, to the players in the leaderboard(or client’s UI). It’s a function I see less and less in games nowadays, without even an option to turn such a thing on.
Server Whitelisting/Blacklisting ala Master Chief Collection. Just that function. I would agree it would perhaps need a bit of dumbing down since this is a much bigger game. But that would be great. In the flight test, I could rarely get in matches, because of me living in Brazil. If I wanted to get in matches more often: Match with someone from far away on the fireteam, and as the host. Maybe it was just my game not functioning well though, but I wouldn’t know the inner workings of the matchmaking. This wasn’t a PvP-day exclusive issue.
The UI in the main menu looks very clean but isn’t functional at all. The horizontal menu for selecting armors and shaders barely works with the limited amount of customization in the tech preview, it will just be impossible to find what you want in the full game. Some people have posted mock ups on Reddit that look a lot better and it definitely needs changed.
Also not a fan of the way the medals show up in the game, I don’t like their location in the middle of the screen and right now they’re so small you can barely see what they look like. Also don’t really like the art style on a lot of them they feel a little to similar but I might just need to get used to them. They definitely need to be made bigger and either show up where they did in H3 and Reach or on the bottom like H5.
my last complaint and this might just not have been featured because it’s a technical preview but we definitely should be able to check out people’s Spartan in the lobby like in Halo Reach. The way the UI is set up it looks like there’s a spot for it on the right side of the screen and everything.
overall though I like the look of everything but it definitely needs the tweaks I talked about because they’re real problems not just nitpicks
The UI is summarized by other people for me, my only input is an idea for a fix being to have it have some form of Parity with MCC’s customization with drop menus of sorts. Beyond some UI work, I wanted to suggest a sort of countdown in the store to show a refresh, I am unsure if it was ever refreshed in the flight but some peace of mind could be had there since I was honestly hoping for a coating for armor to appear that I liked.
This may be a little offtopic but it fits best here since its jumping off that last sentence, but the coatings I felt were restrictive. I had no access to the flighting on Waypoint side for infinite but I just wanted to suggest something being a possible submission for certain color schemes for armor since some people such as me like to create characters to feel like we are contrubuting to the amazing world of Halo, that is the source with my gripe with Infinite’s coating system. Personally I wanted to create something close to my colors for my Reach Spartan being the closest to my heart in Halo OCs. I know this was just a flight but I just wanted to mention this since I primarily use customization in Halo for my own screenshots and stories for my characters. I just wanted to throw this idea in for the future though since I believe for even people who don’t play much multiplayer could be capitalized for this if a submission system is used since not every game has the right colors and the new coating system could change that and draw in more people like me who primarily do screenshots.
Polished and smooth operation. - Amazing settings options, great for PC players.Cons:
Once you finish a matchmaking session, the breakdown of match statistics is troublesome to operate. It should be a 1 click option where you can get a basic breakdown of everyone’s match activity. Kills, Assists, Deaths, Damage, Match points. Rather than having to cycle though 4 players independently. Battle Pass / leveling:
Pros:
System worked fine, no major issues. - Rewards were polished.Cons:
What is the point of item rarity if everybody can easily unlock it. - Confusing layout and side menus. - We need more daily challenges, once you complete these and can no longer gain experience, it feels less rewarding when you play. - I think the ability to purchase a battle pass level up is a bit lame. Challenge swaps and xp boosts are fine. - Would be great if we had a consistent 1-50 skill system again, getting reset each season sucks.Cheers 343 I think this will be the best iteration of Halo since Bungie vacated.
It is dynamic and accessible and it needs to be, some of the challengers could be proyected to be done in a long period of time, this to make a player more constant. - Battlepass, well, you can give a topic, for example when in halo 5 you bring the update about Halo Reach, more to say about in the future for sure, be careful abou it, but do not exaggerate, halo don´t fix with all trendin topics for example comics or sport. - Will the player coul get some rewards just for playing the campaing? i mean, not all the players just play pvp, and, some of the things i get in the battle pass will be available to use in the main camaping?Love you guys.
UI was definitely overwhelming. Might need some TLC!
I struggled to explain to my friends how to navigate to the consumables tab, because even after I had just managed to get to it myself, I had already forgotten how I did it!
Halo 5 did a really good job of making xp boost application easy and straight forward. Maybe take note of the Infinite’s predecessor for activating consumables
I felt a pretty overwhelmed with how many different pages there were to click into. Felt kinda like having 100 internet tabs open but trying to find that one tab you needed. Needle in a haystack?
I guess I can’t add much to this forum because it can mostly be summed up with ‘Overwhelming’
I trust you folks can simplify it a bit!
Don’t mind the UI. It’s not very hard to figure out, but some things felt a bit buried. The battle pass and challenges are good, decent variety. Enjoyed completing them and earning XP, however I wish that gaining XP towards battle pass tiers wasn’t exclusively tied to just the challenges and performance XP also help unlock tiers. Found that the battle pass itself would get a bit out of wack and you couldn’t even see what the unlocks were in the different tiers. Enjoyed the store, was nice being able to buy weapon skins and armor coatings. Everything seemed pretty functional didn’t run into anything that didn’t work in the store
User Interface and Live:
It was for a moment confusing but later on i got used to it.
Many options feels right so far the user knows what to do or what the user is locking for.
i know you (343 general speaking) are looking for the best option possible.
Im confident 343 will give us the best option possible!
Battle Pass, Challenges, Store:
Interesting option, i did like it!
That is a concept im NOT to familiar but it is easy to understand and nice to have it.
Yes, it could be better but i saw more Spartans comments with good point of view.
The interface became quite ugly and somewhat lazy, there are times when you get lost looking for anything, and especially when configuring controls, it is somewhat difficult to find the option you want, due to how similar the options are, it has already overshadowed it you see the whole menu. It is quite messy and is somewhat repetitive, in my opinion something that should change in the future …
Swapping challenges and swapping weapon and armor coating, was an easy task. However, I had came across errors when attempting to purchase singular armor coating with in-game credits and I was only able to purchase coatings as a bundle.
The only issue I had when navigating through the menus at the Home Screen was when attempting to view the ODST Bot Slayer Map and Mode Details.
The Battle Pass showcased the rewards with no issue when navigating through the tier system and when clicking on each reward. I had also found that optimizing settings to one’s personal preference was an easy task when at the Home Screen and in-game.
Battle pass
unlocked most levels using challenges etc
unlocked some levels using points
Challenges
completed many challenges
swapped challenges related to objective etc
Store
bought skins commando pack and other red one
bought battlepass
also tested boosts
didn’t have any problems with any purchases, showed up in weapon hall
equipped armour/guns etc all seemed to work ok, favourited a few
zero problems with anything functionally just needed more challenges or match exp to level up fully
for the tech demo.
UI
Seemed a little dated in parts but great in others, finally you bumper left on the end and it takes you to the start
Options and more options, didn’t have a chance to test everything but mostly everything worked fine, did lose
pad settings each restart before the patch and randomly after however. Also scoreboard toggle didn’t work when changed.
Do love all the pad options, but do feel like you need a qualification to get the pad set up correctly.
Need some basic pad speed setup profiles for different types of newer players
Nice to see ping listed there even if it didn’t work in this test.
Me gustó mucho la idea del pase de batalla, como las misiones que dan para conseguir el pase de batalla, es solo que la tienda a veces cerraba pero luego se recargaba, todo lo demás bien, sería bueno que en el pase de batalla agregarán no solo trajes espartanos sino también personajes de halo infinitos no solo se me ocurrió es gracioso sino que sería interesante lo siento olvídalo
When I get an item (armor) from a challenge, let me equip it from that same menu. Aside from that, let me know which new item I just received when I go look it up.
Body & AI > Prostheses > Not seeing any changes when toggling between options
Scoreboard > Place shots fired and hit next to each other, not on different pages.
Scoreboard is messed up in Multiplayer > Preview: Arena Slayer. Shows that there are 3 teams and the teams aren’t divided up as they should be. You have one or three randomly on top and the other five or seven are separate from the 1st.
Let me rotate my view of the Spartan when I’m customizing.
Overall I enjoyed my time during the tech preview. I do have concerns that are both quality of life as well as bugs that may have occurred. I have listed below my concerns that I experienced during my time playing the tech preview. Some are listed as opinions but be interpreted into issues that I had with the game as well:
-At the moment I feel that you should not have to press the menu button to open the scoreboard in game and then press again to close, I feel it should just be a hold to use function.
-At the end of the game I was not getting a final score of the game, just the Eagle and Cobra logos.
-I feel that a final or overall scoreboard should be visible at the end of the game. Should not have to go to each individual person to see K/D, Assist, Points. The individual pages could show medals and more detailed info like accuracy, flag scored, etc.
-There isn’t a clear way to see who is talking on the screen while playing you have to check the scoreboard.
-No clear way to mute player (that I found the brief time looking). Maybe add an option in the game scoreboard.
-The count down timer to start of game would get stuck on 5 for a few seconds before starting to count
-While waiting for games to be found it would be nice to be able to customize spartan/weapons/equipment until the game starts.
-Loss of server after every game
-Game would get caught “canceling game” and freeze. Would have to force quit game and restart it
-Could not see the list of players played with/against in the menus pages (just a blank list)
-Would count down after finding found game and would kick me back to the main menu (menu with Multiplayer/Academy listed)
-I feel like weapon/grenade/equipment information needs to be bigger/easier to see. I would like to be able to move it in personal preference locations. I feel like too much information is at the bottom of the screen with nothing at the top.
-An idea would be to move the score to either bottom right of hud or upper left, in the upper right put weapon/grenade/equipment information, and put the medals/points scored as a feed across the bottom middle or bottom right
-medals earned need to be bigger. Cant see them and not all are listed in end of game reviews
-there could have been a better understanding of how to use/length of time the xp bonus lasted
There should be other ways to earn XP towards the battle pass other than completing challenges.
The Waypoint app:
–Did not show on the main screen what my spartan looked like in game.
–There was no tech suit for spartan, just a floating helmet with the rest of the body. (not sure if this was intentional or not)
–There were multiple armor pieces/customization parts that were not visible for viewing, just blank spots or the basic armor was shown in its place
–When closing the app, it would automatically revert me back to halo 5 instead of the last game selected.
–The app moved slow and would freeze between pages. It asked me multiple times to sign up for the Insider program even after I had completed it in the app a couple of times.
I know I was all over the place but thanks for taking the time to read. Keep up the great work.
-The store was good for me although I feel that they should give points to buy things by obtaining points for challenges and playing too.
**-**I did not like the battle pass very much due to the fact that uploading objects was not very fun and also slow. -The challenges were fun and easy for me to do there, I don’t really have a complaint.
I’m going to start by saying I really like most things about this preview. My positives list is way longer than my negatives list and I consider most of these items nitpicks and none of them deal breakers for me. But if anyone is listening I’m throwing out improvements I would personally like to see.
In-Game UI
I’d like larger medals icons - I’m not a fan of the current medals design. They would look great in any other game, but I’m very nostalgic for the old medal designs and colors. I do like the rarity feedback they give you now, but feel that could be applied as an outline or glow. - I don’t care for the medal location and score location in the middle of the screen, would like the ability to hide parts of that or move their location. - I don’t care for the scoreboard at the bottom center. Would prefer top right or ability to move. - I struggle with know if a shield is broken if multiple players are together. - Love the customization but feel like outlines are distracting. Would enjoy an option for no outline, generic shields with markers above the heads. - Wish you could see both sets of grenades you’re carrying. - Need option to dial back your AI to critical information only, gets redundant but I hate to turn it off entirely.Menus
I had bugs where changes wouldn’t stick, some slider positions didn’t correspond with value label, and values that would change to different items as I scrolled up and down until I quit out of the screen and come back. - I like the design ok, not my favorite or least favorite - A few more HUD personalization options would be great as mentioned above - I had button mapping issues. Seemed overly confusing. I would likely use the Xbox app to map instead of the in-game options but feel like there’s a better way to handle button mappings.Battlepass & Challenges
I don’t like how battle pass progression is tied exclusively to challenges. Would prefer both challenges and generally just playing the game would move you through the Battlepass. - I hope Battlepass isn’t the only progression system. Would like Battlepass, rank, and traditional XP progression system. - Consumables that boost XP being timed seems like a bad idea unless just playing games will give you XP. If you only get Battlepass XP for completing challenges XP Boosts should boost your next challenges value or something no matter how long it takes you to complete it.
A collection of thoughts I’ve had regarding the UI and menus in the tech preview:
I found the general UI to be overcrowded in most menus.
I think the carnage report should be more simple and not in a transparent background (images behind the text often made it hard to read the scoreboard).
For personal AIs I would like to be able to preview their voices when selecting them. Also, I would like to see an option added for their dialogue (beyond just on or off) that limits their calls to useful info. eg. keep the “power weapon incoming” and “ammo running low” type calls but disable the general chatter that they do.
Add the ability to activate an xp boost directly from the lobby screen (Like H5) instead of having to go through battle pass.
Move the sensitivity settings for controllers to the top of that settings menu so it can be tweaked more easily , and quickly, in game.