It's been FOUR Months Since Launch

And we still don’t have a Classic playlist? Really?

I try not to complain about it anymore, but Infinity modes are just not fun. Maybe for the first two weeks, but four months? Come on.

I can’t even fathom the reason why we can’t just have normal Halo-like settings that lack ODs, default Sprint, no Loadouts, and no instant spawns.

I’m not saying “exile infinity modes!”. I don’t mind their presence, however, I do mind the lack of gametypes and settings that mirror those of the games that started it all.

P.S. Balance the damn DMR! I want a reason to actually use the BR again, considering this game’s first trailer featured the glorious return of the weapon yet it’s completely useless in most situations against these weapons!

About the DMR Mostly the reason I quit Halo 4, and they had something called Team throwback, I think that was a classic playlist? but all you have is a battle rifle or DMR didn’t like it I only use the Assault-Rifle,

But anyway if you want classic halo you can go back to Halo 3 I think around 10k still play,

oh and if you wanna play Halo Wars look me up

> And we still don’t have a Classic playlist? Really?
>
> I try not to complain about it anymore, but Infinity modes are just not fun. Maybe for the first two weeks, but four months? Come on.

Wait, you’re saying the thrill of not knowing how many needlers you get in ordnance drops don’t motivate you!!!

That’s insane!!

Ha, I just made a thread almost exactly like this. Why can’t they come to their senses and realize this is really what people want.

343: “Oh, the forums are the minority”

Bull. I know plenty of people who quit because of no competitive playlist and simply don’t care to voice their opinion on this forum.

> About the DMR Mostly the reason I quit Halo 4, and they had something called Team throwback, I think that was a classic playlist? but all you have is a battle rifle or DMR didn’t like it I only use the Assault-Rifle,
>
> <mark>But anyway if you want classic halo you can go back to Halo 3 I think around 10k still play</mark>,
>
> oh and if you wanna play Halo Wars look me up

More like 5K or less in most cases. And I never stopped playing Halo 3.

As time goes by it becomes less likely we are going to get a classic playlist, much less a classic game variant, much less the option to turn of sprint in custom, much less just a damn PO free slayer variant that still has AAs and boltshots. I’m really getting the impression now that 343 won’t get it until Halo 5 sells half as many copies and has the online population of snoopy flying ace.

There is snipers, doubles and throwdown for classic playlists. Each playlist has some variants when voting for the map/gametype too. Some variants are more “classic” than say “deluxe” ones.

There has also been a community Forge playlist and that will return again as well.

Many of these settings are made or reviewed by MLG, AGL, professional and ex professional players such as Bravo, Walshy, Ghostayame and others.

If you and your friends are not happy with the settings then get your voices heard in the Official Feedback Forums or even post in the Community Cartographer thread.

> There is snipers, doubles and throwdown for classic playlists. Each playlist has some variants when voting for the map/gametype too. Some variants are more “classic” than say “deluxe” ones.
>
> There has also been a community Forge playlist and that will return again as well.
>
> Many of these settings are made or reviewed by MLG, AGL, professional and ex professional players such as Bravo, Walshy, Ghostayame and others.
>
> If you and your friends are not happy with the settings then get your voices heard in the Official Feedback Forums or even post in the Community Cartographer thread.

Ordnance isn’t classic, those playlists may be close, but they still feature sprint, armour abilities, loadouts, perks, etc.

> Ordnance isn’t classic, those playlists may be close, but they still feature sprint, armour abilities, loadouts, perks, etc.

I totally understand the differences between say Halo 2/3 classic modes vs. Halo 4 classic modes.

However when one takes into account the MLG/AGL settings and players like Bravo/Walshy/Ghostayame defining the settings you have to ask what is wrong with updating “classic”?

Do you really want to play the same game for the last 5 or 10 years exactly? I don’t want to start a population or settings flame war but looking at the level of community cartographers, the developer interaction with pro players and the weekly tweaks combined with voting options the support is there. I guess that’s all I really wanted to get across.

The OP stated “no classic playlist since launch for 4 months” (paraphrased) but in reality pro players and community cartographers are shaping your classic experience and it’s delivered and online now.

If those settings aren’t to your liking then the official forums/threads are your feedback. Why not even get into the community cartographer program rather than just posting on the forums etc?

> There is snipers, doubles and throwdown for classic playlists. Each playlist has some variants when voting for the map/gametype too. Some variants are more “classic” than say “deluxe” ones.
>
> There has also been a community Forge playlist and that will return again as well.
>
> Many of these settings are made or reviewed by MLG, AGL, professional and ex professional players such as Bravo, Walshy, Ghostayame and others.
>
> If you and your friends are not happy with the settings then get your voices heard in the Official Feedback Forums or even post in the Community Cartographer thread.

I’m not trying to be rude, I am just honestly asking: Have you played Halo prior to Reach?

When people say “classic” it is pretty much a consensus that they are saying base slayer settings from games prior to reach. Meaning: BR or AR starts. Normal radar. No sprint. No ordnance. No AA. With timed weapon spawns on the map.

None of the playlists you have mentioned have these settings. They are all more competative than infinity slayer, but they are not what most regard as classic. And it shouldn’t take professional Halo players to understand that.

Many casual players from Halo’s prior to Halo 4 don’t like the new infinity settings for the default slayer playlist. They still want 4v4 but don’t like custom loadouts and PO, and to a lesser extent AA and sprint. That shouldn’t mean they should be directed to play 2v2(that still has many of these thing), snipers(snipers), and throwdown(which although it is the closest thing still has sprint, AA, and ordnance, as well as being a competative MLG style playlist, which many casual classic players don’t like(no traditional radar for example)).

For as long as this has been an issue, it seems stange to me that a monitor of this forum doesn’t understand the difference, and that gives me even less hope that our “feedback” is being understood or taken seriously.

Thank you for the direction. I hope that we understand each other better now.

> > Ordnance isn’t classic, those playlists may be close, but they still feature sprint, armour abilities, loadouts, perks, etc.
>
> I totally understand the differences between say Halo 2/3 classic modes vs. Halo 4 classic modes.
>
> However when one takes into account the MLG/AGL settings and players like Bravo/Walshy/Ghostayame defining the settings you have to ask what is wrong with updating “classic”?
>
> Do you really want to play the same game for the last 5 or 10 years exactly? I don’t want to start a population or settings flame war but looking at the level of community cartographers, the developer interaction with pro players and the weekly tweaks combined with voting options the support is there. I guess that’s all I really wanted to get across.
>
> The OP stated “no classic playlist since launch for 4 months” (paraphrased) but in reality pro players and community cartographers are shaping your classic experience and it’s delivered and online now.
>
> If those settings aren’t to your liking then the official forums/threads are your feedback. Why not even get into the community cartographer program rather than just posting on the forums etc?

AHAHA, so you’re talking to a few “expert” people about what’s good for the game? Is this a dictatorship? What 343 really needs to do is add a poll in game right on the start up screen asking players if they want a Halo 2/3 classic playlist, or if they like the current settings. The forums are the “minority” but you can’t just use that excuse to silence us, the people deserve a vote. I vote for an in game poll. This is a democracy damn it.

> > Ordnance isn’t classic, those playlists may be close, but they still feature sprint, armour abilities, loadouts, perks, etc.
>
> I totally understand the differences between say Halo 2/3 classic modes vs. Halo 4 classic modes.
>
> However when one takes into account the MLG/AGL settings and players like Bravo/Walshy/Ghostayame defining the settings you have to ask what is wrong with updating “classic”?
>
> Do you really want to play the same game for the last 5 or 10 years exactly? I don’t want to start a population or settings flame war but looking at the level of community cartographers, the developer interaction with pro players and the weekly tweaks combined with voting options the support is there. I guess that’s all I really wanted to get across.
>
> The OP stated “no classic playlist since launch for 4 months” (paraphrased) but in reality pro players and community cartographers are shaping your classic experience and it’s delivered and online now.
>
> If those settings aren’t to your liking then the official forums/threads are your feedback. Why not even get into the community cartographer program rather than just posting on the forums etc?

The chances of me, scratch that, many here, getting into the Cartographer program is little to none.

These forums exist for a reason, for feedback regarding the game, before Halo 4 launched, we were promised proper Classic playlists, we are now four months in, and we don’t have that, we never did, not at launch, not weeks after and not now.

I’m here to give my feedback, that a classic playlist should be here, even if it is only rotational, I shouldn’t need to get into the Cartographer program for that to happen.

If I wanted to play an upgrade ‘classic’ experience, I’d play it, but as you can tell, that’s not my interest, neither is it anyone else’s who keep asking for the classic playlists.

I’m not sure if 343 knows what Classic is. If they do know, then they must modify and change it just like everything else to establish everything as their own halo. I don’t want to play Bravo’s or Walshy’s modern classic mode. That’s not what we asked for.

> I’m not trying to be rude, I am just honestly asking: Have you played Halo prior to Reach?
>
> When people say “classic” it is pretty much a consensus that they are saying base slayer settings from games prior to reach. Meaning: BR or AR starts. Normal radar. No sprint. No ordnance. No AA. With timed weapon spawns on the map.
>
> None of the playlists you have mentioned have these settings. They are all more competative than infinity slayer, but they are not what most regard as classic. And it shouldn’t take professional Halo players to understand that.
>
> Many casual players from Halo’s prior to Halo 4 don’t like the new infinity settings for the default slayer playlist. They still want 4v4 but don’t like custom loadouts and PO, and to a lesser extent AA and sprint. That shouldn’t mean they should be directed to play 2v2(that still has many of these thing), snipers(snipers), and throwdown(which although it is the closest thing still has sprint, AA, and ordnance, as well as being a competative MLG style playlist, which many casual classic players don’t like(no traditional radar for example)).
>
> For as long as this has been an issue, it seems stange to me that a monitor of this forum doesn’t understand the difference, and that gives me even less hope that our “feedback” is being understood or taken seriously.
>
> Thank you for the direction. I hope that we understand each other better now.

You are good mate, you have an opinion and you’re asking questions while being mature and I don’t think you are being rude at all.

To give you some reference about my Halo experience:

  1. Halo CE day 1 (LAN’s and splitscreen almost everyday)

  2. Halo 2 = dedicated fan (10,000’s of games), some my brother playing on my account. Member of Australian BTB clan and we used to play often with hundreds and close to thousands of members.

  3. Halo 3 = dedicated ranked objective fan, I ranked 50 in objective, slayer and doubles with high 40’s in FFA and other playlists too. I never really played much besides ranked objective, social skirmish or BTB. Silly Halo Charts ranked me as Australia’s #1 objective for ranked objective playlist. *Note: I don’t seriously think I am anywhere near the best objective player but these statistics were things like most flag caps, most flag kills, most bombs armed, most bomb carrier kills etc. I dominated approx. 6-10 of those statistics in that playlist for about 2 years.

  4. Halo Reach = quite a different game but I personally still enjoyed it, I did not like Arena or Armour Lock (RAGE!#@!) and not seeing your highest rank consistently displayed. Again massive objective fan but when the TU & Anniversary maps dropped I realised a few things about Halo community population wants.

  5. Halo 4 = best gunplay, fairest online mechanics, strafe could use a buff, settings are more chaos/random based but they do remove a lot to do with spawn camping and farming kills that has been for “default Halo” trying to be eradicated in favour of the greater good so to speak. Maps really needed the majestic map pack for that cleaner, smaller arena style of play. Great support since XMAS.

Overall I have tried my hand at MLG throughout Halo games lifespan but find I prefer radar, light vehicles for 4v4 or 5v5 objective, a larger sandbox and I’m the biggest assault fan going around. I understand competitive play, over the years I’ve played against a number of Australia players/teams from ACL (Australian league), I’ve had random games against players like Naded or T2 for example. I’ve also been up against Halo 3 50’s with organised regular teams games after games. at the top level of objective 50 or BTB for example there was only a handful of usual teams and you’d play them consistently.

I understand baiting, feinting, team fire, spawn camping, stealth, prediction, pushing, defense, offense, firing cadence, cover, communication, callouts and all the the rest of it.

Do I want the exact classic you wish for? Personally I’m quite happy with the new variants in playlists like doubles or throwdown but I still prefer the 343i version of CTF even over those.

In the end I would prefer the golden days of Halo 2 or 3 ranked objective with CTF or assault and 1 sided games too. However the community over the last 5-6 years has clearly voted with their playlist population statistics that Slayer and other variants like Griffball or Infection/Flood or Invasion are more popular that CTF or assault. Those same playlists are also more popular than classic or MLG as well.

I post on Bungie.net or Waypoint and try to “convice” other members just how great objective is. While I prefer the older style of CTF I realise 343i had to create a new version to bring something fresh to the table. MLG V1 settings to me didn’t do enough to attract new gamers and therefore those playlists with similar settings struggle in the face of say Infinity or Action Sack more recently, in terms of population numbers.

Again if you’re not happy personally become a community cartographer and help make the maps/settings that will define the public matchmaking experience. It’s hard to be in the minority but with objective losing it’s golden days of Halo I totally understand where the classic or ranked players are coming from when they don’t have the exact game from Halo 2 or 3 that they personally know and love.

> The chances of me, scratch that, many here, getting into the Cartographer program is little to none.
>
> These forums exist for a reason, for feedback regarding the game, before Halo 4 launched, we were promised proper Classic playlists, we are now four months in, and we don’t have that, we never did, not at launch, not weeks after and not now.
>
> I’m here to give my feedback, that a classic playlist should be here, even if it is only rotational, I shouldn’t need to get into the Cartographer program for that to happen.
>
> If I wanted to play an upgrade ‘classic’ experience, I’d play it, but as you can tell, that’s not my interest, neither is it anyone else’s who keep asking for the classic playlists.

Sure and again if the numbers are there then the rotational playlist becomes a permanent one. It’s never nice finding out the game type and maps you’ve loved for the last 5 or 10 years is no longer the most popular or even one that has enough population to sustain its own playlist.

I’ve been through it in the end life of Halo 3, more so in Reach, surprised how little classic lovers actually played Reach TU & Anniversary maps and now with Halo 4 I completely understand the launch strategy 343i went with. Being an involved player and forum member from B.net and Waypoint with the entire franchise life of Halo provides an insight into what has been going on.

If true “classic” as you request was so popular why did Reach Anniversary have such low numbers? The reality is that classic is now a low population segment of Halo.

With that said I’m all for 343i supporting map design, forge maps and playlist variants/voting options for true classic. I think it would be interesting to have those voting options available and I know I would play it for approx. 5-15% of my games online. If it had assault I’d probably play it approx. 50-75% of the time to be honest.

Of course you don’t have to provide feedback or join the cartographers but then you’re basically placing yourself in the go by the numbers of game decisions regarding playlists etc.

I personally think since launch 343i have been more willing post XMAS and delivering variety for more sub-communities now. Throwdown, doubles etc etc are all moves in the right directions for supporting diversity.

Also don’t forget the CSR will see a reworked Throwdown playlist too, perhaps it will be more classic or provide a refreshed classic experience you’ll enjoy more.

[quote=Ozzy Onya

Do you really want to play the same game for the last 5 or 10 years exactly?

That’s always been my question for the haters. I still play 3 and I like 4. There is an idea of moving forward. If it’s 3 loadouts with new maps isn’t it just 3?.. It’s like saying, “When I played Pac-Man, all I had was a stick and a dream. I didn’t have check points. It was play for the high score. Now you have a button, start at last level and various fruit that gives you 1ups” You ruined Pac-Man!

> There is snipers, doubles and throwdown for classic playlists. Each playlist has some variants when voting for the map/gametype too. Some variants are more “classic” than say “deluxe” ones.
>
> There has also been a community Forge playlist and that will return again as well.
>
> Many of these settings are made or reviewed by MLG, AGL, professional and ex professional players such as Bravo, Walshy, Ghostayame and others.
>
> If you and your friends are not happy with the settings then get your voices heard in the Official Feedback Forums or even post in the Community Cartographer thread.

Oh nice but I hope they are at least ACCURATE remakes…not like Shutout.

Thanks.

Personally, I’m not a hardliner. Apart from a few balancing issues I actually quite enjoyed Reach, but I identify with the classic community a lot more than fans of the new infinity settings, and find throwdown too competitive for my liking. I feel like there is not a game variant for me in the mix with Halo 4 because I don’t like ordnance at all and really have problems with custom loadouts. I just think balance should be the goal, regardless if a playlist is casual or competitive, and I think Halo 4 has missed the mark in that regard.

I find it strange that 343 doesn’t simply have a PO free slayer much like they have CTF and Infinity CTF. That alone would probably make me patrol these forums a lot less often, and seems like a simple thing for them to do. Furthermore, with all these groups asking for their own playlist like the classic community it doesn’t make sense to me why 343 wouldn’t at least try putting a few less infinity-y slayer options to vote for in infinity slayer. Even if it was just for a week. Just to see how it effects the population, and if it gets many votes.

Here are some of my ideas.

As far as being in the minority, I’m not sure that’s accurate. Everyone I have ever talked to about Halo at least agrees that PO could be less random, and my immediate group that I play with all are growing tired of the new changes to Halo. Even if the group looking for a balanced casual slayer is a minority, I think it is a large enough one that it deserves some deference. Although it will be impossible to tell now who is truly in the minority because only one version of slayer was given to us at launch instead of two or three so we could compare the populations. Let’s not discuss population too much though…

> Thanks.
>
> Personally, I’m not a hardliner. Apart from a few balancing issues I actually quite enjoyed Reach, but I identify with the classic community a lot more than fans of the new infinity settings, and find throwdown too competitive for my liking. I feel like there is not a game variant for me in the mix with Halo 4 because I don’t like ordnance at all and really have problems with custom loadouts. I just think balance should be the goal, regardless if a playlist is casual or competitive, and I think Halo 4 has missed the mark in that regard.
>
> I find it strange that 343 doesn’t simply have a PO free slayer much like they have CTF and Infinity CTF. That alone would probably make me patrol these forums a lot less often, and seems like a simple thing for them to do. Furthermore, with all these groups asking for their own playlist like the classic community it doesn’t make sense to me why 343 wouldn’t at least try putting a few less infinity-y slayer options to vote for in infinity slayer. Even if it was just for a week. Just to see how it effects the population, and if it gets many votes.
>
> Here are some of my ideas.
>
> As far as being in the minority, I’m not sure that’s accurate. Everyone I have ever talked to about Halo at least agrees that PO could be less random, and my immediate group that I play with all are growing tired of the new changes to Halo. Even if the group looking for a balanced casual slayer is a minority, I think it is a large enough one that it deserves some deference. Although it will be impossible to tell now who is truly in the minority because only one version of slayer was given to us at launch instead of two or three so we could compare the populations. Let’s not discuss population too much though…

Good post and point of view, we are similar players. I enjoy Infinity and “true classic” but I prefer to play default Halo from say Halo 3 or Reach generally. In Halo 4 I play CTF the most and as you say it removed a lot of the instant respawn or PO that the forums are a buzz with.

I do see merit with your settings and wants. I too find regular teams too competitive, I no longer have the time to play 4-12 hours per day as some do and have a fully communicating practised team etc. If 343i can find that nice balance of variety, skill matching, party matching and sandbox settings they will hit gold. I hope for the return of clans, which I think can make a return to ranked in game as well. Hopefully Halo 5 can provide that social/competitive balance that Halo 3 achieved.

I don’t think they are far off that really and the last two months have seen a lot of work and communication from 343i IMO.

Just a couple of things to consider when referencing vote data, which I’d like to point out:

  1. Players can be corrupt because of Commendations, Challenges and Achievements.

  2. If the desired option is not present (as in, a gametype being completely missing from a playlist in its entirety, not just the present voting option draw) a player will likely vote for the best of the bunch, or the lesser evil depending on whichever way you view it. Consequently this might not mean they like a particular option, they just prefer it to the other choices.

Because of these truths, voting data is not as credible as it may seem. And that’s my annual input. Adios!