I won’t be making a long post for this… But here are two ideas for the Join in Progress feature.
First, how about leaving it up to players (in games, via a Matchmaking search restriction) to see if they care about joining games in progress or not?
It should be defaulted to being able to join games in progress, of course. People would have to check it out.
Another idea I’ve had was to put certain restrictions on what makes a game eligible for being joined in progress. Perhaps a percentage of the time or the score limit elapsed.
Example: a 12-minute TS game to 50. The join in progress restriction could be 50% of EITHER the time or score limit.
For instance, if the winning team reaches 25 in score or 6 minutes pass in-game, the game becomes locked.
Of course these are just random numbers but it’s to explain the idea.
I think Epic nailed matchmaking with Gears of War 3.
Ranked games require you to search for players and allow you to choose which map you want to play (Similar to every Halo).
Social games allow you to join in progress and continue to cycle maps forever until you quit (not in any Halo).
I think this same process should be implemented in Halo 4, it would help reduce search times for players that don’t care too much about equal teams and just want to play a game a soon as possible. It also lets players that care about equal teams search for full games and keeps everything balanced.
> First, how about leaving it up to players (in games, via a Matchmaking search restriction) to see if they care about joining games in progress or not?
>
> It should be defaulted to being able to join games in progress, of course. People would have to check it out.
This wouldn’t work. It would basically ruin the point of the drop-in/drop-out system.
> > First, how about leaving it up to players (in games, via a Matchmaking search restriction) to see if they care about joining games in progress or not?
> >
> > It should be defaulted to being able to join games in progress, of course. People would have to check it out.
>
> This wouldn’t work. It would basically ruin the point of the drop-in/drop-out system.
> > First, how about leaving it up to players (in games, via a Matchmaking search restriction) to see if they care about joining games in progress or not?
> >
> > It should be defaulted to being able to join games in progress, of course. People would have to check it out.
>
> This wouldn’t work. It would basically ruin the point of the drop-in/drop-out system.
> > > Maybe there should be a playlist called “quick game,” which will use the join in progress option.
> >
> > AKA Gears 3
>
> Well, I didn’t get Gears of War 3 so in a sense this is my not so original idea.
Oh, you should check my first post in this thread because it shows how the Gears 3 MM system works.
I was thinking the same about putting restrictions on join ability by kills obtained or time passed. If however any form of a ranked playlist does exist, no join in progress.
Ranked matches (without joining in progress) should be quick and sharp. 4 vs 4 up to 50kills and >10 minutes. I wouldn’t change much compare to Halo 3.
Social matches (with joining in progress) should have more players (like 5 vs 5 or 6 vs 6) and up to 100 kills and <10 minutes. However I would strongly suggest open beta tests to see how much players per team, how much kills and how much time per match suits Halo gameplay. I think for standard social team slayer (with smaller teams) best formula is something like CoD: matches are quick, but when you quit it accounts as lost. For social big team battle better is something like Battlefield or Killzone, where battles are huge, matches are long and you can quit any time wihtout big deal.
I’d want the option to only join new games. Who wants to jump into a game on the side of a player soo annoying or terrible that the rest of their team already quit? I also don’t want to jump into a lopsided game where I jump right into a spawn trap…Especially if I haven’t played enough to unlock decent starting weapons. My only hope would be a rocket launcher randomly spawning at my feet.
On second thought, I simply don’t want this Battlefield clone at all.
> > > First, how about leaving it up to players (in games, via a Matchmaking search restriction) to see if they care about joining games in progress or not?
> > >
> > > It should be defaulted to being able to join games in progress, of course. People would have to check it out.
> >
> > This wouldn’t work. It would basically ruin the point of the drop-in/drop-out system.
>
> Care to elaborate?
If the “Join Active Session” system is presented as an option to players the point of the system will ultimately fail as the majority of players will choice to forgo the option to be dropped into active matches. The reason is that most people honestly do not prefer to be dropped into active matches, but it’s also the main reason for the success of the system, therefore providing an option to opt out of it is foolish. The “Join Active Session” system is key because it works to spare matches from becoming a waste of time. Teams unfortunately become unbalanced by players dropping out of matches and if there’s no method to replace those said players then those matches quickly become a waste of peoples time. There is no enjoyment in seeing matches that take a players time and effort becoming trashed simply because of another player’s decision to leave the match.
Also, to suggest that the only thing Halo’s matchmaking needs to do better is ensure that better consequences and penalties are administered to quitters, is to think that the problem of players quitting can be fixed. Well, unfortunately that thought process is simple wrong… it’s really nothing more than wishful thinking, because quitters won’t go away no matter what steps are taken to dis-sway them. There is no absolute cure to remove quitting from matchmaking, therefore a flexible system is needed to maintain a more consistent amount of enjoyment throughout all matches. The downside is that the system will only work if all players are subjected to the same set of rules, meaning that all players will be given the comforts provided by the system, but at the cost of the annoyances. A similar thing can be said about the Traditional Halo system, but when players quit matches the Traditional system has no built-in flexibility to ensure the greater majority will maintain some level of enjoyment within most matches.
I personally would like to see a split system with a Social playlist receiving the “Join Active Session” system and a Ranked playlist maintaining Halo’s traditional system, but that’s just me. If I had to pick between the two, I’d lean the way of the “Join Active Session” system for its flexibility. If you wish to read more on my actual opinion and thoughts see this post here… Halo 4 Playlists w/ MM systems
@eLantern, I see where you are coming from. But the thing is, if most people would rather opt this out, doesn’t that prove that the system is more or less good?
I do understand that it is not to cater to the players who just search games, but to those who tend not to quit and get stuck with quitters as unfortunate as it is. It does make some sense, though.
> …But the thing is, if most people would rather opt this out, doesn’t that prove that the system is more or less good?
No not necessarily.
Let me ask you this…
If children were allowed to make final decisions on things such as what they wished to eat, the majority would likely choose to eat unhealthy junk foods or sweets, but because the majority have chosen to do this, does it then prove that their decision was a good one? Good for their growing bodies and health?
…point is that people don’t always know what’s best for themselves let alone for a community or society. Things usually have to be discovered for themselves and in the case of Halo’s MM system, I think that it’s proving itself to be a bit outdated in comparison to several other successful FPSs on the market. Again this isn’t to suggest that it’s complete trash, because Halo’s traditional system has a good point here and there, but ultimately it fails in comparison, but any change requires appropriate steps and in my opinion if a “Join in Session” system is to work in Halo it needs to be paired with bigger player matches which is a big reason why I think it will be more successful within a Social playlist.
I wouldnt mind having the join in sessions if it was only for social playlists but i hope it isnt in ranked playlists cause it wouold ruin it and i also hope 343 brings back 1-50 ranking system
To the people that dont like the 1-50 ranking system there is such a thing called social playlists so go play those
> > …But the thing is, if most people would rather opt this out, doesn’t that prove that the system is more or less good?
>
> No not necessarily.
>
> Let me ask you this…
>
> If children were allowed to make final decisions on things such as what they wished to eat, the majority would likely choose to eat unhealthy junk foods or sweets, but because the majority have chosen to do this, does it then prove that their decision was a good one? Good for their growing bodies and health?
>
> …point is that people don’t always know what’s best for themselves let alone for a community or society. Things usually have to be discovered for themselves and in the case of Halo’s MM system, I think that it’s proving itself to be a bit outdated in comparison to several other successful FPSs on the market. Again this isn’t to suggest that it’s complete trash, because Halo’s traditional system has a good point here and there, but ultimately it fails in comparison, but any change requires appropriate steps and in my opinion if a “Join in Session” system is to work in Halo it needs to be paired with bigger player matches which is a big reason why I think it will be more successful within a Social playlist.
Somewhat of an extreme option, given that we are not quite children a number of us have a lot of experience with the series and various other FPSes, but you’ve made a point, I’ll give you that.
I’ll just wait and see what happens. I am still in support of the 2nd idea though. And yes, I also believe it should be kept to Social.
