I love Legendary Slayer. The games are longer, less random, and much more rewarding.
This being said, why is the population for this playlist consistently low?
I have two theories
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Change: People who play Halo 4 may have grown so accustomed to the Infinity settings that they prefer to stick with what they have practiced for the last 9 months.
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Over representation: Most people who post on these forums seem to like the more classic Halo 2/Halo 3 style, and 343’s response was to listen to the community and give them Legendary Slayer. However, the current numbers seem to suggest that the players that prefer classic gametypes may be overrepresented on these forums. So does that mean the majority of players just prefer Infinity settings?
If this is the case, we should not be complaining to 343, we should be thankful that they add a playlist based on the demands of a small sample size of the entire Halo 4 community.
But I could be wrong.
Opinions?
I think one problem is starting with only an Assault Rifle. Granted this is how it was in previous Halo’s (to an extent) BUT there are 2 key differences in Halo 4 that make this not work in my opinion;
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The Maps were NEVER designed for this style of gameplay. I don’t want to shamelessly advertise but look at the beginning of this video I did on Haven Legendary Slayer - once one team takes the top middle they can see EVERY point of the map simultaneously. I got killed off of spawn very fast. Things got better once the map changed, but that is a good example. (Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmcZ46idlrk )
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The Motion Sensor - the range of the motion sensor is 40 meters, which is the Red Reticle Range of the AR, meaning that if anyone has a ranged/power weapon, they are at an advantage immediately upon seeing you on their sensor. If the motion sensor range was decreased automatic weapon would have a much easier time in every playlist, not just legendary, but at the moment it does screw you if you don’t have a ranged/power weapon. Spawning players with an AR and another weapon (magnum/br/carbine) would work very well imo.
Thats my 2 cents. It could be solved (in my opinion) by removing sprint and lowering the motion tracker range, or spawning everyone with an AR + a ranged weapon (or both)
It would also help if we got more classic style maps, Shutout works VERY well with legendary slayer, some more forge remakes would really help a lot.
But you are right about forums, they are a vocal minority and often do not represent the entire community because people that like the game don’t tend to complain on the forums 
I like what they did with Infinity and hope to see them refine it more, not abandon it completely.
> 2. Over representation: Most people who post on these forums seem to like the more classic Halo 2/Halo 3 style, and 343’s response was to listen to the community and give them Legendary Slayer. <mark>However, the current numbers seem to suggest that the players that prefer classic gametypes may be overrepresented on these forums.</mark> So does that mean the majority of players just prefer Infinity settings?
I think this statement is pretty accurate. Having been a long time member of Bnet, I can say that this has pretty much been the case for a while. Ranked playlists in H3 and the Classic playlists in Reach always had a lower population. It’s just the way it’s been as far as I can remember.
I think what people lose sight of, is that the forum population is not representative of the online population. At best, it’s a sliver, but it’s not a accurate distribution either. There are plenty of players that never come to the forums at all. Heck, half of my friends from H3 never went to Bnet. I think one out of the 30 or so friends I played with actually went to the forum, but he never posted.
Personally, I believe it’s the more passionate or competitive players that come to the forums. They came for the stats, but stayed around for the discussion. Or maybe they were enthralled with the lore, and wanted to discuss the story. Regardless, it’s the players that feel somewhat vested that actually come here.
No surprise really, they picked AR starts with no magnum secondary and have no Legendary BR’s option. Power weapons are more dominant in this game than they were in previous games, precision weapons are easier to use, then they placed to many over powering weapons on the maps with too much reserve ammo. Rockets on Haven, need I say more.
Games are won by who ever wins the mad rush for power weapons at the start. And the AR doesn’t have sufficient range to make any come back pushes or counter any of the power weapons effectively. Then if there are no BR pick ups available you are screwed.
I personally think legendary Slayer is a poor representation of classic gameplay. It has sprint, weapons are balanced differently and from my experience most people I knew didn’t like AR starts anyway.
I’m not a fan of a lot of the changes made in Infinity Slayer but Legendary Slayer is broken.
The answer is fairly obvious. The majority of the people who stuck with Halo 4 obviously like the Infinity settings and Halo 4 in general, meaning that a classic gametype won’t appeal to them in the slightest.
It’s a sad day when players shy away from the gameplay that made Halo popular in the first place, but that’s the way it is now.
- Legendary Slayer should have been there from the beginning. Since it wasn’t, players only had the choice to either stick with Infinity settings or abandon Halo. They chose to abandon Halo. Most of the players that would play Legendary Slayer are already gone.
Even in its current state–one gametype in one playlist–people would still leave because it’s not enough to sustain. On top of being included at launch, it should have been the default for every gametype, with Infinity being secluded. 343i has it backwards right now.
- Legendary Slayer is broken anyway and needs some tweaks to be balanced. Compared to Infinity Slayer, I love the gametype to death, but it’s still difficult for me to choose it over other gametypes like Doubles Pro, Team Snipers, and SWAT.
Yea the population is low and people here will find excuses for it. And if the “reasons” are fixed, they’ll find more and so on.
H3 gameplay is dead and no longer interests the majority. It’s time for 343 to keep innovating for the sake of the franchise future.
> H3 gameplay is dead and no longer interests the majority. It’s time for 343 to keep innovating for the sake of the franchise future.
Of course it’s dead; it’s six years old! CoD hasn’t remained a successful franchise by adding features that completely change the gameplay; they found a formula and they stuck with it, making only minor adjustments and additions from game to game. Halo should have done the same.
I expected it to be low. The entire population of the game is low. Halo is just old news. Nothing they do will change that. I still enjoy playing it though. Adding a BR start to LS would be nice and the population would probably go up a couple hundred at best.
> > H3 gameplay is dead and no longer interests the majority. It’s time for 343 to keep innovating for the sake of the franchise future.
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> Of course it’s dead; it’s six years old! CoD hasn’t remained a successful franchise by adding features that completely change the gameplay; they found a formula and they stuck with it, making only minor adjustments and additions from game to game. Halo should have done the same.
Correction- CoD copied Halo’s formula and innovated.
Halo set the standards that all console FPS followed. Rechargeable shields, limited weapons at hand, customizable controls, cooperative play and drivable vehicles. All FPS that followed CE used this structure and CoD is not an exception. To this day this formula is still used. CoD innovated, they added features to the game that appealed to the majority.
I’m not saying Halo needs to be a CoD clone (I wouldnt want that) but it needs to innovate in its own unique way to dethrone CoD and gain a huge population again. Classic gameplay is going backwards.
> > CoD hasn’t remained a successful franchise by adding features that completely change the gameplay; they found a formula and they stuck with it, making only minor adjustments and additions from game to game. Halo should have done the same.
>
> Correction- CoD copied Halo’s formula and innovated.
>
> Halo set the standards that all console FPS followed. Rechargeable shields, limited weapons at hand, customizable controls, cooperative play and drivable vehicles. All FPS that followed CE used this structure and CoD is not an exception. To this day this formula is still used. CoD innovated, they added features to the game that appealed to the majority.
>
> I’m not saying Halo needs to be a CoD clone (I wouldnt want that) but it needs to innovate in its own unique way to dethrone CoD and gain a huge population again. Classic gameplay is going backwards.
You sound like you’re disagreeing with me, but I agree with your post. 
Bungie constantly innovated in Halo, adding dual-wielding and boarding in Halo 2, Forge, Theater, and File Share in Halo 3, and Armor Abilities and Loadouts in Halo: Reach (although those I wasn’t too fond of). I feel like 343i didn’t try to innovate anything, but instead took some of the things that CoD was doing and tried to incorporate that into Halo, creating the frankenstein monster that is Halo 4. I can’t name very many things that 343i actually innovated because most of Halo 4 already existed either in previous Halos or in CoD.
I don’t know why anyone is surprised to be honest.
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The majority of people who are still playing Halo 4 are likely to be the people that do like Infinity.
And though it is highly likely that these people are a minority of the whole Halo fanbase, they are probably a majority when it comes to the people who are still playing Halo 4.
Most of the people that wanted a more Halo-esque experience will have left.
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Halo 4 is built from the ground up for Infinity Slayer.
It only makes sense that anything that strays from being Infinity, will be less popular in this game.
We can beg all we want for Halo 4 to be made more and more like Halo, but it will probably always be better at doing what it already does, (Halo 5 is their real opportunity to build a genuine Halo game from the ground up).
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The maps in Legendary Slayer aren’t great, it seems like you’re either playing Haven or the Lockout remake over and over, there’s only a limited amount of maps that will work to some degree with this playlist, as opposed to Infinity playlists, where pretty much all maps will work.
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Legendary Slayer isn’t really the “classic” experience that people would like it to be. It’s closer to being classic than Infinity, but it’s still not really there at all.
Of all these reasons, I believe number 1 to be the main reason for Legendary Slayer being less popular than Infinity.
I forgot to mention, a lot of people will be in the habit of putting the game on and going straight to an Infinity playlist, this will be another reason for people not really going to Legendary Slayer.
I wouldn’t have even noticed it if I hadn’t already known from the forums that it was being added.
Highly competitive playlists are always underpopulated because those playlists are generally not very…accessible to a majority of the population.
That doesn’t mean LS can’t be improved. Maps like heaven and shutout need to go.
The population in general is low. Most of the people who wanted a more traditional Halo left long ago.
Well have to remember also that Halo 3 multiplayer is still active.
First of all Legendary isnt classic. AR/Mag with power ups/power weapons on maps would be classic. AAs on map with recharge disabled would have made it like H3.
This playlist is seriously lacking and I dont know why 343 didnt add more variants along with the other things I mentioned.
People who expected an evolution of H3 have left so whoever is still playing Halo 4 either like it or deal with it(like myself).
I’m sure if Legendary was here from the beginning it would have at least silenced the haters. Also 343 could have added to it from release instead of damage control and patching wounds 9 months later. Now we have to wait MONTHS before any improvements…
Overall I enjoy the playlist but few additions could make it better
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Sprint is enabled, many people including me were hoping for no sprint. No sprint can work with 120% speed and 95% gravity so all jumps are possible.
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There are also many unbalanced maps the most notable being Haven and Shutout. Shutout is just terrible. If the game is close then everyone starts crouching,camping and games usually end with people quitting or the time limit.
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The weapons are mostly good but having 6 ammo for the rockets is way OP for Haven. Splazers on adrift are mostly useless and should be replaced.
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BR starts are much needed. BR starts should not replace AR starts and have both of them in the voting.
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Rifle Weapon respawns need to be 30 seconds instead of 60 secs.
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Magnum needs to added to counter the br.
Well, if Classic Slayer fans who quit before aren’t going to even try Legendary Slayer, I don’t think they were very good Halo fans to begin with.