Make MM more Commendation Friendly

Games Other Halo
1

Commendations are goals set for players to compete. Some of us really care about finishing off our Commendations and unlocking all of our Armour, Skins, Stances, and Emblems.

But there’s a problem in MM that makes it virtually impossible to score certain commendations.

For instance, there is no playlist where one can score consistent kills against either a Mongoose or a Scorpion. Most other vehicles are fine as Covie ones are obtainable in Spartan Ops, and Warthogs and Mantis’ are relatively common, but the Mongoose rarely, if ever gets used. And the Scorpion is only on one specific gametype/map combo. We could use some Mongoose-oriented gametypes, and Scorpion love!

Regicide, Oddball, King of the Hill, and especially Dominion Commendations are also too difficult or nonexistent to get.

Right now the only way to get Regicide commendations is to either play Big Team Battle, or Rumble Pit, and Regicide is nearly never voted for, and King of the Hill only appears in BTB with the same problem. Near as I can tell, there is no way to play Oddball in MM, while you can get most Oddball based commendations in Ricochet, I don’t think it actually counts wins in Ricochet as Oddball Victories, making that commendation unobtainable. And the obvious lack of Dominion in ANY FORM in Matchmaking makes all Dominion commendations completely unobtainable.

Put simply, if there is a Commendation for it, it NEEDS to be obtainable at all times. I have some recommendations on how 343i can give us everything we need to get these commendations:

  • Replace the Capture the Flag Playlist, with a full blown Team Objective 4v4 list. Team Objective includes Regicide, CTF, Oddball, King of the Hill, and a simplified Dominion as gametypes. Also, in all instances of Regicide, please remove the King’s motion tracker. Executioner is the worst pain in the butt commendation in the game.

  • Add Dominion to the BTB playlist.

  • Create a “Rocket Race” playlist, include variations such as “Splazer Race”, “Incineration Race”, “Concussion Race” (Invulnerable players and vehicles), and “Binary Race” (With instant kill mechanics, because it would be hilarious) for kicks. Make sure that damage is properly tweaked so you are likely to destroy the mongoose along with the players, and not just the players, as it seems to wind up being in standard MM.

  • Big Team Heavies as a gametype in BTB playlist, comes up in the second slot with decent weighting, to allow more scorpion appearances.

2

Care would have to be taken because with the necessity of consolidated playlists, optimizing playlists for commendations could make them not optimal for simply playing for fun.

Though replacing CTF with Team Objective + CTF seems like a given to me–I don’t know why they haven’t done it yet. I’d probably come back for a few games if I knew I’d get to play more objective games than just CTF.

3

I’ll agree with your overall concept, but I fear that anything combined with CTF will result in CTF getting voted all the time.

4

> I’ll agree with your overall concept, but I fear that anything combined with CTF will result in CTF getting voted all the time.

Then simply don’t always make CTF the first voting option. Have the Objective Playlist on a true-shuffle.

The only changes that might affect marginal amounts of players is Heavies in BTB, and the change from CTF to complete Objective. I don’t see how adding a Rocket Race-themed playlist would really cause havok.

People love Rocket Race, and having several variations, like Splaser Race, Incineration Race, and Binary Race would be pretty cool.

5

Playing Ricochet counts as Oddball victories, if you didn’t know. Got mine maxed.

6

Yes, the sheer lack of opportunity to finish commendations has made me put the game down for a little while. Then when Heavies came I was back into Halo for 2 weeks, playing all the time and having a blast, while moving up the rank for my scorpion destroyer.

It gave me motivation to play consistently when I was able to make progress on a certain commendation every time I played a game.

If there is a commendation to be had, there should always be a chance to achieve it. We need a consistent way to play KOTH, regicide, etc etc.

With the population not being what it was a year ago, you figure that many of us that are left are the ones that are dedicated to chasing down these massive achievements.