Im pretty happy about the update btb heavies is going to be so cool.
I also am happy about the new supper slayer.
I hope next month we can finaly get some custum invasion maps. 
Remove Armor lock, instead of Evade.
That is a silly idea removing Evade from spartans, great make reach worse than it was.
Is this a joke? This is the worst update ever.
I guess i just have to start playing Halo 3 againā¦
> Is this a joke? This is the worst update ever.
>
> I guess i just have to start playing Halo 3 againā¦
This is completely serious. They really are going to ruin everything the playerbase worked for.
> Congratulations 343, this update has made many people, including myself, lose all faith in you. Why the hell would you removed Squad Slayer? It was TU why replace it with some playlist that sure as hell will never be as good as Squad. Same thing with Anniversary Squad, some people donāt like the Anniversary settings, in Anniversary Squad they can still enjoy the maps Now theyāre stuck with FFA and BTB. Sure Heavies is nice, but the cons are seriously outweighing the pros here.
>
> Removing bleedthrough? Again, why? Thanks for turning this game back into a boxing match (cough sprint double melee cough) Removing Evade, seriously, I had no problems with it, it must be because you (whoever is maintaining the playlists) is listening to every person on your forums, none of which actually know what would be good for this game because theyāll all casuals and canāt ADAPT, adapt works both ways kiddies.
>
> Why is Arena going unnoticed? Why isnāt MLG v7? Why do you people continue making terrible updates to cater to all the derps and either completely ignoring or kicking every more competitive/smart player in the balls?
>
> Itās obvious 343 canāt be bothered to TU everything, and pretty much slap everyone that is pro-TU, because they listen to all the idiots on here.
>
> Nobody cares Team Hotshot
> Nobody cares about Grifball
> Nobody cares that Objective is 5v5 (does it really matter? 5v5 Asylum/Countdown is terrible)
>
>
> Thanks, and I will enjoy the ban I will most likely get for this.
^
343ā¦why do you insist on doing this. I already had my faith and hope in Bioware murdered earlier this week, but now you have to go and prove yourselves incompetent (or willfully ignorant) too.
Why? Literally nothing you are doing outside of the Infection/Grifball playlists makes any sense, except the 5v5 change to Team Objective which is understandable because the 5v5 objective playlist has always been more fun and popular than the 4v4 one.
Removing bleedthrough makes no sense. You might as well just remove the TU entirely, because bleedthrough is arguably the most important part. Now weāre back to double melees and guns being pointless close-up. Sword is going to be even more powerful now too because of this.
Not admitting the actual numbers. Face it 343, we know; one side absolutely crushed the other in the voting. And with the changes to the TU, Iām willing to bet the TU was the clear-cut winner.
Removing two important and good playlists to replace them with a terrible new playlist. Yes. Because that is how you win fans and keep population.
Removing Evade without replacing it with something. Maybe like say, Hologram? Nice one 343.
Iā¦I justā¦
This is a hard year for me. Losing both Capcom and Biowareā¦now 343 is killing themselves. If this is what theyāve done to Halo: Reachā¦what are they going to do to Halo 4?
This update makes no sense at all. Squad Slayer was one of the few playlists that had
- Big party restrictions
- No AL
- No Sword Base
- No community maps
Where are the people that enjoyed those settings supposed to go?
If the slayer-only playlists needed to be consolidated, why not just leave Arena, Squad Slayer, and Team Slayer as the only options? No one asked for any changes to be made to Squad Slayer.
The bleedthrough change makes no sense either, I think a better solution is to make it 75% melee with bleedthough enabled.
DO NOT GET RID OF SQUAD SLAYER!
personally Iām glad they took out squad slayer mainly because of dumb jetpackers that break the maps. Iām also glad about bleedthrough, it was broken. I was tired of getting 4 shotted with 1/5 of my shield left, The melees were dumb also. Shoot me 2 times with the DMR and melee DUMB!!!
> > > Can we agree that the removal of bleedthrough has generally been met with negative reactions?
> >
> > You could say that about the FORUMS, sure, (Hell, Iāve even seen posts on B.net calling āTo Waypoint! We must complain until we get banned!ā) but I can promise the majority of players wonāt even know about this update until itās done. 10 - 1 theyāll keep playing all the same. (Which is another funny point, most of the people talking about leaving Halo for ever ITT fall into the school of telling people to adapt or find a different game. Finally taking your own advice, eh guys?)
>
> I know you are probably gone already and that you donāt care either way, but with these changes putting us far back from the steps forward that we had already made I will stop playing Reach as long as the playlists and TU settings are messed up.
>
> That is no threat. I realize Reach has a couple thousand players that donāt really even care what they are playing. Iām just saying that I do care what Iām playing and that isnāt Reach after March 6.
So where was this attitude from Sept 14th, 2010 to Nov 15, 2011, when you realized Reach was so bad without the TU? NOW they make changes and you pull this āIām gonna take my ball and go home, bew hew 343.ā crap.
You could have left the game when you found out it was bad in your opinion. But nope, you stuck around, got the setting you wanted, and when 343 changes things due to complaints (sound familiar?) suddenly itās 343s fault you stuck around this long, everything is horrible, and the future of Halo is doomed. Sounds just like the kids I babysit. One thing doesnāt go your way, and itās time to pitch a fit.
Go on, please do. You wonāt be missed. Youāre one of hundreds of thousands.
> DO NOT GET RID OF SQUAD SLAYER!
Nothing we say now will save it since the new version with award winning features like Armor Lock, Dino slayer, and terrible community and default maps make it superior.
This is what any competent player is thinking right now
āWhat. The. -Yoink-.ā
> Iām disappointed in the March update but āmakes me sickā? Some of you posters need to stop with the theatrics. Make your opinions heard but remember that it is just a game.
it is more than just a game to a lot of us. some of us have been playing Halo habitually for 10 years and seeing whats happening to it is indeed sickening.
> > Iām disappointed in the March update but āmakes me sickā? Some of you posters need to stop with the theatrics. Make your opinions heard but remember that it is just a game.
>
> it is more than just a game to a lot of us. some of us have been playing Halo habitually for 10 years and seeing whats happening to it is indeed sickening.
Nah man. Change is good even if that change makes the game play horribly.
343, What are you thinking? TU>Default.
Disappointment. This is the emotion that ultimately results from this update. Disappointment, and possibly fear. Iāll go through this update point by point and explain why.
-
Grifball updated.
Fantastic (sarcasm). Grifball is a fairly low population playlist but it is apparently moderated by an outside source so if they want changes made thatās fine by me. I simply hope 343 did not spend a large amount of time making this happen because I assume that most players, like me, could care less what they do to this playlist. Sure, I play a game from time to time but if I were to make a list of the top ten playlists I wanted changed grifball would not make it. -
Infection updated.
Once again, I could care less about this playlist and I feel that here I speak for much of the more competitive community. However, I know that Infection typically has a significant population so I understand 343 updating it. What I do not understand is how making map changes qualifies as a major āupdate.ā It is my personal opinion that 343 should be using voting data to continually improve the map selection across all playlists in each update. Perhaps they are doing this and simply did not explicitly mention it. If this is the case, why single out Infection unless they are trying to cater to the less competitive population? -
Evade removed from Spartan loadouts.
This is simply irritating. Itās not something that is going to make me quit playing the game though it does bother me. I understand that evade is over powered. But if 343 is going to begin removing over powered, abused armor abilities why only remove evade? I have seen constant complaints about the presence of jet packs and armor lock due to the abuse of these armor abilities, yet 343 only decided to remove the armor ability that is utilized by the purists in the population (I think I am beginning to see a pattern). -
Anniversary Squad retired.
And -
Squad Slayer retired.
Iāll tackle these together. I recognize the need to consolidate playlists. Reach is a game that is nearing the end of its lifetime and the population is decreasing, thus the number of playlists needs to be decreased in order to maintain a reasonable population within all playlists. However, I feel that the removal of these playlists was unfortunate. It is my understanding that these were two of the more competitive playlists after Arena and MLG. This is clearly because they consisted of a more pure Halo experience. I do not believe that removal of these playlists helps anybody. Now, when I am playing with a party of four I will be forced to play a playlist populated by many of the less competitive gamers. They will use armor lock and jet pack, I will get upset. I will typically be playing with other skilled players and we will most likely āroflstompā the opposing team, as put by a previous poster. This will result in a decreased gameplay experience for all involved. -
Super Slayer added.
I am ambivalent on this subject. For one, the name is ridiculous. People that prefer TU settings are typically more competitive. We are not eight year olds. The name itself will be off putting. Beyond this cosmetic issue, this playlist needed to happen. There are large portions of the community that prefer both TU and Default settings and there should be a pure slayer playlist available for each of them. That being said, the addition of this playlist along with the removal of Anniversary Squad and Squad Slayer is disconcerting. I feel that this playlist would have been much better received had it filled the gap left by the removal of the Squad playlists. That gap being a more competitive playlist where the disgrace that is armor lock does not exist. Once again, I believe this would make all parties happier- the supporters of default could play an unaltered Team Slayer playlist and the more competitive crowd could have one more playlist to call their own. -
Bleedthrough functionality removed from TU gametypes.
This is potentially the most disturbing of the changes made. However, this post is rather vague so it is difficult to assess this change until the update actually occurs. There were issues with the weapon bleedthrough in TU, that much is clear. But what happened to these āvirtual knobsā discussed in this very section. Since when is the removal of a setting an adjustment? It is not; shockingly it is just a removal. I believe that 343 could have played with the settings until they got it right. Aside from this, I hope to god this does not mean melee bleedthrough will be removed. This lack of melee bleedthrough was one of the most upsetting aspects of Reach initially. How is it fair for one player to put two or three shots on another, only to have to still melee him the same number of times in order to get the kill. This is negating gun skill and encouraging players to just sprint and beat down because at the very least they will receive a mutual kill. This would clearly be a great step back for the game. -
Team Hotshot updated.
This is nifty. Of no real significance but nifty. Congratulations, you did something I find no issue with. -
Team Objective team size updated to 5v5.
I do not play enough objective to fully understand the ramifications of adding an extra player to each team. My initial feelings would be positive, especially in light of the removal of Squad Slayer. However, after reading through the forums there seems to be some speculation that this may negatively affect gameplay on the offensive end. I feel this is believable, especially considering that Team Objective contains a fair amount of small maps. -
BTB Heavies added to Big Team Battle.
This Iām also okay with. I enjoyed heavies in Halo 3 and I hope this enjoyment will translate to reach. In my opinion this will make the āParty of 8 vs randiesā issue even more prominent because the party will be able to more effectively spawn kill the opposing team to not 100, but 200 kills. But this is an issue that plagues big team (and reach as a whole) and is only being further inflamed by this gametype which should be fun in most other situations.
To be continuedā¦
Donāt remove Squad Slayer.
Donāt remove Bleedthrough.
- The Bullet Points that do not exist.
This is where the real disappointment sets in. There are so many issues with this game that are being neglected and instead 343 seems intent on fixing trivial aspects of the game. For one, Arena needs to be fixed. I understand that this is currently a low population playlist but I cannot put enough emphasis on the fact that 343 NEEDS to understand that a ranking system (even a flawed one) is all that separates the Halo games from the masses. COD and other games make a quick buck, I cannot deny that. They are (relatively) easy to play and they contain little substance. Perfect for the casual gamer, I must admit. But, even though this casual gaming population must be considered, I feel that Halo has been unique in that it has always consisted of something more. A finite rank. I remember in Halo 3 my only goal was to get my 50 in Team Slayer and eventually to achieve the rank of āFive Star Generalā. This was a beautiful goal because not only did I have to play an absurd amount, but I also had to focus on increasing my individual skill. In many games a player can simply mindlessly play until the highest rank in the game is achieved, regardless of individual performance. In Halo 3 a playerās rank actually meant something (sometimes not a whole lot, but once again- a flawed ranking system is better than no ranking system at all). This is why it is crucial that 343 realize that a ranking system will encourage players to become more devoted to the game. This is critical not just for reach, in reality many competitive gamers have given up on reach, but also for Halo 4. I think many view reach as the lost cause that it is but everyone wants Halo 4 to be that special game that comes along only very rarely. I, and many others, believe a numbered ranking system is essential to this, yet nothing seems to be getting done. This may seem off topic, but it is relevant in that not even mentioning Arena in any of the bulletinās makes the competitive gamer feel that they have been left behind. This is where fear begins to creep in. I have loved the Halo franchise ever since I picked up Halo 3 yet I am beginning to worry that 343 is looking to make Halo 4 into the mindless money machine that has become the COD franchise, completely disregarding the vibrant and devoted competitive community that has emerged throughout the past decade. Alongside this, to my knowledge 343 has not confirmed the presence of an API for Halo 4. We already know that 343 will almost certainly not be replacing the API for reach when Bungie stats go down at the end of the month. This is unfortunate for those who like to improve their gameplay by analyzing their own statistics. However, I feel that the community could look past this misstep as long as they could take solace in the knowledge that Halo 4 would have an API. One may think that the number of players that actually go to a third party website to look at their stats is small but here on some numbers. The number of gamertags that HaloTracker currently tracks is almost 200,000. The number of gamertags HaloCharts was tracking before it closed was around 200,000. The approximate number of players online for reach peaks at about 125,000 daily. Now logically this must mean that a significant number of players that still play the game must be looking at their stats on one of these sites. Another major issue that I see with Reach is the lack of any type of party searching for all but a few playlists. I know the excuse has been made that party restrictions cannot be put into place if the playlist allows for parties larger than the size of one team to search. I find this to be weak because it would be as simple as enforcing party restrictions unless the party actually was bigger than the team size. This is a serious issue that everyone reading this post has faced. You decide to search in a playlist by yourself. You play a full party. You begin to lose. Your entire team quits. Now the game is no fun for anyone and you have to decide between ruining your k/d and just quitting, subsequently ruining the misery for everyone as well as ruining your chance at a credit jackpot. I believe the quitting epidemic could be greatly reduced by implementing party restrictions (or at least making this an option in the search restrictions) and imposing a more severe penalty for quitting. This penalty could be in the form of a quicker or longer matchmaking ban, removal of credits, or inability to earn credits in subsequent games. This post is not meant to inflame anyone or to criticize the studio that is now holding the reigns to the best franchise in video game history. This post is to help make reach and all future halo games the best they can be and to share the viewpoint of gamers like myself, who I feel are underrepresented in forums such as these. This is very unfortunate because it feels like we are getting -Yoink- on because 343 knows we will take it. I have played over 10,000 matchmaking games on this account alone. I have at least that many games played on the approximately 30 other accounts I have played Halo on. That equates to around 100 days of Halo played. I am going to continue to play this game even if I do not like some of the settings, as I know many of the other aggrieved posters will. It seems as though 343 is taking advantage of this and only trying to appease those who are less devoted to their game. To me this is selfish, and no way to run a business. I suppose that we have been spoiled throughout the past decade by having Bungie, but I hope that 343 will live up to that iconic name. I had great hopes for this game after the Title Update but the most recent updates have left me feeling disappointed and afraid for the future of Halo.
> > ā¢ Anniversary Squad retired.
> >
> > Fret not! See Super Slayer added.
>
> What? āFret not, Super Slayer added?ā That means nothing!
>
> I personally love the Anniversary maps, but Iām not a fan of the Anniversary game types. Unlike a lot of the stubborn members on this forum, I love Halo: Reach and itās sandbox. I also like most of the changes made with the TU (and I love how theyāre getting rid of bleedthrough, now making the TU perfect in my eyes). I want to play Halo on the new maps, and I want to play with armor abilities, and I donāt want to deal with a 3 head shot killing overpowerd pistol. The only playlist where I could do this was in Anniversary Squad.
>
> I was mad enough when 343 moved it from the top of the anniversary list and swapped it with classic (making the player count go down significantly). Now I canāt play standard TU gametypes like CTF or slayer on Battle Canyon or Solitary anymore unless I get lucky in the standard playlists (which, lets face it, will never happen)? I think thatās a little stupid.
>
> Please 343, keep this playlist. Is anyone else with me?
I agree, KEEP Anniversary Squad!
> > Iām disappointed in the March update but āmakes me sickā? Some of you posters need to stop with the theatrics. Make your opinions heard but remember that it is just a game.
>
> it is more than just a game to a lot of us. some of us have been playing Halo habitually for 10 years and seeing whats happening to it is indeed sickening.
And some of us have been playing it for ten years and see it for what it is. A game. A digital entertainment experience. Changes, for good or bad, happen in games. You live, you learn, you move on. You could have dropped Reach the moment you realized it wasnāt to your liking, and played something else. And these changes shouldnāt be a surprise, either. From the get go 343 said the TU settings were still subject to change, that they have the right to shuffle playlists as they see fit. The TU is still applied to most of the game. And for most of you, having played Vanilla Reach and adapted, it shouldnāt be a problem to do it again, right?