Playlists that could use DLC requirements:

Games Other Halo
#1

The DLC NEEDS to be added to the rotation in Halo 4, I don’t much care what the current player count is, nearly half the maps in the game go completely unused.

Not that every playlist should require DLC, but I think it’s completely obvious a single DLC playlist will never work. That said the basic Halo experience should remain intact for non-DLC owners.

So here is my opinion on which current Halo 4 playlists must require DLC moving forward:

All Playlists - Forge Island required (obviously)
Big Team Battle - Crimson and Castle map packs required
SWAT - Majestic and Bullseye map packs required
Ricochet - Majestic and Bullseye map packs required
Snipers - Majestic and Bullseye map packs required

The game shipped with 9 maps, +3 Forge spaces.
The DLC since ship is 11 maps, +1 Forge space.

I think it’s safe to say that STALENESS is one reason Halo 4 is dying, staleness caused by poor map variation.

Just take a second to remember Halo 3’s MM. Remember all those awesome games on Avalanche, Heretic, Blackout, Ghost Town, and Orbital? I do, because they came up ALL THE TIME.

Now think of your day-to-day Halo 4 experience. How about all those awesome games you play on Shatter, Perdition, Skyline, Landfall, and Daybreak?.. Right, you don’t ever play them.

I could go on BTB on Halo 3 TODAY and I’d have a healthy balance of Sandtrap, Avalanche, Valhalla, Sandbox, Rat’s Nest, Last Resort, Longshore, and Standoff. So when I play the same 3 maps over and over and over in Halo 4 on BTB? (By which I of course mean Ragnarok, Exile, and Complex wit only a VERY rare case of Meltdown or Vortex), you can imagine why I’ve grown so sick and tired of this game.

Halo Reach was just as bad, no matter how many forge maps they added I felt like I was playing Hemmorhage over and over again with the odd case of a Boneyard or Spire. No Tempest, Highlands, Headlong, Timberland, or Breakpoint to be seen. I miss the HELL out of those maps.

#2

Your idea would work if there would be more players playing the game. Put in DLC in to Big Team isnt a good idea cause its the most popular one with a lot of casuals playing it that dont have DLC.

There would be like 200 people playing SWAT or 40 people playing snipers :confused:

I agree with the Forge Island part.

#3

> Your idea would work if there would be more players playing the game. Put in DLC in to Big Team isnt a good idea cause its the most popular one with a lot of casuals playing it that dont have DLC.
>
> There would be like 200 people playing SWAT or 40 people playing snipers :confused:
>
> I agree with the Forge Island part.

I have to disagree to an extent.

I think especially when it comes to people who love BTB over other gametypes, or SWAT, they will actually bother to buy it.

The main reason the majority of players sitting on Halo 4 still haven’t bought the DLC is because they know they’ll never see it in matchmaking, not because they don’t have, or want to spend the money. If you give them that guarantee that it absolutely WILL be in matchmaking, as well as giving them limitations on the game if they don’t buy it, they will probably buy it.

Halo 3 was the most played Halo game of all time. It had DLC requirements on all but 3 playlists in the game, and you know what? People didn’t just migrate to non-DLC playlists, they bought the DLC.

Leave only the core-basic gametype of 4v4 slayer DLC free, and force DLC on anyone who wants to play above and beyond the basics, and they will get it.

The fact is my “Idea”, which is actually Bungie’s idea since they are the ones that did it. Has worked in EVERY SINGLE HALO GAME IT WAS USED. It has a 100% success rate. It’s only stupid of Bungie/343i not to use the same tactic in Halo Reach and 4, it does NOTHING but harm the game’s longevity as well as their income.

Consider this: Halo 4 has the lowest population count of any online Halo title to date. Now, let’s take every single player that used to play Halo 3, but doesn’t play Halo 4. Now sort them into reasons they don’t play it.

Obvious ones being:

  • Didn’t like Reach, didn’t try 4
  • Didn’t like 4
  • Didn’t have Elites
  • Boredom
  • Finished with Halo Franchise, now plays ________

Boredom is the target here. Boredom is primarily caused by constant repetition of the same action until you simply don’t care to do it anymore. Know what one cure of that is? Maps.

I GUARANTEE, Halo 4 would be at least a little bit more successful today in terms of population, and a lot more successful in terms of income, if Map Packs were a requirement.

#4

If the game had more than 20k concurrent players, I would agree. However, since the population is terrible, this would not be feasible.

Yes, some players would buy the map packs if this happened; in fact, when Infinity Slayer was Majestic required, the War Games Map Pass, Crimson, Castle, and Majestic sky-rocketed up into the Top 100 Add-ons for a while; but only some would do this, seeing as how IS never broke past 1000 people. We would basically see all the playlists with 50-75% of their populations down.

#5

> If the game had more than 20k concurrent players, I would agree. However, since the population is terrible, this would not be feasible.
>
> Yes, some players would buy the map packs if this happened; in fact, when Infinity Slayer was Majestic required, the War Games Map Pass, Crimson, Castle, and Majestic sky-rocketed up into the Top 100 Add-ons for a while; but only some would do this, seeing as how IS never broke past 1000 people. We would basically see all the playlists with 50-75% of their populations down.

I’m honestly convinced the reason for that was that since 343i directly stated that the DLC add requirement on IS was temporary, several players just jumped to something else and waited out the timeframe.

The difference between IS players and more specialized gametype players is that players that play a lot of big team aren’t avid to jump into IS, same goes for Swat/Snipers players. Those are the playlists to target if you want to make the most impact in DLC sales, since the group that plays them usually plays them more exclusively than the group on IS.

#6

I agree with this completely. I’m a fairly active player and I have not once played on the Castle DLC maps since the playlist has been removed. It’s aggravating to know that 343 is catering to the undedicated players while completely ignoring the dedicated fans who payed $60 for the DLCs. I played all weekend with the playlists with the most amount of DLC (CTF, multi-team, Action Sack) and only played on 4 DLC maps, the chances of finding one is absurdly low unless you have a full team searching who have the DLC.

#7

> I have to disagree to an extent.
>
> I think especially when it comes to people who love BTB over other gametypes, or SWAT, they will actually bother to buy it.

The Infinity Slayer Majestic DLC requirement experiment told a different story. While we haven’t seen what effect DLC requirements across the board would have, considering past experience, chances are it wouldn’t be good.

> dedicated fans who payed $60 for the DLCs.

You overpaid, dude.