I want this thread to be constructive feedback and issue tracking maybe in a sort of a DFMEA format. (don’t worry if you don’t know what a DFMEA is, simply just give a scenario and its outcomes - good & bad. 343 can use it to fill in the back end if they want). Please don’t high jack my thread to flame and ask for your money back or bash 343 for having issues in the first place. We know what’s what already so let’s dive in on details to use this forum correctly and give feedback. I have no knowledge of networking or coding and I’m not looking to try and make this thread a place to have coding types say how it should or shouldn’t be done. I’m a mechanical engineer, ironically in some ways, one that worked for the design firm (not MS) and on the team that designed the XB1 – mechanicals only for the console, no software. I’m using my design for assembly/manufacturing mentality to be helpful I hope. In the end I’m a hardcore gamer and want the Halo’s to be fixed!
Sensitivity and Instability – Match Making and Party system
Searching in MM alone and you get a game
- Good
- You’re in a game
- Bad
- If your search screen isn’t correct (good & bad, as seen above in Frankie’s tip).- Just as the teams and map are set and its launching, it locks and kicks you to the Xbox dashboard and reboots the game.- Your team is not balanced, 5 v 2.- The game you got into was not from the hopper you were searching (example- Search H2A, loads you into H4 game).- The game sound is messed up- Announcers voice is really quite and game action is way loud. - When the game ends it may kick you to the dashboard and reboot the game- Sometimes it keeps the party and acts like its searching for the next game, but seems like it’s a relic of cached time from that last group of people and it’s not really searching for another game. Kind of like Frankie’s tip on what the screen should look like while searching.- Sometimes it keeps a few people from the last game and starts a successful search for the next, but that’s super rare.
- Searching in MM with a friend and you get a game*+Good
- Lest start with – You were actually able to party up. There’s all kinds of BAD with that and will be its own topic of issue.- You’re in a party with a friend!- You’re in a game+ Bad
- All of the above from MM alone topic.- You get put on separate teams, seen this mostly while partied up with 2+ friends.- When your game ends your party breaks up and you have to re-invite.- If you receive an invite and launch it, depending on the timing and what state your session is in, you may get an endless loop of the notification at the bottom right of your screen saying joining/connecting to game. But it just sits there and nothing happens. The fix is to “Xbox button-> Start Button on game-> Quit game-> Reboot game”. Even then you still may not be able to rejoin each other without a high number of attempts.
Partying up! - Inviting Friends! - Accepting an Invite and launching!
This topic alone is relevant no matter what you’re trying to do in the game and has some details in the topics above and I may reiterate them again, bear with me.
- Good
- You’ve partied up and connected with your best old school Halo friends ever!+Bad
- Everything about partying up seems super sensitive and unstable. Some of the following are my observations of effectivity-- -What screen/menu you’re on when you take an invite.- -Some friends only show up in the Xbox dashboard friends list and not in the Halo Roster list- -Once an invite is sent and accepted by the person, it will lock up for them and do the connecting/joining loop on their end and on yours it will give you the pop up notification that they have been added to the game. But it will show them as alone in the Roster and they aren’t in your game session. At that point of you press “A” on their name again the option to Invite/Join them is gone and in some cases the option to Kick them from party is there as if they’re in your party. So it seems they’re stuck in limbo. Fix I’ve used, once again, “Xbox button-> Start Button on game-> Quit game-> Reboot game” This fix is an all-night routine for many instances in MCC. - Joining a friend and getting connected seems very random and seems worse depending on the connections between them (that last part is purely speculation on my part as far as specific connection settings)- Once partied up, the chat will randomly work between your party and vary as to who can hear who. More on this as I hit the topic of custom games.- When a friend is in a game they do not show up in the Roster and may or may not reappear after their game is done. Though you can see them in the Xbox dashboard friends list.
Custom Games!!
Right now for me this is the best option to get the most playing time out of MCC at the moment. I’m fortunate enough to have a large Halo playing friends list that enjoys customs. With a lot of the above in mind the party system again seems very sensitive and unstable. I feel like Bungie set the standard for the menu and party system for all games to come after Halo 2. Though the MCC menu looks pretty in navigates horribly for setting up customs, but that statement also goes a long way with who is running the room. I’ve notice some friends have no issues setting it up vs others struggling. Natural aptitude I guess. Lets dig in.
- Good
- Playing customs with the old crew again, tea-bagging, talking trash and the Beastly yells of “Xbox, Record that!”
- Bad
- Getting the party together at all, period. I went into detail above on this. It all revolves around, again, stability and sensitivity.- The chat, OMG the chat! Almost every game launched on XB1 has had chat issues either in game or via the Xbox Party Chat system. MCC seems to be on its own level of chat issues.- -If in game chat mode: once again it’s random on who can hear who no matter what team you’re on, red or blue. Even when you switch the chat options via the in game audio setting from team to all. Doesn’t matter.- -Xbox Party Chat option: for customs this is annoying. Sure via the party menu you can mute the players on the other team, but there is a bug and the game chat that will broadcast you to the random people that could hear you in the lobby on the other team.- -While in game using game chat mode there is the possibility for people on the other team to hear you if they were able to hear you in the lobby.- -If any of your teammates couldn’t hear you in the lobby they may, or most of the time, not be able to hear you once the match loads. Then randomly at some point in the match you can hear each other, sometimes.- When a game ends you will either lock at that Loading Halo screen before the scoreboard comes up. Most of the time you will slowly load back to the scoreboard screen, but if you touch any button at all during the loading screen you can almost guarantee to be dropped or fully locked up. Sensitivity issue for sure, I try to let people know, “doesn’t touch anything when the game ends!”- Almost every game will drop any number of the party at the end. I would say about 10% of the time the entire starting party will load back after the scoreboard screen.- All of the above issues are compounded by the issues of joining a party to begin with. The effort to keep the party going between rounds is exhausting.