Worked well for Halo 3 and 5, encourages people who might not usually play ranked to dip their toes in and help introduce them to competitive. Some of those players will find themselves playing other competitive playlists after getting a taste for it and improve the populations across the board. Also provides them with a space to complete any daily challenges/season rewards if specified for ranked.
Halo tracker website doesn’t appear to have H5 now in preparation for Infinite, but it showed before SWAT had almost 600k unique players this season. That was similar to the main competitive Team Slayer option and 6-10x as many unique players as most other competitive playlists. Clearly it works well in Halo 5, and was also a fan favourite in Halo 3 despite not being a social offering.
Yea swat belongs in competitive. I know I’ll find many who disagree, but we dont need as many social playlists - especially if we have a custom games browser. Just about everything should be ranked, there should be solo queue, full team and any player configs in search as well. But we need the population to support this and more - and for that - halo NEEDS to be great overall.
I know some will say they dont wont to have to try basically to avoid losing their rank (or the over used I just want to relax - find a custom or find a different genre to play to relax) - social is just a pub stomping ground for teams for those of you who have forgotten. It’s where those teams of onyx and diamond players or bad 50s in halo 3 go to beat down on the casual relaxers AND bad .5 kd players instead of having to face other onyx and diamond players and actually have a close game.
> 2533274833311664;2:
> Yea swat belongs in competitive. I know I’ll find many who disagree, but we dont need as many social playlists - especially if we have a custom games browser. Just about everything should be ranked, there should be solo queue, full team and any player configs in search as well. But we need the population to support this and more - and for that - halo NEEDS to be great overall.
>
> I know some will say they dont wont to have to try basically to avoid losing their rank (or the over used I just want to relax - find a custom or find a different genre to play to relax) - social is just a pub stomping ground for teams for those of you who have forgotten. It’s where those teams of onyx and diamond players or bad 50s in halo 3 go to beat down on the casual relaxers AND bad .5 kd players instead of having to face other onyx and diamond players and actually have a close game.
Honestly, I think SWAT should be in competitive. I used to think otherwise, but recently I had a change in heart you can say lol. I used to play in SWAT tournaments and it showed me that SWAT can be a competitive gametype and playlist.
SWAT kind of epitomises the Ranked vs Social bottleneck.
It’s as ‘sweaty’ as it gets.
So how do you it ‘chill’ it down for Social? This where you play around with settings and handicaps. Bonuses for players with low KD (better weapons, active camo, personal bubble shield helmets, working radars) and penalties that kick in for high KD (shields that don’t regenerate, louder footsteps, extra points for the kill to make you a target).
Not saying you should use all or any of these… but (all) Social playlists need a shake up to move them away from the mindset of ranked.
Could the old Headhunter game rules (collecting skulls) be re-incorporated into the Social SWAT playlist?
I hope not as ranked only, i love playing social swat. i made onyx in swat in halo 5, but if swat is ranked only in infinite and no social version then i guess me and the boys are about to be messing around every match and not taking it serious.
I seriously hope SWAT is ranked, I am super bummed that it isn’t ranked in Halo 3 MCC. It has a lot of potential to be a ranked competitive playlist and I am astonishingly surprised that it isn’t on Halo MCC. You can’t seriously tell me that hardly anyone wants to play it since I constantly see and hear people talking about it needing to be a playlist!
> 2614366390849210;7:
> I would be over the moon if SWAT finally got a bomb mode that’s basically a direct Counter Strike plant/diffuse rip off.
>
> I agree that SWAT basically doesn’t belong in social. It’s too intense to exist outside of ranked
I made a variant in Reach that was one life, neutral bomb to replicate Search and Destroy. Obviously lot of issues with it.
Would absolutely love a game mode where you start with Pistol and a budget and can buy weapons/equipment like CSGO throughout the rounds, one bomb two planting points. That would be so good.
I would like to see Ranked to be more appealing with more gametypes and maps. Your idea would be very good for infinite. Honestly eveything you said i agree with. I would like to try ranked now and again and see if i can get into it. Im a casual gamer and im lucky if i get 3 hours a week to play though
> 2533274818433952;15:
> I would like to see Ranked to be more appealing with more gametypes and maps. Your idea would be very good for infinite. Honestly eveything you said i agree with. I would like to try ranked now and again and see if i can get into it. Im a casual gamer and im lucky if i get 3 hours a week to play though
Definitely any way to appeal to the wider audience. A lot of people see ranked as a way to get higher and higher but actually it’s a great place to train and get close games. If you’re a Gold player, there is no shame. Play and get good games where you can regularly go 11-10 etc etc.
> 2533274801036271;14:
> > 2614366390849210;7:
> > I would be over the moon if SWAT finally got a bomb mode that’s basically a direct Counter Strike plant/diffuse rip off.
> >
> > I agree that SWAT basically doesn’t belong in social. It’s too intense to exist outside of ranked
>
> I made a variant in Reach that was one life, neutral bomb to replicate Search and Destroy. Obviously lot of issues with it.
>
> Would absolutely love a game mode where you start with Pistol and a budget and can buy weapons/equipment like CSGO throughout the rounds, one bomb two planting points. That would be so good.
H5 Launch Breakout had such a good CS vibe to it. I just wish they had done a bomb and not a flag lol.
Eventually someone who tinkers with game modes is going to make a good enough Halo/CS hybrid game mode that it will catch on lol
Hmm, reading through this thread and talking to my friends havr given me a new perspective. I for one loved Swat in 3, Reach, and 4. But it got way too sweaty in 5 for my tastes… infact that’s sorta how I felt about 5 in general. But I for one cannot stand ranked, I’ll never play it for personal reasons and what it does to me mentally. So for me I’d personally love a casual playlist as well, because if it is straight ranked I’m essentially being “locked” out of a long time favorite gametype. I don’t want to sweat every time I play the game, though I don’t think that’s possible with this series at this point unfortunately.
