Teamwork in Halo MP will soon be a myth.

Games Other Halo
1

TL;DR Version below this wall of text

Ever since Halo: Reach was released, I feared what would happen to online multiplayer, particularly in first person shooters. As games become more advanced and convoluted with special trinkets and rewards for doing certain tasks, the incentive to do what the game originally intended diminishes substantially.
I could go on ranting about other games but I’ll only talk about Halo 4 and its predecessors. In Halo 3 there was an EXP system, where winning the match earns EXP points to rank up. Sure the ranking system was flawed in that you could boost rank but in competitive multiplayer the EXP system was at its prime. There was one common goal for everyone in the match, and it was quite simple. You win, and you get EXP to get that coveted rank you seek!I felt that objective matches were at their best because of Halo 3’s “all or nothing” EXP system. Now on to Halo:Reach.
Halo: Reach brought many new changes to the classic Halo formula that we all love dearly. Whether it was Armor Abilities, new weapons, the absence of Master Chief, you name it. Some of these additions were welcomed and some were prime targets of criticism months after its release. My biggest gripe with Reach was its credit system, and I’m an Inheritor for crying out loud. By getting kills, you earn credits, and a noticeable amount for winning matches as well. But that’s not all - there were some additions to the Service Record, showing off your kills and deaths, and even commendations. By concept this is a nice feature but it had a great drawback - the decline in teamwork across all playlists. Why go hop in your team member’s Warthog to capture the flag for a measly sum of credits, when you can betray another teammate nearby for the almighty Sniper on Hemorrhage and get even more credits? The examples are endless - I’ve seen worse in Reach’s MP.
Gone are the days of every player in the match rushing for the flag on Sandtrap hoping to score the winning point. Gone are the days of every Zombie in Living Dead to charge through a base through seemingly impossible odds. Gone are the days of a team in Big Team Battle assisting each other whatever way they can in order to secure a victory. Gone are the days of cooperation in Halo multiplayer.

TL;DR - Overall Halo 3 had the best ranking system because it promoted teamwork. Reach on the other hand didn’t. I fear Halo 4 will continue the trend.

At this rate, Halo 4 will suffer a similar fate to that of Reach’s. Sure, there’s tons of great things to do in the game! But none of that will help solve the problem. If you do not know what in Halo 4 I am concerned with, here is is (finally! lol). Special thanks to iambicjelly for opening my eyes on the matter, since he is the one who wrote this:

"there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to get anywhere near the flag. 343 claims that they want the flag carrier to feel “less helpless” and “like a badass.” Yeah, right. Now I only have a magnum to defend myself with, I can’t pass the flag, and I have a giant sticker over my head that draws every enemy on the map towards me until I cap or die.
The XP system further exacerbates the problem. Why go to the effort to cap a flag for 100 XP, which is now more difficult and annoying than usual, when I can simply camp and farm kills at 40+ XP a piece? Heck, pretty much ANYTHING earns you XP in this game. Derping around with a buddy trying to grenade launch your mongoose in the air will earn you personal XP (no, I’m not making this up). Tossing the oddball back and forth between two people for no reason will earn you 5+ XP a pop. You don’t even have to farm kills well-a melee kill is worth twice as much as a triple kill toward your personal progression. And at the end of the game, that’s really all that matters. Who cares about trying to win when there isn’t a ranking system? What matters is that I unlocked that shiny new perk for my loadout. 343 cannot seriously believe they are encouraging teamwork when the entire game rewards you for being a selfish, stat-padding -Yoink!-."

Convincing, isn’t it? Thought so. In my opinion, 343 needs to tackle this problem as soon as possible. Otherwise we will see…

  1. Entire Teams Spawn Camping for XP, thus ruining the experience for the other team for the duration of the match

  2. “Rage-quits,” which means one team will be at a disadvantage (a grave one depending on the gametype). See how this relates to point #1?

  3. Completely ignoring the objective of a match and instead performing other actions to earn EXP

  4. This consequence will be gradual, but we will most likely see a decline in population for any playlist heavily based on Objective games. Remember Team Objective in Halo: Reach anyone? LOL

Here is my ideal solution: 343 needs to address the issue by making it so that winning gives a far greater reward than anything else during a match. I don’t care if it is an “all or nothing” system like it was with Halo 3 - I just want incentive to win a match! This will make it so everyone on the entire team has one common objective, which will promote cooperation in every playlist in Halo 4.

DavidJCobb provided an awesome fix! Here it is:

Easy fix:
a) Only stats directly connected to one’s match victories should be shown in-game. Ranks, W/L, et cetera. Dump K/D and anything else that detracts from W/L onto the website.
b) Quintuple earned EXP for match victories.
c) In Objective games, make EXP earnings inversely proportional to game length. Shorter caps, more EXP.

Agree? Disagree? Have anything else to add? Please do so in this thread. Thanks to those who took the time to read my entire post!

2

Winning a match should double your exp.

3

There are supposed to be major rewards for winning and going for the objective.

And the flag stuff, if it works right, should help encourage teamwork. Now that your carrier is a massive target, you’ll need to step it up and defend him.
And the not dropping the flag thing… if you don’t want to carry the flag, don’t! Let those committed to carrying the flag take it. You might be more useful as a defender, or you think its too risky to go for the flag. Let the people who have done it before take it. If you do a good job defending, your team gets the victory points.

There is also supposed to be a skill based ranking system, but we don’t really know how that’ll work and if it’ll help the situation. If its primarily based off wins, it could help.

4

As much as an EXP system similar to Halo 3’s would help most objective games, it wouldn’t help in the case of CTF, which is the most popular objective game. The changes 343 made to CTF will still cause people to avoid the flag, unless they gave out a MASSIVE reward for capping the flag.

5

yeah, I can agree with that. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t good enough to be a general in Halo 3. In Halo Reach . . . I just wasn’t dedicated . . . but I’ll get around to it eventually.

6

Here is my problem with your point. The majority of people who are going to play Halo do not think like you. I, for one, am a competitive gamer. I’ve played games for to win money, and done it as a hobby for a few years now. At the same time, I love playing online. Its fun, and you get some crazy moments when you hop in with some friends.

People will charge for the flag, because they want to win. Zombies will charge the humans, because they’ll get annoyed by the little -Yoink- t-bagging up on a ledge. Human nature dictates the desire to not only look good, but to win.

There will most certainly be tryhards and worthless teammates trying to get some shiny new medal or boost exp, but I can almost promise you that they will be in the minority…as is the case in most games nowadays.

TL;DR I think you’re overreacting.

7

> As much as an EXP system similar to Halo 3’s would help most objective games, it wouldn’t help in the case of CTF, which is the most popular objective game. The changes 343 made to CTF will still cause people to avoid the flag, unless they gave out a MASSIVE reward for capping the flag.

As it stands right now the reward for capping the flag is 100 exp which is about 10 kills worth of exp. I will personally always go for the flag but if 343 wants more people too they might want to bump up the reward to 125 or 150.

8

If you lose a game in Halo 4 matchmaking, you shouldn’t rank up.

9

This thread isn’t really about teamwork but more about the rewards for winning.

and I’m sorry, but a lot of gamers today have become selfish, impatient and arrogant. Even if there was a HUGE incentive to win, many people will still betray for power weapons and pad their stats in order to feel ‘big’. You can point out to a guy that he has only 10% win record but he’ll throw back that his K/D ratio is 10 and that he’s personally better then you.

10

I think the reward bonus for capping the flag should be higher.

11

Except Halo 4 rewards you for winning and for objective game modes Halo 4 rewards you for going for the objective and scoring (which requires teamwork).

12

> Here is my problem with your point. The majority of people who are going to play Halo do not think like you. I, for one, am a competitive gamer.
>
> There will most certainly be tryhards and worthless teammates trying to get some shiny new medal or boost exp, but I can almost promise you that they will be in the minority…as is the case in most games nowadays.
>
> TL;DR I think you’re overreacting.

I agree to an extent that I am overreacting. However, the majority of people you mentioned are most likely the ones who do not care as much as us competitive gamers whether or not they succeed in a match. Halo has a very dedicated fan base, many are in it for the lore it has to offer, or for the Custom games with their friends, or just for the classic multiplayer experience. Both the casual and competitive communities make the Halo franchise a success. I just want to address an issue that is a concern to a dedicated part of the fan base… is that too much to ask?

13

I’ve always thought that the poor “co-op experience” in Halo had more to do with the decline of good will in the community at large.

You could blame any number (or combination) of things like the rank system, the amount of children, elitism or griefing, but Halo’s community is as bad as they come.

Speaking as a lifelong “random”, a team mentality has not run strongly through the community since the early days of Halo 3.

I don’t think any type of incentive or rank system will change that at this point. Players are going to act according to their self interest. Whatever the rank system involves, you can expect most players to pursue it to the exclusion of everything else.

Luckily, there are still some of us who find playing the gametype and a team mentality to be the most fun.

I could not care less about points and rank. Give me a fun, challenging game any day.

That said, I always try to win… it’s just that I still have fun when I don’t.

14

> This thread isn’t really about teamwork but more about the rewards for winning.
>
> and I’m sorry, but a lot of gamers today have become selfish, impatient and arrogant. Even if there was a HUGE incentive to win, many people will still betray for power weapons and pad their stats in order to feel ‘big’. You can point out to a guy that he has only 10% win record but he’ll throw back that his K/D ratio is 10 and that he’s personally better then you.

I totally agree with you. I wanted to point this problem out but I figured it would be too much information to absorb in a single thread.

15

I personally will always try to win.
If 343 makes the reward for capping the flag and such with a game win bonus high enough, this shouldn’t be any issue.
Though it won’t stop people who just stat pad or screw around.

16

If anything Halo 4 rewards teamwork even more…

Halo 3
*EXP for winning
*Not even an assist medal yet
*Exploitable ranking system

Halo 4
*Massive credit bonus for winning
*Overhauled assist system which gets team players a lot of EXP
*Ranking system

The credit system for Halo 4 actually fixes some other problems as well. Game Complete has been reduced and performance bonus increased, meaning that AFKing will get you a lot less credits than actually playing the game. Maybe even make it so that you can only get Spartan Points from performance, meaning all AFK will get you is a little credits and armor instead of a BR/Mod/etc.

Why is it that whenever there’s a progression system, people always scream and complain about ranks, when it has been confirmed MULTIPLE times that there’d be one? Even Reach had Arena, yet everyone disregards this fact for some reason and continue saying “Reach had no ranks”…

17

> This thread isn’t really about teamwork but more about the rewards for winning.
>
> and I’m sorry, but a lot of gamers today have become selfish, impatient and arrogant. Even if there was a HUGE incentive to win, many people will still betray for power weapons and pad their stats in order to feel ‘big’. You can point out to a guy that he has only 10% win record but he’ll throw back that his K/D ratio is 10 and that he’s personally better then you.

Easy fix:

a) Only stats directly connected to one’s match victories should be shown in-game. Ranks, W/L, et cetera. Dump K/D and anything else that detracts from W/L onto the website.

b) Quintuple earned EXP for match victories.

c) In Objective games, make EXP earnings inversely proportional to game length. Shorter caps, more EXP.

18

> If anything Halo 4 rewards teamwork even more…
>
> Halo 3
> *EXP for winning
> *Not even an assist medal yet
> *Exploitable ranking system
>
> Halo 4
> *Massive credit bonus for winning
> *Overhauled assist system which gets team players a lot of EXP
> *Ranking system
>
> The credit system for Halo 4 actually fixes some other problems as well. Game Complete has been reduced and performance bonus increased, meaning that AFKing will get you a lot less credits than actually playing the game. Maybe even make it so that you can only get Spartan Points from performance, meaning all AFK will get you is a little credits and armor instead of a BR/Mod/etc.

343 has added in some nice new features for the ranking system, some of which improve on the flaws that were in Reach. All I’m saying is that they can do better. I feel that winning a point for your team should always be the deciding factor for anyone in any match. A +100 XP increase won’t suffice; there needs to be a greater reward to reduce game breaking behavior.

19

Actually, the new tools and toys can encourage team work. Let’s say you’ve got your defenders with sentry guns, spotters with promethean vision, etc. And the point system encourages teamwork. You now get credit for behavior in teamwork that wouldn’t be encouraged before.

20

> > This thread isn’t really about teamwork but more about the rewards for winning.
> >
> > and I’m sorry, but a lot of gamers today have become selfish, impatient and arrogant. Even if there was a HUGE incentive to win, many people will still betray for power weapons and pad their stats in order to feel ‘big’. You can point out to a guy that he has only 10% win record but he’ll throw back that his K/D ratio is 10 and that he’s personally better then you.
>
> Easy fix:
>
> a) Only stats directly connected to one’s match victories should be shown in-game. Ranks, W/L, et cetera. Dump K/D and anything else that detracts from W/L onto the website.
>
> b) Quintuple earned EXP for match victories.
>
> c) In Objective games, make EXP earnings inversely proportional to game length. Shorter caps, more EXP.

All three of those ideas are EXCELLENT, especially the last point- as it would surely give players an incentive to play by the objective.