This is What the March Update Should Be

Games Other Halo
1

Competitive: (Sprint AA only)

Arena(Team Slayer TU)
Arena FFA (Rumble Pit TU 6 players)

  • Because of suggestions by the community, I have removed DLC restrictions off of Arena Slayer and FFA. This grants some competitive playlists for people who do not have DLC, and is more close to what Halo 3 had. Thank you for the suggestions
    Arena Doubles(Team Doubles TU) – all DLC required
    MLG Arena

Social:

Social Slayer (TU 10 players) – No DLC required (Squad Slayer)
Rumble Pit (TU 8 players) – No DLC required
Multi Team (TU) – No DLC required
BTB (TU) – all DLC required (8v8 Invasion and Invasion Slayer mixed in)
Team Objective (TU 10 players) – all DLC required

Niche: (No DLC Required unless needed for certain gametypes)
Action Sack
Grifball
Race (8 player FFA and Rocket Race 4 teams of 2)
Living Dead
Team SWAT
Team Snipers
ZB Battle (Slayer + Objective Zero Bloom gametypes 8 players)

Change all Anniversary playlists to Classic types, remove all redundant regular playlists.
Keep all Firefight playlists the same.

General TU settings:
110% movement
110% jump height
75% melee
Bleed through on
Loadouts include: Sprint, Jetpack, Active Camo, and Hologram
All other TU fixes

General Voting Options:
Official maps 1st voting slot
Community maps 2nd voting slot
None of the Above

Explanation:
With this proposed update, Halo: Reach can once again become a unified game. With TU settings in all playlists, the game becomes more streamlined and less confusing for the masses, while catering to the more competitive die hard Halo fans. By doing this update, 343 industries will encounter the least form of resistance: Competitive Halo fans are happy with the settings, while casual players continue to enjoy the simplicity.

Why the forced TU? Simple: In each Halo game before Reach, excluding Halo: CE, all title updates were implemented across the entire game. Why? For simplicities sake. Eventually people adapted to the changes because there was no other alternative: either play the game and like it, or play something else. Babying with Halo: Reach by leaving the original settings only causes a split community, anger between different groups, and confusion for more casual gamers.

Why the altered player traits? Each altered setting allows for a more consistent and faster paced game. Both jump height and base movement speed increases help promote movement around the map, and allow for more skill based combat (strafing and using the environment to one’s advantage). Melee damage is altered to get the best of both populations’ demands. It pleases both the players who can’t stand over-powered melee bleedthrough, and also pleases the players who hate double pummels. It also helps close quarters combat to be less reliant on melee fights and more on shooting.

Why require DLC? Not only does it help the developers with income, it also allows for people who rightfully bought the map packs to enjoy the content they paid for across most of the game. It also removes the need for a DLC playlist which gets very little population anyways. However, three playlists are left for the players which do not have access to the map packs. This way, they are allowed to play, but are punished for not buying the maps by not being able to experience the full Halo: Reach.

Arena changes: Reach is the first game to not include a wide variety of playlists for competitive play. Competitive playlists are very important in a game because they keep players interested in the game. Thus, a selection of the most competitive style playlists have been moved from the social side of matchmaking to arena. Standard Team Slayer is moved into the Arena setting, removing all Armor Abilities besides Sprint. This transfers the population from one of the most played playlists into arena, ensuring arena’s survival. MLG is also given a ranking system, as it is in dire need of matching people up based on player skill.
Why only 3 voting slots? The regular 3rd voting slot is very redundant, as voting battles usually end up between two choices. Removing a choice allows for a more consistent and fair voting system. Also, by having official maps in the first slot, it promotes both DLC play and helps please people that dislike community maps.

There you have it folks, an overhaul of the state of Halo: Reach matchmaking done by a fellow unpaid, game developer, Halo fan. This was crudely put together during the course of an hour.

2

Yes and yes. The only part I disagree with you on is that DLC should be required for all Arena players UNLESS the DLC became free. Otherwise I’m all for it. 343 should hire you and kick out the current Matchmaking Team…

3

I love the idea, but the only thing I’m concerned about is the all DLC thing. Not every player would have all the maps and would make the playlist not have much people like squad DLC. Maybe have DLC maps available in those playlist against others that have it? Don’t forget gravity because it affects strafe effectiveness and I hate the active camo loadout IMO. Other than that I love the Idea.

4

> Yes and yes. The only part I disagree with you on is that DLC should be required for all Arena players UNLESS the DLC became free. Otherwise I’m all for it. 343 should hire you and kick out the current Matchmaking Team…

I believe that in order to experience the competitive side of the game, players should buy the map packs. Most people playing in arena are players that probably have already purchased the maps, and deserve to play competitively on them. However, if I were to make a compromise I would allow no DLC required for arena FFA, so that players could get a taste of competative without the team aspect.

Also, I forgot to mention that I would force display the arena ranking next to a player’s name across all matchmaking lobbies, so playing in arena has bragging rights.

5

> > Yes and yes. The only part I disagree with you on is that DLC should be required for all Arena players UNLESS the DLC became free. Otherwise I’m all for it. 343 should hire you and kick out the current Matchmaking Team…
>
> I believe that in order to experience the competitive side of the game, players should buy the map packs. Most people playing in arena are players that probably have already purchased the maps, and deserve to play competitively on them. However, if I were to make a compromise I would allow no DLC required for arena FFA, so that players could get a taste of competative without the team aspect.
>
> Also, I forgot to mention that I would force display the arena ranking next to a player’s name across all matchmaking lobbies, so playing in arena has bragging rights.

Nice idea but 343 has already announced previously it won’t be happening. Too much work was their excuse I believe!

6

> I love the idea, but the only thing I’m concerned about is the all DLC thing. Not every player would have all the maps and would make the playlist not have much people like squad DLC. Maybe have DLC maps available in those playlist against others that have it? Don’t forget gravity because it affects strafe effectiveness and I hate the active camo loadout IMO. Other than that I love the Idea.

Gravity alterations messes with already established man cannon/lift routes, which would require re-forging all maps. As much as I wanted to do that, it is too much work.

Also, once again, there are three perfectly good playlists for non DLC people. Honestly, limiting non DLC players to three playlists encourages map purchases, allowing for a more fun game. T I also based the three non DLC playlists on Halo 3’s matchmaking system, where the same types of playlists were no-DLC required and that seemed to work.

7

> > > Yes and yes. The only part I disagree with you on is that DLC should be required for all Arena players UNLESS the DLC became free. Otherwise I’m all for it. 343 should hire you and kick out the current Matchmaking Team…
> >
> > I believe that in order to experience the competitive side of the game, players should buy the map packs. Most people playing in arena are players that probably have already purchased the maps, and deserve to play competitively on them. However, if I were to make a compromise I would allow no DLC required for arena FFA, so that players could get a taste of competative without the team aspect.
> >
> > Also, I forgot to mention that I would force display the arena ranking next to a player’s name across all matchmaking lobbies, so playing in arena has bragging rights.
>
> Nice idea but 343 has already announced previously it won’t be happening. Too much work was their excuse I believe!

If Bungie did it, 343 can. 343 are just giving excuses.

8

> Gravity alterations messes with already established man cannon/lift routes, which would require re-forging all maps. As much as I wanted to do that, it is too much work.
>
> Also, once again, there are three perfectly good playlists for non DLC people. Honestly, limiting non DLC players to three playlists encourages map purchases, allowing for a more fun game. T I also based the three non DLC playlists on Halo 3’s matchmaking system, where the same types of playlists were no-DLC required and that seemed to work.

I forgot about that, I guess gravity should stay as it is.That Race playlist would seem interesting.

9

First of all I disagree with re-introducing bleed through. Other than that I agree with TU being universal.

Secondly, swat and snipers should be ranked. Active camo and overshield pick-ups should be added to all ranked playlists except fo swat and snipers.

I would like firefight classic. Limited lives, no time limit (may promote quitting)

Replace none of the above with random/one choice on next round.

Add forge remakes to classic playlists to supplement anniversary maps.

Sadly your idea, with or without my suggestions, won’t be implemented because that would inject so much sense into Reach at one time it would cause the world to explode.

10

Yes Yes and 100x Yes. I like this a lot.

11

> If Bungie did it, 343 can. 343 are just giving excuses.

No one is disputing that fact lol. It’s pretty clear they have no interest in trying to revive or even create ‘competitive’ Reach…

12

> First of all I disagree with re-introducing bleed through. Other than that I agree with TU being universal.
>
> Secondly, swat and snipers should be ranked. Active camo and overshield pick-ups should be added to all ranked playlists except fo swat and snipers.
>
> I would like firefight classic. Limited lives, no time limit (may promote quitting)
>
> Replace none of the above with random/one choice on next round.
>
> Add forge remakes to classic playlists to supplement anniversary maps.
>
>
> Sadly your idea, with or without my suggestions, won’t be implemented because that would inject so much sense into Reach at one time it would cause the world to explode.

With less melee damage, bleed through will capture the best of both people who want bleedthrough to persist, and those who don’t enjoy overpowered beatdowns that occur in the current Reach. I understand that bleedthrough is met with the most scrutiny, however the solution I have is the best solution at both unifying the Reach population and being a compromise between the two groups.

If this did not happen, then we would need to separate play styles, which is contrary to what I’m trying to do here. I’m also catering to the more competitive player base, because the Halo fans are what keeps the game together.

13

Agree with everything except for DLC requirement for arena. Arena population is very low as it is, that would only make it lower. You’d be surprised by the number of people that don’t have all or any of the DLC. Everything else seems like common sense, really.

14

Fantastic. I would love to see something like this.

15

I’d be quite happy with this, however I would still need a no AA, no bloom playlist that isn’t MLG… Great proposition anyways!

16

March’s MM update was a spit in the face from 343i.

17

> March’s MM update was a spit in the face from 343i.

And a good indicator of what H4’s MM will be like…

18

> BTB (TU) – all DLC required (8v8 Invasion and Invasion Slayer mixed in)

Huh, wha? Invasion holds strong following in it’s own right - and you can’t put it into a non-free DLC required playlist because of disc-achievements tied to the gametype. Nevermind the fact that Invasion is expressly built around 6v6.

19

This would completely ruin Reach and is far too drastic of a change from what Reach is. 343i is already going in the right direction with the excellent March update.

20

> > BTB (TU) – all DLC required (8v8 Invasion and Invasion Slayer mixed in)
>
> Huh, wha? Invasion holds strong following in it’s own right - and you can’t put it into a non-free DLC required playlist because of disc-achievements tied to the gametype. Nevermind the fact that Invasion is expressly built around 6v6.

You bring up a valid point with achievements, as I had not considered them in the short time I had put this together. However, about the 6v6 Invasion, I have played many custom games where 8v8 Invasion had turned out to play much better. Not only did the attackers have more spawn points, quitters had less of an effect on how much a fireteam was spawn killed.

My ultimate goal with merging the two playlists, and the update as a whole, was to bring the limited player counts on Reach together. I felt that by bringing both BTB and Invasion together, it would solve the monotony of gametype and map combinations seen in both playlists.

I also have observed that many people are questioning the DLC requirements. However, I strictly based them off of Halo 3’s matchmaking system. As I recall, Halo 3 did just fine with restrictions and, in the end, more people were encouraged to buy the map packs.