Title Update Discussion

Games Other Halo
1141

> > Congrats everyone. This thread just broke 40,000 views! That’s almost half the population that plays Reach everyday.
>
> Yes, it did. And no, it isn’t. Every time I get on Halo, there are about 130,000 people on at the time . Which means there are more people getting on and off throughout the day. Lulz you fail.

I wouldn’t call Halo: Reach a success at all. Right now, Reach is playing second fiddle to Call of Duty’s Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops. Halo 2 and 3 were king throughout their runs.

There are logical reasons why Reach doesn’t have numbers that Halo 2 and 3 did and the two main reasons are 1) a lack of a solid ranking system and 2) substandard gameplay. You won’t EVER see Reach in its life time make it to Halo 2 and 3 numbers without a ranking system and a balanced battlefield.

Still things that have been discussed in this thread that could be included in a title update could out help out greatly.

1142

Things that made Reach boring:

-No 1-50 system
(Nothing to get excited about, nothing to win for. Destroyed objective.)

-Armor unlocked via cR, and not achievements.
(Nothing to show in MM for your achievement progress)

-Bloom
(You never knew if you got “Out DMR’d” or not, because the other player could have been spamming)

-AAs
(Games completely hinged on whoever had more armor lockers, instead of who was more skilled)

-Color palette
(Dull gray and green maps pretty much made up MM)

-Decreased movement speed and jump height
(Slowed down gameplay)

-Terrible maps
(Barely any symmetrical maps, and most maps had one unbreakable setup)

-None of the new weapons were fun
(The new weapons in Halo: Reach were very unsatisfying to use.)

-Medals that are literally impossible to get
(There were medals in Reach that were literally impossible to get, such as “Incineration”)

-File shares were much too confusing
(File shares had WAY too many categories, and they were impossible to navigate)

-Firefight made into “Who can get the most cR?”
(The survival aspect of ODST is completely wiped from Reach FF. They even give you a time limit.)

-Theater ruined
(No party viewing? I call BS.)

I could go on, but I’m going to leave that up to you guys. I need your opinions so I can update the list and possibly make a change if 343 sees this.

1143

I agree with everything you just listed.

1144

  1. Fix crouch walking. Crouch walking up slopes and ramps with a higher angle causes you to show up on radar.

  2. Remove no bleed mechanics. If a player does more damage than his opponent that earned advantage should not be cancelled out.

  3. Remove bloom on all precision weapons and buff spray weapons accordingly.

  4. Port CE’s weapon sandbox to Reach with CEA.

1145

I enjoy Reach, but I completely agree. I think unlocking armor should be done through specific actions. Get 15 sniper headshots in a game, get a snipers helmet. Get 1k career kills, unlock a chest piece.

It doesn’t have to be achievment based ( though some armor can be) but challenge based.

1146

Great post. I agree with everything and I hope they are all fixed for H4

1147

I don’t know if you had listed this if you went on, but what I think is very important are the visuals. From armor design to covenant model design to menu design (look at what stands in the upper left corner of your screen, that is a very badly designed “HALO”), everything should be designed differently.

1148

> -None of the new weapons were fun
> (The new weapons in Halo: Reach were very unsatisfying to use.)

I’ll take a Needle Rifle over a DMR any day.

1149

> I enjoy Reach, but I completely agree. I think unlocking armor should be done through specific actions. Get 15 sniper headshots in a game, get a snipers helmet. Get 1k career kills, unlock a chest piece.
>
> It doesn’t have to be achievment based ( though some armor can be) but challenge based.

Pretty good idea tbh.

1150

REMOVE SWORD BLOCK

1151

> The poulation for reach hits about 150,000 at peak hours, the number shown isn’t the amount of players playing reach all day! Thats more then 500,000 daily and you can see that number here on bungie.net i find it annoying when people get that confused!
>
> I hope 343 doesnt change gameplay to much and go overboard with changes, one of the examples of this is what alot of people have been saying on here about removing AAs or using them as pick ups, although alot of people want one of these implemanted they are unpopular with casual players shown by player population in MLG, and Classic both have alternate options with AAs but are some of the least popular playlists!
>
> What would be better is a rebalancing of AAs and Weapons, slight changes would be a huge improvments to gameplay. Also buffing the nonpower weapons to increase kill times would awsome!

I play Reach daily, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I love the gameplay.
I’d LOVE a title update, and if done right, it could possibly make my friends and I play a lot more.

1152

> > The poulation for reach hits about 150,000 at peak hours, the number shown isn’t the amount of players playing reach all day! Thats more then 500,000 daily and you can see that number here on bungie.net i find it annoying when people get that confused!
> >
> > I hope 343 doesnt change gameplay to much and go overboard with changes, one of the examples of this is what alot of people have been saying on here about removing AAs or using them as pick ups, although alot of people want one of these implemanted they are unpopular with casual players shown by player population in MLG, and Classic both have alternate options with AAs but are some of the least popular playlists!
> >
> > What would be better is a rebalancing of AAs and Weapons, slight changes would be a huge improvments to gameplay. Also buffing the nonpower weapons to increase kill times would awsome!
>
> I play Reach daily, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I love the gameplay.
> I’d LOVE a title update, and if done right, it could possibly make my friends and I play a lot more.

this^

I really want my friends to play Reach with me, but most of them refuse to until there’s a TU.

A TU can only bring in more players, assuming it is done right.

1153

> Agreed. 343 can start greatly out of the gate if you guys take what the community has been saying and fix:
> Kill times
> Grenades
> Armor Lock
> DMR Bloom
> A few other weapon balancing issues
> Movement Speed
>
> If you can address these, the community will love you. Please, don’t pull a Bungie and ignore your fans, I’ve given up hope that they will give us the Title Update this game needs.

I actually have a thread listing all my beefs with Halo: Reach. Lemme just find it…
10 mins later:

"The first and perhaps most obvious one was Armor Lock. A horrible armor ability, which worked on the fundamentally un-Halo philosophy that everyone deserved a second or even third chance soon began to piss me off. First of all, I was put off massively by it’s ability to effectively pause the game for anyone in the immediate vicinity. The choice being run away and lose your rightful kill or risk being attacked, while weakened, by another member of the ALer’s team really killed me. Secondly, the quite horrible EMP => Melee technique employed by everyone and their Grandmas not only rendered the Sword just a little bit lucky (sword-block) but positively dangerous depending on which player you were with.
The second thing that really got me was “no bleed-through”. The nonsensical mechanic, once again seemingly based on the “second chance” philosophy, needs no further explanation.
The third thing that struck me was the horrible vehicle combat in Halo Reach. It didn’t take me long to discern that this was a result of both the miniature, black Spartan Lasers that each player got off of spawn in Big Team Battle and the absence of the “bleed-through” mechanic used in vehicles, which dictated that shots fired at the vehicle directly effect the drivers health. This mechanic had been present in all Halo games to date up until now, and its exclusion presented the serious flaw that the pocket-laser had to be used to kill vehicles. It also meant that a Rocket to the face of the Ghost or Hog could neglect to destroy its target.
The final thing that got me was grenades. Spawning with two amply-named “pocket-nukes” killed the Nade => Headshot technique so popular in Halo 2 and 3 by effectively cutting out the middle-man. Players could just as easily lob two grenades at their opponents, and would probably get more kills if they did so. This, combined with the Reach grenades’ seeming inability to bounce and short fuse pretty much mean that a down on health Spartan is going to die via an explosion 9 times out of 10."
And that’s pretty much everything I want changed about Reach

1154

Halo Reach is a good game, no doubt. I had fun playing it… for the first 2 weeks it was out!
For some reason Reach seems to lack a replay value.

1# Most maps on FW are boring grey and green… They never made any new forge maps with a new pallette. XP

#2 It didn’t really feel fun, honestly after a couple days of Reaches release, the only reason i was playing was to level up so i could get new armor. Make it so you get armor like you did in Halo 3, buy achievements, buy getting to a certain rank. The new credit system sort of restricted our freedom for people who like to level up because I usually played firefight or I would play swat and rack up headshots… Playlists and credit system is to blame for this!

#3 Vehicles weren’t great anymore, they honestly had just about no armor, the were like tin foil.

#4 Bloom, ICKY!!!

#5 No good maps AT ALL!!! seriously the maps were made to benefit AA and I hated it!

#6 Each game I played it got more and more boring, not more and more intriguing. Reach was the first halo game i played in which i was not Addicted. And I have an addiction for getting addicted to Halo.

Make sure you guys test Halo 4 a BUNCH so you can see how to make us happy, just like you did with halo 3

1155

> I really want my friends to play Reach with me, but most of them refuse to until there’s a TU.
>
> A TU can only bring in more players, assuming it is done right.

Same here. And many of my friends as well. Everyone is waiting for a Title Update for the game because the flaws and problems are so easily seen. If there was a Title Update to fix all these small issues and tweak the game to perfected balanced gameplay mechanics then we will all be playing Reach so much more. I have a feeling taking your Xbox over to your friends house to LAN Halo: Reach will actually start happening more often and Halo: Reach will also take over the XBL Top played List of games finally topping Black Ops for once. This game has too much awaiting potential…

It is Halo, and all we want as a community is to see our game push past its current limitations and become the vision that we can all clearly see for the game. 343i, I hope you understand the fire that your new coming community feels. Your holding a fragile baby within your hands and only you as developers can let it grow to become it’s best potential. As a Halo Fan since CE, all I can think about every single day is the possibilities that you 343i, has within your hands. Bungie passed you the torch for a reason. We all believe in each one of you within the studio’s to make things happen.

1156

Fixed gameplay mechanics will help the current maps shine better. And with the new map pack coming with CEA, old school maps with whole new looks and feels will play so much better. If their is a Title Update to come along with these maps than dear god all epicness will ensue.

It’s every problem with Reach that is killing the addiction of repetitive play. There is zero thriving competitive factors to the game as it currently sits and usually just frustrates most and most players do not care to play because of the random factors of the game. H2 and H3 you only put the game down when you were tired of playing too much. In Reach, you just put it down because of all the faults and flaws that are thrown into your face after playing a few games.

1157

Guys think they should quicken the amount of time it takes for shields to recharge after being depleted? I think it’s something like 6 seconds for them to go from no shield to full shield. Kill times might be faster and the game might be faster as a result if they quicken this.

I haven’t seen it mentioned much here, so I thought I’d post about it.

1158

So maybe Im taking what Franky said out of context, but i believe he may have hinted at some possible changes to Halo Reach in the coming future. But could this be the Title Update we have been wanting? Here the quote:

<strong>There will be a playlist for just these maps. Reach players will be able to directly play seamlessly in that playlist, and those maps will also be integrated into other playlists. We’ll try and make a very central place to play just these maps, so there’ll be a good population, but eventually they’ll end up in all lists. We’re going to do significant stuff with matchmaking playlists to make sure that these are respectful of original system link-type games. You know how there’s a Classic playlist right now? Imagine that, but plus-plus, and some other stuff we can’t talk about right now.</strong>

1159

> > I really want my friends to play Reach with me, but most of them refuse to until there’s a TU.
> >
> > A TU can only bring in more players, assuming it is done right.
>
> Same here. And many of my friends as well. Everyone is waiting for a Title Update for the game because the flaws and problems are so easily seen. If there was a Title Update to fix all these small issues and tweak the game to perfected balanced gameplay mechanics then we will all be playing Reach so much more. I have a feeling taking your Xbox over to your friends house to LAN Halo: Reach will actually start happening more often and Halo: Reach will also take over the XBL Top played List of games finally topping Black Ops for once. This game has too much awaiting potential…
>
> It is Halo, and all we want as a community is to see our game push past its current limitations and become the vision that we can all clearly see for the game. 343i, I hope you understand the fire that your new coming community feels. Your holding a fragile baby within your hands and only you as developers can let it grow to become it’s best potential. As a Halo Fan since CE, all I can think about every single day is the possibilities that you 343i, has within your hands. Bungie passed you the torch for a reason. We all believe in each one of you within the studio’s to make things happen.

i’ve always thought it was funny how when people lanned halo (except for big tourneys obviously) they lan halo 1, or 2. why lan halo reach when halo 1 is better in almost every way? lol

1160

What I think needs to be fixed in Reach (Probably stated before)

  • Fix the Banshee. Make the Banshee bomb have a smaller blast radius/ make it so you can only fire it once you’re locked onto a vehicle. Make the Banshee armor stronger, so that 2 clips of the Sniper/DMR wouldn’t blow it up. Make it so that when the banshee flips, it flips slower, and then make it so it can boost forever.

  • Fix the Sniper/DMR. Make it so it’s not an Anti-Vehicle weapon. That’s the only problem I have with it. Now the DMR. I would rather have the BR back, but if not, fix bloom. And make it so it’s not an Anti-Vehicle weapon.

-Take out Armor Abilities. They slow down gameplay and Halo is all about everyone spawning equally. AA’s destroy that. I would only like the classic overshield/camo pickups.

-Take out sword block. It slows down gameplay a lot and gives a disadvantage to the sword user.

-Make the vehicle armor stronger. Like I said with the banshee, a DMR shouldn’t destroy it.