More precisely, I wanted to share my thoughts on recent events, and ask some questions about Halo 4’s future.
Recently, you’ve announced the championship DLC, a collection of new maps, new cosmetic items as well as old favorites, and a brand new game mode to come with it. I will say it looks very promising, and myself and many others will probably be buying it. We really do appreciate the effort you’ve put in to bring us this new content.
However, many players are also worried that perhaps you are not focusing your attention on where it is needed the most. While new content is nice, there are some major issues with the game itself that we feel need addressed. I’m sure by now you are aware of lacking custom options, community demand for specific gamemodes, and so forth.
With all this, I had a few questions. Feel free to answer at your leisure.
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Are there any plans to expand upon custom games, or has there been recent discussion? Are there any limitations in doing so, such as the UI? Likewise, are there any plans to expand on Forge?
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Many players, most of whom are from Europe, are having issues with lag. Is a local-only search filter feasible? Are filters in general feasible?
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Can you tell us anything about plans for the rest of the summer?
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Are there any plans to release new gamemodes, old gamemodes, or a classic playlist? Is Ricochet the last planned release, or should we expect more in the future? Likewise, can we expect new perks, or no?
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Are the current weapon changes final, or will there possibly be more weapon tuning in the future?
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Is it feasible to start charging for cosmetic items and leave maps as free DLC?
Thank you for reading.
I doubt they will answer this, but if they do (even if the answers are rubbish) I will gain more respect for them.
Great questions, all of which need answering.
If they replied…life would be good.
> More precisely, I wanted to share my thoughts on recent events, and ask some questions about Halo 4’s future.
>
> Recently, you’ve announced the championship DLC, a collection of new maps, new cosmetic items as well as old favorites, and a brand new game mode to come with it. I will say it looks very promising, and myself and many others will probably be buying it. We really do appreciate the effort you’ve put in to bring us this new content.
>
> However, many players are also worried that perhaps you are not focusing your attention on where it is needed the most. While new content is nice, there are some major issues with the game itself that we feel need addressed. I’m sure by now you are aware of lacking custom options, community demand for specific gamemodes, and so forth.
>
> With all this, I had a few questions. Feel free to answer at your leisure.
>
> 1. Are there any plans to expand upon custom games, or has there been recent discussion? Are there any limitations in doing so, such as the UI?
>
> 2. Many players, most of whom are from Europe, are having issues with lag. Is a local-only search filter feasible? Are filters in general feasible?
>
> 3. Can you tell us anything about plans for the rest of the summer?
>
> 4. Are there any plans to release new gamemodes, old gamemodes, or a classic playlist? Is Ricochet the last planned release, or should we expect more in the future?
>
> Thank you for reading.
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insert vague answer.
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not possible.
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insert random tease here.
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vague answer.
That’s how i assume 343 would answer you. TBH i think things would be better if they did answer. If they told us they can’t do something of course it would be upsetting. But it’s better then not saying anything or leading people on false hopes. I know they don’t always tell us a straight answer because things are not set in stone yet. But answers to things like a local only option has been asked for months. They should know by now if it’s possible or not.
Hey its a thread with constructive criticism and good questions, rather than “343 sux0rs!!1!”. I’d like to see some of these answered.
Add questions if you want to.
343, why do we only spawn with one pulse grenade?
I don’t think that I am qualified to ask further questions as I stopped playing in November and have no idea how multiplayer played out before and after the TU update. I don’t think I even tried every original gametype available at launch.
> Add questions if you want to.
Perhaps a more appropriate title would be “What would you ask 343?”, people put in questions, and you chose the best ones and put them in the OP?
If we are extremely lucky and the thread gets big enough, who knows, maybe they will respond.
> Perhaps a more appropriate title would be “What would you ask 343?”, people put in questions, and you chose the best ones and put them in the OP?
If Ramirez is willing to monitor and update, I second this (not meaning to make more work for Ramirez - just think that this would be the most effective).
My questions would be:
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Will the weapons balance continue to be monitored for future fine-tuning?
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Will H5 continue to have perks associated with specializations, or will 343i consider transitioning the specializations from classes to commendations and allow all perks to be purchased using Spartan points?
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Will 343i consider revising their microtransaction strategy to getting DLC revenue from cosmetic items (armors / skins) rather than maps?
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Does 343i intend to continue / expand making gameplay items (such as the rumored perk from the Champions Bundle) require payment?
And finally, one that is probably a whole separate topic:
- Will 343i consider making improvements to Forge (either in H4 or H5)? Specifically:
- Precision editor
- Blank pieces with user-selectable textures, colors, and corner style
- Ability to lock objects together and move the group
- Ability to make rectangular objects of [somewhat] arbitrary size in the same manner as kill / safe zones*
- Blank windows, ideally with the ability to size them as described immediately above
- Ability to manually override the luminosity / hue settings for pieces (i.e., when the lighting engine thinks a rock should be light blue, allow the user to make it dark grey to fit in with surrounding rocks)
- Ability to freely move the monitor while pieces are selected
- Improving the ability for magnets to properly align objects by allowing a selection for the magnets to completely align objects
- This could be done without slowing lighting generation by using thin 1x1 blocks with no rounded / chamfered edges to eliminate visible seams and forcing the entire piece to take the luminosity / hue setting from a representative block.
> If Ramirez is willing to monitor and update, I second this (not meaning to make more work for Ramirez - just think that this would be the most effective).
Reason why I said “perhaps”, I know I wouldn’t be prepared to be, and besides, if Ramirez doesn’t want to someone could make a different thread and do it instead.
We should try and keep questions simple and easy to answer, 343’s not gonna answer big questions future games, and if they do it’ll be too vague an answer to really understand. So,
Is this the last DLC pack to be expected, or since armor can apparently be added to the game, should we expect more ‘bundles’ like these to come out?
As an FYI, I’ve had some luck getting Bravo or BS Angel to respond in the bulletin discussion threads if posts go up within an hour or two of the bulletin being posted. I see them both respond actively when straightforward, non-flame questions are asked.
For example: Posted a question about separating infinity and pro settings and got the following response from Angel
“matchmaking updates typically happen every other week (although they will be weekly during the global championship), and we have no plans at this time for creating separate playlists for infinity and pro.”
Granted, its not the question you asked nor is it one you may be interested in, but I appreciated the response even if it wasn’t the answer I’d hoped for. Though the ‘…at this time’ leaves it open for future consideration.
I’ll try to monitor and add any reasonable questions to the OP.
Right now I’m on lunch.
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Add a “Best Connection” filter as in Reach. 343 has the source code - it likely needs very little adjustment to implement it. Contract hire me and I’ll do it (25+ years of assembler, SIMD, firmware, drivers, component, frameworks and apps software development experience) if everyone else is tied up with H5. I have PowerPC hardware here for development and testing too.
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Add “Local Only” filter so that people can play with local players and have hosts chosen from their general area. I am very tired of seeing people from Mexico or Brazil or Japan or Germany pulling host and I’m in Western Canada.
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Change the Host selection process so it doesn’t use “Host History” (which is why newbs and low SR rank players are picked for host preferentially) and instead pick the player in the game lobby that has the best connection for Host.
Seriously, if they add some user options to help address the lag issues, I would love to come back to H4 multiplayer. Until they do, I’m playing Halo Reach for Multiplayer from now on. And 4 other titles play just fine for Multiplayer too - so this isn’t a connection issue on my end.