The internet as a whole is obviously very unhappy about the BP progression rate. I think there are some real valid criticism over the challenge only system, and how it impacts what players do during games. But I don’t honestly think the progression rate is that bad considering we’ve got 3-5 month seasons.
So let’s say the BP progression gets sped up and you grind out the pass finishing it in the first month of the season. Now what? I hope you’re a player who enjoys games just for games, or enjoys grinding your rank, because now that’s what you’ve got left.
Last point. I see content creators saying they have to play somewhere around 25hrs a month to finish the pass at the current rate, presenting this as a lot of time required and a part time job… But that’s barely over 6 hours PER WEEK of game time, which is right in line with every other live service game I’ve ever seen. If you don’t have 6 hours a week to play, that’s not a system problem, that’s just you being a busy person imo. Luckily, the pass doesn’t expire…
Yea, I know a lot of you are still going to disagree. I think your expectations of free content vs paid content vs progression timelines for a F2P game were probably unrealistic from the beginning. Sorry to pour some cold water on you from that regard.
Edit 1. I made this post before 343 implemented the pain tweak. I like what they did, and don’t at this time think their changes will lead to the pass being completed too quickly. I think they are trying to find a nice balance . I also planning on adding the best criticism’s of the current progression in the discussion to this top post when I have time.
I agree man, I think it’s a combination of people not realising that the levels are equally spaced meaning progress speed never slows down like it might in other games. We have 160+ days left of the season and I’m level 9 already with no exp boosts or challenge skips. With 3 days gone. At this rate I’ll have maxed out the battle pass in a month, definitely in two.
We also don’t know if we get exp for the Fracture events which may speed it up even more. It’s insane to think we could progress quicker. It’s just because in a lot of games you can get to level 20 of the pass insanely quick but people neglect to mention how stagnant the pass becomes around level 50. That won’t be the case here. You will always progress steadily. You also progress quickly with short, regular play sessions.
I think it’s a very smart model that’s either misinterpreted or unfamiliar. Maybe I’m out of touch, but I think it’s ingenious. Halo is leading the industry with this revolutionary idea and people are hating on it.
In my opinion, 343 should come up with a different progression system. Similar to the other Halos. Where you have a Rank that you can increase by just playing. Giving the players some to grind for. While also having the challenges for the Battle Pass. Just having one progression system is limiting.
Trust me, I would be more than happy if I could just spend 10 bucks to unlock all the cosmetics in the pass instantly. Not everyone likes being forced to grind for stuff they already paid for, we’re lucky enough that the BP doesn’t expire.
And I can tell you it’s quite a grind even given 3 months.
I managed to hit level 12 on day 1. This required that I used constant XP boosts and finished every weekly challenge except the final one. If I had spread them throughout the week, I would have been a little bit higher since the dailies gave less per game as you go on.
So, without boosts, you could expect to get 6 or 7 levels a week while grinding out your weekly challenges. Well, that’s still not enough.
In their first challenge rework, they’ve made it so the daily challenge only gives 50 instead of 100, probably to balance out that it can presumably be done in bot matches forever now. So, you now need to play 20 games just to level once you exhaust your weekly challenges.
I’m currently spitballing it at roughly 2-3 hours a day every day to finish a pass before the next one (for normal 3 month ones) without boosts.
I’ve played somewhere between 10-12 games, and I’m not even at level one yet. Maybe it evens out over the course of the 3-5 month pass, but it just feels incredibly sluggish to me. Admittedly, I don’t even look at the challenges, I just play the game to play the game, so I’m probably only gaining XP from the daily “Play x amount of games” challenges.
I don’t completely disagree, but I also think it just feels really bad to dominate in a game, but get the same amount of xp as a loss. I went 28 and 3, but shoot, I didn’t get my 3 needle kills. 50xp it is…
In short, it’s not the pace specifically that I’m upset with. It’s the reason behind WHY it’s slow that upsets me. Give me extra xp if I win. Give me extra xp for kills. I don’t care if it still takes a long time, but my skill should play more of a factor in how fast I advance.
I have to say this is doubtful, because when it comes to cosmetics, players want to enjoy them longer. Skill or XP levels are a different story though, since it’s not something you get to enjoy while playing.
Obviously, people will complain on just about anything, but it will likely be more popular to complain about the progression (in terms of cosmetics) being too slow.
Yes. I’ve got all my customisation options, I can make my Spartan how I want (within the bounds of the stupid coating system of course), and I can happily ignore all the annoying challenges and get on with playing the game. I’ve been playing the MCC titles with literally no progression for the last couple years (and when they did add progression I toggled it off immediately) so I’m sure I can survive playing Infinite without unlocking anything new for a while.
Agreed. The spacing is brilliant. The problem, imo, is that we aren’t rewarded for our time put into the game. It should take the same amount of hours of GAMEPLAY, on average, for a casual player and a hardcore, must-have-everything grinder to unlock everything.
The problem comes from the fact that unless you’re specifically targeting challenges, you aren’t making any progress whatsoever. And that instead of being rewarded for playing well, you’re rewarded for playing selfishly.
I think the bonus XP challenges give is nice, but really we should be getting XP every match with challenges actually being a bonus.
Thing is, it really should not be much. My suggestion is: 20 for a match, addtional 10 for a win, additional 1% of your score. So with a winning score of 3000 (very high performing), you get 60 per match. That still takes 19 matches to rank up without doing challenges. If we can also complete the challenges all simultaneously, I think it works pretty well, since we aren’t inclined to go out of our way to complete our challenges - at least, not until we’re down to our last few. We can instead work on what is available to us within the match.
The remaining problem is the capstone challenges. My suggestion is to just not make them limited time unlocks, and after the week is done, unlock the ability to complete the capstone for everyone who didn’t complete all challenges. That FOMO is a big problem with how people approach challenges, and this way the grinders are still rewarded for completing all challenges with the early use of that item.
I agree that there is such a thing as too fast, though launch speed was too slow. I recon XP per game would solve the feeling even if grind speed stays the same.
I think the biggest problem is HOW players achieve XP. Right now, if you just play the game how you want without thinking of the challenges, you don’t get XP. Challenges should be like XP bonuses, while the primary source of XP should be game performance and completion.
I’ve been saying this all week and keep getting attacked for it. People keep saying they have no reason to play the game after they’ve finished their challenges. Well, what reason would you have after you max the battle pass? I guess a total career progression could help with that.
Essentially what I’m hearing is people saying “I want mooooaar and faster!” Which is fair enough, but there will have to be a trade off and 343 is going to be very protective of their cost/benefit plans, and there is very little feedback that considers that.
. I also planning on adding the best criticism’s of the current progression in the discussion to this top post when I have time.
