I wanted to talk about what 343i has done right so far in my opinion. I’m not saying all of these things are perfect but they are at least a step in the right direction and help the community in some way. Feed back is always appreciated but lets keep all discussion civil and constructive and lets avoid ranting and raving. So here is the list of things I think 343i has done right so far:
-Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
-Free DLC. I know this somewhat controversial but I think the DLC maps so far have been fantastic looking and yes even the forge maps. While some of the maps have lacked proper weapon/power up layouts it can be fixed in forge or even by 343i themselves which they have already done on some maps. The free DLC keeps fans interested longer and I know I’m always looking forward to the next update.
-Forge. Even though it was delayed it was worth the wait. We now have an extremely powerful tool to create even more amazing maps!
-Weapon balance. I’m talking about mostly arena here and not so much warzone. We haven’t had weapons this close to perfect balance in a very long time.
-Warzone. With the most recent patch warzone is actually a lot of fun to play now. Its a great way for people to relax and use super powerful weapons and vehicles that would normally break the balance of the game. I think with more tweaks and refinements warzone will get even better.
-Spartan abilities. They are well balanced and actually make me feel like the super soldier I’m supposed to be playing. Using them tactically is essential and they can get you killed if you don’t know what you are doing.
-Dedicated servers. This for me is a god send! Being able to play games that are free of a bad host connection is just awesome. I know that europe has gotten the short end of the stick but I’m hoping 343i and microsoft can open up more dedicated server locations for everyone to use.
-Rank system. While not perfect it is a step in the right direction and I think it can only improve as time goes on.
-Listening to the fan base. 343i actually listened to our feedback about halo 4 and they brought us one of the most solid arena shooters ever made. Setting up the feedback program is also a good thing and I was glad to sign up for it. 343i is among the few devs that I can confidently say actually listens too and cares for their customer base.
> -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
Disagree about weapon balance. Making every weapon super powerful isn’t what I’d call balance. On top of that, the mentality that picking up a power weapon should guarantee you a kill is ridiculous in my opinion.
I cannot agree that they do a good job of communicating or listening. We’ve been asking for infection, better servers for the EU guys, and other things, but they won’t say anything. So much for communication.
As for listening, I don’t believe anyone asked for the H2 BR. Or for REQs in general. Or for remixed maps.
Forge is pretty good, even though it came late. But I have trouble praising them for it though because even though they say they delayed it to polish it, it still had loads of bugs and is missing many things like trait zones and structures from previous games.
And lastly, free DLC is definitley a good thing, EXCEPT FOR WHEN YOU USE IT AS A MAIN SELLING POINT FOR YOUR GAME, AND THEN HAND OUT THE LAZIEST, MOST WORTHLESS UPDATES EVER CONCEIVED. I think we are all in pain. 4 months in, no original dlc maps, no new gamemodes, and not even a snipers or doubles playlist. GG 343.
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> > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
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> Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
I agree such as them confirming cortana dead over and over again but other than that i would say they are definitely on the right track and have knocked this out of the park.
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> > > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
> >
> >
> > Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
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> I agree such as them confirming cortana dead over and over again but other than that i would say they are definitely on the right track and have knocked this out of the park.
I don’t think I could consider selling a game based on misinformation is hitting things out of the park nor would I consider Frank O’Connor saying people who struggle with what Cortana does in the game are young fans who don’t get subtly or nuance. Communications that belittle or mislead your audience are major no-nos.
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> > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
>
>
> Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
Even though I agree with you and what I’m about to say isn’t really applicable to Halo 5, I just thought of something. Before the release of Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, Lucasfilm kept all spoilers to a minimum and even fed the fans false information, such as Obi-Wan killing Luke’s father, rather than the actual line delivered by James Earl Jones. Maybe 343i was trying to do something similar, and it back fired into their faces? I don’t know at this point honestly.
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> > > > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
> > >
> > >
> > > Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
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> >
> > I agree such as them confirming cortana dead over and over again but other than that i would say they are definitely on the right track and have knocked this out of the park.
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> I don’t think I could consider selling a game based on misinformation is hitting things out of the park nor would I consider Frank O’Connor saying people who struggle with what Cortana does in the game are young fans who don’t get subtly or nuance. Communications that belittle or mislead your audience are major no-nos.
Like i said i agree with you for the most part but that doesnt change the fact that the game is phenomenal (imo of course)
I agree with a lot of what you are saying. I 100% do not agree about Warzone. I think that is a miss and just not a lot of fun. It has rare occassions of being enjoyable. Warzon Assault is a bit better.
Also the “free” dlc needs to get a lot better. No more req packs for awhile. They have no use at all. Maps, gametypes and custom options need to be much much better. No social, no grif, no infection, no team objective, no ball gametype and on and on.
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> > > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
> >
> >
> > Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
>
>
> Even though I agree with you and what I’m about to say isn’t really applicable to Halo 5, I just thought of something. Before the release of Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, Lucasfilm kept all spoilers to a minimum and even fed the fans false information, such as Obi-Wan killing Luke’s father, rather than the actual line delivered by James Earl Jones. Maybe 343i was trying to do something similar, and it back fired into their faces? I don’t know at this point honestly.
I’m aware Lucasfilm wanted to keep the secrecy about Luke’s father battened down and even gave false scripts to the actors, though I have not heard of them giving fake details to the fans. I know David Prowse, the body actor for Vader, speculated that Luke and Vader were related to fans before that fact was revealed, but people seemed to assume he was joking at the time. I will say 343 are a bit in a worse position given they released the Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide that said she died. That was a book people paid for. They would have been better off just saying her fate was unknown like they did with the Didact. Leaves them plenty of room to bring back a character.
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> > > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
> >
> >
> > Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
>
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> I agree such as them confirming cortana dead over and over again but other than that i would say they are definitely on the right track and have knocked this out of the park.
Not sure why hiding the fact that Cortana survived gets so many complaints. Do people want to know the story before playing the game?
They’ve done some things right, very few companies are completely irredeemable. What they’ve done right hasn’t really made up for everything they’ve done wrong though.
Will say in regard to “listening to the fanbase” they seem to have very selective hearing. Before Halo 5 was announced people were proposing various larger-scale gamemodes, and they give us Warzone. People propose ideas for an elimination gametype and they give us Breakout. So in a way they do listen. Yet at the same time when people beg for arena content they give us a new Breakout playlist instead. When people pointed out the issues with Halo 4 they took forever to fix or even acknowledge those issues. When people point out how broken the boss-stealing is in Warzone they basically just say “it’s working as intended, deal with it”.
MCC is still a mess. Even if you manage to find matches, the games themselves are flawed. Hack job PC ports that have many discrepancies compared to their original versions, and all of this has more or less been abandoned and swept under the rug.
Communication is strained. They do communicate with us on some things, but most communication is limited to sites other than their own official one. I can’t even understand why considering the amount of abuse they take on some other sites.
Weapon Balance is a topic I’d have to spend awhile explaining. Halo 5 is “balanced” in the sense you can pick up any weapon and thoughtlessly earn kills with it.
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> > > > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
> > >
> > >
> > > Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
> >
> >
> > Even though I agree with you and what I’m about to say isn’t really applicable to Halo 5, I just thought of something. Before the release of Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, Lucasfilm kept all spoilers to a minimum and even fed the fans false information, such as Obi-Wan killing Luke’s father, rather than the actual line delivered by James Earl Jones. Maybe 343i was trying to do something similar, and it back fired into their faces? I don’t know at this point honestly.
>
>
> I’m aware Lucasfilm wanted to keep the secrecy about Luke’s father battened down and even gave false scripts to the actors, though I have not heard of them giving fake details to the fans. I know David Prowse, the body actor for Vader, speculated that Luke and Vader were related to fans before that fact was revealed, but people seemed to assume he was joking at the time. I will say 343 are a bit in a worse position given they released the Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide that said she died. That was a book people paid for. They would have been better off just saying her fate was unknown like they did with the Didact. Leaves them plenty of room to bring back a character.
Oooh… yeah, that’s a bit of a problem. I guess 343i expected fans to throw away that guide now.
So… I’m REALLY and honest to god not going out of my way to be negative. Because, yes, 343 has done many things right. But some of the things you chose to add on your list are a little, well, false.
“Free” DLC is not really free. It’s paid for by the community who are purchasing REQ packs. But that’s not the bad part, I can get on board with that. The bad part is that it really isn’t even DLC and my worry is that it is taking the place of real DLC (such as campaign expansions). We are getting content that we’ve had for a decade or more and it’s really underwhelming and makes me envious of other games. They get these cool add-ons and we get a gametype that we’ve been playing since 2001.
Communication: I don’t know why this is labeled as a thing they’ve done right. They don’t even use their own official website to communicate with their fans. Waypoint is the last to know anything and it is legitimately frustrating. Before a game comes out, I don’t go to the main page for news, I go to the forums which are citing other websites. It’s kind of sad, really. Their communication will always consist of one of the following:
“No”
“Soon”
“If there is a demand for…”
“Soon”
“Soon”
“Ddin’t make the cut”
Forge: It wasn’t ready when the game launched. Right, wrong, or indifferent, that has to be something working against it simply because other titles have managed that. Additionally, Forge was a 2 steps forward 3 steps back type of deal. We can’t Forge offline, and even if we do manage to create something spectacular, there are no ways to share your creation with the world at large. You will have to use the arduous word-of-mouth method which isn’t always reliable. Or you can post it to one of the (external) websites that support Forge in Halo and hope that it gets noticed among the hundreds and thousands of other creations.
Listening to their fans: This one is debatable as it depends who you feel they have ignored or listened to. For me, I feel ignored. I don’t like this nonsense of a half-finished game being heralded as complete and the “free DLC” banner being toted around. I mean… we have a mega-thread concerning Firefight and we have heard NOTHING in reply. Not even a “no.” They said that if there was a demand for it they would look into it. Well, I feel they have gone back on their word seeing as how we have yet to hear a single thing. I don’t know how much more vocal a community can possibly be about this issue. Even over on other websites.
Ranking system: I want to like this system and I loved it in League of Legends (for those of you who do not know, it is almost an exact replica). However, Riot Games offered transparency with their system. 343 has not. Why do we not have post-season breakdowns? How many players finished in Bronze? Silver? Gold? Plat? Diamond? Onyx? There is no way to know if getting Onyx is even noteworthy, rare, commendable, or anything.
Weapon Balance: I used to think that they nailed it in Halo 5. Upon closer examination… just because every weapon has an extremely low killtime does not mean your sandbox is balanced. Now, I know that today’s gamers have this CoD mentality where EVERY weapon must have a purpose and be viable in all scenarios. Halo has historically punished incorrect weapon choice. We see now, however, that there is almost no incorrect choice except in certain situations that are obvious, like long distances.
The rest of the list I will agree with. I also think they did many other things right. But as I said, the things I mentioned cannot, in my opinion, be considered a success.
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> > > > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
> > >
> > >
> > > Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
> >
> >
> > I agree such as them confirming cortana dead over and over again but other than that i would say they are definitely on the right track and have knocked this out of the park.
>
>
> Not sure why hiding the fact that Cortana survived gets so many complaints. Do people want to know the story before playing the game?
They outright lied. They literally said “yes she is for sure dead. NOT! Gotcha!” And thats bs.
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> > > > -Communication in many forms from talking about lore all the way to talking about the upcoming updates. I believe 343i has done a great job in letting us know what is going on and what we can expect to come at least a month or so in advance.
> > >
> > >
> > > Except for those times they’ve misled or lied about aspects of the story. Sorry, but that is a big issue for me.
> >
> >
> > I agree such as them confirming cortana dead over and over again but other than that i would say they are definitely on the right track and have knocked this out of the park.
>
>
> Not sure why hiding the fact that Cortana survived gets so many complaints. Do people want to know the story before playing the game?
They seemed to have no problem not stating outright what happened with the Didact with Halo 4, heck we still don’t know after Escalation. He is just “contained”, but technically ready to spring out at any moment. Cortana? Halo 4 said she died. Frankie and Reed said she died. They released official media saying she died that people paid money for. All they literally had to do was label her fate unknown. The fact they had to retcon a part of Mantle’s Approach initiating a slipspace jump in a forum post from 2014 is pretty suspicious if you ask me.