The Halo Bulletin 3.6.13
The Halo Bulletin 3.6.13
Interesting stuff coming to MM.
Next Week's Matchmaking Playlist UpdateWe have been adding a plethora of playlists to the Halo 4 Matchmaking experience over the past several weeks (Extraction and Team Throwdown and Majestic! Oh my!). While the number of additions will soon slow down so we can focus on improving and freshening up the existing playlists, the augmentation tradition continues for at least another week with Action Sack. Check out Bravo’s update below for more information about that and the other things that are coming on Monday.
Week of 3.11:
Bravo here with the Matchmaking update! On Monday, Spartan Ops continues with an encore presentation of episode 7. In War Games, we’ll be premiering the Team Action Sack playlist. This 4 vs. 4 playlist is guaranteed to bring explosions, laughs and just the right amount of chaos with non-traditional starting weapons and pre-set game loadouts. We have been building a number of these game types over the past few months and will be adding new variants on a regular basis. While we haven’t locked down what the playlist will launch with, here are some of the game modes you can expect in the near future:
Binary Slayer
As IGN showed off in December, Binary Slayer features decreased gravity, increased speed, sniping and lots and lots of thrusting [bs angel note: You had me at thrusting.]. Check out the link above to learn how to build this game type through custom game options and play with your friends before the playlist goes live next week.
Lightning CTF
Your starting weapon is the LightRifle and one shot – anywhere – kills. With a 5-second respawn, touch Flag return and no motion sensor, Lightning CTF brings an entirely new Capture the Flag experience to Action Sack and Halo 4. Also, the Flag carrier keeps the LightRifle out when running the Flag!
Rockets & Rails
This new game mode features 3 things: Rocket Launchers, Railguns and Jet Packs. Oh, and it also has lots of explosions.
Team Fiesta
Everyone loves parties – especially big parties with lots of random weapons. Fiesta is back, so you can now kill and be killed by the entire Halo 4 sandbox in one single game.
We’re currently building many more Action Sack game modes, some of which will launch with the playlist on Monday, and others that will be introduced in upcoming weeks. Be on the lookout for the final Matchmaking update on Monday, which will detail all of the playlist’s modes and maps.
We know many of you have been excitedly awaiting this playlist, and we look forward to not only hearing your feedback, but also your suggestions for crazy and new Action Sack-ish game types. Head to the War Games feedback section and let us know what you think next week.
We are also in the process of finalizing our FFA playlist, which will feature both Infinity Rumble and Rumble Pro on a wide variety of maps, including specifically tuned on-disc and Majestic DLC map variants. We’ll post additional details closer to the playlist’s launch.
I've always loved the sack. It's the go-to playlist after a bad game or two in a competitive playlist. But....um....Infinity Slayer pretty much IS Fiesta. Hmmm....
Seeing this makes me happy
I thought all the maps were setup as BTB....
Binary Slayer seems kind of fun and crazy.
But as to the BTB Objective news. I just have to shake my head and question wtf is going on over at 343. Not that I have not already done this, but really? They can't figure out objective settings for BTB?
If it has ever been more obvious, this leads me to believe they have 6 (if that many) people left (inside 343) still working on anything for H4.
Disappointing bulletin, although FFa would be nice, and the BTB people like to hear they're being through about.
Yeah I'd love to have some BTB objective. Are these in the regular rotation or do you have to go to a certain playlist? Cause none of these interest me honestly...
The only BTB is Big Team Infinity Slayer.
Lightning CTF sounds pretty fun and intense.
I won't lie: that does sound kind of interesting, at least for a game or two.
Yeah as far as Action Sack goes it'd be fun a couple times but not continuously I think. I miss playing Stealth Scuds. Rockets, low gravity, good camo. It didn't work anymore in Reach or Halo 4 because movement disrupted the base camo trait. I wouldn't mind Headshot Honcho in it either - have kills give -10 points but a headshot give +20.
I hope they have quite a selection of gametypes in Action Sack soon after it's available, a bunch of silly gametypes and a bunch of variants like Lighnting CTF as well would be good.
I miss multiteam sooooooo much :(
This.
Also, if Team Fiesta is implemented as it was in Halo: Reach it means that you will choose your loadout according to your preferred armor ability but the weapons you'll spawn with will be randomized. I've already created a gametype that does just that (don't remember if I turned all ordnance drops off or not though, I'll have to check later). Not sure how they'll handle ordnance drops in their version. I think they should turn them off.
Christ, Fiesta Slayer is terrible. You get your own loadout, but after every kill, you get an ordnance drop. You can even re-roll them with that one perk, so you're constantly getting Binary Rifles and such.
Why is it terrible?
Clearly this playlist is not meant to appeal to the uber competitive players. It is mean to let people spawn with rockets and overshields and blow shit up. It succeeds and if you are looking of a way to just relax, run around, and kill stuff I encourage everyone to give it a shot. In short it's near mindless fun and that's not always bad.
Its not pretending to be anything other than what it is.
- Raider30
ps. It also has the added benefit of letting people work on their commendations.
Halo 4 has more than enough random stuff going on and chaotic movements/spawns as it is. This turns the dial up to 11. You spawn and could get smoked by a guy with a speed burst and rockets (happened to me twice in the same game). Or you could have a guy jetpack incineration cannon rounds down on you the whole game. It's just way too much. there's no rhyme or reason to the game, and you might as well just do it all inside a big, open box of a map.
If I wanted mindless fun, I'd play Call Of Duty.
I remember playing a version of King of the Hill in Halo 2 that seemed to have a bunch of people in it, I want to say maybe the same amount of people as BTB (16) but there weren't just two teams if I remember correctly, did this ever exist? Was there a multi team that played with 16 people at one time?
Because we all miss 1 flag on Hemmoraghe so much...
I think Dominion was a great objective game with large amounts of players. Compared to any flag variant on Hem it has the advantage of being quicker. Controlling all the bases means the team with none doesn't respawn. So there really isn't a way to get a lead and just murder the enemy team until time runs out, like flag on huge maps.
That said, I did enjoy Speedflag in Reach. I think games that work well with large amounts of people, offer intense scrambles across the map for different objectives, reduce kill farming, and scale up with coordinated team play are what should be included in a BTB Objective selection.
But if we're going to bring back things, why not SWAT Balls on Elongation?
Action Sack is an open door for them to re-introduce some fun gametypes... Neutral Bomb Assault, Halo Ball-Hockey, Speed Flag, Race...
Then again..? - 'insert smug Frank photo'
http://halocharts.com/2012/chart/dailypeakpopulation/all
Same thing as before. It looks terrible.
LOL! That's just....very telling. Don't worry though, Halo 4 is still in beta mode..gif "20")
Don't worry, there's a perfectly rational and reasonable explanation/excuse for how anemic it looks. Maybe they forgot to count people that played Halo from 12-12, Monday through Friday.
uh, we already have fiesta slayer. it's called Infinity Slayer.
People are excited about Fiesta Slayer, and I don't understand why.
Would Fiesta Slayer have ordenance weapons available as possible starts? Ie. everyone starts with a railgun, or concussion, etc. If so then I would be happy to play it so I can work on completing some of my commendations that otherwise will likely never get completed(considering I get a railgun about once every 8 games or less).
Otherwise um...yeah no thanks.
- Raider30