Anyone Else Disgruntled With Auto Pickup and Infinity Slayer Yet? (Also, Other Mini-Gripes)
#1
Fri, 11/16/2012 - 09:42
Anyone Else Disgruntled With Auto Pickup and Infinity Slayer Yet? (Also, Other Mini-Gripes)
I thought auto pickup wouldn't be so bad, but it really does suck. At least you can drop the oddball, but you can't drop the flag. Also, the chaos of Infinity Slayer is pretty bad. It's fun to get used to the weapon sandbox and to try some things out, but it's officially old for me. Anyone else have an opinion on these topics or have any other minor gripes they want to air out?
I feel the same way about infinity slayer, even dominion in the same regard. It's basically: how many power weapons can we squeeze on a map. Later in the game, if you don't have a power weapon you are almost at a disadvantage. Instead of knowing there were 2 snipers on a map and accounting for them, you basically have to assume everyone has either a sniper, binary rifle, rockets, or inceneration cannon. So games on Valhalla turn into a 'pop out of cover, shoot, and get back into cover'. All these power weapons slow the game down.
In regards to auto pickup, I don't mind it with flag (although I still dislike that you can't drop it). Auto-pickup does cause problems in oddball though. One of the strategies the groups I play with has developed (as with many other teams) is to throw the oddball at an enemy during a 1v1 encounter. By the time they realize you have thrown them the ball, they are dead. While fun at first, it borderlines on the feeling of cheating because of its simplicity to pull off and nearly 100% success rate with an accurate throw.
However, inifinity slayer bothers me the most. There are already power weapon pickups on the map, why the need for additional ordinance drops?
Especially with Ragnarok, it should be a race to get that Splaser. Now, people forget the damned thing because it really doesn't matter much.
I am sick and fucking tired of Vallhalla, or Ragnarok or whatever the fuck we're calling it these days. Last night in BT, I had 5 matches in a row on that map. I think people must have a hard on for the Mantis. I also keep getting stuck on the same map in SWAT. I forget the name though.
I guess my complaint is with the randoms, not the game
Ragnarok is apparently the Sword Base of H4, meaning people vote for it EVERY time.
While on the subject of Ragnarok and the Mantis:
I hate the Mantis. Well, actually...I HATE THE MANTIS! Take it out of Slayer and stick it in a Heavy gametype.
Instead of actually being able to play a map, we have to worry about the damn Mantis clogging up an area and being a major nuisance. I loved Valhalla in H3, such a good hog map. Now the Mantis ruins the flow of the map. Well that, along with everybody eventually having power weapons making hog runs virtually impossible.
The H4 hog holds so much promise (especially when compared to the Reach hog), but it's just too difficult to get a run going with power weapons, pulse grenades and plasma pistols around every turn.
I dont have a problem with it at all. Its easy to destroy the other teams Mantis pretty quickly if most of your team is on the same page. Shoot it with a Plasma Pistol, throw a couple stickies on it and its done. If it survives to get back up again then hit with another plasma shot. Its all about the Plasma Pistol in BTB, you can easily take out any of the vehicle whores.
My complaint is people complaining just to complain.
I miss map control with weapon spawns. Now it's just chaos all the time.
Well, Dixon and OMG know by now I don't agree with them on some of the issues. I am just going to say, I like Infinity Slayer and it works for me. Halo is not a game of weeks or months to me. If I am still playing this game a year from now, I will have considered it a success. From now until then, I have to make this game my own by working on maps and gametypes that will serve to entertain 2old2play members and friends. I absolutely have issues with Halo 4. So far, none of them would drive me away from the game but might keep me out of MM. IE Quite often I don't get damage feedback until I am one shot or even dead. Some game sounds disappear in favour of others and I notice.
Care to share? I'm genuinely curious to hear your issues with the game.
Too lazy at the moment and you wouldn't care about Forge stuff anyway.
Okay, I'll give you one. Tbagging isn't quite as much fun as it used to be.
What, the damage feedback? If anything, I think it might come a little too quickly. One shot and your shields are beeping already, it seems.
Edited to add: it's still like we're not playing the same game. Was there a lot of input lag in that one game we played last night, or was I imagining everything skipping around?
Octagon please?!
As for people skipping around, I wasn't seeing it when you were. There was one episode where people dropped and the host changed while we waited impatiently for a few minutes in the lobby. Probably related to lag. Where you there for that? I also know there was at least one guest split screen in the party. Large parties will have these types of problems but it goes with the territory.
On the plus side, I seem to be able to be more successful with the DMR in Halo 4.
I've noticed that too Deep. I've decided that's one of the goofy lag issues.
As for the other stuff, definitely happy with flag pick up. Pistol is a very effective weapon. I know when I grab the flag that's my weapon and I account for it appropriately. If I have the flag, I've honestly not found a situation where I wanted to drop it. Now, the 30-35 second return time along with the goofy spawn system on flag away is a little bit of a different story.
Infinity slayer, my jury is still out. I kind of like the change, but it has a few drawbacks that I don't think were well thought through. Randomness of the contents of a drop means one team can have snipes and the other can have all shotguns. I guess I'd rather see something like a table that says first drop is either a or b. Second drop is c or d. Third drop . . . and so on and each team works off the same table. That way, you could count and say, I have our teams third drop, do they want me to pick this or that based on our other picks. Or maybe I want to wait and let someone else get the next drop because it is something they could use. Adds a level of tactical play.
I've run into a few games where the other team just runs everyone at you all the time, since there is no part of the map to hold. Makes it kind of chaotic.
For me, I'm ready for the incenerator cannon and binary snipe to go away. I don't need a rocket launcher where if I miss, I get an enormous secondary explosion that won't miss or a sniper that kills with one shot no matter what.
Since I am no super pro 5 shot BR/DMR every time player, I LOVE infinity slayer. I love the ordinance and the weapons it provide. I do agree they need to reduce the frequency that the SAW is available. Not only is it the most powerful weapon, it also has the highest chance to drop.
I typically join slayer solo, so I actually have a chance now if I go up against a team of 4 who dominates the best position on the map (the roof of the computer room on Complex for example). My team will usually still lose, but at least I have a chance for a beam rifle or rail gun or shotty to root them out of their position. They make the game more dynamic with more variety, IMHO. I get tired of Map Control + BR, DMR, LR = game over. Map Control is still extremely important, but its breakable now.
But there are still "stock" weapon drops on every map at the start and at (what I think are set times) during the match, so you can still time and rush for those for fights, if that is your thing. I guess people just havent learned the maps yet, or havent learned how good the weapons are. The ones I can think of are:
Complex: Sniper x 2, Sword, Scattershot. Mid-match - Rockets x 2 (at different times), Railgun (pretty sure these are at a set time, but I dont know what it is). Ive been watching for the Railgun mid-match and have gotten it most times now (it spawns below the sword).
Haven: Needler, Sticky Launcher, Scattershot. Later - lots of grenade spawns, Inferno thingy, etc. I get the needler OR sticky launcher 99% of the time to start on this map. About 50% of the time, I get BOTH. The sticky launcher is absolute sex on this map.
Adrift: Scattershot, Sword and Sticky Launcher. You will get first strike most times if you rush the sticky launcher and toss some grenades.
Solace: Inferno Cannon, Sword, Sniper x 2. I dont remember what spawns mid-match. I get the inferno cannon 95% of the time on Solace. I have no idea why people dont rush for it. Its completely overpowered.
I am starting to get first strike in a lot of my matches now because people have realized how powerful the sticky launcher is. Just rush for it, hang back, toss 2 grenades at its spawn, and you will get first strike against the other guy rushing it.
My biggest gripe is that the lobby system is kinda jacked up. It goes too quickly between matches. Right after you see your experience and level rewards, sometimes you are already in the next match. Im also pissed off about the weapon glitches and laginess during some games. Thats really inexcusable, IMHO.
I have a hard on for the mantis.
I've played a lot MM than I originally anticipated in the first 2 weeks. Just some Regicide, customs, and campaign and a couple of Infinity Slayer games so I can't really comment except that I like Regicide because it is fast. This is probably going to put me behind the curve in short order and I will really start bitching about an unlevel playing field.
Here are some issues I've experienced -
The Complex map get in the wall glitch, otherwise known as 343's incompetence. The game has had players in matchmaking for weeks. They've known about the glitch in the map for over a week. Tons of players use it in matchmaking. And you know what? I could fix this with the in game tool Forge in like 5 minutes, and upload it to my file share. I could do in 5 minutes myself what 343's team of hundreds can't do in weeks. I would do this for them, save them hundreds of man hours on this problem, but they of course wouldn't accept it. It is amazingly easy to just lodge some boxes in there and boom fixed. I find it hard to believe that of 343's hundreds of employees, none of them are both competent enough to use forge and have 5 minutes to spare to fix this.
Ordnance. My issue isn't that it is there. My issue is that when I call it down and it spawns on the other side of a wall which is also outside of the map with literally no way to get what I dropped. I also love how Ordnance is probably racking up the assist medals when I call it down and it takes away half my shields.
The Mongoose. Why does this vehicle seem so much more durable than a Ghost?
The Boltshot. Not only is there that reload exploit, but sometimes it fires when it shouldn't. I charge it up, throw a grenade, and it is back to its 'at rest' position, and i'm not holding the trigger. Then suddenly a bunch of crap shoots out of it for no reason why not. Also with the boltshit is that much more common occurence where I want to shoot, so I start holding the trigger down to charge it up, but the gun just says "nah man" and sits there neither charging nor shooting a single bullet. It just waits for me to die so someone else can get owned by trying to shoot it.
Overshield. It is literally the worst of the three powerups, speed, overshield, and damage. Speed and damage get a duration. Damage makes you kill potentially any number of guns faster. Speed not only increases your base movement and sprint speed, but also weapon swap speed and weapon reload speed - amazing for incineration cannon and such. Overshield? You get a shield which immediately begins to decay - losing its effectiveness, and it helps you survive maybe one firefight against one dude. Then it is gone, it doesn't have a duration where your shields recharge to 2x levels. It just gives you 90% more shields and slowly less.
Shields. Minor glitch but why the F does someone who is DEAD get stronger and stronger shields the more I punch them? They're dead, get rid of their shields.
Flood. Cool, we get a new character model, and the sound of a sewer while we walk around. Also if enough Flood kill you at once, it sounds like a wookie orgy. But what does all this crap (no pun) add? Well, nothing actually, it subtracts. It takes away for you to for instance give flood a hammer in customs. Or any other weapon than their pointy arm.
Playlists. 343 released a bunch of videos before Halo 4s release, including some of their new exciting changes to Grifball. They also have a very little talked about gametype called Extraction which most people have no idea it exists. Why? Because 343 decided that instead of putting new things into playlists right away post release, they would instead add gametypes that someone with a couple minutes and a controller can create themselves in the custom game menus. SWAT and Snipers. Two weeks, and we get SWAT, and Snipers. I've heard many people say "Where's the Grifball playlist?" The answer is "Oh we got SWAT this week instead"
Sticky Detonator. Why is this inconsistent? I fire it but die while it is in midair. It explodes right there. I stick a guy with it but die immediately. It explodes killing him. I stick a guy with it but die immediately. It beeps at him for a minute or so, then explodes killing him, giving me a kill from the grave when I've been alive and wandering the map for a few minutes. Wonder what his kill cam showed there, hopefully me just walking around not even shooting is what he saw as what killed him.
Kill cams. 343, WTF were you even thinking? Let me give you a hint 343. We have Theater. You put it in the friggin game. So why did you not only add kill cams, but make them inconsistent and buggy? For a while there was a final kill cam to show the last kill of the match to everyone. Now there isn't? ok... well at least if I want to see how I died I can watch a kill cam instead of going to theater. Oh wait, it either shows the dude not shooting where he is aiming, and also missing me, which kills me, or it will show a completely still screen with nothing happening at all except the gun appears to be jiggling a bit. Not firing, but jiggling. So why the F did you add this 343? Oh yeah, Call of Duty. If Call of Duty didn't exist, I bet Halo 4 wouldn't have kill cams.
Switches. There is a lot of identical looking switches in campaign that the chief has to push. He looks so heroic doing it that they made you watch an animation of him pushing the same switch every time of the 100 or so he does it. But 343 loves to add more to the game. So they came up with spartan ops, where not only do you have to kill every alien who ever existed, but also push the switches that couldn't fit into campaign. Pushing them usually spawns more aliens, or leads to where more aliens were guarding switches.
Spartan Ops. Just play this on Legendary. There is literally no point in anything otherwise because not only can you not fail a mission, but you can't lose progress. You can jump into lava 500 times in a row and eventually the mission will be complete and some lady spartan with a bad attitude will tell you "Good Job Noble Crimson! Unfortunately our princess is in another castle, guarded by more switches."
The XP cap - a decent idea once again botched by 343. Capping XP for a day is fine, but at least do so in a way that makes it so you are capped for the day until reset, not just randomly throughout. Also Don't take away my commendation and challenge XP because of the cap I hadn't hit yet but did that match so I just lost 15,000 XP because you only gave me like 47 of it.
Join in progress. Yeah those dudes who quit you are replacing? They quit because the other team was devastating htem so bad. Now you get to take their place and lose instead of them. But don't worry there are "systems" which make it so you don't join near the end. 10 kills left in Infinity Slayer isn't near the end guys don't worry. Nor is 1 minute left in SWAT. The SWAT I thought I had a chance when I joined in progress as the score was so low, and we were only down one kill. When it said one minute left, and I realized I was on complex, I knew my team lost. I jumped into the 343 incompetence location in teh wall and was punched out of it by four dudes at once. Because melee is an instant kill in SWAT there was literally no way to win. It is also fun to join in progress in dominion, get an overshield which is kinda cool but for some reason I'm the only dude alive and OH GOD I GOT RUN OVER game over.
The flagnum. I'd tell 343 to use this gun on themselves, but the problem is the gun doesn't even work. I pick up the flag with a dude closing on me fast. Oh crap, better shoot him with my 20% more damage pistol! I turn and start spamming the trigger. One bullet comes out. Just one. Confused as to why I'm about to die I look at the ammo. It has all but one shot left. So now my anti-343 flag strategy is to pick up the flag, fire a shot immediately at the ground, then reload. This causes the flagnum to behave correctly, that is, it shoots when you pull the trigger.
The Campaign. In many games the first level teaches you some basic controls. In 343's Halo 4 it teaches you how to dodge boxes while climbing an elevator which is useful for never again ever. And only one person can be the box dodger climber. So I wonder if you don't climb to the pre determined points where the boxes will fall, and you just hang there below that point, will boxes never fall? Will your party in the mission get bored and quit out after an hour of inability to do anything but stare at your view of a shaft?
The limited edition. I got some cool collectibles in my limited edition. Paid the 40 extra dollars for these colored ziploc bags. Also It came with a tube for my avatar dude. Oh yeah and it came with a map pass that 343 had to work hard after making mistakes to ensure that limited edition players got somewhat close to the standard editions bonuses. I think I got a massive amount more value out of the bonuses from pre ordering at gamestop than anything included with the limited edition over standard. Also pre ordering didn't cost extra.
Meltdown Mantis. Hey guys, 343 here, we heard you are having numerous issues with glitches, bugs, exploits, games not even working, and connection problems. So we decided to put two Mantis vehicles on meltdown! Also please ignore reports of them respawning the instant they are destroyed creating infinite mantis in one match. That has been greatly exaggurated and we can assure you they actually respawn 2 seconds after they are destroyed.
Betrayal booting. I was playing campaign with friends, the part where you are on a ghost avoiding certain death by going fast. Well didn't make it first time, so of course it prompts me, asking if I want to boot one of the other players. I didn't realize the other player killed me with that power weapon known as a canyon. Also since there is no friendly fire in infinity/big team infinitytyytiey, you can feel free to blow up your teams mantis if you don't get to it first. the player driving it won't die and he can't kill you. But if he does kill you because there is friendly fire after all through splatters, you can feel free to boot him after one accidental betrayal.
Random death. I was doing 2 player co op on campaign. I was just walking around, no enemies. Suddenly I was respawning. My teammate who was not even near me, or in eyesight of me, was busy fighting enemies and he dies. Then after checkpoint loads, I start walking again towards where he is again fighting off enemies, but unfortunately 343 called down lightning and I once again instantly was respawning with no indication that I had died, taken damage, or anything. I would show this video but 343 didn't include campaign theater.
Theater. Hey guys let's watch this cool video together! Oh wait we can't in Halo 4, we have to download and watch seperately. Halo 3 had party video theater, and of campaign. But 343
Challenges. Not only do they sometimes not count for the achievement for getting a number of them done, despite being clearly tallied in teh service record as more than enough, but sometimes they don't work right or are impossible. One challenge told me to do Core on Artifact on Legendary. No problem I thought, I'll do all of them on Legendary for these new ones this week. Well turns out there isn't Core on Artifact. There's core on departure. Then 343 decides to ask us to get 18 regicides in one match. Now I am not sure if this is even mathematically possible, but I do know that I have 5 of the 18 regicides. I am also in the lobby. I had 9 regicides, then 0, then 5. I haven't played regicide today but the number just keeps shifting. Maybe it will shift to give me some XP. XP that the cap will not allow.
The SAW. It's a powerful gun. More so when the enemy is somehow able to fire it three times as fast as normal. Not sure if lag or 343.
Weapon despawn. I die, dropping my railgun with 3 shots left, but the enemy is dead too. I respawn instantly by tapping X and sprint over there with mobility. Unfortunately the gun has already despawned. This has lead even to some members believing you can't get ammo from dropped guns. You can, but not if the guns disappear after 343 milliseconds.
Armor Abilities. There's an amazing amount of issues and general WTF here, but one thing that has me wondering is if I can steal my teammates armor abilities in matchmaking. According to the helpful prompt 343 provides, when I spawn next to a teammate who just spawned, I can press X to take his armor ability.
Instant Respawn. "Press X to finish off your attacker!" I have on several occasions died to a guy in matchmaking, immediately hit X, and fired one bullet into the side of his head to kill him because he was still looking in the direction I died. This is of course to speed things up, such as speeding up the rate of "damnit 343" moments.
Plasma Grenades. They aren't rabbits, they shouldn't hop. Also, when I throw them at a guy's chest, I expect it to stick to him and kill him. What happens though, is 343 activates sticky immunity for him and the grenade either passes through him harmlessly, or if I threw it at his back it will bounce off and he'll just keep lightly jogging away oblivious, while I can't follow because there's a god damn sticky grenade in my way now.
I would keep writing more and more issues but to be honest I'm getting tired of typing and it is cutting into my allotted time for 343 to rape/taunt me today. Back to playing Halo 4.
Regarding Complex and other maps that need repairs. 343i is already fxing maps at a much higher rate than Bungie ever did. The repair cycle used to be a minimum of one month and if it missed that then it was two months. Expect Complex to be fixed quite early, as was Ragnarok.
You are over simplifiying the map repair process and whether or not any Joe-blow could do it. Public input cannot be trusted and must be thoroughly inspected before deployment. 343i has a sustain team and just like you do your job to the best of your ability, they do too. That means the simple process of repairs gets followed up by in-house testing before deployment.
I was just writing a small portion of my issues, it wasn't really for 343 to read.
Yeah I simplified the repair process quite a bit. My point wasn't that they should let anyone do it, it is just that since anyone with a crate can fix this particular map, perhaps they should? Just lodge a box or two in there, then they can work on a more pretty fix while the crate fix is working in matchmaking perfectly.
Or they could put an instant killzone in the space people jump into. Or they could untick the box that includes Complex in matchmaking until they fix it.
Also I just went to their website (after it finally worked, go figure) and reread this weeks bulletin. It features one sentence mentioning they know of some glitches, and then goes on for lightyears of scrolling about how to use their website. I mean, yeah nice website that doesn't show us all of what we want to see and all... but can you please mention more about the glitches, exploits, massive lag, and unplayable copies of the game?
Ok ok I know they said they are improving the lag, but after playing tonight I realize what they meant by improving is adding more to make it better.
I think they thought people were getting jealous cause their experience was relatively lag free, so now more people can experience the wonder of teleporting enemies and people needing 7 DMR shots to drop their shields and that way everyone can be happy, cause that's how that works right?
You're probably on to something here. I bet the Legendary edition of Halo 5 includes the Armor Ability called Lag Switch. Of course this is only in the Legendary Edition which is why they will give it to everyone who plays the game in the first 2 years after launch. Also they felt skill was causing some players to have an unfair advantage so they nerfed that with the new lag.
I'm not picking on you but you made a lot of points i felt could be discussed and not turn into a flame war.
While I see your point of a forge fix, it isn't as simple as that. 343 will probably release an update in the coming weeks fixing issues. Fixes have to be tested and then approved. simply adding a box on a map could break soemthing else. The best way to fix it is through a patch since the map is hard coded to the disc. the hundreds of employees that you seem to think may not be competent to fix this, are most likely working on a fix for it. The easiest solution is not always the best.
If you on more than 1 occasion have called in an ordinance on the other side of a wall, wouldn't you just not look at a wall or outside of the map when calling it in? Or if it is lowering your sheilds, stand back from it? I have never run into an issue of either of these
Ghost shoots, Mongoose does not
As has been the over sheild in every Halo game ever made. The over sheild degrades over time. I don't see how it is possible to degrade damage boot and speed over time. The oversheild isn't meant to turn you into a God it is meant to give you an edge for a short time.
Spartans never die.
this is probably done to get a feel for what people want, by slowly releasing playlists they push players into playlists at a higher rate instead of thinning the herd into 4,000 different lists. I imagine oddball flag and KOTH will drop to 1 playlist soon enough. Swat has always been infinitely more popular than grifball. Much like MLG, grifball is a very targeted playlist to a small portion of the whole.
Spartan ops is a continuation of the story, quick little missions to add to the content of the game. Halo is a shoot bad guys move to a new spot, shoot more bad guys, rinse and repeat. The chapters are mini campaign missions. So yes, killing enemies, flip a switch, kill more enemies is the recipe. What did you expect them to be?
There are only a handful of people i know that hit the cap on a regular basis, you being one of them. While i agree i think even after the cap Commendation XP should be given, such is life and life isn't always fair.
Shit happens.
Never had this happen. I always have a full clip and ammo when i grab the flag. do you have video examples?
falling boxes if not dodged will kill you, and another co-op p[layer is put inc ontrol i believe.
Team shooting is the key to fixing this. 2 to 3 DMRs on 1 Mantis will kill it quickly
H3 theater was cool but could take a long time to load videos for all in the party and was probably not used much. Bungie took it out of Reach and 343 didn;t include it in H4 While watching a video together would be cool, you have a fileshare that players can access.
Solution: Don;t get close to the guy with the saw.
I assume the weapons despawn so after a player dies you don't end up with 4,000 power weapons on the map. with everyone calling an ordanace that would make for A LOT of power wepons
a team who is communicating will call you out as 1 shot and more than likely they will finish you off. instant respawn has its pros and cons.
see halo 2, 3 and reach. XBL can make for sticky nades passing through people since 2004
10/10 would read again
You tried to take advantage of a map glitch and complained when you got killed for it?
Huh? What are you talking about?
I don't jump into the Complex hidey hole unless that is where the other team has decided to hole up in SWAT or has the oddball, and yes they usually kill me. This isn't me trying to take advantage of a map glitch. This is me pissed that it is so widespread, almost impossible to counter, and 343 does nothing. I don't hop in there against randoms to try and cheaply win, I hop in there because I don't want to afk and get XP banned, or quit and get punished and all quitting would accomplish would have join in progress fill my spot with some other poor fools.
Very well, I won't.
Granted it got me the lowest score on the board since I literally got 0 kills doing it, and was killed when I did it, but I understand :)
Edit: I should probably have taken into account the competitive nature of the site wide customs when I went semi afk to eat though, I realize now it can cause frustration to some people when they are unable to kill me quickly, and that deviating in any way from the gametype or map is not fun. I'm glad there isn't death race any more though, I'd feel bad if I tipped my mongoose over and was on foot as then I wouldn't be racing and that isn't fun to others of course
So again, I apologize for not killing any flood while human and being killed myself while I was eating dinner
Edit2: Please make sure to not include any Flag gametype, any gametype with ordnance, any game on meltdown with mantis available, or allow the boltshot. All of these things have issues and if I were to pick up the flag and be unable to shoot the magnum due to a glitch that would ruin someones fun because I couldn't kill them