firedune22

Now, as more and more companies are releasing "Betas", they generate more hype. "Betas" as they are called{/i] are actually really buggy Demos, in which players don't get to change much of anything when the final game releases, aside from obviously visible bugs. Developers use these OPEN BETAS to address network issues, and other connection-related problems. The Beta will probably be released a few months (5-3), however i can't say for sure when it will be as I have no idea, but based upon Reach, Halo 3, and Battlefield 3, that's when Betas are usually released.

The Halo Wars story was one of the best in all of the Halo games, in my opinion, though. Lively music (for an RTS), a simple, yet deep base construction system, fun units and, georgeously designed maps make this one of the best RTS games i've played. Halo wars also had some of the best cutscenes in any Halo game and was uup close and personal most of the time. The "5 Long Years" cutscene made me feel like there really was a war, unlike some of the other cutscenes on other halo titles.

well. you can still ninja people in Reach, besides just assainating them... and by ninja, i mean the classic back smack, "beat downs", ect, ect... I often just ninja people anyway, it like saying to the other players "you're not even worth assainating". If you don't like assasinations, don't do them. I think they were one of the few great additions to Halo from Reach.

I peronsally delieve that they are making a triumverate of utility weaons. In Halo Reach, 2, and 3, the BR and Carbine were analouges of each other, but suited different playstyles with The BR being a harder-hitting, slower firing weapon, and the Carbine being slightly weaker but able to put out more shots. The same was with the Needle Rifle and DMR in Reach ( I feel that the play very nicely in the sandbox of Reach). In Halo 4 however, There could be (i'm saying could because i don't know if my source is lying or not) 3 utility weapons playing off of each other. One is a forerunner single-shot weapon the fires slower than the [bR] and takes longer to fore than a BR busrs, but hits harder in general and has less shots than the [bR] before it overheats. The [bR] is an average weapon, with 36 shots and such, but spread is increased from Halo 3 a bit. Overall it's the same weapon you know and love. The last weapon is like the Carbine. It fires fater, has more ammo, but loses acuracy quickly.

Well then, redstar, that's where you are wrong. I specialize in everything, from 2v2 to BTB, and everthing in between inculding asthetic maps! (invasion's still a tricky ******* though). If you want to test a 2v2, i'm going to be doing so [1/7/2012] at about 9:40 EST. that would be... lemme see.. 2:26?

Exactly, they can work, but those examples are the exclusions. I just recently played on a map and well, it was terrible. The principle behind it wasn't all that bad though, but the whole map was executed horribly. If some of those rules were followed, it would have been much better. The idea was to have a dectructible bridge as the main focus of the map, with one side all the way up on paridisio, and the othe side on the sandbar so that the team at the bottom could (in theory) climb their way up top, and destroy the bridge if the were about to be spawn camped. "armories" were also added... with 5-clip snipers... yeah didn't end well. Those tips were just general rules to follow when considering a general, 2-sided symmetrical map design I'm actually making a map that was originally meant to be designed like sword base, but done right. Unfortunately it ended up playing 2v2 and 5 player FFA the best, and reminded many people of lockout. It isn't ending up badly though.

Here are some basic guidelines to know if your map is decent. First of all, do YOU think they are good maps, or do other enjoy them too? Secondly, are they rather one-sided, or are they balanced Thirdly, how many different routes are there on the map? A typical minimum nuber would be 3 last of all, do players spawn facing each other? if so, then your spawns must be changed I know how hard it is to get maps into MM, and the truth of the matter is, sometimes the best maps don't get into MM. It also helps to get in touch with a Community Cartographer or two, and NEVER post your map on Waypoint.

HA! for all those saying that there aren't really any good forge maps is dead wrong. Most of the maps you see on MM are either A) not completly finished, not updated to the latest version, or C) absolutley horrible. Twinreaper, you may not have realized it, but most of the forging community do not like the maps on MM, the ones you might be referring to. There is much better content made and posted by people on forging community sites like Forgehub and Reaching Perfection, and private groups on B.Net like Blueprint. It's true that the scenery is bland, and just about every thing is so... grey, and the human, forerunner, covenant piece solution would fix it, however forgers deal with it and try and make the most out of what they can. Even though i'm an avid forger, i know that i can't speak for anyone, and i won't try to. The majority of the forging community will tell you that there is some pretty amazing things out there. You just have to look. And reaper, even thought that turing forge over to PC will result in better looking maps, and possible more interesting maps and will give forgers more powerful toolsets, having to switch between systems and using a full-on map editor will be a major turn-off to many people, possibly incuding myself. Forge is extremly acessable and is almost a frictonless way of getting basic map designs down, and 343i is willing, and able to keep it that way. They've stated themselves that "We belive that Forge is an important part of Halo, and we believe i using it as a tool for the community to make and manage theirs and others creations." . Basically they said (at the Halo 4 panel ant Halo Fest) that forge is coming to Halo 4. P.S. Check out my forged maps down below!

I like you ideas, and i think that they would work really well in Reach is implemented now, however, it's too late to change anything so drastically. The difference that a button press and a button held down can change something so drastically is a cool idea, and the abilites and their corresponding button configs were a well thought-out. I personally believe that Armor lock can be saved, and not by how 343i currently "fixed" it. Armor lock was a stricly anti-vehicle AA when the game was being conceptualized. It prevented you from being splatterd. The nullification of all damage is actually fair. The fact that you can come out of it at any time, go back into it, is unfair, as well as the EMP. The EMP might've been implemented to prevent any vehicles from lingering around the player, so it was reasonable. Armor lock can be asved by removing the EMP, and making it a one-time use AA, meaning that the moment you press that button, you'r commited to it and must stay in it for a fill energy drain. Ememies lingering around can time that second sticky or 'nade. This will returnit to an anti-vehicle AA, nullifying splatters if timed correctly. Still, OP, i like your ideas and if there were to be a Reach sequel with AAs, this would be the way to do it.

I can do some LUA. It's suprisingly easy, and works well. Back on topic. I do remember somewhere that [kiki?] said that the Halo 4 engine was actually a heavily modified variation of the Halo 3 engine, just like Reach's engine because it, you know... was all they had to work with at the start of the project. It's not so bad though, things from Halo 3 still look great, and you'd be suprised what a new art direction can do. I also would'nt mind it it still ran at 30 fps, because that's all the human brain can percieve actually. You's notice no differenc in quality if told that a 30 fps game was the same as a 60fps.besides, that just means less framerate drop, and more room for other things. P.S. If you've read Primordium, then you might know what 343i has in mind when they said that the environment seems more alive. I think it'll be pretty cool.

I think that 343i will look at what made halo sucessful, and what made other games sucessful. and use that to make future Halo titles better. It's a fact that no halo fan wants to admit: Halo has flaws. They can be adressed without affecting the core mechanics that makes Halo, well... Halo. 343i can do this by looking to see what other games have similar problems that Halo has, mostly being the map designs lately (ugh!), the pesky skill issue, and how story telling can be improved. 343i can solve 2 of those problems simply by being a fresh, yet experienced team with meny talented people, and a different view of what Halo is. The skill measure/ trueskill issue has to be solved to make everyone happy, "casuals' and "hardcore" alike. I have no worries other than the direction the story will go, and if there will be any contradictions from previous titles or contradictions on itself. I just hope that they will vastly improve the arsenal in the game, increasing the vehicle, forge, gametype, and weapon selection available to players. The maps could also stop being pulled from the campaign as much (especially the firefight maps!) as i consider multiplayer maps to be an exploratoy extension of the story, allowing people to explore the universe without having to dedicate themselves to a full-on campaign. Multiplayer maps to me are like sort of like small bakery confections form the oven of the Halo universe, with campaign being that huge, awsome cake, and the maps being like little various confections which are from the same oven, yet are bite-sized, and can have wildly different flavors and textures, but are still delicious. An interesting thing that COD zombies map did was that they actually had a story based on players collecting various items, solving puzzles, and completing various objectives, along with the customary holding off hordes of the undead. Perhaps future firefight maps can emulat this, but having unique halo twists, like unlocking videos, in-game vehicles or whatever 343i decides to throw in. Like Dan Ayoub said, "Halo has a lot to learn from other franchises".

ah, i still am confused by the names, but i'll be able to tell the difference eventually... Anyway. What's with the uh... Ponies? is this some meme i don't know about?

I would like to point out though, what about the people wo just play to have fun? What about the team players who like to use supressive fire to keep the other team in check while another team member goes in for the cap or whatever? Your system might work fabulosly in a FFA game, but dosn't seek like it'll work for fostering relationships between team players who use strategy to win. It'll break your skill down perfectly, but won't match up those who will sacrifice themselves to distract enemies to go for the objective. Perhaps you could limit the propsed system to slayer matches where these variables will make all the difference in forming teams. For those who want a laid back match, let there be a social playlist too.

I'm not sure if that was a compliment, but thanks anyway! P.S. lolmenad, i'm hating you right now for having bouble the spread i do, and going positive! P.P.S. Yes, i'm going to change my sig. I had a really nice one using [mouseoverimage], yet it sadly dosn't work here. I just need to make a new one...

Hey there, well, this is actually my 3rd post on the site, yet I guess the Introductions still apply here. Well what should I say abut my self. Well, since I can't start here, i might as well start where Halo began for me. Like most people here, I have passion for halo. It all started with a used copy of Halo 3 though. I never started at the beginning unlike some (most?) people here and when I first got the Xbox 360, I didn't have Live for a good 6 months to a year. So for me, Halo 3 was all campaign, all the time for quite a while (good thing I had the Orange Box too!). Once i got live though, Halo 3 was the fist bad boy I popped into that tray and instantly fell in love with the multiplayer.I loved everything about it, from the butifully crafted maps to the intense gameplay, excellent balancing, and customs for the lulz. Unfortunately this was about 7 months before Reach came out, so i started near the end of Halo 3's life and never got a lot of time in, but i loved every second of it. I loved the MP so much that I bought all of the map packs within 2 weeks that I got xbox live. Yeah, i know, i'm a sucker for map packs. After that, I borrowed Halo 2 from a freind played the epic campaign and then bought Halo: CE off of xbox live marketplace. You could say that i 've gone the exact oppisite way that most people have adventured through the franchise. Not being used to Live too much though, playing just campaign was no challenge for me, infact the only reson why i played them all was because i felt beeply engrossed in the story, not just the multiplayer. I'm currently playing Reach now, but I still dabble in Halo 3 though. I'm also quite the avid forger, with quite a few decent maps under my belt (see my sig!) with the end goal of actually getting a map into MM on Reach. Some people might say I have a tainted view of Halo, yet I say it's just unique. For some people, going to Reach is their only experience going back to the begining, and CEA being the other, Yet for me, "I've been going back to the beginning, starting with the end". That's my story of how i discovered Halo, and over the years, i've joined a community site or two, with a couple of them being decent. I'm glad to have joined 343industries.org though. This is a great community website filled with dedicated, knowledgeable, and uh... interesting people. I look foward to staying here for quite a while and enjoying my stay.

Perhaps the MP armor unlock should be a mix of both unlockables (via 'chevies) and Reach's cR system. Perhaps more could be bought with cR, like the initial armor, but the cooler things or higher ranking items be unlocked via Achievements. I also liked how in Reach you could see your armor in the cutscenes, yet you could always go back to the default armor if you don'd like the feature. I'm sure that MK 7 armor will be the base armor, with MK V, VI, and possibly IV will be unlockables. Elite armor should go back to Halo 3's customization level with unique armor pieces being generally harder to unlock, have slightly less variety than human armor, yet still a fair amount of choice, while being generally cooler. One other thing that i've wanted in Halo armor is to have slightly different HUD layouts, or HUD lines (the lines outlining you shields, weapons, motion tracker, ect..) based on the helmet you are wearing. Not a big enough difference to affect gameplay, yet enough of a difference between helmet modules to be recognizable. Binocular outline variations could work too, a-la Reach elite and spartan binoculars. (same magnification level, different outline) Those are my views on armor in Halo 4. It probably won't happen, but it's something that cater to everyone while adding a new layer of originality to the game.

Hmmm. Honestly, I happen to like Reach's 2-beatdown system. It was a little wierd at first from switching over from Halo 3, but it ends up working. I'd like to point out that in Crysis 2, there is a 2-beatdown system, and it has a little bit of both qualities from halo 3's and Reach's melee system. Even though it plays more like COD than anything, it still works. It seems to me like there is an issue of the melee, but Bungie, and hence 343i, will still get melee right. The thing that Halo 4 honestly needs is multiplayer Theatre mode. I have no idea why Bungie decided to limit it to one player in Reach though. P.S.- Every one makes Bloom in reach to be so prominent, yet only 6 weapons have it, and on 3 of them it works (AR, Magnum, & Needle Rifle) and one dosn't affect it (sniper). The only weopns that bloom adversly effects is the DMR and Plasma repeater. P.P.S- If you don't agree that the NR has a resonable amount of bloom, compare it to the Carbine, that thing shot all over the place!