P4Nch0theD0G

I'm pretty sure that Halo Servers and then the distance and the host's connection are the main reasons for lag, as well as inherent game net-coding. I seriously doubt it's my connection, since this only began yesterday. And I know people always say "it's not my fault", but before I even posted I've been through my connection several times, and all is good. I don't have similar problems in Spartan Ops, either. And quite frankly, I do not see the correlation between lag and maximum download and upload bandwidth, as long as the bandwidth is not too low either way - which it is not. 10Mbps as ideal host would be weird, since half the world doesn't seem to have that much and still seem to be able to play - high-upload connections are not the norm, and as such are most likely not the benchmark setting for either a console or a game that are targeted at the broad masses. And if anyone (343) wants to see some of the lag issues, and some of the matchmaking issues as well, you can take a look at my Fileshare, my GT is the same as my username here, with a 4 and two 0 in the name. Check "Capture the Lag Prime" A and B. Two perspectives of the same lag, and nope, not a hologram... And take a look at some of the rosters, too (Back-Button during movie), see how even they are...

Look, I'm not joking, or just being mad because I get killed all the time, but it's been like that since yesterday afternoon, CET time. I have about 1 match in 5 where everything works as it's supposed to work, the rest of the time it's just annoying and frustrating, especially being locked into a lobby you cannot leave except to dashboard or the lopsided games. I don't understand how the game can start with 10 people and you play 6v4. And I'm not talking about people leaving during the game or during start-up. And all this only started yesterday, before I had consistently good matches, no problem getting into matches, finding matches, almost no waiting time, host migrations or frozen lobbies. Today I spent probably a third of the two hours I played just trying to find a game, waiting on a game to start or locked into a lobby, and I'm not in the empty playlists or lowly populated ones, either.

Yesterday and today were probably the worst matchmaking days I've seen in any game. Constant bad lag during matches (teleporting players and such) Constant Host Migrations Up to 5 mins waiting to get into a single match: incoming, found match, everything gone, start again Being thrown into lobbies that never start (setting up game) and you cannot quit Lopsided games with even player numbers (5v1, 6v2) One CTF went through the whole set-up, map-selection etc, with 5 people, started, put all 5 in one team, instant win, game over Just FYI, 343 NAT: Open DL 100mps UL 6mps

I'd like to see more of the on-disc maps for different playmodes. Or, well, all maps for all playlists. It gets pretty boring having only five maps to choose from, and I've been playing for just two days, now... I'd like to see all Spartan Ops Chapters in Matchmaking - despite what 343 says, more episodes to play in MM will actually increase the amount of players; as well as the option to play through all chapters of an episode via Matchmaking - you find three other people that all start at chapter one and will stay together until the last chapter so you don't need to find new people after every chapter. I'd like to see Invasion, Spartan vs Spartan, in matchmaking. If you would merge CTF, Extraction and Dominion, and do the tiered map sizes and objective locations, that`s what you'd get. I'd even be happy with a Siege-type Game mode, where one team starts with a Base/Objective and the other team has to conquer it. Dominion is too unfocused and Extraction too chaotic. Invasion was my favorite game-type for Halo games. I'd like to have better spawn points for MP, since you can easily be spawn-killed from across the map on some maps - which is even more annoying when there's a building right beside your spawn point, but you can't choose to spawn in there. I'd like to have the ability to spawn on a squad/teammate - yeah, just like Invasion had. Two- or Three-Man teams would be great with that mechanic. I'd like to be able to switch my grenades while having ordnance available - there's so much done with hold/tap functionality for two different actions on the same button, it should not be hard to make ordnance a hold D-Pad and grenade-switch a tap D-Pad. I'd like to be moved by thrusters in the direction I turned too during a jump if I press forward on the left stick - if you jump, then turn during the jump and press forward, the thrusters will move you not in the direction you are facing and pressing the stick towards, but in the direction you are moving. I'd like to have the Mobility thing removed - it reminds me of "Marathon, Lightweight, Commando", and people actually play it that way. And I'm only halfway joking about this. Same goes for the Scavenger perk. Extremely weird decisions...

Well, thank you. At least I didn't miss it (that happens). Pity, though, forcing you to find new people no matter what... And what's the point of having a continuous story, if you can't play it through consecutively? People can just leave if they don't want to play...

Find a way to make it playable offline/local co-op (splitscreen or system link). I really don`t understand how 343 could make such a gigantic step backwards from the great features that made Reach so enjoyable and easy to play with others, no matter the circumstances.

While Firefight and Campaign Matchmaking in Reach was vastly superior to Spartan Ops (and I really hate that only the Spartan Ops of the Week is in Matchmaking), it really is a shame you cannot play it offline/local co-op. But from what I've seen by now, two days into the game, there are quite a few rather "questionable" decisions 343 has made, and the overall experience when it comes to Co-Op play seems to have suffered significantly.

So, yes, I'm new to this, only played today for the first time, and I have a few questions. If someone might be kind enough to answer, I'd very much appreciate it. First, is there a way to play a whole episode - all chapters from the one you started with onward - in matchmaking without having to find a new match after every chapter? And is there some option (somewhere) so the people I just played with stay together, like remain in the same lobby, to then choose the next chapter to play (or, if there is a "Full Episode" Playlist, automatically get loaded into the next chapter)? I played through 4 chapters via matchmaking, and felt surprised I couldn't figure out how to do these two things. It's quite annoying, really. Just when you got used to someone's playstyle, the chapter is over, and they're gone. Similarly, I wanted to play the episode as a whole, preferably with the same people, but after every single chapter I had to find a new match and new people. I already had a match with people...

As I posted in another thread, my main grievance with Spartan Ops is the lack of matchmaking for older Episodes. It's actually putting me off buying the game now, as I feel somewhat cheated out of a featured content I cannot really enjoy unless I find and organize friends to play with. The reason given for this measure (to consolidate the player base) is deeply flawed, as limiting the matchmaking to the current episode only is quite likely the real cause of the low player numbers. If you can only play one level there's no reason to stick around now, is there? A lot of people will play in the first two days, but then the lack of options/missions/episodes will have them leave. People that have dedicated friends won't even play in open matchmaking anyway, so the only thing the limited matchmaking does is give Spartan Ops the feel of a weekly TV-Show: Once you've seen it there's no reason to keep the TV on until next week. While Spartan Ops might very well be superior to Firefight in every aspect, I simply will not support a co-operative game mode that tells me "unless you have friends to play with, the only thing you can play this week is this". I mean, what does 343 expect? People to keep playing the exact same thing over and over and over? Firefight might have been small and simplistic and lacking a story, but you could play different levels with different scenarios/restrictions/weapons etc ANYTIME you wanted. I'm sorry, but without open matchmaking for every episode, Spartan Ops will remain a "two-day, weekly" event with no real replay value - something that penalizes New-Comers for not buying the game on release - and it will die as soon as the episodes run out. It's pretty much already dead each week after the intitial surge of players is through with the current episode, if posts and player numbers here and on waypoint are to be believed. Opening up the matchmaking will give people more reason to go there, but even then the linear progession and lack of customization options are quite the dampener on longevity. While it may be a grand project and well executed, the lack of availability and accessibility of open matchmaking, the lack of customization options, and the lack of variety makes it a very poor substitute for Firefight. In short, I'll take the fun and frantic engagements that I can play anytime on different maps with random people over one great story-driven "campaign" each week anytime.

I was thinking about getting Halo 4 for the holidays, so I did some research. I loved playing Firefight in Reach, and the Matchmaking made it so much more convenient to find people to play due to my rather unconventional work hours. Hearing now that there is no matchmaking for older Episodes/Missions of Spartan Ops is a real let down. What about the people that didn't buy it on release? Are we supposed to be penalized for not throwing our money at you right from the go? The reasoning behind the matchmaking is quite flawed, as the weekly nature of the episodes is most likely the real cause of the low player numbers. As with a TV show, once you've seen it, there's no real reason to watch it again and again. Sure, you come by every week to check it out, but once you've done it, it's done, and there's no more reason to stay in Spartan Ops. If you look at the player numbers I would guess you see a lot of players in the first two days of each episode, then everybody leaves. Why? Because unless you have dedicated friends to play the older episodes there's just nothing to do here. All you can do is play the current episode then wait for the next one, and no matter how great the episode may be, after the third time or so it will get boring and you will leave to play MP or some other game (the lack of Co-Op Matchmaking for the Campaign is another really strange decision). I'm sorry, but there is something very deeply ingrained in a lot of players that takes issue with someone telling you what you can play when. Firefight/Reach let you just play something different with random people anytime you want, with different maps you could choose from. Sure, it was no episodic, story-driven experience, but the availability and diversity is what made it continuously interesting for so many people. As such, I feel that because I did not buy the game at release, I am now missing out on quite a lot of content, and that irks me a lot. I was looking forward to playing both Halo4 campaign and Spartan Ops, but with 343 telling me "I'm sorry, unless you have friends to play with, the only thing we let you play is this" I pretty much feel like telling them to go F*** themselves. I understand why they thought it would be necessary to consolidate the player population, but their "solution" actually exacerbates the problem. They're basically saying "This week, you can only play this level." Now, personally, this already galls me on a basis of principle - I do not like being told what to do with a video game I paid for, and on some level I feel cheated out of a part of the game - but does nobody at 343 see that limiting the accessibility of episodic content also limits the options and reasons for people to stay with it? If you wait all week for your favorite TV-Show, you watch it and then turn off the TV and wait for the next episode. There's a reason why many TV-Shows now let you watch the current season's episodes on their website so you can catch up with what's been happening, but with TV-Shows you don't need 3 other people to really enjoy it. If Spartan Ops had all the Episodes in matchmaking it would actually create an influx of people playing it, since they'd have more reason to be there and stay there. New-comers could start at the beginning and not be forced to try and understand things from around the middle. The people that have already played the episodes will of course play the new one first, but when they are finished they can stick around and play some of the older ones as well. If they had an episode they really liked they can enjoy it with people without previous planning or invites. The decision to limit matchmaking to the current episode is a terrible mistake, that limits Spartan Ops to a weekly "event" with no replay value, an event dependent on something outside of player control, and can in no way hold up to the convenient accessibility and availability of Firefight. I urge 343 to reconsider their view on this, because it is, simply put, exactly the wrong way to go about it.