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343i, Let me start by saying that I think the work you've put into the multiplayer has been great. The game mostly feels amazing to play, and when the game launched, my friends and I all had a blast experiencing moments that could be likened the the days of old during a good LAN party. But, I regret to say, those good feelings have really sizzled out over the first season and now into the second and I'd like to explain why. First, and most agregiously, why there is no input matching in anything other than Ranked blows my mind. For clarity, this is coming from the perspective of someone who started playing the original Halo on a console with a controller, and still does to this day. While I do not claim to be a tournament-level player, I have historically played more often than my friends, and I would roughly place myself as above average on the sticks. However, because of this, we are constantly matching players on PC, on keyboard and mouse, who will just wipe the floor with our team. I don't care who you are, I highly doubt anyone will dispute being on the recieving end of that is enjoyable. The ease of use for both inputs is not even remotely comparable; from average-skilled PC players to the top 1%, pairing a 'similarly matched' console player gainst them is almost always a blowout. For gametypes that are not Ranked to feel sweatier than the dedicated playlist itself is incredibly painful. Not only for me, but moreso for my friends who do not have as much time in the game. This has been an ugly stain on what would otherwise be a great experience, and the sad thing is there's already a system in place to fix this. Additionally, similar to the above point, I don't know how the matchmaking is set up, but whatever logic is being used is not working optimally. There seems to be almost no team balancing, where if my friends and I queue up (who have varying skill ranges) we will be queued with teams who seem far outside of our combined skill bracket. To make matters worse, even if the teams ARE balanced, the input issue mentioned before exacerbate this, where we will be matched against an entire team of mouse and keyboard players and does not remotely FEEL balanced. Beyond that, it seems like there is no lobby protection in that we will be matched against the same players that have destroyed us over and over, even if we back out and try to re-queue. This matchmaking, in tandem with the input lopsidedness has driven my friend group apart, where it's preferable for us to play separately so that we don't ruin each other's experiences. Which, may I add, is one of the worst things players could be thinking while playing a multiplayer game. This only reinforces my belief that the implementation of input choice will reduce this significantly. The only alternative I can see would be to create a better way to more accurately weigh the skill ratings depending on the player's input, i.e., PC players are queued in higher skill brackets when matched against console players. As an example, this would ideally put an average PC player against a higher-skilled console player to make matches feel more evenly balanced, but I wouldn't bank on this one, considering there is already a much easier solution available, as previously mentioned. Even if these matchmaking changes would cause us to wait longer, I would much rather have that and enjoy my time with my friends, than really dislike where we are currently and go play something else, leaving behind a game I truly want to love. In regards to the new season and game type, I understand every launch will have it's hiccups, but challenges have been an issue since launch, and that has not changed with this season and the addition of Last Spartan Standing event. It seems as though some progress from some kill challenges may carry over, but from my experience, when the game specifically tells me that I may leave without penalty and I will not lose work I have put into my challenges, only to discover that was not true and I have wasted my time and must re-queue for another match, is aggravating to say the least. Leaving early does not count towards match completion or score, and I don't have the time or patience to find out what other challenge issues still plague the game, which is not a good thing for a returning player, and is even worse for new ones who may come into this without prior experience with this from the previous season. For a new mode, that everyone will want to play, this needs to be addressed ASAP. Beyond this, there is seemingly no spawn protection. I know some maps are smaller and harder to control some of this, but when you're spawned directly in front of an enemy, scoped in on you with a sniper, and that same thing happens multiple times a match, it's hard to understand why. It does not feel great to be matched against someone - or more significantly, a team - who knows exactly where every spawn is and how they can spawn split and farm you the whole match. This is much more noticeable in coordinated teams in Ranked, but the pain is still felt in other playlists. Not much else to comment on here, but bottom line, you should not be able to spawn in line-of-sight, nor should you be as vulnerable off the spawn. Other games have strong spawn overshields or immunity for a short time to punish thise who attempt to force this snowball effect during matches. Food for thought. Furthermore - and credit where credit is due - the weapons across the board are in a pretty decently balanced spot, with a few outliers such as the Pulse Carbine that have been woefully neglected and feels unusable in anything other than exactly medium range. Any further or closer to your target and the weapon is incapable of tracking accurately or dealing enough damage to secure a kill before a player can escape the next burst. A tweak in damage or the aggressiveness of the bolts may help to make enough of a difference to give it a place in the sandbox. Finally, the grenades seem far too plentiful, to the point where they are almost limitless. When every player starts with two, plus the ones picked up from killed players on top of the pickups on the map -- they just become inescapable. While this is felt a bit less outside of quickplay or similar playlists, the frequency of being assaulted by grenades because of how free they are remains. Instead of being a scarce but powerful tool that needs to be used intelligently to outplay an opponent, they have become part of the kit to be spammed at every convenience, which ultimately detracts from how fun the gunplay of the game can be. If players were forced to either start with a single grenade or even without them, it would further incentivize the use of scavenging for them off of other players or making the tactical decision to either grab or bait pickups, giving them more meaningful usage in the game. I know this was a lot of my own personal opinion, and I'm sure there are plenty of other things that could be addressed with content, other weapons, game types, the store, etc., but these specific issues have negatively affected the experience of both myself and the friends that I would love to play this game with. I truly commend the commitment to keeping your staff working normal hours and not crunching, but I have to say that if these things don't get ironed out with the staff and talent you have in a timely manner, myself and others are going to find it very hard to want to come back. Six months each season is an awfully long time and I hope that the game will see meaningful updates within that window, especially on these points. We desperately want you to succeed and to help give us a reason to love Halo, a series that we all have a special place in our hearts for. Thank you for your time and all the hard work you've put in thus far, 343i. Respectfully, - Nihil

Some Background Info: We are a Halo Warsim that dates back to Halo 2, over the years we have tuned our craft, as we have played through Halo 3, Reach, 4 and MCC. Now in Halo 5 we are in the middle of a war, and are looking to recruit more members to participate in our War Simulation events. What We Do: On our War Sim events we divide up into two factions, simply named REDD and BLUE, who fight over control of various maps in Halo 5. Members in each faction are put into a number of squads who practice and compete together each weekend in Battle Nights, as well as other weekly events including matchmaking, practices, scrimmages, customs nights, and skirmishes. Overview of Battle Nights: These are our primary events and the highlight of the War Simulation. Every week, each faction chooses a map controlled by the enemies to attack, and the Battles occur on either Saturday or Sunday at 6:00 PM EDT. Those who attend are grouped into teams and face off against those from the opposing faction, aiming for wins in order to help their faction win the map. Each map has numerous games played on it, with 8v8 maps generally being best of 9 and 4v4 maps being best of 15, though this is adjusted based on attendance. After each Battle Night, the warmap is updated and the cycle begins anew. For those curious this is the current Warmap:http://puu.sh/o6rC8/5925f92509.jpg (there's other things which I'm not explaining as they get a bit complex, but there's an "Auxiliary Battle" system that works similar to RISK also at play, which is what the small squares and circles are for) The ultimate Goal of each army to reach the opposing Capital and capture it, ending the war. It does go deeper than that though, if you're curious about anything or want to know more, just ask. What we are looking for in our recruits: Able to be respectful (we don't want ***) Active in Halo 5 Sense of competitiveness We do ask you be at least older than 15 if you wish to join (those under 15 can join once we verify that you're mature enough) After enlisting in a faction, everyone has to go through a "bootcamp" where we explain the community rules and such What else can we do in Forerunner Conflict? In truth Forerunner Conflict has always been member-run, meaning “Forerunner Conflict is what you put into it." The main feature is the War Simulation and Battle Nights, but there are numerous other events hosted weekly by members and open to anyone. We have a leadership of members that have been dubbed the "War Council" and is made up of representatives from each army and a few neutral members as well. Our current leadership is as followers: REDD - Field Marshal Solus Exsequor Lieutenant General L0rd Kanti Major General WTFRaptor BLUE - Field Marshal Metkil5685 General GuzzieStyle Brigadier General Silko10 If you are interested or have questions feel free to message me in this thread. Also if you wish to get a feel on how we run our battle nights before joining, we can get you involved in our Scrimmages held the day before battles each week.

Hello everyone, I just want to make a quick announcement for all of you. A few of you might already know, I don't remember if I have stated yet or not. I have came back to the forums, full time. Except, I am lacking in the one thing I do best at. That thing, is Events. Now, I know not every single one of you have an Xbox One. However, not all of you have an Xbox at all. That said, I would like to state upcoming events. Which will be a tremendous experience to the forums. Some of you might remember a lot of older Events I have done. I'm sure you can say that they are a lot of fun. A few Events I will be hosting on the Xbox One will take place on these games: Halo: The Master Chief Collection Halo 5: Guardians Titanfall Battlefield Hardline Evolve Dying Light, and many more games that launch! All of that said. This won't be happening until April, after I move. Everyone who is interested in attending my events. Get ready! Because they are coming back! All of you who don't have an Xbox One, I recommend you getting one soon and attending my events for an experience you'll never forget. I mean, I do have an event already planned and laid out for the future. A new one of its type. Everyone ready? My countdown has started! Shoutout to Edward Kenway for this.

Well here's the main thread where I post every Event I have planned for the foreseeable future: before I post their own Sign-Up Threads. More information [MUST READ]: Event sorting: Event Banners, Current planned Events, and Event information You're free to reply to this thread however you like. Ideas, concerns, and suggestions are always welcome!

Hello everyone! Now, I made a few banners for possible future events and decided I wanted to post them here and get a rough head count of WHO is getting what games and when, so I can plan out these events. Event 1: Event 2: Event 3: Event 4: Event 5: Sorry if they're rough, they were just test banners. Go ahead and post below what games above you're getting and for what platform so I can see what is possible to plan out. PEACE!

L4D2CZSE (Left 4 Dead 2 Community Zombie Slaughtering Event) Welcome to a proposal for a communal Left 4 Dead 2 event! The goal of the event is to get a group of 4 people (including me) together for a couple of rounds of Left 4 Dead 2. Here are the details: . When: o 06 April 2014 (Australians and co.) o OR o 05 April 2014 (Americans, the British, etc.) . What time: o This has yet to be decided largely because I’m still not sure who will be playing; if we get a ton of people from the USA, we’ll make it a time that’s best for them, and if we get a ton of people from Australia/New Zealand, we’ll make it a time that’s best for them. . People that are currently participating: o yotsuba_420 o ??? o ??? o ??? . Maps that will be played (all on normal difficulty unless we encounter problems): o We’ll start off with a round of campaign on “Dark Carnival” (30-60ish minutes) o Followed by a couple of rounds of survival on the custom map “Helm’s Deep” (20ish minutes per round, but completing a round is quite difficult) o Followed finally by the custom map “Back to School” where we’ll see how many parts of it we can get through before people get bored and/or have to leave (15ish minutes for each part of this custom map) I'm not completely familiar with the process that goes with Contests & Events related activities, but I do believe that to join, you should probably comment in this thread. I'll pick the first four replies and try to get a time that works for all of us.

"Halo - It's finished!" "No. I think we're just getting started." They're back. As most of you have noticed, it's been some time now since our weekly custom game playdates were running, and even longer since the days of full lobbies and lengthy play sessions. Some of you no doubt thought that they were gone forever - that we'd given up on the dwindling lobbies and decided that there was no point in continuing, that with so few of our members able to attend we'd chosen to focus our energy on finding other ways to interact with the community. But here at 343industries.org, we're nothing if not resilient: our staff saw in the ever-shrinking numbers of players not a fate to be accepted, but a challenge to be overcome. We knew that even if the existing system of lobbies weren't working, the one thing you can guarantee about a forum full of Halo fans is that if there's one thing they all love, it's playing Halo with their friends and fellow members. And so instead of simply shrugging off our playdates as a failure, we set out to make them better than ever, to make them so good that they would be completely unmissable. Introducing the Future. From now on, instead of just holding a playdate where you can get together with your fellow forum-goers for a few rounds of Halo every weekend, we'll be announcing a small number of individually-chosen, specially-selected Community Events every month. We've put a huge amount of work into exploring every corner of the Halo fandom to compile a collection of the finest maps, minigames, and content for use in our new Community Events, and we're going to continue to add to that with new ideas and material every single day. From now on, interacting with the community won't just be restricted to playdates every week: instead, while the opportunity to kill your fellow members for points will most certainly be returning, we also have a whole slew of new contests, tournaments, and prize giveaways that we can't wait to introduce, covering every aspect of the Halo universe: regardless of whether you want to take on Halo's gamer elite in a fast and fair competitive setting, forge masterpieces worthy of the Forerunners themselves, or delve into the mysteries of the expanded universe, we have something that you're going to love. To inaugurate our new programme, we'll be giving you the chance to directly thank those who've been working on it for the past few weeks as the infamous Halo 4 Staff vs Members playdate makes its glorious return. This first event begins on Saturday, October 19th 2013 at 3pm CST (9pm GMT) We hope you'll come along and participate in the first of our new Community Events. And if you're already looking forward to that as much as we are, then you'll be even more amazed when you see what comes next! View full article

Sorry for the late Wrapup. Click play on that sweet music video for maximum Wrapup Effect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaWXA5e0YTQ Primary Announcement: MY LAPTOP IS BROKEN. I'm working off my sister's very slow laptop right now. ANNOUNCEMENT Would you like to test Halo multiplayer for 343 Industries? Would you like to get paid to test Halo multiplayer for 343 Industries? Click Absolute Dog's announcement on how you can play test for 343i here. CONTESTS Jeez HaloCustoms sure has a lot of contests! And frequently at that! This contest is for one that they have going on that is a little lesser known on 343i.org. This is an announcement for their HaloCustoms T-Shirt Fundraising Competition. Guys you gotta check out the awesome ideas that the members are coming up with and maybe throw in an idea of your own if you're a member there and help them out! Check out the funky freshness here. Shout out to FREEDOM COBRA. CUSTOM GAMES NIGHT Spades N AZ's Custom Games Night Spades N AZ's Custom Games Night is back. Yes that bad mammajamma Spades is at it again with his Custom Game Nights and he's doing it as good as he's always done. How good you say? My good friend from HaloCustoms, @SOLIDSNAKEee, shows you with his CGN Recap covered in all sorts of awesomesauce. WARNING. This video may contain language unsuitable for children under the age of 18. WARNING. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5sAiqisQgo&feature=youtu.be CGN MoM Lobby Spades N AZ really hit a homerun with his CGN comeback season with this one. Although not the biggest lobby, he had great fun with it. And who else but SOLIDSNAKEee to give you the footage from that lobby. Thank you SNAKEee for the work you put into capturing and editing your footage and then giving it to me to use in my Wrapups. Footage is the next thing you see when you scroll down: WARNING. This video may contain language that is blah blah blah blah blah. WARNING. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjjQpl_tunw&feature=player_embedded DGL DGL is donezo. Will update with announced winner on Saturday. Castle Division: Drizzy_Dan, Gazzy Mill Mill, Neurotic Kasper, Sarge, SikSlik7, Forum Dinosaur, Hater, Real Talk FEATURED INTERVIEWS The Gryffin - The Gryffin lands on the Featured Interviews section once again. This is a pre-promotion interview. FORGE 343 Industries Community Forge Project The CFP is finally moving and SikSlik has put in some work on an idea. He's also going to be hosting lobbies when he can. Link. Obviously more Forge news is coming. Stay tuned on Saturday. *Featured Maps will be returning very soon* HOT TOPIC Gryffin's Artworks It's funny, I chose this to be the Hot Topic before The Gryffin was chosen and announced for Staff. I noticed how great his GFX were and thought that more people should be paying attention to it. See it here. NEW LEGENDARY MEMBER As we all know, there is a new legend in our ranks. This member has put in many hours into his work on this site and was a one man show for some time when starting up the Signature Shop v3.0. Oh darn it I gave it away! It's Insignia! Insignia joined our Staff before he was a Trusted Member and became a Legendary Member before he became Dedicated! This man is what they say he is! A true legend on this site. Hail Insignia here. NEW STAFF Yes with our main man in the Art Department, Insignia, departing from his department, someone had to fill that position. And if you know these two then you know they do some exceptional work. First up is Brony. The original brony of the site. So original on here that he got the name Brony. Single word, no numbers or special characters. He's been here a that long! Next up is my good friend The Gryffin. Make sure you click that interview up there. Spades put it best when he said that Gryffin has his hand in everything these days. New member of the YouTube Channel, The OnlineKnights, The Gryffin is no GFX novice. Hail the dynamic duo of the Art Department here. PLAY DATES The Halo 3 Play Date was non existent. VOTE FOR THE NEXT SPECIAL EVENT FOR FIRST WEEK OF AUGUST! We still want your Play Date ideas! Follow in our MoM's footsteps and post them here! YOUTUBE Here's a cool play on the Gun Game mod. This is Sharpshooter. It's essentially like Gun Game except everyone has the same gun at the same time and it changes on a timer. Watch the video and give my buddy 0IAH a like! Ah but this was just part one my friends. Wait a couple of days to fully get caught up on site news. For now though, scroll back up and read it all over again.

Hosting events every weekend has its ups and its downs. You guys should already be feeling it by now that playing the same games and gametypes every weekend of every month is boring and that's why we've been doing Halo Wars a lot more recently and stuff. So I wanna give you guys a chance to vote for our Special Event for the first weekend of August. So please, cast your vote and whatever wins... Wins! Voting will close when the voting closes. And then it might reopen again who knows! So get to voting! This message brought to you by your Forum President.

A whole night dedicated to CLUE! Feb 27(WED) For those who have been hiding under a rock in the custom world and have no clue what CLUE is the read http://halocustoms.c...nt-a-clue.4253/. Please come knowing all the rules and don't be clueless. For those who are making this their first time playing clue, you have no clue how fun it is. I have all 5 clue maps and will possibly unveil a 6 but I'm not giving any clues as to what it might be. Please RSVP on Halocustoms.com with "CLUE" to be invited you can RSVP by clicking here http://halocustoms.c...ades-n-az.4258/ Don't click on the word CLUE below.....bad things might happen.

A whole night dedicated to CLUE! For those who have been hiding under a rock in the custom world and have no clue what CLUE is the read http://halocustoms.c...nt-a-clue.4253/. Please come knowing all the rules and don't be clueless. For those who are making this their first time playing clue, you have no clue how fun it is. I have all 5 clue maps and will possibly unveil a 6 but I'm not giving any clues as to what it might be. Please RSVP on Halocustoms.com with "CLUE" to be invited Don't click on the word CLUE below.....bad things might happen.

Hello, I am the public relations officer for a clan called The Dark Enforcers. The Dark Enforcers(DE) was started 12 years ago on PC. We play in a wide variety of games that are multiplayer. We are on multipal platforms (PC,Ps3,Xbox 360). Right now we have active divisions(games) for Black ops II(on xbox only), Halo 4, and DCU on the PC. The DCU has around 650 members. Halo 4 has around 350 members. The Black ops II Division is fairly new so, it sits at around 65 members. We Pride our selfs in showing respect to all gamers!, and providing a fun enviroment were it is easy to make a team in any game. We have a few requierments to join us: 1. You must be at least 15 years old to join 2. Must be willing to play with the division(game) you are a part of for at least 3 hours a week(at your own convienince). there is no requierment for skill level! we represent all skill levels from noob to semi pro, and often try to help newer players improve their gaming skills( if they want, no pressure). We have a few rules members must follow: 1. No teabagging ever! 2. No trash talking 3. No Poaching (No asking members from another community or clan to leave that group to join ours). 4. You must be willing to wear our emblems and or colors(depending on the game) 5.No hackers! 6. No Hairssment to anyone( zero tolerence)! This all amounts to the golden rule, Treat others the way you want to be treated! We respect all gamers! We try to provide events for our members to participate in every week. That maybe a clan battle, a branch battle (a branch is a group of roughly 100 people in a divison, Branch is a mini clan), a community custom games day, a community forge day. we are always looking for new ways to have fun. If you are Interested in joining a large, well orginized, fun, semi competitive community please, look at the about me page for this profile, and send me a private message on this site or on the xbox to DE ItsMrDeath2U. If you are interested in setting up a clan battle please do the same. thank you very much for your time and concideration!

What's up guys? Hope everyone is enjoying Halo 4 so far. I was wondering if anyone knew about any local tournaments or events in the northern Indiana region? My team has been looking for events and attending as many as possible without having to travel too much. I'm also looking into hosting a Halo 4 tournament somewhere around the Rochester, IN area sometime in early 2013 which would have a team bracket and an FFA bracket. I won't be having it unless I can get enough teams and contestants though. So how many people would be able to attend this? You guys can check out details if you want on my website: SCIL Films. I'm not allowed to post links or anything so you guys will just have to use Google. Anyways, put up a reply if you know of any tournaments around the region. I'd also like to have an idea of how many people would be able to attend one if I were to host. Thanks guys, and keep gaming.

This is a request, if you would like me as your official forum musician please post and cast your petition!! Samples: http://soundcloud.com/rafafernandez/feilds-of-eternity http://www.youtube.com/user/RDragonsSlayer16 By my mighty love of Halo and the epicness of this forum I hearby and forthwith declare my hopes and promises to you. I seek to become ever more powerful and skilled in the art of music. And would take requests on game releated cover songs. Maybe even 343.org would add a music player of some sort. For now this is Dragon Slayer signing off. Cast your vote and let your voice and the sounds of music be heard!!!