RedStarRocket91

They launched Halo 2 in November 2004. They launched the 360 in November 2005. They shut down the Halo 2 servers in April 2010 - that's four and a half years after the 360 had been released, and after three other Halo games had been made (Halo 3 in September 2007, Halo Wars in February 2009, and ODST in September 2009). That's also less than five months before the release of Reach. It's unlikely they were trying to force people into upgrading their console four and a half years after the new one had been released - that's more the kind of thing they'd do immediately after release. Once you've got a whole new generation of games, it's not good financial sense to run outdated servers that are no longer heavily used.

Unbalanced maps aren't always a bad thing, particularly if they're structured around asymmetric objective gametypes like One Bomb Assault or One Flag CtF, although in general it is better to try and have the map equally balanced, especially if it's aimed at Free-For-All or Symmetric Team games. Routes around the map aren't always important, as long as there multiple ways in an out of each section - this is why te lift room on Sword Base is so badly designed, there are two ways in (Door and Lift) but only one way out (Door). That said, maps should flow nicely, and either have a focus on multiple routes or forcing direct confrontations, rather than feel disjointed. Lastly, directly facing spawns can work, although only over long distances or with cover in between. Good tips in general, though!

Why can't the two of them just co-exist? Increase the spread of the Battle Rifle so it's somewhat less effective at range than its Halo 3 counterpart, and leave it with little to no recoil and a 2x magnification scope. Four shots to a kill is fine, although firing rate should be adjusted so it's balanced properly against the Assault Rifle, or whatever is the new automatic general-purpose weapon. At the same time, bring the DMR down to four shots per kill (provided the fourth shot hits in the head), but give it some minor to moderate recoil and reduce the firing rate. Leave the scope at 3x magnification. Bring it back to twelve rounds in the magazine like in the Reach beta - this can be explained canonically as it having a larger calibre of bullet to deal with tougher enemies, which is also why it kills in less hits. Both guns have three spare magazines, allowing for a potential twelve kills before ammunition runs out, providing every shot hits. And suddenly they fit together perfectly. The Battle Rifle works slightly better at medium ranges as its shots spread too much to get reliably four or five shot kills at the DMR's better range, while the DMR goes back to its original role as a medium-long range weapon, and loses out at Battle Rifle range due to its lower firing rate.

Thanks, firedune! I agree that a lot of the problems people have with Armor Abilities are probably based on Armor Lock, rather than their existence as a whole. I like the idea of returning it to a dedicated anti-vehicle role, or for surviving things like rockets or plasma grenades - it's just too frustrating that users can use it to win close-quarters battles with that stupid EMP-melee combo, especially against people with Energy Swords or Gravity Hammers. I'm not sure about using up a full charge per press, though. One of the other big problems people have is that Armor Lock can be used to restart a fight that has been lost, so unless its use time is cut down, it might be better to have it so that it locks for half the energy bar's length and can thus be used twice, but allowing for damage inbetween activations.

Why is it that large numbers of Forge items and structures cause framerate issues? Is it a problem with trying to draw multiple items at once, or something to do with the way the game is coded? I don't remember encountering similar issues on Halo 3's Sandbox or Foundry.

Do you have a problem with gay people?

The problem with using a 'Nade is that it doesn't reliably do damage. If it's timed even a half-second wrongly, they can have cleared the damage area before it goes off, or are still invincible and don't get hurt at all. Frosting doesn't affect the area around the player using Armor Lock, just them. Admittedly it's only noticeable over the internet rather than a local or LAN game, but it has been , so it's not just tricks of the mind. The relevant video section is from 2:30 until 2:58, although the whole things is worth a watch.

I think what he means is that there should be a dedicated Anniversary Infection playlist, rather than just hoping that eveveryone in the lobby as all the DLC. Encouraging stuff about match weightings, though. Hope that makes a difference!

"I have a dream that one day on the green hills of Hemmorhage the sons of former Reds and the sons of former Blues will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood" - Martin Luther King-of-the-Hill I wish I had an actual dream to post, but sadly I don't remember them.

I'm not sure why, to be honest. It might be so that it's not too overpowered, so that they can't just hunt down enemy players with no chance of being found. Alternatively, it might be so tat they're forced to use it near team mates. It might also just be to add a penalty for using it, in the same way Evade and Sprint don't allow players to use weapons, grenades, or melee while they're active.

Don't know if anyone here's a Gears of War fan, but they've just released a piece of DLC where you play as a super-powerful enemy against human soldiers, which is actually really fun. It plays a lot differently from the regular game, but it still feels fun. With this in mind, it might be interesting to play against the UNSC, fighting against marines, ODSTs, even Spartans. Instead of playing as an Elite, it might be interesting to play as a Hunter - no regenerating health, but immunity to bullets that don't it you in the back, which would be a nice way to change things up.

There's been talk of a beta sometime at the start of this year, noting concrete yet though. I'd prefer a more Halo 3 feel to Halo 2, actually. I know everyone loves the second game, but at the end of the day it was buggy as hell, the Battle Rifle was shamefully overpowered, and the third game did everything better, from movement and map scaling to weapon balance. I definitely agree with going back to a more skill-based style of play, though. Reach really falls down not only with the randomness of Bloom but also in the general lack of balance between weapons, grenades, and melee. We need a game that has very precise mechanics, so that nobody ever wins or loses a straight fight through bad luck or chance, only skill and tactics. Not so sure about Armor Abilities. The only ones I can think of that are really unbalanced are Armor Lock and Drop Shield, although Jetpack is irritating, too. There's really nothing wrong with Sprint, Evade, or Hologram - besides the fact that the latter is useless against anyone who's played for more than two minutes.

Clearly someone's forgotten about Sandtrap. Anyway, I quite like it in Snipers, but that's a playlist that could desperately use some new maps. As far as Big Team goes, it doesn't really bother me that much since it's a lot better than the community forged maps.

Sorry to disappoint, but this is a fan forum - we have no official connection with 343i. There's nobody here with any power to influence playlists and/or ranking systems. However, you could try asking at the Waypoint Forums, which are officially run and administered by Microsoft and 343i, who of course have the power to implement ranking systems. I like the idea, though. Best of luck!

I don't really mind one way or the other, but it couldn't do any harm to bring it back and if other people want it, who am I to tell them they can't have it just because I don't want it, as long as it isn't compulsory? The technology's there and has been used before, so it can't be an issue with programming, surely?

I'm wondering how I can make it any clearer that this isn't what this thread is about. Anyway. Thank you for the feedback! The downside of Mobility would be that it doesn't provide any combat bonuses: you can't use any weapons while it's activated, and it doesn't directly help you weaken opponents, as with Offensive's EMP blast and radar jammer, nor protect you from damage, as with Defensive's invincibility and cloaking. I agree that it isn't properly balanced yet, though. If you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate it!

Nice to meet you! I'm the one in charge of Blue team.

It only jams the motion trackers of the user and anyone not on his team. If he's a blue, no other blues are affected.

Have you been cheating in any way? This includes activities such as boosting commendations, matchmaking stats, going AFK during games, or playing with AFK guests. If you've done any of these, that's why you've been reset. Otherwise, do you know why you were banned from matchmaking? Was it a quit ban? If you remember the reason in the text, we'd be able to help more.

Worth watching so that you can find players who are ruining the game by hiding. Not worth watching if you're thinking of adding to the problem.

That's an interesting idea, there are lots of things you could do with that, depending on what's activated when the button is held down - a small reduction in speed if Sprint is overused, the radar jammer begins to affect your own motion tracker, or your shield actually starts to drain at a geometric rate in order to support invisibility once the ability itself needs to recharge. Perhaps using a jetpack while out of power could count as it being overheated? For every second you try and fly above 'safe' heat levels, there's a one in three chance that something will go horribly wrong and the whole thing will explode, sending your flaming Spartan back to the ground wishing he'd paid attention to Timothy Dalton in flight school. The link really is worth a watch for everyone who has a bad memory about someone using the Jetpack. Which is, I think, almost everyone. Hah. I don't mind if people want to talk about which system they prefer, I just think that a thread which isn't about that question should have replies about that question. Besides, the community isn't going to agree and it's been discussed lots of times before! OT: I actually wondered about some sort of regeneration-based powerup, but I can't think of a way of balancing it properly: it'd either heal too quickly to let players die at all, or wouldn't be powerful enough. Unless it's some sort of system whereby the first mode emits a one-time burst that restores a small amount of Shield to all nearby players, and the second slowly regenerates Health at a slow but constant rate? That's relaint on using the Reach/Halo: CE/ODST health system though, instead of the one found in Halo 2 and Halo 3.

I cannot stop laughing at this...!

The fact that it could be anything is exactly why we aren't talking about the Reaper. It could be a follow-up to the Focus Rifle, a new Brute Shot, a super-powerful Spartan Laser or even just a bigger Plasma Pistol to make people feel embarrassed when they pick it up, all expectant, and then discover how ineffective it is. Maybe it fires GRD helmets. There simply isn't any point talking about it when we have so little to base speculation on. We can guess it's a power weapon from it's size and name, and that it will probably be used against us as it doesn't look like something the UNSC would create: other than that, there really is no way of telling.

Smashing your face into a blender is pointless. It's not any more effective than just inserting your head and switching it on, and only increases risk of damage to the blades, which actually weakens it. Skill-based ranking system agreed with.