Halo: Infinite (Dec. 8th, 2021) - Xbox Series X

[JaegerDice]

I loathe fiesta…

 

[Blitzkrug]

There's the proof people were looking for on matchmaking not feeling right.

 

[S E P H]

I took a break from this game to play others in my back catalogue, but I wanted to say is that the hit registration is definitely real. The aspect from my anecdotes is that it doesn't happen every game, only when the servers get wonky. Like during the original stages of BTB when the MP just came out, it was bad and very noticeable. It wasn't just in there, I noticed it big time with the AR and pistol during quick play, but this was off/on during certain days in a week. I do think they eventually fix it in the long run, but I am not sure 343 has even acknowledge this part of the bugs?

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Yeah they’ve acknowledged desync and things like that for bigger updates. Haven’t noticed it a ton on my end but they are aware.

 

[chicagoskycam]

There's the proof people were looking for on matchmaking not feeling right.

That guy screwed over a lot of teammates to get his data. Lol. I’m pretty sure he was on my team at some point.

 

[Peasy]

Lol if thats true about the match making, thats really dumb. I recently just started playing again after not touching halo since Reach came out. And I personally thought the match making ranking system seemed really poor. 20 ranked games in (no other game modes played) I hit diamond 2, and was constantly against high diamond (5/6) and onyx players every game. Personally I didnt really care, because I'm still not getting shit on, but I thought it to be a little ridiculous I was able to get to the second highest division after playing a total of 20 games. Coming from a game like League of Legends, that would never happen. At that point I hadn't even played every possible game type, and I was still getting familiar with each map.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Yeah I’m confused as to why they’d start a lot of people at Platinum. It’s why a static 1-50 level system is more simple and clearly better than this dynamic skill rating their using now.

 

[JaegerDice]

Lol if thats true about the match making, thats really dumb. I recently just started playing again after not touching halo since Reach came out. And I personally thought the match making ranking system seemed really poor. 20 ranked games in (no other game modes played) I hit diamond 2, and was constantly against high diamond (5/6) and onyx players every game. Personally I didnt really care, because I'm still not getting shit on, but I thought it to be a little ridiculous I was able to get to the second highest division after playing a total of 20 games. Coming from a game like League of Legends, that would never happen. At that point I hadn't even played every possible game type, and I was still getting familiar with each map.

I'm not sure I understand the issue. The ranking system isn't supposed to be a dick-measuring contest (though obviously it will get used as such regardless, that's what competitive people do), it's to try and ensure players are placed in fair, competitive, close matches.

So you got to Diamond 2 quickly. Great! The important point is what follows - the fact that you're not getting shit on. What you're saying can basically be translated to 'what a dumb game, it quickly and accurately determined I was a high-skill player that would perform adequately in this skill range. Can you believe it didn't take them way longer to figure out where I belong? What a bunch of fools!'

Like honestly, you are shitting on the game for being too efficient at figuring out your skill level in skill-based matchmaking?

Yeah I’m confused as to why they’d start a lot of people at Platinum. It’s why a static 1-50 level system is more simple and clearly better than this dynamic skill rating their using now.

I have warm fuzzy nostalgia for the 1-50 system too, but that system had some problems.

1) It was SUPER easy to manipulate the system by throwing games to lower your rank so that you could beat up on worse players. It became a wide-spread issue, players that had reached 50 and got bored plunging their rank to the 20s just so they could stomp on weaker players and try to climb the ladder again. Fun for them, not so much for the players that were ACTUALLY 20-30 quality players though.

2) It did nothing to account for mixed rank teams. If you happened to be a 45+ TS players and had some friends that were 30ish or so... lol, that isn't going to go well. Not only will it make matchmaking times slower, the win or loss would affect everybody's rank the same amount, even if the 30s lost to 45+ players.

I maintain an MMR that takes the expected player performance into account as far as rank reward is the best system. I'm not sure there should be carry over between ranked and social, but 343 has to do something to account for players that hone their skills in social before jumping into ranked.

 

[Peasy]

I'm not sure I understand the issue. The ranking system isn't supposed to be a dick-measuring contest (though obviously it will get used as such regardless, that's what competitive people do), it's to try and ensure players are placed in fair, competitive, close matches.

So you got to Diamond 2 quickly. Great! The important point is what follows - the fact that you're not getting shit on. What you're saying can basically be translated to 'what a dumb game, it quickly and accurately determined I was a high-skill player that would perform adequately in this skill range. Can you believe it didn't take them way longer to figure out where I belong? What a bunch of fools!'

Like honestly, you are shitting on the game for being too efficient at figuring out your skill level in skill-based matchmaking?



I have warm fuzzy nostalgia for the 1-50 system too, but that system had some problems.

1) It was SUPER easy to manipulate the system by throwing games to lower your rank so that you could beat up on worse players. It became a wide-spread issue, players that had reached 50 and got bored plunging their rank to the 20s just so they could stomp on weaker players and try to climb the ladder again. Fun for them, not so much for the players that were ACTUALLY 20-30 quality players though.

2) It did nothing to account for mixed rank teams. If you happened to be a 45+ TS players and had some friends that were 30ish or so... lol, that isn't going to go well. Not only will it make matchmaking times slower, the win or loss would affect everybody's rank the same amount, even if the 30s lost to 45+ players.

I maintain an MMR that takes the expected player performance into account as far as rank reward is the best system. I'm not sure there should be carry over between ranked and social, but 343 has to do something to account for players that hone their skills in social before jumping into ranked.

I just think it's weird how fast you can climb the ladder, whether that's good or bad. And being able to sand bag MMR makes that issue even worse. I'll talk about League of legends ranking system as what I'm familiar with. With a brand new account, to get to their diamond it would take ~100 games with like a 70% win rate in those 100 games. You can do that in like 15 games for halo infinite. You're gunna have more people that don't belong in certain divisions.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Ranked update soon.

 

[chicagoskycam]

Yeah I’m confused as to why they’d start a lot of people at Platinum. It’s why a static 1-50 level system is more simple and clearly better than this dynamic skill rating their using now.

Agreed I think I started in high plat five or six for both ranked modes and then fairly quickly moved into Diamond so it was instant sweaty games all the time. However, in the 1-50, I felt like you had this initial phase anyways of easy games until your rank settled in and then it was extremely difficult to move it and we started seeing a lot of players with 2nd accounts or boost accounts

 

[x Tame Impala]

Agreed I think I started in high plat five or six for both ranked modes and then fairly quickly moved into Diamond so it was instant sweaty games all the time. However, in the 1-50, I felt like you had this initial phase anyways of easy games until your rank settled in and then it was extremely difficult to move it and we started seeing a lot of players with 2nd accounts or boost accounts

2nd accounts/boost accounts can be fixed simply by prioritizing the highest level in the fireteam. Instead of me being a 35 playing with a friend who is a 2 and getting matched up against a bunch of 17's or 20's, set the lowest possible overall to be something in the 28-37 range.

It's just a very straightforward way of representing how good you are in ranked. Again the current tiers and the 1-6 structure is boring and unrewarding. They brought back MCC, fixed it up, and it flourished. People like the number ranks. It's cooler to look at and lets the people you're playing with/against have a better idea of how good everyone is.

Their needs to be straightforward ranks as well as leaderboards. I think it keeps things fresh and competitive. As it is now, rank is only for one single playlist and it's an obscure designation that that really the only person who sees it is yourself. Contrary to @JaegerDice 's opinion, people do still care about competition and seeing where they stack up against other players.

They'll never be able to bring social public lobbies before/after matchmaking games but they should at least load all 8 of us in H2 and H3 style with everyone's ranks next to their gamertag. Or even just display it next to our gamertag during the armor showoff/pose party we have now instead. Now this is a f***ing rant. This is what i don't understand about the appeal to 343's new system. Rank is relatively meaningless. It serves solely to determine your QoC in each match, what has replaced rank as the carrot on the end of the stick is now just a Battle Pass fueled race to some neon f***ing cat ears or a new samurai elbow pad. Just like Ultimate Team modes there's a system in place that STRONGLY pushes everyone towards grinding weak challenges to get mediocre cosmetic rewards.

There is one single ranked playlist and that's it. Why? Do people really enjoy playing Fiesta AGAIN for no other purpose than to grind for gear. Am I some relic from a bygone era 15 years ago? I want separate ranked playlists for: Slayer, FFA, 2v2, BTB, Objective, even add Attrition or Tac Slayer. But these shouldn't be boiled down to rotations in one single playlist. Ranked is the most fun because you have to get better to win more. I don't know how, why, or when the appeal for that got traded away to get basic color palette's for your armor or have a glowing skull appear over someone's dead body when you kill them with a Ravager in Fiesta.

 

[Blitzkrug]

You are a relic. As am I. That's why I've basically dropped multiplayer games wholesale.

Halo was my last bastion of "well maybe this one will be good" only to realize it's the same shit. Game is designed to get you to only care about grinding useless cosmetics with insidious matchmaking to back it up. To put it into perspective, they somehow f***ing ruined Feista. Feista was amazing for just kicking back in but now every game is somehow a total sweat fest.

Even MLB 21 got me in the same loop where I was grinding for the sake of grinding. It's awful

 

[x Tame Impala]

You are a seperate relic. As am I. That's why I've basically dropped multiplayer games wholesale.

Halo was my last bastion of "well maybe this one will be good" only to realize it's the same shit. Game is designed to get you to only care about grinding useless cosmetics with insidious matchmaking to back it up.

Even MLB 21 got me in the same loop where I was grinding for the sake of grinding. It's awful

Yeah the other day I turned my xbox on at 6:15AM before i made breakfast and got ready for work just to make sure i got a HUT collectible in time. I'm in my 30's what am i doing!? I haven't touched the game since and am probably soured from UT for a while. It's impressive how they grab you without you realizing.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Yeah the other day I turned my xbox on at 6:15AM before i made breakfast and got ready for work just to make sure i got a HUT collectible in time. I'm in my 30's what am i doing!? I haven't touched the game since and am probably soured from UT for a while. It's impressive how they grab you without you realizing.

I had the same problem with HUT last year too.

Started it, was like "oh my team is actually solid" and then the content cycle started. Oh this card is good I should buy some packs. Next week? Same thing.

I didn't waste a ton of money (I think like a couple hundred bucks? Which for a single guy isn't really much) because I snapped out of it within 2 months but looking back I was like "holy shit they really do get you." Even for someone as myself who doesn't really have an addictive personality/tendencies.

I straight up deleted my team. Was it a waste? Sure, but it's certainly better than still being roped in. Haven't touched HUT since but I did buy 22 since it's like one of three games the boys actually want to play.

Halo is really no different in how it weaponizes FOMO and "hype" to rope people in and turns others into drones grinding for dank cosmetics.

 

[chicagoskycam]

2nd accounts/boost accounts can be fixed simply by prioritizing the highest level in the fireteam. Instead of me being a 35 playing with a friend who is a 2 and getting matched up against a bunch of 17's or 20's, set the lowest possible overall to be something in the 28-37 range.

It's just a very straightforward way of representing how good you are in ranked. Again the current tiers and the 1-6 structure is boring and unrewarding. They brought back MCC, fixed it up, and it flourished. People like the number ranks. It's cooler to look at and lets the people you're playing with/against have a better idea of how good everyone is.

Their needs to be straightforward ranks as well as leaderboards. I think it keeps things fresh and competitive. As it is now, rank is only for one single playlist and it's an obscure designation that that really the only person who sees it is yourself. Contrary to @JaegerDice 's opinion, people do still care about competition and seeing where they stack up against other players.

They'll never be able to bring social public lobbies before/after matchmaking games but they should at least load all 8 of us in H2 and H3 style with everyone's ranks next to their gamertag. Or even just display it next to our gamertag during the armor showoff/pose party we have now instead. Now this is a f***ing rant. This is what i don't understand about the appeal to 343's new system. Rank is relatively meaningless. It serves solely to determine your QoC in each match, what has replaced rank as the carrot on the end of the stick is now just a Battle Pass fueled race to some neon f***ing cat ears or a new samurai elbow pad. Just like Ultimate Team modes there's a system in place that STRONGLY pushes everyone towards grinding weak challenges to get mediocre cosmetic rewards.

There is one single ranked playlist and that's it. Why? Do people really enjoy playing Fiesta AGAIN for no other purpose than to grind for gear. Am I some relic from a bygone era 15 years ago? I want separate ranked playlists for: Slayer, FFA, 2v2, BTB, Objective, even add Attrition or Tac Slayer. But these shouldn't be boiled down to rotations in one single playlist. Ranked is the most fun because you have to get better to win more. I don't know how, why, or when the appeal for that got traded away to get basic color palette's for your armor or have a glowing skull appear over someone's dead body when you kill them with a Ravager in Fiesta.

the only thing I’ll say about prioritizing the top rank, your team will get smoked if their ranks are actually representative of their play. I have a few friends that are gold and we typically play diamonds/high plat. They don’t do very well relative to when I’m not in the group. We almost can’t play together.

 

[Soedy]

Finally finished the campaign on legendary. One of the easier ones. But these god damn bosses were so annoying, minus the Harbinger which I actually quite enjoyed.

I hate these bullet sponge bosses so much.

 

[Super Cake]

f*** Fiesta

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

I love Fiesta, but its always dependent on weapon luck.

 

[Beezers Mask]

People who quit mid game in ranked can just eat shit

 

[Soedy]

I barely play this game in multiplayer, I am back to MCC. I don't know what it is, but I play one or max. 2 rounds and I am bored. I really wish they had a social Slayer BR mode and modes like King of the Hill. Also, a few new maps would be nice.

 

[LarKing]

Yeah we’re months into this and still have like 3 maps per game mode. Pathetic.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Yeah we’re months into this and still have like 3 maps per game mode. Pathetic.

Just be patient, they're working really hard

 

[x Tame Impala]

I am pleasantly surprised by the initial 4v4 maps 343 put out. For the most part i think we can all agree these maps don't get in the way of a good Halo experience at the very least. But we need more variety! This is the problem i ran into with Halo 5, it felt like i'm playing on the same half dozen maps over and over and over and over and over and over.

Maybe a simple solution to this would be for 343 to polish up some maps from the MCC and put them into the Infinite rotation. Even if they chose 1 map from each game, that's 5 "new" maps to play on. Even that would do wonders in terms of spicing it up. There are SO MANY great maps to choose from and considering how 343 did such an awesome job IMHO of making Infinite feel like a modernized version of the Bungie Halo's, I think the maps would blend perfectly.

Right now I can play 4v4 on Infinite and play 1 of 7 maps. Or i can hop on MCC and set my 4v4 parameters as i please, or not at all, and play on one of what...60 maps? Maybe ever Battle Pass season could even feature 2-3 updated maps from the game it's representing.

So for this 1st Battle Pass they could've included Powerhouse, Sword Base, and Anchor 9 for Reach. Next one presumably being HCE themed could have Damnation, Sidewinder, and Hang 'Em High...or whatever. Something. Anything. We need more maps to play on and they've got a huge catalogue to copy/paste from.

 

[chicagoskycam]

Yeah the game is getting stale with a lack of content and maps. I have to believe they see their user numbers dropping and will act.