How do I search for Sparton Ops games that are not just from the first episode? I go to find games and it only give me the 5 missions from episode 1. I must be missing something here.

You can only match make five episodes per week.

@big_jon: Well that's stupid. I'm assuming I can search for games in episode 2 next week?

I think so, since they are taking a month off till the next episode I believe they're running back through them in order.

If you want someone to play them with though I am available.

@big_jon: Not right now, thanks. I'll hit you up in the future though if I need a partner.

@Colourful_Hippie said:

@big_jon: Well that's stupid.

You are talking about a company that put a daily cap on exp points. I think once you've reached that point then all bet are off.

I really don't like that there's only one Spartan Ops playlist in the matchmaking at one time. That mode isn't well-designed enough for me to really be that enthusiastic about it even when it is, but if I can't pull other people into it, it makes me not want to play it at all. It also means that anyone who got the game even a week after launch is going to have to wait until 343 presumably loop back through the episodes again, if they want to play them matchmade.

The system could use some work. Right now they're trying to do that "omg you seen/played the new episode?!" thing.
 
Also, people would never stop playing Two Giants. Ever.

@Gamer_152 said:

I really don't like that there's only one Spartan Ops playlist in the matchmaking at one time. That mode isn't well-designed enough for me to really be that enthusiastic about it even when it is, but if I can't pull other people into it, it makes me not want to play it at all. It also means that anyone who got the game even a week after launch is going to have to wait until 343 presumably loop back through the episodes again, if they want to play them matchmade.

Your long wait is over - new episodes don't start again until January 21st. Until then, they are going to loop through all of the episodes again for matchmaking, along with a "best of" list.

I assume the reason for rotating them through matchmaking, is so that they don't split players up 25 ways. By the end of the week, most chapters have around 1000 at most queuing up for them, and that's with only five episodes at a time.

@Scotto said:

@Gamer_152 said:

I really don't like that there's only one Spartan Ops playlist in the matchmaking at one time. That mode isn't well-designed enough for me to really be that enthusiastic about it even when it is, but if I can't pull other people into it, it makes me not want to play it at all. It also means that anyone who got the game even a week after launch is going to have to wait until 343 presumably loop back through the episodes again, if they want to play them matchmade.

Your long wait is over - new episodes don't start again until January 21st. Until then, they are going to loop through all of the episodes again for matchmaking, along with a "best of" list.

I assume the reason for rotating them through matchmaking, is so that they don't split players up 25 ways. By the end of the week, most chapters have around 1000 at most queuing up for them, and that's with only five episodes at a time.

Thank you for the confirmation, but I disagree with you about the matchmaking in Spartan Ops. Think about it, even if they really did make it possible to matchmake for all the episodes at once, people wouldn't split themselves 25 ways between the content, there would always be more people who wanted to play and finish the new content, than people replaying the old stuff. And for people who wanted to replay old content, there's nothing to say that there couldn't be a playlist they could enter which would match them up with players who are looking to finish specific older episodes for the first time.

I think the real reason they change the matchmade playlists every week is so that people keep coming back to the game to play more, which could conceivably be beneficial for the player, but I don't think it's worth locking people out of matchmaking for 80% of the content, a figure that's only going to keep rising. Anyone who gets Halo 4 for Christmas is going to have 20 episodes out of 25 uncompleted and won't be able to find players online to help them complete them.

@Gamer_152 said:

@Scotto said:

@Gamer_152 said:

I really don't like that there's only one Spartan Ops playlist in the matchmaking at one time. That mode isn't well-designed enough for me to really be that enthusiastic about it even when it is, but if I can't pull other people into it, it makes me not want to play it at all. It also means that anyone who got the game even a week after launch is going to have to wait until 343 presumably loop back through the episodes again, if they want to play them matchmade.

Your long wait is over - new episodes don't start again until January 21st. Until then, they are going to loop through all of the episodes again for matchmaking, along with a "best of" list.

I assume the reason for rotating them through matchmaking, is so that they don't split players up 25 ways. By the end of the week, most chapters have around 1000 at most queuing up for them, and that's with only five episodes at a time.

Thank you for the confirmation, but I disagree with you about the matchmaking in Spartan Ops. Think about it, even if they really did make it possible to matchmake for all the episodes at once, people wouldn't split themselves 25 ways between the content, there would always be more people who wanted to play and finish the new content, than people replaying the old stuff. And for people who wanted to replay old content, there's nothing to say that there couldn't be a playlist they could enter which would match them up with players who are looking to finish specific older episodes for the first time.

I think the real reason they change the matchmade playlists every week is so that people keep coming back to the game to play more, which could conceivably be beneficial for the player, but I don't think it's worth locking people out of matchmaking for 80% of the content, a figure that's only going to keep rising. Anyone who gets Halo 4 for Christmas is going to have 20 episodes out of 25 uncompleted and won't be able to find players online to help them complete them.

I think the decision to loop back through the old episodes between now and January 21st, is precisely BECAUSE of Christmas.

I agree with you that the time-sensitive matchmaking isn't ideal - I'm merely saying what their argument for it might be.

And yes, I don't think it's any big secret that the entire point of Spartan Ops is to keep players coming back for the new missions and story crumbs they are doling out.

@Scotto: Just to clarify, I hope it didn't seem like my post was hostile or angry in any way, because that wasn't the case, I'm at most a little frustrated with 343 over this, I have no issue with you. Unless I've got this wrong though, isn't it going to be the case that Christmas Day will hit about half way through them running back through all the Spartan Ops episodes, so those starting on Christmas Day will actually begin their journey around Episode 3? If that's the case then it would seem unlikely that they'd decide to do this rerun because it's Christmas.

@Gamer_152: Pretty sure this week is a "best of" playlist, and I'm guessing the episode re-run will start next week - meaning people who get the game on Christmas day will have missed the first episode only. It's a small bummer, but not a big deal. I bought the game on day one, and missed the first two weeks of Spartan Ops because I was playing other stuff.

Eventually roped my friend into doing the first week's episodes with me, and still haven't done the second week. Keep in mind it's still totally possible to do them by yourself, too.

@Scotto: Yeah, I guess it's not that bad in itself, but it's one more thing on top of all the other problems with Spartan Ops, and I've generally been left really soured with that mode, when the rest of the game is pretty fantastic.

@Gamer_152: The mode is a bit half-baked, but I've been enjoying it. It's basically just Firefight with some side-story context given to it. The missions they've chosen for the "Best Of" playlist this week, are all pretty good too (just checked a few minutes ago to see what they were).

They aren't up to the standards of the proper game missions, but then, I never expected them to be even close. But if you just want to get four dudes together and fight waves of enemies, it gets the job done. Plus, you get 4-5 minutes of well-produced CG story cutscene every week, which is cool.

As long as the story remains mostly interesting, I'll keep playing it. The addition of Dr. Halsey to the plot, makes me wonder if the Spartan Ops story will bridge Halo 4 and 5, in which case it becomes even more worth playing through at least once. Then again, I've always been a bit of a lore-geek when it comes to my sci-fi.