SushiNao

This just released via Machinima Prime, and after watching it, I have to say I'm quite pleased with the direction they're taking. It's got gravitas and some subtlety in its story-telling, and some of the shots push all the right classic sci-fi buttons. I recommend it.

Hey guys, I've just caught up on the thread, and I appreciate that I was able to stimulate some solid discussion about the nature of custom gaming in Halo. I'm thinking that I may have still been approaching this in terms of Bungie's extremely rigid 'experience quality control', which informed everything from the necessity for clean UI, to making a new users' first matchmaking experience enjoyable, to a veteran user knowing *exactly* why they're not performing well or having a good time. I still stand by the fact that there's far too many possible variables, inserted via extremely subtle forging, to maintain a perfect user experience, but maybe perfection isn't what's necessary.

I tend to take my Halo pretty seriously. I want competitive customs on creative, balanced maps, forged by people that have the same dedication to the user experience as myself. I'm realizing that this was influenced by Bungie's strict design, but it's also affected by my experiences in the last years of Halo 3's popularity, in which every custom game was a shitty Infection variant, often with power weapons wielded by the host/map creators, and the zombies scrambling with no cover. Yes, I can leave and see what else I can find, but there was no sure way to know that I would find a better play experience somewhere else.

Upon further thought, I'm realizing that the vast ocean of possible custom games being run would mean that there would be serious, competitive play, and it would be much more easily found. I still think that strict quality control governing map and gametype design is by far the best approach. Even though some feel they want more openness, they may not realize how much their fun can be affected by small changes; however, I definitely concede there are ways to go with this, with enough engineering creativity. Perhaps for Halo 5!

Thanks for the thoughtful discussion, guys. I hope you'll have more to add.

@huntad said:

@DrFlapjack: WTF? Where is this confirmed? That's a very, very odd choice!

It's actually not that bad, it's part of the whole "flag experience"... when you pick it up, the announcer shouts to get the flag back to your base, the music starts, you feel exposed but important, and you start hustling.. it actually feels quite appropriate. Yeah, lots of people are gonna want to just play for kills in CTF, but with 100 points for capping a flag and a lot of points for winning an objective match, you will get people playing the capture role too. I played this mode at PAX, and enjoyed it a lot. Really, objective is such a suffering playlist, anything that makes it more exciting and complete for the masses is good, and that's what this feels like this does.

@TheSouthernDandy said:

I think it would work fine. If you make it clear that matchmaking is the mp you expect and custom maps is the wild west and you could run into anything people would figure it out. You implement a voting system of some kind so the good maps rise to the top and the crap ones sink. You make the custom maps searchable by type for somebody who wants to play new slayer maps or wants to play something crazy. All this stuff was done in Trials Evolution and for the most part worked great.

And honestly if somebody goes into the wrong area, has one bad game and quits, then they're not the type to stick with the game regardless. Plus it's Halo, it's a known quantity at this point.

These are some really good points, Little Big Planet also came to mind while reading your post. I wonder if maybe Bungie's insanely high experience quality bar is colouring my thinking on the possibilities here. Thanks for the fresh viewpoint

@cmblasko said:

Worked fine for Counter Strike.

I haven't played it much, but I would think that there's no way to influence weapon availability unfairly in a custom game?

@Soapy86 said:

Give players the option to choose browser or matchmaking. Provide further options to block forge maps. Done.

Extra options tend to confuse new players, but fair enough. However, many MLG maps are made in forge, or are forge tweaked versions of existing maps, and those would probably be in high demand for the type of player who would use a custom browser. Simply removing forged maps is too broad a stroke

I often hear, in response to matchmaking and playlist complaints, that as an adjunct to matchmaking there should be a custom games browser. In theory, players would search for and match into games hosted by others around the world, ameliorating most of the concerns of map and gametype voting that matchmaking can subject players to. Players get the play experience they want, and all that has to be done is a bit of UI and networking.

Sounds reasonable, but giving Halo players anonymity, an audience, and Forge are why it can never work.

Players expecting a competitive, fun experience on their favourite map will be instead joining a forged-to-hell playspace where they and their friends are immobile and unable to do damage; their hosts with infinite sniper spawns and free movement, racking up sweet kills and lulz.

Given the chance, Halo players will routinely be terribly exploitative of their fellow players (case in point: Space area in Zealot) and a custom game browser would only bring this exploitation to the forefront, with only small percentage of maps actually being legitimately fair and fun to play.

While gametype options (health, player speed, starting weapons) can easily be represented in the UI at the beginning of the match, it would be almost impossible to represent the entirety of a map's possible Forge changes at the start of a round. Even if that could be accomplished, it would most likely be cluttered, and wide open for exploitation and hidden tweaks that give the host an unfair advantage.

Reporting offending hosts/maps would quickly become unwieldy, and impossible to oversee and govern. In fact, some people would take the chance to be as grossly offensive as possible in their map layouts, further clogging the reporting system.

Players do have the option to not enter this browser, but it has to be considered that people who don't play games much may accidentally or on a whim try to match into a custom game. If their first experience is unfair and/or offensive, they may not play the game much again, and will tell their friends exactly why. This kind of player needs to be considered from a design standpoint.

Discuss :)

Man, I can't imagine the amount of salty tears if they actually went in a radically different direction with this Halo. I think their main focus will be establishing their credibility as a competent Halo development team, as well as a focus on the Forerunner aspects of the universe (which Bungie mystifyingly moved away from, with weak, blocky human environments). Halo 5 will provide a chance to truly spread their wings and take some chances, after 4 builds up good-will and funding for later experimentation.

I've heard that boosting, account sales/hacking and general rank harassment are some of the main reasons that the ranking system was changed from Halo 3 to Reach (and even, via title update, in Halo 3 itself). Anything that encourages egregious TOS violations is bound to be looked at pretty closely. Maybe Halo 4's engineers will find a solution that makes sense, although I don't particularly care about rankings at all.

From the Shadowrun Wiki:

Cybermancy is a combined magical and cybernetic technique that keeps a metahuman's spirit caught in a technically dead body. It allows a cybersurgeon to install more cyberware into a metahuman than previously thought possible. All this comes at a tremendous cost to mind, body, and spirit. The subjects who undergo this procedure are known as "cyberzombies".

It fits.. when you die, you're resurrected via implants, hormones, etc. It's a bit of a weird word, but it does have foundation in universes like this.