Halo 4 news for early 2013

Mickeroo · 10-01-2013 3:05pm #1

343 released a bulletin on the waypoint blog today. Here's whats lined up for the next month or two:

As far as Halo 4 goes, we have some fun stuff planned for late January and beyond. After the Infinity Challenge concludes, regular Matchmaking updates will start up again (and that includes the return of the second half of Spartan Ops Season 1, which features brand new stories, missions and locations). It’s important to note the below scheduled is not finalized and could very well change, but as of right now, here is what we’re tentatively planning:

Week of 1/21
Spartan Ops Episode 6: Five new missions and an accompanying new CG cinematic.
"Forge Test" playlist (name not final): A rotational hopper featuring small Forge maps such as Relay. Help us test these maps by providing feedback and reporting bugs that will assist us in getting them ready for Matchmaking!
Specializations: Pioneer and Pathfinder Specializations unlocked for all players.

Week of 1/28
Spartan Ops Episode 7: Five new missions and an accompanying new CG cinematic.
Grifball playlist: A rotational hopper featuring everybody’s favorite virtual sport. Catch the disease!
Specializations: Engineer and Stalker Specializations unlocked for all players.

Week of 2/4
Spartan Ops Episode 8: Five new missions and an accompanying new CG cinematic.
Team Doubles playlist: A rotational hopper for those of you that like action of the 2 vs 2 variety.
Specializations: Rogue and Tracker Specializations unlocked for all players.

Matchmaking updates go live every Monday, and potential playlists for the month of February include both FFA and a new and improved version of Team Snipers. Late February will also bring both a Title Update and the Majestic Map Pack (which includes two small maps and one medium-sized map) to Halo 4 as well. Expect more information on all of those things next month.

Delighted to see a Forge playlist on the way, and team snipers too. And at least I now know when I'll be able to get the rest of the specialisations.

The fact they mentioned nothing about a ranking system (even one on waypoint) doesn't bode well though.

Full blog here: http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2013/01/09/The-Halo-Bulletin-1913.aspx

[Deleted User] · 10-01-2013 3:41pm

Mickeroo wrote: »

And at least I now know when I'll be able to get the rest of the specialisations.

I thought anyone could get them?

maximoose · 10-01-2013 3:48pm

Forge playlist is good news, but I want my damn ranking system :pac:

Mickeroo · 10-01-2013 4:03pm

urbanledge wrote: »

I thought anyone could get them?

No you need a code that came with the limited edition, otherwise there's only two.

Yeah, not mentioning ranking doesn't fill me with confidence, but I have to say they do seem to be listening to the community in general in dome regards which is promising.

maximoose · 10-01-2013 4:08pm

I wonder what exactly is ""new and improved" about the Team Snipers

Mickeroo · 10-01-2013 4:21pm

maximoose wrote: »

I wonder what exactly is ""new and improved" about the Team Snipers

Not sure, apparently it was already up for a while? but that was before I started on the multiplayer. You play much of it then?

I'm guessing their must have been complaints about it for them to take it down.

[Deleted User] · 10-01-2013 5:03pm

I can pick them and I never had to enter any codes!

maximoose · 10-01-2013 5:20pm

Mickeroo wrote: »

Not sure, apparently it was already up for a while? but that was before I started on the multiplayer. You play much of it then?

I'm guessing their must have been complaints about it for them to take it down.

I remember it being in the playlist alright, think I played one or two games but that was about it!

aaronjumper · 10-01-2013 7:39pm

urbanledge wrote: »

I can pick them and I never had to enter any codes!

Me too though I heard that if you were playing online on a certain date you would get them anyway. Dont know if it is true but it is what I am choosing to beleive until I find a different answer.

Level 5 Rogue.

Glad that updates will be making a comeback.

Mickeroo · 10-01-2013 7:47pm

aaronjumper wrote: »

Me too though I heard that if you were playing online on a certain date you would get them anyway. Dont know if it is true but it is what I am choosing to beleive until I find a different answer.

Level 5 Rogue.

Glad that updates will be making a comeback.

Yeah apparently if you played matchmaking before the 20th you got them too.

Of course I didn't hear that until well after the 20th and spent the first while playing the campaign.

DeSelby83 · 13-01-2013 3:44pm

Kinda hoping that no mention of the ranking means they are going to change their plan an include it in the game and not just on waypoint.

Mickeroo · 21-01-2013 7:39pm

Forge playlist went live today, had a great game of CTF on Simplex earlier!

Lookings forward to giving the new Spartan Ops episode a go too, also great that I can finally rank higher than 70 at last!

murphyebass · 24-01-2013 7:26pm

Enjoyed the forge playlists earlier.

That said i'd like some new regicide maps. By far and away my favourite mode.

Pity that Halo 4 seems to focused mainly on team modes. Unless you have mates playin with you randomers just love wandering off in lone wolf mode which I just cant understand.

All in all though played halo 4 quite a bit since launch and still loving it.

Must get round to playing the campaign and more of the Spartan ops. I automatically go to multiplayer regicide when I put it on!

spank_inferno · 25-01-2013 12:59am

Spartan ops - Episode 6 was pretty good.

Probably the best episode levels & cinematic yet.

Mickeroo · 25-01-2013 3:57am

spank_inferno wrote: »

Spartan ops - Episode 6 was pretty good.

Probably the best episode levels & cinematic yet.

Yea it's a big improvement, they actually feel like campaign missions.

The community forge playlist is decent too, CTF on Simplex is great fun.

They've announced competitive ranking for April but its still only going to be visible on waypoint unfortunaty.

maximoose · 25-01-2013 12:37pm

murphyebass wrote: »

Pity that Halo 4 seems to focused mainly on team modes. Unless you have mates playin with you randomers just love wandering off in lone wolf mode which I just cant understand.

Yup, unless I'm playing with people I know I don't play anything other than slayer. Objective games with randomers is a lost cause.

Mickeroo · 29-01-2013 3:48pm

There's a competitive playlist on the way:

We have been hard at work on a competitive playlist featuring heavily modified versions of Slayer, CTF, Extraction and King of the Hill. This playlist will launch before CSR (mid-February) and we envision it as both the go-to place for competitive play and the premier playlist to get your 50 in. We’ve been paying close attention to the competitive community’s settings while building this playlist, and will continue to do so both pre- and post-playlist launch. We will share the first outline of the settings next week to collect community feedback and perfect the competitive playlist before going live. The name of this playlist is still TBD - please feel free to give us suggestions.

Some early details on this playlist:

4 vs 4
Pre-set game loadouts
Forced respawn timers
No instant respawn
Ordnance on re-supply timers
Join-in-progress off
No split-screen play
Friendly fire on
Max party size 4 with big party matching enforced
No guests allowed

We’ll be keeping a close eye on AGL this weekend and the settings they are using at this tournament. Please continue to provide feedback as it helps us fine-tune and perfect your Matchmaking experience, and thank you, as always, for your continued support.

link to the thread on waypoint here: https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postst182645_Upcoming-Competitive-Playlist.aspx

Slugs · 31-01-2013 12:56pm

Any signs of a doubles playlist... That's something I've been missing sorely...

Mickeroo · 31-01-2013 1:58pm

Slugs wrote: »

Any signs of a doubles playlist... That's something I've been missing sorely...

Going live on Monday ccording to 343's Bulletin:

We’re also extremely excited about the premiere of Team Doubles in Halo 4. Seriously, we’re just as pumped as you are. The Matchmaking team, Multiplayer team and Community Cartographers have been working day and night in order to prepare this playlist for your enjoyment. We’ve got 3 different game types that will be featured when the playlist launches.

Infinity Doubles offers the Infinity Slayer experience in 2 vs 2 form. In this variant, players have the option to choose their custom loadout, and instant respawn and radar are enabled. Personal ordnance will kick in at the traditional 70 point mark, but the options are tweaked specifically for Team Doubles. Games are played up to 300 points.

Doubles Pro offers an experience that features preset game loadouts. The score limit is the same as above, but radar, personal ordnance and instant respawn are disabled. Here are the loadouts that will be featured:

Loadout 1:
Starting Weapon - DMR
Secondary Weapon - Magnum
Armor Abilities - None
Tactical Mod - Resupply
Support Mod - Dexterity

Loadout 2:
Starting Weapon - BR
Secondary Weapon - Magnum
Armor Abilities - None
Tactical Mod - Resupply
Support Mod - Dexterity

Loadout 3:
Starting Weapon - LightRifle
Secondary Weapon - Magnum
Armor Abilities - None
Tactical Mod - Resupply
Support Mod - Dexterity

Loadout 4:
Starting Weapon - Carbine
Secondary Weapon - Magnum
Armor Abilities - None
Tactical Mod - Resupply
Support Mod - Dexterity

CTF Doubles offers the ever-popular Capture the Flag game type, customized for 2 vs 2 play. Custom loadouts and radar are enabled, and respawn time is set to 10 seconds. Flag settings provide an optimal experience for small maps and teams: 5 flags to win, 3 second return, and 15 second reset. Lastly, your flag does not have to be home to score.

We’re still finalizing the map pool but are happy to announce that players who enjoy the comforts of split-screen play will have the option to select on-disc maps in the first voting slot. By offering slightly modified versions of Haven, Abandon and Solace, split-screen players can be sure that they’ll have the option to play on a map that offers the best split-screen experience. Additionally, we plan to offer several of the best community Forge maps in this playlist and will continue to update the map pool on a regular basis to keep everything fresh. Additional details regarding the playlist will be posted before it launches, so keep an eye on the Matchmaking section of our forums.

Smartly Dressed · 31-01-2013 8:16pm

What a bunch of fucking morons; a massive dedication to grifball in their latest bulletin. No wonder the population is tanking.

If they only put half of that effort into giving us some good maps, respawn delay and fixing the endless list of issues.

Mickeroo · 07-02-2013 3:04pm

News on next weeks playlist updates and that:

Week of 2/11:

Bravo here! On Monday, Spartan Ops continues with episode 9, which will once again contain five new Spartan Ops missions, and as promised, Team Snipers will make its glorious return to Halo 4 Matchmaking.

We’ve tweaked it a bit – the new and improved Team Snipers will utilize the following settings:

Mode

Team Snipers

Teams - 4 vs. 4

Score to Win - 600 [60 Kills]

Loadouts - UNSC Sniper Rifle Only

Instant Respawn - Disabled

Death Cam - Disabled

Motion Tracker - Disabled

Ammo - Unlimited

Time Limit - 12 Minutes

Personal Ordnance - Disabled

Grenades - Disabled

Ordnance Drops - Disabled

These settings will appeal to diehard sniping fans by offering a playlist that focuses on one thing - sniping. With no radar, grenades, ordnance or secondary weapons, you can be sure that the better marksmen will come away with victory.

For those of you who prefer a bit more variety (and chaos) in your sniping matches, we’re also proud to bring back Shotty Snipers. This variant will appear in the Team Snipers playlist voting options but not as often as the traditional snipers-only mode. Here are the settings for Shotty Snipers:

Mode - Shotty Snipers

Teams - 4 vs. 4

Score to Win - 600 [60 Kills]

Primary - UNSC Sniper Rifle

Secondary - Shotgun

Instant Respawn - Disabled

Death Cam - Disabled

Motion Tracker - Disabled

Ammo - Unlimited

Time Limit - 12 Minutes

Personal Ordnance - Disabled

Grenades - Enabled

Ordnance Drops - Disabled

As you can see, the only differences in Shotty Snipers are the addition of the Shotgun and two Frag Grenades in your back pocket. We’ll be launching the playlist with several medium-sized maps – slightly modified versions of Haven, Abandon and some Forge favorites will be available. Also, we’re in the process of building additional new Snipers game types that we’ll introduce in upcoming weeks. For those of you wondering about the duration of the Team Snipers playlist fear not – we plan on keeping it around for a while.

As if Snipers wasn’t enough to get you excited for the upcoming week, we’re also proud to announce the addition of Team Objective, which will group together 4 vs. 4 Team Regicide, Oddball and King of the Hill (she’s back!). The biggest changes you’ll see to these game types are that Complex Oddball has been removed, and instant respawn has been disabled for both KoTH and Oddball.

Team Doubles went live on Monday morning and we’ve seen great feedback on all of the included game types. We have already made some updates to the playlist: Some of you may have noticed that Infinity Ordnance was not specifically tuned for 2 vs. 2 play, as we had announced. As soon as we noticed this problem, we deployed an update overnight. You should now see options that are more appropriate for Team Doubles – this means no Incineration Cannons, Rocket Launchers, Sniper Rifles, Overshields, etc. in personal ordnance. Keep in mind that some of these are still available as recurring weapon drops on some of the Team Doubles maps. In response to community feedback, we’ve also disabled instant respawn in Infinity Doubles to improve game flow, addressed some wacky spawn issues on Haven and fixed the Sticky Detonator spawn on Dispatch. It will now be on a 180 second resupply timer with 2 spare clips. These fixes will be live on Monday, along with next week’s update.

Full bulletin here: http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2013/02/06/The-Halo-Bulletin-2613.aspx

Slugs · 07-02-2013 3:07pm

Shotty Snipers... Delighted to see that back in the mix... If only there was a Pit remake I could play it on... Ah the memories....

Mickeroo · 14-02-2013 2:24pm

This weeks Bulletin is up, another playlist update coming next monday:http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2013/02/13/The-Halo-Bulletin-21313.aspx

This time its a 4v4 "competitive" playlist called Team Throwdown. It has fixed loadouts and all that stuff although it looks like personal ordinance is still enabled, which seems odd to me for a playlist of that nature. Seems they're trying to get the game back to its roots more and more which is no bad thing. I've already noticed an increase in players online since Doubles and Snipers were braught in.

They also mention a title update thats due in the next few weeks, they're nerfing the Boltshot thank feck.

DeSelby83 · 14-02-2013 6:04pm

is it me or do they seem to be actually listening to the community on a lot of things, fair play to them. lets hope they keep it up and keep the numbers playing the game

maximoose · 14-02-2013 6:07pm

Like a broken record now but all I want them to listen to is the cries for in game ranking

Mickeroo · 22-02-2013 7:17pm

Yesterdays bulletin: http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2013/02/20/The-Halo-Bulletin-22013.aspx

Mainly about the new map pack this week, but also gives the breakdown of the title update too (which went live yesterday):

Gameplay

• Reduced the range of the Boltshot’s damage scaling over distance. The previous effective range for 1-hit kills was around 20-25'. The range has been reduced to 15'.
• Fixed an issue where modified loadouts were not being saved correctly.
• Fixed an issue where attempting to sprint while crouching using “hold to crouch” would cause players to be unable to shoot for 1-1.5 seconds.
• Fixed an issue where some players were not able to get into matches on new map/game variants after playlist updates.
• Fixed a DLC-related Join-in-Progress issue that kicked players back to the title screen.
• Fixed various issues regarding glitched Autosentry deployment.
• Fixed an issue where one player per session was unable to stay scoped with the Flagnum.
• Fixed an issue where clients playing multi-round matches were not propelled by Man Cannons after the first round on Wreckage.
• Fixed an issue for players who had licensed content for the specialization offer, and had the free Map Pack content, but did not have the Map Pass or Map Pack license by displaying a new error message: “You have Map Pack content that requires a license. Please purchase the War Games Map Pass, purchase the Map Pack individually, or delete the Map Pack content from your console.”

Vehicles

• Fixed issues with friendly fire against vehicles. If FF is disabled, damage/EMPs from friendly sources will no longer damage vehicles that are fully controlled by your team.
• Fixed an issue with where the Wraith secondary turret became disabled when shot with a Plasma Pistol. The feature has been updated to be consistent with previous Halo titles.
• Fixed a Mantis functionality exploit that allowed pilots to survive planted grenades.

Specific Game Modes

• Friendly fire turned off in Flood to prevent exploits.
• Fixed Flood character models to allow for Warthog and Mongoose use.
• Fixed an inconsistency with King of the Hill deathcam.
• Fixed an issue where the Grifball would get stuck in geometry and never respawn.
• Fixed the issue for Extraction where players did not regain full control of their character for extended periods of time after interacting with a site.
• Fixed multiple Extraction scoring issues, including an overtime fix that ensures that a victory will not be awarded to a team who is controlling the go-ahead extraction point when the game ends.

Custom Games

• Fixed an issue that did not allow players to create respawn timers or disable instant respawn in custom games.
• Fixed an issue on Shatter where players couldn’t start a custom Dominion game.
• Fixed an issue where the Ordnance game options reset when scrolling up or down in custom games.
• Fixed an issue where custom game descriptions did not appear in the “Settings” preview screen.
• Fixed inconsistencies and bugs in the final death cam for custom games.

Spartan Ops

• Fixed an issue where the “Dedicated to Crimson” Achievement could not be unlocked.
• Fixed an issue where players in Spartan Ops Episode 6 Mission 1 were able to look around before the vignette.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed a selection of issues where theater clips were missing map-specific audio, including ambient noise and announcer voice.
• Fixed File Share preview images for films and map variants.
• Fixed issues with in-game translations.
• Fixed title screen camera clipping.
• Fixed an issue with Forge pieces and the shadows they create.
• Fixed aliasing split screen HUD issues.
• Fixed an issue where some saved films of Forge games featured no Forge lighting.
• Fixed incorrect “change description” text in File Browser.
• Fixed assorted crashes.

Mickeroo · 07-03-2013 1:51pm

Looking forward to next week's playlist update. They're bringing in Action Sack which will have some pretty random game modes in it. Should be able to rank up that Binary Rifle a bit quicker now:

Bravo here with the Matchmaking update! On Monday, Spartan Ops continues with an encore presentation of episode 7. In War Games, we’ll be premiering the Team Action Sack playlist. This 4 vs. 4 playlist is guaranteed to bring explosions, laughs and just the right amount of chaos with non-traditional starting weapons and pre-set game loadouts. We have been building a number of these game types over the past few months and will be adding new variants on a regular basis. While we haven’t locked down what the playlist will launch with, here are some of the game modes you can expect in the near future:

Binary Slayer
As IGN showed off in December, Binary Slayer features decreased gravity, increased speed, sniping and lots and lots of thrusting [bs angel note: You had me at thrusting.]. Check out the link above to learn how to build this game type through custom game options and play with your friends before the playlist goes live next week.

Lightning CTF
Your starting weapon is the LightRifle and one shot – anywhere – kills. With a 5-second respawn, touch Flag return and no motion sensor, Lightning CTF brings an entirely new Capture the Flag experience to Action Sack and Halo 4. Also, the Flag carrier keeps the LightRifle out when running the Flag!

Rockets & Rails
This new game mode features 3 things: Rocket Launchers, Railguns and Jet Packs. Oh, and it also has lots of explosions.

Halo 4 Screenshot

Team Fiesta
Everyone loves parties – especially big parties with lots of random weapons. Fiesta is back, so you can now kill and be killed by the entire Halo 4 sandbox in one single game.

We’re currently building many more Action Sack game modes, some of which will launch with the playlist on Monday, and others that will be introduced in upcoming weeks. Be on the lookout for the final Matchmaking update on Monday, which will detail all of the playlist’s modes and maps.

We know many of you have been excitedly awaiting this playlist, and we look forward to not only hearing your feedback, but also your suggestions for crazy and new Action Sack-ish game types. Head to the War Games feedback section and let us know what you think next week.

We are also in the process of finalizing our FFA playlist, which will feature both Infinity Rumble and Rumble Pro on a wide variety of maps, including specifically tuned on-disc and Majestic DLC map variants. We’ll post additional details closer to the playlist’s launch.

If there’s no Matchmaking Update next week, it’s because I’m at home playing Action Sack. But seriously, I’m going to be at home playing Action Sack.

Full bulletin here: http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2013/03/06/The-Halo-Bulletin-3613.aspx

There's an interview with Greg Bear there too for fans of the books.

maximoose · 07-03-2013 2:23pm

Lightning CTF sounds crazy!

Mickeroo · 07-03-2013 3:14pm

Yeah and in Binary slayer your secondary is an energy sword plus the the thruster pack is infinite. Look at the video in the link for it, looks like mad craic.

Halo 4 news for early 2013

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