Really enjoyed that, despite being mostly useless šŸ™‚

This seems relevant :

    We had some good fun last night. Mostly big team battle but also some smaller matches - OddBall was good fun 4v4.

    We universally agreed that the Levelling / Battle Pass system is stingier than Scrooge. Even with the recent concessions made 50xp for match participation means unless you complete a challenge you need to complete 20 matches to level up. Itā€™s not like you are showered with achievable challenges either. A small active set of 3 or 4 at any one time, including ones which encourage you to play in a non-optimal way to complete and therefore mess with the core point of winning the match. E.g. get 15 kills with a pistol.

    Either they need to link XP in some way to performance in match (point you get and whether you win or not doesnā€™t get you any XP currently), or the set of challenges needs to be much wider so you are consistently completing them as a matter of just playing.

    I canā€™t see how they thought this would work, or how they thought 50xp for completing a match is more than a minor token gesture.

    I was looking at the battle pass stuff last night. The vast majority of the rewards are really underwhelming. Itā€™s very slight variations on armour designs mostly, and then, out of nowhere, a helmet thatā€™s on fire for some reason. No doubt theyā€™ll expand and add to it over time, but the combination of painfully slow progress and lacklustre rewards is a bit unfortunate at the moment.

    Gordon that thread has other cunning ideas discussed. The Razorback can ferry 2 cells for example. You can also use the rapple to interact with the skull and flag.

      Thereā€™s potential for an honest to goodness regular halo night with this I think. Letā€™s see if we can herd enough grumpy old cats to make it work šŸ˜‰

      So remember I couldnā€™t really explain the very cool thing I managed to pull off last night?

      Had a couple of really good sessions in this last night. I suspect because the matchmaking is kicking in more than me improving. but iā€™m starting to get a nearly even to sometimes positive KDR by the end of most matches now.

      Might be worth doing some matches this week as thereā€™s an extra event/mode which nets you some nice extras. It still helps you level the main battle pass but itā€™s also got itā€™s own (free) levelling system. I got a challenge swap, 250 extra xp and a nice background as a reward over the eveningā€™s play. I actually went from a low 3 to a 4 in the main pass doing it.

      Thereā€™s also a genuinely swish armour set within reach for me now after one nightā€™s play.

      Tried to join you a few times from about 10.30pm onwards. Still canā€™t work out this Fireteam malarky. Had quite a few games of Fiesta. This really is up there with Blur for me, in that even being bottom of the board, Iā€™m still having fun.

      Send me a message matey and Iā€™ll invite you. It might have been because I was mid match at the time.

      Rachelā€™s got her one day in the office a week today, so is back late and therefore may have possession of TV privileges or may be nattering at me even if Iā€™m online. But try anyway, Iā€™ll reply if I can šŸ˜‰

      Seriously good night on this tonight.

      Thatā€™s (in order): the best, most ridiculous multi kill Iā€™ve had in years, the best headshot in the same time frame, and me being saved by @SRR and his mighty golf swing. Itā€™s only about 30 seconds long.

      • SRR replied to this.

        Brave
        Top night sir. Iā€™m not sure if he was coming for you or running from me, but he did get clonked by the hammer.
        Sorry I suddenly disappeared, but it happens every night.

            SRR I take it you have no recollection of it in the morning. Just torn clothes and fur all over the place šŸ˜‰

              I hadnā€™t really been paying attention but like BF2042 you canā€™t easily turn off crossplay with PC players in Halo Infinite either. It requires you turn it off in the XBox system settings and make it for all games. You can choose to only be matched with those on similar control schemes in ranked arena matches.

              Controller setup and aim assist balance seems good in Halo, so thatā€™s a plus, and you donā€™t get the constant stream of smack talk in the chat window that you do in BF. But - and itā€™s a pretty big one - videos of people using aimbots, wall hacks etc in Halo are already appearing. šŸ™

                DrDamn tbh halo has always been a little better in terms of balancing the mouse and keyboard speed so that itā€™s not overpowering for controller opponents.

                Iā€™ve not come across many people where I thought thatā€™s definitely mouse and keyboard. In fact I got a 17.1 kda last night (and generally got quite a few results over 10.0) and that wouldnā€™t happen if it was being dominated by the mouse users.

                And yeah thatā€™s a humblebrag. Iā€™m going to boast about that at the age of 50 with the reflexes of a corpse.

                That isnā€™t the 17.1 one, but Iā€™m still pleased with it. šŸ™‚

                  The controller vs. M&K balance is definitely fine - much better than BF where TTK is much quicker too, so Iā€™m happy to play vs PC gamers in general. Itā€™s the cheats which are more of a concern. And obvious from the functionality Halo theatre provides where you can go back and watch matches from the opponents view.

                  https://www.vg247.com/halo-infinite-multiplayer-beta-hackers-cheaters

                  The other point is that the lack of an option to turn off crossplay for a specific game appears to be something MS themselves are pushing. BF2042 had it working on XBox in the Beta but it is disabled in the full release and DICE arenā€™t commenting on it aside from saying you can disable in your system settings. BF2042 has the option working in the PS version of the game.

                    DrDamn thereā€™s definitely been a couple of matches where I felt there was cheating going on. More from people having an impossible amount of shield energy though.

                    I donā€™t think itā€™s at the stage where itā€™s every match or even a big fraction of the matches Iā€™ve played though. Iā€™d say about 90% of the matches Iā€™ve played have been very close , finishing within 3 points of the opposition. Thatā€™s definitely not going to happen if cheating is a massive issue.

                    I find it hard to believe that MS arenā€™t already on the case, at the very least learning to recognise these twunts and either banning or shoving them into their own eternal cheaters matchmaking bucket.

                    They managed to deal with on MCC so I feel like as the beta moves towards ā€œreleaseā€ this should basically become a non issue. I mean, yes itā€™s frustrating to see, but Iā€™ve played about 15 to 20 hours this week (especially yesterday and today as I donā€™t have to move my arms like racing requires =) ) , and I can count on one hand the number of matches where I felt that was the issue.

                      Ok so good news, I got the weekly challenge reward. Bad news, it took me an utterly unreasonable amount of time and on a normal week would be totally unattainable.

                      Because Iā€™ve been under the weather the last two days, and wasnā€™t able to go to the studio earlier in the week Iā€™ve effectively had a nothing week. Soā€¦ drum rollā€¦ it took me 29 hours.

                      At least thatā€™s the amount of time Iā€™ve played this week. It got me up to level 12 in the process. This is the mealiest mouthed battle pass Iā€™ve ever seen. Most people have no chance of getting that weekly challenge. I donā€™t have a chance of doing it most weeks.

                      Worse, I was pleased to see the challenges Peter out eventually. I had two left, one was rocket kills, the other was the need to get 5 killing sprees. A killing spree is 5 kills without dying.

                      So eventually I just had the sprees left; it took me ages as I had a very bad run of matches. Eventually though, woohoo, I did it.

                      But the reward didnā€™t pop.

                      It turns out when you empty the weekly challenges, you have to do one final ā€œcapstoneā€ challenge.

                      My capstone challenge wasā€¦ drum roll 2ā€¦ get 5 kill sprees.

                      I could have hurled the pad through the telly at that point. I ended up having a few fairly spectacular rounds, but even so I got killed a few times with one kill to go before I earned my spree. Took me two hours to clear that damn challenge.

                      And I won the ability to paint one of my armour sets orange, white and black. Wooo.

                      Honestly, they really need to rework this. What kept me playing was the fact that the multiplayer is so damn good and the old halo days are coming back to me fairly rapidly. But this is verging on a mentally damaging system that forces an unreasonable amount of effort for fuck all reward.

                      Itā€™s like itā€™s been hand designed by Aaron Greenberg.

                      All the while the challenges are making people play matches in a way they may not have and potentially damage their teamā€™s chance of winning and other peopleā€™s enjoyment.

                      I think they need to look at Rocket League. Though they are somewhat shackled by Halo lore and how much they are willing to mess with silliness. They need to embrace it as much and as far as they are comfortable with and start giving it things like custom headshot kill animations, silly hats, custom exhaust trails for vehicles etc.