wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Jan 22, 2015 13:20:13 GMT -5
Intriguing news and entertaining theories are popping up for Halo MCC, for bros who still care 1) 343i announced that they will have a beta test for their upcoming content update to further fix matchmaking and party integration issues. This is unprecedented in the video game history: a beta on a patch 2) With that, speculation regarding why and how 343 and MSFT can f**k up the most important game release for XONE started to come out, like this one on reddit. If this is indeed the case, then lots of my questions are answered. It was incomprehensible to me before how Halo MCC can be so bad while games like Titanfall and Destiny are working smoothly, the above theory makes a lot of sense: 1) It is MSFT's style to have their own divisions/subsidiaries to "dogfood" their new stuff first; 2) MSFT has been surprisingly quiet in Halo MCC release fiasco, suggesting that 343 may not be the only culprit; 3) Halo 5 beta matchmaking is working fine. Probably because it did not use the new SDK;
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eLantern
True Bro
"Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned! Ask not for whom the bone bones, it bones for thee!" - Bender
Posts: 10,761
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Post by eLantern on Jan 22, 2015 15:36:33 GMT -5
I got the invite to try out the beta update; however, despite the interest to give it a go I'm probably going to stay focused on getting my Hunter character in Destiny to level 32. That might change if I have a group of 3 additional MCC players who want me to join them in the beta update.
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Jan 22, 2015 16:15:15 GMT -5
I got the invite to try out the beta update; however, despite the interest to give it a go I'm probably going to stay focused on getting my Hunter character in Destiny to level 32. That might change if I have a group of 3 additional MCC players who want me to join them in the beta update. So you are in the XONE preview program and have Halo MCC "high engagement", neat Regarding Destiny: if you are playing this weekend, I can help you with your effort to get to level 32. After Halo beta, I started playing Halo MCC again right after the most recent patch. My matchmaking experience has been fairly good, not that different from any other games. I haven't tried with party though. What I need the most right now from 343 is to 1) implement rankings in the playlists I care about. So far it is only available in H2A team, and so far not doing a great job in only matching players within "narrow" (say <=5) rank gaps; 2) stop having unbalanced teams like 5v3; 3) Fix H2C hit registration; Hopefully these will be addressed after they get the MM and party integration out of the way with this CU.
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Jan 22, 2015 16:23:45 GMT -5
Fro bros who do plan to participate, note this from Frankie: IMHO they should have done things differently. Instead of limiting this beta to a very small population, they should just put the update out there as a free download for anybody to try, with a big disclaimer like the above. This way the test population can be large enough and the testers who opted in know what they are getting into so won't complain too much
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Mar 4, 2015 0:34:43 GMT -5
The mother of all patches are finally released: www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/3-3-15-halo-the-master-chief-collection-content-update-notesSo far the feedback from players have been very positive, looks like the matchmaking problems that have been plaguing MCC experience since launch (4 months ago) are indeed addressed. Party integration should be fixed as well, but need a day or 2 to know for sure when more party players come back to this game. Next order of business: enable ranks. Unfortunately looks like 343 needs another month for that CU. With that, we will finally get the experience we were promised. Better late than never...
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Mar 4, 2015 3:17:26 GMT -5
Not only is MM improved, the game play experience feels crispier as well. Looks like the dedicated servers are now working as promised. For many players, it is now painfully obvious that not having ranked play can remind them how badly they suck at this game (e.g.: me )
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eLantern
True Bro
"Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned! Ask not for whom the bone bones, it bones for thee!" - Bender
Posts: 10,761
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Post by eLantern on Mar 6, 2015 10:52:18 GMT -5
Looking forward to giving this game some play again. Side note: The MCC game as all the online Halo games since the first half of Halo 2's prime lifecycle have primarily matched players within its matchmaking system based on Microsoft's TrueSkill Ranking System; it's been the backbone of all Xbox matchmaking every since it's implementation. The Halo rankings have only added additional refinements and/or restrictions to that existing system, so if you're having difficulty with finding similar skill based players its more likely that the games' general player base and more specifically the player base within the particular playlist that you're searching in is on the limited side which forces the matchmaking system to expand outward from ideal pairings in order to ensure search times remain reasonable; plus, with Halo's added refinements/restrictions they'll take into account a player's personal experience within particular playlists which can mean that until you and most others have acquired enough playlist experience there's a greater chance of mismatching skills being paired up. Lastly, since people tend to search in parties the system has to try to take into account mismatching skills no-matter-what when it's looking to fairly pair-up groups of players so its not reasonable to expect the system to always provide ideal matchmaking skill-based conditions which sucks but it's understandable. My point is - don't expect some revolution or in other words an amazing difference between the types of players you're getting paired with even after the visual in-game ranking system releases.
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Post by jaedrik on Mar 6, 2015 16:56:53 GMT -5
I've been watching that Halo stream for sexy pro Halo 2 action today. I only saw EG vs Noble Black. It was rad. It's still going on: Twitch.tv/halo
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Mar 9, 2015 11:56:35 GMT -5
eLantern: so far SBMM seems to be completely absent from Halo MCC. I suspect that they removed it in favor of quick matchmaking time. For the games I played both before and after the patch, not a single one of them have anywhere near similar skills or balanced teams. And since MM is very fast now, quitting is a more prevalent problem because it is no longer a big deal to leave and find another game. Until they add SBMM back, this game is unplayable for bad players like me. Hopefully this will happen with the next patch. With properly implemented SBMM, visible rankings are trivial to add. I personally don't care about it but I believe it is an important player retention tool formany other players.
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on Mar 9, 2015 15:44:15 GMT -5
Also, MSFT did something suspicious today: they announced a XONE MCC bundle.
Back to last November when MCC was launched, people were quite surprised that there was no MCC bundles, especially when MSFT was doing all kinds of bundles with other games (Sunset Overdrive, AW, Assassin's Creed, etc). Looking back from now, it looks like as if MSFT knew that MCC release was going to be a disaster so they intentionally did not do the bundle for the fear of people demanding refund for both the game and the console. They decided to launch MCC despite the likelihood of the failure because they know having MCC on the menu for holiday season can significantly push XONE sales, which they desperately needed to not lag behind too much.
Now with MM finally fixed, they immediately jump on the opportunity to offer the bundle.
Of course: this is yet another conspiracy theory, but one that tends to be quite believable...
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on May 11, 2015 11:20:48 GMT -5
Today Marks the exact 6 months mark of Halo MCC release (11/11/2014). I am pleased to claim that Halo MCC is finally fully playable, 6 months and a million patches after release . I played 7 hours of Team Slayer (=TDM in CoD) non-stop yesterday after the most recent patch: Matchmaking finds players fast, visible rankings work as expected, SBMM matches players within 3 rankings most of the time, 60FPS on dedicated servers feel buttery smooth, and the ability to play H1/H2/H3 all in the same playlist is beautiful. Too bad the game was not released like this...
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wittyscorpion
True Brorange
All warfare is based on deception.
Posts: 8,598
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Post by wittyscorpion on May 11, 2015 11:25:56 GMT -5
Today (05/11/2015) Marks the exact 6 months mark of Halo MCC release (11/11/2014). I am pleased to claim that Halo MCC is finally fully playable, 6 months and a million patches after release . I played 7 hours of Team Slayer non-stop yesterday after the most recent patch: Matchmaking finds players fast, visible rankings work as expected, SBMM matches players within 3 rankings most of the time, 60FPS on dedicated servers feel buttery smooth, betrayers can be booted, quitters will be punished, and the ability to play H1/H2/H3 all in the same playlist is beautiful (Most import of all: I was able to play H1 MP for the first time, and it is great fun!). Too bad the game was not released like this... I was worried that the online population will be very small by now, but it turns out to be quite decent. I am going to play a crap load of Halo MCC until H5 is out, most likely will continue playing it even after. The only thing I need is for them to add rankings to the H4 playlist and I am all set. Rankings for other playlists are nice to have but I don't care that much about them.
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