Xmas arrives early for Halo fans: Cartographer's Gift

[wittyscorpion]

www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/cartographer-s-gift-sneak-peek

Release date: 12/15

Just when I start worrying that my Halo play might subject to some fatigue, this announcement got my excited again. Highlights:

1) Most ambitious forge release in the Halo history!

Even though I never used forge, I am very happy to see that this fantastic feature rich release of forge. Lots of tools for the community to build maps, which can potentially bring lots of new content without having to wait 343i;

2) 4 new maps: 1 for Arena, 1 for Warzone, and 2 for BTB (forge based)

The two non-forged maps look great at first glance, both visually and playability.

The forge maps, although won'tlook nearly as visually impressive as the non forged ones, should have good playability because they are the remake of previous BTB classics.

3) Arena will start featuring seasons (first season: 12/15 - 01/31).

This will give players a chance to go through placement system periodically (every season), and have a fresh start.

4) Arena CSR adjustments: better curves, less tendency to over-place players;

5) 6 player FFA!

6) Formal introduction of the "Social" play space (in parallel to Arena and Warzone);

7) Various UI improvements, including some of the most asked features: display Callout in death screen, displaying friend's currently engaging activities, etc;

BTB will be the first playlist in that space. I can see things like Fiesta, Infection, Grifball, etc to be featured in that space over time;

I welcome all of these changes, it's like 343i had a peek at my wish list and implemented them all

On related news: 343i also committed to provide free monthly update at least through June next year, hopefully more. Also, REQ purchases from fans have pushed the Halo World Championship prize pool to over 2 million, and counting.

[blackbarney]

Can’t wait for new Warzone Assault map. I've figured out Dispatch and the snow one but can't figure out the Spire map at all

[eLantern]

I was extremely stoked to read the community blog on Friday as it addressed many things I had been requesting/hoping for on the Waypoint forums since release.

[blackbarney]

Why hasn't Scorpion told us about the Santa's REQ pack yet ? Dude is falling asleep at the wheel.


In other news, Warzone Assault is still really fun.

[wittyscorpion]

Reveal livestream going on right now at Twitch

Notes (continuously updated until stream completion):
1) One thing not mentioned earlier: daily challenges;
2) Spartan Company service records, Company level rewards (e.g.: commendations);
3) Some of the new REQ items look cool: new assassinations look extremely brutal, while the Gold Standard weapon skins look sleek, SPNKR rocket launcher lines look interesting;
4) Forge walk through. I never did forge myself, but I can see the people who do can get really excited about this stuff.

[wittyscorpion]

Details on what's included: www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/games/halo-5-guardians/updates/Cartographers-Gift

[blackbarney]

Time to buy bronze packs again !

[clearshot]

Best part about this update is the addition of aim settings. You can tweak your deadzones and aim acceleration. It's completely changed my game for the better.

[blackbarney]

So far it looks like 4 is really good for setting but we're still testing

[wittyscorpion]

With this update, the ranking system seems to be working properly. The placement process probably still over-place players, but with significantly less tendency. Also, de-ranking seems to work as expected as well, as far as I can tell. I am roaming between Gold 1 and Gold 5, so can't really tell whether the system can derank somebody to the division below.

[blackbarney]

Dec 17, 2015 22:22:41 GMT -5 blackbarney said:

So far it looks like 4 is really good for setting but we're still testing

Ignore this. I was wrong