Hello friends, tonight’s Halo Fan Friday League will feature 4 custom maps as well as matchmaking.
The custom maps are each beauties in their own right. Three are made to look very Forerunner in detail, while the last makes use of a forge item to make the ground look like sand.
So while you’re battling the opposition, take a second to look around and enjoy the view!
After a game each on these maps, we’ll move into matchmaking. The playlist/gametype will be chosen based on the number of people in the party.
Halo Fan Friday League starts at 8:30pm EST tonight and runs until 10pm. You’re more than welcome to stick around past that of course!
Send me an invite request to: HaloFanForLife1 and I’ll get you into the party.
Folks, these are quality maps within the Forge pallet. I definitely recommend downloading them. I have and will showcase them during tomorrow’s Halo Fan Friday League.
Shout out to Addicted Cha0s who did a fantastic job of voice-over on this! At first she sounded like Cortana…
Oh, I should add, the maps are FREE! You can download them HERE.
Thanks to a tweet by GoBeyondEntertainment, I got wind of this job posting from Microsoft. In it, they are looking for someone to fill a role in “future episodic storytelling endeavors in the Halo universe.”
Hmm, sounds like Spartan Ops to me. What do you think? Spartan ops or something else? If Spartan Ops, do you want to see that come back in the next Halo game?
I for one most CERTAINLY do! I loved this game mode. I enjoyed the vid clips of the story, the missions and most of the commendations. (That Crawler Sniper one was a pain in the arse though…)
In case you hadn’t seen or forgotten, there were a few matchmaking moves this week.
The rotational playlist went from King of the Hill to Oddball, with the ‘Stickyball’ variant.
As well the Majestic DLC is now gone from Team Slayer.
On that last note, it became readily apparent that DLC requirements in basic playlists were dragging those down in population. Team slayer is now back to it’s numbers in terms of population before Majestic was required.
So whether you’re looking to hold balls or slay, get back into Halo 4!
Are you not as versed in ‘call out’ in Halo 4 as you’d like to be?
Don’t even know what call outs are?
Want to know more and be better skilled at the game because of them?
Well then…join me this Saturday at 4 pm EST for: A Call Out session with HFFL!
I’ll take up to 15 other gamers in a party into select maps and teach you the basic call outs.
Now this is to be a learning experience, so I ask that if you want to join in on this that you be on good behavior. I will not tolerate people shooting each other during these sessions. This is for those who really want to learn more about the game. It’s not about goofing off.
The callouts I give will be HFFL callouts. The great majority of these ARE the same as standard Halo 4 call outs among the community. So they are easily transferable to regular gameplay with just about anyone else.
The callout session will last for 2 hours. The amount of maps will greatly depend on how quickly we get through each map.
The maps we’ll be going over will be as follows (time permitting) in order:
• Haven
• Adrift
• Complex
• Exile
• Ragnarok
• Vortex
• Meltdown
Doubtful we’ll get through all of these. If not, then we’ll continue the next session where we left off and add more maps as we go.
I won’t cover DLC maps until all of the basic maps have been covered. This for obvious reason that the base maps from launch are what everyone has.
You may ask questions during the sessions, only when I call for questions. If you are going to try and countermand my names for callouts, please do not even attend. Again these will be HFFL callouts. If there is a different name in the community I may address that. Otherwise discuss this with others after/outside of the callout sessions.
To sign up for this, you need to be a registered member of the blog. It’s free to register. Just send me an e-mail with your preferred username and password you want for the blog. I will be taking preference to those who are in my gaming group first as those are the folks I game with the most. After those gamers, then I will open the roster up to blog members.
Below is a list of gamers who have expressed their desire to be at this callout session (not including myself of course):
1. PensHalo
2. Thomas Bradford
3.
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15.
I will update this list as I get more interested gamers. Just reply below with your intent to join in on this.
The following is BS Angel’s response to a person asking for more Regicide, then my response below that with proposed changes to the playlists to make them, in my opinion, better.
bs angel: I’m a big fan of Regicide, too – except when I play against David Ellis and he steals the win from me in the final two seconds of the game!
Try going into Rumble Pit with others who like it (perhaps even people from this thread?). That way you can sway the vote in your favor. 🙂
Why not bring THIS back too? We SORELY need a dedicated Team Objective playlist.
Gametypes in the playlist would be:
• CTF – (Yes, move this into Objective and you will get those people going into the playlist and hey, they might even choose something else…Also, put this in the THIRD slot, so as to give other gametypes a chance of being picked.)
• Team Regicide – It only comes up rarely in BTB and is a pain in the arse in Rumble Pit. For my own sake, I’m making a web series from Halo 4 and NEED that Emblem for mastering Regicide.
• Oddball – It was in Multi-team (which you took away and put into the rotational playlist instead. Bad move, IMO.) On that note, PLEASE bring back a 4 team 3-person per team, multi-team playlist. It is BADLY needed!
• King of the Hill – Yet another great gametype lost to the rotational playlist. Honestly, with these gametypes having commendations attached to them, they should NEVER go away or be put into a playlist where they can only be played for 2 weeks every several months. REALLY BAD MOVE THERE! Plus, you’re further killing the Halo 4 gaming population. Not that hard to see…
• Stockpile – Hey, if a modder cna find the code was already embedded in the game, why not bring this back? Yeah, I know it’s not YOUR creation 343, but it was a GREAT game type.
• Headhunter – Read above for Stockpile. Another GREAT gametype.
Jessica (BS Angel), you folks at 343 can’t be SO against what Bungie created before you as to totally dismiss good gametypes such as those. You need to build off of what they CREATED, instead of tearing it down to rebuild your version of what you think Halo should be.
I truly want you folks to succeed. However, if you can’t see that some of these decisions are HURTING the franchise, then there is a REAL problem.
Playlist management needs to be a PRIORITY post game launch. At times it just feels like you’re experimenting with them, instead of taking a realistic look and approach to what is NEEDED per the community.
I mean these words with kindness, but also with sternness. You HAVE to do better than this. Waiting until the next game to get it right is NOT going to help this game, nor the longevity of the franchise, nor it’s sustainability as a viable profit maker for you and Microsoft.
As caretakers/stewards of Halo, you owe it not just to yourselves and Microsoft, but to US, the fans and CONSUMERS who are the ones who have paid for and stuck with the franchise, many of us for many years.
End Copy/paste…
So yeah, I know I won’t be on their Christmas Card list for posts like these. But that isn’t my goal. I’m not a yes-man who sticks so far up 343’s butt that I know what they had for breakfast. My goal is to help keep Halo 4 alive and vibrant. To make it not just a successful game during launches of new games, but a SUSTAINABLE success. That will not happen if 343 doesn’t take ownership of their mistakes and fixes them NOW, not wait until the next game…
I made the following reply on Waypoint’s forums in response to another person lamenting about Dominion being gone/put into the rotational playlist. I felt it needed to be shared here on the blog as well.
Gamer Freak, I feel your pain. I had to bust my arse to finish this before it was removed.
I’m trying to do the same thing in King of the Hill before it goes away from the rotational playlist.
I honestly do not get why 343 has made some of the changes to the playlist that they have made.
No way playlists that have commendations attached to them should be removed from matchmaking.
If anything, move Dominion into BTB and make it an 8v8 gametype now. It needs to stay in permanent rotation, not temporary.
Same can be said for King of the Hill, Oddball, Regicide. Those should be incorporated into a Team Objective. AND put CTF in there as well. This will consolidate those playlist, but keep them ALL ACTIVE. Why Objective wentto 6v6 then completely away is beyond me.
343 made a good game in Halo 4, but not great. and with this total mismanagement of playlists, they are only wrecking the game’s population even further.
Take Team Slayer for instance. It used to have a population of about 50% of whatever BTB was running. It stayed like that for the LONGEST time. Then all of the sudden, when 343 made the Majestic map pack mandatory for that playlist, it dropped to 10% of BTB and has stayed there.
Why is it so HARD for 343 to see this? They need to eject Majestic from being mandatory in Team Slayer and make an ALL DLC playlist. Doing that would bring more back to regular Team Slayer as well as give a playlist to those who DID buy the DLC. Also, in doing so, those people still chasing achievements in DLC map packs WILL have that chance, instead of a RARE opportunity happening in matchmaking.
I honestly won’t blame any gamer at this point if they boost achievements. It was already a bit hard before, when the DLC playlists where temporary. Now that they are gone, it’s VERY hard.
So yeah, getting back on point, I COMPLETELY understand your frustration with Dominion being gone, or thrown into a rotational playlist.
What does that say for 343 when THEY made that gametype?
I really hope for the next game, they take a LONG hard REALISTIC look at matchmaking. It’s the bread and butter of the game. And unfortunately that bread has gone stale…
The first article of this week’s bulletin starts off with news of the Game of the Year edition of Halo 4. I’ve covered this extensively already. However, if you haven’t seen the trailer for this, take a gander:
Next up is the Matchmaking Playlist update. Several things to note here regarding additional maps/gametypes being included in Snipers, and Team Doubles.
Oddball will replace King of the Hill for the rotational playlist starting Oct 14.
Next up is a written tutorial of sorts on how to make Race from Multi team Ricochet. (Too bad Race isn’t just native to Halo 4 instead of having to jump through hoops to make it…). The following text is taken directly from the bulletin:
Ricochet to Race: How to create Race from Multi-Team Ricochet
While Race will be coming to Halo 4 Matchmaking in December (continue reading for details), we know that Race custom game types have been quite popular amongst the custom game community, so we’re happy to let you know that the designers over at Certain Affinity have detailed the step-by-step instructions to make the Race game type out of Multi-Team Ricochet. First, you’ll want to download the “Ricochet Multi-Team” game type from the “HaloWaypoint” File Share. Next, if you need a crash course on Ricochet game type labels, head here for all the info. Once you’re ready to get started, follow the below instructions:
1) Label a vehicle or vehicles as rico_forgeball to turn them into ‘balls’.
2) Use ForgeZones as the checkpoints for the race, and set up hill_marker objectives and label them rico_forgezone. These are set up so that they disappear and reappear in order that you hit them. Next, number the spawn sequence to set the order. You can award score for hitting each checkpoint, or only for particular ones. See the documentation for additional info.
3) Who is awarded points depends upon the team of the ball and the team of the ForgeZone. If the team of either of these is set, and so is the user data, then whenever the ‘ball’ enters any ForgeZone, the team of the ball will be awarded the points set on the ball, and the team of the zone will be awarded the points set on the zone. This means you have flexibility in how you set up the race.
Scenario 1: A neutral ball and then a series of ForgeZones set to teams.
The players could fight over who is driving the ‘ball’ and whoever is driving can aim for the checkpoints of their team color. The map can be forged so that the checkpoints are next to each other instead of in the same place, so that players avoid hitting the enemy’s checkpoints when they drive.
Scenario 2: Two team balls (vehicles), one for each team, or as many teams as you have on the map, with neutral ForgeZones.
Set the scoring points on the zones themselves to zero, and only use one set of zones. Set the scoring points on the balls appropriately for the teams. After everything is set up, it’s then a question of who is in the lead and hitting the checkpoints so that they disappear first (and getting the scoring points from their ball.)
Scenario 3: Team balls, and team ForgeZones in the same locations.
With this setup, players score when they hit their checkpoint, but the other team’s checkpoint is still available. Scoring points can be assigned to either the ForgeZones, the balls, or both. This can get a bit visually messy with all the different colored zones visible and in the same place, but is guaranteed good fun.
Up next is the Matchmaking Rotational playlist calendar which I just covered previous to this article.
The community gets a spotlight in the form of a remake of Countdown (the music to the vid is a bit annoying to me so I viewed it with sound off):
What follows is an interview with the map re-creator.
The map looks good but not exact to the original. I’d really love to see a Classic Map pack come to Halo 4. There would be MANY Halo 3 maps. However, Reach had a few I’d like to see come back. Countdown being one of them.
Finally we have this week’s screenshot spotlight that focuses on the color ORANGE. Though this is a bit early for Halloweeen. There are a few here I like. Especially “Refracitve FOTUS”.
For the FULL bulletin, go on over to Waypoint’s post too see/read all.
Waypoint released these images yesterday showing the rotational playlists for the next few months:
So get your games in and commendations done while you can. Otherwise, it’s going to be MONTHS before you get the next opportunity.
I’m really dismayed by the rotational playlist. If certain ones didn’t have commendations attached to them, that would be fine. Otherwise, it’s almost an exercise in futility trying to complete certain commendations. Case in point, the current one, King of the Hill, isn’t populated much and you can nearly forget about trying to find an evenly matched game late at night (EST U.S. time).
I still say that 343 needs to have a better playlist. Team Objective would include some of these in the rotational playlists. Dominion could easily move to BTB. Multi-team should NEVER go away. Include Rocket Race into that playlist.
As for community Ricochet maps, they can be tested in the current Ricochet playlist. That would leave us just with regular Race out of all of these. That could have it’s own playlist for awhile to gauge it’s popularity.
I’m about 32 King of the HIll wins away from Mastering that. I really hope I can get them done in these two weeks as I do NOT want to have to wait months for it to come back.
Now mind you a modder found out how to do this. But come on, if they can do it, why can’t 343 just give us a flipping patch for this and allow us to use theater fro Campaign. While they’re at it, Spartan Ops too?
It’s not that they can’t. It’s that they WON’T. You may or may not remember this, but some time ago when questioned about why theater wouldn’t be available for campaign, it was stated (and I’m paraphrasing here) that theater would break the illusion of the campaign.
Okay, I’m going to call BULLSH…..on that. Previous Halo titles had theater for campaign. Did those of us who used it mind if we broke out of the map or saw how Bungie made the illusion of depth for instance? I have to say overwhelmingly NO. In fact, most of us ENJOYED braking out of maps and/or seeing how Bungie created certain things. Same would be said of 343 IF they allowed us to have theater.
I’m not mad at the person who modded the game to figure out how to use theater for campaign. I’m POed at 343 for this. CLEARLY it’s possible, yet they REFUSE to give it to us.
You know, with the population of Halo 4 down as far as it is, it could REALLY use a breath of fresh air like this. It would make replaying the campaign have even MORE meaning to it.
Personally I could rack up HUNDREDS of hours in theater alone taking screenshots or clips. I wouldn’t care at all if I saw that something was done in low-res outside of the map but in the context of the campaign it looks fine. REALLY, it wouldn’t bother me at all. Most campaigns take this kind of shortcut. It’s fine 343.
I’ve gotten out of ALL of the multiplayer maps. Am I mad or disillusioned by the shortcuts 343 made with those? Not at all.
So COME ON 343! Give us THEATER!!!! Like I said earlier, not just for campaign either. Do this for Spartan Ops too and you will DEFINITELY see a jump in people playing that portion of the game…you abandoned… Speaking for myself, you folks KNOW I’m doing a web series based off of Majestic and Crimson squads. I could make that series THAT MUCH BETTER if you enabled theater for Spartan Ops.
Here’s what one of their forum posters had to say about this: I think if you are in the theatre mode, then you are already outside the bounds of needing to keep immersion. I am 100% ok with noticing that the massive structure out in the distance is really a miniature while in theatre mode for example, since I’m not really playing the game. In a sense, there’s no way to ruin the theatre experience with tricks since there’s no ‘experience’ to speak of in theatre mode.
THAT I TOTALLY AGREE WITH!
What’s funny about this is that several of the MODS that have come to light have been turning into in-game functions. Want examples? Mini-Slayer and Race are two of them. Assault has come to light and I’d venture a guess we’ll see this in matchmaking.
So how about not making us wait any longer 343 and flipping that switch to give us theater? (Or a patch or whatever else is required)
Readers, you’ll forgive me for the use of CAPS throughout this article, but DAMN…It’s one way I can express my frustration with 343/Microsoft for NOT giving this to us at launch.
HaloWaypoint.com gives us another entry from the Halo 4 Essential Visual Guide. This time, everyone’s favorite doctor and mother of all Spartans, Catherine Halsey.
I hope they keep doing these! I do wish they’d have shown Halsey though with her full arm, instead of the severed arm.
One person wasn’t accounted for that actually played. However since Waypoint does not show this, I will go by their stats as official. Yes, I had to paste the image above together to show all who played. Following the link above will show these same people.
The TOTAL kills for this one hour period were: 1,202.
While it wasn’t a huge number of gamers that played, that wasn’t the only goal. The main goal was to get this started. Then the hope is that other Halo communities will pick the banner and go for the record of most gamers in a one-hour custom game of Halo. (Come to think about it, most kills too!)
I did follow some specific rules, so if you want to try this out and want to use the same rules/settings I used for this, send me an e-mail at [email protected]. I HEARTEDLY invite any and all Halo communities to top this number and keeping trying to top each other. THis is meant to be a fun bragging rights kind of thing.
Hopefully this is just the START of something cool!
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