Okay, you folks may have already read my detailing of this month’s update. Now comes 343’s official word on all things Hammer Storm! Needless to say this is a reblog from Halo Waypoint:
The Hammer Storm content release for Halo 5: Guardians delivers hard-hitting new multiplayer modes and REQs, as well as a new Arena map guaranteed to get any Halo multiplayer fan’s pistons fired up! For the first time in Halo 5: Guardians, you can experience fan-favorite modes like Assault, Grifball, and Fiesta Slayer, and get your Spartan’s hands on classic Halo weapons like the Halo: Combat Evolved Pistol and Gravity Hammer. Hammer Storm is now available as a free and automatic download.
ASSAULT
This classic Halo game type has been revamped and makes its way into Halo 5: Guardians in the Hammer Storm update! The objective of Assault is simple – Take the ball to the enemy’s goal to score. It’s important to take down enemies to gain control before rushing for the ball, located in a neutral position on the map. Remember, you’ll be unable to shoot when holding the ball, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be completely defenseless. One melee is all that’s required to take down your foes with the ball, and carriers are equipped with two thrust charges to close the distance fast! Take down enemies, secure the ball, and march into opponent’s base to score points – this is Assault.
ALL NEW ARENA MAP – TORQUE
Commissioned by Lethbridge Industrial in 2555, Auriga Station served as one of the company’s preeminent research and development facilities. Fitted with the latest in UNSC fabrication systems and Sangheili-procured forges, the station could also carefully disassemble, analyze, and rebuild nearly any piece of recovered technology to aid in reverse-engineering efforts. Stripping bare Lethbridge’s vast archives of secrets and making a mockery of their counter-cyberintrusion suites, Cortana quickly repurposed the loyalties of the station’s resident AI and removed the human crew.
Tactics: Symmetrical map that caters to Capture the Flag and Assault game modes. The pistons in each courtyard can provide key gameplay for cover, traversal, and objective movement due to their moving up and down. The teams that are the most successful are the ones that control the middle of the map and coordinate attacks on the opposing base.
Torque Screenshot Gallery:
HALO: CE PISTOL
Available in Warzone and Forge, this trusty sidearm is straight out of the game that started it all, Halo: Combat Evolved. With steady aim, taking down opponents is as easy as one, two, three.
M6D Pistol – This pistol is a recoil-operated, magazine-fed handgun. It issued with a smart-linked scope capable of 2x magnification. It fires 12.7mm semi-armor-piercing, high-explosive rounds. It can shoot either semi-automatic or automatic fire.
Shot placement is very important. The only shot that guarantees immediate and total incapacitation is one roughly centered in the head, above a horizontal line passing through the ear opening and below the crown of the alien skull.
GRIFBALL – IT’S CONTAGIOUS!
The sport of the future is here! The community-favorite game type makes its way to Halo 5: Guardians with the Hammer Storm release. Players spawn on opposite sides of an open court and must smash and slice their way through opponents to score the Grifball which spawns in the center. Grifball carriers turn the color orange to be spotted more easily and of course to resemble Red Vs Blue’s most beloved loud-mouth, Grif!
Head to Grifball Hub to learn more about Grifball and take part in their various community events. You can also check out the latest and greatest Grifball courts built in Forge, and can even join various leagues to put your Hammer skills to the test! You can also use the ball to create your own custom game modes to play with your friends and share in Halo 5: Guardians.
GRAVITY HAMMER
Available in Warzone, Arena, and Forge!
Power Weapon – Rare – Brutally effective melee weapon that combines a hammer with repurposed gravitic impellers on the striking face. Each smash unleashes a damaging area-of-effect pulse with knockback. Regular melee attacks are weaker, but do not consume energy.
Swing away, Spartans!
LAST DAWN WEAPON SKINS
Rare – Hope is renewed at light’s break.
Outfit your Spartans with this all new weapon skin available for each starting weapon in both Arena and Warzone.
NEW STORM RIFLES!
FURY
Uncommon – Even the dullest blade can cut, if wielded by a hand strengthened with hatred. Improved Storm Rifle with augmented heat dissipation and better accuracy.
BLISSFUL SLUMBER
Rare – There is no rest for weary merchants of death in these unsettled times. Advanced Storm Rifle with increased damage and knockback on hit. The Slumber’s unstable plasma bolts detonate on impact, causing a small secondary explosion.
REQ GALLERY
ALL NEW STANCES
HAMMER TIME
Ultra Rare – Everyone is a nail.
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.
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OLD SCHOOL
Legendary – Back with a vengeance.
FIESTA SLAYER
Roll the dice with each spawn and you could be lucky enough to start each life with a Rocket Launcher or Sniper Rifle to get the upper hand on your foes. Proceed with caution however, they might be wielding something of similar or greater lethality! Or, maybe just a Plasma Pistol. Slay enemies with a bunch of random weapons. It’s a fiesta!
CONTENT UPDATE NOTES
Multiplayer:
- New Arena map added: Torque
- New game types added to Arena: Grifball, Assault, and Fiesta Slayer
- Gravity Hammer added to Warzone, Arena, and Forge
- Halo: Combat Evolved M6D Pistol added to Warzone and Forge
- Players can no longer “re-roll” random weapon REQs in Warzone
- Implemented stricter idle boot duration period
- Fixed an issue with kill feed not showing weapon icon and Perfect Kill medal for the Halo 2 Battle Rifle
- Fixed an issue where the Mantis Destroyed medal was not being awarded for destroying a Mantis
Sandbox:
- Made handling improvements to the Ghost, Mongoose, and Warthog to reduce their proneness to flipping over
- To improve consistency, Railgun projectile speed has been increased and is now hitscan
- The projectile speed of Gauss Cannon has been increased, and is now hitscan
- Fixed an issue where the first person camera lowered a few pixels after ending a strafe
- Fixed an issue that allowed legacy or legacy southpaw players to sprint while holding turrets
- Fixed an issue with the Halo 2 Battle Rifle that caused the reticle to shake when firing rapidly while descoped
- Fixed an issue where players could not perform a Ground Pound after jumping off of a ledge while performing a melee
- Fixed an issue where the Mantis appeared to teleport when being observed from a distance while a player entered the vehicle
- Fixed a bug where equipping an Overshield when standard shields are popped results in the Overshield bar depleting incorrectly
User Interface:
- Changed Player Markers for Fireteam members in matchmade games to green to distinguish them from other friendly players
- Added “Mute All” toggle option in lobby
- Expanded and restructured color palette from 32 to 60 colors for Armors, Helmets, and Emblems
- Added Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary color options for emblems
- Added support for animated emblems, such as True Light, a tribute to thecrzedspartan and his family
- Fixed issues with the in-game scoreboard after players have joined a match in progress
- Even when in a Fireteam, players can now see when another player is “spectateable”
- Other player’s SR progress now updates correctly on the large nameplate in the PGCR
- Fixed delay and message prompt when attempting to leave a lobby
- Improved performance during the processing and opening of REQ packs
- Improved stability around REQ actions performed on HaloWaypoint.com
Stability and Networking:
- Made a variety of networking improvements, including improved handling of packet lag, jitter, and loss which manifested under very rare networking conditions
- Fixed several rare issues relating to walking into walks, warping, game clock stoppage, and disconnections.
- Resolved issues surrounding multiple Xbox Ones playing on the same network
- Improved stability when joining custom game lobbies
- Resolved an issue that prevented players from playing Campaign online after experiencing a network disconnect
Theater:
- Fixed an issue that caused previously bookmarked films to not be viewable after the Cartographer’s Gift update
- Fixed an issue with players not appearing in scoreboard and player cycle list if they’ve joined the match in progress
- Fixed an issue where Spartan models were not rendered when skipping forward or backward
- Free camera can now go through shields on Warzone Bases
- Fixed an issue that caused live spectated sessions to end when another player joins in progress
Forge:
New/Updated Features:
- Buttons added for “spawn all despawned objects” and “reset objects to spawn locations”
- You can script translation of up to 500 ft, instead of previous cap of 100 ft
- File Browser limits raised to 500 saved items
- Parallax improvements
- Added new skybox theme: Ascendance
- Increased size of map by 20% horizontally and 45% vertically
- With this change, lighting will be below the center boundary markers (diamond shape boundaries on sides). Above lighting will not be as detailed but still acceptable for many cases. It is designed to be best for aerial combat and/or non-core gameplay zones
New Assets:
- MP Ball Base
- Gravity hammer added to weapons palette
- Halo: CE Pistol Added to weapons palette
- Added new Pelican props (PROPS>VEHICLES>PELICANS>)
- Closed – Closed up, in-flight version
- Open – Grounded version; Open back door
- Door – Snap on back door for the Pelican
- Gear – Snap on landing gear for the Pelican
- Added new UNSC Drop pod props (PROPS>DROP-PODS)
- Drop-Pod: UNSC [closed]
- Drop-Pod: UNSC [open]
- Drop-Pod: UNSC [door]
- Drop-Pod: UNSC [air-brake]
- Added 64′ variants of several objects for people to replace tiled objects and help reduce object counts
- Bridge [64x16x3]
- Wall [2x64x12; simple]
- Wall [2x64x16; simple]
- Wall [2x64x20; simple]
- Wall [2x64x24; simple]
- Wall [2x64x4; simple]
- Wall [2x64x8; simple]
- Wall [2x64x12; detailed]
- Wall [2x64x16; detailed]
- Wall [2x64x20; detailed]
- Wall [2x64x24; detailed]
- Wall [2x64x4; detailed]
- Wall [2x64x8; detailed]
- Wall: Window [2x64x12; clear]
- Wall: Window [2x64x16; clear]
- Wall: Window [2x64x20; clear]
- Wall: Window [2x64x24; clear]
- Wall: Window [2x64x12; shielded]
- Wall: Window [2x64x16; shielded]
- Wall: Window [2x64x20; shielded]
- Wall: Window [2x64x24; shielded]
- Trim [6x64x10]
- Railing: Bar [1x64x4.5]
- Railing: Shielded [1x64x4.5]
- Cover: Solid [2x64x4.5]
- Cover: Jersey Barrier [3x64x4.5]
- Cover: Street [4x64x4.5]
- Cover: Tech [4x64x4.5]
- Props>Toys>
- Grunt [toy] (!!!)
Forge Bug Fixes:
- Fixed issue where Monitor would not use backup map spawns – you should always load into a map when in Forge mode now
- Fixed issue with menu spinners incorrectly displaying the lowest possible value when they’re set to highest possible value
- Fixed issues with Glacier map to improve general stability and usability
- Fixed issue with normal/fixed physics on Man Cannon [UNSC]
- The kill ball can no longer be shoulder bashed.
- Fixed issue with locked objects floating away
- Fixed issue with ‘Reset Position’ script not always resetting position
- Corrected size issue on Block [64x4x2]
- Corrected size issue on Block [64x2x2]
- Fixed issue with tertiary color on Hazard Suit [5x4x11]
- Fixed issue with color selection on all grid pieces. Now the squares alternate like a chess set.
- Fixed magnet placement on Ring: 16′ [64x64x16; quarter]
- Added secondary color to Locker [3x2x7]
- Added magnets to Gravity Volume [32x32x32; invisible]
- Lined up magnets on open cargo containers with their doors on both man and vehicle sized models
- Corrected size issue on Block [32x32x48]
- Weapon pads can no longer be set to unsupported respawn time values ( > 10 minutes).
- Switch objects correctly update their position as you move them (fixes issue where switches would teleport to their previous position when you dropped them)
- Fixed bug on shields that caused them to stop Spartans shoulder bashing through them after being popped
Forge Tweaks & Cleanup:
- Improved/cleaned up object palettes that had mix of headers and files
- Added folders under Structures>Floors and Structures>Walls with accent pieces for quicker access
- Added Rotation Type, Pivot, and Movement Type controls to the basic control helper settings
- Changed the physics of the Gravity Lift [invisible] base to allow players, etc. to pass through it; enables chaining
- Reclassified the scripts group from subsection to submenu
- Minor reduction to the Monitors boost speed; more tuning will come in future updates
- Added “Classics” to weapon type category
- “Set Color” script doesn’t update the object’s spawn point every time color gets set
- “Delete all objects” button no longer deletes “Locked” objects and will properly stop objects from respawning
- Disabled normal physics on a bunch of objects that aren’t supposed to support them
- Named Location updates
- Added a set of named locations to the list. NOTE: Many of the new ones do not support VO combat chatter but do appear in the HUD.
- Alphabetized (English) the list
Miscellaneous:
- Resolved an issue that occurred when switching profiles on the new Xbox One dashboard while Halo 5 was suspended
- Fixed an issue that caused various Campaign Service Record stats to appear incorrect or as zero after a completed playthrough
HFFL: Just an amazing array of things added this month!!!