{"id":23095,"date":"2015-09-21T21:02:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T02:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=23095"},"modified":"2015-09-21T21:02:41","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T02:02:41","slug":"halo-community-update-required-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=23095","title":{"rendered":"Halo Community Update: Required Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By B is for Bravo<\/p>\n

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We gave you a closer look at the\u00a0REQ System in Halo 5: Guardians. Josh told of inspiration for the new system, and you saw, for the first time, new assassinations such as\u00a0Back Breaker, new weapon skins like the Bracer Magnum, Mythic items such as the updated version of the battle-proven Mjolnir ODST helmet, Helljumper, plus Linda\u2019s storied Sniper Rifle, Nornfang, and more. You\u2019ve gotten a small glimpse into what the REQ system holds, and more is on the way in the few weeks until launch. Also, if you haven\u2019t yet caught Mister Chief in his first ever speaking role, or prefer your tutorials to come from trademark-avoiding and copyright-tapdancing Spartan alternatives, be sure to check out his REQ System tutorial\u00a0here, which covers everything in under five minutes.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for more REQ goodness, and head over HERE\u00a0<\/a>to catch the\u00a0mega-unboxing\u00a0of the Halo 5: Guardians Limited Edition, Limited Collector\u2019s Edition, Limited Edition Xbox One Bundle, and accessories with Josh and Major Nelson, which was just released today. Get it while it\u2019s hot.<\/p>\n

BUILDING A NEW CTF<\/h2>\n

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Halo 5\u2019s Arena Multiplayer brings with it the newest iteration of Capture the Flag. You\u2019ve seen sneak peeks at the mode, as well as a\u00a0full match<\/a>\u00a0from gamescom. This week, I sat down with some of the folks who have been hand-crafting the mode for many moons. Next, we\u2019ll hear about CTF straight from MP Designer Max Grossman as well as one of our Pro Team members, Eric \u201cGH057ayame\u201d Hewitt. Take it away, gentlemen.<\/p>\n

MAX GROSSMAN, MULTIPLAYER DESIGNER<\/p>\n

Capture the Flag Design Philosophy<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we learned that we would have the chance to build Capture the Flag in Halo 5, we were super excited \u2013 nervous, but excited. Halo games in the past have tried many different iterations of CTF, all of them succeeding in some ways and falling short in others.\u00a0One of the things that we wanted to do with CTF in Halo 5: Guardians was distill the best parts of past versions of CTF and combine them to make the most fun, competitive version yet.\u00a0After breaking down past versions of the mode, we came up with two core design pillars to guide the mode: Running the flag needs to be super fun and skillful, and the better team has to win.<\/p>\n

Your Team is Your Weapon<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYour team is your weapon.\u201d\u00a0This is a phrase that is said at the studio all the time.\u00a0In Halo 5, whether you are playing Campaign or Multiplayer, your team is the key to victory.\u00a0 A single player cannot win a game of CTF, the whole team has to work together to walk away with the win.<\/p>\n

The number one way to work together is by protecting your flag carrier.\u00a0In Halo 5, when your teammate grabs the flag, they can no longer sprint, and they move at 80% of the base movement speed.\u00a0While not totally defenseless, they will require support to be able to survive the long run back to the base.<\/p>\n

Protecting your flag carrier is only half the battle.\u00a0When your team\u2019s flag is taken by the enemy, you have to return it, but when the flag is pulled, the carrier doesn\u2019t have a nav marker indicating where they are running. However, if you deal damage to the enemy flag carrier, you will \u201cSpot\u201d them for your team, showing the carrier\u2019s position to your teammates for just a few seconds. Spotting allows teams to work together to find their stolen flag.<\/p>\n

Your team can\u2019t score unless your flag is safe at home. This requires your team to simultaneously play offense and defense in order to score. This mechanic leads to some intense standoffs where both flags are away, and your team has some tough decisions to make: Do you leave your carrier alone and hunt theirs?\u00a0Do you stay with your carrier and play defensively? Or do you wait 10 seconds for the Sniper Rifle to spawn before pushing? Making the right decision in these tense situations will separate the good teams from the great.<\/p>\n

Carrying the Flag<\/strong><\/p>\n

The loadout for the flag carrier has been a point of contention among fans of the mode for years.\u00a0We loved the offensiveness of the Flagnum in Halo 4 and decided to stick with it, especially with the flag-at-home to score mechanic.\u00a0In these standoff situations, empowering the carrier with a gun allows them to help support their teammates that are trying to recover their own flag while also being able to defend themselves.\u00a0However, for Halo 5, we removed the one-hit melee with the flag, and tuned the Flagnum to be the same as the Magnum, as we didn\u2019t want to make the Flagnum overpowered.<\/p>\n

Flag dropping and juggling is also back by popular demand!\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Due to the movement reduction while carrying the flag, it is indeed faster to juggle the flag.\u00a0There is a downside to dropping the flag though: as with previous titles, when the flag is dropped, a nav marker indicates its position to the enemy team. When a player picks up the flag, there is no nav marker to reveal where the carrier is going. The carrier is not highlighted with a nav marker when they pull the flag, allowing them to sneakily run the flag back to base if so desired.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> I am SO happy the flag juggling is back. I missed that. It was something I was pretty darn good at in Halo 3 and Reach. Plus, it can be annoying as hell to opposing teams to hear ‘Flag taken, flag dropped”. It’s a good mental tactic to wear the other team down!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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An example of using flag tossing \/ juggling in combination with Spartan Abilities (Thrust and Clamber) to take the quickest route back home, as demonstrated by BUK20.<\/em><\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> OMG, that flag juggling tho! With the added abilities, if you are already a good flag juggler, this could be game changing!!<\/span><\/p>\n

Being able to drop the flag also gives players access to the weapons they had previously picked up.\u00a0When a carrier sees an enemy, they can now decide whether they want to duel with the Flagnum or drop the flag and fight with a stronger weapon.\u00a0The ability to drop the flag also allows players to toss or pass the flag to teammates in areas that would otherwise be inaccessible to the flag runner, allowing for lighting fast runs that require immense amounts of coordination, and perfect timing.<\/p>\n

Before we go, I\u2019ll let Eric \u201cGH057ayame\u201d Hewitt tell you a bit about his favorite CTF map, which we first showed off at gamescom.<\/p>\n

ERIC \u201cGH057AYAME\u201d HEWITT<\/p>\n

My favorite pick for CTF has got to be Coliseum. First and foremost, our map designers did a phenomenal job making this map extremely interesting, while keeping it symmetrical \u2013 not an easy feat in the slightest. With defined bases, routes, and power positions, it doesn\u2019t take long for someone to appreciate Coliseum\u2019s various options, especially for flag runners. After playing the map for over a year now, I can easily say that it\u2019s one of the best mid-scale arena CTF maps that we\u2019ve had in any Halo game. It has a few areas reminiscent of The Pit, but it reinvigorates those nostalgic memories with the new challenge of verticality. When you complement those heights with our Halo 5 sandbox, flag running becomes a brand new beast.<\/p>\n

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Coliseum presents a variety of different routes for flag runners.<\/em><\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Wow, that map looks fantastic! I am getting a feeling for a\u00a0few maps here. Eric mentions The Pit. I see that. I also get a little vibe of High Noon, plus Monolith from Halo 4.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, there are some really amazing flag runs that you can string together using the movement choices to your advantage, but I\u2019d rather leave those for the community to find. There are a bunch of good hiding spots for those classic flag stalemates, too. All in all, I know that Coliseum will provide players with endless entertainment for all of those nail-biting and gut-wrenching CTF games that we all know and love!<\/p>\n

Make sure you thoroughly explore the map\u2026 there\u2019s more to it than meets the eye.<\/p>\n

HALO: THE MASTER CHIEF COLLECTION<\/h2>\n

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We know you\u2019ve been anxiously awaiting the details on the upcoming content update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and work on this update is nearing completion. This CU will address a variety of areas, including ranking, will add new systems for quitting and penalties, and will improve a number of community items from the lists you\u2019ve put together. The full details and patch notes, as well as more status updates, will be provided as we get closer to release.<\/p>\n

The MCC playlist team has been reviewing your feedback that you\u2019ve sent in on Waypoint, Twitter, and reddit on current matchmaking experiences, which has shaped the next upcoming playlist update, which is targeted to drop next week. Let\u2019s get into details.<\/p>\n

TEAM DOUBLES<\/p>\n

The number one piece of feedback we\u2019ve seen on Team Doubles is that Halo 2 Classic & H2A dominate the playlist, as the leftmost option. With only four players, this means that if one team wants to play H2 or H2A, they\u2019re gonna get it. You\u2019ve let us know that this isn\u2019t ideal, and we agree with you, so we\u2019ve sat down to discuss how we could overhaul the voting options for this playlist to allow for lots more variety. After the next update, they\u2019ll look something like this:<\/p>\n