{"id":25362,"date":"2016-02-06T11:10:59","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T16:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=25362"},"modified":"2016-02-06T11:11:31","modified_gmt":"2016-02-06T16:11:31","slug":"halo-community-update-a-while-new-ball-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=25362","title":{"rendered":"Halo Community Update: A While New Ball Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

BY\u00a0B IS FOR BRAVO<\/p>\n

\n

Greetings! The Halo community team is back on the road, currently spread throughout Germany, Australia, and those who might still be stuck in the snowy mountains of Aspen, Colorado. This specific blog is coming to you from Cologne, Germany, and has been beamed up to the satellites for worldwide perusal. If you\u2019re reading this, the transmission has been successful.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got a quick update today, but one that covers a variety of topics which may interest you as we dig into recent updates as well as items in the works.<\/p>\n

First things first, Infinity\u2019s Armory launched last week just before the X Games festivities kicked off. We hope you\u2019re enjoying Infinity\u2019s Armory so far and are looking forward to what\u2019s on the way.<\/p>\n

Before we move on, a quick word about last weekend\u2019s X Games adventures. Traveling down to Aspen to watch some of the best players in the world compete for X Games medals was truly one of the highlights of my career, and one of the most enjoyable moments for me as a Halo fan. There was a certain energy in the air that was quite unique to this competition. Perhaps it was the altitude, but more likely it was a sense of something new to fight for, on an all-new game, in front of an audience comprised of new interested parties in addition to captive veteran viewers. This was Halo 5\u2019s first major live event in North America, and it\u2019s my hope, whether you tuned in all weekend long on twitch or caught the recaps each day on ESPN, that you enjoyed what you saw, too. We can\u2019t thank you enough for supporting the game we all love, and hope you\u2019ll join us for more in the coming weeks and months. Lastly, congrats to EG and CLG, who put on some of the best finals we\u2019ve seen in quite some time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

RECENT AND UPCOMING GAME UPDATES<\/h2>\n

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First things first, we\u2019ve made a variety of updates to Halo 5 this week, including playlist and service-side tweaks. To start, here are some words from Engineer Brian Richards, which you may have caught in\u00a0this week\u2019s earlier blog:<\/p>\n

BRIAN RICHARDS, SERVICES ENGINEER<\/h4>\n

One improvement we\u2019re making affects how ranking impacts matchmaking search times for certain players. Over time, it\u2019s possible for players to get skill values that make it difficult for them to find matches. This was an issue that lead some players to create alternate accounts or party up with people of much lower rank to find matches. We\u2019ve implemented changes in our algorithm to get players at all skill levels even faster matches. This should improve matchmaking times and increase the number of people eligible to match for players at all skill levels as well as players in international regions.<\/em><\/p>\n

Based on feedback from the community, we also made some changes to the Onyx and Champion CSR. Players noticed that it was possible to place into Champion (at least temporarily) simply by being the first 200 people in Onyx to complete their placement matches in a season. We are doing two things to increase the competitiveness for Champions. First, the new minimum CSR to earn a Champion rank will be 1800 rather than 1500. Additionally, we\u2019ve placed a cap on the highest CSR you can earn after your placement matches at 1700. These changes will make Champions a more elite group and reward players that prove they’re amongst the top in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

The services team is currently reviewing data from both these changes and reports you\u2019ve sent in via Twitter and Waypoint (thank you!) to determine the effectiveness of these modifications and decide if additional adjustments need to take place for further improvements. We\u2019ll continue to keep you updated on these same channels with any observations or tweaks.<\/p>\n

Playlist Updates<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week, we\u2019ve also made some changes to the matchmaking lineup. For starters, a weekend social slayer playlist is now live, and it\u2019s called Game Day Slayer. If you happen to have a few hours to kill before or after the big game this weekend, hop in with some friends in some relaxed matches of Slayer.<\/p>\n

Next up, based on feedback, Arena Breakout has been removed from the Team Arena playlist. When the mode was first introduced in a weekend playlist, we saw an overwhelmingly positive response, and the decision was made to move it into the Team Arena playlist as these settings (starting weapons, shields and health, etc) closer aligned to the playlist\u2019s settings when compared with original Breakout. Over the past 2 months, we\u2019ve seen feedback that the mode is a bit too different from standard Arena, so we\u2019ve removed it from this lineup. We know many of you like the mode, and we do too, so the multiplayer team will continue to brainstorm ways to make it available in the future.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> I”m glad it was removed from the Team Arena Playlist. Breakout in and of itself should be it’s own playlist. It is, so if 343 is going to put Arena Breakout anywhere else, that would be the most appropriate place. However, TBH, I MUCH prefer the original Breakout than the Arena version where regular maps are used.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, based on community votes, we\u2019ve added the top Community Breakout maps into the Breakout playlist for this season, and they will join the original \u201con-disc\u201d Breakout maps. We\u2019ll be keeping a close eye on favorites over the next few weeks. To ensure the playlist contains the best of the best, we may run another poll in the future to trim and ensure only the top favorite maps remain in the playlist. The Multiplayer team is also getting ready for future Community Forge playlists, and we\u2019ll provide more info as we get closer to the next one.<\/p>\n

WARZONE REQ COST CHANGES<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Over the past few weeks, various teams around the studio (Progression, Sandbox, Warzone, Community Test, and more) have been reviewing Warzone gameplay data and player feedback to determine what types of changes can be made to improve game balance, and maybe even change up strategies ever so slightly. Based on these investigations, we\u2019ve made a few changes, and I\u2019ll let Lawrence Metten tell you more.<\/p>\n

LAWRENCE METTEN, SENIOR MULTIPLAYER DESIGNER<\/h4>\n

Since the release of Halo 5: Guardians we\u2019ve been watching you play, listening to feedback, and evaluating potential adjustments to Warzone and the REQ System. In last week\u2019s Infinity Armory update, we pulled the trigger on two tweaks, making it easier to hit late-game levels and increasing the length of time dropped weapons stick around before they disappear.<\/em><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, we rolled out another change, lowering the required REQ Level of many of our single-use weapon REQs.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of our main goals with the REQ System in Warzone is to create compelling card choices at every level. Players should be forced to make tough decisions on what they call in no matter what level they are or how much REQ Energy they currently have. Big red flags for us are whenever a card becomes a clear-cut favorite at its level or if a card is rarely used.<\/em><\/p>\n

The latter is what had been happening with the Carbine since the game\u2019s release. The Carbine is a powerful precision weapon in the right hands, but it just wasn\u2019t stacking up against the other level 4 card options. Combine that with players equipping comparable Battle Rifle loadout cards one level earlier, and almost no Carbines were being used in Warzone. We\u2019ve dropped the Carbine a couple levels (to 2) where it will hopefully find use early in matches before BRs hit the field.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The SAW, Suppressor, Bolt Shot, and Light Rifle also had their REQ Level cost lowered.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This is only the start for REQ Card level tweaks. We\u2019re watching\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> I talked about this earlier in the week. I for one an glad that these changes have been made to certain REQ weapons. It will certainly make it easier for folks to get their commendation levels up. That will add to the replayability of Halo 5, which is paramount if the game is to continue to succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

A NEW BLUE<\/h2>\n

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As part of the Infinity\u2019s Armory update, you may have noticed that the blue team color in multiplayer has been slightly adjusted. Here\u2019s a bit more background on the change:<\/p>\n

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Launch multiplayer Blue vs new multiplayer Blue (this change went live with Infinity\u2019s Armory last month)<\/em><\/p>\n

After launch, we noticed in the data that Blue team had a slight advantage when it came to winning matches, so the services team went to work on determining why this might be. To properly measure Red vs Blue balance on the maps, Senior Engineer Tom Mathews went to work on building some tools from scratch. I found the entire process rather interesting, and I think you will too.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> I actually agree with this. It seemed to me that the blue team could hide a little better in the shadows, with the darker color. Likewise, against brighter background, blue team has a disadvantage as they are a more stark contrast.<\/span><\/p>\n

TOM MATHEWS, SENIOR ENGINEER<\/h4>\n

Thanks Bravo!<\/em><\/p>\n

When analyzing the impact team color has, we knew we were looking for something that would affect target-acquisition time. It was pretty clear we should initially focus on the SWAT gametype to minimize other factors.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first thing we went about doing is combing through the vast amounts of telemetry we gather on each and every game. There were a few different key metrics that were interesting, but at the end of the day the simplest metric we landed on was looking for chokepoints that were biased for one team or the other. Basically, we take the number of times Blue Team\/Red Team died in a given area, and then divide it by the number of times they traversed that area. What results is a heatmap of particularly lethal areas whenever either team enters that area.<\/em><\/p>\n

Coupled with callouts, the \u2018name\u2019 for a particular area that shows up when you\u2019re moving around in the game, we were able to have a pretty nice visualization. Since we know the height of each callout, we can create a nicely-layered three-dimensional heatmap:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"team-danger-bdc4320d118e408cb2e30049cab3f688\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One specific finding that was interesting was an area on Eden, where Red Turbine becomes Red Bend (circled in Yellow above). In this case, it\u2019s the Red team that has the advantage. There was an unusually higher number of SWAT deaths for Blue team in this area, and we couldn\u2019t immediately figure out why. Once I fired up the game, though\u2026 well, see if you can spot why Blue Team would have a bit of trouble in this area when Red Team wasn\u2019t:<\/p>\n

\"red-panel-8142c191bcd04b6b902b10fed26f421c\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a quick look into the tools we\u2019re building to better understand Halo 5 gameplay in the wild, and we\u2019re happy to say that since the color change within Infinity\u2019s Armory, we\u2019re seeing significant improvements to overall Red vs Blue balance as a whole. Stay tuned for more updates on balance and more.<\/p>\n

GAME TYPES<\/h2>\n

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On last month\u2019s live stream, we began talking about some of the upcoming game types that the multiplayer team has been working on. I\u2019ve had the privilege of joining and watching quite a few playtests since then, and while they have been quite a blast, it\u2019d be much more informative if the gentlemen working on these modes gave you a behind-the-scenes look at what is currently in the works for the February update:<\/p>\n

MAX GROSSMAN – MULTIPLAYER DESIGNER<\/h4>\n

Folks, your cries have been heard: this month we are bringing you a bunch of new game modes. This update will bring back fan favorite game modes that have been reimagined for Halo 5. All of our new game modes have one thing in common: they all use TheBallTM<\/sup>!<\/em><\/p>\n

HFFL: YES!!!!!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our first ball-based mode is an upgraded version of the classic Neutral Bomb Assault mode, simply called:\u00a0Assault\u00a0<\/strong>(cue Halo theme). The core rules are more or less unchanged: a ball spawns on the center line of the map and players must deliver the ball to the enemy team\u2019s goal and it explodes (Woot!). That\u2019s about where the similarities end. We went back to the drawing board on when and where the ball spawns, the abilities of the ball carrier, and the arming process itself. When the game starts, the ball will spawn at a unique location each time it spawns throughout the match. The order of locations is always fixed so players can learn to predict the next spawn. Once a team establishes control of the spawn location, they can pick up the ball.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Carrying the ball in old games wasn\u2019t always fun \u2013 it felt like work. You didn\u2019t get to shoot, you moved slower, and everybody was trying to kill you all the time. In Halo 5, this was exacerbated by the even faster player movement, so when looking at redesigning the ball carrier, we wanted to make carrying the ball a skill that players could learn. We tried a lot of different tweaks from changing movement speed, changing the way navpoints work, modifying damage resistance, disabling ball throwing, and more. <\/em>Eventually, we decided that there were three key components to the ball carrier: they needed to win melee fights, be able to survive while arming the ball, and be able to make it to the enemy base undetected.<\/strong> To meet these goals, we made the melee attack with the ball an instant kill, gave the carrier an extra thrust, and implemented the same \u201cSpotting\u201d mechanic present in Capture the Flag. While arming the ball, the carrier can use their two thrusts stay alive or to close the gap on the enemy and beat them down. We think that the new carrier mechanics will give players a new skill to learn and enable a skilled ball carrier to win the game for their team.<\/em><\/p>\n

While buffing the ball carrier, we found that games were ending extremely quickly, rarely lasting more than a few minutes. We turned a bunch of different knobs to try to find a better balance between our newly empowered ball carrier and the Spartans trying to kill them. We experimented with different arm times, forcing the carrier to stay in one place for longer; we modified the spawn zones so dead players could more quickly react to the ball being armed; we changed the size of the deliver zone so that players could more easily deny the zone with grenades; and we changed how the ball disarms so that when an actively arming ball is picked up by the other team, arming progress instantly resets. Constant playtests and working with the Pro Team helped us find settings that created a fun and competitive mode.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another piece of feedback we have heard from the community is the desire for some more relaxed modes. We thought to ourselves, \u201cwell, we have this new ball mode thing, what can we build from that?\u201d <\/em>There is only one mode that makes any sense:\u00a0Grifball<\/strong>! (cue Halo theme again).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Grifball has seen many variations over the last few games and this time, we wanted to make sure we got it right. We called in the leading expert on all things Grifball, Jeffrey \u201cNokyard\u201d Fischer. We flew Nokyard out to the studio a few months before we started development of the mode to make sure that we understood exactly what is important to Grifballers. We had many design discussions with Nokyard and he even built the first Halo 5 Grifball Court which will be launching alongside the mode this update (it\u2019s unlike any Grifball court you have ever seen before). Nok worked with our Weapons Designer, Daniel Wiksten, on trying to get the damage and impulse blast of the hammer to feel right. This collaboration helped us hammer out (pun intended) the delicate balance of Gravity Hammer vs. Sword vs. Ball that Grifball so heavily relies upon. We leveraged Nokyard\u2019s wealth of Grifball knowledge to try to make the most exciting Grifball yet, complete with thrusting Grif, Ground Pound kills, and ball throwing. Playing Grifball during playtests over the last few months has been some of the most fun we have had in the new building. (Bravo note: I can confirm)<\/em><\/p>\n

As long as we are bringing back classics, we thought, why not bring back another. So, also coming in the next update:\u00a0Fiesta<\/strong>(cue Grunt Birthday Party \u201chooray!\u201d)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On top of these new modes, we wanted to make sure that you, the players, had all the tools you need to make any ball mode that you can imagine. Miller Tinkerhess, the engineer who built our ball mode, is here to tell you more about that.<\/em><\/p>\n

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MILLER TINKERHESS \u2013 SOFTWARE ENGINEER<\/h4>\n

Halo has historically had a rich variety of ball game modes. When we started work on Assault for Halo 5, we knew we wanted to build it in such a way that we would be able to reuse it as a basis for other ball modes. We decided early in development that we would keep an eye out for tuning knobs, toggles, and switches that we could turn into custom game mode options. We\u2019re looking forward to seeing how players tune their custom games to recreate classic modes, and also combine the custom game options with the power of Forge to create brand new play experiences!<\/em><\/p>\n

Some of the options are pretty basic, like score to win, how long it takes to deliver the ball, or how many points you get for delivering it. You can choose whether the ball carrier\u2019s navpoint is always on, never on, or uses a spotting mechanic like in Capture the Flag. Some options are a little more nitpicky, like how long it takes for the ball to despawn after being dropped. You can even separately tune how long it takes for the ball to spawn at the beginning of the match, how long it takes to respawn after scoring, and how long it takes to respawn after being thrown off the map.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you want to get a little wilder, you can set player traits on the ball carrier, like in CTF. That means you can adjust their shields, health, damage resistance, motion tracker range, thruster speed, movement speed, and jump height, just to name a few! You can also enable or disable ball throwing.<\/em><\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Those are some pretty awesome options!<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there are options that transform the mode into something totally different from Assault. You can individually enable or disable ball scoring for when it\u2019s being carried and when it\u2019s been thrown, with separate delivery times and point values for each. You can also turn on scoring just for holding the ball, including setting how often you get points for holding and how many points you get.<\/em><\/p>\n

The work on custom game options really started paying off when we started to develop Grifball. Using the same test map we were using to play Assault, we set the delivery time to zero seconds, put the Hammer and Sword in our loadout, disabled the line of sight spawning check, and we were playing Grifball.<\/em><\/p>\n

Finally, we\u2019ve also added a couple of interesting features to support players\u2019 creativity in Forge. If you place multiple ball spawn locations on the map, the ball will take turns spawning first at one location, then the next, then the next. You can also place multiple return zone locations to give the attacking team a few different options of where to deliver the ball. I\u2019m personally looking forward to seeing the crazy custom games that Forgers come up with!<\/em><\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> I for one would love to see a “Multiball” game type. Like Multiteam but with 4 teams trying to earn points by detonating bombs (balls).<\/span><\/p>\n

ACHILLES ARMOR ACHIEVED<\/h2>\n

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We\u2019d like to congratulate the following few Spartan Companies who have completed their level 3 Commendations \u2013 quite an accomplishment, by the way – and earned the coveted Achilles armor:<\/p>\n