{"id":25799,"date":"2016-03-12T15:19:45","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T20:19:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=25799"},"modified":"2016-03-12T15:20:23","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T20:20:23","slug":"community-update-the-calm-before-the-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=25799","title":{"rendered":"Community Update: The Calm Before the Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is reblog from Halo WaypointL\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

\n

Welcome back, readers. Another Friday has arrived, which means the weekend is here, and we\u2019re one week away from the Halo World Championship, as well as one week closer to the Ghosts of Meridian and plenty more Halo 5 goodness.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the services team released a series of updates aimed to help Arena players at high skill levels find matches faster, and also to ensure that Onyx players are seeing the appropriate amount of CSR movement after wins and losses. We\u2019re hearing things are working well. Additionally, we\u2019ve been keeping an eye on reports from players around the globe, and working with top players in international regions to determine further improvements that can be made to matchmaking. Keep the feedback coming.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll talk about a few more things in a bit, including a peek at some Ghosts of Meridian goodness, but to start, we must talk about the biggest Halo tournament in history, which happens to be next weekend.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> YES! I can’t wait to watch\u00a0this!<\/span><\/p>\n

HALO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS<\/h2>\n

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Over the past few months, teams from around the globe have been duking it out for the chance to represent their region in the Halo World Championship, as well as a piece of the $2.5 million prize pool. I, too, have been trying to figure out how I can get my hands on this prize pool, and so far have met a large deal of resistance from the Microsoft legal team.<\/p>\n

The 16 teams in the above graphic have been slotted into their respective groups (see them and more at Halo.gg<\/a>), and at the end of the weekend, only one team will emerge victorious, leaving with not only $1 million just for themselves, but also the title of the best Halo team in the world. Here\u2019s how to watch:<\/p>\n

Halo World Championship 2016 Finals
\n<\/strong>Twitch.tv\/Halo, Halo Channel, Xbox One
\nMarch 18-20<\/p>\n

Join us on\u00a0Monday 3\/14 for a HaloWC-related announcement with all broadcast details, caster lineup, and more. Before we move on, be on the lookout for the free Halo World Championship Xbox One gamerpic, which we\u2019re told should be available within the next few days.<\/p>\n

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

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We\u2019ll be heading down to Hollywood in just a few days, and we hope you\u2019ll join us for the epic grand finale.<\/p>\n

EN ROUTE TO MERIDIAN<\/h2>\n

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The next Halo 5 content drop is on the way, and teams across the studio are hard at work to get things finished, polished, and ready for the early April release. Over the next few weeks, we\u2019ll be taking a closer look at what\u2019s inside, and some new visuals are not too far below. Ghosts of Meridian will bring with it brand new weapons<\/strong> and weapon skins, helmets and armors, assassinations and emblems, vehicles, and a new Warzone map. Speaking of the last two, let\u2019s\u2026speak a little bit about the last two.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> New weapons huh? I wonder which ones? Will we see the Sticky Detonator return in this one? Perhaps the Grenade Launcher? What else?<\/span><\/p>\n

SKIRMISH AT DARKSTAR \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our newest Warzone battleground,\u00a0Skirmish at Darkstar\u00a0will allow you to battle it out amidst scattered elements of colonial reclamation as humanity attempts to take back the world\u2019s charred surface.<\/p>\n

The upcoming map brings an entirely new feel to the Warzone experience, with a variety of unique sightlines, flank routes, and cover pieces that invite you to push across and throughout the map, dodge danger from patrolling vehicles, and perfectly time an attack on opponents. If you\u2019ve been anxiously awaiting a new place to bust out your finest REQs and lay down destruction, this is it.<\/p>\n

To take a closer look at the map, we\u2019ll start by unveiling some fantastic art from the concept team, with a note from Josh Kao:<\/p>\n

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JOSH KAO, SENIOR CONCEPT ARTIST<\/strong><\/p>\n

For Skirmish at Darkstar, the team decided on having a derelict ship in the middle of the map on the mining planet of Meridian – which you can see to the left of the concept. I originally thought about having a space elevator in the concept, but we decided against it because there was already one in the campaign. I also wanted to capture the mood of what a mining planet would feel like, with the sunlight peeking through its heavily polluted atmosphere.<\/em><\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Great piece of concept art! I’m excited to try this Warzone map out! Always happy to have new maps to play on!<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be showing you more of Skirmish at Darkstar as we get closer to the update, and Grim will be diving into the fiction around the map in a future Canon Fodder, but for now, here\u2019s another brand new screenshot, hot off the presses, just approved by the Environment Art team this morning:<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

HFFL: <\/strong>Oh this just makes me even MORE excited t play on this map. And I see a LOT of potential for screenshots with this one!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

HANNIBAL MANTIS<\/strong><\/p>\n

You first saw a sneak peek of it during our last live stream. You asked WHAT IS THAT THING?! And we haven\u2019t told you yet. But now we are. It is the Hannibal Mantis. Here\u2019s\u00a0the first look at some\u00a0official concept art:<\/p>\n

\"h5-guardians-mantis-hannibal-variant--a07a18cc78334c67868f3297ee618f34\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be diving into more details on both of the above items as well as everything dropping with Ghosts of Meridian \u2013 from REQs to game updates \u2013 over the next few blogs, and of course, a live stream.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Okay, I’ll admit this looks pretty cool. Though I think we already have plenty enough variation skins for vehicles. Friends of mine have said the more REQs they get, the more lag they also get. Have you noticed this too? I haven’t.<\/span><\/p>\n

WAR(ZONE) STORIES<\/h2>\n

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We\u2019ve all got a few Warzone War Stories. Stories of triumph, stories of last second camo-crouch-sneakiness, and stories of getting assassinated and finding the clip posted on the internet within an hour or so.<\/p>\n

The multiplayer design team is looking to hear your stories and feedback on all Warzone maps and modes, and we\u2019ve created a\u00a0megathread here<\/a>\u00a0to allow you to sound off on all things \u2013 what you like, what you don\u2019t like, and things you\u2019d change. Your feedback will shape the future of Warzone.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d also like to thank you for all the passion and threads around Warzone and concerns around optimizing the experience for everyone. We\u2019ve seen several threads around the perception of kill farming, and its frequency and motives have been front of mind for us for a while now, and we want you to know that we\u2019re looking into a variety of options and considering appropriate adjustments to game systems and rewards. The first step in solving a problem is understanding how prevalent the issue is, and to do this we start with a series of community questions or observations, and them jump into the data. We first asked \u201cTo what degree is the Achilles Spartan Company incentive resulting in players excessively faming kills?\u201d and secondly \u201cIs this a common enough occurrence to have a major impact on the Warzone ecosystem?\u201d<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Hmm yes, I and my party have fell victim to this a few times. It is NOT at all fun. I’ve suggested having an alternate spawn zone happen when the enemy team has not taken out the core for a prescribed time. That time frame would be left to 343 of course. A friend suggested being able to spawn in drop pods once the other team has all three of the bases. I really like that idea. Being able to drop in anywhere on the map will definitely help to stop the spawn\/team killing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Folks, I hope you’re not doing this. Whether it’s for Achilles or not, it’s not at all sportsman like. Please play the game as intended and not to further humiliate the enemy and\/or farm kills. You make a bad name for yourself and your spartan company. I personally will have NONE of that in the HFFL Spartan Company. And if I see people doing it, I’ll first give them ONE warning, then they’ll get the boot if they do it again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The key findings we have to share come from scrutinizing all Warzone matches and bucketing them into three different categories: games with a Spartan Kill difference less than 100, between 101-200, and 200+<\/p>\n

We also compared these numbers from before and after the Achilles announcements to look for any correlation to an increase in behaviors of these sorts. Here\u2019s a simple table:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Classification \u00a0<\/strong>Week Before Achilles Announce \u00a0<\/strong>Week After Announce \u00a0<\/strong>Change<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
\n
\n
Less than 100 \u00a0\u00a092.93% \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a093.02% \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a00.09%<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\u00a0kill difference<\/div>\n
100+ \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a06.73% \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a06.73% \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0-0.01%<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
200+ \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a00.34% \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a00.26% \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0-0.08%<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

From this, we gather that while the behavior occurs, it wasn\u2019t necessarily fueled nor impacted by the quest for Achilles. However, we do see that it occurs enough that we want to find the right adjustments to steer all teams away from this style of play.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen many great suggestions on gameplay adjustments, and the team is evaluating a variety of options. Most importantly, we don\u2019t want to make a change that disrupts the fun experiences and competition we are seeing in the majority of matches, so the team is carefully evaluating several proposals. We\u2019ll continue to keep you updated on any new observations or gameplay adjustments that are in the works.<\/p>\n

COMMUNITY MAPS UPDATE<\/h2>\n

Over the past few weeks, the Community Team has been working with Forgers from around the community on collecting, playtesting, and refining some of the finest community maps, with a specific focus on new and updated Big Team Battle maps as well as a big batch of new Grifball courts. As we\u2019ve discussed recently, these maps sometimes need a bit of work before they can be brought in internally, (most commonly spawning adjustments, location names, etc), but we\u2019re excited to say that Community BTB and Grifball maps have officially been handed off to internal teams for final playtesting from multiplayer designers as well as full map test passes. If maps need further changes, we\u2019ll work with the Forgers directly on them, and the maps that are good to go will be slotted into future matchmaking updates. We\u2019ll continue to keep you updated on this, too.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Ah this is good news. I’ve seen quite a few really good community maps. I’m working on 2 currently that I hope will make it into matchmaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

MCC PLAYLISTS & ADJUSTMENTS<\/h2>\n

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Over the past few weeks, the team has been monitoring MCC playlist and population data and preparing adjustments and playlist consolidations to help players find matches, and find them faster. We\u2019re preparing a series of changes that include a backend adjustment to improve the speed at which matches are formed, as well as some playlist parameter adjustments. We\u2019re also making changes to the following playlists by widening the search range a bit, allowing you to have more players to search with:<\/p>\n