{"id":26191,"date":"2016-04-01T09:02:08","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T14:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=26191"},"modified":"2016-04-01T09:02:08","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T14:02:08","slug":"halo-community-update-meridian-awaits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=26191","title":{"rendered":"Halo Community Update: Meridian Awaits"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a reblog from Halo Waypoint (With my commentary of course):<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Meridian<\/p>\n

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

\n

Greetings, friends of Chief. Today, we\u2019re talking new stuff, including more Ghosts of Meridian, Warzone Turbo, and more. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

To start, we\u2019d like to thank those of you who have provided feedback in region-specific matchmaking threads on Waypoint as well as r\/Halo. Earlier this morning, the team made a series of adjustments that should improve the experience and matchmaking speed for players who have been impacted. Hop on and let us know how it goes. Next, let\u2019s talk about this weekend\u2019s featured playlist: Warzone Turbo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

WARZONE TURBO<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"warzone-turbo-banner-951077c711f8405696b5d4231bef18c7-6e55c4c824c247e396db61760d5f6139\"<\/p>\n

Warzone Turbo is available this weekend for the first time, and it\u2019s also the first featured Warzone playlist. If you didn\u2019t catch it this morning, we grabbed MP Designer Lawrence Metten to give us the scoop on the new hotness:<\/p>\n

Lawrence Metten, Multiplayer Designer\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Warzone Turbo is fiesta-esque mayhem on a gigantic scale, where you are instantly placed at Level 9 as soon as your Home Base is secure, and are imbued with near-instantaneous energy regeneration. Everything is fair game as players have access to their entire REQ inventory for the full duration of the match.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Funny enough, originally we had no plans to ever release Warzone Turbo. We created the game type at the request of our test team so that they could more efficiently test Warzone features and functionality without having to wait to level up or refill energy. Then one day we made the \u201cmistake\u201d of giving the mode a whirl during our afternoon studio playtest. It was incredibly chaotic and surprisingly a ton of fun to play, which inevitably led to a long and drawn out internal discussion that went something like this: \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cShould we ship this?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t\u00a0not<\/strong><\/strong>\u00a0ship this!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

After a bit of extra polish, a couple tuning tweaks, and a handful of scattered adjustments later and Warzone Turbo is ready for your enjoyment. I look forward to jumping into the playlist and joining the pandemonium with you all this weekend!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Warzone Turbo is available now, and will be available until Monday morning, April 4th<\/sup>. After you\u2019ve played, be sure to pop into the\u00a0dedicated feedback thread<\/a>\u00a0and let us know what you think.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Okay folks, you definitely need to get in on the feedback for this. Personally, I do not like Warzone Turbo. I thought I would, but nope. I figured it out early that because of REQ level 9 being opened immediately, there would be all kinds of shenanigans going on. But that isn’t the issue. Rather, the underlying issue of this being as what several of my friends called a ‘cash grab’. The feeling is that by doing this, 343 gives people a chance to use their high level REQ, with the bonus to them (343) that people will run out of those REQs and spend real $s for more REQ packs. Is this true? I just have a feeling that it is. I do not need to purchase REQ packs as I’m sitting on 300K REQ Points. But for those that just have to have more REQs by which to punish your virtual Spartan, well…343 has made it easy for you to do so and for them to make more money at the same time. Don’t fall for that folks.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI had expected to play Turbo all weekend, but after just TWO games of it (the first was dreadful as my REQs didn’t load, so I gave it another shot), this game type variant wasn’t doing ‘it’ for me. Play at your own folly.<\/span><\/p>\n

GHOSTS OF MERIDIAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Ghosts of Meridian is scheduled to drop next week, and today we\u2019re showing off more of what\u2019s inside.<\/p>\n

In addition to the below maps, vehicles, weapons, skins, armors, emblems, and more, Ghosts of Meridian will include a variety of game improvements based on your feedback, including multiplayer updates and fixes, sandbox, weapon, and vehicle adjustments, improvements to REQ Station UI performance, a lengthy list of Forge additions, fixes, and improvements, SWAT DMRs as well as a rebalance of SWAT game types within the playlist, and more. As always, we\u2019ll be detailing the full patch notes as Ghosts of Meridian arrives.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start by taking a look at Tyrant, the new Arena map.\u00a0Here\u2019s some extra concept art and exclusive screenshots from the Forerunner-themed, exterior, symmetrical Arena map:<\/p>\n

TYRANT<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s a bit about the above concept image from artist Sam Brown:<\/p>\n

The idea is a forerunner structure has been struck by an asteroid and caught in an astroid belt. This is an establishing shot to show the exterior and establish mood and lighting. There was back and forth on the structure itself so I believe the final design is different from the concept.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here are a few brand-new Tyrant screenshots, hot off the presses:<\/p>\n

\"h5-guardians-arena-tyrant-hero-eclipse-5c13df82d3b24d558f81503f9ae0b095\"\"h5-guardians-arena-tyrant-defending-mid-9ffb90b7294049fe88189d5b4c914425\"<\/p>\n

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

To hold you over until next week\u2019s live stream, here are a few more details from the multiplayer team, as well as some new screenshots.<\/p>\n

THE MOST CONDENSED WARZONE MAP YET<\/h4>\n