{"id":7599,"date":"2013-04-04T11:25:21","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T16:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=7599"},"modified":"2013-04-04T11:25:21","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T16:25:21","slug":"the-halo-bulletin-4-3-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=7599","title":{"rendered":"The Halo Bulletin 4.3.13"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"halobulletinheader_4-3-13\"<\/a>Here’s the schedule of events leading up to the release of the Castle Map pack on Monday, April 8.\"Halo<\/a>Being that the bulletin came out last night, we’re already halfway into the events. I can’t wait to see the Perdition video. That’s the map I’m looking forward to the most. The live-stream on Sunday sounds like a very good opportunity to get acquainted with the maps before the release.<\/p>\n

Next up, something that MANY people have been salivating for…Competitive Skill Rank<\/strong><\/span> or CSR<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n

First off, one cool little note, if you reach level 35 or higher between 4\/8 through 4\/22 you’ll be awarded an exclusive Avatar t-shirt.<\/p>\n

Now getting to the meat of the bulletin. I’m going to repost the text from this portion as it’s important to note.<\/p>\n

CSR, or Competitive Skill Rank, launches on all screens of Halo Waypoint (web, console and mobile) next Monday. You will be given a unique rank for each playlist within Halo 4, and the system will use the familiar 1-50 scale. We have been closely monitoring the match results and progression of players behind the scenes to ensure that this new system presents a challenge while still providing an optimal Matchmaking experience. As this is a brand new feature, everyone\u2019s CSR will be set to 0 when it launches. This will allow all players to start on equal footing and enjoy the progression of the 1-50 system.\"csr\"
\n<\/a>There are two different ways we calculate your CSR. CSR is closely based on your TrueSkill rank, which ensures that you\u2019ll be ranked \u2013 and matched \u2013 against opponents of comparable skill. Your CSR is dependent upon your personal performance as well as the rank of those you play with. While several playlists will use a win\/loss system to determine whether or not you rank up, others will use individual scoring, which will rank you based on your performance against everyone in the match, teammates included. In some playlists, you\u2019ll rank up faster than others \u2013 these vary in order to create the most optimal experience for each playlist.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Hmm, this is interesting. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. I just hope that I don’t get rank locked like I did in Halo 3… Below is a look at how CSR will look in your online profile on HaloWaypoint.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"playercard_small\"<\/a>The following playlists will use individual scoring and measure your performance against all others in the game. This ensures that the players who play the best in each match will have their CSR adjusted accordingly. Players who win consistently in these playlists will rank up faster than they will in the playlists that use team scoring.<\/p>\n

Playlists that use individual scoring:
\n\u2022 Infinity Slayer
\n\u2022 Big Team Infinity Slayer
\n\u2022 Rumble Pit
\n\u2022 Multi-Team
\n\u2022 Team Action Sack
\n\u2022 Flood
\n\u2022 Team Snipers
\n\u2022 Regicide
\n\u2022 SWAT<\/p>\n

The following playlists will use team scoring, and your CSR will be based off wins and losses. This system rewards players who work towards the objective and win the match. It will take longer to rank up in these playlists.<\/p>\n

Playlists that will use team scoring:
\n\u2022 Castle Team DLC
\n\u2022 Team Objective
\n\u2022 Capture the Flag
\n\u2022 Dominion
\n\u2022 Team Throwdown
\n\u2022 Team Doubles
\n\u2022 Grifball<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> Okay, I like the idea of the two systems. Hopefully with objective matches, actually performing the objective is taken into account, ala holding the ball, flag running time, capturing bases, etc. I doubt it though as it hasn’t happened in previous Halo titles. Also, yes, there will be those who will seek to take advantage of the system there…<\/p>\n

Here is additional information about these two systems:<\/p>\n

In the mainstream playlists, we sort players by their performance (score) after every match, regardless of whether their team won or lost. The system will expect the players with the highest CSR values to rank consistently higher in the match. So if you bring all your awesome friends into those playlists and they dominate while you end up at the bottom of the scoreboard, your rating will NOT be carried by them; it will decrease instead. Your friends\u2019 CSRs won\u2019t change much since the system already expects them to do well. For these playlists, it will be very hard for friends to carry another player without bringing down their own CSRs and risking losing a lot of matches.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

We use this in the mainstream playlists because it is incomparably faster at finding the skill of the players and making sure better players get into challenging matches in a timely fashion (and newer players get into fun matches in a reasonable timeframe as well). Our priority on these main playlists is on fast, fair Matchmaking instead of having a pure skill measure. It is also for this reason that we would not consider these playlists as competitive, and the resulting CSRs more of a fun, skill-related value than a pure skill measure.<\/p>\n

In select playlists, instead of updating CSR based on the rank of every player, we will update based on the total skill in each team and who won the match. This makes teamwork as important as your solo play. The CSR on these playlists will be technically more pure from a competitive point of view. It will also take longer for these CSRs to converge but when they do, they will more accurately represent a player\u2019s ability to help their team win. To get a 50 in the more prestigious playlists will require players skilled enough to consistently bring the win to their entire team so that they can be matched against better and better players.<\/p>\n

Now, can you then carry a worse player? In a sense, yes, but only as high as the average skill of the group. Two 40s won\u2019t bring a 10 up to a 40, but instead they will all end up around 30. Does that accurately represent that 10\u2019s skill? Well, if that 10 plays alone, then no, it is grossly overestimating that player\u2019s skill. However, if that player ALWAYS plays with two 40 CSR friends, then 20 of that player’s skill is playing with the right friends.<\/p>\n

HFFL:<\/strong> This nest part is extremely important to those who QUIT games:<\/p>\n

If you leave early once a match has started, it treats it as if you were the lowest rank in the match for the individual-scored playlists and as a loss on the team-scored playlists. Players that join in progress are currently treated as if they had played the entire match. That said, in our selected, more competitive playlists, there will be rules in place to mitigate the effect. Namely:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You can only join in progress during a small window of time in the beginning of the match, so those players will still have time to contribute meaningfully to the match.<\/li>\n
  2. Friends are not allowed to join a game in progress. Only random players searching through Matchmaking can join during that 60-second window.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The rules for these playlists restrict the amount of noise from Join-in-Progress since that feature is only possible during the first few moments of the match. They also help improve the purity of CSR in these playlists. We plan on putting in these Join-in-Progress parameters as close to CSR launch as possible.<\/p>\n

    HFFL:<\/strong> Ouch, so as much as I hate Join In Progress, not allowing friends to join in after 60 seconds kind of sucks… But at least there won’t be any more JIPs during late portions of the game (if I’m reading this correctly).<\/p>\n

    We are actively investigating occasional CSR resets, both globally and for certain playlists. Reasons for resetting ranks include overhauls to CSR calculation, Halo 4 game updates, and events and promotions centered on CSR. Resetting CSR is not something we\u2019re taking lightly so when we do reset it, we\u2019ll be sure to provide ample messaging describing the reasons for doing so.<\/p>\n

    When we listed the playlists above, you might have noticed a few of them are not currently available in Matchmaking. Here to talk about their impending arrival, along with a few other changes that are coming on Monday, is Bravo.<\/p>\n

    With the Castle Map Pack comes a brand new playlist: Castle Team DLC. This 6 vs. 6 playlist will feature the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Map<\/span><\/th>\n\u00a0\u00a0Game Type<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Daybreak<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Infinity Slayer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Capture the Flag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0King of the Hill<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Extraction \u2013 1 Plot<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0SWAT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Snipers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Outcast<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Infinity Slayer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Capture the Flag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0King of the Hill<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Oddball<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0SWAT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Team Regicide<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Perdition<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Infinity Slayer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Capture the Flag<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0King of the Hill<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Extraction \u2013 1 Plot<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0SWAT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Snipers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Also, these maps will be integrated into many of our existing playlists. DLC maps will appear in a playlist if all players in the match have downloaded the content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Playlist<\/span><\/th>\n\u00a0\u00a0Map<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Capture the Flag<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Daybreak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Outcast<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Perdition<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Infinity Slayer<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Daybreak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Multi-Team<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Daybreak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Outcast<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Perdition<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Action Sack<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Daybreak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Outcast<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Perdition<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Dominion<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Outcast<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0Flood<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Daybreak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Perdition<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    \u00a0\u00a0SWAT<\/span><\/th>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/td>\n\u00a0\u00a0Daybreak<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    If the words \u201cMulti-Team\u201d got your attention, read on. Monday will also feature the premiere of the aforementioned popular playlist, which pits 6 teams of 2 against one another. We are still finalizing the specific maps and game types that will be offered in this playlist at launch \u2013 be on the lookout for Monday\u2019s Matchmaking update for the full details of this playlist.<\/p>\n

    Also, as if the above wasn\u2019t enough to keep you busy for the next two weeks, Rumble Pit will be replacing the temporary Community Forge FFA playlist on Monday and will premiere with both Infinity Rumble and Rumble Pro in the voting options. Here are the maps that the playlist will launch with:<\/p>\n

    \u2022 Skyline
    \n\u2022 Landfall
    \n\u2022 Monolith
    \n\u2022 Haven
    \n\u2022 Solace
    \n\u2022 Adrift
    \n\u2022 Abandon
    \n\u2022 Shutout
    \n\u2022 Simplex
    \n\u2022 Dispatch<\/p>\n

    \u00a0Team Objective will be transitioning to a 6 vs. 6 playlist come Monday, mainly in part to address the community\u2019s desire for objective game types with larger team sizes and also to accommodate the Castle Maps, which are built for these team sizes. We\u2019ll continue to monitor your feedback regarding Team Objective in the future as we look to optimize the experience it offers by possibly changing the team maps, team sizes and game types that are offered. The playlist will feature on-disc maps, as well as Crimson and Castle maps, and Extraction will transition from being its own playlist to being included in this one. The map\/game type selection will be posted in Monday\u2019s Matchmaking update, as we are still finalizing the layout of the new Team Objective.<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    HFFL:<\/strong> Of the above paragraph…WTF? Really? Um, hey there Bravo, why not just make um, you know, a BTB Objective playlist? Damn, they are farking up the playlists always changing them. At least Extraction is getting rolled into Objective now. It’s got such a low population count that is makes sense to put it here. What of Dominion though? That might as well go into Objective too…<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    Announcing the winners of the latest Halo 4 Forge Contest. These 3 maps were shown off in the Community Forge FFA playlist and are still available to play (and save) until Monday\u2019s update \u2013 if you haven\u2019t played them yet, head into the playlist to check \u2018em out.<\/p>\n

    FIRST PLACE:<\/strong>\u00a0Edifice by Redemption1272
    \nSECOND PLACE:<\/strong>\u00a0Opus by SHIFTY time
    \nTHIRD PLACE:<\/strong>\u00a0Plaza by Smexi Bilzo<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n
    HFFL:<\/strong> Whoo boy, and now for some GDC feedback…<\/div>\n
    \n

    We had numerous 343ers in attendance at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last week. While there, we presented a total of six different panels. \u201cHalo Reborn: A Postmortem on the Creation of Halo 4\u201d sparked a significant amount of feedback on our forums. I\u2019ll let you check out what Josh has to say in his own words:<\/p>\n

    The goal of my presentation was to discuss the many challenges that we faced when building a new team and taking on such a massive and high profile project, specifically for an audience of developers and creators going through similar situations. In preparing my talk, I was trying to encapsulate three years of development into a 45-minute presentation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    One of the things that I talked about was the desire to make Halo more accessible to players of all skill levels. What I did a poor job of articulating because of the nature of the intended audience is the importance of balancing the needs and desires of a hardcore Halo population that was born, bred and breathes prior Multiplayer philosophies, with an approachable and open-to-all design style. It\u2019s been a delicate balance and one that we haven\u2019t necessarily succeeded with but continue to work on. CSR, our partnership with top competitive players to build and refine Team Throwdown, adding pro options and arena-style maps to select playlists and our upcoming sandbox balances are a few of the things that we are working on for that particular part of our community on this title.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Since my GDC talk, I\u2019ve received a ton of feedback from the competitive community. I want you to know that we hear you, we value you and we are going to continue to listen to your feedback and suggestions. We won\u2019t be able to implement all of them; it\u2019s just not possible with the given resources and time. But we are in this for the long haul, and you\u2019ll see our continued commitment to this aspect of our experience reflected in future projects as well as in our sustain efforts for Halo 4.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \/Josh<\/p>\n

    HFFL:<\/strong> So does that appease everyone? No? I thought not. I’m certainly not trying to trash Josh here. Hell, I want to work for 343. However, he could have done a much better job in his presentation. One thing he didn’t address above was his message during the GDC panel that players wanted a progressive system (read perks). Um, no Josh, we didn’t want that. Halo needs to be Halo, COD and other games with those attributes need to stay in that realm. While I LOVE Halo 4 War Games, it’s gotten further away from the core of what Halo multiplayer really is. Like it or no, it’s a skill based competitive FPS. Not something someone new to the franchise should be able to come into and kill skilled players with seemingly ease. Hopefully CSR will address this. If not, the Halo multiplayer population is in for yet another huge decline. One that we as players and you (343) can not afford to have happen.<\/p>\n

    Finally the bulletin ends with a nice gallery of Screenshots featuring Vehicles.<\/p>\n

    To read the full bulletin and check out the gallery go here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    -Sal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here’s the schedule of events leading up to the release of the Castle Map pack on Monday, April 8.Being that the bulletin came out last night, we’re already halfway into the events. I can’t wait to see the Perdition video. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halo-waypoint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7602,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7599\/revisions\/7602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}