The-Halo-Bulletin-42413 Weapon/JIP tuning
The-Halo-Bulletin-42413 Weapon/JIP tuning
http://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2013/04/24/The-Halo-Bulletin-42413.aspx
Current State of Weapon TuningBravo here with more details in the world of weapon tune testing and developments. This week, I spoke with Quinn regarding more specifics with a few weapons, as well as some of the challenges associated with each.
Battle Rifle
We announced last week that we’re investigating the feasibility of a 4-shot Battle Rifle and saw a lot of interest regarding how many bullets it takes to kill an enemy. There are indeed complications that exist around a BR that takes exactly 4 shots (or 12 bullets) to kill, and most relate specifically to latency and online play. While a 12-bullet kill feels good and rewards accurate players in a LAN setting, the vast majority of the game is played online, and the 11 -bullet kill provides a consistent online experience while still rewarding skill. Right now, we are testing a 4-shot BR that kills on the 11th bullet, which allows for a small margin of error in online play.
We had also mentioned the reduced rate of fire on the BR. When we brought the BR to a 4-shot, the weapon was dominating at all ranges. To balance it out, the fire rate now matches the DMR exactly in current testing.
DMR and LightRifle
We’ve slightly reduced the range at which the reticle turns red for the DMR, and once again matched the LightRifle to this distance. This is based off some feedback we received last week that questioning whether or not it is currently too easy to engage people across the map. To maintain skillful long range battles, we’ve reduced this range slightly for this week’s testing. We’re also investigating slightly increasing the rate of fire on the LightRifle when zoomed, which increases its viability at range.
Assault Rifle
The current Assault Rifle kills in 16 rounds, making it technically possible to kill 2 players with one magazine if not a single shot is missed. Our current balance testing reduces the rounds to kill by 2 or 3 shots, making this feat a bit more achievable. However, a significant reduction in auto-aim makes this quite difficult and demands a bit more skill from players who wield the AR. Our current tests bring us to an optimal kill time range that lies between that of Halo: CE’s and Halo 3’s Assault Rifles.
As we tweak these values, we’ll continue to address some of the challenges associated with each and let you know where each week brings us. We’re currently in the process of building a release schedule for the new weapon tune, and we should have details about that next week.
Also, Quinn and I just played a 1 vs. 1 match with some fully automatic DMRs. They’re kind of powerful. On a serious note, we look forward to messing around with various weapons in extreme ways for game types in playlists such as Action Sack, Multi-Team and wherever else appropriate. For now, though, let’s chat about an update we made on Monday to Join-in-Progress parameters.Join-in-Progress Update
As we announced in the previous Halo Bulletin, we’ve been paying close attention to feedback regarding Join-in-Progress. As of Monday, we’ve updated the parameters at which players can join games, based on game mode and playlist. As you likely know, Join-in-Progress is a brand new feature in Halo 4 and was implemented to fill in matches when players quit in order to provide a consistent experience and combat against lengthy, drawn out matches in which several players have quit. After monitoring your feedback and adding new playlists, modes, Competitive Skill Rank and more, the Matchmaking Systems Team felt it was necessary to update some of the join settings to create the most optimal experience across all playlists.
While the specific settings will vary greatly depending on the game mode, score of both teams and time remaining, the following are some highlights of the current Join-in-Progress parameters:
- Once a match has passed just over half of the total game time, Join-in-Progress is disabled across all game modes and playlists.
- Rumble Pit now has the smallest Join-in-Progress window, only allowing players to join during the first few kills of a match.
- In Slayer matches outside of Team Throwdown and Team Doubles, players will no longer join after one team has reached just over half of the score limit.
- In King of the Hill and Oddball, players will no longer join in the second half of the game in regards to score limit.
- In Grifball, players will no longer join single-round matches if over 3 goals have been scored by one team. We will be updating Grifball Pro to similar settings in the next update.
- In Team Throwdown and Team Doubles, players will no longer join after a small join window during and before the first moments of a match.
The goal of these updated parameters is to ensure that players who join late will still have a chance to win the match, and that players will not be joining War Games Matchmaking matches too late to have a shot at winning. Additionally, these updated parameters ensure that players who join late will not only be able, but will need to contribute to the match significantly. We look forward to hearing your feedback regarding these new Join-in-Progress settings.
Weapon tweaks sound interesting, but they are still testing so lets see what comes out of this.
The TTD and Doubles jip change is a little disappointing. Althought the quiting has reduced by a good percentage before a match starts, that means someone playing TTD and is on a team that has someone quit out before the games starts and no one joins before the match starts, then they are at a disadvantage when the game starts (for objective). Wonder why they thought the one minute jip needed adjusting.
Oh well, it is what it is.
All this sounds thoughtful and good. Wish they had done it before release. It might draw me back in if they actually go through with it. They also need to address the map situation though.
I think it's clear that 343 didn't realize how much careful thought has to go into a Halo game before release, so hopefully this will be a good learinng experience and they will treat Halo 5 differently.
Or, at least into the multiplayer aspect of it.
Its seems like they have the right people working on the MP now. Its to bad Bravo and company where to late to have influence on the maps. Overall the changes sound really good I hope it doesn't take to long for them to release them.
I totally agree.
Tuning the weapons at this point is like closing the barn door after all the animals have left.
Which also drives home the point: none of us really want the game to change radically. We all espect refinements and improvements and innovation with gameplay and stuff that we didn't know we wanted until we get them. Nobody wants the radical departure. Good to hear you guys also want us to return to our roots as well.
Maybe to late for a big population, but if your like me as long as I have people to play with I'm good. I don't care if its in some back alley with 16 people if they keep improving the game I'll keep playing.
Jim: "I used to suck dick for Halo."
You still do, but you used to too.
+1 Jim
They won't have near the cashflow on launch day that they did with H4 is my guess. So I doubt they are going to do anything too radical.
I like the recent updates. I haven't played since February, but I might be back soon.
They need to implement regional or language search filters. I'm sick of playing against latency and not the other team. I'm fine with the weapons. We've learned them. Don't go fucking with the sandbox now.