I think you mean Boarding Action? We had some legendary one-kill-to-win sniper games on that map back in the day

That's my understanding yes. So in any game of Arena (or any other game types), regardless of whether you're at the start of a season or in the middle of one - your TruSkill is being used in the background to determine the match. The divisions are then there to compartmentalize things and add the competition/progression/ranking element on a seasonal basis to discourage rank resets, second accounts etc which compromised TruSkill matching in Halo 3.

The cR and commendation systems to not appear to be well implemented at the moment. I thought the original idea of commendations was to build up data about a persons playstyle which can then be useful in team games and as badges for players who aren't necessairly the best slayers to show. I.e. if a player happens to be a great driver, he's really useful in some situations but presently there isn't really a way of showing that. Having a "Vehicle expert" commendation scored on medals for splatters, driving assists, how many times they pick up an objective carrier etc. would give players an incentive to specialise in that area if they're good on it and have something to show for it. That's what I inferred from the Ars stuff when it was announced. It's a pretty piss poor implementation of this idea at the minute.

The cR system is a bit of a black box and with only limited things to do with it right now it seems a bit lost as well. People like extraneous reward systems and it's quite feasible to integrate one here without harming the gameplay. There should be more stuff to do with credits and a more visible display of how they tie in with the commendations and what cR bonuses are available for achieving them.

The point of them in my view should be to reward players for doing good things in the game, especially when slaying isn't the primary objective. It's the intention I think but implementation at present is way off.

Well, if they're extraneous rewards, than they'll never really matter. They don't effect your score (your real score, you know, the one in game), and all you can unlock is armor.. so.. it's hard to see how it's going to vastly improve in retail. I don't mind that stuff, it's sorta fun. The irony is that people play the meta game in many games more than the actual game! Such extraneous rewards and achievements can be detrimental to how the game is supposed to be played.

Team Slayer Pro and SWAT should be the modes you play.

Welcome to the next three years. That discussion is going to run and run. Done right, I think they can be a fun way to augment the actual gameplay proper. If someone can unlock some cool armour because they have fun playing the game a specific way (i.e. being the vehicle driver which normally goes unrecognized) then more power to them.

Reading the relevant Weekly update, they seem pretty congniscant of the balance required but it's a hard thing to get right.

On another note, I just played some Invasion on Boneyard. I see what they are trying to do, I think it needs more work. It definitely needs more players per team and whilst I appreciate the intention of getting netcode data, they need to make it so everybody gets a round of attack and defence. Otherwise in my view people will stop playing it. I'm quite tolerant but others are less so, three guys I'm on with now have played 2 games and that's enough for them.

Boneyard itself feels a bit bland and the vehicles don't feel that powerful. Moreover, nobody uses them at the minute. The feel is markedly off compared to the rest of the game.

People will bitch about initial spawns & loadouts on the Elite side but once people grok the routes into the ship they aren't actually a problem. Party splitting is, however.

I don't think it's a write off but the format needs a lot of work and putting it out there at this stage might turn some people off. That said, it'll be the best feedback they'll get.



I'm a bit worried the same thing will happen to Overlook / Generator which strikes me as some experimental stuff to get networking data. If the map is too big, it's not going to be as much fun.

More videos from Papa Phaethon

WHAT THE %#$! DRIVER!? | Starring: Vehemence, Phaethon360, and Anonymous Noob Driver

InVaDeD | Starring: Phaethon360, CrazyKiller246, and WayOfTheGamer

At this rate I'll need more minutes. But you need to spend money for those not points. Lame.

Or ballsy. Either way it was pretty epic that we survived a head on collision with the tank. I had been spectating, ready to respawn on Vehemence when all of a sudden I was spawned into the passenger side of the hog. I just launched grenades like crazy.

Yeah I'm just not seeing how any of that is relevant. The game itself should be providing the incentive to play it properly. But hey, if people want to live in an imaginary world where their KDR doesn't have an impact on team objective games, more power to them I guess.Sounds like a worthy successor to BTB! Not having each team play both attack and defense sounds really broken. Bungie makes great games but Halo has always been at its best in Team Slayer imo. I love that there's so much variety in what games you can play, but the more quantity in objective modes we get, the less quality I see. They've never done anything even remotely as entertaining as conquest. Even assault is no search & destroy, etc.

That's why they play oddball all the time in MLG I guess? :P

And hey, I love Halo CTF and Assault, I just think that they're poor compared to other attack/defend games. Hell, the scoring in Halo has never really made much sense to me. I hate the fact that public games can so easily end in a tie, or worse, can force you to play rounds on the losing side that are absolutely futile (because you literally can't win). And honestly, I think it's pretty objectively correct to say that something like three-plot pails in comparison to conquest. Bad Company 2 is a great game, but I can see how one might get tired of it. It has a lot of its own issues, and while it actually has more variety in gameplay than pretty much anything else out there (all contained in two game modes!), I feel the same strain. I can't wait for, and hope that noobs don't ruin, Battlefield 3.

When aren't we talking about our personal taste? I don't need to qualify every opinion as an opinion when it's obvious that's what it is. The best objective modes in Halo are CTF and Assault. Oh no! I did it again!

I should stress that's only for the beta, so they can get as much networking/matchmaking data as possible. Like I said, appreciate the reason for it but it's not helping matters.

Everyone I played with tonight agreed Invasion is broken. Besides some bugs the design if poor. Not enough players, too much open space requiring running, and for some reason they start you off with some pretty lame weapons that do not fit the large open map. And of course it isn't quite open (junk yardish) with minimal vehicles.

One thing we talked about tonight is that every gun in Halo 3 had a role where it excelled and was either difficult, non-ideal, or non-functional outside that role. The Reach beta really hasn't found that balance. The AR is pretty worthless; the range is limited but once you get into range you can close and go for melee anyhow. And for some reason Bungie has maps like Power House where there the map is quite large.

There are a lot of niggles like this. For the most part the armor abilities are right on, but it really requires a lot of refinement. They better hope they have no more Sword Base maps and get things tightened up. There is a good foundation but a lot of refine. I am just hoping they go away from this bullet-sponge model + worthless weapons. But it is to my advantage as I am owning all the AR players with the pistol ;)

It's good that they're on top of this stuff, but I hope they're not just ignoring how weak some of the weapons are in favor of making melee weaker.

Played some Invasion last night at a buddies. I dig it. It has issues but I see a lot of potential. It's the best new mode we've played at least. Invasion Slayer is pretty cool too.