[sek929]

I'd like to see the fruits of your labor, you indeed Forged harder than anyone has forged before last night.

[The Final Dakar]

Well, 8 hours into my hemorrhage forge. Probably 50% of the way done, maybe more depending how long various spawns and weapon placements go (not to mention designing/creating the home and secondary bases).

The main wall fortress is about 80% complete. It's massive. Like, the heart of the fortress contains a tank, two ghosts and two mongooses massive.

[sek929]

My word.

I'm going to hop into Forge right now, as I'd like to not be completely showed up in map making.

[The Final Dakar]

Here's how massive the Heart is: I managed to put man cannons in it to help people get across faster. Unfortunately, their use hasn't been perfected yet. Occasionally they'll misfire you into the ceiling or you'll hit the other side hard enough to dent your shields (Your speed when entering the cannon has something to do with this). I'm pretty sure I can fix or minimize this yet.

Oh, and I didn't mention. There's a Falcon on the very top of the base.

[The Final Dakar]

One of the daily challenges is worth more than the weekly challenge. **** you, bungie.

[sek929]

I forged the shit out my central area and I think I vastly improved the flow. Now you have to use the first floor entrances to access the second floor via a half-circle ramp. Two teleporters at the top of either base now bring you to the cliff-top banshee platform. Tunnel below the central base allows for vehicles to pass through if the driver is smooth enough. Raised the walls significantly as well.

[The Final Dakar]

You may consider your game picked up. That landing pad is 10x more awesome than anything I had percolating for the main bases.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by sek929 

sweeeeeeet

[The Final Dakar]

Of course, I am left wondering why, if I made it all the way up there, I'd need a health pack. Planning on sniping from up there?

[Kevin Bogues]

Why is neither of these forge explosions in your file shares, I need to explore these bases so I may get my .02$ in

[The Final Dakar]

Because I don't even have a playable Alpha. You're asking to see a car when all thats available is the frame and one tire.

[Kevin Bogues]

Bungie Update

So you’re not left in the dark or caught off guard, here are some highlights from the pending October Playlist update, courtesy of Playlist paesan' Jeremiah.

Playlist Changes

SWAT Playlist added (SWAT removed from Big Team Battle and Team Slayer)
Campaign Matchmaking (live on 10/15 – You will be required to have earned the Grade “Corporal” to enter this Playlist)
Team Slayer rebalanced to highlight default Slayer game variants and include new offerings
Classic Slayer removed
Removed “Pro” game variants from the Arena Playlist
Removed Boardwalk from Arena Team Doubles Playlist
Added “Return to Battlefield” volume to Space on Zealot in the Arena Playlist

Game Variants Additions

King of the Hill (multiple Playlists, including Arena*)
Rocket Race
Juggernaut (Rumble Pit Playlist)
*King of the Hill not included in Arena

General Housekeeping

Sudden Death will be added to all Assault game variants, including Invasion
Team Objective will now feature the map Powerhouse
Replacing Drop Shield with Evade for King of the Hill, Territories, and Oddball
Replacing Hologram with Evade in Oddball, Capture the Flag, Assault, and Stockpile
Replacing the Scorpion on Hemorrhage with Wraiths (Hemorrhage Heavies variant, TBD)

It should be noted that these are some, and not all of the proposed changes we'll be making to the online experience in the weeks and months ahead. The items listed above are those of the inbound soon™ variety. We'll make some more noise about a potential second October update as soon as the details are set in stone. Suffice to say, we'll be adding some new "stuff" to keep it fresh and we've already begun to dig into some sweet user created content in search of future matchmaking hopefuls. More on that in updates to come. Stay Tuned.

Bolded some "important" stuff

Speaking of second October Update
Bungie Image adds 250GS and 10 achivies


EDIT: did we really think Reach wouldn't be #1 on XBL

On Wednesday, Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson published the latest Xbox LIVE Activity report for the week of September 13th, and much to many a fan’s shock, chagrin, and horror, Halo: Reach was outclassed by not one, but two titles – the second being our very own battle-tested (but still subtly beautiful) Halo 3.

The “news” spread far and wide like the fifth shot from your DMR (I see you out there spamming the trigger, Annie Oakley), but it turned out that reports of Halo: Reach’s demise had been greatly exaggerated. Major Nelson quickly made good with a retraction, noting that the LIVE Activity chart included a “manual reporting error,” and further remarking that Halo: Reach has now held the number one spot on the Xbox LIVE charts for a full seven days running.

EDIT #2: i guess i should of read the Xbox, Wii, PS3 thread... oops

[The Final Dakar]

Well, best I can tell my wall isn't exactly in the center of the map. I may have deleted a necessary soft safe zone, too.

Oh, well, I think I'm forged out for the night. I'll be on later. Anyone up for campaign tomorrow?

[The Final Dakar]

Ok, that is weird. That's twice today I've posted in the same minute as someone else when the thread was dead for hours.

[Leonard]

Nice to see SWAT have it's own playlist, now I can avoid it when I want.
I wish they had kept classic slayer, I didn't see anything wrong with it.

On other topics, I had fun today in Firefight. Rocket firefight has to be the best. I'll have to try for the triple kill while jet-packing achievement in Rocket Firefight.

I see Dakar was on a Scorpion rampage this evening in BTB Territories - nice k/d on those two games.

[Kevin Bogues]

I am now through 6 mission of my Legendary solo run, with 4 left.
So far it's not quite as hard as veteran for WaW but there are quite a few spots where I almost put my controller through a wall

Crosbie or Kcros? Either of you achivement whores doing this yet ?

[The Final Dakar]

Half of those changes were common sense, wonder WTF they were thinking on release.

With all due credit to Forge, because this version is 50x better and more useable than its predecessor, I'm finding the base selection to be problematic. They're cluster****y, random, and, most importantly, inoperable with each other. I was hoping to create a super base from base pieces, but I may be better off just creating something myself, which is becoming less of an option as my remaining budget has dipped into the low 2000s.

If nobody's on today I'll be forging. I'll be sure to put up some teaser pics tomorrow.

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by Kevin Bogues 

I am now through 6 mission of my Legendary solo run, with 4 left.
So far it's not quite as hard as veteran for WaW but there are quite a few spots where I almost put my controller through a wall

Crosbie or Kcros? Either of you achivement whores doing this yet ?

Mission 6 was the toughest so far. It took me almost 3 hours to complete. I heard that mission 10 makes mission 6 look like a walk in the park. I'm not looking forward to that.


Damn you Bogues! You've already caught up with me. I was playing the 7th mission (Exodus) last Saturday and I got to the very end. I had 2 of the 3 switches activated. That third one was a bitch to get. After about 15 deaths, I paused the game and went to bed (it was 4am) I woke up 6 hours later and found out my xbox had switched off. Now I have to start that mission all over.

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Half of those changes were common sense, wonder WTF they were thinking on release.

So is fixing the spawn location on Boneyard but I didn't see it on the list. WTF?

[sek929]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

If nobody's on today I'll be forging. I'll be sure to put up some teaser pics tomorrow.

I'm gonna sign on in an hour or so, after the Pats game and lunch.

[The Final Dakar]

This just in: Halo sucks

[Leonard]

I don't know why I didn't play firefight before this. It's much more fun than any of the other playlists, and it doesn't really matter if anyone on the team quits. Rocket Firefight is da bomb,... almost as fun as Crackdown 2. Over the top killing at it's best.

[The Final Dakar]

I took me a week, but I realized t gets ultra-repetivive. The new improved indestructible psychic elites don't help, either,

[The Final Dakar]

bungie, you're killing me. I can live without the updated character profile reflecting my actual armor and colors because your servers are so pussy they'd crash, but taking away the instant functionality of screenshots going into my profile is retarded.

Once again, one of the daily challenges looks way harder than the weekly.

---

Bogues, I have three questions:

1. Was that really you playing with us last night?
2. Two weeks in are you as excited about the Halo gameplay as you were before it came out?
3. What'd you think of my map? (I probably should have asked this before I insulted you and your game)

---

SWAT on Countdown is awful. Some cyborg got 3 headshots in 3 shots right off spawn faster than seemed possible. Luckily Countdown is great for assassinations, which is all I try to do in SWAT since there's no radar. Also, I've noticed that all of bungie's maps sit as either wide-****ing-open or complete cluster**** (SwordBase is an exception, but its full of dead ends).

Arguably, this game is worse about explosives than MW2.

[The Final Dakar]

sek, here's the explanation on the new shields I forgot to give you:

In Halo 3, you really needed to learn the rhythm of a weapon or even count bullets to learn how long you needed to fire at an enemy before a melee was a guaranteed kill (or a headshot for that matter). In Reach, we’ve taken the guess work out and made it very simple, “When the shields have popped, a headshot or a melee will kill.” The opposite holds true as well, if the player has a shield you can NOT headshot them or melee them and expect a kill. The Sniper Rifle is the exception to this rule as its high caliber rounds are built to pass through shields, metal and bone like butter.

In Halo 3 damage was allowed to bleed past shields after they were popped.

i.e. If there was 10 points of shield on the enemy and you caused 20 points of damage to them, you’d pop the shield and then do the remaining 10 points of damage to the body.

In Reach, shields absorb all damage as long as they are active.

i.e. If there was 10 points of shield on the enemy and you caused 20 points of damage to them, you’d pop the shield, but it would absorb all of the remaining damage, so NO damage would make it to the body.

Interesting thread that is somehow alive on IW: Returning from Halo Reach; Back to MW2

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I took me a week, but I realized t gets ultra-repetivive. The new improved indestructible psychic elites don't help, either,

That could be solved with a shake-up of the firefight playlist, maybe.

They could add a 3rd playlist. It looks like it has certain parms that could be different in different playlists: difficulty, waves or rounds, time limit, skulls, etc.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Leonard 

That could be solved with a shake-up of the firefight playlist, maybe.

I was thinking that the activated skulls should be rotating. One should randomly change per week, and the other per day. Keeps it fresh, but also stops bad combos from ruining an entire week.

[sek929]

So if a guy has 1% shield left and I melee his ass then his shields take all the damage?

In the words of Senor Chang, "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!"

Damage should be carried over if the shields cannot absorb all the damage dealt, end of story. Why they felt the need to change this yet re-use maps from Halo 2 is beyond me.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Damage should be carried over if the shields cannot absorb all the damage dealt, end of story. Why they felt the need to change this yet re-use maps from Halo 2 is beyond me.

Oh, I think the reason is pretty obvious. Not that it's working.

[sek929]

Well next time I empty an AR clip into someone, melee them, and then die I will know exactly why that bullsh!t is happening.

I assume the reasoning has to do with the ever-present BR headshot cyborgs unbalancing the game, but I see absolutely no difference in that respect. Takes me the same amount of time with the DMR as it did with the BR. Only now the melee suffers because of this stupid crap. So many times I would explode a grenade right at the feet of my opponent and then whack him, only to have him simply drop the remaining pittance of shield he had left.

I've also noticed the Pistol is usually one bullet short for a proper head-to-head kill. Otherwise it's a much better choice than the AR, which also tends to empty its clip right before the kill shot.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by sek929 

I assume the reasoning has to do with the ever-present BR headshot cyborgs unbalancing the game, but I see absolutely no difference in that respect. Takes me the same amount of time with the DMR as it did with the BR. Only now the melee suffers because of this stupid crap. So many times I would explode a grenade right at the feet of my opponent and then whack him, only to have him simply drop the remaining pittance of shield he had left.

My guess is it was to curb the two piece and the plethora of meleeing. But all we're getting now is, instead of AR/Melee, AR/Melee/Melee (Or in extreme cases, thanks to the melee "push" AR/Melee/AR/Melee).


The more I play this game, the more I find all the complaints about MW2 to be exaggerated in comparison.

[sek929]

If anything all it does is draw out the close battles even more, which is entirely unnecessary.

The only complaints that Halo still makes me have about the MW series are mostly lobby issues and a lack of all those nifty features Bungie crams in. We'll see how well Black Ops theater mode works, but how cool would it be to design your own CoD map?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As for your Forge map I have to say, well done sir. I think the end bases are a little grandiose, and might go largely unused, but that center leviathan of a wall is super awesome. I like how you really pushed the height envelope, something I was to timid to do in my map. Must be a designers mind at work.

I'm still happy with the direction my end bases are taking, but I'm really close to scrapping the whole middle area. It won't be much of a loss because the process was more of a learning experience, plus I'd like to steal a number of ideas from you.

At any rate I'm at least 10 hours away from even matching what you have.

To everyone else, Dakar has quite the map going on, and it surely will be huge fun if we can get enough people to play on it. 4v4 would almost be a needle in a haystack sort of situation on finding your enemies.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by sek929 

If anything all it does is draw out the close battles even more, which is entirely unnecessary.

And that's without adding random jumping. Whoever thinks Halo is faster paced than MW2 is wrong. It's merely more crazed/prolonged in CQ. While those moments are sometimes enjoyable, those are few and far inbetween.

Originally Posted by sek929 

The only complaints that Halo still makes me have about the MW series are mostly lobby issues and a lack of all those nifty features Bungie crams in.

Speaking of, is it me or does Halo take 3-5x longer on entering and exiting games? The level loads in lobby, fade to black, the x slashes thingy, black, preview show\t of level where you select your loadout, and then sometimes, black again, preview shot again, game. And on exit like 5-10 seconds of black rather than what, 1-2 in MW?

Originally Posted by sek929 

IAt any rate I'm at least 10 hours away from even matching what you have.

To everyone else, Dakar has quite the map going on, and it surely will be huge fun if we can get enough people to play on it. 4v4 would almost be a needle in a haystack sort of situation on finding your enemies.

Well, I feel like I need to finish this up next week because our player population has likely peaked, and as you said 4v4 wouldn't be good.

[The Final Dakar]

Not a fan of IGN, but someone on the bungie forums posted this and I thought this paragraph was worth noting.

IGN Advertisement

For instance, when details of Reach began to surface and Bungie launched its traditional multiplayer beta, Halo veterans salivated at the introduction of a sprint mechanic. A feature utilised in nearly every freshly released FPS took Bungie a whole 10 years to implement into its golden goose of a franchise. That being said, the final release of the game still sees sprinting present merely as its default Armour Ability, forcing players to abandon the capability in order to use others like decoys or jet packs. Granted, many would argue that the lack of such a basic function is a signature feature of the series, but here is an element that not only helps the pace of a title, but has come to be expected by the wider shooter community. The same can also be said about the lack of any constant scoping mechanic. Conspiracy theorists could speculate that Bungie is purely against modern day FPS mechanics, or that the studio refuses to admit it may have fallen behind its opposition. Either way, the highly regarded developer was left in a game of catch up.

People on the forums (kids) have already justified the lack of a sprint mechanic because it unbalances the game (don't agree). If the ability to run unbalances your game, you may need to re-examine what you've accomplished.

[The Final Dakar]

...and for trip, the SPARTAN-I prototype:

XOS Exoskeleton Goes to Mark II With More Superpowers

[Stogieman]

Bogues, where you at on the campaign? I'll be damned if you get the Legendary Solo achievement before I do.

Four of us should get together tonight to do the weekly challenge. The first mission is really easy.

Legendary Friends
Complete any Campaign mission on Legendary in co-op mode. - 2500 cR

[The Final Dakar]

I'm probably up for it if you're on early enough and I'm awake.

[Stogieman]

I'll try to get on by 9:30pm EST

[sek929]

Scrapped the center base in entirety and built something better in its place. Still not sure how I am going to tie everything together though.

[Kevin Bogues]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

Bogues, where you at on the campaign? I'll be damned if you get the Legendary Solo achievement before I do.

Four of us should get together tonight to do the weekly challenge. The first mission is really easy.

Legendary Friends
Complete any Campaign mission on Legendary in co-op mode. - 2500 cR

Still on Exodus, that level is kicking my a**

[Kevin Bogues]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Bogues, I have three questions:

1. Was that really you playing with us last night?
2. Two weeks in are you as excited about the Halo gameplay as you were before it came out?
3. What'd you think of my map? (I probably should have asked this before I insulted you and your game)

1. Yes, honestly i was playing terrible, we all know i'm extremely inconsistent but last night was worse than usual (I couldn't even play SWAT, which is usually a strong suite)
2. Mostly, I love the game play just based on the fact that i feel it represents how i play games (i can go crazy running and gunning, sprint into a wide open room and still walk away with a double kill), The levels so far are not too fantastic, but i see opportunity and because of my Halo dedication, i'm loving the throw back levels (although i do think they should be SECONDARY to great NEW levels, which as of now, they aren't), For some reason, i enjoy objective type games much more in halo (as opposed to MW) i think only because of vehicles, and therefore it generally has more staying power.
3. Your map?....That center base is absolutely one of the best designs i have ever experienced in a BTB size level in all of halo, no doubt in my mind. the sheer size of it creates a "second" level in the center and the man cannons and walkways give it a perfect balance of open space killing and CQB. The center base gets a 10/10. but i have to agree with fatty on the side bases, while i love the design, they don't seem useful (except for the man-cannon jumps to the cliffs), I think that in actual gameplay they will only be used as spawn points, and there complexity and size are not advantages to battles, although they are a step up to the simple small bases Bungie dropped into a remake of a level 10 years old.

[Kevin Bogues]

Originally Posted by sek929 

To everyone else, Dakar has quite the map going on, and it surely will be huge fun if we can get enough people to play on it. 4v4 would almost be a needle in a haystack sort of situation on finding your enemies.

This map could very well destroy the sandtrap map from H3, and i'm more than excited to get a good size game going on it.
I had a blast betraying sek last night on it and we weren't even playing.

[sek929]

I'm going to watch the, entirely legally obtained, new Venture Brothers and then I'll be game for some Reach.

[Stogieman]

Well that was a fun night of multiplayer. Dakar & I started off with BTB Slayer on Hemorrhage. Dakar grabbed the Scorpion and went on to get an Untouchable medal and more kills than the red team. (He had 27; Red Team 26)

Bungie.net : Reach : Game Details

Here's a video of him shooting a warthog while it was still in the air. (Ok, one wheel was touching the ground but it was still a good shot.)

Hog Shot


We finished the night with a game of Territories on Boneyard. Here's a shot of me getting splattered by a Ghost while I was in the middle of an assignation.



We ended up losing the game but I wasn't mad. (Probably because I had a splatter spree. See video below.)

Splatter Spree

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

Well that was a fun night of multiplayer. Dakar & I started off with BTB Slayer on Hemorrhage. Dakar grabbed the Scorpion and went on to get an Untouchable medal and more kills than the red team. (He had 27; Red Team 26)

Bungie.net : Reach : Game Details

Dude, take a look at the stats. I had 27 points – and 33 kills. Look at everyone else; Their score was lower than their kills. No one has any penalties. WTF is wrong with this game?

[The Final Dakar]

Put Your Quarter Up
Complete 10 games in multiplayer Matchmaking.
1000 cR

Close Talking
Earn 40 kills with close quarters combat in multiplayer Matchmaking.
600 cR

I realize this is my frequent punching bag, but one of these does not pay well for the amount of effort involved.

Great day for challenges, though. Lots of cR to be had.

[Leonard]

Geez, I just now noticed the gamer tag section of the Bungie website. This is how you get those Halo 3, ODST, and other tags in your name plate (gamer tag) in Halo:Reach.

I was wondering how a few people got this.

[Stogieman]

Where is the gamer tag section located? I can't find it.

[The Final Dakar]

Game settings.

[Stogieman]

Got it. Thanks.