Re: Halo 3 Impressions
Bungie Weekly Update
Bungie Weekly Update
But speaking of feedback, today we had a couple of relatively senior MLG players in the office to help us in the final stages of our melee “fix” testing. We’ve been working through this process with a watchmaker’s attention to detail – and it is a very tricky problem to address. It should be pointed out that the majority of Halo players probably haven’t noticed anything is even wrong with melee – but at the competitive end of the spectrum, there are issues with several granular melee features – simultaneous strikes, shield depletion and so on.
The bottom line is that we felt it could be improved without alienating folks who hadn’t noticed any problem and so we’ve been working with real life players, like one or two external hardcore clans, as well as the MLG guys, to make sure the changes are satisfactory, balanced, fair and fun.
So it was very interesting to see their reactions and suggestions. It’s such a delicate matter that there’s no way we could have addressed it in a vacuum. Hopefully you guys will appreciate the care and input that helped tweak the thing when we (hopefully) roll out the fix in a few weeks.
The bottom line is that we felt it could be improved without alienating folks who hadn’t noticed any problem and so we’ve been working with real life players, like one or two external hardcore clans, as well as the MLG guys, to make sure the changes are satisfactory, balanced, fair and fun.
So it was very interesting to see their reactions and suggestions. It’s such a delicate matter that there’s no way we could have addressed it in a vacuum. Hopefully you guys will appreciate the care and input that helped tweak the thing when we (hopefully) roll out the fix in a few weeks.
In the very near future, we will bring you a release date for the autoupdate, complete with a list of all the (visible and publicly consumable) changes. In the interim – it’s going to be “soon-ish” and will contain roughly, in order of bigness:
Melee Fix
Melee Fix
- Physics fix for “flying” dead bodies
- Fixes to make future Forge-related playlists better.
- Lots and lots and lots of tiny, neat fixes that will make everything better.
- We’ll give you a detailed list later, since some things may be more important to you than others.
Some changes are afoot in our plan for the next batch of DLC. Although the next group of three maps is nearing some semblance of completion (don’t get too excited by that fact, since there’s still oodles of polish and testing to be done before they’re ready for the mainstream. But there has been a significant change since we last mentioned ‘em.
One of the maps, actually one of Luke and I’s favorites, the oft-mentioned “Purple Reign” is being held back after class, so to speak and will not make it into the next DLC pack. Booo! That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s being replaced by something potentially much more exciting – a map we haven’t really spoken about because it was a ways behind.
But things change. That map’s progress accelerated as Purple’s slowed a little. As we looked at the schedule it became apparent that we could probably leapfrog one to the advantage of the other. Now, I can’t tell you much more about this replacement map, beyond the horrible codename I just made up, “Moonlight Sonata” but I can tell you that it will be universally adored. Of that there is no doubt. Usually I am in the business of soft-selling new maps in case folks have adverse reactions to ‘em “it’s too big!” or “it’s not symmetrical” or “where’s XXXinsert fave map hereXXX” but this time, confidence is high. It will be beloved.
One of the maps, actually one of Luke and I’s favorites, the oft-mentioned “Purple Reign” is being held back after class, so to speak and will not make it into the next DLC pack. Booo! That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s being replaced by something potentially much more exciting – a map we haven’t really spoken about because it was a ways behind.
But things change. That map’s progress accelerated as Purple’s slowed a little. As we looked at the schedule it became apparent that we could probably leapfrog one to the advantage of the other. Now, I can’t tell you much more about this replacement map, beyond the horrible codename I just made up, “Moonlight Sonata” but I can tell you that it will be universally adored. Of that there is no doubt. Usually I am in the business of soft-selling new maps in case folks have adverse reactions to ‘em “it’s too big!” or “it’s not symmetrical” or “where’s XXXinsert fave map hereXXX” but this time, confidence is high. It will be beloved.
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