February Matchmaking Update Live
Posted by Shishka at
2/5/2009 12:53 PM PST
Also, Grifball!
Like a thief in the night, the February update has found its way into the homes and hearts of Matchmaking players the world over. The change list is small this month, but intrepid users may notice the switch in the number of players between Lone Wolves and Rumble Pit. That's right, Lone Wolves has gone back to a six player maximum, while Rumble Pit games now feature two more potential zombies! Below is the changes in list format:
Ranked
Lone Wolves- Maximum players reduced to 6 (was 8)
Team Slayer- Weighting on Smashed reduced
Team Objective- Weighting on Smashed, Octoplex reduced, Octoplex updated in response to player spawn issues
Social
Rumble Pit- Maximum players increased to 8 (was 6)
Hardcore
Team Snipers- Weighting on Standoff significantly reduced
The Double EXP weekends for February are below (In order of appearance):
Grifball
V-Day Massacre
Team Flag
Team Melee
Those of you that played Halo last year may recall the V-Day play list. Ranked Doubles with a twist: We'll be giving Recon to people that meet certain criteria. What criteria is that? Well, we're not going to say. I'll give you a hint, though: It's a doubles playlist. For couples. Pairs. Twos. Something to do with the number two.
How's that for subtlety?
If you're playing right now, you've probably already noticed that Grifball is available as double EXP right now! Grifball Double EXP Weekend is available until 2am PDT, Monday, February 9th.
Social Living Dead Double EXP
Posted by Shishka at
1/29/2009 11:00 AM PST
Braaaaaains...
Social Living Dead is this weekend's Double EXP weekend! Now you can get that burning hatred for the undead out of your system. Or, you can enjoy some delicious, delicious brains. If that's your thing. I'm not here to judge.*
Social Living Dead is available from 11am PDT on Thursday, Jan 29th until Monday 2am, February 2nd. All downloadable content required. Have fun!
*I'm totally judging you right now. Can you feel it?
3 Ball now available!
Posted by Shishka at
1/22/2009 11:01 AM PST
If only you had three hands, right?
Starting 11am PDT, 3 Ball makes its belated appearance as a Double EXP weekend for Halo 3! For those of you new to this gem of a playlist, Oddball games based on the presence of -you guessed it- three oddballs make up the entirety of the playlist. The catch? There are four teams. That means someone's going to get left behind if they don't act fast.
3 Ball is available from January 22nd until 2am Monday, January 26th. Heroic and Legendary map packs are required.
January Matchmaking Update is (Finally) Up
Posted by Shishka at
1/20/2009 7:44 PM PST
After a long wait, January finally is finally here.
Hooray! Testing is finally done and over with, and if you haven't already noticed, the January Matchmaking Update has been applied.
If you missed the Weekly Update where we described the changes for you, here they are again:
General Changes
Playlist Clean Up, Mythic Prep
In preparation for the new maps coming later this year, some of the less popular map variants are going to be removed over time. Some of these removals are not listed below, but will be reflected in the Matchmaking Playlist page here on Bungie.net. This will be an ongoing process with maps and their variants being systematically removed as warranted.
Push to Talk Restriction Increased
Since Halo 3’s release, if a player were to join a Matchmaking playlist with a team size larger than four, he or she would have to push a button on the DPad to communicate directly to their team. After the January update, the PTT restriction is being increased to 6 players per team, meaning that players will not need to use the D-pad to communicate on any Matchmaking playlist but Social Big Team.
What does this mean for players? Well, for starters, it means communicating to teammates in 5v5 or 6v6 playlists will be trivial. However, this could mean an increase in bandwidth necessary for these larger format playlists, which means the potential for “laggy” games is increased. The best way to avoid lag in these games is to ensure that you are not constantly broadcasting to your teammates, and that your teammates are not constantly broadcasting to you. If you often play with strangers, be prepared to mute and report players that abuse their microphone. To mute a player quickly during a game, hold the back button to bring up the scoreboard and select their name with the left stick. Then press X. Muted! To report players, select their name in the post game carnage report and view their gamercard, then use the Report Player options listed therein.
DLC Category
In an effort to make the Matchmaking playlists easier to navigate and bring the populations together, the DLC category is being retired, and the playlists it contained are either being moved into Social or integrated into existing playlists.
Ranked Hopper Updates
- Lone Wolves – No Changes
- Team Slayer – No Changes
- Team Objective
- KOTH, Oddball, 1 and 2 Bomb assault set to skip after veto, and weighting on these gametypes will be reduced to refocus the hopper primarily on 1 Flag, 2 Flag, and Neutral Assault.
- A couple community map variants for Foundry are being added to the CTF rotation.
- Team Doubles – No Changes
- Squad Battle – No Changes
Social Hopper Updates
Rumble Pit
- DLC FFA and Rumble Pit will be merged. Rumble Pit will now require All DLC, and include gametypes such as Infection.
Social Slayer
- Population increased back to 5v5
- Isolation, Foundry removed.
Social Objective
- Slightly reduce weighting on Land Grab, and increase weighting on multi flag to even distribution of these two gametypes out.
- Reduce weighting of VIP. Set to skip after veto.
- Territories variants set to skip after veto.
- ADDED Social Team DLC
- 5v5 Slayer and Objective strictly on DLC maps. Heroic and Legendary map packs required.
- The most popular slayer and objective variants, strictly on DLC maps.
Multi Team
- Reduce weighting of VIP, KOTH, and Oddball.
- Some maps being removed from rotation.
ADDED Social Big Team
- DLC Big Team will be moved and renamed. Weighting between DLC and non-DLC maps will be equalized. The hopper will continue to require DLC 1 and 2.
DLC Hopper Updates
REMOVED DLC FFA
- DLC FFA and Rumble Pit will be merged. DLC FFA as a separate hopper is retired.
MIGRATED DLC Big Team
- Being moved to Social and being renamed “Social Big Team.” Non-DLC maps are getting a weighting increase such that they are equal to DLC maps. Still requires DLC 1 and 2.
Hardcore Hopper Updates
Team SWAT – No Changes
Team Snipers
- Reduced weighting on Standoff.
MLG – No Changes
Double EXP Weekends (listed in order of appearance)
Grifball – Winter League (1/8-1/12)
3 Ball (1/22 -1/26)
Living Dead (Unranked) (1/29 – 2/2)
Seven on the Seventh
Avalanche 7v7
Bungie Single EXP Weekend Begins!
Posted by Shishka at
1/15/2009 11:00 AM PST
All weekend long, earn ONE ENTIRE POINT for winning games in any playlist you choose! Hey, wait a minute...
Due to some necessary processes taking longer than we had anticipated, we were unable to release the January update at the date we had scheduled internally. Unfortunately, that update included this weekend's Double EXP playlist (originally scheduled to be 3 Ball) and as a result no Double EXP weekend will be available.
Not to worry! The bright side of this little delay is that I can say with confidence that the January update (which includes Social Team DLC, Rumble Pit becoming Legendary-required, and DLC BTB transforming into Social BTB, among other changes) will go live next Tuesday. Further, we'll forego Legendary Brawl next week for 3 Ball.
We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you all have a lovely weekend.