Massive Halo 2 aut-update coming...

[Romier S]

News story on Gamespot:

 

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04/15/news_6122355.html

 

The auto-update also helps relieve the modem standby cheat, eliminates flag bouncing and the "flag-grab-through-solid-walls" problem, as well as "sword flying," which allowed a player to fly from one end of a map to the other when wielding the Covenant energy sword. In addition, The Red Team no longer wins ties, and the split-screen's heads up display is now less cluttered.

 

There are a ton of weapon balance problems being looked at as well. All of you Halo 2 players have probably been looking forward to these cheat fixes as well.

[Rob B]

Thanks fo the Heads Up Romier :tu

[HoolieMan]

I am very happy about these updates. I respect Bungies dedication to making the game fair and fun for all.

[Calvin]

You can bet I've been looking forward to these updates.It will be a good thing come Monday :tu

[foogledricks]

I don't think you guys realize how many weapons changes they're making!

-Pistols Weaker

-Plasma Rifle/SMG combo Weaker

-Melee hits stronger

-Grenades stronger and go off more quickly

-Brute Shot Melee Super Strong, two hit kill

-Head and Torso shots stronger

-Pistol Auto-Aim less

-Jump Melee More Deadly

 

Overall they say they wanted duel-wielding to no longer be preferred over melee attacks and grenades. They want it to play more like Halo 1.

 

Also, they are resetting all the rankings. The matchmaking will be more accurate putting people of the same skill against each other. The ranking will be changed too, though I don't understand it exactly. All of this in conjunction with the new maps is really going to breate new life into Halo 2.

 

http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?story=weeklywhatsapril15th&p=3014696

[Jon W H]

I'm not crazy about the SMG combos being downgraded, but I can understand if they want to de-emphasize dual-wielding. I'm looking forward to seeing how things will be different after the rankings are wiped from the boards soon.

[Thrillho]

It kinda stinks about sword flying, That was kinda fun to do every now and then. We pretty much only did it when we were messing around on boards. Its darn near impossible to use in a real match. Unless people found a way of doing it easier. I never saw any of it. I wonder why they're taking it out.

[Rob B]

:tu on the sig pic

[foogledricks]

I'm not crazy about the SMG combos being downgraded

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, people pick me apart with the plasma rifle/SMG combo, so I am happy they are toning that down. On the other hand, I am particulary good with the pistol/SMG combo, so I am sad to see that toned down. The general de-emphasis of duel wielding is a good thing I think. When I only have an SMG, I feel naked - it's like a single weapon is useless in Halo 2.

[Jon W H]

I kinda felt the battle rifle (without any other weapons) was the weakest gun to start out with, but now that grenades have been amped in damage, I'll agree with you that the solo SMG will feel like being naked.

[boogieman]

Played a couple of games last night with the new update.

Lord that 1st game took forever to load.

1st game was in midship (rumble pit).

Wow that was fast and furious.

I took a couple of smackdowns before it really clicked that they are stronger now and actually worth attempting. I got a few good ones in on other people as well.

Grenades were flying everywhere. I know I had more grenade kills last night than I think I?ve ever had combined. These weren?t the sticky grenades either. I was also able to get a few people by dropping a grenade as I died. That?s always fun to do. Seems this update was made for the smaller levels. It was just chaos in there.

 

2nd game was at Ivory Tower.

This game loaded a lot faster. I got ahold of the smg/pistol combo and I didn?t notice much of a difference with it. I still was able to do pretty well. This game however was laggy as hell. I wasn?t getting credit for a lot of kills until the final scoreboard. Not as much up close combat to really utilize the meele, but grenades were raining down from the upper platforms. I even got a few kills like that. Seems your?re not safe anywhere.

 

It also seems that they adjusted the range and power of the sword. Seems people now seem to fly from across the screen and kill me instantly. On the other hand, I was at point blank range with it, and it seems that I was chopping wood trying to kill somebody (often missing them completely) and I was lucky if they died before they introduced me to the bottom end of there weapon.

 

Not sure I like that change Bungie. Everything else seemed like a good idea.

P.S. The stats haven't been reset yet. Not sure when that will happen.

 

Edit: :lmfao Added a smilie to make sure people know I'm kidding about the sword change. I was just venting my frustration from last night. I seem to occasionaly have that problem with the sword, it just seemed to happen a whole lot during last night's games. May have been the lag, I dunno.

[foogledricks]

Not sure I like that change Bungie. Everything else seemed like a good idea.

I am skeptical that this change was made at all. They [bungie] listed in detail all of their changes it seemed. But I doubt they'd disclose the rest of the changes and not this one. Perhaps I missed it in the read though.

The reason I am skeptical is because the difficulty you describe with the sword, is what I've experienced ALL ALONG. It always seems like people are sword killing me from 20 feet away, while I can't even lock on from five feet away. I have since chocked it up to an incorrect perception on my part, based on my angst. It is also possible that my lack of success could be related to latency.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if lots of people start blaming "the updates" on anything that doesn't go there way. "I shot him 50 times, and he shot me once, and I died." Just wait, people love to blame the unknown on their own misfortunate or inadequacies. I'm speaking from experience here, I used to blame my brother, say he was using some sort of cheat button if he beat me in RBI.

[Romier S]

Even more changes coming to Halo 2....

 

First and foremost, the new playlist update will incorporate the new maps into the appropriate areas. Containment is being integrated into all Big Team games while Warlock is being added to everything else. In addition, a new playlist called "Team Preview" will be created that will contain the 2 premium maps (Turf and Sanctuary) along with a few of the old favorites. The only way to play these two maps in Matchmaking will be via this new playlist. People who have not purchased these two maps will not be able to join the playlist. Team Preview will be a 4 vs. 4 team playlist consisting of ample servings of Team Slayer along with snippets of CTF, Assault, Territories (don't groan, 3 Plots on Turf rocks!) and a tiny helping of Oddball and King.

 

In essence, Team Preview will be similar to the original Team Skirmish that we launched with in that it will offer a mix of slayer and objective game types (with slightly more weight on slayer). This new playlist will be ranked and tracked on Bungie.net like all the others. This playlist will "expire" on our around June 28th when Turf and Sanctuary become free for download. For the duration of this playlist, we'll be monitoring people's progress and will reward the top ranked player with a special prize. We'll also be awarding other prizes so you don't have to be the top dog to get something. Everyone has a chance. Except cheats, who will be dealt with appropriately. Stay tuned for more details about this in the very near future.

 

In addition to the "Team Preview" playlist, we're also adding a new 2 vs. 2 playlist called "Double Team." This will provide some intense matches on smaller sized maps featuring team slayer as well as a variety of objective based game types. This will also be a ranked playlist.

 

Beyond these two new additions, we're making a bunch of tweaks and improvements to what's already there. For starters, we're mixing up the Head to Head playlist. Radar is being turned off and we've added a few objective games. Surprisingly, 1v1 King and Ball work very well and alleviate a lot of the problems currently faced in that playlist with people playing drawn out games of hide-n-seek. "Glitched" game types are being removed - no more enduring 2 hour games of Neutral Bomb on Midship because someone hid the bomb up in the geometry. On some maps, like Coagulation for example, game types have been revised to include a BR/SMG start. We have not done this to all maps and game types, just the ones where it makes the most sense. Your cries for more variety have been heard - we've added game types such as "Snipers" and more instances of "Rifles" to appropriate maps as well as adding Covenant vehicle varieties to existing game types. Everyone wanted to see the Spectre and now you will. The sudden death timer in Assault games is being turned off to prevent extended griefing and dragging games out to insane lengths. In lieu of the sudden death timer, we've increased round times by one minute. The unranked playlists (Team Training and Rumble Training) are getting a bit more experimental with new game types being added (Slayer Pro, Golden Shower, SWAT, Brutes, etc..). The list of tweaks goes on and on but that should give you a good idea of the types of things to expect. We'll be updating the playlist page on Bungie.net with the explicit details once we're ready to make the update.

 

http://www.bungie.net/News/TopStory.aspx?story=weeklywhatsapril22&p=3106844

[Rob B]

Golden Shower Game Play Mode??

 

 

That sounds silly but I do remember something about that form the early stages of game play

Here is a Photo of what that's supposed to look like I guess