- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Ok, first of all, so many people have been complaining about the random optimatch. It's really not that bad at all. The only problem I had with it was that you couldn't do a rematch. However, now that they fixed the optimatch searching time, it doesn't matter to me at all. Yes, there are a couple of game types that lots of people dislike and groan when it says "Rapid Assult in Burial Mounds". However, if you read the weekly update, bungie said that they will soon be cutting out some of the more disliked game types. Also mentioned in that update, was the suggestion that VERY SOON bungie would be releasing an update that will make optimatch more flexible and will likely include a Team Slayer choice. These changes are great, but the only problem I personally ever had with optimatch was the long waiting times and the occasional disliked game type. I think optimatch provided us a great way to learn some new favorite maps and gametypes. In Halo 1, my friends and I would play only Sidewinder and Blood Gulch for the first year. We eventually started playing other levels, but it took a long time. With Halo 2, my friends and I have started playing all the maps frequently and playing Crazy King and Team Ball just as much as we play CTF Classic. Finally, optimatch does keep people's stats fair. It's much harder to play unfairly when every map and gametype is random. If optimatch wasn't there and you wanted to play something like Crazy King in Assension, you'd have a very laggy game with very few people because 99% of people would be playing CTF in Coagulation.
However, if I still haven't convinced you that optimatch is a very good thing, what you can do is invite almost all the people in the recent players list after a few games to be your friend. After a little while, you'll have a friends list of 40 or so people. Now, you can play coustom games with whatever rules/maps you'd like. I used this for about 3-4 days when optimatch took forever.