Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo 3 is a huge waste of time, this needs to be fixed in Reach.
  • Subject: Halo 3 is a huge waste of time, this needs to be fixed in Reach.
Subject: Halo 3 is a huge waste of time, this needs to be fixed in Reach.
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Please don't reply to this thread if you haven't taken the time to read it.

I'm not talking about the game itself, of course not, I'm talking about Search and Load times. And here is why...

I've been wondering for a while now how long I actually spend searching for games and loading maps, all this wasted time before actually getting into a game. So I brought it on myself, at 2am, to conduct an experiment using a stop watch and social slayer. I start the stop watch when I begin searching, and stop it when the countdown hits 1 and I'm in the game. This is what happened:

3 Minutes into my search and I have finally found the 10 players needed for my first game, despite there being 62,000 people in Social Slayer. Timer goes up to 3:51 while Last Resort loads.
After a ten minute game, I'm back searching. This time it takes a surprising 45 seconds to find players, but with the map loading, then getting vetoed, then loading another map, the timer goes up to 5:30
A quick game on The Pit, and I'm back in the lobby. Current Social Slayer population sits at 61,680 yet we seem to be having a hard time finding the 10th player. Timer hits 8:10 and the search restarts. Finally we get our 10 players, Standoff loads and doesn't get vetoed, I feel like quiting, but for the sake of experiment, I pretend I had fun getting that overkill, in the warthog, against the players that weren't moving and stick the game out to the bitter end.
Search time is currently sat at 11:48, Social Slayer population: 61000+, yet I'm still unable to find enough players for my 4th game of the hour. At 12:38 the search restarts itself once again, and finally at 14:09 I'm in a game. Snowbound is a notoriously small map, and the game finishes nice and quickly, which is brilliant as I was starting to get withdrawal symptoms from this wonderful lobby.
42 minutes into my hour, and the Search Clock currently sits at 15:46. 3000 People have left Social Slayer since my Snowbound madness, probably because they starved to death while searching for a game. Miraculously it seems, I'm in a game when my Search Timer hits 17:56.
My local time is now 02:52, but despite how tired I am, and how incredibly bored I am of this playlist, I press on and get my last fun filled game of Team Duals on Snowbound. The timer ends at 19 minutes 51 seconds while I attempt to learn how to Dual Wield again.

Times:
Game 1: 00:03:51.509
Game 2: 00:01:45.879
Game 3: 00:04:40.630
Game 4: 00:03:51.356
Game 5: 00:03:50.569
Game 6: 00:01:51.718
Total Time Spent Wasted: 00:19:51.661

In conclusion, this over dramatised experiment has revealed that 1/3 of the time spent on Halo 3 matchmaking is a complete waste of time. You've also got to note that this was done in Social Slayer, the most popular playlist at the time.

Please for the love of God.. fix this in Reach Bungie?

[Edited on 11.02.2009 7:12 PM PST]

  • 11.02.2009 7:08 PM PDT

word i hear you...waiting is the hardest part... and i wanna see lots of explosions in reach it soo much fun to blow stuff up!

  • 11.02.2009 7:14 PM PDT

Wherever you roam
so far from home
you'll be safe from peril
life threatening and terrible
if you avoid David Powel
and keep track of your towel.

So you spent two thirds of your time in a match? That sounds about right.

  • 11.02.2009 7:15 PM PDT

i've always wanted to know how much time i was wasting, also, loading in halo 3 just makes me want to turn my x box off. if for some reason bungie cant fix this large annoyance in reach, they BETTER have some kind of lobby minigame (something to at least past time effectivly). im sure every matchmaking player would love to spend less time doing nothing, so if a change is possible, i think it would be mandatory.

[Edited on 11.02.2009 7:22 PM PST]

  • 11.02.2009 7:21 PM PDT
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Posted by: EldritchWarlord
So you spent two thirds of your time in a match? That sounds about right.


Surely that doesn't excuse the epic waiting times. If I'm playing a game, I want to spend all of my time playing it, not waiting around. There are plenty of ways to cut down on the search and load times.

  • 11.02.2009 7:21 PM PDT
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Posted by: ubercool925
if for some reason bungie cant fix this large annoyance in reach, they BETTER have some kind of lobby minigame


Absolutely. Something as simple as pop up targets to snipe would work a charm.

  • 11.02.2009 7:23 PM PDT

*Bobfather17*

I use the time to do things or pass time by looking through people's file shares, but even then I can't always fill all of the time. I think that the maps could easily be loaded AFTER the veto.

  • 11.02.2009 7:25 PM PDT

yes bungie you have to fix this or else you will get a lot of hate mail maybe a petition but of course no one will start one since there to blam.

  • 11.02.2009 7:26 PM PDT

my old account "gamegeknee" was hacked and thats why I had to make a new login name.

That doesn't even sound bad, I've spent way more time searching than that before. Also, if you have such a problem with it why don't you come up with a solution because I can't possibly think of one and 3 minutes average to find a game does not seem unreasonable to me at all.

  • 11.02.2009 7:26 PM PDT

Wherever you roam
so far from home
you'll be safe from peril
life threatening and terrible
if you avoid David Powel
and keep track of your towel.

Posted by: Proxyn
Posted by: EldritchWarlord
So you spent two thirds of your time in a match? That sounds about right.


Surely that doesn't excuse the epic waiting times. If I'm playing a game, I want to spend all of my time playing it, not waiting around. There are plenty of ways to cut down on the search and load times.


Sure there are. They could not care about anything when setting up the match. Whatever people it doesn't matter, just throw them in the match together. They want their games fast not good!

I'd rather that they take a little longer to filter through players so that everyone is local and speaks the same language if possible in any given game that they set up. Not to mention avoided and preferred players.

Think about it. Would you have preferred to spend 10 minutes of your hour not playing a crappy lagfest of a match or waste those 20 minutes and get decent groups?

EDIT: I do support the idea of minigames to play during the search though.

[Edited on 11.02.2009 7:30 PM PST]

  • 11.02.2009 7:29 PM PDT
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Posted by: gamegeknee 7
That doesn't even sound bad, I've spent way more time searching than that before. Also, if you have such a problem with it why don't you come up with a solution because I can't possibly think of one and 3 minutes average to find a game does not seem unreasonable to me at all.


Simple maths tells me that If I spend 1/3 of my time searching for a game of Social Slayer when the population is at 60,000, that means that 20,000 people are also searching for a game of Social Slayer.

Out of 20,000 people searching, it should find 10 in an instant. There is obviously something in the game that needs to be fixed here.

Maps do not need to be loaded before vetoing, that'd cut out another 45 seconds or so each time if the map gets vetoed. Hell, maps should just load themselves in the background, from the moment you start the game. So as soon as you get into Matchmaking, you won't need to load a thing. Again, drastically reducing the wasted time.

  • 11.02.2009 7:31 PM PDT
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Posted by: EldritchWarlord
Think about it. Would you have preferred to spend 10 minutes of your hour not playing a crappy lagfest of a match or waste those 20 minutes and get decent groups?


That's why they have Search Priority in Matchmaking. Quickest should be Quickest.

  • 11.02.2009 7:33 PM PDT
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For -blam!-'s sake, the length of people's attention spans these days.

I hate to be so annoying, but SUCK IT UP! It's a -blam!- THREE MINUTE WAIT!

Patience is a virtue.

  • 11.02.2009 7:36 PM PDT

Here’s what Luke had to say about the differences in treatment between the Spartans and Elites in Reach:

“Instead of piece-by-piece customization like the Spartans, Elite customization is a full model swap with models selected from the various Elite classes appearing throughout the Campaign. There are all kinds of reasons for this, not the least of which is our continued emphasis on the Spartan as your identity in Reach.”

What game does better on the Xbox with matchmaking?

  • 11.02.2009 7:36 PM PDT

Your friend is not a reliable source of information

Posted by: Uncle Kulikov
What game does better on the Xbox with matchmaking?

Call of Duty, because it allows me to join games that are already in progress, which something halo reach should implement.

  • 11.02.2009 7:42 PM PDT
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Posted by: Uncle Kulikov
What game does better on the Xbox with matchmaking?


Honestly, Halo is the only Xbox game I play so I wouldn't know. But I used to play a lot of FPS's on the PC and I never had to wait at all.
Recently I've been playing a free FPS called BlackShot and it's click, click, wait 10 seconds, and you're in the game. I don't see why that is perfectly possible when Halo is just a drag.

Posted by: jorj17
For -blam!-'s sake, the length of people's attention spans these days.

I hate to be so annoying, but SUCK IT UP! It's a -blam!- THREE MINUTE WAIT!

Patience is a virtue.


Because I just love waiting 3 minutes every time I want to spend 6 minutes doing something. I shouldn't require patience for a video game, that's my point. I want to get back from work, chill out and play some Halo. Not sit staring at the lobby screen for 20 minutes every hour.

  • 11.02.2009 7:44 PM PDT
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Posted by: Proxyn
Posted by: Uncle Kulikov
What game does better on the Xbox with matchmaking?


Honestly, Halo is the only Xbox game I play so I wouldn't know. But I used to play a lot of FPS's on the PC and I never had to wait at all.
Recently I've been playing a free FPS called BlackShot and it's click, click, wait 10 seconds, and you're in the game. I don't see why that is perfectly possible when Halo is just a drag.

Posted by: jorj17
For -blam!-'s sake, the length of people's attention spans these days.

I hate to be so annoying, but SUCK IT UP! It's a -blam!- THREE MINUTE WAIT!

Patience is a virtue.


Because I just love waiting 3 minutes every time I want to spend 6 minutes doing something. I shouldn't require patience for a video game, that's my point. I want to get back from work, chill out and play some Halo. Not sit staring at the lobby screen for 20 minutes every hour.



Three minutes is not very long, and most games i play last about 10 minutes. notably, they aren't social slayer, but you shouldn't mind sitting on your couch for a few minutes.

If it kills you that much, play small flash games on you computer during the wait.

  • 11.02.2009 7:49 PM PDT

Posted by: Ushan
Because Muslims surgically implant organic bombs in their testicles, which in turn will be injected into women during sex, which will grow into BABY BOMBS!

Posted by: Monkeyjoe78
Posted by: Uncle Kulikov
What game does better on the Xbox with matchmaking?

Call of Duty, because it allows me to join games that are already in progress, which something halo reach should implement.


That's not matchmaking. Halo has a pretty good system. People just cry because they can't wait 3 minutes. It's mostly slow because not everybody has an Open NAT. If everybodies NAT was Open it would be faster.

Do what I do, go on Bungie.net while you wait :D

[Edited on 11.02.2009 7:50 PM PST]

  • 11.02.2009 7:49 PM PDT