- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: jharbst
It is a cool idea, but I don't think it would be good use of resources. Having spectator mode, where a camera follows the players takes up very little resources, whereas having an extra player that isn't playing, will use more processing power, and bandwith. I don't like respawn limits anyway.
Yeah, it's definately not one of the best uses of resources, but there's a lot of talk about dedicated servers and to be perfectly honest, Halo 2 will be the biggest online game ever for consoles. My guess is that Microsoft may have multiple servers up and running, and these servers will be built to handle the data sent and received from each Xbox. To be perfectly honest, if you start a team match with 16 players and 8 die their set number of times, and get booted into the lobby then you still have 16 players playing, just 8 are sectioned off from the group as penalty for dying too many times (and will more than likely use less bandwidth since they are watchin the map).
The major problem I do have with this idea is the no respawn. Halo's a frag-fest type game so respawn is a key for it, but I just can't for the life of me figure out what is so special about the user interface that it will change the experience of Live forever. Nothing about the user interface is that significant to warrant that much change. Perhaps it has something to do with clan orientation, or maybe it ties in with Version 3.0 of Live some way. Any other noteworthy speculation?