Halo 1 & 2 for PC
This topic has moved here: Subject: Why are there so few Custom Edition players now?
  • Subject: Why are there so few Custom Edition players now?
Subject: Why are there so few Custom Edition players now?
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

This is something I really don't get. When I looked to see how many players were on in Halo PC just now, there were about 500. However, Halo Custom Edition only has a grand total of 17 players with only 1 dedicated server with more than zero people in it. Why aren't people with just PC downloading CE as well? How come they don't see that it has less lag, hundreds of custom maps which some are very creative, and faster shaders. There were many improvements to the Halo PC multiplayer experience that were made when Custom Edition came out. The people who still play PC must know about it since it's posted right in the server browser's message area and has been for a while. So why not play it? You would think that the community would be bigger since so many people like halo but don't have an XBox. I myself have Halo 2 and I still play Custom Edition quite often. What do you find bad about CE besides the lack of players?
This is especially bad for the mapping community because those who are inspired to create maps have little hope of getting people to play on it. Even the very good maps seem to quickly fade after a month. It's kind of sad considering the amount of work that goes into a quality map.

[Edited on 11/16/2005]

  • 11.16.2005 11:58 AM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I agree...

If people just switch from PC to CE, there won't be a lack of players, which I think the the main thing keeping people from switching.

Too bad people just don't get it. :(

  • 11.16.2005 12:09 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I wish more would play ce. I play a little every night, but there is never anyone on. You need a fast internet connection to download it in a reasonable amount of time.

But yes, I agree it is far superior compared to regular online Halo.

  • 11.16.2005 12:16 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

and another thing for why there is so many players for you ( I think I am not sure how much maps you got ) is that you need custom made maps. I have like 100 and mainly there is only like 75 players on then!

FOR ALL PEOPLE READING THIS FORUM WITHOUT CE GO GET IT!!!

[Edited on 11/16/2005]

  • 11.16.2005 1:08 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

1 major reason people with pc dont download ce is because they think it is fake. 2/3 of the people i talked to while recruiting people to halo ce thought it was either fake, or a virus. 1/6 played it and, (i have no idea how, this is just stupid..) hated it. The other 1/6 just didnt have the time to download it, or the space.

  • 11.16.2005 1:27 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

1 major reason people with pc dont download ce is because they think it is fake. 2/3 of the people i talked to while recruiting people to halo ce thought it was either fake, or a virus. 1/6 played it and, (i have no idea how, this is just stupid..) hated it. The other 1/6 just didnt have the time to download it, or the space.
Wow, that's pretty surprising. Why would they thing Halo Custom Edition is either fake or a virus if there's a message scrolling around all the time in the server browser about it. I have no idea why others would hate it since it's the same thing but better, and well, I guess you can't help it if you have dial up. But still, at least 2/3 of those people should be using it because it's obviously not a virus or fake.

  • 11.16.2005 1:50 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I think thats one of the reasons why they think its a virus.
Don't ask me, ask the people who said it. Well, im off as Halo Custom to recruit the masses. And cause halo pc SUCKS in ways i cant describe here.
"Halo CE: improved netcode (multiplayer), custom maps, vehicles, weapons
Why the hell wouldnt you want it?" - Halo Custom (me when playing halo pc)

  • 11.16.2005 2:00 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Well i've only got a 10 gig hardrive so whle I like Halo custom edition I don't play it often for the fact that I just got nfsu2 and that took up all of my hardrive after I took out ce. That is about the 7th time i've uninstalled the custom edition.

  • 11.16.2005 2:06 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I play CE pretty much exclusively now, and while the new maps can be interesting and fun, they are not the main reason for this. There is less lag, fewer TKers, and just overall better gameplay in my opinion; these are the best reasons to play CE. As l2azorback said above, it's the same as Halo, but better.

  • 11.16.2005 2:28 PM PDT

Join the MAW Clan
X-fire username:Iggwilv
My Real Avatar

Reason #1: You have to find & download the maps. There really isn't a central place to download the maps RELIABLY. The ones that are out there are hit and miss and have S L O W download speed.
Reason #2 Then you have to unzip them and load them into the correct folder on your system. You would be amazed at how many people are clueless when it come to this. Remember this is the era where program install themselves and fix themselves. People generally stay out of Explorer and heaven forbid if you open up a command prompt.
Reason #3 If you don't have a map you can't join a server playing that map. "Unable to join" If your playing on the server and you don't have the next map in the rotation, "Bye Bye"
Now you have to go thru #1 and 2 above and by the time,you finish and join the server, "Game Over"
Reason #4 3 out of every 4 maps out there are unbalanced, boring or just not very good.

Reason #5 because of the aforementioned reasons; no one plays on-line. When I tried out CE there were never more then 125 players and it averaged about 50. There were barely 4 ppl on a server at a time and most CTF maps need 6 or more to be worth playing. It usually takes me about 3 or 4 servers in Halo PC to find a game with a good setup and players about my level. After 3 or 4 servers in CE you been to them all.

Is CE better then PC yes. For 2 months I would start up CE and try to find a game hitting about 4 or 5 servers(the one with more then 4ppl). I would always end up closing CE and starting up PC so I could play a descent game.

  • 11.16.2005 3:50 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Yeah, Iggwilv, you are probably about 100% right there, unfortunately. Users are probably looking for everything to be easy like some kind of master list of maps and stuff that automatically download instantly the minute you join a server and work perfectly (too bad that's not the case though). It's a shame really. I've been following the PC modding community since a while before Custom Edition was born and using the mods. Back then it was old-school modding and you had to bust out the hex editor to get the mods to work. Then PPF-o-matic and HMT came, so things got easier and the modding community grew. So, for the people who have known Halo modding for that long, I guess CE was heaven since all you had to do was download the map and stick it in the maps folder. Way easier than the regular PC modding. So, I guess it would be safe to say the less savvy users never picked up on the modding and when they tried CE, they simply didn't understand it and gave up. So, I guess all CE was left with is the people who have been involved with modding PC and already knew sites where the CE maps would be coming out and understood that new maps need to go in the maps folder as a given. So, I guess the question is: what can be done about it? There needs to be a way to dumb down CE so the average user can understand it enough to be able to use it. Unfortunately, I guess the problems with CE were caused mostly by gamer's reluctance to learn.

[Edited on 11/16/2005]

  • 11.16.2005 4:14 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I <3 CMD.EXE!!
Its the only way ill start halo and sapien, and haloce, and (continues to blab for hours...)
Hmm... Im gonna make an install file for trepidation. : ) and upload it to my own server, so you wont have to wait. And it will be fast!
Not to mention, i dont think thats why. Now that the "Get Halo Custom Edition" banner is gone from PC, no one has ever heard of "Halo Custom Edition". the ones who have, have it, or didnt get it due to space issues, but i have never heard anyone say they didnt lilke it because they had to install the maps in the right spot, and its an obvious location too.

And the auto-downloading maps thing would be PHYSICCALLY impossible, no matter what the server, it would take hours to grab just the right version of the map. THi s would require it to copy it from the person hosting the server, and that would slow it down further. Plus the fact that that person is in the middle of a game slows it down further.
And the reason no site has every map in 1 easy spot is bandwidth.
Halomaps.org could do it, but Dennis says "bandwidth blah blah blah too much blah blah blah"

[Edited on 11/16/2005]

  • 11.16.2005 4:31 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

No, on Counter-Strike: Source, I auto-download maps all the time when I join a game with a different version of a map or a new map all together. Some maps use entirely new geometry and textures not included in the Source engine, but they still download. The servers just give equal bandwidth to each person connected - the person downloading the map hogs no more bandwidth than the ones playing.

  • 11.16.2005 9:25 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

i hav a question: where can i get CE? and how do i start a server?

  • 11.17.2005 12:24 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

few custom edition players is sad.
i think it just got old or something.
halo pc has competition-battlefront 2, FEAR, quake 4

  • 11.17.2005 1:00 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: ice_king
i hav a question: where can i get CE? and how do i start a server?

go to halomaps.org buddy
they have everything.
halo ce
editing kit
tag extractor
tutorials
the whole enchalada
(sorry for the double post)

  • 11.17.2005 1:03 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: sexy legs davis
No, on Counter-Strike: Source, I auto-download maps all the time when I join a game with a different version of a map or a new map all together. Some maps use entirely new geometry and textures not included in the Source engine, but they still download. The servers just give equal bandwidth to each person connected - the person downloading the map hogs no more bandwidth than the ones playing.

Halo ce maps range from 40Mb to 128 Mb (the max)
Getting newer versions would take hours, and the game would be over before you got to playing.

  • 11.17.2005 1:43 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I personally don't play Custom Edition right now because I frankly don't have the skill I think I would need to keep what few servers there are from kicking me out. I'm not a noob, but I'm just average.

  • 11.17.2005 2:36 PM PDT

Posted by: Nessy

The bungie.net community is the halo PC community that is renowned for being unbelieveably sucky.

I'm definitely one of those players. The issue is really that Halo retail is "good enough" and everyone's has gotten used to the maps. I've noticed the Bungie servers have all but been abandoned permantely, and for awhile, as a bungie rat, I was sad. Now I realize you gotta cut off the dead limb if you want to save the body.

Bungie severs were popular because good players came to them to kick ass. Now that they are like ghost towns because of the lag problems that plague them, the question will become: do die hard halo retail players find other servers with good competition, do we migrate to the world of CE, or do we quit playing halo altogether and finally move on after all this time.

There needs to be some major force to motivate people to play CE, and I think if somehow you could capatilize of the fall of Rome so to speak (Bungie servers unplayable), you could drive old school players to CE. Lets face it, I know about CE, I've even had it installed on my PC and played it a few times. But the retail version had something CE didnt, lag free Bungie servers spilling with good players. That doesn't exist really anymore, and since Bungie isn't likely to fix their problems, you need to spark the attention of those players who've been stuck in the Halo retail routine.

Personally I dunno how to accomplish that. Maybe it will happen naturarly over time as veterans can't find decent games on "other" servers. Also, maybe a good selling point is that CE players are the best. I dunno if that's true...but I imagine they aren't bad.

If would be fun to have the best retail players go up against the best CE players :)

Maybe you could "welcome" them to CE through a little competition...

  • 11.17.2005 5:11 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Posted by: steamedbacon
Halo ce maps range from 40Mb to 128 Mb (the max)
Getting newer versions would take hours, and the game would be over before you got to playing.


So do custom CS:Source maps. They're more detailed than a Halo map as far as textures, and I'm sure they crush them in the geometry section, too. But I can download them within 7-12 minutes when I connect to servers with those maps running.

How do you figure it would take hours?

  • 11.17.2005 8:35 PM PDT