- Pkmnrulz240
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- Exalted Legendary Member
Good post, Zeph.
The worst thing that Bungie could do is make this 56K compatible. As you said, it would kill the game. Halo PC was horrible because of this. We'd have a nice game of 7 people on broadband. We'd wait for an 8th, and then we'd get a lagger. Many times, the game's host wouldn't have the console enabled, so he wouldn't be able to boot the lagger either. Sure, we could ask him to leave politely, but that never worked.
I know Halo 2 has the option available to the party host, so thats good. Just don't allow those who haven't advanced in the world of technology to play Halo 2 PC. You're making the game Vista-only. Thats good. Make it Broadband only too. You'll find that you'll have a lot more happy customers if you make it broadband only. I quit playing Halo PC and switched over to Custom Edition for a number of reasons. The main ones, however, were:
1. The lag in PC was horrible at likes, with pings often reaching into 1000 ms+. Terrible. CE didn't improve much, but it was a bit better. Mainly because 56Kers wouldn't even download the CE file.
2. Custom content in CE. :)
Now, with the custom content... All I can say is this: Leave everything in Guerilla/Sapien or whatever you throw our way unlocked. Don't lock the stuff up like you did with the widgets in Halo Custom Edition. The brains of the community (Namely kornman. <3) hacked Guerilla and Sapien like crazy, and got that stuff unlocked for us. Theres tons of people in the community working with these new options to create bigger and better things. You'll find that you'll have a happy community when you don't limit what you give them. :)
And if you're going to allow custom content, GIVE US THE SINGLE PLAYER TAGS. My gosh, that was quite a fiasco in the Custom Edition community. A few people decided to create a monopoly with the tags from the campaign that you guys decided to not let us have early on. That led to some anger in the community. Eventually they were released in a large download, and then later we got the Halo Editing Kit Plus, the great application by SteelixB that allowed individuals to convert tags from Halo PC (namely the campaign) to Halo: Custom Edition, as well as do other things. Don't hold back - give us the full ability to do stuff. Please don't decide to not give us the single player tags.
Zeph mentioned something about the tutorial for the Halo Editing Kit as well. That was terrible. It was amazingly basic, the pictures weren't all that good, and the documentation was sometimes confusing. Bungie, hopefully, with the custom content, you can make a nice little flash tutorial or SOMETHING that will cover much more than just the very basics.
And I'm hoping you guys won't just give us the ability to make maps. I'd be a little upset if we could only make maps, and couldn't make new weapons, vehicles, etc. We need everything. Weapons, vehicles, scenery... you name it. We want it.
And the Halo scripting would be nice too. Thanks to Kornman again, we can use the same scripts that you guys used for Halo PC's campaign in our own custom multiplayer and single player maps. Of course, the scripts in multiplayer often/usually did not sync across the netcode. That brings me to my next point:
SYNC EVERYTHING YOU CAN.
We can kick up what we're going to send over the netcode here if we eliminate 56K support like we should. With the scripts in Halo Custom Edition, we've been forced to do additional scripting to check the health and status of things like bipeds and vehicles in order to sync everything across the netcode properly. Sure, its doable, but its more work than its really worth.
Bungie, for Halo 2 PC, you really, really, really need a server list. Get rid of matchmaking and the ranking system. Its horrible for Halo 2. Look at how many people absolutely despise Halo 2's matchmaking system. It only does a few things:
1. Gives people levels that they brag about. Congrats! You have a 50 that you cheated to get. WHO CARES?!?!
2. Give people reasons to cheat.
Halo 2 on the Xbox would have been SO much better with a server list and without matchmaking... or with both, I guess. In unranked custom games, you NEVER see people cheating. Theres no point in it! Get rid of the levels and of matchmaking completely, and the maturer members of your fanbase will be quite happy. Keep in mind - mommy and daddy will buy their young kids Xboxes and video games. But when it comes to buying new thousand dollar computers and expensive new operating systems and graphics cards, mommy and daddy probably won't give Johnny that stuff. A lot of your younger fan base is going to be eliminated here. Thats a good thing. Focus on the people who will actually support you with Halo 2 PC. Don't just simply give in to the screaming kids on the forums here that go "OMG BUNGIE WHY ARE WE STARTING WITH A BATTLE RIFLE? I WANT MY SMG BACK! WHAAAAAAAAA!" Those kids probably won't even get Halo 2 PC. Actually LISTEN to your fan base this time. Team Hardcore was perhaps the best thing that has happened to Halo 2. Ever. Thats the ONE time you truely listened to your fan base. Let me assure you - the MLG crowd is ***not *** in the minority.
If you get rid of the levels, cheating will be completely pointless. In the server list, individual game hosters will have the ability to boot any cheaters anyways. That'll eliminate cheating right there.
With the custom content too, make sure you have an in-game map downloader or something. Don't make users leave the game and go to a random website in order to download the map. Thats what shot Custom Edition in the foot.
All in all... Bunige, I do hope you'll do a better job with Halo 2 PC than Gearbox did with Halo Custom Edition. I understand they were limited in what they could distribute... And I have a feeling that some of those limitations were put in place by you guys. Don't be stingy. Allow us to take advantage of our full potential. Otherwise... Don't expect a happy fan base.
And for God's sake, make the magnum worthwhile again.
edit: Wow, Zeph, you're correct. :( *plays taps and cries*
[Edited on 2/9/2006]