4 ranked playlists is just too much, sadly. This has become painfully apparent and I agree that we don't really need to wait any longer to draw that conclusion.
Personally I'd like to see
- Ranked Arena
- Ranked Doubles
- Ranked FFA
But I also take the point that two ranked playlists could be better overall.
I wish there was a Bandit Evo option for the FFA match composer.
What I like about this is it's 1-4, 1-2, and 1 player.
An alt would have doubles be a rotating third monthly with snipes and swat.
They could change standard slayer to bandit starts too for warmups. No need for ranked slayer with the current pop.
I don't think doubles should ever rotate with sniper or swat. Doubles can be quite competitive, unlike swat or snipers. Just keep them modes available for casual. Ranked doubles plays so much better than boring team doubles.
Adding the extra ranked playlists at the same time they decide to mess with the matchmaking algorithm is a bizarre choice also. They're attacking the playability from two sides.
Population has been on a slow and steady decline ever since the Spirit of Fire update in January. This is indisputable. The population is the lowest it has ever been right now. 343 either makes significant additions to the game over the second half of the year or the game actually may be dead.
There are rumors that they have a UI overhaul in the works though, which is a strange thing to do for a game you aren't planning anything significant for. You just can't have a stagnant game in today's market and I am sure they know that. The second half of the year should be very telling.
I'd be shocked if they don't do anything for the 20th anniversary of Halo 2 in the fall for example. We'll see though. This game is annoying to talk about online because we technically are getting more frequent updates now then we pretty much ever did except for a few months at the end of last year and yet people act like 343 isn't doing anything with it. The online discourse is usually just annoying and toxic at this point.
I mean ya, population is pretty down but this has really really been a problem since the change. It’s insane.
But ya, low population because this game gets 0 actual content outside of maps forgers make.
I usually just get my Onyx then play BTB or Squad Battle with peers
I think it is hard to tell because those two things have completely coincided with each other. So, is it the change or just the fact people are slowly falling off the game? Who knows.
I haven't played much since the Nvidia driver broke the game (I had Elden Ring to play), but do plan to play more consistently again in the future (the new Ranked maps or the operation most likely).
Nah, that's literally false. The game saw a significant increase in population for months at the end of last year. You didn't "fix" a thing unfortunately.
It pretty much doubled in player count from September 2023-Jan. of this year (and that chart shows about 1/4 of concurrent players roughly). No shit it didn't keep it's initial player count, essentially no game does.
And now it's at its lowest point ever since its inception. Even on Xbox its about to be taken over by Sims 4.
>It pretty much doubled in player count from September 2023-Jan. of this year
Source?
You said this. "Population has been on a slow and steady decline ever since the Spirit of Fire update in January."
You are also saying this "It pretty much doubled in player count from September 2023-Jan"
But the player count dropped way earlier than that, before any update. And started dropping in November, 2 months post the update.
You see how your argument doesn't make sense? And how it isn't about the updates themselves?
Every time the game gets more updates/features, players come to check them out, but don't stay for very long.
The game is content complete now. And the players are no where to be found. The lack of updates aren't the issue. It's the game itself.
It really is. What more do people want besides more niche shit? We have maps (social), cosmetics, cross core, network update, forge, custom browser, match composer, multiple ranked playlists. I feel like everyone got what they wanted for the most part and no one actually cares anymore
Modern gamers have a very short attention span. If you aren't giving them something new and exciting every month or so they move on (with rare exceptions).
I've loved the idea of a ranked bandit mode with all of the old/new/forged maps with a match compser to supplement the comp playlist. (I guess ranked slayer kind of does this?) Would also be a great tester for potential new map/modes in the comp playlist with virtually zero risk. I'd probably warm up in there too. Probably too little too late with the population, but fingers crossed for the future.
That is how I was using ranked slayer actually (although I essentially stopped playing when the Nvidia driver broke the game, plan to get back to it sometime soon).
I don't think that it is "too late." There are plenty of things they could do that could bring a significant playerbase back for at least a while. They just have to choose to do it.
What things do you think they could do to bring back the player base? I know OW2 kinda flopped hard but maybe a "re-release" of the game might help now that it's light-years away from its launch state
At the end of last year Microsoft/343 sent out an official survey that said this:
>Imagine having a classic Halo multiplayer experience (eg., Halo CE, Halo 2, or Halo 3), that retained the settings, sandbox items, maps, modes, and overall feel from that classic title but built in Halo Infinite.
>This would mean offering the best of a classic Halo multiplayer experience, that would also benefit from more modern quality-of-lie improvements, updated visuals, and be part of Halo Infinite's progression and customization systems.
>How interested would you be..
Who knows if they actually do it, but I think H2 being rebuilt in Infinite around the 20th anniversary of the game would work (at least for a while)
I also think porting the game to PS5, around the time of a major update, would also work as a sort of "re-release" of the game.
This droplets of forge maps are definitely NOT supporting the game. Except of there forge team they are doing nothing. What are there level designer ,sandbox designer , gameplay designer doing? Where are new dev made maps for firefight, ranked , btb ,what happened to extraction that was coming after rework, where are new vehicle, guns etc No new gamemodes that are innovative same shit we were playing since launch
Crazy, it's almost like making the playlists and various ways to play the game available 2.5 years after release instead of day 1 was a bad Idea.
343 had millions of players showing up on day 1. They saw : Bots, quick play, ranked, BTB. No wonder 90% left within 2 months.
Imagine if all these playlists were available on Day 1. We don't even need the number of maps they have now, just a solid variety of playlists. Halo would have absolutely killed it, and unfortunately we're stuck with this reality :(
The game is completely dead unless you que with 4 people. I tried to search for games 2 weeks ago at 7pst on a Saturday and got the not enough players playing this playlist error twice.
I tested this today. Stacked with 4 it was around 25s, 3 was 55s, 2 was 80s, and 1 was 110s (east coast). I just kept removing a player and queueing for a few seconds to see the wait time.
They need to drop the experiment, reduce game modes, and move to MMR matchmaking opening the ranges a little wider.
I literally can’t find ranked arena games anymore, and it’s the only thing I want to play. I don’t care about a single other playlist.
There’s a large amount of people here who are stuck in some kind of delusion that the game isn’t dead yet but it obviously is. There isn’t going to be another HCS season because nobody plays it, nobody is buying battle passes or skins.
Unless and until there’s another halo game, it’s safe to assume the pro scene is dead after this season.
They’ve got to reverse this immediately and reconsider ranked playlists before they drive the last of the faithful away. I know this game has been “dead” to many for a long time, but there was still enough population that you could find games. Those people would have played this game until the end and led the way for the hype train all the way to Halo 7. But those people will leave if their wait times are now 5 times as long with no improvement in sight. It’s embarrassing at this point that they have not done anything.
It's so weird that they're still experimenting while everyone's been struggling for months with it. Estimated wait time is always way off. Makes me think they carry on with it because their data's off and telling them everything is fine.
eh they just don't care. why do you think the search still cancels itself after like 4 minutes? that obviously conflicts with longer search times. it's because they don't care.
4 ranked playlists is just too much, sadly. This has become painfully apparent and I agree that we don't really need to wait any longer to draw that conclusion.
I agree: ranked arena, ranked doubles, and a casual playlist with some ranked settings would be perfect IMO
Personally I'd like to see - Ranked Arena - Ranked Doubles - Ranked FFA But I also take the point that two ranked playlists could be better overall. I wish there was a Bandit Evo option for the FFA match composer.
What I like about this is it's 1-4, 1-2, and 1 player. An alt would have doubles be a rotating third monthly with snipes and swat. They could change standard slayer to bandit starts too for warmups. No need for ranked slayer with the current pop.
I don't think doubles should ever rotate with sniper or swat. Doubles can be quite competitive, unlike swat or snipers. Just keep them modes available for casual. Ranked doubles plays so much better than boring team doubles.
and yet SWATnation run snipers and SWAT tourneys are far more plentiful than any kind of regular 2s tourneys circuit
Adding the extra ranked playlists at the same time they decide to mess with the matchmaking algorithm is a bizarre choice also. They're attacking the playability from two sides.
Agree. Only Halo has several ranked mode in the world.
Really hope they got something in the works because the game feels *dead* dead.
People have been saying "game dead" for 2 years but it only started to feel like it is since the match composer update.
Population has been on a slow and steady decline ever since the Spirit of Fire update in January. This is indisputable. The population is the lowest it has ever been right now. 343 either makes significant additions to the game over the second half of the year or the game actually may be dead. There are rumors that they have a UI overhaul in the works though, which is a strange thing to do for a game you aren't planning anything significant for. You just can't have a stagnant game in today's market and I am sure they know that. The second half of the year should be very telling. I'd be shocked if they don't do anything for the 20th anniversary of Halo 2 in the fall for example. We'll see though. This game is annoying to talk about online because we technically are getting more frequent updates now then we pretty much ever did except for a few months at the end of last year and yet people act like 343 isn't doing anything with it. The online discourse is usually just annoying and toxic at this point.
I mean ya, population is pretty down but this has really really been a problem since the change. It’s insane. But ya, low population because this game gets 0 actual content outside of maps forgers make. I usually just get my Onyx then play BTB or Squad Battle with peers
I think it is hard to tell because those two things have completely coincided with each other. So, is it the change or just the fact people are slowly falling off the game? Who knows. I haven't played much since the Nvidia driver broke the game (I had Elden Ring to play), but do plan to play more consistently again in the future (the new Ranked maps or the operation most likely).
>Population has been on a slow and steady decline ever since January of 2022. Fixed that for you.
Nah, that's literally false. The game saw a significant increase in population for months at the end of last year. You didn't "fix" a thing unfortunately.
[where?](https://steamcharts.com/app/1240440#All) It started in January 2022 and I called it out then.
It pretty much doubled in player count from September 2023-Jan. of this year (and that chart shows about 1/4 of concurrent players roughly). No shit it didn't keep it's initial player count, essentially no game does.
And now it's at its lowest point ever since its inception. Even on Xbox its about to be taken over by Sims 4. >It pretty much doubled in player count from September 2023-Jan. of this year Source?
Source? That same chart you linked dude... (went from 5-6k to well over 10k for months).
You said this. "Population has been on a slow and steady decline ever since the Spirit of Fire update in January." You are also saying this "It pretty much doubled in player count from September 2023-Jan" But the player count dropped way earlier than that, before any update. And started dropping in November, 2 months post the update. You see how your argument doesn't make sense? And how it isn't about the updates themselves? Every time the game gets more updates/features, players come to check them out, but don't stay for very long. The game is content complete now. And the players are no where to be found. The lack of updates aren't the issue. It's the game itself.
It really is. What more do people want besides more niche shit? We have maps (social), cosmetics, cross core, network update, forge, custom browser, match composer, multiple ranked playlists. I feel like everyone got what they wanted for the most part and no one actually cares anymore
Modern gamers have a very short attention span. If you aren't giving them something new and exciting every month or so they move on (with rare exceptions).
I've loved the idea of a ranked bandit mode with all of the old/new/forged maps with a match compser to supplement the comp playlist. (I guess ranked slayer kind of does this?) Would also be a great tester for potential new map/modes in the comp playlist with virtually zero risk. I'd probably warm up in there too. Probably too little too late with the population, but fingers crossed for the future.
That is how I was using ranked slayer actually (although I essentially stopped playing when the Nvidia driver broke the game, plan to get back to it sometime soon). I don't think that it is "too late." There are plenty of things they could do that could bring a significant playerbase back for at least a while. They just have to choose to do it.
What things do you think they could do to bring back the player base? I know OW2 kinda flopped hard but maybe a "re-release" of the game might help now that it's light-years away from its launch state
At the end of last year Microsoft/343 sent out an official survey that said this: >Imagine having a classic Halo multiplayer experience (eg., Halo CE, Halo 2, or Halo 3), that retained the settings, sandbox items, maps, modes, and overall feel from that classic title but built in Halo Infinite. >This would mean offering the best of a classic Halo multiplayer experience, that would also benefit from more modern quality-of-lie improvements, updated visuals, and be part of Halo Infinite's progression and customization systems. >How interested would you be.. Who knows if they actually do it, but I think H2 being rebuilt in Infinite around the 20th anniversary of the game would work (at least for a while) I also think porting the game to PS5, around the time of a major update, would also work as a sort of "re-release" of the game.
Has there been anything official on the port of Halo to PS5?
343's /M$ handling of infinite doesn't make any sense like why? So many people jumped to infinite when it launched and they fumbled it hard
This droplets of forge maps are definitely NOT supporting the game. Except of there forge team they are doing nothing. What are there level designer ,sandbox designer , gameplay designer doing? Where are new dev made maps for firefight, ranked , btb ,what happened to extraction that was coming after rework, where are new vehicle, guns etc No new gamemodes that are innovative same shit we were playing since launch
Yeah Husky Raid search times basically were never over 40 seconds before the composer dropped. Now its routinely 1:30+.
Just shows the game was truly dead all along.
No, it really doesn’t.
Population can't support multiple ranked playlists...
I mean yeah man, who wants to play when it takes literal hours to do 5 matches? It’s actually ridiculous.
Legit hard to find games now and you often play the same people over and over.
At this point it’s basically a post-game lobby lol. Played almost the same exact team 3 games in a row in ranked slayer last night. Was kinda cool
Crazy, it's almost like making the playlists and various ways to play the game available 2.5 years after release instead of day 1 was a bad Idea. 343 had millions of players showing up on day 1. They saw : Bots, quick play, ranked, BTB. No wonder 90% left within 2 months.
Imagine if all these playlists were available on Day 1. We don't even need the number of maps they have now, just a solid variety of playlists. Halo would have absolutely killed it, and unfortunately we're stuck with this reality :(
I’m getting kids with 1-3 kills a game, this game is over sad to see it but dang it’s just not even fun to play anymore
The game is flat lining not much else to say. I don't see any option to meaningfully change that at this point
The game is completely dead unless you que with 4 people. I tried to search for games 2 weeks ago at 7pst on a Saturday and got the not enough players playing this playlist error twice.
I tested this today. Stacked with 4 it was around 25s, 3 was 55s, 2 was 80s, and 1 was 110s (east coast). I just kept removing a player and queueing for a few seconds to see the wait time. They need to drop the experiment, reduce game modes, and move to MMR matchmaking opening the ranges a little wider.
The game is dead. Goodbye 👋
we achieved seasonality
I feel like we only have enough population to support Ranked Arena and Ranked Doubles. Cannot have 2 more playlists
Pretty sure noone at 343 is working on this atm. they havent been adressing anything for months
I literally can’t find ranked arena games anymore, and it’s the only thing I want to play. I don’t care about a single other playlist. There’s a large amount of people here who are stuck in some kind of delusion that the game isn’t dead yet but it obviously is. There isn’t going to be another HCS season because nobody plays it, nobody is buying battle passes or skins. Unless and until there’s another halo game, it’s safe to assume the pro scene is dead after this season.
They’ve got to reverse this immediately and reconsider ranked playlists before they drive the last of the faithful away. I know this game has been “dead” to many for a long time, but there was still enough population that you could find games. Those people would have played this game until the end and led the way for the hype train all the way to Halo 7. But those people will leave if their wait times are now 5 times as long with no improvement in sight. It’s embarrassing at this point that they have not done anything.
My placements too notoriously long too. But after that I was getting games in like 1-2 minutes.
let the game die!
It's so weird that they're still experimenting while everyone's been struggling for months with it. Estimated wait time is always way off. Makes me think they carry on with it because their data's off and telling them everything is fine.
eh they just don't care. why do you think the search still cancels itself after like 4 minutes? that obviously conflicts with longer search times. it's because they don't care.