Halo Reach Update Page
From MediaWiki
Contents |
New Updates
Map Packs
Noble Map Pack
The Noble Map Pack was launched in November 2010 and contains three multiplayer maps: Anchor 9, Tempest, and Breakpoint. This is the first Map Pack DLC for Halo: Reach.
Anchor 9
“Orbital dockyards provide rapid refueling and repairs for a variety of UNSC vessels.”
Within the confines of this low orbit dry-dock, UNSC craft undergo rapid repair and rearmament in support of the enduring war effort. But for the small squads of infantry who now fight over the mirrored interior hallways and open central hangar bay, this platform no longer provides any safe harbor whatsoever – whether the close quarters combat is occurring inside or out of its artificial gravitational field.
Anchor 9 allows 2-8 Players to face off in game variants including Free for All, Team Slayer and Team Objective.
Tempest
"Though we may never fully understand these devices, it is not our nature to leave ancient stones unturned.”
This abandoned shoreline facility bends both sea and sky to an unnatural purpose, but the ground itself has quickly become another all too familiar battlefield. Though the two opposing symmetrical bases may never reveal their ancient purpose, both now offer makeshift shelter and access to strategic routes perfectly suited for small and large scale skirmishes alike.
Tempest supports 8 – 16 Players and offers a variety of modes including Free for All, Team Slayer, Team Objective and Big Team Battle. Tempest also provides players with a huge Forge palette, allowing them to create new custom map variants that can be shared with the community-at-large.
Breakpoint
“ONI officials believe the data buried within this artifact is key to our survival.”
Atop this icy precipice, the Invasion continues. These modular archaeological labs were never intended to withstand such a large scale onslaught of Covenant military power, but the information being extracted here may prove vital to humanity’s survival. In response to the imminent Covenant threat, UNSC ground and air assets have been deployed to bolster entrenched Spartan countermeasures. This site must yield salvation, or it will become a grave.
Breakpoint offers multiplayer mayhem for 8-16 Players, and supports the Invasion and Big Team Battle game variants.
The Noble Map Pack includes all new Achievements worth a total of 250 Gamerscore and is available for purchase for 800 Microsoft Points either directly from Xbox LIVE or with a Microsoft Points card sold at retail locations worldwide.
Defiant Map Pack
The Defiant Map Pack is going to be released in March and will feature two new multiplayer maps: Condemned and Highland; and one firefight map: Unearthed. It will add 150 Gamerscore worth of achievements, cost 800 Microsoft Points or $10.00 at stores. Here is some info about the new maps:
Condemned: Condemned takes place aboard Orbital Station Gamma, a massive space station high in orbit above the planet Reach. Prior to the Covenant?s overwhelming invasion, Orbital Station Gamma provided long range communications for UNSC fleets and a vital lifeline between Reach and Earth. During the Battle of Reach, the station suffered terrible punishment at the hands of the Covenant but a few fortified sections remain intact, fully pressurized, and ready for combat. Condemned supports 6-12 players in a variety of action-packed game types, including Team Slayer, Team Objective and Free for All.
Highlands: Highlands takes place on the top-secret Military Wilderness Training Preserve on Reach. The Preserve is a large, wooded area where Spartan super-soldiers trained long before the war with the Covenant began. During the Battle of Reach, the Preserve was the site of key battles between the alien invaders and a group of Spartans who used their familiarity with these UNSC training grounds to significant tactical advantage...but not everyone who enters these woods makes it out alive. Highlands expands the fight with massive-scale engagements for 8-16 players in Big Team Battle, Team Slayer and Team Objective.
Unearthed: Unearthed takes the battle for Reach to a large Titanium mine and refinery located in the Viery civilian sector of the planet. This particular mine was built to take advantage of the exposed titanium inside a massive meteor crater. The titanium produced here is used in much of the UNSC hardware, from the chassis of the Warthog to the meters-thick armor plating of capital ships like the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. While this facility was quickly abandoned when the Covenant arrived on Reach, it still has significant tactical (and economic) value and it won?t be long before both humans and Covenant return to battle for control. Unearthed allows up to 4 players to launch a counterassault against the Covenant in Firefight and Firefight modes such as Generator Defense.
Halo News
PAX 2011
(WIP)
Halo Anniversary
General
Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary's Campaign (Both Single Player and Co-Op) has the same basic gameplay mechanic as the original from 2001, only with upgraded graphics and 3D compatibility. The Multiplayer engine is the Reach Engine. It will be coming out in November this year.
Campaign
The original Campaign is back, and better looking then ever, how ever, nothing has changed in the gameplay. Throughout the entire campaign you will be able to switch back and forth between the graphics of 2001 and 2011, with the push of the "Back" button, also anyone got a 3D TV? If you do then you will be able to have your dreams of those pink needles coming at your face, come true. Also for the first time will be Online (And Local) Co-Op.
Multiplayer
Halo Reach's awesome engine comes to Halo Anniversary, in its new Multiplayer mode that will include remastered maps from Halo. And no more having to have 16 Xboxs and 4 TVs to play a full match!
Halo 4
Setting
The actual location(s) in the main story line are unclear, but we do know that it is on some Forerunner Installation or Shield World. As for the time period, a Warthog was Over viewed on one of 343's Videos, the model year was 2554. 2554 AD is two years after the Battle of Installation 00 otherwise know as "The Ark" and the end of Halo 3. If this date is to be assumed the time of Halo 4, then John-117 would have only been in Cryogenic sleep for two years maximum.
Major Updates
Game Changing Updates
3/18/2011
Time and time again, we are absolutely blown away by the positive energy that emanates from this kick ass community. Hours after we launched our inaugural Bungie Foundation charity drive, selling discrete, but ultra-stylish wristbands for Japan Quake Relief efforts, Amazon notified us that you had run the store absolutely bone dry. You can’t see it, but I am giving you the most enthusiastic air five ever right now.
You’re the best!
Of course, we replenished our stocks without a second thought and sales continue to soar, with the wristband currently occupying the number one spot in Amazon.com’s clothing category. Suck it down, 501’s. You might be an American classic, but charity comes before comfortable fitting jeans.
If this is the first you’ve heard of our charity effort, don’t worry, you’re not too late to participate. Check out the existing Bungie.net article to get up to speed, or just hop on over to the Bungie Store to snag a wristband for each of your many appendages and at least one for all of your friends and acquaintances. All proceeds are going to the Red Cross, earmarked for quake relief in Japan.
But even though we’re really proud of the early numbers, we hope you’re just getting warmed up. In addition to snagging a wristband for yourself, if you’re able, please help spread the word through your community mainstays using this handy dandy link:
By making sweet retweets:
Or sharing with your Facebook friends:
Go loud.
If you’re not in the States, we apologize for the confusion and the delay. We’re working with Amazon.com to come up with a quick and dirty international solution for our store front. In the meantime, you can still help the cause by donating through the Red Cross or any other organization of your choosing. Every little bit helps.
Assuming we can correct the technical hurdle, we’ll let you know when the wristbands are being shipped out to our international friends. Until that happens, I promise to relentlessly -blam!- and moan to the powers that be until they are willing to bend time and space just to shut me up.
Defy the Covenant
Though it seems crass to don the salesman’s cap right after talking up our collective charitable endeavors, we’d be remiss to not note that 343 Industries launched the Defiant Map Pack this past Tuesday. Besides, they’re not even our maps. We’re shilling on another studio’s behalf!
If you’re looking to add some sweet maps to your Halo: Reach portfolio, Defiant adds two new multiplayer maps and a Firefight mission to the fray. Early buzz is that they are totally awesome. You should definitely check them out.
They’re available right now for 800 Space Allards. Click here to queue them for download.
Optimizations
Speaking of Defiant, Jeremiah and our support crew recently corrected a matchmaking setting that was making it more difficult than it should have been to play Unearthed in Firefight. If you were so mad at Bungie because you couldn’t get a match in on your hot new Firefight mission outside of Custom Games, you should be good to go now. Forgive us?
We’re also fielding feedback for the two multiplayer maps in Optimatch, but though we are using your polite suggestions to arm 343 Industries with subjective data and our own personal recommendations, we are not making the final design calls for iterative changes to Condemned and Highlands. We’ll certainly collect your feedback and present it writ large, but any changes to these particular spaces will need to come directly from the source.
If there are any revisions planned in the future, we’ll make sure to keep you in the loop. Because we love and respect you and want you to know stuff.
Matchmaking Updatin’!
Outside of Defiant, Jeremiah has big plans for April’s Matchmaking Update. And don’t worry, these aren’t part of some terribly conceived joke aimed squarely at the face of the foolish. Jeremiah always keeps it real. Here’s what he has to say for himself, and for the upcoming matchmaking alterations.
The April Matchmaking Update is tentatively scheduled to go live on March 29th. As usual, any of this is subject to change as we are not yet finished with testing. Jon says hi and that Urk loves Dr. Becker!
ACTION SACK
This is a new 4v4 playlist inspired by community map and game variants. The initial lineup isn’t as insane as some players may expect, we’re using this playlist to introduce new gametypes that we’ve scripted up. We’ll be looking at feedback and suggestions for future additions to this playlist, so drop by the Optimatch forum and tell us about your favorite wacky 4v4 gametypes!
Power Slayer
This Slayer gametype is designed to allow players to gain special traits based on the types of kills they perform. Currently there are traits for Basic Kill, Melee Kill, Assassination Kill and Headshot Kill. Each time you perform one of these kills you will gain the traits assigned to that kill for 10 seconds. Killing another player during this period will refresh your timer back to 10 seconds and extend your powers. You can also chain them together to gain multiple types of powers, so if you Melee Kill a player and then Headshot Kill a player before your timer runs out, you’ll gain the traits of both kill types. We haven’t finalized the default traits for each kill type yet, but these will also be configurable in custom games so you can create your own!
Speedpile
The idea of this gametype was based on Stockpile and allows players to carry multiple flags on their back while still using weapons, vehicles and equipment. When a player touches a flag it will automatically attach to their back and will only drop when they are killed. Flags can be assigned different point values which are displayed above the flag in your HUD. Flags which are worth more than 1 point will be larger and on fire as well. Delivering the flags to your Speedpile goal zone will instantly score them and cause the flags to respawn at their original location. This is not a Stockpile variant, so if you want to setup your own maps to work with the gametype you’ll need to Forge it using the Speedpile game variant to have access to the appropriate labels.
Speedflag
This one is pretty simple, it’s a CTF variant which allows you to carry the flag on your back at all times. Just like in Speedpile, you can still use weapons, vehicles and equipment without dropping the flag. It’s worth mentioning that the only way to drop the flag is to either score or be killed, so make sure you want to carry the flag as long as possible before picking it up, you can’t pass it off to a teammate without sacrificing yourself. This game variant will work with any map which is already setup for CTF.
HammerBall / Hockey
In this gametype, Golf Balls spawn on specific points and players use Gravity Hammers to hit them towards a board which has multiple goals that each have different point values. The map we setup was one we found in the Community and we mirrored it so each team of 4 is back to back with a barrier preventing them from interfering with each other, unless of course you’re playing HammerBall Xtreme. The goals are created by team specific hill markers labeled as goals with spawn sequencer set to the point value of the goal. If the Golf Ball reaches the goal, it will be scored and your team will score points equal to the score specified in the object properties. This brings me to our next gametype… Hockey! Hockey uses a game variant of HammerBall and is played on a hockey rink map that we found in the Community as well.
TEAM CLASSIC
This is a new 4v4 playlist featuring game variants with no equipment and custom settings, as well as remakes of Classic Halo maps we found in the Community.
Player Traits which differ from default Slayer:
•Shield Recharge Rate 110%
•Health Recharge Rate 110%
•Damage Modifier 110%
•Melee Modifier 75%
•Player Speed 120%
•Jump Height 125%
•Player Gravity 150%
Maps we plan to use:
•Battle Canyon
•Dreadnought
•High Noon
•Hydro
•Magus
•Prolonged
•Prophet
•Rat Trap
•Rockout
Editor’s Note: You can find all of these maps in the community file collection, but a few have been renamed. Jeremiah was too lazy to link them and he bailed early today. Jerk! I’ll try to round them up for next week so you can take them for a spin prior to the official introduction in matchmaking - Urk
COMMUNITY BTB
Our first round of Community BTB will run in April, featuring BTB maps from the Forgetacular submissions. Future rounds of Community BTB will be lovingly crafted by our Community Cartographers group.
Maps we plan to use:
•Bendarius Ridge
•Montana Gambit
•Outcrop
•Renegade
•Ridged
•Rift
MLG
The MLG playlist will be updated with the MLG V3 maps and gametypes, the lineup can be found below. Visit www.majorleaguegaming.com for more info!
Due to the inclusion of more 100% Forged map variants which do not adequately support splitscreen, the MLG playlist now has a Max Local Players count of 1.
MLG Team Slayer v3
•MLG Countdown v3
•MLG Element v3.1
•MLG Nexus v3
•MLG Sanctuary v3.1
•MLG Zealot v3
•MLG Retroactive v3
•MLG Android v3
MLG CTF 5 v3
•MLG Countdown v3
•MLG Element v3.1
•MLG Zealot v3
•MLG Nexus v3
•MLG Android v3
MLG CTF 3 v3
•MLG Sanctuary v3.1 MLG Bomb Zeal v3
•MLG Zealot v3 MLG Bomb Count v3
•MLG Countdown v3 MLG Bomb Sanc v3
•MLG Sanctuary v3.1
MLG King v3
•MLG Zealot v3
•MLG Countdown v3
•MLG Element v3.1
MLG Territories v3
•MLG Sanctuary v3.1
DOUBLE TEAM
We’re adding sequential King of the Hill to our 2v2 lineup.
The following maps have been modified to support sequential hill in Double Team:
•Unanchored
•Countdown
•Asylum
•Arena Zealot
Random List of Additional Changes
•KOTH now has game variant support for Multiple Teammate Scoring allowing multiple teammates to gain score for their team while in the hill.
•All KOTH matchmaking variants now have a hill movement time of 1 minute.
•All KOTH matchmaking gametypes now allow equipment use while in the hill (2v2/4v4 gametypes limit equipment to Sprint, Jetpack and Hologram – Armor Lock removed from all KOTH loadouts).
•All KOTH matchmaking gametypes now have 1 frag starting grenades.
•Added a HUD widget for CTF gametypes which show when your flag is away from home or held by an enemy.
•More softkills on Pinnacle, Uncaged, Hemorrhage, Countdown and Asylum.
•Modified all default matchmaking map variants to support a static initial hill while playing Crazy Random King.
•Slayer game variants in 6v6 playlists are now 75 to win.
•3 Ball is now 300 to win.
•Replaced Banshees with Falcons in all non-Invasion gametypes on Breakpoint.
•Increased Banshee respawn time to 180s on Paradiso.
•Decreased the frequency of Bro Slayer and Invasion Skirmish in the Noble Map Pack playlist.
•Replaced all Slayer game entries on The Cage with Uncaged in all playlists.
•Removed all objective game entries on The Cage in all playlists.
•Removed Pinnacle from Team Snipers.
•Removed Evade from The Arena and Double Team gametypes.
BlogMarks
del.icio.us
digg
Slashdot