The Halo 3 & Halo 3: ODST Thread

[jedi_master_sal]

I don't know that they are reseting EXP per se... You still keep your Universal ranking and skills, but you now get a seperate EXP tally for each playlist, it is that EXP that will be set to 0 with the autoupdate.

Yes, and THAT is my point. It doesn't really matter what your current skill/EXP is. Once the autoupdate hits, your previous skill/EXP is just an indicator until your new skill and EXP catch up to it. Your overall rank will move up slowly and your overall skill rank won't change unless you bring up one of the newly zeroed out playlists up to that skill level and beyond. I'm upset because after being a friggin' staff captain for so long, I thought I was going to keep my EXP per playlist. Knowing that I had played/won a ton of ranked slayer matches, at the least my military rank would be fairly high according to the new EXP criteria. Since this EXP per playlist will zero out, I have neither the skill or EXP (nor does anyone else).


So this means that people who are actually ranked 40+ up to 50 will be pwning people left and right. Those with mediocre skills will once again rank up slowly because of this and pure noobs (not restarters or downrankers) will really get the shiite kicked out of them. The matchmaking the computer does will not differentiate those who have played the game a gazillion times vs. those who haven't vs those who have and WON a majority of those games. So again, the really skilled people are going to be the most rewarded, while those of us with "tenure" with the game, that is to say played a lot of games but not neccessarily won a lot, will continued to be screwed over.

I deliberately started a second account because I knew with my first account and all of that EXP I'd never hit 30 or better. I was on vacation last week and had prmised myself that if I didn't reach 30, I'd start a second account. I got close at 29. Anyway, so NOW finding out that all accounts will be zeroed out, just smacks me in the face. Since my first account will be reset, I'll be able to now use that account to rank up, though again having to deal with all of those really skilled players with whom I should never be matched up with until I actually reach or get somewhat close to their skill level.

[MetalJedi]

Bungie updated their Career Stats page. I guess their are having one of the updates for Halo 3 on Tuesday.

[jedi_master_sal]

They did and I updated and play the game. Too much of matching up against MUCH better players. I'm going to take a break from Halo 3 for a few days and let those better players rank up so I don't have to be stuck facing them. I'll play social games with friends when we can fill up the players list so there's NO chance of playing harder players. Might even get a chance to get some of the new achievements this way.

BTW, there are  6 new maps that will be coming out.

This info was gleaned from the list of ALL of the new achievements. In that list it states getting skulls for the new mythic maps, listed as:
Assembly
Citadel
Heretic
Longshore
Orbital
Sandbox

BTW, here are the NEW achievements:
Vidmaster Challenge: Annual
After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.
0 G

Double Double
On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Alas, Poor Yorick
On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Came… From… Behind
On a Legendary map, get 3 assassinations during any ranked or social match.
50 G

Defend This
On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match.
50 G

Flag Dropped
On a Legendary map, get 2 flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Road Rage
On a Legendary map, get 5 Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Look Both Ways
On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.
50 G

Hammer Time
On Assembly, get 5 Hammer kills during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Pull
On Citadel, get a Shotgun Spree during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Blades of Fury
On Heretic, get a Sword Spree during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Ghost Patrol
On Longshore, get 3 kills with a Ghost during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Post Mortem
On Orbital, get 2 Death From the Grave medals during any ranked or social match.
25 G

… Get the Horns
On a Mythic map, get a Bulltrue medal during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Awww, Too Bad
On a Mythic map, get a Killjoy medal during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Killtacular
On a Mythic map, get a Killtacular during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Have Fun Respawning
On a Mythic map, get an Extermination during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Save This Film
On a Mythic map, get a Perfection medal during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Delicious Brains
On a Mythic map, infect 2 humans during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Zombie Repeller
On a Mythic map, kill 2 Zombies during any ranked or social match.
25 G

Tank Dropper
On any Mythic map, get a kill on another player while in monitor mode.
25 G

Assembly Skull
On Assembly, find the hidden skull.
25 G

Citadel Skull
On Citadel, find the hidden skull.
25 G

Heretic Skull
On Heretic, find the hidden skull.
25 G

Longshore Skull
On Longshore, find the hidden skull.
25 G

Orbital Skull
On Orbital, find the hidden skull.
25 G

Sandbox Skull
On Sandbox, find the hidden skull.
25 G

Vidmaster Challenge: Brainpan
Find all the hidden skulls on the Mythic maps.
25 G

Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch
Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
0 G

Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7
Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
0 G

Rumor has it that there will be new unlockable armor for getting the new skull acheivements. Recon at last? Though it really won't be as meaningfull if EVERYONE can get it... Still, I wants it, my precious....lol.

[jedi_master_sal]

I'm looking for 2 more people to join me in Campaign for the new achievement on the last mission.

Vidmaster Challenge: Annual
After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.
0 G

This is a bit tough as once a person dies, the whole party starts at their previous checkpoint. Also, we all have to be in ghosts at the end of the mission. Very tough, IMO.

So anyone else up to the challenge??

I've got one person, I still need two more.

Look for me online JediMasterSal 0  (that's a space then a ZERO at the end of my gamertag)
-Sal

[Darth_Anton]

Ryan and I tried it last night. We forgot where the Ghosts were. 

So we'll need to try again. I have a something planned for this evening, but otherwise should be available.

[Artoo]

Now that it's after 9/25 will you get actual points or even better armor?

[Darth_Anton]

No points for sure, but what we get is still a mystery. There will be two more to get before we find out.

[Ryan]

No points for sure, but what we get is still a mystery. There will be two more to get before we find out.

I've heard rumors that something in Forge will be unlocked after all three, armor will be unlocked, and a few other random things. Bungie hasn't revealed anything yet. At this point I don't believe it does anything to have all three. I'm sure Bungie has plans to have these do something at somepoint. Perhaps the new maps will have something to do with it.

I was able to get the Annual last night. I always enjoy playing a little campaign so if anyone is still needing I can try to help out.

[Artoo]

Maybe they'll swap out Recon for a new Bungie exclusive armor. 
I don't want Recon because no one else has it. I really like the Recon helmet.

[jedi_master_sal]

Maybe they'll swap out Recon for a new Bungie exclusive armor. 
I don't want Recon because no one else has it. I really like the Recon helmet.

I like the helmet, not so much the shoulder armor though.

As to the Vidmaster Challenge Annual....

First let me thank Anton for joining my family party of players. It took us some time (3+ hours IIRC) but we finally got through it! Damn, now THAT was an achievement. Before people start screaming NOOB, I must say that one of the players was my wife who BARELY plays Halo. So, we had to have a strategy to overcome her less than skillful play. Again, in the end through perseverance we did it. Though to be fair, all 4 in our party had their fair share of being killed... I hope like hell we get something very cool after unlocking all of the VMC achievements.

On another note, a friend of mine was EXP banned. Aparently you can bring in guests to a SOCIAL match and then just not have them play. This was done because there were no more friends available to invite. We (yes, I said WE) wanted to play as friends and NOT have to deal with Bungie's horrid matchmaking. Since before TU2, I've never played as many 40+ skill ranked players. I get my arse handed to me every time. So to combat this he brought in enough guests so we could play a nice social match and try to get some achievements along the way. In NO way were we even THINKING about boosting, but apparently THAT is what Bungie thought he was doing.

No use complaining to Bungie either. They don't want to hear it. Here's the website he got when the message popped up on screen that he'd been banned: http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?link=H3Bans

So immediately after that we stopped using his guests less ALL of the rest of us be banned.

Again, I must reiterate that in NO way were we boosting. That wasn't even in our heads. Like I said, we were thinking about getting some achievements. And before there is ANY public outcry on that, we would have played the matches fairly and not just given them to the other person. In all of my achievements for Halo 3, I think I've only been "given" 3 of them out of the 54 I have. And two of those were EARLY in my Halo 3 career. The other one the VMC Annual, though I don't even really count that as we did have to play the mission for 3 hours as mentioned.

So anyways, be fair warned that Bungie is laying down the ban hammer without much moderation or taking players viewpoints into consideration.

Needless to say, I'll be extremely careful in the future. However I DO think it's ludicrious that we have to be at all. If Bungie's matchmaking system was run more fairly, people wouldn't do anything like this, be it for cheating reasons or not. (Then again, there will always be that small portion who DO look to cheat-can't help that.)

[jedi_master_sal]

New video up on bungie.net.

This is the NEW trailer for a sequel to Halo 3. It's called "Halo 3 Recon."

Bad thing is that it's not due til Fall NEXT YEAR!!!

So forget about those new maps and achievements until then.

Still, I'm looking forward to it. I just KNEW the ODSTs would be taking over the role of Master Chief, just not in a "midquel." (That is to say a sequel released chronologically out of order-the CLone Wars movie and cartoon shows are other examples of midquels.)

I figured the ODSTs would be featured after Halo 3. Some new adventures.

Hmm, who knows, maybe that will still happen someday.

I think it would be cool to play as an ODST (after the events of Halo 3), and along the way be training to become a new Spartan. In the end of the game you DO become a new Spartan. Not the same armor as Master Chief though, but rather something new.

Also, with the new game using the word Recon in it's title, I wonder if that means the new unlockable armor is indeed Recon? There has been rumor as such, but also rumor that the new armor is something we've never seen before.

Hmm, I wonder if this means we might get to play as an ODST in matchmaking? I know Bungie has said no campaign elements in matchmaking, but who knows....a year is a long enough time away for them to change their minds.

[Ryan]

It definitely is exciting news.

I wouldn't rule out the Mythic Map pack just yet. The achievements/new maps don't look like they have anything to do with this new metagame. The maps have long been rumored to be coming out in November. The typical pattern is five or six months between map packs. I'd find it hard to believe that Bungie would go close to a year and a half without releasing new maps. I'd be willing to bet my 360 we will see the new maps and the achievements that go with them sometime before Recon comes out, probably in the new few months.

From what I've heard coming out of the Tokyo Game Show (where the game was announced) Recon is going to be a completely different game that also includes new multiplayer. That to me seems to rule out the possibility of it being more DLC, and it likely will be its own game entirely. I could be wrong about that of course but that seems to make the most sense.

[jedi_master_sal]

It does seem like Recon matchmaking will be seperate from Halo 3 MM. However, I'd like to see a way for Bungie to cross them over.

A "possible" scenario could be that you have to have to Halo 3 Recon disk in your drive, yet LIVE/Bungie will recognize your regular Halo 3 EXP/skill. ALL maps would then be available for you to play on. While those who only have Halo 3 would continue to play on only Halo 3 specific maps and NOT the Recon maps. Likewise (and however unlikely), those who have never played the original Halo 3 but are playing matchmaking with the Halo 3 Recon disk in the drive would only be able to play the Recon maps.

Since we already have the Heroic/Legendary maps and soon the Mythic if they are indeed not part of Recon, on our drives, then the Recon disk/LIVE would see that and make them available for us to play.

Whatever happens, I'm just glad there is more Halo goodness coming soon.


Hmm, so let's speculate on a timeline then:
Mythic Maps-November/December 2008
Halo Wars-March/April 2009
Halo 3 Recon-September 2009 (to coincide with the 3 year anniversary of Halo 3??)

If this is the case, then indeed it's roughly 5-6 months between each. I can handle that!

[Ryan]

Halo 3 Recon-September 2009 (to coincide with the 3 year anniversary of Halo 3??)

That'd be the two year anniversary.

[jedi_master_sal]

Yeah yeah, I'm old and crotchety, quit correctingme, LOL.

Oh and I found out that Recon is a stand alone game.

however it holds ALL of the Halo 3 maps for matchmaking as well as it's own new maps.

SO...it appears that either our current Halo accounts will migrate to Recon OR we will have two matchmaking sets. One for Halo3 and another for Recon.  I hope Bungie BLENDS the two together instgead of two matchmaking servers. It would mean I'd have to start all over again. Something I'm loathe to doing. We've just done that with the autoupdate2.