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Alex Wakeford

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Issue 155

Canon Fodder: All About Anvil

On July 30 the next Ranked Season begins and with it comes some updates to the sandbox, ranking system, and Ranked Slayer. Additionally, our backend matchmaking experiments have concluded and as promised we’ve got more detailed information on what we’ve been doing.



Let’s get right into it!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BALANCE UPDATES</h2>



There are quite a few changes coming to the balance of the Sandbox and you can read about all of them <a href="https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/sandbox-update-halo-infinite">HERE</a>. For this blog, we’ve pulled out the ones that directly impact Ranked.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-large-font-size">Bandit EVO</h3>



After observing how the Bandit Evo has been performing since the start of the HCS season and listening to the community’s conversation around the weapon and how its fast time-to-kill was impacting the game, we have slowed the rate of fire slightly. We didn’t want to make drastic changes in the middle of the HCS season but rather nudging it in the right direction.



Changes:



<ul>
<li>Slower rate of fire to address community feedback around time-to-kill | Rounds per second (low & high) 2.9 >> 2.715</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li>Improvement to red reticle headshot accuracy.</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading has-large-font-size">Disruptor</h3>



The Disruptor was having a hard time finding its place on maps as an effective pick up like the other weapons on the map, so some changes have been made to beef it up while also removing elements that players found frustrating.



<ul>
<li>Damage over time (DOT) returns | 8 shots to kill (2 supercombines)</li>



<li>Removed particle effect from (Event) 1p_loop | Adjusted particle screen effect to be less intrusive</li>



<li>Damage upper bound (high) decreased 70 >> 35</li>



<li>DOT damage will not continuously cause descope</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">MA40 AR</h3>



The “bloom” of the reticle on the Assault Rifle was causing instances where players were missing shots but seemed like they seemed like they were not registering and overall the weapon at the max bloom felt inconsistent. This has been tightened a bit to give the weapon a more consistent feel.



<ul>
<li>Minimum error angle (high) 0 >> 0.25</li>



<li>Maximum error angle (low) 0 >> 0.25</li>



<li>Maximum error angle (high) 2.1 >> 1.3</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">M41 SPNKr</h3>



The SPNKr in some instances was feeling inconsistent with regards to damage and kills. The goal here wasn’t to functionally change the way the SPNKr behaved but more so fine tune some cases to be more consistent and reliable for players.



<ul>
<li>Damage fall-off feels more consistent | Adjusted fall off function so players are not left with a sliver of health</li>



<li>Outer damage radius adjusted | Lowered radius high 3 >> 2.5</li>



<li>Increased max reserve ammo | Rounds total maximum 6 >> 8</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Grenades</h3>



Grenade impulse tuned to allow grenade jumping in line with previous Halo titles.



<ul>
<li>Frag Grenades: Added impulse to frag grenade damage effect | Instantaneous acceleration increased 1.75 >> 3.5 | Grounded player acceleration scalar decreased 1 >> 0.1</li>



<li>Plasma Grenades: Added impulse to plasma grenade damage effect | Instantaneous acceleration 2.15 >> 3.75 | Grounded player acceleration scalar 1 >> 0.1</li>



<li>Spike Grenades: Added impulse to spike grenade aoe damage effect. | Instantaneous acceleration 1.25 >> 3.25 | Alt instantaneous acceleration 2.75 >> 3.75 | Grounded player acceleration scalar 1 >> 0.1</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SPAWN UPDATES</h2>



There have been changes to spawn points on the majority of the Ranked Arena map suite including Aquarius, Recharge, Solitude, Live Fire, Forbidden, Argyle, Empyrean, and Streets. The goals of these changes are to make the spawn system more readable and consistent, along with reducing instances where players are spawning in overly advantageous positions.



<ul>
<li>Certain spawn points located in the middle of maps that have been identified as problematic have been removed.</li>



<li>Additional spawn points have been added to already existing spawning areas to account for the removed spawns and improve consistency.</li>



<li>We will continue to monitor feedback on the spawning system as the season progresses.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"> AQUARIUS LAYOUT</h2>



In response to feedback on the location of the Overshield on Aquarius, the Overshield and Thruster have swapped locations. Overshield will now spawn top middle, Thruster will now spawn ‘P1’. With the Overshield being a highly impactful item on the map, the intention is that this central location will be more fair for both teams to contest at all points in a match and not just the beginning.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">RULESET UPDATES</h2>



Last year we added a requirement for players in Ranked Arena to search solo / duo after 1600 CSR. This was done in response to feedback that we’d been receiving around players not wanting to match against Parties of 3 or 4. While we have seen an overall improvement to match balance and quality, players at 1600 have been also feeling too restricted and want to play more matches with their friends. In the data, we see that the vast majority of players in Ranked Arena search solo / duo (upwards of 95%) so while we still want to make sure those players are enjoying their matches, we’re going to increase the solo / duo restriction to 1700 CSR.



And earlier this year we began experimenting with another change with deterministic CSR. Today, players above 1800 CSR go up +7 when they win, and down -7 when they lose. This has been met with positive feedback and our data shows players above that level are playing even more now! Starting on July 30, this feature will start at 1700 CSR. As usual, we’re going to be monitoring the impact based on what players are telling us and what we are observing in the data to continue to make informed decisions.



In summary, once players hit 1700 CSR they will begin searching solo/duo, and each match will reward or takeaway 7 CSR.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BACKEND EXPERIMENT OUTCOMES</h2>



At a very high level, we matchmake based on Skill and Latency and you can think of Time to Match as the currency we spend to find a match. If you prioritize finding better matches in terms of skill and latency, it means you could be spending more time finding a match. The reason I say, “could” is because there are obviously lots of other factors like time of day, region, local vs expanded options, party size, etc.



What we observed before the experiment in the matchmaking data for ranked and what we were hearing from players was that there was room to make more closely skilled matches. Additionally, find matches with more players in my region or part of my region so that I can I have a higher quality experience. And, we also noticed that there were many times where a lower quality match was being made when the matchmaker only took a few seconds to make the match. Based on this, we decided to experiment and push the match quality to be as good as it can be, without making it so that people could not find matches.



The first experiment was to increase the weighting of the Pairwise Predictability value. Pairwise Predictability will look at how each player stacks up against every other player in the lobby individually. This not only makes it so that the teams would be better balanced against one another, but we’re prioritizing every single person in the lobby being closely matched in skill, which we believe is more important for making a quality match. After observing the impact of this change, we did see an improvement in this area, particularly around the edges of the skill band so Bronze/Silver, and Diamond/Onyx.



Chart Guide:



<ul>
<li>Quits: Quit the match before it ended.</li>



<li>TTM: Time to Match</li>



<li>Latency: A player’s ping to the server and back.</li>
</ul>



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Once we concluded that there was positive impact in terms of fair matches, we also looked at time to match and concluded that there was no widespread perceivable negative impact in terms of how long players were taking to find matches, as well as indicating data like how many players are canceling their searches.



After this, we decided to see if we could improve the latency, so we increased the weighting there a few weeks later after the first change had settled. Again, this means we’re telling the matchmaker that it should spend a little more time trying to find a match where players searching would have lower latency. We once again observed the results but there wasn’t conclusive data, which indicates that our change was too small or there were other factors that played into making this unclear like playlist changes across the game.



We once again increased Pairwise Predictability in hopes of further increasing the quality of matches. 



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At this point, we had started to see more feedback from the community, particularly from players in regions with less population and at skill bands where there are fewer players. We also saw feedback from players who reported searching during what we would consider to be “off peak” times like super late at night or early in the mornings. Typically, in the afternoons/evenings after work and school is when most players tend to jump on and play. From a match quality standpoint, it also wasn’t clear that there was a meaningful positive impact which led us to conclude that we pushed this a bit too far.



Finally, with Match Composer releasing we also added two new Ranked playlists in Ranked Slayer and Ranked Doubles. I’m happy to report that we collectively saw an increase in players (44% increase in the first week) and play time across ranked on a weekly basis. At the same time, a few percentage points of the player population for these new playlists were taken from Ranked Arena, which we believe is making time to match take too long and we’ve certainly seen an uptick in anecdotal reports.



Because of this, we’ve found and deployed another weighting update to find a middle ground from where this experiment started and where it last was so that we can improve the experience overall but still ensure that time to match isn’t unbearably long.



This latest update has been live for the last few weeks, and it seems to be a good working middle ground where we have improved the match quality from where it began without harming time to match significantly . At this point, we’re calling our experiment a success and will not be making further adjustments unless there are other conditions that change and we see changes in the feedback and what we can observe in our data.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="987" height="672" src="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2024/07/image-66a18618b3bfe.png" alt="" class="wp-image-113672" srcset="https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2024/07/image-66a18618b3bfe.png 987w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2024/07/image-66a18618b3bfe-300x204.png 300w, https://wpassets.halowaypoint.com/wp-content/2024/07/image-66a18618b3bfe-768x523.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 987px) 100vw, 987px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">RANKED SLAYER</h2>



We’ve been very pleased to see so many players jumping into Ranked Slayer and enjoying the game. We’re committed to making updates to the playlist and working to deliver updates we go!



We’ve made an update to the Ranked Slayer map pool along with a few Sandbox updates.



Map pool adjustment



<ul>
<li>Based on average quit rate and end by time rate data in comparison to the other Slayer maps, Forbidden has been removed from the playlist. The map will be reviewed for potential reimplementation in the future as we investigate ways to improve the experience for players.</li>
</ul>



Cliffside



<ul>
<li>Overshield has been added to top middle.</li>



<li>The Energy Sword has replaced the Stalker Rifle in the Cage.</li>



<li>A Threat Seeker has been added to the Cave</li>
</ul>



Illusion



<ul>
<li>A Heatwave has replaced the Repulsor in the Camo hallway.</li>



<li>Thrusters have been replaced with Repulsors in the Overshield Junction.</li>



<li>The S7 Snipers have moved down to the Overshield Deck locations.</li>



<li>Battle Rifles have replaced the Plasma Pistols on the Camo Platforms.</li>



<li>Plasma Pistols have replaced the Needlers in the Camo Pockets.</li>



<li>Sidekicks have replaced the Commando Rifles in the Camo Staging areas.</li>



<li>Commando Rifles have replaced the Battle Rifles on the Camo Deck.</li>
</ul>



Forest



<ul>
<li>Camo has been removed.</li>



<li>Overshield has been added to top middle.</li>



<li>A Thruster has been added to the Alter and Grotto locations.</li>
</ul>



Once again thank you to everyone playing ranked in Halo Infinite and for the feedback you’ve given and continue to give us. The Ranked Team is committed to working on this experience day in and day out to improve the experience as much as we can. Best of luck to all teams competing at the HCS Atlanta Major this weekend!



Thanks,



Tashi

Tashi

Ranked Update | Halo Infinite

Unyshek

Sandbox Update | Halo Infinite

Forge Update | Halo Infinite

Operation: Fleetcom is bringing a whole host of updates with it, and we’re here to tell you all about it. Today we’re going to be talking about game modes, but there’s plenty more on the horizon with information about sandbox updates, Forge updates, and QoL updates.



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</div></figure>



Halo Infinite’s next content update ushers in the return of a fan-favorite mode to the game. Let’s check it out!



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide"/>



The Return of the <s>King</s> VIP



Not seen since Halo 3, VIP returns! The catalyst for many fun and unique custom games, this return has been a long time coming.



If you are not familiar, VIP is very much a team-based mode and generally played 4v4. This will be the case for Halo Infinite. Each team will have a game-designated initial VIP and it’s up to you to keep your VIP alive while also taking down the opposing team’s.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide"/>



//RE: PRIORITY TARGETS – PROTECT / NEUTRALIZE



To win, your team must be the first to reach 10 points. It might seem like a cakewalk but there’s a couple of things to keep in mind:



<ul>
<li>The VIP has extra health, so it’ll take a bit more to neutralize them.</li>



<li>Everybody else will be defending the VIP like the match depends on it.</li>



<li>Each VIP kill is worth one point.</li>
</ul>



If your VIP dies, the next player on your team to die takes up the mantle and becomes the team VIP when they respawn. You will be identifiable to the other team by virtue of effects (similar to Infection) and a nav marker above your head (so no, you cannot become the VIP and then hide the whole match to save your points!).



Work in tandem with your team, stick together, and remember to protect your VIP with your superior skill—but where that might fall short, your life will do.



When the playlist launches alongside Operation: FLEETCOM on July 30, you’ll be yelling, “Get down, CINCONI !” on the following maps:



<ul>
<li>Bazaar</li>



<li>Catalyst</li>



<li>Forbidden</li>



<li>Forest</li>



<li>Illusion</li>



<li>Interference</li>



<li>Prism</li>
</ul>



Gather up your squad of Spartans, build out your protection details, and get ready to travel as a pack as you protect your VIP!  If you miss your chance during the featured weeks, don’t fret – VIP will later be added to the options available to you in Match Composer.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide"/>



VERY IMMENSE POSSIBILITIES



Not only will VIP be in matchmaking, the mode is also being added to Forge and Custom Games immediately when it launches. That means you’ll be able to get your hands on it and work your magic, creating your own experiences using a new suite of VIP-related custom game options.



And, to help you further customize your mode experiences, we’ve brought over VIP’s mode logic to Forge as well. The new mode will be available in Forge’s mode creator tool and multiple new VIP nodes will be added to the nodegraph scripting feature.



These tools can be used to enhance or modify the functionality however you please:



<ul>
<li>Set VIP – Set the VIP of a team</li>



<li>Clear Team VIP – Clear the VIP of any given team</li>



<li>On New VIP – Event node indicating that a new VIP has been selected</li>



<li>On VIP Killed – Event node indicating that a VIP has been killed</li>



<li>Get Is VIP – Input a player and return if they are currently the VIP on their team</li>



<li>Set VFX Status – Input a player to apply the new VIP visual effects on their Spartan</li>
</ul>



We’re looking forward to seeing your creativity take shape with the modes you create from having all these VIP tools in your arsenal once it hits Forge. Not to mention the close saves and narrow escapes you pull off!



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide"/>



BUT WAIT…



There’s more!



Later this Operation, you’ll be able to hunt down and enjoy that pure dopamine rush you can only get when scoring a handful of skulls in the midst of a fierce firefight. The risk vs reward is high…



Yes, Headhunter is returning as well!



More on that later, however. In the meantime, keep your head on a swivel, and your reflexes sharp. Your VIP is depending on you for protection!