MCC Development Update - May 2019

Duck Tales^TM

For those who enjoy puns and have paid close attention to MCC playlist updates and online investigations, you’ve probably seen or heard of “Duck.” But for those who haven’t, Dana “The_Psycho_Duck” Jerpbak, is a Sustainment Designer on the Publishing Team who works on various design and technical implementation aspects associated with MCC. He’s also a good friend of mine who helps gather details from the Publishing Team for all of you. He helps on a lot of the behind scenes changes to playlists and matchmaking through data investigations, following design philosophies and principles, and listening to the community’s feedback.

One of his most recent tasks has been to help coordinate the day one experience for matchmaking in Halo: Reach when it joins MCC in the future. Sit back, relax, and let’s have Dana take a quack at it!

Adding an entire Halo title to MCC creates a lot of new ground to cover and a lot of challenges. Matchmaking is a key component of this as it is the primary destination for repeatable multiplayer experiences. Players have diverse expectations for what Halo: Reach matchmaking means to them, as individuals and as subcommunities. These expectations from different groups are often at odds with one another and thus provide a unique set of challenges to tackle which we’ll cover below. First, let’s look at our goals for the introduction of Reach matchmaking to MCC.

• Provide a robust playlist lineup for Reach players on day one
• Highlight the most unique and definitive Reach game modes and maps
• Respect legacy where possible, but intelligently diverge from legacy behavior where necessary to provide best experience for modern audience
• Build a strong foundation for future matchmaking updates in sustain

The first two goals are simple (on paper, anyway): deliver a well-rounded experience out-of-the-box and include all the key experiences which make Reach Reach. The third goal is complicated, so we’ll break it down in more detail below. The fourth goal is another key one. We frequently produce matchmaking sustain updates for MCC which highlight different maps and modes, tweak experiences, and introduce new ones. This will apply to Reach in the same way it does to current titles in MCC.

So, what’s complicated about Reach? Like Halo 2 and Halo 4, Reach saw the release of a Title Update (TU) relatively late in its lifespan. This TU reduced reticule bloom, added melee shield bleed through, and tweaked Armor Ability behavior. Unlike H2 and H4, however, Reach’s TU was not applied globally. This meant that game variants in Reach were split between TU and “vanilla settings” in custom games and matchmaking. This split meant that Team Slayer used vanilla settings while Big Team Battle used TU settings. The difference in bloom alone was jarring across playlists with otherwise comparable game types and maps.

“Bloom” applies an implicit, rather than explicit, enforcement on rate of fire. This is to say that it tells players not to fire too fast or they’ll suffer an accuracy penalty rather than imposing a hard limit on their fire rate. This approach to rate of fire and accuracy was one of the more contentious aspects of Reach to begin with and constantly switching back and forth between two different implicit rates of fire between playlists is an experiential issue we wish to avoid in MCC.

This creates the need for a standard for the bulk of Reach’s playlists in MCC. This does not mean clobbering specific or niche experiences which players enjoyed from Reach, but it does mean a more unified approach to settings. The bulk of player feedback we see, which we agree with internally, is that the TU settings are the preferred standard. These settings were initially developed in response to negative feedback towards vanilla settings in Reach and provide players more reliable control in long range precision engagements.

Reach will fit into the existing lineup of game categories in MCC’s social Match Composer. The Slayer category will include DMR (high weight) and AR/Pistol (low weight) variants. Flag & Bomb will include Stockpile in addition to Multi/One Flag CTF and Multi/Neutral/One Bomb Assault. Zone Control will include KotH and Territories. Asset Denial will include Headhunter in addition to Oddball. Action Sack will include modes like Elite Slayer, Dino Blasters, Bro Slayer, Flag Slayer, and Speedpile in addition to Fiesta. Matchmaking will take advantage of the full suite of maps from Reach including those delivered through the Noble, Defiant, and Anniversary map packs. In the case of Anniversary, the current plan is to use the remixed map variants (as opposed to the classic ones) paired with the standard TU settings.

TU settings will be the standard for MCC Social Matchmaking. This includes the core categories (Slayer, Flag & Bomb, Zone Control, and Asset Denial) and the secondary categories (SWAT, Snipers, and Action Sack). Grifball and Infection are the sorts of niche experiences with unique settings which we don’t want to clobber. We may experiment with TU Infection settings internally and in flights but Grifball settings will remain unchanged.

Outside of the more unified social experience, we currently plan to launch with two ranked playlists for Reach. The first is a ranked hardcore playlist with a format which will be familiar to fans of the existing H3 and H2C Hardcore playlists. Reach Hardcore will feature zero-bloom-no-sprint (ZBNS) settings across a collection of MLG V7 map and game variants. Our internal Pro Team is aiding us in locking down the final lineup here.

The other competitive playlist will be Invasion. Invasion was perhaps the most unique and defining mode for Reach and featured a delicate balance between Spartans and Elites. To preserve this balance, we will not be applying TU settings to Invasion. This playlist should scratch the itch for a ranked big team experience where teams must develop strategies around the unique objective and fireteam setup. As such, matchmaking will focus more on group size than individual player skill. Reach’s original Invasion playlist suffered from a lack of maps with only two at launch and a third (Breakpoint) gated by DLC ownership. To remedy this, the Invasion Slayer (and later Invasion Skirmish) modes were also included. These modes don’t fit into a competitive experience and have analogues better suited to the 8v8 player count in Social Games. We do not have plans to include Invasion Slayer/Skirmish in this playlist. All three core Invasion maps will hold equal weight with the forge variants adding additional map variety at a lower weight.

While matchmaking will focus on TU settings, both TU and vanilla variants will be built-in and selectable from the Custom Game lobby. Anniversary map and game variants will also be available to players.

Firefight Matchmaking

One other unique addition to matchmaking for Reach will be Firefight. There will be a small collection of Firefight playlists available which provide the key experiences the mode has to offer. These playlists will benefit from ongoing updates and rotations just like our current PVP playlists do. Firefight matchmaking will be hosted on dedicated servers and use a new asynchronous network model. Co-op Campaigns and Firefight have always run on a synchronous model where clients have to wait for the host to simulate their actions and send them back before they can be observed by the client. This can result in a sense of sluggishness for off-host players. Reach Firefight in MCC will use an async model which should result in a much smoother and more consistent online experience.

In addition to matchmaking, we’ll also extend the campaign metagame experience through Campaign Playlists. Like other titles in MCC, Reach will support playlists which serve up missions (and specific parts of missions) as themed experiences. The standard per-difficulty and LASO playlists will be on offer here as well as more specific scenarios centered around infantry engagements, vehicle engagements, and more.

As a hybrid designer and technical community support specialist, I spend a lot of time each day scouring qualitative feedback and analyzing data (quit rates, average match length, stickiness, etc.). The proposed matchmaking contents you see here are the direct result of combining current player trends and feedback from MCC, community wishlists, internal design insight, and several hundred hours of personal Reach playtime. Of course, this is just the beginning. Reach's matchmaking, like the rest of MCC's, will continue to evolve up until launch and beyond through flighting, playtesting, and your feedback. Thank you for coming along with us on this journey. A great matchmaking experience is within reach.

-Dana

Proper Hydration and Snacks

We have finally reached the near halfway mark of the blog. Hopefully we have been answering the questions you have and are helping you form even more! With so much still left to go through, we would like to give you the opportunity to grab a snack.

If you didn’t bring adequate snacks and hydration, I strongly suggest going and getting some now. I’ve heard that the community enjoys pizza, but I am with John and prefer some fresh Blueberries.

 Alright – hopefully you have returned, snacks and drinks in hand. Let’s get nerdy and deep dive into a section that includes two engineers from 343’s Publishing Team!

Halo MCC’s Progression System

Hey Friends, the following section has several screenshots that are of a work-in-progress progression system that is subject to change. This is us wanting to share with you where we are at, what we have done so far, and what our goals are. This section has been put together by 343 Publishing Team’s Design Director, Max Szlagor, for you to get a first look of what the new progression system for MCC is intended to look like and what it entails. Please note, season content contains placeholder art, names, descriptions, and unlock values and does not represent actual Halo: Reach unlockables. Please remember this is all still being worked on and that changes can/will be made before it ultimately ships. Please enjoy!

Example of what an updated main menu could look like with season progression elements represented in the player nameplate and via UI widgets on the right side of the screen.

Progression in MCC

When we first started planning the addition of Halo: Reach to MCC, we knew there was an opportunity to improve the MCC engagement and customization experiences. As outlined in our last blog, we wanted to build up our legacy and engagement pillars. Halo: Reach featured a compelling progression system and a series of interesting unlockables to strive for.

We set out to include the same customization options in MCC while looking to modernize the progression system that existed in Halo: Reach. Here are the details of that system.

Halo: Reach Progression Legacy

When we talk about modernizing the Halo: Reach system, one of our main goals was to separate the way levels and credits are so closely tied together. Credits were used as the marker of level and XP progression and were also used to purchase unlockables.

We wanted to preserve the idea of earning in-game currency for playing and performing well while making the distinction between level XP and currency clearer for players. We also wanted to offer the Halo: Reach unlockables as a goal to chase in our new take on this progression system. 

Example of what the post-match progression screen may look like with placeholder XP values, level, and medal rewards.

Account Level Progression

Starting with the release of Halo: Reach, all matches played on dedicated servers will award profile XP. This includes matchmade PVP multiplayer and matchmade PVE Firefight experiences. XP will be earned regardless of which specific Halo title is played.

XP will be awarded based on medals earned in the match under the banner of two categories – performance and teamwork. At the end of the match, the category and XP value for each medal earned will be displayed.

Great games of Halo are the result of a well-functioning teams coordinating and succeeding together. We want to make the actions that fall under performance and teamwork clear by associating them with tracked medals and encourage players to be strong team players in addition to individual performers.

There will also be a bonus for completing matches. XP will be capped in each match to encourage repeated and active play within each game.

Why dedicated server matches only? Security. We want to ensure players legitimately earn the rewards that are on offer. In the future, we will look for additional ways to ensure players in a wider range of scenarios have a path to earning rewards.

Once players have earned enough XP, the player’s level, rank, and title will change.

Example of several tiers of season unlocks with placeholder content, name, date, and descriptions.

Seasons and Unlockables

In the future, MCC will include the concept of game seasons, each with a unique theme. In addition to an overarching account level system, players will have the opportunity to unlock seasonal based rewards. Attaining certain account levels or completing challenges will award in-game seasonal points, which can be spent to unlock rewards, such as armor pieces, Halo: Reach Firefight voices, and nameplates.

Seasonal points are an in-game award. There will be many tiers of seasonal unlocks, and each tier can include several items. Tiers are unlocked by spending seasonal points and each tier must be unlocked before the next tier is available.

We will not be applying this progression system retroactively to lock content that exists in MCC today. Anything that is unlocked in MCC today will be unlocked in the same way – either available by default or via an achievement unlock.

We are interested to hear from our community if any of the existing achievement unlocks would be interesting to include as challenge or XP unlock, but if we move forward on this it will be additive – meaning you could earn it the old way or the new way. In addition, anything that is unlocked on Xbox will be unlocked for players using the same profile on PC and vice versa.

Seasonal unlocks and any unspent season points will not disappear when the season rotates. Players will be able to go back and unlock items from a previous season, though they must be unlocked in order. The first season and its unlockables will all be centered on Halo: Reach, though as mentioned, players will be able to earn season points and XP by playing other games in MCC as well.

Future seasons will focus on the other games in MCC and will include new content.

On the matchmaking side of things, we also want to make reaching high levels of competitive ranks a seasonal goal. Competitive playlists will be configured for each season and all players will start at rank 1 at the beginning of the season. When a season ends, competitive playlists will be reassessed, and ranks will reset along with the playlists. We are thinking about ways to honor players who achieve significant skill ranks in each season. Social playlists will rotate more frequently and will not necessarily be tied to season rollouts.

In addition to XP, levels, unlockables, and seasons, we are looking to bring a challenge system into MCC. The timeline for when this feature will arrive is still in discussion, though a lot of design and thinking has gone into the system.

The goal is to offer rotating daily and weekly challenges that can award season points in a variety of game modes. Please stay tuned for more information on this part of our progression system.

Another important note – the progression system and seasons in MCC will be included for all players and earning XP and season points does not require a specific game purchase. In order to play with the appropriate unlockables, players will need to own those titles, but XP and season points can be earned in any MCC game.

Example of what a season unlock prompt may look like where players spend season points to unlock tiered rewards in order.

That’s a preview of our current plans for the MCC progression system. We hope you are as excited as we are to bring new goals and unlockables into the game. We look forward to hearing your thoughts, questions, and feedback. We will have more to share in the future about customization, season content, and level details. Thank you for sharing this journey with us.

-Max

Update on Halo Insider

Hello Halo Insiders! (you are an Insider, right? If not, what’re you waiting for? SIGN UP!) As you know, development on Halo: Reach and MCC for PC is well underway but our plans to kick off flighting last month didn’t quite land where we’d projected. You can read more in our last blog HERE and in the Insider forum HERE but suffice it to say that the game itself is a complex project but so is the act of delivering builds to flight participants via Steam. The good news is that since the last blog, the team has made great progress on a number of the blocking factors we’ve discussed previously and we’re getting really close to kicking things off.

Recently, the team checked off a pivotal milestone with the first pre-flight release of a PC build to a small private test group. The purpose of this ‘flight’ was strictly to verify the process of preparing a build, creating a whitelist and player entitlements, delivering the build content to participants, and verifying that some preliminary in-game telemetry was working as intended. With all of that in the rearview, the team is now on the cusp of moving into the next stage which will be activating our first public Insider flight which we expect to begin in June.  

While that is all progressing and we get closer to Insider flighting, I did want to take a moment to talk about some plans we’re working on for the upcoming E3 expo. As you no doubt know, E3 is a pivotal industry event where Xbox and others go to show off and talk about new games and exciting updates coming down the road. Finding a way to bring a slice of the Halo: Reach PC experience to E3 is important to the team, the studio, and our partners across the company. To that end, the team has been working on a demo experience of Halo: Reach that we’re currently readying for the show floor at the Microsoft Theater in LA. Admittedly, none of us in the studio love the idea of bringing Halo: Reach PC content to E3 before we’ve kicked off Insider flighting. We know the community is incredibly eager and anxious and much more time has passed since we initially announced the Insider program than we wanted or anticipated.

I want to be clear that the work that went into creating this one-off experience for E3 has NOT caused delays in flighting nor have we intentionally held back flighting for marketing purposes. Truth is, a lot of the challenging issues the team has been working through to get flight ready – things like security and build fulfillment and entitlements – don’t apply to the build being readied for E3. In fact, this small E3 build is the same build that was used for the pre-flight milestone I mentioned above. It was important to the team to not do “throw away” work nor negatively impact the overall flighting or development schedule. According to lead producer Michael Fahrny, this E3 build served as the “goal post” the team worked towards to get ready for broader fighting.

If you caught our social stream, you already have an idea of what this build entails – it’s a single campaign mission, “Tip of the Spear”, running on a PC with mouse and keyboard controls and a built in 10 minute timer to help promote throughput in a busy expo environment. This build is very much work-in-progress with a number of features in various states of development while others are still missing entirely. This build was isolated a while back specifically for the purposes of E3, meanwhile the team is still moving forward with new build updates every day, meaning the current state of the project is already much further along than what we had to commit to for E3. In fact, even the build we showed on today’s live stream is over a week old and not indicative of what we’ll have on the show floor (more PC UI is still coming in, among other bits of polish).

As the team here gets ready to activate the first wave of Insider flighting (which, as a reminder, will only include a subset of registered Insiders and is expected to grow over time), a few of us will be down at E3 offering hands-on with a work-in-progress Halo: Reach experience and gathering feedback from players. If you’re going to be at E3, we hope you’ll stop by and say hello and take “Tip of the Spear” for a test drive! In addition to being one of the first to get hands-on, you can also score some swag (which I’m told includes collectible pins for everyone and a chance to get Halo: Reach mouse pads and posters).

Thank you for your support and patience – we’re excited to kick off the first round of Halo Insider flighting on Steam very soon!