Halo: MCC (XSX|S/XB1/Steam/Win10) - Combat Evolved GR games on Wednesday nights.

Hime wrote:Just fired this up for a game seeing as people say it's almost working. Couldn't find any players for a game on the Halo 2 playlist.

For the record I didn't wait for ages but around three times as long as you would wait for any other working multiplayer game with matchmaking.

Over the past few weeks, the team has been cranking away on the upcoming April update, which has now entered the certification process and is on track for release next week. We’ll have the full patch notes when the update goes live, but here are a few of the items that will be included in the update:

New penalties and monitoring for quitting and betrayals
A variety of ranking system improvements and fixes
Updated Halo 3 Forge to include editing for all game types
In addition to the above, we’ll also have game-specific improvements for each title, improvements to parties and stability, and more. We’re excited for this update, and we are hope you are too. Which brings us to the next question – what’s up with ranks?

As mentioned above, the April CU will contain a wide variety of improvements to the ranking system, which will allow us to begin to roll out ranks to additional playlists. Shortly after the content update drops (we’re aiming for the next day or so), we’ll be resetting ranks for the Halo 2: Anniversary playlist, and also adding ranking to Team Slayer and the Halo Championship Series playlists. Over the following days, we’ll be monitoring results to ensure that everything is working properly before adding ranks to additional playlists. With this same update, we’ll be bringing SWAT back as the featured playlist, this time with Halo 3 game types included, as the April CU will also bring with it some additional fixes to allow for Halo 3 map / game type integration into new and existing playlists. This also means that over the next few updates, you can expect more non-default Halo 3 maps and game types to make their way into matchmaking.

Once the CU is here, we’ll be back with the full patch notes. Be sure to keep an eye on Waypoint and Twitter to know exactly when everything goes live.

The next time you log into Halo: The Master Chief Collection, you will be prompted to download the latest content update, which focuses on ranking, matchmaking penalties, stability, as well as game-specific improvements for each title.

Below, you’ll find a summary of what is included in today’s update:

RANKING
Made a variety of improvements to ranking consistency and penalties.
Resolved an issue that could cause a player to rank down excessively, such as dropping multiple levels after a loss.
Resolved an issue that caused a player’s rank to appear incorrectly.
Based on these improvements and updates, we’ll be resetting ranking for Halo 2: Anniversary, and separately, will begin to roll out ranks to additional playlists soon (we’re aiming for the next day or so), starting with the addition of ranking to the Team Slayer and Halo Championship Series playlists. We’ll be actively monitoring the ranking system across these playlists over the next few days to ensure that everything is working properly before adding ranks to additional playlists.

QUITTING & BETRAYALS
Added new quit and betrayal penalties to matchmaking:
In ranked playlists, quitting a match is now treated the same as a loss. Quitting is defined as exiting the game in any fashion. If you quit a match, your ranking will be impacted, and this may result in dropping a level.
All quits and betrayals are being tracked automatically, and action is being taken against offending players who commit these offenses more than what is considered normal behavior.

HALO: CE
Resolved an issue that was causing off-host players to deal more damage than the host in peer-to-peer custom games.
Updated Derelict to include the Rocket Launcher when selecting the “Classic” weapon set.
Made improvements to vehicle weapon accuracy.
Resolved an issue that caused incorrect bullet and grenade collision with an invisible object on the map Derelict.
Update the “Boxer” controller layout by switching the “switch grenade” and “throw grenade” buttons.

HALO 2 CLASSIC
Resolved a hitbox issue where shooting an enemy’s weapon from the front would not cause damage.
Corrected the matchmaking Team Ball respawn modifier from “Inheritance” to “None.”

HALO 3
Updated Halo 3 Forge to include editing for all game types.
Made significant improvements to Halo 3 audio, specifically in regards to weapon fire and sound effects.
Made improvements to Halo 3 multiplayer networking stability.
Made improvements to Halo 3’s controller “deadzones.”
Resolved issues that were causing Halo 3 multiplayer stats to not track correctly.
Resolved lighting and shading issues occurring on the “Sandbox” multiplayer map.
Resolved an issue where the “Begins with a Single Step” achievement did not unlock correctly.
Resolved an issue where the Golf Club object did not appear correctly in Forge.

HALO 4
Resolved an issue where Primary Weapons could display in the Secondary Weapon slot after removing the Firepower Tactical Package.

PARTIES
Made improvements to voice chat consistency, specifically in team-based matchmaking games.
Resolved an issue where a player may not hear another player via voice chat after completing a game.
Improved party functionality, specifically in regards to game invites and joinable states.
Increased the speed at which the roster populates with Xbox Live friends after completing a game.
Resolved an issue where players could get stuck on the “Leaving Matchmaking” screen for longer than usual.
Resolved an issue where players were unable to join immediately after becoming Xbox Live friends.

ACHIEVEMENTS
Resolved an issue that caused "The Guardians Are Coming" achievement to not unlock correctly.
Resolved issues that caused complications with Spartan Ops achievements unlocking.

UI, STABILITY & MISC.
Made a variety of improvements to UI throughout the title, specifically in regards to notification messages and stability.
Improved Playlist and Campaign Career Stats tracking for Halo 2, Halo 3 & Halo 4.
Made a variety of significant improvements to stability throughout the title.

Additionally, we’re excited about the progress of the Relic multiplayer map remake and the Campaign for Halo 3: ODST, both of which are on track to release within Halo: The Master Chief Collection next month with our next content update. Look for more details next month, including the final map name for the Relic remake, release date and more. To hold you over, here’s a few brand new screenshots, complete with desktop wallpaper links:

Kanbei wrote:I will try my best to be on a bit more often now. Difficult for me to say I will be there on the same day every week but I will try my best.

JChalmers wrote:Is this all fixed now?

Was burnt when I tried it at Christmas with the amount of other new players joining and making the game pretty unplayable.

Have all the single player save game glitches been fixed too?

Might give it a crack over the weekend if it's back up and running smoothly.

JChalmers wrote:Fair enough. Think I'll have a bash this weekend then!

I seem to recall the single player not saving progress unless you completed the full level? Could be wrong though.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is “a Black Eye for Us”, Says Frank O'Connor

Halo Franchise Development Director Frank O'Connor believes that Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s disastrous launch and long-running online problems are “definitely a black eye for us”.

Speaking to XBA a few weeks back at the at the EGL’s “Battle For Europe” event in the Halo Championship Series, O'Connor discussed the mistakes that were made with the remastered compilation, while reassuring players that the same problems won’t occur with Halo 5: Guardians.

“Halo: The Master Chief Collection is definitely a black eye for us,” said O’Connor. “We’re not going to rest on our laurels or hide from the mistakes we made. However, I will say that the nature of The Master Chief Collection - you’ve got five different game engines, you’ve got five different studios working on it, you’ve got 343 working on putting it all together - the footprint and complexity was outrageous.

“To be perfectly honest, there were a lot of things that happened when we got it into a retail environment that we simply didn’t see in a test environment, so that’s what really caught us by surprise. We’ve been sort of scrambling to get it first in a playable stage and now we’re going to get it in a polished stage, so that people are getting what they deserved in the first place. We’re never going to back away from that or shy away from that.

“However, Halo 5 is being made by a completely different team. It’s a singular product. It was built from the ground up for this new technology, rather than being sort of dragged kicking and screaming from 2001 and forced and shoehorned into a 2014 console. So the problem spaces are still very challenging but they’re radically different. I think the beta is already a decent first step, in a retail environment, showing that we don’t have the same problems.”

The quote comes from a larger interview discussing Halo 5’s eSports aspirations, as well as how 343 Industries is attempting to juggle the needs of eSports players and your average scrub. It’s interesting stuff. Give it a watch below. Halo 5: Guardians is out on Xbox One this October 27th.