H2: XBox Live implementation. Awful?

Bobby

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I've been playing H2 online over the past few nights, so I'm not expert
on the whole thing yet, but is it just me that thinks the whole online
setup stinks?

Firstly, what's the difference between a Clan and a Party?
Why cant I play the exact game I want to play? Why does the Lobby throw
me into a CTF game, when I may just want to play an Assault game.
Why cant I JUST play against my friends?
Why are the instructions on how to play each game awful at best, or
typically non-existant?

If there is a way to achieve some of those mentioned above, please let
me know.. I don't profess to being a H2 wiz, but I've spend nights
trying to find out how to accomplish the above, and can't find it :(

Burnout 3 is the other main online game I play, and whilst EA servers
may be ropey at best, the way you setup each race/crash can't be faulted.
 

keith

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bobby <nom@il.thanks> wrote in message news:<co1o6k$oa$1@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com>...
> I've been playing H2 online over the past few nights, so I'm not expert
> on the whole thing yet, but is it just me that thinks the whole online
> setup stinks?

It's drawn rave reviews. Even people who dislike the campaign tend to
love the online play. I wouldn't say it's just you, but I'd say you're
in the minority.

> Firstly, what's the difference between a Clan and a Party?

A party is a group of people playing together at a given time, who go
together from game to game, or get slotted into games together.

A clan is a semi-permanent group of people in what amounts to an
online club.

Parties are often but not always made up of clan members. You can join
or form a party on the fly. If you like the playing style of someone
you were just in a game with, you can invite him to join a party, and
then the two of you will be in the same games (and on the same team,
in team games).

Most of the time that the system spends slotting you into games has to
do with fitting parties together and having everyone be in the same
level range.

> Why cant I play the exact game I want to play? Why does the Lobby throw
> me into a CTF game, when I may just want to play an Assault game.

You can do this in unranked games. In ranked games, the reason is
because you might have a particular advantage at a certain game type,
and if you always played that game type, your stats would be
artificially inflated compared with other, better-rounded players.
This is also the reason you can't pick maps.

> Why cant I JUST play against my friends?

You can, in unranked games.

> Why are the instructions on how to play each game awful at best, or
> typically non-existant?

I have played a lot of Halo, so I may be missing something, but I
think the game types are generally pretty obvious. Granted, it takes
about a game of each variant to realize that "major assault" means one
bomb in the middle, "multi-bomb" means one bomb in each base,
"one-bomb" means that the bomb alternates locations between bases, and
the like. It's not that complicated.

> If there is a way to achieve some of those mentioned above, please let
> me know.. I don't profess to being a H2 wiz, but I've spend nights
> trying to find out how to accomplish the above, and can't find it :(

Unranked games.
 
G

Guest

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Comments below:

GamerTag: Drunken Newf




"bobby" <nom@il.thanks> wrote in message
news:co1o6k$oa$1@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com...
> I've been playing H2 online over the past few nights, so I'm not expert on
> the whole thing yet, but is it just me that thinks the whole online setup
> stinks?

I've heard people complaining about it a lot. I for one, don't find it bad
at all. In fact, I think Bungie's implementation of Halo 2 on XBOX live is
awesome. Clans, voice messages, just the pure ease of getting friends
together makes a great experience.

> Firstly, what's the difference between a Clan and a Party?

A clan is a group of 100 Live users. They can only be part of one clan at
one time. Basically, you can have any number of your members competing in
different clan matches at one time.

A party is a group of your friends that can either play a custom made game
with options of your choice, or enter into matchmaking with Bungie's
playlists. Basically, Bungie created the "party" to recreate the couch
experience in playing halo. Once again, I think this implementation works
great. Its easy as hell to get friends that are logged on together for a
game.

> Why cant I play the exact game I want to play? Why does the Lobby throw me
> into a CTF game, when I may just want to play an Assault game.

You can play exactly what game you want! Only thing is, that it would be
against friends on your list. You would have to create a "party" invite
those friends in and play whatever the heck you want. This game would be
unranked in Bungie's view. Think about it. If Bungie allowed you to select
exactly what map, type of game and options you want it would be unfair to
other players. Joe Blow may practice a map, know all the secrets and
glitches etc. and whoop everyone's ass in it. Its a way of keeping the game
fair, and forces everyone to be an average player on all levels. Also,
Bungie automatically selects the best host for speeds etc. If every tom dick
and harry was hosting their own games, everyone would be complaining about
lag and how shitty Halo 2 is. Think of it as a way of keeping the game
experience great.

> Why cant I JUST play against my friends?

You most certainly can play against "just your friends". Create a party,
invite them in and play whatever map.options you choose. Game would be
unranked...but who cares!

> Why are the instructions on how to play each game awful at best, or
> typically non-existant?

They give you a small run down of the options before the game starts. If you
are unsure, ask someone in the room. Someone will always pipe up and explain
the rules to you.


> If there is a way to achieve some of those mentioned above, please let me
> know.. I don't profess to being a H2 wiz, but I've spend nights trying to
> find out how to accomplish the above, and can't find it :(
>
> Burnout 3 is the other main online game I play, and whilst EA servers may
> be ropey at best, the way you setup each race/crash can't be faulted.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: microsoft.public.xbox.halo,alt.games.halo (More info?)

"Jon Yeager" <nospam@please.com> wrote in message
news:%23vpvkHS7EHA.3616@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...


> The one thing that bothers me is that I cannot set up a custom game and
> instantly have players join me. I don't care if it's unranked, sometimes I
> just want to play Blood Gulch CTF and there's no one in my friends list
> online, and neither Halo or Halo 2 allow multiplayer bots.
>
> That is the one drawback of an otherwise flawlessly designed Live
> experience.


Play a random ranked game or two and invite some of those folks to your
custom game. Between them and any friends they have on line you should fill
the map fairly quickly.