The Halo Bulletin was released yesterday Feb. 13, 2013 just before Valentines day and along with some great Halo-themed Valentines day pictures for your significant other, 343 Industries brought details about the upcoming Title Update and their competitive playlist Team Throwdown.
Andy "Bravo" Dudynsky, part of 343i's matchmaking systems team, provided more details to the new playlist Team Throwdown what will be released into the wild Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. Bravo has been working with Halo pros Eric "Gh057ayame" Hewitt, David "Walshy" Walsh, and Michael "StrongSide" Cavanaugh to create the most competitive and balanced gameplay which will feature the "v2" settings, version 2 of what was formerly known as the Major League Gaming competitive settings, and maps.
The playlist will feature Team Slayer, Capture the Flag, Extraction and King of the Hill at launch. Here are some of the overall details:
Mode - v2 Settings
- Teams - 4 vs. 4
- Score to Win - Dependent upon game type
- Loadouts - Game Loadout
- Instant Respawn - Disabled
- Death Cam - Disabled
- Motion Tracker - Ally Movement
- Personal Ordnance - Enabled
- Join In Progress - Disabled
- Guests - Disabled
v2 Game Loadout
- Starting Weapon - Battle Rifle
- Secondary Weapon - None
- Grenades - 2x Frags
- Armor Abilities - None
- Tactical Mod - Resupply
- Support Mod - Explosives
Game Types - Maps
- CTF: Adrift, Simplex,Solace
- Extraction: Dispatch, Haven
- King of the Hill: Shutout
- Team Slayer: Abandon, Haven, Shutout, Simplex, Solace
Bravo says they've also been working with the pro trio to create alternate game settings that will highlight the DMR as well as armor abilities, tactical packages, and support packages to provide some diversity in the playlist. The trio is working to make these alternate settings balanced yet competitive. Bravo said they are not sure if the alternate settings will be released on Monday or in a future update and will be announced in the matchmaking forums over the weekend. Also as a footnote, Bravo mentioned some additional changes to Team Snipers and Team Swat:
In other news, we’ll be reducing the score limit across the Team Snipers playlist from 60 kills to 50 kills (or 500 points) to account for the fact that instant respawn is disabled. Also, all of you Lockout fans will be happy to know that Shutout will be added to the rotation in the SWAT playlist. We’ll continue to add new Forge maps to existing playlists in future weeks to ensure that there are new map and game type combinations to explore. Speaking of maps, we’ll also be removing the Crimson DLC playlist from the rotation on Monday in preparation for the upcoming map pack, but Crimson DLC maps will continue to appear throughout various Matchmaking playlists.
Last but not least, 343i has released some details about the upcoming title update. 343i has officially said that the update will be coming down within "the next two weeks" and will be addressing some of the big concerns players have been voicing since the release. They were not able to mention all of the changes the update will bring but mentioned some of the big changes that will be coming.
- Reduced the range of the Boltshot’s damage scaling over distance. The previous effective range for 1-hit kills was 20'-25'. The range has been reduced to 15'.
- Fixed an issue that did not allow players to create respawn timers or disable instant respawn in custom games.
- Fixed issues with friendly fire against vehicles. If FF is disabled, damage / EMPs from friendly sources will no longer damage vehicles that are fully controlled by your team.
We won't see a complete list of the changes until the update is released. Next weeks update might include some details about the upcoming Majestic DLC as Jessica "bsangel" Shea, 343i's community manager, leaves us a little clue as she ended the bulleting this week saying "...and I’ll see you back here next week for a Bulletin that is sure to be majestic." Until then, Bravo has asked for your feedback on the matchmaking updates once they are released, so post your thoughts on the War Games Feedback forums. Happy Hunting.
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