RISE OF THE UNICORN BRETHREN

[PokerFace]

I spent time last night beating the recent spartan ops episode completely on legendary and tweeking my loadouts the way I want them. By the time I realized you guys were on, it was time for me to get off. I will have to join the wednesday night missions more often or perhaps some weekend gaming would be better

[PokerFace]

And yes you must, Jahudo too! Hopefully we can sort out some of the cool customs from Reach for 4 cause they made Game Night fun too

I tried to make a mafia version in Halo 4 but it appears there are bugs in the flood gametype stopping me from making a perfect representation

The "Zombies/Mafia/Flood" will always look like flood. You can not change their appearance to look like human. Even if you select human or something other than flood in the setting, they still look like flood. To get arround this I had to make the town look like flood too otherwise finding the mafia would be super easy

Also the infected always spawn with swords. You can't give them hammers or guns. This is the more annoying problem as it takes away the voting references and makes things somewhat more difficult to balance. Balancing efforts have been subpar overall but I do have a test version I made that we can try

Anyone with ideas on how I can get around these issues is welcome to give input. Bringing the game to reach was easy and not hard to balance as I found more than just unicorns willing to help me test and run the games. Bringing mafia to halo 4 is going to be rough especially since its looking like we will all be flood carrying swords constantly

[HamboBlank]

I can't really do weekends, need that time to do other things but will sometimes be on Saturday US time

I have had the same problems with race gametype, but have just found a way to do it. I will have Halo Kart set up for the next Wednesday

[PokerFace]

cool I will bring my test mafia game though I got a feeling it will fail horibly.

The Reach one was very sucessful first time through. Balancing mafia vs town was easy in reach. 40% went to each with 20% going to the SK. Only issue I had was adjusting the point values for each side so that the MVP was chosen fairly.

In Halo 4 the balancing the sides and the points is going to be iratating, I can tell already

[UberNinja]

I really really want to play with you guys eventually. I just have no time. This fucking blows

I have played Halo 4 a grand total of one sitting.

[Rhinox]

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To celebrate, I'm giving away some extra Halo 4 XBL codes I've collected! Because even though I don't really know any of you guys that well at all online or irl, you're all still awesome and its a blast playin halo with you guys whenever I can.

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Here are the available codes

(1) UNSC T-shirt FEMALE XBL avatar item - From the Halo 4 Limited Edition Soundtrack. Only works with female XBL avatars.

Spoiler: image

(2) Female Avatar Armor (Spartan 4) - Female avatars only. This is from the Halo 4 limited edition iirc.

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(3) Female Avatar Armor (FOTUS) - UNICORN avatar armor for FEMALE avatars only. Looks like my current avatar, only the female version. This is from the Halo 4 console bundle iirc.

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(4) XBL Ghost Avatar Prop - Is exactly what it says. This was a Gamestop Pre-order bonus.

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(5) War Games Haven XBL Theme - Screen shot of part of the Haven map as a theme. Its what I'm currently using. If anyone got the longbow theme from the marketplace, its the same idea, only with Haven instead. This was a Gamestop Pre-order bonus.

Spoiler: image

(6) In-game Arctic Battle Rifle Skin - this was actually really useful on launch day because I could use the BR at SR-1. Now I guess its still useful if you want your BR to look differently, or need to collect everything. This was a Gamestop Pre-order Bonus.

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(7) In-game Forest Armor Skin - Its basically a different color pattern for the HAZOP armor that you can already unlock in the game, so really only needed for collectors/completionists. It was a Gamestop Pre-order bonus.

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(8) Assassin Emblem - Gamestop powerup rewards pre-order bonus. Not sure if it is unlockable in game or not.

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(9) Bonebreaker Emblem - Gamestop powerup rewards pre-order bonus. Not sure if it is unlockable in game or not.

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(10) Mjolnir Emblem - Gamestop powerup rewards pre-order bonus. Not sure if it is unlockable in game or not.

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(11) War games "14 day, Buy and Play" reward token - this is the code that gives you access to the extra 6 specializations if you didn't get the limited edition of the game or for some reason didn't receive the code yourself. You want this if you're close to maxing out at level 70 with wetwork and operator, or even if you're close to level 50 and just want more options. I should point out that at some point in the probably not too distant future (probably in mid/end Januaury for the christmas crowd), all the specializations will be unlocked for everyone making this code useless at that point, so you probably only want this if you think you might end up level cap'd before they all unlock.

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And thats all I have. I haven't really decided on a method for determining who gets the codes, other than it will not be a first come first serve thing. I would really like everyone who wants something to get something. I'm thinking it could be as easy as everyone posting or messaging me a list of their top 3/5/whatever in order of preference and then behind the scenes I will make sure everyone gets what they want as best as possible. If it turns out everyone wants the same 1 or 2 codes, then idk what to do. Random, or tournament, or... ideas? Halo 4 unicorn FFA matches, where each match is for a code?

Feel free to discuss here, or on the facebook group, or at http://www.theunicornbrethren.com. I want to send out the codes on 12/25 so that everyone will have what they want for unicorn night on 12/26. This is to give people time to send me lists or fight over codes in halo 4 gameplay (and coincidentally that also happens to be christmas day).

[HamboBlank]

Awesome Rhinox! Thanks for putting up your codes to spread the cheer! I think some Halo 4 FFA matches would be awesome for scraping over codes!

[Fritzler]

Oh man, I want the ghost avatar prop. It is completely ridiculous.

[Rhinox]

lol someones trying to play mafia on the halo waypoint forums: https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_pos ... ost2123786

I /inned for the lolz

[PokerFace]

I got the limited edition version of Halo 4. It came with a code that gave me early acess to all specilizations so I could chose from everything and not just wetwork and operator when i reached 50

I recently got a code sent to me from 343 that claims to grant that access as well because i played the game during a certain group of dates

As I obivously don't need both codes I was considering giving the second one out if there was still a need for it.

When are those who bought the regular edition suppose to get access the other specializations?

[FruitLoop]

I accidentally deleted my code...but then i am only at level 24 so not sure i'm going to need it any time soon haha!

[UberNinja]

Hey are any of those codes still valid? I'd like some of them... <3

[PokerFace]

Hey fruitloop

If you get to 50 and still ain't got access to the full group, private message me and I'll give you my extra code

I went pioneer first since it gives you extra XP to get the others. Now I am rogue since I hate bloom. Those 2 seem most geared to help new players so I am surprised they weren't the default ones instead of operator and wetwork

Tracker and engineer should work well together though I think their names should have been swapped from a skill stand point

operator and pathfinder should work well together for obvious vehicle related reasons

Wetwork's stealth seems like something you would want to pair with stalker or rogue. pioneer would become obsolete if you reach max XP levels

So the specializations seem to work out well in pairs

[Rhinox]

Now I am rogue since I hate bloom.

Do you mean flinch?

I'm also planning on doing pioneer first. It only makes sense. I could hit 50 today if I have time to play and play a few games of Spartan Ops. Now that they bumped up the difficulty to Legendary, a single round of Spartan Ops gives like 7700 xp. Thats like 3 games of matchmaking. And thats without the pioneer perk.

[KaleiÐoscøpe]

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... VA7zPtmdVm

[HamboBlank]

Tracker and engineer should work well together though I think their names should have been swapped from a skill stand point

Yay someone else sees that they can't name things correctly. When I first heard all the specializations I thought that IGN had just got them wrong and it would be all good when the game came out.

I went Pioneer, Tracker and I am doing Wetwork now! Already used the tracker in game and it is definitely worth having as I repeatedly got a sniper of some type replacing concussion or needlers haha

[PokerFace]

yes i meant flinch

in the older halos i always perfered the close range and automatic guns, but for some reason the rifles (carbine, BR, etc) all seem really good in this game

I played some spartan ops with the pioneer perks the other night. was pulling down some frequent 8-9000 XP games. If I read the wiki right it gives you and extra 20%. This thing is way OP. I am not surprised some people already got things maxed. The math they did for xp was fail on 343's part

Should be noted though that double XP dew points, DON'T double the perk's stuff. You get the regular XP. It doubled. And then they add the perks from pioneer. Which gave me some games of 16-17000 xp. Also you can't switch to pioneer perk loudout at end of match and expect to get all the xp. you only get 20% for what you do when you have the perk. They did a good job setting some elements of the perk up but I still think its OP

[HamboBlank]

I think they will have to add more levels, or they may have planned people to max out now as they are adding the ranking system soon which make mix the whole SR up. Also announced awhile back that they were hoping to implement a clan support feature

[UberNinja]

okay, ignore me

[Rhinox]

Fast Track isn't really OP. It takes exactly the same time to get to level 100 without using pioneer as it takes to get to level 110 if you choose pioneer first. In that time, both scenarios yield you 5 specializations with gameplay affecting perks. Pioneer may help you get that last 2 gameplay perks slightly faster but I'd argue the 2 you saved for last are the 2 you don't plan on using anyways. In terms of gameplay, you get the perks you want to use faster if you skip pioneer and go straight for the perks you want, which means anyone using fast track is at a gameplay disadvantage both in terms of 1) taking longer to get the perk they actually want to use, and 2) using fastrack instead of a perk that actually benefits gameplay. So its quite the opposite of OP, unless you're arguing ranking up to 130 as quickly as possible is the primary goal at the expense of gameplay.

For me, I'm going to do pioneer first because I don't see any of the specialization perks actually providing much of an advantage over the loadouts I already use, and I play a good amount of spartan ops where it actually makes sense to use Fast Track. Fast Track won't touch my war games loadouts. In other words, pioneer will help me achieve a secondary goal of ranking up without negatively affecting war games performance (vs. not getting pioneer first).

After playing the game for a while, I don't think the system is broken at all for what it is. I believe the average gamer will probably take 6-12 months to max out without specifically trying to rank. People interested in ranking quickly certainly have ways to do it much quicker. Part of me wonders if this is a sign that 343/M$ doesn't intend for H4 to last 2-3 years like H2, H3, and reach, and signals a speedup of the halo development cycle, which would make me sad.


@UN: talking to me? Last I heard, Hambo was going to organize a little tournament and the participants would have a chance at the codes I was offering. No one else even expressed any interest in my codes except for fritz.

[HamboBlank]

Rhinox you seem to always have your head screwed on, and I agree it does seem to make Halo look like it is heading towards a money-hoarding 1-2 year release.

I will post some info about the tournament in the next few days

[HamboBlank]

Not so much place and time, but some general info about what we are planning for the tournament was posted in our What up Halo Night? post here:

What up Halo Night? – 2013.01.09

[PokerFace]

Last I checked the Halo 4 site they have been having lag issues and been working on some aspects of patching the net code. In playing the multiplayer I will state that this is the worst net code for a halo game ever. Its veruy laggy. As a result i have been playing alot of spartan ops. (connecting to 4 other people not as laggy as connecting to 8 for 4 vs 4). As fast track benefits from spartan ops the most and because it is stupid to get pioneer last, I chose to get it first and Rogue second since rifles are really good and i think it will help me deal with lag on aiming and general flinch stuff

Because of this point of view, I did not see the alternative look at fast track that Rhinox brought up. When you look at fast track from his view, it is balanced

The only thing unbalanced then would be how you get tons of xp for spartan ops over regular multiplayer. The spartan ops XP is OP if you are trying to get all the skills you need/want and or fully level up as fast as possible

personally I have little interest in stalker and engineer (find rivals[st] and find ordances belonging to other players first{eg}) I will likly put those 2 off until the end

[Jahudo]

The new Spartan ops is a 2 GB download so be prepared for that when you go to play it.

And I'm not surprised that the biggest playlist right now is the new forge maps. Hopefully there's some good ones in there.

[PokerFace]

Thanks for the update. I'll have to free up space when i get off work before I get it

They said they would attempt to fix some if not all the laggy net code issues in this patch. Did they and or do you notice a difference?