XGC ROCK
News Editor
Bungie Upgrades Halo 3's Matchmaking Service
Best way to play games online is only getting better.
By Luke Smith,
1up.com
With Halo 2, Bungie defined how games should be played online in the console space. The matchmaking system, its movable "couch," and its series of ranked playlists were innovations in the console space that should have been ripped off consistently, since. Unfortunately, games like Epic's Gears of War show how robust Bungie's online experience is, in part because the Gears online experience feels anemic by comparison.
When designing Halo 3's matchmaking service, Bungie said that they wanted the experience to be as robust as the Halo 2 experience was on Xbox. During our trip up to Bungie, we took a first look at some of the new functionality that will appear in Halo 3's matchmaking.
1UP: In addition to addressing the issue of cheaters in Matchmaking what was the first focus for the team on expanding and improving the functionality Matchmaking allows in Halo 3?
Joseph Tung, Producer: Cheating is something we've certainly learned a lot about through Halo 2 and continue to learn and adapt to. It was an important factor when creating the specs for Halo 3, and we will be taking steps to address cheating wherever we can.
The heart of our work however, is focused on expanding the social elements of online play -- something that Halo 2 did extremely well and in many cases is still the gold standard of today. However, there are things in this realm that we've also learned and things we want to do better -- so a lot of effort is being given to building on the base of Halo 2 while refining and evolving the experience and addressing some of the requests we've heard from our fans (which were also shared by members of our own team).
1UP: Players try to cheat ranking systems to increase their level. In Halo 3 you're introducing a second ranking system. One system is a skill-based system drawn from ranked games, the other is an experience-based system: Explain how these two ranking systems will interact and intertwine with one another.
Colm Nelson, User Interface Designer: Our skill based system will still be the primary system for evaluating the skills of players so that we can determine the best skill match for a game. As with Halo 2 our matchmaking service will offer a variety of playlists based on a style of gameplay and players will build a skill level that is specific to each playlist. Our experience system is designed around the player's overall time spent in matchmaking and is not specific to any playlist, nor is it a hard criteria for matching players. With experience, players will start as a recruit and increase in rating. The experience rating becomes part of the player's core identity and is visible anywhere you see the player in the game. So the upshot is that when a new playlist comes out, all players will start as a "1" in the new playlist but you'll see right away that you have some crusty veterans in the game by their experience rating. Both skill and experience may only be earned in Matchmaking, where we control what is played and have measures in place to combat cheating.
1UP: There was no way to "search" for a particular gametype in Halo 2 matchmaking. Will there be a way for players to search for a particular map or mode?
CN: We are definitely taking steps to solve the issue of people wanting to play custom games and not having friends online to play with. We'll have more details on how this is being accomplished in the near future.
1UP: One of the menus we saw while we were at Bungie said XBL Public, it was described to us as a "Matchmaking for Custom Games." What is XBL Public bringing to the matchmaking space? Is there an XBL Private, as well for Halo 3 online play?
CN: The basic idea with our online play still begins with our party system. You can invite your buddies to the party and it's easy stay together and play whatever you want in the game. If you want to keep it private you can set the privacy so that only friends can join, or so that an invite is required in order for any player to join the party. On the other hand you might need more players to play the type of game you want to set up and that's where XBL public comes in handy. When you need more people you can just open your party to the public. It's the perfect way to create a custom game and find people to join you.
1UP: If I've created a game with my friends and don't have enough people for a good match, will there be a way for us to meet up with players that we don't know and have them join our game?
CN: That's the perfect example of how XBL public works. In a party with 3 friends but that game you've created really needs 8 players to be fun? Set the maximum party size to "8" and open your party to the public. Public players will be able to find you and join, so you'll get the other 5 that you need for the game.
1UP: Recent Xbox Live games have made it difficult to party with your friends for ranked games, the reasons have been cited as Microsoft's certification and True Skill system. Will players be able to enter ranked games as a party in Halo 3?
Allen Murray, Producer: Of course! Core features from Halo 2 such as the Party System will remain intact and are being improved upon. You will most definitely be able to create a party with your friends and enter into ranked matchmaking -- that's where the fun is! The Xbox certification process and True Skill system do not prevent games from having a feature that allows parties of friends to enter into ranked matchmaking as a team -- but they also do not provide that feature as part of the core set of matchmaking services. This system is something that Bungie has built into our game that is uniquely ours and a key ingredient in our special sauce.
1UP: Sometimes, as is the case with random assignment, teams in matchmaking would end up playing the same gametype several times in a row or the same map several times in a row, does Bungie have a way to address this in Halo 3?
Colm Nelson: We're working on improving this on several levels. One thing we are experimenting with is a potential "Veto" system for matchmaking that will give players some control over what they play in each playlist. If the majority of the matched players want to change the map/game selection then they will have a means to do that. This gives players in a party a tool to say "hey, we just played this we want something new". It's also a great way to give our online team very specific feedback to shape future playlist updates.
1UP: The Saved Films feature hasn't been entirely unveiled, but it is known that players will be able to watch matches after they are finished, who controls the map watching? Does everyone see the same thing, or can players independently adjust their views in Saved Films?
Joseph Tung: Saved films are going to be a really sweet feature in Halo 3 but unfortunately it's still a little too early for us to talk about specifics. Suffice it say that Films are awesome and they're already extremely popular within the studio. I could spend all day replaying the epic battles from our nightly multiplayer tests.
1UP: Game customization has undergone an overhaul in Halo 3; the new system for creating custom games is built off of Player Traits. Player Traits are a new term for Halo players, what are player traits and how will modifying them modify custom games? How specific will gametype creation be? Will you be able to set conditions i.e., if they are losing slayer they get a damage bonus, et cetera? Will there be specific modifiable player traits for specific gametypes?
Tyson Green, Multiplayer Lead: Even with Player Traits, game customization will be familiar to Halo players (but with some welcome UI improvements.) You still start off with a base gametype of your choice, and dive into customizing both common options (like respawn times) and game specific options. Traits are part of these options, so part of customizing your Oddball game might be going into the Oddball Carrier Traits and changing those.
All of the gametypes have Player Trait options specific to that gametype (like Juggernaut Traits, or Slayer's Leading Team Traits), and there are a few Trait options which are common to all gametypes (like Base Traits, which are applied to all players.) While the categories are hardcoded, we think the useful ones are well represented --there are no losing team Traits in Slayer, but you could easily give those Traits to all players, and then override them in the Leading Team Traits.
1UP: One of the things we saw at Bungie was an MVP award after the game in Matchmaking (on the right side of the screen, a player from the previous match had their Spartan avatar appear in a window with an MVP-designation under their gamertag). How will the MVPs be assigned? Will it be game specific? Is it more complicated than just "who led in kills for a slayer game" or "who held the oddball the longest?"
Colm Nelson: The MVP will be awarded to the player with the highest statistical ranking in a team game regardless of whether his team won or lost. This will be based on a ratio from the player's performance in the game as compared to his teammates. The player with the highest "ratio" will get the MVP, and the ratios will be game specific. With the MVP award that guy who was really a star for his team gets some recognition after the game, even if his team lost.
1UP: There's a bunch of new statistic reporting in the version of the Post-Carnage Report that we saw. Kills to death ratios and amidst Bungie-led heckling of "You were only minuus four that game, Luke" we want to know if that level of stat recording will it remain in the Post-Game Carnage report when the game ships? Additionally, will it be rolled into the Matchmaking stat record keeping?
CN: We will keep that level of stat recording in the post game carnage report and we'll track it as well with Matchmaking stats on Bungie.net. Stats like who was a plus or minus in the kill/death spread come from us playing a lot of Halo 2 and hearing players doing the math themselves to shout out "plus 5 baby" in the post game carnage report after games. We love it and we have to share that love.
Best way to play games online is only getting better.
By Luke Smith,
1up.com
With Halo 2, Bungie defined how games should be played online in the console space. The matchmaking system, its movable "couch," and its series of ranked playlists were innovations in the console space that should have been ripped off consistently, since. Unfortunately, games like Epic's Gears of War show how robust Bungie's online experience is, in part because the Gears online experience feels anemic by comparison.
When designing Halo 3's matchmaking service, Bungie said that they wanted the experience to be as robust as the Halo 2 experience was on Xbox. During our trip up to Bungie, we took a first look at some of the new functionality that will appear in Halo 3's matchmaking.
1UP: In addition to addressing the issue of cheaters in Matchmaking what was the first focus for the team on expanding and improving the functionality Matchmaking allows in Halo 3?
Joseph Tung, Producer: Cheating is something we've certainly learned a lot about through Halo 2 and continue to learn and adapt to. It was an important factor when creating the specs for Halo 3, and we will be taking steps to address cheating wherever we can.
The heart of our work however, is focused on expanding the social elements of online play -- something that Halo 2 did extremely well and in many cases is still the gold standard of today. However, there are things in this realm that we've also learned and things we want to do better -- so a lot of effort is being given to building on the base of Halo 2 while refining and evolving the experience and addressing some of the requests we've heard from our fans (which were also shared by members of our own team).
1UP: Players try to cheat ranking systems to increase their level. In Halo 3 you're introducing a second ranking system. One system is a skill-based system drawn from ranked games, the other is an experience-based system: Explain how these two ranking systems will interact and intertwine with one another.
Colm Nelson, User Interface Designer: Our skill based system will still be the primary system for evaluating the skills of players so that we can determine the best skill match for a game. As with Halo 2 our matchmaking service will offer a variety of playlists based on a style of gameplay and players will build a skill level that is specific to each playlist. Our experience system is designed around the player's overall time spent in matchmaking and is not specific to any playlist, nor is it a hard criteria for matching players. With experience, players will start as a recruit and increase in rating. The experience rating becomes part of the player's core identity and is visible anywhere you see the player in the game. So the upshot is that when a new playlist comes out, all players will start as a "1" in the new playlist but you'll see right away that you have some crusty veterans in the game by their experience rating. Both skill and experience may only be earned in Matchmaking, where we control what is played and have measures in place to combat cheating.
1UP: There was no way to "search" for a particular gametype in Halo 2 matchmaking. Will there be a way for players to search for a particular map or mode?
CN: We are definitely taking steps to solve the issue of people wanting to play custom games and not having friends online to play with. We'll have more details on how this is being accomplished in the near future.
1UP: One of the menus we saw while we were at Bungie said XBL Public, it was described to us as a "Matchmaking for Custom Games." What is XBL Public bringing to the matchmaking space? Is there an XBL Private, as well for Halo 3 online play?
CN: The basic idea with our online play still begins with our party system. You can invite your buddies to the party and it's easy stay together and play whatever you want in the game. If you want to keep it private you can set the privacy so that only friends can join, or so that an invite is required in order for any player to join the party. On the other hand you might need more players to play the type of game you want to set up and that's where XBL public comes in handy. When you need more people you can just open your party to the public. It's the perfect way to create a custom game and find people to join you.
1UP: If I've created a game with my friends and don't have enough people for a good match, will there be a way for us to meet up with players that we don't know and have them join our game?
CN: That's the perfect example of how XBL public works. In a party with 3 friends but that game you've created really needs 8 players to be fun? Set the maximum party size to "8" and open your party to the public. Public players will be able to find you and join, so you'll get the other 5 that you need for the game.
1UP: Recent Xbox Live games have made it difficult to party with your friends for ranked games, the reasons have been cited as Microsoft's certification and True Skill system. Will players be able to enter ranked games as a party in Halo 3?
Allen Murray, Producer: Of course! Core features from Halo 2 such as the Party System will remain intact and are being improved upon. You will most definitely be able to create a party with your friends and enter into ranked matchmaking -- that's where the fun is! The Xbox certification process and True Skill system do not prevent games from having a feature that allows parties of friends to enter into ranked matchmaking as a team -- but they also do not provide that feature as part of the core set of matchmaking services. This system is something that Bungie has built into our game that is uniquely ours and a key ingredient in our special sauce.
1UP: Sometimes, as is the case with random assignment, teams in matchmaking would end up playing the same gametype several times in a row or the same map several times in a row, does Bungie have a way to address this in Halo 3?
Colm Nelson: We're working on improving this on several levels. One thing we are experimenting with is a potential "Veto" system for matchmaking that will give players some control over what they play in each playlist. If the majority of the matched players want to change the map/game selection then they will have a means to do that. This gives players in a party a tool to say "hey, we just played this we want something new". It's also a great way to give our online team very specific feedback to shape future playlist updates.
1UP: The Saved Films feature hasn't been entirely unveiled, but it is known that players will be able to watch matches after they are finished, who controls the map watching? Does everyone see the same thing, or can players independently adjust their views in Saved Films?
Joseph Tung: Saved films are going to be a really sweet feature in Halo 3 but unfortunately it's still a little too early for us to talk about specifics. Suffice it say that Films are awesome and they're already extremely popular within the studio. I could spend all day replaying the epic battles from our nightly multiplayer tests.
1UP: Game customization has undergone an overhaul in Halo 3; the new system for creating custom games is built off of Player Traits. Player Traits are a new term for Halo players, what are player traits and how will modifying them modify custom games? How specific will gametype creation be? Will you be able to set conditions i.e., if they are losing slayer they get a damage bonus, et cetera? Will there be specific modifiable player traits for specific gametypes?
Tyson Green, Multiplayer Lead: Even with Player Traits, game customization will be familiar to Halo players (but with some welcome UI improvements.) You still start off with a base gametype of your choice, and dive into customizing both common options (like respawn times) and game specific options. Traits are part of these options, so part of customizing your Oddball game might be going into the Oddball Carrier Traits and changing those.
All of the gametypes have Player Trait options specific to that gametype (like Juggernaut Traits, or Slayer's Leading Team Traits), and there are a few Trait options which are common to all gametypes (like Base Traits, which are applied to all players.) While the categories are hardcoded, we think the useful ones are well represented --there are no losing team Traits in Slayer, but you could easily give those Traits to all players, and then override them in the Leading Team Traits.
1UP: One of the things we saw at Bungie was an MVP award after the game in Matchmaking (on the right side of the screen, a player from the previous match had their Spartan avatar appear in a window with an MVP-designation under their gamertag). How will the MVPs be assigned? Will it be game specific? Is it more complicated than just "who led in kills for a slayer game" or "who held the oddball the longest?"
Colm Nelson: The MVP will be awarded to the player with the highest statistical ranking in a team game regardless of whether his team won or lost. This will be based on a ratio from the player's performance in the game as compared to his teammates. The player with the highest "ratio" will get the MVP, and the ratios will be game specific. With the MVP award that guy who was really a star for his team gets some recognition after the game, even if his team lost.
1UP: There's a bunch of new statistic reporting in the version of the Post-Carnage Report that we saw. Kills to death ratios and amidst Bungie-led heckling of "You were only minuus four that game, Luke" we want to know if that level of stat recording will it remain in the Post-Game Carnage report when the game ships? Additionally, will it be rolled into the Matchmaking stat record keeping?
CN: We will keep that level of stat recording in the post game carnage report and we'll track it as well with Matchmaking stats on Bungie.net. Stats like who was a plus or minus in the kill/death spread come from us playing a lot of Halo 2 and hearing players doing the math themselves to shout out "plus 5 baby" in the post game carnage report after games. We love it and we have to share that love.
