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Bungie Weekly Update: 06/03/2011

Posted by urk at 6/3/2011 1:50 PM PDT

This is the Bungie Weekly Update for the 3rd of June, 2011. Indulge me and imagine that I've poured every part of myself into the monumental task of its construction, devoting all of my limited time and talent to assembling a wonderful dose of verbose prose that will not only leave you flush and satisfied, but somehow clamoring for more. This is a cognitive feat of strength you'll find quite useful in the months ahead. Bungie Day will mark the end of our Halo-era Bungie Weekly Updates, and in the epic wake of our final celebratory throes we'll be committing all of our studio resources to the service of future endeavors. That means I'll be keeping my mouth shut (for the most part), doing most of my dirty, preparatory work from behind the scenes.

So, even though Bungie.net will remain a welcoming home for your stats and the Bungie community, we won't be dishing out a steady dose of Halo community news in the post Bungie Day world. It might not feel like it, but that's actually great news. You won't be left wanting more than we can deliver in the short term, and we'll be able to put our heads down and focus on a common goal that will benefit us all. That doesn't mean you won't hear anything at all out of the studio – we have some surprises up our sleeves that you'll be learning about soon – but it does mean that for the time being you should expect us to keep dialing down the Halo, and that you should not expect us to spill the beans on any major project news any time soon.

While we're on the subject…

Clean Up, Aisle 7

A couple of media outlets mistook my anticipatory words last week to mean that we'd be revealing our next big thing on Bungie Day, giving E3 the cold shoulder and you a face-searing megablast of marvelous Bungie goodness. We'll definitely have plenty of kick ass stuff to offer celebrants of this year's Bungie Day – it is our 20th Anniversary after all — but we won't be lighting a fire of New Hotness magnitude. You should expect to have a great time, get access to some seriously rare and limited edition swag, and maybe even get your hands on something you might never have expected. (And no, that's not what I mean, you filthy little thing, you.)

Stay tuned for more details in the days to come. You'll have full details covering what you should expect out of Bungie Day by the end of the month. Deal?

June Matchmaking Update

This week, Memorial Day malaise and a string of unfortunate meetings sucked up nearly all of my spare time and I found myself writing the update in record time. I didn't even get a chance to run a proper All Stars competition, which is something I've really come to enjoy doing. Undoubtedly, your heart aches with sympathetic palpitations. It's alright though. Jeremiah is here to swoop in and save me with a sweeping matchmaking update.

Here's what he had to say for himself:

Swoopin' and Sweepin'

The June matchmaking update is currently in the final phases of testing, we're still on schedule to deploy at some point in the middle of next week. As always, all of this including the deploy window is subject to change. This is not a complete list of all changes. I'm going to resume the test pass now, before I run out of time and have to start chopping things off the list. Have a great weekend!

• Team Objective revamp
  • Similar to the recent Big Team Battle revamp, refined the playlist lineup so players are consistently being offered more popular experiences with less fringe gametypes
• Premium Slayer and Premium Battle playlists added
  • These playlists will require both Noble and Defiant DLC, coinciding with this we will be removing the Defiant Map Pack playlist
• Firefight Doubles playlist added
  • This will be a permanent version of the Doubles Attack playlist, but will offer each core Firefight experience (2X Score Attack, Arcadefight, FF Limited)
• Flagstravaganza playlist added
  • This 5v5 playlist will be available for a limited time, consisting of all CTF gametypes and premiering new modes (3 Flag, CTF Slayer)
• MLG playlist updated to V4 maps and gametypes

• CTF now supports more custom game options (3 flag, separate flag score values for enemy and neutral flags, slayer scoring, flag return scoring) and we've fixed the flag return radius
• Oddball now supports changing the Ball Reset time as a custom game option
• Integrating 5 more community maps where appropriate into The Arena, Team Slayer, Double Team and Big Team Battle
  • Maps: Think Twice, Rebirth, Select, Precipice and Mt Lam Lam
• Drop Shield removed from all objective gametypes
• Armor Lock removed from Team Objective
• Improved spawning on Pinnacle
  • Removed global respawn zone. Added gametype specific respawn zones for certain objective gametypes.
• Various fixes to Firefight
  • Firefight Arcade gametypes now have a 20 minute time limit, enabled dropships for first and boss waves, updated Arcadefight loadouts
  • Firefight Limited no longer offers Jet Pack loadouts, enabled Betrayal Booting to prevent griefing (Friendly Fire remains off), enabled Grunt Birthday Party for bonus round
  • Nerfed Shootiness and Luck for custom skull in Skirmigeddon, the gametype was a little too painful

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For some reason, my tiny lizard brain wanted to mark this as the last major matchmaking update that Jeremiah was going to drop into Halo: Reach under our watch. Turns out he has one last update planned for July. After that, the playlist management transition will be in full swing, and for the most part playlist support will be out of our hands save a few minor bits of housekeeping here and there. Like the rest of the Bungie crew, Jeremiah and his team will be fully incorporated into the rumbling machinery that will power us into the future.

If you've enjoyed Jeremiah's tender, but firm approach to playlist management you should drop into Optimatch and leave him a little positive feedback. He loves you dearly and I'm sure your warm regards would be more than welcome. Just make sure you're quick about it. As our official support window draws to a close, our playlist feedback forum in turn becomes a less and less useful tool. Expect to see it shift to read-only status in July.

Oh, and this weekend's Jackpot playlist is Arena, and the potential payout is set to a whopping 18,000 Credits. Get 'em while the gettin's good.

Bungie All Stars – Week 19 (Urk's Choice)

I might not have been willing or able to whip up a formal All Stars competition for you this week, but that didn't stop me from spending a few minutes plucking out a few of my (and your) favorite things. I didn't hold these selections to any one rigid standard, and they're certainly not meant to represent The Best Screenshots Evar Uploaded to Bungie.net. Instead, they're simply some shots that I think stand out for one reason or another (keep in mind that I am a simple and easily amused "man").

You've definitely seen some of them before, and yup, some of the authors have already earned themselves a star. Click on the embedded stream below to take a look.

If you just saw your screenshot slide by, you should now have a star lovingly hitched to your nameplate. If you already had one, you now have a Double Star. The second one is inlaid atop the preexisting nameplate. (You'll just have to trust me.)

Blame Stosh

Stosh doesn't phone anything in. He's committed to serving your needs to the best of his ability until we pry him kicking and screaming from the controls. Some might say he's running at 110%, but those people aren't very good at math. Stosh, like all men, can only give 100%.

Spartans, on the other hand...

Have a great weekend.