Reach MP Q and A: urk, April 19, 2010

As part of the ongoing Halo: Reach multiplayer feature reveal leading up to the Beta in May, 2010, Eric 'Urk' Osborne, Coffee Supplier Extraordinaire, answered a number of fan-asked questions on the Bungie forum. We've pulled out the questions that urk answered, for your reading convenience..

Posted by: teh1maggot
ok, i have a question.
why is the core so valuable to the covenant? why is it important?

Posted by: Morrowind
Why do you hate competition, and mock everyone who disagrees with terrible updates?

Competition is awesome. Did you watch the MLG finals today? Who would have thought Str8 would fall to 8th place? Crazy.

Posted by: Technobrats
in invasion can you have people spawn in the back of your vehicles

Well, "back" would only apply to the Hog, but yes, you can spawn into an active vehicle if you want to.

Posted by: Mortarion
How is Marty's music coming along? Is it something a bit similar to Halo 1, 2, and 3? Or has he gone with a completely different theme?

Posted by: davadude
are we going to see that "blame stosh" footage your promised us 2 updates ago?

Posted by: A Wild Kyyogre
I've got a question, actually quite a few.

Why must you insist on lowering movement speed which was already slow enough?

Why did you remove flag juggling when it had no negitive impact on multiplayer?

Why would you even think that something so childish like a jetpack belongs in Halo?

Do you even want MLG to take your game in?
Because the way your completely turning Halo casual seems like you don't.

The increased FOV and perspective makes up for the reduction in movement speed to a great degree. This was already discussed on our Podcast with Sage. Players who want to increase movement speed can set it up in customs.

Flag Juggling did have some negative impact on gameplay, as evident by the players responding favorably to its removal. But sure, we get why some players would be upset that it's not going to be in default matchmade gametypes.

Jet packs are in because they are awesome.

MLG is awesome. We'll give them the tools to tune the experience just like we always have. In fact, they'll have even more control over traits then they did with Halo 3. They'll even be able to turn on flag juggling if they choose.

Posted by: Che55
Urk, at the end of the day, do you still crave more playing time with Reach?

Spartan comes out of Armor Lock with his shields still damaged and fires his Shotgun at the Elite. He misses - you can see the sparks as the shot makes contact with the rock wall. The Elite takes advantage and kills the Spartan with a melee just as the Spartan's Battle Bro comes in and detonates a shot from the Grenade Launcher. That aquamarine effect is the EMP burst.

Definitely wouldn't be unprecedented.

[Editor's note: poster was asking whether Bungie would consider bringing MLG Pros in to test.]

Posted by: LegendaryFluffy
How many variants of Invasion are there? I've noticed Invasion Slayer, anything else?

Posted by: ThisIsntJack
Urk do you think the new Focus Rifle is on pretty even footing with the Sniper? Are ammo disparities necessary to keep them balanced or is there no need to keep them balanced?

They're just different. Time to kill with the Sniper Rifle is a bit faster. Single shot to the face. Head to head, it'll come down to situational use and individual skill. While the Focus Rifle needs to be held on target to wither shields and health, it'll also pull a traditional sniper out of scope.

Bacon wave!

Posted by: Downserj

Posted by: Mikelp_1
Urk: One thing that I noticed on Boneyard was a garage with vehicles blocked by some sort of shield door-like wall. It is shown here as some orange door. Is that a one way door for people to spawn in or something?

I would almost garuantee that this is a one-way shield door. Its orange on the outside, but blue from the inside.

This would allow for respawing in safety, vehicles won't be blown up when you are not around their spawn, etc. Plus you can't go back and forth, in and out, while fighting to recharge your shields over and over agian.

Just my thoughts on it.

Posted by: ligit46
A question for urk: Will you quote and answer this question?

Posted by: Rand0m TAG
when is the next podcast and vidoc going to be released
i want to hear about what they have done to improve the netcoding of the game

Posted by: Captin Ninja
Urk, in a recent podcast interview with Sage, he said that the Magnum and DMR "fire the same round"; does this mean that their ammo is interchangeable, deals the same amount of damage, or just looks the same?

Thanks.

Posted by: Dream053
So stepping over a dropped DMR won't net your Magnum any additional ammunition, and vice versa?

Urk Answers Questions about the Reach Beta