So, you want to play Halo[1] with me, `phfina[2], and you want to play with me, today.
What do you need to do?
Okay, so first of all, if your name is I Love Decline or x Seraphic x, or you're a girl like them, ignore this post, you're already doing just fine, better than me, in fact, so you don't need to take advice from me. No, I take advice from you, and watch how you play to improve my game.
But if you're just starting out ...
Well, what do I do, every day, every game?
Halo: general multiplayer tactics
I am arguably one of the best players of Halo in the world. And that's not bragging on myself, that is stating a fact, plain and simple. I am one of the highest ranked players, a Noble (the full moon symbol. Yes, I know: shut up), and about to be promoted this week to an Eclipse (the moon eclipsing the Sun. Yes, I know the symbolism here, too: shut up).
There are 8.4 million people who play Halo every day. I have a BPR [3] of 87%. Using Perato analysis [4] I am off the charts, or, anecdotally, when playing the best of the best, I can hold my own, sometimes doing well, sometimes even distinguishing myself as the MVP [5] of the game.
That's not me talking, that's the results from the game engine itself.
So, if you want to play with me, it's helpful if you play like me. Why? A team has different roles, to be sure, but a team whose members are of like-purpose is more unified. A more unified team succeeds more, wins more, and all the members benefit from the strength of the unified team.
So, how to play like me then?
Well, how do I play?
First of all, my playing skill I self-rate to be: meh. I don't have the skill to snipe a headshot across the map while evading return fire. I don't have the skill to get into close quarters combat, going toe-to-toe and blow-for-blow and come out the survivor of that fight.
I'm not a skillful player. So I have to be a smart one.
How to play smart?
Firstly, in team games, I rely, heavily, on the team. Because the other players on the other team? They are working together in twos or threes. I go into a fight against an enemy, there's no doubt I'm going to die, if not by his hand [6] then surely by his teammate who comes in to clean up the buzzard bait, that is: me.
So what I do is to be the buzzard.
Translation: if I'm not watching your ass as you lead the charge into the fray, it's because I'm leading the charge. Meaning: I'm dead meat.
So, in combat, I'm always looking for my teammate's asses. If I don't see them, I'm dead; plain, and simple.
So how do you play?
The same way. If you aren't married to the hip of me, if you can't see my ass on your screen, it means you are charging ahead, like a n00b, and, like a n00b, you are going to get murderlized by four players on the other team, because there's no way I'm following a suicide runner. I'll just watch you die and pick off any enemy you've weakened ... that is, if I can. A n00b charge is usually so ineffective that it's just a free point for the other team.
So, lock onto my ass and grab it and don't let it go, the whole game.
Except.
There are always exceptions to the rule.
Except for Invasion and Grifball.
In Invasion, the 'cannon fodder' has to press the goal, and press hard. Why? The skillful player has to stand off and pick off the enemy trying to attack goal or defend goal, if the cannon fodder are not pressing goal, no progress is made and the game defaults to a win for the enemy.
Of course there's no point in pressing solo, that's just another free kill for them and an extended delay in respawn for you. Wait until you have a skilled partner, then press. If somebody else is in goal, hang back! defend them as best you can, then press when they die.
Invasion is all about the overwhelming and coordinated strength of the push, if you, as the less skilled player is not pressing, then I have to, then I die, and you die right after and the goal is never captured. But if you press, you die, but in so doing, you shave time off goal, and I respawn you right by goal, and we win.
See the distinction?
Now for grifball, if you're drooling on my ass while I, the skilled player, carry ball, then there is no path that you've cleared to goal, and with four enemies with more effective swords and hammers than my wee little ball (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!) I'll be made quick work of, and they'll get the turnover.
No, stop drooling on my ass when I have ball. Instead: press, press hard and with the path you've cleared, I can score the goal and our team wins. Now, if you have ball, if you do not see a teammate in front of you, DO NOT PRESS! Game after game I watch idiot n00bs turn the ball over because there they are, all the way in the enemy field by themselves with three enemies guarding goal and one coming up right behind him with sword out at the ready.
Yup, I say to myself: another sliced-and-diced victim.
When you have ball, let, you hear that word? let your teammates press. Grifball is not basketball, and has no room for heroics nor for showboating.
"But, `phfina, there was that one time when I ..."
Yeah, yeah, because the other team were all idiots with their thumbs up their ... 'assets' doesn't mean your foolhardy moves wins game after game. Sure, at start when you have ball and the goal is clear, press, because everybody is respawn from the first exchange of blows, but that's different than what I see all the time: idiot charging solo with the ball into a thicket of enemies thinking because they've just hit puberty and they have double shields that they are invunerable (except for the achilles heel — their back — which they stupidly forget as they ignore everything else in their suicidal charge to goal ... 'to goal'? I meant: 'to turn the ball over to the other team.')
Goal-oriented games are all about the coordinated press, and we, the skilled players need you to press so as to create openings. Openings are opportunities for a quick win. But only press when there is a skilled player there to seize that advantage, otherwise you're just charging into your blaze of glory to die to no purpose and to no end other than helping somebody else's K-D [7], and that just sucks for you.
All the other game types in multiplayer are usually point based ('slayer') so in that case it is very important that you kill more and die less. n00bs concentrate on 'killing more' but then just charge ahead and don't kill at all, but they die and die and die. In slayer games, find a buddy and cover her ass, and she'll cover yours, ... drool- or other-wise.
Otherwise your ass ... is grass.
Just sayin'
Halo: the Game and the Meta-game
Halo is a game, as I'm told, but it also is several meta-games.
The most obvious three are the commendations, challenges, and achievements, because when you complete one of them, you are immediately rewarded with credits (cR) or gamerscore.
So, yeah, you get rewarded for close quarters combat.
And if that's your bag, go have a blast throwing yourself at a smarter enemy who shoots you first with the pistol, then the Assault Rifle, and if you make it through that hail of rounds running straight at them to deliver the melee, enjoy dying at their love tap to your face.
@_@
A not-so-obvious meta-game is the game of the interplay of those three meta-games, and, within these game, the interplay there, internally.
"What are you saying, `phfina?"
What I'm saying is this: yes, every day, I check what the daily challenges are, and I pursue them. So, today, the daily challenges are:
- "Fire when ready" Completion reward: 1,100cR
Kill 30 enemies in multiplayer matchmaking
- "Up close and personal" Completion reward: 1,600cR
Kill 8 enemies with close quarters combat in a multiplayer matchmaking game.
- "The little guys" Completion reward: 2,500cR
Kill 200 grunts in campaign today on normal or harder.
- "Survivor" Completion reward: 2,000cR
Earn 9 sprees in a firefight matchmaking game
And this week's challenge:
- "Legendary Friends" Completion reward: 10,000cR
Complete any campaign mission on legendary in co-op mode.
What is obvious between one of today's daily challenge and the weekly challenge? Well, obviously, doing a campaign mission of legendary, you may encounter some cute little grunts (I just wanna hug them!), that you may just kill. So, doing the weekly challenge will score completion toward the daily "The little guys" challenge.
I play with so many people who go about this backwards. Like they load up rally point bravo in The Package on normal, or the hang down by wraith drop off on The Long Night of Solace, kill two hundred grunts, quit out of that game and then attempt the weekly.
Or, if the daily challenges are three multiplayer ones, and the fourth one is "kill 200 enemies in any game mode in Reach" then they load up firefight, kill two hundred enemies, then subsequently kill more than two hundred more enemies in multiplayer, with their firefight commendations already maxed out.
Talk about redundant effort!
And on that note ... (`phfina rolls up her sleeves and leans over her bully pulpit)
Okay, "The little guys" great, so hang out by wraith drop off point and kill two hundred grunts.
But have you completed the campaign? On X level of difficulty? Good, kill away, but no? you haven't?
Well, then, finish the damn fight! There may be two hundred grunts in the campaign, total, if there are, they you've killed two birds with one stone: the daily challenge and a set of achievements associated with completing each level and then the entire campaign. Bonus.
AND there are achievements for weapons use and weapons swap. Before every game, this is what I do: I check which achievements I have left open, I check which challenges I can address and I check which commendations I can work on.
Warning: a Firefight rant
It's like those guys in firefight who grab rockets and go to town committing suicide. I'm like, excuse me! isn't your heavy weapons commendation maxed out already? Oh, really? Have you ever heard of a killing spree, Mr. Jet-pack-rockets Suicide? No? I bet you've never heard of the perfection commendation either, and, oh, by the way, the commendation for precision weapons is higher than the one for heavy weaps. That goes double if you just so happen to get a headshot with your snipe or needle rifle (the best weapon in the game). Try getting a headshot with that rocket, Mr. HotRockets. Just try.
So what happens in firefight game after firefight game? Mr. Suicidal grabs a huge lead with his zillion multikills.
And then `phfina walks away from the game, slowly accumulating spree after spree. Results: 0 deaths, ... and the high score.
And then the credit rollout happens, and where rocketboy gets 2-3,000cR, `phfina gets 5-10,000+cR each and every firefight game.
Stupid fucking suicidal rocket n00bs.
And THEN they have to weather the `phfinaescque note afterwards: 'Nice death rampage, buddy. Next time try to get a longer spree than the number of your deaths, huh? And, have you ever heard of an invincible? Didn't think so.'
Bungie 2.0'd firefight, and not in the good way. Firefight was perfect in ODST [8]; they should have left well-enough alone, but, no: they had to slice open that golden goose. Now all we have left now is this grinding slog called Reach: Firefight, that encourages 'yaaaa! charge!' behavior from boys with rocket toys too big for them to handle, because all they have is the little weenie rockets in their pants, so they think they can hold onto that big gun on their shoulder, because they can't even free little willy. But that's okay. At least they have a big rocket ... on their shoulder.
So all firefight now is boys (way)(over-)compensating.
Firefight in ODST was challenging, frustrating, exhilarating, joyous, beautiful. Firefight in Reach is just plain boring, and I only play it to complete the daily or weekly challenges.
Firefight limited is mildly challenging, and I enjoy receiving all the 'hero'ine medals from it but ... but Bungie really flubbed on this one by dumbing it down with Arcade fight. After all, why play with any skill or intellect when you have unlimited lives with no consequence of dying except not getting the perfection commendation that has so little payout for such a stupifyingly long stretch of perfections that there's no feedback to the player whatsoever for playing smarter.
Thank God I can still play firefight in ODST. But every time I do, I shake my head and mourn the loss of what it could have been in Reach.
Okay, enough of that.
So playing the basic meta-games of commendations, challenges and achievements well means playing the meta-meta game well: 'How can I work on the most number of commendations, challenges, and achievement in this next game?'
Of course, you can't play the meta-games at all unless you are play the games, and my advice for that is that when you are playing the game, play the game! So many are in chat with their friends playing other games! or asking other player do they want to date them (my answer: 'Aw, how sweet! No, thanks. Now, cap the damn flag, please!') or are complaining about the vote or the map or the other players. Play the game! You don't get commendations for dying nor for bitching about how much your pussy hurts (and guys excel at this, for some strange reason). You get commendations for having the s.o.b. on the other team dying, whether by your hand or by your help.
Jeez.
Okay, so that's enough general guidance/soapbox bitching. Now let's get down to the hardened nipples ... I meant, 'brass tacks.'
*blush*
Today's Challenges
- One game of grifball will solve "Fire when ready" and "Up close and personal." Done. (The close quarters commendation should actually be an anti-commendation where you get penalized for a close-quarters combat kill. Just sayin')
- "The little guys". Completing the weekly gets you on the way, finish campaign levels in co-op for level completions/flawless cowboys, and, to get the hardest commendations for campaign, let the other players steal your kills for the second gunman/gunwoman, and thank them for doing it.
Rant: "Aw, you stole my kill!" In a team game? It's our point, not yours, you fucking show-boater, and if you can't close the deal and I get a protector medal out of it, you should be thanking me, bitch, not bitching to me, Mr. Reload-No-Shot.
"Aw, you stole my kill!" in a team game. Those guys should be allowed only to play rumble pit. Forever. - "Survivor". Okay, as I've said, arcade fight is super nerfed, so there it is. Go for it. The thing is, put down the fucking rockets and pick up spree weaps: snipe, sword, hammer, plas grenade, and shot gun. I routinely get 15 sprees in a firefight game, and this is how I do it:
The first 20 kills gets me five sprees[9]:
- At 5 kills I get the sniper spree
- At 10 kills I get two more sprees: sharpshooter and killing spree
- At 15 kills I get be the bullet
- At 20 kills I get killing frenzy.
Then I pick up to shotty which a fucking n00b has left on the ground in his death frenzy already in the first round.
- At 25 kills I get a shotgun spree
- At 30 kills I get two sprees: running riot and open season.
- At 35 kills I get the buck wild
By this time it's the fifth wave, so I pick up sword or hammer.
But I'm already at nine sprees.
Get the picture? Good!
Now for you, it may be hard staying alive, because you didn't follow my advice and grab hold of my ass at all times but went out, right into the middle of the courtyard where the last thing you heard was 'warq-warq-warq' and the last thing you saw was this bright blue ball covering your visor.
Well, okay. Pick up snipe. Get twenty kills with it.
Twenty kills with snipe is 5 sprees. Automatically.
THEN run out into courtyard, because you just can't stop yourself, assault rifle blazing, and shouting at the elite you're charging straight at: 'Your mother dresses you funny!'
Works every time.
You dying, that is.
I see it all the time.
THEN, on respawn, pick up snipe, get twenty more kills, and ...
And you've just gotten 5 more sprees to complete (actually exceed) the daily challenge.
Ever get ten sprees in firefight matchmaking? This way, you will every game.
Sprees are a commendation, you know.
Pretty cool.
And that's the daily. The dailies are simple, most days, and I get every daily, every day.
Now this week's weekly is actually so stupid-easy it's really a daily challenge. Just load up Nightfall, do the three short-cut bypasses, [10] and you're done. Do that with a friend and you both get a sweat-free 10 grand cR.
Okay, I'm outie. Girls, go out there and kick guys 'assets.' Show them what 'hitting like a girl' really feels like.
My motto: every shot, a headshot, and all the boys will be singing soprano.
:p
Endnotes
[1] http://halo.xbox.com
[2] http://phfina.blogspot.com
[3] BPR, n.: "Battle Proficiency Rating" see: BPR [3].
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_analysis
[5] MVP, n.: "Most Valuable Player," or "The girl who sweeps the top three medals in the Post Game Carnage Report," see: `phfina [2]. (that's me, btw) (and, yes, I have humility issues, but I'm working on being more outgoing and assertive, kay?)
[6] I write 'his' because Halo is so predominately male to assume anything else is ridiculous, shocking even, as I'm told all the time: 'You're a girl? who plays Halo? No way!'
[7] K-D, n.: "Kills to Deaths" an inordinately important pair of numbers to too many people who talk too much about it because THEY. HAVE. NO. LIFE! My K/D is around 2.0, btw. *blush* (those of you who do not get the paradoxical irony of those two statements forming a non sequitur need to reach the mental maturity of finishing grade school first before flaming me).
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3:_ODST
[9] http://wikigameguides.com/Halo_Reach/wiki/Sprees-529
[10] http://halo.bungie.org/gameplay/reach_mythic/nf.html
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