Halo Online Discussion

[CyReN]

Discuss all things Halo Online here!

 

UPDATE 4/24 via HaloWaypoint:

 

Today we want to let our community know that Microsoft has initiated actions to protect its Halo intellectual property in the wake of the recent “ElDewrito” PC release. Community created content has long been a key pillar in the Halo franchise and something we have continuously sought to support – from the early beginnings of Red vs. Blue to Forge-made maps & modes to the “Halo Custom Edition” to original recent fan creations like “Installation 01.” These projects, and others like them, have one key factor in common – they fit within Microsoft’s established content usage guidelines.

Back in 2014, Microsoft, 343 and Sabre Interactive partnered to develop “Halo Online” – a title that was being developed exclusively for the Russian market. The game was subsequently put on indefinite hold but Halo Online ended up in the wild beyond its intended audience and official scope, resulting in DMCA takedown notices being issued by Microsoft. As time went by, Halo Online faded and fell off the radar until the recent exposure of the .6 update shined a new light on the current ElDewrito project. While we are humbled and inspired to see the amount of passion poured into this project, the fact remains that it’s built upon Microsoft-owned assets that were never lawfully released or authorized for this purpose. As this project reverberated across the community, our team took a step back to assess the materials and explore possible avenues, while Microsoft, like any company, has a responsibility to protect its IP, code and trademarks. It’s not optional in other words.

We’d like to clear up a few areas of confusion we’ve seen across the community over the past few days regarding ElDewrito and other fan-made projects. In the case of the original Halo Custom Edition, that was as a specific add-on to Halo PC to officially empower the mod and content creation community to essentially go nuts with Halo: Combat Evolved (it even required a valid Halo PC retail key). More recently, Installation 01 has garnered some buzz and even made headlines for receiving a thumbs-up from 343. Installation 01 is an original work, built from the ground up in a separate engine, that abides by Microsoft’s content usage guidelines. With Halo Online, there’s a common misconception that once it was canceled, the assets were either turned over as “open source” or left for the community’s whims as “abandonware” – neither of which is actually true. Not only did Microsoft issue takedown notices at the time of the original leaks, but many elements of that underlying code and content are still actively being used today and will continue to be in the future.

As Microsoft’s need to protect its IP spun up, we reached out to members of the ElDewrito team to have an open discussion about the project and the admittedly difficult situation we all find ourselves in. The ElDewrito team is understandably upset at this outcome given the time they’ve each invested in this project, but they understand the legal implications and the need to press pause on this work. One thing remains clear – the community really wants more Halo on PC. As we look ahead, we’re very excited about the prospects of an official classic Halo experience making its way to PC and we hope to be able to partner with the ElDewrito team and broader mod and content creation community to help inform the types of experiences and features our fans desire. While we have nothing to announce today, please know that the PC community is very important to us and top of mind as we work towards the future.  

We’d like to extend our thanks to the community at large for constantly pouring so much passion into Halo. While it’s unfortunate to find ourselves as the bearers of bad legal news, the outpouring of support and excitement is inspiring and together, in partnership with this community, we believe we can really do great things for the future of Halo.

Thank you

[Ciutchism]

I don't know if anybody has been following close with this but this game is going to be the best thing since Halo 3 for the community if I'm being honest. They've been working on an update (0.6) for over a year now. The game is basically Halo 3 on PC except it has modding support, 60 fps, etc. The new update will implement a whole new ui that they've built and everything will be in game. No launchers or anything like that. There's no sprint. There's forge. There's no campaign or matchmaking or theater, but they do have server browser working very well. The new update has so much to talk about I mean they've been developing it for over a year. This will be the most complete Halo game we've gotten since 2007. If you don't believe me look below. First video is just some highlights I got. The 2nd two videos are some progress on the forging aspect. Believe me I haven't been happy playing Halo since 2010, and I'm having so much fun on this. MLG FFAs, Duck hunt, infection, 2v2s, 4v4s, 8v8s, etc. It's amazing and it took me literally 2 minutes to select my mods to get the game looking and playing almost identically to Halo 3. I couldn't play MCC Halo 3 because of how different it felt, but this puts me right at home. I recommend waiting the 2 weeks or however long it will take for the update (0.6) to release, and then going to the subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/HaloOnline/) to download and jump in. I'll post a picture of the mods I use below as well. There's already a dedicated server for 4v4 MLG using the official settings as well as a 1v1 Octagon server.

 

 

 

I hit this overkill 2 hours ago: https://imgur.com/a/ICSRq

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Scuzzy]

I signed into Halo: Online 2 days ago and there were literally no people on playing. It was strange. I have played a bit here and there, but I enjoyed it. Will keep an eye out for the update too.

[Roiboi]

Halo Online is great but one thing to keep in mind for competitive gametypes is that there is very little kill trading allowed by the netcode.  The game will not send information that you've hit another player if their game says they got enough damage to kill you on their end first. The result is a pretty massive bias towards players who live closer to the dedicated servers.  European players will struggle to win BR battles, Australians/Asia/Oceania even more so. The BR spread is also random but it is hitscan.

 

Still a great experience though, even with that because the net code is better than Halo 3's.  The MLG stuff is fairly true to Halo 3's as well.  Some members of the community did a great job using the very limited forge options to even create Amplified and Onslaught.  I wish more people would play it.  It's probably the best Halo game on PC right now and is really easy to set up when you follow the directions. 

[Ciutchism]

Halo Online is great but one thing to keep in mind for competitive gametypes is that there is very little kill trading allowed by the netcode.  The game will not send information that you've hit another player if their game says they got enough damage to kill you on their end first. The result is a pretty massive bias towards players who live closer to the dedicated servers.  European players will struggle to win BR battles, Australians/Asia/Oceania even more so. The BR spread is also random but it is hitscan.

 

Still a great experience though, even with that because the net code is better than Halo 3's.  The MLG stuff is fairly true to Halo 3's as well.  Some members of the community did a great job using the very limited forge options to even create Amplified and Onslaught.  I wish more people would play it.  It's probably the best Halo game on PC right now and is really easy to set up when you follow the directions. 

The new update will fix a lot of issues with physics. They're also implementing halo 3 animations and they have loads of forge improvements coming out. Expect amazing maps to be made.

[BlackShadow]

Halo Online is awesome, but does it have a ranking system yet?

[Ciutchism]

Halo Online is awesome, but does it have a ranking system yet?

I think it's being worked on, but a ranking system means nothing without a matchmaking system. The whole point of ranks is to get a game of really closely skilled players.

[SouL_SlaPz]

This would be the best thing to happen to halo in years if there was a way to populate it enough. But with next to no marketing and a complicated download on Reddit I can't see it happening. Looks awesome though. Can't wait to see what people do with those forge options.

[Supermelee24]

Halo Online is great but one thing to keep in mind for competitive gametypes is that there is very little kill trading allowed by the netcode. The game will not send information that you've hit another player if their game says they got enough damage to kill you on their end first. The result is a pretty massive bias towards players who live closer to the dedicated servers. European players will struggle to win BR battles, Australians/Asia/Oceania even more so. The BR spread is also random but it is hitscan.

 

Still a great experience though, even with that because the net code is better than Halo 3's. The MLG stuff is fairly true to Halo 3's as well. Some members of the community did a great job using the very limited forge options to even create Amplified and Onslaught. I wish more people would play it. It's probably the best Halo game on PC right now and is really easy to set up when you follow the directions.

Actually it has been stated that the Br in halo online is projectile.

[BlackShadow]

I think it's being worked on, but a ranking system means nothing without a matchmaking system. The whole point of ranks is to get a game of really closely skilled players.

 

Yes you're absolutely correct.  I look forward to when that system is up and ready to go

[Nokt]

Getting a huge new update on Friday

https://youtu.be/stf0XDmCAz4

[Ciutchism]

Getting a huge new update on Friday

https://youtu.be/stf0XDmCAz4

I've been a tester for this update for about 6+ months now. It's the real deal. Get ready for some good gameplay. I actually forged or helped forge warlock, sanctuary, amplified, onslaught, station 9, among others.

[xSociety]

Dude, I can't wait for that! Looks sick.

[S0UL FLAME]

station 9

 

Whuh

[Ciutchism]

Whuh

lol yeah. It was super fast to make and I'm interested to see how it plays out in a halo 3 type environment but KotH.

 

I've since updated the ramps to be much less steep btw.

 

 

 

If you want to see me forge a more classic style competitive map here's that. Skip to 26:30 for the cool part.

 

[AArkham]

How's this work? Is this actually Halo 3 on pc with matchmaking and all? It looks amazing.

[Knighty Knight]

The forging community is going to have a field day with this one. I'm hopping on this asap!

[Nokt]

How's this work? Is this actually Halo 3 on pc with matchmaking and all? It looks amazing.

Its based off of the F2P Halo: Online that was tested in Russia for a short time.

The game originally shipped with Sprint, weapon variants (like a BR could have increased damage, increased range, increased rate of fire), newer weapons like DMR, newish maps like the frozen turf map, bloom, assassinations.

 

It was modded (?) over time to become more and more like Halo 3, you were able to disable sprint, bloom and assassinations, you could mod weapon skins, they brought old maps into the game. Now it looks like this is a huge step forward. Halo 3 armor, more maps, Forge, default weapon skins (the BR had the ugly H4 skin).

I don't know if they have a matchmaking system set up for .6, but it currently just has a custom browser list akin to H2V.

[AArkham]

Its based off of the F2P Halo: Online that was tested in Russia for a short time.

The game originally shipped with Sprint, weapon variants (like a BR could have increased damage, increased range, increased rate of fire), newer weapons like DMR, newish maps like the frozen turf map, bloom, assassinations.

 

It was modded (?) over time to become more and more like Halo 3, you were able to disable sprint, bloom and assassinations, you could mod weapon skins, they brought old maps into the game. Now it looks like this is a huge step forward. Halo 3 armor, more maps, Forge, default weapon skins (the BR had the ugly H4 skin).

I don't know if they have a matchmaking system set up for .6, but it currently just has a custom browser list akin to H2V.

 

Damn, that's sick. I remember the Halo:Online buzz going around. It's pretty awesome that this was a fully realized project. I actually installed it last night but haven't had the chance to play. I'm sure I'll give it a shot this weekend, even though I'm awful with M+KB. 

[S0UL FLAME]

Ninja recently watched the trailer on his stream. Over 120 thousand views now.

 

I think you've got something boys

[Sitri]

Damn, that's sick. I remember the Halo:Online buzz going around. It's pretty awesome that this was a fully realized project. I actually installed it last night but haven't had the chance to play. I'm sure I'll give it a shot this weekend, even though I'm awful with M+KB. 

The current version supports controllers, and the game still has aim assist. No idea if that's being fixed in 0.6.

[Supermelee24]

The current version supports controllers, and the game still has aim assist. No idea if that's being fixed in 0.6.

You say that as in aim assist is a glitch? No it’s intentional for controller users. Just use a controller dude. Halo was meant to be played with a controller JS

[Zdann]

How do the weapons in Halo Online work?  Are they all projectile based?  Is BR spread still a thing?

[Moa]

You say that as in aim assist is a glitch? No it’s intentional for controller users. Just use a controller dude. Halo was meant to be played with a controller JS

I assume he means with K+M?

[arglactable]

You say that as in aim assist is a glitch? No it’s intentional for controller users. Just use a controller dude. Halo was meant to be played with a controller JS

 

Yikes. Why would anyone with a functional brain WANT to play an FPS on PC with a controller?