lol thats hilarious as i type this the standing bid is 830 dollars! go bungie!

Those maps are sounding quite epic. can't wait to be able to download them.

Oh no they found me out. I used the melee glitch in midair on the front picture of the announcement. Its awesome to see my midair picture being featured as the announcement's picture. I am glad melee is getting fixed. I've been waiting for this for a long time. I can't wait to see two people killing each other at the same time. Its going to be hilarious. Double knockout! Forge playlists! FInally. Bungie continues dominating the world!

I think the melee-system in Halo 3 is just fine, and it was a great way to implement great disparity between people's connection speed. I honestly can't tell who's the host in melee fights anymore. Like I said, I think the way it is, is just fine, but it can be frustrating at times when you know that just one tick of health will make all the difference, and your speed doesn't have much to do with it. It's nice that's getting balanced-out a bit, but I guess that's the way it has to be to account for network disparity >_> I just hope the window of opportunity to get a melee in (and win, because you have just 0.0001f; of he health more) gets narrowed down somewhat.

melee in halo 2 = XBX fix the xbx / all the other 1's

What problems will this update create we'll just have to wait and see.............

The weekly bungie update says that people who go into a melee battle with nearly the same health will both die, since in an online enviroment its impossable to say who hit first. I get that, but what about LAN if this is going to happen on LAN then thats lame. What it basically means is that instead of the person with the most health winning, in a close fight you both die. On LAN only the host has a connection advantage, all clients are on a level playing field. But if two clients have the same health in a fight and one throws a melee and then 90ms later the other client melees, the outcome surely should'nt be that both people die. 90ms (0.09 seconds = Just under a tenth of a second) is a noticalbe difference, especially when your playing at a high level. This will end those moments when you lose and you dont know why but your skill is still not rewarded. If you hit first you should win. Why not have a comparison system. If client1's xbox says you hit first, the host says you hit first but client2 says they hit first then 2vs1, client 1 sould win. I stand by Halo 2's melee system, yes there were times when the host would win even though it seems they should'nt, but more often than not the outcome was correct. On LAN it worked perfectly, the host still had an advantage but good teamwork always won over host. All this being said i am really looking forward to playing the updated version when it comes out.

i can has dlc? great update impressed with the panoramas, loved the mister chief, excited about the new hopper, ready for some fresh dlc, and a podcast, and i didnt really have much of a problem with the melee before (i usually have a pretty fast connection), but if its getting improved, its sounds good! and i dont play as an elite, but i just recently got steppin razor legit so commando shoulders sound good too! once again, great update

Invisible hit points? No wonder the game is so frustrating sometimes, Don't you think that the revelation of this valuable information would have been more useful before people started to quit playing matchmaking? I played endless hours of Halo CE and Halo 2, especially Halo 2, and I got tired of Halo 3 within a couple of months. This update will definately fix some issues, but I fear its just a tad late to save it. Also, what I find to be a slight hypocritical is the fact that this update specifically talks about host advantage, which Bungie claimed for two years after Halo 2 came out, didn't exist. LOL One last thought, next time get some "real gamers" outside of an office environment, and have them test the game on normal internet connections to find the true characteristic of online gameplay.

FIRST COME FIRST SERVE FTW! I never had a problem with the halo 2 system of melee when it came to who won a fight. If my smack missed then sure it maybe annoying, but that happens just as much in halo 3. The only thing that is different in Halo 3 is now that you can never pull out something clutch. There will be many times now when both players die and both are screaming and frustrated. In the past Bungie has been innovative and intelligent with their gameplay. Now they are caught up in trying to please all the players who can not swallow the fact that they are not the best player in the world. The only issue with halo 2 was when you encountered the host, the host always had the advantage. That does not matter in casual play. Bungie always claims match making is for fun and is only to find good matches. The host advantage was much more prevalent in bullets registering than Melee's. I played around 20,000 games of halo 2 and never once questioned the melee system. If you shortened the lunge a bit then that would be fine, but not this. If the person is one your screen for god sakes then you get the melee, let alone basing it on health because of a false fear of latency. In reality bungie, if most players have a latency of 90, then when 2 non host players hit the melee the outcome is accurate. Having a bad connection has always been a well known disadvantage in online shooters, your communistic efforts to help the poor takes away from the overall gameplay. I have been an avid bungie fan for years. I say this from my heart, please look back to your roots where balance and gameplay mattered. If someone has a bad connection or slow reflexes, -blam!- them, they lose. That's life. In the near future I see bungie losing their reign and CoD 4 rising to the top. CoD 4 already has more players logging onto xbox live and is growing daily, while Halo 3 is falling. I want to play halo, not CoD. But if you're going to make ridiculous gameplay changes like this fix (which as I feared would not fix anything), I have no choice but to bring my competitive edge to another medium. Get well soon Halo, Zach The One

not to spite you guys or anything but in real life if two people go against each other with any type of weapon doesnt the first person who hits first win? you could be shot in the leg already but if you hit the enemy first in the head with a weapon you win(you kill them). i know halo isnt supposed to be like real life but in my personal opinion it just seems like the first person who hits first should get the kill. it also seems logical in the game that whoever has more health wins but either is fine with me.

Ummm... no better spawn system? wow

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] lukems OMG Fix Melee. OK, we will - and here's what we're going to do... [url=/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=13233] click for full story [/url][/quote] Wait wait -- It's very good you're addressing the melee... FINALLY.. but what about the sniper glitch? AKA last night when I shot someone in the dome 5 times and they took no damage and my reticle was RED and NOTHING was obstructing my path to their head? What about that?

Finaly no more bs.

congrats that is the smartest way to deal with melees so far. I'm not sure if you should have changed the whole game with it . Maybe make a LAN AU and a XBL AU. I'm almost positive the elites have the same hit boxes as the humans. I'm not sure if youve noticed but the head of the elite is lower then the one on the human which means the hit boxes shouldnt be the same. Yea its a very good start for the first AU, but i dont think making the elite character more appealing was a very good idea. Over all very nice on the melee fix none of the other updates mattered.

Ok, so bungie said they are unlocking the elite commando sholders for everyone, but what about the spartan security sholders? I had mine for about 2 weeks and now they are locked again. Has this happened to anyone else?

Cool, can't wait for the other map pack. Lol.

Another, but much less important thing you guys need to fix is the missing armor. Every now and then while I'm playing a match or what not, my armor suddenly reverts back to original MC instead of my custom set. It happens frequently and sometimes it says that I haven't unlocked a certain piece of armor, but actually I've had it unlocked for some time now. Usually, it happens with Scout and Security.

Great update Bungie. Thanks for the info regarding body health (and all the goodness regarding the explanation). It really clears up some things that were "random" occasionally. Two quick hits, an amen followed by an oh well: First jab - From what I've understood, the Valentine's hopper starts on the 13th (Wed) and closes early on the 18th (Mon). Since that's a Federal Holiday in the states, could you push that back to the 19th? Just a thought. Double Trouble - In the beta, players while in the party had the ability to save films to their HDD after a match w/o switching to the Theater lobby. Is there any way to go back to that? Por favor? The reasons are evident. The solution on the other hand may not be. That'll Preach! - Frojoe186 was right when he asked about the 100 custom limit. It seems a little small (keep hitting the rafters myself). Oh well - My Bengals took a beating 50-33 in three consecutive matches. Hopefully not another so-so year in the making. Thanks for taking them on, Gents. F27

yea, i have always wondered how to determine the host!

"The moral: when in doubt, check the host’s film, because latency still matters. Just a whole lot less than Halo 2." And how does one determine who the host is??

Nice update, and someone seems to be learning their spanish :).

What about optimal playing conditions? Why not use the currently calculated lag with a 100ms cap instead? I'm not sure about the blocking melee ideas though; that seems like it would draw battles out too frequently. [Edited on 02.09.2008 4:48 PM PST]

i also wanted to add that losing a melee for no reason SUCKS. i hope bungie fixes it with expediency, and as long as a reason can be determined, i'm happy. i personally own two xbox live accounts, so my visiting friends can play halo with me. when guys that pride themselves on beat downs and play with boxer button settings are screaming at the tv because they don't understand why they're losing, i say it's time for a fix. [b]First Come, First SERVED[/b] This is the simplest, easiest answer and it licks. Halo is an intense game, based on tick times that are so short it would be incomprehensible to most humans. When dealing with things like that, and tossing in even minute network latency, first come first serve just can't handle the demand. Consider how many times you get on a roll and are beasting fools and then blam! you're stuck because of a 3 frame delay? for the birds, i say. [b]HP Tie-breaker[/b] An easy mathematical solution to an existential problem. While it's easily rationalized as an intelligent fix, and it is, upon further inspection one can see it's fundamental flaw. Who is the contest between? Melee 1 and melee 2. Not, melee 1, melee 2, and that grenade spamming SOB that hurt your shields before you stepped up. Good solution, but not the best. [b]The Duel[/b] This is my solution and, I believe strongly, the best one. This solution can utilize the current Halo 3 melee timing handling AND the current Halo 3 sword melee handling. Code would have to be written, for sure, but using pre-existing code always simplifies the process. Here's how it would work: player 1 and player 2 meet on the field of battle. player 1 has just escaped from a prior battle and has only 30% shields. player 2 has full shields. both have full body hp. after exchanging a few projectile attacks, they meet, and in a common halo 3 improbability, trade punches simultaneously (or at least at the determination of the host). there is a flash, both player's shields drop, but both are still standing, facing one another again within melee range. player 2 hits the melee button again, but too sooN! player 1 waits for the recovery and strikes him down, perhaps scoring a double kill. player 2 loses because he got over zealous, player 1 is now on a roll and is pushing deeper! the game has improved using this system. please adopt it. i've always wanted a method that would enable players to rely almost solely on melee attacks. can you imagine the bridge on narrows? no more crying when you have to reload, just run in and attack! if you can't die from an answered melee attack, there's a chance you could take out huge strings of close-up players without ever firing a bullet. of course you'd have no health so a single AR bullet would drop you, but i say that's just a check & balance against my system. -death can i haz recon?

bungie should really consider handling close melee contests in a fashion similar to how close sword battles are handled. it seems to me that if you punch at the same time, couldn't the meeting punches be treated as partial blocking moves, requiring further battling to determine a winner? instead of worrying about who has the most HP as the tie-breaker, why not kick the decision down the line and let quick reaction time determine the victor? it would be a hell of a video to see players trading punch after punch until someone can circle around and get the assassination or out strike his opponent! a true contest of skill and agility! no winner until a blow goes unanswered, that's what i say. -death can i haz recon? [Edited on 02.09.2008 4:10 PM PST]

I love you Bungie.