Why can't you guys just.. not be jerks, and make Big Team Battle ranked again? I know it has less of a following than Team Slayer and whatnot (what do you expect?) but making it unranked is NOT the answer. Ranked Big Team Battle: Pros - Players can be matched with other players who have similar skill levels (wasn't this the original idea in the first place that worked FINE?) People wouldn't quit as much due to losing rank People wouldn't screw around and hurt their own team's progress due to losing rank People usually have mics to communicate, which when regarding communication and teamwork, Big Team Battle is by far the gametype it's most necessary in. Cons - Longer time to matchmake a game. Unranked Big Team Battle: Pros - Shorter time to matchmake a game Cons - People quit CONSTANTLY since there is no ranking penalty People of VASTLY different skill levels are in the same game, leaving the good, experienced players screwed because their teammate doesn't know what to do with the enemy flag. If a person has guests playing with them, if that person quits, they ALL quit! So if one person doesn't feel like playing, 50% of some poor sap's team will desert them! For each guest, it's one less person who has a microphone, who can't communicate. This is a TEAM OBJECTIVE game, having a team that has no microphones cripples you from the start. Since there is no rank, people don't take BTB seriously, and so they commonly betray their own team Honestly, isn't this just common sense what I'm explaining here? Both of them have advantages and disadvantages, but logically, having a ranked BTB is far more sound than having unranked BTB. I'm a veteran of literally thousands of BTB games, and needless to say, I'm disappointed it's still unranked; merging it back from Big Team Slayer and Big Team Skirmish was a good move, but you have to make it ranked as well; I, along with I'm sure most others, would sacrifice a couple extra minutes of matchmaking searching for a better experience during the actual match.

>> want people to play Halo 3 as it was ment to be. What does that mean? The game should not dictate a certain style. Playing should be evolutionary where tactics and strategies are discovered over time. I liked SWAT because a dedicated team could set up mutually supporting fields of fire, blow a few heads off then move to positions that covered ingress to those old positions, then kill the idiots again as they were coming in to kill us where we were a few minutes ago. Just keep rotating positions until they are all dead 5 times over. Great fun. [Edited on 09.25.2007 9:55 PM PDT]

Well i just want to say that this is great. Like everything else it's clear that a great deal of thought was put into the matchmaking play lists. Thank you all very much. Breaking them up clearly between Ranked and Social makes life so much easier. And the range of lists in each seem interesting and appropriate. In the Ranked list, I'm personally excited about "Team Objective" and "Team Tactical". I love objective games in general. I get very tired of just Slayer. And I think that if these types were mixed people sadly, would be hitting veto a lot. So now if you join "Objective" you are there because you really want to play it. Social. Great idea. Reminds me of the days playing Myth. As for lowering the number of players in each each. Well I hope that lag isnt as bad as H2. Big Team Battle in H2 is almost unplayable due to bad connections. Thanks again!

There is no SWAT on halo 3?!?!?!

What in the world is wrong with the people @ bungie they took BTB out of Halo 2 & didnt put it in H3 Im very disapointed that they would look over 1 whole part of its community. That would have made the game alot more fun

BTB unranked is a real bummer, guys. I really hope Bungie reconsiders and makes it ranked, again. It worked great in the Beta. Also, I hope by the "typical games" description it doesn't mean that Territories isn't in BTB. BTB Territories on Valhalla was the highlight of the Beta for me.

why no clan matchs ?

Why didn't they just call it hammertime? Zeit is time in German. That's pretty -blam!- if you ask me.

Unranked BTB? That is very disapointing. BTB was my favorite playlist by far and for a long time I played absolutely nothing but ranked BTB. Then they made it unranked, and I stopped playing Matchmaking. BTB was still ranked in the Beta so I had some hope that although I could not enjoy Halo 2's BTB, Halo 3 would still have a great one, but I was wrong. : ( BTB will never be the same with guests and uncompetitive players.

I still want the ability to scroll through a list of games that I would like to join. Like search for constant server of valhalla capture the flag. I also want to be able to host dedicated servers.. which would work perfectly for real clans that will actauly get another 360 just to host a server. I also still miss Big Team Battle ranked matches. I like organization whole teams of 8 players.

I like the idea of rumble pit being 6v6, like bungie stated ppl do pick on the weakest link, obviously there will be weaker ppl in the game but less ppl means less targets and therefore the guy in 1rst doesnt shoot up the leaderboard for the win. Team Tactical sounds sweet I dont see how you can knock it, it just changes the gamestyle and prevents team mates from running in suicidal. THATS how most ppl loose at H2 they dont have cooperation and are unorganized. I don't care what they throw at us all i ask is that "Team Actionsack" stays dead forever, the Brutality gametype was Bad. Furthermore dtop complaining like several players have said, if you're gonna complain sell it, I don't want to hear you B**th and moan thats bungie sucks and Halo is garbadge. 500k+ gamers can't be wrong!

Here is an interesting comment most special play lists started fro people playing custom games and whe they where succesful and enough peple played them bungie addapted them into the ranked and unranked pre set play lists. SWAT is my absolute favorite configuration but non the less i beliee that i will find something that is pre set that i like and if not ill go back to the way it was an make my own custom game for my friends and i that love swatbut im certainly willing to give bungie the beifit of the doubt. honestly with the amount of changes that have been made for our bennifit that we should trut them to make the game fun and exciting

Holy Crap http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/last-one-standing/halo-sweeps/halo-sweeps.html Best live action Halo ever! (#3) WORKING LINK http://www.fragland.net/news.php?id=17655 click on "You can have a look here" [Edited on 09.24.2007 3:16 PM PDT]

I was hoping for one last update, see you at midnight

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] SargeJohnson88 The question is... what role will guests play in all this? I know that there shouldnt be guests in the "Ranked" lists, but what about the social ones, shouldn't there be some sort of third game set list for people who have guests, because after all, players with guests can bring a lot of disadvantages to their team. They usually have a smaller screen, and some of them tend not to care about winning or losing, while I understand that if you truly care about winning, you could go into ranked games, what if you wanted to have fun while not being betrayed by your teammates? Are guests even allowed onto xbox live at all? Thats just a question that's on my mind.[/quote] I for one hope that guests are allowed to go into whatever they want, i often play with my brother or mates on one console, and i do not just "betray teamates non-stop", i'm hosting an all nighter for a load of mates on thursday, (can't get it until then =S) and there will be four of us on one xbox, but god dam i am going to play, and going to own !!

I'm surprised no one pointed this out, but to all the people who want specialty playlists like snipers, swat, hardcore, ranked btb, 8 man ffa, etc, pay attention to what people who have experiance with the game were trying to tell you. For instance, several people have tried to get across that the BR is a totaly different weapon now with different strenghts and weaknesses, if we expand upon this then we can assume that pretty much everything is different. This change could easily cause some of the current fan favorites to feel a little off. Remember that even though there were alpha and beta testing there wasnt a fraction of the people playing halo3 that there will be in just a few hours. Give the players and bungie time to figure out what actualy works, feels good, and is fun to play. The best thing to do would be to just consider halo3 an entirely new game with no relation to halo1 or 2. When halo 2 came out there was no sniper or swat playlist because people hand not yet found the magical sweet spot that those playlist bring; then the word got out and we got the playlists we wanted. Its the same thing here, if swat and single or small weapon selection type playlists end up being just as good as before, then they WILL be in matchmaking. Also keep in mind the veto option, if after a month of playing, or x amount of games played, a team snipe game NEVER gets veto'd, then i'm sure the right people will get the right idea. As for the BTB people, I can sympathize with your feelings but I do not think its the problem you make it out to be. Right now unranked BTB isnt as bad as its made out to be. Obviously there are games when people quit and grief and make THAT game a bad experiance, but there are also good games that are great fun. Keep in mind that we were just told that through the ranking systems people are going to end up getting matched up to people that have similar play styles; this means both skill AND behavoir. If really as many hardcore BTB fans are out there as you say they are, and they're still trying to get in their BTB fix, then eventualy the game is going to figure out who the griefers and quitters are pair them while at the same time pairing the people who actualy want to play. Though this does bring the question up of how ranking and buddy systems work together - it would be nice if a buddies behavoir, not skill, had a direct impact on their hosts rank. For instance a buddy kicking ass or sucking or getting crazy medals wont help the hosts rank, but a buddy killing his teamates will have a negative impact on his hosts experiance rank. Anyways, back on topic, I'm sure bungie is not ignorant enough to simply dismiss what a good portion of atleast this active body is asking for, but the same thing I said above applies here. I agree that at times 8 on 8 matches have that certain epic quality that highlights some of the best things about halo, but due to all the changes and host issues i'd rather start off in a social BTB setting and give bungie time to bring a more perfected ranked BTB to the field instead of starting off in an initialy unperfected, poorly matched ranked BTB that ultimately lead to its own colapse in halo2. So just as I said above, I feel that BTB is a fan favorite, just like swat and snipers, and future playlists will reflect this. But either way BTB fans will ultimately get what they want, assuming experiance and ranking are what they are cracked up to be, either you'll have a ranked playlist that keeps out bad buddies, or you'll have a very well matched social playlist that lets you have the competitive gameplay you desire WITH the added advantage of people with buddies who do actualy want the same thing- which ultimately would be the best of both worlds: QUICK matchmaking prdovided by an expanded player base and the COMPETITIVE gameplay that BTB fans desire. Unless of course all you care about is having BTB ranked so you can be ranked in that playlist, and then you just seem less like a hardcore fan and more like a poser, but thats another discussion. So in summation, I hate to take the easy route by saying 'Just give it time', but unfortunately thats what I'm going to have to advocate. And honestly, wouldnt you rather have to wait a while to play the nicely designed, balanced, and polish gametypes that we've all come to love, expect, and recieve from bungie? or would you rather have your prefered playtype to start out in a state of subperfection that has a chance of ultimately ruing itself? Also, on a side note, I feel the MASS amounts of playlists reflecting smaller groups- pairs- is a result of the current state of halo2. As the game got older and new games came out, I belive the ratio of party size entering into matchmaking shifted from full groups to partial groups. This had the unfortunate result of people entering into a game and having a poor experiance because they were paired with someone that was either too inexperienced or too childish to allow for a good game. I feel that bungie is taking the safe route in their matchmaking by allowing for people to compete and not have to worry about the random factor. I feel that these game types may be a bit premature but cannot fault bungie for covering their bases. I'm certain that as bungie gets the numbers and stats the playlists will change to reflect the current demand and habbits of the players. And these changes will be reflected in either shifts of playlist team sizes or game types as they come available. Untill then, lets just focus on the good. Halo 3 is here, we can finish the fight, and tool around in a brand new game. Lets save the nitpicking and need for specific game types and playlist types for another day when we dont have something great to look forward to. thanks guys finish the fight flame away

No SWAT!!! :O But halo 3 still is da best!!!

No Battle Rifle start? I mean that assault rifle is nice, Oh well...As for the big battle argument...A lot of people played big team battle competitive.Think about it. as for the rest of the playlist, it sounds interesting. Another thing, do bring back Clan matches, or some sort of clan thing. Really miss being able to compete with your close friends.. Also happy you gus KEPT the matchmaking as is, and didn't make the huge mistake Epic made with Gears, that mistake was by forcing players to singly join random SCRUBS@. Another point. The team talked..I know nobody from Bungie will answer this but does this mean during the game i cant hear the other team. I thought this was actually a tactical move against good players, being able to hear them was a way to know where they were, or when they were near!!!...Anyways p.s sorry for the weak grammar! [Edited on 09.24.2007 10:54 AM PDT]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOt WooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooT!

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] define element so bungie says they are going to crack down on cheating and hav a harsh punishment right. well lets all pray that punishment is a kick to the nuts, or something along those lines, so cheaters DON'T cheat and ruin the game for the rest of us. a kick to the nuts... quote it![/quote] Lol no but they did bring back the BanHammer, and made it instant.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Mikeafer I still want to see CLAN MATCHES cometh back. I know they were weak around the first auto update for HALO 2, but its been over a couple years for CLAN MATCHES.[/quote] Do you read other peoples comments? I already said that Xbox Live doesnt support clans. They will probably have a B Net only clans system or something, but not on Live because Microsoft caught on to the second friends list thing.

I agree.

I still want to see CLAN MATCHES cometh back. I know they were weak around the first auto update for HALO 2, but its been over a couple years for CLAN MATCHES.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Leprechaun007 where the hell is team swat!!!! team snipers!!!! unranked btb sucks..... someones looking for a good old [b]LAPD[/b] ass wooping....[/quote] fixed

they always have like 3 or 4 ranked things they need to have more and where is the ranked snipes wasnt that like the second most popular? i mean thats mostly all i play and same with everyone on my friends list. you guys should really add this ranked match back.

Until I read this thread, I had no idea that so many people actually liked big team. In H2, I took about 5 minutes just to get the matchmaker to actually find enough players to start a game...and that was unranked. It would probably take 10 minutes to find 16 players of equal ability in BTB. [Edited on 09.24.2007 8:14 AM PDT]