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5 septembre

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Let's talk about PAX, baby

My voice is nowhere to be found, my feet hurt, and I'm beginning to exhibit flu-like symptoms. In the gaming industry, that can only mean one thing: another event has come and gone. And it was definitely a good one!

Last weekend, within the walls of the Washington State Convention Center, we revealed a brand-new Halo 4 map (Exile), we announced the return of Grifball (disease officially caught), we had CTF playable for the first time on the floor (introducing the Flagnum), and we shared insight into the storytelling aspect of Halo 4's Campaign (omg, spoilerz). If you are unfamiliar with this particular event, PAX Prime is a Seattle show exclusively for gaming, and during this year's three-day extravaganza, massive amounts of chocolate were consumed, hands were requested (and accepted!) in marriage, and Halo 4 was played. A lot.

Some of the greatest moments of the event happened on the floor. The main part of our booth featured 5v5 CTF on Exile, so numerous large groups patiently waited for their chance to check out the newest Halo 4 multiplayer map. Cliff Bleszinski, along with a handful of fellow Gearheads, stopped by to play a trio of rounds (Hi, Quinn!). Some of our friends from Bungie also indulged in a little CTF, facing off against a determined team of all-powerful Ninjas. We can neither confirm nor deny which groups came out on top. We can say, however, that good times were had. At least, that's what we deduced from observing the steady stream of spherical objects bouncing off the helmets of the recently deceased.

If you missed the news coming out over the weekend, take a second to get caught up by checking out the CTF and Exile screenshots, and then watching the Halo: Reborn panel. Go ahead, we'll wait. For a few minutes, anyway…

Now that you're up to speed, let's chat a bit about CTF, shall we?

Halo 4 CTF=

We recreated CTF as an all-new experience for Halo 4. Our goals early on were to create a fresh and exciting experience, focusing heavily on team play and being the flag carrier. If you didn't get a chance to play the new CTF over the weekend at PAX, here are some elements of the new CTF experience.

Flag Carrier Experience – Picking Up the Flag

This is easily the biggest addition to CTF in Halo 4, and we've made it a huge focus and priority to develop. Before we run through the changes, let's talk about becoming the flag carrier, which is an experience in and of itself.

The first thing you'll notice about being a carrier in Halo 4 is you'll automatically pick up the flag. Unlike a weapon, you won't need to hold or press a button to take the flag. We extensively tested different flag pick-up methods and settled on this one as it gets you into the action very quickly. While there will be occasions when you accidentally pick up the flag, we feel this is worth it as you can now easily grab the flag from a tough-to-reach location with just a touch, and there's a very natural feel to the transition. We've also carefully tuned the flag pick-up radius, so you'll need to be right on top of the flag to grab it.

Flag Carrier Experience – The Flagnum

The moment you pick up the flag, you'll hold the flag in your left hand and draw a Magnum in your right. The Magnum allows you to defend yourself in combat and joust other flag carriers. We're still working with the exact tuning of the flag carrier's Magnum, but we're hoping to give the flag carrier a slight damage boost. As in previous Halo games, your melee attack will still instant-kill. You can't switch weapons while holding the flag, and there are unlimited reloads on the Magnum. We've also added a brand new assassination called the "Flagsassination".

Flag Carrier Experience – Movement Speed

Unlike previous Halo games, you'll move at full speed as a flag carrier, including jump and strafe. One difference to regular movement is you can't sprint. However, a huge advantage to the Magnum is forcing enemies to stop sprinting - so in most encounters, you're on a nearly level playing field.

Flag Carrier Experience – You are the Objective

As soon as you pick up the flag, your HUD will change to highlight the point of delivery. Each player in the new CTF has a special presentation layer that changes based on the current game state. The new HUD features clear navpoints and verbs that let you keep track of the objectives and flag locations with just a glance. When you're holding the flag, you've got a job to do – deliver it! You'll become the center of attention as your teammates are charged with escorting you, and enemies with stopping you. To help reinforce this, you can't drop the flag; this makes you the centerpiece of encounters as you move the flag to the delivery point, with teammates escorting you along the way.

Rule Changes – Scoring

One of the biggest rule changes to CTF is your team flag is no longer required to be at home to score; we found this keeps the flags moving across the maps through the flag lanes, and helps focus the flag defense, escort, and capture objectives. In a tie game with one point to win, flag carriers and teammates will have a tough decision of running the flag or stopping the enemy flag carrier. We've seen this lead to epic carrier vs. carrier battles that were so exciting we even created special rewards for them (more on this later).

Rule Changes – Defending and Returning the Flag

When the enemy team drops your flag, the return timer will start. The timer is now clearly integrated into the flag's navpoint, so it won't be a surprise when it returns back to your base. Unlike previous Halo titles, standing on the flag will not speed up its return timer. We found this greatly improved the flag attack and defend scenarios as players can use more of the play space around their flag to defend it. It also helps to think of the flags as moving entities across the map, and your job is to keep the enemies moving, and yours in one place. So many games come down to the final moment, and defending your flag for even a few seconds can make all the difference.

Rule Changes – Overtime

Overtime is also new and improved for Halo 4, and you'll get there if time runs out in CTF and the score is still tied. Overtime is now 60 seconds long, and the first team to score wins the match. We've added some intense dynamic music in OT to keep the pressure on.

Scoring

As in Infinity Slayer, you'll be earning points in CTF not only for your team by scoring flags, but also for yourself by contributing to your team. Each medal in CTF awards you with medal points, which determine your place on the scoreboard compared to other players. Here's a quick summary of the medals just for CTF.

• Flag Capture

Deliver the opponents flag to your base

100 pts

• Flag Carrier Kill

Kill an opponent who is carrying a flag

5 pts

• Flag Kill

Kill an opponent while holding a flag

5 pts

• Flag Defense

Kill an opponent close to your flag, or help return it

5 pts

• Flag Runner

Capture 2 flags in one game

15 pts

• Flag Champion

Capture 3 flags in one game

25 pts

• Flag Assist

Help a teammate score a flag

10 pts

• Flag Driver

Drive a Flag Carrier close to your capture point

5 pts

• Flag Joust

Kill a flag carrier while holding a flag

15 pts

• Flagsassination

Perform an assassination while holding a flag

15 pts

n addition to CTF medals, you'll still earn the standard medals you earn in Infinity Slayer. CTF also supports a custom game option that allows you to turn Infinity Ordnance on or off, allowing you to earn Infinity Slayer-style rewards in Capture the Flag. Team scoring is much simpler; the first team to three scores wins.

Playlist Specifics

We're incredibly excited to host our CTF hopper at launch, on November 6th. Here's a preview of our planned settings.

• Teams: 5v5

• Time Limit: 12:00

• Score Target: 3 Captures

• Overtime: 60 seconds

• Ordnance: Initial and World

• Maps: 5 non-forged maps, tuned for CTF

PAX Prime Q&A

As is customary when we release a slew of new information, there are always questions. So the rest of the Bulletin is dedicated to answering as many of them as Frank O'Connor, Kevin Franklin, Kevin Grace, and Brad Welch can handle. Thankfully that's a lot.

What Objective options do we have in Custom Games? -Lycan XIII

We have many new custom game options coming, especially around the Infinity experience. This means lots of customization surrounding all types of Ordnance. In Objective games, you'll have full control over player traits, including those of the King, Flag Carrier, and Grif. Each game mode also has multiple custom options specific to that game mode that let you tune timers, settings, and rules. CTF specifically offers tuning the "Flag Return Time/Proximity Return", "Flag Reset Time", "Flag at Home Requirement", "Overtime Length", and "Flag Carrier Traits".

I like how Exile is an outdoor kind of map. Are there other outdoor-like maps on the Halo 4 disc/future DLC? -F22 Raptor X1

Oh yes. In fact, our only remake map - still secret - is most definitely outdoors.

From the gameplay videos I saw at PAX, there are no medals shown on-screen during the game. This is different from E3 gameplay where medals did show up on-screen. Will medals show up on screen for the final game? -FBI Derrick

In the final game, medals will show on-screen on the left side, near the kill feed, the all-new combat log, and the ordnance meter.

The Halo 4 multiplayer is in-universe. Therefore, Grifball is actually played by Spartans. Does that mean Grifball is now the official Sport of the Spartans? -Meta0X

Sort of. That is to say, it's not a-canonical, but it doesn't serve any particular purpose in the universe. That said, sharp-eyed fans may have already figured out a single item of context from outside the game universe...

Will there be a way to disable auto-pickup for Flag/Oddball? -CyReN CE

At launch and in the launch playlists, we will be deploying CTF as-is. Although it's possible in the future that we will give players more specific control and choices, this is something we feel pretty strongly about - and is in some ways a new mode, rather than simply an evolution of an existing game type. We understand the reaction this may cause, but there's method in our madness and we ask your indulgence in the short term.

In Grifball, does the ball explode when planted, killing the carrier? -CrazedOne1988

In the new Grifball, the round no longer cycles after each score; instead it resets at the center of the court. To reduce randomness on spawns when going back to the center, the Grif who scores is no longer killed by the ball explosion.

Was all of the announcer stuff like, "You're holding the flag!", "Hold the ball to score points!", etc. just for all the possible new-to-Halo people at PAX so no one would be confused, or is that how the final build will be? -sliced365

The Jeff Steitzer Multiplayer V/Os are all recorded fresh and new for Halo. Some are going to be more subtle, some even more "ENERGETIC", but all will fit into a broad and properly balanced sound scheme and folks should realize they're also noticing that these things are different, new, and changed - as well as simply more strident. However in testing, and long term testing which is one advantage we always have over the "fresh" audience, it all works out beautifully or vanishes into the background. All that said as warning however, these are not the final mixes, but they're not wildly off.

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