I'm not here to complain about the game's faults, though. This community proved its resilience during Halo 4's disappointing lifespan, and we'll prove it again. What we need now are some fun events that play to the Collection's strengths to tide us over until
Staff & Community vs Random Matchmaking Scrubs
Customs aren't stable enough just yet to begin hosting staff vs community events, but we have come up with an elegantly-named event to fill that void. As the name suggests (yes, you may suggest better names below), these events will involve groups of HaloCustoms staff and community members partying up and venturing into matchmaking together to prove to the world that we probably all suck at Halo. More concrete details will be released soon, but you can find a brief synopsis of how the events will function below.
On a given weekend, the staff will organize a few lobbies to go into matchmaking. We'll make sure to account for as wide a variety of time zones as possible. So, SOLIDSNAKEee and adderrson might host the Bad Kids of Europe lobby in what us Americans think is the middle of the afternoon and Flying Shoe ILR and myself might host the Team America lobby a few hours later. The goal is to create parties pairing a few staff members with a bunch of you blue folk to play some fun games of matchmaking and actually enjoy playing Halo together. The Big Team Battle playlist will likely be the focus of these lobbies as it allows us to get as many people into the events as possible. If we have multiple parties going into matchmaking simultaneously, there's a good chance we'll be playing against one another too! To make the events a bit more exciting, my esteemed
Apples and Oranges
When I was in the HaloCustoms kitchen whipping up the event detailed above, I noticed strange noises emanating from the legendary fruit transformation machine. Upon taking a closer look, I noticed that Auburn's thick orange peel had been replaced with a shiny red skin. He'll be taking a more active role in the leadership of the staff team in the future and will also be able to aid in some of the technical endeavors undertaken by the admin team. The machine wasn't finished, though. After spitting out a new apple, it also grabbed a hold of an older one (it was getting kind of mushy anyway) and returned it to its prior orange state. Master Debaytes has rejoined his orange brethren until further notice. An artist's interpretation can be found below.
The Button that Everyone Likes
Yesterday, we finally fixed the like button. This unfortunately comes at the cost of the host ratings system in the short run, but we think the change was necessary given that the rating system is not yet functioning the way we intend. It turns out that getting that system operational proved less plausible and worthwhile than originally expected given the state of custom games in the Master Chief Collection. We'll be sure to get that all sorted for the next big Halo launch. Until then, don't forget to fucking destroy that like button!
#FixMccCustoms
I'm not sure why all of the kids are calling the pound sign a "hashtag" these days, but I do know that this one is pretty darned important. Given the continued lack of custom game support in the Master Chief Collection, J decided to take matters into his own hands and make a statement in the hopes that our plight becomes better understood by the devs. With help from a few others from around the community, Shore compiled an exhaustive list of bugs plaguing custom games in MCC. The first step to creating a solution is being aware of the problem, after all. Be sure to check out this thread or just watch his video below. Sharing this video on a large scale will go a long way towards restoring this site's namesake to its former glory.
Though Halo's new developers would have you believe that 3v4 matches are the ideal Halo experience, you shouldn't ignore other player counts. Over the past few months, the forge community has created some incredible 1v1 maps for ForgeHub's Smackdown contest. Out of over 80 submissions, three amazing maps came out on top. Two of these maps were even created by HaloCustoms staff members! Are staffz corrupt or what?
The videos for the top three maps can be seen below, but don't let them trick you into thinking that these were the only submissions worthy of recognition. There were tons of fantastic maps submitted, and I can't wait to give more of them the attention they deserve soon.
Third place: Sycamore by
burnFirst place: Welkin by Flushed Behemoth
