Halo: The Master Chief Collection might have dropped off a lot of player’s radar, but the game is still steadily improving, while adding in new content for players to enjoy. While most of the issues from the disastrous launch were fixed in the last huge update, another one has been released that looks to fix one of the game’s longest running problems: ranking. While ranking has been a part of the game from the beginning, it was only available in one playlist and had various issues that kept it from really functioning the way players wanted.
The new update, which clocks in at a massive 1.6GB, changes a lot of the fundamentals of ranking within Halo: The Master Chief Collection. While it doesn’t directly add the feature to other playlists, it seems like it gets it to a point where 343 is happy with things. This allowed them to assure fans that ranking would arrive in other playlists within the next few days. Along with this though comes a rank reset that will wipe player progress through the current ranking system.
Aside from the in-game update came news of the upcoming release of Halo 3: ODST as part of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The game, which will only consist of the single player campaign, along with a newly remastered Halo 2 map will be available next month for free to those that purchased Halo: The Master Chief Collection early on. More info will be released soon, until then check out the latest Patch Notes for the complete list of changes.
RANKING
- Made a variety of improvements to ranking consistency and penalties.
- Resolved an issue that could cause a player to rank down excessively, such as dropping multiple levels after a loss.
- Resolved an issue that caused a player’s rank to appear incorrectly.
Based on these improvements and updates, we’ll be resetting ranking for Halo 2: Anniversary, and separately, will begin to roll out ranks to additional playlists soon (we’re aiming for the next day or so), starting with the addition of ranking to the Team Slayer and Halo Championship Series playlists. We’ll be actively monitoring the ranking system across these playlists over the next few days to ensure that everything is working properly before adding ranks to additional playlists.
QUITTING & BETRAYALS
- Added new quit and betrayal penalties to matchmaking:
- In ranked playlists, quitting a match is now treated the same as a loss. Quitting is defined as exiting the game in any fashion. If you quit a match, your ranking will be impacted, and this may result in dropping a level.
- All quits and betrayals are being tracked automatically, and action is being taken against offending players who commit these offenses more than what is considered normal behavior.
HALO: CE
- Resolved an issue that was causing off-host players to deal more damage than the host in peer-to-peer custom games.
- Updated Derelict to include the Rocket Launcher when selecting the “Classic” weapon set.
- Made improvements to vehicle weapon accuracy.
- Resolved an issue that caused incorrect bullet and grenade collision with an invisible object on the map Derelict.
- Update the “Boxer” controller layout by switching the “switch grenade” and “throw grenade” buttons.
HALO 2 CLASSIC
- Resolved a hitbox issue where shooting an enemy’s weapon from the front would not cause damage.
- Corrected the matchmaking Team Ball respawn modifier from “Inheritance” to “None.”
HALO 3
- Updated Halo 3 Forge to include editing for all game types.
- Made significant improvements to Halo 3 audio, specifically in regards to weapon fire and sound effects.
- Made improvements to Halo 3 multiplayer networking stability.
- Made improvements to Halo 3’s controller “deadzones.”
- Resolved issues that were causing Halo 3 multiplayer stats to not track correctly.
- Resolved lighting and shading issues occurring on the “Sandbox” multiplayer map.
- Resolved an issue where the “Begins with a Single Step” achievement did not unlock correctly.
- Resolved an issue where the Golf Club object did not appear correctly in Forge.
HALO 4
- Resolved an issue where Primary Weapons could display in the Secondary Weapon slot after removing the Firepower Tactical Package.
PARTIES
- Made improvements to voice chat consistency, specifically in team-based matchmaking games.
- Resolved an issue where a player may not hear another player via voice chat after completing a game.
- Improved party functionality, specifically in regards to game invites and joinable states.
- Increased the speed at which the roster populates with Xbox Live friends after completing a game.
- Resolved an issue where players could get stuck on the “Leaving Matchmaking” screen for longer than usual.
- Resolved an issue where players were unable to join immediately after becoming Xbox Live friends.
ACHIEVEMENTS
- Resolved an issue that caused “The Guardians Are Coming” achievement to not unlock correctly.
- Resolved issues that caused complications with Spartan Ops achievements unlocking.
UI, STABILITY & MISC.
- Made a variety of improvements to UI throughout the title, specifically in regards to notification messages and stability.
- Improved Playlist and Campaign Career Stats tracking for Halo 2, Halo 3 & Halo 4.
- Made a variety of significant improvements to stability throughout the title.
