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Title Update Zwei

Title Update 2 will download when you log in to Halo 3 on September 23rd. Smart alecky types guessed it would be either today (the 18th) or the 23rd as we make a habit of doing our updates on pretty particular days. If you poke around you’ll see that some stuff has changed here on Bungie.net, some of that stuff will flick on when TU2 turns on next week, and some of it is Live now.

When TU2 goes live next week we fully expect a crazy period in Matchmaking. See, there will be a period after TU2 goes live where not everyone will have the Title Update for a number of weird reasons like: You left your box on and the TU came out so folks who turn their boxes on are getting the new patch and you're playing the previous version of the game; Your Xbox doesn't recognize a new patch (clear your boxes' cache - Go to the System blade and select Memory. Press Y on the HD symbol and then press X, X, LB, RB, X, X. If you did this properly a message will appear saying: Do you want to perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage device. Selet the "yes" equivalent and then boot up Halo 3) or any number of other weird issues like the host has TU2 and the client doesn't or the client has TU2 and the host is on TU1, it's going to be a bit like the end of Ghostbusters, but we promise, that even though it seems like Matchmaking has fallen into the gaping maw of cement cracks - it will climb out.

We expect all of these issues to resolve within four or five hours of TU2 going live. We will be watching it closely.

For the Stats Whore in All of Us

The Web Devs here at Bungie are rolling out phase one of some significant changes to Bungie.net. The first batch of changes is available now, but the features that they modify are mostly tied to TU2. Throughout the site, you’ll notice a handful of small, courteous notes reminding you that functionality like the Playlist Ratings require actually participating in hoppers that track Playlist Ratings – again, those become operational on Sept. 23.

http://www.bungie.net

Achievements Unlocked

Inevitably, this will be blown out of context, misread and misunderstood, but let’s do it anyway.

For a number of reasons ranging from obvious to sublime, Title Update 2 (which is the new, hip, Xbox 360-version way of saying “Auto Update” or “Patch”), introduces new Achievements to Halo 3. Last weekend at Penny-Arcade Expo we played Assembly on the TU2, which meant that folks would see and buzz about the new achievements. These will be made live when TU2 turns on later this month - the previously announced date may slip a bit closer to the Halo 3 one-year anniversary.

Here’s a look at these achievements which can be earned via the Legendary Maps and Halo 3 Campaign:

* Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
* Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
* Vidmaster Challenge: Annual (0 points) – After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.
* Double Double (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match.
* Poor Yorick (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
* Came…From…Behind (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 assassinations during any ranked or social match.
* Defend This (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match.
* Flag Dropped (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 2 flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match.
* Road Rage (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 5 Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match.
* Look Both Ways (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.

As folks have seen, these aren’t the only achievements we’re adding. But without proper context, there’s not a whole lot else we’re going to say. Stay tuned.

Title Update 2

Like we’ve said previously, there’s a bunch of under-the-hood changes in TU2 that will be largely invisible to players. Things like rare occurrences of crashes, server-side support for data collection, making more data available and consumable for internal use – you know, the sort of bullet points that warm engineering loins and sing the rest of us a lullaby.

There are also some “peace of mind” changes that should improve player experiences online in Halo 3. We’ve done a bunch of work to increase our ability to detect cheating. The numbers of bans on the banhammer threads ebb and flow, but not a day goes by sans bans. These changes will make that science even more exact than it already is.

Title Update 2 will also introduce a brand new type of ban. This is one Shishka and I are super excited for. It’s harsh, it’s metered fairly and most of all, when it hits you, it hurts so bad. This new spike on the banhammer will soon drip wet with the blood of jerks and the innards of sinners.

Another thing we’d file under the “peace of mind” changes portion of TU2 is that we’ll be taking a much closer look at habitual quitters and their contribution to the Halo 3 population. It’s no secret that players quitting out of a game makes a suboptimal experience for those left behind, from black screen host migrations, to the general sour-taste losing while down-a-man actually leaves. For the purposes of this week’s update, this isn’t a “don’t quit or you’ll be banned” threat – but instead, a courteous notification that this is something we’re investigating and intend to continue investigating in the coming months.

The most visible change coming to Halo 3 in TU2 is the in-game addition of Playlist Ratings. We’ve talked about Playlist Ratings before, but here’s a quick recap:

* Playlist Ratings are the playlist-level decoupling of Trueskill values (the in-game number next to your name) from Experience (the icon next to your name).
* You will now have a separate military rating (based purely on EXP) in each playlist. When TU2 goes live, everyone will begin at 0 EXP. This means that being a General in a Playlist is based on how many games you’ve won in the Playlist, not based on the Trueskill number next to your name.
* Your Trueskill values have not been reset. If someone checks your Service Record they will still see your Highest Skill.

Assemble

Twenty-seven teams walked away from last week's Penny Arcade Expo Recon Challenge with victory in their eyes, songs in their hearts and some new armor for their Spartans. Over the course of the weekend various teams waited in line to face one of these Bungie duos: Shishka and Luke, Tung and Timmins and Tung and Lars.

Frequent podcast listeners may recall Joe Tung claiming he was the best player at the studio, with Timmins right behind him. While the bragging works well on the air, in reality it was Shishka and I who had the highest win percentage over the weekend. Team Tung and Timmins, believed by themselves to be the two best players at the studio actually had the worst winning percentage of any of the pairs. Tung even had the gall to predict "no Recon on my watch", quickly followed by a three game losing streak.

Halo 3: Recon Update

Despite not having a whole lot to officially say right now, rest assured there's no shortage of work on being done on Recon. With a recent milestone in the rearview mirror - there will be glut of new info about Recon in a few weeks - the Recon team continues to slam in new content at a feverish pace.

* Curtis is a harsh taskmaster.
* Paul Bertone and CJ are dropping, literally.
* Joe Staten is working on dialogue and putting the nice quilt on his casting couch.
* Travis Brady has been working on making the Space Tether a reality. That work is bearing pretty incredible fruit.
* Vic DeLeon's recent work has him thinking a lot about Zebras.


Host Migration

For months you've waited. For months we've evaded. For the entirety of October, Brian and I have been out of the office together or apart. This week saw our first reunion since returning from across the sea. We immediately, and dutifully recorded the next episode of the Bungie Podcast. This episode is a discussion of the Halo 3: Recon trailer with Jim McQuillan and Joseph Staten. Jim McQuillan directed the video and Joseph Staten is the writer for Halo 3: Recon and came up with the idea for the "Prepare to Drop" trailer. It wouldn't be a Podcast about the trailer without stealing Marty O'Donnell out of his Ivory Tower and bringing him upstairs to talk about the new music he wrote for the trailer and what he hopes to do with Halo 3: Recon's score.

Additionally, the time is finally right to release the Lost Episode of the Bungie Podcast. This episode, as frequent listeners will remember, was recorded before E3 and was intended to be released during E3 2008. It is available now.

Trainspotters will note that we've got an awesome new download-host this episode. Thanks to Claude and Smallbits for hosting the show.

These two shows are packed up as a single zip file for direct downloaders. For future-proofed RSS users and iTunes subscribers, the shows will be in RSS feeds shortly.

Direct Download (150 MB)