Halo: Reach MP has all-new rules

By Robert Purchese Published 29 March, 2010

Credits, Rank and Commendations.

Bungie has invented new rewards for those of you who invest time in Halo: Reach's multiplayer. These will be based on earning Credits, Ranks and Commendations.

"Rank as you knew it in Halo 3 is dead," explained Bungie.net.

Ranks are now "divorced" from TrueSkill, while XP has been dumped altogether. "TrueSkill is the quiet machine humming under matchmaking's hood, churning to find you the most competitive match possible," the website added.

Overall, Ranks should indicate how much time you've invested in and across all game modes, and they will increase as you earn Credits.

Credits are earned for winning as well as finish games - for Achievements, for Challenges and for Commendations. Commendations are persistent awards for things like headshots. Commendations also offer opponents a glimpse at what kind of player you are.

Challenges will be issued daily and weekly in an effort to keep things fresh. Daily tasks include "Kill X players in Matchmaking" or "Kill Y Enemies in Campaign", while weekly tasks will be meatier and will perhaps challenge you to play a Mission in ways that "few have dared".

"The stuff you earn with Credits is purely cosmetic," the post pointed out. "Done right, earning Credits won't alter the core gameplay at all - we don't want to incentivise behaviours in our sandbox that are at odds with our gameplay philosophies. We don't want to introduce rewards and awards for behaviours that disrupt other's play-styles."

Both Spartans and Elites will be customisable, although Bungie is not saying how we'll be able to tweak the latter. You'll be able to buy all sorts of kit for your Spartan and, don't worry, hit-box geometry won't change depending on the size of your helmet.

All this stuff will likely be tracked on Bungie.net as well, although the team's not saying how.

According to the website, Bungie originally decided to change the ranking system because the "vast majority" of Halo 3 players never climbed to the upper Ranks. Those still bothered by "measuring sticks" should be sated by Halo: Reach's Daily Ratings, Season model and resetting Leaderboards. And by the Arena, "Which will introduce our competitive population to something they haven't really had before in Halo - the hope that, 'Next month, I can do better.'" Ranks also have nothing to do with Arena rating.

You can read more about Arena and other multiplayer updates in the last round of Halo: Reach multiplayer news.

Halo: Reach will be released this autumn exclusively on Xbox 360.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (39) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • afghan_jones #1 2 years ago

    sex

  • CaptainQuint #2 2 years ago

    Cue the cries of a million mlg players, the scurvy of online gaming.

  • miiiguel #3 2 years ago

    Nice ideas, very nice.

  • WizenWolfBain #4 2 years ago

    Great.... Another boring system like COD which rewards players fortime invested but not skill or improvement. Ranks were what made H2 and H3 so fun, competitive and addictive. People wanted a higher rank for whatever reason, so they had to get better or get a better team. Now you can match a team and at a glance you wont have any idea which one rides the mongoose backwards around the map and who is actually good. And there also goes the bragging rights :( The staple of Xbox Live. What are we gonna argue over now?... On second thoughts i'm sure we'll find something.

    I'll admit though, the rank system in H3 was broken. So many good players were stuck on level 45-49 but were better than a lot of "new account" 50's.

    Looking forward to leaderboards though... Would be nice if you could get special commendations for having consistently high leaderboard stats. Give us pathetic "MLG sad cases" something to get excited about ;)
    Edited by WizenWolfBain at 29/03/10 @ 14:24

  • miiiguel #5 2 years ago

    @WolfBrain: It says in this article that what you're saying it's missing is Comendations, no ?
    Edited by miiiguel at 29/03/10 @ 14:24

  • UltimateDave_80 #6 2 years ago

    Sounds good to me. Although I quite liked it that your overall rank was a good indicator of skill it was a bit depressing when you hit your ceiling and stopped progressing. Having little targets to reach can really help to keep you engaged and so long as the trueskill is working in the background to keep the matchmaking fair then I see no problem with it.

    That said I do see @WizenWolfBain 's point - Maybe you'll be able to see leaderboard rankings on profiles and so judge the good players on that...
    Edited by UltimateDave_80 at 29/03/10 @ 14:31

  • CaptainQuint #7 2 years ago

    Leave the guy to jump to conclusions! It's more fun that way.

  • Murton #8 2 years ago

    "Great.... Another boring system like COD which rewards players fortime invested but not skill or improvement."

    I don't think it's really fair to be saying that until more is known. If they add near gamebreaking perks a'la COD based on rank then yes, there may be a problem but from this article what I'm actually seeing is something very similar to the system used in Resistance 2 where you earn xp in all game modes and these are totalled to give you overall rank. Now given Halo's history for competitive multiplayer I'd expect to see way more points granted from that side of the game than from the campaign, so what's changed really?

  • Eraysor #9 2 years ago

    Those tasks sound rubbish; why can't they be more imaginative like "Kill a player using only a butterknife and a kiwi".

  • WizenWolfBain #10 2 years ago

    ""Great.... Another boring system like COD which rewards players fortime invested but not skill or improvement."

    I don't think it's really fair to be saying that until more is known. If they add near gamebreaking perks a'la COD based on rank then yes, there may be a problem but from this article what I'm actually seeing is something very similar to the system used in Resistance 2 where you earn xp in all game modes and these are totalled to give you overall rank. Now given Halo's history for competitive multiplayer I'd expect to see way more points granted from that side of the game than from the campaign, so what's changed really? "

    True... It's just going to be hard to see the levels go. Change can be a good thing. But i just hope to god Bungie get this right and don't just go with the flow. The H2 ranking system was my personal favorite.
    Edited by WizenWolfBain at 29/03/10 @ 14:47

  • RedSparrows #11 2 years ago

    I call coconut!

  • CaptainQuint #12 2 years ago

    Bungie be damned for trying something new. Good on 'em, I say.

  • RedSparrows #13 2 years ago

    Also Wizen, did you read the article/any of the updates? Arena is what you want.

  • Yossarian #14 2 years ago

    Yeah, Arena has your dick in a vice, you just don't know it.

  • Collymilad #15 2 years ago

    Hopefully it will be better than CoD where the matchmaking system is a total joke.

    Can't remember the last time there was a very close march in MW2 for me, it always seems like one side totally dominates.

  • justice-ste #16 2 years ago

    I am excited about this :)

  • mcmonkeyplc #17 2 years ago

    Ask yourself this question. Are you moist?

  • Petulant_Radish #18 2 years ago

    I’m a bit moist from the precipitation outside. There is a slight lazy drizzle, the type that makes you moist rather than wet. It is also a precursor to being slightly grumpy, which in turn is a feeling that Halo multiplayer can either embellish or banish.

    No matter how much you try to make moist not sound sexual, it just never does.

  • Invisible_Cow #19 2 years ago

    So from that description, Rank is pretty much the same as XP in Halo 3, and your TrueSkill rating is now hidden entirely, so you have no recourse when you get matched against {noobs|fanatical machines}. Commendations sound the same as Halo 3 medals. It doesn't sound all that different to me.

  • Lebowski #20 2 years ago

    Looking at the limited info so far, maybe the 'leagues' will scratch that competitive itch that lots of players have. If you're battling to get to the top against someone you're playing against, or fighting to avoid a relegation (if it works that way) and send another player down instead, that'll perhaps make players fight a lot harder than just dropping a Trueskill.

  • Climhazzard #21 2 years ago

    Looking forward to the beta, i'll make my mind up after that.

  • LeSpank #22 2 years ago

    As long as I don't ever have to fight a clan of '50s' on their second account I will be over the moon.

  • ThePissartist #23 2 years ago

    I'm one of the rare people that never got on with Halo MP, there's not enough to keep me playing. A numerical value that indicates your skill is uninteresting. I love being able to customise a fairly unique weapon/perk combo in MW.

    Unfortunately for me, this still sounds two steps behind MW1. Surely we all like to customise our characters in games, from RPGs to shooters?

    I'd like to see a a shooter that lets me completely customise the look and abilities of my own personal character in MP.

  • CaptainQuint #24 2 years ago

    @Invisible Cow

    The matchmaking is going to remain in place, meaning that for the most part (when the system works as it's designed to) people will continue to be matched against similarly skilled players, as is the case for Halo 3. 'Pros' and newbies seldom play in the same match, unlike the MW games. Bungie's matchmaking system is the flagship model for all console shooters and it's set to improve even more with Reach.

  • RedSparrows #25 2 years ago

    Pissartist - Reach seems to have uber aesthetic customisation, but they don't want to touch the core gameplay via perks etc. Which is only a good thing.

  • Yossarian #26 2 years ago

    A lot of uninformed opinions in this thread, but I guess you can't expect people who already don't care about Halo to care about what's different in Reach.

  • CaptainQuint #27 2 years ago

    @ThePissartist

    I'm the opposite - the MW games never stick, with me. I love 'em for about a month before getting bored of lone wolf map lapping and return to Uncharted 2 online and now BFBC2 (Halo 3 is finally played out, for me). The customisation offered by MW2 is merely a shallow gimmick, in my opinion - very effective at the illusion of depth, but peek beneath the glossy surface and one finds that it's all just asthetics, really - all of the guns and perks basically work the same way; no one setup changes the game in a way which could be called 'diverse' - that's the trouble with the necessity for balance. I'm always amazed by the sheer amount of folk who buy the sleight of hand, believing their loadouts make a huge difference, when in fact they don't make the slightest bit of difference at all to their overall game. It's all just smoke and mirrors, in truth. Bungie understands that fact and instead chooses to work ALL of the depth in the gameplay itself and not into the cynical illusion of upgrades and perk trickery. I honestly believe that MW is the layman's quick-fix shooter, whereas those who want real depth in an FPS play instead something by Valve, Dice and yes, Bungie.
    Edited by CaptainQuint at 29/03/10 @ 19:25

  • Yossarian #28 2 years ago

    ==APPLAUSE==

  • RedSparrows #29 2 years ago

    *wipes tear from eye*

  • cozeny #30 2 years ago

    Uncharted 2 has MP?

  • CaptainQuint #31 2 years ago

    Indeed it does and quietly superb it is too.

  • Chupakun #32 2 years ago

    "You'll be able to buy all sorts of kit for your Spartan and, don't worry, hit-box geometry won't change depending on the size of your helmet."

    And all the Counterstrike players look up, shake their heads and go back to improving their headshots by setting their screen resolution to 640 by 480. Or was it 800 by 600. Something like that :p.

  • cozeny #33 2 years ago

    What's so good about UC2's MP then? I might just give it a go.

  • Harmonica #34 2 years ago

    Time investment is just the same as XP grinding.

    Remains to be seen if this actually means people will play the game with a better attitude, which should be the ultimate aim of multiplayer systems. If they were able to track the way that players played, in terms of if they were playing as a team and playing fair, and reward them for that, then it might be worthwhile.

    But on the face of it, I like the idea of them trying to keep it fresh but avoiding grinding... if it works.

  • ChuckNorris #35 2 years ago

    @cozeny

    Give it a go and you'll find out :)

  • ThePissartist #36 2 years ago

    "all of the guns and perks basically work the same way; no one setup changes the game in a way"

    You said that you only played for a month and that seems evident by your comments. :)

  • cozeny #37 2 years ago

    ThePissArtist, you can't expect people who already don't care about CoD to care about what's different in MW2.

  • CaptainQuint #38 2 years ago

    I've played the MW franchise for longer than a month and long enough to understand it's mechanics, which in turn leads to the reason why I prefer other online shooters over it. Not that I dont respect Infinity Ward's achievement you understand - I think they're genius; but I for one am not convinced by their muliplayer design philosophy, in that I think it panders too much to the lazy gamer. MW2 is an excellent online experience, albeit one limited by the suspect rewards system it generously dishes out to the player and the inherent contraints of the game design itself. Basically, Sandbox is the way forward and MW2 doesn't have it.

  • MaFlippinHeadHurts #39 2 years ago

    Just give me an option to boot out those dick heads that teabag evertime they get a kill!