Tomorrow afternoon (Thursday, Nov. 20), our latest content update will become available. This particular content update addresses matchmaking performance, UI, gameplay, and title-specific issues. We are on track for a release of mid-late afternoon Pacific Time for this content update, and will immediately let you know when it is available. For now, here is a change list of what will be included. As a note, many of the below issues are sub issues that were caused by larger umbrella problems that we have addressed with this update.
MATCHMAKING
- Addressed a number of issues that resulted in extended matchmaking times and low matchmaking success rates.
- Made a number of updates to how matchmaking progress is communicated to the player. With this update, you’ll see better, more frequent and more informative status updates throughout the matchmaking flow – so “Players Found” for example, will be displayed to let players know where they are in the matchmaking process instead of simply wondering if it’s going to connect.
- The improved matchmaking flow is as follows:
- Searching
- Searching for more players
- Players found
- Finalizing matchmaking process
- Connecting session
- Made an update to ensure that parties stick together when returning from the post-game carnage report
- Prevented the ability for players “kick” other players from matchmaking games
- Made an update to ensure that the Roster correctly displays the “searching” UI rather than “My Game Session” while searching for players
- Removed the possibility to boost ranking through a custom games exploit
- Made an update to ensure that players cannot get stuck in the matchmaking screen during map voting
- Made an update to ensure that the “Connecting to your game” message no longer incorrectly displays in the lower right of the screen during gameplay
- Made an update to the “team creation” phase that allows players to be grouped by team
- Made an update to prevent players from seeing the “connection failed” dialogue if disconnected during the map voting screen
- Improved roster / matchmaking lobby stability
- Made improvements to the accuracy and stability of the “Game Session Details” UI
- Improved version compatibility
UI
- Improved emblem and nameplate behavior to ensure that they do not reset to default (especially after game sessions)
- Corrected career stats that did not update uniformly across different profiles in multiple titles
- Improved Forge map display names in Theater
- Corrected various medal inconsistencies across titles
CAMPAIGN
- Made updates to the attainability of various achievements, including “Goat Roped,” “Monopolized,” “You’re Joking,” and “Devastating.”
- Improved Halo: CE career stat tracking
- Resolved scoring and time HUD reset and display issues
- Made an update to ensure that rival emblems are displayed correctly
HALO: CE
- Improved consistency and reliability of shot registration
- Improved headshot hitboxes
- Fixed an issue where respawning players could momentarily appear at their death location
- Made an update to ensure that the match ends when the entire opposing team quits
- Improved fall damage consistency (specifically in regards to uneven surfaces)
- Improved Halo: CE menu and loading screen stability
- Improved consistency with multikill rewards
- Made an update to improve post-game carnage report accuracy for Halo: CE FFA games
- Updated default language settings
HALO 2
- Made an update to ensure that the team color shown in pre-game lobby matches in-game
- Improved a variety of networking issues to allow for improved consistency between host and clients in peer to peer matches
- Improved a variety of networking issues to allow for improved gameplay consistency
- Made an update to service tag functionality, allowing for service tags to appear for all players
- Improved the post-game carnage report to correctly display team color
- Made an update to ensure that the match ends when the entire opposing team quits
- Improved “original” medal icon functionality in split-screen
- Improved host migration functionality
- Corrected “headshot” stat tracking
- Addressed a crash that occurred with the Scarab skull
- Addressed art errors that occurred on the opening cinematics for “Uprising” and “High Charity”
HALO 2: ANNIVERSARY
- Made an update to prevent players from gaining achievements in Forge
- Improved Forge item display names
- Resolved text overlapping issues
- Improved split screen stability
- Made an update to resolve the notorious “-1th” scoreboard text
- Improved lobby functionality to address players not being able to reconnect to the party leader after completing a match
- Improved host migration functionality
- Corrected vehicle and weapon thumbnails in the “Tools of destruction” table in the post-game carnage report
- Addressed a dedicated server issue that caused gameplay physics issues on Stonetown
- Improved split-screen party functionality to ensure that players are not directed to a broken lobby screen after completing a game session
- Improved Forge mode stability
- Made an update to King of the Hill scoring to prevent multiple hills from counting down at the same time
- Improved Shrine objective spawn points
- Improved King of the Hill and Ninjanaut mode stability
- Addressed an issue where controller vibration could persist during the pause menu
- Improved Race mode respawn zones
We have additional content updates on the way, and work is already underway in an effort to continue to improve your experience with Halo: The Master Chief Collection. We thank you for your continued patience and support.