H4: Specializations Part 2

We've discussed Armor Specializations before, but here's my quick cut:

• Wetworks: If you love assassinations and creeping around. (FragginURdoodz, TimMAY1023)
• Pioneer: If you want to level up as fast as possible. (CoolerSopranos2, UnsavorySamurai)
• Engineer: If you want to help the team coordinate special ordinance drops. (Beer4Porter)
• Tracker: If you love special weapons. (FishBone10, Masher 24)
• Rogue: If you spend a lot of time scoped in (Sniper, DMR, BR). (gtdroptop, Octurian Poon)
• Stalker: If you get fixated on killing one person. (darknorpo, QuelBelle)
• Pathfinder: If you're always in the gunner seat (OmniscientDeath, MEAN MR MONKEY)
• Operator: If you're always driving (BeerMonkeee, Mean Mrs Monkey)

Picking your Specialization is important because you can't change it until you've fully leveled it up.  There are 8 choices in total, with Pioneer and Wetwork being available to all players at launch.  Purchasing the Halo 4 Limited Edition gets you access to all 8 right away.  Those who pre-order and play by November 20, will get all 8 quicker as well, but probably not until 11/20 (about 2 weeks after launch).

Battle Nations - Population Part 2

Somebody left a comment asking:

"population limit of 150 reached.
Level up to build more house. "
Do you know what that message means?
Build a house there "Housing"> "Bunkhouse" or "Compound", etc.

Yes, I know what this means.  It means you are lvl 24 and are limited to having 150 people in your Outpost.  You usually get this message when you're trying to build a Housing structure that would put you over that limit.  A Compound houses 10 and a Bunkhouse houses 8, so if you got this message while clicking one of those units, then you probably have between 143 and 150 population in your Outpost, and one of those units would put you over 150.  You can either pick a smaller housing unit like a Shelter (3 pop) or Camp (4 pop), or wait until you level up.  You get 5 extra pop for every level at 18 and higher.

Current clan players: gtdroptop, unsavory, omniscientDeath, beer4porter, fishbone10

Clan Night Postmortem

Halo Charts has a new Game Aggregator tool that produces some pretty interesting data.  Thought I would share some highlights from clan night last night.  Below is some key stats from our Slayer games (objective games excluded).  Numbers will obviously be tilted slightly for people who were helping the clan while on the other team...

Player Spotlight: FishBone10

FishBone10 is one of our top players, consistently logging among the highest numbers in the clan.  Per popular request, we sat down for a quick interview to find out more about him.

Q1: What's your name in real life?
A1: Laurence Day

Q2: What is your day job?
A2: I'm an analyst for an anti-piracy company based out Denmark with offices in  Lithuania, France, UK, and Southern Cali.  My job basically entails staring at spreadsheets for 10 hours and then discussing said spreadsheets at ungodly hours.  Somehow there are always issues on Tuesdays.

Q3: What's an interesting thing about you?
A3: I'm really into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  There really is no better feeling than slapping on a triangle choke while transitioning from a straight arm bar!  Kimuras are pretty spectacular as well.

Q4: How did you get into Halo and/or video games?
A4: I'm a guy and I'm asian. I think that says it all.

Q5: What's your favorite thing about playing Halo?
A5: Killing that 12 year old s*&t talker over and over again  and finally getting him to shut the efff up.

Q6: What's your biggest dislike about playing Halo?
A6: Getting killed over and over by previously said 12 year old.

Q7: How do you manage video game time with wife time?
A7: I buy a lot of dinner, got netflix, and I do a lot of activities that I would prefer not to do.  Even after all that I get the occasional "talk" about my gaming habits.

Q8: Is there anything (good or bad) that stands out for clan night?

A8: GT's trash talking is always entertaining!

Many thanks to FishBone10 for his time and continuing to participate in the clan!

You've Been BoomDizzled

Thanks to FishBone10 for sharing.

Snoop Dogg vs LL Cool J: The Ultimate Halo Smack Down from LL Cool J

Reach Midnight Campaign Run

Starting now starring gtdroptop, OmniscientDeath, Fishbone10 and TimMAY 1023.  We'll have an Xbox Live party running if you'd like to pop in to say hello.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo 3.

Exactly one week to Reach.  We have a full team signed up for a midnight campaign run: gtdroptop, OmniscientDeath, TimMAY 1023, Fishbone10.  If there are others who want to commit to a 7 hour campaign run at midnight, have pre-ordered their game at a retailer open at midnight, and are looking for friends, I'm happy to help coordinate.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 1.

While attendance is still low due to summertime silliness, I'm planning to host an L4D1 tonight.  Campaign is still good times, and Versus mode works better with 5 people on L4D1 than on L4D2.  For all you goons that voted for H3, I need you to actually show up on clan night to make it work.

HR: Player Profiles - FishBone10

Player: FishBone10

• Rank: Warrant Officer; Arena Season 1: Silver
• Games: 115; Kills: 1162; Deaths: 1066; Assists: 445; Time: 0:16:53; Wins: 62; Medals: 1513
• Win %: 54%; K/D: 1.09; K/G: 10.10; D/G: 9.27; A/G: 3.87; M/G: 13.16; Encounters/G: 24.33

Ranged Precision Slayer. Having logged the most Arena games in the Beta, FishBone10 leads the clan in an appropriate amount of stat categories.  Seeks out the DMR when available, is also comfortable at shorter range with the AR or melee.  Has notably high Win %, K/D ratio, Kills/Game and low Deaths/Game ratios.  Comparatively low Assists/Game numbers indicate a propensity to get headshots at range.

Best suited: Medium range slayer, providing kill support with an ability to join in on the front line.

Recommend: More practice with the Magnum, the most versatile weapon in the game.  Capable of the exact same shots/kill as the DMR with faster firing speed and easier close quarter kills.

Finally, #1

It's taken several years, but I have finally surpassed FishBone10 in achievement points to claim the #1 spot in the clan. FishBone10 has 21,786 points from 86 games (253 pts/game). I now have 21,835 points from 43 games (508 pts/game). w00t!

ODST Road to Recon

If you've looked in your Xbox Live inbox lately, you may have noticed that I have finished the Road to Recon and unlocked the coveted Halo 3 Recon Armor. Far and away the hardest achievement in this quest is Vidmaster: Endure which requires completion of the Firefight 4th set on Heroic difficulty with four players. The recommended map for this achievement is Alpha Site due to its strategic geometry, but it's still really hard and takes over 2 hours to complete. The 4th set activates the Mythic and Famine skulls, in addition to almost every other skull available. That means enemies are extra hard to kill, they all have shields, and ammo is extremely scarce. Completing this requires precision team work and smart kills using ALL the tips outlined in previously in this blog. You must use the correct weaponry on each specific enemy, or you will waste ammo, run out, and be left defenseless. In my opinion, one of the leading indicators of how effective a player is in Firefight is their points per kill stat. This stat is higher for players who are streakier (Killing Spree), get harder kills (Brute Chieftain), get better kills (headshots), get kills on higher difficulties (Heroic) and with more skulls activated (Mythic). Here's some key stats for the active players in the clan. Useful for picking Firefight team mates and looking for ways to improve your own game. Leave a comment here if you're looking for folks to play with. OmniscientDeath and myself are up for gaming most nights of the week after 10pm.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. H3: ODST

FishBone10 and Beer4Porter helped me to break in H3: ODST's new Firefight mode right after the midnight launch. And it is FUN! Even though I scored over half of our team's points, I do have to recommend their generous assistance in my "Invincible" medal (kill 100 enemies without dying). Some housekeeping items:

• Insert your Campaign disc for Campaign, Firefight, and to customize your character for ODST
  
• Under Settings/Appearance, change your EMBLEM to your H3 number.
• In the same area, change your SERVICE TAG to something related to your gamertag.

If 4 or less folks show up, I'll kick off the first games in Firefight on the Campaign disc. Once we have more than 4, I'll move us into custom games on the Multiplayer disc. In >4 player multiplayer, we'll run custom games on the brand new Mythic maps (Heretic, Citadel and Longshore).

Below are the assigned emblems (carried from H3) and some recommended service tags. Your service tag is what people see above your head as you run around the map. Since we have 4 characters to work with now, you should pick something that will quickly remind people of your gamertag and who you are.

• gtdroptop: " GT ", 0
• BeerMonkeee: "BMNK", 1
• TimMAY 1023: "TIMA", 2
• CoolerSopranos2: "CULR", 3
• OmniscientDeath: "OMNI", 4
• FragginURdoodz: "DOOD", 5
• FishBone10: "FISH", 5
• Beer4Porter: "PORT", 6
• Masher24: "MASH", 7
• Spix: "SPIX", 7
• BeefierBen: "BEEF", 8
• MEAN MR MONKEY: "MR M", 8
• Mean Mrs Monkey: "MRSM", 7
• darknorpo: "NORP", 9
• Dawill0: "WILO", 5
• Octurian Poon: "POON", 7

If you're not listed and need help, let me know.

Clan Night Waiting List

For the first time tonight, we had too many people for the L4D game and the Xbox Live party. Given the size of our clan, a popular game like Left 4 Dead would eventually run into this problem. Both the game and party can only support a maximum of 8 concurrent players. Sorry to FishBone10 and OmniscientDeath who had to sit out the first campaign. After we finished No Mercy, I asked the two non regular-clan players to drop so that our clan guys could get in. Consider this a formal policy moving forward.

On clan nights, if you are not on in time for the first round to start, you will be at risk of having to sit out an entire campaign. After the first campaign, I will make room for everybody to play. If we have more than 8 to start the night, or between campaigns, and everybody wants to play, I will split us into two parties until a merge is possible.

If you can not get into a game for some reason, leave me a message. I will generally leave you a message explaining what's going on. If you want to play at the next break, stay on-line. If you're not going to wait around, I would appreciate if you leave me a message stating as such so that we don't wait for you at the break.

Almost as good as Chocolate Milk

Clan night tonight, 8pm PT, Left 4 Dead

I'm moving the clan mail to a blog soon. This way, items in these weekly posts will be archived, and you can avoid clutter in your inbox. For the handful of you that prefer the e-mail, I can auto-email up to 10 of you. For the rest, I'm happy to help you setup RSS feeds so that it automatically shows up in iGoogle, My Yahoo, or your favorite reader.

Effectively, the entire clan has moved to Left 4 Dead. It's hella fun. Active players: gtdroptop, FishBone10, darknorpo, OmniscientDeath, MEAN MR MONKEY, Mean Mrs Monkey, BeerMonkeee, QuelBelle, Beer4Porter, CoolerSopranos2

Halo 3 Service Tags

• B80: gtdroptop (John Wei)
• B81: BeerMonkeee (Scott Lenker)
• B82: TimMAY 1023 (Tim Romero)
• B83: CoolerSopranos2 (Kevin Copeland)
• B84: OmniscientDeath (Ryan Averill)
• B85: FishBone10 (Laurence Day)
• B86: Beer4Porter (Brien Porter)
• B87: Available
• B88: Available
• B89: darknorpo (Nory Ison)

Halo 3 Final Stats

It's been a year since H3 came out, so this is the last week that I'm going to update the stats like I've been. Here's a dump of the past year:

• gtdroptop was promoted to First Lieutenant. Represented as clan overlord with a massive number of games logged, specializing in Team Slayer by optimizing play for K/D ratio and leading the clan in fewest deaths per game in all game types. Finishes the year with most games played, most custom games, most campaign missions, most enemies killed, best campaign K/D ratio, most achievements, highest gamerscore, most skulls, most meta-games finished, highest campaign level finished, least ranked deaths/game, best ranked K/D ratio, most social games played, least social deaths/game, least total deaths/game.
• BeerMonkeee finished the campaign on Legendary. Finished the year with the least ranked deaths (owing largely to very few games played there). The stats don't show it, but BeerMonkeee is an assist machine and is far and away the clan's best vehicle specialist with over 1300 Wheelmans and over 200 Splatters!
• TimMAY 1023 finished the year as the highest ranked active clan member as a Major, grade 2. TimMAY was a ranked matchmaking machine, logging some 4X the number of ranked games as the next closest person, and 7X the clan average! He had the most matchmade games, the highest skill, the most EXP, the fewest friendlies lost in campaign, the most ranked games, the most ranked kills, and the most total kills. His most important contribution is taking up his role as team sniper, something Bada Bing has always desperately needed, logging over 500 sniper headshots, and over 1100 total kills with the human sniper!
• CoolerSopranos2 fell from grace during H2, but has regained a shadow of his former glory. Though he remarkably leads in zero stat categories, he has maintained a positive social K/D ratio for almost eight straight months. An impressive feat, considering how few games he logs.
• OmniscientDeath is the clan leader in kills, taking the reigns from darknorpo's H2 reign. ODeath leads the clan in games/skill rank, skulls found, meta-games finished, campaign level finished, social kills, social kills/game, social K/D ratio, total kills/game, and total K/D ratio. His score-whoring is welcome because of his unparalleled skill on the chain gun. He proves that it's more than spray and pray, with two Untouchable and one Invincible medal in his medal chest.
• FishBone10 has been our small team's most consistent fourth. His video game ADD syndrome hurts his H3 skills, but he has racked up an impressive body of work, considering how many other games he has had to play to chalk up a clan leading 15,860 gamerscore. Though he doesn't lead in any individual stat categories, he does trail in the fewest, showing a consistent strength across the board.
• Beer4Porter gets special notice here for being far and away the most persistent n00b, sticking through the tough times to come out on the other side as a respectable team member. Gone are the days of being double digit negative, Porter finished a stringent training regimen through the lower ranked game playlists and actually bests CoolerSopranos2 in several real categories including: games/skill, games/exp, ranked deaths/game, social deaths, social deaths/game, total deaths andn total deaths/game.
• darknorpo has let work take priority over his true love, and his H3 stats have suffered accordingly. Once a clan powerhouse, he is now relegated to being an occasional average contributor. He does shine in games/exp, ranked kills/game and fewest total social deaths. But norpo is a shell of the master chief he once was. Maybe with the new map packs and new achievements, we'll see more of the pink wonder.

As a clan, the active members have logged:

• 4,253 games
• 44,764 kills
• 38,343 deaths
• 10.53 kills/game
• 9.02 deaths/game
• 1.17 kills/death