Dubbed Drop Pods, a Quality-Of-Life (QoL) updates that are released within seasons containing bug fixes and improvements to the game is making its debut next week in Halo: Infinite, 343 has just announced on Twitter.
Check out below what’s coming in the next update:
Accessibility
- The in-game text chat window will now consistently show the latest messages received
- Various issues tied to the User Interface (UI) Narration option in the Accessibility tab of the Settings menu have been resolved
Menus (UXUI)
- Menu optimizations should result in faster load times of the Battle Pass, Challenge, and Shop pages. The improvement should be more noticeable on lower-spec hardware.
- The loading screen has been updated to feature Season 2’s “Lone Wolves” key art, which will replace the Zeta Halo ravine image
- Addressed an issue that prevented unlocked Event Pass rewards from appearing in the post-match reward screen
- Fixed a bug that showed rewards as locked in the Event Pass when they were unlocked
Multiplayer & Sandbox
- The durability of light vehicles (Banshee, Mongoose, and Wasp) and medium vehicles (Warthog, Chopper, Ghost, Shade) has been slightly increased to foster better vehicle play
- The Scorpion tank’s controls have been adjusted and should feel more intuitive
- The volume of the Disruptor’s supercombine sound has been reduced when heard from a distance
- An issue that could result in repeating VFX and SFX (such as repeated grenade explosions, shield recharging, etc.) has been resolved
- An issue where players could mark or “ping” opponents through walls has been resolved
Performance & stability improvements
- Xbox One stability has been improved to reduce instances of players not entering matchmaking games
- All changes to Target Frame Rate in the Settings tab are now reflected in-game for Xbox Series X|S users
Ranked Matchmaking
When this Drop Pod lands, so will two features targeted at improving the Ranked experience.
The first is that new accounts will need to complete 25 matches in social playlists before they can queue in Ranked Arena. As mentioned in this blog 3, this serves to improve things in a few different ways. First, it will give our various systems a chance to detect cheaters and griefers before they jump into Ranked on a new account. This detection period and the time commitment of having to play 25 games will also add friction for those repeatedly making new accounts with bad intent. Third, it helps ensure that any truly new players are familiar with the basics before they enter an environment where their (and their teammates’) Ranks are on the line.
Please note: If you’ve already played 25 matchmade games of Halo Infinite, you will be able to jump straight into Ranked.
The second feature is meant to help reduce the frequency of under/over-performers in Ranked matches. With this update, Ranked matchmaking will require Fireteam members to be within a certain range of each other’s Competitive Skill Rank (CSR).
Previously, if an Onyx player teamed up with a Silver player, the Onyx player would likely over-perform and the Silver player would likely under-perform. This could cause frustration or disappointment not only among teammates but with the other team as well. By implementing this feature, we can start to ensure competitive matches more consistently.
The CSR range is applied based off the highest-ranked player in the Fireteam, and works like this:
- For 899 CSR (Gold 6) or lower, there are no restrictions
- At 900 CSR (Platinum 1), a limit of 900 points is introduced.
- Between 900 CSR (Platinum 1) and 1500 CSR (Onyx), the Fireteam CSR limit will slowly tighten as you climb the ranks. It will start at the 900 limit mentioned above and tighten to its final destination of 600. This essentially means that on the way to Onyx, every 2 CSR gained will tighten the Fireteam limit by an increment of 1 CSR.
For example, if a player progresses from 900 CSR (Platinum 1) to 1200 CSR (Diamond 1), their Fireteam CSR limit would tighten from 900 to a stricter 750. At this new 1200 CSR, the lowest rank they could party up with would then be 1200 (their CSR) – 750 (the Fireteam CSR limit) = 450, or Silver 4.
- At 1500 CSR and above, the limit is 600 points.
For example, if a player was Onyx 1700, the lowest CSR they could party up with would be 1100, or Platinum 5.
- Unranked players can only Fireteam with other not-yet-qualified players, and with qualified players up to CSR 899 (Gold 6)
For now, we are intentionally starting on the looser side, but we’ll adjust these ranges over time based on data and player feedback.
