Welcome to the July-August 2017 Season!

In addition to the start of a new Arena Season, we've got a few new Arena updates releasing today as well. From improved matchmaking to playlist updates in Free-For-All and Doubles, to the return of Snipers, this season is packed with newness. In this write-up, we'll shed some light on our thought process and provide a list of the exact changes made to matchmaking to get you ready for your placement matches. Without further ado, let's dive right in!

Fireteam Size Searching (party matching)

As many of you know, Josh Menke, our Lead Engagement Designer, has been working with the team here to make sure matchmaking is as fair and as enjoyable as possible. Today we implemented a change that will ensure that we try matching teams against other teams, which means that solo players will become less likely to run into full squads while searching in matchmaking. Here is what he had to say about the new search parameters:

Starting this new season, full Fireteams will only try and find other full Fireteams at first while matchmaking. As discussed in prior updates, this is a stopgap solution while we complete work on much better improvement coming down the road later. This will result in full Fireteams having more challenging matches when other Fireteams are available, and those not in full Fireteams seeing a few less uneven matches.

Free-For-All

We're always keeping an eye on all of our playlists, and thought that Free-For-All and Doubles could use a little extra love and attention, so we set out to improve both experiences. As a note, these are not any sort of "final" updates for a set period of time, but rather iterative changes that will continue to be made based on your feedback. To provide design insight on these improvements, we asked Multiplayer Designer Sara Stern to give us some insight into each playlist in our most recent Community Update. For convenience, here's what she said about the changes to Free-For-All

Each map in the Free-For-All playlist now has custom initial starting spawns and reduced ammo and weapon count. In some cases, we've moved the map's power weapons to a central point to ensure each player has a good chance at securing them off starting spawn. To increase the opportunities for kills and respond to community feedback, the player respawn time has been decreased to 6 seconds. The Active Camo power up has been removed from all FFA maps with the exception of Truth HCS FFA.

In addition, we've trimmed maps from the FFA rotation to provide a more focused and polished experience. The HCS variants of FFA maps – Truth, Regret, and Mercy – will continue to have their HCS tournament weapon layouts.

For you eager Lone Wolves, here's a list of all of the details!

Game Mode Changes

Respawn Time

Reduced to 6 Seconds from 8 Seconds

Map changes

Coliseum

Custom initial spawns



Removed SPNKr Rocket Launcher from Yellow Tower



Removed Splinter Grenade from Grass



Removed Battle Rifle from Grass



Replaced DMRs with Battle Rifles on Red/Blue Wing



Moved Sniper Rifle to Bottom Mid



Reduced Sniper Rifle spare clip size by one



Moved Silenced Assault Rifle slightly towards the bottom of Yellow Tower



Moved Brute Plasma Rifle from Top Mid to Grass



Balanced initial spawn point positioning

Eden

Custom Initial Spawns



Removed Brute Plasma Rifle from Red Nest



Replaced SPNKr Rocket Launcher with Brute Plasma Rifle on Turbine



Moved Sniper Rifle from Blue Nest to Pit Box



Reduced Sniper Rifle spare clip size by one



Reduced Hydra Launcher spare clip size by one



Balanced initial spawn point positioning

Empire

Custom initial spawns



Removed Active Camouflage power-up from Tower Two



Removed Plasma Pistol from Mid



Moved Overshield power-up from Outside to Pit



Replaced Battle Rifle with Plasma Pistol on Tower Two



Replaced DMRs with Battle Rifles at Red and Blue Platforms



Balanced initial spawn point positioning

Fathom

Custom initial spawns



Removed Battle Rifle from Red and Blue Yard



Replaced Active Camouflage power-up with Storm Rifle on Top Mid



Replaced Boltshots with Battle Rifles at Red and Blue Vat



Reduced Railgun spare clip size by two



Balanced initial spawn point positioning

Plaza

Custom Initial Spawns



Removed Sniper Rifle from Nest



Removed SMG from Yard



Replaced Boltshot at Eastgate with SMG



Replaced Overshield with Sniper Rifle on Top Mid



Balanced initial spawn point positioning

Stasis

Custom initial spawns



Replaced Rocket Launcher with Reach Grenade Launcher on Top Mid



Replaced Brute Plasma Rifles with single Splinter Grenades on Red and Blue Catwalk



Replaced Recon DMRs with Battle Rifles on Red and Blue Base



Reduced Hydra Launcher spare clip size by one



Swapped SMGs with the three Frag Grenades at Red and Blue Base



Added Brute Plasma Rifles to Red and Blue Yard



Balanced initial spawn point positioning

The Rig

Custom initial spawns



Removed Active Camouflage power-up from Hatch



Replaced Sniper Rifle with two Plasma Grenades on Nest



Moved Scattershot from Yellow Corner to Drill Platform



Reduced Scattershot spare clip size by one



Added Sniper Rifle to Pit Door



Reduced Sniper Rifle spare clip size by one



Balanced initial spawn point positioning

Torque

Custom initial spawns



Removed one Splinter Grenade each from Red and Blue Closet



Removed Halo 2 Battle Rifles from Red and Blue Yard



Replaced Sniper Rifles with Battle Rifles on Red and Blue Nest



Replaced Active Camouflage power-up with Sniper Rifle in Bottom Mid



Reduced Sniper Rifle spare clip size by one



Balanced initial spawn point positioning

Doubles

As mentioned above, Sara discussed the Doubles changes that would be rolling into the playlist with the July-August 2017 Season in our last Community Update:

After the refresh in February, high-level players reported that the quicker respawn time increased the pace of the game to the point that a team of two could not collapse successfully before the enemy team respawned. To help alleviate these issues, player respawn time has been increased to 6 seconds. We’ve also swapped power weapons on several maps to bring Doubles closer to the layout you’ll find in other Ranked playlists. Some REQ variants of weapons have been removed or had their spawn time adjusted to better match their effectiveness.

Here's the breakdown for Doubles:

Game Mode Changes

Respawn Timer

Increased from 5 Seconds to 6 Seconds

Map changes

Empire

Replaced COG DMR at Tower Three with standard DMR

Coliseum

Replaced COG DMR at Yellow Tower with standard DMR

Regret

Replaced Railgun at Nest with Grenade Launcher (3 shots total)

Tyrant

Replaced Plasma Caster at Moon Deck with Sniper Rifle (1 spare clip)



Replaced Camo at Basement with Overshield

Plaza

Replaced Binary Rifle at Cinema with Sniper Rifle (1 spare clip)

Eden

Replaced COG DMR at Red Nest with standard DMR

Snipers

Your favorite sharpshooting playlist has made it's return to ranked matchmaking! It will be live for the entire duration of the July-August 2017 Season, and will only feature Arena maps.

Map Changes

Added Stasis to map rotation

Removed Boulevard and Guillotine (to make Snipers exclusive to Arena maps)

Before wrapping up this post, we wanted to include one final note from Sara:

We appreciate the feedback we’ve received about these playlists. We read your comments, even if we don’t respond right away. Special thanks goes to Vetoed, who distilled a lot of community concerns and great suggestions into a thoughtful document, and the players who continued to give constructive feedback in Doubles and FFA feedback threads on Waypoint. We’re keeping an eye on both of these playlists going forward, so keep leaving us feedback on the latest changes.

Thanks for reading up on all of the exciting changes this Season, and as Sara said, please continue to leave feedback in the Matchmaking Feedback & Discussion Forum here on Waypoint.

See you in the Arena!