343 Industries has a new update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One. The new update was hacked by “Yapyap the Destroyer,” a Grunt who was first mentioned in Halo: ODST, adding a host of Yapyap-specific content. The Halo MCC April update has a lot of changes including new game types and increased server response times.
“The Yappening: Two Yaps This Time” was published earlier today, and subsequently updated to include the full patch information. One of the most significant changes is a 60hz server tick rate for MCC. The new 60hz rates will affect client-server and peer-to-peer matches in Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 2 Anniversary. 343 Industries did not comment on Halo Reach and Halo Anniversary‘s exclusion from the increased tick rate. In any case, for those games affected it should be a major boon to competitive play.
Network packets and tick rates are hugely important to multiplayer titles. Prior to this update, Halo servers were running at 30hz and network traffic was even lower from clients. Halo 3, for example, was only sending data packets 15 times per second to the server, and the server was only sending 30 packets per second to clients. The new update increases that to 60hz for both client and server network traffic. As a result, the online experience should be smoother for all updated games and game modes.
The update also adds brand new loading screens to the entire Master Chief Collection. The map name, primary starting weapon, time limit, win score, players in the session, loading states, data center, and game type with a description are shown in multiplayer matches along with overhead diagrams of the map layouts. Campaign and Spartan Ops load screens show mission name, difficulty, skulls, players in the session, and more tooltips.
As for other additions: Halo 2 now supports custom game options, there are two new Yapyap nameplates to unlock, and there are new game types in the “Yappening” social multiplayer playlist. The full patch notes, including all the information about The Yappening, can be found here.
