Halo ATLAS brings non-silent cartography to Windows Phone on December 10

WP Central

Microsoft commencement announced the addition of an ATLAS to Halo Waypoint back in October. But the ATLAS didn't evidence up with the Halo WayPoint Mango update that coincided with Halo Anniversary'southward release. Thankfully we've learned today that the ATLAS is not very far off – it'south coming this Sabbatum, December 10.

Halo ATLAS uses maps (sponsored by Brady Games) to provide valuable multiplayer information to Halo Reach and Ceremony players. When we say Halo Anniversary players, we really mean Reach players considering the non-campaign Ceremony multiplayer but piggybacks off of Reach.

The connectivity with Achieve is possible considering during multiplayer games, Reach constantly sends out packets of data called heartbeats that contain gameplay status. Halo ATLAS provides a bunch of that information in well-nigh-existent-time to smartphone users.

Features

Some of Halo ATLAS'due south features:

Weapon and vehicle spawn locations for Matchmaking and Firefight games.
Health pack locations.
Near-real-time locations for weapons and vehicles during Custom Multiplayer games.
Your location and that of your team members displayed on the map.
Visual indicators when your teammates are engaged in combat and when they are killed, and fifty-fifty when they positioning themselves to strike
'Follow me' fashion to runway your movement.
Dynamic role player listing, including current score for the teams and each player and equipped weapon for you and your teammates.

Access to all of this information during multiplayer games could potentially change the remainder of matches, something 343 has already considered. Equally such, the near-existent-time information won't announced during ranked matches. You lot'll still be able to view maps with weapon and vehicle spawns, simply won't come across player locations or where weapons and vehicles get moved. It sounds like that bumps ATLAS downwards from indispensable to just a fun gadget, but it should still helpful in custom games.

While having an advantage over other players wouldn't be an issue during cooperative Firefight games, ATLAS won't support well-nigh-real-time updates in Firefight maps just yet. Improved Firefight support should come with a time to come update.

Coming shortly to a smartphone well-nigh you lot

Halo ATLAS iOS

One surprising office of today's announcement is that Halo WayPoint and ATLAS volition exist coming to iOS and Android platforms, non but Windows Phone. Permit me to editorialize for a bit. While multiplatform availability is a good thing for gamers in general, publishing WayPoint and ATLAS on competing platforms definitely sends mixed signals about Microsoft'due south conviction in their own mobile platform. Afterwards all, every fourth dimension a Windows Phone-exclusive feature moves off to other pastures, that's ane less reason for people to switch over to Windows Telephone. On the plus side, ATLAS will exist complimentary on Microsoft'south platform but cost $4.99 on iOS and Android. That's kind of an advantage for Windows Phone.

The future of ATLAS

ATLAS will receive several new features downward the line in improver to the aforementioned improved Firefight support. Some possibilities include support for user-customized FORGE maps, more data for objective-based maps (flag, oddball, and loma location, etc.), and a spectator mode for viewing tournament games. The more of these ideas finish upwardly in the production, the more than useful it will be to Halo Reach players.

The Halo ATLAS update to Halo WayPoint is scheduled for this Saturday in English-speaking countries. ATLAS will be released in other languages soon thereafter.

Source: Halo Waypoint – The Halo Bulletin

Thanks to Mouthsmasher for the tip!