It’s been a month since the collection released for the Xbox One, so the updates and patches must be doing something right. The most recent update began rolling out today, and should be a difficult one to miss out on. As soon as The Master Chief Collection is loaded up, players will be prompted to download and install the patch as soon as possible (provided the system hasn’t already done it on its own).

Following that all too familiar process, things should be smoother than ever before. For both 343 and the existing Halo community, that’s sure to offer some amount of comfort. Here’s a small sampling from the patch notes:

Spartan Ops:

Added the entirety of Halo 4’s Spartan Ops mode

Matchmaking:

Made an update to make sure a match only starts when teams are even. Players will now receive a ‘loss’ when disconnecting before a round has ended. Made an update to include all split screen players in vote tally. Resolved an issue that caused players to become stuck “Joining Session. ” Resolved an issue where players could be dropped from matchmaking after disconnecting their controller.

General Multiplayer Updates:

Made additional improvements to Halo: CE hit registration. Made an update to the “Halo 2: Anniversary Career Progress” page to ensure achievements are correctly tracked. Fixed an issue where it took a long time to join players that are in a Multiplayer lobby.

Additionally, the developer decided to address the sizable amount of concerns regarding dedicated servers - specifically, whether of not the MCC actually has them. Contrary to what you may believe, dedicated servers are present within the collection. And according to 343, they’ve been there the whole time:

Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s post-launch life hasn’t been the best for either side. Although, with the various updates and constant communication from 343, the collection can only improve. To compensate for the game’s launch woes, owners of the game are primed to receive an HD remake of Halo 3: ODST for free upon its release. Seeing as how ODST has one of the best Halo stories, it’s certainly a decent way to say ‘sorry.’

“Please be aware that you may connect to the dedicated server quickly enough that you won’t see the ‘connecting to dedicated server’ dialog. The absence of that dialog doesn’t mean that you’re not playing on a dedicated server.”

Source: Halo Waypoint