Matchmaker 2.0

Suggestions PvP
#1

After a very unpleasant series of pug PvP where I was teamed up with people who, well, don’t even try to follow the objectives (or can’t, or aren’t aware of them…), I’ve given some thought to how the matchmaking system should work, given the current player-base, their average number and skill.

 

First off, I think it’d be a good idea to have a sort of form to fill in before joining pug PvP. Or maybe alternatively, much like there’s the option to choose what server you’d like to play (Europe, NA, Asia, etc.), to be able to decide whether you’d like to play completely randomly - and by that I mean the current system - or “accordingly to your needs”.

 

The not-that-random system would be based on actual player stats. Aces would no longer be able to play with veterans outside the random system if either of them didn’t wish so, and they both would be defined based on their stats: win/loss ratio, kills per battle, assists per battle.

 

Basically, the idea is to have a form with tickable options: “Find me a team based on x stat”, ticking which would do just that. For better performance, I’d suggest having some categories. Like: “Match me with teammates who kill at least x enemy ships per battle on average” (but you wouldn’t be able to have, say, 6 for x if your own ratio is 2.5).

 

Also, I’d like to see there an option like “prevent squads from joining”, because squads in pug PvP usually make the game simply awful for the other teammates of the worse squad.

 

Hell, you could even add such options like “don’t let me be the captain in Combat Recon” or “don’t search for Detonation matches”. The dev’s could also see which modes need some work, if they’re statistically most avoided.

 

I realise this system would make you wait longer, but I honestly prefer to wait a few minutes longer to getting frustrated over my teammates’ blatant inability to do anything at all in a game (or completely annihilating my opponents, which isn’t that fun in the long run). The old, current system would still work as the “basic” one, but I’d really like such options available to me.

 

Any thoughts?

#2

 

After a very unpleasant series of pug PvP where I was teamed up with people who, well, don’t even try to follow the objectives (or can’t, or aren’t aware of them…), I’ve given some thought to how the matchmaking system should work, given the current player-base, their average number and skill.

Yes the enemy has them too. As solo player you have to carry the games to balance them out.

 

 

First off, I think it’d be a good idea to have a sort of form to fill in before joining pug PvP. Or maybe alternatively, much like there’s the option to choose what server you’d like to play (Europe, NA, Asia, etc.), to be able to decide whether you’d like to play completely randomly - and by that I mean the current system - or “accordingly to your needs”.

You already can filter matching to a specific server, check the options.

 

 

The not-that-random system would be based on actual player stats. Aces would no longer be able to play with veterans outside the random system if either of them didn’t wish so, and they both would be defined based on their stats: win/loss ratio, kills per battle, assists per battle.

That’s done in T1 as newb-protection, not the upper tiers. It’s a nice idea, but would trastically diversify players - matching time will explode -> not viable with current population.

 

 

Basically, the idea is to have a form with tickable options: “Find me a team based on x stat”, ticking which would do just that. For better performance, I’d suggest having some categories. Like: “Match me with teammates who kill at least x enemy ships per battle on average” (but you wouldn’t be able to have, say, 6 for x if your own ratio is 2.5)

Overly complex.

 

 

Also, I’d like to see there an option like “prevent squads from joining”, because squads in pug PvP usually make the game simply awful for the other teammates of the worse squad.

That’s true, but it normalizes over time since you get to play on the good squads side too, if you have avrg stats. If you stats are above average you are used to balance out the good squad, if your sides squad is sheit. Which actually accomplishes your the previous quoted point. You are now matched against ppl of equal or higher skill than you.

 

 

Hell, you could even add such options like “don’t let me be the captain in Combat Recon” or “don’t search for Detonation matches”. The dev’s could also see which modes need some work, if they’re statistically most avoided.

The modes were I believe always random, at least starting from 2012. The chosen cpt in CR was i believe reduced to the 3 best players. 

 

Your suggestions are reasonable for a higher population, but a former poll showed that the majority accepted slightly longer waiting times for bigger matches (which would contradict your points in a way, since higher match-count means wider skill ranges of participating players), but all hell breaks lose if there’s a waiting time over 3-5mins

#3

 

Yes the enemy has them too. As solo player you have to carry the games to balance them out.

That’s true, but it normalizes over time since you get to play on the good squads side too, if you have avrg stats. If you stats are above average you are used to balance out the good squad, if your sides squad is sheit. Which actually accomplishes your the previous quoted point. You are now matched against ppl of equal or higher skill than you.

I’m aware bad streaks happen to everyone. I don’t mind losing that much, I just find it very frustrating that I keep getting paired with people who don’t even try to do anything to win the game. Like guys who kill absolutely no-one, their total efficiency is around 200 after the whole game, yet they die 5 times or more. I’m saying this both from the position of someone being paired with such pilots, and someone on the opposing team - because winning a game is almost all about farming that one guy over and over again in order to score points. I doubt it’s fun for them, and I know it isn’t fun for me; not when it happens in ~80% of all games.

 

 

You already can filter matching to a specific server, check the options.

Yes, that’s what I said. High ping and long waiting time are things no pilot wants, that’s why they have the option to either play with low ping risking long waiting time, or they can switch to “any server”, which will find any game, anywhere, but likely with 150+ ms ping.

 

Why not have a similar option with teammates/opponents? It’s all the same to me. Having such aces in your team is incomparably worse than flying with 200 ping, so if you’re willing to wait longer to have a decent match without lag and you can do so if you please, why can’t you wait longer to have some fun with people who know how to play competitively?

 

 

 

Basically, the idea is to have a form with tickable options: “Find me a team based on x stat”, ticking which would do just that. For better performance, I’d suggest having some categories. Like: “Match me with teammates who kill at least x enemy ships per battle on average” (but you wouldn’t be able to have, say, 6 for x if your own ratio is 2.5)

Overly complex.

I disagree. The current system already seems to be somewhat balancing teams, just based on stats that don’t really matter, like pilot rating. It’s as easy as winning a single T5 match to be considered “a pilot that needs to be counter-balanced” in, say, a T2 or T3 game, because your rating will skyrocket, compared to the average T2 rating. Even if you’re an ace yourself.

 

It would work similarly with such categories, but it would be simply more accurate than what it is now. Having a glance at some random people’s profiles, it seems that the average player has the ratio of about 2.5 kills/battle. But there are people who have below 2 kills. I even know some who have around 1 kill per battle, and chances are you’d probably find at least some who have even less than that.

 

To help visualise how I see this:

I’m not in-game now, but my kill/battle ratio is now something around 4.2. When I queue up, having the ratio that I have, I would be able to choose from such options as:

Search for pilots (both teammates and opponents, obviously) with the kill/battle ratio of not less than:

  • 1.0

  • 2.0

  • 2.5

  • 3.0

  • 3.5

  • 4.0

  • 4.5

Higher ratios would be grayed out for me. This would mean that someone with the ratio of 12.6 or whatever would still be able to see me in game, if they lowered their expectations of the match to be for people with the ratio of 4.0 and above. This would also mean that I wouldn’t be able to completely obliterate people with the ratio of 1.0 if I ticked the option of “3.0 and above”. Ticking the lowest possible options would mean just as much as wanting to start any match, like in the current system.

 

Naturally, it doesn’t need to be tickable at all… It can be a dialogue window where you type in the values you want, but it seems to be easier to explain like that. It wouldn’t even take much coding to show how many players are currently queued to give you better insight as to what you can expect at any given time, from any given category.