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I still have to test this but I can foresee one problem.
You are introducing a feature that promotes people making squads.
But then you cap it to one squad per team.
While the rule will be great if enough population is reached, we will see if the waiting times for squads suffer anyway.
But it is a good step in the right direction.
I don’t think the cap is a good move personally. I don’t have a problem with playing games where everyone is in a squad - it’s just that squads are more powerful in smaller games.
The other problem is Killsquads. 4 elite pilots on teamspeak are not balanced by putting them against three randoms who formed a squad because they are friends just trying out a new tier. As it stands, the matchmaking doesn’t do nearly enough to make sure that both sides get a good mix of players, and this only gets worse in smaller matches. 4 vs 4 and the like often turn into one side being tier-rushing morons and the others being beta-era vets.
[JasanQuinn](< base_url >/index.php?/user/240349-jasanquinn/)
This fix is in a test mode. We need to see you opinion guys. and according to it we will keep it or not. Give it some time. Try it out.
I’m not seeking to dismiss it out of hand, but I don’t think the test servers will give you any valid information on where the real issues lie in teaming.
The people on test servers will be much more dedicated to the game, and thus more skilled. This means they’re probably already in a corp, more likely to use teamspeak, and are just generally better at coordinating.
The issues lie with everyone else: the less coordinated people; the people who want to squad with friends for fun, especially in T1 and T2; the people who can’t (or won’t) get on a communication channel.
The entire backlash against squads began way back in Beta because ESB and the like were basically keeping everyone else out of the endgame. Every T4 match was 4 randoms vs an ESB squad, and so nobody wanted to fly T4. At least in T3 you could stagger your queues to avoid them when they flew there, but T3 was “balanced” by the fact that there were enough players the games were large, and enough squads that both sides had a strong core of pilots for the randoms to latch onto.
T3 was fine in the 0.7 / 0.8 era when it was 12-16 pilots per side and each side had 2-3 good squads. Now we’re getting 8v8 with one bad squad and one good squad on each side, which is causing problems. But people don’t blame the matchmaker for putting weak players vs strong; they blame the fact that “squads are too strong!”, ignoring the fact that the squad on their team wasn’t any stronger than randoms.
The game doesn’t need these seemingly arbitrary limits on squads - we need a matchmaking system that can tell the difference between four random players in a squad, and four ESB pilots on teamspeak.
The game doesn’t need these seemingly arbitrary limits on squads - we need a matchmaking system that can tell the difference between four random players in a squad, and four ESB pilots on teamspeak.
The problem with that is that you can’t fix the MM so it makes balanced teams if one of them have a 4 men ESB squad. There are very few players that can balance that, and having them on queue at the same time is almost impossible.
So in case they make something like that, the 4 men ESB squad won’t be able to play.
The problem with that is that you can’t fix the MM so it makes balanced teams if one of them have a 4 men ESB squad. There are very few players that can balance that, and having them on queue at the same time is almost impossible.
So in case they make something like that, the 4 men ESB squad won’t be able to play.
Well, there are a few avenues to explore there, but there need not be a one-size-fits-all solution.
Matchmaking imbalance is always going to be made worse by low player count, both in individual matches and the game as a whole. This is one of the reasons I’d prefer the matchmaking try to give us games with 16 people per side, rather than 12 people total.
And yes, there should be a point where the killsquads are allowed to take on weaker squads. But that should be a last resort option. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of a curb stomp battle, and I can remember when it was common practice to simply not queue while ESB was in queue, then try to get a game while they’re ruining someone else’s match.
Actually, I seem to recall the killsquads lost some of their clout back when 4-man squads were removed entirely. I don’t know if that would work now or if that was just because of the meta at the time, but it seemed that the ability of squads to dictate the match was lessened then.
But ideally, I’d like to see the higher tiers be used the way they were always meant to be - a place where stronger pilots go to fly routinely. As it is, I’ve stopped caring about T4 and T5 PvP because I can’t be bothered grinding for the gear I need, all the ships I need to be strong with for SQ are T3, and whenever I do stray into higher tiers the matches are too small for me to enjoy them.
Nice change now we don’t have to wait that much in 2 man squad :006j:
YES
That is all
YAY! Now I can finally squad in the higher tiers and actually get a game during off peak hours!
Perfectly implemented. I love the cap, as it will allow mm to simply make more games quickly. With having two squads in a team, MM takes 4 squads out of the queue and bottlenecks the speed that those pilots will find games. Great job!
YES! OMFG YES.
Already got some t5 squad games because of this. New best part of the patch!
Incentives for teaming in team focused shooter, what kind of sorcery is this
The MM does try to balance pilots and squads, because I’m always on the “Ace” squad side every time there is a larger experienced squad 
and yet MM put both 2 man squad on one side…
and yet MM put both 2 man squad on one side…
Oh god, wtf.
This looks like a bug. And it was exactly the issue when 2 man squads were restricted to mandatory pair on eney side and could no longer face randoms
and yet MM put both 2 man squad on one side…
Same corp squads cannot face each other. I suppose that rule overwrote the new one.
[images removed to save space]
and yet MM put both 2 man squad on one side…
Saw this, but with a 2man and a 3man of differing corps and no squad on the other team. I was a pub on the other team.
We won, though, so I guess it wasn’t too heavily unbalanced…
Guys, thank you for informing us about it. We’ll fix this.