Author Topic: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking  (Read 81067 times)

Offline awkm

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Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« on: February 21, 2014, 04:36:46 pm »
Now that it's in Dev App, people have been worried.  I've spoken with many people individually and I feel like a broken record right now.  So here's everything we have planned. 

Not all the major features are currently in.  We are only testing the ability of matchmaking itself and if can actually work.





Problems to Solve and Goals of Matchmaking:

Matchmaking, ultimately, is an to improve player retention and user experience flow.  There are a variety of problems that matchmaking looks to solve, a small subset includes:

- Ease of finding a match
- Information overload (related to above)
- Time for match to Ready Up
- Teams being stacked
- Reduce performance overhead

Having a matchmaking system directly solves all those issues to some degree (we have more things to do with match readiness for the future).

That's the gist of it.  All of these didn't happen overnight, if we could do it overnight that would be fantastic and Adventure Mode would be done tomorrow.  We took a lot of time planning this out and thinking of all the issues that will arise with matchmaking.  It took an equally long time to implement the basic fundamentals for matchmaking.  So we need to test that first.

For now, matchmaking will try to make crews of 1 Captain/Pilot, 2 Engineers, and 1 Gunner.  For other variations, you can use Crew Formation and join matchmaking with a custom crew composition.

Ramifications of Matchmaking

There are lot of things that will change or disappear.  Here are some of those things (both what we thought of and concerns from you) :

- Finding people
- Match list
- Finding a game you like (map etc.)
- Socializing

We're hoping to remove Match List.  This is probably the most controversial step and many of you have threatened to leave if we do it, but please believe us when we say that we have a plan to solve all the complaints coming out of this.  The Match List, for us, is actually very cumbersome.  It's a huge performance overhead and performance bottleneck so getting rid of it will help us a lot in tuning other aspects of the game/servers.

We want to make it easier for you to find a match.  By using the various preference toggles, Crew Forming, or joining matchmaking on your own we hope that new and old players will be able to play the game faster (browsing a match list and waiting in lobbies is not playing) with people that will challenge them (no stomping or being stomped).

Here is what you can do:

- You can choose what map preference you have as well as size (the matchmaking system will do its best to respect your preferences but will begin relax if you've been waiting a long time.  The flow is actually very similar to creating a match that no one is interested in, you end up waiting for a long time and end up giving up.)
- You can use Crew Formation to play with the people you want to and enter matchmaking together either as a single crew or a team and still have preferences too
- And if you still can't find what you're looking for or want to do a tournament... create a Custom Match (just like how you crate matches now) and invite your clan mates, friends, achievement farmers, etc... Custom Match will be there for you.  Custom Match will completely bypass matchmaking so make sure to invite people and get full crews formed.

Things that aren't in yet

There are a few of these:

- Reducing time for match readiness.  Currently, matchmaking will just dump you into a match lobby.  In the future, we're going to streamline this so you can talk to discuss loadouts but are encouraged to focus a lot more.  This system will also prevent players from last second changing their loadout/having people stop being ready.
- Displacing socializing.  We're looking to displace social features in the pre-match lobby (when you do loadout) into a special post-match lobby.  Even add some features too.  In the post-match lobby you will be able to text and voice chat with the players, make friends by requesting to enter Crew Formation with your single crew or team and then enter matchmaking again, ask for a rematch, check out your achievements and stats (more fleshed out match-end screen), and just hang out to shoot the shit.
- Featured Matches/Events.  Because of the lack of Match List, you won't be able to see things like Dev Matches or Tournaments going on.  Don't worry, we will have a limited list of scheduled events that players can look at, be reminded of (through notification if they choose to be reminded), and ability to join.  Because it is a very small match list, the performance overhead is significantly decreased.  We will put things like dev matches as well as upcoming touraments and so worth with information on how to sign up (a part of the bigger new Community features that will also help displace a lot of other social features).


Again, not all of this stuff is in.  We are aiming to just efficacy of matchmaking only.  When we schedule tests, does it put you into a match relatively quickly is the main question. 

As with all testing, we'd like you to try these new features before you speculate.  Yes, this is a big change on how things happened before but we can't be afraid of mixing it up to take bigger steps forward.  Many of you are skeptical, and we can't blame you.  However, please give us the benefit of the doubt and help us test these features to the best of your abilities.  We are always listening to feedback and believe that these features can make the game better overall.

More details on what feedback we're looking for when we begin testing matchmaking effectiveness will be posted later but to summarize is that we're looking for if it works and user flow issues.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2014, 05:18:47 pm by awkm »

Offline Crafeksterty

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2014, 05:14:19 pm »
Basicaly, goio will no longer be Loio (Lobbies of Icarus Online) And i fully support this idea.

But we really need confirmation about a bunch of people joining the same specific game. That is a must for us clan and team folk who want to fight eachother.
It is pretty much that which worries us. If there is an obvious or easy, or a very solid way of joining a specific game without too much Friending of a friend and friend that guy and all other guys, then its ok.

Offline awkm

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2014, 05:17:41 pm »
Yes, that is Custom Match.  You will be able to invite your friends into it or have friends join on you (we will also offer password support if we really need to, the user flow for the specifics of join on friend is still being ironed out ).  And yes, Custom Match bypasses matchmaking completely.

This is how tournaments will probably work.

For dev matches, we will create a Custom Match and then link it to the Featured Matches so people can join it publicly by just clicking.  Again, the particular flow details are being worked on still.

Offline Tropo

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2014, 05:41:24 pm »
Dear Muse i feel like you are going down a bad path of doing way too much uneed work and wasted time when you have real problems

paritan rumble looks like shit and has been broken for 3 or 4 months
      frist you had Velcro
     then it was the wrong map
    wel now it have Velcro and flying buildings and invisible cranes or some shit along with floating trees WTF?

you still need to put root in and support the current player base with in game community features

support clans you might as well we are 60 to 70% of the retestus player base

all the coding problems and dc, di-sinking and the steam issue


im some time wounder if you guy even have a plan
start with pro's and con's before leaping in to matchmaking it doesn't fit in this game

other problem i see related to matchmaking that you haven't mentions is how will new player learn if they can't talk to the person that just beat them

so one day that player might beat all the other noobs and get to play in one of the big boys lobby's and they will get stomped
and i have to be honest im not a fav of stacking or stomping you can offern hear me tell people why there ship not going to work

i can also see a lot of other problems with ship load out and just being chucked in to a game i can't see my favorite part of this game staying or surviving which is strategy

im not going to threaten you  "many of you have threatened to leave if we do it" but i would never buy or play a game that has match making and would view games in a bad way and any game that has them i come to this game with 16 friends from real life only 2 of them still playing

i have a clan of 15 and about 20 casual friends no one i have spoken to likes any of these idea and we really don't think matchmaking fits this game

tropo is pissed off and i don't speak for all of sacrilege im sure they will coment on there own time



Offline Puppy Fur

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2014, 06:41:14 pm »
It's hard to put in words all the reasons I love lobby/server systems in games. I feel the same about my hate for matchmaking.

I do worry how much work is being put in to this. If the community dislikes the final product, that production time is a bit of a waste (which is ok since your trying to go for something to improve the game), but will that just go past dev app no matter what our opinions are? I've seen many other companies change/add things players don't want and ruin the game for many people even though the testers have stated the update shouldn't happen.

I worry a lot. But, that's good. Cuz I love the game :3

Offline awkm

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2014, 07:02:10 pm »
Please make sure that you thoroughly read my original post before you raise your concerns.  A lot of the issues that you may have are considered in the post.  E.g. how will new players learn after they are beat... there will be a post-match lobby for people to speak.

We spend a lot of time considering these features.  To also blame us for things that we cannot control (like Steam related issues) is completely unfair.  We work hard, squashing over 50 bugs in the last 2 months, to make this game good.

As I said in the original post, we are indeed working on community features which includes better clan and event support, but this is not the place to talk about it.  We're talking about strictly the goals and ramifications of matchmaking and the steps and new features to maintain what we lose from removing match list.



We want matchmaking to work.  We'll do what we can to make it work and have it satisfactory for everyone.  At the end of it, we believe that there is a good way to do matchmaking that will satisfy even the harshest opponents.


Again, my biggest rule is TEST before you speculate.  All this is here to try to clear the air and be transparent with our intentions.  Testing will be happening soon and I hope everyone can participate.

Offline Dev Bubbles

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2014, 07:10:49 pm »
Let me also just chime in real quick and focus the topic a little bit.  We listen to everyone and everything, you guys know that.  But the goal here is to get people to try and give us meaningful, reasonable feedback.  Conjectures are going to be harder for us to process, consider, or act on.  And let me add to what Eric's saying.  We, like all games, have bugs, and we are actively working on them and improving them.  But the fact (and I really mean fact) is that, two of our biggest issues are imbalance and wait time.  The current match list (not lobby, but match list) system pushes against the issues and have not held up well.  We can debate about the merits of the match list as well (and what people like vs don't like), but this cannot be just a blanket opinion.  Once again, we are bringing everyone in to test weeks and months before release, and let's test and let experience and evidence formulate feedback and opinions.  That's where feedback is most helpful. 
Thanks a lot!  Howard

Offline Dev Bubbles

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2014, 07:27:51 pm »
Also, on a maybe more lighthearted side.  I was looking at the feedback I got for scramble, and some of them weren't pretty.  But do note this, that the changes we made the last 2 patches have improved retention statistically.  What suffered vocal negative feedback before implementation and testing did end up achieving its intended purpose.  So just maybe, we do know what we are doing :D 
Regardless, take it easy everyone, and have a great weekend! 

Offline Omniraptor

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2014, 07:28:51 pm »
To all the people complaining: please, clearly list specific use-cases that you fear will not be possible with the new system.

I'll start by listing some I've heard-

I'm worried that I will not be able to see the opponents before I start playing. For example if I'm an engineer I want to know whether or not to take an extra firefighting tool or a buff hammer, depending on whether they have flamethrowers or not.

I'm also worried that it will be harder to host impromptu themed matches, say a match with all squids, or a match for clan recruitment. I know they will still be possible, in fact they will be more visible via the featured match list, but they will take more effort to organise, and organising is not very fun, ask any clan leader.

Offline Velvet

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2014, 07:49:26 pm »
Let me also just chime in real quick and focus the topic a little bit.  We listen to everyone and everything, you guys know that.  But the goal here is to get people to try and give us meaningful, reasonable feedback.  Conjectures are going to be harder for us to process, consider, or act on.  And let me add to what Eric's saying.  We, like all games, have bugs, and we are actively working on them and improving them.  But the fact (and I really mean fact) is that, two of our biggest issues are imbalance and wait time.  The current match list (not lobby, but match list) system pushes against the issues and have not held up well.  We can debate about the merits of the match list as well (and what people like vs don't like), but this cannot be just a blanket opinion.  Once again, we are bringing everyone in to test weeks and months before release, and let's test and let experience and evidence formulate feedback and opinions.  That's where feedback is most helpful. 
Thanks a lot!  Howard
While reasoned feedback is nice... the devapp is not the testing ground you need, simply because nobody plays it, they test it. Which means you are testing "testing", not testing "playing". This is the fundamental flaw, in my opinion, of dev app testing and why it has not been particularly useful to you beyond detecting glaring errors. You will find out if the matchmaking works but nobody will actually know whether it ruins their game experience because in the dev app, you don't have a "game" experience you have a "test" experience. You are only ever going to get a real test of the consequences of matchmaking when you implement it in the game itself and that is why I strongly encourage that you do not remove the matchlist at the same time as implementing matchmaking. A delayed end goal of a removed matchlist is a  more sensible proposition - once you've proven that the conjecture is mistaken and everything works perfectly as predicted. But if matchmaking is not good, or people are simply alienated by the sudden and forceful replacement of the old, comfortable system then I think it's safe to say the damage to your core playerbase will be unprecedented and irreparable.

Your matchmaking is one thing: you want it, you are going to implement it and that's probably OK. But your intention to immediately destroy the prior system is both alienating to your longtime players and just immensely silly - it is making the enormous gamble that the matchmaking will be perfect.

the following is perhaps to some extent the conjecture that you don't want. I have given my reasons why in this case I think dev app testing is far less useful than conjecture and I think they are good ones.
Hopefully at least some of this is specific enough? and not too long. ^^


The idea that there should not be a long pre-match lobby I think indicates a significant lack of understanding by Muse of the game you have created. Firstly, you apparently don't appreciate the strategic depth or where that strategy takes place. This game is one where matches are often decided before they start - through co-ordination, correct equipment choices, tailoring your ship to your crew, your loadout to your ship and your ship to your allies and enemies. Choosing by class and even skill level is NEVER going to be enough to assemble proper crews.

You intend to offer players no choice in the crew they are a part of. You have built a game of endless possibilities and are now saying "No possibilities for you! We're just going to shove you onto a ship you didn't choose, do everything we can to discourage taking time to think about and prepare for the huge breadth of tactical gameplay and prematch options and force you  to work within this prevalent but by no means completely dominant crew composition." What if you don't want to run double engineer? What if you wanted to try crewing on a specific ship? What if you realise its in your team's best interests to swap class with another crewmember? I find it ridiculous that we are expected to press gang three friends every time we want to try something slightly different or have any real prematch preparation.

Then there's retention. Who teaches new players? Other new players? Of course not. Sure, they play some novice matches until level 3 and it's probably good for them - but I believe most of the people who actually get into the game and make the rare transition from new to experienced do it through association with experienced players. You know, in those matches that incorporate a mix of skill levels and I'm assuming would never happen in your new system. (most new players seem to give up pretty early - if they don't make it out of novice matches no way will they grind through the skill algorithms until they find interesting people to play with) You want to improve player retention? Then don't separate new players from the only people who can teach them to play and integrate them into the community.

I guess it may be that I'm mistaken and you intend to mix skilled and inexperienced players. Unfortunately, not all experienced players are interested in teaching and certainly none of them will want to do it in every single match they play. The beautiful thing about a match list and pre-match lobby is choice. New players who want to learn will find their way to experienced players who want to teach and in this manner are incorporated into your dedicated fanbase.

You don't like teamstacking? A pity - because now the only way for large clans, such as the Gents, to play casually will be to stack. Why? When we enter a normal, public lobby in force, we can and do spread ourselves across both teams (admittedly this hasn't happened as efficiently as it should on a couple of occasions, sorry about that). As I understand it, the only way for us to play public matches together with the matchmaking system is through crew formation. And a full clan team is going to pubstomp pretty much any matchmade team you throw at it however good your algorithms:  I would put the odds of winning on a prepared, organised clan team even if your matchmaking system could wake up and slam the 8 best players into some semblance of an opposition. As I understand it, you're not offering any real option for clans to avoid stacking teams. Although, you will at least be herding experienced players against them - the new players will be protected from the influence of clans.

Yes, the new players will be safely protected and isolated from clans. You know, those same clans that lay claim to the vast majority of your dedicated playerbase, whose members play your events, advertise your game, buy dozens of copies for their friends and keep playing together where alone and without a clan to bring them together would have abandoned Guns of Icarus and stopped fighting for its success ages ago. New players won't see head nor tail of them. Matchmaking success at its finest!

I think the fundamental issue is that matchmaking suits competitive games which tend to be more individualistic and/or focus on smaller teams. Guns of Icarus is, I think uniquely, not individualistic or even overly team or crew focused - it is a community game. The communities that are lobbies, or teams, or crews and the interaction between those communities as well as the broader community of the game's entire playerbase - these are the basis for what makes Gun of Icarus a pleasant game and while I'm hesitant to completely dismiss the depth of the gameplay I'd say the social interaction is a large part of what makes it fun and interesting too. The match list and lobbies facilitate this perfectly and I'm scared that matchmaking will to an extent do the opposite. Yes, in the end matchmaking probably has to happen to seize the attention of newer players and facilitate better and more competitive pub matches. But the pre-match lobby is something wonderful and killing it would be killing a huge part of the game for me - and as it appears I wouldn't be the only one. I think a duality between the social, casual Lobby based player and the competitive efficiency of Matchmaking would be a far better end goal than leaving the poor lobbies of Icarus dead at the wayside.

Quote
I'm also worried that it will be harder to host impromptu themed matches, say a match with all squids, or a match for clan recruitment. I know they will still be possible, in fact they will be more visible via the featured match list, but they will take more effort to organise, and organising is not very fun, ask any clan leader.
I can't believe posting custom games on the featured match list is available to everyone? Therefore the impromptu themed matches does remain an issue. The fact that I could shout "all harpoon mobula wrestle" in a lobby with some Gents and adventurous CsMs and it just happened is an example of the hilarious and awesome possibilities that Muse propose to sacrifice for the sake of matchmaking. Is it worth it? Or even necessary - as I understand it, matchmaking and matchlist could live together comfortably. Certainly pretty much every other game with matchmaking does it.

Also, on a maybe more lighthearted side.  I was looking at the feedback I got for scramble, and some of them weren't pretty.  But do note this, that the changes we made the last 2 patches have improved retention statistically.  What suffered vocal negative feedback before implementation and testing did end up achieving its intended purpose.  So just maybe, we do know what we are doing :D 
Regardless, take it easy everyone, and have a great weekend! 
sales, player influxes, new clans, key Youtubers have spoken very highly of the game recently. Scramble is not the only factor influencing player retention and quite possibly not the most important and I think you are probably aware of that. But either way, with scramble you made the sensible decision to leave people the possibility of opting out, and many people do. That was adding a feature whereas we're looking at a definite replacement here. If you just wanted to add matchmaking without removing the matchlist the situation would be quite different.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2014, 07:55:14 pm by Velvet »

Offline Tropo

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2014, 08:34:49 pm »
i guess what im saying is i can't see any point on testing this as it really needs way more time then the current community is will to give you due to problems in the passed with wasted time (reporting problems that went live no matter what)

i think it will take 3 to 4 months to fix after it goes live and i won't wait thought that and the rough rag tag community that will be left won't be very nice people im going off other games and passed expertise i have had with games that have made the change

Offline Dev Bubbles

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #11 on: February 21, 2014, 09:03:06 pm »
@tropo, if you do not want to be a part of testing, that's totally fine.  We'll be organizing test sessions that will hopefully yield the data that we need to make determinations.  I'm not sure if what you're referring to with wasted time in testing, and reported bugs are logged and we do try to fix them during dev app testing or if fixes do not work well, afterwards in hot fixes.  Sure if you don't feel like we have done a good job taking feedback or improving the game, it's your right to not be a part of the game.  Ultimately, you're the customer, and you have the freedom to choose and decide.  Like I said again, we are testing a match making system, and it is your choice to participate or not.  And it is your choice to evaluate what we're doing and decide whether you enjoy the game or not.  If you choose not to participate in testing, that's totally fine, and you can continue to enjoy the game as is. 
Thanks! 

Offline Squidslinger Gilder

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2014, 09:12:57 pm »
Think this will be a must have for the PS4. So I'm not opposed completely to it being added. But I'm very wary of this as I see this as a way devs control and limit gamers. Also with this needs to come a complete nuke and redo of the leveling system as many late level achievements require patience and sitting in empty lobbies till people join. Unless this will help force people into things like 4v4, but some nights the player base is so small that it makes things impossible.

I'd like to believe this will be a good change but I've got years of XBL exp that tells me I'm going to be spending more time yelling at players with no attention spans and mouths connected to their asses.

Guess as long as we can still make lobbies instead of feeding the bottom feeder grinder, then social panel will be more important.

But one big issue that I can think of now is, how are we going to get people to fix their class if they midjoin as a gunner? You needed the match list to resolve that. So without it do we just threaten them with the wrath of doom unless they leave and give us an AI engineer back?

Offline awkm

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2014, 09:31:58 pm »
Thank you Omniraptor for reminding everyone to clearly state their problems.  For everyone, please follow Omniraptor's post for reference and use it as a guide when voicing your concern.


RE: Teaching

Teaching matches will be sponsored Match List.  We are also working on new tutorials because ours aren't up to snuff right now, we know that.  There will be a degree of player mixing as well.  It won't be like a lvl 1 with a lvl 10 but you can expect some degree of relaxation to the stringency of matchmaking depending a variety of different variables like wait time.

RE: Featured Match List

Like how some matches are feature now in the Match List (matches popping up to the top), only those the proper admin access can Feature a match.

RE: Impromptu matches

We hadn't thought of this before.  Yes, this means impromptu Squid races will be harder to make.  You must organize them via Custom Match and invite people.  However, now that we know that this is something people will be interested in... we can plan for it.  I'll give it some thought, but ultimately a thing like Squid races may be a scheduled event.

RE: Dev App population

We haven't sent out invites or testing times for this yet.  We've put in a lot of effort to get everyone aware that this is happening far in advance, sent out additional keys, etc.... As Bubbles said, this is the biggest thing we're testing and we're doing our best to coordinate an effort to get the testing done and gather valuable feedback.  Other than Dev App, we don't have any other place to safely test things other than putting into the actual game.  Especially with matchmaking, we need a ton of players and this is why we're trying to coordinate as much as possible.  So telling your friends and urging everyone to participate is going to be key.  If coordination doesn't work out, we'll definitely look at alternatives.

RE: Choice

You can try whatever loadouts or ship combinations you want with your three friends by using Crew Formation and then jump into matchmaking.  You can even join matchmaking with a partially formed crew like just 2 engineers.  If you join matchmaking on your own, the system will try to make crews with 1 Captain/Pilot, 1 Gunner, 2 Engineers.  This is the most accepted loadout so the system will try to enforce it as best it can.

RE: pre-match lobby

Don't fret.  You will be able to see your enemy's loadouts.  However, it will be organized and ordered.  We're looking into real life sports like basketball's tip offs and American football's coin tosses for inspiration.  Teams will get opportunities to examine the opposing team's loadout and respond to it accordingly.  Depending on the coin toss, one team will get the final customization before the match will start.  It'll be much more like chess and even increase the amount of strategic play in pre-match lobbies instead of the mad dash to be the last one to get the surprise customization.  Again, we will test this thoroughly when we have something to work with.  This is also very rough design wise so we're open to suggestions on it.  We'll think about changing class during this time too.

RE: stomping in matchmaking

While the assumption that the best Crew Formed teams may always win may be accurate, the way in which ELO and Glicko systems work is that the results of the match are stacked.  First, though, is that the system will try to match any experienced Crew Formation with an opponent of similar rating.  It's possible that there is just 8 max level players and everyone else lvl 1 so this Perfect Formed Crew will always stomp... however the ratings are again stacked in a way that if the Perfect Formed Crew loses to the lvl 1's, the lvl 1's will take a ton of points from the Perfect Formed Crew.  Therefore, the ratings system will equalize over time.  Like how you assume the Gents will always stomp, we also have to assume the other extreme in that there will be a time when the Gents do not perform and lose to the underdog.  The underdog is handsomely rewarded.  These types of are designed exactly to address this kind of issue.

RE: player distribution across matchmaking

This is why we're testing matchmaking.  We can adjust the leniency as much as needed to ensure that new players are exposed to more experienced players 'often' enough.  My thought is that so long as the average team rating matches the opposite team's average rating then it's likely a fun match.  This means a team can have max level and lowest level, so long as those team average are the same between the two teams.  This can be tuned however we see fit.  Basically, point taken and we have a solution.


RE: matchmaking timeline

We are going to test thoroughly before releasing it.  It's a huge deal and we know it.  This why we've been talking about it to you for the past two months.  We'll be spending another large chunk of time fine tuning everything and making sure there are no hiccups and that we address as many of these issues as possible.


RE: midjoin

This is something that may not exist anymore due to the way ratings need to be calculated.  If we need it back, we'll bring it back.  There are other questions like "what happens if someone leaves mid match?" that we're still mulling over.  The question may be, which is worse: midjoin into pre match lobby or midjoin into a match that already started?  In either case, we would strictly enforce the 1 captain/pilot, 2 engineer, 1 gunner formula for crews.

RE: levels

If it will break achievement leveling, then we'll have to look at it and redesign it.  I don't think it will be a huge problem.  Sitting in empty lobbies is similar to finding people to invite into your custom match to farm achievements.  If we need to redo the leveling system in skirmish (old players will be safely grandfathered, don't worry) then we can look at alternatives.  In fact, I'm designing a more traditional progression system for Co-Op so in a sense work is being done on this already.  Again, we'll have to wait and see.  One step at a time.







In general, our goal is not to control or shoehorn you into one thing or another.  We want to make getting into matches faster, more reliable, and enable people to have more fun more quickly.  That's the bottom line.  Any choice, strategy, socialization, or anything else that you may feel like is being taken away we're trying to make sure that in some part of the user flow that you still have it.  We'll of course lose some things like  impromptu squid races but now we know about those things, we can plan and see if we can fit it back in.

Offline Squidslinger Gilder

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Re: Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2014, 09:44:33 pm »
Alright I'm game to see how this turns out. Thank you for helping address our worries. I can't speak for everyone but I worry more only about things I love. Apologize if Ive been borderline confrontational or worse. I do care a lot when it is something I've invested so much time into.