Admin > Dev App Testing

Goals and Ramifications of Matchmaking

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Tropo:
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

Dev Bubbles:
@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! 

Squidslinger Gilder:
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?

awkm:
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.

Squidslinger Gilder:
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.

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