Russ Bullock, on 21 September 2014 - 09:54 PM, said:
It's a good set of thoughts but most players have over simplified the process in their heads to a large degree. Unfortunately the Match Maker is keeping track of way more things then is listed in your post.
You are not taking into account ELO - even if it wants to match certain people together as you suggest it is not allowed to because of an ELO range that is far to separated to be fair.
Next is it does not take the 3,3,3,3 aspect into account, although the MM does allow some flexibility in this and ultimately has to at least match weight class for weight class in a match.
Your example doesn't even take weight class into account. What if that 10 man just simply can't fit with the 2 man you have because the 2 man is two Heavy mech's and the 10 man group already has all the Heavies allowed?
Okay, this is where you need to stop. All of this crap is unnecessary. Get rid of the limiting Elo, go to Battle Value 2. 'Mechs are evaluated in the MechLab, not during the match making -only basic numbers should be matched, as closely as possible, in MM- once the player saves the 'Mech in the ML, along with the player's general skill rating, which would also be determined by the game, through achievements and play-style as measured by metrics you already have built into the game.
Now, you have your groups/buckets of players, all of their Battle Value's added together, and pushed against a group of similar total, even if one group or another has fewer 'Mechs. If the groups are more than 5 - 10% of total BV apart, the MechWarrior with the closest number to the difference in BV gets dropped from the game, and his/her 'MECH NEVER ENTERS the game, so it's not stuck, and they can immediately move into a different game.
The only numbers YOU really take into account in MM is an individual's Elo and the 'Mech weight class. Battle Value does vary drastically, and so though your Medium 'Mech nominal BV falls in-between 450 - 600 points, prior to pilot and gunnery skill adjustments, there are designs out there that, once calculated in the MechLab on Save, will fall below that number range, God forbid, or will go way above it. In EVERY 'Mech designer I have ever used that takes BV and/or BV2 into account, I am well-capable, normally, of placing my 'Mechs well outside what their weight class BV range can be. The AU1 Wolverine chassis I developed exceeds the BV1 of the Atlas 7-K for Pete's sake, and it sacrifices 45 tons to the beast.
Finally, Elo is very limiting, at a range of 2300, forcing everyone to remain inside that range, rather than opening things up for individual players and player groups to decide what sorts of fights they would like to have. If I want to field a Company composed of 24,000 BV1 against another Company of between 21,600 and 26,400 (10% range on either side), I should be able to do that, except for the rule about 11 players on one side, for which someone can be kicked to bring the game into line with the programming problem. Alternately, if I want to field 3.600 BV1 against a group between 3,240 and 3,960, for a Light brawl, I should be able to do that, as well. You've placed amazingly hard restrictions against the player base, and are disallowing us to play the game as it was meant to be played...
There are MANY of us who have been screaming for objective-based combat, for raid contracts, but with Elo we cannot possibly do that. The Matchmaker is so busy trying to take into account so many things that it's impossible to get a great game to play, because the limitations are so HARD. 3/3/3/3, Weight classes, age of the searching group, and these relief valves designed to open things up, it is utterly ridiculous. Right now, if a group is searching for more than twenty to thirty seconds, there are two outcomes... rolling, or getting rolled, PERIOD. That is the fault of using Elo, which was a scoring system used between individual players for Chess, and is NOT VIABLE for playing decent groups.
You want the bitching and complaining about rolling one game and getting rolled the next to go away, get rid of Elo and get BV working. Look, I'm here in Everett, and I would be willing to drive the 60 or so miles, I have my passport, even, to show you guys how to make this work, on paper. You want to continue to tell us how we're missing factors that need to be accounted for in the MM, and I'm telling you how to get rid of those factors and allow your community to play with ANYONE, ANY game type, objective raids, long missions, and planetary assaults by allowing us to set stages -recon and objective recon, minor skirmishes and objective-based missions, hard skirmishes and attack/defend, and completing planetary assaults and the like- of completion. You are holding onto Elo like it's the end-all and be-all of game-play, and it's bollocks, period. Always has been, is the only real part of this game I have anger issues over, and it always will be.
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This is a complex problem - I don't expect our customers to understand all of the complexities but please don't make posts explaining how easy it is unless you understand all of the layers of complexity at hand. I am willing to bet many of my engineers are about as intelligent of people as you will find on this earth.
And I'm telling you the complexity is not only unwarranted, it's holding your game, and your community, back. Why in the hell do you need to have 10 v 12 or 12 v 12 or 8 v 8, or anything, except as a ceiling for number of 'Mechs in a game? Why in the hell do you have to have 3/3/3/3? Why does a 2300 point Elo scheme still make sense to you guys, when you've been provided at least one other major possibility, where the numbers are calculated on saving your 'Mech in the MechLab, and then put into a group/faction bucket to be compared to another group for the sake of play? If you have one group with ten players at 5,000 BVMWO, and you have a Clan group of 7 players at 5,105 BVMWO, what's the problem with launching THAT game? Why does it HAVE to be 12 v 12? Why can't the 12 v 12 be a ceiling rather than a hard requirement?
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Trust me if the problem were as simple as you describe it would be working as described.
I KNOW for a fact the programming issues that you would have converting are not as easy as what is described in the text, here, and I think most of your players, though perhaps not as intelligent as your engineers, understand that, as well. However, if you want to expand your game, if you want brutal combat on an even par ALL THE TIME, this is the change you're going to NEED to make.