24 replies to this topic

[NuclearPanda]

Long time member, took a LONG time off from the game. Came back and looked at my profile and see a "tier" number.

Can someone explain it simply? I haven't hopped back into the game quite yet but I see I have a number assigned.

Thanks.

[Digital_Angel]

Any new account start in Tier 5 (used to be 4 for new players but they changed that after the Steam release). The Tiers only affect the match maker in Quick Play matches (solo or group). For group queue in Quick Play I believe it averages the tier of everyone in the group.

On a win, you are almost guaranteed to bump up slightly on the tier advancement bar; you have to do horribly individually in the match to not go up on a win.

On a loss, if your individual numbers are really good you can still go up very slightly or stay the same, but otherwise you drop some. Once the bar is full you get bumped up to an empty bar on the next higher tier. Exactly how much you go up or down depends on match score as well as win/lose.

The match makers tries to keep players of the same tier together for matches and will not put you in a match with players more than 2 tiers above or below you. Usually you are only facing players of the same tier or maybe 1 tier above or below you, but the longer it takes the match maker to fill up a match the looser it gets. This does mean than, on a slow enough night, a Tier 3 can potentially face anywhere from Tier 5 fresh accounts to Tier 1 comp level players. A Tier 5 will never face above a Tier 3 opponent though, and a Tier 1 will never be matched against worse than a Tier 3 opponent.

Edited by Digital_Angel, 01 July 2016 - 07:28 AM.

[NuclearPanda]

So it's kind of good that I am a 4 since I have a better chance of playing against some noob pilots? haha

Thank you for the quick response though. I think I'm going to try to sink back into the game a bit this weekend since I have like 4000 hours of banked premium time!

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

NuclearPanda, on 01 July 2016 - 07:29 AM, said:

So it's kind of good that I am a 4 since I have a better chance of playing against some noob pilots? haha

Thank you for the quick response though. I think I'm going to try to sink back into the game a bit this weekend since I have like 4000 hours of banked premium time!

Enjoy your time in T4. Thats a wonderful magical land of joy and happiness! As you rise in tiers, the harder and harder the match ups become... The more stress each match can create.

[TercieI]

Are you actively sabotaging your team? No? XP bar.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

NuclearPanda, on 01 July 2016 - 07:29 AM, said:

So it's kind of good that I am a 4 since I have a better chance of playing against some noob pilots? haha

Thank you for the quick response though. I think I'm going to try to sink back into the game a bit this weekend since I have like 4000 hours of banked premium time!

It's supposed to be a player SKILL rating. But, due to how it's weighted, it's mostly a quality-weighted XP bar. You can go up in a loss, but cannot go down in a win (IIRC). It's more likely that an average player will remain equal after a loss than after a win.

Good thing about Tier 4? You'll never be matched against Tier 1 players. At WORST, when the buckets are nearly empty, and if matchmaker is working as intended, you'll only be matched up with players up to two tiers different from you. So less likely to get ROFLstomped. Having T5 players around can suck, though. Not only will they be on red team, but also they'll be on blue. Y'know, those teammates you depend on? Newbs. Newbs everywhere...

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Sister RAbbi, on 01 July 2016 - 09:57 AM, said:

It's supposed to be a player SKILL rating. But, due to how it's weighted, it's mostly a quality-weighted XP bar. You can go up in a loss, but cannot go down in a win (IIRC). It's more likely that an average player will remain equal after a loss than after a win.

Good thing about Tier 4? You'll never be matched against Tier 1 players.

Sadly, that is not accurate. At tiers 5 and 4 you are less likely to see tier 1 players. Especially if you play off peak hours a lot- then you are more likely to get lumped with higher tier players

Cant tell you how many times I have solo dropped and ended up playing with a lot of new names I recognized from this subfourm.

Last night I dropped with two squad mates, also tier 1. Sat arround waiting for matches for almost 10 mins until MM finally put us in the new guy server. (It wasnt pretty)

Edited by Boogie138, 01 July 2016 - 10:58 AM.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Boogie138, on 01 July 2016 - 10:56 AM, said:

Sadly, that is not accurate. At tiers 5 and 4 you are less likely to see tier 1 players. Especially if you play off peak hours a lot- then you are more likely to get lumped with higher tier players

Cant tell you how many times I have solo dropped and ended up playing with a lot of new names I recognized from this subfourm.

Last night I dropped with two squad mates, also tier 1. Sat arround waiting for matches for almost 10 mins until MM finally put us in the new guy server. (It wasnt pretty)

See, that means not working as intended then. You're NOT supposed to be able to match up more than two tiers away. Craziness.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

MM's 2 tier restriction is only active during solo ques.

Group que opens the flood gates as que times get longer and longer.

(Granted the devs can alter these settings anytime they want with a push of a button... As russ has stated in previous town halls).

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky, on 01 July 2016 - 11:39 AM, said:

MM's 2 tier restriction is only active during solo ques.

Group que opens the flood gates as que times get longer and longer.

(Granted the devs can alter these settings anytime they want with a push of a button... As russ has stated in previous town halls).

Ah, yeah. Solo queue is my assumption in here unless specifically stated otherwise.

Group queue, you get what you get.

[Akhri Mala]

Sister RAbbi, on 01 July 2016 - 11:29 AM, said:

See, that means not working as intended then. You're NOT supposed to be able to match up more than two tiers away. Craziness.

I believe it is working as intended.

When there are not enough players of your tier available, it will match anyone so as to provide a game.

I am tier two, my wife is tier five, and we've been matched in solo quickplay queue.

[Barkem Squirrel]

Have fun in tier 4, it goes quick, very quick.

I can not remember, Match scores over 400 with a win raise your way faster, but losses with over 400 also raise your rating.

Losses with over 300 I think were stay the same and wins I think between 50 and 100 are stay the same.

It will be nice to see you again in matches again. The last few weeks it seems that more players are coming back.

[Sadistic Savior]

NuclearPanda, on 01 July 2016 - 07:05 AM, said:

Long time member, took a LONG time off from the game. Came back and looked at my profile and see a "tier" number.

Can someone explain it simply? I haven't hopped back into the game quite yet but I see I have a number assigned.

Thanks.

There is no secret to it. The game has a system in place to try to determine your general skill level, so that you do not get frustrated by getting owned by better players all the time. And so you can't ROFLstomp less skilled players. This tracking used to be behind-the-scenes only (it was probably already in place when you played last, you just didn't know it), but now the information is public (or at least accessible by you). It is determined by many factors, but mostly your Kill/death ratio and Win/loss.

There are 5 tiers, with 1 being the highest.

From a player perspective, your tier rating serves no purpose other than bragging rights.

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Sadistic Savior, on 01 July 2016 - 01:05 PM, said:

From a player perspective, your tier rating serves no purpose other than bragging rights.

^yup, this is one of the reasons I like to tell people to check the box in the ingame settings labeled "Hide Tier" and then forget it even exists. Just have fun and keep on keepin on!

[Bilbo]

Barkem Squirrel, on 01 July 2016 - 11:57 AM, said:

Have fun in tier 4, it goes quick, very quick.

I can not remember, Match scores over 400 with a win raise your way faster, but losses with over 400 also raise your rating.

Losses with over 300 I think were stay the same and wins I think between 50 and 100 are stay the same.

It will be nice to see you again in matches again. The last few weeks it seems that more players are coming back.

Correct, a little more detail from here http://mwomercs.com/...-as-best-i-can/ :

On a Win:
PSR goes UP a lot if match score is >400
PSR goes UP a moderate amount if match score is >250 but <=400
PSR goes UP a little if match score is >= 100
PSR has NO CHANGE for a match score <100

Note: I do not have data on a zero match score if that would cause PSR to go down on a win, but I suspect PSR does not drop on a win, at the very least I have not experienced that.

On a Loss:
PSR goes UP if match score is > 400
PSR has NO CHANGE for a match score >250 but <= 400
PSR goes DOWN a little if match score is <=250
PSR goes DOWN a lot if match score is < 100

On a Tie:
Both sides, all players see a NO CHANGE to PSR regardless of match score.

[Not A Real RAbbi]

Akhri Mala, on 01 July 2016 - 11:44 AM, said:

I believe it is working as intended.

When there are not enough players of your tier available, it will match anyone so as to provide a game.

I am tier two, my wife is tier five, and we've been matched in solo quickplay queue.

See, that defies what we've been told for a long time about PSR-based matchmaking. From what we're told is "working as intended", that should NOT be possible.

[Sadistic Savior]

Really, you're probably better off on a lower tier...you will end up with more kills/wins and therefore more cash. Advancing in tier gives bragging rights but nothing else. It's actually worse for you from a rewards standpoint, because the opponents are harder.

[S 0 L E N Y A]

Sadistic Savior, on 01 July 2016 - 05:17 PM, said:

Really, you're probably better off on a lower tier...you will end up with more kills/wins and therefore more cash. Advancing in tier gives bragging rights but nothing else. It's actually worse for you from a rewards standpoint, because the opponents are harder.

In PGIs magical world sure..

But doing noticably better in a lower tier tells me one thing: you are in the wrong tier.

Frankly, there are some players that are just bad. TONS of experience but none of the skill that go with it and they sit in the underhive forever. I could probably make an entire company out of people on my friends list that are founders and play regularly but will probably never make tier 2.

On the other hand, you have players that play A LOT and are moderately better than just mediocre, and because of the PSR dynamic they hit tier 1. Then they play against Emp or SJR and horrible things happen.

IMO the bottom line is this:
MWO does not have the player population to really have an effective match making system based on player skill.

[SnagaDance]

And let's not forget that THE biggest component of match score is still damage done, on a roughly 1 match score for every 2 points of damage.

So wanna go up on PSR? Just do a lot of damage. It will make you jump faster on wins and makes sure you're unlikely to fall on a loss.

This in turn means that playing a Heavy or an Assault is the best way for advancing your PSR.

You are the greatest Light scout alive? Getting locks, relaying locations and directions, using TAG etc. etc.? Sorry, not much match score for you, unless you go brawl and take down mechs.

The way match score is weighed between its different components means that the basis of PSR is just unsound. Do enough damage and you'll progress, that's why many call it an XP bar.

[PhoenixFire55]

The shortest and at the same time the most accurate description of tier system is just something that separates total newbies from tryhards. T4 and T5 aren't playing in same matches with T1, but thats about it. For any average or better player tier system eventually results in maxing the tier, thus lots of people call it exp-bar.