Anomalocaris, on 20 May 2020 - 10:38 AM, said:
"I stated several time that simply wasn’t an option- it would take far to many people opting in then was likely to make it work, then your also completely dependent on player behaviour to continue to opt in! Then lastly if all the above worked it means solo queue suffering."
I'm going to agree with his statement.
When the queues were split waaaay back whenever, had the option been available then it might have worked.
But to try so now when there was no one left in group queue would simply mean a handful of solo players who were interested in this opt in would not get a game anyway.
We would need twice as many players or more.
Anomalocaris, on 20 May 2020 - 10:38 AM, said:
1) You have a mode that can't survive on its own because no one plays it as is (Russ says it won't survive).
2) Despite a somewhat successful bump in players after going 8v8, that test was cancelled almost immediately with no feedback given
3) Opt-in is not going to fly because either (A) not enough people would do it to make it work or (B if enough did it would hurt solo queue - and it would be completely dependent on player behavior.....
That testing period for the 8v8 was probably a bit short, however in the limited time it was running it did remain difficult to get a game in different timezones.
Down here in AU, my experience of it was pretty limited but from what I was hearing it did not make a significant enough impact.
It's a bit like Faction Play in that sense.
Having a mode that you can only play between certain hours once a week..... the majority don't bother and just end up playing other games entirely.
So a solo player opt in to group queue might look like it works in certain timezones but may have little to no effect elsewhere and when you look at the stats for a queue and see it was absolutely banging for 4 hours but dead for 20 you would say it's not viable.
Excessive Paranoia, on 20 May 2020 - 01:47 PM, said:
"What’s your suggestion - we can’t split them again as the group queue can’t sustain itself. What would you do." - Russ Bullock - 17:01 05/18/2020
Been saying it for a while:
variable team sizes.
Use the lances as a building block.
Have the match maker run on the one minute timer like FP does.
Try and create a match of 12v12, failing that, try 8v8, failing that 4v4, failing that wait another minute.
We should not be so hung up on the game only allowing 12v12 but nor should the game be hard limited to the team sizes.
If it always builds a team one lance at a time: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie.
If we always have the same 1/1/1/1 weight class restriction per lance.
Surely that would give the system enough flexibility to cater for fluctuating player numbers each minute 24 hours / 7 days a week combined with the restrictions of splitting players by PSR and the weight class limitation on teams.
Oh, and ditch the regional servers.
Bugger it.