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How To Fix The Matchbreaker (And Maybe Mwo)


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#1 Erebus Alpha

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Posted 26 June 2020 - 06:45 PM

Allow quick-play teams of varying size.

Generating balanced matches with TWENTY-FOUR people running around at once is damn near impossible - the playerbase just isn't big enough to do that reliably.

Match tier-1 players only against other tier-1's. Match tier-2 players only against other tier-2's. And so on. If there are only five players queued who are tier-2, then your QP match ends up being a 2v2.

If you haven't tried 2v2 combat in a map meant for 12v12, find three friends and do it! It's amazing! Loadout decisions, positioning, and strategy matter SO MUCH MORE with so few players involved! This game works (and works perfect) with small-playercount combat.

Groups need love too. Upon queueing as a group, the matchmaker needs to assign a group-tier - the average tier of all players within the group will do nicely as a group-tier. Limit QP group queues to 4 players apiece, and require groups of symmetric size.

Two groups of identical size and different group tiers can be queued against each other in QP, by adding extra players to the disadvantaged team. A pair of highly asymmetric 3-man groups could end up playing a 3v5, 3v6, or 3v7 match.

MWO desperately needs to update its social tools. Seriously, for a game that embraces teamwork so heavily, the social tools are one disappointing baby step up from a single-player game. Chatting with friends while in the mechlab or while queued needs to be trivially easy, and custom matchmaking tools need to be so powerful that the act of organizing a 12-v-12 game at 4 AM on a Tuesday isn't daunting at all. Make pilot tiers and mech loadouts viewable for organized public matches. Maybe the hardcore players don't want an awesome-turned-flamerboat on their team. Maybe the casuals do not want a tier-1 pilot in a quad UAC10 Kodiak ruining everybody's fun.

The time has come for the devs to improve the game. The matchbreaker needs fixed. They need to bear the cost, sink the time, and get it done. Expend whatever resources it takes to accomplish it. Sell us some fun, thrilling, and excellent combat, and players will give you money!

Edited by Falconer Sword, 26 June 2020 - 06:52 PM.


#2 That Token Canadian Guy

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Posted 26 June 2020 - 07:06 PM

They should start with maybe making it so the tonnage isnt unbalanced . Consistently I run into enemy teams with 4+ Assaults and none on my team . This last week alone has been worse . It is not getting better , it is getting worse . To top off the instant auto rotation , really doesnt make the game fun if you have to nascar every game. Long range , and basic strats get tossed aside due to this . Screw the tier system for now . Make the tonnage balanced for once . To make the system ASSUME a group is using up all its tonnage , maybe actually make it so group doesnt matter and go by whats in que for tonnage.

#3 Willard Phule

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Posted 27 June 2020 - 02:50 PM

Even better, just scrap it altogether and let QP be a complete free for all. Premade groups of any size, no separation by skill of any kind, random tonnages. Might just as well with the current population.

#4 LordNothing

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Posted 27 June 2020 - 11:18 PM

implementing this would require money, skill, time, common sense, and the ability to perform basic math. im not sure pgi has any of that stuff anymore. dont worry about it, just keep playing.

Edited by LordNothing, 27 June 2020 - 11:19 PM.


#5 ShiverMeRivets

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Posted 28 June 2020 - 08:49 AM

View PostFalconer Sword, on 26 June 2020 - 06:45 PM, said:

Allow quick-play teams of varying size.

Generating balanced matches with TWENTY-FOUR people running around at once is damn near impossible - the playerbase just isn't big enough to do that reliably.

Match tier-1 players only against other tier-1's. Match tier-2 players only against other tier-2's. And so on. If there are only five players queued who are tier-2, then your QP match ends up being a 2v2.

If you haven't tried 2v2 combat in a map meant for 12v12, find three friends and do it! It's amazing! Loadout decisions, positioning, and strategy matter SO MUCH MORE with so few players involved! This game works (and works perfect) with small-playercount combat.

Groups need love too. Upon queueing as a group, the matchmaker needs to assign a group-tier - the average tier of all players within the group will do nicely as a group-tier. Limit QP group queues to 4 players apiece, and require groups of symmetric size.

Two groups of identical size and different group tiers can be queued against each other in QP, by adding extra players to the disadvantaged team. A pair of highly asymmetric 3-man groups could end up playing a 3v5, 3v6, or 3v7 match.

MWO desperately needs to update its social tools. Seriously, for a game that embraces teamwork so heavily, the social tools are one disappointing baby step up from a single-player game. Chatting with friends while in the mechlab or while queued needs to be trivially easy, and custom matchmaking tools need to be so powerful that the act of organizing a 12-v-12 game at 4 AM on a Tuesday isn't daunting at all. Make pilot tiers and mech loadouts viewable for organized public matches. Maybe the hardcore players don't want an awesome-turned-flamerboat on their team. Maybe the casuals do not want a tier-1 pilot in a quad UAC10 Kodiak ruining everybody's fun.

The time has come for the devs to improve the game. The matchbreaker needs fixed. They need to bear the cost, sink the time, and get it done. Expend whatever resources it takes to accomplish it. Sell us some fun, thrilling, and excellent combat, and players will give you money!


What you are suggesting is an order of magnitude more difficult for creating balanced teams than the current system.
Players like to blame others for their losses. You have 2 standard options:
1. Call your teammates potatoes.
2. Blame the match maker.
3. Blame yourse... err... forget option 3.


#6 Thorn Hallis

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Posted 28 June 2020 - 10:28 AM

I'm waiting for bots to enter the game. With MW5 AI.

#7 Erebus Alpha

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Posted 29 June 2020 - 06:36 PM

View PostGeneral Vulcan, on 26 June 2020 - 07:06 PM, said:

They should start with maybe making it so the tonnage isnt unbalanced . Consistently I run into enemy teams with 4+ Assaults and none on my team . This last week alone has been worse . It is not getting better , it is getting worse . To top off the instant auto rotation , really doesnt make the game fun if you have to nascar every game. Long range , and basic strats get tossed aside due to this . Screw the tier system for now . Make the tonnage balanced for once . To make the system ASSUME a group is using up all its tonnage , maybe actually make it so group doesnt matter and go by whats in que for tonnage.


Tonnage used to be balanced. I remember fighting a QP match a couple of years ago, as THE lone assault on the team. Because of our team distribution of a lot of lights and mediums, I knew that the enemy's tonnage distribution was similar, and I organized a strategy for my team around that. We took out the enemy's single assault mech early in the game (which was an Atlas, and my mech was nicely configured to win that brawl). From then on, it was a straightforward victory. The enemy never found any traction against us. I fed all 4 tons of equipped ammo through my mech's UAC20 in that extended brawl, and did over 1000 damage in the match.

I'm not sure when the matchbreaker stopped calculating tonnage.

Edited by Falconer Sword, 29 June 2020 - 10:04 PM.


#8 Tarl Cabot

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Posted 29 June 2020 - 07:39 PM

Technically, Solo Queue didnt balance around tonnage itself but around Weight class, 20-35, 40-55, 60-75 and 80-100. One could 2x20, 3x40, 4x60 and 3x80 (640 tons) vs 2x35, 3x55, 4x75 and 3x100 (835 tons)

So one side could have 640 tons vs 835 tons while still having same numbers for each weight class.

When it stopped being the normal is when the Solo queue was combined into the Group queue, thus the MM is using a variation of the Group Queue MM, which through groups together, and Min/Max mech tonnage being determined by the number of players in each group. For MM, Tier would immediately go out the door, GQ definitely didn't have the population to utilize Tiers (PSR).





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