642 replies to this topic

[Paul Inouye]

Here are the day to day Tier changes over the last 16 days since patch.

There is a slight skew upward toward Tier 1, however not as drastic as before the patch.

First chart is as of June 30,2020
































The following is the current numbers as of July 15/2020:




With that, I think we can take a quick moment to try adjusting some of the release valves in order to take advantage of player positioning.

As of this post, I will be making the maximum Tier separation in the match maker, 1 (one). This means a Tier 1 player should not see any other players outside of Tier 1 or Tier 2.

Now there are some caveates there. If a group of 3 Tier 1 players decides to add a Tier 3 or lower player to their group, there's nothing we can do about that. Next, the release valves still need to be in place but I'm going to be restricting the time it takes for them to kick in and how fast they release over time. For this first test, I'm going to set a hard restriction of 4 minutes before the release valves kick in.

As mentioned, we'll continue to monitor and adjust as needed. At the end of 3 months, we'll take a hard look at all numbers involved and discuss with you the next steps.

-Paul

[Biomechtric]

Thanks for your work Paul.
It will be interesting to see how the numbers are when the grinding for PSR falls out of fashion & people are playing their 'normal' again.

[Nightbird]

Any stomp numbers?

[Tamerlin]

Thanks, Paul. What tier are Cadets (new players) assigned to?

[Hiten Bongz]

Nightbird, on 15 July 2020 - 02:29 PM, said:

Any stomp numbers?

Yes, I have been meticulously scraping data from the servers and this is what I've plotted so far

Edited by Hiten Bongz, 15 July 2020 - 02:48 PM.

[Lars Laser]

Paul Inouye, on 15 July 2020 - 02:11 PM, said:

This means a Tier 1 player should not see any other players outside of Tier 1 or Tier 2.
- - -
For this first test, I'm going to set a hard restriction of 4 minutes before the release valves kick in.

Sounds good!

[Xaat Xuun]

why does that chart look like you're giving us the finger

I kinda thought the movement/separation would had been faster,

thanks for the numbers

[My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ]

Is the release valve just to +2/-2 or is it completely open? Will it expand to +3/-3 after 8 minutes if it needs to?

[Vorpal Puppy]

So, exactly how are groups matched? By highest tier number of player in group?

[Capn Cat]

Nightbird, on 15 July 2020 - 02:29 PM, said:

Any stomp numbers?

Stomp numbers are irrelevant while we filter the tiers - only becomes useful info after the MM comes into effect

[Hiten Bongz]

Tamerlin, on 15 July 2020 - 02:38 PM, said:

Thanks, Paul. What tier are Cadets (new players) assigned to?

Currently new players start at T3, but I think that should be changed to at least T4 (what was wrong with T5, anyways?) if the valves are +1/-1...that way they would play with T5 - T3 at the highest.

IMO

I still think newbies should start at T5 though.

Edited by Hiten Bongz, 15 July 2020 - 03:33 PM.

[East Indy]

Queue times are super-long but so far all teams have been extremely well matched. No goofballs or cadets. Neck-and-neck kills until one side picks up momentum...except for that 11-12 with heroism all around.

Ain't gonna be perfect but it's much better. Thanks for listening to the community!

Edit: Referring to the tier-tightening experienced in the last hour or so.

Edit 2: Only behavioral quirk I'm noticing is sudden caution. Not the same as timidity: players are obviously at much closer skill levels. One guess is that queue times have people concluding that time is money, and they don't want to be the martyr. But...I'd rather have games where I blame myself for failure much, much more often than anyone else.

Edited by East Indy, 15 July 2020 - 04:30 PM.

[OneTeamPlayer]

One of the first 93 into T2 and the first 43 into T1, not bad.

T1 only dropping with T2 is a huge improvement for everyone, if it works as written.

I'm willing to drop back in to test these new changes, for sure.

Interesting that there's not a number listed for the T3 population- i guess that's because it includes literally everyone who has ever logged into MWO or is it simply people who have logged in since the PSR Reset.

If it's just logged in since reset it would be interesting to see that number as well, but i'm guessing there's a reason it's not shown.

Edit: Major question-

How does matchmaker place mixed tier groups?

Your example of three T1s and their cadet buddy is one issue but what about:

• A T1, T2, T3, T4
  
• 2 T2, T3, T4
  
• T1, 2 T3, T5

and all other manner of mismatched tier ratings? Will the tier system "average"? Will it use the highest tier rating available? Some other metric?

Edited by OneTeamPlayer, 15 July 2020 - 04:11 PM.

[Big-G]

Hiten Bongz, on 15 July 2020 - 02:39 PM, said:

Yes, I have been meticulously scraping data from the servers and this is what I've plotted so far

No wonder I've felt so demotivated about QP games these days

[Dionnsai]

Maybe consider adding the queue counters from Faction/Solaris so we can see things happening instead of just watching the meaningless "searching" animation?

[Cluster Fox]

Hiten Bongz, on 15 July 2020 - 02:39 PM, said:

Yes, I have been meticulously scraping data from the servers and this is what I've plotted so far

What information did you use? Own end of game screens?

[Remover of Obstacles]

Are the numbers being reported for Tier 3 only including active players?


IE. pilots that have actually played a match or better yet 10+ matches.

[Stonefalcon]

@Paul Rather than OCE players having to wait at least 4m for each match cna you halve the wait time before the restrictions ease for OCE server?

[Vindicated]

Hawker Siddeley, on 15 July 2020 - 02:42 PM, said:

Is the release valve just to +2/-2 or is it completely open? Will it expand to +3/-3 after 8 minutes if it needs to?

As T1, it's taking forever to get a QP game right now. It seems I can walk away and come back and it's still searching. Faction queue seems more desirable now.

On the plus side, I suppose cadets not seeing T1 will improve their initial experience with the game. That does raise the question of where cadets should end up though. Too low and bad habits (builds/playstyle) could be ingrained in them. Too high (is T3 too high?) and they risk not being able to do anything (can they learn from their mistakes, or is it too early for them to do that?)

Another thing to keep in mind is a lot of other games don't separate the players entirely (looking at games like counter strike for example where players just join a server and go to one of two teams). They just auto balance teams by moving one of the top players to another team after win streaks. Not saying that's where MWO should end up but just pointing out that in other games, new players are guaranteed to be throw into the fight like if they joined faction play.

[Mordale]

Can we go back to the 3,3,3,3 Rule and drop with more than 3 for our friends or Team mates???!!!!!!!