14 replies to this topic

[RickySpanish]

OK, we all know that the match maker basically throws darts at a board with respect to getting a collection of 24 players into a game, but how does it decide which side those players ultimately end up on? I am fairly sure that once tier rating and/or grouping is taken into account, the side a player ends up on is NOT random.

So for example, if a game has 6 solo tier 1 players, 3 should end up on each side. I contend that these players are not randomly assigned to a side. Something else is the deciding factor, possibly the order in which the players connected or some unique identifier. In the former case, the first three players end up on one side and the last three end up the other. In the latter case, that combination of 6 players will always end up being split across sides the same way.

Why do I say this? Well, because anecdotally, there are certain maps I spawn into where overwhelmingly, I end up on one particular side of the map. Forest Colony is the biggest offender - I spawn water side on all versions almost all of the time. By this I mean hundreds of drops, and perhaps ten on land side.

What I'd like to know is, whether the list of players is ever shuffled before being assigned a team, once other overriding factors have been taken into account (such as if they are in a group).

Edited by RickySpanish, 24 March 2021 - 02:35 PM.

[Rkshz]

RickySpanish, on 24 March 2021 - 02:32 PM, said:

I completely agree, I often have games with the same players on the same team!

[RickySpanish]

Rkshz, on 24 March 2021 - 03:02 PM, said:

I completely agree, I often have games with the same players on the same team!

Yeah I feel that way, the trouble is usually it's just a "feeling". But with the Forest Colony spawning it absolutely is not just a "feeling", so that made me suspicious.

[ScrapIron Prime]

I rarely have the same players from game to game, or even twice in an evening. but I play during peak NA times, so the matchmaker has more population to work with.

the less players online at any given time, the more the matchmaker has to say "eh, close enough" and scrape together a game from whoever is around. those are the times when you're more likely to see out-of-your-tier players or 5 assaults versus 1.

[ThreeStooges]

Other than the dart of throwing any mech available to fill out a game as fast as possible I also have the same experience with spawning on "this side" over and over again. I use mostly lights and meds so matches are found usually quick in under 3 minutes plus the minute or so drop/load screen.

Depending on time and location I might get a lot of random unit people or a mostly team of no unit members. I still get cadets as well with the most on my side around four.

[Anomalocaris]

RickySpanish, on 24 March 2021 - 02:32 PM, said:

Why do I say this? Well, because anecdotally, there are certain maps I spawn into where overwhelmingly, I end up on one particular side of the map. Forest Colony is the biggest offender - I spawn water side on all versions almost all of the time. By this I mean hundreds of drops, and perhaps ten on land side.

What I'd like to know is, whether the list of players is ever shuffled before being assigned a team, once other overriding factors have been taken into account (such as if they are in a group).

The spawn issue is an interesting one. It's been happening (especially on forest colony, but on a few others) for well over a year now. I would typically get land side myself on Forest and it was almost exclusive, to the point that on the rare occasion I got water I had to stop and figure out where to go.

But it does suggest that there are some algorithms in play that are getting stuck in the same loop. I think we do know that the matchmaker doesn't mix up people once it selects the teams though. AFAIK it fills one team then the other and that's it. It's possible now with merge queue that it fills the group slots for each team first and then does the solos. But we've been asking for lobby rebalancing incessantly to help make better matches once the 24 players are picked and PGI won't (can't?) do it. I mean, you should never get 3-4 top players on one team, but it still happens, so I think that rules out secondary balancing.

[Stonefalcon]

Well it's very simple, the MM looks for groups in the queue and throws a group on each team - if there are teams available. But then it goes and looks at the number of players in those groups. If it finds that a group only has two or three players in it, the MM then goes and looks for another group of two or three players, up to a maximum of five grouped players per team and adds them to the MM roster - pending search times. MM then fills out the rest of the roster with whomever fits the PSR/search time criteria and voila, a match launches.

[RickySpanish]

Stonefalcon, on 24 March 2021 - 04:22 PM, said:

Well it's very simple, the MM looks for groups in the queue and throws a group on each team - if there are teams available. But then it goes and looks at the number of players in those groups. If it finds that a group only has two or three players in it, the MM then goes and looks for another group of two or three players, up to a maximum of five grouped players per team and adds them to the MM roster - pending search times. MM then fills out the rest of the roster with whomever fits the PSR/search time criteria and voila, a match launches.

Right, so it's on a first come, first served basis entirely then. Well case closed then, but man the frequency of Forest Colony water side spawns bothers me. Doesn't happen on my alt account either.

[Miliru]

I wish they would do something about balancing tonnage.

I've lost count of the games where it's 5 assaults vs 2. I've also had a few games where there were 0 assaults on one team and three on the other. Totally unbalanced tonnage.

[DANGEROUS]

its a very complicated system where it looks at players in the que... then it looks at their psr rating score...

then gives up... and puts a bunch of names into a blender and pushes the turbo button....

and bingo!

[ScrapIron Prime]

Miliru, on 24 March 2021 - 04:36 PM, said:

I wish they would do something about balancing tonnage.

I've lost count of the games where it's 5 assaults vs 2. I've also had a few games where there were 0 assaults on one team and three on the other. Totally unbalanced tonnage.

Yeah, and the team with the 3 assaults loses because the other team has an impromptu wolf pack of three piranhas.

[PocketYoda]

I see a large group of the same people most of the time day to day to a point you actually say hi to them... That said there are so many group drops these days its hard not to see the same people..

Miliru, on 24 March 2021 - 04:36 PM, said:

I wish they would do something about balancing tonnage.

I've lost count of the games where it's 5 assaults vs 2. I've also had a few games where there were 0 assaults on one team and three on the other. Totally unbalanced tonnage.

They used to, not sure when or why it was removed..

Edited by Samial, 24 March 2021 - 06:11 PM.

[VeeOt Dragon]

yeah there is effeminately something up with the MM, there are 3 or 4 maps that i almost always end up on the one side. not sure why. as for tonnage hell my last match today my team had no lights and no assaults, the other teem had 6 assaults and 4 lights (2 of those piranhas). the outcome was a loss (though me and my Catapult did around 1,800 damage in Lurms thanks to some good spotting. still ended 6/12 with me getting either KMDD or the actual kill on all the ones taken out)

[Wildstreak]

Everyone gets put in a pot.

Two monkey coaches, one on PCP and the other on LSD, come along and pick players for their teams.

Congrats! You got a match!

[Y E O N N E]

Same way that the game has traditionally been balanced: via dartboard.