Possible fix to matchmaking

[Warshades]

So I might have mentioned this idea before but I havent heard a better idea yet so I think I'll say it again.

 

Right now one of the biggest complaints about WZ are the poor matchmaking systems n place( or lack there of)

 

Now the two most popular ideas that I've seen is based on expertise or premades. I think both of these ideas are flawed.

 

Premades - Just because you group doesnt make you a great premade. The game is filled with average players grouping. If a premade match maing system were put in place it would encourage people to simply NOT group since they will almost always be put up against actual guild groups with voice comms. You also have great 3 mans. Would they be in the premade catagory? Its not very fair to group them with the 4 mans or put them into the solo or duo queues.

 

Expertise - this system just encourages gear swapping or premades to wear lower gear to fight noobs. This system just screams exploit.

 

I've also heard basing it on Valor. But what about old toons that are high valor but still in champ gear?

 

The other issue I have is that ranked WZ offer the best chance for match making but either require you to pug or be in a strong guild. It also means that your going up against the strongest players on the server. This is suicide for most players and its why RWZ are dying if not dead except for peak hours. So here is my solution:

 

Get rid of non ranked WZ. All WZ are ranked. RWZ can be queued by any number of players 1-8. Here player is granted a base rank of lets say 1k. Obviously wins raise the rank while loses lowers it. Lowest score is 0 and highest is 5k. Then the server will match based on total scores. So lets say we have 8 new recruits each with 1k scores. The system builds a second group within 10% of the first team. Thus the second teams total score must be within 10% of 8k, or 7200-8800. If you have a team that rules the server with perfect 5k scores, their team rates 40k and their opponents must be atleast 36k.

 

this means that it doesnt matter if its a premade, or great gear, but your experience post 50 (soon to be 55) that matters.Wins and losses would also have small effects. Say 25pts for a win, -10pts for a loss. This way it isnt one single match that determines your ranking, and high end pleyers cant force a loss just to fight noobs, unless they lose a crap ton.

 

Now I realize this means we will have a longer queue time. But I'm willing to wait the extra few minutes to get a balanced fight. Think about it this way, this will reduce the number of drop outs you have since your playing against equally skilled players. You could even attach the loss of 5-10 pts for drop outs and it wouldnt hurt the queue times or people who have to drop for RL issues. If they ever do cross server WZ's, this will only help matters.

 

All wz's should grant wz comms. However any WZ where player earns more than 8 medals can earn ranked comms. So for medals 1-8, 5 wz comms each for total of 40. Plus win and obj score for total of 140. Medals 9-16 equal ranked comms. up to 40. Plus win comms of say 20 for total of 60. Potentially a team could earn as many as 140 regular and 60 ranked with a perfect match while even a win will grant you atleast 20 ranked comms.

 

I'm sure I could come up with some more ideas but this is a good start.

[funkiestj]

Get rid of non ranked WZ. All WZ are ranked. RWZ can be queued by any number of players 1-8.

 

Good suggestion! You could still have 2 queues

• 8-man premade queue
  
• mix of 4-man premade and smaller groups (i.e. the current regs)
  

 

Of course our big issue is not a lack of good ideas but a lack of work on BW's part in the area of PvP. By the time late summer rolls around we might see Season 1 of rateds. I'm nearly certain we won't see other fundamental issues addressed before then.

 

While we are fantasizing on how to improve the system I'll plug one of my pet ideas: 8v8 challenge matches. No rewards for the match but full control over who your opponent is and what WZ to play (random could be a WZ option for challenge match). The development effort to implement this is much smaller than other important changes but it gives a big bang for the buck (IMO). Alas, I predict we will not get challenge matches in 2013.

[Warshades]

I wouldnt separate the queues. You could queue with a 7 man and pick up a random person or queue with a 5 man and pick up 3 more. The total ranking of the team determines the opponent, not the number of people you queue with. For example a 7 man with 4k raning each is put up against an 8 man of 3.9k. Thats 28k v 31.2k. The system will then attempt to find a solo player with close to 3.2k ranking to even the match.

 

I think separating queues to 1-4 or 8 is a bad idea. Take a look at my guild. 3 people for 6 months out of the year and 5 for the other 6 months. We cant fill a 4 man half the year and cant queue at all the other half.

 

Additionally Bioware seems focused on WZ's. Personally I would want them to work on OWPvP but since they have stated that wont happen, I've moved on to trying to make WZ more enjoyable. And while they may be slow to act, if we can convince the now of a better way, then maybe by this fall or winter we can have a better match making system. Think long term.

[dscount]

Better yet.. Create a QUE for a 4 Man Group option. Force a 1 tank, 1 dps, 1 heal is required. (+1 optional of any)

 

How fun would several of these matches be if you can't split your team up? Requires thinking ahead and coordination. Leaving a single person on point while three others tackle another point.

 

Think about the BENEFITS:

• Smashmonkeys would be spread out (Cause 2-3 of these wouldn't have heals)
  
• Tactical decisions need to be made as to objectives to tackle
  
• TEAM WORK and balancing would be needed
  
• Decreasing Pack mentality and moves the match into a more "Skill" type requirement
  
• Increased comm's for premade 4 man groups
  
• More 8 man WZ's would see less 4 man premades and keep the PUG balance
  

Edited March 28, 2013 by dscount

[Tragamite]

First off how are these points earned? Simple win:loss by how many points 10, 50, 100?

 

Why wait till 50 to start earning your individual ranging? Do you not earn WZ experience when you PvP at low levels?

 

What about a point system based on what you do in a WZ.

Win +25

Loss -50

Kill +2

Death -5

Heal an ally +2

Killing blow+1

Solo kill +3

Heal on self +1

Shield an ally +2

Taunt an enemy +1

Complete a WZ objective +10

Earn bronze medal +1

Earn silver medal +5

Earn gold medal +10

Etc.

 

This way your ranking is more about how you play and team work you demonstrate over winning or losing the match. It is more about your skills.

Edited March 29, 2013 by Tragamite

[TrigPt]

Anything as to be better the the current 1st come 1st served system they have now. The only concession they have at the moment is that groups in the queue that would make the group larger than 8 are bumped down to be top of the next block of 8.

 

If I'm wrong about my assumption then I'd love to know what the actual matchmaking system is. Maybe the Dev could spend 10mins to write up a brief outline of how it currently works, and what they plan to do to improve it.

 

A decent match making system would stop a lot of QQing, Premades would be less of a problem and people quiting would be less of a problem becuase both those issues are basically about mismatches in teams. One the cause and the other the effect.

 

Well ok not stop the QQing but at least change it to other topics.

[Laforet]

REGS = individual queues only, rewarded by regular wz comms

 

INDIVIDUAL RATEDS = 2,3,4 man queue, rewarded by 1/2 rated comms, matchmaking done by individual rating plus a individual ladder somewhere. Bioware announces the top players every 3-4 months, interviews them on the front page (if possible) and gives them goodies.

 

RATED WARZONES = premade 8 man group only, rewards full rated comms, matchmaking done by TEAM RATING and one ladder with the teams. Bioware announces the top teams on front page, interview their captains (if possible) and gives goodies. Once a year Bioware hosts a tournament on PTS with the best performing teams, double elimination, winner gets the glory.

 

All Xserver.

 

When i say goodies i say free game time, cartel stuff, special gears / mounts / whatever, nothing game breaker ofc.

 

Not perfect, i know, but better than anything we have ATM. Also reasonably easy to implement.

 

Not perfect but better than the mess we actually have.

Edited March 29, 2013 by Laforet

[Warshades]

All interesting ideas but I dont think there is a need to have separate queues. This concept is something that has been forced upon us and we are made to believe that it is somehow needed or helpful but it isnt.

 

The general idea of splitting up WZ queues is to separate the good from average and separate the 8 man premades from the duos/solo/trios/etc. This is a big problem as MOST players dont want to spend the time to create an 8 man group if maybe they only have 6 on. It also means if your guild has more than 4 your forced into 8 man queues where there is very limited number of groups running. You'll always be at a disadvantage.

 

In my example we have any group sizes but players are matched with and against players of similar skill level. So that 8 man group vs the 2 4 man groups only advantage is picking their 8, not actual skill.

 

We need to be more inclusive, not separative in our pvp. Keep it simple, fair, and fun.

[foxmob]

fixes to matchmaking: every player has an individual rating.

each team has an average rating within an acceptable score (say 200-300).

 

these ratings have nothing to do with the current rated system and do not offer any sort of rewards. they would exist purely for matchmaking.

 

this circumvents the gear issue. it circumvents the superQ issue. it eliminates 90% of the unbalanced WZ issues.

 

the downside: there are times when one faction simply doesn't have enough "good" players to field a team comparable to the other faction. should that faction's players be left out while the other faction plays same faction matches? this is a dilemma. it's the ONLY one I can think of with such a system.

[Warshades]

Thats about what my OP said, but you gotta remember for IMPs most matches are not faction matches, lots of Imp vs Imp.

 

My idea was to do 10% difference in ranking, but during off peak hours that could be 20% or during highest peak hours 5%

 

Also with x-server WZ it makes it much easier.

[funkiestj]

My idea was to do 10% difference in ranking, but during off peak hours that could be 20% or during highest peak hours 5%

 

 

My idea is to have sensible defaults but to give the player / group some control over the match making parameters. Not everyone wants the same thing from the system. E.g. some may want to finish their WZ daily ASAP and don't mind being put in a "bad" match if it means being scheduled more quickly.

[Warshades]

I would thin people who have a tuffer time with weekly instead of daily. If you get a bad group you probably will do 2 wz to get daily, and dozens to get weekly. But if a good match making is put in, you should have your daily done in 1-2 and weekly done in an average of 18 wz or 50/50 win loss rate since all matches will be allmost equal.

[jolleebindu]

i'd rather just see them arrange the teams differently, especially for same faction. It isn't about who you have queing so much as it is about how you mix up the teams. Heck if it is really that bad make huttball teams faction mixed - so they can be better balanced out.

[MotorCityMan]

Of course our big issue is not a lack of good ideas but a lack of work on BW's part in the area of PvP.

 

That about sums it up.

[Warshades]

i'd rather just see them arrange the teams differently, especially for same faction. It isn't about who you have queing so much as it is about how you mix up the teams. Heck if it is really that bad make huttball teams faction mixed - so they can be better balanced out.

 

I wouldnt mind mixed teams for huttball, but not for any other WZs.

 

Though I'd like them to develop about 4 more huttball maps and it would be random for which "stadium" your playing in.

[legolegion]

sorry but i liked ranked wz`s, so no don`t get rid off them.

[Warshades]

sorry but i liked ranked wz`s, so no don`t get rid off them.

 

hmmmm, where did I say remove rated matches? I believe the idea is to essentially make ALL WZ rated, and queueable with any group size 1-8.

 

Perhaps go back to my original OP and reread it a few more times.

[Warshades]

Actually here is what I said:

 

"Get rid of non ranked WZ. All WZ are ranked. RWZ can be queued by any number of players 1-8."

 

copy and pasted from OP