Matchmaking...

Biglines

I noticed in the last few developer FAQs that it somehow seems to go towards matchmaking based on stats, instead of the good old serverlist/dedicated server. While it was discussed shortly in the developer FAQ thread 1, I personally think this deservers its own topic if it's really that much of a priority for ns2.

While matchmaking works fine on things like consoles and deathmatch games, or games where a class is selected before joining a server, I don't get why people would want this in a game like ns2. I do not want to play with people some stats system decides "is good for me". I want to play on HBZ, not on some random server selected because they need a "good commander", or "a good lerk", or whatever the stats feel the server needs.

I'm sure for dumbed down games like deathmatch games, or things like co-op games, matchmaking makes sense, because as long as u can invite friends, it doesn't really matter. But in a game like NS2, I want to decide what server to play on.

Secondly, why would anyone want to run a server if it's decided by some matchmaking server? Why would I pay a massive amount of money to get a server that's used for matchmaking? The only games I know/play with matchmaking, have servers that are run by the company themselves, so they can "guarantee" a good server is available for matchmaking. I would never ever want to get connected to about 80% of the servers currently up. (Let alone the fact that if a game gets popular, a good server admin can be the difference between cheat infested or policed properly.)

Pretty please with sugar on top, if you make matchmaking, allow both users and servers to opt out of it.

XeiZ

I doubt they will force you to use this system anyway, didnt even sound like it either.

Wilson

I'm almost 100% sure they meant adding match making as an additional option for finding a match. The server browser isn't going anywhere.

Match making is awesome. It's not just for "dumbed down deathmatch games" as you put it. I imagine it would basically be like the ENSL gather system only built directly into the game. It allows you to find a 6v6 match (possibly taking your stats into account to rank you with similarly skilled players) easily from within the game. Just like CS:GO has a match making feature and also a server browser.

DJPenguin

i can't remember the last non-console port to only have matchmaking and no server browser.

countbasie

Some Free2Play games have it, like Battlefield F2P. Well, you can bookmark servers, but while in-game you can't even switch teams to play with a friend.
I don't know why developers would do those things. It's just not fair.

I doubt UWE would do anything like this.

Kouji_San

Heh don't worry about it, matchmaking would just be an extra option. It's not like a full team of devs, having a solid PC gaming background will remove the server browser from the game. A server browser is simply a must have for a game like NS2 :)

Hugh

We would never remove the server list. Matchmaking would be an optional secondary way to find a game.

Don't know where you got the scary idea that we would remove server lists! :D

kingmob

A good matchmaking system would help coordinate people looking for a similar experience.
It would also reuse any servers that you maintained a decent ping during gameplay.

The Halo matchmaking was still the most impressive I have seen although I think it is a rule that playing on any Xbox Live game the words '######' and '######' are shouted constantly.

I imagine a decent NS2 matchmaking menu system to appear like the following:

What size game would you like to play?
6v6
12v12
either

Would you like to play with people in your Steam friends list?
Yes
No
Maybe

Waiting for slots to be filled ....

Vote for your team commander?

Launching game on HBZ ....

Biglines

So how then would this work? because the point of ensl gathers is that it uses servers that are made available by community, and are policed by the community (this case usually either duplex or hbz).

I wasn't talking about removing the server list, I was talking about matchmaking somehow having influence over my favourite servers.

Like I said, I really don't want to be tied down to a complete match, or have to wait for a complete queue to fill up before I can start playing. Supporting things like ensl ingame sounds like a mod, not a main gameplay feature that should take up lots of development time (especially a stats based matchmaker..).

Note, I am an avid ensl gather player, I far prefer gathers over public play. But this is because it is community policed and controlled, teams are picked by chosen team leaders, not some stats based system, NS2 is far too complex to define team contribution through stats.

I understand that UWE wants this game to have a bigger appeal, and beginning people will probably find match made games which take into account stats of players to be very comforting, and it will surely help new players ease into the game, but I really don't see why it's worth spending development time on a stats based system (which imho is FAR inferior to a community controlled system).

So in short, how would matchmaking work in a game where all the servers are provided by the community, and 80% of them are utter crap to play on?

Hugh

Nothing in our hoped-for nebulous matchmaking idea would interfere with any of what you've just described biglines, you don't need to worry :)

hapro

All I really want in matchmaking is to be able to say "find me a server on one of these maps with at least x people but no more than y people with a ping no greater than z" and then it just auto-joins the first server it finds that meets those conditions or waits until one is available and then joins it. So it'd basically just be a different way to access the server browser. Stat-tracking and levels and waiting for 20 people before a game starts all usually detract from the experience.

Yuuki

I would like to point out that you already have a match making system in game. It's called the ready room. I think you should make better use of it before implementing an additional system.

For example having a 1-2 minutes warm-up/discussion time before the game starts, waiting for players to join the team (display something is the ready room to make people join). When the game starts players left in ready room auto-join. Make everything configurable (times, ...) by servers admin, and add something to deal with the afk's.

After the game everybody go back to ready room to celebrate, put a holographic screen showing some replays of the game (you already have the game recorder), or some stupid achievements, a gorge Piñata, I don't know.

Flat text is so web 2.0.