Matchmaking

Mindstorm

Recently I've had the idea that the community of NS2 is getting a bit scattered. I have one idea I personally would think would help to stop this and even get more players to NS2.

I believe one of the major problems / frustrations in NS2 is the fact that new players (or even medium ones) will get faced against hardcore players. A good player can really tip the balance. Losing 4 matches to this player (escpailly with stacking) is no fun.

So my suggestion: Introduce match making. Normal server-joining can still excists, no problem with that but the main menu should have annother option then play:
Join match (or some similar name).

What does this do? It joins a special Match server (a server that cannot be joined manually). When it joins a server it tries to join a server with people with about the same rank as you. A player rank can ofcourse be determined by matches*level*aim or whatever forumla. Maybe even like SC2 (platina,gold).
Annother idea is to do something simular as World of Tanks. You can form platoons of max 3 and join matches with these platoons. Because you have an advantage (know your friends) you get placed in matches ranked a little higher. (You can still play ranked but it's not that these platoons waste pub games).


Ranked matches will also contribute to pro stuff because you could get things like diamond leages and hardcore-player only games (it's like ensl matchmaking in ns2).

So what do you guys think? I know it would require a lot of "thinking" but I think the progamming actually wouldn't be that big.

joshhh

IIRC, UWE has a matchmaking system planned for the future. Don't quote me on that though.

Emoo

In an ideal world yes. The issue that gets brought up whenever match making is raised is that of player population size. NS2 probably doesn't have enough players to do good match making.
Having an optional system side-by-side with the current one might work, just have to convince enough people it's worth waiting a minute or two to find a ranked match.

Frozen

Even if it's not ranked there's a good chance of getting a fun 6v6 --> 8v8 if there was built in pugs

CmdrKeen

I always hear "the playerbase is not big enough for matchmaking". Well then it seems we have a vicious-cycle: Little Playerbase->No Matchmaking->Frustration of new players->Little playerbase

I think a matchmaking should be implemented anyways; you have to start breaking the cycle somewhere. Maybe implement the matchmaking in a way that you can sign up for a match on a matchmaking server and can still keep playing on normal servers while you wait.

Even if the playerbase would be small, you could still get a game going from time to time. While you wait, just play on normal servers.

Mindstorm

Matchmaking has nothing to do with player base. Even now most of the time I'm waiting 2-20 mins so I can join either my friends or a favorite server. I wouldn't mind waiting 10-20 minutes for a match because I would know it would be a good one!!!

And even so there are plenty of other ways to come around this... Allow playing on regular servers until the match is ready-->get a message that you need to leave this server in order to auto join the match...

And still the current amount of players is enough for match making, with less players it just means the difference between skills is a bite more. (And a bit is still not huge amounts).

Luciole

The main issue with the lack of matchmaking its the impossibility to find a serv where you can join as a group because of the autobalance.

It's the main reason tons of my firend brought the game but don't play, you can't just say "come lets kill some alien/marine", you need to come on a serv and split.

I think its really the main reason why people don't stay in the game. Add a matchmaking with an elo, some skin of body/weapon debloquable with a elo cap. and the population on this game ll just go nuts.

Bacillus

While definitely matchmaking is a huge deal for fighting uneven games, I don't think we should forget other possibilities that can be worked alongside the matchmaking. There should be more work towards making the rounds play well so that they are filled with meaningful content even for the losing team and finish in timely manner when the clear winner is found.

Matchmaking can be amazing, but it's in no way a cure-all solution even if it can be pulled off within the limits of small dev team and community.

Frustration

Of course its not a cure all solution, nobody has that.

It is literally the best option out there.

Making the rounds play well is a not a solution to the problem - I will get killed by skilled players so many times I ragequit.

The skilled players will just learn whatever is "making the rounds play well" and just slaughter you again.

The whole point is that you never have to encounter these damn nolifing **********.

Racer1

I prefer handicapping to matchmaking. Servers could still cater to a specific skill level of player, but would still allow anyone to play.

joshhh

Not sure how you would enable handicapping without wrecking balance.

Emoo

The game needs something. Every few matchs ends up as a complete roflstomp by one side. There's nothing to force people to try and balance the teams out so you end up with good players slowing joining up together until they completely unbalance a side.

joshhh wrote: »

Not sure how you would enable handicapping without wrecking balance.

The whole point of handicaps is to force balance. If one guy is clearly way ahead of the rest of the server it handicaps him so he doesn't throw the game balance off single handed.
While ideally you want to see the pure skill of each player the skill variance in NS2 results in some really lame games.