inb4 "we donz haz enug playrs!"

My favorite lame excuse.

inb4 "we donz haz enug playrs!"

Btw, I think matchmaking in DUST has improved in some ways. I see less protostomps, or is it that I'm just lucky to run into fully stacked proto squads less frequently...dunno.

I disagree with gear-based tiers. The whole point of earning top gear is so you can have an advantage (at the cost of risking expensive stuff). If everyone in your match is wearing it, then it's no-longer an advantage and is simply PC without the big payout. That's not to say I'm happy with the current matchmaking process.

First, we need an optional 2nd tier academy that players under some threshold can join other low SP players (cap is something like 3-5 mill SP). This would help tremendously with new player retention. Next is finding a way to create good matches against the remaining players above that threshold.

I would give each player a talent index based on a variety of factors including total SP, average position at the end of the match, K/D, average WPs, ISK efficiency, etc. This number wouldn't be published to the players, but would be used to balance teams. Players who consistently finish near the top of their team will increase in rank, and those who consistently place lower will decrease in rank. Each player will eventually reach an equilibrium where they're in the top half roughly 50% of the time and the bottom half the rest.

While Scotty would do his best to pick 32 players closest in the talent index, the most important job will be to make sure that the sum of index rank of each team are close. As an example, if you have a full squad of excellent players some good players and a few mediocre players, it would put the mediocre players on the same team as the excellent players against a full team of good players. It's not perfect of course, but having a reasonably equal balance of talent index points on both sides should mean for more balanced matches, less stomping, and more intense fights that come down to the wire.

I realize that with low concurrent numbers, we face an uphill battle getting sufficient players to have good matchmaking, but what is most important is that each side is as evenly balanced as possible.

My favorite lame excuse.

I know this isn't EVE. I am not stating that AV/vehicles are balanced. I understand there is a problem with AV. I understand that you think CCP doesn't listen or know how to balance things. I understand that you may believe that another patch may not come for a year. I know that the game has problems. I am not trying to say anything about balance, timely releases, quality of released content, competence of CCP or players or anything other than the following:

The problem I have with the rank, which I think is a good idea, is that a new player in a squad of vets that is being trained will be outmatched, with a tiered system it would prevent 31 proto players with only one noob. There should be a way for us to choose the difficulty of the battles to allow us to train new players, have a testing area and stop protostomping of not-so-good players but still give us an option like we have now to just go all in. Check out my suggestion, yes the numbers are off but a similar idea is needed.

I laughed at it before as well but even with the couple thousand players extra we had during the MCC event the difference in matchmaking was noticeable and I have not ever seen as many even matches.

I know this isn't EVE. I am not stating that AV/vehicles are balanced. I understand there is a problem with AV. I understand that you think CCP doesn't listen or know how to balance things. I understand that you may believe that another patch may not come for a year. I know that the game has problems. I am not trying to say anything about balance, timely releases, quality of released content, competence of CCP or players or anything other than the following:

Player numbers are very important to matchmaking but for us to have more players we need places to go where we can fight on a mercs skill level. Without that new players will always feel like they are being stomped. I do agree, those extra active players did make a big difference in match making but it still put protostompers with less skilled players or players that can't afford proto suits.

Seriously. 8 months and nothing? Come on...

Here's my solution, one last time:
Establish 2 tiers of game modes - 1 for MLT-ADV and 1
for Unrestricted Collective Meta Level (Collective Meta Level = combined total Meta Levels from suit, weapons, equipment)
The eligibility for the lower tier would be for dropsuits and vehicles built with a Collective Meta of 10 or less (just an example #), creating a bracket for lower skill players. The second tier would be focused on ADV-Officer classes. No Collective Meta restrictions, but a warning that you are entering fire and brimstone otherwise.
All players would be able to compete at either level. In the lower tier, Vets could build ISK efficient fittings and put their actual gun game to the test against the noobs and the noobs wouldn't be so desperately outclassed by gear alone. On the other hand, noobs with huge egos could test their mettle and the state of their fittings against the vets in the upper tier.

Metaphorically speaking, it's like a swimming pool. A shallow end and a deep end. They share the same water and though the shallows may be for the little ones it's also a nice place for the adults to hang out and chill. The deep end is full of crazy divers and full grown people with a couple of kids trying to see how long they can hold their breath and try to touch the bottom.

This could be easily implemented with the systems we already have in place and not exclude any one particular part of the playerbase.