Crimson ShieId
Psygod9
581
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Posted - 2014.06.27 18:48:00 -
[1] - Quote
I'll try to keep this short and sweet.
Matchmaking, as it stands, doesn't appear to exist, a fact just about every new player to this game is well aware of. I've heard talk of it being improved several times, but never noticed any differences myself. Spotting this little bit by Rattati recently...
Quote:It saddens me to know that better matchmaking would have helped the game and its new player retention a long time ago. I can tell you though that we are hopefully making some progress on matchmaking, and specifically team making, based on cumulative WP/battlesecond, cumulative KDR is not as good because of snipers, but I hadn't thought of WP/D. We will take a look at how that compares to our other data and calculate the correlation to W/L ratio and see how it performs.
This is independent work from hotfixes and will be deployed when ready.
Matchmaking like this is of course only in random matches, not PC.
I figured I'd throw my two cents in. If a solid idea for matching is being worked on, great, I'd love to see it, but in a game like Dust, proper matchmaking seems impossible. KD/R, Win/Loss Ratio, WP scores per game or in total... none of these can really be used to calculate who's a newbie and who is truly a veteran player of this game. Instead of, or perhaps in addition to a match making system, why not add on game modes that focus around specific tiers of dropsuits? A sidebar of sorts, a place for players to pick who they want to play against, in a way. Something like this could include all the game modes as they are, but have restrictions. Tier 1 could restrict anyone from spawning in who isn't spawning in a pure militia suit. Tier 2 could be basic to militia, tier 3 advanced to militia/basic and so on. This way, instead of trying to figure out which of the many stats in Dust would be best for making a proper matchmaking system, the players could be given a choice of where they wanted to go. This wouldn't get rid of people stomping, of course, but it would no longer be a case of militia versus prototype gear, and even the veterans could benefit from this. As it stands, PC is the only area where you can consistently see proto gear on both sides. Adding a mode where proto was the norm would allow players who didn't have access to PC to get similarly competitive matches wouldn't needing to be in a PC active corp.
TL;DR: Allow ranks to be chosen in game that will sort players according to the gear they wish to use, thus players who wish to only use militia or basic can play against only players using militia or basic, and those who wish to play with only or mostly prototype gear can do the same.
Next on the list would be Factional Warfare. As with the above, I've noticed a lot of conversation on this, and it's a shame that an entire game mode like this is in such a lackluster state. Talk of Isk rewards being increased seems to be all the rage, but I'd be willing to wager that such a thing is only part of the problem. As it stands, FW offers Aurum gear with a different name. The color schemes are the same, the lower skill needed to operate is the same, and outside of the specialist weapons, everything about LP store items is the same as the AUR gear. So, why not change this? Why not offer more color schemes for the FW suits and guns, camouflage patterns that aren't on every other AUR suit and gun? Players like to customize their gear in games, running around with a different color suit or gun isn't the greatest example of this, but it's still a nice thing to have, a little bit of extra flare to the game for some. Giving players a wider variety of options in terms of camo's would, I believe, increase the incentive to play FW for more than those few players who simply want to try out a weapon early without investing the SP for it. I know I'd sink hours into FW if I could get the red camo's offered in the Minmatar Combat Pack, perhaps the same for my SMG as well, but as it stands... there's just no reason to play it outside of having a game where teammates can troll each other. I don't believe this would necessarily limit AUR purchases for suits because earning points in FW costs a lot of Isk and time, but it would certainly give players an incentive to actually que up for a few games.
TL;DR: Add more rewards to the LP store, different color schemes to suits and guns, things that can usually only be achieved by buying AUR.
That's all for now, folks. Cheers.
Nova Knives are best sidearm.
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Crimson ShieId
Psygod9
581
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Posted - 2014.06.27 21:46:00 -
[2] - Quote
John Demonsbane wrote:IMO, there should be top tier and unique factional gear in more categories. Cosmetics are good, the factional stuff should have unique colors, no doubt.
But I think what would really drive it if more stuff was better. Examples:
- The Kalaakiota 100% revive needle
- The Amarr imperial commando with the I-can't-believe-its-not-more-popular three weapon slots
- The Imperial Viziam uplink (the unique one which for no good reason has the same exact name as the regular proto one)
You put more things like that in the LP store, beef up the rewards a little, and you'll see more interest.
Now THAT... would be nice. Though, technically, this was the case with a few weapons prior, the proto rail rifle and plasma rifle recently had much higher stats than their regular counterparts. It was a glitch, of course, but it was still there. The fitting cost reductions of the specialist weapons seem to be the only thing close to this at the moment though, which is kind of sad.
Nova Knives are best sidearm.
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