I am for matchmaking to a certain extent or at least some form of it. But the playerbase numbers worries me as far as matchmaking implementation

Matchmaking is already implemented via the Scotty AI System, this is just a tuner.

So you just completely ignored the context of what I'm saying? Okay mr literal

Mister Literal? Cute

No, I completely understand where you're coming from, 12k players/5 ranks AND Regional Servers=potentially empty battles.

This is just, like I said, a tuner.

instead of running to Oceana to hide from the MLGs and pad your KDR you can just drop a rank or two.

Besides personally I would like to see a few battle now and then with just a squad on each team in an Ambush, more personal and smaller, more varied maps would be possible.

Good luck finding Oceana...

Matchmaking is already implemented via the Scotty AI System, this is just a tuner.

OK, so I was daydreaming at work (obviously not doing my job) and I was thinking about all the noobs and QQ's, as I so often do, and I thought to my self "Self, We need to find a way to shut these kids up and get them off MY team, while simultaneously giving those MLG wannabe Jerk-offs what they want."

SO- Ranking System!

I KNOW RIGHT?! The Title says it ALL!!

To the point, if CCP were to implement a simple patch (They WON'T) in which your LOAD-OUTS are RANKED it MIGHT make the game more fun for EVERYONE... Hear me out now.

So when you cue up for a battle you also select a RANK (1-5 seems like CCPs favorite number range) it would filter your Fittings(Suit and Vehicles alike) accordingly...Based on META LVL or Class, whatever.

LVL 1 - Almost completely MLT/STD gear.
LVL 2 - A Healthy mix of STD and ADV gear.
LVL 3 - Almost completely ADV gear.
LVL 4 - A healthy mix of ADV and PRO gear.
LVL 5 - Pretty much all PRO gear.

So the deal is, put a RANK bar at the bottom of ALL Fittings, if you add so much of one gear type it bumps you up to the next rank, so on and so forth.

In Battle, your fittings would be Valid / Invalidated based on the rank selected by your Squad Leader at the Contract Select screen-Makes life easier on Scotty too.

To be clear THIS WOULD ONLY APPLY TO PUB MATCHES - seeing as they theoretically have no effect on New Eden, PC and FW would be business as usual.

This would allow Everyone to basically select a Difficulty / Risk ratio and dial out most of the frustration in a game which, we can all admit, is doomed to be a Lobby Shooter.

TL;DR? Too Bad...

That would work if everyone only had one fit...

In Battle, your fittings would be Valid / Invalidated based on the rank selected by your Squad Leader at the Contract Select screen

I'd say rank by SP. Every 5 mil gets a new rank. Squads would work by having the dude with the highest rank be the decisive factor in matchmaking. So, if a Rank 10 dude squadded up with 5 other Rank 1s, they would join a Rank 10 match.

I was going to say to go with the average, but that would require math from CCP and we all know how THAT turns out.

Overly complex due to the sheer variety of modular loadouts, and ignores the concepts that you can be a slayer in low-end gear and a punching bag (like me) in full-proto and that SP core upgrades enhance all suits. Matchmaking should examine the outcome of the player's choices, not the choices themselves. You could put me in a Formula 1 car, and an f1 driver in a Honda Civic, and the illustration would play out.

btw, there's a meta level for every suit, weapon, equipment and module. Why not have the ranking based on overall meta level of each suit?

So when you cue up for a battle you also select a RANK (1-5 seems like CCPs favorite number range) it would filter your Fittings(Suit and Vehicles alike) accordingly...Based on META LVL or Class, whatever.

Skills have no affect on this system whatsoever. the Skill tree is what separates us from the apes.

the idea isn't complex at all, if you have a STD Suit with STD equipment that suit is Rank 1. and this concept is cookie cutter for the rest of the ranks.

Yo, you missed this part....

50mil SP veteran in a STD suit is the same on the battlefield as a first-week post-academy neophyte? Not if the core skills are maximized.

post-academy neophyte

That's the whole point! The Skill Tree is the Heart and Soul of Dust, without it this is Space CoD

You can still Dominate with your well earned SP but Gun Game still overrules your 25% advantage.

Basic math here, it's more fair for the Neophyte if you have 25% more armor than him in a STD suit rather than 400% more armor in a Proto Suit that he can't whip out upon death like you can. he's still a disadvantaged Noob, but he still has a CHANCE.

This System would also partially rule out the need for the academy also seeing as Newbies would be gradually introduced to higher rank battles as they gained SP, trained those core skills, and were able to create and maintain those higher ranked suits.

[Still allows stomp due to exploits, loaded squads, modded controllers, etc. KDR matchmaking doesn't, because it is cause-agnostic in the face of effect. KDRmm also relies on less data and calculations so it will work faster. One stack of stats from worst to best, groups of 32 made into games, pre-made squads labeled as average KDR of players in the squad.

KDRmm totally removes the need for academy.

KDR is only relevant to slayer types, and allows mismatched teams based on AVG KDR VS Solo Player KDR, EX: my Solo KDR is Approx 3.0 which Is higher than an average squad of 1.5rs, but that Squad can take me out no prob w/ co-op.

KDR-MM would only encourage KDR padding and ballasting to maintain an advantage, it just doesn't work.

you would have snipers and Pilots commiting suicide constantly just to play with "The Crowd"

The game is KDR. No shooting, no need for repping/reviving. No shooting, no resistance to hacking/capping. AVG KDR amongst a squad assumes that for every 3.0 in your squad that you put up against a solo 1.5, you're having to bring in a 0.1 to allow it (or something math-y like that).

And would put red-line snipers and campers with 12.0+ KDRs into empty matches leaving slayers to dominate noobs with no overwatch.

KDR-MM would only encourage KDR padding and ballasting to maintain an advantage, it just doesn't work.

you would have snipers and Pilots commiting suicide constantly just to play with "The Crowd"

You would be turning a benign stat into the most focused upon detail in the whole game, it would break in a big way.

They deserve empty matches, and they couldn't maintain the KDR in said empty matches, because eventually someone shoots someone else. Overwatch is largely mythical. KDR padding only forces you higher up the competitive field probably past your ability to cope long-term. Ballasting (which I suppose is suiciding to stay at a stomp level) is downright goofy and marginal, and almost impossible to build squads and corps around. Slayers, by the dint of being slayers, would have a higher KDR than new and weaker players, forcing them up the ladder to face other slayers. And they better have good logis around, or they won't have an advantage.

Think deeper than one match.

You would be more inline you suggest a MM System based on weekly WP (The Real Measure of what you do in a match)
but this is also as broken as a KDR tracked at any lenght of time because of the Exploits mentioned eariler

The Fitting Rank System bypasses all of these snags.