So now my little ego is going to be shattered by being not being put up against the super players...

Leave it to a DUST player to find SOMETHING to cry about!

Allow the academy to only be visited once per ACCOUNT instead of based on character age.

Sure, you can make a second PSN account, but that is more difficult and requires a separate sign-in. That might discourage this kind of behavior.

Make the academy account based rather than character based? sure they could still just use another PSN account but constantly making alternate psns will get old for them after awhile. who has more than 3 emails?

Sounds a bit like how Starcraft does their matchmaking.

Anyways, matchmaking is cool, and has been desperately needed. But what happens when a top tier player like myself doesn't have the funds or desire to run a proto match. Am I really on the same level as somebody that runs proto, over myself running standard gear.

With the large differences between gear, I would like to also be matched with people running my same level of gear. Now before people uproar, I want to be matched with other players my skill level, but restricted to a tier level of gear, with payouts that reflect this. To me, this would be like the icing on the cake for matchmaking.

Other than that, I'll check this matchmaking out this evening, but from what I've seen of it so far, well done. I'd take a match where at least everyone throws in some effort, over those where they just throw clones at it, or sit in the redline and wait it out. I mean, stomping is fun the first time, but when every match is like that, it get BORING, and the win becomes meaningless.

Did you seriously expect that people wouldnt do this? There is nothing that stops you from creating new accounts. High skilled players do not want to constantly play vs their own kind. They do not want to play in a 24/7 competetive enviroment. And before the alt actually gets deleted they will transfer all the ISK to their main account. Its all about chilling and killing n00bs. Sorry if this answer sounds harsh but thats what the general FPS player wants to do.

Ofcourse alot of people will disagree with me now on that point but on the other hand alot of people will just moan when they go up vs the same guys again that beat them on the previous match.




Wont stop them cause you can create unlimited PSN accounts. And each new PSN= a new char for acedemy. Its one of the most basic things dust vets know. New PSN=1 new dust toon that can receive passive SP and in the future this will have aswell the benefit of getting into acedemy. So instead of queing a char for biomass they will just get rid of the PSN account and make a new one within 2 minutes.

I think its even easier to make sub PSN accounts from your main account. You are fighting the windmills Ratatti but im curious how you will fix this.

You guys are looking at this all wrong, and pandering to stompsquads won't earn you any points with the casuals. Most people play games to have fun. There's nothing fun about lopsided matches, so people aren't playing them; trying to force players to play simply won't work. There are better ways to address this.


How much does that one kill cost?

Some of us don't have unlimited resources, you know.

Just spent the night working on missions on many accounts.

One account has 600,000sp and was fighting against veteran players for some reason.

Apparently the small time I played on it I must have done pretty well.

Aside from that, all the other accounts seemed to be pitted against groups that were on paper equally skilled.

The high SP accounts (20mil SP +) saw most matches ending with 6-10 players on either side.

The mid and low SP accounts saw most matches ending with 12+ players on each side and not one instance of redlining.

That is not to say that some matches ended up with clone counts of 20 vs 100 ect, but that was usually due to a few guys that obviously were in the wrong weight class.

Most of my waits for battles were under 3 minutes which is fine for me, as a MAG veteran I used to wait 30-35 minutes for a domination match.

I am willing to wait up to 5-7 minutes if that allows the queue to set up full evenly balanced teams.

---

From a New Player Experience perspective this change will definitely help the new player attrition rate and grow our playerbase.

As a veteran, I can say that the longer wait times and squads backing out of almost every match is a pain in the ass.

Until word spreads that they are not going to be able to dodge other proto squads and stomp on new players all day... the long waits and low player count at the end of match won't change.

Sure, we can... there has to be some sort of a cut off line though
Frankly, replacing a squad (or more) that left at the very beginning of a battle =/= putting people into a match that is already over.
Furthermore, I don't consider, say a dom, where one MCC is barely into armour and the other has most of its shields to be "almost over" or "lost", there is still time to turn it around, if the team is willing to try (assuming no catastrophic clone losses on either side). I do consider a dom where the blue MCC has 2 ticks of armour and the objective is red to be more than over. There is quite a difference between putting new players into the two, yes?

That latter scenario seems to primarily happen if queued solo... is the matchmaker simply more easygoing with putting solo players where ever they fit, than whole squads?

Also, is it possible to tweak the matchmaker so, that once a battle has started, it would be less strict? As in, if a battle loses players at the very beginning, it would primarily try to find a squad (or squads) of roughly appropriate size to replace those players, maybe on a widened "scope" so to speak? Or, at the very least, try to put more players in at least within the first few minutes of the battle, length depending on the game mode, obviously.

Cute. Allow me to explain, since you missed the point. Or choose to ignore it because you still cling to this idea that Skill > Gear.

True, we do have starter suits, and yes I do use them when making money. But why I'm a forced to run them consistently to fund proto. Yes this made perfect sense before, as you would be matched with newbs that lacked this themselves. So it was sort of a balancing factor with the lack of matchmaking.

But now that we have this match making system (which seems to be working quite well), shouldn't you be encouraging the use of proto at higher tiers. You know, since those being matched will no doubt have it. Why do we need to downgrade to lesser gear when you have the ability to run the best of the best and we are facing the best of the best.

Maybe it's time to reevaluate this, eh. Like I said, the reason many of us crave PC battles, is because we know going in that:

.: The match will no doubt incorporate the use of nothing but proto, meaning an even match based on skill and coordination alone.

2. The payout reflects this, allowing us to at least break even or not come out too far in the hole. Unless we lose of course, but corp reimburses for this.

I personally don't have much time in the day to dedicate to this game, so much of my time is spent grinding out isk to fund a game or two of proto. I want to have some fun, and am excited about this new matchmaking (if we only had full teams). Not spend a majority of my time being inferior to play on the same level.

So please, don't be rude about this and consider encouraging more proto play at higher tiers by giving us better payouts to do so. Your matchmaking is working beautifully, so encouraging gear for it's respective tier in matchmaking would be the icing on this delicious cake that is matchmaking.

I've always wondered why WP's value weren't given out on a tiered basis.

50 WP for MLT/STD, 100 WP for ADV, 150 for PRO. Would shrink protoplayers' payouts/SP if they grab mainly easy kills, and would reward other players for taking a stand and trying to deal losses to the stompers instead of cowering to save ISK, since more WP = more ISK of course.

Allow me to explain: When playing is no longer worthwhile nor cost effective, you stop playing.
That simple.
Some of us genuinely don't have an ego to bruise in a match, but we do care about isk.

There are two factors I look at.
1. Can we win? At what costs?
2. If we can't, how much is victory going to cost the enemy? Can we inflict enough damage to make their victory empty and meaningless?

If an enemy player goes 20/1 that 1 is meaningless.
You need to make it 20/5, 20/9, or 20/20 with him using an ADV or PRO suit for it to matter.

The past 12 hours have been a blast. Ran lots of matches solo. Ran lots of matches in a small squad and a few in a full squad. A few stomps here and there, but matches were largely full and fun. The "proto standard" from yesterday seems to have given way to advanced gear today.

Ran 80% advanced suits and BPO guns today. Ended the day with more Isk than I began, and had fun pretty much every match.

(Wonder if I got demoted to a lower tier. )

Matchmaking seem to be good, but there is still a step that must be done, it's probably the most important thing of all.

SERVER ZONE, it's clear that most of the community do not like to have people playing from different continents on their server.
All you need to do is locate the IP (many sites do that) and use the nearest server.

We are all tired to fight lag, we are all tired of immortal players and teleporting people.
This situation is only going against you, because if i get stomped by a player who don't reg hits, when i have the possibility i will stomp a player with less SP than me.

Technical aspects of the game are influencing players behaviour. It's normal that someone who is beaten by the other team wants his revenge and he will have his revenge on another player that can't defend himself.
This goes down step by step from the higher to the lower skilled player and the last one will cancel the game.

Ok, if everyone hasn't figured it out, CCP is tweaking the settings while looking at all the data for the matches. Give them a break and stay positive.

This is them hearing the radio stations are fuzzy so they are twisting the rabbit ears. You listen and try to tune in to the best it will ever be. Some people will still complain when this is done, but bow down to Ratiti Wheaton because he has yet again made an awesome change we have been begging for since beta. Nice move!!

Overall I hear all of our newer corp members talk about how much better the matches have been. Usually they want to squad up so the vets can even the playing field against other vets but this lets them play on their own when they want to grind.

I am sure we will see the same thing with simple trading. Implement then fine tune.

Please be sure to keep this logic out of FW. The vets need somewhere outside of a PC to fight anyone they want.

Considering the matchmaking:

I had a few games with different characters, and I must say, compliment to our saviour, The Ratatwheaton has finally given us a lot of good battles. The noobs can play against noobs, and the vets against vets.

I got dropped in battles nearly over, where my team was on the backfoot, and we managed to turn them around on several occasions. So even the late entrys are worth a fight. I only had one very late one, where my team had only 12 clones left on my entry and we got cloned. But still, since all the other battles where such a good experience compared to the last months, I was happy to search a kill in that one and be good with it.

All in all, the matchmaking works brilliant for me. It might be because I always ran in basic and advanced fits, and it seems that my crappy kdr is also considered. My KDR seems to profit from those games, so I'm fine.

And even in some of the late entrys, I managed to get nearly 1000 WP, so it's really worth to hang in and try to do your best.


63mil SP if anybody is wondering...


BTW, I've seen a lot of the high kdr vets chickening in the redline or sniping... what a bunch of pathetic scrubs... LOL

Like it. A lot.

Plus thinking about those squads getting dumped back into the match they ran away from makes me giggle like a matari schoolgirl.

Thank you.

By the way, HELLO! You look new here... at least for the forums. Time to train up your Forum Warrior Skillbook to Level V!

Associate Programer at CCP Shanghai?

You're another confirmed programmer on the DUST team. It's a good sign to the less daft among us. It meansthe game isn't dead yet. We can be patient.

Update on the mini-match making update. I am unimpressed.

My day consisted of a single match of 7 vs 14, which devolved to 4v14 then 3v13 and of course then it only me versus the pond scum you threw at me. A full squad dropping Maddy v.0 and ADS while tossing their meager, lone warbarge gas bag fluff and missing not only me but my droplink.

[Deleted all I really wanted to say]

Off to Dark Souls, where death has more meaning. KR

I have 102 million SP and it takes me forever to find a match and my guys have not been getting into matches. Half the team being put the game while the others wait for deployment and can't get in. It's broken for me.

Overall it seems better to me. People just need a bigger carrot to keep pushing for the win. No telling how much easier this matchmaking dream would come true for you guys if people were playing like they are properly motivated.

i had 3 skirms
our team 3v10
3v6
6v12..stopped playing that char
Just switced my character i had full 16 v 16 games
It was balanced and had big corps in both team
So why is it like this .......

... and getting pulled into battles that I haven't queued up for. ...

God this sucks, keep getting paired with vets. A lot of them are scouts adding insult to injury by shredding my ADV Heavy's shield and armor with freakin' "Bullsh*t's ass chunks and cheese SMG" knowing I can't damage even the Light class they're using. Still tweaking or is it official that 3Mil+ SP is capable of taking on 40Mil+ SP Vets? Didn't get this on my new char as far as I know..

O k so the situation is as follows. I will be in a squad of 6, often with many of us having high SP. We will be queued by the squad leader into, for, example Skirmisk and Ambush. If we don't get into a match, we will have been waiting about 6 minutes before being scottied for the first time. We will then try to queue up the search again (there are a few things that happen here and where I am having huge problems with the game and the main crux of what I am complaining about).

We will get scottied repeatedly. Often with the time, for the brief second that it is up reading "Estimated time to deployment 00:57" before scottied the entire squad. This will repeat over and over again. We will switch squad leaders, we will wait, and then, with the squad be queuing for a game that none of the squad leaders queuing for, in the case that I am describing, we would be pulled into a Domination match. The squad will be pulled into the battle and anywhere from 5 seconds into the match until almost 5 minutes where my squad and I will be removed from the game and then we will be pulled back into the merc quarters. When this happens my team will be repeatedly pulled in a pulled out of battle. We have tried switching squad leaders, resetting our systems, switching servers, even singing guitar songs to Scotty but it is all for naught because in all these circumstances, even when we all reset our systems, and log back in and get to the merc quarters, we will continue to be pulled into battles that we ultimately get removed from, losing suits, vehicles, and weapons that we were using at the time. I have been doing a lot of faction warfare to avoid this where the competition is non existent, not rewarding in regards to ISK, and generally not as fun as the public matches I have played before.

To be fair, when all 16 players on both side start at the same time and fight it out, they are very good games. It's just a shame that I can only say that about a 5 games that I have played since April 1st. I am playing more PC and FW than pubs these days and it is reflecting in the relative emptiness of my merc's wallet...

this game for what it is: a tactical wargame that requires dicipline, situational awareness, some skill, and a thrist to win a ****ing game that a lone Ramboesqe mercenary cannot win. Now I'm being told to play solo?!?! Is this guy serious?

Did you just say what I think you did? It's like in a 16v16 match Vets of 30mil, 40mil or 50mil+ SP are equally divided in slots on both sides and the rest are filled with Low ranks like me? That's how the matchmaking works??

*Double posted for some reason? Can't delete that other one, dunno what happened.. *

No. **** that. I personally take offense to that coming from a dev. I was going to cut into you AquarHead, but I erased all of scathing remarks... I have always played this game having a full squad for a myriad of reasons. Would you like me to list some? 1) A well organized squad can single handedly win a skirmish. No question. If you say I'm wrong, your squading with unorganized one or your squad in just terrible 2) Squading with people is a lot of fun. It creates comradeship in your team. 3) Team work is extremely effective in battle 4) this game DC'd people so much that I want to have some people with me in the event that 1 or 2 players gets DC'd, ect. The list goes on, there are no disadvantages to running a squad.

Uhm...maybe you should because this game is based on the weapons, gear and armor you have, skill doesn't count for sh*t. If me and a vet shoot at each other who's going to win?

Me with ADV Heavy and ADV weaponry or the Vet with Proto Heavy and Proto weaponry AND gear? In case you missed it earlier, I raged at the fact that I couldn't damage a Vet in Light armor and they shredded my shield/armor with an smg.

I have an average of 20 or more kills and 10 or likely less deaths in a game with no Vets fighting people on my level. 5 kills if I'm lucky and 19 or more deaths in games with Vets. Is my "skill" lacking or is this game based on SP??

Quick question pretty sure youve been asked already but is ranking determined by sp win/loss ratio kdr or average war points or all the above. Ir is it determined by players killed based of certain numbers such as those listed above

1. I just seem to find em all.

2. So it encourages people to be bad or be thrown in with Vets using gear suited for fighting low ranks. Nice.



Of course it's expected that I lose, I'm not saying I should win, I'm saying I don't wan't the "opportunity" to try and beat them. You replaced "skill" with ranking..now I'm confused..I think I want to say I don't wan't the chance at higher ranking by fighting Vets, I want the ranking for fighting my own low ranks so I can actually enjoy the video game I'm playing. *Intense staring* :D

Ohh. I agree fully. I can stomp one way or another though, it doesn't really matter to me. I just want to get into a game, man. I, and the other not get pulled in and out of battle with no reward at all and losing suits to no one and losing isk. I imagine that you guys know how messed up the matchmaking is and that's why the next event is focused on FW instead of pubs. It starts in a few hours and now everyone with be q syncing so you probably won't be hearing much about that from me after that. I just hope that this problem is fixed after the event is over...

Honestly I think players getting an error trying to queue for a battle is the one thing you should avoid at all costs. If you put them against a poor bunch of lesser ranked mercs, then it's only as bad as before matchmaking came in,and I would suggest that is better than basically telling a squad, nah sorry, you can't play right now, you're too good.

Of course this means you'll get problems on the other team because they are more likely to lose (or get stomped) but I'm not sure you should prevent a high-rank squad joining a battle. That has to be the fastest way to lose players.

If matchmaking is on some sort of timer, then when that runs out, you really have to put people into a battle rather than tell them to try again. That's no different to having them wait 6 + 6 minutes for a battle. 6 minutes is kind of long as it is but maybe acceptable.

from a game design standpoint, it's fairly easy to achieve this.

Simply add a 'revenge bonus' to your next win based on how badly you've lost so far, a bit like a jackpot in a lottery. A certain percent of the ISK you lose in a match that you see through to the end will be stored away, and given back when you finally win a game.

So, if you're on a six-match losing streak and finally win a match, you'll be showered in isk to recoup some of the isk you've lost since your last win.

This will encourage people to

a) see matches through, even if they are losing
b) push harder for a win to get their jackpot

And since there will be people in each match in category A and people in B, it's a virtuous circle of cause and effect.

GǪUmmm. I know we live in a world obcessed with the "transparency" ideal. But I think the ultimate proof of the matchmaking experiments the Devs are coming up with (and, yesGǪthey seem to be a fun improvement) will be for the final structure of the "matchmaking" to be JUST LIKE THE "Aim Assist" system. Meaning,

---It will be SO fluidly "in the background", that players no longer will sense that it's working for them, and how well it's working.

--It, like the "Aim-Assist", will work better when players DO NOT learn the full details of what it's measuring-----so as to minimize any players starting right away to try to circumvent it.

No offense, Devs, but please don't give it all away. You have a promising mechanic going on here, and I'd like to see it succeed. We are PS3 Dust Players, and we're not at all as benign and harmless as you think we are. Seriously, sometimes keeping your lips closed about some areas of a new invention is BETTER. Pretty-Pleeeassee