^ This.

Get put into a half-finished match. Give it 100% anyway. Get wrecked.
Get paid ~60k Isk.

Pretty freakin' aggravating. I understand that Scotty has to fill the empty spots and all, but it still drives me crazy. Wish there was a way for payouts to account for the fact that players may arrive mid-match.

Currently, if you leave a battle you still get a small portion of ISK when the battle finishes. So if 6 people leave, then are replaced by 6 people who also leave at some point then are replaced by 6 who stay, the payout at the end is divided between 44 players!

Will test. If he's right, I'm hoping the payout is really low.

Even so, EOM pay is determined by time-in-battle and relative WP. Even if the above concern were addressed, in most cases a merc who arrives halfway through is still going to get paid pennies regardless of his contribution.

Yes, also true.

And yes, it is a very small sum (the most I've seen is ~80K), BUT you still get a win or loss depending on the outcome, which is unique to this game - on any other game, if you leave the match prematurely it counts as a loss.

Confirmed. Scotty just put me into nearly completed Ambush stomp. Spawned. Died within seconds. Left battle. Wallet now shows I was paid 9,783 Isk (contract payment for the loss of a battle). I had no idea this was happening. Wow.

So if I wanted to make 1m ISK - how long would that take me to do by joining / leaving games? Is there an exploit here that people do? The whole idea of giving people something for not fulfilling (as mercs) the contract is nuts. And giving them a win to boot? Madness.

Sorry, but the matchmaking still isn't making any sense:
What I have posted is an example of imbalance. Keep very much in mind that also I have been on the beneficial end as well.

The other team has 50% more players (15 v 10) Which is how the match began and ended.
The amount of experience on one team is grossly over the other (notice the scores, and starter corporation ratio)

http://imgur.com/RzXesHY (top half)
http://imgur.com/z1SmOuf (bottom half)

I understand that the game can't predict how well you'll play. But what chance does a team have when a single player has more combined lifetime stats and SP than 7 out of 10 players combined?

I find it absolutely ludicrous that people will come up to the forums and say "if you implement better matchmaking it will split the small player base and kill Dust".

The irony of this claim is that what's really killing Dust is the lack of any matchmaking. In fact, lack of any matchmaking was the main reason why we have a small player base to begin with. Any veteran will tell you that. If the matchmaking that you are testing out is indeed working then there is hope because this means I will be less likely to enter a match where I'm either the hammer or the nail.

Also, waiting 120 seconds for a match is not that long anyways. At least I will better knowing that the match I'm entering is more balanced because there are less blueberries in the match.

I have played a few matches last night and have been in at least a couple of redline situations for my team. Thankfully my team was still pushing rather than giving up and we weren't losing as many clones compared to the opposing team. In one match we nearly cloned out the other team even if we didn't have much control over the objectives. So I do feel that matchmaking is working somehow.

The only problem I still see are people leaving the matches. The last match I played last night we lost about 7 players on our team while the opposing team only lost a few. It's possible that most of those 7 players were a squad that didn't want to take on a challenge. This is a serious problem that no proper matchmaking could ever possibly fix because player behavior such as this is something that Scotty can't predict. And this can affect the entire remaining team as every player counts.

I get the feeling we'll have no choice but to implement a lock into the match in which no one leaves. But then that only brings up more issues as how to tell apart a player who intentionally disconnects from the game to avoid a match from those who accidentally disconnect due to either shoddy internet or their PS3s locking up.

That said, I'm afraid there is no real solution to the problem of players leaving early due to risk aversion. However, I think there is something we can do to help the players who accidentally disconnect. If it's skirmish match, those players should be given the option of being able to return directly to the same match that they left and be able to continue from there. This way, if they have a good match and get disconnected, they could just reconnect and join back in on the match as long as they are able to rejoin before the match ends. And since they were already picked by matchmaking, they should get priority to re-enter the same match without having to wait at all.