You got my vote

I just got my cousin in this game. He likes it, but is getting super pissed.

He keeps getting owned. I know he is new, but first thing he said to me was, he is getting matched up into games where he can't dmg anyone, and all he does is die. Tonight he was super pissed. He has whatever sniper gun you unlock at lvl 3, and 3 shots in the back of the head and the guy didn't even die, turn around and killed him. (Said he was close range as well) He said he did hit, and saw the dmg indicator, indicate that he did in fact hit the target.

I never had this problem myself, but I assumed he must have been up against someone pretty tough, which tells me matchmaking is not working as intended, if there is even one in place

I thought there was a matchmaking system in place, but he said he didn't think so.

Should definitely be more friendly to new recruits if CCP wants to keep getting new consumers. The more players the better it is for all of us.

Don't match someone who just downloaded the game, and drop them into a game full of organize corps, and/or people who have over 4million SP.
That will only lead to frustration, and in the end lose a lot of good players.

After talking to my cousin on the phone tonight, I can tell he is trying to enjoy this game, but at the same time, he is not happy with it so far. Matchmaking would make a huge difference in this one case.
If the matchmaking remains the same, it'll only have the same effect on new recruits

I really like your ideas. I hope someone at CCP listens and incorporate them into the game

I'm generally at a meta level of 2 or 3 and even I say that, that system is nerfed to hell
I wouldn't have a problem with it if there were non restricted battles that generally had higher pay, or if there was no bottom cap. A person with meta level 0 can go in level 5 battles and get higher SP/ISK because of it

Instead of nerfing, how about we just give higher rewards to low level players

I like the system, but in EVE missions is against NPC's they don't need to log on

In dust if you going put everyone in Mission levels, chances are there's not enough people online to fill each tiered match.

Just wait till PVE is in and the Dust Vets have gone to their 0.0 conquests.

According to http://www.dust514stats.com there are over 1,000,000 mercenaries that have been created thus far in DUST. If only 1% of those were online then that's 10,000 players. More than enough for a matchmaking system without starving it.

I think the proposed tiered system would increase how many people were online. I haven't played in a few days because it's gotten boring. I play the same maps, am limited to a 50K ISK fit due to small rewards, and there's no real reason to win. With the proposed I could try new expensive fits in level 4 matches, I could try to hone my gun game in full Militia in level 0, and the teammates I'd be playing with in higher level missions should be more competent as they have enough SP / experience to fit a near Proto loadout.

Also, as I mentioned, the proposal is very much a "core" system. It can have a myriad of things added onto it that would spice up gameplay, make things more uneven (in a fun way) and basically kill the monotony we are facing today.

I like the system, but in EVE missions is against NPC's they don't need to log on

In dust if you going put everyone in Mission levels, chances are there's not enough people online to fill each tiered match.

Just wait till PVE is in and the Dust Vets have gone to their 0.0 conquests.

I've mentioned this kind of system a few times too, maybe not as clearly as this but if done correctly it's not supposed to fracture people into tiers with the chance of not having enough people to fill them.

It would just place limits on which of your fittings/vehicles can be used on a specific battle. It could make for more balanced matches for new people because they knew that if they were on a Lvl 0 battle, many of the other players could be seasoned veterans but yet fighting with the same equipment as them (though not the same skills, granted). It wouldn't stop anyone trying their hand at a Lvl 4 battle, either a completely noob or a veteran could play but it would be a battle with possibly stronger equipment.

I guess what i'm trying to say is that a change to what the OP proposed would be this:

Level 0 - ML of 0 (Militia Only)
Level 1 - ML of 0 - 10
Level 2 - ML of 0 - 25
Level 3 - ML of 0 - 45
Level 4 - ML of (No limit)

I thought about this because of an idea i had for a Battle Finder designed specially for Corp Battles that would make corp battles much more easy and almost automatic to happen. With these limits in place, there could be no reason for a new corp not to accept a battle with the Imperfects, Seraphim Initiative, Synergy Gaming, ZionTCD or whatever highly skilled corp you can think of. I'm not an insider but it seems to me that the way things are at present time, it can be a chore for some corps to get good battles going. Some newly established corps, if smart enough, will never accept to fight some battles against some corps because they know they'll be steamrolled. The gap between the top corps and new/small ones is huge and this surely plays a part in an interesting trend that i heard about, that is that there are corps now masking their identity in the Corporation Contracts because it's the only way someone else will take them on.

With this system, it would be different. You could be the CEO of a very small noob corp and still accept a contract against the Imperfects or Seraphim Initiative because the contract was for a Lvl 1 and your guys can handle that difficulty level and you won't have a barrage of Gunnlogis, Madrugars, Sagaris, Suryas and every proto weapon and dropsuit in the book facing you, just equipment like your own. Hell, even throw in an handicap system. You could create a corporation contract, set it to Lvl 1 and allow the opponet to go up to Lvl 2. Or if 2 top corps want a full-flegded battle, go Lvl 4 and don't hold back. Your top corp's new guys want to practice? Get a Lvl 2 battle for them. There a lot of opportunities in this and it doesn't need to limit who gets in which tier, only what you can bring with you to battle.

What's to stop squads of corps that are already at the pinnacle of rank and SP from having militia fits and pubstomping ML0s?

What's to stop squads of corps that are already at the pinnacle of rank and SP from having militia fits and pubstomping ML0s?

You got my vote.

My only concern would be wait times when forming Level 2 or Level 3 matches. There would always be enough new players to fill a Level 0 match, and as soon as someone upgrades they get into Level 1, so probably lots of them too. I am not sure how long people would stay at the Level 2, and Level 3 stages, but maybe some would stay at those stages deliberately so they donGÇÖt have to face full Proto gear.

Maybe your cross level contracts suggestion could solve wait time issues at the mid levels. One side could be at Level 2 with 12 members while the other side is at Level 0 with 16 members (or 24 vs 32).

I think the overall proposal is pretty solid. However, you would need to calculate the players effective skill points (based on their load out) into the equation. and make the tiers a bit more dynamic rather than static.

Two players with full meta 0 gear. One with 10mil total sp, and 2mil effective sp, will still stomp a new player in all meta 0 gear with 500k total sp, and 100k effective sp. (effective sp being the number of sp actually in use for the gear chosen for that match).

And as the above poster suggested, the isk reward would be a factor.

also I propose that WP act like LP and accrue with the faction that you work for. Any thing called in be it orbital strike, an installation, or vehicle will cost you WP. This will minimize the spamming of orbitals by the winning team as they could just save up the WP instead for when they are needed.(this would also necessitate the increase in the cost of OS).

What's to stop squads of corps that are already at the pinnacle of rank and SP from having militia fits and pubstomping ML0s?

I added the ML floor so that a nefarious player didn't queue for a level 4 match and use a free / cheap suit the entire time, dying constantly, then taking the 1-2 million ISK payout and doing it again. That would gimp the level 4 team.

In EVE Missions, if you take a frigate to a level 4 mission it's dead - there is no way you are going to win. And if you tag along with a group then they chose to invite you knowing that you'd bring a lowly frigate. In DUST we don't really have that luxury; if a player running Militia appears on my team I'm stuck with him and in high stakes level 4 I'm essentially down a player on my team. That's not good, and kills the system.

In the end it's about risk vs reward. If you're going to do higher level contracts you need to risk some higher level gear. Hence the mandated floor.

hmmm not a big fan of your meta level Idea, with some rework I could see it being useful but it will limit fits. Also a minimum suit requirement is stupid IMO, just have higher level contracts have significantly less to no passive gain so you have to contribute to get any returns, if you can do so in a free fit more power to you, also like you were saying higher level mission payout should be based more on victory then being in match.

This is largely impractical.

There population doesn't appear to be big enough to even support the limited skill grouping as it is.

While it seems like there are a lot of people, think of the other thing you expect -

Instant battles that take less then 2 minutes to appear.

Your proposal would end in empty slow battle queues for everyone basically.