DUST Search - Matchmaker matchmaker make me a match

The Medic Droid wrote:

Greetings!

This thread poses questions in regards to the matchmaker and it's mechanics. I'd like to say that I have a fair supply of courage, but when I see two full squads of Pro Hic Immortalis and Generals on the opposing team....I get a sinking feeling in my chest, switch to the cheap suits, and fight as best I can before my inevitable and horrible death. Meh, c'est la vie.

The questions are as follows:

1) Does the matchmaking system evenly divide teams based on total SP?
2) Does the matchmaking system show favoritism (or discrimination) based on squad formation prior to battle?
3) Does the matchmaking system vary by region (both for normal instant battles and for mercenary contracts)?

Personally, I haven't seen very much rhyme or reason to the matchmaker as it stands. I've been in battles against the reigning superpowers of Dust and crawled away whilst barely alive, and other times I've been pitted against new players who blow themselves up or drive their LAVs into a friendly tank.


Author	Thread Statistics \| Show CCP posts - 0 post(s)
Garrett Blacknova Codex Troopers 2467	Posted - 2013.04.14 08:04:00 - [1] - Quote The Medic Droid wrote: Greetings! This thread poses questions in regards to the matchmaker and it's mechanics. I'd like to say that I have a fair supply of courage, but when I see two full squads of Pro Hic Immortalis and Generals on the opposing team....I get a sinking feeling in my chest, switch to the cheap suits, and fight as best I can before my inevitable and horrible death. Meh, c'est la vie. The questions are as follows: 1) Does the matchmaking system evenly divide teams based on total SP? 2) Does the matchmaking system show favoritism (or discrimination) based on squad formation prior to battle? 3) Does the matchmaking system vary by region (both for normal instant battles and for mercenary contracts)? Personally, I haven't seen very much rhyme or reason to the matchmaker as it stands. I've been in battles against the reigning superpowers of Dust and crawled away whilst barely alive, and other times I've been pitted against new players who blow themselves up or drive their LAVs into a friendly tank. 1 and 2) Matchmaking divides the teams purely based on numbers at the time a player/squad joins. When the teams are even, I'm not 100% sure, but when I've actually been watching, I can only ever remember new arrivals being assigned to the defender's team. Countering this is the fact that I've joined newly-formed games and been assigned to the attacker's team, so it may be a different rule when the game is first starting. If one team starts off as a squad of 4, and the other team quickly gathers 5 non-squadded players, another 4-person squad joining the game will be assigned to the smaller team - even though they have a squad already. What a competent matchmaking system does is to assign the squads to opposite teams, then divide the randoms up - rearranging non-squadded players before the battle starts. This results in an even spread of squads vs. randoms, rather than risking stacked teams like we frequently see in the current system. 3. Yes. Sort of. The game does use ping/latency as part of the matchmaking. There are three DUST battle servers we know about (Asia, EU and NA) - maybe more. The game tries, preferentially, to put players on the server they're getting the best connection to. If there are no available games, it will try the next-best server, possibly throwing you in with players outside of your region. In the case of squads, it DOESN'T seem to be specific to any individual in the squad - leader or not - I'm not sure, but I think it checks each player's latency to each server, then picks the one with the lowest average ping across the whole squad.