Yes to gear cap matches, no to sp cap matches.

It'll force players like me into only matches with AE, NS, TP... People who can afford to run proto all the time. Which means no derping around in silly builds I'm not specced for. It would encourage me to instead use alts to grind ISK and personally I'd take it as punishment for using boosters. My main would be shelved and only used for PC or when I feel like wasting ISK.

Also no squadding with new recruits, as a trainer I wouldn't be able to do my job if the trainee is going 0/40 because we're being matched based on my SP.

There seems to be a myth that gear level makes no difference and that it's all SP, this is patently bullshit. The effects are multipliers.
Several months ago I raised the idea on the Dust forums, was shot down and the thread quickly died.
https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1803230#post1803230
In there I do some math to quantify the actual difference for some key numbers. It's old and obviously doesn't include 1.8 changes.

How to make isk:
Run Anti-Armor [STARTER FIT], add STD Nanohive.
Shoot swarm launcher at tanks.
Never get a kill, receive ludicrous amounts of WP.
Profit.

And finally, to cap off my morning commute of Barbershop posts, had the following idea in another thread about passive scanning...

Scan profile should affect the distance at which you can be scanned. E.g. each db should add a meter to the range at which you can be passively scanned.

A 200db would be able to be scanned by someone with 50db precision at 150m.
A 50db assault could be scanned by a 20db scout at 30m.
A 35db scout would only be scannable by players with precision less than 35db, like currently.

However modules and skills would still play a part. So if you have range amps fitted or precision mods (these effectively become the same thing) and relevant skills, you can scan further.

A 35db scout might then be scannable at 10m by an ewar skilled logi running precision mods. It's not much but it's better than the current situation for non-scouts and with the right set ups, you'd be able to push your suits to the extent of being able to do what ewar you want to. (ewar mods will likely need some changes to make this possible).

What does ye all thinks?

By deserves it, I mean annoy me

All this talk of matchmaking and I'm astounded at the lack of foresight amongst our usually pretty deep-thinking scout crowd.

SP restrictions? Gear restrictions? Oh jeez guys, come on, we can do better than that. That's to transparent and arbitrary that anyone would be able to game it and go slaughter the lesser beings.

I highly suggest you all look up ELO - it's apparently what CCP is trying to get working in Dust but the low playerbase will always be a problem. Basically, you get an invisible rank based on many factors - kills, deaths, WP, who you've won against, who you've lost against, other things. It's a little fiddly to balance the weightings of various rank components but it's a solid system.

Please let's not go down the route of ';simple' matchmaking; let's keep in mind that people will try to game whatever system you think of. Matchmaking can not be as simple as one or two rules. And finally anything that provides arbitrary segregation based on anything at all will inevitably leave some players with very few people to play with (30m SP = you can only play pubs against 5% of the population; hope you all play at the same time!)

And finally, to cap off my morning commute of Barbershop posts, had the following idea in another thread about passive scanning...

I'd rather passive scanning worked like this:

Scan precision represents your scan precision within 20m. Outside of 20m, scan precision will increase at a certain rate until it is unable to scan anything.
Scan profile remains the same.
Remove scan range stat as the precision increase rate is what determines how large your effective scan range is now.

Profile dampeners work as they do now.
Precision enhancers increase your scan precision and as a consequence, also increase your effective scan range.
Range extenders decrease the rate at which your scan precision increases (these should offer a greater effective range boost than the precision enhancers)

No more invisible tanks for everyone and the precision/profile mechanic is more interesting.

Similar to what I said above you in that thread, but I think scan precision should represent scan precision within 20m instead of the 1m you propose.

All this talk of matchmaking and I'm astounded at the lack of foresight amongst our usually pretty deep-thinking scout crowd.

SP restrictions? Gear restrictions? Oh jeez guys, come on, we can do better than that. That's to transparent and arbitrary that anyone would be able to game it and go slaughter the lesser beings.

I highly suggest you all look up ELO - it's apparently what CCP is trying to get working in Dust but the low playerbase will always be a problem. Basically, you get an invisible rank based on many factors - kills, deaths, WP, who you've won against, who you've lost against, other things. It's a little fiddly to balance the weightings of various rank components but it's a solid system.

Please let's not go down the route of ';simple' matchmaking; let's keep in mind that people will try to game whatever system you think of. Matchmaking can not be as simple as one or two rules. And finally anything that provides arbitrary segregation based on anything at all will inevitably leave some players with very few people to play with (30m SP = you can only play pubs against 5% of the population; hope you all play at the same time!)

With the small player base we have to start somewhere and work the system up to being more complex when the player base is greater. How do you get the the noobs to stay if they are protostomped into quiting? How to you get the noobs to stay if high SP players are still stomping them in STD fits? They are not staying with High SP protostomping now.

Scan profile should affect the distance at which you can be scanned. E.g. each db should add a meter to the range at which you can be passively scanned.
...
What does ye all thinks?

An ELO system could help the noobs but a segregation system serves no one, no matter how it's implemented, gear, SP or anything else. Especially with 'such a small playerbase', any further segregation will create entirely empty arenas. We already had OMS and ambush re-combined because having 4 queues was causing a detrimental split in the playerbase.

I posted that idea many many months ago. So of course I agree with it
Although I think it should work like actual real-world dB attenuation, not just "meter per dB".

Also, this would mean SUPER-loud stuff like dropships and tanks, should be super-detectable.

Side Topic: 'AV Scout' - a thing? Cause my STD Swarm/Packed AV has been getting me Kills and WP (I 'shoo' vehicles away a lot).

I've found the scout suit to be decent at it, Adv swarms, av 'nades, 2 sets of proxies can damage vehicles.
Even kill if you trigger all at the same time.

@ Llast - Strictly speaking, REs+Flux are probably the thing I kill most HAVs with too (those 2 together make a fit so versatile...), however, too often I can miss a single RE (for no real reason sometimes...) and then I'm out of options really.

I'm thinking a full AV fit, takin advantage of a complex Kin Cat and cloak (Damp and extender too)I can expect to get into a position to just spam swarms and AV grenades at close/mid range before the tank can react - the range also means I can keep up the pressure, or kill tanks fleeing other threats. Actually, typing that, I've realised I do the same thing with infantry (with my scout, they may as well be tanks too...).

Solo, Blaster Tanks/Dropships I have to just harass and keep occupied (with STD gear at least they rep too fast to finish). I'm starting to think if I had just another scout in a similar STD fit, we could cleanse the field of heavy armour.

EDIT: You've just reminded me to skill demolitions.

I've got a straight AV fit, for when there are numerous vehicles on the field and my standard bomber setup won't cut it.

Similar to your fit but no cloak, I take REs and a nano hive instead. Concealment normally isn't an issue, but ammo is for the Swarms, REs and grenades. And ScP now that I think about it...

If I've got the right terrain to work with I can keep 2 or 3 tanks occupied looking for me, but rarely get any kills from it.

RE's were practically a primary for me for a while.

The clack (are we not calling it that anymore?) is for evading infantry and vehicles who might follow the trail looking for an easy kill. Will need a decent side arm as well. Probably go with SMG.

Pre 1.7 my AV fit was a LAV and forge doing a similar thing of chasing vehicles all over the map. But now thats too visible.

That WP thing is interesting. I wonder how much you can make a match just doing that.