Nerd.

If CCP attached something like metadata or w/e to different values in the game (stats from data drawn at the end of the match, skills spec'd into per player, etc), then they could probably come up with some algorithm which draws good probability from a selection of players on how well they will face another selection of players.

I think the guys writing matchmaking are screwed, there's just an ungodly amount of junk to take into account.

SP won't work:

Because players can easily spunk SP into useless junk, then have be stuck in a tier that's too high, and we'll have ENDLESS threads of 'I want a respec or I quit', as if we don't have enough of those already.

New players espically wont feel the need to specialise. They want to try new things, and that's only good for the game (Less ARs running around)

Fitting won't work

You can buy and fit suits while in battle, any system which takes suits into account will have people AFKing for the first minute so they can throw together a proto suit and suicide.

How do you balance someone with a proto fit that's BAD. Seriously I know in these forums a lot of people are calling each other out over bad fits, but just look at EVE. It's really easy to fit badly, or worse fit badly for the way you want to play. It's no good putting me up against real proto stompers when I've put all my SP into my brand new proto fit nova knife heavy. Know what I'm saying?

Suits won't work.

On top of that we have to take into account suits. It's easy to think something like:
"Just rank EHP vs DPS, then match on player skill"
But if that ever happens no one will EVER want to run heavy. High damage weapons and solid EHP with no accounting for the drawbacks of the suit.

So. The question I ask y'all is what metrics can you really take into account?
How do you spot a stomper from a nova knife heavy?
How do you know when a player is having a bad day / running a bad fit / is just bad.

I await the knowledge of the crowd.

I think the guys writing matchmaking are screwed, there's just an ungodly amount of junk to take into account.

SP won't work:

Because players can easily spunk SP into useless junk, then have be stuck in a tier that's too high, and we'll have ENDLESS threads of 'I want a respec or I quit', as if we don't have enough of those already.

New players espically wont feel the need to specialise. They want to try new things, and that's only good for the game (Less ARs running around)

Fitting won't work

You can buy and fit suits while in battle, any system which takes suits into account will have people AFKing for the first minute so they can throw together a proto suit and suicide.

How do you balance someone with a proto fit that's BAD. Seriously I know in these forums a lot of people are calling each other out over bad fits, but just look at EVE. It's really easy to fit badly, or worse fit badly for the way you want to play. It's no good putting me up against real proto stompers when I've put all my SP into my brand new proto fit nova knife heavy. Know what I'm saying?

Suits won't work.

On top of that we have to take into account suits. It's easy to think something like:
"Just rank EHP vs DPS, then match on player skill"
But if that ever happens no one will EVER want to run heavy. High damage weapons and solid EHP with no accounting for the drawbacks of the suit.

So. The question I ask y'all is what metrics can you really take into account?
How do you spot a stomper from a nova knife heavy?
How do you know when a player is having a bad day / running a bad fit / is just bad.

I await the knowledge of the crowd.

I think the guys writing matchmaking are screwed, there's just an ungodly amount of junk to take into account.

SP won't work:

Because players can easily spunk SP into useless junk, then have be stuck in a tier that's too high, and we'll have ENDLESS threads of 'I want a respec or I quit', as if we don't have enough of those already.

New players espically wont feel the need to specialise. They want to try new things, and that's only good for the game (Less ARs running around)

Fitting won't work

You can buy and fit suits while in battle, any system which takes suits into account will have people AFKing for the first minute so they can throw together a proto suit and suicide.

How do you balance someone with a proto fit that's BAD. Seriously I know in these forums a lot of people are calling each other out over bad fits, but just look at EVE. It's really easy to fit badly, or worse fit badly for the way you want to play. It's no good putting me up against real proto stompers when I've put all my SP into my brand new proto fit nova knife heavy. Know what I'm saying?

Suits won't work.

On top of that we have to take into account suits. It's easy to think something like:
"Just rank EHP vs DPS, then match on player skill"
But if that ever happens no one will EVER want to run heavy. High damage weapons and solid EHP with no accounting for the drawbacks of the suit.

So. The question I ask y'all is what metrics can you really take into account?
How do you spot a stomper from a nova knife heavy?
How do you know when a player is having a bad day / running a bad fit / is just bad.

I await the knowledge of the crowd.

KDR.

Fitting could be an self-selected means of match-making and be fairly functional. MLT/STD, ADV, and PRO/no-restriction matches. They could also gate the matches by Meta-level.

The newbies could opt for MLT/STD matches, and while vets could do that too - they wouldn't be able to field fits with any gear better than STD on it.

Vets would still have a passive advantage if they played lower-gear tiers, but newbies wouldn't have to eat the combo of passives + PRO gear.

You could have matchmaking within a gear-gated system, and make an internal player rating based on K/D, WP, SP, and W/L. I'd give further weight to pre-existing squads on a team (current matchmaking ignores whether or not players or squaded I've noticed), and you could probably make some sort of ELO score as well. Like if the OP and I had similar base scores, but in 9/10 matches against him I lost, then my rating drops.

Gear-based provides a simple solution that will work 100% of the time for gear-issues. You can't field better than STD/MLT? Done. It doesn't fix other issues, but unlike most solutions it always fixes the gear disparity.

Match people based on War Points, as I feel that this is the only true test of skill.

After every game, the winning player takes points from the losing one. The total number of points gained or lost after a game is determined by the difference between the ratings of the winner and loser.

I think you would need to do war points devided by minutes played to get a better rating of player. A player who got 50,000 war points in a week is probably better than the player who got 75,000 war points in a month.

Create a Bayesian analysis engine to see the impact that various players have on the outcome and mix and match players until the win/loss impact is reasonably balanced. To get more sophisticated ratchet the results based on the last 10 games to compensate for recent player style or equipment changes.

Match people based on War Points, as I feel that this is the only true test of skill.

I'd say on a 5 match average or something. reason being if you are AV specced and nobody is vehicle specced than you don't work to your level.