High level ship in Low infamy

I find this topic almost comical, it floods the forum all over the place. Rovio has a secret sauce formula for infamy and matchmaking. They want to give you a meaningful challenge. But if a player doesn't have the skills I suppose they can't rise in infamy <- "Lame!" However you can upgrade your gear to nightmare league levels and play with players two tiers or less your equipment in lower leagues <- "Lame!' Players have expectations that a certain ship level or equipment means you should be in a certain league <- "Hint! to Rovio developer team!"
This probably would suggest that regardless of skill you should still be placed into a league/sub-league based on equipment and captain levels "Hint" So you can face people with equal equipment.
Oh no! Not terrible players in Nighmare league that would be shame! Would it? They would still be at the bottom of the league, but they'd be less likely to lose heart. Probably, still put their best foot forward and play as hard as they can. <- "Hint" this removes the facing giants scenario in lower leagues. Mind you the player will still face "giants of skill" in their own league with similar equipment.
Will Dev's listen? Will Dev's make changes? Stay tuned...

 

Its the guild quests, infamy just isnt as important anymore, not when you have a napalm quest to complete.... With a T1 uncommon

 

This is the worst idea in the history of matchmaking ideas. It sounds great on paper, but it's a terrible plan in execution. I say this as someone who routinely faces legendary items with all my ships being loaded down with blues. Matching strictly, or even heavily weighted, on ship loadout would make the matching far, far worse. The current nightmare league players would never face a challenge, the current players who have good gear but aren't great (and thus would be magically propelled into nightmare league, lolwut?) would be stuck in constant matches where they never had a chance, and everyone else would be cast to the winds at arbitrary levels based on some arcane system of gear rankings. Currently it can be frustrating, absolutely, but you can progress by either getting better gear or getting better at the game. If it were changed such that the only infamy/rank/whatever progression came from better gear, that would be pointless. You think it's P2W now? Just try it for a day with your "system."

 

A lot of players with high MK ships at lower infamy get accused of tanking.

But I think the game has run its course where there are simply a lot of players that paid cash to accelerate training, refill gold and sugar, and boosted ships and equipment levels very quickly without taking the time to practice and develop skills. Its a different game from when I first started. I created a new account and with an MK1 found that there are MK4's stuck in the 200-300 range, and they can't pull themselves out. They really are that bad. Rise up to the 500-600 range, and there are MK5's that seem to be stuck. They don't seem to be tanking. They just seem to be legitimately bad. They don't target ahead, their equipment layouts are awful, and they have no situational awareness (running over mines, ramming into obstacles and getting stuck, not moving away when torpedoes or mortars are about to hit them).

My 'baby' account is now at MK3 in the 900's. Most matchups are entirely MK4s and MK5s, and I do see an occasional MK6. I see the shooters with all torpedoes or all mortars, that get rushed and picked off at close range. Or you're in that 3 vs 2, where you have the advantage, but the other two hide while you get ganged up on and picked off, then one of the hiders gets picked off, then the last one gets picked off. What I most commonly see among the MK4s and MK5s at these lower infamy levels is that they are hiders that don't want to draw any fire and evade. They spam mortar from a distance, rely on sniper cannons and still miss, and spam torpedoes with a low hit rate. These are players that if they were forced to play against more skilled players with the equivalent ships and equipment, they would lose so much that they would quit the game.

 

i see lots of t4 rare weapons at 1000 infamy, lol

 

Okay fine...then what's your magic idea? You can't complain that players have higher ships and equipment in lower leagues cause either they paid to get there....or they are just not as good as you but they played enough matches to earn gold and sugar to level their stuff <- and the unpaid grind is totally possible (it's not just tankers). They learn along the way but will never quite reach Nightmare. So super skilled will still have to face them as they climb...new players will still have to face them but now the opponents are tougher with better gear and ships <- they might feel compelled to level stuff just to be competitive. No, I'm not just saying it should be strictly gear/captain based, nor just P2W but there needs to be a middle ground for the obvious...."Because there is still a problem that should be addressed...taken into consideration....and worked on to be "Made Better!"

*I also had an idea that you get locked into the highest league/sub league you can obtain.....so you couldn't drop to say "0" infamy. Or maybe you could drop as far as one sub-league lower than your best. This would reduce the seal-club effect...(but not any lower). And technically players would still be matched with other players around their similar abilities.
or it can just be swept under the rug..and more skilled players can just "laugh about unskilled players cause that is what i see here" maybe the title for it should be changed to..."I can't believe how bad some players are..haha lol"

 

My "magic" idea is to keep it as-is. There's no perfect solution, but what we have is solid. Seal clubbing protocols have been introduced already, and they even prevent the worst offenders from matching with people at their current infamy, instead pitting them against players closer to where they should be. Could it be better? Absolutely, and I'm open to ideas (of which, I currently have none that wouldn't be a massive amount of work to implement) that could realistically improve the system, but what you presented would make it all around worse. As it stands, gear, levels, etc are all mostly irrelevant to matchmaking, which is about as good a system as we could hope to have in this game. Your performance with whatever you have available is the biggest influencing factor, and with the exception of intentionally tanking, people's ranking is determined primarily by how much influence they're capable of having on the average game. People complain that this system is unfair because they hit their limit with what they have available and feel like they're being artificially held back by the infamy system placing them against ships with better loadouts, and I get the frustration, but that's simply a part of a fair matchmaking system. Not everyone can hit the top of the rankings, and that's okay. That's how a PvP game works. Losing is a frustrating experience, and people need to vent, but that doesn't mean it's unfair if you're getting matched with people that have better gear. You should, realistically, take it as a point of pride that you hit ranks where other people require far better gear to get. That just means you do as much as they do, on average, with far less at your disposal.

All that being said, something did just come to mind for me: it would be interesting to see a sort of intra-match gear rating system implemented, which helped balance the distribution of things within a match. That is, once all 10 players are selected for a match, the system would then "draft" players to each team based on fleet status, equipped items, ship level, etc etc to provide the best possible balance of power within that specific match. I doubt it would make a lot of difference to people's rankings at large, but it would probably work to help curb some of these "OMG my team was all mk3-4 versus a team of mk4-5!" style posts.

 

I only do those quests which my arsenal allows me to I always play to win and not to complete quest although I see many speeders slapping me with underleveled carronades like those weapons will ever win them match.

 

If devs could make ships unlock on the basis of infamy instead of just XP it will help in solving this problem a lot.
Here' s a vague layout.
Mk 4 - no usage below 700 infamy.
Mk-5 no usage below 1400 infamy.
Mk 6- no usage below 3k infamy.
Mk 7 - no usage below 3200 infamy.
This is just a vague layout nos should be based on the basis of actual data.
This system fails because of losing streak .
So any ideas on making this system work?
The only idea I have is if u reach below the specified infamy lvl ur boats gets downgraded and gets upgraded again when u hit the specified infamy lvl.

 

I can guarantee people would quit playing if they got their stuff downgraded .that's just a punishment/slap in the face...
That's why a proposed maximum infamy drop into a sub league lower would be better...rather than falling to a zero.
Games should allow for you to reach the end game gear regardless of skill..they still never hit the top 50 rating boards. Otherwise, people wouldn't play them. Take WOW (World of Warcraft) for example or any car racing game...you can make all the upgrades to get the best car (equipped character) whether skilled or not. They don't punish or limit you for playing poorly you just never reach the top of the leaderboards. Then as skill gets better you earn (golds and silver metals in racing). But you don't loose access to gear you earned.

I'm not saying players should get a free pass for playing badly either...In (wow) when you start out you don't face rediculous opponents with gear that can insta-kill you. So I'm trying to think of a method that reduces the newer players/lower leagues don't run into MK4+ or T4 weapons.

 

High Mk ship in Low Infamy

There are 4 main reasons why HMLI is happening.
1. Deliberate Infamy Tanking
Rovio has already handled this pretty well, all players who dropped a substantial amount of infamy get no reward upon finishing games. But there are two aspects that I would include in this category too.

a. Using unfamiliar/low tier setups
Why: A main reason being guild quests.
Fix: They need to redesign the whole concept of guild quests, right now it has no correlation to the infamy system at all.

b.Using other low tier mk ships
Why: Guild quests or simply wanting to try them out.
Fix: Different infamy per ship OR only allow the player to use the highest tier ship.

2. Not enough games played
Maybe the player just bought a lot of pearls,upgraded their equipment /ship and still hasn’t reach their potential or they just simply do not have time to play much but still trained their captain levels.
Fix: No need, when you run into these kind of players, tough luck, their infamy will rise sooner or later.

3. Bad Luck — Losing streaks
It’s not too uncommon to have big losing streaks to throw you completely out of your league, sometimes they’ll end up being HMLI.
Fix: Same as above.

4.Lack of skill in conjunction to lack of new players.
This is the main reason why HMLI is happenening.
First of all, you need to understand how infamy works. It’s a point system that tells you how much you can contribute to winning the game, COMPARED against the other players.
If you’re bad at the game, your infamy will drop to a point where everyone is just as bad as you are. Eventually, you’ll be at a point where you’re matched with everyone being a lower tier ship than you.
So for all those saying lock MKs behind infamy, you need to have a better understanding of how infamy works.

The problem now is that there was a huge surge of new players in May 2017 due to global launch but not so many new players now.
So the Global Launch Players(Mk5s and Mk6s) who are bad will drop infamy to a point where the players are just as bad as them, but that point cannot be found easily with the current situation of a huge gap of mk1~mk4s, so the new players will run into HMLI, completely ruining their experience. Right now 500~2000 is completely a Chaotic Zone. It’s a vicious cycle.

Fix: There isn’t an easy fix, it’s a fundamental problem in population, similar to an Aging Society. Without the statistics of active players, I cannot determine if a better matchmaking algorithm is possible for the chaotic zone, if not, only thing they can do is completely redesign how infamy works or have more consistent new players. Otherwise there will be long term consequences.

 

I think the consequences will be as simple as players move on to other games/burn out due to frustration of the matchmaking system...while the solution may not be easy...an attempt should be made. Maybe start with making changes in how infamy works in one league at a time? Warrior league would probably be a good test pilot.

 

Yeah, I was surprised. I've fought a mk6 shooter at 1,500...
(sorry for the late answer, vacation )

 

Yeah, you're too good. You must have climb'd fast!
(sorry for the late answer, vacation )

 

You play that!? Wow, I thought I was one of the only ones!

 

Until you complete it to 80% of everything. (upgrades, vehicles, tornies, etc)