Poll: Broken Matchmaking

I think they need to allow MM to wait longer to stop this. The infamy spread is inexcusable at times.

 

I agree. As a Mk 2, I shouldn't be put into matches with Mk 4s where I stand no chance

 

I didn't read the whole thread but based on my personal experience here's my 2 cents:
As everyone already knows the win is dependent solely on whales on your team. At least half the time it's that 1 player that has 4 kills or fixer with more heals than entire teams damage etc...
Being somewhat of a casual whale for mk6 4K league with lots of lvl 10 legendary and 50 epics it really comes down to a 1 on 1 battle most of the time regardless of amount of players alive on either team. For example as a defender I can 2 shot most players on the opposite team and so can my opponent.
The real problem in matchmaking isn't the rating or mk level (I went as far as 4200 to 3400 in a day, stayed at that score for 2 weeks and shot to 4300 in less than 2 days after that.) but the some of the most common following scenarios (plenty more):
1- that second player on the team to support the whale. (Defender whale support decent fixer)
2-unbalanced dps (3 fixers and 2 of any class vs a balanced dps team with or without fixer) just impossible to heal through it. I don't think there should ever be more than 2 fixers on same team!
3- defenders vs speeders (I've been in many battles with 3-4 defenders vs 3-4 speeders, and only way to win with defender in this case is lucky torpedo shots.

Now as far as solution I don't think algorithm is a fix but team setup. Unless it's a full 5 member guild team, random matches should limit amounts of classes on each team.
2 of each class per team should do more balance with existing matching for one.
Next move would be to identify and balance whales on teams but I believe with class restrictions whales won't be THAT scary.
Would love to have some feedback from the players!
PS
Rewarding the biggest spender is great and all but how the hell are people supposed to catch up when guys in epic season get crappy items while actually grinding for it and top spenders get legendary items for free on top of dropping another $1,000.00 a week to keep being maxed out? I'd say top battles played a season or top time spent in game etc should give additional rewards to regular players for hard work and chance to move up eventually! I see a lot of people leaving for that specific reason but so will spenders when we get bored playing the same 10 people every day.

 

I agree, I am perfectly fine with playing a mk6 if we have the same infamy (in my experience, that usually means he is a terrible player), but the spread at times get wild.

Around 3000 infamy you start getting matched with players who are 1k higher than you and all you can do is watch them battle each other.

 

No reference to your post, just responding to you to address you

I know you guys keep avoiding this question but I'm going to keep throwing this at y'all till we at the very least get a response cause the newbies deserve that much respect.

Newbies stop playing and sometimes quit cause of too many mk4s starting at 400 infamy.

I don't know of that's normal now but we didn't have that before when we started playing, I didn't run into them till I was 900s

If I was facing mk4s with rare items at 400, I'd have quit too. I understand this is inevitable cause there's apparently a huge boom in players playing since the global release but it is not fair for the newbies. But you guys atleast need to admit that it's a problem. Players are quitting and that's no joke. Are the devs even trying to do something to control the crowd or nay?

 

Wallet warriors should have their own league lol
But brilliant post

 

You have to remember why Rovio is in this business. They are not a charity organization. I'm sure they would rather lose a thousand free 2 play players than 1 player that spends "1,000's" of dollars a week. Considering that, all talk of "fairness" is hot air. The real question is if the Wallet Warriors can pay their rent, or are maxing out credit cards for a legendary item. I feel your pain tho.

 

I find that some of the most successful mobile games that have similar dynamics to this one have a better balance between pay to win and play to win.

If people could buy legendaries for less than $100 (instead of the $1K+++ it is now), I think they would find more people willing to spend.

They will always have those few idiots who will spend thousands, but Rovio is - in my opinion - missing out on the thousands of players like me who would throw out $20 a month if I felt it was actually worthwhile.

Devs seem to get greedy very early on by the "whales," but when gameplay too unfairly rewards them, it ostracizes the vast majority of the rest of the players.

I think a game like War Robots shows the potential of what this game could be. You can pay to win there, but you can buy all the best shiny stuff for a thousand dollars and still not win one game because your skill level is crap.

 

I have read several threads about the broken matchmaking being based on infamy. Perhaps the real answer is the change the way infamy is calculated. Currently it is only based on the amounts of wins vs losses. I think it should use that as a base, and then adjust it based on your upgrades. You could add in infamy based on captain level, weapon level, and ship level. It is certainly easier to calculate infamy based on wins vs losses, which are just as much based on luck, teammates, opponents etc, as it is skill, but the extra effort and complication would be worth it.

For starters, you would not see as many mk3 and mk4 ships together if you got a 200 infamy bump from a mk4 upgrade. Further, someone with a level 1 legendary would get an infamy bump right away. Each weapon tier would add "x" infamy. This new way to calculate would also make your infamy dynamic, and adjust your infamy if you wanted to try a different ship or weapon that was lower level. Players not focusing on the harm from losing will have more fun because they can try other things. (This is starting to solve quite a few complaint threads I have read). The infamy swing would not be too dramatic and if you were running an mk3 with tier 3 epic weapons, you would still be matched evenly with say mk4 ships with tier 2 rares. Or whatever the math will be.

This is by no means the easy way, but it is probably heading in the right direction. Infamy matters too much to players since it either means you are doing well and advancing or falling behind and failing. This would let players switch it up without fear of ruining their progress (and rewards). As I think about it now, maybe seasons should not use max infamy as a basis for leagues but the change in infamy over the 2 week season. If you go up 300 infamy in one season, you go to the next league. I am sure Rovio has enough data on the player base to crunch these numbers.

Maybe this isn't a new idea but I have not seen it anywhere else (yet). I do hope Rovio reads this and that it does not get lost in Page 6 of the comments. If others agree this has merit and is original, I could make this its own thread. Cheers!

 

First of all, this is not an offence, I guess your contribution as helpful and important.
But I want to contribute something ...

I have played the game since mid-April 2016 and then made a break of ten months and returned in April '17 before global, have 2500 infamy and around 10 thousand battles, so I think I know what I'm talking about.
I made another account in may to see how it runs as newbie in the game.
With this I'm just in the addressed infamy area around 400. I play this account not often, from time to time. In the last few days I have made some battles at different times of the day.
So I check the log of the last 40 battles
I notice the following:
The pool of players in a battle were within a range of under hundred points.
Mostly all ships are shooters, 10 to 20% others.
9 shooter and one speeder, fixer, few defender or absolutely rare enforcer.
Very bad teamplay, lots of battles ended up being 5: 0 or 1: 5.
Ship classes mostly MK2 / 3 less than a quarter MK4 a few MK1 and no MK5.
The weapons were a mixture of uncommon and rare in five battles once epic. No legendary!
I had not the impression that the battles were dominated by MK4 ships.

It may be that our perception is shaped by those who leave the game.
We have no proof how many there are or know their motives.
It is like here in the forum, many of the new threads, come from people complaining about something. the satisfied mass is silent.

 

What you suggest is already in place - When you get a new flashy item or increase your mk, you start winning more until you reach your new infamy plateau. The system works just fine!

 

They typically do it's called 5000 league lol would take years to get there for normal players. Even somewhat big spenders end up sticking below 4500. If I knew how this game would cost me would have never installed, but hey I'm addicted now

 

Exactly. Why begrudge someone a few wins after a new upgrade? We all want that, no matter mk or item or captain.

 

Well it's in place for mk1-4. After that things get different, see my posts above relating to end game. Infamy, mk level and even win and KD ratios means nothing in 3500+ leagues. It all depends on class matching then.

 

I got 4 of my friends into the game and 3 have quit officially and another simply stopped playing.

Same happened to a ton of other players I made friends with when I was in 400s. Are you saying they all stopped playing cause they are whiners?

Surely not all of them, I suppose no matter how awesome a game is, we'll always find quitters but not this many.

I did not find a single mk4 till 900s and not that many epics and rares either. If there are rares and epics in 400 infamy range then isn't that a problem?.

 

I do not know why your friends have left the game, I do not know their personal reasons and everyone had their own.
And I do not claim that everyone who leaves the game is a whiner.
But take any topic, in any forum in the depths of the internet - whom do you meet most often?
Whiners and those who really care about the subject. I count you to the second.
I have made the attempt to give the heated discussion food with a few sparse data.
My life experience tells me that between subjective perception and objective facts is sometimes a giant gap.
And as I said, this should not be a personal attack ...

See you in the Bay - Battle On!

 

Yes the system works for what it does, but there is always room for improvement. I would like to agree that infamy will balance itself on its own, but by taking into consideration the strength of the boat, weapon loadout, and even captain level would help refine the already terrific infamy system and be better for players. At minimum, you would be able to use different lower level ships and weapons without taking such a bit HIT for it.