What's up with matchmaking?

Unknown

So uh... No targets. I'm skipping past the same 3 guys 200 points below me, and have been for the last 500 ISO.

I know damn well that there are targets worth more than 20 out there. But apparently they're just not available to me. Did they change matchmaking again without telling us? It would be really nice to know how these things work. This is kind of like if we were playing street fighter, and every couple of days, the devs brought out a patch that really changed how certain characters worked, and never told anyone, leaving the ryu player to wonder "why does my fireball not reach full screen any more? And why does my shoryuken not have knockdown?".

It's stupid. It's bad enough that MMR is a hidden variable and nobody really knows how matchmaking works under the hood; but changing it every couple of days is just downright cruel. I started climbing 3 hours ago, thinking that I'd have my usual fare to 1300 within the next 9. Because, you know, I only have like 2-3 more chances to get my XForce covered before Sentry gets nerfed and I lose the ability to climb to 1300 for quite a while. But I just burned 3000 ISO looking for anyone above my own score! They're out there, I JUST CAN'T GET THEM!

orionpeace

I am seeing a similar situation where I can't find any targets worth more than 22 with most being in the 17 to 21 point range.

And all the 22 point nodes I find are max level teams.

Something is up.

Bowgentle

No need for conspiracy theories.

The playerbase has been split into 5 slices, and most of the crazy scorers (X-Men in particular) picked slice 4.
So you don't see those guys if you're in a different slice.

There are a few high scoring guys in other slices too, but waaaaayyy fewer than we have become used to, so climbing is much slower.

Unknown

Didn't they say you can only be matched with people in the same ending time as you? Looks like the smaller player pool has resulted in the return of bad MMR bubbles like we used to constantly get back in the day

MarvelMan

The biggest question is how will slicing the scoring affect the progression/end scores, and ultimately season.


For the record (Ill also post elsewhere) I took #1 in my 7am EST bracket at 995......and there were only two of us over 900, with T5 at 801, T10 at 719.

Unknown

One of my alliance mates picked the 10 A.M. EST ending for Hulk Smash and said that he gave up on finding targets worth more than 20 points. He ended in 33rd with only 693 points, which does seem like a rather high placement for such a low score.

This could be an interesting side effect to the multiple end time option. This was a beta test so I can understand something like this not showing up in initial testing.

Our of curiosity, what is your end time?

Unknown

My end time is in 5 hours - shard 2 apparently. And basically the only high scorer in my shard right now is Blade.

This is **** stupid. I'm sorry. Now it's gone from 800 matches worth 12 points to 500 matches worth 3 points! What. The. ****?!

Unknown

Bowgentle wrote:

No need for conspiracy theories.

The playerbase has been split into 5 slices, and most of the crazy scorers (X-Men in particular) picked slice 4.
So you don't see those guys if you're in a different slice.

There are a few high scoring guys in other slices too, but waaaaayyy fewer than we have become used to, so climbing is much slower.

Do you know which slice the crazy scorers are picking for Hollowpoint?

Unknown

This sounds like it's brewing up to be another good statistics option for Ice to share with us. I'd love to know what the average top 5 scores are for each end-time shard, as well as what the percentage of players from each shard that met the top tier of progression rewards (i.e. 2% of the player base from shard 2 got 1100+, while 8% from shard 3 got 1100+).

Of course, if such a discrepancy exists, setting progression reward points based on shard seems like a terrible solution to that issue. And would the devs even consider that an issue?

Unknown

Riggy wrote:

Of course, if such a discrepancy exists, setting progression reward points based on shard seems like a terrible solution to that issue. And would the devs even consider that an issue?

The problem is the nature of shield hopping in the high end meta game. You currently have groups of 50-100 people coordinating their attacks to only hit shielded members.

It is not an unsurprising development that these groups went into the same shard, to keep a high point pool, which leaves 4/5ths of the standard population in much lower scoring brackets. Lower scoring brackets mean that lower scores will make top25, top5 and top2 and without many of the crazy scorers in those 4 shards opens up those prizes to other players that usually can't reach those heights. That said, if this continues for too many events, it could skew season standings for the 4Thor cover

MarvelMan

Riggy wrote:

This sounds like it's brewing up to be another good statistics option for Ice to share with us. I'd love to know what the average top 5 scores are for each end-time shard, as well as what the percentage of players from each shard that met the top tier of progression rewards (i.e. 2% of the player base from shard 2 got 1100+, while 8% from shard 3 got 1100+).

Of course, if such a discrepancy exists, setting progression reward points based on shard seems like a terrible solution to that issue. And would the devs even consider that an issue?

Add in that it would be great to know the affect on alliance ranking and season points. Such as if my slice (#1) ended with lower average scores than the crazy slice (#4 for Smash) that would dramatically change both of those. It would create a whole new meta game based on trying to maximize rewards between placement and progression, plus factoring overall impact on season.

MennoKnight

I had a frustrating waste of HP last night. Thought I could get to 1300 for a Black X-Force. But once I got to 1100, I got nothing but 3-point matches with 600-point teams.

MarvelMan

papa07 wrote:

That said, if this continues for too many events, it could skew season standings for the 4Thor cover

It has dramatically skewed it after just one event, which isnt even over yet. In general it seems people are scoring lower, but Ive seen reports that slice #4 is ending much, much higher (200+ points) than the rest.

Unknown

MarvelMan wrote:

papa07 wrote:

That said, if this continues for too many events, it could skew season standings for the 4Thor cover

It has dramatically skewed it after just one event, which isnt even over yet. In general it seems people are scoring lower, but Ive seen reports that slice #4 is ending much, much higher (200+ points) than the rest.

Everybody scoring lower doesn't skew the alliance standings. However, if the 101st alliance has 13 members in the crazy scoring bracket and the 100th alliance only has 3, that would skew standings. If there is no collusion on which brackets to join, it should (statistically speaking) be irrelevant.

MarvelMan

My point was that there is (obviously) collusion going on for the high point people to end up in slice #4. I know there are a lot of Xmen, SHIELD and deadpool guys in there so there might even have been discussion between alliances prior to joining, which I have no issue with. The devs just need to be aware that will happen and not let it (dramatically) change rankings such as alliance or season.

Unknown

My point was that there is (obviously) collusion going on for the high point people to end up in slice #4. I know there are a lot of Xmen, SHIELD and deadpool guys in there so there might even have been discussion between alliances prior to joining, which I have no issue with. The devs just need to be aware that will happen and not let it (dramatically) change rankings such as alliance or season.

Dang I must have missed that memo. Event 4 happens to be the standard end time does it not? Most people gravitate to what they know. I don't think you need to search for conspiracy theories. I am sitting happily in S3.

But yes we will have issues with some time slices being weaker then others. The system is faulty as it is now. Will we learn to game it? Most likely. will it be fun? most likely not.

HailMary

MarvelMan wrote:

My point was that there is (obviously) collusion going on for the high point people to end up in slice #4. I know there are a lot of Xmen, SHIELD and deadpool guys in there so there might even have been discussion between alliances prior to joining, which I have no issue with. The devs just need to be aware that will happen and not let it (dramatically) change rankings such as alliance or season.

And yet, the OP is in DeadpoolsRings.



Shard-selection optimization should be fun -- another wrinkle added to the high-end metagame.

Unknown

HailMary wrote:

Shard-selection optimization should be fun -- another wrinkle added to the high-end metagame.

To all the game, not just high end. I have been averaging around 850 since start of Season7 and I will barely cross 700 in the time shard ending in 2 hours.

Points flow downhill - it affects everyone

Unknown

HailMary wrote:

MarvelMan wrote:

My point was that there is (obviously) collusion going on for the high point people to end up in slice #4. I know there are a lot of Xmen, SHIELD and deadpool guys in there so there might even have been discussion between alliances prior to joining, which I have no issue with. The devs just need to be aware that will happen and not let it (dramatically) change rankings such as alliance or season.

And yet, the OP is in DeadpoolsRings.

No, it happened, I just missed the damn memo. There's not a lot of intercommunication between Xmen and Deadpool.

swordfishdata

Yeah, I was annoyed that I was so far behind the #1 slot in my bracket, then I saw that the guy 200 points ahead of me is Viral Pool from X men 2. So much for the 4-star.

GothicKratos

In all honest here, if all the top Alliances end up coordinating and pick the same shards, then that could make it easier for everyone outside of those shards. Ultimately, Alliances are going to favor the Season Reward usually, since it will be things like Fury covers and Thorette covers, so they are going to want to cluster together.