Upcoming Matchmaking Changes Testing - *Delayed

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

*UPDATE* (02/03/16):
The planned matchmaking tests have been delayed.

The new plan is to run the tests closer to the R96 update (a few weeks in the future). Please accept our apologies, but due to work that needs to be done fixing bugs related to minion and boosted character scaling - we need to push matchmaking testing to March (tentative).

Thank you for your patience.

***

Hello,

We hope everyone is having an excellent Friday and has a great weekend lined-up.

We're posting today because we know the issue of matchmaking (aka scaling) is of great importance to the Marvel Puzzle Quest community and we acknowledge that there’s definitely room for improvement there. So, we wanted to give you a heads-up that plans for testing some changes to the current matchmaking system are in-motion and on the way.

As the plan stands now, we will be testing:

Story (PVE) matchmaking changes in the Venom: Heroic event beginning February 8th.
Versus (PVP) matchmaking changes in Beast’s Real McCoy event beginning February 9th.

Here’s word from Demiurge:

“The difference between this matchmaking system and the old one is in how we calculate your rating and the ratings of the teams you come up against. Ratings now take into account power upgrades and the ways different characters and rarities upgrade their health and damage. The hope is that the new ratings are a more accurate estimate of teams' power, and that weird strategies like not leveling up your characters are no longer helpful. We're running these tests in events that do not reward new characters, but do have normal event rewards. This is so we can get players actively competing to give us real data to understand what's happening during the test. We'll be asking you to detail your experience as you play, and to ideally help us understand what you're seeing as you play.”

TL;DR: Try out the matchmaking changes in the above listed events and let us know what you think in the comments!

*Please note that this is the current plan and it’s looking good to go ahead. However, there’s a small chance we may need to delay the testing. If that need arises, we’ll provide as much advance notice as possible.

Thanks very much!

SnowcaTT

So buffed characters aren't counting against your MMR?

Any changes are almost always welcome. Looks like this will be in off-season, also welcome.

fmftint

"David wrote:

Moore"]Hello,

We hope everyone is having an excellent Friday and has a great weekend lined-up.

We're posting today because we know the issue of matchmaking (aka scaling) is of great importance to the Marvel Puzzle Quest community and we acknowledge that there’s definitely room for improvement there. So, we wanted to give you a heads-up that plans for testing some changes to the current matchmaking system are in-motion and on the way.

As the plan stands now, we will be testing:

Story (PVE) matchmaking changes in the Venom: Heroic event beginning February 8th.
Versus (PVP) matchmaking changes in Beast’s Real McCoy event beginning February 9th.

Here’s word from Demiurge:

“The difference between this matchmaking system and the old one is in how we calculate your rating and the ratings of the teams you come up against.

Ratings now take into account power upgrades and the ways different characters and rarities upgrade their health and damage. The hope is that the new ratings are a more accurate estimate of teams' power, and that weird strategies like not leveling up your characters are no longer helpful.

We're running these tests in events that do not reward new characters, but do have normal event rewards. This is so we can get players actively competing to give us real data to understand what's happening during the test.

We'll be asking you to detail your experience as you play, and to ideally help us understand what you're seeing as you play.”

TL;DR: Try out the matchmaking changes in the above listed events and let us know what you think in the comments!

*Please note that this is the current plan and it’s looking good to go ahead. However, there’s a small chance we may need to delay the testing. If that need arises, we’ll provide as much advance notice as possible.

Thanks very much!

Does this mean the new matchmaking WON'T factor boost for enemy levels?

Ducky

Why would you test PvE MMR on heroics? Most people seem to skip those restricted roster disasters.

babinro

Really excited for this!

Any chance the changes are going to address the skip prison problem?

That is to say the issue where we can literally spend 100's of ISO skipping the same 5 people repeatedly. Only occasionally being giving another option or being forced to shut down the game and reboot in hopes something new comes up?

tanis3303

Would like to echo what Ducky said here...I play most PvE events for the legendary token, but I plan on skipping the venom heroic because, well...it's awful. Carnage + goons is a terrible experience, and I don't want to put myself thru it. Please consider testing something this important on an event where more players will participate, instead on an almost universally despised PvE format.

Twysta

I'm curious as to why they insist on keeping PvE level scaling at all. It's clearly pretty unpopular - at the very least I hate it!

babinro

DuckyV wrote:

Why would you test PvE MMR on heroics? Most people seem to skip those restricted roster disasters.

I agree here mostly because it's a LIMITED roster. The whole point of heroics are that they force you to play teams that you aren't used to playing.

It's extremely tough to judge MMR changes when you're using the team of Colossus, GSBW and Antman for the first time in your life.

Player feedback would be a lot more useful if used on a traditional pve. The Simulator would be a particularly great example because it throws genuinely tough nodes at players each sub. Particularly those four on the left that lead to the 2500 ISO node (I think it was 2500).

slidecage

Story (PVE) matchmaking changes in the Venom: Heroic event beginning February 8th.


means one of two things

They did not have time to push it till Feb 1 (hopefully)
or
We will be seeing another new person feb 1 (hopefully not)


thanks for the info hopefully this really helps with scaling.

TheOncomingStorm

So does this mean a pve node's scaling is based on the characters you select to use for that node, as opposed to being based on your entire roster?

If so, that's pure genius. That way the top end of a roster doesn't dictate that you always have to bring your A team against harder nodes. #character selection freedom

tanis3303

babinro wrote:

DuckyV wrote:

Why would you test PvE MMR on heroics? Most people seem to skip those restricted roster disasters.

I agree here mostly because it's a LIMITED roster. The whole point of heroics are that they force you to play teams that you aren't used to playing.

It's extremely tough to judge MMR changes when you're using the team of Colossus, GSBW and Antman for the first time in your life.

Player feedback would be a lot more useful if used on a traditional pve. The Simulator would be a particularly great example because it throws genuinely tough nodes at players each sub. Particularly those four on the left that lead to the 2500 ISO node (I think it was 2500).

Couldn't agree more. Simulator PvE would be the perfect litmus test. If you folks want the best data, this is how you get it. Make it happen devs!

rbdragon

I'm a touch crazy in the head, so I play every PVE.....

Having said that, I have to echo the sentiments of most everyone else - judging someone's scaling based on a limited roster that might not play well together on an event with Carnage as an enemy is....well let's just say your data will definitely be inaccurate.

The sim is clearly the best option for the test - various opponents, including nodes where you can't use your "goto" team since one or more of them are your opponent, various stages of difficulty, and of course the full roster available.

wymtime

DuckyV wrote:

Why would you test PvE MMR on heroics? Most people seem to skip those restricted roster disasters.

I can't up vote this comment more than once so I will just piggy back here. Testing a Heroic just feels like a bad idea. We have restricted rosters, and enemies that do big cheep damage.

If the developers have a reason for wanted a restricted roster please let us know. This thread is great because you are giving us a heads up and want feed back. You are communicating with us. Please communicate a little more on why you are choosing a restricted event. A large portion of the forum voices dislike for these events and would be happy if they would be replaced.

Thanks

Kojubat

I suspect the value in testing a Heroic versus a regular event is to test scaling based on your available roster versus your entire roster, as well as boosted characters. They can limit which characters you bring to the event to narrow down to specific test cases, and every character is boosted.

Der_Lex

Disregarding PvE for a sec, is the last PvP event of the season really the best time to test MMR changes?

Phumade

"David wrote:

Moore"]Hello,

Versus (PVP) matchmaking changes in Beast’s Real McCoy event beginning February 9th.[/list]

We'll be asking you to detail your experience as you play, and to ideally help us understand what you're seeing as you play.”[/list]

TL;DR: Try out the matchmaking changes in the above listed events and let us know what you think in the comments!

How will this affect Cupcaking? Will CC teams still show up in my battle que, or is this change supposed to eliminate CC queing?

OzarkBoatswain

If you want me to playtest, pay me.

Esheris

I always thought buffed characters should help you defeat enemies, not hinder you by giving you horrible scaling (just going with PvE in mind but could apply elsewhere).

So when I have buffed characters I HAVE to use them because my little pathetic 140's and lower no longer have the power/health to kill a 17k+ health Moonstone. I'd rather be able to use most of my roster and have help from the buffed characters too! ^_^

TLCstormz

Ozark Boatswain wrote:

If you want me to playtest, pay me.

I literally spit out my cereal.

turul

Probably the limited roster in heroics helps them testing how the scaling works on that limited roster.

Thats why they chose a heroic...

TheOncomingStorm

Twysta wrote:

I'm curious as to why they insist on keeping PvE level scaling at all. It's clearly pretty unpopular - at the very least I hate it!

You're back? ??