PVP Matchmaking: A Discussion

Crnch73

I am losing 40 points per loss (just happened twice), and I can't find anyone above 7 points still. I was SO close to 900, and then I got knocked back to 815. This is legit the most infuriating experience. I actually hated Eye for an Eye less, because at least I could say "well I just have a bad defensive team, so it is not worth my time to play it out because I will just get destroyed"... this time, I just don't get it. Everyone above me is shielded so I can't search for them, no big deal there. But I don't even know what to do here. There are plenty of people right around my score who aren't shielded, so why is every match I get worth 7 points max? I even had one queued up for 30 points and I salivated, but when I hit them, they musta lost a lot of points because it was only worth 11 after I won. My roster is only 5 champed 4*, only one is boosted (4clops). So... a whale I am not.

If I just say "sure I will slog through 20 matches at 5 points a piece", that still doesn't work because I will get beaten down in the mean time.

If I just say "I will put up a long shield and wait for other people to get more points, that way I can find higher targets", that doesn't work because I still can't find anything worth double digits.

I know there's a lot of time left in the event, but c'mon now... The top guys all have over 1000, so how did they get there? Having a scary enough team that no one hit them on defense, and just grinding out minuscule targets?

Avalancher

How can I compete in an event where I am not allowed to face the same point producers as my opponents? What do I need to do to be allowed to compete?

This is utterly unfair. I am not allowed to have a chance to win. Why? Can anyone explain why I don't have a chance to play against the same opponents as my rivals? Why?

Rick_OShay

Took about 17 battles to get from 800 to 904. They were easy enough, but wow. Oh, only got hit once during.
Not sure I have the stamina to get to 1050 at this rate, ha.

ZootSax

Threads like this make me think I'm playing a different game than everyone else. My roster has champed Devil Dino and Nick Fury, but is otherwise champed 3*'s with a half-dozen partially-covered 4*'s around Lv 160-200, but the normal MMR pairs me up almost-exclusively against boosted, champed 4*'s and 5*'s up to about Lv 420. Sometimes I'll find 3* teams ~40 levels higher than mine, but that's generally the floor of my opponents.

This event I've seen a couple maxed 2* rosters, but no more than I've seen significantly higher rosters. Otherwise I have largely been matched against other 3* rosters +/- 40 levels of my own. It's what PVP used to be like for me before I champed Fury.

As for the points per match, everything is in the ~15-30 range, which again is no different from a normal PVP for me. I reached 575 and stopped, but it wasn't from points drying up; it's from only being able to queue champed 4* & ~375+ 5* rosters and not wanting to bother. When I was at ~450, I even got a retaliation for my first 50+ point match outside of Simulator in at least two seasons. Sure it was a team 150 levels above mine, but things like short-cutting my path to the 575 progression is what I save my Whales points for.

I'm sure things will go back to normal next event, but it was nice to actually have PVP being worth playing for a change...

Brigby

Hey Everyone. I talked to the developers and it turns out that this Matchmaking disparity might be due to the selection of either Deadpool.

Unfortunately they're not able to fix this in the current run, but they'll be sure to investigate it and figure out the exact issue prior to running again this event or another event that has multiple options for loaner characters.

Yasuru

Thanks Brigby.

My concern is this is going to have a nasty impact on season scores and placement.

TetsujinOni

Brigby wrote:

Hey Everyone. I talked to the developers and it turns out that this Matchmaking disparity might be due to the selection of either Deadpool.

Unfortunately they're not able to fix this in the current run, but they'll be sure to investigate it and figure out the exact issue prior to running again this event or another event that has multiple options for loaner characters.

"might be".

Shall I schedule some consulting time at Demiurge to talk about how to operate a professional software engineering firm when I'm in Boston next weekend?

Crnch73

Brigby wrote:

Hey Everyone. I talked to the developers and it turns out that this Matchmaking disparity might be due to the selection of either Deadpool.

Unfortunately they're not able to fix this in the current run, but they'll be sure to investigate it and figure out the exact issue prior to running again this event or another event that has multiple options for loaner characters.

It's of little consolation that I won't get a red hulk cover. And this sounds like they have no idea, so they just threw some random idea out. Professionalism!

I tried to hit all the low point teams, I beat 15 teams at an average of 7 points each. I got hit by 6 different teams with champed 4* dead pool, champed 4clops, and a 450 5* character. I spent an hour unshielded and played matches for the entirety of the hour, and lost 20 net points. Tinykitty this game. Eye for an eye PvP sucked, the gauntlet rewards suck, strange max progression is all screwed up, and now this. In a week, I missed out in a quake cover, will miss the red hulk cover, and won't get the last 15 cp from strange pve. The developers are greedy, stupid tinykitty holes

deadtaco

Brigby wrote:

Hey Everyone. I talked to the developers and it turns out that this Matchmaking disparity might be due to the selection of either Deadpool.

It might have been better to say they are investigating it rather than them not knowing. Devs are well known to not test their work.

I got to 645 points with a couple of losses along the way. Before I could get to 650 I had to step away for a little bit. I am down to 545 right now. At 5-9 points a match there is little point in trying to get back up in points.

I am sincere in my offer to teach the devs how to plan a test case around each change to the code base.

Dragon_Nexus

TetsujinOni wrote:

Brigby wrote:

Hey Everyone. I talked to the developers and it turns out that this Matchmaking disparity might be due to the selection of either Deadpool.

Unfortunately they're not able to fix this in the current run, but they'll be sure to investigate it and figure out the exact issue prior to running again this event or another event that has multiple options for loaner characters.

"might be".

Shall I schedule some consulting time at Demiurge to talk about how to operate a professional software engineering firm when I'm in Boston next weekend?

Oh for goodness sake, who cares about the wording?
We're not shareholders or prospective buyers of the company or anything of the sort. We're just dingbats hanging out on a video game forum. We don't need the clipped PR buzz speak to duck and weave around the legal ramifications.

I'd prefer a conversational tone rather than cold corporate moon speak, thank you.

fmftint

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

TetsujinOni wrote:

Brigby wrote:

Hey Everyone. I talked to the developers and it turns out that this Matchmaking disparity might be due to the selection of either Deadpool.

Unfortunately they're not able to fix this in the current run, but they'll be sure to investigate it and figure out the exact issue prior to running again this event or another event that has multiple options for loaner characters.

"might be".

Shall I schedule some consulting time at Demiurge to talk about how to operate a professional software engineering firm when I'm in Boston next weekend?

Oh for goodness sake, who cares about the wording?
We're not shareholders or prospective buyers of the company or anything of the sort. We're just dingbats hanging out on a video game forum. We don't need the clipped PR buzz speak to duck and weave around the legal ramifications.

I'd prefer a conversational tone rather than cold corporate moon speak, thank you.

Pretty sure he's referring to the GLARING lack of proper testing...................



Not how the message was delivered

Dragon_Nexus

How are you even meant to test for this in an enclosed environment anyway?
There's no public test realm in the game. The only way you'd really find this kind of thing out is after it's gone live.

PuceMoose

It's been the first PvP I've enjoyed much since the last run of Combined arms - granted, I am pretty casual now, and usually only climb to 300 for the token or 575 if I'm feeling masochistic to get the CP.

Brigby

deadtaco wrote:

Brigby wrote:

Hey Everyone. I talked to the developers and it turns out that this Matchmaking disparity might be due to the selection of either Deadpool.

It might have been better to say they are investigating it rather than them not knowing.

It appears that in my attempt to use a more casual tone, that it gave off the impression that the developers are not aware of and/or unable to identify the issue.

This is certainly not the case, and I apologize for any confusion or discouragement that has resulted from it.

acescracked

I'm FLOATING at 910 points no hits. This new MMR is the best!!

Make it permanent!

Crnch73

acescracked wrote:

I'm FLOATING at 910 points no hits. This new MMR is the best!!

Make it permanent!

I'm jealous and seriously confused... The last 2 PvP events have resulted in me having no targets over 10 points and people way above my MMR hitting me. I don't know how I could have done anything to earn this, but I'll never get any answers and I'll definitely miss the 4* covers I should have earned.

TetsujinOni

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

How are you even meant to test for this in an enclosed environment anyway?
There's no public test realm in the game. The only way you'd really find this kind of thing out is after it's gone live.

You don't need a public test realm to model the behavior of a matchmaking algorithm and sanity check it.

Thus my utterly serious offer to talk to them about scaling test infrastructure, distributed systems testing, and professional software development practices....

waywreth

Yeah... not sure what some of you experienced, but with about 14 champed 4 I managed to make it to 900 for the first time in PVP in years. The last few hundred points were around ~15 to ~20 at a time, and I was only attacked once (I won ironically enough). I fought a mix of 2, 3, and 4 teams, instead of getting smashed by the typical 5 champion squad I usually deal with around the 600 point zone.

fmftint

I don't know which is worse, the norm of fighting As from match 1
or clubbing your way to 1.2k on +4s

Both are pretty bad

revskip

So my usual MO for PVP is to wait until the last hour of slice 5 and then jump in and climb as high as I can without shielding. I almost always get the 650 reward, often the 725 and once in a blue moon the 800 reward. I also usually finish no lower than top 50 doing things this way and sometimes as high as top 1-2 (maybe ten percent of the time).

So I got a bug up my butt about the Red Hulk cover (he's champed and I use him a lot) so I joined early (maybe an hour after start) and was super surprised to have super easy opponents to start. In fact at first I thought I was getting seed teams but they would all have a single champed 3* DP on the roster so seemed weird. Climbed to 725 on small point teams using Electra and IW and never had a single hit come in so I just left it alone unshielded overnight. Woke up to only two hits one of which was a defensive win.

I thought to myself well that is weird but maybe joining early there weren't any other people at my level out yet since it is still pretty early in the event. Wasn't until about 8pm that I realized that no one at my level could see me (and vice versa). Felt a little dirty just curb stomping 2* teams that can't really retaliate but I'm gonna roll with it tonight and get to 900 and probably just see if I get hit some tomorrow by the late climbing 5* teams.