As you’ll probably be finding out by now, there was a particular post made by Andy Belford last night entitled Addressing The Power Gap, which pretty much hit a home run. It just ticked all the boxes. As usual it was spotted by Bootae, who considering he’s meant to be in semi retirement, certainly picked a dev post and a half to find. Of course Andy’s post raised many questions, but there is limit to how much time you can spend on a post before it’s an epic tome. Just follow the link above and you’ll be well rewarded.
It was something I figured that Mythic were up to a while back, which I had alluded to here in “Squeezing The Realm Ranks Together”, but it’s always nice to know if you post enough crap, sometimes it’s going to come up smelling of roses.
But in a nutshell, the RvR packs (Progression) presented the opportunity to balance things out, reducing the disparity in gearing, it doesn’t help you if you’re teamwork blows chunks, but nothing can help you there.
If you read down, you’ll see a reference to 300% bonus.
Finally, players who purchase the Progression Pack will find that the rate at which they gain Renown has been increased on an ascending scale based on Renown Rank, capping out at a 300% bonus. This means that players will be converging on 80 much more quickly than the current 80s will be leveling. We believe this will condense the RVR spread in many ways.
A more detail explanation would be nice, but the question on everyone’s lips has to be “How Does AAO Factor Into This”? Because if they combine, then you might as well put a jet engine up my ass, because I’ll be leveling that fast. Be jesus, I’ll be back in the situation where I’m not getting enough officer medallions to buy my equipment. Oh well I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
Now something which had been mentioned before by Andy in a tweet was the arrival of Scenario Matchmaking, but without much more concrete information being available. However here was Andy’s slight expansion on that tweet, which I don’t imagine will grow too much more.
Scenario Matchmaking: We will be introducing an all new Scenario Matchmaking system which will work to pit players of like ratings against each other when possible. Player rating is determined by skill and performance, so the better you do, the higher your rating. We’re very excited about this new system and the opportunities that it opens up to us for future development.
Now originally when this was mooted, I considered equipment and realm rank as the key markers in judging ranking, but there were some obvious flaws in that. Your equipment could be set to a pre scenario build (All green) and swapped to something more serious once the scenario had started. If you think about it, the server can only really look at what you are wearing, not what is in your backpack, but something like closetgoblin could swap sets in a flash.
We all also know that RR is also no great indicator of skill. It may well be that person has more time than anyone else. I’m sure we all know people willing to just grind out those characters and RRs, much like a metronome.
But as Mythic had realised, no one goes into a scenario to lose, you always go in to win. Of course the Eternal Citadel is the exception to the rule. Sure you’d like to win, but no great shakes if you don’t, it’s all about the insignia. However even in that situation, the guild tank groups would rise to the top with their win ratio and would end up being matched up against each other. Cream always floats to the top, sh!t always sinks.
I honestly don’t expect Mythic to be more forthcoming with the match making criteria than what they’ve already been, since I personally don’t want people playing the system. That’s not to say I don’t have questions, but I really don’t expect them to answered.
For instance, how long is the win/loss data held for? Between sessions? I wouldn’t want people logging off and on, to reset their stats.
I’m intrigued on how groups joining the scenario queues will be handled. Without any real mathematical thought, I’d probably take their average percentage wins per person over the last x games, sum it up and divide by the number of people in the group joining the queue. Of course if you are joining as a group of 4, then I’d take the average of the 4 man, to give value to that group. Oh to be getting the math texts out after such a long while.
Of course we’ll soon have the situation where the scenario wins are completely divorced from the battle for the zones, which then opens up a whole host of possibilities. The first one on most people’s minds will be cross server matches. Lets be honest who gives a crap if your opponents are English/German/French, you can’t speak to them, so really they could come from any server. Of course your side needs to come from the same language grouping. I wonder if matching will on a completely different server and you’d probably be transferred there. Maybe we could even go as far as tourneys, where the match data is streamed to the clients. Okay I’m talking out of my ass again.
Yeah, I’m really interested to see how the matchmaking works. I really hope that it’s not based solely on wins, because I’m sure you would get 6 mans out to farm renown in an SC like Serpents Passage, where they just camp the spawn but let the other team run the part to win. This keeps their ‘ranking’ down and ensures a steady stream of easy renown for them.
I’m still holding judgement on a few things, but overall 1.4 is looking like a massive loot bag of goodness.
I just can see that many allowing people to win. If they go against a better group and lose, then their ranking will go down anyway.
Lets be honest, if people are prepared to lose, then really there isn’t a lot that Mythic can do.
I’m curious if the matchmaking will be as limited as just the win loss ratio. There’s a lot more potential data there for them to pull from to determine play ability. A great player who pugs all the time may have a terrible win/loss record, and a good friend who plays poorly in a great guild may get carried by his teammates. Then again, this is a team game, do we want to track and reward individual ability as opposed to group play?
Tough question, and I’m eager to see which way Mythic goes.
If you are winning a lot, then there is probably going to be a reason for it. Individually or group.
If you keep losing a lot, then you will stay lower down the list with the plebbs, but what can the game really do about it. You are where you are for a reason.
If you are lower down the match maker system, because you are losing, then really should you really be placed higher up the ranks? You’ll just find it a misearable experience, which is the reason for the match making, to avoid you playering with people/groups who are above your level.
I didn’t think about the gear angle. I just wonder how they intend to grade players so they know how to funnel us into the right scenario.
Hopefully they release some more details on this new system.
It’s going to be your win record. Imagine they take 10 last scenarios, whatever the combination of factors. If you get 8/10 wins. Then you are looking at an 80% win ratio. Which would put you near the top.
Of course that may have been in the day before the opted groups come out, or your playing with some fellow high rankers. You will be matched with people with similiar win ratio’s / %.
So the people who are winning a lot get funneled together.
And as long as they keep the ranking hidden, nobody will care because they’ll all be having (more or less) equal matchups.
Good call.
I wonder if they’ll pull stuff off SC boards as well?