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1v1 matchmaker brackets - waittime relation

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2 years ago
Today I have been waiting for 24 mins in 1v1 queue and roughly 20 of them another player was in queue as well. Apparently we were too far apart, rank-wise. As I understand the tolerable ranking-difference increases with time spent waiting. I do believe there should be an option to make this bracket widen up faster: if both players opt-in, they will be matched with the wider bracket. This way, wait times of 20min+ when there are several players in queue will be avoided.
+0 / -0
2 years ago
I think that automatic matchmaker is completely unnecesarry for a game as small as this one. In starcraft's iCCup days all ranked "matchmaking" happened in player-created lobbies.
+0 / -0

2 years ago
On iCCup dodging was rife, much harder to get a game if you have a good win/loss record, and this would translate to ZK with reputation (gl getting games Godde).
+0 / -0
2 years ago
Zero-K matchmaking does expand its acceptable WHR range relatively quickly, 2 minutes is already a relatively wide band, and it should reach its maximum allowed band around 4 or 5 minutes. Players at both ends of the ladder are a little more likely to get games too.

It is possible to allow users to customize their acceptable WHR range, but this is a little tricky to communicate to users and bears the risk of reducing the total number of matchmaking games if everybody selects a narrower range than the current default, gives up searching, and queues less into matchmaking. To alleviate this, there could be a checkbox to the effect of "give me a game, any game" that skips WHR checks, but this still requires both players to agree, and may still diminish the average quality of games if the matchmaker doesn't get enough time to wait for better candidates to enter the queue.

The pro 1v1 room was added to make it easier for the top end of the ladder to match each other regardless of WHR balance, this approach has its own drawbacks of course and doesn't apply to the rest of the ladder. There are probably other improvements that could be done to matchmaking, but it's a tricky problem given the low matchmaking population in Zero-K.
+1 / -0


2 years ago
What is an acceptable win chance for an automatic game? The current 1v1 MM stops at around 10% from what I recall.

quote:
I do believe there should be an option to make this bracket widen up faster: if both players opt-in, they will be matched with the wider bracket.

I think having people use a 1v1 host is a a much more transparent way for people to play games with anyone. I think the option would at least need to be applied every time, such as a tickbox on the 'finding match' panel.
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quote:
What is an acceptable win chance for an automatic game? The current 1v1 MM stops at around 10% from what I recall.


The matchmaker currently goes down to about 2.5%, or a 600 WHR gap for a player not at the extremes of WHR. This most recent game was 5% or so https://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/1094733, https://zero-k.info/Battles/Detail/1062714 for an older example that was probably at the extreme of matchmaking.

I failed to mention this but it's a good point, the matchmaker already prioritizes starting games over only giving balanced games quite aggressively.
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2 years ago
quote:
What is an acceptable win chance for an automatic game? The current 1v1 MM stops at around 10% from what I recall.


I have had games with less than 5% win chance recently, so they do happen. The other player in queue must have been singularity or sth. when after 20min it did not match us.

quote:
I think having people use a 1v1 host is a a much more transparent way for people to play games with anyone.


This might be a hurdle for new players who do not know anyone from the community yet.

quote:
I think the option would at least need to be applied every time, such as a tickbox on the 'finding match' panel.


I agree. Best unchecked by default and made so that players can tick the box while in queue if they lose patience.
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