Well they stated that the goal was faster matches and more pops (besides more even matches) so waiting x minutes to go by is counter to that. Matchmaking is trying to set up matches as quick as possible if there is a que.

Not really. The longer the wait, the more people will be in queue and the better of a matchmaking you can make. For example, if there's a warzone that's 1 minute away from ending, it is better to wait that minute before popping so more people will be in queue.

The devs need to find a balance between waiting too short (and not getting enough players in queue for a good matchmaking) and waiting too long.

When you have 3-3 or even 2-2, the whole match becomes one big parsing exercise and isn’t fun for anyone but those healers. The game’s also go for longer, which I believe is the opposite of what Bioware are going for in this patch.

Why do you think healers like parsing matches more than other roles do?

I don't want faster pops, I want better games that are fun to play. If I'm in the mood to play heals, not dps, then I won't switch roles to avoid the multiple healer games, I'll just stop queing for matches.

Same as arena's - if too many arena's start to pop in unranked then I will quit queing. Warzones and Arena's are two very different types of games.

If Bioware prioritizes quantity of pops over the quality of matches, then I don't think I am the only player who end up queing less, or even not queing at all.

Why do you think healers like parsing matches more than other roles do?

 

I don't want faster pops, I want better games that are fun to play. If I'm in the mood to play heals, not dps, then I won't switch roles to avoid the multiple healer games, I'll just stop queing for matches.

 

Same as arena's - if too many arena's start to pop in unranked then I will quit queing. Warzones and Arena's are two very different types of games.

 

If Bioware prioritizes quantity of pops over the quality of matches, then I don't think I am the only player who end up queing less, or even not queing at all.

You are probably not the only one who ends up queuing less, but likewise there are plenty of folks who will also queue less if they go for quality over quantity. BW has to find the sweet spot, and they've made it clear many times they value quantity over quality (the fact that premades are not a separate queue is enough proof for this). Obviously BW is the only one with the numbers, but I'm sure a lot of people do value quantity of quality, after all, at least a bad match progresses the daily and the weekly whereas no match doesn't. And if you've only got 30 minutes, waiting 25 for a match to pop isnt going to get your daily done.

Why do you think healers like parsing matches more than other roles do?

 

I don't want faster pops, I want better games that are fun to play. If I'm in the mood to play heals, not dps, then I won't switch roles to avoid the multiple healer games, I'll just stop queing for matches.

 

Same as arena's - if too many arena's start to pop in unranked then I will quit queing. Warzones and Arena's are two very different types of games.

 

If Bioware prioritizes quantity of pops over the quality of matches, then I don't think I am the only player who end up queing less, or even not queing at all.

Obviously not “all” healers. There are obviously ledgitmate healers out there.

But you only need to look at the live servers and obviously the pts to realise that lots of healers group together or just don’t self regulate when they see a stack of healers in the queue. If they did, we wouldn’t even need to have this mechanic added.

How hard is it to swap spec or characters for a bit when you see there are too many healers. And seriously, the amount on the pts is ludicrous. You can transfer any of your dps Alts over and test. Nobody cares about your gear or skill on them.

We are there to test bugs and and changes. We can’t do that with this many healers. Saying you don’t want to swap to dps, even though there are way to many healers, show people aren’t serious about testing for bugs or mechanic changes. It’s not like there have been any class buffs or nerfs to test, its purely mechanics at this point.

But no, healers have to stack every match because it’s what so many of them do. Even the ledgitmate healers could step up and swap for a bit so we can test properly.

The only reason to healer stack is to parse your healer stats, there is no other reason for so many healers in a match. If people aren’t serious about testing, why are they even on the pts?

A better solution is starting the match with less players or just making arena matches.

According to what Eric said arenas will not be even poping due to the matchmaking system. They will only pop when the que is very very small.

According to what Eric said arenas will not be even poping due to the matchmaking system. They will only pop when the que is very very small.

I wish he would tell us what the threshold is. It could be 10, 20, 40... who knows. Very very small means different things to different people

I wish he would tell us what the threshold is. It could be 10, 20, 40... who knows. Very very small means different things to different people

16. At least as planned/stated.

[*]The Unranked Warzone queue will now always prioritize Warzones over Arenas. An Arena match will only pop if there are not enough players to populate a full Warzone match at that time.

16. At least as planned/stated.

That is a bit hazy though. Because if you were to go solely on that point, no body in regs would ever play an arena again unless there were less than 16 people in the queue.

I’m assuming there must be a slightly higher number than that when they make a transition, maybe between 16-30, which is still less than 2 full 8 man matches.

It would just be good to have some hard numbers from Bioware so were can test it.

That is a bit hazy though. Because if you were to go solely on that point, no body in regs would ever play an arena again unless there were less than 16 people in the queue.

 

I’m assuming there must be a slightly higher number than that when they make a transition, maybe between 16-30, which is still less than 2 full 8 man matches.

 

It would just be good to have some hard numbers from Bioware so were can test it.

I think that is exactly the plan. If you want to do Arena's, play ranked.

I'm sure there is some kind of time limit, because if you think about it, there will almost always be less than 16 people in queue (after all, if there are 16 people in queue, than a WZ can pop).

I assume they have it set up like this:

If <16 people in queue, start countdown from (I dunno, 10 minutes?). If it reaches 0, do an Arena.

If >=16 people, try to do matchmaking

If no more than 2 heals and 2 tanks per team can be created, make WZ.

If not, start countdown (I dunno, 5 minutes?) If it reaches 0, allow up to 5 total tanks/heals per team (but no more than 3 of either). Then start another countdown, and continue expanding until its literally only heals/tanks, and that point a match has to start, as long as there are still 16 people in queue.

Anyway, the latter point I obviously don't know, but it seems pretty clear from Eric's statement that if a WZ can be created, it will always take priority over creating an arena. I hope I'm wrong, because that will just make ranked even more brutal for new folks if they can't even practice arena's in regs, but unless he clarifies, I think that is a safe assumption.

A good test would be did any arena's pop during the scheduled PVP times? If not, then Eric's statement is probably true.

That is a bit hazy though. Because if you were to go solely on that point, no body in regs would ever play an arena again unless there were less than 16 people in the queue.

 

I’m assuming there must be a slightly higher number than that when they make a transition, maybe between 16-30, which is still less than 2 full 8 man matches.

 

It would just be good to have some hard numbers from Bioware so were can test it.

Actually, if you went by what was actually written by Eric ("An Arena match will only pop if there are not enough players to populate a full Warzone match at that time"), he doesn't mention waiting at all, so you would never play a regs match again unless all 16 queued at the exact same time. Because it would go...

1 queued, not enough for 8s, not enough for 4s

2 queued, not enough for 8s, not enough for 4s

3 queued, not enough for 8s, not enough for 4s

4 queued, not enough for 8s, not enough for 4s

5 queued, not enough for 8s, not enough for 4s

6 queued, not enough for 8s, not enough for 4s

7 queued, not enough for 8s, not enough for 4s

8 queued, not enough for 8s, IS enough for 4s.... POP.

Even throwing in full 4 man premades, chances are there would be 8-15 people in the queue before the 16th joined, and so the arena would pop if it were just "there's not enough in the queue for regs".

So obviously there HAS to be some time limit where it waits for 16. And that's not even taking into consideration what happens if 6 of those 16 are healers (where, based on the almost instant pops during PTS "prime time", it just goes ahead and starts a match with 3 healers on a side, instead of waiting more because of the '2 healer limit').

But I doubt bioware will tell us the exact wait time, because they'll probably tweak it to get the arena-to-8s ratio where they want it in their overall stats. It would be nice if they'd give us a rough estimate though. Will it wait 5 minutes for 16 people? 3 minutes? 10 seconds?

I'm sure there is some kind of time limit, because if you think about it, there will almost always be less than 16 people in queue (after all, if there are 16 people in queue, than a WZ can pop).

Shoot, you said it first. I guess you win the forum PvP this round!

I hope I'm wrong, because that will just make ranked even more brutal for new folks if they can't even practice arena's in regs, but unless he clarifies, I think that is a safe assumption.

I thought that was part of the focus of the new stronghold. I admit I didn't pay that much attention to the Rishi SH, since I don't really get into the doll houses. But can't people set up basically 4v4 matches there and practice?

A good test would be did any arena's pop during the scheduled PVP times? If not, then Eric's statement is probably true.

I saw a few. They only happened at the start and end if I remember correctly. I know the first 2 hour slot on Saturday, I took screens of almost all the games I had. I had 1 arena at the start (which was 1/2 after it started - so maybe that counts as "prime time"?). Then all 8s until it was winding down, and one arena at the end.

Shoot, you said it first. I guess you win the forum PvP this round!

 

 

 

I thought that was part of the focus of the new stronghold. I admit I didn't pay that much attention to the Rishi SH, since I don't really get into the doll houses. But can't people set up basically 4v4 matches there and practice?

 

 

 

I saw a few. They only happened at the start and end if I remember correctly. I know the first 2 hour slot on Saturday, I took screens of almost all the games I had. I had 1 arena at the start (which was 1/2 after it started - so maybe that counts as "prime time"?). Then all 8s until it was winding down, and one arena at the end.

Haha hooray! Another forum pvp victory!

I guess? Still, solo arena regs I think are still a better prep for yolo's then playing with 7 friends in my opinion, just in the likelihood of toxicity if nothing else

How long had you been waiting for a pop both times? That would probably give us a good indicator of the countdown. And was it the very first match you played? Because I'm also thinking that the timer would either have to be from the first person to get in queue, or from whenever there are 8 people. I would assume it is from the first person, because if it is 8 people, one person could leave queue, one jump back in, and so on and so forth and there would never be a pop. But even if you hopped on and got a pop pretty quickly, if there was someone waiting 25 minutes for a pop, that would explain it.

Also, how long did you wait for the one at the end as well? That is probably a better litmus (as it'll at least give us a range, however long you waited+the length of you last match is probably the max time the game would wait).

Also, how long did you wait for the one at the end as well? That is probably a better litmus (as it'll at least give us a range, however long you waited+the length of you last match is probably the max time the game would wait).

The first one I don't remember. However, I also don't remember having to wait any significant number of minutes for that first pop. If it had been 10 or even 5 minutes I probably would have noticed that.

I was going to say, "I don't really remember" for the one at the end too... and I don't. However, I have screen shots! I have a closing score screen from the one before at 1:35 PM (EST) and I have one where we are in the spawn area of round 2 of the arena at 1:41 PM. So that's 6 minutes to get from the score screen of one game, into the next game, and through the first round. And that arena was a 2 healer 2 DPS each side, so they were not short rounds. We ended the arena at 1:48 PM - them winning 2 rounds in a row. Which leads me to conclude that we must have gotten the arena pop almost immediately upon exiting the match before.

The first one I don't remember. However, I also don't remember having to wait any significant number of minutes for that first pop. If it had been 10 or even 5 minutes I probably would have noticed that.

 

I was going to say, "I don't really remember" for the one at the end too... and I don't. However, I have screen shots! I have a closing score screen from the one before at 1:35 PM (EST) and I have one where we are in the spawn area of round 2 of the arena at 1:41 PM. So that's 6 minutes to get from the score screen of one game, into the next game, and through the first round. And that arena was a 2 healer 2 DPS each side, so they were not short rounds. We ended the arena at 1:48 PM - them winning 2 rounds in a row. Which leads me to conclude that we must have gotten the arena pop almost immediately upon exiting the match before.

Ok, so I think we can assume that the timer is based on the first person in queue, and that the time is somewhere between 5 minutes and 16 minutes. Soooo 10 minutes seems like a decent bet? And that is the longest any single person would wait, everyone else would wait for a shorter time.

Ok, so I think we can assume that the timer is based on the first person in queue, and that the time is somewhere between 5 minutes and 16 minutes. Soooo 10 minutes seems like a decent bet? And that is the longest any single person would wait, everyone else would wait for a shorter time.

Oh, I see what you mean. As in... if I get out of a match, we'll call it #7. And I queue for match #8... and at that point there has been someone, anyone, in the queue for 11 minutes (we'll say 10 is the threshold), and also there are 7 people in the queue. Then I'll get an immediate arena pop. However, if the longest anyone has been in the queue is 9 minutes, then we would all wait another minutes (or until 16 people showed up, whichever happened first).

I hadn't thought of it that way... I was thinking in terms of "how long did *I* wait" - because of course I'm a selfish bastard. But what I think you are saying... that make sense. I think that's a good theory.