[*]Premade groups queuing for Ranked and Unranked Warzones and GSF will now have their matchmaking skill based on the highest rated member, not the team’s average rating.

 

 

-eric[/color]

 

Hey Eric, is this based on Solo / Group ranked rating or are we now getting an unranked rating too?

Hey Eric, is this based on Solo / Group ranked rating or are we now getting an unranked rating too?

 

I had the same question. There is no "rating" in unranked (regular) WZs. Unless they are talking about Valor rating?

Edited June 4, 2018 by Mournblood

Better late than never I guess. I can't complain about these changes too much, unless they just don't work when released lol.

 

Also curious to what Snave asked as well.

• All Warzone and Starfighter queues are now cross-faction
  

Will Imp vs Rep Civil War, Novare and Voidstar matches still exist?

• 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.
  

 

Awesome

 

Role Balancing:

• Matchmaking will never place more than 2 tanks or healers on the same team in a Warzone or 1 tank or healer for an Arena.
  

 

Awesome

 

Skill Balancing:

• Matchmaking will more strongly take player skill into account when making teams.
  

 

What kind of wizardry is this? How does it know if I suck at my class or not?

Edited June 4, 2018 by kodrac

This looks awesome at first glance.

 

I echo the question posed by Snave and Mournblood.

Valor rating?

 

hahahahahahahaha

Actually, since SWTOR launched players have always had a "rating" behind the scenes. I am hesitant to say rating since this isn't the same thing as your Ranked score, but it's the easiest way to explain it. This is more of a way that we approximate player skill solely for the purposes of matchmaking. This is also the reason we don't expose this information, since it is not really a rating (like Elo, etc).

 

In 5.9.2 we are making optimizations in how we use this information along with things like role, spec, gear, and more to try to create the most balanced teams we can.

 

-eric

So the skill rating would remain invisible to the players and only utilised by the matchmaker. That sounds pretty alright.

Actually, since SWTOR launched players have always had a "rating" behind the scenes. I am hesitant to say rating since this isn't the same thing as your Ranked score, but it's the easiest way to explain it. This is more of a way that we approximate player skill solely for the purposes of matchmaking. This is also the reason we don't expose this information, since it is not really a rating (like Elo, etc).

 

In 5.9.2 we are making optimizations in how we use this information along with things like role, spec, gear, and more to try to create the most balanced teams we can.

 

-eric

 

 

If only we had enough players to take that "rating" separate the player base into tiers and have matchmaking based on tier.

Actually, since SWTOR launched players have always had a "rating" behind the scenes. I am hesitant to say rating since this isn't the same thing as your Ranked score, but it's the easiest way to explain it. This is more of a way that we approximate player skill solely for the purposes of matchmaking. This is also the reason we don't expose this information, since it is not really a rating (like Elo, etc).

Woah. This raises several more questions!

• Is it based on wins vs losses only?
  
• Is the "rating" per character or is it for an entire account?
  
• Does the "rating" account for solo queue vs group queue?
  

 

#1 rated solo queue regstar marauder right here.

 

EDIT: I understand you said that the matchmaking will take into account things like role, spec, gear, and more, but I was curious as to how it works right now (regarding my first bullet point question). Thanks!

Edited June 4, 2018 by teclado

Hey folks,

 

Matchmaking is another place that we wanted to make some pretty big improvements for Game Update 5.9.2. Below you will find our planned changes:

• All Warzone and Starfighter queues are now cross-faction
  
• 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.
  
• Role Balancing:
  
  • Matchmaking will never place more than 2 tanks or healers on the same team in a Warzone or 1 tank or healer for an Arena.
    
  • Matchmaking will always do its best to balance the amount of tanks and healers on each team. If there are 2 healers, each team will receive one if possible, the same is true of tanks.
    
  • In situations where there are an odd number of tanks / healers, matchmaking will do its best to place the combined number of tanks and healers evenly (example: there are 3 healers and 1 tank, matchmaking will attempt to make the teams 2 healers vs 1 tank 1 healer.)
    

  [*]Skill Balancing:

  • Matchmaking will more strongly take player skill into account when making teams.
    
  • Premade groups queuing for Ranked and Unranked Warzones and GSF will now have their matchmaking skill based on the highest rated member, not the team’s average rating.
    
  • Galactic Starfighter matchmaking has been improved to better account for player experience along with their currently selected ship loadout.
    

 

All of these changes have the goal of making Warzone and Starfighter matches pop more regularly and be more balanced overall. Let us know your thoughts!

 

-eric

 

How would this system cope with teams that queue with, perhaps, 2 tanks and 2 healers?

 

Would it stack more of the same on the opposition team? Creating one hell of a long game. Or would it prevent the team from queuing with such a composition (a bit like flashpoints force certain comps.)

How would this system cope with teams that queue with, perhaps, 2 tanks and 2 healers?

 

Would it stack more of the same on the opposition team? Creating one hell of a long game. Or would it prevent the team from queuing with such a composition (a bit like flashpoints force certain comps.)

 

 

Just a guess but i think it would put a team of 4 dps on the other ops frame

This all sounds great, although personally I'm not a fan of making arenas pop less. I know some people hate them and I'd be fine with it if there was another way to practice arenas before jumping into ranked. As it is right now the only experience you get with them is just getting random arenas, which itself isn't great and to make them pop less makes it even worse. Plus with better matchmaking I'm not sure people would hate them as much. I only get annoyed with them when one team is like 3 healers and a tank. I'd really like a way to play arenas before queuing straight up for ranked so you could get a feel for it without upsetting the people who care way too much about a number going up and down.

Eric,

 

As encouraging as these changes sound, it also sounds like the end of premades. If your premade has one tank and one healer, and there are no other tanks or healers queued for that match, your premade will get split up to even the team compositions. Even if you queue up a premade of 4 DPS, if the relative "rating" of your team is higher than anyone else that's queued up for that match, it sounds like you'll be split up.

 

Is that accurate? And if so, why not just remove group queueing from regular WZs?

Edited June 4, 2018 by Mournblood

Woah. This raises several more questions!

• Is it based on wins vs losses only?
  
• Is the "rating" per character or is it for an entire account?
  
• Does the "rating" account for solo queue vs group queue?
  

 

My guess is it uses the stats that are tracked in the queue panel...Total Wins, Player Kills, Medals Earned, MVP Votes Received. Maybe add in average damage done, KB's, average healing done, etc.

 

My premade is very good, we queue 10-20 matches a night and maybe lose 1 or 2. We don't care about the scoreboard we play to win. Most of our chars are Valor 100 with thousands of wins and tens of thousands of kills. Does this mean we're always going to be paired with the worst players in the queue?

 

Make no mistake I don't mind doing work but that could get old.

Make no mistake I don't mind doing work but that could get old.

 

Losing does get old. Fast. Hence these changes.

 

While I can see the argument from players who want to play with their friends/guildmates in PvP, premades have turned into an arms race. When one guild started doing them, other guilds had to do them to remain competitive. Personally, if premades were no longer possible in regular WZs, I think this would serve the greater good of the game. (This coming from a guild that has traditionally run premades.)

 

I honestly thought we'd never see any kind of matchmaking system in this game, and I totally support the direction they are going with this.

Eric,

 

As encouraging as these changes sound, it also sounds like the end of premades. If your premade has one tank and one healer, and there are no other tanks or healers queued for that match, your premade will get split up to even the team compositions. Even if you queue up a premade of 4 DPS, if the relative "rating" of your team is higher than anyone else that's queued up for that match, it sounds like you'll be split up.

 

Is that accurate? And if so, why not just remove group queueing from regular WZs?

 

Likely you wouldn't get a pop till the proper composition is in queue to vs you

 

a consideration you need to make is if a proper composition isn't in queue to vs you will basically roll the inc pug on your premade. which sound as much fun as kicking a puppy

Edited June 4, 2018 by Seterade

As much as I like this, when the amount of people queueing are small, will this cause matchmaking to slow down while the system tries to determine how to sort the teams? I like these changes but I worry that we already need another server merge (1 NA and 1 EU server ideally) to really be able to take advantage of this.

 

Also, any news on possibly making the warzone achievements more possible to actually accomplish as part of this warzone revamp?

 

Edit: what about when premades run trolly comps such as 3 or 4 tanks/healers? will they not be allowed to queue? will they slow down the queues while the system tries to balance it? will they be split up? or will they just be passed over?

Edited June 4, 2018 by Hellhog

Hey folks,

 

 

[*]Premade groups queuing for Ranked and Unranked Warzones and GSF will now have their matchmaking skill based on the highest rated member, not the team’s average rating.

 

 

-eric

 

Does this mean that with this change is a solution of a problem with so called "char swapping teams" in tr (when people with high rating asked their high-rated group mates to log in on low-rated characters to be able to fight low-rated teams and get tonnes of easy elo on easy teams??? Or i took it wrong?

Edited June 4, 2018 by omaan

Is being able to choose what to queue for still a possibility? As someone whose main enjoyment out of PvP comes from factions warring against each other, I can't say I was thrilled when these changes were announced(though I do understand the reasoning for them to aid pop times) but I could stomach them if it meant being able to only do my favorite WZ's. Now I'm questioning whether I'll still be playing come this update, especially with another certain MMO's new xpack releasing shortly afterward.

What would happen if me, a healer, is grouped up with a tank. We enter the queue and are currently the only non-DPS players queuing.

 

Will it never give us a pop?

Eric,

 

As encouraging as these changes sound, it also sounds like the end of premades. If your premade has one tank and one healer, and there are no other tanks or healers queued for that match, your premade will get split up to even the team compositions. Even if you queue up a premade of 4 DPS, if the relative "rating" of your team is higher than anyone else that's queued up for that match, it sounds like you'll be split up.

 

Is that accurate? And if so, why not just remove group queueing from regular WZs?

 

From what i seen no you would be in the same group the system would either stick you with a 4 man premade of 1 tank 1 healer. Or 1 tank and healer then solo dps. Which there are a butch of us que solo as dps. Or a tank healer in a group