matchmaking system?

[legacy-Gaviero]

This game looks great, and I'm enjoying the OXM demo, even though I haven't been able to use it on Live. (I think there may be a problem with my demo disc - it takes forever to load, and every time I try to join a game, I wait and wait and then get a "game no longer available" message.)

I do have one question:

Will it be possible to select games with players of similar skill/stats?

If so, how will it work? (In some games with lobbies, for example, you can see the ranks of the other players, but if massively better players join the game, there's not much you can do unless you're the host. And as I understand it, UC2 doens't even have lobbies.)

I have to say, I'm a big fan of the matchmaking system in Halo 2. Even though I'm not that good, it matches me up with players of similar skill, which keeps it fun. Getting your *** handed to you by people who play way more than you do is not fun.

These are questions for the devs, by the way. If you're not a dev, you'll save time and energy by not bothering to tell me:

> that I'm a noob and I suck

Duh. That's my point. I don't play video games to enhance my self-esteem. I play them to have fun.

> that I need to "work on my skills"

I play video games to relax. I have plenty of things to "work on" in the real world.

> that playing with better players will make me better

First, that's not necessarily true. Playing with slightly better players may help, but the spawn-die-spawn-die-spawn-die-spawn routine is just frustrating. Second, while I expect to "get better" over time, "getting better" is not really my goal. Again, my goal is to have fun and relax.

I don't mean to sound defensive - just figured I would try to preempt some of the random aggression that posts like this always seem to attract.

On a more postive note, I'm impressed to see the devs on these boards, answering questions and just generally being helpful. Thanks.

[joeGraf]

Servers are matched based upon your skill. However, that doesn't mean there won't be higher ranked players in there or lower ranked players.

[evolution]

To clarify: *In the full version*, optimatch & quickmatch will try to only return servers that match your skill level. The player skill stuff wasn't finished for the demo, so the demo doesn't know anything about matching according to skill.

[legacy-Gaviero]

Cool. I'm glad to hear that's a feature in both optimatch and quickmatch.

I'm curious, joe -

Are you just pointing out that the players in any game will (of course) vary somewhat in skill?

Or do you mean that there will be nothing (in optimatch) to keep either hardcore players or newbs from joining a game with players who are much better or much ... er, less better ... than they are?

But never mind. I appreciate the fact that you guys took the time to answer my question, and I'm glad that the short answer is "yes." As for the details, I can wait till the game's out and see for myself.

The game's pretty sweet, by the way.

[legacy-MooDaCow]

Hey Gaviero, I had the same problem with my game disc and then some guy on here told me to boil it and then I did and it works great now.

What you do is put some clean water in a pot and then heat it up. Once it starts boiling you drop the game in and take the pot off the stove. Once the water cools down you take the game out. Dry it off. And then put it in your x-box and play it. It works great!!!

[legacy-MooDaCow]

No garuntee this will work though.

[legacy-Freaky_kid]

i havnt atually played online too much, im intending to though. anyway, i think the optimatch in halo 2 is good, but sometimes it either

goes wrong (so u end up in a game so laggy u would think u where playing using dial-up)

or

you end up playing on a map/gamemode that you dont like (ugh).

but if optimatch on UC2 is gonna find games which have players AROUND your skill level then thats great! i think if done right it could be better than halo 2's optimatch (as in not too strict or...umm....unstrict about skill levels while finding a game with optimatch.)

[legacy-Gaviero]

MDC: Thanks for the tip. I've heard of people doing that, but figured it was just something someone made up. I'm not too desperate to get on-line right now, though - still getting owned by the bots - above Adept, anyway. And I'm afraid to do anything to my disk, 'cause the Splinter Cell demo works great!

Freaky: Yeah, every system has its plusses and minuses, for sure. But I like the matchmaking in Halo 2 better than anything I've seen yet. (Not trying to start a UC2 vs. H2 flame war, by the way. Just my opinion, as what I'd call a casual gamer.)

[legacy-OnagiPower]

ya, and btw gal, your a little to o defensive, this is a more respectable forum page

[legacy-Gaviero]

OP: Who you callin' "gal"?!

Just kidding. You're probably right. I have gotten the impression that this board is more "respectable" than most, much to the credit of the people on it. Though there do seem to be a few exceptions, most of the discussions here stay pretty civil, as far as I can tell.

Sorry if I seemed "too defensive." In my first post, I was definitely trying to stop short some of the slagging that I see on other boards, when people are just looking for info.

In my last post, I just didn't want anyone to think I was comparing UC2 unfavorably to Halo 2 - because I figured that someone out there would be bound to read it that way.

No offense in either case, I hope.

So I guess this is way off-topic now, but thanks for the responses. Take it easy, guys.

[legacy-OnagiPower]

lol i meant gav, interesting sounds like an insult when im telling you to not worry about that

and i can't see my keyboard ( im at a friends house, and were bored, but its so freaken bright up here I can't see thew keys, nut still l is for away from k ... err im starting to ramble)

[legacy-Gaviero]

No worries. Heh!

[legacy-Pheonix04]

im running a connection threw a LAN with like 4.2 megs a second...but what is the minimun amount of speed you need to run this game without lag...and if one person is lagging does it make everyone else lag?

[joeGraf]

The way a server's skill is calculated is based upon the median skill level of the players on that server.

[legacy-absolutehell]

can you still have custom games so that you can play with friends?

[legacy-P90]

Is there a way to play matches on Live without your score being eligible for ranking? Or does all matches count towards ranking?

[legacy-iReProphecy]

Thats cool, but yea does every game have to be ranked. I think the anwser to that is if you have mutators on its unranked. Regular =ranked.

[evolution]

No. The pupose of tracking player skill is for matchmaking to return sessions that contain mostly players that have around your level of experience. It's not a competitive ranking system. The idea is to minimize situations where it's your first time online and you end up in a match where all the other players have been playing for a month already (and vice versa).

[legacy-P90]

But what if I DON'T WANT TO play with players of my own skill level? What if I want to play with players way above my skill level? (I find faster improvement playing this way, plus I learn better tips from the more polished players that I wouldn't normally see, or would have to wait to see until my skill level is high enough.) Or conversely, what if people like to game with others with lower skill (to experiment with new techniques, characters, etc.)? How will you allow players to do this? From what it sounds like, it seems that my playlist should never display matches with only elite players if I never get close to that skill level.

Also, what can we assume about game sessions near the top of our list, rather than the bottom?

Thanks in advance.

[legacy-iReProphecy]

The way evolution makes it seem is that you have to play more if you want to play with higher ranks. But im assuming if you have higher ranked people on your friends list you can still join them but i could be wrong?

[legacy-P90]

Any devs care to comment?

[legacy-P90]

bump.

[legacy-Retodon8]

In one of the videos one of the devs said you aren't obligated to join a server with similarly skilled opponents, but they added the feature in order not to annoy players, it's the video where it's mentioned the players are divided into 5 groups.
I assume that part of the video is still true/relevant, I can't think of a reason Epic would've removed that feature..
I also assume it's just a checkbox again you can remove the tag from in order to get every server, not just the "right" ones, features like that have worked similarly in UT2004.

[legacy-niqz]

I know this has probably been asked a few times, but is there going to be a party system, something similar to that, or is it going to be something like UT2K4?

[legacy-magicmaster2121]

learn stuff cool fun and it helps you kick more ass i have gotten the demo disk where can i get it

[legacy-smuguf]

im to lazy to syphon through everything so...here goes.

i saw somebody put "what if i want to play with higher people than me" or something like that. Well, if you have a REALLY good friend on your friends list, and there is an open slot in his game, you SHOULD be able to join it. So therefore, you could face much more difficult or much less difficult opponents. I think a great feature would be to show the hosts rating in like...a 5 star system. Something kind of like Ghost Recon 2 if you get what i mean.