CQC Matchmaking nightmare

[ELRinley]

Don't wanna hear "rank doesn't matter," it reflects how long you've played. That reflects experience and that acts as a ballpark estimate for your skill. But you know what? Let's go with the issue that two matches in a row I carried HARD, both times we lost because I was the only one on my team getting kills. Second time they had someone carrying even harder. Both times we had someone on our team who had zero kills...

This is absurd and avoidable. I'll accept getting my face stomped, but when I am the one and only person getting significant points, something is wrong. So show me a ladder... one that goes up and down, not this Call of Duty style one-way ranking crap. I don't wanna see someone who slowly grinds their way to the top without ever gaining skill be put on the same pedestal as someone who pushed themselves, learned to fight and smashed their enemies. I wanna see the Neebs of the world left in the bronze league where they belong and the god-warriors elevated out of my way so I can play cleanly and climb the ranks without being smothered to death on day one.

 

[Yodafone]

I believe Frontier use a "BattleRating" (that's what Frontier've called their algorithm to matchmake) which does include Rank, but also time played, k/d ratio, and many other things considered important though sometimes if you can't be matched with similar players in a suitable timeframe (waiting in lobby for an eternity) you will be matched with the next best thing. I expect this is what happened to you.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Yeah, I think most of the time it's running as "better to get an uneven matchup together now than wait fifteen minutes / three hours / eternity for a better one". The matchmaker in team does sometimes make some weird split decisions, though it's not been as bad recently - it's been a while since I've seen a team fail to break 15.

Mixed-ability matches are worth having, though - almost everything I know about CQC I learned while getting shot down by the best. If I'd just had "fair" matches against beginners when I started, I'd still have about the same rank I do now, but I'd be a far worse pilot.
(Realistically, people ranked above even 0:20 are sufficiently rare at the moment that getting together a match with only those players would be difficult)

 

[Thetele]

If i understood right how they said ranking for players work is that you don´t start with lowest rank, if you do badly you will drop under your starting rating.

 

[Chris Simon]

Don't wanna hear "rank doesn't matter," it reflects how long you've played. That reflects experience and that acts as a ballpark estimate for your skill. But you know what? Let's go with the issue that two matches in a row I carried HARD, both times we lost because I was the only one on my team getting kills. Second time they had someone carrying even harder. Both times we had someone on our team who had zero kills...

This is absurd and avoidable. I'll accept getting my face stomped, but when I am the one and only person getting significant points, something is wrong. So show me a ladder... one that goes up and down, not this Call of Duty style one-way ranking crap. I don't wanna see someone who slowly grinds their way to the top without ever gaining skill be put on the same pedestal as someone who pushed themselves, learned to fight and smashed their enemies. I wanna see the Neebs of the world left in the bronze league where they belong and the god-warriors elevated out of my way so I can play cleanly and climb the ranks without being smothered to death on day one.

I beg to differ. It follows the same philosophy whole Elite function around: If you want to teach them swim, don't just throw them into the water. Throw them into the water full of sharks. With laser teeth.
You won't learn anything from people of the skill equal or below yours.

This challenge of facing veterans right from the bat is what I liked about Titanfall, and the lack thereof is what bored me to death in TF2.

I like helping newcomers, but you won't help them by letting them fight just one another. There need to be these "How the hell did he do that!" moments that push you forward, even if you die a lot in the process.
That's actually how your later opponents are made.

And if You are suggesting that newcomers are somehow "ruining" your professional matches, well, You can always do a private ones with your veteran friends.

 

[SushiCW]

I beg to differ. It follows the same philosophy whole Elite function around: If you want to teach them swim, don't just throw them into the water. Throw them into the water full of sharks. With laser teeth.
You won't learn anything from people of the skill equal or below yours.

Don't be silly. You do in fact learn from that, it gives you a chance to hone and refine skills in a lower pressure situation.

Best results are obtained by fighting people below, above, AND at your level.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

There are a lot of different skills needed in CQC, too, and very few people can do all of them to a high standard. Dogfighting, sure, but also pips management, directional thrusters, powerup control, situational awareness, map knowledge, running away, heat management, fixed weapon use, loadout selection (if you're not level 1) and I'm sure at least a few others I've either temporarily forgotten about or more likely haven't yet got good enough to realise are valuable skills. You have to be reallly good before you start getting matchups where you can't learn something about one of them from at least one of your opponents, even if you're nominally the highest ranked person in the room.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

given a choice of waiting ages for a match amd having better rank matching, or get in quickly i would take the latter. hopefully now arena is so cheap to enter it will not be an either or thing.
What I would suggest is unless you are playing with friends play FFA then you will be ok.
For me tho it depends on why my team mates are getting no kills. No offence meant, it is just how i see it, but, for players who are trying but just not very good, this kind of frustration you are showing is what puts me - and i believe many others, off many online vs games. I tried a few games of DOTA 2 and found the people playing, toxic and frankly horrible and it has put me off ever trying again.

I had a similar experience with counterstrike.

on the other hand, players who are in an online vs game and getting zero kills because they are AFK or rubberband spinning (gears of war 3, google it if you want to see a complete idiotic thing many did) then they ARE worthy of your annoyance and i have seen a few doing this in CQC (AFK not spinning on the spot).

when playing gears of war, if i was in a team of obvious noobs i just tried to help them out by showing them the ropes. Again, maybe it is because i am not competitive and whilst i cant lie, it is great to win, for me if i play well and can help some others whilst i am at it, that is fine for me.

 

[Ziljan]

I've been getting some good match ups. Haven't had any issues like OP mentioned. The best/worst player in one match is rarely the best/worst player in the next match. So that suggests the match ups are pretty even.

 

[Crumly]

As I just tried cqc out a few days ago, I suck bad at it. Which is fine, I expected this. But as that sucky little bad player, I was pretty annoyed when we got matched up against a level 33 who had 215 wins and was winning the matches and my score would still be like 1/1/1 or something. His KDA was 2.56 and he had like 2000 kills or something around there.

I don't even have the game knowledge or skill to understand what he was doing let alone replicate it. He took no damage, did high damage, and had really good piloting skills. I played 3-4 matches with him and then left the mode for then.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I don't even have the game knowledge or skill to understand what he was doing let alone replicate it. He took no damage, did high damage, and had really good piloting skills. I played 3-4 matches with him and then left the mode for then.

Took no damage: four pips in SYS
Did high damage: either you didn't have 4 SYS, or they had the weapon powerup, or both
Really good piloting skills: yeah, it happens

Level 33 is not that high - it was a couple of weeks of play, perhaps, for me. If they were white-33, they were just good from playing the main game before they started. If they were yellow-33, then that's actually 83, or 133, or even higher.

What I did as a complete beginner (which was less than four weeks ago, and I'm now able to win FFA matches some of the time if none of the aces show up)
- learn the maps (there's a lot of useful things to hide behind to break a lock, and a lot of places you don't want to get caught, and I still don't know all of them myself)
- play team deathmatch: whether you win or lose as a beginner will depend on who else is playing, but you get longer to practice per match and pick up kills and assists, and if you get the ace on your team you get more XP for the win too. You will also get some 25-5 walkovers against you, but that still gives you valuable practice time. FFA is also valuable practice though, and sometimes easier to get a match.
- when you get blown up, watch your opponent in the camera until you respawn and see how they fly
- go for the weapons and stealth powerups if possible, try to get shields after each fight (your left panel will let you quickly check which are active and target them instantly). If you see someone else grab weapons and they're not already mostly dead, pre-emptively run and hide!
- watch this training video by one of the top pilots: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=231183
- keep 4 pips to systems any time you're under fire and still have shields left; try to keep them there a lot the rest of the time too
...and that's as far as I've got with still a long way to go, with this next on my list:
- practice using boost effectively, flight-assist off effectively, directional thrusters effectively (the training mission versus cargo canisters is a useful place to practice some of these if you don't shoot the canisters, as you can use them to measure how much distance a particular move takes)

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

As I just tried cqc out a few days ago, I suck bad at it. Which is fine, I expected this. But as that sucky little bad player, I was pretty annoyed when we got matched up against a level 33 who had 215 wins and was winning the matches and my score would still be like 1/1/1 or something. His KDA was 2.56 and he had like 2000 kills or something around there.

I don't even have the game knowledge or skill to understand what he was doing let alone replicate it. He took no damage, did high damage, and had really good piloting skills. I played 3-4 matches with him and then left the mode for then.

dont give up... there is nothing at stake so if you lose bad, then just enjoy it. bizzarely ED CQC is the ONLY PvP game i have played in the last 5 years i am good at (I am average at gears of war and warthunder)... but games like BF4 that i play, i am terrrible (no exaggeration) it is still fun tho. I always end up in the bottom handful of players in that game.

i have not played CQC a huge amount, (perhaps 6 hrs) and i think i am around level 20 with maybe a 2 in 5 win rate in Free for all. IF you get good at CQC, you will gain good skills for the main game. also as you level up you will unlock better gear (tho for me the fed fighter, the starting ship, is still my fave)

you do level up quite quick, even if you do not win.

 

[Sanderson]

Tried this today for the first time. Six of us was rank 1, one was rank 1o and one was rank 34.

Guess who won every match? Yup Mr. rank 34 blew us all away, wasn't even close.

Think I'll pass until FD get's there head out, unless we were the only 8 people playing? That could be it.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Unless we were the only 8 people playing? That could be it.

Probably not quite that - but roughly, yes. Most active players (so far) are I think under rank 20, and certainly under rank 30, so if the matchmaker enforced fairly tight divisions anyone much above that would rarely get a match at all except at really busy times.

That said, rank is a very rough indicator anyway - I was in one match today with a rank 47, one in the 10s, and the rest in single figures, and the rank 47 player came 7th with no kills.

 

[Lenny.V]

I agree with Ian Doncaster. Rank is part of indicators and it doesn't mean if the player is rank 47 so he could be pretty good... Today i met with three players which are 26,12 and 12 rank and they played very well. tactics, using power ups, taking cover and others.... Maybe i could say that some people are only lazy and for them is more comfortable to write to forum about unplayable games etc...Of course if there is one guy which have K/D ratio and W/L ratio above 4.00+, so he can be very good, but those players are not much and everytime there can be someone better. Just you must only want and make for it something... In startup window when your game is loading you can read tips and advices. Don't forget it. You can train with friends in main game, watch videos in YT etc... For example i play with absolutely base equipment in my ship. Do you want nerf it? Do it. I'll play with other equipment which have rank requirements. My skills i had just when i entered the CQC. Even many players if see me in game so they leaves the game. I'm angry because I do not have someone to play with. And my matchmaking takes longer time and do you want disqualify me from game. Or do you want create any low ranks and high ranks group in game where are not much players? ? Why? With whom i'll play then?. Even if i find any group in hangar so everytime i've got weakest players and stronger players are enemies, because i'm high rank and i have little bit bigger K/D and W/L ratio and matchmaking does want balanced game. It works very well, but i don't understand for example why in preparation in hangar two players leave the hangar so on one side are only two players and on second side are four players. Why isn't 3vs3? Even i had a honor to find group where we're 4 players and on second side were two players under 10 level-,-,. It's trolling system....

 

[dutchy2000]

@Alikcz Every time I see you in game I leave, why? because for some unknown reason when I hit you I do no damage. I literally shot you with beams until my ship started melting and no damage. I don't like to think the worst, so I am going to go with lag causing the problem. I tried it several times, and each time no damage, you flip around and melt me in seconds. Now I am not saying I am the best at cqc, but the things that happened were fishy. So I just avoid you, not because I don't want to fight you, but because something strange is happening between us.

 

[Lenny.V]

It's peer to peer game. It could be lag or something like that. I had a honor to met with similar players but i'm keep firing and even if i saw them with full shields and hull they explode after some seconds Just keep firing.

 

[Sanderson]

Wait, rank has no bearing?

How about all the ships and gear that goes with it?

 

[Lenny.V]

Nothing. With higher rank you have only more variants of equipment. Simply for example you can unlock shields which are stronger against laser but weak against kinetic weaponry. Or you can unlock Weapon power distributor which have biggest energy capacitor for weapons and very fast recharge rate for weapons but much lower energy for engines and same lower recharge rate for them. Simply you only get more variants of modules and you can unlock more lodaout ships where you can those modules combine by own style and change ships with them during the fight ( after you die) but nothing more... Therefore i said that i use only base weapons with base modules which have everyone at rank 1 because it's no matter what you have if you know what to do with them... When you'll get a prestige your unlocked settings will be reset for price bigger profit ( credits) from battle (and at first prestige you'll able to dock to Attilus Orbital - CQC hangar in main game) but just nothng more.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Wait, rank has no bearing?

How about all the ships and gear that goes with it?

Rank 4 is useful to get the Imperial Fighter, though the Condor is almost as good. The alternative outfittings are mostly just alternatives - certainly there are some I like using, but equally there are plenty that for my flight style are definite downgrades (such as the Sidewinder).

I wouldn't say no bearing, but it's marginal at best: you might win a 750-650 game due to the edge from better unlocked equipment, but a pilot who is winning 750-250 could have done that with a stock rank 1 Condor too (and would probably still have won with a "comedy equipment" set)