I addressed this in full detail (feel free to add your own thoughts here too!!)
TLDR I fully agree with you(and so do a LOT of other people), and we all hope they fix it.
Hello,
It’s maybe the worst problem in DE to enjoy the multiplayer, exept for the quicksearch system, the game shows no rank or skill indicator.
It’s a kind of game in which it’s not possible to mix skill inside the same lobby, nobody gonna enjoy it.
On AOE classical, I’m a colonel pr 35. I have no problem to 1v2 or maybe 1v3 a lieutenant, not even talking about everybody who’s pr 0 to 20… and there’s players way better than me.
Nobody wants to use the QuickSearch system because we can’t choose the map for example. So for now I just bash beginners in normal lobby. They will be disgusted from the game so will I cause it’s like playing with easy IA forever…
And I have no way to find good players to play versus exept my vanilla friends cause i know their name…
As every old player I just return to vanilla until they add rank in classic lobbys…
4 Likes
Thanks for this post, I totally agree!
I went into detail on this here: (feel free to add your own thoughts here too!!)
NOTE: I am not asking for quickmatch to be removed. I think quickmatch is great for 1v1.
Problem:
Ranked has been stripped from custom games.
The reason this is a problem:
A) Obviously a lot of players are going to abuse this and farm wins against noobs
B) 3v3 players want to be able to:
- Make the teams fair. E.G.two Port/Japan players on the same team is an instant loss in 2v2/3v3 situations against competitive players.
- Customise the map: Most of the maps have food far away from the TC, which encourages rushing. Only certain factions are good at rushing(otto, india, russia). This means for competitive ranked you HAVE to play a faction which can rush or hunt villagers with hussars. There is no counter to this strategy; there is a ‘age 2’ meta which has no work-around on most maps.
C) The ‘No rush’ crowd (very different from the 3v3 crowd) are annoyed they now can’t see ranks and make fair teams…(they can’t even play quickmatch, they used to make up a good 20% of the community).
D) Quickmatch has a lot of maps which are uncompetitive for most factions in 3v3; The main reason people loved Deccan is factions like Port, Dutch, France, Spain, China actually had a chance.
To elaborate, most maps(remain after their balance changes) have food wayyy too far away from TC, this means as the game gets longer, villagers have to go too far out to get food and suceptible to villager hunting. To avoid this players rush the opponent on most maps.
E) We can no longer avoid ‘problematic’ players from the lobby. We can no longer avoid racist/BPD/rude players. Furthermore we can no longer avoid the inevitible cheaters which will come into the game; after the money dries up in a few years and there’s nobody to mod this game since it’s made by a indie studio, we need players to have a degree of authority which custom games offered.
F) There is now no MMR punishment for leaving custom games whenever you want.
Solutions:
A) Add ranks back to custom games.
B) Add in ‘must be X rank to join y lobby’ option. This will prevent players joining the wrong lobbies!
Arguments against this:
Q: You shouldn’t be able to see your opponents civs ahead of time.
A: In 95% of ms+ or lt+ lobbies the teams would be random, so you can’t predict. You would only split double factions, e.g. double port.
Q: Leads to Stat Padding
A: People are going to smurf in quickmatch the same amount
A2: You could hardcode in ‘can only increase by max X mmr per match’ to counter this anyway.
Q: Quickmatch makes the game more competitive.
A: It does for 1v1 AND a small minority(mainly new) players which don’t mind the dull/repetitive meta of age 2 otto/india/russia/rushing or hussar/sioux villager hunting.
A2: The real competitive part of aoe3 for most people was 3v3 Deccan or GP, either of which we can’t solely search for now!
Q: People don’t want to play 20min games!
A: In LT+ or even MS+ games, I would say a good 80% of the time people still rushed but the great thing is you could counter with walling/turtle or just having really good timings against their rush. This made all the factions competitive except maybe Spain and Inroquis. Lead to really fun and dynamic games with lots of variation.
Q: Treaty sucks, they should just ‘get gud’
A: I never played treaty, but why should anyone tell people how to enjoy the game! 
Q: Ranked custom games will lead to people getting kicked.
A: Add in ‘must be X rank to join y lobby’ option
Q: Why make Custom games Ranked, I want to play casual
A: Sure, Add a ‘unranked’ opion when hosting a game!
A2: I know for certain a lot of people will enjoy being able to abuse a lack of MMR in any game, so be careful what you wish for!
Context from old aoe3 multiplayer: (rough estimations!)
Around 20% of players play 1v1. (maybe more, I hear some played on the ESOC patch)
Around 20% of players play NR/Treaty(No rush)
Around 20% of the players play 2v2.
Around 40% of the players played 3v3.
9 Likes
why hasnt this been addressed. why would you remove and alienate a way to find ranked games at all… sad.
1 Like
Totally agree, hopefully they listen!
Thanks for the reply
Speeking from a treaty player perspective: The ranked mode atm is not really playable.
- You can’t define the “rules” - which normally are in the game title (yes we love the rules)
- The map pool can contain water maps? Warship-Battles after 40min? Well…there are performance problems without warships, cant imagine how it will be with…
- I guess there will be some really hard/unbeatable combinations of civs you do not want to play against
- There are players out there which just dont care if the game isnt ranked. You had a bad start? Just leave the game… (making the hosted game ranked kinda protected the lobby games in aoe3, which now no longer is the case (at least my experience so far))
I’ve seen games handle ranked both ways (being through a random ranked match or with a custom lobby). To fix the problems you stated, I think there are multiple approaches. The first one is what you suggested, and to add minimum/maximum required Elo in a custom match. Adding a “hide civilizations” option to the game can help against people changing civs based on what the enemy picks. The second approach is to add what AoE2 DE has, which gives players a map pool, and they can favorite and ban the maps they like/dislike. I personally prefer the latter, as it makes for faster matchmaking, but either could work.
I agree to all this and like you said they shouldn’t restrict or tell people how to enjoy the game!
I hope this can be solved or else the whole thing won’t work…
I believe that official ranks should never be in custom lobbies. Trying to get a game on aoe 3 when there were very few open games was a nightmare. I do get your points though and you do have some valid concerns. My opinion is that official ranks should not be earned in lobbies. In a tournament do you get to pick and choose who you compete against. The same should then apply to ranked.
I could see an updated system though. I would like to see a separate ranking system for lobbies. This would not be an official rank per say but would be used to give everyone in the lobbies a way to gauges your opponent’s. If you want to read more about my ideas for how ranking should work check out my forum post here. A Refined Ranking and Quicksearch system
1 Like
NO.
The ban/preferred system has already destroyed AoE2. Haven’t you seen the ridiculous pick rate of Arabia/Arena?
The current Quickmatch and the Standard maps is as fine as it is. I don’t mind how the lobby will be changed or fixed. Just leave the current Quickmatch untouched.
Every game should NOT be ranked if the host can freely pick his oppenents and favotite rules. Take the reference from Starcraft 2 and Company of Heroes. This is how a modern RTS should be. Learn and get good at standard maps and rules.
If you want a fair game go play Quickmatch, the system will assign proper players with equal elo for you. If you don’t like random teammate, form a team with your friends.
Just don’t ruin the Quickmatch again.
1 Like
That’s actually a good point, I hadn’t thought about that. The Arabia pick is absolutely ridiculous.
Also a good point. However, I don’t really see a problem allowing players to create custom lobbies that are ranked as long as they are fair (like keeping Elo rates roughly the same), as any player can join or quit if they don’t like the options for the map. As I see it, as long as there are no unfair advantages, there really isn’t a problem allowing a custom game to be ranked. If a player joins and doesn’t like the rules, they don’t have to play. Those who like the rules and find them fair should be able to play the match and have it ranked.
I think quickmatch should still be around the way it is, as it it important to learn how to play in other situations. Another way to do custom game Elo could be to add a casual Elo rating which only gives you a ranking in custom games or something like that.
Bad way of thinkings.
There’s both quickmatch and ranked lobby on AOE3 vanilla and tad.
Nobody use Quicksearch for a reason. People just dont like it. I don’t like it neither and i’m a colonel.
Why would they force players to use something they dislike instead of adding something everybody wants ?
That’s not even an add, it was in the original game… People are used to it for 15 years.
There’s 1500 players on vanilla everynight, and 0 of them on the QS.
Just look all the topics here and on the steam forums…
1 Like
Why do you refuse Quickmatch then?
I am sorry but “People just don’t like it” can’t convince anybody. Because I love Quickmatch and I am sure I will leave this game immediately if Quickmatch is removed.
If you are really as good as you claim. It should be a piece of cake to get top position of the leaderboard, and soon you won’t meet the noobs like me who are very boring to you anymore. A top player like you should have no reason to dislike Quickmatch.
2 Likes
Why do you refuse Quickmatch then?
The reasons are mentioned extensivley in the OP and elaborated upon by others in many other threads.
I will leave this game immediately if Quickmatch is removed.
NOBODY is asking for quickmatch to be removed! We simply ALSO want ranked custom! I agree for 1v1 quickmatch is amazing!
Haven’t you seen the ridiculous pick rate of Arabia/Arena?
Can you imagine the anger in the aoe2 community if suddenly the devs decided to force everyone to play all the maps instead? That’s what’s happening here…
If you want a fair game go play Quickmatch
We already debunked this in the OP; quickmatch for 3v3 isn’t ‘fair’ and leaves a lot left to be desired. Plus there’s a lot of other concerns associated with no ranks for custom games, which is listed in the OP(did you read it?)
Ok, I admit I don’t understand what are those “instant loss” situations since I am a ultra noob. But apparently the problem is not 3v3 Quickmatching itself, but the imbalance of some civ’s performance in team games. I think the better way is trying to fix the team balance, not just setting lots of restrictions and killing all the fun.
I am not againt adding some kind of indicators to let people know the skill level of each other in the lobby. Just one request: please, leave the current Team Quickmatch as it is. I quite enjoy the current state.
Add a ranked lobby, and also keep the current Quickmatch, I think it is a win-win.
I think this is the best solution to the problem. Allow quickmatch to still exist while also giving players the option to play ranked through custom lobbies.
Of corse it is, nobody was asking for quickmatch to be removed.
1 Like
This is the way vanilla game is.
Quickmatch AND rank in lobby.
But the fact nobody use Quickmatch and everybody use rank lobby on vanilla and TAD just show how much playerbase don’t like the quickmatch system.
It’s only good for 1v1, if there’s players…