I really dont understand why the devs add quick play to the game. In the patch notes this new mode is describe as follow:
It’s also now easier than ever to jump in and play Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition with Quick Play! This feature allows players to set a game type and map preferences, then effortlessly matchmake with others in the Random Map, Empire Wars, and Battle Royale game modes.
Quick play is meant to be a more easy way to get into a game compared to existing ways to jump into a game. This isnt true: Getting into a ranked game is as easy as quick pley. If i had to describe Ranked, it would be something similar to this text. So quick play doesnt make it easier to jump into a game. And the above text doesnt really explain why the devs add this mode to the game.
In fact Quick play looks like a copy of the ranked queue, with just some small changes:
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Ranked matches players on elo, so you play against about equally skilled players. Quick play matches at random. Untill know there is always a big skill gap between players. I have played some 1v1s using Quick play, but the average elo gaps seems about to 500 elo.
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In ranked you can play RM or DM. In Quick play you can play RM, EW or BR. So RM can be played in ranked ad Quick play. DM can only be played at Ranked queue. EW and BR can only be played in quick play. So quick play added EW and BR to match making. Is adding EW and BR a good reason to create a new match making system? I dont think so. It was also possible to add EW and BR to the ranked queue. That would be fine as well. I would go a step further: The better step for the devs would have been adding EW and BR to ranked if they would add those modes to match making.
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It is possible to queue for RM and DM at the same time in ranked. It looks like this is not possible. You have to pick one of the three game modes in quick play. You cant just sign up for 2 or 3 games modes.
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The UI of quick play and ranked are both completely different, while all settings are the same. You still have to pick the game mode. You still have to pick the number of players. You still have to ban maps, … Everything is the same, but the UI is completely different. I dont wanna start a discussion about which UI is better here. I only wants to say that is feel weird that both UIs are pretty different. If you want an easy to navigate game, then you need consistency in the UI. If something is almost the same, then it also needs almost the same. Having a new way to play online which looks pretty different compared to the other options, is just not good.
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The win condition in Ranked is Conquest. In Quick play this is Standard. This means you can also win on Quick play by wonder victory or relic victory. In practise still 99% of the games will be decised by conquest rules. So this isnt a huge difference.
All things considered, ranked seems to be the superior version over quick play. There arent much reasons to play quick play. I can think about some reasons:
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You want to try out some new strategies against a human (Not AI) and you wont want to tank your elo. My question to those players: What kind of conclusion can you get from a game with 500 elo between the 1v1 RM rating of both players. One player is just much, much better and clearly win. Note: 500 elo is an average. So you can be lucky and you play against someone of your level. But you also can be unlucky and there is a 1000 elo gap. In that case, the better player can go for any troll strategy and probably still win. So in my opinion Quick play isnt the place to try out new strategies.
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People just want a quick game, but are scared of the name Ranked. Now they will get the option to play in quick play. That sound nice, but after some games, they will found out that teams are unbalanced and they even can face up pros (in their eyes). They will quickly go back to the lobby.
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You just want a quick game, but you dont care about very unbalanced match up. In this case, quick play is possible as option. But in the end you are still better off with ranked games. You will get into a game as quickly as quick play. So in the end you are still better of with Ranked games.
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You want to play EW or BR. Quick play is a good option, but you might find more balanced games in the lobby. Finding a good game in the lobby might take a while, so i can understand if you will use quick play for this kind of games.
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This is not really a reason to play QP or Ranked, but an argument why it is bad to have both existing. It will split the player base between QP and Ranked. Less people in the queue for QP or Ranked, which lead to increased queueing times in the end. So splitting match making will make it less easy to get into a game in both QP and Ranked. Splitting the player base is only fine if the player base is large and i dont think the player base of AOE II DE is really large enough to be split.
In the end there isnt really much reason to play in quick play. And with some suggestions, we can easily eliminate Quick play completely. Let’s have a look at those suggestions:
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We add EW and BR to the ranked queue. They will get both their own ladder. We can even split EW in 1v1 and TG. This way you can still play EW and BR easily using match making. The end result will be more balanced games. I dont know if there are really enough players to create an own ladder for those modes, but even if these modes arent that popular, matching based on these ratings will result in smaller skill gaps between players.
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We just delete the current version of quick play and we rename the ‘ranked’ to ‘Quick play’. Quick play sounds much less scary for newer players. So that threshold is taken away from those users. In the background ratings are still used to match players and those ratings are also still shown. So for those who now play ranked, nothing really changes. It just functions the same. So for the competative scene, this will be still the ranking they need to care about.