The first thing I have to say is I believe 4v4 should not be part of ranked matchmaking. 4v4 is an imbalanced game mode, full of degenerate tricks. Players don’t regard 4v4 as competitive, and I don’t think anyone has considered having a 4v4 competitive tournament. 4v4 is the source of the most lopsided matchups. 4 conquerors coordinating on voice chat against 4 random people is unbeatable. Allowing people to rank up through 4v4 undermines the credibility of and devalues the entire team ranked system. Historically, exploits such as cheap wonder rushing and fire lancer landmark sniping have been more potent and frustrating in 4v4 than other game modes. Eliminating 4v4 from ranked matchmaking would consolidate the queues and enlarge the playerbase for 2v2 and 3v3 ranked, as well as 4v4 quick match, allowing matchmaking to operate more efficiently in those game modes.
Currently, there is little difference between ranked and quick match. Some people have suggested that quick match be entirely removed because it is redundant while splitting the player base. I suggest a different approach- more differentiation between ranked and quick play. Ranked should be the domain of competitive players, and the incentive should primarily be a rank on the ladder that shows where participants stand. Ranked should have rigorous standards including penalties for dodging and a higher priority for taking action against cheaters. Premade teams should be recommended for team ranked, and solo queuers should be warned they’ll be at a disadvantage if they don’t find an ally to group with. To help people find allies for team ranked, an in-game chat channel for team ranked LFG could be established.
Quick match should be about seeking fun games, and in my opinion should be more community-driven with a feedback system. There should be some kind of reward system for being a good(helpful/nice) teammate in quick matches, just as there is a rank system that rewards winning in ranked matches. At the conclusion of every quick match there could be a feedback screen where each player rates how helpful/nice of an ally someone was. This should be adjusted for game duration so positive feedback for a 50 minute game is weighed more than positive feedback for a 5 minute game. There could be some cosmetic or recognition incentives for having high cumulative positive feedback, and possibly also penalties for having high cumulative negative feedback(smurfs, cheesers, quitters, toxic players, and suspected cheaters). I believe other games such as DOTA 2 already have such a system.
A reward system based on peer feedback for quick match games would add the objective of getting along with peers to the existing objective of victory. Currently, there actually are additional objectives apart from winning games in AOE4: daily quests. However, daily quests can be trivial or repetitive and many people ignore them. A peer feedback system would be more impactful. It is very important if a peer feedback system is implemented, that players queueing as a group cannot give each other positive feedback, or they would simply exploit the system by grouping with friends and always giving each other positive feedback.
Finally, I think FFA could be a prominent quick match option. Some people want to play solo and rely on themselves, while also being in a chaotic game that is the opposite of predictable and repetitive 1v1 experiences. FFA would be the best way to accommodate those players and provide fresh experiences for solo players who usually 1v1.
I’m not sure why this “modern game” has no reconnect features at all. I’m sure i’m not the only one who thinks “reconnecting to match or game” is a modern feature that Call of Duty or Tom Clancy’s (Rainbow Six Siege) games have or hell even Overwatch has reconnect in casual/custom games so why this “modern game title” has no such thing? the dev should look into these types of things first for QOL purposes.
I don’t need to waste 25 minutes in a custom match for 1 of my friends saying “my game crash we all have to resign to restart the game and play from the beginning.” (Especially when the Hard AI got a aggressive update for no reason and not even the patch notes say they did) this is why I haven’t even tried ranked or online with others due to no reconnecting to previous game at all.
You may think its not useful for custom but i’m the one playing with family & friends vs hard AI and sometimes its like “do I really want to try again” after your family or friends crash with no reason after 25-30 minutes of playing? Heck AoE3 (The ESO Online days) had a reconnect feature after 1 minute if you did not reconnect, you would be eliminated. (Which thinking back then that was pretty rough with HDDs) I would not recommend using AoE3 as an example for reconnect system since it too quick and you would need to “pause the match” which no one like that.
That’s my Feedback for Matchmaking, although I think its more of a needed feature than anything else.
4vs4 ahead in num of players in QM.
TGs ranked have more players than Solo ranked
you literally suggested to remove most popular game mode. 10/10.
yes, why not… i would fire for this kind of insights.
PS 4vs4 works fine in aoe2, it’s balanced and competitive.
you can reinvent the bicycle or ctrlC-> ctrlV.
in aoe4 devs only: fixed wonders + a few balance changes like FL and arguably siege. All other changes for 1vs1.
They just need to work a little more with TGs, and it will be super cool. That’s what thread is about.
cause someone said: “>it’s unplayable” with >full of degenerate tricks, What tricks?
What do you even run to fix in balance, that can hurt 1vs1?
It can be map generation for TGs only. a lot things can be fixed with different maps for TGs. How map for 4vs4 will hurt 1vs1?
4vs4 is probably the most playable mode (in TGs ranked) → lets remove it. KEKW.
I’ve checked kwanzi - he played 4vs4 in QM, but never got TG-rank, while claiming “it’s unplayable”. How did he learn it without playing in ranked? Are you same as him? without ranked TGs? Who ready to remove ranked?
unless you provide any other data, i assume distribution of players should be the same inside TG ranked. Cause why suddenly 2vs2 will be more popular than 4vs4 if people generally prefer 4vs4 almost twice.
** i want to note, that 1.2 mln it is games(!), in people-hours you need to multiply it on 8.
1200k * 8 = 9600k
622k * 4 = 2488k
PS It can be checked with API, but I wont bother with it.
my hypotheses is that at start of the season calibration break balance and people come to complain.
Big agree here!
My friend’s game used to crash often in ranked 2v2, so we’d always lose these.
It somehow got better with current patch but still happening.
Pretty unfair though.
Same here.
Though, it is the very beginning of the ranked season and people have not found their correct rating yet.
I’m currently plat1 (diamond1 season4) and get matched a lot with both silver people and people that have been diamond1 last season.
Sometimes my team gets stomped, sometimes enemy team gets stomped.
Let’s give it (at least for ranked, since I dont play QM), 1-2 more weeks for the elo to settle.
Popularity has nothing to do with whether a game mode should be part of ranked. Clash of Clans is the most popular RTS game in the world. Does anyone think Clash of Clans should have a ranked ladder? It would be a joke if it did. Consider other RTS games like SC2 or WC3 where team ranked ladders were divided into 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4. In those games, people mainly cared about 2v2 and to a lesser extent, 3v3, while 4v4 was largely ignored.
I play 4v4 quick match myself, but I never regarded it as competitive or respectable. 4v4 remains wildly imbalanced and is not fit for serious competitive play. The game is balanced for 1v1, and the large map sizes in 4v4 make certain tactics and units much more difficult to deal with. Trade, wonders, cavalry, and stone walls are downright overpowered in 4v4. 4v4 is even more imbalanced in AoE4 than in SC2 and WC3 where it was a largely ignored game mode.
People don’t take team ranked seriously right now. That devalues the system for everyone. Part of the problem is lopsided matchmaking(high elo difference). Another part of the problem is people getting boosted by skilled friends on a smurf account. Yet another problem arises when 4v4 is lumped into the same bucket as 2v2 and 3v3 ranked. This allows people to take a cheap backdoor to higher ranks in team ranked, which devalues the accomplishments of 2v2 and 3v3 players. That is why I suggested 4v4 be removed from team ranked.
you not.
im playing it competitive. That’s it.
You analysis made conclusion on narrow vision of how you play, without checking how people really view gamemode.
As i’ve provided example above - 4vs4 ranked is more popular than any TG-ranked mode.
keep continue to ignore this factor in favour of yours:
Where did you take this data? Did you play ranked 4vs4? No? Survey of ranked players? Or just cause you feel like it.
I take it personally if i play I take it seriously.
work with 4vs4 and fix maps (already said above)
same issue for 2vs2 or 3vs3.
just ask Beasty to boost you. and arguably in 2vs2 you can be boosted higher.
you need several good players to boost, one player wont manage 4 opponents at some rating.
you have no idea what you are talking about. In w3 4v4 is reasonably popular mod. You just throw suggestion in hope to hit smth…without even trying.
In the end of the day, i do not see how absence of TGs in sc2 should affect aoe4.
I’m not interested in arguing over every point I brought up. I have other things to do. The fact of the matter is, 4v4 objectively either is, or isn’t, balanced and respected regardless of what you or I say. People can figure out for themselves whether 4v4 is balanced and respected without any input from us.
The problems with team ranked won’t go away easily. It doesn’t even affect me because I don’t play team ranked. I’m an outside observer trying to improve the game. I’m not a 4v4 champ trying to keep my status. It’s sad that some people are willing to drag down the entire system to keep something for themselves. That is why companies hire outside consultants- they don’t have a vested personal interest in maintaining something that doesn’t work for their own benefit.
MH Cheating by Chinese accounts is a problem both affecting and destroying the community and overall playability. It is creating a deep, visceral cry-out for a mm-system that is fair.
MM is completely broken right now.
I constantly get matched vs plat/dia/conq when I’m only gold1 right now.
Also many times gold/plat players in my lobby were conq last season and currently conq in 1v1.
Come on, please fix this shit for real, I have had enough…
Matchmaking is now somehow worse. Please just have matchmaking based on rank like every other game with a ranked system. My friends and I have always been gold and when we get paired against diamond players (which happens often) the games aren’t even close or fun. Matchmaking based off rank will also help prevent queue dodging!
match making is the worst its been in my experience. played a few seasons. simple rules should be one rank above is ok unless there will be equal in both teams. for example plat players should not face conq players unless 1 conq or 2 conq in each team. ive had match making as 2 gold and plat vs 4 conq players. search time 50 secs. that only ended in one way a queue dodge
also you can punish player who queue dodge yes. but a gold or plat vs conq is only going one way so elo punish for queue dodge or losing elo whilst playing. make it make sense.