I think Battle Royal and Empire Wars deserves a ranked Elo. As a noob who likes to play competitively the new modes aren’t really playable. I have played about 3 games of each, all have been unbalanced. If the new BR mode is aimed at new players, it will do the opposite as they (I) have no chance of winning. it takes 1/8 players to be over 1200 and all noobs are out.
I also feel as though I’m wasting time on these modes rather than playing ranked where, to me, there is a goal and a reason. I love Empire Wars but it loses its appeal when I can only play mindless games with random skill levels and never feel a progression of Elo. What do you guys think?
Maybe there is a hidden elo I’m yet to level out, but I still feel that knowing and grinding your rating is far more enjoyable than endlessly playing games. That being said I was never into lobby games and maybe these modes are just for lobby players.
I hope this is true, but the devs never explained the details. They only mentioned it as an ‘unranked game mode’. The devs needs to clarify what elo is used. Until then we can only guess.
Since even the lobby uses unranked elo, i dont really think the elo for this game mode is really hidden. I think it is much more likely that quick play uses unranked elo (but i already found some counter examples, i will add a quote to another post of mine at the end of this post) or it uses no elo at all.
i am not surprised at all if we will see a lot of threads like this in the next weeks. I am not convinced about this new feature.
I’ve heard the same thing, but I can’t find developer confirmation. That Quick Play uses a hidden ELO that doesn’t care about finding the best possible skill level match. Still a nice way to handle it if it’s true, I think.
I also don’t see what advanateg quick play has over the old mat hmaking of ranked other than offering empire wars and battle royal. Is deathmatch dead now?
ahh I see. If they’ve already set up an elo system for the game mode specifically, it makes even more sense to just turn them ranked and use them. If its using the ‘unranked elo’ then I’m not sure this is helping at all, they all seem almost random. as @WoodsierCorn696 demonstrated.
Upon thinking more, I realised what I’m saying is too narrow minded. They are trying to make the casual side to the game more accessible as lobbies are really not ideal and many people just play lobbies. I understand the necessity for this update to that part of the game. Also to split the game by ‘Ranked’ and ‘Quick play’. I just hope the next updates shows some love to the Ranked side and adds a new game mode. I’m hopeful.
The only benefit I see is that I can do troll/warmup games “immediately” in quickplay without losing elo and having to search in lobby, which is something.
But since the main focus seems to be new players, I believe they should just have renamed ranked to quick play to remove the competitive connotation and give the option to hide elo (perhaps default). Mostly I see it as another split which should make everything less smooth.
And really sad that they are willing to make this split and risk less efficiency, but not implement an opt-in system for the same reason.
I believe we should do everything to create a system where everyone can come together because their needs are respected, not have ranked, quickplay AND a lobby.
What’s the big problem with elo anyway. Who cares if you’re 700, 1.5k or 2k… Just play ranked and it will improve as you improve. Hiding elo to attract new players is a stupid reasoning.
Completely agree, it is cool for warm up and new strat’s, especially empire wars faster start.
I hadnt thought of it like that. I really like that idea. I think everyone can agree the best game quality comes from ranked, and playing close to your elo is always going to be the most fun. So it does make sense for all games to be ranked (apart from lobby).
I just played empire wars against two 1600 elo players, I am around 1k and so was my team mate. It is just a waste of time. If quick play is to favour newer players, well they are better off with the old way, making a lobby with ‘NOOB ONLY’ in the title and kick high elo players.
This is exactly the issue. Unranked modes in other games are popular because people don’t always want to spend their time tryharding. Sometimes people just want to have fun. Someone might want to try different civs and strategies without worrying about their ELO. But it’s essential that the ELO is hidden, otherwise it becomes just the same as ranked, no matter what the name. If results are published such that 3rd parties can still derive an ELO from them, it doesn’t let people escape the pressure. There’s no reason for the results of quick play games to be listed in players’ profiles. In other games I’m familiar with, there is no record of results of unranked competition, and I feel this absence of consequence is what makes unranked play appealing to people. If people don’t like the absence of consequence, then they should play ranked instead.
Yeah this is my take away as well. Quick play is good for a big part of the player base. Just add Empire Wars to ranked as well and everyone’s a winner. I love the quicker starts. Hopefully we could see it in the next few months.
I just said it in another thread. But in general I think there is some fine utility for quick play mode, so I think it was a good addition. I think it gives newer player more accessibility without changing things for those of us who like tryharding
I agree as well, from looking around in the menu quick play just seems to be exactly what ranked is, just either without ELO (or hidden ELO) and with the addition of empire wars and BR.
I actually thought quick play was going to be the place where they implemented the often asked for opt-in queue, but right now I don’t exactly see the benefits of using it over ranked, at least for RM.
Again a slap in the face to everyone that enjoys particular maps because it seems like a remedy to ladder anxiety and decreasing queue time on warmup/troll games gets prioritized over respecting something as fundamental as map preference.
They are willing to force variety to artificially reduce queue times for less popular maps, but making a big split which will significantly reduce flow to fix some less crucial points is no problem.