Rank Queue Drama and its oppertunity to redesign Rank/ Quick Play for DM and FFA

[WoodsierCorn696]

@Sylne4r

Do you have a source saying that quick Play has no hidden elo?

By what i know its mostly unclear if it isnt using some hidden elo at all, using the unranked elo for match making (the elo from Lobby browser matches) or its own Elo system. I have a Friend who plays quite some quick play and it seems he gets matched against pretty good player generally,which would suggest quick play has its own hidden elo.

I think the patch notes are already clear:

Quick Play will be unranked and designed for convenience—getting you in a game with only a few clicks.

Also if it had a rating, then aoe2.net would have showed it. It does the same for games in the lobby: They are also played as unranked. And then i also have my own experience, which i fact checked at aoe2.net as well, to also see the play history on quick match.

So i am pretty sure there is no hidden elo. And i am also sure it doesnt use the unranked elo from the lobby. Games in quick play dont even count for unranked stats.

See also: How to make Quick Play useful?. The same question is discussed multiple times. Based on everything i know there is no evidence at all that points toward using the unranked elo of the lobby or towards an hidden elo. Everythings points towards no elo.

@Sylne4r

The important point was that Rank match making queues have some “prestige” and by this need more attention in making balanced maps, map pools and balance changes. By moving FFA and DM to quick play this wouldnt be needed, safeing the resources that probably should be invested in the wider parts of the community over all.

Quick play without elo is useless, quick play with elo is just ranked.

• If it is without elo, then still no one really wants to play quick play. So new game under quick play doesnt really solve any issue.

• If it is just ranked, then why dont put is just under ranked? As result you have just one place to maintain and gives you the benefit to queue for multiple game modes as once. Currently you can join for RM and DM at the same time in ranked. But in quick play you have to choice just one game mode. Based on user experience and based on maintainance it looks like 1 place for all match making game mods seems to make the most sense to me.

@Sylne4r

Match making is normaly for competetive purposes, and seemingly enough Players in the FFA and DM community are competitive about their Game mode. Thats why i sayed quick play would be a good place to give these a room to exist, while still being to little to enjoy the “prestige” of Rank queue and its benefits (additional invested resources).

Match making should in the first place be used for balanced games. If the number of players is too low, then it will never really be balanced. The devs already said this was an issue for DM and i think it will also be the case for FFA and CBA.

I know i just look at the lobbies once. That isnt the full story. But at least it shows to me it isnt that popular. Ofc there will be a community of players that only play FFA or CBA. I wont deny it. But i think those communities are too small to have its own seperate queue.

I just checked the numbers for a second time. There is 1 open lobby and 2 ongoings games with FFA, Free or 1v1v in the name. You cant really have queues for this low number of games.

To compare with DM: There are currently 8 open lobbies for DM games. I cant really check the number of ongoing games in the lobby, since aoe2 doesnt show the type of ongoing games (and DM isnt in most games part of the name, since you can search on game mode). There are also 8 ongoing ranked DM games.

These stats just show DM is larger then FFA by a big margin. Even for DM the number of players is already questionable for having a queue. We dont want to have queues for even smaller communities.

To help this smaller communities grow, i would focus on improving the lobby. They can excel in the lobby and if they really grow big, then we can think about different queues for these communities.