Hello Development Team,
first of all, thank you for your ongoing commitment to improving Age of Empires 2 in 2025.
I have noticed a problem with matchmaking in multiplayer that could be easily fixed. This would guarantee more consistent gameplay for some players in the upper-middle rating range.
I have repeatedly noticed lately that my team, with an average rating of 1550 per player, has been matched with significantly stronger opponents. These opposing teams then have an average rating of approximately 2000 per player in team games. This results in a game lasting 12-20 minutes, depending on which map you play. In 100% of cases, these matches are not fun and teach no one anything, as you are completely destroyed due to the huge rating difference. With a match search time of around 3-4 minutes, this amounts to almost 15-24 minutes of wasted time for all players in the match. I don’t feel like searching for my opponents via Firefox in every game to determine whether a match is worthwhile.
This happens more often in 2v2 and 3v3 than in 4v4, as the number of games is significantly smaller. I assume that the number of games is smaller here.
My suggestion for the TG would be to limit the rating range to a fixed maximum value (e.g., +/- 250 average TG rating). This rating limit could be removed for ratings of around 1800-2000, so that players at the top of the rankings can still find enough opponents. Of course, this would increase the queue time by around 2-5 minutes. But that would be perfectly fine, as it would save a lot of time.
Many thanks and best regards,
GeneralGrom / Weizenesel