Actually, that is the exact problem on PC. Yes population is the issue, but the premade stomp teams who regularly curb out the newer players are exasperating the issue. There’s plenty of players who try the game, especially since you can get it fairly cheap on PC easily, but a good portion of them subsequently leave because matchmaking is poor (due to population) and so population remains bad.
It’s a self feeding loop where there’s no answer because we can’t balance out the new player retention and veteran player fairness.
Yep, it’s that same damn vicious cycle that’s killed so many other unique competitive multiplayer games over the years… If you dont start with a good population, you’re doomed from the start 90% of the time. Still… I’ll never give up hope that Battleborn will be among that 10%…
1 Like
loving-hatred
(Gone off comms, will update this when i feel like)
#23
A[quote=“HandsomeCam, post:2, topic:1555677”]
Everyone payed for this gam
[/quote]
Yup, it’s an unfortunate reality but it’s a very difficult uphill battle for Battleborn.
My post only refers to new players vs vets as well. That’s not even accounting for the people who have plenty of playtime but who simply aren’t up to snuff for the rest of the PC population, myself included. I’m by and far only an average player on my best days, but most days I’d probably be among those that the OP thinks should be level locked. I will admit I don’t play much PvP on PC anymore, simply because committing that much time to matchmaking for a match that isn’t likely to be fun isn’t a very promising aspect. I’d rather play something else most of the time.
There’s my little grammer Nazi, haha! Always making sure i’m aware of my and my phone’s shortcomings. I’ll put that one in my mental list of non-working auto-corrections that i need to be aware of.
Shame that auto-correct also leaves me hanging when i accidentally adhere to my old childhood habit of putting “thier” instead of “their”…
I do completely and totally understand the op’s point, as well as those with contrasting opinions. It’s probably not a good idea to jump right in to pvp after the prologue, but people did it on release, and they’ve done it since, and they’ll keep doing it because there are people who don’t like the pve content, or prefer pvp regardless. They are going to get their chops busted early and often, most likely, and be a detriment to the team they are on more often than not. There’s no way around it, and i don’t know that there’s some specific CR where you can say, by george, i think they’ve figured it out now. I’ve played with and against 100 + CR players who look lost. I’ve been caught off guard and pushed around by sub 100 CR players that i underestimated.
Without rambling too much, i don’t think it would be wrong to gate players. I don’t think what was being proposed in this topic is so outrageous it’d turn people away, and just because something was true on day 1 doesn’t mean it always has to be that way. I just don’t think it’d make a difference either. Bots Battle is a laughable way to get ready for the real thing
I’m on pc. I don’t know what the OP is talking about but the problem I described has been going on for a longs time. Back when the game was newer, HGL or whatever organization was around ran tournaments. Various teams formed and the more skilled players fought each other in a more competitive fashion, with drafts and so on. As the pc population waned, most of these tournament teams left for games with a larger playerbase–except for a group of around ten that have stuck around with BB and who organize private matches when they can and farm the regular queue when they can’t.
The pc population is so anemic that you run into one of these teams pretty commonly. And with the way the queue works, if you face them once you’re likely to be matched against them again as soon as the match is over. I logged in last night and was grouped with a bunch of random people I didn’t know. They were newer people, but not horrible. Lower midrange people. We went up against the tournament team–half from the 5 stack that won the last pc tournament and half from the 2nd place team from that tournament. We got slaughtered, 26 kills to 2. Both sentries down in like 5 minutes. Then those guys on my team left the queue, as usual.
These hardcore people think that the solution is for people to join them and learn to play competitively. Gearbox seems to think the answer is to cater to tournament players by adding draft options and things they want. They’re both wrong in my opinion. If people can’t log into pvp and have some casual fun with people that aren’t hardcore, it won’t succeed no matter how good the game is.
I’m going to call this a terrible view. They need a rank limit so they don’t enter and get immediately stomped and want to quit. People we may lose due to not liking an imposed limit aren’t worth the many more we’d and do lose to stomps. Now saying that, not sure I agree with you in general
Ive noticed a wave of new players, which is good but also noticed more drop outs during the match early on. Again…faster que times only to have people repeatedly drop out. And if it is a new person and buddy, if they both drop out in the selection screen the match is screwed up and we have to wait for the “victory” screen and start ALL over again. Its beyond frustrating and really starting to piss me off. I think new players should NOT go up against veterans. Forget que times, id rather wait a few extra mins and for a match that will not suck. Make a small bracket system. 1-70. 70- max rank. And on another note, the queing system still sucks. Going up a group of 5 griefers, 3-4 matches in a row is not fun!!
The problem with the new player base is the immediate quitting that happens when the game is unbalanced, level wise, discovering that they cannot quit and then re-join matchmaking is causing huge mismatches in team numbers and (or if) they return then they are under-leveled and do little to help the team when/if they come back.
Creating seperate cues for those under lvl 30 is a good decision tbh. The training mode only helps so much (dojo mode) and bots are not that intelligent in this game. Player on player experience is needed in games such as this
What happens when you hit CR 31 in that scenario. You’ve been scrumming against other inexperienced players and then all of a sudden a switch is flipped and you’re out in the wild? I don’t understand how this gating is meant to prepare people for matchmaking as a whole.
I wasn’t looking to protect people from getting their butt whooped after lvl 30, I was suggesting this manner as a way to encourage a choice after lvl 30. Does that player continue to play the game and learn to get better or does he/she decide to drop the competitive aspect of the game or the game completely. I would rather play a game with a n00b that wants to learn and want to get better rather than n00bs that will ONLY stick around if they are on the winning team. I would rather players like that not play at all. the lvl 1-30 matchmaking que would be a beginner’s que so players can learn to play against players of their skill level instead of bashing brain dead bots. Instead of a full team of lvl 10s and below getting stomped by a team of pros
jaden374
(PSN = Jaden8675309 Send me a Friend Req to Team up :0)
#33
^^^^
I know you mean well garrus. But this quoted text is the truth.
The exact command rank cutoff is debateable, but let’s say 31 just for the sake of argument. That 31 levels of being separated from more experienced players gives newbies a time where they can decide whether or not they like the game. Is it fun? Can you have a good time with it? My guess is that if people try out the game and play against other people like them they will enjoy it and thus be more likely to embrace the learning curve required to compete with people in the general queue.
I haven’t seen any single viable suggestion on how to prepare newbies for matchmaking as a whole. And the mentality that if it doesn’t address the entire problem an individual change isn’t worth considering comes across as really counterproductive.
I replied to that, I’m not very sympathetic when it comes towards new players and any type of games. If the new players want to come in and get good at the game, then they can put in the time to get good at it. However, all these matches of a full team of lvl 10s against a full pre-made 5 man are dumb, there should be no reason for it. The “gating” as @ilovebees is talking about is more to give the players a better feel against other players who have brains, not the dumb zombies in the bot mode/incursion practice mode. Once that command rank level is reached, then yes, they are locked out of the “less than 30” matchmaking que and at that point, yes, they are out into the wild. Get good or go home. I did it and I’m guessing every player who’s good at this game did it too. I would rather a community of good, strong players be tighter than a big pool of players with the depth of skill of a puddle. It creates better, more competitive matchups.
It’s not meant to be a 'hold you hand" solution, it’s meant to stop full teams of lvl ones from meeting full teams of max ranks first thing. If those new players want to get good like the players who came in when the game was in beta, then they need to practice to get there. The ability to quit, tbh, is WAY too easy in this game. Surrendering and player quitting matches mid-game because of salt or it not going their way in the first 5 minutes began to plague the matchmaking. If there isn’t going to be a system to allow new players to play on their own for a while, then at least turn the ability to see everyone in lobby’s levels the full team of less than lvl 10 can choose BEFORE THE MATCH STARTS if they want to stick around and play a group of full max ranks, two rocking Angel of Death.
I think the vast majority of good players in this game played beta and/or started at launch. Those were completely different circumstances than now. Most people didn’t know exactly what they were doing and there was a much larger playerbase so the queue was popping quickly. Now, at least on pc, you typically wait 10 to 15 minutes to get a match. That’s a crazy amount of time to invest in order to learn how to play decently. Particularly if you go up against a high level team you will have waited to play just to get into a matchup where you will likely learn nothing because of how quickly you got melted.
This is a problem I think that is endemic to competitive video games. You wouldn’t learn chess and then go to a competition with chess pros. You don’t take a beginner’s martial arts course and then compete against black belts. It seems that Game Developers bank everything on grabbing a large audience which would offer a variety of skill levels. And if that fails, or they are unable to retain this playerbase, there is no plan B. The game fails and they move on to the next game.