Thread merging, Dev Response & Spotlight Battles

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#1

So it’s very obvious to me and many others that the matchmaking is driving everyone crazy now more than ever. With how many different posts are posted daily describing players frustrations on lack of choice it is highly evident that matchmaking needs to be tweaked. I also realize that this was a test to see how the community reacted to matchmaking changes.

Unfortunately every new topic is merged, buried and left for dead. With “Lets Talk About Matchmaking” being a hot topic and every other topic being merged with said discussion it is mind boggling to me how there has been no response as to what is being done to fix not having a choice in game mode.

Spotlight battle was a step in the right direction for people that don’t necessarily want to play Incursion every game. So kudos to Gearbox for adding in a mode that we can get some extra credits and possibly play a Meltdown or Capture. The problem is that the spotlight battle went from Incursion to Meltdown to … Incursion? Seriously? Every game that is voted upon is Incursion. So I can either play a spotlight Incursion, casual Incursion or competitive Incursion.

Lets go ahead and take steps in the right direction not one step forward and two steps back.

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#2

We do this to try and keep it to a few conversations rather than many. It helps keep this place clean and organized. If you have an issue with any specific merged thread you can always pm us.

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#3

I probably wasn’t as clear as I should have been. I completely understand why threads are merged so that the boards aren’t a disaster with 25-50 threads all on the same thing. I guess I was just trying to point out that with so many of the same topics merged and buried under an already insanely hot topic. Why have we not heard about upcoming implementations on how matchmaking will be changed?

Like I said it seems like we take one step forward and then two back.

#4

Give them time then, this was just changed last week. They need to take in some data and see where to go next.

#5

I have plenty of time to give. I will eagerly await for a response. I’m just hoping the bulk of the community has the patience and time I have before calling it quits and moving along to another game.

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#6

Didn’t the matchmaking change go live Thursday of last week? It’s been 5 days. I would be worried if they already had a change to talk about.

#7

If the data backs up what people on the forums and the subreddit have been saying then I expect that they will revert the changes to matchmaking. Perhaps even in the next hotfix (or content patch, whichever comes first), but who knows? The developers did state that this was an experiment. They are trying something new to see if it helps matters. If the changes aren’t helping then they are going to revert them until they try something again. This isn’t a permanent change. Not by a longshot.

This is in part why the changes haven’t bothered me all that much, because I know that this is a test and that it can be undone. Having to choose your map and mode doesn’t bother me so much because I like all the maps and modes. Sure, I prefer Incursion but I am content to play so long as I get to play. I am more concerned with balanced matches over everything else. While I am content to wait for matches the people I play with prefer to get into matches fast.

What I am seeing on the forums though is that more than anything else people want to be able to choose what they play. As much as people disliked unbalanced matches and long queue times they seem to dislike being unable to choose their game type above and beyond these two things. Sure, there are a few people who like the changes and prefer them, but I can’t say whether they are the minority or the majority.

The people who dislike the changes are very vocal about it. What does the data itself say though? How many people stopped playing since the new matchmaking went into effect. I can’t say as I don’t have access to the data. At any rate if the changes are poorly received then expect the developers to adjust things once again. Either right back to how it was before the change or to something new.

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#8

I’ll be rather disappointed if the changes were reverted back and nothing else happens.

The matches I have played in the (misnamed) “competitive” queue have been so much more fun than the majority of the matches I had played in recent weeks because (for the most part) they have been more balanced.

It’s unfortunate that the player base is small, but to me, fast matchmaking is worthless if the skill levels are wildly unbalanced.

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#9

Reverting to the original MM would be better than this at least for the Xbox1. At least then it was attempting to find some sort of team balancing and let you choose what game mode you wanted.

Like I said I do however like the idea of Spotlight Battles. It would be nice if every map could be rotated in order before seeing repeats again. I haven’t actually played a Spotlight Battle because Capture hasn’t come up yet. I normally just play casual hoping for an Incursion map to not show up for the 3 choices.

#10

I played 11 “competitive” matches yesterday and out of all of them there was 1 that wasn’t lopsided. So it seems things are still kinda off.

#11

No it wasn’t. There hadn’t been any balancing for…a couple of weeks? At least on PC, but I don’t think it was different across platform from what others have said,

@waeren you are probably a more skilled player than I am. With me being a player of more modest skill, the matches in “competitive” have been great.

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#12

I’m sure everyone has different experiences than other users. I know that originally the matchmaking I had was pretty well balanced. When I played on my son’s account I would normally annihilate the opposition because I figured he was at a lower ELO,

Now when Gearbox loosened the requirements after this in order to expedite matchmaking speed I found that almost every match was lopsided either for or against on both accounts.

#13

In the end I can say one thing about this whole matchmaking experiment, I hope they keep the Spotlight matchmaking mode.

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#14

Agreed. I’m just hoping that all maps are rotated into the mix and not just most popular.

#15

Right, so we were referring to two different time periods. What I do not want is to simply revert to what we had immediately prior to this which was free-for-all matchmaking (when it was “loosened”)

@kaleidodemon I figured they added the spotlight mode so they could feature the new maps when they arrive. If so, it will be around for a while.

#16

Yes I thought there might have been some confusion.

#17

Xbox one has been fine for me. Both for matchup time and for matchup balance. The only bad matches I’ve had have involved leavers. I also probably fall within that all-important 68% block of the bell curve, so there are more people to match me against right off the bat. I also haven’t had to play capture.

Of course, that’s not the point. Like Kaleidodemon pointed out, the only thing to base fututre changes on is the actual data GBX is collecting.