- eLantern
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Poll: Would you prefer a "Join Active Session" Matchmaking System? [closed]
Total Votes: 211
PEASE READ THIS BEFORE CASTING YOUR VOTE
The matchmaking system used by future Halo titles (343 Industries), such as Halo 4, and any future Bungie FPS titles really should be a blend of Halo's traditional matchmaking system along with a "Join Active Session in Progress" system. The lack of this type of matchmaking system is one of the main reasons why many of my friends and myself do not enjoy playing Halo in comparison to other FPS titles. I sometimes find it odd that my friends list which is still 80% or so made of friends I've met through playing Halo:CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3. (I say Halo:CE because of LAN get togethers, and XboxConnect) Whenever I ask those who I know still own Halo 3 or Halo: Reach to join me for some games... they usually decline, but every once in a while I can get a few of them to play. This will then usually last until we have a teammate quit on us, leaving us in a game that has become unbalanced were everyone becomes quite annoyed. Now, even though Halo is one of the most different FPS available and requires the most about of skill to play well, as well as being one of the top notch quality games that money can buy, the fact is that it's matchmaking system causes too many moments of wasted time and it is a real problem going forward.
I understand my friends complaints on it, I too cannot stand wasting my time in games where a teammate quits, but I really want to enjoy Halo games in the future and more specifically I'd like to enjoy them with the friends I've been playing them with for the last 10 years. That player quitting problem is usually followed by another teammate quitting and so on and so forth, until I or anyone in that position might as well quit too. Once just one team member leaves, the match usually and quickly becomes a pointless game of trying to survive. Now in Halo: Reach there is of course that ever-so-scary and dreaded penalty my account will take for being a quitter... oh no! The problem with the penalty as a determent is that most of those who quit don't really care about the consequence of a temporary ban, for if they are temporarily banned then they'll just switch to another game. I'm guessing most of you will be like, that's a good thing and good riddance to them, but honestly Halo needs to maintain a healthy dose of online players and interest in the game, so anything that pushes a would-be player away is actually not a good thing.
The Halo 4 Matchmaking system I'd like to see...
I believe the system should be a split matchmaking system where for a Social playlist there would be a (limited) "Join Active Session in Progress" and for the Ranked (and/or Arena) playlists there would be a more traditional "Non-Join Active Session in Progress" system. The Social playlist should work perfect with the progression experience (with ranked emblems) and credit system used in Halo: Reach. The method for finding and matching players up in Social games should be loosely based on overall player progression, while hidden behind the scene, a player's true skill level should also assist with team balance, but Social matches doesn't put a heavy emphasis on matching up skill levels, instead it focuses mostly on the game's connection quality. The Ranked playlist on the other hand should use a player's Ranked playlist rankings almost exclusively for matching up players, with the emphasis being on balanced team skill levels. The Ranked playlist rankings a player earns (think of the traditional 1-50 system) should be dictated by a player's true skill level as well as his/her playlist experience. These rankings should work by requiring a specific amount of playlist experience along with a true skill level, meaning that as a player earns enough playlist experience to move up into the next ranking number they must also have a true skill level that's equal to or above the required skill level for the next ranking. If a player doesn't meet the required skill level then they are halted from proceeding to the next rank, that is until they raise their skill level to meet or exceed the ranked requirement. Once a rank is earned, even if a player's skill level were to drop they should not lose their (highest) ranking, as a method to prevent de-leveling.
A player's true skill level should be available for display at any time, but only through a combat record menu system. A player's Ranked playlist ranking should be available for all to see when searching in Ranked games and their overall Halo experience progression ranking should be visible in Social games. In Ranked games a player would still earn credits and experience towards their character's overall progression, but the real point is to increase a player's playlist skill ranking for particular gametypes (Slayer / Objective). I also believe that a players true skill level should be dictated by an average score per minute type of system that is weighted by the game types that help make it up. This weighting is important in order to provide a fair point system average across all game types, because some game types may provide a higher score per minute average (globally) then others.
The "Join Active Session in Progress" system in more detail...
A capping or locking of any social game would kick in when one team stretches it's lead to such a point where it's likely futile for anyone to join and make any real difference. This locking or capping would essentially prevent further online members from being able to join the game. Obviously, a game mechanic would have to be developed to determine when is the appropriate time for a match to become locked. Perhaps an automatic locking could occur when a game has less then 30 seconds left regardless to how close the score is. In any case, at the point of time when the match does become locked, where nobody new will be able to join, the team which is likely getting hammered should be given opportunities during each losing player's re-spawn to choose whether or not they'd like to raise a white flag as an indicator of surrender. If the majority of the (remaining) team decides to raise the white flag the game will end early by forfeit. Preventing continuous wasted time by either team's players. (To note: a white flag option could also be included into the Ranked games too, but it should be available at any time during the match simply through the menu system and there would not be a quit or leave match option available)
Further important details on a "Join Active Session in Progress" matchmaking system...
Anytime a player automatically joins a game "in progress" where the team that was joined is currently losing, then that player's account will not be credited or at risk of acquiring the loss on their statistical record. However, if the team that player joined managed to take the lead at some point after their joining but went on to still lose the game, then their account would indeed get credited with the loss. On the other hand, for those players who join a game in which the team they joined was winning and went on to win, the factor for determining whether they should be credited with the win should be based off of the time they spent on the team in reference to the total match's play length. For example: If the game ended within a specific amount of time, lets say "X" amount of time, then that player had to have been playing with that team for at least... 1/3, or maybe 1/4, of the total match time ("X" time). Otherwise, they will not be credited with the win, but all of the other game stats, such as kills, deaths, assists, experience points, credits, and whatever else, will still count towards that player's overall statistics.
Also, regardless of whether someone is playing a Ranked or Social game, if a player quits an active game, by whatever means, they should be penalized. That penalty should be that they are given a strike against their account... if that player accumulates 3 penalties, or strikes, then those should turn into 3 losses on their record. Yet, when a player has garnered one of these penalties there should also be a way to wipe the slate clean by demonstrating that the issue isn't habitual because perhaps there was a power outage or whatever odd thing that can occur out of their control. The way this should work is that after 25 or 50 clean games, meaning games with no quitting, a strike should be removed if one exists.
One other thing, if the next Halo does decide that the quit ban is indeed a good punishment to continue to have within the game, then it should be implemented through a system such as I have laid out above, but only for habitual quitters of Ranked matches. The reason why is that it would mean people actually choose to quit rather than raise the white flag in defeat. However, I do think this ban should only temporarily block the player from enjoying further Ranked matches after earning it. They would then be forced to participant in Social matches only until the ban was over. Also, the time length of the ban should progressively get longer if the offender continued to earn additional bans.
[Edited on 12.29.2011 9:10 AM PST]