Trials Rising Multiplayer Updates
Season 2 is almost upon us and there will be a few notable changes to Multiplayer coming with it. We wanted to take this opportunity in the downtime between seasons to let you know what to expect in Global Multiplayer during Season 2.
Before we jump into the changes you’ll see in Season 2 we’d like to highlight one change that might not be immediately noticeable. When Trials Rising launched in February a lot of the multiplayer scoring was being handled locally by the game. Ultimately what this meant was that in order to make changes we had to do so via a patch which, as we’ve discussed previously, can be a very long process. For Season 2 we’ve moved all multiplayer scoring to the server which will improve our ability to make adjustments or balances if we see the need. Now, let’s talk about Ranked Multiplayer in Season 2.
Tracklist
The tracklist at the start of the Season 2 will be the same tracklist that closed out season 1. We will be monitoring activity with the new scoring system before making any changes to the tracklist.
Placement during matches
There will be a small change to how each round within a match is scored. On the surface, match scoring will largely appear the same as it was for season 1. During matches, you will earn points based on the position you finish in. These points accumulate during the match and the combined score after 3 rounds determines your final position for the match.
The change comes in how the score handles DNFs verses track finishes. In previous Trials games a DNF was always 0 points. We felt that this was too harsh as in most cases a single DNF could ruin a players chances to come back in the other rounds. We do also recognize that our first solution of scoring solely based on position went too far in the opposite direction, making the scoring too forgiving. For season 2 we are introducing an additional +2 points for all players who cross the finish line during each round. This means for example that if coming in 4th place with a DNF awards 5 points, coming in 4th and finishing will award 7. This change also applies to match scoring in Private Multiplayer matches.
Our goal is to make multiplayer fun, fair and easy to understand for all players. We will continue to evaluate how match scoring is performing and consider further changes where we see room for improvement.
Leaderboard Score (Rank)
Trials Rising originally launched using the Glicko 2 scoring system to determine a player’s ranking in Global Multiplayer. We had a few issues with this system that resulted in players getting unexpected scores at the end of a match. Our team spent a lot of time working with this system, however, even after making some adjustments to get better results, we found that it still wasn’t providing the desired outcome within our division structure.
For season 2 we’ve come up with a much more straight forward scoring system to determine player’s position on the leaderboard. Now, after a match, the base score will be determined only by a player’s position and how many players are in the lobby. In an 8 player lobby only the last 3 players will receive negative points towards their leaderboard ranking. This ensures that the players who place at the top will always receive positive points towards their ranking. It also means that even players who can regularly place in the middle of the pack will have a fighting chance to climb through divisions throughout the season.
While the matchmaking will try its best to match players from the same division, if none are available it will select players from higher or lower divisions. Because of this the rank of players in the lobby will have an effect on the final score. This is calculated by a multiplier applied to the base score received at the end of the match. If the difference between ranks is low, the multiplier will be higher. If the difference in rank is large, the multiplier will be lower. The idea is that the more evenly matched you are with your opponents, the more points you get for a win. The score multiplier is determined by the difference between the highest and lowest ranked players in a lobby.
Divisions
Changes to the rank scoring also means changes to the Division thresholds. All players will be starting within the Bronze Division with a default score of 1450 points. As players earn or lose points for each match they play they will climb or fall through divisions based on their overall Global Multiplayer score.
Placement Matches
In Season 2 players will need to play 3 placement matches before their rank becomes visible and they are placed on the leaderboards.
That about does it for multiplayer updates for Season 2. We will continue to evaluate the performance of all of these systems during the season and consider further updates, changes or balance adjustments if we identify a need.
Stay tuned for more info on what the upcoming Season has in store.