How well did patch 2.10.4 work? | Forums

[Lawlaird]

PATCH NOTES 2.10.4 – FOR HONOR
MATCHMAKING
We changed the way players skill are used and relaxed during matchmaking
We enhanced the isolation of low reputation players
Developers Comment:
We aimed to reduce the matchmaking times of low reputation (< 2) and very high reputation (72+) players while maintaining our current matchmaking quality.

Source: https://forhonor.ubisoft.com/game/en...2100-for-honor

During the latest free game giveaway an account was created, called Warlaird in-game. This account is being used by a long-time player to test the matchmaking. It is not just any old smurf account though. A set of rigid rules has been (mostly) obeyed while playing.

1. Only Warlord.
2. Only solo-queue (This account has no friends).
3. Only one match (leave and requeue after each match)
4. Only heavy attacks. This includes the headsplitter.
5. Light attack can only be used after headbutt.
6. No feints.
7. Only parry unblockables. (I did break this one a few times, reflexes).
8. Only common gear. (I read a theory that gear score impacted your matchmaking somewhere)
9. Only Dominion. (I tried to get into the testing grounds, but after two sets of 15-minute searches ending in errors I gave up).
10. Only play lying down. (No tryhard-mode for this experiment)

Just take a minute and think about these rules, and what kind of opponent this would be. Think about what kind of teammate it would be. Think about how you usually play yourself and the people you play with. Most of you would say that these restrictions are dumb, that a hero like Warlord would not be able to do much with these restrictions except maybe run around and look for ledges. I must admit that I have used crashing charge a lot more this past week than usual, but no, I have not gone crazy with the ledges.

Predictions
So that was the experiment, play as one of the weakest heroes in the game (had to be available in standard edition), cripple the guy further to remove much of his fighting ability and cripple myself by being unable to go all out.
My prediction was that I’d move out of the absolute lowest skill bracket fairly quickly. These are the people who aren’t really used to this kind of game, and that will have trouble blocking and dodging heavy attacks or go on the offense themselves. Furthermore I would end up meeting people of reps higher than mine (as I remember I did when I started playing the first time), but thought I'd at least see rep 10 before I got into games with 100+ players.

This happened, I think I had at most one or two matches at the start that was all rep 0 heroes. What followed, on the other hand, was horrible.
Matchmaking chugged almost to a halt. Aside from maybe the first few matches I would end up spending 5 min+ between every single match, even on good times where my main account would only have to wait for around 2 minutes.

Disclaimer:
These are not all the matches I’ve been in. I didn’t cap the ones I thought was fair, but believe me, there would not have been many of them. Some I plain forgot or got distracted. Some just didn’t get capped (or was saved somewhere strange on my computer where I can’t find them). A lot of them (I noticed while putting this together) didn’t get the rep-info, which is sad because I was in some really bad lobbies that didn’t make it. But just look at this journey. This is about 10 hours of in-game time.

Image-series at the end of link: https://imgur.com/a/UNOQvAa

My capstone. My first game as a rep 3.


This is where I stop. While rep may not mean much in this game (although the guys I faced were playing at the level you’d think considering their reputation) skill does. On my first match on reputation 3, in other words when I no longer should be as strictly isolated from the rest of the playerbase, I got put up against these guys. Facing those infamous players while playing as a crippled Warlord was, as you might imagine, a total slaughter. Just for context. I have yet to meet these people on my main account. My skill might be to low, we may play at different times, there are many reasons why this could happen. Yet this game's matchmaking thought it acceptable to put a player who does not use the full kit of even a limited hero like Warlord up against them.

So what is the conclusion of this experiment?
The matchmaking is broken. We knew this already, but this is just a sample of how broken it is. There is no divide between players (accounts) with low and high rep. The limit that is supposed to separate players with low skill (simulated by the crippling) and arguably the highest skill in the game is just broken. I now want to repeat the quote from the start of this thread:

MATCHMAKING
We changed the way players skill are used and relaxed during matchmaking
We enhanced the isolation of low reputation players
Developers Comment:
We aimed to reduce the matchmaking times of low reputation (< 2) and very high reputation (72+) players while maintaining our current matchmaking quality.

(Source: https://forhonor.ubisoft.com/game/en...2100-for-honor)

I now ask the development team; what “quality”?

[AlphawolfyUP]

Nicely done, this highlights the flaws really clearly, would be interested to see how they would try to explain those 3 vs 200 games in particular, the gap is insane.

[Lawlaird]

Thanks. I just wish I could've gotten more of the matches on picture. The ones where I was distracted or forgot are of course lost, but there were more than 20 where I couldn't get the reps on screen as I took the shot. Some conflict with my controller I guess.

I also would've liked to do the same, but only for the skill indicator, but that would mean two screenshots to remember and get right per game.

[MuscleTech12018]

So basicaly nothing new in this post.

[Illyrian_King]

Lol this gap is really EXTREME ^^

Have seen many things, but this one is insane ... don't know how the devs made a system, that finds this "okay".

[AlphawolfyUP]

This is a huge example for why we struggle to get any retention after free weekends and the like, how are new players supposed to have fun and learn when pvp is this broken? It makes an already very steep learning curve impossible to overcome. Imagine trying to learn FH from scratch right now, I can say for sure I would not have kept playing if I had started during this season, I doubt any of us would.

[HaltingCone3480]

This was exactly my experience starting this game, I am only a level 14 now and this still happens all the time but it was never worse than through my first 6 or 7 levels. It was non stop people 30-150 levels higher than me. Something is extremely wrong with matchmaking for new players. I am more stubborn than most, I can't see most people willing to put up with what you are thrust into as a new player in this game. It's not fun, you don't get to even really play between all the waiting times.

Something needs to be changed, and that's not even talking about all the second accounts.

[DeamonXII]

#matchmakingsystemisbs

[Lawlaird]

So basicaly nothing new in this post.

Not much new, no. This is pretty much just a clarification of how bad the problem is.

Lol this gap is really EXTREME ^^

Have seen many things, but this one is insane ... don't know how the devs made a system, that finds this "okay".

It's a real mystery. Further testing has been just as bad, but I've stopped taking screen shots as I just don't think adding more of those will add to the discussion.

This is a huge example for why we struggle to get any retention after free weekends and the like, how are new players supposed to have fun and learn when pvp is this broken? It makes an already very steep learning curve impossible to overcome. Imagine trying to learn FH from scratch right now, I can say for sure I would not have kept playing if I had started during this season, I doubt any of us would.

Yes, my point exactly. Due to my experience in the game I can at least do something when my team of rep <3 faces off against a team of 100-300+ players. If I had truly been a new player who didn't know how to use Warlord better than this. then this whole experience would've been awful.

This was exactly my experience starting this game, I am only a level 14 now and this still happens all the time but it was never worse than through my first 6 or 7 levels. It was non stop people 30-150 levels higher than me. Something is extremely wrong with matchmaking for new players. I am more stubborn than most, I can't see most people willing to put up with what you are thrust into as a new player in this game. It's not fun, you don't get to even really play between all the waiting times.

Something needs to be changed, and that's not even talking about all the second accounts.

Thanks for confirming my findings. I am truly sorry for your experience, you should not have to have gone through that.

#matchmakingsystemisbs

This isn't twitter. If you want to rally a hate-mob for some good old herd-mentality driven "guilty until proven innocent" social justice you should try there instead and stop spamming the forum as it is against the forum policy. Thanks you in advance.

[Lawlaird]

Addition:
Matchmaking time on my main account where I try to play well, if not at my best, and where I've played for a long time: Literally seconds (been that way for a few days).

Matchmaking times on the alt account where I test the matchmaking systems flaws and deliberately plays worse than I could: