Create a casual noob-friendly matchmaker queue (to increase player retention)

Realistically as we add more queues the UI will have to change to use the space more efficiently

The more queues, the less players per queue.

My play time sometimes only have 2-3 players all though I think a casual will draw some players

You can queue for multiple queues at once so there is no reason it would reduce player count

alt text

Reminder that the TMM UI was drafted for 6 queues. This is on a 1080p space, so making more is pushing it.

Theoretically, how taxing on the server would it be to launch the matchmaking timer every 3 seconds instead of every minute and a half?

Not sure but I think at our current number of players the performance cost is negligible. Especially since matching more frequently also means fewer people in queue at each pop.

I don't think rating matters a lot for genuinely new players (not low rating experienced players). 4v4 queue should work fine for beginners imo, along a beginner mappool like on ladder. One thing that would be nice to have though is some "Play vs AI" button. Setting up a game lobby is more difficult and confusing than you'd expect. Also just the convenience of 1-click-play is very nice.

@blodir said in Create a casual noob-friendly matchmaker queue (to increase player retention):

I don't think rating matters a lot for genuinely new players (not low rating experienced players). 4v4 queue should work fine for beginners imo, along a beginner mappool like on ladder. One thing that would be nice to have though is some "Play vs AI" button. Setting up a game lobby is more difficult and confusing than you'd expect. Also just the convenience of 1-click-play is very nice.

Would it be possible to make these games ranked?

We can just add every AI level to the TrueSkill system once. Especially given the massive amount of games the AI's will play their rating should develop naturally. With an honestly developed rating, beating AI actually becomes a useful milestone. Suppose the AI reaches 400 rating, then it is the 400 rating milestone.

@valki said in Create a casual noob-friendly matchmaker queue (to increase player retention):

@blodir said in Create a casual noob-friendly matchmaker queue (to increase player retention):

I don't think rating matters a lot for genuinely new players (not low rating experienced players). 4v4 queue should work fine for beginners imo, along a beginner mappool like on ladder. One thing that would be nice to have though is some "Play vs AI" button. Setting up a game lobby is more difficult and confusing than you'd expect. Also just the convenience of 1-click-play is very nice.

Would it be possible to make these games ranked?

We can just add every AI level to the TrueSkill system once. Especially given the massive amount of games the AI's will play their rating should develop naturally. With an honestly developed rating, beating AI actually becomes a useful milestone. Suppose the AI reaches 400 rating, then it is the 400 rating milestone.

I think we should only have 2 ratings: 1v1 rating and teamgame rating. Teamgame rating should apply for 2v2 3v3 4v4 matchmakers. For AI games there should be no rating, but you get to choose which AI you want to play against. AI games can't be rated since that fucks with the integrity of the rating system.

@blodir said in Create a casual noob-friendly matchmaker queue (to increase player retention):

AI games can't be rated since that fucks with the integrity of the rating system.

We are talking about regulated AI's exclusively in matchmaker here.
How does it fuck with it? - it might depress some 0-200 rated people, maybe boost some 400 rated - but the amount of people joining at that level distorts it anyway

TrueSkill is relativist based on the people participating in a queue, there is no meaning behind being 300. I’m not going to rank AI games when 300 in global and 300 in ladder are not even the same thing.

Dont rank a PvE game or maybe have a low cap like 300.

Rank the ai side though, would be nice to see where they end at and if it lowers or raises from changes in playerbase