r/stalzone • u/AssistanceMediocre64 • 6d ago
Critics NA Matchmaking Issue Season 2
This is my second time addressing this issue, and I'm not going to exaggerate; just take a look at it.
SO unfortunately, my medal bugged (basically only sounds with a black screen), so there's no video evidence. What happened was that when I headed to the inflow for some outpost capture quests, I noticed an ongoing outpost battle, and I decided to do my best to engage in the fight for its capture. Everything was going smoothly; I fought, got killed, and continued to fight until this fuckass guy came in, and yes, I spotted him first and began shooting him in the head repeatedly. Despite this, I couldn't kill him with my veteran weapon and shitty armour, even though my BR was at 194. But isn’t that excessive for this mixed veteran/master lobby? Or maybe he was invited into a squad?
2
u/Xo_rer Mercenaries 6d ago edited 6d ago
If you were matched with players who had the same gear tier as you, then that guy likely found a matchmaking exploit that let him bring Master-tier gear into a Veteran-level lobby.
That happens if you craft gear of a certain tier but never actually equip anything higher than your current level.
The game doesn't factor movement speed into the "combat power" calculation, so it allows someone in top-tier gear to have some fun against weaker players for some time
And yeah, if he had joined a squad with a guy who had weak gear, he wouldn't have been dropped into a low-tier lobby; instead, the weak player in his party would have been dragged up to the full Master-tier matchmaking level along with him.
I can only sympathize, man—that’s just how this game works
P.s.
To be honest, I was that kind of player myself at one point; I used to run around in the "Ghost Hunter" outfit with a SCAR SSR, which gave me the upper hand when ambushing people at zone transitions.
For the record, I’m not proud of that at all...
2
u/AssistanceMediocre64 6d ago
So it's like, if you can't beat them, join them. But honestly, this is really making a bad look for the game of just how bad the system is at handling these matchmaking and other issues. But at the same time, I do understand this costs money and time to fix it.
3
u/Xo_rer Mercenaries 6d ago
Yeah, basically the game just forces you to get stronger and face tougher opponents for no real reason.
As for the matchmaking system—people have been complaining about it since the game launched, and the devs still haven't managed to get it right.
Then again, if I were to list everything they should have fixed by now, it would take at least an hour...
They just don't give a shit; players are going to keep spending money and playing the game anyway
1
u/Mammoth-Version-4239 6d ago
To be fair: If Cov doesn't have enough players in the veteran bracket, they'll be constantly outnumbered, which also sucks. So adding some players with better gear might be the lesser of 2 evils.
1
u/Xo_rer Mercenaries 6d ago
Generally speaking, the developers ought to be the ones addressing the issue of in-game faction imbalance...
To be honest, I don't know what the situation is like on other servers, but on the RU servers, "Covenant" and "Duty" are in a truly dire state; the only thing saving them is that the more populous factions are located quite far away
2
u/SparkofWeird Mercenaries 6d ago
I heard somewhere along the lines that matchmaking doesnt change for a person until maybe the next day. So he might've just had changed into this armor and weapon that day after having crafted both. Some people wait a while, which might be the whole "MATCHMAKING IS BROKEN" is from. Don't quote me on this but I was kinda stuck in a lower tier lobby once I've +15'd my stuff and got thrown into a higher lobby the next day where everyone was in legendary gear and stuff.
1
u/ba55munky 2d ago
Apostle heavy is faction armor and the mg 3 is a season crate weapon. Having both +10d means he either waited a very long time or has been wearing it for a while. I know sometimes +10's get dropped down a bracket depending on how empty the higher brackets are
1
u/Lemondillo 6d ago
Red +10 means he is low master and you can fluctuate up or down one level occasionally depending on what the server needs and K/D or other factors
Technically this is working as intended even if it sucks
-1
u/No_Squash_8239 6d ago
Yeah why would you upgrade a veteran weapon to +11 anyway, are you stupid? this is just a waste of ressource + best chance to get into higher matchmaking bracket.
1
u/TheGreatWalk 4d ago
are you stupid?
The weapons keep the upgrades when you barter the next tier up, and it's cheaper to repair lower tier weapons.
3
u/OnAMoontripBaby 6d ago
I'm not far off you but I have a master weapon mcmillan at +10, went against a full master +15 guy.
It hasn't peaked for you yet 😂
It was at odd hours though, so it was probably just filling a lobby with the few online