OTW test - you are invited!

[Emily 144]

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the short notice!

We'd like to invite you all to a test on our Open Test World (OTW) tomorrow, at 4pm GMT to test a significant update to how matchmaking is handled in APB: Reloaded.

This test will last about 8 to 12 hours.

OTW Download link: http://apb.patch.ot.gamersfirst.com/APB_OTW_Installer.exe

We know that the upcoming matchmaking functionality in our roadmap is needed, and for the last several months, the changes to matchmaking have been our top priority.
So, we'd like to invite folks to our Open Test World to ensure the upcoming build works as intended before we deploy it to live.

Below are a brief list of changes that will be present in the matchmaking build:
Matchmaking Improvements:

• With this build, we have deployed new code based on the existing matchmaking functionality on Live. We have changed the way data is interpreted, used, and calculated with multiple players, but the underlying individual skill rating formulas are the same.
• Matchmaking has been moved from District to World.
• Matchmaking will only function in the same district - at least for now. We plan on expanding matchmaking to function cross-district within the next coming weeks.
• Attempting to ready up cross-district will fail for the time being.
• Threat is visible for testing purposes, but may disappear in the future once we are certain the build works as intended and we have proper analytics to ensure our players are always getting the highest quality matches.
• Backup is disabled for this build and will not function. This will be added in a future deployment.
• Unopposed missions are no longer present in this build, and all missions are instantly opposed.
• Team alliance is non-functional and will be re-implemented.
• The matchmaker will no longer attempt to make matches that are unequal in size. You will be matched exactly according to initial mission sizes - 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4.
• Fight Club, Social and Minigame Districts will be unaffected by these changes and are outside the scope of our testing. However, they may be present.

 

We hope to see you there!

[TheMessiah 430]

I got it thx to Frosi on discord.The test will be on 1 NA district and we will be testin this new code for the matchmaking(at this stage)Equal size teams and equal threats in these teams(most likely if possible)

 

Edited November 10, 2023 by TheMessiah

[cowhorseman 441]

someone get the popcorn hear comes people to post walls of text about how bad this will be and it devolve into cavemen ogga booging each other about ten post in

[vsb 6171]

well this came out of nowhere

 

39 minutes ago, Emily said:

• Backup is disabled for this build and will not function. This will be added in a future deployment.
• Team alliance is non-functional and will be re-implemented.
• The matchmaker will no longer attempt to make matches that are unequal in size. You will be matched exactly according to initial mission sizes - 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4.

i predict insane wait times

[BlatMan 711]

1 hour ago, cowhorseman said:

someone get the popcorn hear comes people to post walls of text about how bad this will be and it devolve into cavemen ogga booging each other about ten post in

I'll start!

 

What's the point of having this test if you've disabled most features of the matchmaking system? This test can be done on a single workstation with 1 user. Load up multiple APB clients in virtual machines.  The best results will be no different than when two gold groups keep getting each other over and over like they currently do on live.

[Frosi 722]

1 hour ago, BlatMan said:

I'll start!

 

What's the point of having this test if you've disabled most features of the matchmaking system? This test can be done on a single workstation with 1 user. Load up multiple APB clients in virtual machines.  The best results will be no different than when two gold groups keep getting each other over and over like they currently do on live.

The point of this test is to test the overall stability of the new matchmaker as it now runs on a world level rather than a district level. They know very well that most people that will playtest this do not have a properly calibrated mmr (due to OTW not using your Live MMR) so it won't be a good example of how well the matchmaking itself works in terms of accuracy and likelyhood of fair matches, that's something they will adjust if needed after getting Live data, however, the new Matchmaker itself will be more strict due to not having lopsided matches meaning that you'll no longer run into missions of 3 golds vs 5 silvers. Match quality should only degrade if there's little people online to play against as the new matchmaker will slowly degrade accuracy if you've been ready for a while just so you can get a match (within reasonable MMR differences)

[FakeBungo 248]

the reason matchmaking sucks in apb is because barely anyone plays it, because its over run with cheaters. all the good players don't play because they just get opposed vs cheaters, total waste of time. the only people who play are silvers, dethreaters and cheaters. any good apb player quit years ago by now.

 

find someone who will ban cheaters and your matchmaking is fixed. if you never ban the cheaters the matchmaking will always be horrible.

[Hexerin 1140]

5 hours ago, Emily said:

Matchmaking will only function in the same district - at least for now. We plan on expanding matchmaking to function cross-district within the next coming weeks.

Unless you also disconnect contacts from their own districts and allow pledging regardless of what district the player is in, this is going to cause severe progression problems for players who aren't already R255.

 

Ultimately though, none of this matters because ya'll have already killed this game (again). Might be time to consider rebranding your company (again).

[ezmegaz68 168]

So this will start on November 11th 4pm GMT?

[Frosi 722]

12 minutes ago, ezmegaz68 said:

So this will start on November 11th 4pm GMT?

No, today on the 10th at 4pm GMT

[Yapopal 168]

Thanks for what you do! I lost all hope floating on one of the wooden barrels left over from the shipwreck. Please post more often, no matter how small. It will be interesting to know how long the next few weeks will last.

[R3ACT3M 489]

9 hours ago, Frosi said:

Match quality should only degrade if there's little people online to play against

I mean one of APB's problems is rematches that were already one sided, I hope this doesn't exacerbate it. (for now at least)

[Emily 144]

OTW is now open! We hope you all downloaded the client and are ready! Jump on and join the fun! 

[iMaverick 7]

Thanks for the work. I just want to suggest something about the matchmaking system;

 

When a side is a group, the team they will be playing against must also be a group. It's not fair when one side is a group or clan playing together and the other side is a mix of people playing together for the first time. Thanks in advance.

[ninjarrrr 255]

server kept going down and the game liked to crash when loading into a district, waste of time

[Knataz 20]

Why keep 2v2 (?)  

2v2 = /friendadd to main menu :^)

[TheMessiah 430]

disconected and now must wait cause my other me is still playn..

edit: is broken asf have to wait till im able to log again and in couple of minutes-kiks u out again didnt play even 1 mission

Edited November 10, 2023 by TheMessiah

[AntonChigurh 4]

Sounds great to me, please continue support for win7

I wanna see these changes before I get a new PC in 2027

[iRawwwN 283]

does this mean we are getting those yucky discord names or have LO decided not to proceed with that dumb idea

 

ps. thanks for the mm update, im not redownloading OTW. gonna be interesting to see how it functions on live

[NotTheEnforcer 222]

Oh yeah this test will be fantastic for all the fuckin >200 people that still play this deadass game lmaoooo. Even the forums are dead now. Theres only been like 1 post since November started. Shit, even I just came back here to comment because Im drunk and wanted a fuckin quick laugh at yall

Good luck matchmaking with no players lmaoo

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by NotTheEnforcer

[FakeBungo 248]

14 hours ago, R3ACT3M said:

I mean one of APB's problems is rematches that were already one sided, I hope this doesn't exacerbate it. (for now at least)

matchmaking works, if its not broken don't fix it.

 

waste of what little development they could be doing (guessing they have like 1 part time dev for this matchmaking).

[CookiePuss 5378]

8 hours ago, NotTheEnforcer said:

Oh yeah this test will be fantastic for all the fuckin >200 people that still play this deadass game lmaoooo. Even the forums are dead now. Theres only been like 1 post since November started. Shit, even I just came back here to comment because Im drunk and wanted a fuckin quick laugh at yall

Good luck matchmaking with no players lmaoo

 

Too bad you just can’t let it go. 
Kind of sad, really. 

[R3ACT3M 489]

15 hours ago, FakeBungo said:

matchmaking works, if its not broken don't fix it.

 

It certainly does function. But it's also garbage, so lets clean up the garbage

[Frosi 722]

1 hour ago, R3ACT3M said:

It certainly does function. But it's also garbage, so lets clean up the garbage

Certainly, the new system with its new matchmaking rules will certainly allow for more accurate matches at the cost of potentially higher wait times (assuming its low pop hours and the system has to go through its passes in which it loses accuracy for the sake of getting you a match)

 

I think that especially cross-district MM will help a ton ONCE the game gets an influx of players such as when the contacts release which is likely the reason why MM is being tackled now rather than after the new contacts or whatever else they're planning. Current match quality is crippled by the fact that its limited to 50 other people on the district, some may not be ready, some are in missions, some are ramraiding, some are much higher / lower mmr than you and the list goes on, putting cross-district MM in the game prior to the contact release should massively improve match quality (on top of the already improved matchmaking) as it now has a lot more players to match you against and better matches means returning players (or even current players) are less likely to stop playing the game due to unfair matches or just a generally unenjoyable experience. Obviously there's more than just Matchmaking that is making players quit but this should be a large stepping stone to make the game more enjoyable for everyone.

[Hexerin 1140]

So for those who actually bothered to hop onto OTW, did any of you force the thing to actually do cross-instance matchmaking? As in, have a friend go to another instance so you know with 100% confidence that it pulled from another instance? I'm curious about if it triggers a load screen, or if they actually put in legitimate dev work to make proper instancing.