Now read the post before going to downvote.
Let me give a scenario that a lot of people have run into. You are playing HG having fun then run into this one ship with probably more play time on one of their players than your entire crew combined times 2. So you take the L, spend some time getting supplies again play a match then run into the exact same crew again. You take the L, probably get frustrated and either switch servers or call it a night... This happens all too often and should not be the case. Rare putting you into matches where you have NO chance of winning is not good matchmaking.
So how does Rare fix this? Well right now there is an "MMR" system but the system does not promote you playing well and fighting better players, but rather promotes win streaks. Meaning the game promotes you beating weaker players multiple times in a row instead of beating 1 better crew then you, which is the core of the problem. In other games with an MMR system as you hit higher ranks you expect significantly longer queue times and players are ok with that trade of knowing that A) they will get a good game and B) they will get rewarded proportionately for winning that higher caliber game then if they were to simply play with shorter queue times at a lower MMR. Now some other games make this system work of having an MMR mean nothing for example CoD, but 2 major differences exist here 1) most games in COD are made up of a bunch of solos so the game can balance accordingly and so little team play can actually be done 2) with a massive playerbase and multiple game modes you can just find a new lobby if the lobby you were playing was no fun.
SoT does not share these luxuries instead promoting a team play experience which unfortunately lends to massive skill gaps between crews existing. So how to fix this:
- Make higher MMR players wait in longer queue times a "diamond" player should NEVER pair against a "Bronze" player PERIOD. This is what kills the mode and why players who are not at the top of the food chain tend to quit.
- Make reaching higher MMR worth it. It's equally important for players to not tank their MMR for lower queue times then and free win streaks which is the most effective way to gain allegiance instead the best way to gain allegiance should be to reach higher MMR. The higher your MMR the more allegiance you should get to make it worth it to want to climb.
At the current rate HG is going to be in a worst state than gally arena was with gally HG already an almost dead mode. Being put into unwinnable games to act as fodder for another crew is not fun.
Edit
Example:
Assume a 3 rank system bronze, silver, gold. If the skill across the game is normalized then 68% of the players would be in silver so for that group of players expect little to no change, just better games. Now for bronze players (16%) would try to pair them against other bronze players at first but if it takes too long then pairing them versus silvers would really not be that bad for them and if they win then give them a boost in allegiance for beating a silver player.
Now is the problematic group the gold players. Pair gold players only versus other gold players which means they would suffer the most from queue times, but make it worth their time by giving them massively boosted allegiance to the point the most lucrative way to climb is to be higher elo.
Now the 3 rank system would be dumb in practice, so in reality we would be talking more of a range of players that can and cannot pair against each other for example high silver players should be able to fight low gold and so forth. But the point is that because skill in this game is normalized then implementing a stricter matchmaking system would not impact a majority of the playerbase. By not letting bronze or silver players queue against gold then they would have a better experience without a hit to matchmaking, and by giving gold players a massive allegiance boost and making being gold the best way to gain allegiance they would be happy. This system benefits everyone.
