This matchmaking is really killing my want to play the game.

If the matchmaking is killing your want to play the game. Stop playing the matchmaking?
Go do some voyages, collect loot, sink a skeleton ship. Fight ashen lord.

Heck! Open the hourglass and NOT! Go hunt/invade but defense…

@arch-ideall yeah, I get rare will make it better but it seems weird to launch with this system with that issue unresolved.

@burnbacon defense is a bad way to get rep, and while this weekend is going I’d rather get rep for a faction I don’t already have maxed. And these two new ones are the only ones I can get rep for.

Now I could wait for the system to get better but I fear it’ll become what Arena became where it doesn’t receive new content and slowly dies out.

And I took a 2 week break because of how bad the queues and matchmaking were and this is my first time logging back on since then.

Stamps is bs.
Not getting loser points for being willing to be a loot goblin so partners can get a big score is a bigger problem than stamps.

I’m glad someone has finally said this. My entire experience with my crew mate has been loss after loss and it’s just not fun. The long queue times, the fact that the mmr rating doesn’t seem to drop after loss, the lack of rep being given after a loss, all of it is turning me away from this, and we badly want the curses.

I've signed off on this update like a few others.

@Ninja-Naranja tell them to kiss your aft. I'm not a fan of the update in general. Take a break if you need to.

They should change the defensive mode so it only ever matches you with someone of your skill level rather than finding the closest match. This might increase wait time for the defensive players but is that really a bad thing when the idea of this is to stack loot to boost allegiance.
I have absolutely zero incentive to play defensively because I don't want to waste time PvE'ing to just lose it all to someone who isn't interested in the loot and is way above what my skill level is. The defensive mode also doesn't even give you enough time to actually do something worthwhile in PvE. I'm invaded usually every 10-15 minutes, you can't even complete a standard skull fort in that time unless you have 10 tridents.

@ninja-naranja I can tell you that the ELO is completely ignored after about 2 min. It will match people with extremely bad losing records with people who have winning records.

While I am a pc player, I am also a controller player. The pc lobbies aren't bad. Sure there are super sweaty players, but I imagine there are sweats on the xbox/controller servers.

The other issue is not just servers but also the stamps with in them. They talked about it in their matchmaking post.

I'm hoping same faction battles and cross stamp fights help with the matchmaking time.

@faceyourdemon I was on crossplay for the majority of today and some matches were taking upwards of 15 mins to find. That really shouldn’t be a things.

These “stamps” is what’s really killing console matchmaking.

@pithyrumble I might just have to go dark after I get 100 in Athena. I would’ve quit trying already (like I did with Arena) if my buddy wasn’t consistently asking me to play.

I really hoping Rare takes another look at the amount of rep you get for losing. It should be 1/4 the rep of a win at least, not whatever pitiful amount it is now.

Like what if you have a really good long fight with another crew and lose? You get terrible rep and at that point it would be more efficient to sink yourself in the first minute. The game shouldn’t incentivize you to lose on purpose, especially when you keep running into the same crew which happened to me multiple times today.

matchmaking times look like there's noone playing this mode at all, barely finding persons in solo sloops lol

Until level 20 I was winning like 60% of my matches or even more, managing to get streaks too in solo battles. After level 20 I'm getting paired only with people who seemingly live on sot 24h. My matches are or incredibly long, boring and runaway/resetting continuosly or against people who manage to extinguish the fire of 15 firebombs spread across all of thier ships in less than 10 seconds while cannoning, steering, repairing and adjusting sails. I'm seriously considering to grind my way to 100 with losses, because I can't find fun in the mode anymore. This, paired with long matchmaking times AGAIN is becoming just a frustration farm game. I'd just run matches on my phone with cloudgaming while doing something else rather than waste time and mental health on this neverending torture.

First of all, having a crewmate with a lower skill level shouldn't match you with opponents with a lower skill level, you should be matched with players with the skill level of the highest in your crew, if they matched you with the lowest skill level this would just be abused to find less skilled opponents.

If you feel that way already, imo just don't play.
I've personally decided to do just that.

Imo if I continue to pour hours in, I will probably get burned out and won't be able to give the next update a fair shot at swinging me back. I'll see then if it's worth my time.

Take a break, maybe ask your employer for some OT ? At least it's a grind that should be worth it. :P

I agree, the current matchmaking system, queue times, and lack of rep has ruined this mode for a lot of people. I made a post about this exact topic a week ago. Instead of acknowledging the problem, most people commented with, "get good". I'm glad to see other people experiencing the same matchmaking issues. Hopefully this issue gets enough attention and gets fixed.

@ajm123 unfortunately my buddy can only get on late and he’s on EST. I would play on my servers (PST) but then he gets really bad ping and that’s even less fun.

I'd rather get consistent matches versus never getting a match.

I'm not worried about matchmaking sometimes putting me against someone way better than me or way worse than me. I just want matches to happen. The fact that the "estimated queue time" is usually way wrong is the real thing making my crew not want to play this anymore besides just killing everyone in adventure and trying to convince them to at least raise their hourglass. It strangely works when people are worried of losing their treasure, we let them sell, then we sink them for our hourglass. Some just scuttle or leave. Sorry, matchmaking not working so we have to make our own pvp content.

@dank-jimb0 yeah I’d rather lose consistently than just sit in a queue for upwards of 20 mins

The main problem with this mode is that the lost of any hourglass value doesn’t give you anything. At best it encourages people to sell after your first win and don’t bother going for a second streak. We need to be rewarded half of the hourglass value if we loose.

We also should get half of the win value if we put up a decent fight and still loose. I have been match with AFK ships that literally said into the boundary and blow themselves up. I’m not complaining about a free win but people who decide to farm losses at least need to fire a cannon or at least try to win. I know I’m not the best at PvP but I at least try. I should be rewarded more for my loss because I gave my opponent a fair fight and did so to the best of my ability.

At this rate, the hourglass feature will be scrapped in 2 years like the Arena before it and all the curses will become Legacy and unable to acquire. The Arena was shut down because of long matchmaking and unfair battles. Rare is trying to fix it but there just isn’t enough people interested in PvP. As I see it, PvP is something that is tolerated in this game and not it’s main feature. I don’t think Sea of Thieves can exist as a PvP only game.

@truporter to be fair I think the “Go play something else” is the response of out of touch players, not Rare. Rare seems to be actively trying to work on the systems themselves. Hopefully it’ll make retail in time.

I’d love to have this mode be around for awhile and consistently get updates too. I think an emissary system and rewards might be a good way to keep people around.

As an Open crew goer, I'm actually enjoying Season 8 for a number of reasons.

-1 . I'm getting much more active in the game, both in training and developing newer players.
-2. MILESTONES@!
-3. If you are not enjoying SOlO Fighting open up the thought of sinking with friends you sink along the way.
-4. I'm reporting a few IMPROMOTO names P@@@@@@Y etc., and Pirates.. ( I have reported this one today.)
-5. GET MY CURSE ALONG THE WAY.

So honestly with my method, you can run a Captaincy Ship, drop-down choices for new players to pick from, and help them complete commendations, under the clause YOU will be attacked at some point and can lose it all. Most gladly go with it, or people join in randomly and JUMP right into fighting a ship with you. It has been a blast. What faster way to PVP on demand than go into OPEN CREW into a fight!? If you sell out Grade 5 (Hourglass Scales even if you don't fight you still make EXP. It is a worthy method. ) I Kinda view it as a coupon from Rare Sorry we didn't find you a match, Thank you kindly for this feature.

SHIP LOG:
RECENT of the OPEN CREW (Brig Class). A player from the Republics, joined my crew asking CAN WE Please do FoRT of the damn. I gladly Started our journey with Lady Larina Skull arrived, then added Each flame of fate. My new friend LIT started the ritual earlier than planned. The rest of the crew was still on Devil Ridge for a Supply run, only for it to later spawn in two BRIGS next to him battling it out. Simply put these ships arose from around the FERRY and fought til there was a victor. They then turned their guns onto us. It was quite a fierce fight. We lost but without a long hour of fighting. Pleading Raise hourglass or stop fighting as there was no loot nor/ value in sinking us over completing the Fort. We sadly sank, I appreciate this listening, as like the Crew of the Morning star WE asked to be avenged, HELP our OPEN CREW Captains.

If you need I'll open up my crew for you and you can sail with me.
-OPEN CREW CAPTAINS
-Level 62 Servant of the flame

@g043rs the problem for me seems to mostly be consistency at this point. I’m playing a lot less than I normally do for seasonal drops like this. I just need to suck it up and grind it out

@ninja-naranja said in This matchmaking is really killing my want to play the game.:

@g043rs the problem for me seems to mostly be consistency at this point. I’m playing a lot less than I normally do for seasonal drops like this. I just need to suck it up and grind it out

Play during double exp times will help you out also. You can sail around and turn in other faction flags and get exp for other flags respectively. 🤪 and honestly open crew is about losing with grace play pranks or similar.