Community questions | Skill rating matchmaking
We've selected a few questions from the community about the new matchmaking system and had them answered by the team.
- I know you’re looking at skill across different killers but are you looking at skill across different survivors too? even though survivors are just skins, we still have to grind for open perk slots which, for a less experienced survivor like myself, that’s a big deal
Generally speaking, the performance difference between a low level survivor (as in, the character level is low) and a high level survivor for a given player isn’t statistically extreme. It also changes very quickly, relatively speaking: It doesn’t take that many games for a low level survivor to get to a reasonable level. To complicate it further, it can even happen over “0” games, if you got the BP from some other means! All that said, we’re going to keep an eye on this and see if it plays out differently in reality, and potentially modify the system to take this into account.
- Can we get a little insight into how SWF matchups will be balanced in the new system?
Currently, SWF groups will calculate an average rating of the players in the group, and then the matchmaking system will attempt to find an opponent based off that average. We will be monitoring this and the results it gives in the real world, and may tweak the formula to produce better results if we identify any problems.
- How is it gonna be fair to those that are new as a survivor? I feel bad for them
We’re specifically monitoring the experience of new players to ensure the system doesn’t immediately throw them games where they are hopelessly outmatched, and we have a few techniques that we’re implementing already to help with this. Lots of technical / mathematic details, but the basic effect will be that new players tend to get matched at a lower skill rating while they’re still new.
- So after reading this post why aren't the current ranks not weighted in the starting skill rating for the player base?
We’ve already been running the skill rating calculation in the background for several months, in order to collect data and to validate some elements of our approach. Anyone who has been playing regularly in that time will already have a loosely calibrated skill rating to start with, which will be refined with each game they play now that the system is live.
- Is it taken into consideration if players have returned from the game after a long hiatus. Some examples are some people returning after a year or even two.
Without getting into extreme mathimatical details: Yes, the system does take how long it has been since you last played into account with the rating system.
- Why are ranks so mismatched now?
The Matchmaking News post we made went into detail about this, but to summarize: Ranks are mostly a measure of how much you play in a given month, and doesn’t have a very good correlation with game skill. Skill rating is completely driven by how skilled you are at the game, so there will be some divergence between the two. The rank system will be getting updated Soon(tm) to reflect this difference.
- Why are we keeping the skill rating hidden?
For every player who gets really excited at the prospect of seeing their skill rating, there is another player who dreads it. For now, to encourage everyone to play the game the best they can, we are keeping the skill rating hidden. We have plans to expose it somewhat in the future, but nothing to announce at this time.
- What will it mean to Ranks in the Tally Screen?
Right now, the Emblem system / Rank system is being left as-is. We wanted to get the skill rating system out and in player’s hands as quickly as possible. The rank system will be getting updated Soon(tm).
- Is the rating started counting now, or already set from past performance?
Ratings are initially based on your performance over the last few months, while the system has been collecting data in the background.
- What are the factors that affect the ratings?
Ratings change based on how you perform in a match while taking your opponents rating into account. If you outplay an opponent who has a much higher rating than yours, then your rating will be adjusted quite a bit. If you outplay an opponent who had a lower rating than yours, then the adjustment is quite small.
Other
- Does this mean that those with different NAT types that weren't able to play together before (unless they had a connection with the lobby leader) can now play together?
The skill rating has not direct relation to NAT and network connectivity, as it is used to determine who matches together. As long as your NAT type allows you to connect to the dedicated server, you should be fine to play with anyone else (who can also connect to the dedicated server, of course). Since we are now using servers instead of P2P, NAT incompatibilities are less of an issue.