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Why SBMM is a bad system and needs to go!

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MissiCiv
MissiCiv Member Posts: 41
edited April 15 in Feedback and Suggestions

SBMM kills the fun out of the game. The grade system wasn't perfect but it allowed for more fun matches because if you wanted to sweat you could work yourself up to red ranks, if you wanted to meme you could stay on the low to mid ranks.

It gave you choice which the SBMM system just... doesn't? Like you play seriously once and then the game expects you to play seriously every time.

Post edited by Rizzo on

Comments

  • Blueberry
    Blueberry Member Posts: 13,052
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    I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the community agrees with this. Almost everyone would rather us go back to the grade system with ranked matchmaking.

    The problem is that after how many years of time and money they put into creating the SBMM they are realistically never going to throw it away and revert. Unfortunately.

  • jonifire
    jonifire Member Posts: 1,437
    edited April 14
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    Ranked based match making is always better. Apex some time ago tried SBMM in ranked and they lost a lot of players by it. Now they returned it back and many returned. I also left apex, because of SBMM and now I play it again. If you don‘t have a ranked based mode you should at least have no SBMM. It’s also fun to play with/against worse and better players instead of only having teammates/ opponents in your skill level. Coconut made a very true and good video.

  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 1,771
    edited April 14
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    SBMM is ranked, and ranked is only good when you have ranked QoL. Ranked QoL has things like map and Killer bans. SBMM would be fine if I could choose to never face another Plague or Oni or Skull Merchant again. It would also be fine if I could never go to Badham again. Without that basic QoL, we are playing ranked without what makes ranked 'playable'.

    This has been my opinion on MMR long before this video came out.*

    *Apr 2024 (before the vid came out), Feb 2024, Oct 2023 (Ranked), Oct 2023 (Bans), Sep 2023. 5 is good but I could probably find more if I put more effort than ctrl-f on my comment history (which only shows the first paragraph more or less).
    Edit: playing ranked what → playing ranked without what

    Post edited by mizark3 on
  • Mooks
    Mooks Member Posts: 14,290
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    It’s also fun to play with/against worse and better players instead of only having teammates/ opponents in your skill level. 

    am I the only one who goes constantly against opponents not anywhere near my skill level - in both directions?

  • jonifire
    jonifire Member Posts: 1,437
    edited April 14
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    For me it‘s working in a unfun way. As killer when I play much, I‘m stuck with sweats and when I play less and lose one time, I‘m only against noobs constantly. As survivor I only get tunneling and unfun killers.

    I think the point is not really whether it works more what it does to the players. It makes killers play unfun and survivors gen rushing, because both sides can‘t mess around anymore. It might not work perfectly, but it does match players in a rough range of skill.

    Another thing I dislike is wether it‘s working or not, that I want to see which rank I am to say I‘m good or to see I‘m bad. Also rank charms and banners would be cool.

    Post edited by jonifire on
  • Stroggz
    Stroggz Member Posts: 495
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    Rank system was better and at very least it was fun to grind ranks.

  • jonifire
    jonifire Member Posts: 1,437
    edited April 14
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    Agree, that‘s one of the things I like in all games that have ranked

    Post edited by jonifire on
  • Mooks
    Mooks Member Posts: 14,290
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    It makes killers play unfun and survivors gen rushing, because both sides can‘t mess around anymore.

    also something that for me wasn’t possible with rank based matchmaking. I really don’t know if people just wear nostalgia goggles for rank based matchmaking or I was alone on the unfun side of things back than…


    I can understand the sentiment with knowing about your current status at least and would be okay with some kind of indication with your MMR

  • jonifire
    jonifire Member Posts: 1,437
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  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 1,771
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    Rank based matchmaking punished you for gen rushing without entering chase, ignoring healing, camping, and tunneling though. If you tunneled, you likely denied yourself Iridescent Malicious and/or Sacrifice by not hooking all Survs, or killing people on first hook, and camping subtracted points from Chaser. If you genrushed or ignored healing, you didn't progress Benevolent or Evader.

    The emblems encouraged gameplay that offered the opposition a chance to play the game. If you were so much better than them, it still encouraged going easy on them to make them think they are playing the game at the least.

    There were outliers like Plague deleting Benevolent, and Wraith/Onion Ring chases while cloaked not counting as a real chase, but those outliers could have been fixed instead of committing to the bad system we have in place now that only counts raw K/E.

  • Mooks
    Mooks Member Posts: 14,290
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    I mean… that’s what people say with SBMM right now??


    most killers were outliers, any insta-down ability was and stealth as well..

    But still.. the matchmaking itself didn’t even do what it was supposed to. It was rare to see matches were everyone was around the same rank. Rainbow rank matches were the norm.
    and it was fairly easy to reach red ranks anyways. I got it pretty much every month..

  • TheArbiter
    TheArbiter Member Posts: 2,212
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    Someone should do a survey on this because I'd be curious to know what percent of the community prefers grades versus sbmm

  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 1,771
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    The instadown got fixed and counted as 2 Malicious points, I play plenty of Ghosty (mostly Exposed downing people) and Malicious isn't a problem. Stealth I listed for chase, unless you meant stealth not progressing Survivor's Evader emblem enough. In which case yeah, they probably would have fixed it if they spent the dev time on Emblems instead of MMR.

    Matchmaking consistently gave me 1 rank difference matches (and more only with full range SWFs as you can check their steam to see they are friends). If you were Tier 2, you could reasonably expect Tier 1-3 enemies. That's the same that happens now with MMR, and autofills provide the true rainbow experience (play soloq for 1 hour and you will get a teammate that clearly forget their brain in their other set of pants). If we saw MMR, then you would see the 1200 alongside 1600/1800/2000 and a 2200 in the match. So if we hid Ranks, the same effect would happen with better gameplay being rewarded.

    As far as reaching high on emblems, yes it was mostly a playtime measure, but isn't that what people use as a metric for skill anyways in place of MMR? The idea was it goes up as long as you play (not like a jerk), and it drops only a tiny bit each month. It would allow for you to take a 6 month break, and then quickly skill back up the ranks. Having a decent size amount of people at each rank ensured that matches are varied and not stressful boring matches like the majority of mine have most recently been.

  • jonifire
    jonifire Member Posts: 1,437
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    Agree, I also enjoy climbing ranks in games and they could have made it work if they tried. SBMM is not the way.

  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 1,771
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    If my matchmaking is tied to a number altered based on my wins/losses, I'm playing ranked. The dev listed in OP's video showed how unranked allowed for highly skilled and unskilled (high winrate/MMR players and low winrate/MMR players) to be in the same match. Saying it isn't ranked doesn't make it true, as you literally are ranked on your results.

    The main problem isn't the MMR cap, it's the win condition. The win condition is a blanket kill/escape, instead of the more nuanced gradients that Emblems provided. When we defend MMR, we endorse "we're ignoring how you got there", and making a colossal mistake. Assuming people will 'play nice' was a mistake, and we are foolish children that need to be encouraged with the Emblems guiding our hands.

  • NarkoTri1er
    NarkoTri1er Member Posts: 79
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    again, having an invisible number determine who you are going to be matched with based on your skill is NOT ranked. It's just about making matches more fair by you not being matched with someone way better or worse than you. Ranked is a mode where you are playing for something visible to everyone, fully optimally.

  • Seraphor
    Seraphor Member Posts: 8,856
    edited April 14
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    Please no. SBMM may be flawed but the old ranked system was terrible.

    Unless you were a god-tier player, or always playing SWF or Nurse/Blight, you would be perpetually stuck in green/purple ranks. Because pips were too easy to gain a lower ranks, and then you hit the wall.

    This meant you were almost always matched with red rank players, because matchmaking would pull players from 6 ranks above/below you, and rank 1s could only be matched downwards. Never able to gain enough pips to climb higher, never able to lose enough to get fairer games, unless you intentionally smurfed by losing 50 games in a row, or by taking a 4 month break from the game.

    The old ranked system was great for matching rank 1 players with weaker opponents they could easily destroy. (Hence the whole 'win streak' fad) It was terrible for the average 'mid-rank' player, solo survivors, and M1 killers.

    And then you had the monthly rank reset, which made the game unplayable for about 2 weeks when everyone played super sweaty to rank up again.

  • RFSa09
    RFSa09 Member Posts: 606
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    ah yes, the old Rank, where tryhards have fun making fun of new/terrible players for some days and then take a break after hitting the purple - iri ranks

  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 1,771
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    Again, just because a color on a (3 primary color) palette is combined with Yellow to create Green, does NOT mean it is Blue. That is how I read your first sentence. It doesn't matter how confidently you say something if it is clearly, visibly, and objectively false. An alternative would be "Nurse moves faster than Survivors without perks, add-ons, blinks, or Bloodlust." My confidence in that statement has no bearing on the factual nature of it.

    A number determining your matchmaking is ranked, unless that number is a queue ticket/your number in line/your purchase ID. If it adjusts one way when you win, and the opposite way when you lose, that's ranked. It doesn't matter if it is public or private, if you are still being ranked and matchmade according to the metrics of the game outcomes.

    If it needs to be public, then that just shows that normal matches are ranked, as it doesn't hide whether a Survivor escaped or died to other Survivors. That showed everyone else that they won or lost. Plus plenty of games have ranked modes without replays, or ranked modes without match histories. That doesn't make them unranked.

    My issue is that if we want such a bland Ranked/matchmaking qualifier as Kill/Escape, then we need significant Ranked QoL to make up for the deficits inherent to that methodology. If we used Emblems again, then those issues would be less noticeable or no longer even existing, and might not need those same QoL features to make up for the no longer visible or existing deficits.

  • Smoe
    Smoe Member Posts: 2,470
    edited April 15
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    No, the old ranked matchmaking needs to stay buried and dead forever, i can't begin to count just how many times it gave me such weird or uneven matches back then.

    If we want a better matchmaking, then another alternative matchmaking system is needed.

  • bjorksnas
    bjorksnas Member Posts: 5,162
    edited April 15
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    Either gone or overhauled,

    Visible numbers, Ranked/Casual Modes, better tracking and variance in matchmaking completely agree with the halo dev

  • Hexonthebeach
    Hexonthebeach Member Posts: 342
    edited April 15
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    Same, I'm mostly don't fully share the views but I like his content.

    I only understand the half video and what SBMM really means. Is that similar to MMR?

    Its a good point to compare with other games but dbd is not a shooter. dbd has perks and if you're playing meme builds then you're getting matched with other playing similar builds.

    But I'm also getting sweaty player and can react to their playstyle. I already have these different matches.

    I think too the matchmaking is fine. Normally High skilled player don't want to play vs bambis and bambis don't want to play vs high skilled player.

    Removing the skill based matchmaking would ruin the game fun from both sides.

    For 2 content creator leaving there are joining 10 more.

    The only thing that is taking the fun are toxic player (I mean the things that are on the report list) and the cheater. Thats why the quitters want to remove the anon mode.

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 8,013
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    You are being ranked whether the number is visible or not. And many players are treating it like ranked whether the number is visible or not. The biggest failure of SBMM in DbD is pretending that this isn't a half-baked ranked mode while also not giving players an option for more casual games.

  • Neaxolotl
    Neaxolotl Member Posts: 431
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    There was never been a time grade system wasn't sweatfest, and it's no different in SBMM

    I don't see the difference like at all

  • Snowbawlzzz
    Snowbawlzzz Member Posts: 1,415
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    Everyone I know who played the game regularly made it to red ranks

  • NarkoTri1er
    NarkoTri1er Member Posts: 79
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    the fact that you are being ranked just for the purpose of being matched with someone with similar skill level to make the matches more fair for you doesn't mean you are playing anything like true ranked mode.

    E.g. if you play soccer with your friends for some pure fun, should you be accused of trying to play it like you are in a tournament when you try to distribute players with different skill level even between both teams so you can all have a fun and fair match? Of course not.

    And, to be honest, old grade based matchmaking was more of a definition of ranked than SBMM with hidden MMR number will ever be, since back then, you were playing for a clearly visible grade and you were matched with people of similar grade, which made it also much easier to smurf.

    Having a hidden MMR/elo number never meant it's a half-baked ranked mode for a game, even the most casual PvP games have it.

  • Sava18
    Sava18 Member Posts: 2,398
    edited April 15
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    I started getting hardcore into dbd killer in early July 2021, sbmm was added september 2021.

    I played hundreds of games per month until sbmm and had a 90% win rate. Don't kid yourself game was free.

    Edit: I want to make it clear I didn't play blight until much later.

  • PogbertChamperson
    PogbertChamperson Member Posts: 96
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    I'm not so sure the grade system is something we should revisit, but I agree that the current matchmaking system isn't fun. My theory as to why that is has more to do with BHVR defining what a 'win' is. Prior to SBMM's implementation there wasn't a defined win condition. You could kill all 4 survivors quickly, but not progress your rank since you didn't get many total hooks and the match was too short. You could escape through the exit gate, but not progress your rank since you either avoided being chased, ignored altruism, or didn't spend a lot of time on gens. What was considered a win was up in the air and could vary from player to player. If I earned 20k+ BP I was okay with calling that a win. It's hard to do that now since we know that our MMR is determined solely off of survival and the community has put so much emphasis on kill rates and win streaks. Finding a casual match is significantly more difficult now than it was when I started to get really into this game back in 2019.

  • Seraphor
    Seraphor Member Posts: 8,856
    edited April 15
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    The only conclusions that can be drawn from this are:

    A. You only knew pro players and full time SWFers, putting you squarely in the only skill bracket that benefitted from ranks.

    B. Ranks were an ineffective system because apparently everyone was at the top anyway.

  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 1,771
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    If you watched the video OP posted, or read the article, or read the Game Dev's* comments, then you would know that the Dev said MMR is currently being used incorrectly. The casual game modes that use MMR aren't supposed to use MMR to nearly that degree in the first place. "Yes, our engineers utilized the same codebase and kept skill/level as a search criteria, but we substantially de-prioritized it in matchmaking."

    *The game dev who was 'responsible for'/'the founder of' modern MMR.

    Also the modes that do use MMR are supposed to throw in (far more than currently provided) expected wins and losses on occasion to break up the stress of high-intensity even sweatfests. "Why not always evenly match people though? My reasoning was that these are actually the most stressful matches of the set."

    "The failure of modern skill-based matchmaking, imho, is that it's designed to maximize these perfect match scenarios and minimize the others."

    Modern MMR implementation goes against what is was designed for. It's like using a Hammer on Screws, or a Screwdriver on Nails, it's simply the wrong tool for the job. Sure you can get the Nails pounded in with the Screwdriver, but that isn't how it should be used.

  • Snowbawlzzz
    Snowbawlzzz Member Posts: 1,415
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  • Seraphor
    Seraphor Member Posts: 8,856
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  • Snowbawlzzz
    Snowbawlzzz Member Posts: 1,415
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    A good thing that it wasn't treated as a comp game

    Sick of BHVR flip-flopping about whether this is a party game or a competitive fighting game. Reminds me of how Facebook tries to dodge lawsuits by simultaneously claiming to be a public and private entity.

    If this is a comp game, then the bloodweb should just be a loadout screen and there should be a draft with a killer/map/perk banlist

    If this is a party game, there should be no SBMM period.

  • Seraphor
    Seraphor Member Posts: 8,856
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    You need a loose MMR system in order for it to work as a casual game. Which is what we have.

    You can't have a casual game if newbies are paired with pros all the time.

  • Snowbawlzzz
    Snowbawlzzz Member Posts: 1,415
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    Newbies could hang out in green ranks, playing every day and hitting red was the agreement that you were ready to throw down with the big boys

  • Seraphor
    Seraphor Member Posts: 8,856
    edited April 15
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    Except that reds were always paired with greens, because they're within 6 ranks. We've been over this.

    Ranks were great for reds, giving them easy games, but crap for mid-level players.

    You were obviously red, so it's no wonder you want to go back to stomping noobs.

  • Snowbawlzzz
    Snowbawlzzz Member Posts: 1,415
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    Rainbow matches only happened when I played at like 4 AM and the queue was borked. There was a shortage of killer players because in 2019 there was a lot of busted ######### that scared people away.

    I should mention too that I was simultaneously red rank survivor and killer.

  • AmpersandUnderscore
    AmpersandUnderscore Member Posts: 1,201
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    can you imagine soloQ with a competant killer and 3 bambis while you're the only experienced player, without madness like old DS and DH to save you?

    I firmly believe that this point right here is why people want this system back so badly. This situation only sucks for the survivors.

    A disturbing number of people on this forum put themselves in the killer's shoes in this scenario and see only free wins a 'fair matchmaking system that recognizes their god tier skills'.

  • Neaxolotl
    Neaxolotl Member Posts: 431
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    It doesn't really matter if you look it from killer's side, because actual matches are pretty much SWFs anyway

  • AmpersandUnderscore
    AmpersandUnderscore Member Posts: 1,201
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    Last actual statistics from BHVR put solo q population at about 60% of the survivor player base, with 4-mans at about 10%.

    So yeah, making the game suck for anywhere from 60 to 100% of survivors is a big problem. Not every swf is team eternal, despite what others on here might try to make people think that.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 7,039
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    This doesn't make any sense, by this definition casual/quick play modes can't exist.

    Games that have the distinction between quick play and ranked will use a number that goes up or down depending on outcome to match people with for either queue, because that's just what a matchmaker is. By your definition, BOTH modes are inherently and unavoidably ranked mode.

    While that may be strictly accurate (maybe), it's not useful. DBD does not have a ranked mode by any definition other than this, and only has a casual mode; one where there aren't restrictions designed to enforce competitive fairness, there isn't a visible rank to try and strive for, and the MMR just works as an invisible matchmaker in the background.

    If it were to have a ranked mode, nothing about the current mode would change, it'd just be labelled "Quick Play" or "Casual", because it is the one that would fill that role and the new queue would be ranked, necessarily. You'd need to add in all the stuff that makes a queue a ranked mode.

  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 1,771
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    The end paragraph seems to be entirely ignored, which is the most important part. My claim is that when the decision for matchmaking is so poor, it needs to be offset by QoL features like found in other games' Ranked modes in order to be made enjoyable. Emblems encouraged an enjoyable experience for all, and K/E encourages the sweatiest gameplay. Even if we want to give credit to the claim 'people don't know their MMR, so that shouldn't matter', that still ignores that we removed the incentive to play fun and fair towards emblems. Emblems can still be considered ranked, but they encouraged such a better experience for all, such that they don't need Ranked QoL features as much to mitigate the all too common bad scenarios MMR-based matchmaking (or the lack of Emblem-based matchmaking) causes. I often have to play against the exact same Killer player playing the exact same Killer multiple times at some points, and if I want variety, fun, I need a Killer ban so I can wait in queue for a different Killer. With emblems, the matchmaking pool size was large enough that I could safely get different Killers far more frequently, so I didn't need Killer bans to have fun. Heck, I don't even need Killer bans if we got Killer repeat prevention instead, but that much needed QoL was only needed after the swap to MMR-matchmaking (IME).

    Our main game mode is ranked, because when we look at what the founding MMR Dev said about matchmaking, we don't 'substantially de-prioritize MMR when finding a match' or use different MMR for different playlists. Yes, the casual modes in that Dev's example used MMR also, but the MMR was firstly unique to each playlist (casual and ranked, as well as Capture the Flag, etc.). Lights Out and My Little Oni didn't use a new MMR number as far as I understand, so they weren't casual by that Dev's methodology. They may have been intended to be casual fun, but it kept the diseased ranked/sweatfest mindset by porting over the same MMR (at least was my experience with those game modes, with people playing for $5 Subway cards). The second issue is that MMR needs to be de-prioritized. That means if you find only 5 people (4S 1K) after 2 minutes, they get a match, doesn't matter what their MMR brackets are. Now technically we do that now with the expanding ranges, but it isn't done well enough from my experience with matches.

    As far as de-prioritizing also, we mostly only do that when we get autofills, but the problem there is 4/5 people are expecting to play at their level (from hundreds of sweaty matches prior), and then you get 1 person significantly above or below that expectation. The Killer could be autofilled against babies when the Killer is expecting a clock SWF, or a random sweatlord Surv can be brought in with 3 mid-level Survs and a mid-level Killer. If autofill matchmaking was the norm, then we wouldn't go into matches expecting giga-sweatfests every match, we would know it is a total gamble, and can have more fun with the ups and downs. People wanting to sweat can still take their super-sweat into customs by organizing scrims with various communities, and that helps quarantine them away from the rest of the community.

    My overall point is the current methodology plays like a Ranked game mode, without the features that make Ranked 'playable'. People weren't sweating every match (when I played at Red Ranks) under Emblems, but they are (when I play at above 75% winrate as Killer, and when getting tomes as Survivor) under MMR. MMR matchmaking, or more accurately the wincon being a blind K/E, is encouraging the sweaty gameplay, and needs the Ranked QoL to make the game 'playable'/enjoyable. Unfortunately, we currently we have to struggle against the system in place for the good matches.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 7,039
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    I wasn't ignoring it, I was directly responding to it.

    The entire premise, as near as I can tell, rests on the central assertion that what we have in this game fundamentally resembles a Ranked mode in some meaningful way, therefore we need more Ranked hallmarks to support it. I'm assuming that's a central pillar of your argument, not least because you've repeated it in this post too. It's therefore pretty relevant that it's completely wrong.

    There's nothing that really separates DBD's matchmaker from the casual mode in most other games, at least to my understanding of the topic. They use the same central core - a number that goes up when you win and down when you lose - and they prioritise speed over accuracy to varying degrees.

    None of the things that separate casual mode from Ranked mode (typically a visible rank, a series of balance adjustments like a pick/ban phase and restrictions on certain elements, and a series of placement matches to determine your rank, among a few other game-specific things and a few things that only exist in comparison to a casual mode, EG, stricter penalties for DCing) are present in DBD. We just don't have anything that makes the current methodology actually play like a Ranked mode. We just have a bog standard, regular casual mode.

    As an aside, what do you mean when you say we "removed the incentive to play fair with Emblems"? Emblems haven't gone anywhere, and have in fact become easier to play towards with the changes to how specific ones work + the removal of depipping coming up. If you want to make the argument that we should emphasise Emblems more with better rewards and better feedback for filling them, sure, that's a conversation I think could yield some useful results, but the idea that we "removed" them just because they're no longer awkwardly bent into a shape they fundamentally don't support by forcing them to be a (very bad!) matchmaker is very silly.

    The fact is, what we had before could actually be called a Ranked mode, sort of. It still wasn't, really, but at least it actually had some of the hallmarks of a Ranked queue. Now, though, what we have is very firmly a quick play mode and is less similar to Ranked.

  • mizark3
    mizark3 Member Posts: 1,771
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    P2 - Tools and processes can be used incorrectly, then we learn and adjust to them. It's fine for a child to do chores and help out around the house, it isn't cool for them to work in coal mines because they can fit in the smaller gaps. This misuse of the tool (MMR) is being used when it shouldn't be, or isn't doing it correctly in the other casual modes just as we have it being misused in DBD.

    P3 - We are being pushed to sweaty play, or actions more commonly associated with ranked play (or alternatively the guard rails for less sweaty/casual play were removed), but we don't have the QoL to deal with it. I am saying if we stick with sweatlording/Kills+Escapes/MMR, then we should get those bans/picks to make the game tolerable. Sweat is a symptom of ranked behaviours, including but not limited to all those you listed (visible ranks, etc.). We have the sweat symptom, but we don't have the deodorant to cover up the stench (bans and other ranked QoL). That doesn't mean sweat doesn't happen in the environment of casual matches also, but they are designed around the casual fun with fans to cool people off and limit the stink (limiting the max negative and or sweaty behavior through separate encouragement).

    P4 - Emblems are there, but aren't used for matchmaking. That's what I mean by removed Emblems(-based matchmaking). It was them being the driver of behavior, not a side thought at best, is why I so broadly state that. The game is unique enough in being asymmetrical, that it needs something to fix the rules of its matchmaking. If the Survivor team gained and lost MMR together, that would 'fix' a lot of the problems with it, although that goes too far against the Dev's stated goal of the game being a 1v1v1v1v1. If we created our own rules and encouraged behaviors (with Emblems) for matchmaking, then that also would 'fix' a lot more of the problems with it. Essentially you have to bend and break MMR and Emblems in order to perfect matchmaking. There is less bending and breaking involved with the custom ruleset designed with the game in mind, than the tool intended for 1 on 1s, or X sized team against X sized team. Since we have X and Y sized teams, the system must bend, and stops working as well as it should. Emblems were a better matchmaker than MMR even with the edge-cases. The worst part was 20-50hr new players playing with the sweaty Red ranks, but even then, most Killers were actually casual enough back then to ease up off the gas and onto the brakes back then. That isn't the case now.

    P5 - That's fine to consider Emblems more ranked than MMR, but I'm saying it provided more casual fun than MMR does. When I was brand new, when I was mildly experienced, and when I basically reached the top bracket and stayed there on into MMR, I always had more fun with Emblems being the factor than MMR. It helped Killers, with Survivors being more casual, bringing less sweaty perks, and cleansing totems, and opening chests. I loved my loot-goblin build (Plunderer's+Ace in the Hole+Appraisal), but I can't have fun with it currently. It helped Survivors, with Killers being more casual, trying to spread the pressure more often than currently, and Slug races being around 1/10 matches (IME) now being 1/100 matches (IME). Even the complaints about gen times are complaints about sweat. The complaints about sweat are both a valid issue and a skill issue at the same time. It is a skill issue when the person is sweating against sweat, but its a valid issue when they never wanted to go in against people trying to sweat.

    My issue with ranked and casual is that ranked isn't fun, casual is fun. Emblems(-based matchmaking) were fun, MMR isn't fun. Ranked QoL reduces the 'unfun', and is needed if we want to continue down this path. Alternatively we can use an old-janky system that provided more fun, even if it had major and minor hiccups. That old janky system may have been more 'ranked' than MMR, but it more importantly was less sweaty, and thus, more fun.