The new MMR, as possibility (Long post with detailed explanations from previous works)

Preface: I have not worked on DBD in the slightest. However, I have worked on a few games and helped test Match Making (From here on MM) before. These were some issues we noticed and had to fix. I will also use pure speculation on the Match Making Rework( From here on MMR) as that is all we have and try my best to explain it from a outside developer's perspective who has had to do it before. I will also use an example of Twisted Metal PS3 (a game I did not work on) that had a great point based Match Making and how it died.

First, I want to talk about to current MM before MMR

Why do we keep getting placed with much higher ranks? This is a big question we have about the current MM. I am rank 10 why do I keep going against R1-4? Well, before dedicated servers we never had this issue to such a big extent. I bring up dedicated servers for a reason. Before when we were P2P you always got people within your rank who were online, few exceptions, but the ping was terrible. You could be in the US and play against someone in China.This resulted in bad ping

The devs fix? Dedicated servers. So, how do the servers work and why do they matter? Well, it is simple. Before with P2P you could play against anyone who was within your ranks. Now, when you login you are locked to a server. This server limits who you can play with. To use an example of past projects:

We had 6 servers in the US and Canada, 1 for Japan and South Korea, three for EU, one for SE Asia and Aus/NZ. So, if you were playing in US4 and you were rank 10 and needed 12 people to start a match but there were only 3 rank 10s and everyone else was rank 5. We filled the match with rank 5s. Where as if you were on US3 there were a bunch of rank 10s and if you were rank 5 and not enough rank 5s to play we through you in the rank 10s or whereever we could. The matches were better ping wise but not balance wise.

Why did this happen? We isolated the community. Which is what has happened in DBD. Without knowing how many servers they have, say the same set up, and a majority of their players are in South West Coast server and North East Coast Server (US 1 and 4 respectively if referenced from here on out), which is how ours were, if you are in the remaining servers you're pretty much boned. They have all the population. So you are given scraps which greatly reduces your pool. Even if every server had 100 people if you are rank 10 and over 80% of your server are rank 1-4 with 10% being below rank 15 you have a very limited pool to choose from. Then it will priorities low lag over ranks.

So say US 1 has this 80% R1-4, 10% R-15-20 and remaining 10% of inbetween and US4 is an even split of 25% for rank 1-4,5-10.11-15.16-20 you will have better matches on US4. This is why some players, like me, get bad MM and some get great MM. You're lucky to be in a good balanced server for your level whereas I am not.

Why roll out dedicated servers then? Everyone complained about ping. No one, devs included, predicted this mass fragmentation of the player base by rank. In a game like fortnite you won't notice this because you have tens of millions of players. In a game like DBD we have tens-hundreds of thousands. Much smaller base to split up with bigger skill levels.This is the grass is always greener issue. Before we had better ranking but worse ping. Now better ping but worse ranking. If we had more players this wouldn't be that big of an issue.

To sum up the current MM section: When they rolled out dedicated servers it fragmented the community in a way they did not see coming. So now, they have a new fix. MMR. Here's my explanation of that and why I think it'll work out better after sometime has passed. Also, the big flaw of it.

What will MMR do? We know it is a point based system. From point based systems I have seen and tested this is how they work.

You are assigned a skill rating. Usually at 50% starting. The more you mess up the lower it goes, the better you do the higher it goes. Hit a great skill check constantly? Up your rating. Constantly blow checks? Lower your rating. Escape? Raise. Die? Lower. Get a kill? Raise. get 4k? Big raise! Short chase? Raise! you get the picture.

Why is this good? Well, because rank is basically gone and a not easy to exploit a hidden point system, that can be adjusted privately*(see below) so no one will get upset if they de-rank and quit, will lead to better and more reliable matches. So, if you are rank 1 with 5% skill rating and I am a rank 13 with a 5% skill rating we can be matched. Theoretically we are similar. I will get into this later. But for the game we are equal. Sure you are R1 but our skills are the same. This will also fix the issue of bad teammates. If your skill rating is in the high 90's you will be paired with people as such. You won't have to worry about teammates not knowing to look for hexes, blowing gens, griefing, etc**(see below)... This is honestly really good for survivors! If you are good you will be teamed with good people around your skill rating despite their ranks. Killers? The same.You will have harder matches because you will be going against 4 people around your skill rating.

*added later: The benefit of an easily adjustable point system is say they gave too many points for hitting a skill check. They can secretly fix it and we'll never know. Any exploit the community finds out can be fixed without anyone knowing by editing a server config file. This helps the balance of the game greatly

** How will this end griefing and such for me? Well, think about it. If someone griefs they more than likely preform poorly. No one will be amazing and then throw the game by griefing their teammates. so the lower skill players will have this issue and as they grief their skill points can be lowered. Leading to overall better matches

So, let's go into the hidden number real quick. If your rank decreases there is a dumb psychological effect that makes you want to give up. It's a common theory in game design these days. It is why ranking up is so easy in games and why everyone is so high rank these days. Most games give everyone a high rank and then has a hidden skill rating system to balance you. With it being hidden we can't figure out how it works to game it or know if we are going down. Thus making those who give up easily stay longer. More players = better for everyone.

Theoretically we are similar: This part is my big issue with the skill rating. A rank 1 with 5% skill rating and a rank 13 with 5% may play the same but the rank 1 has better perks. This could lead to unfair matches for starter players. Going against bad killers/survs who are decked out with cheap meta perks. This could kill the early game for DBD unless the devs accounted for this and put people under certain rank/hours in their own queue as to prevent this.

What happens if your server doesn't have enough people in your skill rating? Well, they slowly increase the %, that's it. Unlike now where we pull whoever we can to fill the spot due to rank issues here we can just increase the skill %. This is a much more precise system which even leads to issues of you playing against people who aren't leagues better than you. Just slightly. Unless no on else is on.

Now, Twisted Metal PS3. They had the same skill rating system. I was always in the top 15 players in the game until I stopped playing and my skill rating was always a high 90%. This game tracked everything. Turbo spam, weapon spam, weapon hoarding, speed control, break control, etc. Just every aspect of the game. This led to a very balanced skill rating. However, due to bad P2P code and using odd ports the game functioned poorly online. Often using blocked ports. Which lead to people DCing due to their router. Due to players quitting MM went to poop and then people started to just use the match browser. Which then made skill rating pointless.

Why bring this up? It shows how even a great system can die due to bugs and a dying playerbase. If DBD dwindles more then no matter what MMR they do it will be for naught. While I am looking forward to a MMR things like playerbase happiness and bugs need to be addressed.

Bonus topic!!!!!!

The great thing about the skill rating system is it could be applied to each killer, let's be honest survivor skins don't matter (says the surv main). Are you Rank 1 but bad with nurse? Well, get thrown into the low skill rating with nurse. Practice against people who are your skill rating. God tier with Legion? Play that upper %! So-so with Freddy? Play that so-so %. The skill rating, if done this way, could let us learn killers better. It will also let us play killers we're bad with without affecting our skill rating of those we are good with. We can go back to the ones we like and play them against our skill group and then test out new ones or learn them against the correct ratings.

Do I think the MMR will work? Not until 1-2 months after it comes out. This is because everyone will effectively be R20 again. It'll be the big mass rank reset everyone is begging for. This will result in lots of odd matches. After a month or two it'll sort itself out and everyone will be where they should be.

Do I think players will understand this? No, not in the least bit. If ranks are reset too then everyone will continue with how they are now not understanding the pointbased system and what it is doing. However, after the 2 months we should not see as many posts complaining about imbalanced matches unless ranks are still publicly displayed. Because again, people aren't understanding the points system. They only understand what can be directly seen to them.

Am I excited for it? In a way. I think it'll be better for everyone as long as the new player preventions are in place and the individual killer skill rating is in place.