Has the pre match lobby more negative side effects than benefits?
tldr:
Without the public pre match lobby both matchmaking and game loading times could be reduced.
With dedicated servers a host is not needed anymore and the lobby could be skipped.
. . .
Currently the matchmaking and loading steps work like this:
- You click on the ready button to start matchmaking
- The game is searching for a host and possible teammates.
- When a possible match is found the player is loaded into a pre match lobby
- In the lobby players can still change characters or equipment
- When five players are found a countdown starts
- Players click on ready
- When all players are ready or the countdown finishes the game loads
- The match starts
What benefits does the lobby offer?
- The lobby may have been necessary to connect a host to the other players.
- The lobby could offer survivors a chance to adjust equipment
- The countdown and ready system in theory could make sure that everyone is ready.
Does the ready check actually help?
- No. If players are away from keyboard the countdown continues and the match starts anyway with idle survivor or killer just standing there.
What negative side effects does the lobby have?
- Players who leave the lobby increase the matchmaking times for those players who stay. (Subjective impression based on queue times measured with a stop watch)
- Players have time to check the player profile
- Survivors may leave the lobby when the killer has a lot of achievements
- Survivors may leave the lobby when the teammates are suspected to be beginners
- Killers may leave the lobby when they suspect a coordinated team
- Killers may leave the lobby when survivors carry a lot of flashlights
- etc
How could matchmaking with dedicated servers without a lobby look like?
- Solo players select their character and equipment
- Team players can still invite friends into their local lobby and coordinate their characters and equipment (before matchmaking!)
- The players click ready to join the matchmaking queue
- When a match is found the game loads
- During the loading screen all the players and their achievements could be introduced in an entertaining way
- The match starts
What is the intention of skipping the public pre match lobby?
- The number of loading screens is reduce from two to one
- Lobby skipping is eliminated
- The number of times a player clicks ready is reduced from two to one
- Search and loading times are reduced
...
Thank your for reading and considering.
Comments
-
Wouldn't a big problem be your ping?
If you're having a bad day, y'know, you've been waiting for a long time and, thanks to matchmaking, you then get dumped into a match in which your connection is horrible and DCing or death are your only options, i figure you wouldn't have a great time.
0 -
So basically what you are saying is that another benefit of the pre match lobby is that user can check the connection bar if it is green (great), yellow (works mostly fine), red (may notice lag)?
My assumption when writing the above is that the matchmaking in the future with dedicated servers is smart enough to actually bring together players with similar good connection.
My impression is that the way the lobby was designed was with a player (the killer) hosting the match.
With dedicated servers hopefully arriving soon also on console this whole "prematch lobby dance" with people joining and skipping out again for various reason could become a thing of the past.
. . .
To put it differently:
After more than a year of paying I still enjoy the gameplay of both the killer and survivor side.
But what repeatedly frustrates me with DbD is the amount of time I spend in loading screens and waiting around in the lobby.
On my priority list reducing waiting times is much higher than new content or any other issue discussed on this forum...
2 -
Players have time to check the player profile
I don't find that negative. I like checking out profiles. I put some time into my own and some people got really nice ones. If you are a good player then why would I leave when I can learn something?
And I've also played with plenty of folks who had not even one hour in the game. Best bet is to let them do their thing, let them make their mistakes, save them a couple a times but ultimately aim for the hatch, as you know it's coming.
When I see premades and I'm in no mood for it I can dodge it. That's fantastic.
Plus I've seen so so many profiles with one or multiple vac bans. What's up with that actually?
It's like every 12 year old cyka blyat rush B no flash no stop who has ever gotten a vac ban is playing dbd.
1 -
The benefit of me dodging when Im rank 1 and other guys are rank 12
0 -
I honestly am happy with the pre lobby. I defenatly understand that you can eliminate lobby skipping with that but I would like to prepare myself for some specific ppl. For an example. I have a wraith or hag challange and I see a flashlight in a lobby, I'd like to take franklins before the game starts. Or when I see a swf team I want to take some better builds such has not brown addons, going to greens or mayb even purples.
When I see low rank ppl with low amount of hours, I switch to not tryhard builds without ruin, or if I maybe luckily find a friend, I would like to use a party streamer for him. etc, there are tons of more reasons for that.
I would like to see the pre lobby staying in the game.
0 -
I dont think survivor items are balanced enough to remove lobby dodging or the chance to prepare for it.
0 -
1 -
This literally really only benefits SWF groups who are tired of killers dodging them.
0 -
So hows that be possible without lobby?
And you couldve atleast photoshopped the color of the button.
0 -
Based on the feedback it seems people still want the option to be able to switch equipment in the lobby before the match.
An alternative then could be:
- The prematch lobby stays as before
BUT
- It is not possible anymore to leave the prematch lobby
- Disconnecting in the prematch lobby would be treated the same as leaving trough the match.
...
How much does the waiting time change for those who stay when someone skips the lobby?
The "Waiting Time" was measured with a stopwatch from hitting ready the first time to search for a match to the moment five players were assembled in the lobby and all clicked ready or the countdown reached zero.
- When five players were added the lobby together and immediately clicked ready the fastest time observed in the test period was 45 seconds.
- When a survivor leaves the lobby the waiting time increases because matchmaking is started again searching for a suitable replacement. As a rule of thumb you can expect the waiting time to be another 45 seconds but more often is is longer up to two to three minutes to find that one replacement.
- When the waiting time is allready longer than 5 minutes in most of the observed cases the watiing time would be even longer than 7 minutes.
- When players in a group are not of the same rank it seems like matchmaking spends significantly longer finding a replacement that matches specifc rare criteria.
- When the waiting time started to becomes longer than 5 minutes after the first survivor leaves one or two more would leave as well.
- Because of that the "smart" choice seems to be to leave a lobby after more than twice the average search time has passed. This means it is fater to start in a new lobby than to wait until matchmaking finally produces a result for the current lobby members.
What is the main intention:
- It should be prevented that players waste the time of others be skipping out of a lobby and retriggering the search stage of the lobby.
- Players should not be able to choose those opponents they prefer and skip those they do not like.
- If the preparation stage is considered crucial before the game then the prematch lobby could remain without the ability to leave it again.
0 -
Currently on PC and Switch. Lobbies can form without a killer present and if a killer leaves the lobby does not close. What else do you want again?
0 -
tldr version:
The matchmaking searches for 5 players who "fit" together and then starts the match.
Players should NOT be placed in a public lobby before 5 players are found.
When a prematch lobby is needed players can make adjustments there AFTER all five players are found.
Once five matching players are found none of them is supposed to leave again until the match is finished.
...
From that perspective reducing waiting and search time for everyone is considered more important than the ability to choose opponents and teammates.
0 -
That won't work. Sometimes survivors and killers recognize other players they don't want to play with again.
0 -
Would it not be more efficient to add some kind of "blacklist" functionality where players could add some people they do not want to play with?
It should not be that one player who does not want to play with some other people for his own reasons is causing longer queue times for everyone else.
0
