[Alpha 5.3] New matchmaking

[GFX47]

I dropped the heuristic idea and went for a simpler/easier to tweak approach:

• get the 100 "oldest" (ordered by creation time) available matches with opponents in player's league
  
• filter matches with opponents that were played against in the last 10 minutes
• get the best from these matches using these comparison rules:
  
  • match with an opponent in the closest league (compared to player's league) is the best
    
  • in case of equality: match with an opponent using a different IP is the best
    
  • in case of equality: match with an opponent never met or met the furthest from now is the best (using a 10 minutes tolerance)
    
  • in case of equality: match with an opponent with the closest ELO score (compared to player's ELO score) is the best (using a 10 points tolerance)
    
  • in case of equality: match with a creation time the furthest from now is the best

If no match was found, create a new one using the existing rules (random map, random left/right team).

Edit: applied tweaks from 5.3.1 (bold)

[pier4r]

Look good, can't wait to test. I add to the wiki.

edit: the forum has some problems.

[GFX47]

Please wait for 5.3 before adding it to the wiki.
Yep, the servers are struggling once again...

[Christian]

So this means access to bot classes will no longer be restricted by league, right?

[GFX47]

Nope, the classes lock system still follows these rules:

• on league promotion: unlocked (shotgun unlocked on league 2, machine gun unlocked on league 3, sniper unlocked on league 4)
• on league demotion:
  
  • in multiplayer: re-locked
  • in solo and training modes: remain unlocked

EDIT: clarified behavior on demotion in solo/training/multiplayer modes

[pier4r]

Uh, that is even more interesting. It means that in league3 one could use a sniper?

I'm very interested how the balance will work! Nice challenge for you!

[ConsciouS-0nE]

Soooo close to 5.3 :000000

"RIP Pushing strategy"
11/16/16-12/x/16
MM/DD/YY, americans...


///are we having a DDOS atack?


///Gfx the music on background isnt even a problem
Some music apps doesnt even allow it self to play songs on backround with other apps opened

[GFX47]

Sorry sorry sorry! Won't be re-locked in solo and training modes ^^'
One change at a time...

(edited previous post)

[Christian]

Nope, the classes are still unlocked by league promotion BUT won't be re-locked on demotion.

Ehm... I see unhappy players getting matched against players above their league with "better" bots...

[NullPointer]

I think these rules will backfire.

League 4 doesn't have many matches and will be matched against league 3 most of the times. Machine Guns can't beat Snipers in Split Team, Seven Wonders and Set your Priorities, so this will be very frustrating to League 3 to be in matches they couldn't do anything at all to win.

I'll go even further and say no one in League 1 will beat anyone in League 2. Shotguns win in all maps against Assaults.

I don't think cross league is the best solution. The rest of the rules are fine, but they won't deal with the lack of games.
In my opinion, the best solution for this is to ask this question after an AI is deployed:

"Keep this AI deployed until defeated?"

This will even encourage players to come back in 1 hour with the hope that they can have a rematch.

[pier4r]

+1 for the "keep deployed until defeated".
+1 for "if the others have a new bot, the lower league guy is doomed"

BUT it is also true that, according to trello, there will be only one non assault bot in the formation, so that means that is not always an hopeless challenge.

Furthermore the "equality matches" will likely select matches from the same league.

And in the worst case, gfx is always there to adjust things to avoid destroying the user base. I still think the idea of buying bots with "winning credits" is not so bad.

[GFX47]

Remember that 5.3 will limit usage of special classes to 1 instance per special class per team (not 1 instance of any special class per team, @pier4r).

Buying bots with credits will be tested in a later version, it's too early and needs a lot of changes and balancing.

[pier4r]

Ah ok. So one can have a rainbow team of sniper, assault, mg and shotgun. Even nicer!

[ConsciouS-0nE]

Hours left dr.?

[GFX47]

I changed the rules in 5.3.1:
- matches are now picked in player's league only
- filter matches with opponents that were played against in the last 10 minutes
- changes timing tolerances from 1 hour to 10 minutes

[pier4r]

great. Virtual hugs as reward. Anything about the apparent bug that matches were not registered? (likely the ones between leagues)

See viewtopic.php?f=4&t=117&start=40#p1017

And 10 (or 15) minutes for a cheater are a lot. One should wait like 60 minutes only to hope (hope because pairings are random) to feed the second account with 4 wins. Moreover if the second accounts disappear in lower leagues this is not feasible anymore. In other words, feeding would be a tedious work that will take time from actual AI developing, so the player will end up feeding strong players like nullpointer.

[GFX47]

I saw your posts about the match / victory count not updating in leaderboard.
I have to look at it once I solve this grayed playback buttons bug.

PS: I read every post but don't always have time to answer, sorry.

[pier4r]

Np it is ok to know. I know that you have a lot to do, you have your life, gladiabots infrastructure (forum, server, etc.) and new version of gladiabots.

[pier4r]

Gfx could you make a new post (maybe in the manual section) with the matchmaking rules updated?

[GFX47]

I'll work on it next week.