Templates help form teams with an equal number of vehicles at the top/middle/bottom of the list, which fixes two problems at once. Firstly, the matchmaker creates evenly assembled teams. Plus, it provides an enjoyable gaming experience for all players by eliminating frustrating scenarios where vehicles in the middle and at the bottom of the list are outnumbered by those at the top. Now, regardless of your position on the list and which template you get, there are enough players in the same position on the team as you are to turn the tide of the battle:

Tanks at the bottom will always be in majority. They can either fight against same-tier opposition or join forces with higher-tier comrades.

Revving their engines in the middle of the list will be solid vehicles that have what it takes to stand strong against “top” enemies.

Finally, vehicles at the top can hunt for their counterparts on the other team, set the line of fire, or suppress superior enemy forces.

Evenly assembled teams

Another particularly painful point that you brought up was one-sided, boring games composed of two teams that were vastly different in vehicle composition. Let’s say two tank destroyers in a team against seven in the opposing. You can guess the result from the get-go, which kind of wipes the smile off your face and makes you want to quit (unless you’re on the winning side, of course, but even winning is little fun when it comes easy). This would happen because the old matchmaker used to balance a team by the number of scouts and arty. The other classes would get distributed randomly.

The improved matchmaker adds tank destroyers to the equation. Medium and heavy tanks still get distributed randomly, as the introduction of strict balancing by all vehicle types within the current system would result in significantly longer wait times. Take, for example, the only Tier III heavy, Type 91. It would have to queue until another player on its server chooses this very tank for a battle, because there’s virtually no other vehicle to match against it if the algorithm considers tiers and types. So, to get you into a finely-balanced match and do it quickly, the new system is only strict with the three classes that have very distinct gameplay roles (light tanks, tank destroyers and arty), as their uneven distribution between teams might ruin the balance of power.

We’ll look into the option of balancing by all vehicles types at a later point. As of now, our main priority is fine-tuning the improved matchmaker. It’s a complex task, and we’d rather take it one step at a time: ensure that the new algorithm runs smoothly, and then proceed with refining it further.

Now, the difference in the number of artillery, light tanks and tank destroyers will be just one vehicle at the most, providing evenly assembled team makeups. Platoons are getting distributed similarly. The matchmaker ensures there’s the same number of Platoons on each side, which should bring the possible difference in Platoon players down to three (e. g., three three-man strong Platoons in one team against three Platoons of two each on the other). Just as with the templates, if it takes too long to build a team with an equal number of Platoons, the matchmaker might loosen this restriction to get you into a battle quickly.

Only same-tier Platoons in Random Battles

On the battlefield, coordination and joint actions are what paves your way to victory. And there’s hardly a better means to show well-orchestrated teamwork than Platoons. However, no matter how well you work in two’s and three’s, at the end of the day you are still part of a larger battle unit—a team. If you choose multi-tier vehicles for a Platoon, you put your entire team in harm’s way: they can get matched against tanks that are three or more tiers higher than they are. A same-tier Platoon, on the contrary, ramps up a team’s chances at victory.

To reward your efficient actions and promote teamwork, we implemented a system of XP bonuses for same-tier Platoons back in 9.15. Along with it, we imposed penalties to discourage players from forming multi-tier Platoons, which reduced their number, but didn’t solve the issue 100%.

tiers of vehicles in a platoon bonus for a victory / loss (%) I—III 0 IV 1 / 1 V 2 / 2 VI 3 / 3 VII 5 / 4 VIII 10 / 5 IX 20 / 10 X 30 / 15

Now we are back at it with the improved matchmaker. It simply won’t allow multi-tier Platoons into Random Battles to create balanced teams.

No more than 3 SPGs per team

If you joined us in the Sandbox, you already know the limit of no more than 3 arty per side balances combat interplay between SPGs and other vehicles. Both stats and feedback show that it injects combat with extra fun and variety, and decreases camping, encouraging more active gameplay. And with 9.18, we are bringing this restriction to live servers!

Fewer map dupes

The improved matchmaker reduces the number of map dupes with a new logic. It analyzes maps that tankers from the two newly created teams played over the last 10 battles. Then, it places them on a map none of them have seen in the last few sessions.

This new map rotation logic is relevant for maps used in the Standard mode (Random Battles). Assault and Encounter Battles are only played across a limited number of maps. So, if you have them flagged, maps will repeat more often.

Getting ranked in the top/middle/bottom of the list

After you’ve fought at the bottom for a few battles in a row, the matchmaker will try to find a team where you get in the middle/top of the list, regardless of whether you play in the same vehicle or choose a new one during this session. If it sees that this will have you waiting for quite a while, it will match you into a battle with a suitable tier split.



