Posted 25 December 2014 - 10:31 AM

Matchmaker only works on one match at a time. This means that, when there's a mismatch between the number of attackers and defenders, extra attackers are meaningless.

Let's just take an extreme case as an example... say there are 48 defenders who came on at random times, and 600 attackers who all came on at once.

Out of those 600 attackers, matchmaker picks 12. It then holds that team for 10 minutes waiting for defenders to show up. The other 588 attackers are in the "ghost queue," so they'll see their timer counting up and up and up, with a lobby full of "PILOTS RECEIVING ORDERS."

Attackers playing: 0. Attackers queued: 12. Attackers in ghost queue: 588

When matchmaker can make a 12-man team of defenders, it launches the match and then finds another group of 12 attackers.

Attackers playing: 12. Attackers queued: 12. Attackers in ghost queue: 576

It holds this state for up to ten minutes, and during that time it find another group of 12 defenders and launches the match, then queues up another 12 attackers.

Attackers playing: 24. Attackers queued: 12. Attackers in ghost queue: 564

It holds this state for up to ten more minutes, and during that time it finds a third group of defenders and launches the match, then queues up 12 more attackers.

Attackers playing: 36. Attackers queued: 12. Attackers in ghost queue: 552

During this third match, the first match finishes and all its players go back into the queue. It then launches the fourth group of attackers against this recycled first group of defenders, while the first group of attackers go to the end of the line.

Attackers playing: 36. Attackers queued: 12. Attackers in ghost queue: 552.

Then the fourth group of defenders is formed and matchmaker launches a match for them.

Attackers playing: 48. Attackers queued: 12. Attackers in queue: 540.

This cycle continues perpetually, with the number of attackers actually PLAYING limited to the number of defenders, so long as there are defenders on the planet.

This means that players from more populated factions end up staring at the "PILOTS RECEIVING ORDERS" screen for upwards of 30 minutes during peak times, waiting for defenders to come available.

Auto-wins only happen when there are no defenders available. This happens during times of low player population, or during the ceasefire when there is one more team queued for one side than for the other... and usually, the planet isn't close enough that the one auto-win doesn't decide its fate.

I cannot speak for the other populous factions, but I can speak from my on personal experience as someone who assists in coordinating Davion's peak-hour operations. I know of only two times that this has happened for Davion, out of the 84 planet-days that have occurred so far (not counting planets that are protected by diplomatic arrangement). One attack and one defense.

So yes, they do rarely happen during peak hours... but when Russ said that their impact on actual planetary control is minimal, he was telling the truth.

Edited by StillRadioactive, 25 December 2014 - 06:28 PM.