The Player Experience with Lobbies, Matchmaking, and Team Balance in Sandstorm.

Teams end up unbalanced, rather quickly. It is typical to have game end up 12 on 4 or 8 on 2 as players quit the server.



New rounds start and players are not shuffled at all. So, the 12 v 4 will stay as 12 v 4. (in 1.4.2 there was a change noted that appears would've fixed or improved this, but I see no evidence the change is in affect on NWI servers)



A new map starts and even if the last round was a curb stomp no players are shuffled. (this is more for when there are relatively balanced #s of players per side)



When servers fill up, it appears that no thought is given to the level of the incoming players. I realize that level =/= skill, but there is a rough correlation. There is also other data to look at like win %... in other words, players appear to be randomly assigned to one team or the other. No logic seems to be applied as to how to assign players.



You cannot spec a game (this is currently available, you can do so on our custom server)



You cannot switch teams (this is currently available, you can do so on our custom server)

You cannot add new players to an existing game. If my lobby has 4 and we are in-game and 2 more join our lobby, they have to wait until the round is over, which sometimes takes a long time, to join us.



If you add a player who is not in another game, at the round end EVERY player has to back out to the lobby. This disrupts game flow and often you end up on another, unpopulated server on a map or mode you don't want to play.



Whenever the leader changes there seems to be problems. I can't exactly give you a pattern, but if I'm the "leader" and I have to go and make someone else the "leader" weird things sometimes happen.

By marrying frontline & push, players are forced, at times, to play a game mode they don't want to play. Not everyone has 3 hours to play at a time. If your time is limited and you end up in a mode you don't like you have to stick it out. This leads to players quitting the game and getting more frustrated.



When you quit a map/mode you don't like and try to rejoin in the hopes of getting a different map/mode, you often end up in the same server. Again, frustrating and defeating.

Show all NWI servers in the server browser. Show playstyle, map, and time played so far.



Allow players/lobbies to join an NWI server from the browser.



Allow players to switch teams (only if one team is short by 2 or more players)



On map change rebalance players. Keep lobbies intact and then distribute players based on either level or win % to try and great, within reason, a balanced start for the next round.



Allow players to join a lobby and join the current game. If there is no room, give a "server full" error.



Prioritize filling servers over creating new servers/matches.

The 1.4 Insurgency Sandstorm (IS) patch significantly changed how players interact with IS. It not only was a reorganization of the matchmaking system, but had significant changes, I'm sure some intentional and some not, to the lobbying (where you join w/ friends to play in groups of up to 8 players) system. There were many bugs, criticisms, requests and this lead to a couple or more subsequent patches to address many of these issues.While many in the community complain that NWI doesn't care, is greedy, hates us, etc... the fact that they are responding quickly (in some cases) and have shared many comments (esp Mikee and Jonny) that Matchmaking/Team Balance is something they are working on, demonstrates they have a commitment and deep desire to improve things. Don't let your frustration get the better of you. This is their livelihood, so it makes no logical sense that they would want to do anything other than see the game thrive.In that spirit, having played a lot of IS w/ a lot of friends, here are some things I'd like to see addressed...-------Current issues:-------In thinking about these issues and having read some of the proposed high level changes, I'm curious what need or desire from the player base does the Playlist meet? Why does NWI feel that this is better than just showing all the NWI servers in the server list and let people filter and play what they want to? My experience, and that of the group I play with, is that most people, in their limited time, want a specific thing. Now, it might be coop today and Frontline tomorrow, but when they join, it can be a very frustrating thing if I have to play through, say, a Frontline map that they don't enjoy when they want to play Push and they only have about an hour of free time.I remember reading an interview with the YouTube inventors a long time ago and how they initially saw YouTube as a place for people to share family videos amongst each other or within small groups of people, but when they saw that people wanted to share cat videos w/ every person on the planet they ran with it because that's how people wanted to use the service. I think if the player feedback is they want to play specific styles and get directly on servers with their friends, that NWI should consider getting out of the way of how players want to initiate and sustain their play and work to facilitate that.It feels like the playlist idea is something that at some point NWI had a very good reason to believe would be awesome and embraced by the IS community. But it hasn't been. And the community is making it clear how they want to use Matchmaking. They want to play the style of play (and sometimes even the specific map!), often with their friends.Given all the other challenges NWI is facing (going to console, optimization, etc...) I would politely ask that NWI rethink putting a lot of resources into playlist and just let people join the server and playstyle they want to from the browser. You can leave everything AS IS, just show the NWI servers and let people join them.-----------