Anyone else feel MM is making unfair matches?

Games Other Halo
1

This isn’t really a complaint thread, just more of an observational thread - and I’m just wondering if anyone else feels the same way.

So Halo 4 is great, I’ve been really enjoying it since it came out - except for the last few days, ich has come to kind of a big surprise to me.

I’ve tried playing in the morning, middle of the day, and evenings so see if different audiences that are online at different times effects enjoyment. It doesn’t. I always feel like I’m fighting an uphill battle with the opponents I’m facing in MM lately.

I guess I should provide some background on what kind of player I am: I’m a decent player, good enough to get by at least, but I wouldn’t label myself as “competitive” in the sense that I’m a hyper competitive, win at all costs kind of player.

I like playing BTB, but lately the only map that people ever vote for is Exile and I’m getting really sick of it, so I’m jumping in to other hoppers (usually Team Slayer - though this playlist seems to be nothing but Haven and Adrift. Sigh). I feel like I’m always being put up against a full party of people that take competitive Halo quite seriously - while I’m with my ragtag team of randoms that plays more casually.

This alone gives the enemy team a big inherent advantage, even if our TrueSkill levels are the same the match still isn’t even because we’re playing against a coordinated team with their loadouts set up to compensate for each others playlists (at least from what I’m seeing).

I’m wondering if this could at all be because of the lack of ranked and social playlists - in Halo 3 (since lets face it, nobody really played Reach as seriously as they did in Halo 3) matches like this weren’t as much of a problem, since the guys that wanted to play competitively had their own set of hoppers, while the rest of us had our social playlists with nothing really at stake, now we’re all homogenised in to one big group, and I don’t think it’s making the game very fun for either party. Competitive players want a challenge that they aren’t getting, and casuals are getting trampled on against superior teams.

Though this is only an observation - of course in Halo 4 we have no way of telling what players are in a party together (not to my knowledge at least) unlike in Reach and Halo 3, which is sort of annoying.

Anywho, does anyone else feel like they aren’t being put up against even teams? Or have my skills just taken a rather random and mysterious plunge over the past few days?

2

You might have played with a very good team that is slowly rising up the true skill levels.

3

> You might have played with a very good team that is slowly rising up the true skill levels.

In that case I’ve played against a lot of very good teams this last week or so. :stuck_out_tongue:

4

Yes, Matchmaking is very very flawed. I run with a team every night. We destroy randoms and to be quite honest its very very boring. There is not enough competition out there. There does need to be a ranked btb playlist so we can face good teams every match.

This is the reason I will not play alone. If I go into BTB alone, I will always be put into a losing game that is already going. Since these teams are out there and going into BTB and destroying randoms, noone wants to play BTB anymore because 90 percent of the time you will get wrecked.

Its come down to either run with a team or go alone and lose every game. The only games our team loses to come to about 3 or 4 differnt teams or less. It is unfair for the community of casual players that like to run alone. This will ultimately kill halo 4.

Here is what it comes down to for me…

Run with a team and win all the time which gets boring fast.
Run alone and get in a losing game against teams and get destroyed.
Dont play halo 4 anymore because it really sucks without ranked playlists.

Halo 4 in my opinion is not going to survive. Im a realistic kind of guy and the amount of players is decreasing every day.

Last but not least, the onloy chance you have if your not in a team is to get the sniper and hide somewhere with camo. Every once in a while a random player with a sniper goes positive.

Im just trying to help all of us out here. I could care less about other playlists which are very repetative and boring so I dont play anything else.

Im making a second account just to go into BTB alone that way if I face a team like I do alone 90 percent of the time, I can just put the controller down and fall asleep. LOL. Wake me up when the game is over with.

Jeff

5

> Last but not least, the onloy chance you have if your not in a team is to get the sniper and hide somewhere with camo. Every once in a while a random player with a sniper goes positive.

Yeah, I’ve been experimenting with Active Camo (usually with the Boltshot since I hardly ever get a Sniper Rifle) and it’s quite useful, though I usually get double teamed in such scenarios so I usually only end up killing one guy.

6

> Yes, Matchmaking is very very flawed. I run with a team every night. We destroy randoms and to be quite honest its very very boring. There is not enough competition out there. There does need to be a ranked btb playlist so we can face good teams every match.
>
> This is the reason I will not play alone. If I go into BTB alone, I will always be put into a losing game that is already going. Since these teams are out there and going into BTB and destroying randoms, noone wants to play BTB anymore because 90 percent of the time you will get wrecked.
>
> Its come down to either run with a team or go alone and lose every game. The only games our team loses to come to about 3 or 4 differnt teams or less. It is unfair for the community of casual players that like to run alone. This will ultimately kill halo 4.
>
> Here is what it comes down to for me…
>
> Run with a team and win all the time which gets boring fast.
> Run alone and get in a losing game against teams and get destroyed.
> Dont play halo 4 anymore because it really sucks without ranked playlists.
>
> Halo 4 in my opinion is not going to survive. Im a realistic kind of guy and the amount of players is decreasing every day.
>
> Last but not least, the onloy chance you have if your not in a team is to get the sniper and hide somewhere with camo. Every once in a while a random player with a sniper goes positive.
>
> Im just trying to help all of us out here. I could care less about other playlists which are very repetative and boring so I dont play anything else.
>
> Im making a second account just to go into BTB alone that way if I face a team like I do alone 90 percent of the time, I can just put the controller down and fall asleep. LOL. Wake me up when the game is over with.
>
> Jeff

Truth.

7

I completely agree with the OP, but instead of me getting matched up against higher competition players, my friends who play with me are not on my skill level and get destroyed by the competition that is paired up with us. I play mostly Slayer Pro, KOTH, and Oddball.

Halo 3 was perfect in the way they separated the competitive players and casual players. I was able to play with friends that were at a lower skill level than me in the social playlist, and have my competitive friends, or friends equal or better skill level play in the competitive playlist, but in H4 I cannot play with my lower skill level friends because it’s not fun for my friends to get destroyed every game they play with me.

Halo is all about playing with your friends, but I feel that H4 renders that with the playlists they currently have.

8

@ Pokeh: Feel free to add me on XBL. I read your post, and there is nothing wrong with what was said. Most likely you are facing people a bit better now (People have had a chance to adjust to the game). Also it is likely that you may be going up against stacked teams compared to you going by yourself solo.

Not going to talk about how good I am, but I am good. I wouldn’t mind you joining me in matches.

9

Ill give you some more hints. On exile, get the gauss hog going with a good driver and stay at C side and dont cross tank or banshee bridge.

On exile, take the mongoose to tank and dont pull out until the gauss hog is dead.

On exile, use mobility on red or blue spawn and run to the banshee asap.

On exhile, if you get gause, blow up the tank and banshee from the start with the hog.

on ragnarok, use the ghost or jet pack to get laser asap and take it to the base. Also, camo snipe on the base cliffs. As soon as you start getting spawn killed, id quite cause your screwed. The ghost is a fast way to take the mantis’s shields down and then hit it with a laser.

Dont try to take the hog out on ragnarok, its useless and free kills for the opposite team. Use the ghost to spaltter ppl over.

camp the mantis on meltdown.

Get the rocket hog or wraith on vortex.

Best to plasma psitol repeatedly any vehicle so it cant move until you can board it.

Dont go over the lift on ragnarok, youll get killed over and over and over.

Try to hold your intial spawn down with the mantis and dont push up too far.

These are just defense ideas if your playing a team your not going to beat if your in the game alone. If you cant hold your spawn, your going to get spawn killed alot.

Try to share sniper rifles throughout your team, the more the better. That will hold back the enemy. Theres always lots of free kills at the top mid of ragnarok.

Thats all I can think of for now.

Jeff

10

Some genuinely useful tips there Jeff, I’ll keep those in mind.

Usually when I’m on Exile on the team without the Gauss Hog (Red team I think?) the first thing I do is hide behind a crate to the left (below where the Banshee spawns). I can usually PP the Gauss Hog and then finish it off with Plasma Grenades. Works most of the time.

11

When I play with Randoms, I die horribly. When I play with friends I actually have fun. It feels like they just throw any random or rank on your team.

12

The PP idea is good. The whole system is unfair. A couple nights ago we had out team on ragnarok and this one camo sniper got alot of kills shooting us off of FLAT ROCK on the blue spawn. We ended up picking the guy up next game because our team was short one. He was amazed at how much better it is running with a team and how easy it was versus goin in matchmaking alone.

It might be a good idea these days to play some games, and start making some friends. Fill up your friends list and try to get some partys going with people so you have less of a chance of losing. Try not to play with whiners and quitters. Better to remove them from your friends list. Learn how to do call outs and run in teams of two everywhere you go.

The reason I do all this is because I used to run alone all the time in 2 3 and reach. Somtimes I would just sit in the base with shotgun trying not to get spawn killed. Eventually I made good friends and now run teams. Only problem is the people I used to team up with hate Halo 4s Big team battle because of all the extra BS. So now I need more friends. lol

Jeff

13

Yes we need a new matchmaking system like Halo 3, with 2 categories, Social, and Ranked.

My trueskill is so high that if I go into ANY playlist solo I get paired up against a team of 4 or 8. It’s terrible, I’m at a point where I refuse to play alone, because I just get kids not really caring on my team and going negative 10 every game, where I go positive 10 and lose every game.

14

> I’m wondering if this could at all be because of the lack of ranked and social playlists - in Halo 3 (since lets face it, nobody really played Reach as seriously as they did in Halo 3) matches like this weren’t as much of a problem, since the guys that wanted to play competitively had their own set of hoppers, while the rest of us had our social playlists with nothing really at stake, now we’re all homogenised in to one big group, and I don’t think it’s making the game very fun for either party. Competitive players want a challenge that they aren’t getting, and casuals are getting trampled on against superior teams.

Some thoughts on ranked/social:

https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postst140509_The-necessity-of-ranked-and-social-in-Halo.aspx

15

I totally agree. I played a lot of games with my friend yesterday and we won at least 75% of the games. Now when I’m playing alone (I still need 17 more wins to get the monthly challenge) I lost like 10 in a row because either the other team are all good or I get stupid teammates who just charge and die.
Since none of my friends are online I kinda gave up on the monthly challenge. So close :frowning: