Halo Infinite Matchmaking Scuffed

Games Halo Infinite
23

Just thinking about… one of the reason battle royale games are so popular may be that they are more accessible to player’s of all skill levels.

My Silver/Gold buddy is struggling a bit with Halo. Our weekly Halo nights have dropped off a bit - so he has to play with myself and a couple of Onyx players. Last Tuesday he was obviously frustrated - despite us winning a few games - because he was barely getting a kill (but dying lots).

In between Halo nights he now plays Fortnite. I’ve played with him. He is still -yoink-. Probably even worse than in Halo. But he gets to play around. Scavenge. Build things. Most of the time he is just trying to avoid any skirmishes.

He regularly finishes in the top half of the field. Even last dozen or so. Basically by running from the fight.

But he still finds that more enjoyable than getting humiliated in Halo.

And when he does eventually come up against someone better than him - the score is at the very least 0-1. And he can go straight to the next game. He doesn’t have to sit there and watch his score rack up (down?) to 0-5… 0-10… and so on.

Maybe Halo does need a battle royale… or at least some version of it. Games where the casuals can still be bad - but not have to subject themselves to ritual ridicule at hands of some talented players “chilling” out to yet another killtacular.

24

From a matchmaker perspective:

Searching for a match in the social environment should be quicker as TrueMatch isn’t as reliant on match quality over expedience. In other words, acceptance of greater match odds per wait time (looser SBMM) and perhaps an acceptance of higher network pings too.

I think it should also encompass a very limited JiP system. If someone gets dropped loading into a match, or leaves shortly after it starts, they should be replaced by another real player instead of a bot. Being JiP’d into a match should prevent that player from being credited with a potential loss.

From a gameplay perspective:

Greater sandbox access. Map variety. Less rigid gameplay settings. More casual-oriented mode options. More player autonomy relative to core modes. No visual Competitive Skill Ranks (CSRs) per playlist. Features playlist events (aka rotationals).

In my opinion, the scoring system in social should be changed to a heavy point-based system that recognizes contributions at various values alongside the key objective goals that award the greatest amount of points. Think, Halo 4. This presents players with more opportunities to sense positive feedback for their in-game contributions. And it lends itself to a more social experience for all.

Desired Modes/Playlists:

Slayer
CTF
Strongholds
Oddball
KotH
Extraction
Attrition
Fiesta
Multi-Team/Triple Team
Infection

I’ve just explained what the social environment does, and should, entail. Now let me detail the ranked environment.

From the matchmaker perspective:

TrueMatch puts a bigger emphasis on match quality (relative to SBMM and connection) per time spent waiting. It hopes to limit the individual-to-individual skill-gap as much as possible too. The only possible JiP should be to rejoin your own active match. Hopefully, they add this.

From a gameplay perspective:

Provides visual CSRs per playlist that reset seasonally. The modes/settings are more competitively focused. Features HCS and other game-type experiences that possess a strong competitive nature. In other words, there’s some variety amongst the playlists, but they all possess a more competitive-oriented focus than any of the social modes/playlists.

Desired Modes/Playlists:

HCS Arena
HCS Solo/Duel
HCS Doubles
FFA
SWAT
Snips/Shotty Snips
Squad Battle

2 Likes
25

Well-written and definitely gave me some food for thought.

I do still think that, in the current state, there is not much different from social and ranked.
That includes the lack of social features of course and actual social/party modes (infection, grifball, juggernaut, KOTH, rocket race, ect) but it also includes the SBMM, which is still a little bit too tight for my liking.
If I wanted tight mm, I would play ranked.

1 Like
26

I don’t experience that tight of an SBMM in social. KDA’s of 10+ are almost the rule and not the exception and even KDA’s of 20+ (wich would be an extremely rare occurance with a tight SBMM) happen to often.

I do think there is an SBMM-problem, but not with it being to tight in social, rather:

  1. SBMM in social and ranked being the same. They should be seperate from each other. There are enough people who play way less in social then in ranked, so that should be reflected. On top of that the combined SBMM is now being abused in ranked to get easier matches, wich would also be prevented with seperating them.
  2. Ranked matches should IMO not be skill based at first, but rank based. Someone who is in the gold rank should battle other gold players, no matter what their SBMM is. The game should IMO first find 7 other gold players (and if not possible should get it from one of the neighbouring ranks first) and only after that should SBMM kick in to get the skill between players within the teams as equal as possible. It is weird IMO that someone who ranked in low (for what reason whatsoever) and after that got a high MMR match much higher ranked players and not players from their own rank.

edit: i do agree with you that social need more casual playlists though. Things like griffball, infection, race, etc.

1 Like
27

Yeah, I get that, and I actually will mess around sometimes for a few matches when things get a little too sweaty for my taste. I just wish I didn’t have to throw a few matches on purpose to get out of the sweaty try hard matches, you dig? I like the idea of ‘casual’ playlists being random teammates with random skills, not carefully crafted ‘equally’ matched sweaty battles. I go to rank when I want to try hard, and don’t mind the system in a competitive setting. When I say I feel punished, I mean I hate when the game has clearly chosen me as the best player on my time. I’m not being cocky ok, I suck, but I am not the worst. When I have a few decent matches the game will try to balance say a team of Gold ranks with me and we will get CRUSHED because they keep rushing in and spamming grenades . Sometimes I feel ignorance would’ve been bliss though. Maybe it only bothers me because I am acutely aware of what is happening behind the scenes.