Updated thread topic: Connectivity issues and server issues have caused a slew of problems with matchmaking. While the battle pass and playlist diabolical don’t help; the primary cause of people leaving matches is connectivity both to each other and to servers. This is something we should bring up and address.
Look at Trand’s posts for a deeper dive, they made some really good points.
Initial Thread Topic for continuity: Every single match I’ve played online has either been midway where I’m filling the slot of people who have left or half of my team leaves at the beginning of the game.
I don’t want to play 3 v 12 on big team battle.
Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to design challenges around randomized game modes. I guess that sweet 300xp which does nothing is worth ruining an entire match for.
These playlists cannot come soon enough, maybe it’ll help the problem. I think it’s all ingrained in the f2p format that 343i has pushed upon a game that didn’t need it. People wanting to play for the battlepass rather than for the game. Having a default progression system that can be earned in the game would solve this immediately imo. That way people have an outlet. It would be cool to earn MK7 armor by playing the game and being rewarded with medals for XP. Then if I want legacy gear I could use the battle pass.
There are a variety of reasons that this is happening.
Players disconnecting due to server/crash issues, bots being used to fill in gaps when matchmaking can’t find players for some reason, among many other lesser or greater reasons.
There’s a lot more to this than “players completing challenges”. 9 players don’t leave at the beginning of a match because of challenge restrictions.
Perception matters. It feels like people leave the match because of the systems set in place. I’m sure server issues are part of the problem, but that’s not an excusable reason. Server issues shouldn’t be a problem considering multiplayer has been released for so long.
I just used the 3 v 12 to describe how drastic this problem is. It’s not necessarily they all leave right at the start of the match. 9 people leave throughout the game, some immediately, some after a loss is certain. There are some challenges which require wins, why waste time completing a game which will result in a loss when you could just start a new one.
But I digress, I more so started this thread to initiate a discussion about either the challenge system or game modes and some solutions we have collectively.
Let’s say someone has a challenge to complete a match of total control. They queue into something different for the 40th time, they promptly leave. That is what’s happening for the most part. Besides that it console players leaving matches populated by M&K users.
I’m gonna focus less on a personal feeling and more on experience with the product.
Perception can also be skewed heavily by anecdotal evidence, such as heavily opinionated forum posts.
It’s not just server issues, it’s optimization issues causing crashes. It’s connectivity issues, player/bot priority for matchmaking. It’s disallowing players to rejoin matches after something goes wrong during the loading screen.
All of these things are still ongoing but tend to get buried under the flood of hot topic copypasta posts that skew your perception of the issue.
If you start a match with a 3v12 on BTB, there’s a solid chance you didn’t have 24 players to begin with and the system simply backfilled in post with bots to give you a short matchmaking timer.
I strongly disagree.
Players don’t quit en masse prior to knowing what the match is.
Statistically speaking, you might lose a few players per team after loading in due to challenge bias. You don’t lose 9 prior to loading in when the opposing team loses no one. That’s indicative of something else going on.
Considering you don’t know for sure what players are using until post game stats, I’m gonna hit the “disbelief” button until you have some data to back this claim up.
Those are some very good points, and if that is the case then we should turn this thread into a discussion on that.
It’s still important to consider perception; it’s not something you can ignore or dismiss. The perception defines reality, which is why posts get buried in the first place.
I think there are some issues here that have other means of explanation.
And they really need to be looked into and addressed in depth.
Player counts are hugely important for multiplayer titles, and issues like the ones your facing are going to impact the game tremendously if left unaddressed.
One more thing I want to point out is that matchmaking times are pretty consistent between matches, and this should be a red flag. Rather than wait like previous titles have for balanced matches and that everyone is connected, the game relies heavily on bots for casual matches and crazy “balance” algorithms for ranked.
le gasp! who woulda thunk per match xp based on skill and not some RNG based challenge was actually a good idea?
for surse though. like Halo reach and mcc have progression systems, and mcc has a ‘battle pass’, and ya know… whiles i get nothing for ranking up in mcc, i feel rewarded for my efforts in TRYING in each match. be it multi kills or a spree. whiles in infinite, even if i get the medals, i feel nothing as i get nothing. XP may be a small amount, but it being there brings me to play just a few more matches
I haven’t played much BTB, but I have over 500 games in the 4 v 4 playlists (not to seem like I have no life), and my experience has been really good. I have only dc’d from one or two games.
I guess people do quit sometimes and I see bots listed after the match, but I’m not sure if those bots ever made it into the arena, or if they were just brief placeholders. I never remember seeing them in game (have never been killed by one lol). Anyway it doesn’t seem to be detracting from my experience.
I’ve gotta add that I’m playing this on a budget gaming pc and it runs this thing like a bandit. I’m actually shocked what a super smooth, lag free experience this has been.