[2019] Match making Oceanic servers still broken [AU/NZ]

Original Post — Direct link

I doubt this will gain any front page notice but I just want to get this out there again.

Prior to some update Oceanic players were connecting to each other instead of instantly to Asia and I believe we were under Australian servers
Prior to 25th of Aprils Maintenance (or the one prior to this one) we were connecting instantly to Asia whenever we MM missions
After 25th maintenance, it went to US West and this takes a long time to connect, if you're lucky

The main concerns of the Oceanic community from what I gather is:

Can we play with other Oceanic players under the Oceanic (Australia) servers because they do exists
Can we choose a region to play in? I want the power to say I want to play in US West, I want to play in Asia

Here's some notes to just show that others and I aren't just going at this blind:

Using a VPN (PIA) to Australia and then switching (Find Better Server) in-game will allow you to test how bad the problem is for Oceanic players
Having two or more Oceanic players queue for a random mission will not find you a game with them
Australia to Asia before 25th of April found MM missions instantly, the queue time was under 1 minute
Australia to US West is iffy, I have queued a bounty for 60 minutes without finding a match and after 60 minutes I used a VPN to force myself to US West and instantly found one
What's interesting is that the Australian MM server in the initial connection to US West will most likely put you in games with other Australian's but after that you belong to the US West MM Server

Just more personal things about my time in this game, in this community:

I am 200 hours in this game and I've enjoyed it
I come from Day 1 Division as well, I been through what was Massive's biggest flop era
I play random missions every day and recently stopped due to the lack of playing with others
Playing with other players adds a lot of variety to my mission runs because people are a factor
I actually don't play this game for loot, I just like running missions and shooting things (it's like L4D for me)
I've been forcing myself to US West/Asia via a VPN, I don't recommend this at all as my account is flagged
I am one of the few that don't mind connecting to US West/Asia because I can play with people
I hope to one day play with Oceanic players (but that was impossible in Div 1 as well)

I understand that this is something the wider community doesn't care about but I just wanted to put it out there that this is our struggles.

All I really ask, even if Massive decides to never fix the algorithm, for those of us left in Oceanic...can we get a server choice? I just want to play with others - preferably Oceanic members in Oceanic servers (the dream fix)

External link →

over 5 years ago - /u/ChrisGansler - Direct link

Hey. We understand there's some confusion around this and some players think matchmaking is broken. Due to very long matchmaking queues we decided to allow players from Oceania to be matched with other servers. We prioritize matching with the US West servers now to at least allow players to join with other agents that speak the same language while having relatively quick queues, but we understand that latency is an issue.

There's probably not an ideal solution for everybody. Some players would like to never match outside of their region because latency is the most important to them. Other agents would prefer to have quicker queues and don't care that much about latency. And then there's probably a bunch more options and opinions that players have. We know this is a tricky topic but we appreciate your feedback and we can make further changes to the matchmaking.

over 5 years ago - /u/ChrisGansler - Direct link

Originally posted by durztwo

very long matchmaking queues

How is is it "very long matchmaking queues" exactly when you can have two players in Australia sitting side by side, they both start matchmaking for the same thing at the same time, and they will never be matched with each other no matter how long you wait?

It's just broken software. It might surface itself as "very long matchmaking queues", but it's still broken at the core.

We're not relying on player feedback only and we use data of how long players are waiting in queue. Regarding your two players sitting next to each other: Is the expectation that the game just starts with those two Australian players and the group gets potentially never filled?

Definitely interested in hearing more about that. Thanks for the input!

over 5 years ago - /u/ChrisGansler - Direct link

Originally posted by WhyNotZoidberg_AU

I appreciate the response but I do feel there's something broken in the MM algorithm on our data centre's.

As I feel very strongly that this isn't a population issue, this is a MM algorithm specifically under our Australian data centre's issue, I am willing to challenge Massive in a $300 AUD (Australian Dollar) bet.

My challenge is for Massive to:

Get 3 people to connect to Australia servers via a VPN, forcing connection via code or best done in person in Australia

3 different providers would be nice (and I mean ISP's just to isolate further)

Queue a match making mission via the map -> random mission

Do this before the next maintenance

The win state is:

All 3 individuals must connect to games within Australia servers (ESC -> Server Shown) - with other Oceanic players. (not 3 separate solo sessions)

If there exists low population, those 3 individuals would likely connect to the same random mission

If Massive is capable of providing video evidence then I will concede my stance and the following:

I will never post another post about the MM state in Oceanic and accuse Massive's MM algorithms/AU data centre MM server

I will then donate $100 dollars (Australian Dollars) to 3 winners for Steam games/items to this very community (Total $300 dollars)

I will allow Massive to post under the weekly maintenance next week a name and shame me moment

I will be very happy to be proven wrong, I am happy to put up half my weekly pay on the line for this challenge and eat cup noodles for a few weeks to pay my bills.

If Massive finds there is an issue, I don't need the $300, this community doesn't, all we ask is for an official acknowledgement in the next SOTG or something from the voices of Massive to tell us, we were right and they're working on it. That's all we want.

Just to add some clarification: Oceania players matching with US servers is not broken. This is on purpose with the explanation above. You guys are pointing out some things that we can definitely have a look at, no question. There's also no need to proof you wrong, that doesn't actually solve anything. If the way matchmaking currently works for the region and it's not what players want we can change it. There's no benefit to us to be right on this just for the sake of being right.

We'll look into some of the feedback players have been providing here and I can see if I can also give you guys some more clarification on the matchmaking process or something else that will make it easier to understand how things are working right now.

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