Matchmaking Concerns

[Nephilim 26]

Before I retire permanently from Tanki, I'm curious to know if others have had an experience similar to mine. By some miracle, and admittedly some money spent, I've advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-General over many months of play. In that time, I've seen many big changes to the game, including the introduction of invincible domes, devastating nuclear blasts, and most lately, flying tank hulls activated by so-called "overdrives." 

 

Here's my issue: when I play, I typically find myself near the bottom of the "food chain" in most matchmaking games, where I'm pitted against seemingly invulnerable opponents bearing ranks far above mine (marshals, legends, archdukes, princes, demigods, etc.). These players can easily destroy my tank with apparently little effort from their incredible weapons, invariably a hidden sniping Shaft or Railgun, or an OP flamer or frosty turret with an unbelievable range. Against many of these players, even three or four shots repeatedly fired from my double-damage enabled Mark 6 turret often seems frustratingly ineffective. The result is a very unsatisfying, seemingly unbalanced game in which it's hard to have fun and progress as a player. 

 

I guess it would be fair to say in summary that I've stuck with the game long enough and invested sufficient funds, hoping it would get better for me, but, alas, it hasn't. Clearly I'm not as skilled a player as many people are in Tanki, but I'd have liked to see a more equitable matchmaking system where even mediocre players (perhaps like myself) could still derive some enjoyment in the long term playing against others of a more equal skill/gear level. Whatever the case, I wish everyone well and happy gaming. Cheers.

[Maf 32,300]

14 minutes ago, Nephilim said:

(marshals, legends, archdukes, princes, demigods, etc.)

 nice one

[DieselPlatinum 5,121]

2 hours ago, Nephilim said:

Here's my issue: when I play, I typically find myself near the bottom of the "food chain" in most matchmaking games, where I'm pitted against seemingly invulnerable opponents bearing ranks far above mine (marshals, legends, archdukes, princes, demigods, etc.). These players can easily destroy my tank with apparently little effort from their incredible weapons, invariably a hidden sniping Shaft or Railgun, or an OP flamer or frosty turret with an unbelievable range. Against many of these players, even three or four shots repeatedly fired from my double-damage enabled Mark 6 turret often seems frustratingly ineffective. The result is a very unsatisfying, seemingly unbalanced game in which it's hard to have fun and progress as a player. 

Who doesn't find themselves in this predicament?

[Nephilim 26]

Thanks for saying so, DieselPlatinum. Nice to know it's not just me.

[von_Cronberg 258]

Many years ago, when I rose through the ranks (before becoming one of the "legends, archdukes, princes, demigods" that I am now), it was possible to do so in an enjoyable manner with some smarts, diligence and a small three digit Euros per year. Today is would rather be a small four digit Euros per year to have an enjoyable road to legend.

However, if you actually play against legends with an Mk6 turret, you are doing something wrong. The basics for your path are to focus on very few hulls and turrets and making the best possible upgrade of these at any time your top priority, while only buying and upgrading stuff during discounts. Also, tailor your Tanki, play those PRO or MMS modes that maximize your enjoyment, do not let Tanki's marketing folk (amazingly arrogant, self-righteous and utterly incompetent people which are ruining the game and the business of their employer) coerce or nudge you into playing stuff that compromises your enjoyment. Most important: Never ever use the "quick battle" button. Never ever.

[NooNooHead 121]

Looking at your profile, you haven't done badly at all. Your K/D ratio is a very respectable 1.2. Perhaps, you had an easy time ranking up blowing up weaker enemies until recently, when you meet stronger opponents. Here is the deal. Most likely, your path will get tougher unless you can spend more to keep up. If you're under powered, no amount of skills will make up for it. Even with a fully upgraded mk7 turret against a maxed out defender drone, you're not going to do much damage. I have seen players with your GS do well in MM matches at the legend level. Be more selective in the battles you play. Press tab at the start and decide whether your team is strong enough and enemies have good protection against you. Leave early if it isn't favorable. If in doubt, play (camp) for kills and ignore the battle mode. That will get you a share of the pot. Mobile app has free crystals and supplies every 6 hours. It is not much but may keep you going.

[wolverine848 13,097]

24 minutes ago, von_Cronberg said:

However, if you actually play against legends with an Mk6 turret, you are doing something wrong.

With the way MatchMaker works, it is not uncommon for Brigadiers to play against Legends.

The Kits available for crystals start at Lt. General.

What exactly is a Brigadier doing wrong in that case?

[Nephilim 26]

I appreciate all your very good insights and thank you for your helpful comments. I'd never thought about abandoning a match if it looked like my team was weak. I would just persist and do my best, even if it looked like we were doomed early in the game. Interesting strategy!

[von_Cronberg 258]

5 minutes ago, wolverine848 said:

The Kits available for crystals start at Lt. General. What exactly is a Brigadier doing wrong in that case?

Dude said he does buy stuff with real money. And a look at his account shows that he upgrades a broad range of hulls and turrets, instead of maxing out very few, which would be doing it right.

[wolverine848 13,097]

1 minute ago, von_Cronberg said:

Dude said he does buy stuff with real money. And a look at his account shows that he upgrades a broad range of hulls and turrets, instead of maxing out very few, which would be doing it right.

I was thinking in more of a general case when I read your post. But in this case the "you" was more specific, so technically at Lt. Gen I guess Nephilim could have bought an M7 kit If enough crystals were saved up.

But  MatchMaker allows for really, really stupid team makeups, and Brigadiers can end up playing way above their weight-class.  And even a Lt. General with a newly purchased mk7 kit is at a huge disadvantage when entering a battle with pretty much a stock set-up vs. L10+ with high modules, maxed drones and mk7.20 items.

[von_Cronberg 258]

9 minutes ago, wolverine848 said:

And even a Lt. General with a newly purchased mk7 kit is at a huge disadvantage when entering a battle with pretty much a stock set-up vs. L10+ with high modules, maxed drones and mk7.20 items.

All beginnings are difficult, and learning years are not earning years. Actually as a mentally healthy person, one can find the persistent struggle of sucessfully climbing the last stage to the top level enjoyable. I did. Though the "sucessfully" element needs focus, and as soon as one can buy an Mk7 kit, one can start upgrading it.

At the general stage of my own account, I did for a year almost exclusively play no-drug PRO battles in CP mode (mostly XP/BP), which for me was not only a fine way to enjoy the game but (back then in XP/BP, too) also gave me good crystals, more so with premium, without need to spend them on supplies, until I returned to regular battles with maxed gear.

[Nephilim 26]

It never occurred to me that players would assess their chances of winning and bail at the outset of a game. That would explain why matchmaking would place me in a game, sometimes midway through, with a team that was hopelessly shorthanded and outclassed. I'd just tough it out and feel frustrated throughout the game. This would happen far too often, though, and now I understand why.

Thanks for this useful insight -- it's almost like a project post-mortem, seeing how players' minds work and the shortcomings of the matchmaking algorithms.

[E_polypterus 2,374]

14 hours ago, NooNooHead said:

Your K/D ratio is a very respectable 1.2.

K/D doesn’t determine a players skill. Most of the time.

[Tokamak 1,021]

Just now, E_polypterus said:

K/D doesn’t determine a players skill. Most of the time.

Snipping is a skill monsieur!

[wolverine848 13,097]

33 minutes ago, E_polypterus said:

K/D doesn’t determine a players skill. Most of the time.

Yeah, when I made comments that some people did not like they visited my profile and commented on my K/D below 1 (I think it was like 0.95).  Of course they fail to bring up the hundreds of hours I had in Isida - target number 1, even aside from the flag carrier.

[NooNooHead 121]

1 hour ago, E_polypterus said:

K/D doesn’t determine a players skill. Most of the time.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a clear cut way to determine skills, team effort, etc. You buddy got the flag making the escape so you go deep into enemy territories to turn the enemies pointing backward at you. Your teammate caps  and of course, going against the entire enemy team, you get killed. Now, check the score at the end and see how the pot is split up. Even if you want to measure something like this, I don't think you can. The tanki code base would blow up with all that extra logic. Something like killing enemies, destroy juggernaut, scoring a goal, capping a flag, healing a tank, those are easy to calculate. That is the scoreboard presented at the end. Now, I just play within the parameters of the game. 

[NooNooHead 121]

4 hours ago, Nephilim said:

It never occurred to me that players would assess their chances of winning and bail at the outset of a game. That would explain why matchmaking would place me in a game, sometimes midway through, with a team that was hopelessly shorthanded and outclassed. I'd just tough it out and feel frustrated throughout the game. This would happen far too often, though, and now I understand why.

Thanks for this useful insight -- it's almost like a project post-mortem, seeing how players' minds work and the shortcomings of the matchmaking algorithms.

It is important to avoid the organized teams or clans in MM. What gives them away is at  least 2 tanks with GS close to 9999. My estimate is the handicap against you is at least 2 tanks down. My only exception is when I bump into sister and andra because we spend more time chatting than playing sometimes...and sister is nice to chat with...still need to find out how andra got her spectrumA.

[ghost-guns 1,486]

On 11/8/2020 at 5:59 PM, Nephilim said:

Before I retire permanently from Tanki, I'm curious to know if others have had an experience similar to mine. By some miracle, and admittedly some money spent, I've advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-General over many months of play. In that time, I've seen many big changes to the game, including the introduction of invincible domes, devastating nuclear blasts, and most lately, flying tank hulls activated by so-called "overdrives." 

 

Here's my issue: when I play, I typically find myself near the bottom of the "food chain" in most matchmaking games, where I'm pitted against seemingly invulnerable opponents bearing ranks far above mine (marshals, legends, archdukes, princes, demigods, etc.). These players can easily destroy my tank with apparently little effort from their incredible weapons, invariably a hidden sniping Shaft or Railgun, or an OP flamer or frosty turret with an unbelievable range. Against many of these players, even three or four shots repeatedly fired from my double-damage enabled Mark 6 turret often seems frustratingly ineffective. The result is a very unsatisfying, seemingly unbalanced game in which it's hard to have fun and progress as a player. 

 

I guess it would be fair to say in summary that I've stuck with the game long enough and invested sufficient funds, hoping it would get better for me, but, alas, it hasn't. Clearly I'm not as skilled a player as many people are in Tanki, but I'd have liked to see a more equitable matchmaking system where even mediocre players (perhaps like myself) could still derive some enjoyment in the long term playing against others of a more equal skill/gear level. Whatever the case, I wish everyone well and happy gaming. Cheers.

It's not your fault. They are just making the game worse and worse. It's mind-boggling.

[Nephilim 26]

Thanks for that,  ghost-guns. I can't honestly say that the changes I've seen have been positive. I remember it being a lot more simple fun when I started.

[wolverine848 13,097]

I'm so sick and tired of being placed in battles with (high-ranked) team-mates that have a GS of ~ 5000 in Legend battles.

They are a drag on the team and for all intents-and-purposes they are equivalent to mults.

It is so frustrating that I just leave battles the moment I see them on my team.

[yellowghetto 3,206]

42 minutes ago, wolverine848 said:

I'm so sick and tired of being placed in battles with (high-ranked) team-mates that have a GS of ~ 5000 in Legend battles.

They are a drag on the team and for all intents-and-purposes they are equivalent to mults.

It is so frustrating that I just leave battles the moment I see them on my team.

I have the opposite. High GS players on my team who don't follow the objective or don't know how to spin their turrets.

[cosmic666 1,055]

13 minutes ago, wolverine848 said:

I'm so sick and tired of being placed in battles with (high-ranked) team-mates that have a GS of ~ 5000 in Legend battles.

They are a drag on the team and for all intents-and-purposes they are equivalent to mults.

It is so frustrating that I just leave battles the moment I see them on my team.

I don't bother after daily missions are done, no point.

The whole of MM needs scrapping and reworked so that it actually WORKS.

Of course this will never happen, devs to busy making legal cheats in one form or another.

Just watched that Q/A thing, omg what a complete load of utter rubbish.

I could only bare 5 mins of it before my brain turned to mush.

There was also some bizzare battle going on?? needless to say FLYING CHEAT capped flag with crisis drone on in about 10 secs.

Don't blame you for leaving, i do exactly the same until i get the right battle for me. Devs insist on bringing in OP hulls etc into the battle then i just exit, and continue to exit until it's just right. 

Sad to say this, but i look out for me in battle now, no one else. 

They want to keep TO unbalanced, no problem, i will use it to my advantage from now on and keep doing what i am doing to benefit from it, and i don't give a jot about anyone else. I now treat any battle as a TDM because i can just about outscore anyone on my team.

Only overriding factor is if i get a mission like collect 15 speed boosts, then i just do what i have to then leave, regardless if we are winning or not.

Blame the devs for this, high xp, low score, low cry.

They do this deliberately so you rank faster with the least amount of cry as they can possibly give you.

This is detrimental if you have a low to mid rank account.

Devs don't care, they want you to rank quicker, in the hope you buy your way out of trouble when you realise your garage is just not up to the task at the higher ranks you have whizzed through. 

Hence you @wolverine848 are getting put into battles with legends who have substandard equipment, they may as well be WO3s for all the help they can give you.

 

[Potdindy 866]

See, I dunno, im making more crystals than ever before. Tanki is just handing them out in huge numbers. Not sure why ppl are not getting good crystals

[wolverine848 13,097]

9 minutes ago, Potdindy said:

See, I dunno, im making more crystals than ever before. Tanki is just handing them out in huge numbers. Not sure why ppl are not getting good crystals

Some missions are way, way harder to complete at the moment.

But overall I'd say most complaints are about the quality of the battles.  Many are just big 

[Nephilim 26]

I just played what I think will be my last game. There's no fun left in this for me anymore. Thanks, all, for the great and helpful comments and best wishes to you!