Can we get matchmaking?

[Nirav]

I don't know how many others want this, but I would be incredibly happy if there was some kind of multi player 1v1 matchmaking. Ideally it could use the ELO system to track skill and match you with the player you are closest in ELO with that’s also looking for game. It should pull from a random map pool of balanced 1v1 maps. Also maybe do something like display ELO rank next to your name or something (this doesn’t matter but could be fun).

There is already a join game function so it might be easy to make a server that only has 1v1 games always set up and join games just puts you in a random one, and prioritizes games with another player already in it.

[watbesh]

According to this page, FPI [acronym=Add a scoring/ranking system to online multiplayer]13[/acronym] and 31 seem to be against your idea for some reason. But these won't stop you from building/using a rating system. I think some people use a website called "Ladder".

[pe_em]

Well, there are such rankings like Ladder of Wesnoth and WesnothLife, but both of them haven't got such matchmaking system. Instead, players can play with whoever they want (ladder) or take part in tournaments (WesnothLife). You should also note that here are very experienced players btw.

[Nirav]

Well even if there against ranking, I would still hope that they would be okay with matchmaking of some kind. Most of the time I don’t plan out when i'm going to play video games, it just fills my free time and that makes it hard to use things like the wesnoth ladder thing and participate in tournaments. I cant imagine it would be to hard to match 2 random players together for a standardised 1v1 game (although I have limited coding experience so I could be totally wrong).

[Nirav]

Also even some kind of search function on sights like Wesnoth Ladder would be a huge improvements. Something like Im open at 8:00 PST search for everyone else that can play at this time. That way you don’t have to send messages to individual people and plan way in advance, just like an hour in advance. Or a "these other players are online" on this sight so you can message them and possibly set up immediate games. Basally anything that makes it faster to find a quick game.

[Cackfiend]

With the Ladder of Wesnoth you can add all members to your friends list which makes it easy to find people to play ladder games with. Ladder games pretty much guarantee that your opponent wont prematurely leave, which is one of the main reasons to play Ladder games. Also, once you're a ladder member you can just make games called "1v1 Ladder" and as long as the opponent that joins the game is a member then you can feel safe in knowing youre about to get a good game

[loubardeas22]

I completely disagree with the philosophy of the developers who feel as if rating systems somehow ruins community. For me personally not having a good rating/matchmaking system ruins multiplayer games play for me. There are two main reasons I believe this:

1. Games are more fun when players skill is in the same ballpark(doesn't have to be identical, that is the beauty of the randomness of Wesnoth or any game/sport; underdogs always have a sporting chance). But it has to be within an acceptable range. I don't hate losing, but I hate getting annihilated by someone who is way out of my league. But worse still is annihilating an opponent!(it is boring and a waste of everyone's time). A ranking system lowers the probability of lopsided games, and if properly implemented makes the game way more fun for very serious players and for NOOBS! Because you everyone can have the thrill of a close, highly competitive match-up more often, regardless of their skill level. Look at ANY sports league across the globe, pro and amateurs all benefit from playing in their respective divisions, if anything it alleviates the social problems of competition, because the hyper competitive players get some segmentation from the more causal, recreation players. Don't understand arguments to the contrary, if competition ruins the spirit for you, then go PLAY COOP lol, why are you even engaging in a PVP match?(taking out ranking doesn't take out competition, it just makes it less user friendly)

2. Discourages Quitting! You don't have to have money on the line, even the threat of losing reputation or rank greatly reduces players quitting in the middle of matches. Not much explanation needed here, who likes quitters or half finished matches?!


As a fan and player, and not a contributor, I am merely putting in my two sense. not meant to be an attack on any particular individuals ideas. Just my thoughts on the subject, do with em' as you please.

[Eagle_11]

1. For an matchmaking to function it needs an sizeable pool of players to draw from, wesnoth doesnt have that many players, therefore it wont make an difference as matchmaking systems gradually narrow down the bracket during search until next-best suitable opponent has been found.
2. not exactly, as you said the gains are virtual and registering an new account is free.

[taptap]

1. For an matchmaking to function it needs an sizeable pool of players to draw from, wesnoth doesnt have that many players, therefore it wont make an difference as matchmaking systems gradually narrow down the bracket during search until next-best suitable opponent has been found.
2. not exactly, as you said the gains are virtual and registering an new account is free.

Egg and chicken. If you treat multiplayer like a nuisance of cause you don't get a large stable multiplayer population.

I would add: handicap system (like in Go aiming for even win chances while giving a bonus to the weaker player). Handicap is incredibly useful to produce even games among differently skilled players even in a small population, but it requires rating / ranks. By saying no to rating devs discarded any chance to have a handicap system in Wesnoth. It would also remove most "cheating for rank" incentives. Yes, you have a lower rank, but you win more games as a result(!), find more better players willing to play with you because handicap makes it more challenging for them...

[zookeeper]

I find it hard to see the usual kind of black box matchmaking working very well, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have any features to make it easier to find players of similar level of experience.

Random idea: how about a feature which lets players declare their own skill level that would then be displayed in some convenient manner to others? It'd be easier to play with those of similar skill level (since everyone would immediately see each others' "rank"), and to decide whether to for example give the newbies a little bit more starting gold as a handicap.