[PTS] Patch Notes 19/11/2025 - Matchmaking

[Magusar]

Personally, I think the matchmaker should strive for a 2x2x2 setup, rather than stopping the scenario queue if they can't create the desired composition. A good chain of checks is needed, something like what @nocturnalguest already suggested or what I suggested in another thread. Otherwise, scenes simply won't happen or will happen very rarely.

Not just a matchmaking, the good configured matchmaking,covering the largest number of possible scenarios and settings. Moreover, this should be a matchmaking of priorities - a system that will prioritize a premade over another premade, with extra settings, like if you lose 2-3 times in a row against the same premade - your group will parried with another premade(premades can be weak for one reason or another as i said) -> u lose against this another premade -> next premade -> no more premades - here is pugs with max possible balance setup at the moment-> lose again -> sorry -> cicle. Same for the not full partys and for solos. Matchmaking aims to create the most balanced battles possible, and does not simply separate/stop the scenario queue. It simply takes what is there, analyzes it - and launches a scenario that is as close as possible in strength to each other by the parties at a given moment in time. Personally, I'm willing to wait an extra 2-4 minutes for system analysis and then go to the sc. Technically it may be difficult, but perfect, because flexible and the scenarios should not stop while there are players in the queue.
To see this in full force, it is not enough to just make matchmaking, you need expansion into scenarios. First of all, these are reward systems. Then others mechanics like barriers(personally i think it need to be reworked to the point of being removed from some scenarios).

The opportunity to ignore certain scenes is welcome. Personally, I really don't like Twisting Tower. I wouldn't want to be forced into it. *Here, everyone can imagine a scene they don't like playing, but they will be forced into it.*

I also think that melee/ranged DPS parameters should be taken into account - if you force 2x2x2 where there is ranged DPS or even two ranged DPS, this party will simply not have enough damage. 1 3 2 Layouts with ranged DPS should also be added to the matchmaker's "aspirations."

As already noted, matchmaking isn't the only thing that needs to happen to scenes—without a significant "carrot," matchmaking likely won't have the desired effect.

Regarding barriers, for me personally, it's more a question of class balance (not all classes are capable of adequately countering others in certain scene designs) than a premade/party/half-party/pug/who knows what else conflict—that's something of a risk in a PvP game. In short, if each class can provide a more or less significant counter in the scene conditions (which I highly doubt), then barriers can be left in place, good matchmaker will make it much better. Otherwise, barriers are more detrimental.

Good changes with reservations.
Good changes to additionally reward players with missing archetypes. Although, in my opinion, they're not enough.
A good idea with a window displaying people in the queue by archetype, similar to the window for signing up for ranked matches—I think that's one of the most important QoLs.

[nocturnalguest]

Look,

, its quite a huge strawmen from you, no offense. Everyone knows how to que, its not an issue.

Im here way longer then you are and gonna tell you how it all ended up in simple timeline:
1. Since the very very beginning of this server launch there has always been a safe spot for solos. There has been 1 (!!!) dedicated PuG SC for solo quing which no one played and first there was never stopping rant (it still goes) of how perfect players with 50+ years of experience in PvP MMOs and 1000 apm lose their SCs because "PREMADES" AND/OR "system in general" AND/OR "design of anything" AND/OR "class/realm balance/X class/ability" AND/OR "cheaters" are ruining their games everytime at NONE solo q SC. You know whats funny? It was indeed very hard to figure which one is that map haha, exactly like you mention in your posts and was one of main reasons to introduce discordant with separate q for dummies who struggle to read chat upon logging or struggle to type .pug in /s and pick only that map to q. Lol, history repeats itself for all the zealots ha, same delusional narratives appear once again
2. All this rant was more or less bearbale until Weekend Warfront has been introduced with rewards that are unreachable for All the Mighty Elite Solo Heroes (aka #nevergroup crowd) with exceptional skills which were stopped in their full winning strikes by cheating, filthy people who dare to group up in a group mode in a MMO (beyond imagination of how they could dare to act so dirty). Escalation levels bloody sky rocket at that point. Rant become so huge that it couldnt be safely ignored anymore.
3. So then RoR team had to react and rework 1 solo sc into Discordant Scenario, they then remove weekly pug one (it was 1 map for a week), increase rewards within there and introduce a random pull of maps. It was possible to q as duo. Whole rework made perfect Safe Space for everyone. This step was most incredible solo/pug SC experienece ive ever had playing AoR/RoR. But its Warhammer afterall, so no happy endings. Ive had so much fun with friends as duo there, it was chaotic, it had lots of big names in it, there has been alot of pops. One word - a blast.
4. All the Mighty Elite Solo Heroes then started another branch of how they lose their games and its due to stacking of all those premades, who break their teams, cheat (of course, how else could they win) and go inside DISCORDANT SC!!!! (on a serious note, there has been 0 proved cases, literally not a single anyhow solid proof of stacking for all this time and to my knowledge not a single ban given for that)
5. And here we are now yet again. In a situation absolutely the same as #1 point. Duo q is banned, nobody is playing solo sc.

Facts here are the following:
- 1 dedicated solo map didnt work back in a day because there was not enough solos
- discordant died out because it restricted grouping (duos)

Noronn is very skilled, knowledgeable person, i wouldnt be able to word it better. So look into post #64, it has all the truth as quintessence. Nothing to argue about that, as its gonna become just demagogy at this point.

P.S. The only issue (a bug) there ever was with discordant is that sometimes it pulled people into group q. So a people could q into discordant but end up against full premades who were not in discordant q. This was proved to happen sometimes, but i believe its fixed, so nothing stops solos to q discordant atm (there are just not enough of them, and never were).

[Endari]

P.S. The only issue (a bug) there ever was with discordant is that sometimes it pulled people into group q. So a people could q into discordant but end up against full premades who were not in discordant q. This was proved to happen sometimes, but i believe its fixed, so nothing stops solos to q discordant atm (there are just not enough of them, and never were).

The issue with discordant is that it is a random map, making it unusable for the event scs. I want to que solo for the event scs not to get a 3v3 in a terrible map like phoenix gate

[nocturnalguest]

The issue with discordant is that it is a random map, making it unusable for the event scs. I want to que solo for the event scs not to get a 3v3 in a terrible map like phoenix gate

Understandable. Counter points are:
- it was what solo community actually asked for, randomized maps. back in a day solo community used it as an argument to why change previous solo sc (1 map for whole week boring (c);
- rewards for warfront are carrots for grouping up. thats the intended way of doing event SC confirmed by devs while being even allowed and able soloing it is a clear and big concession from devs to solo community and solo community should be thankful for it instead of ranting nonestop and solo it as a challenge taking all risks on your own. you dont ask to be able to solo bastion, right? its the same for this one;
- 3v3 is a matter of incredibly low amount of interest and solo community does absolutely nothing to heat it up. there was a story of one folk (i wont specifically mention name, he posted recently on forums himself) who bruteforce launched solo rankeds just daily logging both sides and advertising people to q. it was offseason, there were 0 rewards doing that. he bruteforce solo ranked poping for 2 weeks just by that. alone. without any rewards. people just q and fight. this story makes me believe that there is way more interest in competetive group play rather then in soloing. but its just my beliefs, not gonna claim or argue about it.

Oh btw, while i write all this an idea came that i forgot to share.
What we also discussed few years ago in various discords/forum is another huge reason of why solo is dying so easily and discordants died out too. Stomps. People who hard lobby discordant and then afterwards hard lobby duo ban were not able to grasp an idea of gitgudding. What most did except to happen is that they will chaotically unga bunga (as thats what they define as "fun" fight) there till Morrslieb and Mannslieb collapse. But it didnt happen, cause it was enough to have 1 or 2 people (instant REPORT!!!!1 if you dare to put assist hotkey on your bars, filthy premade) who knew how to play to completely destroy 12 that didnt knew how to play. This fact alone decreased interest in discordant drastically. To a point it doesnt pop anymore. But its general solo community issue, not game design issue.

P.S. Funny fact came to my mind about premades and stacking. You know the only place where it was abused to the fullest btw but NOBODY ever whine or rant? First seasons of solo rankeds, before joining discords became mandatory and before crossrealm. Tells alot about difference in how community behaves.

[ismetto]

To revitalize the game and bring back solo players or those who only play SC, a “Weekend Ranked SC Event” could be organized. I believe such an event would attract a lot of interest and create a strong comeback for the game. The amount of crests rewarded could also be kept low.

However, one issue that definitely needs to be addressed is toxic players who insult others and ruin the atmosphere of the game.

Also, gathering on Discord and similar things can slow the game down. Even if such an option exists, I believe players who don’t join Discord or don’t participate in voice chats should still be respected. After all, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose — everything can depend on chance and the flow of the game.

[nocturnalguest]

To revitalize the game and bring back solo players or those who only play SC, a “Weekend Ranked SC Event” could be organized. I believe such an event would attract a lot of interest and create a strong comeback for the game. The amount of crests rewarded could also be kept low.

However, one issue that definitely needs to be addressed is toxic players who insult others and ruin the atmosphere of the game.

Also, gathering on Discord and similar things can slow the game down. Even if such an option exists, I believe players who don’t join Discord or don’t participate in voice chats should still be respected. After all, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose — everything can depend on chance and the flow of the game.

Imo its very good idea. Previously solo ranked concept and design was "introduction into 6v6 so more people form teams". This concept failed super hard because chaotic nature, salt and toxicity killed it pretty quick and also there was nothing to learn in this mess. On the opposite, it discouraged people who wanted to give it a go from doing so. So in the end the effect has been opposite. So more and more people pushed everyone into joining discord and forcing everyone as if it was true proper 6v6 match (while rules were not supporting it). So solo rankeds turned into a coin toss.
However, after years pass, i do know that many now miss exactly this - chaotic nature, coin tosses of random 6v6 fights. They were nowhere near balanced, totally crazy, but sometimes very surprising and fun.
I would go further and add into your idea few more concepts:
- get rid of leaderboard with ingame UI, just let killboard record stuff as it is, but no public MMR, win/loss ratios etc for such kind of event.
- make timeslots in different timezones so people can plan, for example 3 days with 3+ timeslots (choose based on population data) of fight nights lasting 4 hours.

[ismetto]

The game has reached a breaking point for a certain generation. Either the new generation will recover and you wait for their time, or we will make the old players return.

Groups organized for Ranked matches broke each other’s hearts within themselves due to unnecessary ambition and the pursuit of fame. This greed caused the groups to fall apart and the game to take on a completely different form. A game that should have been played to relieve stress and socialize ended up in conflicts and led players to quit because of the Ranked obsession.