Re: Unable to find games in Australia now

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@Ga-Knomboe_Boy wrote:

@Tank2042Man I'm in Perth, on xbox series x, and I'm busy with work until midnight so I can't game before then most of the time.

I've had trouble getting into games with crossplay on searching for 128 player conquest servers since mid December.

I've brought this up quite a few times, explained why match making is a terrible system for a game like Battlefield in smaller regions, how empty server creep would kill the game in regions where it took too long to start a match, and that this would begin spreading to regions with mid sized populations, and eventually the most populated regions.

Responses fell into two categories;

1. A lot of players experienced the same troubles I had.

2. A lot of "BF2042 CAN DO NO WRONG" fan boys claimed I was lying because their experience was they could get into servers quickly, never mind the fact they were living next to server farms in the most populated areas of Europe and North America. "I get less than 10ms - 20ms all the time and I have no problems."

The developers should see smaller regions as a microcosm for the Battlefield / gaming communities in general; If a game is quickly dying in a smaller region the problem will likely occur soon enough elsewhere.

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Well on Xbox One I never had a problem on the weekends starting from about 8am all the way to late night.

Every server was full, no wait times, no half full servers.

Then about 2 weeks ago the half full servers started happening.

Maybe it started after the official announcement stating that the new content was being delayed until June AND the major patch was not coming until March. 

I can't speak for X series but on Xbox One / PS4 the game appeared to be well populated until fairly recently.

I have no reason to lie, just like I'm being honest about the apparent low numbers now.

I'll be interested to see what happens when the March patch comes out because last gen really needs some performance improvements.

@Tank2042Man Yep, the xbox one / ps4 population is healthier, and hasn't had the problems as bad until recently.

I had to switch to playing xbox one version because it was so hard to find games crossplay on series X.

In regards to player numbers in Australia / smaller regions; apart from announcements, game design choices and so forth affecting player numbers, I think a lot of it on next gen / PC has to do with the number of players needed to start for 128 player servers with match making.

For 64 players I think you only need 16 players to start the game (or maybe even less?). Whereas for 128 players, I think you need 32 players.

Now this shouldn't be an issue if there was a healthy player population.

However, if there are only a couple hundred players in a region or even less, and most of the players are already in an existing server, then there are simply not enough players to start a new game until another server closes and players are transferred, and the matchmaking system seems pretty stuffed in regards to transferring players to fill up existing lobbies that don't have enough players to start.

So if your on next gen in Aus, you may get lucky and get into a server, or you could be in for an infinite wait.

If there was a server browser for AoW it would solve most of these issues.

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@Ga-Knomboe_Boy wrote:

@Tank2042Man Yep, the xbox one / ps4 population is healthier, and hasn't had the problems as bad until recently.

I had to switch to playing xbox one version because it was so hard to find games crossplay on series X.

In regards to player numbers in Australia / smaller regions; apart from announcements, game design choices and so forth affecting player numbers, I think a lot of it on next gen / PC has to do with the number of players needed to start for 128 player servers with match making.

For 64 players I think you only need 16 players to start the game (or maybe even less?). Whereas for 128 players, I think you need 32 players.

Now this shouldn't be an issue if there was a healthy player population.

However, if there are only a couple hundred players in a region or even less, and most of the players are already in an existing server, then there are simply not enough players to start a new game until another server closes and players are transferred, and the matchmaking system seems pretty stuffed in regards to transferring players to fill up existing lobbies that don't have enough players to start.

So if your on next gen in Aus, you may get lucky and get into a server, or you could be in for an infinite wait.

If there was a server browser for AoW it would solve most of these issues.

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Yes a server browser definitely would help and it's something we have been pushing for on several threads like these :

.DICE help all players who cannot play / enjoy BF2042 due to MM - Answer HQ (ea.com)

DICE add a Server Browser / Persistent Servers to AOW - Answer HQ

Please add your weight to these threads daily and together we will try and get a solution asap.

@Ga-Knomboe_BoyYep we need a server browser.

Battlefield had a very healthy BFV population right up until 2042 released and that was just on Xbox One so I'm sure it was similar on PS4.

If we had a server browser we could just sit in the queue and join a full server.

MM only which is just an inferior Quick Match, is just one more reason why the playercount is suffering.

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@Tank2042Man wrote:

@Ga-Knomboe_BoyYep we need a server browser.

Battlefield had a very healthy BFV population right up until 2042 released and that was just on Xbox One so I'm sure it was similar on PS4.

If we had a server browser we could just sit in the queue and join a full server.

MM only which is just an inferior Quick Match, is just one more reason why the playercount is suffering.

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Exactly, and you could stay on that server you joined and play through the map rotation.

MM is definitely a contributor to the ever decreasing player population as it is just so frustrating in so many ways. 

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@CantGetRight wrote:
@Ga-Knomboe_BoyI wonder how many next-gen units were sold in Aus and that region?

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Yeah it would be interesting to have access to the sales figures by region / platform wouldn't it. 

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@Tank2042Man wrote:

@Ga-Knomboe_BoyYep we need a server browser.

Battlefield had a very healthy BFV population right up until 2042 released and that was just on Xbox One so I'm sure it was similar on PS4.

If we had a server browser we could just sit in the queue and join a full server.

MM only which is just an inferior Quick Match, is just one more reason why the playercount is suffering.

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I never had any problems finding a game using the server browser in BFV,

I never expected BF2042 to be any different, how wrong was I.  ☹️

Xbox One Australia.

After joining yet another new server with around 20 players I decided to leave and find another server. The map was Hourglass.

Joined another Hourglass server and again only about 20 players, I checked the names and confirmed it was a new server.

Ok, so left the game and clicked play and another Hourglass server! So as I'm waiting I'm thinking it's one of the other 2 Hourglass servers I'm going to end up in, but it wasn't, I was now in a full Hourglass server!

Decided to leave and try again. Got put back in the same server.

Left again then got matched in to a Breakaway server, half full.

This was all in the space of about 5 minutes.

So often a game ends, the server is full and then the game puts me in a new server with about 20 players again.

However a lot of the time now it will not add new players for the entire round.

Something is clearly not working with the MM. Maybe they have been doing something behind the scenes because this only really started happening about 3 weeks ago.

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@Lancelot_du_Lac wrote:
@Ga-Knomboe_BoyI'm on Xbox X, but have been playing Xbox One version so I can get into a game. I think the scarcity of neg gen consoles are a problem in Oz.

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Only the X series, S series is available everywhere. I'm waiting for the X series stock to start arriving again after the global shortage ends.

https://www.ebgames.com.au/product/xbox-series-x/267774-xbox-series-s-console

@Tank2042Man @Lancelot_du_Lac yep, due to scarcity of next gen consoles I was playing xbox series x with crossplay on against PC and PS5 players the whole time since launch.

However, there aren't enough current players on all these systems combined to fill up servers in Australia at this stage, so its not an issue of scarcity of xbox series x specifically.

Its an issue of there aren't enough current players combined with the match making.

Regarding getting a new console, if you have a game in mind that you know will be good then it will probably be worth it.

I got a Series X and a Series S so I could play BF2042 when people come over, and the only other next gen games I have played apart from BF is Hell Let Loose and Cyperpunk for an hour after installing it yesterday with the next gen update. I have mainly been playing xbox one games in 4k which looks great with a lot of games and crappy with some (BF4 anti-aliasing sucks).

So, if you are like me and want a next gen console to play BF then I would wait for other games to come out, but if you want a next gen console to play Elden Ring or something then it might be worth it.

If you want to get a console use the Xbox stock alerts Australia twitter, subscribe to it so you get notifications, and if a notification comes up about stock being available online - ie at microsoft, or at a store local to you, get onto it quickly. Depending on whats available you may have only a couple minutes to get an order / pre-order in.

If its ebgames you may have more time; I used the stock alerts to get a pre-order in at ebgames, and they need you to pay $200 in person to put down a preorder (which gets taken off the final cost) so this helps with preventing bots getting all the consoles.

I had to spend a good amount of time trying to get a hold of a series X, but the stock alerts notifications do make it possible despite all the bots and scalpers.