5 years ago

How does EA think it's going to retain new players?

How does EA think it's going to retain new players when you get put into matches like this?

With cross-play having arrived, it now gives me the opportunity to play with a couple of my mates who are on PlayStation. They have never played Apex before!!! I basically only started playing apex this season; with my main account on level 168, a KDR of 0.81, and on Gold III (so I'm far from anything special). I decided to create a new ("smurf") account, so I could start fresh with them and talk them through the game, what does what, and where to go, etc. Just basically try to get them hooked - so we have something better than Fornite to play cross-platform.

The beginning few ranks I'd say were evenly matched with firefights being good fun (not just getting beamed in the head straight off the bat), good times were had by all even if we weren't coming out on top.

Then all of a sudden we start getting put into games with level 500 people (champion squad), over and over again, with NUMEROUS teams having pred and plat dive trails each drop. It was ridiculous. After five or six games of this, it felt like we were just cannon fodder for other teams and games became almost unplayable and all enjoyment was lost. I must remind you at this point - my team still has very little understanding of the game. I'm still fielding questions about weapons and attachments, different types of amour, vault keys and vaults, beams of light coming from the map, knowing to get to the very top of a jump tower before you can fly off, the different maps, etc (you get the picture).

So basically I want to know how EA thinks this is good for the game, and player retention???? Where is this SBMM everyone keeps talking about?????????

It did calm down a little bit after numerous very quick, very frustrating games. However, we still playing in lobbies with guys that are over Level 100/200. My mates don't even know what's hit them half the time - the firefight is over in literally seconds, and back to the main menu we go.

Honestly, the experience over the last couple of days has put them off the game and it's a shame. I understand it's a Battle Royale, and I don't expect to come first or even place every match. I just don't understand how matchmaking can be so out of whack.

Attached is a picture of our squad - Level 14,14, & 21. The champion squad. And the dive trails of a match.

discussion

14 Replies

DarthValtrex
Hero (Retired)
5 years ago
@ChickenPops54 Your KD must be really good. What is it? I'd imagine if those lobbies are to hard for you, it will settle out as you play more games.
ChickenPops54
5 years ago
My KDR is on 1.3, my other mate is 0.69, and my other mate will be prob be around 0.2+-. So I don't think it's that.
PeterN_UK
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@ChickenPops54

I would rather they made separate queues for solo players and premades regardless of individual skills/ranks of players. So 2 queues for trio and 2 queues for duos.

EOMM does include skill based match making but also "churn risk". So if the player is not playing the game much then match making becomes more favourable in lobby difficulty.

We don't know what "skills" are rated so could be last X number of games based on average damage, KD or XP etc.

Also if you haven't played a long time i.e. days or a week then in order to make the return enjoyable they adjust match making into lower lobby to make it appealing for first game or so. Notice how you haven't played for days then 1st game back you're doing pretty well?

Notice also doing suicide/leaving 5 matches in a row doesn't guarantee mean you avoid a lobby with higher rank players.

We don't know if EOMM set on Apex Legends specifically is based on how many days or hours not playing for this to take effect. Also don't know how many historical matches performance it bases for next match making lobby.

Probably a forum post about this somewhere of EA's patent. But see below. The patent is using example of EOMM as 8hrs of a user not playing Apex and last 10 matches performance, but may not be set so in Apex in Section 5. Case Study.

http://web.cs.ucla.edu/~yzsun/papers/WWW17Chen_EOMM
dougieee
New Veteran
5 years ago
@PeterN_UK The sbmm in this game is awful, just look how many previous threads have been started on it, i would consider myself a medium skill player, i just hit plat and my first game in im against a champ squad with 8k plus kills between them and several hundred season 6 wins. Now even though they are plat ranked (and im assuming in ranked THAT is the only criteria for matchmaking) then you cant tell me any kind of SBMM is present.
hayhor
Hero
5 years ago
@ChickenPops54 It isnt based on overall team makeup tho and this is an issue. It is based on the best player in the group, which is you. 1.3 is probably above average from what I've seen. Then if your win rate or high finish percentage is high (above 5%) you will definatley see a few high level players in your lobby.

They really need to update the sbmm so it is based on the overall average of the team and not the best player.
PeterN_UK
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@dougieee

From my previous post there is definitely an element of SBMM. But from EA's patent there is more focus on historical performance of matches regardless of rank/KD/Wins etc. i.e. a Plat player is not constantly stuck with other Plat players if they have 5 bad games in a row.

I would love to know what factors they consider "skill rating" as its definitely not by rank alone.

People get put off when loading into lobby and see last champion with 20 bomb badge. But doesn't mean majority of players in lobby are.

Look trust me if you're having few bad games. Stop playing for few hours then come back to it then first couple of games you will be in easy lobby. Set you in right mood (Then probably end up in more difficult lobbies again lol :D)

Reloading lobbies and landing hot loot areas again and again with randoms will frustrate you. Take breaks after every 2-3 hrs
dougieee
New Veteran
5 years ago
@PeterN_UK Thats the other thing..... randoms.
Plat is like a quigmire for getting stuck in random sqauds, its the rank that even low skill can grind to but never get beyond so everyone is base 4 and just dropndies...... SO frustrating!

If anyone is ever short a squad member feel free to add me, would be nice to play without the toxicity.
PeterN_UK
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
@dougieee

I just hope they do not include suicides/landing off the map as part of match making criteria to get into easy lobbies.

I've frequently been playing with COD players on my team doing 50x C4 suicides just to get into easy lobbies. Not really the way the game is meant to be played. So they now put a 5 sec timer on spawn where you are invulnerable to your own C4 in new COD game. That was their solution to stop players trying to get around SBMM lol.

I would hate to see players mass landing off the map to reverse boost in Apex as its too quick and easy to reload into another lobby.
dougieee
New Veteran
5 years ago
@PeterN_UK They need to add a de-rank after x amount of losses or point losss in ranked, too many people just sit on base platinum and dropndie constantly, which is fine if thats the rank your happy with but if you are grinding toward diamond it boils your p*** when team mates can cost you 300 bp inb minutes because they just dont care
DarthValtrex
Hero (Retired)
5 years ago
@ChickenPops54 It’s your KD. The average KD is around 1, that .30 might not seem like much but it’s 30% higher than the average KD.