Forum Discussion

New Veteran

2 years ago

Solved

Ways to help Matchmaking times

There is absolutely no way the average search time is a 1:20 to find a match when I have been waiting in multiple(6 plus) 4 minute long queues and am yet to find a match. This game HAS to step up and fix the matchmaking here are some controversial but necessary steps to find matches.

1. Remove option to not allow drop in skaters on your club. If you don't want drop in players...too bad get a 5 man team.

2. Remove option to match room size exact. The community is simply not big enough, make it so the game automatically searches for the nearest amount of players. If you have 4 players and search for an exact match you are waiting much longer than you would otherwise(and you're also making others wait by removing yourself from the search pool for non 4 man teams).

3. Very unlikely but going free to play for WOC/EASHL gamemodes to bolster player count. This would help grow the game and get players on NHL, SIGNIFICANTLY increasing interest in the franchise and therefore helping sell more copies and make more money than they would otherwise

This is a 100% necessary for growing the game to the level of other sports titles. Hockey and the NHL franchise does not have the kind of fan base other sports video games have and the ONLY way to compete and build interest is to offer a free experience to try the game with friends. Think about the biggest games in the world. Call of Duty, Fortnite, they all have a free to play aspect. The Call of Duty franchise specifically went from a dying franchise with less and less players to a rejuvenated, thriving franchise and makes more money than it ever has in huge part to adding a free to play aspect to their game. I want the NHL franchise to follow in this business model and start thriving again.

More money=Bigger Budget=Better video game.

world of chel

cb1c2748ade08ed1
2 years ago
I was literally on for 2 hours and found two games. You wait for teammates, then for opponent, wait and wait until people back out and it's rinse and repeat.

9 Replies

HighTmatthew
New Veteran
2 years ago
Additionally maybe even removing "drop in" games entirely and just bringing drop in skaters together on a default club and make them face club teams to help lower search times.
Leave the outdoor games to 3s and Ones
southtitan
2 years ago
It seems like the biggest issue for drop-in matchmaking is the "Use Best Game Location" setting.
When set to "Yes" this filter is WAAAY too picky, and has been for years in this franchise. Unfortunately, it is also the default setting. With the changes to how drop-in matchmaking, it has exacerbated the issue because even if I set Use Best Game Location to "Relaxed", I am still at the mercy of whoever ends up being the randomly assigned lobby leader, and if theirs is set to "Yes", we will likely be waiting to find an opponent indefinitely.
A simple solution - just make the default setting "Relaxed". Too many players don't know about this setting/how to change it, and it makes more sense to have the default setting be the less prohibitive one for people who just want to play.
Tigidooh
Rising Ace
2 years ago
@southtitan

I don't get why poeples use the use best location ''yes''. I've always and only ever used relaxed and never had issue getting games with a ping under 30, at least 9 times out of 10. It's only when it get really late like past 3:30am - 4am in the morning that it get more mixed but it make sense at this point as nobody's online and using close location would let you search forever for empty room anyway.
cb1c2748ade08ed1
Seasoned Scout
2 years ago
Relaxed was the only way I could find games last year, this year it's not helping very much.
HighTmatthew
New Veteran
2 years ago
@southtitan I always use relaxed and search times are still outrageous.
southtitan
2 years ago
@HighTmatthewAs I said - if you have it set to relaxed, and you are put into a lobby with someone who uses "Yes" then you are all using the "Yes" setting anyways - which is exactly the issue. EA should really removed the "Yes" option altogether or at least make "Relaxed" the default.
cb1c2748ade08ed1
Seasoned Scout
2 years ago
I was literally on for 2 hours and found two games. You wait for teammates, then for opponent, wait and wait until people back out and it's rinse and repeat.
HighTmatthew
New Veteran
2 years ago
@southtitan That would be a step in the right direction for sure. I know alot of much bigger games that do not give players that option. NHL certainly does have the player base to gove players this option
Xboxliveid90
2 years ago
Congrats. You are the only other person I've seen on here who is observant enough to have seen that this is the real culprit. Even if you set your filter to RELAXED as soon as the game finds you other teammates it usually reassigns party leader to one of them (or at least that's how it seems to be for me every time I'm playing drop-ins - which is ONLY when I'm queuing up solo as well, so I'm not sure if this has something to do with determining party leader?) Maybe whoever has the larger pre-made group instantly gets reassigned as the party leader? Example: I'm queuing solo and it finds me a group of 2 players queuing together. It seems that as soon as this happens, whoever was the party leader of that pre-made group of 2 is now the new party leader. And as such, they may have their settings on YES instead of RELAXED.
At that point you are screwed unless the party leader has a mic and will reason with you as you ask him/her to cancel the queue and restart it with more lax filters. Sucks.