Please fix the grand arena matchmaking
Please do something to fix the grand arena matchmaking. This grand arena the toons gp is the basis for match up, @1.7m for my group of 8. The problem is there are 6 members with rosters that while t...
Forum Discussion
I think people are conflating the terms "fair" and "competitive" when they are not equivalent terms.
There are some mild elements on "unfairness" (the aforementioned roster bloat from the period between TB introduction and TW introduction, general power creep that more heavily hits older players, lack of capital ships), but there isn't really a more "fair" method than matching GPs. We all know the GP calculation, and we can all make decisions that will give us an advantage or disadvantage in Grand Arena.
There are some ways to make the matches more competitive though:
1) Readjusting the GP calculation to give more points to G11/12 gear and 6E mods and less points to * level would help, as the current formula is pretty arbitrary and not terribly reflective of utility. This would probably be very unpopular with P2P players though, as they'd all end up facing each other after the adjustment.
2) Having more tiers with diversified rewards would also help significantly, as there would be less motivation to artificially suppress GP. It sounds like this is part of the long term plan for Grand Arena, as mentioned in the last Road Ahead post.
3) Reworking more characters would help, as it would mitigate the penalty for having fluff toons. The reworks to OG Ahsoka and Anakin are a step in the right direction, and additional reworks to Geonosians, Nute, Mace, Dooku, Clones, etc. would go a long way to making deep rosters more viable.
4) The ships portion of GA needs to go away until there are more capital ships. While you can at least use every character on your roster (in theory), you can only use 28 ships because of the dearth of capital ships. Having two more capital ship options and placing two fleets on D would help a bunch (people with lots of goods ships would actually, y'know, have an advantage). Currently it's just Han's Falcon mirror matches and not very interesting, and the GAs with ships are actually *more* unfair to people with good ships than the one's without. Ships are 40% of my GP, but account for 20% (or less?) of the available points; if I get matched with someone who has same GP, but better characters/worse ships, I'm suddenly at a massive disadvantage.
For people complaining about CG not doing anything - items 2 & 3 are happening, and 4 is highly likely to occur eventually. Matches should become more competitive over time. You can also take steps to become more competitive by only gearing and zetaing useful characters. However it's going to be a gradual process.
I do think it's important to strike a balance between competitive and fair though, as there's not much interest or fun in non-competitive matchups (even if they are fair). That said, there are a lot of whiners in the forums; I have a massively bloated roster and I can usually win 1-2 rounds in GA anyway through thoughtful strategy.
There are some mild elements on "unfairness" (the aforementioned roster bloat from the period between TB introduction and TW introduction, general power creep that more heavily hits older players, lack of capital ships), but there isn't really a more "fair" method than matching GPs. We all know the GP calculation, and we can all make decisions that will give us an advantage or disadvantage in Grand Arena.
There are some ways to make the matches more competitive though:
1) Readjusting the GP calculation to give more points to G11/12 gear and 6E mods and less points to * level would help, as the current formula is pretty arbitrary and not terribly reflective of utility. This would probably be very unpopular with P2P players though, as they'd all end up facing each other after the adjustment.
2) Having more tiers with diversified rewards would also help significantly, as there would be less motivation to artificially suppress GP. It sounds like this is part of the long term plan for Grand Arena, as mentioned in the last Road Ahead post.
3) Reworking more characters would help, as it would mitigate the penalty for having fluff toons. The reworks to OG Ahsoka and Anakin are a step in the right direction, and additional reworks to Geonosians, Nute, Mace, Dooku, Clones, etc. would go a long way to making deep rosters more viable.
4) The ships portion of GA needs to go away until there are more capital ships. While you can at least use every character on your roster (in theory), you can only use 28 ships because of the dearth of capital ships. Having two more capital ship options and placing two fleets on D would help a bunch (people with lots of goods ships would actually, y'know, have an advantage). Currently it's just Han's Falcon mirror matches and not very interesting, and the GAs with ships are actually *more* unfair to people with good ships than the one's without. Ships are 40% of my GP, but account for 20% (or less?) of the available points; if I get matched with someone who has same GP, but better characters/worse ships, I'm suddenly at a massive disadvantage.
For people complaining about CG not doing anything - items 2 & 3 are happening, and 4 is highly likely to occur eventually. Matches should become more competitive over time. You can also take steps to become more competitive by only gearing and zetaing useful characters. However it's going to be a gradual process.
I do think it's important to strike a balance between competitive and fair though, as there's not much interest or fun in non-competitive matchups (even if they are fair). That said, there are a lot of whiners in the forums; I have a massively bloated roster and I can usually win 1-2 rounds in GA anyway through thoughtful strategy.
