Spiral Knights - Matchmaking for missions

Matchmaking for missions

11 replies [Last post]

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 21:00

Espil

Reading this topic http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/46222 brought some attention to my own experiences. After giving it some thought, the game's flawed cooperative connection mechanics became apparent, especially in regards to the various missions. Currently, choosing to join a random party for any mission is undesirable because joining after the mission staging area reduces the rewards. It is almost necessary to have a variety of established connections in your friends list or with guild members to avoid consistently performing missions alone.

I would like to see something like what lockdown uses for matchmaking used for missions as well. This would allow players to search for others to complete missions with while still running around haven. There could be options for the size of the group you want to join and it would also be nice to see the capability to join someone else's search or invite someone to join yours. For example, any player and a friend could search for two others to complete a mission.

If nothing else, there should be an option for joining only at the beginning of a mission to eliminate the fear of wasting energy joining a party too late. Or preferably, the game should always prevent anyone from joining a mission beyond the mission lobby.

-espil

Wed, 03/07/2012 - 23:47

Severage

No link, but...

It was stated before that by joining a party, you do so at your own risk.

Honestly there's not a lot in this game that promotes cooperative play, and most people, myself included, go with friends/guildmates only or just solo everything.

~Sev

Thu, 03/08/2012 - 00:24

Demonicsothe

1. Make party 2. ??? 3.

1. Make party
2. ???
3. Profit

Mon, 03/19/2012 - 18:12

Espil

A disclaimer does not excuse inferiority

I don't see a problem with the traditional method for finding players as it exists for the clockworks, but the new mission system involves, most likely, unforeseen complications. I know there are occasions where players without available friends or guildmates do not want to play alone. Because the risk of joining what may be a mission in progress is so undesirable, these players are forced to play alone or compromise their preference. There are numerous modern games with a variety of matchmaking capabilities. Spiral Knights could just generally copy the matchmaking it uses for lockdown. If the game offered matchmaking, players could do more than make a lobby then just sit around bored until somebody joins.

By all accounts I've heard, playing solo isn't fun.
Games should be fun.

Mon, 03/19/2012 - 19:07

Schattentag

Eh...

I guess it would make sense to have a queue like for Lockdown, but I'm not seeing too much benefit here. Sure, you could run around Haven while you wait for a party to come up, but that's about it.

As for playing solo, I don't think you've heard enough accounts. The vast majority of people I talk to enjoy playing solo, and I do too. For me, playing solo is like a testament to my own skill as a player. If I'm able to complete a mission solo and a friend/guildmate isn't, I can rub it in their face and ask if they want me to come along with them. There's some things I'm great at doing solo, and there's things that I'd never be able to do solo (try doing a Gun Puppy danger room with a Spike Shower and a Kamarin). I personally think that's what makes this game fun - people are good at different things, and when you're unable to do something by yourself then you can invite friends who can help.

For a specific account of something that's fun solo, try Royal Jelly Palace with some kind of vortex bomb and an alchemer. I do this with an Electron Bomb and an Umbra Driver, and it's quite possibly the most entertaining thing to do solo, in my experience.

Mon, 03/19/2012 - 20:39

Tapproot

Ow...

Espil... Your killing me! Too much... Sound clappy together things that make parts of words... AUGH!!

Tue, 03/20/2012 - 15:33

Espil

Elaboration

Curses Zasher, I could barely avoid laughing loud enough to prevent my kid from waking up. By the way, "together" has the same number of sound clappy things as "syllables" in case that's what you were trying to avoid. Or were you just acting like you were unaware of the word "syllable"?. In any case, this may help you decipher my arguments: http://dictionary.reference.com/

Here's an example of something I think matchmaking would solve: A player, who does not enjoy playing his online multiplayer games alone, logs on hoping to participate with his guild or friends, preferably for completion of his unaccomplished missions. Then, he finds they are otherwise preoccupied, or he doesn't have any. He is then forced to either take the entirely unnecessary risk of trying to join a mission in progress, start his own lobby and hope players join before the game begins to conflict with his schedule, or as I have most frequently seen, craft something then log off disappointed.

While I can see the advantages inherent to those creative enough to make their own fun when they can afford it, I don't think it suits situations like the one described. After giving it more thought, all that might really be needed is the ability to determine how many players there are currently waiting for the particular missions combined with the prevention of being denied eligibility by amalgamating subsequent to initiation. This would at least show if there is some chance of joining other players for a mission.

Tue, 03/20/2012 - 16:18

Schattentag

Hm...

Thanks for elaborating. As I understand it now, this matchmaking system would essentially help out all the folks who make their own lobbies in order to avoid the risk of joining a party in an already-deployed mission. The system would circumvent the issue of having myriad, low-occupancy lobbies by bringing the lobbies' occupants together in a full party, yeah?

In other words, the biggest advantage of this matchmaking system is its ability to put together people who would otherwise make their own lobbies and sit around until other people joined.

Am I reading you correctly?

Tue, 03/20/2012 - 17:59

Espil

Well put

For those without the patience to wait in the dark, it would also help find a group instead of giving up on the game right away. Also, it would be nice to have the option of choosing the size of the party the player would like in case anyone thinks four players is too chaotic or something.

Tue, 03/20/2012 - 19:33

Twiddle

Your 1-1 mission has been delayed, waiting for more players....

So make a queue to start a mission and get full prestige from every mission. Sounds interesting, but I wonder if the SK servers can handle that many queues at once.

Tue, 03/20/2012 - 19:46

#10

Fehzor

And much needed. Spiral Knights is advertised to be cooperative, and its kind of lacking due to the missions.

Tue, 03/20/2012 - 21:47

#11

Kentard

@Twiddle: Agreed.

Of course, though, quite a number of RPGs (in particular JRPGs) that I've tried out online have implemented a similar system - complete with party names that describe what dungeon they are traversing into. Perhaps we can have a similar system to identify the mission, so that randoms looking for a party can gauge whether the mission they're attempting is relevant to them, or possibly rewarding enough.

Back to my example on the JRPGs. The main problem is that most successful LFG 'parties' are for more lucrative dungeons (the equivalent of FSC or RJP for SK), i.e. the ones that you don't really need to actively search for a party since everyone else is playing that mission too.
That being said there has to be a way to incentivize the other, seemingly less profitable missions; otherwise I'm more inclined to agree with the stance that wait time will simply be too long.

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Matchmaking for missions