CCP has recently rolled out a new matchmaking system for DUST 514 in an attempt to improve the new player experience as well as provide more even matches for veteran players. The new system takes several factors into account such as Win/Loss, Kill/Death, and War Points/Death Ratios to calculate a numerical value that represents a player’s relative skill level. The system then attempts to match players with a similar skill level against one another. CCP reports that this system has been very successful so far,
“We are also happy to report that the Standard Deviation of Skill, within each battle has reduced dramatically, by over 50%. That means that the spread of skill has reduced for every battle, high skill players fighting high skill players, and vice versa, greatly reducing the number of battles where new players are up against unfair odds.”
Additionally, measures have been taken to prevent veteran players from creating new characters and terrorizing truly new players in the Academy.
CCP is also tracking differences in kills, warpoints, ISK destroyed, MCC damage, remaining clones, and average/sum of Skill between each team at the start and end of match in order to more accurately determine if the system is working. In general these differences have been decreasing, but CCP will continue to monitor them and tweak as necessary to optimizing the matchmaking system.
