Why can't we have both? They need to get rid of the dead wood that has allowed poor matchmaking and lag to exist for the last 5 years (if you include development time for TF1). Its completely inexcusible when you've had as much time as someone spends during one 4-year enlistment in the military and if anything, things have gotten worse. Pathetic! Clean house EA. Time for new blood in the networking department. Some fat paychecks have probably been collected for a long time now for NOT getting the job done.
Tell me one game that has perfect matchmaking as well as ping? If there is, I've yet to play it and I play a lot of games. You need to prioritize one thing over the other, no way around that and with games that have dedicated servers, most of the problems are usually on the end user. Now when you have a game like Titanfall that has a niche community and not a huge player base, it gets harder to get everyone on a server that is fair for everyone and now try to add matching skill levels in there as well. There just isn't enough population. If you have a game that has over 200k people playing, of course it's gonna be easy to find a middle ground between skill and ping, there are many more options (regionally) to match people.
I agree with a lot of what has been said here. Trying to find good matches is difficult, and not always fun. Again, I restate, WE had a great community with TF1. Plenty of games, and matches. I just do not understand why a company continues to make "stand alone" sequels which has the effect of splitting the player base. I would have preferred additional content to the original game, and kept it all together. I know I am in a minority here, but I have NOT played TF2 for a long time. I just miss TF1.
You make some excellent points here Ik0n and even if this sounds like I am arguing with you, I'm not. I just want to try to make a point based on what you said, because you are exactly right. Facts: -Titanfall starts with a smaller population than other games -TF1 had matchmaking issues and they knew that already in March 2014 at the latest -TF1 had lag issues and they knew that already in March 2014 at the latest -People leave the game (stop playing and never come back) due to poor matchmaking -People leave the game (stop playing and never come back) due to lag -They had 2 years and 7 months between TF1 release and TF2 release to improve things This is why you had to use those 2 years and 7 months wisely to: -implement a matchmaking algorithm at the start (granted, if and when the user base shrinks in the future, it might make sense to remove it, but at least have it there in the beginning while your population is the largest to keep more users around who would leave if they were getting steamrolled all the time) -if you do that and keep as many people around as possible at the start, it will provide you with more people closer together in each area so you can keep the pings down and reduce the lag That is why I get so frustrated, because the key is having a rock solid matchmaking algorithm right out of the gate when your user base will probably be the largest, because it keeps more people around to help the overall matchmaking and keep the pings down. Instead, here is what they did with those 2 years and 7 months though: -throw their hands in the air and shrug their shoulders about matchmaking, so you ended up with no attempt yet again at even trying to implement a matchmaking algorithm, which of course leads to people leaving who don't want to get steamrolled (not just that one game, but TF2 entirely) -made matchmaking worse by giving the already lopsidedly stronger team Boosts faster, Titans faster and then Titan Cores faster, which of course leads to even more people leaving who don't want to get steamrolled (not just that one game, but TF2 entirely) -made matchmaking take longer, because now you get thrown out into the general pool and have to create an entire new match instead of continuing with all of the players from the previous game, which of course leads to even more people leaving who don't want to wait around longer than they should have to -made matchmaking less social, because now you get thrown out into the general pool and have to create an entire new match instead of continuing with all of the players from the previous game, which of course leads to even more people leaving or at least not having a reason to stick around, because there is no social environment there where you can give atta boys, talk smack and develop new friendships between games -the network changes they did make seem to have made lag worse. A perfect example of this is the user Omega on this site who was one of the biggest cheerleaders for TF2, but the only problem he ever had was how bad the lag was for him in TF2 compared to other games he would play on the exact same setup. Not only did they not improve things. They made them worse on all counts. Having a rock solid matchmaking algorithm and the best networking situation you can possibly have out of the gate is the key, because if you provide people with a good environment they will stick around and if they stick around it allows good matchmaking and low pings to continue. You are not alone King. I completely agree with you. TF2 might as well have been called Destiny 2 or Battlefront 2, because it is a completely different game and I didn't want a different game. Sure, it could have had a slightly different look to it, but the important stuff should not have been changed: -Titan Mechanics (speed, strength, customization, regenerating shields, rodeo system) -Pilot/Titan balance -Pilot Situational Awareness -Pilot Health/Weapon Damage balance -Pilot Ground Speed (and frankly something with air speed when coming off of walls) That last one drives me out of my mind, because it has become even more evident to me lately, because I have been playing a lot of Attrition in TF1 lately and I've been on the War Games map specifically quite a lot and it is amazing how I can get up on the walls and stay high up on the walls and just flow smoothly everywhere. I've been trying to give TF2 a chance lately and I was on War Games yesterday and it felt like my feet had lead in them or I was stuck in molasses. I just wanted a bigger, perhaps slightly different looking playground to utilize the already almost perfect core fundamentals and mechanics that TF1 had.