Home Gaming Sledgehammer addresses Advanced Warfare Matchmaking issues

Sledgehammer addresses Advanced Warfare Matchmaking issues

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a better game than the last one – but its had a few online issues that have prevented many players from enjoying the game as they should. Upon launch, specifically, the servers weren’t quite functional, and the host lag compensation algorithms made the game a frustrating experience for many. The game’s been better since – but it still has more than a few match-making issues. Sledgehammer’s reiterated how the game’s matchmaking works.

In a blogpost, Sledgehammer’s Michael Condrey addressed matchmaking concerns, detailing how it all works.

“First, and I can’t stress this enough, player connection to the host always takes priority over skill in the matchmaking process – always, no exceptions,” he said. “Fast connection to a match hosted on our global dedicated servers is the most important component of our matchmaking system. And yes, to a lesser extent skill as a component of matchmaking is important, too. We believe that it adds a level of fairness in the mechanism for team balance and individual enjoyment.”

Those who’ve been asking for the matchmaking to work as it has in previous games should know, says Condrey, that it already does.

“The system we have today is, to all intents and purposes, identical to what Activision has always had in place, with the same matchmaking parameters, as previous Call of Duty titles. We continue to monitor and optimize our systems, but the speed of connection is and always will be our first priority. The system is designed to put you in the best match, with balanced teams composed of players of varying skill from your geographic region.”

We’ve found that to not quite be true; we’re regularly matchmade with people from other regions. Are there just not enough people playing Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare from South Africa? I find that hard to believe. Either way, Sledgehammer will continue to change and tweak matchmaking.

“We consistently look at millions of points of player and match data, and kill to death ratios are up across every band in Advanced Warfare.  Yes, even Glen’s KD of 0.10 is a vast improvement from his previous performances. In short, almost universally, kill to death ratios are up, and people are playing longer, and that makes us happy. A few of you have asked, and we’ve also noticed, that some players have experienced fringe cases like being matched with someone in another country.  Much of this comes down to the pool of people online and which modes are being played at any point in time. This is a constantly moving target – from day to day, night to night, across every time zone and region on the planet.  It also changes as we introduce new game modes to the experience, or have DoubleXP events within parts of the game. For now, know that our engineers are constantly reviewing the game telemetry data so that we can make the best-informed decisions with speed to connection as the first and most important criteria.  We remain committed to optimizing our matchmaking and connectivity, like we always have, throughout the weeks and months ahead.”

In the same post, Condrey addresses that annoyance of “reverse boosting,” and the company’s banning policy. If you;re still playing Advanced Warfare, it’s worth a read.

Last Updated: January 19, 2015

40 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief

    January 19, 2015 at 13:02

    Haha dat header!
    *goes to read article now

    Reply

    • HairyEwok

      January 19, 2015 at 14:26

      All hail the mighty match stacker. Would suck if one got lit.

      Reply

  2. Hammersteyn

    January 19, 2015 at 13:05

    Seldgehammer?

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      January 19, 2015 at 13:07

      Geoff had matchmaking issues with his spellchecker.

      Reply

      • ToshZA

        January 19, 2015 at 13:07

        In addition to his usual calculator problems. Poor sod.

        Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

        January 19, 2015 at 14:06

        Connection between fingers and keyboard went awry

        Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 19, 2015 at 13:09

      Refresh page, you know not what you speak of!

      😛

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 19, 2015 at 13:11

        XD I can paste a screen shot?

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief

          January 19, 2015 at 13:12

          LIES AND SLANDER

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            January 19, 2015 at 13:13

            Delete the Seldgehammer comment and it will be like it never happened

          • Admiral Chief

            January 19, 2015 at 13:13

            Dammit Deon I’m an engineer not a miracle worker

          • Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

            January 19, 2015 at 14:07

            AND PHOTOSHOP

  3. ToshZA

    January 19, 2015 at 13:07

    It’s so hard to find a good dating service during a war these days…

    Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    January 19, 2015 at 13:07

    Gotta love the industry. What’s not working right now we can always patch later.

    Reply

  5. Matthew Holliday

    January 19, 2015 at 13:09

    matchmaking gets more and more broken with every DLC release.
    it sets your matchmaking user pool according to the matched usable DLC.
    since the south african matchmaking pool is quite low, the DLC makes the matchmaking pools even smaller.
    it happened with Ghosts, to the point where I couldnt find any games at all or had to disable all DLC in order to find a game (which in my case, didnt work)

    skill brackets and matchmaking arent an issue for me personally, i consistantly have positive K:D ratios, while I havent had a complete stomp of a game in quite a while, so it feels pretty balanced from my perspective.

    Id just prefer more reliable lobbies. without being consistantly dropped from lobbies mid game or at the end of a game.

    Reply

  6. Uberutang

    January 19, 2015 at 13:18

    How about some servers? Hey hey? remember those? They solve these bs issues.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 19, 2015 at 13:19

      You seem to be talking about LOGIC, I don’t think that computes with these CODders

      Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

        January 19, 2015 at 14:11

        Yes. You need to be speaking in Fish AI terms

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief

          January 19, 2015 at 14:39

          blub blub blub?

          Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      January 19, 2015 at 13:30

      I do agree, but I can see why they ditched them.
      CoD4 servers werent user friendly, automatic matchmaking is simple and usually results in well populated and diverse lobbies.
      although if battlefield can pull it off, i dont see why CoD cant.

      Reply

      • Uberutang

        January 19, 2015 at 13:33

        They ditched them because servers = game gets played longer = yearly releases bomb.

        Black ops 2 had servers on PC. It is still the only COD that is ‘playable’ locally on PC because there are still local servers running.

        Also servers cost money. So corporate greed is keeping COD from being truly magnificent.

        Reply

        • Mossel

          January 19, 2015 at 13:57

          Maybe I should install that again! Really never had issues with that game! With AW I have some really bad lag.

          Reply

  7. Jonah Cash

    January 19, 2015 at 13:18

    I have to upgrade my phone, do anyone on here have the iPhone 6 and had the 5 before that? Is the phone signal better or worse again? My signal was good with 3, a bit worse with 4 and now pretty terrible with 5 in my house. So if 6 is even worse, I just can’t take it and will have to go to another brand… Please help, google doesn’t seem to understand what I want!!

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 19, 2015 at 13:19

      Get an android phone, LG G3, S5 or Z3. Apple is poefie

      Reply

      • Jonah Cash

        January 19, 2015 at 13:21

        I like my Apple, and I use the iPad Mini for work so it is nice that they chat with each other… The S5 is intriguing me, but it all boils down to signal strength!! I can’t go another 2 years of having to walk outside my house to answer the phone… I work from home, so that is really a bit annoying!!

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief

          January 19, 2015 at 13:23

          Might be network you are on?

          But seriously, why pay a premium for a below premium phone? I haven’t heard about anyone complaining about the S5, but Samsung is a bit weird these days. I’d grab a Nexus if I could

          Reply

          • Jonah Cash

            January 19, 2015 at 13:31

            Vodacom have put up 3 towers all around my house and nothing helps. I even get 4G some places in my house now and still no signal!! My house was built in 1980’s so I think they used something that is not happy to let signals in?!?!

          • Admiral Chief

            January 19, 2015 at 13:35

            ASBESTOS CEILING!

          • Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

            January 19, 2015 at 14:12

            There might be lead in your wall-paint. Probably cheaper to fix than a new phone 🙂

          • Jonah Cash

            January 19, 2015 at 13:31

            Thanks for the input man!!

        • Brady miaau

          January 19, 2015 at 13:35

          I bought a cheap Nokia Lumia 520 year before last, because I had signal trouble in my house with my Samsung Galaxy. It worked. I trusted Nokia to make a phone first and a smart thingy second and it seems to have paid off, at least in my house with signal strength.

          My Samsung S3 dies in the TV room and never recovers after that, but claims to has. It must be rebooted if that happens.

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief

            January 19, 2015 at 13:39

            I’m actually considering getting the Lumia 730 for the mrs

          • Matthew Holliday

            January 19, 2015 at 14:16

            Ive got the lumia 925

            Ive been pretty impressed, good phone, the only drawback is its a nokia.

          • Admiral Chief

            January 19, 2015 at 14:39

            Aye, but she is a lot less fussy about features, she needs battery life, whatsapp and fast response, with above average camera

          • Matthew Holliday

            January 19, 2015 at 14:46

            aye, you cant be fussy if you want a nokia, to say the ovi store is lacking in the apps department would be an understatement.

            lumia has like 4 different camera apps, so she’ll ahve fun with that.
            I got 2 and a half days out of my 925 when it was new, so if the 730 has the same battery, she should get atleast 3 days use out of it, which is pretty good.

          • Brady miaau

            January 19, 2015 at 14:53

            I actually think the Nokia phone is great, because I get signal where other phones, friends phones and such lose signal. That is critical for me.

          • Matthew Holliday

            January 19, 2015 at 16:12

            great pieces of hardware and great phones.
            but as a smart phone, the nokia windows OS cant really compete with apple and android.

          • Brady miaau

            January 19, 2015 at 16:34

            Sorry, I think as a smart phone it is an extremely good piece of kit. It multi tasks and handles my stuff extremely well. My day planner and so forth, out the box.

            Where it does not compete is a distinct lack of good quality apps and support

          • Brady miaau

            January 19, 2015 at 14:18

            Not a bad phone. I have the 630 now (dropped sauce on the microphone of the other) and it is fine. Manages my calender and stuff well.

            A lot less apps if you care about such things, but my phone is pretty fast. My wife has the 920 and she loves it. Good screen, good speed, nice size.

          • Admiral Chief

            January 19, 2015 at 14:38

            Heh, saucy

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