Bungie addressed the recent comments from the community with regards matchmaking in PvP. However, unfortunately their response has actually raised more questions than providing answers. They state this is an ongoing conversation, so, it’s back to the community to respond… If the MM design aims as stated in the TWAB were being achieved for the vast majority then I don’t think anyone would have major issues. For some, the MM is achieving these aims i.e. finding local, good connection opponents close to their skill range. For a significant portion of the community the MM is not achieving this and it seems to be for the community at the above average end of the skill range. [b][i]First we identify a pool of available players with a good connection to you[/i][/b] How is a ‘good connection’ defined by Bungie (generally speaking)? For a solo player, in a densely populated location the game should have no problem establishing a pool of locally available players with a good ping (there are many other variables that define connection quality, but ping is a decent rudimentary measure in that a 500ms ping is never likely to give a good connection, lag free experience). So as a UK player, the MM should have no problem identifying players within the UK and EU as players with a good connection to me. Anything in the US with high pings for example should not be deemed a good connection. An acceptable connection in any competitive FPS game in 2016 is NOT cross continent connections with >100ms pings in a P2P hybrid network. This is one of the biggest issues Bungie failed to address, why players report lobby’s full of high ping cross continent connections with alarmingly high frequency. Many players with a netduma router have shown that the game matches them with players across the globe with high pings – I showed it via s simple test in this post [url]https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/218037592?showBanned=0&path=0[/url] and I could easily repeat it again to show that [b]with a higher than expected frequency the game chooses to connect me to players across the globe with high unacceptable pings at the expense of local players.[/b] The tick rate of 30hz is better than most thought, but 30FPS and 30Hz is still way below the industry average. Destiny does have poor netcode relative to other games, you should not trade kills as often as you do in Destiny, and the noticeable lag effects are much higher in Destiny than other games. This boils down to netcode, lag and I would argue the matchmaking. [b][i]Within that pool, we choose players closely matched to your personal skill rating[/i][/b] So, say there are 50 players it has identified as local with a good connection quality it will then choose 11 (using a 6v6 game mode) with a skill rating closest to yours. Note, this doesn’t necessarily mean these are the players with the BEST connection to you but players that been identified as having a good enough connection, so the MM is then sorting this pool of players by their skill rating in comparison to yours. This is still in a sense prioritising skill over connection – it is not the best 11 connections, it’s the closest 11 to my skill within an acceptable connection range. [b][i]If we can’t find players within that pool, we widen the variance in skill[/i][/b] So essentially, initial skill search doesn’t fill up the lobby, they widen the skill range until the lobby is full – or, as I understand it if MM is taking a long time it will start the game when an acceptable quota is found e.g. 8 for Control, 4 for Rumble. [b][i]If THAT doesn’t work, we expand the search again with more variance in connection quality[/i][/b] So, if they can’t find good connections the MM widens it’s definition of what a good connection means in order to find you a match – the theory being that a worse connection match is better than waiting for longer in orbit (I would debate this personally – it’s a more frustrating experience to have a game with red bar warriors in that having to wait in orbit for a bit longer in order to have a better connection experience). But this is the sole way in which you should find yourself matched with players from across the globe with high pings i.e. if it cannot fill the lobby up to the minimum required to start a game. Hence why, you could in theory have a lobby of 6 with good local connections and 2 red bar warriors from across the globe (ignoring FT’s). [b][i]Once enough players are selected, we break them out into equally skilled teams[/i][/b] So, why do 2x 3 guardian FT’s get put on the same side against full solo players? Why does a 4 guardian FT in a lobby of uneven numbers obtain the numerical advantage when against solo players? Why doesn’t a 6 guardian FT get split up into two 3s (I’ve see a FT split up before so it can happen) – after all the aim of PvP is to have a fair fight with good connections isn’t it? I suspect the answer boils down to the fact MM does not give extra weighting to the obvious communication advantage a FT has when assessing skill. They either use the average skill of the FT or the player with the highest skill (there have been contradicting reports from Bungie as to what actually happens). [b]TL;DR[/b] This is what should happen: - For the majority, people should have lobbies full of local players with good connections and matches that are roughly even skill wise, providing an enjoyable, fun, but/and competitive experience. - There will be occasions where a few players within the lobby will have a poor connection or when FT’s skew the location of players and the connection experience, but this should be the exception to the norm. The above is what happens for a significant portion of the community, for another part of the community this is what happens - With higher than expected frequency, lobbies are full of players with high pings from across the globe. This isn’t limited to a few players this is the whole lobby. - This is for players in densely populated locations - This creates a frustrating experience as connection quality is the overriding determination of who wins gunfights. - This happens much more for players of higher skill. This is what Bungie have failed to address as the above should not be happening if the MM works in the way they state it does. There is either a design flaw within the system (e.g. what is an acceptable connection) or there is an issue with how the algo is implementing the design aims itself.