Upcoming Changes to Battleground Queues

PapaJester

"We've heard that many players resented the lack of choice. So we've solved that problem! Now you can choose between Deathmatch, or Mostly Deathmatch! You're welcome."

I've never been less grateful for all your hard work.

the1andonlyskwex

PapaJester wrote: »

"We've heard that many players resented the lack of choice. So we've solved that problem! Now you can choose between Deathmatch, or Mostly Deathmatch! You're welcome."

I've never been less grateful for all your hard work.

Pretty much this.

Seraphaile

I foresee a lot of grouped random to slightly reduce the chance of deathmatch, the least interesting mode (imo)

xpolilla

"One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically."

To those who complain... please, read this again:

- Random: REAL random (all modes, including DM, no higher chance of DM).
- DM gamemode: random with higher chances of DM.

The grammar is a little confusing, but that is what ZoS wrote.

Marto

Alienoutlaw wrote: »

cant we que for specific objective like we can with dungeon finder? let us choose rather than leave it to rng

More granular choice means worse queue times and population numbers. As well as more unbalanced matches with vastly different character levels and skill levels.

But obviously no choice at all leaves people feeling frustrated.

As with a lot of things with game design, it's all tradeoffs.

ZOS did this test to determine a good place to draw the line, to an ideal balance of queue times and population numbers / player choice of gamemode

jaws343

xpolilla wrote: »

"One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically."

To those who complain... please, read this again:

- Random: REAL random (all modes, including DM, no higher chance of DM).
- DM gamemode: random with higher chances of DM.

The grammar is a little confusing, but that is what ZoS wrote.

That isn't what that is saying.

Random: Real random. Yes, you have that right.

DM: Only queue for DM. This won't be random at all.

What they are saying is in the Random queue, your likelihood of getting DM is now greater due to people directly queuing into the DM mode. The reason for this is, if DM matches need to fill in players it will pull from the random queue.

gariondavey

jaws343 wrote: »

xpolilla wrote: »

"One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically."

To those who complain... please, read this again:

- Random: REAL random (all modes, including DM, no higher chance of DM).
- DM gamemode: random with higher chances of DM.

The grammar is a little confusing, but that is what ZoS wrote.

That isn't what that is saying.

Random: Real random. Yes, you have that right.

DM: Only queue for DM. This won't be random at all.

What they are saying is in the Random queue, your likelihood of getting DM is now greater due to people directly queuing into the DM mode. The reason for this is, if DM matches need to fill in players it will pull from the random queue.

If it is simply 7 dm + 5 random, I think we will see way more dm in solo random!

nightstrike

PapaJester wrote: »

"We've heard that many players resented the lack of choice. So we've solved that problem! Now you can choose between Deathmatch, or Mostly Deathmatch! You're welcome."

I've never been less grateful for all your hard work.

The quality of their solution is not too surprising given the poor test methodology. [snip]

[Edited for Bashing]

the1andonlyskwex

jaws343 wrote: »

xpolilla wrote: »

"One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically."

To those who complain... please, read this again:

- Random: REAL random (all modes, including DM, no higher chance of DM).
- DM gamemode: random with higher chances of DM.

The grammar is a little confusing, but that is what ZoS wrote.

That isn't what that is saying.

Random: Real random. Yes, you have that right.

DM: Only queue for DM. This won't be random at all.

What they are saying is in the Random queue, your likelihood of getting DM is now greater due to people directly queuing into the DM mode. The reason for this is, if DM matches need to fill in players it will pull from the random queue.

By my reading, I think it could be even worse than that. For example, suppose there are 12 people in solo queues. It only takes one of them being in the DM queue to cause the next match for all 12 to be a guaranteed DM.

This could be particularly problematic if there are a bunch of people re-queueing as soon as their previous match ends. When the population is relatively low, it could only takes one person queueing DM for the whole group to wind up in an endless loop of nothing but DM.

Gamer1986PAN

I still don't get it why you can't just treat it like the specific group dungeon finder. Activating all modes i want to play and the first match with 12 participants will be started. If needed it will be filled up with random search players. It could be so easy but you have to make it difficult for the players that want to play specific modes.
Additional options would be randoms will only be assigned after 1/5 or 10 minutes of waiting queue depending on how it turns out on the live servers.

But at least its a good step into the right direction so i give you credits for that...

jaws343

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

jaws343 wrote: »

xpolilla wrote: »

"One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically."

To those who complain... please, read this again:

- Random: REAL random (all modes, including DM, no higher chance of DM).
- DM gamemode: random with higher chances of DM.

The grammar is a little confusing, but that is what ZoS wrote.

That isn't what that is saying.

Random: Real random. Yes, you have that right.

DM: Only queue for DM. This won't be random at all.

What they are saying is in the Random queue, your likelihood of getting DM is now greater due to people directly queuing into the DM mode. The reason for this is, if DM matches need to fill in players it will pull from the random queue.

By my reading, I think it could be even worse than that. For example, suppose there are 12 people in solo queues. It only takes one of them being in the DM queue to cause the next match for all 12 to be DM.

I believe that would be correct. But the BG population is large enough to avoid that being really widespread I would imagine.

What you are likely to see though is a DM spread in random queue that resembles something close to what it was before they removed the individual queues. Which was usually enough to weight DM closer in occurrence to the overall objective modes. Which is a good thing. Since there is only 1 DM type of gamemode, it should have a more measured frequency compared to the larger number of objective modes.

RedTalon

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your participation, patience and feedback while we experimented with only having the Deathmatch game mode available. It was important for us to run this for a few weeks to ensure we had an accurate representation of overall involvement and interest in Battlegrounds during this time.

First, it’s valuable to note the general feedback on this test was quite polarizing. While there were certainly a lot of players that liked only having Deathmatch available, there were just as many that didn’t enjoy it. A frequent complaint we saw, though, was the disappointment that we removed something that is ultimately at the core of our game: the freedom of choice. And in the case of this test, the data appeared to back that up as well. Although we initially saw a very slight bump in participation, it quickly declined and has left Battleground populations in a fairly unhealthy state.

Starting with the launch of Update 32 (November 1 for PC/Mac/Stadia and November 16 for consoles), we’ll be giving you more choices to decide which game mode to queue into depending on if you are playing solo or with a group. These will include:

• Solo Deathmatch
• Solo Random Battleground
• Group Deathmatch
• Group Random Battleground

One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically.

We’ll continue to monitor the sentiment and participation rates with Battlegrounds once this rolls out next month, and we’ll let you know if we plan for any additional changes. Thanks again for posting all your thoughts during this time!

Good this was the suggestion most where giving glad you all took it to heart. Thanks for the update.

MurderMostFoul

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your participation, patience and feedback while we experimented with only having the Deathmatch game mode available. It was important for us to run this for a few weeks to ensure we had an accurate representation of overall involvement and interest in Battlegrounds during this time.

First, it’s valuable to note the general feedback on this test was quite polarizing. While there were certainly a lot of players that liked only having Deathmatch available, there were just as many that didn’t enjoy it. A frequent complaint we saw, though, was the disappointment that we removed something that is ultimately at the core of our game: the freedom of choice. And in the case of this test, the data appeared to back that up as well. Although we initially saw a very slight bump in participation, it quickly declined and has left Battleground populations in a fairly unhealthy state.

Starting with the launch of Update 32 (November 1 for PC/Mac/Stadia and November 16 for consoles), we’ll be giving you more choices to decide which game mode to queue into depending on if you are playing solo or with a group. These will include:

• Solo Deathmatch
• Solo Random Battleground
• Group Deathmatch
• Group Random Battleground

One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically.

We’ll continue to monitor the sentiment and participation rates with Battlegrounds once this rolls out next month, and we’ll let you know if we plan for any additional changes. Thanks again for posting all your thoughts during this time!

This is pretty awesome. Might consider resubbing...

REiiGN15

This is all cool, but can you fix the achievements. I can't get the dye because it won't record the kills.

ZiggyTStardust

REiiGN15 wrote: »

This is all cool, but can you fix the achievements. I can't get the dye because it won't record the kills.

I believe they have. From 7.2.2:

Battleground kills will now count towards relevant achievement progress.

propertyOfUndefined

I love this! Thank you!

I don’t mind death matches, but do miss the variety I used to get. The solo random queue is definitely for me.

Araneae6537

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your participation, patience and feedback while we experimented with only having the Deathmatch game mode available. It was important for us to run this for a few weeks to ensure we had an accurate representation of overall involvement and interest in Battlegrounds during this time.

First, it’s valuable to note the general feedback on this test was quite polarizing. While there were certainly a lot of players that liked only having Deathmatch available, there were just as many that didn’t enjoy it. A frequent complaint we saw, though, was the disappointment that we removed something that is ultimately at the core of our game: the freedom of choice. And in the case of this test, the data appeared to back that up as well. Although we initially saw a very slight bump in participation, it quickly declined and has left Battleground populations in a fairly unhealthy state.

Starting with the launch of Update 32 (November 1 for PC/Mac/Stadia and November 16 for consoles), we’ll be giving you more choices to decide which game mode to queue into depending on if you are playing solo or with a group. These will include:

• Solo Deathmatch
• Solo Random Battleground
• Group Deathmatch
• Group Random Battleground

One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically.

We’ll continue to monitor the sentiment and participation rates with Battlegrounds once this rolls out next month, and we’ll let you know if we plan for any additional changes. Thanks again for posting all your thoughts during this time!

Could solo queue be the default choice for people that aren’t in a group? I think that many people don’t notice and just queue for the default. If only serious PvPers take the time to switch to solo mode, then I may be better of queuing for group. Most important to my enjoyment of Battlegrounds is well-matched games.

Deltia

Glad you quickly adjusted. Good work and thanks for sharing metrics/thought process behind this change. Glad you tried something, even though it didn't work out.

StarOfElyon

Although we initially saw a very slight bump in participation, it quickly declined and has left Battleground populations in a fairly unhealthy state.

Two words: DARK CONVERGENCE!

trackdemon5512

So looking back at this debacle:

- a poorly thought out test yielded results that we expected.
- Few players actually engaged in BGs when they were DM only
- Listening to the loudest voices on the forum was clearly a mistake
- A specialized choice (randoms vs DM) queue is coming
- All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

That last point is more important as it was the reasoning behind the test in the first place. While the developers are now making it easy to split the population, they missed the fundamental point of incentivizing combatants to play for an objective rather than to just kill everyone in Flag Games.

propertyOfUndefined

I

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

I beg to disagree. If things play out like they should, players who just want to test their builds' kill:death ratio, which are the same players who ignored objectives in non-DM games, will queue up for Death Matches. The rest will opt for the variety pack.

Araneae6537

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

So looking back at this debacle:

- a poorly thought out test yielded results that we expected.
- Few players actually engaged in BGs when they were DM only
- Listening to the loudest voices on the forum was clearly a mistake
- A specialized choice (randoms vs DM) queue is coming
- All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

That last point is more important as it was the reasoning behind the test in the first place. While the developers are now making it easy to split the population, they missed the fundamental point of incentivizing combatants to play for an objective rather than to just kill everyone in Flag Games.

Those players who really wanted to do Deathmatch and were treating every Battleground as such can now queue specifically for it — where pursuing their preferred objective is also pursuing victory. So this should address the problem or at least fix part of it, no?

CyberOnEso

I think this is a good change, I don't think it fixes the issue as to why so few players take part in battlegrounds to begin with but it is a good idea.

However, with the random queue queuing you up for all modes, this sort of merges the queues together, and this is very intentional and kind of smart so kudos to whomever came up with this idea, as it will help keep queue times down.

However, let us say 11 people are in the 'Random Battleground' queue, and then a 12th person, of similar MMR, queues in, but into the 'Deathmatch Only' queue. The queue coordinator will match all 12 of these people together into a Deathmatch battleground because the queue coordinator wants to put people into games as soon as possible. Due to this there is a good chance that nearly every single game will be in Deathmatch mode, simply because the queue coordinator wants to create matches as soon as possible and more than 1 out of every 12 people will probably choose 'Deathmatch Only', resulting in every match being Deathmatch only.

If any additional logic has been introduced behind the scenes to help lessen this effect I would love to hear about it, but I am worried that due to sheer probability and the way the queue coordinator presumably works nearly all matches will be Deathmatch, regardless of what queue you join.

If this is the way that the queue coordinator works, puts 12 people into a valid battleground as soon as possible. Then if 30% of people choose 'Deathmatch only' then 98.96% of games will be Deathmatches. As you need 12 people to queue into the 'Random Battlegrounds' queue to make a match that has a 75% chance of being a non- deathmatch battleground.

(1-0.3)^12 = The probability that 12 people queue into the 'Random Battlegrounds' queue without anyone else queuing into the 'Deathmatch only' mode, presuming 30% of people choose 'Deathmatch only'

*0.75 Because even if that happens it's only a 75% chance that it will be a non- deathmatch mode.

98.96% = 1-(((1-0.3)^12)*0.75)

Maybe there are additional behind-the-scenes stuff going on to prevent this, but if the queue finder wants to make games as fast as possible the fastest way to put 12 people into a bg is to make them all Deathmatches.

luen79rwb17_ESO

No please! ZOS split the queues, we don't want to get matched with DM-only nerds. Leave them alone in their queue!!

trackdemon5512

propertyOfUndefined wrote: »

I

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

I beg to disagree. If things play out like they should, players who just want to test their builds' kill:death ratio, which are the same players who ignored objectives in non-DM games, will queue up for Death Matches. The rest will opt for the variety pack.

Araneae6537 wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

So looking back at this debacle:

- a poorly thought out test yielded results that we expected.
- Few players actually engaged in BGs when they were DM only
- Listening to the loudest voices on the forum was clearly a mistake
- A specialized choice (randoms vs DM) queue is coming
- All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

That last point is more important as it was the reasoning behind the test in the first place. While the developers are now making it easy to split the population, they missed the fundamental point of incentivizing combatants to play for an objective rather than to just kill everyone in Flag Games.

Those players who really wanted to do Deathmatch and were treating every Battleground as such can now queue specifically for it — where pursuing their preferred objective is also pursuing victory. So this should address the problem or at least fix part of it, no?

Sooooo what happens when the queue for Deathmatches only plummets like it did with this test? Are those players just gonna sit in queue for hours possibly or will they join the random queue, hope for a deathmatch, and then continue the kill everything and ignore the objective for flag games when they come up?

ZOS addressed the issue of possibly reducing DM wanting players entering Flag Games. That is NOT the same as incentivizing said players to properly engage in those flag games and play in a manner that doesn’t hamper the team effort or ruin the overall experience.

gariondavey

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

propertyOfUndefined wrote: »

I

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

I beg to disagree. If things play out like they should, players who just want to test their builds' kill:death ratio, which are the same players who ignored objectives in non-DM games, will queue up for Death Matches. The rest will opt for the variety pack.

Araneae6537 wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

So looking back at this debacle:

- a poorly thought out test yielded results that we expected.
- Few players actually engaged in BGs when they were DM only
- Listening to the loudest voices on the forum was clearly a mistake
- A specialized choice (randoms vs DM) queue is coming
- All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

That last point is more important as it was the reasoning behind the test in the first place. While the developers are now making it easy to split the population, they missed the fundamental point of incentivizing combatants to play for an objective rather than to just kill everyone in Flag Games.

Those players who really wanted to do Deathmatch and were treating every Battleground as such can now queue specifically for it — where pursuing their preferred objective is also pursuing victory. So this should address the problem or at least fix part of it, no?

Sooooo what happens when the queue for Deathmatches only plummets like it did with this test? Are those players just gonna sit in queue for hours possibly or will they join the random queue, hope for a deathmatch, and then continue the kill everything and ignore the objective for flag games when they come up?

ZOS addressed the issue of possibly reducing DM wanting players entering Flag Games. That is NOT the same as incentivizing said players to properly engage in those flag games and play in a manner that doesn’t hamper the team effort or ruin the overall experience.

The dm queue may have gone down, but my pvp guilds played a ton of bgs. And it only went down because of dark convergence and new world. Poorly timed for a test. I can assure you, people will not be sitting in a queue for dm for an hour lol

trackdemon5512

gariondavey wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

propertyOfUndefined wrote: »

I

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

I beg to disagree. If things play out like they should, players who just want to test their builds' kill:death ratio, which are the same players who ignored objectives in non-DM games, will queue up for Death Matches. The rest will opt for the variety pack.

Araneae6537 wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

So looking back at this debacle:

- a poorly thought out test yielded results that we expected.
- Few players actually engaged in BGs when they were DM only
- Listening to the loudest voices on the forum was clearly a mistake
- A specialized choice (randoms vs DM) queue is coming
- All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

That last point is more important as it was the reasoning behind the test in the first place. While the developers are now making it easy to split the population, they missed the fundamental point of incentivizing combatants to play for an objective rather than to just kill everyone in Flag Games.

Those players who really wanted to do Deathmatch and were treating every Battleground as such can now queue specifically for it — where pursuing their preferred objective is also pursuing victory. So this should address the problem or at least fix part of it, no?

Sooooo what happens when the queue for Deathmatches only plummets like it did with this test? Are those players just gonna sit in queue for hours possibly or will they join the random queue, hope for a deathmatch, and then continue the kill everything and ignore the objective for flag games when they come up?

ZOS addressed the issue of possibly reducing DM wanting players entering Flag Games. That is NOT the same as incentivizing said players to properly engage in those flag games and play in a manner that doesn’t hamper the team effort or ruin the overall experience.

The dm queue may have gone down, but my pvp guilds played a ton of bgs. And it only went down because of dark convergence and new world. Poorly timed for a test. I can assure you, people will not be sitting in a queue for dm for an hour lol

Yeah, no.

Dark Convergence cannot possibly be a reason because you would have likely seen the same amount of player proportionally quitting Cyrodiil during this time. I don’t believe that can factor in. Also as Gina stated, BG engagement briefly increased and then decreased. Dark Convergence was around prior to the beginning of the test on PC and would be unlikely to cause such a rise and fall after the test began as opposed to when the update was released.

If Dark Convergence was such a factor both PC and Console would see similar rises in BG populations and subsequent falls roughly two weeks apart. The same amount of time between PC and Console release.

NEW WORLD can’t factor in. It was only released fully two weeks ago. And even then it’s PC only. Drops in BG engagement was across all platforms and New World has had newsworthy trouble in just getting players able to sign on. No New World isn’t a reason either.

the1andonlyskwex

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

propertyOfUndefined wrote: »

I

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

I beg to disagree. If things play out like they should, players who just want to test their builds' kill:death ratio, which are the same players who ignored objectives in non-DM games, will queue up for Death Matches. The rest will opt for the variety pack.

Araneae6537 wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

So looking back at this debacle:

- a poorly thought out test yielded results that we expected.
- Few players actually engaged in BGs when they were DM only
- Listening to the loudest voices on the forum was clearly a mistake
- A specialized choice (randoms vs DM) queue is coming
- All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

That last point is more important as it was the reasoning behind the test in the first place. While the developers are now making it easy to split the population, they missed the fundamental point of incentivizing combatants to play for an objective rather than to just kill everyone in Flag Games.

Those players who really wanted to do Deathmatch and were treating every Battleground as such can now queue specifically for it — where pursuing their preferred objective is also pursuing victory. So this should address the problem or at least fix part of it, no?

Sooooo what happens when the queue for Deathmatches only plummets like it did with this test? Are those players just gonna sit in queue for hours possibly or will they join the random queue, hope for a deathmatch, and then continue the kill everything and ignore the objective for flag games when they come up?

ZOS addressed the issue of possibly reducing DM wanting players entering Flag Games. That is NOT the same as incentivizing said players to properly engage in those flag games and play in a manner that doesn’t hamper the team effort or ruin the overall experience.

Based on my understanding, if the population in the DM queue is low, people in the random queue will be placed into deathmatches. There shouldn't ever be any situations where deathmatchers feel the need to join the random queue. On the other hand, there very well may be situations where the random queue only ever pops deathmatch games because the algorithm wants to keep the DM queue popping (even if there's only one person in the DM queue).

trackdemon5512

the1andonlyskwex wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

propertyOfUndefined wrote: »

I

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

I beg to disagree. If things play out like they should, players who just want to test their builds' kill:death ratio, which are the same players who ignored objectives in non-DM games, will queue up for Death Matches. The rest will opt for the variety pack.

Araneae6537 wrote: »

trackdemon5512 wrote: »

So looking back at this debacle:

- a poorly thought out test yielded results that we expected.
- Few players actually engaged in BGs when they were DM only
- Listening to the loudest voices on the forum was clearly a mistake
- A specialized choice (randoms vs DM) queue is coming
- All of this IN NO WAY has remotely addressed players playing every flag game like a DM.

That last point is more important as it was the reasoning behind the test in the first place. While the developers are now making it easy to split the population, they missed the fundamental point of incentivizing combatants to play for an objective rather than to just kill everyone in Flag Games.

Those players who really wanted to do Deathmatch and were treating every Battleground as such can now queue specifically for it — where pursuing their preferred objective is also pursuing victory. So this should address the problem or at least fix part of it, no?

Sooooo what happens when the queue for Deathmatches only plummets like it did with this test? Are those players just gonna sit in queue for hours possibly or will they join the random queue, hope for a deathmatch, and then continue the kill everything and ignore the objective for flag games when they come up?

ZOS addressed the issue of possibly reducing DM wanting players entering Flag Games. That is NOT the same as incentivizing said players to properly engage in those flag games and play in a manner that doesn’t hamper the team effort or ruin the overall experience.

Based on my understanding, if the population in the DM queue is low, people in the random queue will be placed into deathmatches. There shouldn't ever be any situations where deathmatchers feel the need to join the random queue. On the other hand, there very well may be situations where the random queue only ever pops deathmatch games because the algorithm wants to keep the DM queue popping (even if there's only one person in the DM queue).

If that’s the case then we may just see a repeat of players abandoning BGs midgame or refusing to queue if statistically they’re more likely to play Deathmatches over and over AND not maximize roles for other roles. It’s still a pretty poor implementation.

But we will see where this live test lands us in a few weeks.

thesarahandcompany

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your participation, patience and feedback while we experimented with only having the Deathmatch game mode available. It was important for us to run this for a few weeks to ensure we had an accurate representation of overall involvement and interest in Battlegrounds during this time.

First, it’s valuable to note the general feedback on this test was quite polarizing. While there were certainly a lot of players that liked only having Deathmatch available, there were just as many that didn’t enjoy it. A frequent complaint we saw, though, was the disappointment that we removed something that is ultimately at the core of our game: the freedom of choice. And in the case of this test, the data appeared to back that up as well. Although we initially saw a very slight bump in participation, it quickly declined and has left Battleground populations in a fairly unhealthy state.

Starting with the launch of Update 32 (November 1 for PC/Mac/Stadia and November 16 for consoles), we’ll be giving you more choices to decide which game mode to queue into depending on if you are playing solo or with a group. These will include:

• Solo Deathmatch
• Solo Random Battleground
• Group Deathmatch
• Group Random Battleground

One thing to keep in mind is the random queue will include all game modes (Flag Games, Land Grabs, and Deathmatch) so the likelihood of getting Deathmatch is going to be higher for those queueing into that game mode, specifically.

We’ll continue to monitor the sentiment and participation rates with Battlegrounds once this rolls out next month, and we’ll let you know if we plan for any additional changes. Thanks again for posting all your thoughts during this time!

Thanks for the update. I would pushback on the idea that BGs were in an unhealthy state, depending on what that means.

If we're thinking population of BGs as health/unhealthy, I believe that the test has been too short and that New World has carved into EVERY aspect of the game. As such, I still support extending the DM only queue until the new year and next DLC chapter release once the New World hype cools off.