08/20/22 - First Thoughts on the Season
Out of the gate, there are a couple of aspects that I find intriguing with the matchmaking and group setting of this season.
Empty Groups: Each batch seems to have mostly full groups, and then 1-2 groups that are almost half empty. It would seem to be a tremendous advantage to the rewards of the 1-2 groups to have half of their territories empty, compared to all the other groups.
Solution: It would seem to me that spreading out the vacancies across more groups would be wiser, not to mention more competitive for all involved. Why have 3 groups of 8 alliances and 1 group of 4 alliances, when you can have 4 groups of 7 alliances?
Lack of DMs/Watering: Having the first day to chat with other alliances in the Season Zone Chat is handy, as basic greetings and hashing out expectations can be done before anyone is teleported to the Island. The problem lies in expected functioning by sharing a Zone Chat: water drops and DMs to other players are not allowed until everyone is on the same temporary server. It requires potentially pivotal communication requests to be spoken about in public, or even hinted at.
Solution: Once matchmaking has been finalized, there should be an exception to the “no messaging/watering across servers” rule within that introductory/Selection week for players/alliances that will be sharing the same Island server. This would allow R5s to message each other, or at least message contact information to Discord to those they wish to speak with. As for watering, it’s a nice show of sportsmanship to provide this upon first meeting people.
Grouping Oddities: Our group (out of 21 for Batch 2) has a number of players across 3 alliances that have originated from, or recently visited, my server of 119. While this comes with its pleasant and cautionary surprises, it was made more intriguing when I found out that another group also had 2 alliances from 119 within it. This leads me to worry about manual clumping in the matchmaking phase by the developers.
Solution: The developers are not going to be fully transparent on the metrics or decisions used in the matchmaking process, due to players looking to “game” the system outlined. There have been several other island groups which have stated they are seeing server mates in their group as well. Some of this is due to the restricted size of the batches, and others can be manually avoided. My suggestion would be to open up the batch size appropriately: instead of S2-100 for Batch 1, it should have been S2-200. Batch 2, S200-400. Etc.
Communication: There’s still a decent lack of centralized communication and information sharing, amongst players from the company. While this forum is in its infancy and hopes to change that, Discord is also scattered and intimidating (or too busy) for players to use as a reference. Oftentimes, players aren’t sure even ~if~ information is available, let alone where to find it.
Solution: Having a more concise overall structure to communication for the game, whether it be for regular play or the Island event, would make the overall Quality of Life for players much more enjoyable. “If you need X, go here. If you need Y, go here.” Having multiple channels of access (LINE, Discord, Forum, In-game, etc.) without a clear understanding of what each is for causes duplicate efforts without any materialized gains.