Problem: I’m pretty fast. I’m not world class, but somehow smy skill rating is 4980 +/- a few right now. When I join Featured multiplayer, I regularly find myself in lobbies where I am 1-2 seconds faster a lap than the closest competitor. Occasionally I’ll get someone, maybe 2 racers close to my pace. When I look through the post race laps, pace is all over the place. At my skill rating in an S class lobby, how am I being placed in lobbies with players who can barely keep their car on the road, being 10-20 seconds off the pace or worse? This happens no matter when i join, as it opens, half way to join close, or right at the end of join close.
Solution: The problem seems to be multiplayer building the lobbies as they join. Safety rating does seem to be more prominent in lobby placement for buckets, (I’ve sadly fell to A rating for a short period) but the lobbies are filled quickly it seems no matter the skill rating. Join with 8 minutes left to join, and you likely end up in a brand new lobby. To solve this, I propose that matchmaking for the actual race does not happen until 5 minutes left to join, or 10 minutes left of practice. Put players in practice lobbies like now, but at the 10 minute left of practice mark, the practice lobby would be redone to put players in lobbies with players closer to their own skill rating.
This solution leaves practice time and time to qualify. you could let people qualify before the matchmaking mark if they wanted. If that is not enough time, do it at the 15 minute mark, 10 minutes from join close. That means the pool of players to be matched would be from the 25 minute to 10 minute mark of join. This would be a much larger pool to put players in better, more competitive lobbies.
And if someone joins after the 5 or 10 minute mark, they then end up in whats open or a newly created lobby for people after that point. IE, people would know they need to join before the 5 or 10 minute mark of join to get a more competitive lobby that more closely reflects their skill level. This would also improve the actual skill ratings as people couldn’t just count on automatically being better than 90% of the lobby, simply because the can put up a decent time.
Hope that is clear. I will clarify if asked.
