That was the impression I was getting.
It drives up the value of buying levels, I think; to have a really long, and maybe light, stretched out Battle Pass…then they immediately release the option to buy levels…freemium brawls like mini BPs along the way…hopefully?
Whatever they are up to, they sure look sharp doing it. Their imaginary world is very mesmerizing.
I absolutely believe you, because it does that with me with two specific blueprints I have. Thursday, five matches in a row, the power score between me and the next lowest player was right around 3000 points.
With that big of a disparity, you really have no chance and have to play a very careful game.
It’s just not fun.
One trick I have been using that seems to work okay is to switch builds and weapon types. I go from my very successful shotgun builds to a build with a very non-meta setup. Adapters, assemblers, and other less loved parts.
No lie, after five matches of being the weakest by thousands, I switched to my 12K assemblers and was the strongest by about 2,000. I immediately switched back and started getting balanced matches again. I don’t know if that was chance or if it’s really working. Maybe I’m just imagining things.
Good idea. I think rotating your builds helps, too. I like to have a list I go through. Some builds are great, and some not so much, but all of them using a variety of weapon types and wheels. It helped keep the matchmaker from repeatedly sending me to the same maps, or on suicide missions for over performing, IMO.
I think the system is supposed to keep you from over farming resources, but IDK. I just find it tiresome, and would like to simply get random matches based on power-score, end of story, like I’ve been told repeatedly is the case, but obviously is not.
I had expected the big uptick in player population, due to the Chinese migration, would help, because the matchmaker is usually friendlier when traffic is strong, but that hasn’t been the case.
I think the numbers can be hard to read and deceptive. For example (are you wearing your tin-foil hat nice and tight?), the matchmaker will sometimes put me on the bottom because I suck (or I’m running useless under-powered drones), and it expects me to win due to the advantage my team mates have ('cause they’re badass). And I can then basically screw off, jumping off cliffs and pooping various drones, while my team of experts wins the matches for me. This will go on as long as I have dailies, and as long as my builds are in line with those challenges. It seems like fun, until I realize it doesn’t matter what I do, my team will probably win anyway, because they are a clan or some kind of group of pros.
In that case I’m not being penalized for over-performance, but rather I’m being set up to be carried by my team. Give me a shotgun build and it’s the other way around. I’ll shred for one match, the sentinel spots my murder spree, and then it’s either I sit in an eternal queue, I get the band of misfits in Sector Ex all night, at a 20% Power-score disadvantage against nothing but melee, or I switch builds.
My Boom-stick build has a similar issue. I’ll be allowed to run it one too three times, and then it’s exiled to the eternal queue where it just sits for literally a half an hour.
If you are playing shotguns or melee in PVP, you are competing in a significantly different environment than other players, against a wholly different lot of adversaries than if your are playing Auto-cannons, for example. The map variation is different too. It’s not that there aren’t similarities or commonalities, but I get Sector Ex a lot more often if I run shotguns or melee. So, I stopped playing those styles, because I got sick of sector Ex vs boring-truckers. It worked too. I hadn’t played shot guns in almost a year (tried a couple times) because it was such an effective method for not getting that map all of the time, or constantly dealing with boring-trucker mobs…that situation was bad last time I really played, and was everywhere a little, but it was way worse if you strap a shotgun on your ride, I thought.
Rotating your builds occasionally and using different play-styles is a good idea, I think. At least as far as PVP is concerned. I don’t think this matchmaking system is relevant to Clan wars or Raids, but it is often an openly used component of seasonal brawls (rank and build profile discrimination).
Not taking the game too seriously helps too. I think that’s why you and players like Poony4u have been able to maintain positive attitudes about this game consistently. Either you’re playing more of other modes, or periodically going into PVP and just screwing around for fun. You get mauled a little, and the matchmaker thinks you suck, so it plays nice…for a while. Then, unless you switch builds, modes, or simply screw around some more, and instead decide to farm aces with your murder-mobile for monster gains, the deck will start stacking against you. If you are in a META build there’s not a lot the matchmaker can do. Some exploits simply work, over and over. but if you’re not, you’ll need to be a real baddass, with a solid connection, to keep up. The Power-score penalties you can accrue can be pretty extreme.
I’m not sure that’s a completely bad idea to have a system in place like that (farm protection), but I think I’ve seen it function better in the past, at least as far as I’m concerned. I’ve seen it worse too, like when the bots start singling you out at the beginning of matches and bulls-eying you with cannons from the other side of the map…some of that can be fun, but it gets old.
This is exactly what I do. If I get the punishment you are describing, I simply stop playing PVP for a while. Or, I switch build types. I’m not hyper focused on farming resources or winning in PVP like some folks. I guess I am a much more laid-back player. I mean, I will sometimes play for a couple of hours just building silly stuff and never actually go into a battle at all. LOL
This afternoon, I farmed the seasonal dailies, then just farted around in that new custom match setup they have. Once I figured out I could do solo raids, I did a few of them just for giggles. You get no rewards, but you kill Bots like popping balloons. LOL
That’s probably a good life strategy in general. Too much of anything will straight up kill you. For real.
Maybe you could try changing your game server choice to the one with the most players on it so the match making pool is greater and hopefully closer?
Im east coast usa but i only play on the Euro server because it seems matches start a lot faster…so im thinking more players…greater numbers of Power Score available for matching.
I take a hit on ping but its playable (120-140ish ping on avg.) and games start from 2-15 secs consistently which is my main goal. I dont want to wait long.
Do server locations influence you?
Isn’t it about time for Dronapocolypse? I think it’s usually around this time in spring? Would make sense with the focus of the new legendary cabin.
There is usually a plastic reward event in spring usually isnt there?
I thought it was around April.
Not every battlepass is chalked full of stuff i want. But other people will love these parts. Me? I only really want the tracks. Its the second least desireable bp so far to me if not the least. Its a decent deal though if you play drones and machine guns which i often dont. I play millers sometimes.
I only really want the Fuze CK. I like the other one too.
As for the Drone cab; I like to have a Drone boat in my rotation, but this cab isn’t going to function, IMO. It’s going to get put in the shed. I think this Munnin cab is more trouble than it’s worth, and is ripe to be nominated as Crossout’s worst cab ever…I like the new Tracks too…and the Anchor decor.
They’re trading for 740 on the market right now. They were 900 even last night.
If/when the price drops to about half that, I’ll have to get a matching pair.
Even though I have stated many times that I think the long term players are what destroy this game, I also believe that “morals” don’t belong in video games.
You don’t get brownie points for being the good guy.
But, do whatever you do to have fun. That’s the key. Just don’t get all pissed off when someone else does not adhere to your moral video game code.
Well, I think morals belong everywhere in your life, but they’re probably the least applicable in the make-believe world of cartoon cars shooting each other. 
How you act when you believe no one who knows you is watching is the truest reflection of who you really are. I think that reality plays out most clearly when people are driving real cars in rush hour than it does on a video game. 
It’s hard to say this is not true 
But when I play video games it gives me a chance to not be myself, and the person I choose to be is not the good guy for sure.
The grind of this game is soooooooo looooooong and soul crushing. We are talking years and years. And in a game where you can do whatever you want it’s kind of hard to be “That guy” and try to tell everyone else “well… you can do whatever you want… as long as it is not this list of things I made up in my moral code”
Oh yeah, I mean… I don’t typically kill dozens of people per day in my real life. 
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typically
Polishes his homade leather lamp shade
“Throw shade and you become shade.”
laighs maniacally