While playing the PC version of Star Wars Battlefront, I’ve experienced all sorts of ridiculous matchmaking mishaps. It seems like I’m far from alone.
Since I posted my review, I’ve encountered some seriously mind-boggling matchmaking moments. Usually, this involves lopsided teams (high-level players with snazzy gear vs lowbies who aim worse than your average Stormtrooper), but as server populations have decreased since launch, players like DisneyLines have found themselves floating aimlessly in the game’s purgatory-white match finder. Observe:
And that’s in one of the game’s marquee modes, Walker Assault. I’ve experienced moments like these, too — as have, apparently, quite a few other players.
Now, there are still enough players online at any given moment to build a match in relatively short order. For whatever reason, though, Battlefront‘s matchmaking sometimes stalls out, especially when the new Jakku map is involved.
Then there are the Strange Moments. Sometimes in modes like Heroes vs Villains — where a small team of classic Star Wars heroes (and regular players) clashes with a small team of villains (and regular players) — the game will get confused when players leave matches and, say, give one team multiple special characters (Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, etc) while the other will get a couple rank-and-file foot soldiers. The result? Slaughter.
One time when I was playing, the game even managed to flub matchmaking such that there were only two people in a Heroes vs Villains match: me and one other guy. Mystifyingly, it put us on the same team. What happened next was pure hilarity: a round would begin, we’d charge into battle, and then seconds later, the game would sound the bombastic trumpets of victory and tell us we’d won. Without doing anything. Because there was nobody to fight. It was so bizarre.
To DICE’s credit, they have finally said that they’re looking into fixing these issues. But also, the game’s been out for nearly a month. Why the hell is it taking so long? This is a problem with a fundamental element of the game, a very real disturbance in the Force.
Here’s hoping they patch it up — or overhaul the whole system — soon. Or hey, you know what would be nice? A manual server browser. What ever happened to those? Remember when we were all kids, browsing servers to our hearts’ content — moulding games as we pleased, like so much Play-Doh? We were so innocent back then, so beautiful.
Comments
39 responses to “Star Wars Battlefront’s Matchmaking Is A Mess”
Oh man the whining about homing shot never ends.. It took me less then a few hours to work out its mechanics and not since the first day of playing has anyone killed me using it. It’s fucking shit.. It’s not broken. DL-44 is kiiinda broken in small spaces but in open maps its terrible. If you hate it, play Walker Assault until you unlock it.
The server finding is fucking shit though, I will admit that. My solution is to add people to your friends list. Then when you play, join their game. A) You know you got at least 1 good player on your team, unless your friends are shit. B) The partner system is awesome and gives your team a huge advantage. 3) I’d rather wait for 1 person to leave so I can join instead of 30 minutes in the matchfinder.
I agree about the homing shot, the maps just aren’t open enough for it to be a problem, all you have to do is hide behind the nearest object once you hear it locked on… or run behind your team mates…
I’d be happy to play some Walker Assault if I could ever get into a game. Every time I’ve tried recently it sits there trying to find a game and eventually just dumps me into an empty lobby. I’d rather sit in a queue waiting for a spot to open up in a full server than that.
Yesterday I tried an experiment. I sat in a Walker Assault empty lobby at 8am and my brother in a Blast lobby to see what would fill up first. We just went and played league until we got a game. NINE hours later, the walker assault filled up enough for a game to start..
I spent a solid 20min this morning trying to get into a Fighter Squadron match to knock over one of the challenges, didn’t connect to a single game. Mostly ended up in a server by myself.
Yep, I’d much prefer to wait in a queue than endlessly searching for games. I wish that it allowed you to search for full games as it seems the games search skips straight to “almost full games”.
sure it has some issues but that video is terrible. nothing like frequent swearing and entitlement to make it SEEM like ones point is completely worthless. how about constructive feedback and respect for the work that has gone into an imperfect game. If his purpose of the video is to inspire the devs to fix/change it, all he really succeeds in doing is reinforcing the stupid internet sheepeoples idea that this game is unplayable and not worth the money, which means is will drive those players on the fence to stay away, thus making the population smaller and making the problem even worse… buy hey dude keep swearing if it makes you feel big
PS as an Aussie I had the same problem playing after midnight when I got home from, so yes I know what he means
There is that word again… entitlement. You sound like a fool for using it. You consider someone entitled just because they expect a working game?? Get outa here you clown.
No entitlement is a perfect word here because any serious gamer in the last 20 odd years now that a game rarely ever launches without issues. Sure in a perfect world where world peace exist so do perfect games, but here in this reality all online games have teething issues of differing levels.
For the most part the servers have been solid, there hasn’t been much downtime, there hasn’t been many absolutely game destroying bugs. So all that considered it hasnt been a bad launch. Not flawless just not terrible.
Obviously this is a huge issue. One that I myself have seen and impacts me a lot, but I dont approached the issue sounded like an angry tool who lives in that daydream world where games launch 110% perfect. I would say a clown is someone who expects the world around them to be perfect.
It’s a month after launch – we are well past teething issues.
I would propose that not being able to find a game is in fact a game destroying bug.
And yet you feel that a person is entitled if they voice their opinion stating that. You seem to have an issue with how he voiced it – that is by no means entitlement.
It boggles my mind that you are so complacent with a game that doesn’t even work. Fuck that noise. If i spend my hard earned cash on something i bloody well expect to work as advertised.
SOME people arent able to find the game and there are some things you can still do in game, so its not like a Diablo 3 or Simcity level of launch (which was three weeks ago) which made the game completely broken. Three weeks in any online game is nothing. Most reasonable people are able to understand that not only do the devs have prioritise which bugs to handle first, work out how to combat them, then have to diverse how much to tackle at once, then they have to test the patch, then get it approved by (at least) three different delivery systems.
sadly some gamers seem to think all devs have to do 1) see problem 2) tell everyone all over the interwebs “omg we are sooooo sowwy, we care, we listen, you all rock” 3) click fingers 4) the world is saved
So no this guy in the video does absolutely nothing to help but sound narky and entitled.
It’s people like you which lead to products being released in the sorry state that they are. If no one bought a broken product do you think there would be many around? Do you think they’d release it in that state? Do you think the release of this game is tied to a certain upcoming movie? That they rushed it to make a deadline? When they could have spent more time polishing the networking code – more time on the matchmaking system.
Regardless you need to check up on what entitled means. It definitely doesn’t encompass the expectation of a product working as advertised.
I think you should check out what entitled means in terms of gaming, not a dictionary version.
Its not about accepting broken products but being merely more realistic in expectations. I have roar enough about things like Diablo 3, Simcity, Assassins Creed Unity (etc) but seriously the problems with this game are no different than most online type games, and given that they did a lot of testing for this game you cant complain that they werent trying to launch it in a good state. Of course they rushed it out for the new movie and Christmas but its not to the same level of broken as the latest Battlefield was at launch.
After 20 years of gaming and so many terrible launches any smart person knows not to expect much from online games for the first few weeks. The entitled want to get their non-constructive hate on like this video while other more reasonable people want the game succeed so they give feedback in a helpful. So no we arent accepting broken products just not pretending we live in a world where world peace or bug free online game at launch is completely plausable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCz7MOhMF8g or http://www.reaxxion.com/9160/the-myth-of-gamer-entitlement … do you just gobble the shit that publishers throw at you?
What liketake a look at Evolve and where it is now lewlz
Bought the game 2 weeks ago and have played maybe half a dozen maps, the rest of the time i watch it go to searching from 80% all the way down to zero. The handful of maps I have played I’ve been murdered by everyone with the dl44 and jetpacks. The beta wasn’t perfect but it was a fun casual seeming shooter that i thought i could dump small amounts of time into and have some short bursts of fun but it has become nearly unplayable at this point.
Playing on PC btw.
Organised to play with a group of friends last night on xbone, after about 30min of matchmaking with not a single game mode found we gave up and went out seperate ways, worst matchmaking ever.
I find that my internet is too shit to play fps online, Adsl 2+ with 4mbps down and .9mbps up. The lag monster gobbles me up all the time
I haven’t experienced any of these matchmaking problems on PS4 which is probably due to how the player population for this game in particular on PS4 is apparently bigger than Xbox + PC combined. In fact, it’s actually been one of the best multiplayer experiences for me, despite its flaws.
I used to whinge about Homing Shot as well, but once you actually learn how it works and what to do, you barely get killed by it. I get killed by it maybe once per hour now. The main tips I’d give would be to not run out into the open all the time and just be mindful of the ‘target lock’ warning message/direction so you can get behind cover. You can also get the Bodyguard trait which will actually stop you from getting one-shotted by Homing Shot completely as it’ll reduce its damage to 69.
Totally agree, played 30 hrs online on ps4 and not had any matchmaking issues at all.
It makes me laugh how quiet EA have been since the release of Battlefront. Usually after they release a AAA game they’re shouting from the rooftops about how many players the game has, how much money it made, and what the future holds for it.
I enjoy Battlefront when I play it(PC), but am spending more and more time waiting for matchmaking.
They did release an info graph during the week.
Getting into any game this morning was a pain in the arse. No game types were filling up, is anyone else even playing it?
I’m really not regretting holding off on purchasing this. As a dedicated player of SWBF1 & 2, they originally had my money in the bag but they just seemed to want to find more ways to make me not want to buy it.
See, holding off was kinda a bad idea in my head.. I had the same idea of holding off cause I hate buying unpolished games on release. However, the game does have good gameplay and is beautiful.. But the matchmaking is shit. If you hold off a few months, there will be less players and the match making is only gonna get worse.
Yeah, that’s where a lack of a server browser kills it – SWBF2 had a very active Australian community for years after release, due to some clan servers.
Best match making out of any ps4 MP game. Get off the PC man.
I play on PS4 and get the matchmaking issues more frequently at night than during the day. If a particular mode fails to find any games for me i just move onto a different mode, then go back to the preferred one a little later.
I’ve also found it has put me into incredibly lopsided battles on occasion, but not often.
Now that i’ve grinded my way up to Rank 20 i feel like i’m not getting dominated as much anymore and actually have a fighting chance.
The way the servers are started is a joke.
It’s 3 pm on a sunday arvo and I can’t get a walker assault game on the PC. The same thing happened last night at 10 pm and around 1 am. I am beginning to forget what AT-AT’s look like…..
Has it died already?
Apparently there just aren’t many PC players on Battlefront compared to consoles.
The multiplayer setup should be designed to handle these situations. It’s a bit of a stretch to say that there aren’t any games for me to join when it is a AAA title released less than 2 months ago. It’s easier to get a game of Battlefield 3 or 4, which is saying something considering Battlefield 3 was released 4 years ago.
So frustrated at the moment because I’ve received the game as a gift and only just installed it. I did manage to join a walker assault after half-an-hour trying in the lobby but no other matches since. It’s really disappointing. It’s so bizarre.
im done playing battlefront. on days you seriously think people will be playing. you’ll search and search for games. every game mode, diferent maps nothing comes up. ive used m VPN to have U.S ip address. lagged like hell HEY! i got games.
This was happening in the open beta and I knew it wouldn’t be resolved on release or ever (EA don’t do that kind of thing). Game is terrible and heaps of people were giving it a wide berth and the poor people that were suckered in because “STAR WARS” are now left with match making that resembles a 5+ year old game. Having server browser would at least allow the few people that are left to easily find a common place they can go each time they logon, rather than the crapshoot that is forced MM.
So the game has gone to shit barely a month after launch. Raise your hand if you’re surprised [i][/i]
Yeah, I haven’t actually even played a single game of Walker Assault, Supremacy or the Fighter game mode since I bought the game. Matchmaking never finds a game and then eventually just dumps me in an empty lobby. I’ve got into a few of the smaller game modes like Blast or the Drop Pod one, but really, thats not why anyone is buying the game, Walker Assault is the marquee game mode and its essentially unplayable to a lot of people that aren’t on PS4 at the moment.
At this point I’d even be happy with just the option of playing Walker Assault with bots filling the spots, at least then I can play the game.
Yeah, I’m a bit over it to be honest. I want to play the game, but I can’t find a dam match and that is on a console?! Only walker assault, which doesn’t help my 3 challenges I have that require me to play supremacy. I was searching for a good hour last night, found one game quickly, but was booted due to losing connection to EA servers, then spent the next 45mins looking for another match… which I ended up giving up and going back to fallout.
I am actually enjoying the game as a nice break to fallout, but the fact that I can’t find a game is pushing me to just go and trade it in. Honestly, you build a game that is based on multiplayer, the one thing you should be focusing on is getting the matchmaking correct!
They also need to mix the teams up after every match, really getting tired of versing a dominant team that continues to stay together. I’ve even left a match and joined back in just so I can get on the other team. I felt dirty, but I was sick of losing
Actually having trouble with halo 5 matchmaking lately. Keep getting put into games where someone leaves or with ppl who r avg while the other team is full of murder bots. 4 slayer matches in a row the other day…u can’t get out of gold rank even tho my kda is quite decent. God damn
What concerns me is when i can’t get a local game and it just dumps me in a 200+ latency game about 90% of the time on PC. It almost feels like there is 1 server in the whole of Australia, there really mustn’t be many people playing it on pc.
You would think the matchmaking would have been fixed by now right. May 2016. Sorry to say it’s still problematic, on Xbox One at the very least. The in-game party system still has regular problems in which you have to reboot the entire game, sometimes you will matchmake into a game and the game will be unresponsive to contols. Trying to find games with the new matchmaking options is a joke. All you can do is find games of walker assault! Can they not make a mode playlist, give the community some variety. Even a 2 mode playlist would be nice for varieties sake!