Duelyst Forums

Unranked queue?

#1

Hi!

I would really like to have and normal “unranked queue”, the main reason for this is that is nice to have another mode where you can experiment with new decks without fear of loosing ranks, and also because often while playing on ranked I noticed that I start focusing on just winning and stop enjoying the game and having fun with diferent decks even if they might be worse.

I do not care if the matchups are not balance or whatever, I just want to be able to play for the fun of it without worrying about rank.

Aside from this I think the game is so fuckking good, love the tactic/positioning side of it, the art, the lore, Good job guys !

4 Likes
#2

People say that until a first day player in unranked goes up against Srank 1 Solfid or plays against someone like me and they see 18 Magmar ribbons and even though I am playing a meme deck the majority of the deck legendary or rare.They had unranked before and that’s what happened.

The reason we don’t have unranked is because the some of the playerbase was whined and cried about losing in unranked.Losing in meaningless unfair match was too much for them(instead of just quiting and keep it moving) and CPG took it out to fix it and hasn’t put it in back yet.

3 Likes
#3

Let me know your thoughts on this theory:

An alternative to avoid rank anxiety would be to implement a rank lock feature.

For example, Billy is at rank 6 and wants to try a crazy deck, but doesn’t want to lose ladder progress.

He goes into the ladder, activates rank lock and plays as usual. Regardless of the result, his rank stays unchanged.

His opponent, Joe, is trying to improve his ranking, so he chooses to not use rank lock. His chevron count is altered normally with the result.

Billy and Joe are happy.

  • This would not split the player base into another game mode, so unchanged or even lower queue time, since less people will pla the AI;
  • The matchmaking system is the same, so the balance is as good as the usual;
11 Likes
#4

Maybe it should treat it as though the match never happened so people don’t just spam it for quests.

#5

I don’t see why we can’t have an unranked queue. If the previous incarnation had problems with matchmaking based on skill, it could match players based on their current rank.

The only difference between this and theprovost’s idea is that with the “rank lock” you’d still be queued with players in the ladder, whereas having a separate queue would prevent potential rank inflation for other players by only matching you with players near your rank but without influencing either player’s chevrons.

The only downside I see to having a separate queue would be increased matchfinding times. There may be more, but that’s the only immediate problem I see.

2 Likes
#6

I have suggested that many oh so many times.


Being the most recent thread.

1 Like
#7

Think I’ve said it in other topics that wanted unranked mode back. That I’m against having the unranked mode back and nothing has changed my mind when remembering what the unranked mode was like. I’m not against having other ‘fun’ or ‘solo’ modes though, I just don’t think having an unranked mode would help the game or be beneficial. Although I like @theprovost idea of rank lock as a compromise.

#8

This is genius.

#9

Rank lock is a nice idea, but it will definitely lead to rank inflation. For example, if you want to try out new/fun decks, you’d lock your own rank. Fun deck and new deck are, in most cases, less competitive than “standard” decks. If a person without Rank lock matches with you, with your rank locked, the opponent would have an easy time beating you and thus gain rank faster. Therefore I don’t think your idea of Rank Lock is feasible.

Suggesting that Rank Lockers should have a different queue is the same as suggesting an unranked queue. In most games, queues match people by comparing either their explicit ranks (like Bronze/Silver/Gold/Dia… in Duelyst) or implicit ranks. Nearly ALL games uses implicit ranks (Match Making Point, look into competitive chess matchmaking for more details) for normal queues. Theoretically, your relative explicit rank should be the same as your relative implicit rank, i.e. balance should be good as usual.

(Winning Streaks yielding bonus increase in rank could cause rank inflation and thus the discrepancy between explicit and implicit ranks, but that’s not the main concern of the current topic.)

I reckon that the absence of non-ranked queues is due to the small player base of this game. I remember this claim (and this topic on a whole) being echoed in the forum numerous times.

Responding to OP, I’d say that don’t care too much about the rank unless you’re about to get up 1 division. You can’t fall below a division: say you’re gold 8, the lowest you could go is gold 10. Also, the highest rank you achieve within the season is recorded, but not your rank at season-ends: say you’re gold 8, and you fall to gold 10, your own profile and season-end rewards will say that you’re a rank 8 instead of rank 10. Personally, I seldom care about losing ranks, because from my experience (a typical Diamond 5 dweller), a random deck could get you through Silver, and a semi-decent deck should be enough for you to go past Gold. Just have fun and enjoy the game, and be easy with your rank statuses.

#10

You could just close you eyes when the chevrons light up, OR you can just not care about whether you win or lose. If you are that scared about winning or losing games, then this is not the game for you tbh. Even the best decks can lose to a bad deck with great draws.

#11

This would work, and is pretty awesome, if it becomes impossible in S-rank, for obvious reasons (quitting while occupying the number 1 spot).
Maybe even in Diamond, because people could spend a long time testing the waters before continuing in unlocked mode, and because they can spend a lot of time crafting the perfect deck based on results which do not matter and then when it’s fine-tuned make it suddenly matter would be quite unfair probably.

#12

I understand the sentiment, but it’s simply not true and unfair that a person’s amount of care makes him unfit for a game and should thus go away.
No, we can all try to make as many people as possible welcome in this game and this community, and I would love it if we tried to do so.

#13

You’re over looking one thing, you could just rank lock in silver and farm gold off beating noobs all day :confused:

#14

Which you can already do by conceding a match every few wins, see Hearthstone

#15

But you’d still be making it much easie. I feel a rank lock system wouldn’t work because of this as It’d also be worse for the chevron economy as you’d be effectively destroying chevrons this way.

#16

Maybe it won’t work for generic reasons, but I don’t think farming noobs would be one of them. Conceding to avoid streaks is just as effective.

Point is, players should suggest features they like, then it is up to developers to find the best implementation.

I think it is fair to say that unranked would be a very popular addition, particularly important to have before the mobile release. Every card game out there has it, I don’t think it’s so horribly problematic given that…

#17

HORRID idea…

So one guy can screw around with a junk gimmick deck consequence free and another, playing with a real deck and fully trying to win, can beat him and gain rank.

Stupid, imbalanced and unfair.

I’d quit the game if they ever did that. Ranked would be pointless for me.

#18

well you could add some mmr system for none ranked as well. not visible rank just hidden mmr for matchmaking.

i remember first time i got matched against solafid when i just hit diamond first time. i didn’t think a game could be over so fast. strangely enough i don’t remember fighting him since than.

the top ~30 s rank players all feel like a level beyond diamond though.

you can always test decks on a check point, like rank 10 or rank 5, 20 or 0 if you really want. there you don’t need to worry about loses as you have nothing to lose.

#19

Truth is a lot of people hate to lose. I never liked that idea… you give it ur all but losing is okay bar any cheating by ur opponent. This is one of th e few games where I can just concede start another game and not have to worry about dropping from my current rank. Few games can say that.

Ideally a unranked game you should pair you with anyone who wants to play regardless of skill or time played. Playing ranked should be pairing u with others of ur current skill level. But then people want invisible ranks for unranked so the better players won’t take advantage of the bad ones. But then I thought unranked was cause you wanted a stress free game mode and not cause you hate to lose?

Final truth is if you hate to lose you will always find some fault. I dont mind having a unranked mode as long as the games doesn’t suffer from longer que times. Why advertise fast games when ur que is slow as hell. But really people who can’t stand to lose will only deflect their responsibility of loss on other things.

#20

It would never be my intention to turn people away from the game, however proposing the “rank lock” is pointless because of the chevron lock at 20, 10, 5, and 0. If you lose, you don’t go anywhere.

I still don’t understand people’s desire for an Unranked queue. You want to experiment with new deck? Kudos to you. I understand the desire to peel away from the monotony of netdeckers after a sponsored tournament and play something different, but even with an unranked queue. People will always craft their decks towards the meta game, trying to perfect the deck until it is suitable for ranked queue.

If you split the queues, wait times will eventually drive away a low playerbase. If we lock ranks, then people will not progress because the only way I see an Unranked queue is with no rewards, (gold, quests, etc), the game will become stale and eventually drive away the player base. Honestly the only solution is for a hide rank option, where you don’t have to see your chevrons go up and down, while you play the game and earn rewards. OR YOU CAN PLAY GAUNTLET. YA KNOW THE GAME MODE THAT DOESN’T COUNT TOWARDS YOU LADDER RANK.

I’ve seen popular indie games burn because of a split queue. I don’t want to see this one do the same.