I played this game 2 years ago through Steam, and it was a favorite of mine. I have fond memories of my time here, and if I look at my play time on Steam, it is over 1400 hours. I have spent $200 on it in two transactions: $100 in my first year, and now $100 again upon my return. On Steam I have an old positive review that I posted on this game. These are my "fan credentials." After playing a week or so, my enthusiasm has cooled. The reasons for this I think have to do with multiplayer, and the fact that after having forgotten the game almost completely I am expected to continually fight against players with a 1700 rank, the best players in the game. It is really not fun at all. And to support this is the idea that players who quit too early in a match are punished. I understand the reasoning for this is to prevent players from gaming the system to get items faster. Frankly, on that subject, I have never understood the notion that I should care that another player is playing their game like this. Ideally, in my situation, I would want to lower my rank to about 1000 or so, but let me explain what is happening at the rank of 1550. I believe the most active players are the higher rank players. It makes sense that those who have been playing for a longer consecutive time have become the best players in the game, but what this means is that the matchmaking system favors the higher end of things rather than the lower end. When a lower ranked player tries to play a match, it is most likely that they will be matched against a higher ranked player. In my case, I have consistently been matched against 1700 players, and honestly, rather than be crushed by these players I would rather play the AI. I realize that much of my sentiment on this matter is caused by a more refined sensitivity to rank differences. I have for months now been playing chess on chess.com, and I have gotten used to the way it feels when playing against players who are most often within 30 Elo points. My chess.com Elo is typically between 1000 and 1100. Playing against someone ranked 1200 to 1300 is nuts. Sure it might be fun once in a while, but if it were like this game, where this happens almost every match, it would become frustrating pretty quickly. Half of this issue I know is caused by a limited pool of players. I know that nothing can really be done about that except that some unusual success is gained through advertising. With a limited pool of players, this kind of thing is going to happen. But I also think that a players rank should degrade with time. There is no way that someone who doesn't play for two years can return to play at the rank they were previously able to achieve, and the quit-match prevention enforcement to support this is nonsense. Anyway, because I loved this game so much in the past, I thought I should leave my thoughts here.
Howdy, graysky, and welcome back to Cardhuntria -- and Tournamentria. $:^ J I wonder if it's a time of day thing. Right now (close to 5am UTC), there are ten matches in progress. Only one has a 1700+ (vs a 1400+) player. All the others don't even include a purple icon (except a 1550 vs 1497 match) -- oh wait, another game started, 1621 vs 1657. The matchmaker tries its best. Also right now, there are only three 1700+ players online anyway. When I counted a couple minutes ago, there were some 26ish players 1200 and up, meaning 1/8-ish give or take of the players you might match with would be that high up. If it makes you feel any better, CH's Elo tends to show more difference once you get well past 100 points difference, at least in my experience (with lots of match spectating under my belt, never mind my own playing). I hope you do stick around. Even if you have to play wonky builds like Infected or Walpurgis Night (hey, it's near Halloween, right?) until you think you're around the right level, I figure you can even out the distance soon enough, eh? $:^ ] Until then, regards!
