This game has bot support, yet it's impossible to find a game in OCE. You should allow people to start populating a bot lobby that counts towards progression, and let real people fill in for the bots.
#Fill underpopulated region matchmaking with bots
viscid wolf
viscid wolf
I think the suggestion still stands. Sometimes you just want to play a low latency game as quick as possible, right now you're lucky to get a game on launch with over 15 minutes of waiting
Auto population and allowing progression with bots in matches open to players increases the chances of people in low pop finding players casually, without bleeding them.
Right now the only way I can make minimal progress is in American lobbies
sonic stirrup
oce can drift off
viscid wolf
I'm not sure why you would want less people populating the game you hang around 24/7
magic moon
most na guys could count on their hands how many oce players they have run into lol
viscid wolf
most na guys could count on their hands how many oce players they have run into ...
The effectiveness of this suggestion would spread beyond OCE.
It would be useful for all underpopulated regions including the US outside of peak hours.
magic moon
It would be useful for all underpopulated regions including the US outside of pe...
bot matches w rewards kinda gives incentive to play intentionally at dead times
it sucks but the only online mode available is ranked so this would just destroy the balancing
viscid wolf
bot matches w rewards kinda gives incentive to play intentionally at dead times
Not really, because anyone could join at those times. It's just if nobody was, those one or two people could jump on.
Further, if a bunch of people did have that instinct, it would mean people would be going out of their way, together, to queue at that time meaning they would be queued with each other.
magic moon
Not really, because anyone could join at those times. It's just if nobody was, t...
im not saying its gonna change the time everyone queues. its gonna make ppl sit around w the game open waiting for just a couple ppl to be on
runic bronze
oce can drift off
Nuh uh it’s the best one
umbral fox
Nuh uh it’s the best one
😂😂
umbral fox
bot matches w rewards kinda gives incentive to play intentionally at dead times
they cant even play on hours cause there is no q at all
this is actually a good idea for oce but the only thing i would say is u might have to make an easier bot because idk if oce can go against the hard bot
runic bronze
they cant even play on hours cause there is no q at all
nuh uh we had pubs running for the whole day on launch day
elfin bone
do not add bots lmao would just ruin game
viscid wolf
do not add bots lmao would just ruin game
How would having bots in empty server regions ruin the game
magic moon
How would having bots in empty server regions ruin the game
it would be actively unbalancing the ranks
elfin bone
it would be actively unbalancing the ranks
^
im just gonna go on a random server with nobody on and play bots until im 5000 mmr
viscid wolf
Then playing into that hypothetical, why not have bot matches give xp and not rank progress?
elfin bone
so ill never not be #1 on the leaderboards
elfin bone
Then playing into that hypothetical, why not have bot matches give xp and not ra...
cuz then it should be a seperate offline gamemode
viscid wolf
cuz then it should be a seperate offline gamemode
why
elfin bone
to not cause rank imbalance
viscid wolf
Then playing into that hypothetical, why not have bot matches give xp and not rank progress?
magic moon
ppl will want to opt out of playing bots if it means they cant rank up
viscid wolf
ppl will want to opt out of playing bots if it means they cant rank up
I don't see a problem with that. Myself, I want to play matches on my closest server and make progress.
magic moon
it will create another queue which splits the player base
magic moon
the game isnt big enough to split queue rn
viscid wolf
Why would it split the queue
magic moon
because some people would want to opt out of it
viscid wolf
If you opt out and the game can't find a match with all humans
then you sit in the queue waiting for an all human match
magic moon
yes thats a problem lol
viscid wolf
But that's exactly what players do now I don't understand why that is a problem if someone is insistent on not having bots
magic moon
it will make in substantially longer to queue into games
viscid wolf
Again, why
magic moon
especially for the a lower rank guys who want to play against all real ppl
it split the queue so it will take longer to queue
viscid wolf
My original suggestion, is bots would occupy lobbies in dead regions and be replaced by real people
its not splitting the queue
magic moon
bro do you listen lol
viscid wolf
I am listening, you're insisting there has to be a queue split
magic moon
there would have to be 2 options, one for people who are fine with playing with bots, and one for people who are not
viscid wolf
Yes but that doesn't break the queue, because bots only ever appear in empty regions.
magic moon
the bot queue will have to pop at some point and if the mm cant find a balanced game then yes it will split that game from the regualr queue
viscid wolf
Not if you don't design it that way
Who said we have to force people into bot queues if they opt out
magic moon
do you know how matchmaking for games works
viscid wolf
do you know that matchmaking for games is coded by people
magic moon
yes but it also has to take into account fairness of games
viscid wolf
I'll break this down for you because I don't think you understand my suggestion:
Look at OCE as an example, OCE is dead.
So OCE has a single lobby with 3v3 bots. As players join the region, that single lobby becomes 2v3 bots, then 1v3 as players occupy the slots.
Now. If someone opts out of the bot matches, they can never enter a bot lobby unless the lobby has 1 bot remaining, at which point you are taking the remaining spot and ensuring a 3v3 of humans.
It is one single queue, where only people who haven't opted out ever see a bot in online play. This dramatically increases the odds of finding a human in a low pop region and playing games, whilst gaining xp, which aids player retention.
So it's not a PvE queue. That isn't what I am suggesting. I am suggesting that they should use the bots that are already coded to always fill out an active game when a region is totally dead, so it can be repopulated, and low region player bases can still grind the battle pass that the devs want to sell.
So if you are religiously against seeing a bot in online, my suggestion won't impact that. If you are worried about people grinding bots to inflate rank, my suggestion won't impact that.
What it will impact is the ability for slapshot to retain players in low pop regions without forcing them to go matchmaking in higher ping servers just to get battlepass grind.
magic moon
how do you deal with the fact that a match can be half played against bots
because people who dont want to run into bots dont wanna play unfair games halfway through
viscid wolf
You don't need to deal with it. Those games only count for xp and not rank, if you don't want to see it you'll never enter that lobby.
You as a player get the subjective input to avoid that lobby. We are talking one single lobby per region.
magic moon
what
viscid wolf
My suggestion effects empty regions and people who have not opted out of bot matches. So if you @magic moon think "I hate bots I never want to play with them" congratulations, you can turn that off. You will never be put in the lobby.
Now if @viscid wolf thinks "I don't care about ranked, I just want to grind xp and increase the chances of playing with real humans at good latency" I can do that too.
magic moon
people who want to rank up wont want to play in a lobby thats already been partially played by bots
so any lobby that even starts with one bot wont be played by people normal queuing
viscid wolf
Then we amend the suggestion again and don't fill you into that one, singular lobby you would never see anyway unless you are playing on a dead region.
I feel like you are trying to find a nitpick to have with this idea that would have no direct effect on you.
magic moon
my point is how would they decide when its been long enough of a queue to create a bot lobby
because yes it could create some issues with queue times
magic moon
bro I play on a region where i have to queue like 10 minutes to get a game, im not tryna make that take longer
like i get where youre coming from but it will only make it harder for people to play ranked games
oce would have less games than it already does
viscid wolf
If you have to queue for over ten minutes why are you coming down so hard on a suggestion that would alleviate that time.
magic moon
I like playing ranked
viscid wolf
oce would have less games than it already does
No it wouldn't that's just plain false. I have never found an OCE game, my suggestion would make a game with xp progression happen instantly.
Then go play ranked.
magic moon
it would make less ranked games happen*
magic moon
Then go play ranked.
it would make the time longer lol
you can already play bot matches on your own if you want to
viscid wolf
Are you sure? If your region is that dead then keepin the status quo just leads to less players in your queue
Because not everyone has the patience to wait 10 minutes from now until the end of time just to play a match in your server.
viscid wolf
Part of the point of this suggestion is to ensure more players stick around for longer, it's a retention mechanic by ensuring quick games. If there are more people playing, even if there is an empty lobby with one guy versus bots, that actually isn't harming you in any way if the written objective is achieved.
magic moon
i have an idea that could work
viscid wolf
#1099753216633225289
magic moon
maybe your idea but kinda like the pond so people can queue at the same time as theyre playing these games
then they click one button, instantly in a bot match, and they keep queuing for an all human game
viscid wolf
As long as people are earning xp for "completion" I don't have a problem with that.
magic moon
I dont know how doable it is but I think it could work
viscid wolf
I mean the coding for the pond does exist and so does the coding for bots, so most of the labor intensive work is complete.
magic moon
alr cool we found a middle ground lol
yea ig the hard part would be consistently replacing bots and keeping the game as a 3v3
viscid wolf
I mean it works pretty well right now with humans
if someone leaves a new guy almost always takes the spot.
magic moon
yea the hard part is adding a bot in their place and taking it out again maybe(idk its not my game)
viscid wolf
@queen sun ^ Would that be hard
tardy swallow
This game has bot support, yet it's impossible to find a game in OCE. You should...
you're a real one
anyways we have work arounds for this issue in oce, you should join the OSL discord
we kinda have to organise our games through disc, usually theres a pickup 3v3 going on that youre welcome to join
acoustic reef
No it wouldn't that's just plain false. I have never found an OCE game, my sugge...
if you haven't found a game in OCE in the last few days then you're likely playing at unsocial times because we've had our best pub frequency since launch in a long time
bot matches rewarding xp I think is somewhat flawed as it opens an avenue for exploitation, the same reason for why customs don't grant xp
as for when there's low population times, I don't know if there's an efficient way to allow progression without it being easily exploitable
but yeah as wagga said the best you can do for knowing when queues are popping is joining the discord 
robust heath
who really cares if it’s exploitable
it’s cosmetics
he’s just tryna play and not wait 15 mins for a game
opal marsh
the devs make money through cosmetics so they don’t want it to an exploitable system
robust heath
they could only give battle pass xp for the bot matches to account for that
humble osprey
You as a player get the subjective input to avoid that lobby. We are talking one...
Biggest issue with this is that when a player is placed into your theoretical bot lobby, they would be taken out of the ranked queue.
So in that case, all of the long term dedicated players who don't wanna waste their time with bot matches will be in an indefinite queue (cause the queue is being split between bot and ranked) while all the new players get to vs bots - which they can already do from the practice menu
Also, the game has been out for over 5 years now, so I'm sure something like this would have been implemented if it was possible/necessary
I'm surprised I haven't seen you yet! As others have mentioned, it's best to join the oceanic discord #oce-osl to see when players are active (which has been pretty often since the recent update).
You can also play against bots in the practice mode and enable latency to simulate playing on the server (settings > general > networking and enable "Simulate latency in practice mode" + "use last match for latency simulation")
opal marsh
^ don’t do this after playing on the wrong server