this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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Great wall of text, defeated by the simple idea of adding a fucking optional LAN or Lobby based matchmaking based on IP can be for unranked and takes near 0 effort to add.
You want the main game mode with matchmaking? Official ranked server.
Wanna play 2 vs 30 AK-47 vs knives only? Private lobby.
Also, the latter was how the original devs accidentally invented Left 4 Dead by figuring out that was a ton of fun.
Sorry man, but the fundamental backend of IP based matchmaking is a prerequisite to skill based matchmaking. At a high level, the skill rankings make an ELO value or similar ranking and feed that alobg woth player status into the active player pool for the region. The active player pool then feeds the game client the ip sets for the current match.
Literally all these games are peer hosted, and require this. Once the match is setup they literally drop you into a lobby (this part is visible to you) and fill it with IPs (invisible). That is as old as DOOM.
So again, everything costs something as people aren't free, but this is a function must exist to power the skill based matchmaking, and needs only be exposed in the shell.
Also, its not just valve, its literally every PC game ever made before the mid 2000s. Jedi Knight II? Unreal Tournament? Quake 3? Hell emulated PS3 and Switch titles have shown this off as well. All of these are still playable today thanks to not exclusively using skill based matchmaking.
You're completely missing the point I'm making - it's nothing to do with how matchmaking works or how to get self-hosted servers to work.
Your quote about "every game before the mid 2000s" is just reinforcing what I'm trying to tell you: no modern PvP game can get away with it anymore.
The current average player who's played any modern PvP game in recent memory expects to be able to click a PLAY button that puts them into a match. That is your default user experience expectation.
If you require players to have to dig through a server list like people had to during the pre-mid-2000s, you lose players FAST.
You dilute your player base by allowing people to play in self-hosted servers because your default user experience of clicking PLAY and getting into a game gets worse (less players means less diversity of player skill and longer queue times).
For a game and studio that has no existing reputation and players who will jump on their stuff, you don't have the luxury of splitting your already potentially small player base.
Modern PvP games that allow you to have custom games are all well-established and already have a healthy player base.
And you are missing my point.
You don't trade one for the other. You add this in the options menu, in a smaller font.
Then when The Crew, X-Defiant, Lawbreakers, or any of the 30 other games that AAA publishers end server support for this year go down, the people who bought it aren't left unable to play at all. Theres a fallback. And it does not affect matchmaking because it's down the menu out of the way, and not the default matchmaking method. L