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Matchmaking Fixes
As you all know, matchmaking has been a top priority for us since HAWKEN entered Open Beta on December 12, 2012. We have made fixes, monitored data, listened to the community, and, as of our last patch, we have seen matchmaking take a great stride forward. Matches are now consistently reaching a level of fairness that we consider acceptable for players and we have been excited to see the comments from the community regarding this progress.
As always, we will continue to refine and tweak the matchmaking system so that it continues to grow in both its ability to create fair and balanced matches, as well as get players into those matches quickly. There are still a number of big additions to the matchmaking portion of the game that are coming down the pipeline. Soon we will be adding server auto-balancing to ensure that as people come and go, the server is keeping the right balance of player skill across both teams.
Balanced matches and close competition are what make FPS games fun. We will not stop refining matchmaking until we feel that the HAWKEN matchmaking experience is of the highest quality possible.
Return of the Server Browser
Your eyes are not fooling you, you read correctly; the server browser has returned to HAWKEN!
The new server browser is designed to allow you to quickly find matches and jump in while at the same time preserving the sanctity of match balance by making sure you don't get into a match where you will outclass or be outclassed by the players already there. The new server browser has a few new features and pieces of information, so with the aid of the below screenshot, allow me to explain how it all works!
The first thing you will notice is that you now have a player rating visible to you in the upper-right-hand corner of the browser underneath Your Rating. This rating is based on the proprietary formula that we use to define player skill, and will increase or decrease based on how you are performing in matches of HAWKEN. Although we aren't divulging the specifics for how we calculate this value, suffice it to say that we use it define how skilled you are as a player. We are making this visible while we test the server browser and matchmaking.
The second thing you will notice is that there is a Rating column in the list of servers. In order for you to join a specific server, your rating must be within +/-300 points of the server's rating. If your rating is outside that +/-300 point limit, the server will appear grayed out in your server list and attempting to join the server will display an error message informing you that your player rating is not within the acceptable range for the server. There are a few exceptions to this rule, but I will address those later on.
Now let's talk about how servers are classified. When a server is empty, the server name will contain Unranked and the server's rating will display as 0. The reason for this is because a server's rating is based on the average of the aggregate of all players currently on the server, so without any players, a server has no rating. An empty server can be joined by a player of any rating, at which point the server will take on the rating of that player and continue to adjust as more players join. Once three players have joined a server, the server will classify itself and update Unranked to a new value based on the following criteria:
[*]1350 or lower: Beginner
[*]1350 to 1650: Intermediate
[*]1650 or greater: Advanced
[/list]As I stated earlier, typically the server browser will only allow you to enter a match if your rating is within +/-300 of the server's rating, but there are three exceptions to this rule.
[*]If the server has fewer than three players.
[*]If the server has fewer than three players, it has not yet classified itself and will use the third player to solidify the acceptable skill range of subsequent joining players.
[/list] [*]If the player's rating is higher or lower than ALL servers listed.
[*]In this rare event we suggest you go back and use the Quick Match system.
[/list] [*]The server is a custom server.
[*]When we host HAWKEN events via private servers, and eventually when we support dedicated servers (yes, they are coming HAWKEN pilots!), these servers will not follow rating requirements like the other public servers do.
[*]When we eventually roll out dedicated server support, as a server administrator you will be able to set requirements for your server/s if you so choose, but for the time being, this is not something you will see in the game.
[/list] [/list]You will also notice that the server browser will mainly show servers that have players in them and only one empty server of each game type. The reason for this is to make it quick and easy for players to jump into populated servers instead of having to scroll through a bunch of empty servers before finding a populated server they want to join. Once a player joins an empty server, a new empty server of that game type will appear allowing players to start a new server if they so choose.
Finally, we want to make sure it is clear that joining a server via the server browser will not separate you from players who join games via the Quick Match tab. You will be joining the same servers.
As always we love to hear your feedback so please let us know what you think about the new and improved server browser!
GLHF
Every update we make to HAWKEN continues to spur us on as we see your positive reactions to the new content and the changes we've been making to improve the game. We consider ourselves very lucky to have such an amazing and involved community!
Come find us on the battlefield. We'll save a TOW missile for you!
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this fuzzy game. 
It restored my faith in the FPS genre.
