In November of this year, we released an Asia-exclusive micro-patch with the aim of testing certain solutions to pressing issues on the Asia server, in the hopes of providing players with a more convenient matchmaking environment. This important experiment is taking place in a live trial format and is helping us make World of Tanks even more enjoyable for every one of you.
We have been gathering your feedback and analyzing the data obtained over the past few weeks, and we are now ready to share more information.
In a nutshell, our conclusion is that the tests have been successful so far and it seems we are moving in the right direction, so we have decided to extend these trials into 2019.
First, A Word of Thanks
We would like to express our deep gratitude to all the players who took part in testing the matchmaker. We appreciate you engaging with us, especially those who gave us feedback, shared suggestions and impressions. Your contribution to World of Tanks is incredibly valuable, so thank you for that!
Judging from your feedback, the overall reaction to the changes has been overwhelmingly positive. Here are a few examples of the opinions shared by players in our forums:
[T]he fact that 3-tier games remains is actually a good thing imo because it means that people an still get their fix of stomping tanks that are 2 tiers lower, but nowhere near as much as prior."
Studying Your Feedback
After examining your feedback and the data obtained during the trials, there are two areas in particular where we see room for improvement:
- Increased queuing time for Tier X vehicles
- Increased number of players who don't wait for the start of the battle and leave the Queue once the 5-minute waiting period has expired
We have also heard some feedback from players feeling that the number of SPGs may have actually increased in some battles. This is also something we are keeping an eye on, although the data is not conclusive at this time.
We recognize that there is the potential for all aforementioned problems to exist, and we'll continue to verify them through statistical analysis. In the meantime, because of our concern with the longer queuing times for Tier X vehicles, we want to introduce a fix ASAP.
This is why on December 27th, 2018, we plan to release a new set of updates for the Asia servers only, which we believe will help us solve these problems and take us a step further in:
- maximizing the quality of your battlefield experience,
- providing an optimal matchmaking environment and reducing the average waiting time for a battle (especially for Tier X vehicles), and
- redistributing the number of games per day at Tier X. Due to this, the number of two-tier battles will be decreased, while the quantity of three-tier battles will increase slightly.
To achieve these goals, we have decided to introduce templates with 4 tanks in the top: 4-5-6 and 4-4-7 (for the Hong Kong server only). These templates best fit the current queue structure.
New Tweaks Coming to Matchmaking
On December 27th we're going to introduce the following improvements:
Configuration changes for Hong Kong server
- The 4-5-6 and the 4-4-7 template for Tier X vehicles will be added.
- The time for assembling the templates will be changed, thus reducing the average queuing time.
Configuration changes for Australia server
- The 2-5-8, 2-4-9 and the 2-3-10 template for Tier X vehicles will be added.
- The time for assembling the templates will be changed, thus reducing the average queuing time.
What's Next?
This Asia-exclusive trial period is still in progress. It is possible that we may also change the format of the test to get as much meaningful data as possible after deploying the new tweaks.
Thanks again for your help - we appreciate your input and your continued interest! Happy Holidays, Commanders!