"Obviously I don't call the shots, but I strongly disagree with a further reduction of auto-matching, I just think most people play themselves into a rut with the ceaseless Cataract showdowns and that ultimately this kind of tool is just another anti-premade measure."

Actually auto-balance is a semi-solution to anti-premades.  The problem with premades is that is gives players the impression that games are inherently unfair from the start.  With a good auto balance system this can be countered.

However, if you think about it, there is really not much point in having auto balance when you hardly ever have more than 3 vs 3 in this game.

Well, they had to come up with a way to score the tournaments.  Some sort of destinction has to be made between both sides.  And that's how they chose to do it (light/dark).  I do get your point though - all DG's are technically fighting to ascend.

Anyway, I'd be happy with an autobalance option for custom games, but I think we can get that level of functionality in skirmish mode with a few tweaks.

Again though, Borderlands is out today so whatever.

"The auto-balance feature will effectively remove our capacity to play together outside of 2s, which I find very disappointing."

Well it would, unless the host was given the ability to lock slots, like HoN.  In HoN, this allows a premade to fit into a game and the teams are then balanced around them, assuming there are spaces left on the premade's team.  However this isn't really going to be much value if you only ever get 3 vs 3 games in DG.

I guarantee you there won't be any slot locking and like you said, even if there were it wouldn't help much when 4v4s and 5v5s are so impractical.

I  just need to say that 4v4 is by no means impractial.  5v5 maybe, but not 4v4.

Maybe we can get matchmaking to add into the equation the number of games that have been played? 

LOL

autobalance = A REAL LADDER

matching people based on skill

Yeah.... we needed that from the start.

Any thoughts?

The HoN beta already has this... I'm not really sure why it's not in Demigod with the things they added in 1.19.

1.19..... shit, try the release.

You wouldn't need automatch making patch if people didnt migrate to custom games. People migrated to custom games because pantheon is broken. I think pantheon is what was supposed to be the DG ladder if im not mistaken. Or maybe it's skirmish. FUck it doesn't matter because I played neither considering by the time I joined the community I was told that the only thing that works properly is custom games.

It baffles me how this could be overlooked. People buy a multiplayer game, they want to play online against other people of equal skill. Custom games should supplement the ladder and not be the only means for finding a game. Custom games shouldn't count, it should be like a sand box for where you can play with friends and try new strats without any of it counting.

I know I sound like a douche everytime I say this but blizzard has a ladder, then they have custom games. Custom games is home to mods, and unranked games. Ladder is where the competitive players play for ranking points. They are matched by skill.

It blows my mind that you put this on the website:

The on-line pantheon allows players to "skirmish" against other players of similar skill or take part in the on-line Pantheon tournament where players choose the path of light or darkness and earn favor points to help their faction win the tournament. Players can also play on the LAN or play custom games with friends on the Internet.

It should read as follows:

Players can also play on the LAN or play custom games with random douche nozzles / cheaters / exploiters / team stackers / pug bashers on the internet. You can't really play with friends because friends = premade and premades = assholes.

I still can't get over the fact that this is the first game I ever bought that was strictly multiplayer (if you call the single player mode worthwhile you're insane) that doesn't offer any multiplayer features and runs like ass.

I Bought the game 3 months after it came out. Everyone was already in custom games, so I said screw it, I'll just play those. 3 months in, expecting things to get better, they got worse. New patches gave arise to new flaws.

If anyone wants to hate me for saying any of this fine, but I find that a company offering an online game without the means to support it / develop it correctly is insulting.

It's like BMW making a racing car - advertising it as such - selling it - then when you get it you find out that it only goes to 2nd gear, and that more gears will follow over time. You'll have those extra gears in august... .wait.... september.... wait..... ahh shit it's november.... In the meantime here's the 1.19 release that has improvements or errrrrr i mean more problems. You get the new patch, now your car won't go past neutral, but you can still push it in neutral, I mean it's not like BMW sold me a car that can't move, I can push it right?

Exactomundo on the blizzard thing.

Compared to HoN's multiplayer it does feels like Demigod was made some years ago. However, Demigod has something HoN doesn't; it's fun.

Demigods friends list overlay and connection features make it feel like it was the first go at a multiplayer game in 1999.