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Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund recently confirmed that Arc Raiders has aggression-based matchmaking, meaning that you are paired with players «based on how prone you are to PvP or PvE». However, based on anecdotal first-hand experience and community-wide experiments, players are unhappy with how the system appears to punish you for the way you play in squads.
«Your aggression in trio should not affect your solo queue,» u/MishRift posted to the game’s subreddit, amassing nearly 9,000 upvotes in just a few days. «This is mainly a message to the Embark team. I hope this reaches them.»
The argument is twofold: some, like u/MishRift, aren’t fond of PvP, so find it unfair that when playing with their more aggro friends, they get lumped into PvP lobbies when queuing solo. Others, meanwhile, prefer playing more aggressively in squads, but not solo, and don’t think the system should paint all modes with the same brush.
«I generally play much more passive and even save fellow raiders from time to time on solos,» said one such player, u/En1gmaMontoya. «In trios though I enjoy the PvP and the sheer amount of it is great for getting better.»
Then there are those, like u/A_noniempje, who argue that it’s simply «not viable to do no PvP in trios», even if you prefer a more friendly PvE experience, meaning that the entire mode will inevitably skew your matchmaking towards aggro. «If you want solo to remain friendly you cannot even play it,» they finished.
«Wonder if I and my teammates keep not shooting anybody in trios, the game owuld place me in pacifist trio lobbies,» u/Sylosilvin said. «Do they even exist at this point»?
However, many counter the idea that trios and solos should be separate, arguing that it would mean «aggressive trios going to solos to free farm trigger nades or other equipment to be even more aggressive in trios», though as some point out, this is already happening under the current system.
Should Embark Have Confirmed Aggro-Based Matchmaking In Arc Raiders?
Embark hasn’t laid out exactly how the aggression-based matchmaking works, so trios may not be weighted against solo queues anyway—there’s plenty of debate in the comments to that point—but it has led some to ‘min-max’ the system, sparking another conversation entirely on whether the studio should’ve confirmed aggro matchmaking to begin with.
«It’s annoying but easy to fix yourself in max 10 minutes,» u/Traditional-Row7925 said. «After going on a murder rampage in trios, just go in naked in solos and surrender 6-7 times in a row. Then do one free loadout to make sure it worked, start spamming ‘no shoot’ and you’ll hear people replying. You’re back in the friendly pool. It’s not even subtle.»
As per Embark, the game «isn’t about shooting other players».
To which u/hibari112 replied, garnering over 600 upvotes, «This is why I think announcing aggression based [matchmaking] was a horrible idea. Now instead of playing the game like a normal human being, people are conscious of the system and are trying to game it now. You either got people doing this boring sh*t of running around naked trying to reset their imaginary aggression meter, or they assume they are in aggressive lobbies, so they shoot everyone on sight, which creates a negative feedback loop.»
I wish they never said anything about their ‘aggression based matchmaking’ system because now people are trying to min-max off of it and we’re seeing posts like this asking the game to skew away from what makes extraction shooter player encounters unique in the first place — u/TheFlyingRazzberry.
Ever since the matchmaking system was confirmed, the Arc Raiders community has been divided into three camps: those who think there shouldn’t be an aggro system whatsoever, those who think Embark shouldn’t have said anything, and those who think it needs an overhaul. As Söderlund said, it’s not an exact science, so hopefully future tweaks will address some of these concerns, but until then, maybe we should all be more like u/squidsauce.
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«After thinking about this for a minute, I’m not going to adjust my playstyle,» they said. «It is what it is. If I feel like someone is aggressive I’ll shoot. If not I won’t. I don’t care about this auto balancing script.»
