'Do Not Host' Matchmaking Option

[Xyngrr]

 I know my connection is fine to support my play, but not to host a party.  Ping limits help, but the game rarely swaps host midgame ot a better choice, and when it does it often breaks the match turning it into a frustrating experience for all. I need a 'do not host' button in order to not inflict a connection I know is not host suitable on others, while still being able to participate in public play without starting and canceling a session a dozen times if it doesn't find a match instantly.

[LordMidnightX]

I need it too but then people worry about to many people choosing not to host, of course if everyone in the squad picks not to host then it should just do normal matching. 

[trndr]

Legend says if you change pc type to laptop in settings, you host fewer sessions.

But there should be an opt out of hosting option.

It's extremely frustrating for all involved when a potato gets host, and there is almost nothing the potato owner can do about it.

[Kracken]

l would love that option. My toster isnt suited to host...

[LSG501]

Seeing as DE don't see a need to raise the out of date system requirements which are clearly inadequate for the game and there are players who feel that 10fps is an acceptable frame rate I think it would be better for DE to have a 'test' to determine if a player is suitable for hosting duty rather than a manual select option.  Plenty of players don't seem to even go into the options to lower settings so having a manual selection for 'do not host' might get ignored.

 

Having said that personally I'd rather see DE raise the min requirements to play the game but they don't seem willing to do that for some unknown reason....if you make it so the min requirements are high enough to play the game smoothly while hosting we wouldn't be getting the issue....

Edited March 5, 2018 by LSG501

[[DE]Grzegorz]

On the flipside I'd really love an "always host" option as it's simply aggravating to get connected to someone who uses IPoAC and charcoal powered PC.

[Forcereborn]

Yes please, it's been said a few times already and I'd really love that option. What I currently do is leaving the matchmaking when it doesn't give me a squad to join, so that I'm not the one creating a new squad, but it's quite bothersome to do all the times I wanna play in public, and even by doing that, there's always the chance that the original host disconnects and the game decides to make me the new host.

@LSG501 Settings/requirements have nothing to do with that. To make an exaggerate example, I could have a PC with all top-tier components that runs any game smoothly at max settings, but connect to the internet with a 56K modem: in that case I wouldn't be suited for hosting. A ping test could work, but I'd prefer to have a manual option as well.

[trndr]

@Forcereborn A ping test wouldn't help most of the time, as the usuall issues are unstable packet trandmissions due to WiFi interfefence or lack of bandwith, which can't be spotted by a pingtest.

@LSG501 When has minimum requirement actuaĺly stoped anyone from opening a game? Changing the "minimum requirements" would just mean a lot of work for DE to test how the game functions on multiple generations of hardware, and in the end it wouldn't matter as someone will ignore their AV eating CPU cycles, the browser eating RAM, or the cryptominer of the day eating GPU cycles.

 

A simple "Want to host", "Dont want to host", "Dont care" switch would be much simpler.

[LSG501]

42 minutes ago, trndr said:

@Forcereborn A ping test wouldn't help most of the time, as the usuall issues are unstable packet trandmissions due to WiFi interfefence or lack of bandwith, which can't be spotted by a pingtest.

@LSG501 When has minimum requirement actuaĺly stoped anyone from opening a game? Changing the "minimum requirements" would just mean a lot of work for DE to test how the game functions on multiple generations of hardware, and in the end it wouldn't matter as someone will ignore their AV eating CPU cycles, the browser eating RAM, or the cryptominer of the day eating GPU cycles.

 

A simple "Want to host", "Dont want to host", "Dont care" switch would be much simpler.

A ping test can pick up on unstable packet transmissions but it has to be more than just a single 'at that moment' test, I monitor my own internet via a website that basically just pings my IP at regular intervals and it shows if I have 'packet loss' etc. 

 

Actually this game has stopped players from playing if they don't meet certain requirements, I've seen a thread on it a while back where it wouldn't let someone play due to unsupported hardware, and assuming it is still in the game code they'd just need to update the 'list' of unsupported hardware and update the requirements in the website etc

As to changing the min requirements would be a lot of work...um the minimum requirements is 10 year old hardware and windows xp.... neither the hardware venders or microsoft doesn't support stuff that old on 'consumer' pc's.  DE hasn't even changed the written requirements of what this game needs, despite plenty of people complaining their toasters, which are above those min specs, can't manage to play some or even all the game after certain updates.....

PoE and I assume any future open worlds require well above the 'minimum requirements' for the game to run smoothly and it's clear to anyone with an ounce of common sense that the reason why toasters can't cope on PoE isn't down to optimisation, it's down to pc's which aren't good enough. 

 

59 minutes ago, Forcereborn said:

 

@LSG501 Settings/requirements have nothing to do with that. To make an exaggerate example, I could have a PC with all top-tier components that runs any game smoothly at max settings, but connect to the internet with a 56K modem: in that case I wouldn't be suited for hosting. A ping test could work, but I'd prefer to have a manual option as well.

A test can test the internet connection AND the pc performance....but considering a high majority of my 'lagging host' has been when the ping has been fine (I have the stats display active) then there is also an element of the pc involved.  It's pretty obvious if a pc can't run the game at a decent fps then the other players are going to suffer and no matter what internet connection you have it is not going to fix the fact the pc isn't strong enough. 

 

Edited March 5, 2018 by LSG501

[KochDerFrettchen]

1 hour ago, LSG501 said:

Seeing as DE don't see a need to raise the out of date system requirements which are clearly inadequate for the game and there are players who feel that 10fps is an acceptable frame rate I think it would be better for DE to have a 'test' to determine if a player is suitable for hosting duty rather than a manual select option.  Plenty of players don't seem to even go into the options to lower settings so having a manual selection for 'do not host' might get ignored.

 

Having said that personally I'd rather see DE raise the min requirements to play the game but they don't seem willing to do that for some unknown reason....if you make it so the min requirements are high enough to play the game smoothly while hosting we wouldn't be getting the issue....

You know the "minimum requirements" are only requirements in name, right?  People can/will/do download and play games their computer does not hit these requirements for all the time. Sometimes they're actually far higher than they need to be, and a worse computer can easily run them at 30fps on ~min settings :p

 

On top of that, what about people like me with a perfectly fine rig but backwoods internet that runs like ass?  I'd love to not have to subject other people to my occasionally horrendous connection, but there's no way for me to opt out of hosting.

[LSG501]

2 hours ago, KochDerFrettchen said:

You know the "minimum requirements" are only requirements in name, right?  People can/will/do download and play games their computer does not hit these requirements for all the time. Sometimes they're actually far higher than they need to be, and a worse computer can easily run them at 30fps on ~min settings :p

the min requirements are using 10 year old hardware....the difference between something from that era and now is like comparing a sports car to a bicycle over a long distance.  While the bicycle would make it, it sure wouldn't be a pleasurable experience. 

2 hours ago, KochDerFrettchen said:

 

On top of that, what about people like me with a perfectly fine rig but backwoods internet that runs like ass?  I'd love to not have to subject other people to my occasionally horrendous connection, but there's no way for me to opt out of hosting.

Not everyone is like you who is aware they have a problem with their internet (hence the testing aspect of my original post).  I've seen people say they have a 'good connection' then talk about download allowances in the context of speed etc... 

Also, in all honesty and as harsh as this might sound if your internet is as bad as you make out, should you really be playing a 'real time' online game.... it's basically the same situation where the equipment available isn't suited to what the user is trying to do. 

[KochDerFrettchen]

1 hour ago, LSG501 said:

the min requirements are using 10 year old hardware....the difference between something from that era and now is like comparing a sports car to a bicycle over a long distance.  While the bicycle would make it, it sure wouldn't be a pleasurable experience. 

Not everyone is like you who is aware they have a problem with their internet (hence the testing aspect of my original post).  I've seen people say they have a 'good connection' then talk about download allowances in the context of speed etc... 

Also, in all honesty and as harsh as this might sound if your internet is as bad as you make out, should you really be playing a 'real time' online game.... it's basically the same situation where the equipment available isn't suited to what the user is trying to do. 

It doesn't matter exactly how out of date the 'requirements' are, they don't do anything other than inform the player of what they'll probably need.  Those situations you've seen where a game won't launch at all are due to 'unsupported' equipment that's just actually incapable of even trying.

 

My internet is perfectly capable during any time of day where I'm not sharing it, which also happens to be the majority of my gaming time (late at night).  It would be lovely to have the option to disable hosting for when I hop on during the day.  A forced host block wouldn't stop me from being the host, as it's fluctuating not steadily bad. :p

[(PSN)ChronosHavok]

6 hours ago, Kracken said:

l would love that option. My toster isnt suited to host...

My actual toaster is better suited to host some of the missions I've been in lol.

[LSG501]

57 minutes ago, KochDerFrettchen said:

It doesn't matter exactly how out of date the 'requirements' are, they don't do anything other than inform the player of what they'll probably need.  Those situations you've seen where a game won't launch at all are due to 'unsupported' equipment that's just actually incapable of even trying.

You can make it so that the game doesn't run without specific 'minimum' hardware.  I've used plenty of 'professional' applications that won't let you use them without the correct hardware, many of which basically use a 'list', so it's something that can be done. 

In essence if the devs wanted to they could make it so that pcs which are not capable of playing the game smoothly wouldn't even run the game, will they do it, not likely because as I said earlier they're not even willing to increase the written min specs for the game.... in cases like this I really wish DE took a leaf out of a larger studio's playbook and actually raise the requirements when they make major 'updates' to the game which also requires a stronger pc to play smoothly.  It's not like anyone could complain, DE use the 'beta' tag enough to just use that as the reason for dropping support on outdated hardware.

[Xyngrr]

Personally, for the most part my machine runs the game fine, but I do know my connection does not host for others well and would like the option to let the guy playing on Watson and dedicated fiber host. We've all had bad hosts and it sucks, and this is one easy way to alleviate some of that.
As an older gamer I can still kick at framerates that are outpaced by GIFs because I played when many games were outpaced by GIFs, and gameclock was affected because it was all done on the single CPU. In any sane modern game framerate is not gameclock, and the data that are affected by low framerates shouldn't be gamestate but only local display which shouldn't propagate to other players gamestates. And while they *could* gut an indeterminate segment of the playerbase by arbitrarily raising requirements, that's not the point here. It's far easier for DE in both man hours and efficiency to add three radio buttons and a conditional statement to the matchmaking session logic than to test and catalogue a mountain of hardware and proceed to maintain a minimum hardware bar where the game is subjectively *good enough* to play.

[AleDeVe]

I can't support this enough.

To be fair, what is needed is not only a "Public - Do NOT Host" option, but also a "Public - Always Host"

I play on a low end pc and my internet is not the most stable. It is fine for me and for most normal games.

However, I could never host an endurance, nor a whole team in the plains. It would just be too painful for everyone, because of slow loading, high ping, lag spikes, frame drops, and eventually dc/host migration.

Please DE, a matchmaking upgrade has been requested for a long time. Personally, I would appreciate more this feature than any new type of content.