Multiplayer issues

Does anyone in here have a clue about how to get a good multiplayer session going with random people?

Yesterday I tried finding and joining several random games, but again and again I was either kicked out, disconnected, joined people who were obviously gone but had left their game open, or just ended up in sessions with people who were jerking around, didn’t want to play, or had no clue what they were doing or were gonna do. After trying for almost an hour, I gave up.
I’ve had a lot of really fun multiplayer sessions in GZ, but most of those were with me as the host, where I set 2 simple rules: 1- Come along and fight machines as a team. 2- Chat/Talk to each other!
But a lot of times when I leave my session open, I can play for 2-3 hours without anyone joining me, which can be really frustrating. Other times, people come joining in after a few minutes. Is there a logic behind this?

I’d like to hear what you guys do? Do you join random sessions at all, or do you just play with friends?

Random people = random outcome. If you want to have a good MP session, play with your buddies. That’s the nature of all games that have MP in them.

There is. Make note of your play time compared to the hour of the day. Also, the weekday as well.
Most players play either at the evening (to their local time) or during weekends.
So, when you’re from e.g USA and play evening on your time (e.g 6:00 PM), that translates into 6-8 extra hours for Europe players (6:00 PM in USA = 02:00-04:00 AM in Europe). In turn, evening time in Europe, e.g 6:00 PM translates into mid-day in USA, 10:00-12:00 AM, where most people are in school or at work.

All friends of mine who play GZ (except one), are all from random games where i’ve joined. Of course, i’ve joined a lot more games than i have friends but only those with whom i like to play and chat with, can get into my friends list.

Though, i mainly play solo and join random MP when i have stuff to donate. :grin: At current moment, i’ll keep myself away from MP since i still have FNIX Rising missions in progress and i don’t want those to get stuck (based on several reports in the forums).

I understand that. I just think the random results are extremely varying. Yesterday was a trainwreck in terms of finding games, the day before that was fantastic.

I’m in Norway, in the CET/CEST time zone, which is also one of the most densely populated time zones in the world, and I usually play between 19:00 and 23:00, and mostly on sundays and weekdays. I thought this might be a time when others were playing? :slight_smile:
This might be a dumb thing to say, but there should be a way to let the game know you actually want people to join you, not just that your game is open…

I’ve always been a solo gamer. GZ is literally the first game where I’ve enjoyed MP. I’ve been added by a few players on Steam, and I could of course add some myself after a good session.

I don’t know how it might be done, but I just wish the game would somehow help you filter out the bad games. Maybe give you a list of games to choose from, and not just throw you into one? Like if I join a game I don’t like, then I leave it, and when I try finding a game again, I end up back in the same one…
No matter how we look at it, the reality is that last night I tried for 3 hours to get a good MP session going, but I wasn’t able to. With no real friends list to choose from, and a matchmaking system that almost seemed like it was trolling me, I just thought this could be done better. Or it might work fine on most days, and I just had some bad luck. :slight_smile:

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Yeah multiplayer is annoying but I like having people join my game on Xbox.
You could join me lol! But it’s quite annoying when they just decide to go kill your rivals :disappointed: i got really pissed off at one guy who killed a level 4 military hunter and it flew away when i tp to him. But all in all I don’t experience that many issues and i wonder why you do?

Yeah, I’ve had that happen too, and it’s frustrating as hell. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:
One time me and 2 others were grinding up rivals to lvl. 4 and farming them, when a fourth player popped by. He didn’t even say hello, but just went straight off and killed two lvl. 1 rivals, and reset the region score to 0. I wanted to be polite and explain how this worked, but then he barely even knew a few words of english! I could tell he got annoyed at me, and then he just ran off toward another rival, so I kicked him out. :joy:

And thanks, I’d join you, but I’m on PC. :wink:
Like I said, it often turns out fine with random games. But some days I simply can’t find a proper game with nice, serious players, even after trying for hours. :slight_smile:

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Yeah i have had people decimate my rivals when i have been afk for an hour. I accidently left it on open and when i came back like 7-10 of my rivals were dead and my region scores like 1 or 2 except himfall island which was still at 18 (Luckily it seems they did not have the DLC :sweat:) But i asked the 3 guys why they did it and they just told me they were playing the game, they were obviously a group :rage: I was quite annoyed then so i kicked them and couldn’t find my rivals dead bodies which just made me quit for a few days. Now i make sure to kick anyone getting into fights with my rivals unless i want to kill it as I’m still recovering from this as it happened in early June. :cry::cry::cry:

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Hi, what console or pc are you on? I have a problem too. nobody joins my session at all, it is always open. What do players do, do they all run and only kill cars?

I’m a console gamer and i think that maybe more people might be on consoles? I don’t know but as there isn’t crossplay and if there was less players on PC that would explain why you guys can’t find games easily, along with the fact other people may be in different time zones.

I play ps4 from Belarus. I started playing generation zero at the beginning of the year, then I met Russian-speaking players and after March not a single one. I want to play with serious players, even if I don’t speak their language.

Sorry mate I’m an Xbox gamer would like to play but can’t. Create a topic for PS4 players and specifications I think is your best bet or revive and old thread.

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I find multiplayer in this game now more of a localised game - where it’s specific people you invite as to a complete new experience going in blind online. The culture just isn’t there, and the mind-set of this game online is quite frankly broken.

I’ve covered this previously, where by default the game is set to open lobby’s so like many others will attempt to join - and then be kicked by host. Other highlight’s of my own include them watching you do everything, loot then kick you out. Demanding you give your experimental weapons away as you have invaded their game. Expect you to do the missions for them so they can rank up faster while they go and see their girlfriend. The list is significant - but you get my point.

Penultimate point to address is off course matchmaking. There is no XP level, kill tally, or any statistic that is calculated to match you with suitable players. Best analogy I can think of - it’s a complete turkey shoot you get what you get.

Which comes full circle to how to solve the issue of a better multiplayer experience online.

Sadly, in it’s current state - nothing. Just play with people you trust, or take the risk with Turkeys.

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Yeah I think there should be XP groups 1-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-31

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I wouldn’t want to be paired with a fairy that’s scared to pull the trigger. One of those sneaky types that play in the dark in silence doing missions for XP.

Machine kills would be a good stat to base it on however…

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yeah but i have killed a few thousand so…

5000

5000 - 9999

10,000 +

In another Avalanche Studios game: The Hunter: Call of the Wild, has much better MP join system in place than in GZ. 0L0 showcased it in here: Cheaters, when will you prevent this?

I too agree that better MP join system would benefit GZ MP in general, like:

  • seeing the Host’s username
  • in-game difficulty
  • amount of players in host’s game

That, among other reasons, is why this topic was made: Code of Conduct when joining a coop game

Early days, i did have my game open for everyone for a while but since i had all my missions done and there wasn’t much else to do in my game, i stated to join other player’s games.

Now, i just can’t open my game for Anybody and i have to keep it Invite Only.

Reason why

I don’t need kids in my candy store. I’ve worked way too hard to get my Rivals collection to almost perfection, where Region score is maxxed out and every rival is a lvl 4 Tank. Currently only few rivals are hunters and harvs, that i need to take care of.

The matchmaking filter does work, given there are games to match your criteria. E.g if there are 2 open games where one is at Adventurer difficulty and another one is at Guerilla difficulty and if you choose Guerilla difficulty in your filter then you will be put into the Guerilla difficulty game.

Though, if there is no available game to match your search criteria exactly, then you’ll be put into the any other available game matching your other criteria (min player count and preferred language).

Decent idea but with a flaw: if post-end game player creates a new char and joins MP to level up his/hers 2nd/ 3rd/ 4th char, he/she would be put into low level player’s game, most likely new player for the game.
Sure, the char level range matches but the player skill/experience level has huge difference.

Another decent idea but again, with a flaw: kill amount alone doesn’t state how good/bad someone is.
For example, player who has killed 6000 machines but have died 3000 times is much worse than player who has killed only 1000 machines but died 100 times.

K&D ratio is the true number showing how good/bad someone is in the game. Also, K&D ratio isn’t for individual chars but for all chars combined. So, even when player with low lvl char joins but he/she has good K&D ratio, then that shows he/she does know what he/she is doing.

Speaking of K&D ratio, here’s a topic where to post yours and look for other player’s K&D ratio: Post your K/D ratios here!

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Now that’s a solid idea, that way covers stats of all characters as well.

There are those whoever who have ranked the rivals up through death and respawn. Something to consider down the line for sure if they consider looking into multiplayer.

I only bothered with multiplayer ONCE. Three stepping “reception” bars vs an actual ping number is the main turn off. I’m not joining a game without knowing how strong my ping actually is with the server.

There is no server in GZ. All MP games are played in host’s PC/console.

When I join i often greet the current players, fast travel close to them, check for hackers (or modders) in the player tab, then ask what’s the plan. Most multiplayer sessions end up being rival hunts, but sometimes we just go on killing sprees (good old airport lol). Occasionally I run into what looks like people playing for the first time, or bunch of people goofing around (player launching).

If someone joins my session I greet them then keep an eye on my map to track their movement. I’ve been able to prevent a few people from completing missions or killing my rivals this way.

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