Solos. I got to the point where it’s basically impossible to even start a match. My last mission is the one where you need to find an extremely rare item on Stella Montis, and I loathe it for the same reason I did with the previous (awfully similar) mission: everyone will shoot you in the back there, always impossible to anticipate.
So Stella is one thing.
But at this point no matter which map I choose, not even TWO minutes pass, and I get my shield blown off from behind, from a dark corner, from behind a building I couldn’t even see before, and I get rushed by some troglodyte, at which point I’m fighting at a disadvantage.
This all started 2-3 days ago. Raider flares and dead bodies all over the place. What is going on? It’s like everyone has suddenly gone feral. Was there some change I’m not aware of? I understand it’s a PvPvE game, but up until last Friday it’s been usually a mix of friendly and hostile interactions. Now it’s pretty much guaranteed I would get shot from behind a corner before I could even react and then get rushed, every single game, no matter what. Bloody frustrating. I can’t even just look for friendly players to team up with, because the first one I see is usually the one that camps me down. It feels like something had changed recently, but I don’t remember seeing anything related.
You have to play with the aggression based matchmaking of the game.
It’s been confirmed fully by devs and I guess it’s here to stay.
If you do something like 10 raids in a row without shooting or dealing even 1 damage to another raider you will get placed in super chill lobbies where it’s very uncommon to be shot at.
What is very frustrating but important to understand is that the game doesn’t care who shot first. So if someone rats you at extract and you shoot back, your “aggression rating” will increase. The next game you are likely to be placed again with more PvP players. Again if you shoot back, it will get worse. It’s a vicious circle toward more aggressive lobbies.
So my advice is simple, if you want chill lobbies, go to stella Montis for at least 7 to 10 raids and bring nothing in term of loadout. If someone shoots you, so be it. Run, flee hide, do whatever you can to avoid conflict. And if you die with nothing then it’s ok. For that I highly advise not going with a free loadout but with a dirt cheap basic loadout with just a ferro to kill Arcs. That way at the very least you can safe pocket stuff even when players or Arcs kill you.
I call these “expiatory raids”. I’m the punching bag of the server but eventually I will be with friendly raiders.
That aggression based matchmaking is particularly bad if you have an hybrid playstyle and play both PvP sessions and PvE sessions. Everytime you decide to change your play style towards other players it will take around 10 raids for the matchmaker to adjust.
I’m not religious but in this case :
If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also
That’s the recipe to getting to chill lobbies.
Imma be real with you, and all the other players that got into this game expecting more PvE and less PvP: I didn’t buy a shooting game to NOT shoot other people. If you’re not my team mate, you’re a target. I might not even loot you; I just wanna shoot my guns at you because that’s the fucking fun part of the game. Now, I don’t camp exits or anything, but I will engage others who are there when I come to one.
This is why I had checked with my friend before even buying the game. Back then (as I mentioned above) it was a mix of friends and foes, which I find a healthy ratio. I don’t mind the occasional PVP; hell, I wouldn’t even mind the constant PVP if it was fair. But everyone is just crouching in a dark corner, and every single fight starts with a sudden ZZZAP out of the blue, and then good luck winning the fight. But constant unfair fights are a separate topic - I wasn’t talking about it being like that all the time. My problem is that it changed overnight, and now the game is riddled with feral players everywhere, as opposed to before. That change is my main problem. However, the initial question was if there had been any change I’m unaware of.
