Big Changes Are Coming to the Fog
I’ve been playing Dead by Daylight for about two years, and I can say from experience that the current matchmaking system is not only unbalanced but wildly unpopular. The current system emphasizes wait time: after a set amount of time waiting for a game at your own skill level, the algorithm will gradually widen to allow you to face people at a higher, or lower, level than your own. In practice, this often means that a killer will face a survivor team ten ranks above their own, while high ranked survivors will often face killers who offer no challenge.
Sure, it’s possible for killers to dominate teams ten levels above them, just as it’s possible for a low ranked survivor to escape alone when facing a high ranked killer. A new matchmaking system has been in the works for a while, and although testing has been happening on select Xbox One regions for a few weeks, Behaviour announced that as of yesterday they’re rolling the new system out to all Xbox One regions, with other platforms to follow.
The new system addresses many common complaints, one of which is that ranks don’t mean as much as they should; while there’s unquestionably high ranked players who can effectively dominate their opponents, there are also players at lower ranks who play as well as them, but don’t play often enough to reach the high ranks before the monthly rank reset.
Instead, the new matchmaking system offers a rating based on player performance to allow for not only more balanced matches but faster matchmaking in general. The system also introduces a separate rating for each killer, instead of the current system. This means that a player can face off against survivors closer to their own skill level with each individual killer, instead of being punished for experimenting with a killer they’re unfamiliar with by putting them against a higher-ranked team.
The ranking system isn’t gone entirely, though; while the plan is that ranks will no longer affect the matchmaking itself, Behaviour is working on a variety of different options, including turning it into a reward system to encourage play. While the testing is still in the early stages, anything that brings more balance to the game will likely be a welcome change. The new system is being tested on the Xbox One
What do you think of the new system? Who’s your favorite killer to play as? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.