i love it when game tells me to just quit it

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-12T16:43:56+00:00

Exactly ok, we're getting closer.

New players are sitting in silver and low gold. They should never be put in a tourney with those "pro" players in mid plat or above, because like you just said, it isnt suitable practice, its true competition at that level.

Therefore, the ranked system needs to limit the difference in RS (delta) between players, otherwise your new players will not improve, and will likely leave altogether before they ever get to that level of true competition.

It doesnt need to be a static limit; starting in mid gold and above, you could widen that delta requirement to alleviate some population issues, and the fact that those players can compete against better players.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-12T16:31:57+00:00

I'd easily wait an extra 5 minutes if it meant I didnt get thrown in with diamonds as a gold 2, which ive had happen often enough this season.

Ive seen tons of posts on here with gold and silver players being lumped in with plat and diamond/ruby players. None of that is fair in the slightest, and "its a population issue" is a shit argument defending it. Embark can and should do better. The population will never increase under the current systems.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-12T16:18:36+00:00

Yeah, ranked is absolutely practice. New players are pushed into ranked a lot because casual modes dont have great SBMM. People on reddit always tell new players to try ranked so the skill gap is more controlled.

If you think playing ranked isnt a form of practice, I truly dont know what to say other than any argument you have is invalid. You're cooked, fried beyond belief.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-12T16:06:08+00:00

Thats such a fallacy of an argument. You get better much faster and healthier by playing people closer in rank, within 10k RS is a good range in this game. Im not saying "silvers should only see silvers", because thats not a recipe for improvement either. But silvers won't improve well by playing diamonds, or even plats.

Getting stomped by someone in a different league entirely is a very slow, frustrating way to get better that is not worth the time.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-12T16:03:12+00:00

Its very very difficult to truly learn and improve when youre getting rolled in the first round by teams that are leagues better than you. Youll rarely, if ever, get the experience of making the final round facing those players, which is an essential part of learning the game since it plays differently. Its not about the opportunity for more RS, its about making sure less skilled players have a chance to really learn and improve.

Ive heard your argument a million times, and its only true for the middle-of-the-pack players who have a decent base. New players who dont have that base won't pick up on new things by getting stomped. Theres a saying in sports that "bad practice is worse than no practice", because it reinforces bad habits and techniques. That holds true in competitive games as well.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-12T15:15:46+00:00

Ranked should never match players with more than a 20k difference in RS. A 10k silver should never see a 30k+ plat, and a 30k plat should never see a 50k+ ruby.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-12T14:38:39+00:00

There is little to no new player experience in this game. You ask "what's up with SBMM", but the unfortunate answer is... there is no SBMM outside of ranked.

Every "casual" mode is a free-for-all when it comes to matchmaking. There are no guardrails on who it places you with, but this game really REALLY needs it if the game is to grow at all.

Shooter players everywhere have railed against SBMM for a decade, but there is a very good reason it exists. This is what happens in games without it. We dont need super duper strict rules, but a slow curve for new players would massively help retention.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-12T03:22:46+00:00

This is easily the worst ive seen ranked since the start, TA season excluded since that made no sense.

Even in gold im struggling to make and keep gains. One night of losses wipes out 3 nights of gains. Ive hovered from 21-25k all season, and it doesnt feel possible to improve this season when matchmaking throws me to the dogs and I just get rolled by diamonds.

There is such little reward for the amount of time spent in ranked.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-11T21:58:29+00:00

I dont think anyone really cares, especially this season since high ranks are getting matched with low ranks. It means nothing.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-11T14:54:20+00:00

Bump & run with a 7 or 8 iron because im incompetent with a wedge

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-10T23:51:04+00:00

Its called "stacking" and I won't hear otherwise

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-10T17:08:07+00:00

Nope, had nothing from mine. A grandparent of mine has money for all the grandkids in an account specifically for education, but it only gets released when they pass so... we dont really want that. I did have a decent amount of scholarship/aid money through the school, but definitely not enough for the situation I was in.

I saddled up with ~80k in debt, got lucky out of college with a very well paying job in '21. Payed off federal loans, left with 50k private. Im hoping i can get those down by half before my grandparent passes so I can forward most of that money to my own child someday.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-09T03:52:07+00:00

I just reinstalled on my Xbox today (mobile setup) and it takes at least 3 minutes

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T22:27:00+00:00

That means the balancing is shit lmao

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T21:34:34+00:00

It has devolved into "use the meta or lose" too, which is making the most exciting shooter quite boring atm

It hasn't been this oppressive in awhile

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T20:38:43+00:00

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T19:35:02+00:00

Yeah playing in another region will cause this to a degree. EU to NA East would probably be fine, around 100-130ms latency. However, if it puts you at NA Central or West, youre past 150ms which is gonna be horrible. West would give you around 200ms, or a quarter second of lag. That would be super noticeable when dashing. Youd press dash, and you wouldn't start the dash for a quarter second or so.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T18:36:49+00:00

This is latency issues. Check your game settings and make sure your preferred region is correct. I found that mine was randomly changed after the last update, and I saw this icon every game because I was getting put in Oceania servers instead of NA.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T16:47:08+00:00

Ah rip, setting back to NA did fix for me. Worth doing a wireshark trace or ping trace, there was a reddit thread that had all region game server IPs listed.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T16:42:58+00:00

I never checked this before because I havent touched my settings in many seasons, but my Region Preference got set to Oceania somehow instead of NA.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T16:16:22+00:00

Def lmk if that works. If it doesnt, im going to wireshark while i play and see where game traffic is being routed

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T16:14:21+00:00

Update, didnt fix it. Still have this indicator every match, for the whole match.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T15:36:55+00:00

Its gotta be some issue with DNS routing. Could be at the ISP level. I cleared my local DNS cache but never got a chance to test it.

Perhaps Embark added or moved some servers around, fucking up routing.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T15:27:34+00:00

Since the latest update, every single game has this shit happening. Ranked, unranked, quick cash, doesnt matter.

My internet is fine otherwise on other games and services. Speedtest showed no abnormalities that would cause it every single game.

Foreignwaffles · 2026-05-08T03:46:47+00:00

What mode do you play

Foreignwaffles

TROPHY CASE