Public Service Announcement: Stop Playing Horde in Public Matchmaking

Gears 5
#1

Ladies, and gentlemen. I am making a PSA.

UPDATE Jan21,2020. *****

There has been a change to public/custom horde lobbies.

You may now select to host a game as public in custom horde. This allows public matchmaking to seemingly put people into your custom hosted game from matchmaking que.

The private lobby toggle in this case controls whether it is visible in the custom lobby browser. Regardless of what you set the toggle to- players will be able to be added in from the matchmaking que.

Custom horde lobbies seem unaffected when selecting the second option. Works as before.

The below message is still recommended and valid, but there may be a slightly lower incidence of bad experiences as a result of this. I recommend to still take the advice below for the time being, until this change shows a prevalent degree of effect on the situation.*****

(For full explanation of the update to hosting custom matches click here - Clarification on the new custom match controls)

Please, stop que’ing up in public horde for matches.

You will find 9/10 times that you que up with people who have just started the game (Reup 0-5), and will refuse to listen, communicate, or simply do not know what to do.

Often times you will be with players who are not even your language. Players who have not committed to playing a 2 hour horde match. Players who have zero investment in how the experience goes for their teammates.

This is not the same in custom. In custom horde matches (which offer exactly the same rewards as public matches, there is no exp reduction whatsoever, this is merely a vicious rumor that has persisted since launch somehow) people go in with the expectation to work together, communicate at least at a minimum to get through the match, and care about the reputation that the experience of their teammates garners them through the fact that you will largely see that same handful of a few hundred players in these lobbies at the higher difficulties.

There is skin in the game, so to speak, for people in custom, as you will likely run across those players again, if you continue to play there.

If you are a player seeking a teamwork based experience, with some minimum level of communication, where the players expect each other not to leave till the end of the match- do not go to search for this in public horde matchmaking. It is not there. You will find disappointment, and stress.

If you are one of the players experiencing this, please, try the custom horde match board. It’s where all the actual horde matches are being done.

For better chances of finding the good experience of horde where people work together, communicate, and do not leave early, try to confirm with your team that a few of them speak your language, and will be responsive to your chat entries by typing to them in the lobby.

If you get no responses in lobby, you can take a chance on that team (Sometimes custom lobby teams beat even master horde without speaking a single word in chat), or relocate to another lobby to check out other teams.

This has been a public service announcement. Thank you for your time.

7 Likes
Is there a way i can play with only English speaking persons. Options
HORDE needs to be fixed... BADLY
Overbearing Horde Engineers
Hi TC this is the Horde Community speaking
Why Do Noobs Have To Be JD Every Horde Match? It's Sad
#2

In fact stop playing Gears 5 altogether, then TC will get the memo :memo:

Honestly why on earth does the game start when you’ve matched with 1 other player

11 Likes
#3

Disagree about quitting. I would like to see support for the game stay at a sufficient level at which the company is able to eventually adjust the game in to a widely loved state.

I fully agree they *!@&% the proverbial bed on implementing a user-friendly public matchmaking, for all modes.

#4

Lol I was so disappointed with Gears 5 I just went back to 4. At the end of the day if your not enjoying yourself, no point in playing. I hate the hero system with a burning passion :fire: i like playing as Kait but i hate being scout :persevere: and the fact you can’t even build nothing as her drove me nuts :persevere::persevere::persevere:

8 Likes
#5

Yea, and the disaster we find ourselves in with gears 5 hero system is compounded by the fact that it was designed as an integral part of the business model for this game.

I don’t think they could abandon it if they wanted to, or at least, without severe effort to draft a new model mid-season for the rest of the games lifespan. Something that costs time, and money. I believe they may be weighing the risk/reward of that effort as we speak, but who knows what they will do in the end.

1 Like
#6

That is a common theme. I had so many hopes and expectations for Gears 5, I genuinely expected it to be a greatly improved GoW4 (which I really liked).

Instead we get this stillborn monstrosity which inspires neither joy nor excitement nor any desire/interest in trying to rank up/get better.

Neither in Ranked nor in Horde…

7 Likes
#7

Speak for yourself :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I am deeply in love with nearly every aspect of 5 save the technical mishaps.

#8

I am :wink:

Everyone likes different things, there is no doubt there is an audience for this game.

But looking at the overall feedback on the forums, on twitter, on youtube, my own experience, and feedback from my friends, disappointment is the common theme…

8 Likes
#9

Dissappointment is the >most commonly voiced< theme*

Fixed that for ya :smiley:
No but seriously, I hear you. I agree it is as such, but still. They can bring this back.

#10

Haven’t played 4 since 5 came out. Is the population for horde still decent?

#11

Fully agree. Putting aside what issues I have with the hero system, Public matchmaking in Gears 5 is a total mess. The increased requirements for teamwork in 5 compared to Gears 4s Horde(where if you persisted you’d eventually find a decent team in matchmaking most days even up until close to the Gears 5 launch), and people not figuring that maybe they shouldn’t try the mid-high level difficulties when they have underleveled characters and don’t have any idea how to use them effectively, just make it very difficult if not impossible to find any sort of reliable matches there(referring to Horde mostly, Escape matchmaking still lets you find decent teammates more frequently). Only times I used it in Gears 5 is in the days when I started to play it, after that I stopped because Custom was a much better option for match finding(besides the fact that hardly anybody appears to want to join lobbies on maps other than Exhibit, Allfathers Arena and Gears 4 maps, and almost everybody chooses the “easy” way to go, but this is more a personal issue and would be alleviated if I had more people to play with regularly).

At that, not allowing people to restart if they do choose to go for matchmaking because some genius decided the best possible thing would be to prevent restarts not only at only the highest available difficulty, but anything above the very first difficulty. Certainly not worth an award in great game design if you ask me, that decision.

2 Likes
#12

Custom horde matches should have filters.

A filter for characters allowed to play.

A filter for minimum character level.

Not sure if filters would help public or make it too complex to ever get a game. My personal opinion is that public matches should be removed to leave only custom matchmaking.

2 Likes
#13

Threads like thos remind me of the elitist “must have Gjallarhorn as proof you completed X for us to play with you” mentality.

#14

What’s wrong with that? Most people don’t want to play with scrubs. Not my job to help level people.

Horde play is exclusive. People who don’t like it that way tend to be those that get carried rather than equal contribution. I could give 100s of examples.

1 Like
#15

How though? I’m not advertising an attitude of exclusivity, I’m merely stating to anyone reading that they are far more likely to find a good experience in one mode of searching for games than another…

I don’t see the comparison at all.

@Slipping_Flames

Absolutely. Elitism, and exclusivity in gaming, is not inherently bad, and at times extremely necessary.

#16

I’m afraid at times, we are trying to help people who do not understand the game. I’m not against helping people. Anyone can send me a message and I’ll be glad to help, explain, or level a character for you.

In the last two or three days @Scoops_4 and I have set up lobbies with very specific requirements. Without fail, each game has had over 4, sometimes way more people (characters) join that weren’t even close to the description. The lobby post says must deposit about 3 times. Kids jump in and start upgrading perks wasting 10s of thousands of dollars. Not sure if they can’t figure out we know what they are doing or not. It’s pathetic. If I join a match, I will almost always honor the host and system in place when I join. It’s just respect.

The kick option was the best thing TC has and probably will do for Gears 5 horde.

3 Likes
#17

Agree, and agree.

I would say though, I think at times were not just helping people who don’t understand the game in its current form (Largely I don’t blame fps shooter folks for rejecting/having a hard time with rpg elements), but we are actually trying to help people who simply don’t want help.

Hard to tell the difference sometimes.

1 Like
#18

If you’re a low reup player, low level character, or non essential character that is joining an insane or higher difficulty match in the hopes of being carried and leveled; the least you can do is deposit consistently so that the engineer who has the cards and strategy to win can do their thing.

I don’t mind a low level or non essential character joining if they show they can cooperate and contribute.

If you join as a 2nd engineer I usually don’t trust that you won’t undermine the primary engineers strategy.

4 Likes
#19

There should not be a 2nd Engineer in the game, the Hero system was in some respect badly implemented, but what The Coalition should have done was restrict the Classes. It make a more balanced game. You really do not need two of any or everything.

#20

No, you don’t need a second or even third, but sometimes there are good synergies with multiple engineers on a coordinated team.

2 Likes