Embark has been on a bit of a matchmaking kick recently. It announced some weeks ago that Arc Raiders would be getting a more thorough system which takes into account specific player behaviour across solo, duo, and trio lobbies as well as a more nuanced look at self-defence. Both are solid updates to the game in theory, but in practice it’s become clear that you just can’t balance for assholes.
Update 1.36 added a more stringent matchmaking system which takes into account every player action across various lobbies. But because this new system was so reactive, it also meant that all it took was downing one aggressive raider to throw players from the comfort of PvE lobbies into the hellscape of PvP. Now, I actually enjoy PvP lobbies, but they aren’t for the faint of heart, so before long Embark was backed up with complaints from players who were mistakenly hurled into these death matches.
To try and help, Embark decided to add a self-defence clause to the matchmaking system which meant that players would stay in nice PvE lobbies even if they shot and killed another raider if they weren’t the primary aggressor. I don’t actually know how the system figures this out—I guess it takes into account whether a player is damaged before shooting or not—but regardless this update fixed one issue and started another.
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Before long, Arc Raiders rats realised that this self-defence patch basically gave them a free pass to run rampant in PvE lobbies, killing and looting everyone they could find, as long as they didn’t shoot first.
But how do you convince a pacifist player to put a bullet in your head? Maybe you say mean things about their mum, perhaps a little jab at their unstylish last-season skin? Or you could just jump in front of their gun while they’re shooting at something else—that last one works the best.
PSA: ABMM workaround already in use for the Queen
from r/ArcRaiders
“It was bound to happen, we had two free kits with hairpins healing everyone and picking them up. I realised one kept trying to jump in front of my Equalizer and I decided to use what I thought was a Queen beam to make a break given I ‘shot first’.” Player craybe managed to capture the exact moment a rat jumped in front of his gunfire. “I then get hit by the quick wheel bug when going for a snap to make distance. So, beware these dickheads on Queen and Matriarch as they will surely multiply to mess with your ABMM.”
The rat then proceeds to pretend as if they’re the victim, telling the rest of the lobby that they’d been shot and pointing some naive do-gooders towards craybe. They kill him before he can plead his case or get away.
“I had three queen cores up my butt (he means in his safe pocket) so no huge loss and I was more amused to see them use the strategy after calling out that we had a sniper north of us, and all the false friendly crap. All they got was a busted Equalizer and a Bettina I barely use. I’m more annoyed the snap turned into a smoke at the end of the clip.”
I’m glad that nothing too valuable was lost, but it’s still a sucky situation. It could very well just be rose-tinted glasses, but I do feel as if Arc Raiders’ matchmaking was better when the game first released and players knew very little about how it actually worked—cheesing the system was harder and assholes were easier to identify and kill back then.
Now, you don’t know who you can trust and who’s out to stab you in the back, so keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious behaviour raiders—the rats walk among us.
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