CODEWITHSUNDEEP
unity-game-enginegoogle-play-servicesgoogle-play-gamesmultiplayer
khizerbajwa
khizerbajwa

Reputation: 324

Player matching in Google Play Services based on player ranking/skill

Is there a way I can match players using Google Play Game Service based on individual players' skill level in the game? I have locally stored the player level of each player, and want a player to be matched to his/her closest ranked player.

For example: a player ranked 10 (beginner) should be paired with the closest ranked player available (e.g. 5 to 15) instead of an expert level 100 player, so that we can have a balanced competition.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 374

Answers (2)

Columbo
Columbo

Reputation: 6776

I think Clayton Wilkinson's answer is all correct and I voted it up.

But, I imagine the OP is hoping for some way to do skill-based matching without splitting the player-base into segments.

Sadly, the answer is no you can't. The choices are to use some other matchmaking system or split up your player base. If you choose to split your player base then you need a lot of concurrent users to avoid making your players wait a long time.

On a recent title we rolled our own matchmaking service based on Raknet because we wanted more nuanced matchmaking. It's a lot of hassle though, and GPGS is pretty great otherwise, so skill based matching would have to be a very high priority before you consider abandoning GPGS.

Upvotes: 2

Clayton Wilkinson
Clayton Wilkinson

Reputation: 4572

There are two variables that can be set to influence the match making:

First, you can set a variant of the game using RoomConfig.Builder.setVariant(). This method takes an non-negative value indicating the type of match. The variant specified needs to match exactly with other participants in order for auto-matching to take place. I suppose you could be strict in your match making and use the variant as the player's level. In this way, players would only be matched with players of the same level. An alternative would be to group levels together in a range, for example levels 1-5 could play each other, likewise group 6-8, etc.

The second variable is the exclusiveBitMask. This is passed in when calling RoomConfig.CreateAutoMatchCritera(). This method takes the min and max number of players to match, and the exclusiveBitMask. This mask when logically AND'ed with the other players will equal 0. This is used for things like role based games (need to have 1 offense and 1 defense). One possible use of this would be to mask out high level vs. low level capabilities so there is no outrageous mismatch.

Upvotes: 2

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