I'm surprised they didn't mention map rotation, because sometimes I see streams where people end up playing the same map like 4 times in a row. It's not very ideal, given that you don't have a Veto system. Would love an improvement there.
I've always thought an improvement would be to rethink how weighting is applied and instead have maps be on set rotation. A brand new lobby of players would start on map 1 and would not go back to map 1 until all other maps have been played.
This allows players to play every map and not have maps repeat ~10 times in a row *cough*ARC*cough*.
Now of course, players do not like some maps and favor others. With this system, players would be able to select maps that they want to start in least and maps that they want to play on more.
To explain this, the player would be able to go into a playlist and see what maps are in it. Depending on the amount of maps in the playlist, the amount of maps they can select for weighting varies.
Let us assume it is Team Slayer and there are 8 maps.
Coliseum
Eden
Empire
Fathom
Plaza
Regret
The Rig
Truth
The player could select 3 (just an example) maps they want to play the least and 3 they want to play more of.
[√] = Favor | [X] Lower
Coliseum [√]
Eden [X]
Empire [√]
Fathom [X]
Plaza
Regret [X]
The Rig
Truth [√]
Now the matchmaking system will attempt to match the player into a lobby that is on one of the favored maps or at worst the map right before it, because the new map system is on a rotation.
Like so (example)
Coliseum -> Eden -> Regret -> Fathom -> Plaza -> Truth -> Empire -> The Rig -> Coliseum -> etc etc.
So in the previous example, the player has Coliseum marked as [√], so the matchmaking would attempt to put him in a lobby that is going to be loading up this map, but because it happens to be the first map in the rotation, it can also start a brand new lobby rotation for players to jump into.
Now then, Eden is the second map in the rotation, so after the Coliseum game, it loads up that map, for the regular lobby. The player has it marked as [X], so the game will attempt to either put the player in a lobby with the next [√], or a map that the player did not put weighting to, with the [√] map having more priority for searching. That would mean the game is now trying to find a lobby that has Truth or Plaza.
Ideally, the [X] maps would still get played eventually, but it is statistically improbable for it happening.
Now say a player gives no fucks about weighting and all that and just wants to play Slayer for 2 hours. They just load into the playlist, start at map 1, and play without maps repeating until the cycle begins anew.
This system allows those to play on maps they generally like more while at the same time, players can also ignore this system and just go on a streak of different maps. This system would also help 343 get even more info on favored/disliked maps as the player can now give that type of input without having to go on social media/forums.
It's like 8 in the morning so I tried to make sure this was comprehensible. If not I'm sorry, I could try explaining this more later.
