Seems like a matter of common sense.

If you're queuing separately, the matchmaker throws you all into the closest match(es) it can find and spreads you between the two teams according to matchmaking calculations. If you're queuing as a group, it has to find a match for you where your high-impact group is properly balanced by similar capabilities on the other team. And then as time goes on the matchmaker will drop the threshold and at some point will give you an easy squash match if it can't create decent balance, but it will make you wait for a long time before it relegates to that worst-case scenario.

My thing is though, even when we were queuing separately, we ended up in the same match on the same team. Today for example we queued like 8 times, 7 out of those we were in the same match, and 6 of those we were on the same team. The only difference from group queuing was that we were only in the same lance like twice, and the queue time was substantially shorter.

There are other factors in play, like tonnage. When you're queuing separately, you might be using different mechs, making it possible for the matchmaker to place you on the same teams in a shorter amount of time.

A lot of it can come down to sheer luck, but statistically, on a large-sample basis, it should play out like how I laid it out in the first reply.

Originally posted by Carthomin:

My thing is though, even when we were queuing separately, we ended up in the same match on the same team. Today for example we queued like 8 times, 7 out of those we were in the same match, and 6 of those we were on the same team. The only difference from group queuing was that we were only in the same lance like twice, and the queue time was substantially shorter.

Ah, the good old MWO synch drop.

You know one of your friends can take the commander role and switch players between lances?
Spawn points won'T change, but you can put all players in one lance.

That's not unexpected. The matchmaker has to jump through some more hoops to accommodate you if you're in a squad.

Originally posted by Carthomin:

My thing is though, even when we were queuing separately, we ended up in the same match on the same team. Today for example we queued like 8 times, 7 out of those we were in the same match, and 6 of those we were on the same team. The only difference from group queuing was that we were only in the same lance like twice, and the queue time was substantially shorter.

Probably easier to place individual players into brackets that a group of player, even just two, into the same bracket. I imagine there's a protocol for priority. For example, the same bracket split up into individual slots would fill faster with solo q players if the priority was set that way.

I imagine small groups take less priority over individual players. I imagine individual slots take more priority than brackets of those same slots.

Originally posted by Mr_Puddins:

Probably easier to place individual players into brackets that a group of player, even just two, into the same bracket. I imagine there's a protocol for priority. For example, the same bracket split up into individual slots would fill faster with solo q players if the priority was set that way.

I imagine small groups take less priority over individual players. I imagine individual slots take more priority than brackets of those same slots.

AFIAK there is a priority to keep the matchmaking time low.
The next priority is put players of the same or nearly the same tier into one match.
And the last priority is the 3/3/3/3 mechclass balance.

To nobodys surpirse the mechclass will often be ignored just to scrape enough players together to fill up the 12 vs 12 lobby, and even the tier distance may be ignored if not enough players are in the queue.

AFIAK the only balance of groups is that no team should get more than 2 groups and that a "big" 4 player group wont get an other group.

The whole matchmaking system is FUBAR, and thats only partly the fault of PGI.
A much better system would be to force the players to drop in 4 player groups and to use drop decks to balance tonnage.
That would allow to create smaller matches like 4 vs 4 and 8 vs 8 if not enough players are aviabel for a 12 vs 12 match.
But most MWO players hate dropdecks and would never invite random players into a group so the current matchmaker is the best PGI can do.

Are you saying people should be required to join a group before searching? Or did I misunderstand?

Originally posted by spartanspud:

Are you saying people should be required to join a group before searching? Or did I misunderstand?

Yes.
If you want fast & fair matchmaking players need to group up first.
It would also allow to create smaller matches (4 vs 4, 8 vs 8) if not enough players are aviable.
I also suggest to use dropdecks to balance the tonnage instead of using the 3/3/3/3 mech class rule that don't work due low player numbers.

But if you just want to put 12 random players in a "team" and mix it with premade groups of up to 4 players you get the NASCAR gameplay and all the funny matchmaking things we have now.

OK, you're right. That's a great idea.

matchmaker has been kinda trash lately. puts all the sweat toxic builds on one team then all the newer players on the other for a good ol seal clubbing affair. not enough players for a fair match? f'n use all bots on one team