Quote Originally Posted by Nubrication View Post
I disagree. I think more casuals will queue up if they can play with their friends.

At the same time, if they don’t implement a separate queue for premades - then the mode will become extremely unbalanced - more than it is now. Simply having “symmetrical” teams does not equal balanced. 2 bad players coordinating vs 2 good players coordinating is a huge difference.

It’s bad enough the way casual matchmaking is set up to keep good players at around 50% win rate (anecdotes from multiple crystal players, people in forums, reddit and personal experience - no REAL proof). With premades in normal queue, it’s gonna be more of a poopfest. TBH, casual mode is more hardcore than ranked because of all the dead weight teammates you get. Now you want 2 (or more) coordinated dead weight teammates that run off to narnia to NOT kill that one player? It’s gonna force every good player to make a premade and solo queues are gonna die quick.

TLDR; either separate queue for premades or don’t bother at all.
You mean it will be as unbalanced as queue syncers make it half the time in the first place?

For a start, allowing duos in smallscale PvP in FFXIV is not a new concept - it existed in The Feast Training up to patch 6.05, where we went to Crystalline Conflict in patch 6.1 right after. Being able to duo up in Feast had way more impact than having duos now ever will, because of how focused attacks and healing worked and of course by virtue of less players per team. Yet it still existed.

CC's greatest criticism for casual mode was the removal of said duo queueing. Arguably, giving legitimate means to duo up again into the normal casual match queue is a double-edged sword - yes it 100% means Crystal and Top 100 candidates like myself could pair with another of the same level and absolutely roll the floor, however since we already had the option to queue sync it would give other players a better chance to coordinate with someone else as well.

I propose the following:
  • 1 Duo in queue -> will be put with 8 solos after 90-120s
  • 2 Duos in queue -> symmetrical duo match making with 6 solo players
  • 3 Duos in queue -> first two duos symmetrical, third duo matched after 45-120s in queue, asymmetrical duos with 4 solos (potentially make use of hidden MMR slightly in favour of three solos)
  • 4 Duos in queue -> symmetrical double duo matchmaking with two solos.