The Development team never stops and although at times some updates don’t seem as full of changes, there is always behind the scenes efforts being made. One of those biggest efforts over the last year has been our new Matched Play system, code named Thunderdome. Update 337 is our big unveiling to the general public of the new Matched Play BETA and a flurry of other changes and updates throughout the game.

Matched Play in its current state will allow 12 players to be matched by region and skill levels to the best of HIVE’s ability. You then play two rounds on an officially hosted server. The intent of this system is to create a better experience for players looking …

What is it and How does it work? 

Thunderdome has been the fun codename for this project that is now being officially labeled as Matched Play in the main menu. We plan on releasing the Beta phase of this feature in the next few weeks.

To put it simply it is a matchmaking system. It matches players together in a lobby of 12. When it performs a search it sorts by the smallest number of available player slots in order to fill up existing lobbies, and then that is sorted by a median skill level that is closest to the searching player, and then it finally refines that based on geodesic distance. Or said another way: The system attempts to …