Reflex 0.49.0 - Matchmaking remix disc vol 2.

Matchmaking was released with a blast. We've had over 10,000 games played in just 2 weeks!

The focus of this build is to directly improve on our first pass matchmaking implementation with our observations made the community feedback we have received.

 

Matchmaking: Vote system

• We have re-worked the map voting system to a pick/drop solution where you cannot see your opponents vote until vote time is over
• We wanted to keep the 3 random map selection still, but we do agree with giving the power to down rank a map, and have this map not played. So your down vote will out-rank the opponents up vote.
• With larger groups the voting is cumulative, so be strategic when voting as a party!

Matchmaking: Spectate games

• People want to be able to watch active MM games (and so do we!). We've made this possible, and even added it as a tile to the home menu!
• Spectators can only talk with other spectators, to ensure the people playing are not interrupted.

Matchmaking: Party support

• We've added party support! So you can now grab your friend and queue up in the fun
• Party chat is available in menu of course. You can also party chat in game via sayparty (default bind U).

Matchmaking: Lobby now optional

• We've added a lobby checkbox on the Quickplay screen so people can chose to go play other things while they wait for the matchmaking queue to pop!
• We also re-positioned the overlay so it wouldn't overlap game time widgets since you can play other games while in queue.

Matchmaking: Backend changes

• We have re-structured how data is stored behind the scenes to split regions into US/EU etc
• This is an ongoing process that's setting things up for the near future
• MMR has been reset as a result.

Matchmaking: Servers

• Added Brazil servers
• Russian servers have moved location to hopefully provide better pings

UI improvements:

• Health bar widget: added options from armour bar
• Server browser: added option to sort servers by hostname
• Server browser: restored "show old" option
• Added prev/next page button to addon browser
• MMR values now refreshed when going to main menu to ensure they're up-to-date on profile tile overlay
• Updated twitter link in home menu

Art improvements:

• Thicker MH pickup trails for improved visibility
• Reduced IC impact sparks amount and size
• Fixed bone orientation for adjustable wrench and pipe wrench
• Armour mesh changed to hostile torso

Game improvements:

• Disable previously set mutators when starting training from the menu
• Added mutator: infinite ammo
• Removed weapon hum in instagib mutator
• Can no longer forfeit on racemode
• Added enemy sounds (thanks Greed)
• Added new keybind mark replay, defaults to M
• Added new loading tip: "Remember to hit 'Mark Replay' in your matchmaking games, you might be famous!",
• Added new loading tip: "Matchmaking replays can be found at replys.reflexarena.com"

Lua changes:

• Log type notification now has subtypes: generic, party, pickup
• Log type chat now has additional subtype: party

Bug fixes:

• Game now clamps cl_playercolor* to safe ranges
• Fixed potential crash bug when matchmaking popup times out & user is disconnected