We have quite a few changes in the update tonight.
Skill Matching - We are fairly significantly changing our model and formulas for skill matching. The first phase of this is related to Duel PR, but we will be moving that through the other gametypes as things progress and we feel comfortable with the model. Although this will be relatively "transparent" to most players, the obvious net result should be that you're more often being presented "check-marked" games with players that are closer to your skill level. We've re-processed any of your previous Duel matches and results using this new model, so you will not be required to re-play the initial match with Crash, and your "skill" will already have some previous results taken into account. We'll be monitoring things closely and continuing to adjust as necessary.
Duel Detective - Related to the above, tomorrow we will be enabling a feature for easily finding Duel Games - called Duel Detective. Once you've selected "Online Games" you will notice a red bar in the right column of the page (above the news) titled "Duel Detective." This system let's you flag yourself as "available" for a duel and then looks at other players who've done the same, evaluates location, skill and other factors, and then notifies you when the match is ready. Our plan is to use this system for other gametypes in the future, but we're working first on Duel.
Match Summary and Detail Views - We had a number of issues related to the results displayed in the match summary and detail views (when viewing matches within player profiles) particularly related to how it handled statistics for players that quit the match or switched teams during a match. These final stats should now be correct. Also, in the match details view, you're now able to expand the "Quitters" summary line and actually see the players that left the match. The goal here is to allow you be more easily remember and identify players that quit matches early so that they don't get a loss. This change will retroactively apply to all of the matches in your Match History.
Other Web Changes - There's now a link from quakelive.com to "Profiles" so you and others can more easily check your stats without needing to log in. We've also changed the format of the news page to include summaries of news stories, with a link to the full news story (at a unique URL) which you can now share with your social network via the "Share" button. There's now also an RSS feed for QUAKE LIVE news - see the link in the right column of the page.
Better In-game Voting Notification - Now when a vote is called while you're playing, the information presented in the bottom left corner of the screen should be a bit more clear, and more importantly, we've added the ability for you to press the Esc. key during a vote to see a full, on-screen explanation of the vote that has been called and allow you to click to vote.
Arena Changes:
-Almost Lost (QZTOURNEY6): We re-compiled VIS to fix performance issues and fixed some z-fighting
-Furious Heights (QZTOURNEY7): Patched the "hole exploit"
-House of Decay (QZTOURNEY9): By popular request, we added another Yellow Armor and changed positions for Grenade Launcher and Shotgun
-Troubled Waters (QZCTF2): We fixed an area where players were bumping their head when using the jumppad in flag room
-Space CTF (QZCTF4): We fixed a number of accelerator pad issues and other odd issues that resulted in asymmetric exploits
<Edit>
Forgot to mention in the first post:
*Clan Arena servers are now set to 200 health, 100 armor, no falling damage
*We're happy to announce 3 new game server locations:
--Toronto, Canada
--Tokyo, Japan
--Madrid, Spain
We'll also have new game server locations coming online within a week or so in Poland, Sweden and China
<end Edit>
There were also a number of other more minor fixes and maintenance items addressed. We have a very full plate of features, functionality and additional content that we're looking forward to in the coming months and we'll do a developer blog post in the next day or so to discuss some of that as well as address other hot topics. As always, the very best way to find out what's going on as soon as it happens (sometimes even before it happens) is to follow us on Twitter - www.twitter.com/quakelive.
Thanks for playing, and we'll see you in the game.