I have a question for the vets who have been around a while (I’m a new player, currently just in the 3* transition).
As I understand it, initially there were no slices - they were added so that players could choose different ending times so that everyone could pick an event ending that more or less fit their time zone / life. That makes sense and seems completely logical.
But why did they silo people into those slices in terms of matchmaking? Is that really necessary?
Or to put it another way; what would happen if MMR picked opponents from the entire list of PVP participants (similar to the SHIELD simulator), and as each slice ended, the pool of opponents simply grew smaller? I would imagine queued opponents in a different slice could simply be treated as “shielded” if they were hit after their slice ended.
Obviously, there would be some advantage to being in an earlier slice, but would it be game breaking? Progression should be easier for every slice (as long as you climbed before other slices ended). But placement should be similar (since it’s just relative scores), and all of the members in a given slice would face the same narrowing opponent list at the same time as their in-slice competitors.
Aside from d3 not liking the number of people reaching max progression (which could probably be re-scaled somewhat), what problems am I missing that are obvious to players who have seen it all? I don’t think there would be any negative impact on clearance levels, but I might be missing something.
Thoughts? Comments?