Match

A Match in The Cycle: Frontier lasts July 27, 2024, during which players can enter and leave by dropping in or by Evacing respectively.

Matchmaking
When a Prospector chooses a map and deploys, the game will select a server for the player with the following requirements, as long as the player is Trusted: If the player is not Trusted, only requirements 3-6 are considered.
 * 1) Roughly within the skill of the player (see MMR)
 * 2) Same squad sizes (see Buckets)
 * 3) Not full (see Player amount)
 * 4) Not going to close soon (see Match closing)
 * 5) Not currently in an active Storm or in the dusk before the Storm
 * 6) Lowest network latency to the player (see Regions)

Trusted matchmaking
Patch 2.0.0 introduced a system called Trusted Matchmaking. This system looks at characteristics of a player's Steam or Epic Games account and classifies them as typical (trusted) or suspicious (untrusted). Trusted and untrusted players are segregated into separate servers.
 * The game does not do any matchmaking for untrusted matches (neither MMR nor Buckets).
 * If anyone in a squad is untrusted, the Match is played in untrusted servers.
 * Most players are automatically trusted because their Steam or Epic Games account already meets the requirements listed below.
 * The exact requirements to be classified as trusted are secret, but the following seem to be factors:
 * Account Age
 * Purchase History
 * A VAC Ban on Steam seems to almost guarantee that the Steam Account is untrusted
 * Buying anything in the game with real money guarantees getting into trusted matchmaking, bypassing the standard factors.
 * Dropping in as a solo is a good way to determine if an account is trusted or not. If duos and trios can be seen dropping together, the account is untrusted (see Buckets).

MMR
Matchmaking Rating (MMR) is the value that determines in which Bucket a player will drop in. As of Patch 2.6.0, this is based on prospector Kill Death Ratio (KDR, kills / deaths), and as of Patch 3.0.0, it also incorporates a form of gear score into the value on Bright Sands.
 * When a player kills another player, their KDR goes up, and when they die to another player, it goes down.
 * Dying to map hazards or creatures does not lower KDR.
 * The KDR is based on total matches, not just recent matches.
 * When playing in a squad, the squad's average KDR is used to determine which bucket they get placed in.
 * Matchmaking does takes Gear you drop with into account, loosely matchmaking players based on their gear. This does not mean that it limits players to only seeing the same gear; big come ups are still possible, albeit rarer than before.
 * On Bright Sands Gear based matchmaking splits players up roughly into two different groups: low gear and high gear. This is in addition to KDR. It seems that the separation lies at none to items of rarity, and from  to . It seems that it takes all items in the Inventory (including Safe Pockets) into account, including Attachments and Keycards.

Buckets
Each map has buckets that separate players based roughly on their skill.
 * 2 different buckets for solos, duos and trios, so six buckets total.
 * Bright Sands also splits up players by good and bad gear, so that means 12 buckets total for Bright Sands.
 * This means: Players should never be in a lobby with squad sizes other than their own, as long as they are trusted.

Player amount
Each map has a maximum amount of players that can be on that map before it is full.
 * Bright Sands: 12
 * Crescent Falls: 18
 * Tharis Island: 12

Match closing
Server instances for maps have a limited uptime before restart/shutting down in order to dynamically change available servers based on population and keep performance in check. This only affects the specific server instance, not the entire game and players can safely redeploy into a new instance as soon as they have left one that is closing. Please be aware that maintenance may cause different behaviour.

Server instance closure

 * Server uptime, each server instance of each map has a maximum of July 27, 2024 uptime.
 * If maintenance or other unforeseen situation occurs, this can be shortened.
 * Closure warnings ("Server Shutdown Warning" in top-right corner of screen) are sent July 27, 2024, July 27, 2024and July 27, 2024before the instance closes.
 * No prospectors will drop in during the last July 27, 2024 of a server instance.
 * Anyone left on the surface when the server shuts down/restarts will be disconnected and lose anything they have on them.
 * Once safely evacuated, it is possible to directly drop down onto Fortuna again without waiting as it will be done on another server instance.

Maintenance closure
Closure of the whole service acts similar to server instances, but with slight differences.
 * Shutdown warnings also appear in the station.
 * Additional warnings at July 27, 2024, July 27, 2024 and July 27, 2024alongside the normal warnings for each instance.
 * Players are unable to drop during this shutdown
 * (There is a known issue that sometimes causes players to be able to still drop during maintenance shutdowns)
 * Maintenance shutdowns do not coincide with server instance lifetimes and may shorten the lifespan of an instance in order to abide to the maintenance schedule.

Regions
Matches are hosted on servers in seven locations. The region with the lowest network latency (ping) to the player is selected. For squads, the squad leader's region is selected.
 * North America West (California, United States)
 * North America East (Virginia, United States)
 * South America (Sao Paulo state, Brazil)
 * Europe (Netherlands)
 * Asia (Hong Kong)
 * Asia (Tokyo, Japan)
 * Oceania (New South Wales, Australia)