Match

A Match in The Cycle: Frontier lasts six hours, during which players can enter and leave the match by dropping in or by Evacing.

Matchmaking

When a Prospector picks a map and presses deploy, the game will attempt to find a server for the player with the following requirements, as long as the player is Trusted.

1. That is not full
2. That is roughly within the skill of the player (see MMR)
3. That has the same exact squad sizes, or roughly the same, depending on the map (see Buckets)

Trusted Matchmaking

Patch 2.0.0 introduced a system called Trusted Matchmaking. This system attempts to split platform (steam or EGS) accounts of legitimate players (trusted) and new platform accounts (untrusted) into separate servers. Legitimate players will get matched up with other players based on their MMR. Untrusted players do not have any matchmaking

• The game does not do any matchmaking in untrusted matches (neither MMR and Buckets), it only drops them in a server that is not full.
• Both Steam and Epic Games have this system.
• The exact requirements to get into trusted queues are secret, but the following factors seem to play into it:
  • Account Age
  • Purchase History
  • VAC Bans on Steam
• Most users are automatically trusted.
• Buying anything in the game with real money guarantees getting into trusted matchmaking.

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).

• When a player kills another player, their KDR goes up, and when they die to another player, it goes down.
• The KDR is overall KDR based on total matches, not on recent matches.
• When playing in a squad, it uses the squad average KDR to determine which bucket they get placed in.
• Matchmaking does NOT take Gear into account.

Buckets

Each map has different buckets that separate the players based roughly on their skill.

• Bright Sands Buckets:
  • 2 different buckets for Solos, for Duos and for Squads (so 6 buckets in total).
  • This means: You should NEVER be in a lobby with squad sizes other than your own on Bright Sands.
• Crescent Falls Buckets:
  • Solos only, for players that are still having a hard time
  • Good Solos, with some Duos
  • Good Duos, with some Trios
  • Good Trios
• Tharis Island Buckets:
  • Solos, with some Duos
  • Good duos & Trios

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 rejoin a new instance as soon as they have left the previous one. Please be aware that maintenance may cause different behaviour.

Server-instance Closure

• Server uptime, each server-instance of each map have a maximum of 6hours uptime.
  • If maintenance or other unforseen situation occurs, this can be shortened.
• Closure warnings ("Server Shutdown Warning" in top-right corner of screen) are sent out to players at 20 minutes, 10 minutes and 5 minutes of uptime remaining for the instance.
  • No prospectors will drop in during the last 30 minutes of a server-instance.
• Any one 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 a other server-instance.

Maintenance Closure

Closure of the whole service acts similar too Server-instances, but with slight differences.

• Shutdown-warnings also appear in the station.
• Additional warnings at 30, 25 and 15minutes together with 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 does not coincide with server-instance lifetimes and may shorten the lifespan of a instance in order to abide by the maintenance.

Player Limits

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