Edge Case Games’ space faring MOBA hasn’t exactly caught on the way other games within the genre have but that hasn’t deterred a small but dedicated fanbase from enjoying the game. One of the more common complaints about Fractured Space has been the long queue times which can range anywhere from 5 – 10 minutes depending on the number of concurrent player, their skill ranking and the time of day. To ease the pain of long wait times Edge Case is implementing a change to the matchmaker – if they’re aren’t enough players in the pool to fill an entire AI Vs Players match the matchmaker will fill the remaining spots with AI bots.
Here is how their recent email blast described the tweak:
“When selecting the Quick Play option (which is currently a co-op battle), our matchmaker checks how many players within your skill level are online when you search, and determines how many AI Captains to place on your team. At peak times, it is likely that you will have a full team of five players against a team of AI Captains, and at off-peak times, it will be more likely for you to have some of your team slots filled with AI Captains. With these changes, we hope to improve queue times for those just joining Fractured Space and for those who wish to get a quick game to finish those daily missions.“
Also announced was a special weekend event taking place from May 18th thru the 22nd where players who take place in 5 games with a Zerek Industries ship will receive 3 Gold Drop Pods for their participation.
Fractured Space has been free to play for a number of months now and according to Steam Charts the population has dropped considerably. Back in October 2016 the game sat at an all time high of 1107 concurrent users on average with this figure dropping to just 237 concurrent players in the past 30 days – an 80% drop. Fractured Space has seen better days but will this free high-quality drops promotion spur you to install the game?