In addition to introducing the new Cell Vendor, Dauntless‘ 0.5.5 update will also make changes to the game’s matchmaking system. Taking player feedback into account, the Phoenix Labs team has been working on a few things to make the matchmaking experience better — including improving load times, creating better parties, and improving hunt scaling.
The team laid out some of the upcoming matchmaking changes in a post on the Dauntless site yesterday, starting with allowing players waiting for others to join their hunt no longer being forced to chill in the airship. Instead, while you wait, you can tool around in the city getting things done. Once the party is put together and everyone is ready to go, the game will let you know.
Another interesting change is that players can now coordinate things like arrival animations and banner colors. Probably not the most useful change, but I can see players enjoying it.
More importantly, the team has been working on fixing issues with parties — including chat — and Behemoth scaling. These are pretty much bug fixing items, but it should make the experience better.