Matchmaking/Lobby/Player invite improvements for PC/Crossplay.. Are any QOL changes planned?

I’m new to the game, so please forgive me if this is something that’s been touched on before, or there are other threads to this effect posted recently. I scrolled down a ways and didn’t see one.

So… First, I really enjoy KI. Let me get that out of the way first and foremost. Great game, great fun, I couldn’t be happier to have picked it up.

That said however… I have to say, setting up matches in a lobby or with a specific person can be a headache. The inability to search ingame for a specific player or lobby feels like a pretty basic feature that is oddly absent.

As an example… I tried to join a lobby earlier that HKSmash set up so I could get utterly embarrassed in front of a small audience instead of privately like usual, and realized (hadnt messed with lobbies prior to this…) that I couldnt search for his specific lobby. I searched 30x or so and eventually gave up. He tried adding people after getting friend requests from us… Nothing. I ran in to a similar problem the day I got the game. I had a player willing to help me out learning some basics, but we had to give up after over an hour of repeatedly trying to add and invite me, or me him, and some silly hoops I had to jump through… We had to join a party on the Xbox app, then he had to invite me through that, etc etc.

If Im missing something, Im sorry, but it really seems like there should be a quick and convenient way, ingame, to just invite people based on gamertags without having to jump through hoops. I dont know how it works on Xbox itself, as I play PC, but currently, all my attempts to play with a specific person have been a pain. If I want to run exhibitions or Ranked (I assume, haven’t messed with Ranked yet) or just join a random lobby, its np…

So… that’s it. I don’t want this to come off like a rant, as I know there are ways to make it work, I see it done by others, I just need to figure them out, but I do feel like its a design issue when such an important feature seems to be obscured - just my .02c. thanks for reading!

My advice, even though yuou may not like it, is to get an XB1 - It works. Otherwise, is your NAT open? That can often cause connection issues if it isn’t.

Well, I don’t have any problems getting matches to connect now, not like we has the day you tried to help me (and did help me). I can search out a random match or join a random lobby and connect just fine. It takes no time at all for the game to find me exhibition matches or to search out a random lobby and for me to connect and play against others.

My question/critique was meant towards more targeted match making. When I want to play a specific person, or join a specific lobby. The process just feels a little odd… A search function in-game would go a long way toward overall quality of life.

I have zero idea how difficult that would be to implement though. I don’t even know enough about such things to know what I don’t know - if that makes much sense.

I still don’t fully understand the whole NAT on a PC thing. It seems like we just have to make sure certain ports are forwarded, which also requires a static IP, which is needlessly tricky to set up depending on your hardware. I got KI working by returning my Teredo State to Default. After that change I haven’t had much trouble at all.

I just don’t like the idea.of having to spend 3-400$ on a console so I can have better match finding quality of life lol.