Inkbound Adds Multiplayer Matchmaking, Improves Features in Mid-Season Update

mmorpg.com:

The mid-season update for Inkbound is set for today, and introduces multiplayer matchmaking, an improved ping system, easier difficulty changes, and additional quality of life and system improvements.

This update, part of Starship of Terrors, is full of balance changes, fixes, and more but the team at Shiny Shoe has decided to add new features in this mid-season update instead of waiting until the next major one in order to smooth out the player experience right now.  The biggest new feature in this update is the arrival of multiplayer matchmaking. 

It is, as they say, a simple matchmaking system, which lets you click the “find party” button and queue up. Previously, Inkbound relied on proactively trying to join up with someone who had themselves marked with “open my party for joins”. The devs admit nobody used this, so they’ve put a basic system into place that should help. 

With the new system, you can queue for a party for all three run types with one click or toggle off any of the types. Once you've entered the matchmaking queue, you can go and do something else for a while. The team says they are prioritizing match speed right now so you'll probably be put into a lot of duos. Eventually, they plan to build it out more, but for now, the basic system will be in place.

The patch also improves a few other features. All Books get smaller islands for faster runs, meaning important decisions will happen more frequently. A few quality of life changes should help players get started. These range from having trinkets saved per Aspect so you don’t have to always reset them, to additional stats in the HUD, and an Aspect complexity meter graphic showing how difficult each is to play. 

The ping system in multiplayer gets some