If it was truly good and people didn't drop regularly (or at least had their stats penalized if they did), 5 minutes.  But if we kept getting lopsided matches, I wouldn't bother with it (same as today).

I'd be willing to wait 5 minutes for a pairing if I knew that I was getting a competitive game - but I would want more information while I am waiting for a game.  In TA, for example, it tells you when it is broadening the search.  That's helpful to know that people in my class are not currently around.  I'd also like to know how many people are currently in the queue looking for a game.  It used to do this, but not anymore.

And I am not sure that I agree with your characterization of the current system.  My guess is that it gives very little weight to skill and is predominantly focused on getting matches going.  I have seen way too many lopsided games that launched quickly to believe that skill is much of a factor.

Finally, it should not "balance" skill.  The game should be predominantly all of the same skill level.  Not one really good player with a bad player playing two average skilled people.

I would wait until I can play 3vs3 at least. If I decide to stop waiting I will stop waiting. Depends from day to day.

To get better games they could try to create games every 15 min or 30 min. So when everyone knows the next games will be created at 20:00 everyone can join in a time frame of 15 / 30 min . This way a lot of players will join at once and they can be sorted by skill etc. With more players the time frame can be lowered.

Or in other words: I would wait...

- 3 min with a "Searching game" message.

- 5 - 15 min in a game lobby (depends on players and playernumber)

- 30 min when I know a lot of player will join. And with the idea above I can do something else while waiting.

Haha. I'm seriously tempted to just run Demigod in Windowed mode and play Playstation games on my Emu while I wait. Pause when playing Demigod, unpause while waiting.

there is nothing wrong with the matchmaking.

the problem is that there is a lack of people playing the game

I play in windowed mode. This allows me to check http://www.demigodthegame.com/opengames.asp while in queue. So I can see exactly how many people are in queue and for which sides and what games are being made. You can actually observe it making Pantheon games with 3 vs 1 + ai when the Pantheon Queues are not balanced. You can also observe that the minute there are 4 people in the skirmish queue it starts a game.

To avoid getting into a 3 vs 1 + 2 ai situation I sometimes wait for another player to join my side in pantheon before joining the queue if there is a large number of players waiting on the other side.

@Melric

I check player rankings after every game I play and have observed the following behavior.

Pantheon games are more prone to lopsided games because the queue is split into light and dark. If you have 2 bad players playing light and 2 good players playing dark the match making system will eventually pair them up. Had it waited for 4 people in queue on both sides it might have been able to make better matches.

In Skirmish games are slightly more balanced because it can pair the for players so that the strongest and weakest players are in one team and the two average players are in the other. In a 6 player game things are more balanced because it can chose the 1st, 4th and 6th player versus the 2nd, 3rd and 5th or 1st 3rd and 6th versus 2nd, 4th and 5rh depending on rankings.

It is clear from how it makes teams in Skirmish that player rankings do matter but the match making system favors starting games asap so much that rankings have little weight in Pantheon. Given enough people it can make better balanced teams but it is not getting that chance. This is why I am suggesting that the match making system be allowed to wait a little longer.