How to assign priority to fleets in AWS Gamelift Flexmatch

To assign priority to specific fleets in AWS GameLift FlexMatch without using latency-based matchmaking, you can customize the priority order of your game session queue. This can be achieved by modifying the queue's priority configuration.

When creating or updating your game session queue, you can specify the order in which you want GameLift to prioritize fleet destinations. By placing your preferred fleets at the top of the queue, you ensure they receive the highest priority during matchmaking.

To do this, you have two options:

1. Using the Amazon GameLift console: You can drag and drop the priority values to reorder them according to your preference.

2. Using the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI): You can use the "create-game-session-queue" command with the "--priority-configuration" option to set your desired priority order.

If latency data is not provided in the game session request, GameLift will prioritize destinations based on the order they are listed in the queue configuration. This means that placing your preferred fleets at the top of the destination list will give them the highest priority.

It's important to note that matchmaking will still work with multiple destination fleets even without latency data. In this case, GameLift will attempt to place game sessions on the first destination fleet listed in your queue. If that fleet has multiple locations, it will choose the first location alphabetically.

To optimize your setup, consider the following approaches:

1. If you have a primary location with backup fleets in a second location, prioritize fleets first by location, then by fleet type.

2. If you use multiple locations equally, prioritize fleets by type, placing your preferred fleets at the top of the queue.

By carefully ordering your fleet destinations in the queue configuration, you can ensure that your specific instance fleets receive maximum priority during the matchmaking process, even without latency-based matchmaking.
Sources
Prioritize game session placement - Amazon GameLift
PriorityConfiguration - Amazon GameLift
Tutorial: Create an Amazon GameLift queue with Spot Instances - Amazon GameLift

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to us.

Please allow me to mention that there are indeed 2 options as provided above to achieve the use-case of assigning the priority to the fleets in AWS Gamelift Flexmatch.

1. By using the AWS Gamelift console and customize the priority of your game session queue as outlined in the above response.

2. By using the CLI with the PriorityConfiguration option[1] to set the desired priority.

Please be advised that Custom prioritization settings for use by a game session queue when placing new game sessions with available game servers. When defined, this configuration replaces the default FleetIQ prioritization process, which is as follows:


• If player latency data is included in a game session request, destinations and locations are prioritized first based on lowest average latency (1), then on lowest hosting cost (2), then on destination list order (3), and finally on location (alphabetical) (4). This approach ensures that the queue's top priority is to place game sessions where average player latency is lowest, and--if latency is the same--where the hosting cost is less, etc.


• If player latency data is not included, destinations and locations are prioritized first on destination list order (1), and then on location (alphabetical) (2). This approach ensures that the queue's top priority is to place game sessions on the first destination fleet listed. If that fleet has multiple locations, the game session is placed on the first location (when listed alphabetically).

Changing the priority order will affect how game sessions are placed as outlined in the below reference link[1]

I hope above information helps. In case you face further challenges, please feel free to open a support case with AWS using the following reference link[2] as this will allow us to provide you resource specific guidance and dive deep into the same.

Thank you!

References: [1] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/gamelift/latest/apireference/API_PriorityConfiguration.html [2] https://support.console.aws.amazon.com/support/home?#/case/create