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Official Feedback Thread for Random Task Force Operation System

Please use this thread to post feedback and issues found involving the new Random Task Force Operation System

Random Task Force Operations:
  • PvE Queues are now called Task Force Operations or TFO for short.
  • A new button has been added to the Task Force Operations window titled Random which will queue a player up for all available TFOs.
    • There is also a drop down option to Random queue for Normal or Advanced versions of TFOs.
  • Players who compete in TFOs will receive a bonus reward on top of the standard reward for the completed TFO.
  • This is still a work in progress.
  • For more details, please visit the Random Task Force Operations blog at: https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/10994033-introducing:-random-task-force-operations!

Comments

  • primar13primar13 Member Posts: 1,896 Bug Hunter
    edited September 2018
    I personally would like the see some of the following items added to the Random TFO Bonus Reward Box, as added enticements to play this content over queuing manually.
    • An additional chance to receive an Elite Mark (on top of the standard Advanced reward)
      • I would love if you could get this on any difficulty, (even normal) but I would accept if it only was possible on Advanced
    • An additional chance to receive a piece of Salvaged Tech (UR R&D Material used for crafting Experimental Upgrades)
    • A random amount of Salvage (Currency for Re-engineering system)
    • Small Reputation or Fleet Dilithium Voucher/Pool
  • alcaatrazalcaatraz Member Posts: 113 Arc User
    edited September 2018
    Joined for a random TFO, Got kicked by the server (something that happens all the time anyway). Logged back in and got a leaver penalty; super un-fun.

    Kael told me to put things here

    Edit:

    I was told to rewrite this, its not very hard:

    1. Push "Join Random" in the Task Force Operations window
    2. Wait for the random queue to fill
    3. Wait for the people to accept after pushing Accept
    4. Load instance animation fills, at some point during the instance loading the server kicks you
    5. Log back in, and receive Leaver penalty

    This has currently happened to me everywhere; it does not appear to be new, nor does it happen on any single instance, or loading into any specific queue. I have no idea how to replicate it since I never know when it's about to happen. The latest time I was in Sol System, and I have no idea what I was loading into since it was random.
    --- @alcaatraz || I make tanks and do maths stuffs ---
    "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."
  • isthisscienceisthisscience Member Posts: 863 Arc User
    Not exactly on random, but I assume the introduction of random led to its removal: waiting time for each queue and how many people are on it. I know adding random makes it slightly unreliable, and you don't want a long list of n/a, but if I want to try a particular queue I'd like to know if I'm waiting a minute or an hour.
  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,165 Arc User
    edited September 2018
    I do not like the way randoms get instantly put into queues that are already being queued by none random people. There should be some sort of reasonable delay before randoms get thrown in. It’s a negative part of this feature that a lot of players do not like. Can we have some sort of timers say around 5 mins where in the first 5 mines the queue is not filled by randoms.
  • primar13primar13 Member Posts: 1,896 Bug Hunter
    pottsey5g wrote: »
    Can we have some sort of timers say around 5 mins where in the first 5 mines the queue is not filled by randoms.

    The defeats the purpose of the system.

  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,165 Arc User
    edited September 2018
    primar13 wrote: »
    pottsey5g wrote: »
    Can we have some sort of timers say around 5 mins where in the first 5 mines the queue is not filled by randoms.

    The defeats the purpose of the system.
    No it doesn’t as if the queue is starting within 5 mins it doesn’t need random people dumped into it as its being played. We only need random people dumped into the queues that are taking too long to start.

    This next bit is repeating myself but as this is the correct feedback thread so I am reposting here.

    Random TF has removed the features I use on an almost daily basis making it far harder to play queues and get mission runs in of my choice. Due to this, the negatives introduced by random task force outweigh the positives by a large amount.

    The changes from random STF has made it almost impossible for me to know when people are playing the queues I like and impossible to join in with them. Worse ,based on the changes on tribble I can no longer log in every morning pick a quick queue out of the list and play it in the time I have available.

    Right now on live I can scan the list of missions I enjoy and importantly have time to run, see which are being played pick one and join in with the time. With the changes from random task force this is impossible which will reduce how often I get to play queues.

    For example. On the live server I can see zero people are playing CE normal. A few people are playing CE advance. I can see what the estimated wait time is. So I can make a judgement call. I know not to queue up for normal as it will not start before my time runs out. On advance if there is 1 person queueing and a 5+ min wait time I can pick a different queue to run. If more people are playing and the wait time less than 5min I can queue up and join.

    Another example Dranuur Beach Assault is fun to play but I avoid normal as its boring. Right now I can see when other people are playing advance or Elite work out if I have time to run it and join. After Random STF comes out I can no longer see that info so its impossible to know when to join other people playing and impossible to work out if I have time to run it.

    In short right now I can pretty much log in every morning find a queue I enjoy and run it in the time I have. After random STF comes I see no way to avoid picking queues that no one is playing which leads to wasted time and if I guess wrong I get zero queue ran. Most of the queues I enjoy do not drop random STF people in.

    Simile to above. I enjoy Elite but there I no way anymore to see which Elite queues are being played out of the ones I enjoy and join in with those people. This is a major negative that is going to lead me into reduced queues being ran and reduced logins to the game. I am not interested in playing random STF's I want to pick the ones I play and to pick ones I have time to play. This feature is making that much worse.

    One last example this morning I went to run the Breach event which as far as I know doesn't drop random STF people in. I spotted there are zero people playing normal so I did not queue for it and swapped to advance. If random STF was out as it is on tribble I would not have seen that data and would have queued on normal which would have in turn became a wasted play sessions as I wouldn't have got any queue runs in before I had to log out.

    Sorry this is a long post. In short if you are playing elite or playing a mission that doesn't draw people from random STF then you end up in a much worse position with the new system then the current system.
    Post edited by pottsey5g on
  • fred26291#2759 fred26291 Member Posts: 1,260 Arc User
    Another idea which would be also usefull. For those who want to do certain pve and it requires x number of people after a minute or 2 fill the rest in with NPC characters so that way there you can get the marks you want and not have to wait sometimes 15 to 20 min for enough people to show up, and yes, I have waited 15 minutes on occasion waiting for enough people to join certain ones.
  • dukedom01dukedom01 Member Posts: 462 Arc User
    First thing you'll notice is that the random taskforce button is located EXTREMELY PROMINENT RIGHT ON THE NOSE on top of the reworked ui window.

    The good thing I noticed is that you are not getting told what queue you end up until you are actually entering the map. If people would get an advance warning while they still have a choice to abort I am fairly certain the decline button would become even more popular than it already is.

    The bad thing I noticed is that you are not getting told what queue you end up until you are actually entering the map. Given that there is only ONE join random queue button and not join random SPACE or join random GROUND queue that is going to be a problem.
    Either there is at least some kind of advance warning that tells you if you'll end up in a space or ground map or get rid of the arbitrary cannot change your skills outside social maps limit.
    If it stays how it currently looks I predict the following order of events:
    - Players figure out space maps are drawn more often
    - Random Taskforce players pick a space skill layout before queueing
    - Players who queue for ground maps end up with three or four PUGlets skilled for space
    - Less and less people queue for ground content because quite frankly it isn't really fun if you have to carry half the team when they aren't specced for ground
    - Draw balance shifts even more in favour of space maps
    - Players who enjoyed ground content become 'slightly' upset.

    Another thing that vexes me. The join random button is mutually exclusive from ALL of the other queues. That only makes sense if the random actually included all of the queues. Reminder, it does not. Quite a few are not included. Unless you want those maps to be played even less.
    Ceterum censeo Otha supplendum in praemiis.
  • lopequillopequil Member Posts: 1,226 Arc User
    Not exactly on random, but I assume the introduction of random led to its removal: waiting time for each queue and how many people are on it. I know adding random makes it slightly unreliable, and you don't want a long list of n/a, but if I want to try a particular queue I'd like to know if I'm waiting a minute or an hour.


    Quoted for emphasis. If I can't see which queues are nearly full and I don't fancy rolling the dice for a random one I'll probably end up finding something else to do.
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  • lordsteve1lordsteve1 Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    Why have you removed the QUEUED column from the rest of the listing?
    I mean the one thing that actually gets people playing some queues is where they hop on for a quick blast and see a favourite queue is at 7/10 or 3/5 players so they join up. It’s a sort of encouragement for players to see other people there already; they know that they won’t.be sitting around alone waiting for a queue.
    Did you actually remove the queued column to hide the fact that most queues are always gonna be dead? Is this the same as when a certain dev a few years back claimed the dead queues was merely a reporting error? After all, we can’t complain about dead queues if we don’t know the queues are dead can we... :|
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  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,165 Arc User
    lordsteve1 wrote: »
    Why have you removed the QUEUED column from the rest of the listing?
    I mean the one thing that actually gets people playing some queues is where they hop on for a quick blast and see a favourite queue is at 7/10 or 3/5 players so they join up. It’s a sort of encouragement for players to see other people there already; they know that they won’t.be sitting around alone waiting for a queue.
    Did you actually remove the queued column to hide the fact that most queues are always gonna be dead? Is this the same as when a certain dev a few years back claimed the dead queues was merely a reporting error? After all, we can’t complain about dead queues if we don’t know the queues are dead can we... :|
    That is something I am wondering as well. On the live server I did a test and queued up for 1 queue at a time with that column and had a 90%+ success rate for getting into a mission of my choice within a reasonable timeframe. Next I covered that column up and the success rate of getting into a mission of my choice within a reasonable time plummeted to under 20%. Which was enough to ruin that days play session and I waste almost all my time failing to play any queues.

    Even with random STF the change is going to completely ruin playing queues for me. Getting into an Elite queue is going be a nightmare and so is any normal or advance queue that isn’t part of random STF.
  • lordsteve1lordsteve1 Member Posts: 3,492 Arc User
    pottsey5g wrote: »
    lordsteve1 wrote: »
    Why have you removed the QUEUED column from the rest of the listing?
    I mean the one thing that actually gets people playing some queues is where they hop on for a quick blast and see a favourite queue is at 7/10 or 3/5 players so they join up. It’s a sort of encouragement for players to see other people there already; they know that they won’t.be sitting around alone waiting for a queue.
    Did you actually remove the queued column to hide the fact that most queues are always gonna be dead? Is this the same as when a certain dev a few years back claimed the dead queues was merely a reporting error? After all, we can’t complain about dead queues if we don’t know the queues are dead can we... :|
    That is something I am wondering as well. On the live server I did a test and queued up for 1 queue at a time with that column and had a 90%+ success rate for getting into a mission of my choice within a reasonable timeframe. Next I covered that column up and the success rate of getting into a mission of my choice within a reasonable time plummeted to under 20%. Which was enough to ruin that days play session and I waste almost all my time failing to play any queues.

    Even with random STF the change is going to completely ruin playing queues for me. Getting into an Elite queue is going be a nightmare and so is any normal or advance queue that isn’t part of random STF.

    Agreed on all parts.

    I often just log on for maybe an hour a night and want to run some of my favourite queues, so i'll rely on seeing how many people are queued for those different missions to see if one will pop. Or i'll maybe try to start a premade if it looks like people are willing.
    Without the Queued column i can't tell if ANY of the queues have people waiting. So i could join something with 4/5 players and have it pop right way, or waste my whole playtime sitting in a 1/5 or whatever queue alone.
    Random TFO's might look like what i need to fill my time with action but what about those of us wanting a specific queue, either for certain rewards or because we specifically enjoy that queue?
    SulMatuul.png
  • lopequillopequil Member Posts: 1,226 Arc User
    As far as tribble testing is concerned, please consider removing the player count restrictions on the test server queues; there are so few of us on in my timezone that queues rarely (if ever) pop on tribble.
    Q9BWcdD.png
  • rocmistrocmist Member Posts: 58 Arc User
    primar13 wrote: »
    I personally would like the see some of the following items added to the Random TFO Bonus Reward Box, as added enticements to play this content over queuing manually.
    • An additional chance to receive an Elite Mark (on top of the standard Advanced reward)
      • I would love if you could get this on any difficulty, (even normal) but I would accept if it only was possible on Advanced
    • An additional chance to receive a piece of Salvaged Tech (UR R&D Material used for crafting Experimental Upgrades)
    • A random amount of Salvage (Currency for Re-engineering system)
    • Small Reputation or Fleet Dilithium Voucher/Pool

    I am especially interested in the Fleet Dilithium Voucher/Pool (for the KDF fleet), currently I have put some of the Dilithium and Fleet Marks towards progressing the projects when we get events ... this is very variable (and a nice boast). :smile:
    In terms of Dilithium this is still an uphill struggle (as there are not the volume of people in the KDF fleets to progress this). With an option for Fleet Dilithium Voucher/Pool, I can use my characters to generate a lot more and funnel this into the fleet and help progress this further. Depending on how small are we talking here, I would like to see something a bit larger (such as 1000-5000 per run?); especially as it is limited to fleet usage only.

    Just wanted to add my +1 to the choice of rewards and it would be nice if a box was dropped where you could select one of the rewards listed above depending on what your character or fleet required. As this can change overtime and depending on which fraction (our FED side is doing a lot better as we have sufficient people adding to the projects compared to the KDF fleet).
  • stunthewombatstunthewombat Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    I'm not one to post on the forums that often but i today i have to post bit of my experience with the new Random Task force operations.
    So with star base one being third on the list in the episodes tab in the new discovery missions, I joined a RANDOM task force operation. I was playing a level 65 tac toon that has all the specialties maxed and has equipment that enables me to play all the advanced pve ques and with a good team and voice chat i can complete elite space pve ques as well. What happened is that I was places with 3 level 20 or so new discovery charaters. The system could not balance the que well and all the poor lev 20's died about 20 times each. Which cant have been fun for them.
    I see a major problem with this system in the matching as now we have random task force operations placed through out the episodes tab. Not a good idea Cryptic. I understand you were probably trying to introduce teams playing together for a common goal earlier on in the game but I dont think you planned this out well. This will lead to greater miss matching across the board and may actually discourage new players from going further in the game if they get into a random task force operation and get absolutely slaughtered cause the game has matched them with a much higher level charater.
    If you insist with sticking with this really bad idea then at least try to implement a system that matches charaters alot better that the one you currently have.
    The leasson here, next time you decide to introduce a new idea like random task force operations at least make sure that it works well. Random Task force operations dose not.
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