Near the "join" button used to queue when you want to join an alert, add a "start" button to immediatly launch the alert for the guy who click on it.
Why ?
Because waiting like 15 or 20 minutes for an alert to launch is excessive. Especially if you can complete it in 5 minutes alone.
Because the queue system team you with people from your ignore list. If i ignore somebody, it is for a good reason, either they are trolls who purposely try to kill others by agroing every map mob, or they are leeching cowards or slackers who just sit and wait you to do all the work to get the reward. In both cases, i will certainly not offer a free win to these scu#bags.
Because people who want or need a team to complete an alert will still be able to do it, with queue or pre made team. And in my opinion, it seems more logical to force teaming on people who need it instead of people who don't.
Because some alerts are so unattractive (pyramid power ) than completing the daily burst quest can take hours if you have to wait for people to queue for it. It could be done a lot faster if we were able to enter it alone.
Now, as i'm expecting some comments like "But you can make your own pre made team to avoid all that", i will add this: making a premade team takes time At some hours it can take even more time than just queue randomly.
And honestly, i find it a pure nonsense to loose time and efforts in putting a team for something i can do alone.
So, allow us to enter alerts alone.
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A better idea is that after 5 minutes of waiting the que pops with whatever people it was able to find even if it's less than 5.
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Spinnytop:
you are right on the waiting time increase for all non self sufficient players (leveling chars, or non optimized lv 40 ATs for example). That's why they still have choice to make a premade team since they need it.
It is also a way to fight leechers. The current queue system make their life too easy. They just queue and sit while other people struggle and do the work for them because majority of people do not pay attention to them, some of them even hide like pathetic puppies to remain unnoticed. If those leechers are forced to make or ask for a team, or to queue with people who cannot just run through the alert easily, then they will be forced to actively participate to succeed and get the reward.
Moreover, i doubt that waiting time increase will be very huge. There are a lot of people who got chars able to solo alerts, but not so much, and those people are daily quest grinders, meaning they will usually do only 3 alerts from each type. So their participation in queue waiting time is not so important.
For the 5 min timer you were talking about, i would say it's not a good alternative because it forces people in incomplete teams which is not necessarily a problem, but can be depending on people teamed (very low level people for example). And if people are forced in a situation where they will inevitably fail, they 'll get frustrated. And it will be justified.
You offer "forming a premade" as a solution to any increase in waiting times... yet in the OP you say that this is not acceptable for your own waiting times issue, because it takes too long. I'm going to go ahead and agree with what you said in the OP, and disagree with what you said in response to my comment - forming a premade is not an acceptable solution to waiting times because if things are so slow that que times are affected, then the time it takes to form a premade will also be affected.
Whether you doubt that waiting time increase will be huge or not is irrelevant, since my proposition already solves that potential issue in both directions - it makes longer wait times less of an issue by giving people the option of going in with less than five, and also makes longer wait times less likely by forcing everyone to at least attempt to get into a group before going in solo.
From what I've seen leechers aren't a big issue in alerts. I do them every day and I rarely see someone who isn't participating. The few times there are I pay them no mind... more npcs for me to beat up. Since I'd happily solo an alert I wouldn't mind if all four people just went afk while I take care of it.
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I
actually
agree
with
Spinnytop
(please kill me)
Alright, with that atrocity out of my system, allowing players to just click a button and enter solo whenever they wanted would likely make make late night queuing next to impossible for weaker characters. They already take long enough, especially custom alerts.
That said, the less-than-5 popup should offer a second confirmation which shows how many other players committed to it. That way, the level 23 AT guy can click yes if he sees 3 other players while declining if it turns out he'll be all by himself.
I was thinking that the first confirmation shows the number of players. Basically it'd be the "alert pop" we have now with the checkmarks and X's, just with some different text that says "Enter with less than 5 members?"
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I do not offer anything. I emitt a suggestion.
As far as i know, forming a premade team is already something possible, it would still be the case with my suggestion.
BUT spending time and efforts forming a premade team to be able to enter an alert is completely absurd EXEPT if you NEED a team to complete it.
Do not know why it's not obvious for you that the currrent system lacks logic:
Queue and premade team should be for people who REQUIERE a team.
If you do not understand the stupidity behind forcing a player to wait during an important amount of time, 4 people he doesn't even need in the first place, to be allowed to do a content he could have done in 5 minutes alone; then i do not know what to add...
On the other hand, having to queue or assemble a premade team for something i cannot do alone seems pretty reasonnable and logic for me.
I do not see what's so hard to understand.
As i realize i may sound pretentious or arrogant, i would like to say i also have leveling characters, not yet able to solo alerts.
So i am perfectly concious about implications for weaker characters. Getting a team will requiere some efforts but i am ready to do it for the simple reason IT IS NECESSARY, so i accept that.
But being forced to the same thing when i do not need it, sorry but no. It's absurd.
For your five minutes idea, i maintain what i said, i think it's not a good alternative. It would be a good idea only if the few people randomly teamed are good enough to do what they are queuing for; otherwise it would be a disaster. Imagine 3 level 12 against jack fool and demon factions, or valerian scarlet and trey kings, they would be eaten alive. And as low level are often beginners who do not necessarily know alerts can easily be left, i think it could be a source of frustration and in worst case a turn back from the game.
Who gets in the alert then?
If I have you on ignore and I want to join...and there are 4 of us queued up, and then the the last person joins is on your list, why should they have to wait? Or what if you are 1st and I try to join 2nd? Does that mean I have to wait for a full team to start before I'm paired with people?
Ignore doesn't make people disappear, just their words. So the only thing you should do is form a team with those others who are tired of the leecher or just leave alert.
Because maybe you just didn't like something I said in zone...and you ignore me, that shouldn't be a reason I can't enter an alert.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
While it's not an issue with our current system since we need all 5 before it can start, in a less-than-5 setting, things are different when you don't have a minimum limit set.
Assuming each decision-pending person shows as [?], the empty slots and declines show as [x], and confirmed shows as a check mark, there's still an issue you could run into:
4 players queued, 1 player confirms, the other 3 are afk or decline. Only 1 player gets sent in, but that player can't handle it solo so they leave. The player who confirmed had no idea the other guys would decline until after he confirmed.
The extra confirmation at the end is meant to solve that problem, so that the one guy who confirmed can say, "wait a minute, I was counting on those other 3 showing up, too--I can't solo this" and then decline.
If three level 12s all agree to join with less than 5 people, they all made that choice knowing they themselves were level 12 and that the other 2 people might be as well. Heck, with the current system you join knowing that all 5 players could be level 10. I also find it odd that you're okay with the idea of a single level 12 queing alone, but are troubled by 3 level 12s ending up in a group together. Could you explain why you think the former is okay, but the latter is a problem? Again keep in mind that in both cases the players involved know what they're getting themselves into by choosing the way they did.
I agree, the whole ignore part of the idea is pretty poorly thought out, and kind of silly. It basically tries to take that "enough people ignore you and you get muted in chat" concept and apply it to alerts... and I'm not sure why anyone would think that's a good idea.
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That said, I really don't want my queue times extended because somebody else on my potential team has would-be guy #5 on ignore over some petty squabble.
"That's because you don't seem to understand what you're responding to, or even what the point you're trying to make is"
English is not my born language, i do my best to be as clear as possible but maybe i'm not.
And my understanding of everything said can also be affected by this.
Maintenant si tu souhaites faire de mon "incompréhension" une source d'embarras, je t'invite à le faire dans ma langue comme ca nous verrons si ton francais est meilleur que mon anglais (ce qui reste possible, mais je demande à voir)
Quote:
"so priority #1 is making sure that the ability to que and quickly find a team is not compromised"
Yeah then it seems priority #1 is not a success currently in game. You can spend hours just trying to do burst daily.
Quote:
"If three level 12s all agree to join with less than 5 people, they all made that choice knowing they themselves were level 12 and that the other 2 people might be as well. Heck, with the current system you join knowing that all 5 players could be level 10"
You are right on this. And if these people are new to the game, they will discover the hard way why it can be a problem.
Quote:
"I also find it odd that you're okay with the idea of a single level 12 queing alone, but are troubled by 3 level 12s ending up in a group together"
Probably because i never said anything like that, i spontaneusly thought of a solo mode for people who can run it. I forget there were some pain addicted players with suicidal tendencies who would queue solo at lv12. Strangely i'm less concerned by someone who will purposely choose suicide than by three people who joined a regular queue randomly, full of hopes that their team will be complete to let them a chance to win. Yeah very odd indeed.
Quote:
"The point of alerts is team content. If you don't want to do team content, there's solo stuff out there. As for ignore, why would that matter to queues?"
Lot of missions are 5 team content. But the game let you do it solo. Choice is life. And MMO means massive multiplayer online, and not Massive Multiplaying Obligation.
Quote:
"As for ignore, why would that matter to queues?"
"Ignore doesn't make people disappear, just their words. So the only thing you should do is form a team with those others who are tired of the leecher or just leave alert."
The ignore function is what i use to "tag" people i caught leeching or trolling in alerts. That way when an alert start, i am quickly able to say if a troll or a leecher is in my team. If it''s the case, i leave the team. Pretty simple.
Why would that matter to queues? Because i do not know anybody who would team on purpose with trolls specialized in killing their mates by agroing and pulling all mobs of the map.
Considering the game queues do not filter people you ignore, a solo mode is also a way to avoid those people.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
2- Useless and you know it
3- No for aforementionned reasons, i find absurd to loose time recruiting people for something doable alone
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
But other alerts are what i majorily use to get Questionite. Moreover, i find grabs pretty fun to run, pretty easy with 5 people but not unpleasant as long as leechers, trolls and waiting time do not kill my pleasure. And smashes are good for G farming. So there is no way i give all that up.
Solo mode was just a suggestion, not an obligation. The idea was to offer another way to complete alerts, get rid of waiting time for people who have few game time and lv40 chars, get a (little) more challenging content, and avoid leechers and trolls interference.
If people do not like the idea then at least i tried.
Your complaint is that you have to wait 15-20 minutes. Having to wait 5 minutes instead is a drastic improvement, and the wait time ensures that this adjustment doesn't cause additional problems.
PS - There are quite a few other soloable sources of SCR and Questonite. If ques aren't popping, just go do those in the meantime. Trust me when I say that your suggestion is unlikely to be implemented any time soon, if at all, so you'll want to develop some coping mechanisms for the issue you're having.
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"which means you'd be okay with anyone using that feature since you didn't suggest any mechanism to ensure that people who can't solo alerts don't use it"
Indeed i didn't suggest that kind of mechanism because it was pretty obvious to me that people who cannot solo alert will, uh you know, not try to solo it. I suppose i over estimated players intelligence, it's my optimist side. Luckily you were here to point that players are completely stupid and clueless (#irony so no need to take your flamethrowers players) and need "mechanisms" to protect them from themselves. You probably saved a lot of brainless players from being obliterated in a content unadapted to them. Thank you for them, detail queen (or king?) .
Quote:
"PS - There are quite a few other soloable sources of SCR and Questonite."
If you are refering to Q-zone, i already know it. I spent enough time out there to only go back there when i'm completly bored.
And despite being perfectly doable alone, i find it annoying. Not hard, just annoying. The knock, hold, stun spam increases the battle time and makes fights pretty long and boring. As you probably have get it now, time is an issue for me. I do not have a lot of time to play so i like when things go fast and are amusing as much as possible. Q zone is not what i would call amusing, but it's only my opinion.
Quote:
"Trust me when I say that your suggestion is unlikely to be implemented any time soon"
Isn't that the case of everything in the suggestion forum? I always saw this forum as a place where people dream about things which can make their game experience and the game in general better. Everything here should be renamed "keep dreaming awake" forum. So thanks for that lightened expertise but I was not really expecting anything from this anyway, just putting somewhere an idea for the game.
Quote:
"so you'll want to develop some coping mechanisms for the issue you're having. "
Language barrier again. If i would have to bet, i would say it's some kind of a subtile reference to anger management or something like that. If it' s the case, this is a good joke.
Late in my country, have to sleep. Thanks for that amusing interaction
But it really. Does. Not. Matter.
I give no $%#@! about a solo player having to wait 5 minutes, since the intent of the alert is as TEAM CONTENT.
Agreed with Spinny.
As for the Alert trolls, the playerbase is much smaller nowadays so it's easy to run into each other often. A solution might be to show who else is queuing with you for that Alert. So when the queue pops up you can see Char1@handle1, Char2@handle2, etc. Ideally if you or someone else declines, another person waiting can be bumped up take that spot.
As for allowing queues to pop early, it's good idea. During off-hours (e.g. 3AM server time), it's hard to get a queue to pop. An alert can be done with less than 5 people, especially if there's a well geared 40, so why not? In addition to having names and handles visible as per my previous suggestion, show player levels as well. If the three people queuing see they're all below Lv15, they can decline, queue again, and wait. Or they can attempt to run the Alert. It can be done. Whether they want to/think it's worth it is another thing.
https://youtu.be/VLHOBLVG7Uw
Do you have 18 minutes? Well, after some practice you'll be able to do it that fast. You just don't seem to get what it is that I'm saying though. Here, I'll type it up again:
You expressed concern at the possibility that three level 12s might end up in an alert together.
You are apparently unconcerned that a single level 12 might end up in an alert alone.
^ these statements are contradictory, and you are contradicting yourself by stating a concern with my idea that also applies to yours and in fact applies to your idea more severely. All of your sarcasm could easily be thrown back at you, i.e. oh so are you saying that people are too dumb to realize they're going to end up in an incomplete group when they click a button on a dialogue telling them that that is exactly what's going to happen?
You need to decide if this is a concern for you or not, because right now you're trying to say that it is a concern, but is not when it happens in a more severe instance.
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