PvP is said to be in a bad state. In my opinion, this is mainly due to unbalanced games in the queues, which makes the PvP experience for the average new "try it out" player highly random. Solve that problem one way or another, and PvP will be more frequented.
So, let us collect ideas how to achieve this. How can we get more balanced games in the queues? What changes to the game would lead to this?
Edit: Ideas found until now:
- Have seperate Queues for premade teams and random pick up groups.
- Score each player for various stats like damage dealt, damage healed, movement impaired, buffs stripped, etc. as an average over a certain amount of past matches, and queue players up vs one another who are roughly of the same level.
- Assign point values to various levels of gear, and have people queue up vs people of similar gear level.
Comments
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/forumdisplay.php?f=351
will show you the best idea
Im not hating on premades ive made them myself, but they need to seperate it somehow,,,nobody likes going in the arena against a premade with randoms and losing 15-0 which is why many people stay out of the arena because they know its and automatic TRIBBLE whoopin. Needs to be a queue for premades and one for just randoms.
The pve game is so mindless in terms of AI that it misleads people into believing they are good. This mental state of mind is taken to the queues for the first time and then smashed to bits. To preserve whatever is left after that, they never enter queues again.
1 simple thing would improve the state of play for all newcomers overnight. Make distribute shields a standard feature which is always on and does not have to be activaed. This in itself would reduce the insta pop face role pattern.
Balance is another issue altogeter. As the devs have confirmed themselves, balancing on 1v1 is not possible. I fully agree with this.
Question has to be what are you balancing against? What is the benchmark? If this isnt defined, the question is pointless in itself.
Why bother trying to balance to an unknown criteria? You will never balance anything.
i really loved that idea
A BPV system comes to mind, but doesn't exist in STO.
So we're left with private matches where the rules are setup in advance.
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
Also I would probably remove FvK and kvK and Fvf and make it just PvP. The reasoning behind this is that there are premades on K side, there are premades on F side, but neither of them has the balls to get into private queue and fight each other.
If there would be just single queue, and teams would be matches to teams automatically, the queues would be improved for majority of casual pvpers.
Might as well do just two queues, pvp and elite pvp. Elite pvp would accept only teams.
Interesting idea, but are there ever really enough people in the queues to make it work? Can't help but think we'd end up waiting hours for enough people in a given skill bracket to join in.
1 - the matches are too long. 30-60 minutes is common for a single match
2 - Fed players are morons. I'm a fed and every time I play we lose. Last night we lost a game which was 1200 - 143 in our favor. My partners were fools. 0-6 in cap and hold games since returning last night.
3 - Spawn camping - This needs to be done away with in both Cap and Hold AND Arena matches. Spawning inside a warp cloud surrounded by aceton sats is so unbelievably TRIBBLE that it makes me want to tear my hair out.
I think I'm over it now.
Give it a few days
Awoken Dead
Now shaddup about the queues, it's a BUG
like in the current system also all teams must be random no premades
And I honestly do think it's overdue in the game as is...
And I honestly think it's only going to look more overdue as time goes on...
We currently have a superfluous career in space. Before we can meaningfully address balance concerns, we need to make sure that the trinity is either working or abandoned all together.
The ball is on cryptic's side. Everything else is eye candy, or making the problem even worse, because the accumulated affect of "fixes" makes the game less stable and harder to balance.
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Oh i do agree that first time in arena is learning exp because of the mindset pve puts one in.
But even many in my fleet love to pvp infleet but never like to hit the arena because a pug vs premade will lose and lose badly 9/10 times. Only once was i in a pug vs premade and we actually racked up like 10 kills, but usually its 0-2 kills, likewise everytime ive gone in with my premade against pugs we destroy them easily, its literally like all 5 of us are just standing still shooting ducks. And that is what causes so few to hit the arnena is fear of being a pug and going against a premade that you have no shot to win.
This ^^^^^^^^
Agree with your idea, but the statement about having no balls to face each other privately is a bit misleading. We ask virtually everyday now for a premade match and maybe get 1 if we are lucky. We dont care if they are klink or fed. If we dont get a response and we know there is a premade in queues, we will go hunting.
I know i know, it was a little too sarcastic. Guilty as charged. But even you must see, I wasn't that far from the truth, especially about some fleets
There is no simple way to do this. Separate queues wont solve current problems as there will be no one to play them and "elite" players will still end up where the fight is - in standard queue. There is already the ability to play in private match - sort of elite queues - and it is, as we can read - not used cause of lack of players.
Also rating system that includes results from private matches would be good idea as it would actually encourage the private matches. Some sort of reward system for those will be good too. Sure - there will be place to abuse both, but it can and already is done with current system and AFKers.
Seperating them would work,,,would make more want to play, and even though elite players will still get in the reg queue they cant make a premade in it,,pug only, and can only go to elite when making a premade.
Every PvP match (not Kerrat or that open ground one) awards PvP Marks based on Damage Done, Healing Done, Kills/Assists and, for Assault and Capture and Hold, completion of objectives. The more a player does, the more marks they get.
The marks go into the standard rep system like normal. However, instead of just claiming a tier level, the player may also claim an Ability Tier level. All players start with Ability Tier 0.
Ability Tiers represent how good the player is at PvP, or at least THINKS how good they are. Ability Tier 3 would be better than Ability Tier 2, for example. Players in one Ability Tier will NEVER play a PUG match against players in another Tier. So Tier 0 players will never have to face Tier 5 ones, giving these generally inexperienced players a chance to learn.
Once they claim PvP Tier 1, they're bumped up to Ability Tier 1 automatically. After that, however, claiming a PvP Tier will NOT claim an Ability Tier. The Ability Tier must be claimed separately. Not claiming an Ability Tier wouldn't restrict building up normal Tiers, but would restrict certain items available in that Ability Tier, and reduce the number of PvP marks received per match.
When an Ability Tier is claimed, the player has until the halfway point of that standard tier to decide if they're up to snuff, and if not, they can build a project to DROP them back down a Tier. For example, if a player is Tier 2, and claims Ability Tier 2, but finds they can't cut it there, they can go back to Ability Tier 1. A player can't be more than 1 tier below their overall PvP Tier level. Again, they will be restricted on the items in the Ability Tier and get the reduced PvP marks.
If that same player is at Tier 2 and gets enough to claim Tier 3, they MUST claim Ability Tier 2 before they can move on.
In a sense, it's self tiering. The player determines how good they actual are in match PvP and slows almost to a stop when they can't compete any more. They can still get SOME of the PvP items, but the really good stuff will be beyond their reach unless they get better at PvP as a whole.
I'm not sure how to handle challenges between players, but I would suspect the rewards would be scaled to the encounter (Ability Tier 4 players wouldn't get many marks vs Ability Tier 0 players, if any). Or perhaps no marks should be awarded in such matches, I'm not sure there.
The nature of awarding marks would prevent people from leeching PvP marks from PUG matches. The players HAVE to fight to get anything, even in losing, thus inadvertently learning.
As for what items to give out, I'm think Very Rare Mk12 consoles, weapons, and equipment, stuff that generally can't be easily found. The PvP system would allow them to be built, with the rarest items at the very top of the PvP Ability Tier 5 tree.
I know the negative reaction any more reputation stuff generates, but the main feature is self tiering, however it's done, that should be the focus of any PvP matching system. This uses ideas that are already in game and thus built and ready to go. At the very least, it is a starting point.