New Solo Q's coming soon? (Re: Al Rivera's Plan)

spacebaronline

So in the last podcast of STOked radio - one of the most interesting things I heard Al talk about was adding new "Solo" Queues which would be similar to the current Q'd mission which reward marks and dilithium - but you would be able to solo.

He said they would still come with the same Cooldowns and leaver penalties of the current missions.

So what do people think of Solo Queues in a MMO???

Heck with the Power Creep it's possible for just one person to Solo an Elite STF for some time now.

Tired of pugging with people you don't like - just join the solo Queue - get your Marks and dilithium - no need for teaming.

Queues not Popping - no problem - just Queue for a solo mission.

So what effect would these new "Solo Queues" that Al said he wants to add have on the current Queues?

And I have to ask "What are all these people doing in my single player Star Trek game??"

Good Idea?



Edit - after listening again to try and quote him - it's hard without a transcript - he does say that it IS coming:

Ok there is no transcript so I will try to paraphrase him :

'We don't put dilithium in a lot of missions because people will find a really easy one and keep grinding it over and over ..(bit on how dilithium is designed to be a timed currency) .. but I do agree that we do not do enough dilithium based rewards for solo play, because most of our dilithium is tied up in team play."


'but we are actually adding dilithium and marks to more solo play and it should be out fairly soon .. I don't want to say too much yet but it probably won't be in missions like the standard story driven content... (mentions various zones)...

'I also really want to do solo queues, I want to have a Queue system that only takes one player, so it still works within the queue system so you can't play it continuously, it still has a coooldown timer and if you quit you get a leaver penalty, which is why it can't be in mission content because they don't have any of those types of systems - those checks and balances.'

But I would not mind making a queue that is just for one person and then we can put any marks or dilithium associated with that'

Then after that he confirms again that it IS COMING:

"so dilithium and marks in solo content IS coming" (outside of existing story missions - but the queued content I think is still a "Idea/concept" that he wants and granted solo marks/dilithium content already exists in the game- which is why I picked up on the talk of "queued content" being significant)

So all and all - I guess this is just a question of : we will have to wait and see when it comes.

If you want to listen for yourselves and see if this is your take - go ahead - the part starts at about 1h 18 min (if the Ad comes up you have to manually close it with a little grey "x" in the top right of the screen)

http://www.livestream.com/stokedradi...edium=ui-thumb

jbmonroe

I don't think I could face Q all by myself and win. He's omnipotent, you know.

Now, if you mean "queue," then bloody spell it that way, yes?

bunansa

It could possibly be something the Dan Stahl had hinted at long ago with a promotion to admiral (level 60) that we would have other ships like away team bridge officers with us...

So this is possibly what it might be suggesting...but who knows anymore


I know in DDO theres a lot of dungeons that have a solo mode and that your hireling doesn't count as a person so...maybe they going that route...I dunno anymore....I just want the expansion to be this super epic thing of all time...it needs to be ....

spacebaronline

jbmonroe wrote: »

I don't think I could face Q all by myself and win. He's omnipotent, you know.

Now, if you mean "queue," then bloody spell it that way, yes?

I was using a short form that most people would pick up on as you did - but I will spell it out in full if it makes you happy:)

crusty8mac

Solo mode? Do automatic weapons and psychotropic meds come with that?

virusdancer

jbmonroe wrote: »

I don't think I could face Q all by myself and win. He's omnipotent, you know.

Now, if you mean "queue," then bloody spell it that way, yes?

They'll have a Janeway Lock Box...

starkaos

There are actually other players in this game? I thought they were just npcs with varying levels of AI.

ursusmorologus

I'd like the queued events to have local entry points, so you can fly up to ISE and enter it that way, bring a team of however many players you want, 1-20 ships whatever

Or just make the queue entries spawn a copy, you can start with 1 or 5 or 20 whatever the host sets and everybody readies up

somebob

starkaos wrote: »

There are actually other players in this game? I thought they were just npcs with varying levels of AI.

Sure feels like it some days. LOL

captaintrueheart

I think the bigger question over "WHY would anyone play a MMO and not want to play with all us amazing and super awesome other people" would be...

"Why does a non forced team mission need a queue?"

The whole point of a queue is so you can hopefully find enough people that are smarter than your average NPC to complete the mission. If you don't have to meet your non-NPC quota to start the mission then how is that different than any other daily mission?

This is just weird and strikes me as a backhanded jab at people who play the game because it's based around Star Trek rather than playing it because it's a MMO. Who cares if there are options to NOT play with others, let those who want to play with others have the option, let those who want to play with themselves have that option... More options is not bad

malkarris

If full, he was talking about adding solo queues as a way to put dilithium in solo missions and putting them in the queue format so that there would be a cooldown and people wouldn't just run the mission over and over again. The thing is, missions already have a 30 minute cooldown to prevent people farming them. So I have no idea why you would need to make queues to have a cooldown, unless mission cooldowns are lostech from the dawn of the imperium, I mean, beta, and no one currently with Cryptic knows how to do it.

spacebaronline

malkarris wrote: »

If full, he was talking about adding solo queues as a way to put dilithium in solo missions and putting them in the queue format so that there would be a cooldown and people wouldn't just run the mission over and over again. The thing is, missions already have a 30 minute cooldown to prevent people farming them. So I have no idea why you would need to make queues to have a cooldown, unless mission cooldowns are lostech from the dawn of the imperium, I mean, beta, and no one currently with Cryptic knows how to do it.

Ok there is no transcript so I will try to paraphrase him :

'We don't put dilithium in a lot of missions because people will find a really easy one and keep grinding it over and over ..(bit on how dilithium is designed to be a timed currency) .. but I do agree that we do not do enough dilithium based rewards for solo play, because most of our dilithium is tied up in team play."


'but we are actually adding dilithium and marks to more solo play and it should be out fairly soon .. I don't want to say too much yet but it probably won't be in missions like the standard story driven content... (mentions various zones)...

'I also really want to do solo queues, I want to have a Queue system that only takes one player, so it still works within the queue system so you can't play it continuously, it still has a coooldown timer and if you quit you get a leaver penalty, which is why it can't be in mission content because they don't have any of those types of systems - those checks and balances.'

But I would not mind making a queue that is just for one person and then we can put any marks or dilithium associated with that'

Then after that he confirms again that it IS COMING: (I missed this during my first listen through)

"so dilithium and marks in solo content IS coming" (outside of existing story missions - but the queued content I think is still a "Idea/concept" that he wants and granted solo marks/dilithium content already exists in the game - which is why I picked up on the talk of "queued content" being significant)

So all and all - I guess this is just a question of : we will have to wait and see when it comes.

I will add this to the OP.

sunfrancks

One, never take what Geko says seriously.

Two, solo missions (the story kind) cannot be played over and over, as they have a 30 minute cooldown between plays.

spacebaronline

sunfrancks wrote: »

One, never take what Geko says seriously.

Two, solo missions (the story kind) cannot be played over and over, as they have a 30 minute cooldown between plays.

He specifically says that he wants to create solo queued content that functions the same way as the current queues(mechanics/marks/dilithium) - but IS NOT story missions.

puttenham

wow, so when do they stop advertising this game as an mmo.. they have done everything possible to alienate the multiplayer part of sto... I guess this is the last bastion..

I say no, but... all of these people who have never played an mmo before, and seem hell bent on ruining the mmo experience for those of us who do, will kick and scream until they have perverted the game into their own solitude no contact with others at all...

thanks guys.. I love how others ruin stuff for others.. this game was designed and marketed as the first star trek mmo, not an online single player game.. if you don't like it, well theres the door..

spacebaronline

puttenham wrote: »

wow, so when do they stop advertising this game as an mmo.. they have done everything possible to alienate the multiplayer part of sto... I guess this is the last bastion..

I say no, but... all of these people who have never played an mmo before, and seem hell bent on ruining the mmo experience for those of us who do, will kick and scream until they have perverted the game into their own solitude no contact with others at all...

thanks guys.. I love how others ruin stuff for others.. this game was designed and marketed as the first star trek mmo, not an online single player game.. if you don't like it, well theres the door..

My personal opinion is that the solo content which rewards dilithium and marks which AL states more is coming soon(TM) - is not overly bad - it's already here to a lessor degree.

However, his plan to add new Queues for solo type content like what the existing queues offer could be a real drastic change to the game. It could have a profound effect on the existing team player queues.

Cryptic is getting lots of data on how much dilithium/marks people get currently from solo content, and will get even more data from the soon to be released additional solo content which will offer marks/dilithium. If they start to see lots of dilithium and marks coming from this new solo content and less and less from the team content - then AL will most likely get the go ahead to put in the solo Queued content as well.

But if that is what the new players are demanding, well that is what the business(cryptic/PWE) will give them.

conundrumnsa

I like this idea. STO is in my opinion one of the most solo friendly MMOs I've ever managed to find. It's smart to build on this and cater to that niche that likes to solo in MMOs. Much smarter than trying to chase the forced grouping and raiders that hundreds of other MMOs are chasing.

omegaphallic

puttenham wrote: »

wow, so when do they stop advertising this game as an mmo.. they have done everything possible to alienate the multiplayer part of sto... I guess this is the last bastion..

I say no, but... all of these people who have never played an mmo before, and seem hell bent on ruining the mmo experience for those of us who do, will kick and scream until they have perverted the game into their own solitude no contact with others at all...

thanks guys.. I love how others ruin stuff for others.. this game was designed and marketed as the first star trek mmo, not an online single player game.. if you don't like it, well theres the door..

I don't understand your concern, if these players choose to leave the game as you suggest or go play in a solo que, it effects your experience equally, so you don't benifit from driving them out. Also your the one with the play my way or leave attidude not them, nothing is proventing you and many other more socialable players from doing the multiplayer ques.

The advantage for me is not because I want to he antisocial, I love playing the battlezone with other players, but rather not having to wait around for other players to join the que, especially for a one that is less popular.

And if they have the option of bringing along your other ships that is even better, I'd love that sooooo much. That way I could get the more use out of my none Primary ships.

So for me it would be solo ques when I want to play with my personal fleet, or Battlezones when I wish to play with other players.

I even know which ships I would bring, my main would be my Fleet Corsair, then it would be my Retrofit Corsair, my regular Corsair, my Daciot, and my Maurader, alternating them out occasionally with my KDF DSD, Obilisk, and Voq'vue.

d

chalpen

Solo Queue's? Yes please.

spacebaronline

f2pdrakron wrote: »

And YOU are missing the point, missions have timers ... queues have timers, there is no reason to add "solo" missions to queues BECAUSE of timers, regular mission log works for for that since, again, missions have timers.

In fact we do have one mission that reward Dilithium ... Temporal Ambassador.

I think you are missing what I use the word "mission" vs content of some type like a STF.

Al was talking about adding "solo" content - in the same type of queued format that exists currently in the game as team content.

That is what the thread is about - adding a Queue - just like what we have now - but instead of teaming with others - it is just one player.

Now just what this content would be is the question - he already said it would NOT be story missions.

ashkrik23

Interesting....

qziqza

f2pdrakron wrote: »

And you are missing how the UI is arranged.

Everything in the game is a mission, queues are simply a enter point that on map entry will auto accept mission.



No, he said nothing of the sort.

Queues are nothing but lobbies that autoteam and map launch the players, you can remove the autoteam and became "solo" ... that just makes the queue stop being a queue and becoming nothing but a map launch, that pretty much how what you call "missions" work.

Queue systems were designed for autoteam, at start they werent even queue anywhere and people HAD to be at the map launch area to initiate the queue ... its simply a tool to autogroup players ... nothing more, nothing more.



No, this is people misunderstand things as usual.

Queues are NOT group content per say, queues are nothing BUT a autogroup system ... group content doesnt need a queue, its grouped content.



Oh you mean like ... let me think ... Tour the Galaxy?

We already have non-story missions, they are simply placed someplace else, Tour the Galaxy is one, those missions on Nimbus III are also non-story, heck Nukara zone missions are also non-story ... they all have internal timers.

What I object is simply people abusing the term "queue", either we have grouped content or we dont, nothing stops me of running what you call "story missions" teamed as long they dont disable teaming (Temporal Ambassador for example does that), what we are talking about is how content of said missions is balanced, Cure Space is clearly intended to Grouped and Infected Ground REQUIRES a group ... in fact I think only Infected Ground in this game requires 3 people as minimum, everything else can potentially be solo'd with enough DPS.

In short, repeatable missions not intended for grouping have no place in the queue because the PURPOSE of the queue is to autogroup players.

The main difference between both the system is that the q system has a leavers penalty mechanic, storyline missions don't, I believe that is what the issue is, so by adding solo play to the q system they can implement the same mechanics and controls. That's how I read it

spacebaronline

f2pdrakron - I am not the person who said they wanted to add "solo queued" content similar to what we have now with the "auto-queued" team content(like an Hive elite STF) - it was Al Rivera.

I am just commenting on what he said about wanting to create "solo queued" content similar to the existing systems which would give marks/dilithium and still work with the same type of cooldowns and leaver penalties of the games existing content which most people refer to as the "Queues"

So what he was talking about was creating a "queue" similar to what is now in game for an STF for example - but instead of 5 people going in it would be just 1 player(not necessarily an STF of course)

And even if you want to solo infected space elite - currently - you need 4 others to join and then leave. Al was talking about adding content where you could launch it the same way as you would an STF - but you would be solo.

That is all.

malkarris

qziqza wrote: »

The main difference between both the system is that the q system has a leavers penalty mechanic, storyline missions don't, I believe that is what the issue is, so by adding solo play to the q system they can implement the same mechanics and controls. That's how I read it

What is a leaver penalty going to do? Leaver penalties in the existing queues are to stop people from jumping out and leaving the other guys in the lurch. So this solo queue will have a leaver penalty to stop you from what, leaving the queue is the lurch?

No, there is one reason to have a solo queue, and it has nothing to do with gaming the system in any way. The reason is that you have to fly to a specific location to start a mission. A queue you can start anywhere. Its just another way to have new players get into the action faster.

pennylong

I think my main concern with this is that it is creating a solo experience that may have a negative effect on the existing pug queues.
Some of the most fun games I have played have been team games and I have met so many people thorugh them, it makes me wonder what effect this will have on the MMO community of STO.
I can see some postives such as no griefers or afkers but on the other hand I'd rather play with my friends or fleeties. One of the most frequent comments I've heard about the new mission content is how cool would those be to do as a team?
If the rewards are equal to the current pve missions I can see a lot of people disappearing to play the solo grind. New content is always good but given that this is an MMO and STO has always in my experience had such a great community I think this detracts from that experience.
I'd rather see more of a focus on team experiences and team gameplay tbh.

conundrumnsa

I've never liked that logic chain.

Player a: I like group content and if rewarding solo content is available, I'll have no one to group with.


What that really equates to is a lot of the forced grouping people want just that, they want people forced to play their way.

The group content isn't being removed, if people like it, they will do it.

orangeitis

spacebaronline wrote: »

I was using a short form that most people would pick up on as you did - but I will spell it out in full if it makes you happy:)

As a fellow semantics OCD, I can safely say that's a good idea.

macronius

If he is really proposing to fix issues with queue with solo mode ... I have only one answer. *facepalm*

This is an MMO right? How can a lead dev makes such ridiculous decisions ... this is one of the most intensely single player MMO games I have ever seen. 100% of non end game content is solo ... no trinity and no balance ... and now this.

dahminus

A suggestion that has been brought up many times before by myself and others. I don't care for credit, I just want good ideas implemented.

Some have come to fruition. I'd like to see this as well

eldarion79

I say to no Solo Ques. This would be another step into making this game a true theme park mmo. If those Solos get put into the game, eventually, Sector Space would be taken out due to it being superfluous.

If CAPT Geko wants to add more dilithium-rewarded solo content, have organized FE replays, have storyline replays, and/or add more missions and areas to the adventure zones. How about add a storyline to the older adventure zones like Defera, Undine Space, and Nukara.

erei1

Solo "queued" endgame content is not new in the MMO market. Almost every MMO I know of have some. Lotro for example have solo crafting instance, where you have a huge amount of resources node, alongside monsters and regular bash quests to do. Something STO could totally do.

Usually this kind of solo content is used for different resources grind than your usual instance.

And yeah, I know, MMO and all that. But sometimes, you want to play alone and not be bothered. Or you are playing very late because you can't sleep, and there is almost nobody playing (try logging at 6am GMT, KDF side, and join a queued content which is not ISE).

I think it's a good idea. If cryptic don't make the usual very long for ridiculously low reward queued content.