Cryptic should encourage players of different skill and position to play with one another and not discourage them the way they did.
I experience no challenge at all through the fail criteria. Thats the worst part. They just generate negative pressure on my team but no challenge.
Cryptic could have easily made it the other way around. Generate a positive feeling of challenge and competition within a team. Optionals with superb optional rewards would have accomplished that and everybody would be eager and happy to queue up and contribute. Free all hostages in IGA? -> one more salvage; keep at least 1 member in team alive? -> 50 more marks; complete a map within a certain timeframe? -> 200 more dil!
In such a surrounding queue lists would be full and peeps would happily throw their ingame earnings and gladly more at each and every of cryptics releases and the upgrade system.
I did not even think of this. Make the rewards for doing well really matter for the whole team. I kind of like it. On one hand it rewards teamwork. On the other I'm not sure if creates the same kind of deal that happen to old elites. Players who knew they was not ready for the content joining and hoping to get carried to the loot.
What's the difference between the near dead public queues and the thriving private queues?
It's not rewards...it's players.
So with the OP's idea there, it's about cutting down on players' ability to troll other players through the various autofail conditions that exist. Cause you're all going along fine, and then somebody decides to go lol - they've not only wasted the time you've spent so far doing it but they've locked you out for whatever the cooldown is before you can run it again.
Boosting rewards under the current conditions would make it that much more painful to be trolled in a public queue and likely lead to more folks hitting up private queues.
To be perfectly honest, I've seen plenty of trolling on STFs without the new hard fail conditions. Only then, much more work and effort was put into getting through the map, now, if someone goes lol and messes it up, at least I know where I stand at like five minutes or less instead of an hour. I'll take hard, fast fails over long, slow, painful ones.
And why are you going to make that choice when you can do it without any CDs whatsoever with the current mechanics?
In private queues, you can bail and reform without penalty. Kick troller/griefer from private queues.
Fully agree with the OP. Cryptic, if you are looking for a culprit for why the queues are at such low activity, this is it!
Lets look at the classic STFs for example, which were all reasonably often played prior to the changes. In this case, I'm talking about ADVANCED DIFFICULTY.
Infected Space
This one is the most commonly played one and still is. The failure condition is rough for new teams, but admittedly good teamwork can still win this. The timer is not a failure condition this time (thank Q)! Can still be hazardous to PUG if you don't bring gravity well or other means of slowing down nanite ships.
Khitomer Space
Again, this one is easy as long as everyone knows their roles, it might just take a while though. I've had runs that lasted up to 45 mins, 3x the optional timer. Thankfully that one isn't critical.
Cure Space
This is where things get iffy. You have assimilated Klingon ships with MORE HP THAN A CUBE. Its bloody BoP. Assimilated or not, there's no reason whatsoever for them to be this tough.
Couple that with a ship you gotta protect and a VERY strict timer, this mission is borderline suicidal to PUG. The timer has got to go and the assimilated vessels need AT LEAST a 60% HP reduction, especially the BoPs. Make the failure condition the destruction of the Kang, like it used to be if you have to have one.
Hive Onslaught
Uh... yeah. Hive. You know, the hardest STF ever. While doable prior to DR, the new changes made it im-*******-possible on anything but normal. 8 tactical cubes and dozens of spheres in less than 10 mins? What were you guys thinking? Get rid of the timer and maybe people will queue for this again. You need a Failure condition? Team gets wiped entirely = game over. Usually by the time that happens, everyone is gonna rage quit anyway.
TL;DR:
Get rid of timers and tweak the HP of assimilated Klingon ships please!
I don't even wanna know how nightmarish these are if their elite versions ever come back...
Comments
I did not even think of this. Make the rewards for doing well really matter for the whole team. I kind of like it. On one hand it rewards teamwork. On the other I'm not sure if creates the same kind of deal that happen to old elites. Players who knew they was not ready for the content joining and hoping to get carried to the loot.
It's not rewards...it's players.
So with the OP's idea there, it's about cutting down on players' ability to troll other players through the various autofail conditions that exist. Cause you're all going along fine, and then somebody decides to go lol - they've not only wasted the time you've spent so far doing it but they've locked you out for whatever the cooldown is before you can run it again.
Boosting rewards under the current conditions would make it that much more painful to be trolled in a public queue and likely lead to more folks hitting up private queues.
And why are you going to make that choice when you can do it without any CDs whatsoever with the current mechanics?
In private queues, you can bail and reform without penalty. Kick troller/griefer from private queues.
Lets look at the classic STFs for example, which were all reasonably often played prior to the changes. In this case, I'm talking about ADVANCED DIFFICULTY.
Infected Space
This one is the most commonly played one and still is. The failure condition is rough for new teams, but admittedly good teamwork can still win this. The timer is not a failure condition this time (thank Q)! Can still be hazardous to PUG if you don't bring gravity well or other means of slowing down nanite ships.
Khitomer Space
Again, this one is easy as long as everyone knows their roles, it might just take a while though. I've had runs that lasted up to 45 mins, 3x the optional timer. Thankfully that one isn't critical.
Cure Space
This is where things get iffy. You have assimilated Klingon ships with MORE HP THAN A CUBE. Its bloody BoP. Assimilated or not, there's no reason whatsoever for them to be this tough.
Couple that with a ship you gotta protect and a VERY strict timer, this mission is borderline suicidal to PUG. The timer has got to go and the assimilated vessels need AT LEAST a 60% HP reduction, especially the BoPs. Make the failure condition the destruction of the Kang, like it used to be if you have to have one.
Hive Onslaught
Uh... yeah. Hive. You know, the hardest STF ever. While doable prior to DR, the new changes made it im-*******-possible on anything but normal. 8 tactical cubes and dozens of spheres in less than 10 mins? What were you guys thinking? Get rid of the timer and maybe people will queue for this again. You need a Failure condition? Team gets wiped entirely = game over. Usually by the time that happens, everyone is gonna rage quit anyway.
TL;DR:
Get rid of timers and tweak the HP of assimilated Klingon ships please!
I don't even wanna know how nightmarish these are if their elite versions ever come back...
"Let them eat static!"