FDC / Marauder Voting - Time for something new...

dareau

As the title says, the FDC / Marauder T4 "voting for Transwarp Coil destination" has either fallen so low as to be unrecognized, or "removed from game due to quality of content issues"...

Which got us wondering, is there anything that the FDC / Marauders can vote on, especially on the hourly basis the old system used?

And it occurred to me. We can have the FDC / Marauders vote on the next hour's "hourly event". Start with a random selection of:
PvE Queues, especially / definitely / primarily the "lesser used" ones. Though don't spam the same ones every hour.
"Generic/mission based" events, such as Tour the Galaxy, "Foundry hour", Nimbus III bonus time, etc.
Maybe splash in an hour of the "regular weekend events", say an hour of Mirror Event so that someone who still needs a mirror token or two on an alt can "catch up" between events, or an extra dose of R&D weekend to replace the old metaphasic's "get bonus materials during scans"... I'd say do these no more than once an 8 hour period, and completely random. (so you can't log in on the 8 hour marker and know that you'll have a weekend event to pick from, however, if you divide the day into 11a-6p, 7p-2a, 3a-10a, then you know that at least once in each block you'll have a weekend event, even if one triggers at 6p and the next at 7p, with no chance of the third till at least 3a...)

Stick with the "usual" +50% to all rewards, maybe even for some of the ground ones kick in something like the DR dil per kill or make everyone get the DOff GPL bonus per kill (doubled if they're running the DOff in question)...

For "best implementation" and to encourage maximal participation, instead of having to run to the upper promenade of DS9 to place your vote, a "mission" appears in the available mission tab at the top of the hour hailing the vote taking contact, presents the choice of missions for the upcoming hour, "blind" selection of mission is made, vote closes at 5 min prior to the hour (X:55), tallied, announced via fly-in, starts at the top of the hour (with a new vote generated and made available through the same method)...

To me, this could be an epic win. Players get three things out of the deal - usefulness of the FDC / Marauder voting rights at T4, the return of the oft-clamored for hourly event system, and "encouragement" to play the lesser used queues. Cryptic gets people grinding the snot out of DOffing (to become an event voter), players staying online (hey, I voted/lobbied for Mine Trap. It won. Gotta stick it out to run the mission), and whatever "monetary fallout" occurs as a side benefit (increased sales on CXP boosters to alleviate the T4 grind, players buying more ships because they're sticking it out in the content more, etc.).

Thoughts / refinements welcome, please check outright flames at the door...

(TL; DR) Reinstate T4 Diplo/marauder voting, but instead of transwarp destinations replace with hourly events. Primary event selection = existing "underused" content. Use mission tab instead of mandating run to DS9 hourly...​​

lordgyor

FDC Maurader, I thought you were talking about the Marauder Flight Deck Cruiser!

Clearly you are not.

tempus64

dareau wrote: »

(TL; DR) Reinstate T4 Diplo/marauder voting, but instead of transwarp destinations replace with hourly events. Primary event selection = existing "underused" content. Use mission tab instead of mandating run to DS9 hourly...​​

I like the idea but instead of hourly, make it a daily. i.e. Each day, the previous days vote picks which queue etc gets the 50% bonus. Gives everyone time to vote and to take part that way. Also agree with having it in the available missions.

drakethewhite

Blast from the past. I had forgotten it ever existed. It was never worth much, I don't recall that ever took the effort to vote although I may have once when it first came out.

dareau

azrael605 wrote: »

No thank you, just remove the text from the diplo/marauder category altogether. Hourly events are a pain in the rear, gotta stop whatever I'm doing to participate, I HATE that.

No offense, as this is a bit of a "wondering" thing than any kind of veiled slam (though I know it will look that way):
Back when we had the cycling hourlies, did you drop everything to participate in the hourly, or did you decide if you wanted to mess with it and either join in (at your convenience) or ignore it?

That's part of the effect I'm going for here. Event comes up, it's one you want to participate in, you'll be on your way ASAP. It's something you don't care for? Then you'll DOff / replay / ISA-CCA-whatnot cycle, basically your usual playstyle.

Also, I wrote this thinking that except for slipping in the ancient metaphasic materials bonus and the TTG run, everything else in my proposal was "queued content" - and since a large chunk of "STO's endgame" winds up being queue-hopping, when the event springs up, players wrap up their current queue and slot into the "event" one...

tempus64 wrote: »

dareau wrote: »

(TL; DR) Reinstate T4 Diplo/marauder voting, but instead of transwarp destinations replace with hourly events. Primary event selection = existing "underused" content. Use mission tab instead of mandating run to DS9 hourly...

I like the idea but instead of hourly, make it a daily. i.e. Each day, the previous days vote picks which queue etc gets the 50% bonus. Gives everyone time to vote and to take part that way. Also agree with having it in the available missions.

Reasons for hourly:
1. More options in a day. Don't like the 6 o'clock mission? See what comes up at 7.
2. "Metric Friendlyness". People would be "more likely" to log (back) in to check up on the hourly. People also tend, if the results/next vote is in the "immediate future", to hang out to see what's about to be sprung upon the game than to just call it a day and run. If it's something that the player's interested in, they're gonna hang out "longer than they intended" to partake in the event.
3. There's votes going on every hour, so "everyone" with voting rights can participate in "at least" a vote. Maybe more depending on how long they're logged in for. Also tends to cut down on "alt spamming" - given a day to vote, the DOffer with 15 "vote qualified" alts will have a chance to influence the vote, but if you only have an hour to cycle 15 alts, unless the player really really wants that particular mission, they're much more likely to vote with their active toon and go back to playing...
4. "Localization". Say Europe's a big fan of Mine Trap, East Coast - SB24, West Coast - Big Dig. With a daily, the most populated area (aka East Coast) would usually win the day's vote. With Hourlies, while all us Americans are working, Europe's running their Mine Traps. As the East Coast starts logging in en-masse, and Europeans begin to head to bed, SB24 starts to dominate the votes. Couple of hours later when the East Coast starts retiring for the night, the West Coasters become the dominant voting block and Big Dig gets a shot in the spotlight.

Yeah, I know that people will be "miffed" at the shortness of the windows, etc., (I want an entire day of my favorite), but then again, these same people will be complaining how long the windows are when the inevitable string of "missions other than my favorite" comes along. Delicate balance - if memory serves hourlies "seemed" to have more benefits than dailies, which may be part and parcel of why Cryptic went from hourlies to "weekend events" when it was time to extend the windows of availability. Who knows which way it can go...​​