You've got to remember people that no difficult to program or labor-intensive changes will be made, only things like adjusting numbers in tables or arrays. So "intelligent" AFK detection and stuff are out.
A simple math equation can determine a player's DPS and another simple operation determine how much of the team's total DPS each player did.
They can presumably copy/paste code from another part of the game to give people different rewards. I think battlezones work like that.
Sounds doable to me!
Does sound doable, but if that was done, it'd be nice to have a rough idea how different factors were weighted. I can be in the Voth BZ, for example, help cap 8/20 points and get credit for all 3 of the bosses, and still only get second-tier rewards. Then, another time, I can come in right at the final phase, basically only 'tag' the bosses, and get max rewards. Opaque weighting or reward systems would be, it feels, more of a turn-off than doing nothing.
Some weighting system, however, does seem like a simple change (although anything that seems simple likely isn't under the hood). The unofficial parsers so many use track incoming/outgoing dps/hps/aps, tps, debuff % on targets, % of attacks in for the team, deaths, etc. Say we pick outgoing dps, incoming % of attacks, and maybe deaths, weighting them 70/20/10. Dps retains it's place as the most important factor in deciding rewards, but if you're middle-of-the-pack there and knock the other 2 out of the park, you get a decent reward. Other metrics could be added/subtracted as time goes on and weights changed, but it would all remain fairly simple math.
As for unique rewards, I remember having to try a fair few times (especially with IGE) to get the MACO costume option, but I wear it to this day. Costumes, emotes, and other cosmetic things like vanity ship gear (we now have a precedent) would be something desirable that sidesteps p2w accusations. Since each reputation has several missions associated with it, completing all of them on highest difficulty with all optionals would unlock some weapon skins/ship visuals or new parts for the rep set armor. As it is, simply scaling the number of rep marks rewarded isn't a big enough carrot when you can run the mission again after a round of doffing.
I don't even think you should be allowed in ADV unless all your gear is MK XIV UR as a start.
There should be a check ship/Ground gear pass before anyone is allowed in ADV or Elite Queues.
Not bothered with upgrading ? Too bad, stay in normal. Dil totoo precious to blow on upgrading? Too bad[,]stay in normal.
I agree with OP. Too many times I see stuff like
ISA - Time: 3:56
75k Player A, 65k Player B, 45k player C, 5k Player D, 3.5k Player E
What in the world are player D and E thinking entering advanced content when theyre not even ready for normal difficulty ?!?
SMH.
It happens All.The.Time.
Enough is enough already.
Only problem with that is that it doesn't correlate with their skill...more times than I can count, I've seen somebody handed a shopping list who spends a couple of weeks/months assembling a 'perfect' build and pouring all their resources into it...only to do a fifth of what the person directing them can pull with the same. For fun the other day, I took an 80k cruiser, put all mk2 purple [Over] beams on it to get a look at the [Over] mod, and still managed about 50k. So much of a build has nothing to do with the gear that such a gear check wouldn't help much. MK14 UV stuff just means you have resources.
As for those 2 people in your example, I've directed people who might not quite be 'ready' by your standard to ISA just so that they can get a number to use when talking to the many other people that've memorized their ISA performance. You can't know precisely where you're starting at for improvement if you never look at it.
Not in favor of a DPS race to get rewards from a queue. This is seriously subject to abuse by people going in and kiting/killing things so other players get shut out of the reward for the instance run. Also shunning tankers/healers isn't good either especially if they take the most damage or give out the most heals in a run. This further pushes people away from doing these roles. You also kill the market for Cryptic's new ships like the miracle worker bundles since they seem to be tanky beasts.
Plus, some people are only able to do the damage they do because another person in the run is soaking up attacks...my best runs as sci/sci are alongside somebody in a cruiser who halfway knows how to get threat, otherwise I die.
Comments
Does sound doable, but if that was done, it'd be nice to have a rough idea how different factors were weighted. I can be in the Voth BZ, for example, help cap 8/20 points and get credit for all 3 of the bosses, and still only get second-tier rewards. Then, another time, I can come in right at the final phase, basically only 'tag' the bosses, and get max rewards. Opaque weighting or reward systems would be, it feels, more of a turn-off than doing nothing.
Some weighting system, however, does seem like a simple change (although anything that seems simple likely isn't under the hood). The unofficial parsers so many use track incoming/outgoing dps/hps/aps, tps, debuff % on targets, % of attacks in for the team, deaths, etc. Say we pick outgoing dps, incoming % of attacks, and maybe deaths, weighting them 70/20/10. Dps retains it's place as the most important factor in deciding rewards, but if you're middle-of-the-pack there and knock the other 2 out of the park, you get a decent reward. Other metrics could be added/subtracted as time goes on and weights changed, but it would all remain fairly simple math.
As for unique rewards, I remember having to try a fair few times (especially with IGE) to get the MACO costume option, but I wear it to this day. Costumes, emotes, and other cosmetic things like vanity ship gear (we now have a precedent) would be something desirable that sidesteps p2w accusations. Since each reputation has several missions associated with it, completing all of them on highest difficulty with all optionals would unlock some weapon skins/ship visuals or new parts for the rep set armor. As it is, simply scaling the number of rep marks rewarded isn't a big enough carrot when you can run the mission again after a round of doffing.
Only problem with that is that it doesn't correlate with their skill...more times than I can count, I've seen somebody handed a shopping list who spends a couple of weeks/months assembling a 'perfect' build and pouring all their resources into it...only to do a fifth of what the person directing them can pull with the same. For fun the other day, I took an 80k cruiser, put all mk2 purple [Over] beams on it to get a look at the [Over] mod, and still managed about 50k. So much of a build has nothing to do with the gear that such a gear check wouldn't help much. MK14 UV stuff just means you have resources.
As for those 2 people in your example, I've directed people who might not quite be 'ready' by your standard to ISA just so that they can get a number to use when talking to the many other people that've memorized their ISA performance. You can't know precisely where you're starting at for improvement if you never look at it.
Plus, some people are only able to do the damage they do because another person in the run is soaking up attacks...my best runs as sci/sci are alongside somebody in a cruiser who halfway knows how to get threat, otherwise I die.