Feedback: Background Matchmaking of DPS in PVE Ques to improve AFK Penalty false positives

[Deleted User]

Simple tweak for a system that is working but has deficiencies:

- Add DPS (and even Epic level ship parts) as part of the Matchmaking for PVE Ques

Having been matched with players that both flew around the map faster, and severely out DPS'd me, and then going online to read others view of the system, I thought this would be good feedback to provide. As a returning player, I CBT'd and have avidly played World of Warships, where the Matchmaking System is under constant evolution and iteration. In Star Trek Online, there is such diversity to ship builds and the builds between newer and casual players, as opposed to dedicated grinders and players that have maxed out their builds; that there should be some way for a light 'stratum' to be implemented to prevent false positive AFK penalties.

In my own case, I thought I had a good ship, but was simply put to shame during the PVE match, and then penalized because my DPS did not meet the criteria for participation. In other ques I did not have any problem, but because the que matches are not tiered or segregated by difficulty (that is clearly discernible), I ended up a bit out of my league.

Both background matchmaking improvements, and more clearly defined ques to steer players to ques that they are capable of adequately participating in would serve the community better.

Regards,

Unknown

This content has been removed.

admrenlarreck

Currently in STO there is no ingame way to measure DPS, in order to do that you have to use a third party program, to read the Combat log.

In order to add in a DPS measure into the matching system, and yes they did add one into to a couple of ques, they would have to first add in the matchmaking system to every que in the game, then create a brand new system to read and track a players DPS constantly. Then tie the two systems together. That still doesn't take into account, that even in my ship that does 30K dps, there are people out there that I get into a match with am right beside them the entire time and when its over I did 8k dps, because they stole my dps. (Stealing dps is what they call it when they do so much damage it limits another players dps)

As far as having a Gear score goes. When they added in the matchmaking system they did add one in. It is NOT visible by the player, but it is there for use by the current matchmaking system, on the couple of ques that do use it.

baudl

matchmaking sounds good at first glance, yet it is quite disruptive considering the tiered queue system in STO. As it is now, only certain queues reach enough players to do them regularely. Putting in another obstacle would kill those less popular queues completely. In a game that struggles to get players to do their group content, putting in further obstacles is a bad idea. Players found a way around it anyway, by forming dedicated channels to form premade groups.
Would work for PVP though.

What I would suggest though, is some kind of gear score system, that indicates if you are ready to do advanced, elite or not. You could still join elites and advanced, but it would tell you, that it ain't the best idea if your gearscore is far below the suggested minimum amount.

Anyway, this is complicated with unforseeable negative effects on the queues. Better not touch it, since it ain't actually broken, just not really good.

ussvaliant

I agree with Coldpalm if you are getting a AFK penalty in a PUG run then its time to address and access your build as it is "you " that is the problem not STO.

I also agree with baudi match making is a bad idea as since season 13's revamp of the UI and balance pass PvE saw a decline in participation, so putting in another hurdle to jump in order to run a STF is not a good idea.

Best solution analyse your build and look to improve it. It costs very little in terms of in game resources to get a ship competitive for PvE i'm not talking uber 50k plus dps but the 7-12k range is all about skill tree/traits/Boff powers and Doff's which are all readily available in game.

arionisa

Although I now have a number of T6 ships with wonderful gear, I played this game for a long, long time with nothing but the last free ship I was awarded equipped with whatever gear I had gotten from missions/drops and I have never gotten an AFK penalty other than a few occasions when I got D/C'd.

I am sure that a lot of luck was involved for me to never end up in a PUG with enough uber DPSers in it to make my paltry efforts not enough to reach that magic 1% mark .........
Or it could just be the fact that I enjoy the action and even though I might be running a que for the reward, I'm in the thick of things the whole time, (well, except for the time spent waiting for the respawn timer). I used to spend a large percentage of my time dead in ques, yet still always managed to do at least 1%.

It is possible to get a false AFK flag, but you have better odds of getting the gran prize from a lock box than you do of getting a false AFK. The system doesn't need fixing, it ain't broke.