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Honor system, based on contributions in TFOs

sleepwalker#8777 sleepwalker Member Posts: 128 Arc User
the idea
..for the honor system, is based on a discussion, i have recenty opened in this forum, which caused quite some interrest
"players not contributing in TFOs (ps4 only??)"
https://arcgames.com/en/forums/startrekonline#/discussion/1260467/players-not-contributing-in-tfos-ps4-only/p1
feel free to share your oppinions on TFO issuses in the already existing topic (link above) ..and lets have this new discussion related to the honor system only - thx

the problem (in summary)
..is, that in a TFO some players (like me) are trying to complete optional targets (for higher marks-payout and a little bit more exitement), while other players trying to complete a TFO quickly as possible. this often does not get along very well, since the "speedrunners" can END a que, by their actions, before the other players have a chance to complete the optional tasks.
p.e. in "undine assault" one or two players can destroy the boss quite quickly, when the rest of the team just managed to close 5 of 6 errant rifts. their work was for nothing then..
another problem are AFK-players ..or people which are not even going for the basic mission-goals, p.e. in "gravity kills".
while some players seems to be ok, with all those issuses.. others are definitely NOT and feel frustrated from this relative unfair system. also rude messages back and forth in the chat are not a rarity.

the honor system
..could be a solution, to bring players with the same mindsets together, in TFOs (incl. random TFOs!).
the way i imagine this system is, that players get positive or negative honor, based on their contributions in a TFO.
the tfo-system should bring people with the same honorlevel together, if enough players are around..
..and mix up players, if there is a lack of people qued for a particular tfo.. then the honor-system could be temporary taken offline, but inform the players with a message(or an icon)!

+) people going for optional targets, will get positive honor
-) people NOT going for ANY optionl targets, will get negative honor
-) afk-players, will get negative honor, per minute!
-) people not activley contributing, to even mission goals, get negative honor
-) players attacking bosses, while there are still optional targets to do, get negative honor
/) optional targets, that are somehow time related, should be excluded from the honor system, but still reward marks

**) players with positive honor, will have a better chance to archieve their goals
**) a benefit from having VERY HIGH positive honor, could be a temporary granted access to random elite TFOs - how about that? ;)
**) the benefit from negative honor, would be that they could do whatever they want in a TFO, and possibly complete their "speedruns" even quicker! ..without beeing bothered by people, which are taking TFOs more serious

I WANT TO POINT OUT, THAT THERE SHOULD BE NO REAL DOWNSIDE FROM HAVING NEGATIVE HONOR. the game will basically stay the same for them - so dont worry about that ;)

i can imagine, that the terms "honor" or "negative honor" are not everyones taste. this are just terms, i am using here, to explain everyone what the system is about. maybe some creative people can come up with better terms.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments

  • nixie50nixie50 Member Posts: 1,343 Arc User
    so you want to punish players because they don't play the game YOUR way.. fine lets make it a rule everyone has to fly in the t5 galaxy class, with all common equipment.
    because what you are asking is about as... well i won't say what I'm thinking,
    except I'm getting pretty tired of "Elite" players trying to dictate HOW I play the game
    u7acy6aymfw7.gif
    We Need BERETS in the tailor
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  • paradox#7391 paradox Member Posts: 1,800 Arc User
    This would only work from a Klingon POV, most of the other factions don't care about Honor, Romulans care about Honor but not the same way Klingons do, besides I usually don't do TFOs unless it's in the mission journal.
  • vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,923 Arc User
    Nope. Nixie hit it on the head. This is trying to make everyone play the OP's way.
    sig.jpg
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,919 Arc User
    nixie50 wrote: »
    so you want to punish players because they don't play the game YOUR way..

    That's exactly what this is.. and it's a terrible idea.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,375 Arc User
    While rewarding people for doing optionals and contributing to the overall goal isn't a bad idea as is, punishing people for not contributing (beyond loosing the benefits you'd get from contributing). However to me (and not just me) the OP's suggesting is more of a way of forcing players to play a certain way, the issue here is that STO doesn't have the player base to really start subdividing it via what is in effect a leaderboard.

    I'd say no to any system that directly and clearly punishes players for playing a certain way the system's designer didn't like (only exception being "I like to be AFK and let others do the work")
  • sleepwalker#8777 sleepwalker Member Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    @nixie50 @vetteguy904 @seaofsorrows
    at no point did i try to force anyone playing in any way, and i want to enourcage you to read my initial post more carefully..

    it is neithter a punishment nor a real rewarding system - it is just grouping mechanism - everyone would just get grouped together with people sharing the same playstyle.. so where exactly do you guys see any punishment?

    i think you are taking the term "honor" too seriously..
    maybe see it more as a speedrunner/completionist system.
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,375 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    @nixie50 @vetteguy904 @seaofsorrows
    at no point did i try to force anyone playing in any way, and i want to enourcage you to read my initial post more carefully..

    it is neithter a punishment nor a real rewarding system - it is just grouping mechanism - everyone would just get grouped together with people sharing the same playstyle.. so where exactly do you guys see any punishment?

    i think you are taking the term "honor" too seriously..
    maybe see it more as a speedrunner/completionist system.
    Here's the thing though not even MMOs with much larger player bases do this (or at least none of the MMOs I've played have) and STO has nowhere close to the amount of players that subdividing it like this would lead to anything else then a total disaster, since I doubt there's that many people leaving to accept 60+ min queues while waiting that enough people in their "score" would log on.

    EDIT:In WoW if queued up in the LFG system I could end up with someone who just started doing random dungeons or someone who did high end mythic keystone dungeons (Mythic or Mythic Keystone difficulty dungeons are not in the LFG system), no subdivision of playerbase via "contribution" there, same for FF14 no subdivision via anything up difficulty chosen, I can't remember any such subdivision in Guild Wars 2 or SWTOR though I've not played those in ages.

    With the possible exception of Guild Wars 2 all those those have or had bigger development teams and possibly bigger player bases then STO yet none of them did what you suggest, what does that tell you?
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  • sleepwalker#8777 sleepwalker Member Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    @westmetals
    you're right, i am not saying, the honor-system can only work the way i suggested. there is room for improvements and changes in all directions.
    this is why i opened this topic.. to have an open discussion, and possibly find ways to make the system work for everyone.

    in "borg disconencted" (and other TFOS) the attempt to rescue a ship, could be already counted as a positve contribution
  • vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,923 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    -) people NOT going for ANY optionl targets, will get negative honor
    -) players attacking bosses, while there are still optional targets to do, get negative honor

    I'm sorry, exactly HOW is that not forcing me from playing the way YOU direct? if i go into a TFO and I head straight to the boss to kill him and don't give a TRIBBLE about the minions, thats the way I want to play, and you want to punish me for it by giving me this negative honor bullsqueeze.

    No, not only no, but EFF NO. you are not going to force me to play the way you want. whats next, you don't like the way gravity wells look so those are banned in your STO game? everyone has to run around in vaadwar dreads? what's after that, gear checks like WOW had (has)?

    if you want to play your little game find 4 others who think like you and leave me to play the game the way I enjoy playing it
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  • crm14916crm14916 Member Posts: 1,533 Arc User
    This would punish people for forming AFK-specific groups... Wouldn’t it?
    "Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science." - Edwin Hubble
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  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,251 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    @nixie50 @vetteguy904 @seaofsorrows
    at no point did i try to force anyone playing in any way, and i want to enourcage you to read my initial post more carefully..

    it is neithter a punishment nor a real rewarding system - it is just grouping mechanism - everyone would just get grouped together with people sharing the same playstyle.. so where exactly do you guys see any punishment?

    i think you are taking the term "honor" too seriously..
    maybe see it more as a speedrunner/completionist system.
    That’s the flaw in your system. I don’t want to get grouped up with people with the same playstyle. Well balanced good groups are made up of different playstyles. You are setting up an honor based system that only benefits and works for the way you play the game. In your system half of my every day group would have negative honor, and half positive yet we all play together daily. If you are giving rewards for people playing how you play then you are giving a punishment to those that play differently by saying your playstyle cannot have these rewards.

    This is the entire reason I love PvP but hate the idea of preset configurations for PvP. I don't like being forced into other peoples playstyles. I don't tend to follow meta or even established build norms but come up with my own out of the box thinking. Systems like this tend to punish people like me. Systems like this try and force everyone into a cookie cutter setup.

    EDIT: Don't have time now, but I can give some examples of where this honor systems doesn't work later if you like.
  • claudiusdkclaudiusdk Member Posts: 561 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    Lets turn this around and look away from annoying AFKers...

    But what about the people with exploit builds that can one-shot all enemies they come across, and most bosses?
    They are gonna end up punishing everyone else on the team even more than they usually do.

    "Oh you didn't do enough damage to the boss! ENJOY YOUR MINUS!"
    "How am I surpose to do damage when he flew ahead of everyone else and killed it in ONE shot?"

    Seeing too many of these types of players, I wouldn't want a system that ends up claiming people are bad players when others can exploit the game like that.


    So a BIG no to any system that have the option to give minus points.
    Post edited by claudiusdk on
    "Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons."
    Spock to Kirk, as Kirk is about to hug him.
    Star Trek V: "The Final Frontier"
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,375 Arc User
    No, not only no, but EFF NO. you are not going to force me to play the way you want. whats next, you don't like the way gravity wells look so those are banned in your STO game? everyone has to run around in vaadwar dreads? what's after that, gear checks like WOW had (has)?

    actually the ilevel check WoW has (which FF14 has as well) is much more sane then this system, all it check is that you have the minimum gear needed for the dungeon it does not divide the playerbase based on play styles, the thing is that "playstyle" is by its very nature arbitrary and highly subjective so you're bound to get people who are upset as they consider they're being punished for "not playing the right way".

    That's why the only checks I really support are "are you theoretically capable of doing this task" and "are you present and not AFK".
  • sleepwalker#8777 sleepwalker Member Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    @coldnapalm
    if there are not enough people around, the honor-system temporary would be taken offline, to fill a team - as i already wrote in my initial post

    @pottsey5g
    you can still play with your friends.. in mixed honor groups, the system again would temporarly taken offline.
    and i ask you, where is the balance, when a speedrunner is ENDING a TFO, when others are still working to complete an optional task?

    @claudiusdk
    i did not write anything about dps, that gives negative honor. also attacking a boss gives no positive honor..
    also you're not loosing honor, if a boss is alread dead, before you reach him.
    minus points have no negative effect! i basically simply marks you as someone how is not going for optional targets
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  • sleepwalker#8777 sleepwalker Member Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    @pottsey5g @valoreah
    what are those rewards you would loose?
    are you talking about the payout from optional targets? are you saying you want a payout for optional targets, even if you're NOT CONTRIBUTING torwards to their completion?
    is this not.. uhm.. leeching?
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  • therealblackkaostherealblackkaos Member Posts: 121 Arc User
    The only real solution to the problem is removing the optional goals and making everything mandatory and behind a system gate where you can’t skip ahead. For Undine Assault, for example, you can’t kill the boss without all rifts closed and Dreadnought destroyed. I assume that no one wants them to change the game despite some players not “playing as intended or in the spirit” of the game. This is the world we live in unfortunately. It’s either make peace with the AFK’ers/Uber-Elitists or stop playing.
  • admiralthorr360admiralthorr360 Member Posts: 130 Arc User
    Horrible idea then you'd have a bunch of weaker players unable to complete the mission sometimes we got to carry the weight of our brother or sister we don't know their situation. I have a lot of weaker characters that rely on elite players to help me out but I have a few strong characters that help weaker players out. The truth is this idea is horrible in so many ways it's classism at it's finest and dividing rich from poor when STO and Star Trek in general is about uplifting each other this divide and conquer idea is an enemy to every player of sto in entirety. I consider the OP a troll.
  • sleepwalker#8777 sleepwalker Member Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    another solution (particulary in undine assault) could be, that the remaining dreadnoughts would come and aid the final boss ..or the boss could do significatly more damage to players.

    i would not mind, if the devs would adjust certain TFOs, to encourange people to play them more serious
    ..but that would require quite a bit of work from devs.

    the honor system, on the other side, would be very easy to implement. almost all the work the devs would have to do then would be, to add a counter on certain activatable optional targets.
    this entire thing could even run in the background, since there is not realy a user-interface needed.
    people could even not realize, it is there and only would think stuff like: "wow, we finished that TFO realy quickly" or "wow, everyone is doing his job"!
    this can be a win-win situation for everyone!
  • admiralthorr360admiralthorr360 Member Posts: 130 Arc User
    Respectfully, its a game not a job get real please.
  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,251 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    what are those rewards you would loose?
    You said people with high honour have a better chance to achieve their goals and access to extras like Random Elite. So, because of my playstyle I cam going to be forced into the low honour groups and not be allowed access to high honour group playstyles or high honor extras. What if I want to play with the playstyles of the people in the high honour groups but my playstyle is classed as a negative honour style?

    Lets just say Seaofsorrows ends up in a mission with me. We are doing the Breach. I run a Drag Race Mine layer Carrier. What will happen is I end up 400km ish ahead of Seaofsorrows who will be missing the secondary objectives and losing honour as Seaofsorrows has no chance in hell of being anywhere near the secondary objects due to my ship speed and might not even get into the boss fight room before I kill it. If we keep playing this I will end up with high honour, Seaofsorrows with terrible honour as they are not taking part in the objectives.

    Now Seaofsorrows joins another mission with me and we end up in the Gauntlet and the reverse happens. Seaofsorrows is an excellent pilot while my ship turns like a drunken barn and my pilot skills are less refined. Before I would have even got to the 2nd satellite Seaofsorrows will have done 10 satellites and completed the secondary objects forceing me to have negative honer and Seaofsorrows high honour. The entire honour system via you rules falls apart based on who is in the mission and which mission is being played.



    are you talking about the payout from optional targets? are you saying you want a payout for optional targets, even if you're NOT CONTRIBUTING torwards to their completion?
    is this not.. uhm.. leeching?
    Very often I run oddball setups and very often don’t contribute to the group in a traditional way. But I do contribute to the group indirectly which in your system would punish me.

    Bringing up Seaofsorrows. When we team up in the gauntlet Seaofsorrows will get the satellite doing the optional objectives. I avoid doing the optional objectives because that is the best thing for the group.

    A: I am an engineer and just about everyone prefers the Tactical or Sci to get the optional satellites.
    B:My ship turns like a drunk barn, plus I will apply speed boosts to Seaofsorrows
    C: I am a mine layer who goes to the spawn points and setups ambushes while Seaofsorrows is doing the optional objectives. In your system Seaofsorrows would get honour and I would be punished because I am off doing a different task getting us ready for the later in mission. Why should I get punished for doing zero optional when that is what is best for the group?
    D} My ship will attack boss’s even if I am 40km away while I am doing secondary objectives. Your system will punish me with negative honour for doing something I cannot avoid. Its like in the Breach where people shout at me for blowing up the fake wrong cores, I cannot avoid it. So why should I get negative honor?
    Post edited by pottsey5g on
  • postagepaidpostagepaid Member Posts: 2,899 Arc User
    This games hamfisted afk flag for TFO's says that any form of performance related reward or system would be simply awful and probably equally skewed towards mindless pewpew as the aforementioned afk setup is.
  • claudiusdkclaudiusdk Member Posts: 561 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    i did not write anything about dps, that gives negative honor. also attacking a boss gives no positive honor..
    also you're not loosing honor, if a boss is alread dead, before you reach him.
    minus points have no negative effect! i basically simply marks you as someone how is not going for optional targets
    Focusing on all the wrong parts of the point I was trying to make.
    But on the subject of DPS... the thing you forget is, you do have to do DPS to count as active.
    To count as active in an instance you need to do a certain amount of damage. You can literally be marked for the AFK-penelty even if you are attempting to shoot at enemies and your overall DPS per isn't enough.
    I've attempted to just go around and only heal team-mates and got marked with an AFK-penelty since I never did any DPS.

    Also, was using the term boss as a example of a powerful enemy that your surpose to take out as a team, but some people can oneshot... Ive literally seen the Endeavor for "kill dreadnoughts" not tick in Hive Onslaught due to someone else one shotting both dreads, dispite i've managed to shot at them for a few seconds, meaning you can miss out on being active in the kills.

    And you did techically include bosses even if you didn't write the word "boss"...
    "-) people not activley contributing, to even mission goals, get negative honor"
    Bosses are a mission goal.

    And honestly I've seen more and more people with exploit-oneshot-builds than AFKers lately.


    Truely the only points I kinda agree on is the...
    +) people going for optional targets, will get positive honor
    and
    -) afk-players, will get negative honor, per minute!
    Give people something for going after optional things, and punish true AFKers.
    The rest get a "no" from me.
    "Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons."
    Spock to Kirk, as Kirk is about to hug him.
    Star Trek V: "The Final Frontier"
  • phoenixc#0738 phoenixc Member Posts: 5,848 Arc User
    While the goal of reducing exploitive runs is nice I don't see how that honor system would improve things. All it really does is split the pool of que players which increases the wait time for the que to pop, and it does not take much splitting to effectively stall the system.

    ESO tried to use a rather sophisticated random que system that ended up with the machine overthinking the matches so even when a lot of people were on the wait would drag on forever (sometimes literally when the que stalled completely). It did not work as expected to say the least.

    Even after a long string of repeated streamlining attempts it is not too unusual for a DPS character to wait for 45 minutes or more for it to pop. That even lead to an exploit where some people who don't want to wait as long que as tank or healer when they are actually DPS so the group ends up with no support classes at all which made it harder to get the objectives done.

    I do understand the frustration with speedrunners btw, it is not as bad as it could be in STO because it generally happens in open space and not a linear maze but it can be highly annoying. In ESO it is far worse because it uses significant random boss drops and often the speedrunners just want to hit the final boss run after run and ignore all the others in order to get that last piece of gear they need to complete their set, and their running through rooms sets off all the mobs which in turn swarm anyone who falls even a little behind or don't notice them ducking into a shortcut exploit the devs missed blocking off.

    The thing is, an honor system that could recognize patterns in each player's behavior over time well enough to anticipate that they might be joining a particular que for considerations outside of the que itself and tends to lack group empathy would be insanely complicated and resource consuming. And nothing short of that would be accurate enough to make the honor system work effectively.

  • sleepwalker#8777 sleepwalker Member Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    @pottsey5g
    thank you very much for your post, you are pointing out some interresting things..

    random elite TFOs are just an idea.. they are not in the game (yet), but i think and honor sysdtem would be the perfect thing, that kinda prooves that players are qualified for it. as you might know, optional targets are a REQUIREMENT in most of them.

    positive honor groups only would have a better chance to complete optional targets, since there wouldn't be speedruners around, that ends a TFO to early.

    there is no need for the honor system to be grindy! the sooner the system knows what kind of player someone is, the better.
    maximum honor could be like 100.
    rescuing 1 ship could reward like +10(or20) honor.
    so there is no need to someone be greedy with farming honor.
    not going for ANY optional target could be only like -5 honor.

    about your example for the breach
    in that case, yes, the slower player would loose 5 honor, but if he is someone that usually goes for optional targets, this should not matter. he probably would have started the TFO with 90-100 honor anyways, and in your worst case szeario, he would leave the TFO with 85-95 posiive honor, which i still would consider as high positive honor.

    also if someone has already like 100 honor, there could be something like a buffer, of like 50 honor.. so he loses only 5 from his buffer and ends the TFO still with 100 honor (and 45 in his buffer).
    the honor system NEEDS to be very forgiving for sitations like that, which would not be any problem if the numbers are tweaked right.

    as i wrote in my initial post, time related optional targets should be excpluded from the honor system. otherwise speedrunners would accidently gain positive honor.
    positive honor should only come from things, that realy proove, that someone is activly going for optional targets. p.e. rescuing a ship, closing an errant rift, etc..
    i think the gauntlet (along with some other TFOs) should not reward positive honor at all.
  • sleepwalker#8777 sleepwalker Member Posts: 128 Arc User
    edited March 2021
    @phoenixc
    thank you for your post

    in ESO i never realy had any problems joining a group-dungeon, even during those times, when people have been complaining about waiting times. i am dps btw.. we usually wait the longest.
    they also have the problem with fixed roles (2dps+1tank+1healer), that is probably complicating things.. and who knows what else is part of their grouping system.

    the honor system in STO wouldn't be that complicated - basically its just a counter, that goes up or down. it would be a way more simple system, than the one from ESO.
    i am a programmer myself, and already have all the code-lines in my head.
    its technical aspect is realy not a big thing
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