bad new rating system for foundry missions

commandermic · May 2013

as LoR has started, the rating system also gets an update for the average rating of missions. now the number of players of a mission is also relevant, but that causes significant lower average ratings to new missions for long time.
i am very unpleased with this because it will be much harder for new created missions to get good ratings...and last but not least longer time to get new players.
another thing is, more of these farm/grinder missions will get easier at the top of the missions list...i rather prefer that i see nice story missions than this ones where we got already to many of them.

so please cryptic, let us get the rating system back like it was before LoR-release!

kirksplat · May 2013

commandermic wrote: »

as LoR has started, the rating system also gets an update for the average rating of missions. now the number of players of a mission is also relevant, but that causes significant lower average ratings to new missions for long time.
i am very unpleased with this because it will be much harder for new created missions to get good ratings...and last but not least longer time to get new players.
another thing is, more of these farm/grinder missions will get easier at the top of the missions list...i rather prefer that i see nice story missions than this ones where we got already to many of them.

so please cryptic, let us get the rating system back like it was before LoR-release!

I just don't get how it works. One of my missions, "Slaves and Seductions," was almost my least popular mission. Now, it's at the top and my other ones cannot be found except with a custom search.

Meanwhile the new "lootomatic 3000" takes the number 2 spot.

I don't understand it.

commandermic · May 2013

kirksplat wrote: »

I just don't get how it works. One of my missions, "Slaves and Seductions," was almost my least popular mission. Now, it's at the top and my other ones cannot be found except with a custom search.

Meanwhile the new "lootomatic 3000" takes the number 2 spot.

I don't understand it.

i don't know exactly how it works, what i know is that the lesser players you have the more you get downgraded your averager rating. so if you don't have much reviews for your mission, it would be at the bottom of the list, where most players won't even notice it - not to mention that a lower rating maybe would keep some players away from choosing your mission.
bad enough, and even missions with more than 1000 players get a little downgraded rating...

i don't know what is happening at your missions, why you don't find the other ones except by searching.

voicesdark · May 2013

I long gave up on the Foundry as a player. It's to the point now where as a player it's not worth wading through all the garbage trying to find a good mission. Please understand by garbage I mean the quickies and such.

the rating system isn't doing anyone any good, and no matter what way they try to tweak it, it never will.

They just need to completely remove the rating system and just add a category system.

Quicks and builds

Large Scale Battles

Holosuite - Short story/ scenario

Holonovel - Longer Story driven

Holoseries - Episodic Story driven

The Foundry author would indicate which category their creation fits into much like how the exchange works and then players could search by category as well as refined searches like title, author name, faction.

Dilithium tipping should remain. Foundry content should be listed by default by published on date.

This would remove all the favoritism, and also allow players easier access to exactly the type of foundry content they want.

thegreendragoon1 · May 2013

So I think that part of the confusion is coming from the fact that only a portion of the Foundry missions have been republished so far.

kirksplat · May 2013

thegreendragoon1 wrote: »

So I think that part of the confusion is coming from the fact that only a portion of the Foundry missions have been republished so far.

This is true, but it doesn't really explain why I currently have 5 or 6 missions published and only one appears in the listings. The one that appears used to be my least popular one, and now it's suddenly my most popular.

thay8472 · May 2013

kirksplat wrote: »

This is true, but it doesn't really explain why I currently have 5 or 6 missions published and only one appears in the listings. The one that appears used to be my least popular one, and now it's suddenly my most popular.

Just did a search for mine and only have 1 published. "Last of the Ask'kaar"

Mirror Wars 1 - 6
Depths/Bowels of Nukara Prime
Agitation
The Hive
Daughter of Athena
Whatever I called the #7 foundry contest submittal...

... above are no shows.

drogyn1701 · May 2013

Right now is a bad time to judge the new weighting system since not all the missions have been republished.

Plus, once the republish has gone through, it'll be interesting to see how a brand new mission behaves. That'll be the real test.

thedukeofrock · May 2013

Aside from the "new" rating system and such, now once again, regardless of the missions being published yet or not, we are staring at a bunch of loot crapola missions on top again.

Plus now the fact that the "disabled" ratings are very much enabled, so if your mission is published and it is bugged with the new season, if it gets plays it is sure to get bombed with 1-stars.

I thought the ratings were supposed to be disabled.

WTH Cryptic???? :mad:

Unknown · May 2013

This content has been removed.

commandermic · May 2013

drogyn1701 wrote: »

Right now is a bad time to judge the new weighting system since not all the missions have been republished.

Plus, once the republish has gone through, it'll be interesting to see how a brand new mission behaves. That'll be the real test.

i don't think we have to wait, as we can see now missions with about 30 players are much downrated...i better don't want to know what happens to missions with only 1 or 2 ratings.

with the old rating system, most new missions (if they were good of course) stayed at the top of the list for a short time, what was very nice to get new players fast at the start. now you can be sure that this won't happen to new missions, i believe it would take much more time to get any players...

thedukeofrock wrote: »

Plus now the fact that the "disabled" ratings are very much enabled, so if your mission is published and it is bugged with the new season, if it gets plays it is sure to get bombed with 1-stars.

I thought the ratings were supposed to be disabled.

WTH Cryptic???? :mad:

another bad thing...cryptic said it would be disabled, but they didn't do that...
here to see what they said:
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=689231

merkhet · May 2013

There just need to be two categories:
story
grinding

nagorak · May 2013

I actually think this is pretty bad. It was actually better when new missions were at the top of the list for a short time. Yes, older missions were at a disadvantage, but eventually the new missions would come down to earth and it would even out. It made it so that new missions got some much needed exposure.

The only real problem with the old system is any mission that existed before the change where the rating defaulted to NR had a lower average rating since they had a bunch of default 3s. They should have just wiped ratings from before that change and I think the system would have been perfect.

Making it so new missions have trouble getting traction is not good, unless they're going to make it so that there's some other place they get heavily promoted.

To be honest, right now I feel the Foundry is slowly being killed by not having separate tabs for story and combat missions. It takes a long time to make a story mission, and if no one plays your mission because they don't even know about it, then it's really just not worth it.

designationxr377 · May 2013

We're dealing with growing pains and feeling disenfranchised by how missions are still subject to reviews and ratings. I'm going to second that we wait to see how it plays out when missions are all republished, editing is re-enabled (so we can fix missions), and reviews are activated properly (if they get them turned off before editing).

While a shame the review system didn't shut off as planned, at least we know we are on their radar. We at least have forum communication with Frost, which is something we went long without. In many cases our foundry missions are dear creations, but we need to deal with this responsibly, and with less blood pressure medication.

So I echo Drogyn on this, in a weeks time this will be far less troubling than it is now.

benalexander · May 2013

Due to the slow republishing process and the bugs resulting in 1-star-ratings, it is not easy to say how the new system will effect the foundry. The best rated list will change, once all missions are back online.

Nonetheless, I took a closer look at mechanic of the new rating system. Probably this mechanic won?t change in the near future. I checked the old and new average ratings and these are the results:

http://imageshack.us/a/img109/1420/ratingsu.jpg

As you see, the difference to the old ratings is not linear.

Missions with less than 50 ratings loose more than 0.5 stars, 0.3 with 150 ratings, 0.2 with 400. Even with more than 1000 ratings, the new average rating is 0.1 lower than the old one.

Of course, most players want so see good and established missions first and this system could help them. But especially new missions ? even if they really deserve 4 or 5 star ratings ? will have a hard time getting players. Yes, there is a search option for new missions. But this option is a bit hidden. I would guess that most players do not use this search option.

Furthermore, this new system does not only ?punish? new missions, it treats the number of ratings as in indicator of quality. A mission with 200 ratings is not ?new? - players can read the reviews and see, if there are any problems with this mission. Even though this mission might have the same (old) average rating as a 400 ratings mission, the new system shows the player, that it is worse.

I sincerely hope, the new system will not affect new missions that much, but I am not very optimistic. As far as we can see the effects of it at this point, I do not like the new system.

benalexander

P.S. Sorry for bad English.

thedukeofrock · May 2013

nagorak wrote: »

The only real problem with the old system is any mission that existed before the change where the rating defaulted to NR had a lower average rating since they had a bunch of default 3s. They should have just wiped ratings from before that change and I think the system would have been perfect.

Perfectly stated sir.

wilbor2 · May 2013

voicesdark wrote: »

I long gave up on the Foundry as a player. It's to the point now where as a player it's not worth wading through all the garbage trying to find a good mission. Please understand by garbage I mean the quickies and such.

the rating system isn't doing anyone any good, and no matter what way they try to tweak it, it never will.

They just need to completely remove the rating system and just add a category system.

Quicks and builds

Large Scale Battles

Holosuite - Short story/ scenario

Holonovel - Longer Story driven

Holoseries - Episodic Story driven

The Foundry author would indicate which category their creation fits into much like how the exchange works and then players could search by category as well as refined searches like title, author name, faction.

Dilithium tipping should remain. Foundry content should be listed by default by published on date.

This would remove all the favoritism, and also allow players easier access to exactly the type of foundry content they want.

I like the idear here its a hell of a lot better then the way u search for missiond now

commandermic · June 2013

i agree a category system would be a very good idea, anyhow the old rating system should urgently come back. what also is a problem that many missions now only appear by a custom search, they don't appear at the list...i really hope this is only a bug.

another thing what could be great for finding good missions, is the option to suscribe for authors - maybe with a little site for every author where he can describe his released missions and future projects.

odyssey47 · June 2013

voicesdark wrote: »

I long gave up on the Foundry as a player. It's to the point now where as a player it's not worth wading through all the garbage trying to find a good mission. Please understand by garbage I mean the quickies and such.

the rating system isn't doing anyone any good, and no matter what way they try to tweak it, it never will.

They just need to completely remove the rating system and just add a category system.

Quicks and builds

Large Scale Battles

Holosuite - Short story/ scenario

Holonovel - Longer Story driven

Holoseries - Episodic Story driven

The Foundry author would indicate which category their creation fits into much like how the exchange works and then players could search by category as well as refined searches like title, author name, faction.

Dilithium tipping should remain. Foundry content should be listed by default by published on date.

This would remove all the favoritism, and also allow players easier access to exactly the type of foundry content they want.

I like your ideas for categories. Especially since I consider my foundry missions to be holonovels, considering I take liberties with the player's character and bridge officers.

commandermic · June 2013

so now there are some missions republished with very few players, and it's getting even worse than i've expected. saw a mission of a friend with only 3 ratings...old rating was 4.33 and new rating... 1,67!!!! this is really ridiculous, cryptic!

that's a huge catastrophe for all new upcoming missions. it's kind of very demotivating for me to create new missions, when nobody would play them.

waaagh951 · June 2013

my mission are in reveiv. but they had 3 or 4 stars. one had a 1 star but not hte point. now they are down to one star in rating. this needs a fix cryptic. this is killing the foundry.

skyline475 · July 2013

/sign...

The new rating system really sucks for us story authors

bad new rating system for foundry missions

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