So Cryptic can allegedly datamine a lot of things BUT queue usage. This is... well, baffling at least.
This topic is useless and irritating. Stop giving players work that should be yours! They are spending energy stating the obvious.
The datamining they have done so far they realize after so many complaints about DR and the propaganda that we all like it doesn't keep things running smoothly they are playing their old player base card.
They will survey this issue and then throw something at us that is meaningless compared to the nature of the problem. Then when that does not work they will blame it on the player base itself saying to their overlords that nothing will ever make us happy lol. Everyone welcome to the KDF errr STO
They will survey this issue and then throw something at us that is meaningless compared to the nature of the problem. Then when that does not work they will blame it on the player base itself saying to their overlords that nothing will ever make us happy lol. Everyone welcome to the KDF errr STO
Tbh, I'm afraid they're just gonna remove every Queue which doesn't pop up within 30min, at this point ... to keep the metrics positive, instead of rewarding reasonable amounts of XP etc ...
Please Cryptic, prove me wrong .... otherwise "The Line must be drawn HERE, this FAR, no FURTHER ..." :P ... not gonna queue the ~10 remaining PVE's either, if that's the case ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
Please report here which queues you are not able to queue up for due to lack of other members joining your PUG.
Please include only the queues that are not popping within a reasonable amount of time, please do not include any queues that are functioning normally or only take 1-2 minutes to pop.
Queue Name: (Which PvE event?)
Level Type: (Normal, Advanced, Elite?)
Average Wait Currently: (How long aprox do you wait now?)
Average Wait Previously: (How long aprox did you used to wait?)
Thanks everyone! ~CaptainSmirk
Don't get banned! Polls are forbidden!
I will take notes and get back with you. I had no plans to run any queues because I never get into them and since I show 1 person queued and 0 playing, I quit even trying.
Borg Disconnected
Elite
I've never gotten it to pop so I can't give you an average wait time
Elite ques are new so I don't have a precious wait time
Into The Hive
Elite
See above.
If it helps the only ques that I can consistently get to pop are: Bug Hunt (All levels ) usually less than a minute wait, Undine Infiltration (elite) usually about a minute wait, Nukara Prime: Transdimensional Tactics (Elite) again usually about a minute wait, Defend Rh'lhho station (elite) usually about a minute. I can get into Infected space (all levels ) in a decent amount of time generally less than 5 minutes, and the same with crystaline entity and azure nebula. Every other que is basically not an option.
If you're open to a suggestion I would suggest this: Give each que it's own daily reward separate from the daily mark reward. A little bonus in skill points and maybe dilithium to encourage people to do different types of ques every day instead of just quing up for the same handful over and over again. Also, ques need a skill point increase, major skill point increase. As it is you would need to do over 100 ques to get a single specialization point after 60. That's kinda silly.
Give each que it's own daily reward separate from the daily mark reward. A little bonus in skill points and maybe dilithium to encourage people to do different types of ques every day instead of just quing up for the same handful over and over again.
add the reputation specific item to that, such as a bnp or isomorphic injection thingy, obtainable once every 20 hours from all queues, normal included and then maybe it'll revive them a bit more, and give normal missions an extra reason to exist.
maybe some extra marks for those queues that don't have the item like romulan or nukara.
Now clowns, that's another story. They scare the crap out of me.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
Solution:
- 1 very rare material for normal
- 3 very rare materials for advanced
- 5 very rare materials for elite
- more dilithium
- more XP
- failed to optional=no material or gain halved
Queue Name: Big Dig
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: Infinite
Queue Name: Breaking the Planet
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: Infinite
Queue Name: Mine Trap
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: ~5-10 mins back when we had hourly bonus marks?
I'm sorry, maybe that's an exaggeration, but these almost never went before Delta Rising.
Suggested improvement: Cut the number of players needed for the first two to start down to 5, allow more players to drop in to existing games. Mine Trap could use a scaled down version where only one section of the colony needs to be defended by 5 players.
It's worry-some when the representatives of the game have to go to the players for data rather than rely on their metric-system that might be broken. *shudders*
That's quite the paradox, how could you nerf nerf when the nerf is nerfed. But how would the nerf be nerfed when the nerf is nerfed? This allows the nerf not to be nerfed since the nerf is nerfed? But if the nerf isn't nerfed, it could still nerf nerfs. But as soon as the nerf is nerfed, the nerf power is lost. So paradoxally it the nerf nerf lost its nerf, while it's still nerfed, which cannot be because the nerf was unable to nerf.
I'll give you a shorter list:
The ones I've actually gotten regular queues for since people seem to only play those.
Space:
Borg Disconnected - Regular
Space event missions when offered
As for your questions, the previous Elites (now Advanced with mandatory optionals), I would wait at most 5 minutes for any of the old Borg space or ground missions. Now, almost nobody is even queued for them when I look.
I did the space Dyson sphere PVEs a few times before DU, but even now they seem to be empty.
Fleet Defense could take up to 10 minutes before, but now you're lucky to get anyone playing it.
Minefield and Shuttle events I could never find people wanting to run even before the update.
Undine Infiltration is a TRIBBLE shoot on whether or not you get in. People are either running it, or they aren't.
Crystalline Catastrophe used to be pretty easy to get into as well and filled in less than five minutes. Now, it depends on whether or not people are playing. I've seen it either full, or dead.
I was able to do the Big Dig a couple times before, as not many queued for it, usually took at least ten minutes, but now, empty.
I don't think people are seeing the current grind for upgrading weapons to do the harder missions worth it, just to be able to play the advanced and elite space PvEs. I hit 60 on my main Federation character, and am slowly grinding my KDF and Romulan mains to 60 as well, or at least far enough ahead where I can skip doing the monotonous patrol missions over and over again. Running one character through the current system is bad enough and not entertaining to hold my attention. The actual storyline missions aren't too bad for a "free" MMO, and the voice acting is excellent for the most part. However, the time required to put into ever seeing it on more than one character per player, is more than what I think most are willing to put up with.
I'll agree with the echoed earlier comments that I've seen about the game. Stop making it a DPS / damage debuff race slightly in the way of allowing people to try more "fun" builds. Just because I can do at least 6+k DPS still in a science ship using a sci captain doesn't mean the majority of your players can. Grinding out a single weapon up to the next mark that costs the same as getting a new piece of rep gear, plus the insane amount of dil required for fleet projects doesn't help things either, especially when we know that T6 Fleet ships and possibly a new Fleet section to get those ships is on its way.
tl;dnr The actual story missions are fun, even if they're short. The grind to get to them is not. The grind required to do advanced or higher space PVEs is not fun, too. The few active PVEs are alright, be people get bored doing them again and again. Bump the rewards on the dead ones and/or make the mandatory optionals from advanced optional again, and people will start playing them.
I'm sorry but lol at this thread trying to pass empty queues off as a "bug"or "issue" other than "no one wants to play them due to reduced rewards and other 'tweaks.'" It's no secret that the game is hemorrhaging players so just fess up and admit it rather than pretend differently.
They will survey this issue and then throw something at us that is meaningless compared to the nature of the problem.
Well, my guess is the more populated queues will get a NERF.
And i have to agree: everyone who joins the queues now to test how long they need to pop will just distort the results. Besides the fact that cryptic already has the numbers. I think some dev already said something like the queues are not empty. Perhaps OP could just ask him?
Edit:
Don't remember the name right now .. the one with the big ego who likes to talk - a lot.
get a grip people. They are TRYING to help and most all they get in return is inane histrionics. People complain the devs don't listen..here is your chance to be constructive. I guess non stop whinging is preferable to actual cogent inputs. It's a wonder the PWE team bothers at all to try considering the tenor of the majority of posters.
It's worry-some when the representatives of the game have to go to the players for data rather than rely on their metric-system that might be broken. *shudders*
It's kinda sad that They can't even DL the Actual Game (without GOD-mode) to one of Their computers and check for Themselves for a 48 hour period (or more)...
It is more than obvious to the players what is going on... (HINT: It Ain't A BUG)
Why is it so complicated for the Designers Of the Game to figure it out for Themselves??
:rolleyes:
STO Member since February 2009. I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born! Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
Tbh, I'm afraid they're just gonna remove every Queue which doesn't pop up within 30min, at this point ... to keep the metrics positive, instead of rewarding reasonable amounts of XP etc ...
Please Cryptic, prove me wrong .... otherwise "The Line must be drawn HERE, this FAR, no FURTHER ..." :P ... not gonna queue the ~10 remaining PVE's either, if that's the case ...
Yeah most likely they will just remove the queues like that because for one they had us grind romulan rep points for so long in the beginning of the rep thing that I can say personally its been well over a year or so since I've even gone there. So things like that will probably disappear being by now anyone who currently plays and wanted anything from that rep has it minus players who maybe just started playing which I doubt there are many new players out there.
Well, my guess is the more populated queues will get a NERF.
And i have to agree: everyone who joins the queues now to test how long they need to pop will just distort the results. Besides the fact that cryptic already has the numbers. I think some dev already said something like the queues are not empty. Perhaps OP could just ask him?
Edit:
Don't remember the name right now .. the one with the big ego who likes to talk - a lot.
Yeah I agree there will be ppl who just want to skew the numbers but the way they force things upon players I do believe they should be doing their own work and not depending on players to do it. This is the same kind of mentality they used with the bortasqu' to make it the most hated KDF ship out there. The ego's usually come in a scimitar that explodes 5 seconds after getting into combat after trying to spam npcs with aoe attacks lol.
The numbers they should be looking at are not how many people are queuing but how many of the optionals are being completed and not failing. I've seen some private ones with some decent players fail so its not the case of the elitist vs the noob kind of situation. Its just a f'd up situation all around caused by poor leadership within the company who pushed this TRIBBLE out. They should leave nerfing to the professionals
Queue Name: Big Dig
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: Infinite
Queue Name: Breaking the Planet
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: Infinite
Queue Name: Mine Trap
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: ~5-10 mins back when we had hourly bonus marks?
I'm sorry, maybe that's an exaggeration, but these almost never went before Delta Rising.
Suggested improvement: Cut the number of players needed for the first two to start down to 5, allow more players to drop in to existing games. Mine Trap could use a scaled down version where only one section of the colony needs to be defended by 5 players.
Yeah, Big dig and Breaking really don't NEED more than 5 at all.
Mine trap's current incarnation needs a bare minimum of 12 to play, and that's for people who are GOOD. 16 or more is preferable. Maybe redo it like Tide of Ice to take into consideration the number of players when spawning enemies?
The only time Mine Trap was ever easy to PUG was back when it first came out and there was no AFK penalty... but what that really meant was that several people were leechers. Also this was back before most people had Rom rep done, so the desire for marks was greater, and that's really the main reason to do it now.
And i have to agree: everyone who joins the queues now to test how long they need to pop will just distort the results.
Buzz brings up an excellent point...
This survey has been live for like 4 and half hours now. How many of the people who contributed read the first post, logged onto the game and hit up some queues to see how long it would take? and how many people already remembered their figures from before this thread was created? I cant really contribute figures of my own because when i see a line entry in the LFG tool that says zero queued zero playing i avoid it. So pretty much i just run ANR-N, KV-N, CS-N, CS-A, CC-A, and on my ground toons BH-A, DRS-A, KIS-A, and UI-A. I queue up for those because people are always running them so my wait times are low. Even before this survey came up i didnt sit in 0/0 queues. Maybe i would do that if i had the ability to queue up for everything. But since there is a 3 instance limit i only hit up the ones i mentioned above. Why wait 30 minutes for a Breach run when i can do 3 other runs in the amount of time i would have waited?
Also one other thing i thought about. Would it help to know what prime time slot people fall under during their play time? I live on the west coast in the US, but my prime time is actually at 1-5 am (varies) pacific time, and that is close to Australian and New Zealand Prime time i believe. I've played several games including this one during normal west coast prime time and during Aus/NZ prime time and there is a noticeable difference in queue timers and even player skill/quality.
Pls don't understand this wrong, but this thread is ridiculous.
Don't you play your own game?
I think you don't, so that you have to relay on your metrics.
Since about a week after Delta Rising launch till now, there are about a handful of queues that pop up in under 5 min, and you can't figure them out?
So here there are: Waiting forever
Atmospheric Assault (Adv)
Borg Disconnected (Adv/Eilte)
Breaking the Planet
Colony Invasion
Defend Rhi' Station (Norm. Adv.)
Hive Onslaught (ALL difficulty lvl , Adv/Elite is a joke)
Mine Trap
No Win Scenario
Nukara Prime: Self Destruction ( really never! )
Nukara Prime: Transdimensional Tactics (Norm. Adv)
Starbase ...
Storming the Spire
The Breach
The Cure Applied
The Vault : Ensnared (Adv)
Undine Assault
Vault Shuttle Event (Adv.)
Viscous Cycle
Still working within a "reasonable" amount of time
Borg Disconnected (Norm)
Crystalline
Undine Infiltration (differs though)
Unmentioned Queue(diff) have some good/and bad days
KDF Star Base defence, never pops maybe 3 times a year in total I get to play that
Atmoshere Assault, either difficulty, never pops post DR
Mine Trap, post DR haven't been able to play it at all.
Starbase Invasion, pops but is very slow
Those are the ones I notice anyway because I like and want to play em but no one's ever queued for em, so don't bother either as my time is better spent in the popular queues earning stuff than sitting around doing nothing.
Want a way to solve this issue once and for all?
Simply normalising all events to be equally valuable (they're all the same so why bother) or any scheduled "bonus event" that only lasts X amount of time (after event it'll go back to current situation) still won't solve the problem. Nor will making slow queues statically reward more as it'll just shift players to those queues permanently instead.
IMO, A system where the server effectively dynamically bribes players to play unplayed queues would get queues moving and give benefits to the players that trigger them.
A system where the queue itself has a base level of rewards it starts off at (perhaps fractionally less than what's offered now), then for every minute (or 5mins, whatever works) it has NOT been triggered, the rewards it offers ALL increase by 1% or 5% (or whatever appropriate amount, for marks, dili, XP etc) so the longer it goes unplayed the more rewards the servers offer until it pops, then it resets back to base reward level and starts again.
It would be a honey pot to those looking for best bang for time spent and get people queueing for things they normally wouldn't because it just wouldn't be "worth it" otherwise.
If successful, players would be spread across all queues keeping the bonus outlay (from cryptic) minimal. But if players want to play as they currently do, those that venture around in other queues will get rewarded for triggering them, incentivising people to trigger unused queues, promoting players to spread around the queues.
Best part is, it'll work no matter how many queues you introduce. Old ones will keep triggering because they'd offer large dili, XP, marks etc rewards that are too good to pass up.
this can not end well. i'm too sleepy to give a thorough report now but I have been following this closely and will give a full report tomorrow.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Since Delta Rising I've had the oddest issue with PvE queues...
All of the queues where one or two decent players could carry the usual collection of "I use universal consoles in tactical slots. I am of no use to anyone", "Boarding Party? Sweet!", "More Mines=better than", and/or "Dual Heavy Cannons are great on a Galaxy-X! Pew Pew Pew!" seem to be totally empty now that the Out-DPSed by Warp Core Breaches Crew can cause a hard fail. Decent players aren't wasting their time, so they're going to premades, and the Exploding Scimitar Brigade can't hope to finish anything above normal difficulty- but without advanced rep rewards there what's the point?
The only queues that I ever see pop regularly are Borg Disconnected: Normal and CC: Normal and Advanced. Rumor has it that some people play Bug Hunt: Elite, but that's ground so I avoid it.
That doesn't reflect my own personal opinion; I'm quite happy with the game. However, fact is fact and the company needs to own up to it rather than pass the buck to some imaginary "issue."
You post some crazy stuff, but, well......said!
Oh and yes, this thread is beyond funny to the point that it doesn't make any sense at all.
Wouldn't you guys:
A) Have info in terms of average wait time and all that other jazz?
Do it yourself? I mean honestly, I'm not trying to be insulting here, but, why are you asking the players to do this exactly? Why can't a few devs or whomever works at Cryptic do what you're asking the players to do?
I don't get it. I've played a lot of games and followed their game forums more, and I have to say I haven't seen this before. Test server or beta testing? Of course, but not like this.
Retired. I'm now in search for that perfect space anomaly.
Comments
The datamining they have done so far they realize after so many complaints about DR and the propaganda that we all like it doesn't keep things running smoothly they are playing their old player base card.
They will survey this issue and then throw something at us that is meaningless compared to the nature of the problem. Then when that does not work they will blame it on the player base itself saying to their overlords that nothing will ever make us happy lol. Everyone welcome to the KDF errr STO
Yeah, this about sums it up for me.
And holey rusted metal, Batman! Cryptic's metrics don't cover this?! :rolleyes:
I have this problem sometimes as well, which is alarming given that's where everyone is NOT playing the queues.
Make the queues worth more (spec point XP), and you won't have to worry about silly surveys.
It's becoming more apparent that any metrics we've seen discussed by the development team only relate to how much zen has been purchased, and on what.
Tbh, I'm afraid they're just gonna remove every Queue which doesn't pop up within 30min, at this point ... to keep the metrics positive, instead of rewarding reasonable amounts of XP etc ...
Please Cryptic, prove me wrong .... otherwise "The Line must be drawn HERE, this FAR, no FURTHER ..." :P ... not gonna queue the ~10 remaining PVE's either, if that's the case ...
there doesn't seem to be a lot of encouragement to get players out of there.:(
EXAMPLE being mission fail if an OPTIONAL is not accomplished which really gets my goat...............
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Don't get banned! Polls are forbidden!
I will take notes and get back with you. I had no plans to run any queues because I never get into them and since I show 1 person queued and 0 playing, I quit even trying.
Elite
I've never gotten it to pop so I can't give you an average wait time
Elite ques are new so I don't have a precious wait time
Into The Hive
Elite
See above.
If it helps the only ques that I can consistently get to pop are: Bug Hunt (All levels ) usually less than a minute wait, Undine Infiltration (elite) usually about a minute wait, Nukara Prime: Transdimensional Tactics (Elite) again usually about a minute wait, Defend Rh'lhho station (elite) usually about a minute. I can get into Infected space (all levels ) in a decent amount of time generally less than 5 minutes, and the same with crystaline entity and azure nebula. Every other que is basically not an option.
If you're open to a suggestion I would suggest this: Give each que it's own daily reward separate from the daily mark reward. A little bonus in skill points and maybe dilithium to encourage people to do different types of ques every day instead of just quing up for the same handful over and over again. Also, ques need a skill point increase, major skill point increase. As it is you would need to do over 100 ques to get a single specialization point after 60. That's kinda silly.
maybe some extra marks for those queues that don't have the item like romulan or nukara.
We fight them too. Entire armies spilling out of Volkswagens.
We do our best to fight them off, but they keep sending them in.
- 1 very rare material for normal
- 3 very rare materials for advanced
- 5 very rare materials for elite
- more dilithium
- more XP
- failed to optional=no material or gain halved
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: Infinite
Queue Name: Breaking the Planet
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: Infinite
Queue Name: Mine Trap
Level Type: Normal
Average Wait Currently: Infinite
Average Wait Previously: ~5-10 mins back when we had hourly bonus marks?
I'm sorry, maybe that's an exaggeration, but these almost never went before Delta Rising.
Suggested improvement: Cut the number of players needed for the first two to start down to 5, allow more players to drop in to existing games. Mine Trap could use a scaled down version where only one section of the colony needs to be defended by 5 players.
Turn off or lower the AFK/Leaver-punishment.
Queues are easier to f-up, bug or troll then ever, and then an afk/leaver-punishment to boot... Nah.
I call it, the Stoutes paradox.
The ones I've actually gotten regular queues for since people seem to only play those.
Space:
Borg Disconnected - Regular
Space event missions when offered
Ground:
Bug Hunt - Normal, Elite
Defend Rh'Ihho Station - Elite
Nukara Prime: Transdimensional Tactics - Elite
Ground Event missions when offered
As for your questions, the previous Elites (now Advanced with mandatory optionals), I would wait at most 5 minutes for any of the old Borg space or ground missions. Now, almost nobody is even queued for them when I look.
I did the space Dyson sphere PVEs a few times before DU, but even now they seem to be empty.
Fleet Defense could take up to 10 minutes before, but now you're lucky to get anyone playing it.
Minefield and Shuttle events I could never find people wanting to run even before the update.
Undine Infiltration is a TRIBBLE shoot on whether or not you get in. People are either running it, or they aren't.
Crystalline Catastrophe used to be pretty easy to get into as well and filled in less than five minutes. Now, it depends on whether or not people are playing. I've seen it either full, or dead.
I was able to do the Big Dig a couple times before, as not many queued for it, usually took at least ten minutes, but now, empty.
I don't think people are seeing the current grind for upgrading weapons to do the harder missions worth it, just to be able to play the advanced and elite space PvEs. I hit 60 on my main Federation character, and am slowly grinding my KDF and Romulan mains to 60 as well, or at least far enough ahead where I can skip doing the monotonous patrol missions over and over again. Running one character through the current system is bad enough and not entertaining to hold my attention. The actual storyline missions aren't too bad for a "free" MMO, and the voice acting is excellent for the most part. However, the time required to put into ever seeing it on more than one character per player, is more than what I think most are willing to put up with.
I'll agree with the echoed earlier comments that I've seen about the game. Stop making it a DPS / damage debuff race slightly in the way of allowing people to try more "fun" builds. Just because I can do at least 6+k DPS still in a science ship using a sci captain doesn't mean the majority of your players can. Grinding out a single weapon up to the next mark that costs the same as getting a new piece of rep gear, plus the insane amount of dil required for fleet projects doesn't help things either, especially when we know that T6 Fleet ships and possibly a new Fleet section to get those ships is on its way.
tl;dnr The actual story missions are fun, even if they're short. The grind to get to them is not. The grind required to do advanced or higher space PVEs is not fun, too. The few active PVEs are alright, be people get bored doing them again and again. Bump the rewards on the dead ones and/or make the mandatory optionals from advanced optional again, and people will start playing them.
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Well, my guess is the more populated queues will get a NERF.
And i have to agree: everyone who joins the queues now to test how long they need to pop will just distort the results. Besides the fact that cryptic already has the numbers. I think some dev already said something like the queues are not empty. Perhaps OP could just ask him?
Edit:
Don't remember the name right now .. the one with the big ego who likes to talk - a lot.
It's kinda sad that They can't even DL the Actual Game (without GOD-mode) to one of Their computers and check for Themselves for a 48 hour period (or more)...
It is more than obvious to the players what is going on... (HINT: It Ain't A BUG)
Why is it so complicated for the Designers Of the Game to figure it out for Themselves??
:rolleyes:
I Was A Trekkie Before It Was Cool ... Sept. 8th, 1966 ... Not To Mention Before Most Folks Around Here Were Born!
Forever a STO Veteran-Minion
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Yeah most likely they will just remove the queues like that because for one they had us grind romulan rep points for so long in the beginning of the rep thing that I can say personally its been well over a year or so since I've even gone there. So things like that will probably disappear being by now anyone who currently plays and wanted anything from that rep has it minus players who maybe just started playing which I doubt there are many new players out there.
Yeah I agree there will be ppl who just want to skew the numbers but the way they force things upon players I do believe they should be doing their own work and not depending on players to do it. This is the same kind of mentality they used with the bortasqu' to make it the most hated KDF ship out there. The ego's usually come in a scimitar that explodes 5 seconds after getting into combat after trying to spam npcs with aoe attacks lol.
The numbers they should be looking at are not how many people are queuing but how many of the optionals are being completed and not failing. I've seen some private ones with some decent players fail so its not the case of the elitist vs the noob kind of situation. Its just a f'd up situation all around caused by poor leadership within the company who pushed this TRIBBLE out. They should leave nerfing to the professionals
Mine trap's current incarnation needs a bare minimum of 12 to play, and that's for people who are GOOD. 16 or more is preferable. Maybe redo it like Tide of Ice to take into consideration the number of players when spawning enemies?
The only time Mine Trap was ever easy to PUG was back when it first came out and there was no AFK penalty... but what that really meant was that several people were leechers. Also this was back before most people had Rom rep done, so the desire for marks was greater, and that's really the main reason to do it now.
My character Tsin'xing
Buzz brings up an excellent point...
This survey has been live for like 4 and half hours now. How many of the people who contributed read the first post, logged onto the game and hit up some queues to see how long it would take? and how many people already remembered their figures from before this thread was created? I cant really contribute figures of my own because when i see a line entry in the LFG tool that says zero queued zero playing i avoid it. So pretty much i just run ANR-N, KV-N, CS-N, CS-A, CC-A, and on my ground toons BH-A, DRS-A, KIS-A, and UI-A. I queue up for those because people are always running them so my wait times are low. Even before this survey came up i didnt sit in 0/0 queues. Maybe i would do that if i had the ability to queue up for everything. But since there is a 3 instance limit i only hit up the ones i mentioned above. Why wait 30 minutes for a Breach run when i can do 3 other runs in the amount of time i would have waited?
Also one other thing i thought about. Would it help to know what prime time slot people fall under during their play time? I live on the west coast in the US, but my prime time is actually at 1-5 am (varies) pacific time, and that is close to Australian and New Zealand Prime time i believe. I've played several games including this one during normal west coast prime time and during Aus/NZ prime time and there is a noticeable difference in queue timers and even player skill/quality.
Don't you play your own game?
I think you don't, so that you have to relay on your metrics.
Since about a week after Delta Rising launch till now, there are about a handful of queues that pop up in under 5 min, and you can't figure them out?
So here there are:
Waiting forever
Atmospheric Assault (Adv)
Borg Disconnected (Adv/Eilte)
Breaking the Planet
Colony Invasion
Defend Rhi' Station (Norm. Adv.)
Hive Onslaught (ALL difficulty lvl , Adv/Elite is a joke)
Mine Trap
No Win Scenario
Nukara Prime: Self Destruction ( really never! )
Nukara Prime: Transdimensional Tactics (Norm. Adv)
Starbase ...
Storming the Spire
The Breach
The Cure Applied
The Vault : Ensnared (Adv)
Undine Assault
Vault Shuttle Event (Adv.)
Viscous Cycle
Still working within a "reasonable" amount of time
Borg Disconnected (Norm)
Crystalline
Undine Infiltration (differs though)
Unmentioned Queue(diff) have some good/and bad days
Holy Grail of Gamification is Addiction | 5 Ways to Accomplisch | and the Psychology of Freemium
Atmoshere Assault, either difficulty, never pops post DR
Mine Trap, post DR haven't been able to play it at all.
Starbase Invasion, pops but is very slow
Those are the ones I notice anyway because I like and want to play em but no one's ever queued for em, so don't bother either as my time is better spent in the popular queues earning stuff than sitting around doing nothing.
Want a way to solve this issue once and for all?
Simply normalising all events to be equally valuable (they're all the same so why bother) or any scheduled "bonus event" that only lasts X amount of time (after event it'll go back to current situation) still won't solve the problem. Nor will making slow queues statically reward more as it'll just shift players to those queues permanently instead.
IMO, A system where the server effectively dynamically bribes players to play unplayed queues would get queues moving and give benefits to the players that trigger them.
A system where the queue itself has a base level of rewards it starts off at (perhaps fractionally less than what's offered now), then for every minute (or 5mins, whatever works) it has NOT been triggered, the rewards it offers ALL increase by 1% or 5% (or whatever appropriate amount, for marks, dili, XP etc) so the longer it goes unplayed the more rewards the servers offer until it pops, then it resets back to base reward level and starts again.
It would be a honey pot to those looking for best bang for time spent and get people queueing for things they normally wouldn't because it just wouldn't be "worth it" otherwise.
If successful, players would be spread across all queues keeping the bonus outlay (from cryptic) minimal. But if players want to play as they currently do, those that venture around in other queues will get rewarded for triggering them, incentivising people to trigger unused queues, promoting players to spread around the queues.
Best part is, it'll work no matter how many queues you introduce. Old ones will keep triggering because they'd offer large dili, XP, marks etc rewards that are too good to pass up.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Since Delta Rising I've had the oddest issue with PvE queues...
All of the queues where one or two decent players could carry the usual collection of "I use universal consoles in tactical slots. I am of no use to anyone", "Boarding Party? Sweet!", "More Mines=better than", and/or "Dual Heavy Cannons are great on a Galaxy-X! Pew Pew Pew!" seem to be totally empty now that the Out-DPSed by Warp Core Breaches Crew can cause a hard fail. Decent players aren't wasting their time, so they're going to premades, and the Exploding Scimitar Brigade can't hope to finish anything above normal difficulty- but without advanced rep rewards there what's the point?
The only queues that I ever see pop regularly are Borg Disconnected: Normal and CC: Normal and Advanced. Rumor has it that some people play Bug Hunt: Elite, but that's ground so I avoid it.
You post some crazy stuff, but, well......said!
Oh and yes, this thread is beyond funny to the point that it doesn't make any sense at all.
Wouldn't you guys:
A) Have info in terms of average wait time and all that other jazz?
I don't get it. I've played a lot of games and followed their game forums more, and I have to say I haven't seen this before. Test server or beta testing? Of course, but not like this.