the leaver penalty needs to go. it just needs to go. when worthless players who dont know how to run an stf come in players who know what they are doing shouldn't be shackled to the worthless fracks failure. let us be able to leave. guess what cryptic. I DONT GIVE A FLYING FRACK ABOUT 10 MARKS U CAN KEEP IT. either remove the leaver penalty or remove the failure punishment and the cooldown. nobody wants ur "secondary reward" because it isnt a reward at all its a giant middle finger from you to us. we'd rather be able to queue up and try again immediately.
the leaver penalty needs to go. it just needs to go. when worthless players who dont know how to run an stf come in players who know what they are doing shouldn't be shackled to the worthless fracks failure. let us be able to leave. guess what cryptic. I DONT GIVE A FLYING FRACK ABOUT 10 MARKS U CAN KEEP IT. either remove the leaver penalty or remove the failure punishment and the cooldown. nobody wants ur "secondary reward" because it isnt a reward at all its a giant middle finger from you to us. we'd rather be able to queue up and try again immediately.
Agreed that this is a major source of frustration.
What Cryptic/PWE needs:
* some sort of qualifier to be able to play Advanced or Elite queues.
Example:
- Player X successfully finishes five (5) "Normal" STF sorties. No AFK during those five, either.
- Player X is granted the ability to play "Advanced".
- Player X must now complete five (5) "Advanced" STF sorties to qualify for "Elite".
- Player X is granted the ability to play "Elite".
This means Player X must successfully complete five Normal "Borg Disconnect" before being allowed to play Advanced "Borg Disconnect".
Will that eliminate the "worthless fracks failures". No.
But it should make players more serious about jumping into the right STFs. Or seeking out PUGs.
No. Not a chance. Suck it up and help. I'm sick to death of people warping out because they think they're gonna fail because they perceive that the group they are with can't handle it. Everyone has to learn at some point. The OP is just as bad as those that AFK and do nothing in an STF because they want easy Marks (for which there should be an auto-boot and ban!).
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
Agreed that this is a major source of frustration.
What Cryptic/PWE needs:
* some sort of qualifier to be able to play Advanced or Elite queues.
Example:
- Player X successfully finishes five (5) "Normal" STF sorties. No AFK during those five, either.
- Player X is granted the ability to play "Advanced".
- Player X must now complete five (5) "Advanced" STF sorties to qualify for "Elite".
- Player X is granted the ability to play "Elite".
This means Player X must successfully complete five Normal "Borg Disconnect" before being allowed to play Advanced "Borg Disconnect".
Will that eliminate the "worthless fracks failures". No.
But it should make players more serious about jumping into the right STFs. Or seeking out PUGs.
MAKE IT SO, CRYPTIC!
Now this is a far, far better idea than the OP's.
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
If you dislike your teams, it might be best to stop pugging and joining channels that are setup for the sole reason is to place players together that will win a STF with no issues.
The logic, "I don't like it so remove it" shows your inability to over come and adapt to situations.
No. Not a chance. Suck it up and help. I'm sick to death of people warping out because they think they're gonna fail because they perceive that the group they are with can't handle it. Everyone has to learn at some point. The OP is just as bad as those that AFK and do nothing in an STF because they want easy Marks (for which there should be an auto-boot and ban!).
Totally agree.
When you pug you know the risks. If you warp out, you take the leaver penalty because you LEFT.
Except that regulars are a whole different ballgame. Running Infected, Azure, or Khitomer regular in no way prepares you for Advanced.
As I have said in other threads recently, a single player mission with a strict failure state as a qualifier could work wonders.
For instance, a single player instance that spawns a single captive Dhelan or Ha'apax with the same conditions as Azure Advanced and requires you to free it solo within 2 minutes, without dying. Dying is an instant failure, as well of course as failing to free it. I'm not sure exactly what you would do for the other STFs, but there has to be something.
Yes, I know, teamwork is also an important part of some Advanced STFs, but without some sort of votekick system, you can't really enforce that. Simply making sure that a player is physically capable of A) surviving and completing the objectives would go a long way to making advanced not suck for the rest of us.
Doing normal or advance in a group won't help. They will just get carried. You need to make the unlock missions single player so the ability is purely JUST you.
My guess is "hope" keeps people not playing but posting on the forums. For others, its a path of sad realization and closure. Grieving takes time. The worst "haters" here love the game, or did at some point.
Doing normal or advance in a group won't help. They will just get carried. You need to make the unlock missions single player so the ability is purely JUST you.
Actually, having the STF's done as solo missions to tutor players prior to joining PvE queues is a great idea. Just need to add NPC's as support and the player leads the battle with help from the Mission Director.
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
OP has been playing for what? 10 months. He burned his way up to max rank, doesn't have any accolade boosts. Ground out all his 1337 gear, does around 10k dps on his best days. Is basically a drag on any real Advanced team he pugs with, because he just flies around pew-pewing and has never learned what the actual tactics for running STF's are. So when he gets in with a group that doesn't have some real high dps'ers who know the patterns and cover for him he freaks out cause he doesn't have the skills to pull a weak team through. Instead of doing what he can to try and work out a win, he just screams in the team chat that everyone else sucks then leaves.
I agree with the frustration of the OP. I can't tell you how many times I've simply left BDA, once it's clear that the rest of the team doesn't know what they're doing (four ships to one zone is a great indicator).
It's the devs' fault. This "optional is mandatory" movement from Normal to Advanced is not well-executed. The point of "Borg Disconnected," for example, is to free Borg. The pew-pew is the distraction. Many still don't get that.
Instead of making a simple "optional is mandatory" rule, they should have reduced the number of Borg required to rescue. This trains players into the habit of focusing on the right things, instead of mindless shooting (plus, if things are optional, many tend to ignore "optional").
It's a bigger problem than removing the leaver penalty.
the leaver penalty needs to go. it just needs to go. when worthless players who dont know how to run an stf come in players who know what they are doing shouldn't be shackled to the worthless fracks failure. let us be able to leave. guess what cryptic. I DONT GIVE A FLYING FRACK ABOUT 10 MARKS U CAN KEEP IT. either remove the leaver penalty or remove the failure punishment and the cooldown. nobody wants ur "secondary reward" because it isnt a reward at all its a giant middle finger from you to us. we'd rather be able to queue up and try again immediately.
How about you help teach others instead of asking for something that could be used as an exploit
However, I've also been stuck in some awful matches for tiny rewards because people at Rank 50 with greens think it's appropriate to queue for Advanced, or think that they should be carried through content. Then again, I have also been in PvE missions with people who have Fleet ships and the best gear, yet are inexplicably awful.
But to leave before the game even begins because you *think* the group is gonna suck...that's NOT cool. Especially since undergeared/bad groups are probably going to fail very early on.
I say eliminate the problem and put same lvl NPC's in with the stf player and complete the mission that way and leave teams to PVP. At least if there is problems it will be with the NPC's and they can be adjusted.
Oh, and for those that are of the mindset of "don't PUG," that's a little unfair, IMHO.
Some (myself included) PUG because play time is limited. Sometimes, if you have a short window to play, you just want to get in and get out. It's a bit unfair to trash this method of playing, especially when it's a feature of the game, and it worked fine pre-DR.
They don't need to get rid of the leaver penalties, they need to get rid of the cooldown timer if you fail. If you fail a queue you should be able to try again immediately. That would help. There's then no downside to sticking it out and trying to pull off a victory. There's also less of an annoyance when you get into a group of people who either can't play, won't cooperate or intentionally try to TRIBBLE the mission up.
While forcing players to complete an STF solo is a novel idea (to prove they're capable of playing it in the first place), the main idea is:
Make players familiar with the STF map(s)/objectives.
Some of us spend time watching YouTube videos to beat STFs, or fine-tune their ship builds. This is mostly about the casual, regular player who isn't invested in the STF missions... and jumps into an STF, hoping to get through it, and score the goodies.
A solo qualification system is good, but it won't teach team playing. Players learn by examples. Players need to see others doing the mission, where to go, how to succeed.
Solo play won't do that, imho.
Yes, some players WILL be carried by others. C'est la vie.
Like the OP, I'm really, really, really tired of STFs where trolls cause problems, or players jump into Advanced or Elite, trying to get drops/rewards -- along with NO understanding of how to play that particular STF.
Not to mention, no clue how to play with other team members.
Ya gotta start somewhere... Might as well make the players qualify before advancing.
I have and I know several other players who have sent in request to change up the way its done..either cryptic cannot change it or does not think it needs changed. all suggestions are meet with silence.
you should at the very least have to do normal so many times with optional being gained before you are allowed to go to a higher lvl. if you can run and complete that with optional gain then you can move up to the next lvl. etc etc. this way by the time they even reach the highest tier they will know HOW to run the mission and be used to getting the optional!!!
letting just anyone go straight to the highest lvl is just, well, for lack of a better way to put it, bad for the game.
it ticks off top tier players which is cryptic's bread and butter. You can see this fact by the thread here.
I don't know how much work it would take to make them work through lvls but it would vastly improve the game play for vets of whom i'm sure you would like to keep happy and playing.
Agreed that this is a major source of frustration.
What Cryptic/PWE needs:
* some sort of qualifier to be able to play Advanced or Elite queues.
Example:
- Player X successfully finishes five (5) "Normal" STF sorties. No AFK during those five, either.
- Player X is granted the ability to play "Advanced".
- Player X must now complete five (5) "Advanced" STF sorties to qualify for "Elite".
- Player X is granted the ability to play "Elite".
This means Player X must successfully complete five Normal "Borg Disconnect" before being allowed to play Advanced "Borg Disconnect".
Will that eliminate the "worthless fracks failures". No.
But it should make players more serious about jumping into the right STFs. Or seeking out PUGs.
MAKE IT SO, CRYPTIC!
Like this concept, however, in regards to the Borg STFs, we already have accolades that can be used to unlock the Advanced and Elite STFs for players. I can't remember which accolade is for what STF, but for example:
Each STF has an accolade for completing so many of a certain STF. Use that accolade for unlocking the next difficulty level of STF. so, player completes 50 Infected Normal, he unlocks Infected Advanced. Do this across the board.
The Silver Cross Accolade is received after completing so many STFs (all 3 STFs combined), use this to unlock all STFs of next level (after individual STF accolades for normal have been acquired) , which I believe would be Advanced. Use the Medal of Honor Accolade to unlock all Elite STFs AFTER ALL the previous accolades have been received in Normal and Advanced.
How about getting rid of the stupid if you fail the optional you fail whole thing. Optional means optional.
Lose the mission timer seriously I have been in PUGs where there were new minted lvl 50 toons trying for items to get rep gear and they just couldn't do it due to both timers and the fail the optional you fail the entire thing. One Matha maxed out can't carry a team as one ship can't be everywhere. I try and help them but hey there are limits.
How about instead of buffing the hell out of mobs hit points you revamped their AI instead. I'd rather fight a "smarter" mob then be in a slug fest with a mob with a gazillion HP's and SP's armed with one shot invisa-torps.
How about fixing the Borg one shot instant kill invisible torpedo.
Institute a no reward for AFK's who ships have done zero healing, no movement or no damage in PVE missions.
Better yet scrap the entire mission revamp you made and institute the above for the PVE's that existed prior to Delta.
Face the facts Cryptic you dropped the ball big time on PVE revamp. I just glad my toons had all the Rep gear before you slapped us with Delta. I feel bad for new players who want to advance in Rep now it must feel like a nightmare trying to get the implants, ETC, for the gear.
But hey what do I know I'm just a thousand day plus gold member.
If you dislike your teams, it might be best to stop pugging and joining channels that are setup for the sole reason is to place players together that will win a STF with no issues.
The logic, "I don't like it so remove it" shows your inability to over come and adapt to situations.
Greetings.. I hate cool-downs (CD's); I hate 24hr CD for Epohh's, 20hr CD for R&D, PvE Race, 48/72hr CD for R&D Assistance after a 48 mission time.. But I do favor reduce CD for STF's in the event of a FAIL.
IIRC, the leaver penalty is longer than the normal CD, again, IIRC. However, joining a "channel that is set up"... does not ensure success there as well. I have done successful STF's in PUGS, PublicEliteSTF and EliteSTF channels.
I've also had epic fails in all those channels as well; and for the same "assumed" reasons. I've pug'd and ran Borg Disconnected (a/n/e) with pre-mades from those channels and really wished we could team kick those "AFK'rs that sit at spawn point and not move, but yet make their selections for the drops.
With all that being said, bottom line is you are NEVER gruanteed a success regardless of PUG or Pre-Made, or Fleet Team. But, being able to kick the AFK'rs will/would hopefully send a message to that individual..
I would tweak Tucana66's concept. On Infected Ground, for instance, you should not be permitted to do Advanced until you successfully complete the basic one WITH THE OPTIONAL.
Once a player can master teh optional on Basic then up they go to advanced, and then again, in time to elite.
It would also be handy to link to foundry walkthroughs in the queue list
Or.... create your own teams of like-minded people who share your playstyle and run all the private instances you want. Zero issues with "worthless players".
I agree with you on that but lets face it due to Real Life concerns this is not always possible.
Comments
Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
What Cryptic/PWE needs:
* some sort of qualifier to be able to play Advanced or Elite queues.
Example:
- Player X successfully finishes five (5) "Normal" STF sorties. No AFK during those five, either.
- Player X is granted the ability to play "Advanced".
- Player X must now complete five (5) "Advanced" STF sorties to qualify for "Elite".
- Player X is granted the ability to play "Elite".
This means Player X must successfully complete five Normal "Borg Disconnect" before being allowed to play Advanced "Borg Disconnect".
Will that eliminate the "worthless fracks failures". No.
But it should make players more serious about jumping into the right STFs. Or seeking out PUGs.
MAKE IT SO, CRYPTIC!
Now this is a far, far better idea than the OP's.
The logic, "I don't like it so remove it" shows your inability to over come and adapt to situations.
via Imgflip Meme Generator
Totally agree.
When you pug you know the risks. If you warp out, you take the leaver penalty because you LEFT.
Except that regulars are a whole different ballgame. Running Infected, Azure, or Khitomer regular in no way prepares you for Advanced.
As I have said in other threads recently, a single player mission with a strict failure state as a qualifier could work wonders.
For instance, a single player instance that spawns a single captive Dhelan or Ha'apax with the same conditions as Azure Advanced and requires you to free it solo within 2 minutes, without dying. Dying is an instant failure, as well of course as failing to free it. I'm not sure exactly what you would do for the other STFs, but there has to be something.
Yes, I know, teamwork is also an important part of some Advanced STFs, but without some sort of votekick system, you can't really enforce that. Simply making sure that a player is physically capable of A) surviving and completing the objectives would go a long way to making advanced not suck for the rest of us.
My 2 cents.
Edit:
Beat me to it.
If you want to make sure you win one of the queues, join the channels as people have said.
Actually, having the STF's done as solo missions to tutor players prior to joining PvE queues is a great idea. Just need to add NPC's as support and the player leads the battle with help from the Mission Director.
OP has been playing for what? 10 months. He burned his way up to max rank, doesn't have any accolade boosts. Ground out all his 1337 gear, does around 10k dps on his best days. Is basically a drag on any real Advanced team he pugs with, because he just flies around pew-pewing and has never learned what the actual tactics for running STF's are. So when he gets in with a group that doesn't have some real high dps'ers who know the patterns and cover for him he freaks out cause he doesn't have the skills to pull a weak team through. Instead of doing what he can to try and work out a win, he just screams in the team chat that everyone else sucks then leaves.
It's the devs' fault. This "optional is mandatory" movement from Normal to Advanced is not well-executed. The point of "Borg Disconnected," for example, is to free Borg. The pew-pew is the distraction. Many still don't get that.
Instead of making a simple "optional is mandatory" rule, they should have reduced the number of Borg required to rescue. This trains players into the habit of focusing on the right things, instead of mindless shooting (plus, if things are optional, many tend to ignore "optional").
It's a bigger problem than removing the leaver penalty.
How about you help teach others instead of asking for something that could be used as an exploit
However, I've also been stuck in some awful matches for tiny rewards because people at Rank 50 with greens think it's appropriate to queue for Advanced, or think that they should be carried through content. Then again, I have also been in PvE missions with people who have Fleet ships and the best gear, yet are inexplicably awful.
But to leave before the game even begins because you *think* the group is gonna suck...that's NOT cool. Especially since undergeared/bad groups are probably going to fail very early on.
Some (myself included) PUG because play time is limited. Sometimes, if you have a short window to play, you just want to get in and get out. It's a bit unfair to trash this method of playing, especially when it's a feature of the game, and it worked fine pre-DR.
I agree with this. You're immediately setting up your team for failure. Not fair.
its just badly done....
soem1 is considered afk when hes done < X% of dmg of the team....
just fidn another way of detecting AFKs
Make players familiar with the STF map(s)/objectives.
Some of us spend time watching YouTube videos to beat STFs, or fine-tune their ship builds. This is mostly about the casual, regular player who isn't invested in the STF missions... and jumps into an STF, hoping to get through it, and score the goodies.
A solo qualification system is good, but it won't teach team playing. Players learn by examples. Players need to see others doing the mission, where to go, how to succeed.
Solo play won't do that, imho.
Yes, some players WILL be carried by others. C'est la vie.
Like the OP, I'm really, really, really tired of STFs where trolls cause problems, or players jump into Advanced or Elite, trying to get drops/rewards -- along with NO understanding of how to play that particular STF.
Not to mention, no clue how to play with other team members.
Ya gotta start somewhere... Might as well make the players qualify before advancing.
you should at the very least have to do normal so many times with optional being gained before you are allowed to go to a higher lvl. if you can run and complete that with optional gain then you can move up to the next lvl. etc etc. this way by the time they even reach the highest tier they will know HOW to run the mission and be used to getting the optional!!!
letting just anyone go straight to the highest lvl is just, well, for lack of a better way to put it, bad for the game.
it ticks off top tier players which is cryptic's bread and butter. You can see this fact by the thread here.
I don't know how much work it would take to make them work through lvls but it would vastly improve the game play for vets of whom i'm sure you would like to keep happy and playing.
Like this concept, however, in regards to the Borg STFs, we already have accolades that can be used to unlock the Advanced and Elite STFs for players. I can't remember which accolade is for what STF, but for example:
Each STF has an accolade for completing so many of a certain STF. Use that accolade for unlocking the next difficulty level of STF. so, player completes 50 Infected Normal, he unlocks Infected Advanced. Do this across the board.
The Silver Cross Accolade is received after completing so many STFs (all 3 STFs combined), use this to unlock all STFs of next level (after individual STF accolades for normal have been acquired) , which I believe would be Advanced. Use the Medal of Honor Accolade to unlock all Elite STFs AFTER ALL the previous accolades have been received in Normal and Advanced.
Food for thought!
Knights Of The Federation
Lose the mission timer seriously I have been in PUGs where there were new minted lvl 50 toons trying for items to get rep gear and they just couldn't do it due to both timers and the fail the optional you fail the entire thing. One Matha maxed out can't carry a team as one ship can't be everywhere. I try and help them but hey there are limits.
How about instead of buffing the hell out of mobs hit points you revamped their AI instead. I'd rather fight a "smarter" mob then be in a slug fest with a mob with a gazillion HP's and SP's armed with one shot invisa-torps.
How about fixing the Borg one shot instant kill invisible torpedo.
Institute a no reward for AFK's who ships have done zero healing, no movement or no damage in PVE missions.
Better yet scrap the entire mission revamp you made and institute the above for the PVE's that existed prior to Delta.
Face the facts Cryptic you dropped the ball big time on PVE revamp. I just glad my toons had all the Rep gear before you slapped us with Delta. I feel bad for new players who want to advance in Rep now it must feel like a nightmare trying to get the implants, ETC, for the gear.
But hey what do I know I'm just a thousand day plus gold member.
Greetings.. I hate cool-downs (CD's); I hate 24hr CD for Epohh's, 20hr CD for R&D, PvE Race, 48/72hr CD for R&D Assistance after a 48 mission time.. But I do favor reduce CD for STF's in the event of a FAIL.
IIRC, the leaver penalty is longer than the normal CD, again, IIRC. However, joining a "channel that is set up"... does not ensure success there as well. I have done successful STF's in PUGS, PublicEliteSTF and EliteSTF channels.
I've also had epic fails in all those channels as well; and for the same "assumed" reasons. I've pug'd and ran Borg Disconnected (a/n/e) with pre-mades from those channels and really wished we could team kick those "AFK'rs that sit at spawn point and not move, but yet make their selections for the drops.
With all that being said, bottom line is you are NEVER gruanteed a success regardless of PUG or Pre-Made, or Fleet Team. But, being able to kick the AFK'rs will/would hopefully send a message to that individual..
Good gaming.. have fun..
Once a player can master teh optional on Basic then up they go to advanced, and then again, in time to elite.
It would also be handy to link to foundry walkthroughs in the queue list
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I agree with you on that but lets face it due to Real Life concerns this is not always possible.