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Should there be fewer PVE queues at endgame?
sophlogimo
Member Posts: 6,507 Arc User
Most queues are empty these days, not because the game isn't played, but because most who play public queues play a select few of them.
So, in order to fix this, how about this: They remove the oldest queues from the public queue list (but keep them in the private queue options!), and thus nudge the playerbase to move on to the newer content. What do you think, why, and what alternative solution would you propose?
So, in order to fix this, how about this: They remove the oldest queues from the public queue list (but keep them in the private queue options!), and thus nudge the playerbase to move on to the newer content. What do you think, why, and what alternative solution would you propose?
Remember, STO is nothing but a cosmetics game, where only the rule of cool matters. The game mechanics are intentionally out of balance, don't try to "optimize" anything, as it would just frustrate you.
Should there be fewer PVE queues at endgame? 58 votes
YES!
24%
14 votes
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
53%
31 votes
I don't care.
5%
3 votes
I have a better idea! (Explained below.)
17%
10 votes
0
Comments
There are reasons why many queues were pretty much abandoned by the mass (badly designed, abysmal rewards, bugs, etc.) but just cutting them neither improves the overall situation nor any other of the game's aspect. "Fixing" them would but that's not gonna happen as that would take time and cost money for cryptic.
If the aim of this poll is to find out means to populate PvE maps better the effort/reward ratio needs to be looked at. It needs to be looked at on a map by map basis. There is a reason why during a CC event 200 players can be found doing it while The Breach only attracts 20. Every map has its price, no matter how boring it is designed.
A more radical solution would be to revert to the conditions we had a few years ago. Eliminate all Dil rewards from everywhere in game except for PvE queued maps and they will shine with 200 peeps each. Keep Dil for doffing and admiralty to keep alting viable but other than that make it a queue exclusive reward.
I could also live with it if public matches would reward more Dil than private ones do.
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However, why would one do The Herald Sphere if Brotherhood gives more marks, takes less time to complete and is easier to do (especially when you team up with a competent friend).
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For all the queues which have a normal and advanced version, remove the normal version.
People should also not be allowed to queue if they have injuries and their rewards in queues should be lowered (up to 50%) if they do not heal injuries during a queue.
Don't remove content, rather make the dead queues more appealing to players.
It's been suggested a bazillion times on here for the last 2+ years, what is needed is some way to add incentive for the players to run a variety of content rather than just spamming ISA all day long like some sort of drug addict who can't kick a habit.
There is more queued content in this game than you could possibly play in one 12hr period if people actually bothered to look beyond their own DPS measuring stick.
Add in something akin to the old hourly events, but adjusted slightly to be more open to as many people as possible:
Have a rotating random selection of queues (at least one of each difficulty and at least one ground + one space) that offer double or even triple rewards for a set period of time (e.g. a weekend).
The exact queues picked will be determined by the game counting up participation in the previous week's/month's plays of all queues and picking the least well played ones.
The same queue should not appear more than once within a set time period, as the aim of the game is to add in variety.
Maybe even add in a bonus reward for the first play of each of the chosen queues that can be earned once per weekly event?
If having massive rewards for trying different missions doesn't entice people then i'm at a loss really. People constantly use the time:reward ratio as rationale for doing ISA or CCA so if another queue take longer but for a week gives double the rewards of ISA then that's gotta could for something?
Anyway the main problems with the queues at the moment as I see them are (in no particular order):
1) Effort/Risk/Reward balance for many queues is out of balance - as said above why do a queue that takes 15 minutes, when you can hope on CCA and get an equally good reward (or better in some cases) and be finished in 2 minutes.
2) Time gating of some newer queues is just awful and makes the maps boring as you sit around doing very little that keeps you interested. And that's before the prime example of Mirror Invasion normal where you can beat all the terrans and the map just sits there counting down with absolutely nothing to do but doffing and admiralty.
3) Start sizes for queues should be relaxed, I suspect at this point many queues could be completed by typical pugs with less than 5 players, so why not let queues start with smaller teams and allow people to join to make up the numbers early on. Same with the 20 man queues, many of them (Klingon Scout Force/Big Dig could easily be done with 5 players).
4) Being limited to queuing up for 3 queues (in the public queues) anyway probably doesn't help either as everyone is going to gravitate towards the ones most liable to start rather than chance the less the less common ones and sitting around for ages.
I also think there's a general issue with what do I do with the rewards issue once you've maxed out reps and got all the gear, at that point the only reason for running queues seems to be the dilithium and marks for converting to dilithium which makes the differentiation between queue types pretty much meaningless.
Now don't get me wrong, I like running different queues just for keeping variation and limiting boredom. But that's challenging when it seems to be the same queues which start all the time.
That means numerical rewards scaled to average completion time, with a multiplier for actual difficulty (win/fail ratio) and/or unique rewards added to each queue that can't be acquired anywhere else. The game currently does neither, so everyone just spams whatever's the easiest and fastest (CCA/ISA).
Also, having some decent cooldowns (30min is a bad joke) wouldn't hurt either.
I disagree with your opinion and "attitude" displayed in this post. This is a video game it is played for fun .
People have fun in differnt ways calling a group lazy because they dont enjoy the things you mentioned shows a intolerant and elitist attitude IMO
It would improve things greatly if they all at least has a single player option. Also every time i see a Puzzle" in a game personally get irritated and look at google for the solution's.
I disagree with the very principle of this concept in video games in general ....again everyone has there own definition of fun as it stands it irritates me I am forced to play in advanced ques to get certain items required for rep projects,
Again as i said above if someone has "fun" taking the "low effort" option they should not be discriminated against when it comes to reward.
Problem solved.
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
This poll is a joke, right?
You do realize that most of the pve queues are no longer even IN THE GAME anymore?!
What's here now are just the left-overs.
When they install the new addition on the 26th(?) of January, then other pve queues will most likely be removed.
This is standard practice with Cryptic/STO.
Keep removing the others, and soon none will be left.
I'm only saying this, since the OP seems ill-informed...
They remove the old queues to allow for room for the new ones, due to a finite amount of space alloted to the servers. There are other considerations, but that seems to be the main one with any of the queues.
Nice Idea. While I’m generally opposed to remove content reducing the available difficulties a bit might actually be a good idea. We only had two settings pre DR. Two setting would be sufficient now as well and funnel the whole list a bit.
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I prefer a rotating bonus reward system. Each week, they pick one ground and one space queue and set it as Featured Queue.
If you complete a Featured Queue, you get +50 % Dilithium and bonus marks and a choice of marks instead of the usual mark options. On top, once per day ( or once per 20 hours) you get a Featured Queue Token.
The Featured Queue Token can be used to purchase stuff:
Still waiting to be able to use forum titles
Having said that, no, I see no point having less PvE queues, as you, the player, can always choose yourself to play less of them if you want to.
While I agree with your assessment in principle, I take exception to your characterization of players in PUGS being 'lazy.' For 2 major reasons:
* People want the best awards for the least amount of trouble. But that is not lazy: it's seeking the optimum. In the same manner that people don't purposely gimp their builds, to make it harder on themselves, just so as to not appear 'lazy.' Optimum seeking is completely natural. In fact, I could make a cogent case arguing that NOT seeking the optimum is contra-productive, unnatural, and, in certain cases, downright masochistic even.
Ultimately, it's up to Cryptic to balance rewards. If a mission is easier, it should pay out less. But I don't think it's fair to blame the players for gravitating towards the easier ones, any more than it's fair to blame someone for taking a $100,000 paying job, for a mere 20 hours work a week, over a $50,000 one, doing a full 40 hours.
* STO is essentially a single-player game (despite it being called an MMO). You may, or may not, get good team mates, but you're not guaranteed a good team in a PUG. So, again, it's not really fair to blame puggers for avoiding public queues that have a high risk of failing.
That's a good prize system. All cryptic need do is look at lotro. Before introducing the featured instances (which change weekly) there was almost zero pugging except for 1 mission. Now you can get a group in a minute or two. Here it would be instant.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I'm going to bring up FFXIV's system a bit because I think it is really great. First of all though, for nearly all the small group content, it is required that you do it as part of the story missions or you cannot advance the story and take place in end-game content. For this reason, it is incentivized for high level players to run it. They get bonus currencies for running it. They took the queues and combined them into about 3 different "brackets" that you can run a random one daily for a bonus. Then, as newer players come in and que for a specific dungeon that they need to advance their story, max level players are randomly assigned and get a bonus not only for running their daily random, but an additional bonus for running with a "first-time player."
It's quite an elegant system IMO as it does not force anything but heavily encourages vets to help out noobs. So no, I do not think content should be removed from the game at all. It should simply be incentivized with bonus currency to keep it relevant.
Sounds interesting. Such a thing would work in STO as well if they’d just decide to pay out more in public queues than on the same maps when run with a private group. That way Geko would also have to be concerned less about elite groups grabbing too much reward in too fast.
I could not only live with such a thing, as a pugger I’d basically love such a thing! Helping out new players would be one side of the medal, a challenging run for the veterans would be the other.
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