I would like to see also a more easy way to turn PVE loot into Salvage.
Now I need to click each single loot item then select Salvage from a drop down and then confirm that i want to turn loot into salvage points. Which is really al lot of unnecceary clicking and selecting for just turning loot into salvage. Like 300 user actions required to turn 100 looted items into salvage, is no fun at all.
All this could be much more easy. E.g. make it possible to select multiple items and salvage all at once. Same for copying items too banks or inventary. A multi select would be much more convenient.
Even turning items into salvage in one click would be better. But having a way to multiselect items (eg with mouse) would be my preference. Special now I temporarily only can use one hand due to an accident. Please consider this.
This. It's a small bonus that introduces a core feature of many queue systems. Ie. game-directed random choice breaking up the one or two fan favorites that would otherwise dominate the system.
Except NW does it better, from what I heard from a friend. You don't get RNG rewards, and you have 1 random for each difficulty tier.
I like this, and is similar to what I've been hoping for. I'm shaking my head at those who think the extra reward is not enough or it's more 'RNG'. The extra rewards are instantly better/superior than what you would get in a RA in ANY case, and whilst adding even more incentive would be nice, it would further devalue rewards and the call for 'more rewards' would ensue.
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> @allyoftheforce said: > Ugh, why? RNG is awful. I won't be participating in it. You do realize people avoid certain content because they just don't care or want to? I'll live with waiting in a QUEUE for my chosen content to start. Even if it is several minutes.
I try to avoid Crystalline because I’m just absolutely tired of it.
Besides the rewards, nothing really changes with the “randomness. “. I can join all queues and whatever ends up coming up, is random. The TFOs are still the same old content.
What's more exciting than new content presented to you by the major of Quahog? Seriously, drop some random equipment rewards to the prizes, and I'm sold. Well, I'm really sold already.
This. It's a small bonus that introduces a core feature of many queue systems. Ie. game-directed random choice breaking up the one or two fan favorites that would otherwise dominate the system.
Except NW does it better, from what I heard from a friend. You don't get RNG rewards, and you have 1 random for each difficulty tier.
What's the issue with an RNG reward? If it's just that you want consistency consider it by an average calculation or expect the minimum and take any higher role as an unexpected bonus (introducing an extra iota of spontaneity being the point of introducing a random box over a flat reward. Same function either way but the former has a much greater chance at penetrating the player's awareness by occasionally surprising them at no effective cost [since Cryptic will have balanced this according to a mean-expected-winnings calculation.])
As for difficulty tiers: from what I've played of Neverwinter, the game opens up a selection of PVE's with each leveling block, accompanied by a random playlist. These aren't analogous to our difficulty levels (ex. Normal, Advanced, Elite), more rank. Because STO doesn't have that same carefully set PVE structure (ours are mostly end-game) it can't mimic the exact setup Neverwinter has. I also don't think this will change sufficiently with introducing a few TFO's into the leveling path (in AoD) to allow for tiered playlists, given the sheer volume of end game TFO's that couldn't be sensibly placed into earlier arcs (the system would still be lopsided.)
Thus, our matchmaking system (using the industry wide term for this sort of thing) will probably have a larger pool to pull from. That reduces the player's ability to tailor their matchmaking search to their specific preferences but that's an interest already satisfied by picking what you want in the first place. It's also part of the problem any matchmaking system tries to address (ie. fan favorites becoming too dominant.) I don't think we need subcategories to re-introduce population disparity into a feature designed to address that in some way. Ground TFO, Space TFO, Either TFO would seem to cover the bases [with queues included being automatically updated with your rank].
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"we have decided to retire the rather bland moniker of “queue” to describe our PvE group content. Instead, we are going to begin calling them by the term “Task Force Operations"
This is the kind of no-change change that sets my teeth to itching. Like you're doing us a favor. Like changing B.C. to B.C.E. but it still uses the same zero point! Not sure what was wrong with STFs. I hope you did a google search on TFO & RTFO before choosing it... unlike the makers of Discovery.
Once opted into the Random system, players are first matched up with unfilled TFOs that other players have manually selected, on a first-come-first-served basis.
So will still hit Borg RA and CCA first on my first 2 queue ups...
So Cryptic has given up on finding a way to get players to choose old/'not worth it' content. I will sit in the most horrible queue all by myself and wait for my four victims teammates!
What's more exciting than new content presented to you by the major of Quahog? Seriously, drop some random equipment rewards to the prizes, and I'm sold. Well, I'm really sold already.
But that's all covered through the rep system. Donate marks you get from playing TFO's, get a random equipment piece tailored to that rep as a prize through the hourly project.
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I like the idea a lot, in principle. Like nearly everyone else here, tho, I agree that mixing space and ground will make this a detriment, rather than a feature, as things are.
Like many above said, the lack of an auto-switch between ground and space builds makes character setups exclusive to one or the other. You can't even change your specializations during the wait timer at the start of a mission. This gives you a 50% chance of entering a match that you are not prepared for.
Beyond that, you'll be damaging the regular queing system, as people will sometimes be dropped into a match that you specifically qued for, without a proper setup.
I like the idea of mixed ques, but first we need a system that saves ground and space setups. Realistically, the only thing that NEEDS to have this feature added is specializations, everything else is separate already. While active reputation is something that often gets switched out between ground and space, I think having to choose just four (or five, if you spring for it) total would be an interesting challenge. I CANNOT say the same for specialization.
These mixed ques are a really, really good idea. You just need to go that one extra step to make it viable.
Looks like cryptic has finally accepted the fact that their queue system is in desperate need of attention.
I don't think that taking everyone that has chosen their particular queue event to be randomly thrown in a big pot and told exactly what mission they will be participating in.
And this leaves the door open for one major flaw, greed, not everyone is going to want to participate in an event that will give them less reward than another event of a higher level.
So most players will opt in for the higher level tier just so they can get the better reward but have no idea on how to do the mission which will then put a level of frustration to those players looking for a good challenge.
WOW, a good challenge.
Let's be honest most players join the queue so they can Farm the very precious currency in the game, which would be dilithium and Marks that can be converted into dilithium.
Most players that grind want to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible without the annoying frustration of having to deal with a player that's going to turn a simple 2 to 10-minute run into a frustrating 15 to 25 minute endless marathon.
I know the first thing most people in the Forum will say, well, just explain the mission to them.
Which is not a bad idea, however, I used to do that all the time until I realized that I was doing it all the time and it stopped being fun and more of a chore and it rolled into a level of frustration to have to keep putting up my wallet text to explain something they should already know seeing as there is and easier level of the same exact mission so they can practice on and get familiar with.
Well, I guess what I'm really trying to say is, "This might not be such a good idea."
it needs rewards other than a mark box and dilithium, its own special currency for items that can only be obtained from doing the randon ques, or perhaps 1 lobi per que, otherwise if its marks and dill ppl are after they will do CCA on their toons/alts back to back,
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What excites you, or makes you anxious, about the prospect of opting into Randomized content, and why?
Which existing TFOs do you hope see more play time under this system, and why?
Which existing TFOs would you consider yourself ‘unlucky’ to be placed in, and why?
Amount of bonus is RNG. Disappointed initially, but perhaps the chance for a higher reward will encourage use of the system.
Player attitudes on advanced runs if placed in a queue you may be a bit rusty at. Mixed feelings as actual player participation in some queues seems the exact opposite (entirely optional) so this may be just performance anxiety on my part.
Being placed in a space or ground queue. Adaptation and quick gear/weapon switching are an almost forgotten art. A positive aspect of randomness (the unknown). Excellent.
I love the idea but forcing ground AND space into the randomizer kills it for me. I've yet to try a ground queue I actually liked so I dont bother with those.. plus most of them require the team to know what they're doing or it goes to hell fast.
Suggestion:
3 random buttons, random space, random ground, random mixed
Probably will pass on this. The rewards aren't remotely enough to get me to click on random-queue-I-will-almost-certainly-hate, instead of just queuing for the queue I like doing.
Also, as others have said, lumping space and ground into the same rng is just bad, like stupid bad....
- ground and space should not be mixed: many people hate it and suck at ground ... badly
- random reward; i know this is sto thing but it sucks. before we start working you know usually how you will be payed. I want to know that in what invest my time gonna pay off and not do gambling
- rewards are a JOKE; chances are there are more odds to get the low reward rather the the epic or ultra one. And what ? i should waste hours doing ques i don't like so that hopefully i get something better ? NO. Some people might be fooled by this a couple of days but they will soon realize this is just bait and nothing more.
Rewards should start from 2000 dil OR 120 marks if you gonna make me cover for this game lack of players and player interest due to the lackluster rewards ques give. If i am spending most of my time in ques who is gonna give me that dil ? who is gonna grind for me ?
Last and the most important: WE NEED FUN AND REWARDING ENDGAME CONTENT not a trick to replay the same old things.
This is a good start but if you want things to move you need to understand players need more imho.
It looks good, although the whole naming thing seems rather symbolic and of little added value. People are likely going to keep naming them queues because that's what they will still be.
I would seriously reconsider mixing ground and space content though. If you don't know whether you will be playing a ground or space queue, you don't know which spec trees to activate.
First of all, please add this for elite TFOs, too. I avoid advanced space other than during events because advanced space is way too easy with a well developed toon. Not only is a face roll for me, but I'm sure I annoy some people by making the content too easy for the overall team, as well.
It is hard enough to get enough people in the elites. With this system, random advanced rewards will be better than elite rewards, which will take much of the motivation away from people to play elites.
As a corollary to this request, please separate ground and space for elites, at least. I have toons that do 100K+ dps in space, but have mk12 ground gear. they clearly belong in elite space but only advanced ground.
i hate when mission bug up and can't be completed. I suggest you add a "Vote to Leave" option for when something like that happens, so the group can vote to leave the mission and NOT get the Deserter Debuff.
Rather than having the Bonus Rewards be random, how about having them escalate on subsequent runs? In other words, the first Random TFO of the day rewards a Common bonus, the next Uncommon, and so forth. This should encourage people to keep choosing random TFOs. Have the Bonus escalation reset on the standard 20-hour timer. I'm thinking maybe the bonus escalation should be account-wide, so it doesn't matter which character you play as long as you play more than once per day.
I also agree with others that you should be able to filter which TFOs you are queued for by region (Ground, Space, Both) and difficulty (Normal, Advanced, Elite).
What's more exciting than new content presented to you by the major of Quahog? Seriously, drop some random equipment rewards to the prizes, and I'm sold. Well, I'm really sold already.
With you on this one, but I was just going to mention that I saw nothing in the Article about R&D box rewards in the mix too.
To everyone bringing up Neverwinter and how they have it and it works over there all I can say is that you either do not play the game or never go near the forum, or you'd know that the RQ system over there is the number one most hated feature in that game. The only reason it sees any use is that it's really the only way to earn rAD (raw dil) outside of Ravenloft hunts that doesn't take forever.
And honestly, after you get past a certain IL dropping the RQ, simply queuing for what you want and then get rAD from salvage is a far more efficient way to go about it.
I don't touch it over there and I doubt I will on here either unless they nerf every other way I earn dil severely. The rewards aren't enough for me to hassle with queues I normally wouldn't touch and I don't do space queues except with a premade team or if I absolutely cannot avoid it for some reason. *sideeyes The Swarm* Reason I still haven't done the Gamma rep, bad flashbacks to Gateway to Gre'thor, but at least that one had a modicum of tactic in it. This one is just so much pewpew.
I suppose it means - if others feel differently - that I don't have to wait two hours for some of my favorite queues to pop. But I fear that like in Neverwinter it'd only mean dealing with a ton of afk people, or just have people straight up leave content hey don't want. Which is fine, I can solo most of these queues anyway if the game would let me.
Actually that brings me to a change I'd much rather see. Bring back the option to private queue for something with less than a full team. If I want to do Infected Ground solo why can't I do that? Or two man it with a friend? If you allowed for that this change really wouldn't be necessary, so maybe bring that back instead of this nonsense?
Not aiming at you Kael, not trying to shoot you. You're just the messenger. But nah, hard pass for me on this.
One question though. Why on earth isn't Gamma Battlezone matches included in this? They're as dead as most queues and could do with an influx, especially as the only alternative to earning Gamma marks is The Swarm, which is just a dumbed down version of Gateway to Gre'thor. So much so I keep thinking Odo is going to say "Shipyard troop transport are beginning their run to the planet".
Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end of it.
And this leaves the door open for one major flaw, greed, not everyone is going to want to participate in an event that will give them less reward than another event of a higher level.
So most players will opt in for the higher level tier just so they can get the better reward but have no idea on how to do the mission which will then put a level of frustration to those players looking for a good challenge. "
What's the difference to now, Advanced STF's are full of people that can't kill the NPC's in it the best example is ISA.
As long as there is no system in place that would stop them from entering content that is to high for them this will be an ongoing problem.
I remember to have heard about a mechanic in S13 that could have helped with this but I am not sure if it was ever deployed.
I also agree with separating out space and ground, especially for advanced.
I disagree with fixed but escalating rewards, since that will push us to grind more than we want to, then people will whine about "TFO fatigue." The lottery ticket approach is better for casual play where you only feel like doing one TFO today not 6.
The bonus per TFO approach is nicer than other MMOs where they make you do several queues before getting any bonus.
People are looking at the "only" 60 marks the wrong way. If you do one Borg Red Alert you get a tiny amount of marks (15) + the daily bonus bonus, for a total of 65. If you do one TFO you get the normal queue marks + daily bonus + TFO bonus. Unlike red alerts, If you're grinding marks for a piece of gear the TFO then gives you a decent reward of the same marks for a second queue.
Comments
I would like to see also a more easy way to turn PVE loot into Salvage.
Now I need to click each single loot item then select Salvage from a drop down and then confirm that i want to turn loot into salvage points. Which is really al lot of unnecceary clicking and selecting for just turning loot into salvage. Like 300 user actions required to turn 100 looted items into salvage, is no fun at all.
All this could be much more easy. E.g. make it possible to select multiple items and salvage all at once. Same for copying items too banks or inventary. A multi select would be much more convenient.
Even turning items into salvage in one click would be better. But having a way to multiselect items (eg with mouse) would be my preference. Special now I temporarily only can use one hand due to an accident. Please consider this.
Except NW does it better, from what I heard from a friend. You don't get RNG rewards, and you have 1 random for each difficulty tier.
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> Ugh, why? RNG is awful. I won't be participating in it. You do realize people avoid certain content because they just don't care or want to? I'll live with waiting in a QUEUE for my chosen content to start. Even if it is several minutes.
I try to avoid Crystalline because I’m just absolutely tired of it.
Besides the rewards, nothing really changes with the “randomness. “. I can join all queues and whatever ends up coming up, is random. The TFOs are still the same old content.
What's the issue with an RNG reward? If it's just that you want consistency consider it by an average calculation or expect the minimum and take any higher role as an unexpected bonus (introducing an extra iota of spontaneity being the point of introducing a random box over a flat reward. Same function either way but the former has a much greater chance at penetrating the player's awareness by occasionally surprising them at no effective cost [since Cryptic will have balanced this according to a mean-expected-winnings calculation.])
As for difficulty tiers: from what I've played of Neverwinter, the game opens up a selection of PVE's with each leveling block, accompanied by a random playlist. These aren't analogous to our difficulty levels (ex. Normal, Advanced, Elite), more rank. Because STO doesn't have that same carefully set PVE structure (ours are mostly end-game) it can't mimic the exact setup Neverwinter has. I also don't think this will change sufficiently with introducing a few TFO's into the leveling path (in AoD) to allow for tiered playlists, given the sheer volume of end game TFO's that couldn't be sensibly placed into earlier arcs (the system would still be lopsided.)
Thus, our matchmaking system (using the industry wide term for this sort of thing) will probably have a larger pool to pull from. That reduces the player's ability to tailor their matchmaking search to their specific preferences but that's an interest already satisfied by picking what you want in the first place. It's also part of the problem any matchmaking system tries to address (ie. fan favorites becoming too dominant.) I don't think we need subcategories to re-introduce population disparity into a feature designed to address that in some way. Ground TFO, Space TFO, Either TFO would seem to cover the bases [with queues included being automatically updated with your rank].
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Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
This is the kind of no-change change that sets my teeth to itching. Like you're doing us a favor. Like changing B.C. to B.C.E. but it still uses the same zero point! Not sure what was wrong with STFs. I hope you did a google search on TFO & RTFO before choosing it... unlike the makers of Discovery.
Once opted into the Random system, players are first matched up with unfilled TFOs that other players have manually selected, on a first-come-first-served basis.
So will still hit Borg RA and CCA first on my first 2 queue ups...
So Cryptic has given up on finding a way to get players to choose old/'not worth it' content. I will sit in the most horrible queue all by myself and wait for my four victims teammates!
Also, why not go a step further and make an RTFO Reputation (with a better name, of course).
But that's all covered through the rep system. Donate marks you get from playing TFO's, get a random equipment piece tailored to that rep as a prize through the hourly project.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
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Like many above said, the lack of an auto-switch between ground and space builds makes character setups exclusive to one or the other. You can't even change your specializations during the wait timer at the start of a mission. This gives you a 50% chance of entering a match that you are not prepared for.
Beyond that, you'll be damaging the regular queing system, as people will sometimes be dropped into a match that you specifically qued for, without a proper setup.
I like the idea of mixed ques, but first we need a system that saves ground and space setups. Realistically, the only thing that NEEDS to have this feature added is specializations, everything else is separate already. While active reputation is something that often gets switched out between ground and space, I think having to choose just four (or five, if you spring for it) total would be an interesting challenge. I CANNOT say the same for specialization.
These mixed ques are a really, really good idea. You just need to go that one extra step to make it viable.
Looks like cryptic has finally accepted the fact that their queue system is in desperate need of attention.
I don't think that taking everyone that has chosen their particular queue event to be randomly thrown in a big pot and told exactly what mission they will be participating in.
And this leaves the door open for one major flaw, greed, not everyone is going to want to participate in an event that will give them less reward than another event of a higher level.
So most players will opt in for the higher level tier just so they can get the better reward but have no idea on how to do the mission which will then put a level of frustration to those players looking for a good challenge.
WOW, a good challenge.
Let's be honest most players join the queue so they can Farm the very precious currency in the game, which would be dilithium and Marks that can be converted into dilithium.
Most players that grind want to do it as quickly and painlessly as possible without the annoying frustration of having to deal with a player that's going to turn a simple 2 to 10-minute run into a frustrating 15 to 25 minute endless marathon.
I know the first thing most people in the Forum will say, well, just explain the mission to them.
Which is not a bad idea, however, I used to do that all the time until I realized that I was doing it all the time and it stopped being fun and more of a chore and it rolled into a level of frustration to have to keep putting up my wallet text to explain something they should already know seeing as there is and easier level of the same exact mission so they can practice on and get familiar with.
Well, I guess what I'm really trying to say is, "This might not be such a good idea."
PWE ARC Drone says: "Your STO forum community as you have known it is ended...Display names are irrelevant...Any further sense of community is irrelevant...Resistance is futile...You will be assimilated..."
Suggestion:
3 random buttons, random space, random ground, random mixed
Also, as others have said, lumping space and ground into the same rng is just bad, like stupid bad....
- ground and space should not be mixed: many people hate it and suck at ground ... badly
- random reward; i know this is sto thing but it sucks. before we start working you know usually how you will be payed. I want to know that in what invest my time gonna pay off and not do gambling
- rewards are a JOKE; chances are there are more odds to get the low reward rather the the epic or ultra one. And what ? i should waste hours doing ques i don't like so that hopefully i get something better ? NO. Some people might be fooled by this a couple of days but they will soon realize this is just bait and nothing more.
Rewards should start from 2000 dil OR 120 marks if you gonna make me cover for this game lack of players and player interest due to the lackluster rewards ques give. If i am spending most of my time in ques who is gonna give me that dil ? who is gonna grind for me ?
Last and the most important: WE NEED FUN AND REWARDING ENDGAME CONTENT not a trick to replay the same old things.
This is a good start but if you want things to move you need to understand players need more imho.
I would seriously reconsider mixing ground and space content though. If you don't know whether you will be playing a ground or space queue, you don't know which spec trees to activate.
It is hard enough to get enough people in the elites. With this system, random advanced rewards will be better than elite rewards, which will take much of the motivation away from people to play elites.
As a corollary to this request, please separate ground and space for elites, at least. I have toons that do 100K+ dps in space, but have mk12 ground gear. they clearly belong in elite space but only advanced ground.
I also agree with others that you should be able to filter which TFOs you are queued for by region (Ground, Space, Both) and difficulty (Normal, Advanced, Elite).
With you on this one, but I was just going to mention that I saw nothing in the Article about R&D box rewards in the mix too.
And honestly, after you get past a certain IL dropping the RQ, simply queuing for what you want and then get rAD from salvage is a far more efficient way to go about it.
I don't touch it over there and I doubt I will on here either unless they nerf every other way I earn dil severely. The rewards aren't enough for me to hassle with queues I normally wouldn't touch and I don't do space queues except with a premade team or if I absolutely cannot avoid it for some reason. *sideeyes The Swarm* Reason I still haven't done the Gamma rep, bad flashbacks to Gateway to Gre'thor, but at least that one had a modicum of tactic in it. This one is just so much pewpew.
I suppose it means - if others feel differently - that I don't have to wait two hours for some of my favorite queues to pop. But I fear that like in Neverwinter it'd only mean dealing with a ton of afk people, or just have people straight up leave content hey don't want. Which is fine, I can solo most of these queues anyway if the game would let me.
Actually that brings me to a change I'd much rather see. Bring back the option to private queue for something with less than a full team. If I want to do Infected Ground solo why can't I do that? Or two man it with a friend? If you allowed for that this change really wouldn't be necessary, so maybe bring that back instead of this nonsense?
Not aiming at you Kael, not trying to shoot you. You're just the messenger. But nah, hard pass for me on this.
One question though. Why on earth isn't Gamma Battlezone matches included in this? They're as dead as most queues and could do with an influx, especially as the only alternative to earning Gamma marks is The Swarm, which is just a dumbed down version of Gateway to Gre'thor. So much so I keep thinking Odo is going to say "Shipyard troop transport are beginning their run to the planet".
What's the difference to now, Advanced STF's are full of people that can't kill the NPC's in it the best example is ISA.
As long as there is no system in place that would stop them from entering content that is to high for them this will be an ongoing problem.
I remember to have heard about a mechanic in S13 that could have helped with this but I am not sure if it was ever deployed.
I disagree with fixed but escalating rewards, since that will push us to grind more than we want to, then people will whine about "TFO fatigue." The lottery ticket approach is better for casual play where you only feel like doing one TFO today not 6.
The bonus per TFO approach is nicer than other MMOs where they make you do several queues before getting any bonus.
People are looking at the "only" 60 marks the wrong way. If you do one Borg Red Alert you get a tiny amount of marks (15) + the daily bonus bonus, for a total of 65. If you do one TFO you get the normal queue marks + daily bonus + TFO bonus. Unlike red alerts, If you're grinding marks for a piece of gear the TFO then gives you a decent reward of the same marks for a second queue.