I think I'd enjoy the RTFOs much more if they removed Starbase One from it's selection. It has (almost) no CD and since it gives out all the marks without needing to participate in RTFO system, there will always be multitude of ppl queueing for it. And it's incredibly monotonous to have it as every second, or alright, maybe third map. I thought the aim for the system was to improve traffic for less played queues?
In any case, meh, they are actually fun going in with a friend or two if we have nothing else to do, but I don't see myself using this very often in solo. The average pug player in STO is just so bad that in some cases, it's pretty much impossible to carry 4 of them alone on some maps, by mission design.
it is brand new so everybody is trying it... make this thread in 3 weeks and lets see what people say then...
the pugs/noobs are going to kill this because they are not good enough to play advanced queues and after a few failed missions people will ignore this feature as there are enough private channels to get good queue groups without this system or just join a well run fleet that has playing members.
I still haven't fully failed an advanced run yet. My runs have failed a higher number of optionals than before the random system but that's it.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
After a few days in I get more and more enthusiastic about the RTFOs.
I regularly encounter a point where the 1-3 peeps I end up with in a team already did the fast popping maps or where single team members request mark types which are not well supported by the queues we have. The different skill levels of my team mates are also sometimes a hindering factor to go full premade over the DPS channels in order to do all the maps I would like. The new system steps in nicely here.
Saying that is easy for me however as I relied far less on RAs as others did so I can only feel for them what a hit in a face this must have been. It is hard to imagine that there was no compromise possible here.
But who knows, we can only speculate while cryptic has the hard data. Perhaps the PvE situation is so desolate that cryptic knew they had to terminate the RAs and even refrain from introducing a ground/space filter if RTFOs in order to get the whole concept to work. With the new season release and the need to get to T6 the request for PvE is on a general high at the moment. Lol, I even have trouble to play RTFOs as much as I want as full teams complete fast.
In short the real trial phase of RTFOs has not yet started to make a final verdict but I am very optimistic here.
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I've lost count of how many advanced randoms that I've run now. It's at least 30. Never had one fail yet and I'm getting good rewards and playing more varied content than just a few weeks ago.
Something I've noticed too is that the quality of my team members has slowly gone up. It looks like they are adapting to and learning the content as we go.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
I've lost count of how many advanced randoms that I've run now. It's at least 30. Never had one fail yet and I'm getting good rewards and playing more varied content than just a few weeks ago.
Something I've noticed too is that the quality of my team members has slowly gone up. It looks like they are adapting to and learning the content as we go.
Yeah, it is nice.
The only queue which i dread beaming into is herald sphere. Too many maps changes and one instance where you "exit" a sphere and your shields are gone which being bombarded.
Drawback is that it is "only" normal and advanced difficulty and not elite.
Especially for ground maps i would really love to see a RTFO elite.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
I've lost count of how many advanced randoms that I've run now. It's at least 30. Never had one fail yet and I'm getting good rewards and playing more varied content than just a few weeks ago.
Something I've noticed too is that the quality of my team members has slowly gone up. It looks like they are adapting to and learning the content as we go.
Total opposite for me. Since the change I have managed to complete a 1 or 2 queues despite logging in twice a day which is going to stop now that queues are ruined. All the good queues I enjoy are unplayable now or removed. None of the new episodes work either so I have spent all week trying to play but being unable to. For me this is the worst session since the game came out. I cannot think of any other change which has had such a negative impact on my ability to play and I have been around since Alpha/Beta.
The problem is, if I want to play a specific queue, this system makes it basically impossible. I queue up and wait...and wait...and wait.
That doesn't really make any sense, since the "random" system would populate that queue once enough players arrive. If you're having problems getting a queue to pop because no randoms come to fill it...well, that's just a sign the game isn't very lively, I guess.
Unless the specific queue is elite difficulty.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
ISA is part of the RTFO system and always takes 20 seconds or less to pop for me. I'm pretty sure cryptic didn't release a comprehensive list of which queues qualify. I'll need to go through one queue at a time to see which 5 man queues work.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
The problem is, if I want to play a specific queue, this system makes it basically impossible. I queue up and wait...and wait...and wait.
That doesn't really make any sense, since the "random" system would populate that queue once enough players arrive. If you're having problems getting a queue to pop because no randoms come to fill it...well, that's just a sign the game isn't very lively, I guess.
Or that the TFO isn't eligible for RTFO's. Then you're back to the old method of manual queuing, minus the population engaged with RTFO's and (more importantly) eligible queues.
Personally CCA and Fed Fleet alert have been a lot slower to pop, but I'll gladly take that with being able to play just about everything else (norm/adv) with ease.
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The problem is, if I want to play a specific queue, this system makes it basically impossible. I queue up and wait...and wait...and wait.
That doesn't really make any sense, since the "random" system would populate that queue once enough players arrive. If you're having problems getting a queue to pop because no randoms come to fill it...well, that's just a sign the game isn't very lively, I guess.
Or that the TFO isn't eligible for RTFO's. Then you're back to the old method of manual queuing, minus the population engaged with RTFO's and (more importantly) eligible queues.
Personally CCA and Fed Fleet alert have been a lot slower to pop, but I'll gladly take that with being able to play just about everything else (norm/adv) with ease.
Accept for its not that TFO isn't eligible its that RTFO isn't working as advertised. Plus making one batch of missions harder to play for no good reason isn't a good tradeoff. That's just a needlessly bad design that doesn't need to be like that.
Yeah, being one of the "I'd have no clue what to do, and be a drag on the group" people, I've no idea how this is supposed to get "average players" to do queues. Hey, you can get chucked into a situation where you've no idea what's going on, not have the right build, and constantly mess things up! And we'll give you some extra choice marks for it!
Oh, yeah. Sign me up. /s
No, as much as I could really use some extra marks to get my alts to T6, I'll just keep sleeping through Starbase 1. Safer for everyone that way.
And it just does not work...barring the couple of maps that always use to pop...like ISA and CSA and now the minefield as well. But even those take longer than it use to...not this 20 seconds you claim. My last ISA that popped from choice was over 15 min. So...yeah...the pick your own just does not work.
That just hasn't been my experience. The longest any queue took to pop was maybe 5 minutes and that was waaaay passed midnight where I live. Usually it's instant or maybe up to a minute at the very most during a reasonable time of day. When I select a normal random, it usually takes about 30 seconds or so to pop. When I select advanced random it pratically pops instantly every time.
Something else that I've noticed is if I select MULTIPLE queues it tends to take longer than if I select just one. Not sure if that means anything or even if it's real or just perceived. But I assume that selecting multiple messes with the system somehow as it may be constantly trying to group me with different amounts of random players and players that are purposely queuing up a specific STF.
Yeah, being one of the "I'd have no clue what to do, and be a drag on the group" people,
I wouldn't worry about being a "drag." You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. Sometimes you're going to fall and scrape your knee. It's just part of life and there's enough nice people around to help you out when you're new.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
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You don't get any experience from killing ships. If you want to level up your ships, better pick something that ISN'T a TFO. Unless it's just bugged for me. I've done 2 TFOs with my Reliant-Class T6 ship, and it's still at 0 xp earned.
You don't get any experience from killing ships. If you want to level up your ships, better pick something that ISN'T a TFO. Unless it's just bugged for me. I've done 2 TFOs with my Reliant-Class T6 ship, and it's still at 0 xp earned.
Apparently certain enemy groups in TFOs are coded that way because they respawn as soon as they die.
You don't get any experience from killing ships. If you want to level up your ships, better pick something that ISN'T a TFO. Unless it's just bugged for me. I've done 2 TFOs with my Reliant-Class T6 ship, and it's still at 0 xp earned.
Apparently certain enemy groups in TFOs are coded that way because they respawn as soon as they die.
Starbase 1, for example, with it's massive supply of ez-pop Klingons. They also don't drop loot.
But here is the thing, the times you claim are NOWHERE near what I am seeing. Or Pottsey.
From what I've seen, Pottsey is talking about Elite queues which are not part of RTFO. Your anecdotal evidence is just that, anecdotal. My anecdotal experience has been different but is more in line with a larger number of posters on this subject.
You have already exhibited the willingness to adore this system no matter what (which may make long waits seem smaller)...Pottsey is dead set against the system (which may make short waits seem longer). I am somewhat in the middle.
Time perception can definitely come into play. You know what they say, time flies when you're having fun. I am certainly an optimist when it comes to this system and I have enjoyed it quite well so far. I would like to see improvements made though. Mostly the reworking and inclusion of more queues, especially Colony Invasion. You claim to be in the middle and maybe you have drifted toward the middle recently but you started out in full rage/DOOM mode a couple of weeks ago so I'm not quite convinced that you're in the middle.
And more importantly, I am interested in the truth. I have literally timed these things to see. And considering the rather instant connections on the random option, there is no excuse for a map to take more than 2 min to pop if it works the way they claim it does.
It actually can make a lot of sense though your experience hasn't been the same as mine. Random players in queue isn't a bottomless pit. If more players than normal are queuing up their own individual dissimilar queues, that could quickly drain the random system of it's queued up players, especially if a higher than normal frequency of them are in 10 or 20 minute queues. If you happen to be nearly the last man who queued up your own queue but all the randoms are already in a queue, then that could temporarily leave you holding the bag. 2 minutes is believable. 15 minutes for ISA to pop? Not so believable.
Take a timer and time BHA, any undine map advanced and ATNA (why...because these maps are almost never picked in random...I get the feeling the random map "randomly" picks a map to fill...regardless of what the players do). Do this over a few days and tell me that all of them pops in under 2 min. When you have an actual timer. Otherwise what the claim ain't working as how they claim. Which makes those of us who wants to choose lose out...and lose out BIG.
That's an interesting theory. It isn't reflected in my experience though. DRSA literally never popped in the last few years. Now it actually pops and it does so quickly.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
I just did two tests. Both times I queued manually for something off-the-wall but also something I personally wanted to do. 7 of 13 needed Delta marks so I queued Bug Hunt. It took several minutes. The mission went pretty well, other than me needing to rez some of my team mates. Then I had Varan'ika do Khitomer Stasis because he didn't have the IMR accolade. It also took several minutes to start. And by "several" I mean that I had plenty of time to look for doff chains near Cardassia…. It went pretty good until we got to the part that required coordination.... two of the team bailed and we had to finish it with only three. Breaking the power nodes 2-man is annoying, but doable, especially when you can plant bombs on top of them.
You don't get any experience from killing ships. If you want to level up your ships, better pick something that ISN'T a TFO. Unless it's just bugged for me. I've done 2 TFOs with my Reliant-Class T6 ship, and it's still at 0 xp earned.
It's like @markhawkman said.
For mastery i currently recommend queuing for Undine Assault Advance (or normal ) or advanced/elite versions of Japori or Argala.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
For mastery it's argala all the way. ISA is pretty good too. Japori isn't horrible but you may as well just play argala since there's so much more XP there. And never do advanced or elite Argala. You get more XP per kill but your kills take a disproportionate amount of time vs XP reward.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
But here is the thing, the times you claim are NOWHERE near what I am seeing. Or Pottsey.
From what I've seen, Pottsey is talking about Elite queues which are not part of RTFO. Your anecdotal evidence is just that, anecdotal. My anecdotal experience has been different but is more in line with a larger number of posters on this subject.
Not just Elite and I agree with coldnapalm. While I haven’t had 15mins for an ISA I am seeing 5mins+
As I write this the timer to start Bug Hunt Advanced has hit 3mins and still going. I have had other queues hit 30min+ at which point I give up. As for Elite well I gave up even trying to start the queue for Elite anymore. This change has all but killed that part of the game.
It’s a terrible system and I feel like I have been doing nothing but wasting my time all week. If something is not changed by the 29th I am going to take a break and stop logging in twice daily and stop spending money. It really had ruined the STO experience for me. Its not helping that all the new content is broken so I have not managed to even play the game this week. Only log in and waste time. If I cannot pick and play the content I enjoy anymore there is no point logging in or spending money anymore.
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In any case, meh, they are actually fun going in with a friend or two if we have nothing else to do, but I don't see myself using this very often in solo. The average pug player in STO is just so bad that in some cases, it's pretty much impossible to carry 4 of them alone on some maps, by mission design.
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I regularly encounter a point where the 1-3 peeps I end up with in a team already did the fast popping maps or where single team members request mark types which are not well supported by the queues we have. The different skill levels of my team mates are also sometimes a hindering factor to go full premade over the DPS channels in order to do all the maps I would like. The new system steps in nicely here.
Saying that is easy for me however as I relied far less on RAs as others did so I can only feel for them what a hit in a face this must have been. It is hard to imagine that there was no compromise possible here.
But who knows, we can only speculate while cryptic has the hard data. Perhaps the PvE situation is so desolate that cryptic knew they had to terminate the RAs and even refrain from introducing a ground/space filter if RTFOs in order to get the whole concept to work. With the new season release and the need to get to T6 the request for PvE is on a general high at the moment. Lol, I even have trouble to play RTFOs as much as I want as full teams complete fast.
In short the real trial phase of RTFOs has not yet started to make a final verdict but I am very optimistic here.
Looking for a fun PvE fleet? Join us at Omega Combat Division today.
Something I've noticed too is that the quality of my team members has slowly gone up. It looks like they are adapting to and learning the content as we go.
Yeah, it is nice.
The only queue which i dread beaming into is herald sphere. Too many maps changes and one instance where you "exit" a sphere and your shields are gone which being bombarded.
Drawback is that it is "only" normal and advanced difficulty and not elite.
Especially for ground maps i would really love to see a RTFO elite.
Unless the specific queue is elite difficulty.
Or that the TFO isn't eligible for RTFO's. Then you're back to the old method of manual queuing, minus the population engaged with RTFO's and (more importantly) eligible queues.
Personally CCA and Fed Fleet alert have been a lot slower to pop, but I'll gladly take that with being able to play just about everything else (norm/adv) with ease.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
Oh, yeah. Sign me up. /s
No, as much as I could really use some extra marks to get my alts to T6, I'll just keep sleeping through Starbase 1. Safer for everyone that way.
Something else that I've noticed is if I select MULTIPLE queues it tends to take longer than if I select just one. Not sure if that means anything or even if it's real or just perceived. But I assume that selecting multiple messes with the system somehow as it may be constantly trying to group me with different amounts of random players and players that are purposely queuing up a specific STF.
I wouldn't worry about being a "drag." You have to crawl before you walk and walk before you run. Sometimes you're going to fall and scrape your knee. It's just part of life and there's enough nice people around to help you out when you're new.
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
You don't get any experience from killing ships. If you want to level up your ships, better pick something that ISN'T a TFO. Unless it's just bugged for me. I've done 2 TFOs with my Reliant-Class T6 ship, and it's still at 0 xp earned.
My character Tsin'xing
Starbase 1, for example, with it's massive supply of ez-pop Klingons. They also don't drop loot.
Time perception can definitely come into play. You know what they say, time flies when you're having fun. I am certainly an optimist when it comes to this system and I have enjoyed it quite well so far. I would like to see improvements made though. Mostly the reworking and inclusion of more queues, especially Colony Invasion. You claim to be in the middle and maybe you have drifted toward the middle recently but you started out in full rage/DOOM mode a couple of weeks ago so I'm not quite convinced that you're in the middle.
It actually can make a lot of sense though your experience hasn't been the same as mine. Random players in queue isn't a bottomless pit. If more players than normal are queuing up their own individual dissimilar queues, that could quickly drain the random system of it's queued up players, especially if a higher than normal frequency of them are in 10 or 20 minute queues. If you happen to be nearly the last man who queued up your own queue but all the randoms are already in a queue, then that could temporarily leave you holding the bag. 2 minutes is believable. 15 minutes for ISA to pop? Not so believable.
Are you really going to play the bias card considering the position that you've taken over the last few weeks?
That's an interesting theory. It isn't reflected in my experience though. DRSA literally never popped in the last few years. Now it actually pops and it does so quickly.
My character Tsin'xing
It's like @markhawkman said.
For mastery i currently recommend queuing for Undine Assault Advance (or normal ) or advanced/elite versions of Japori or Argala.
As I write this the timer to start Bug Hunt Advanced has hit 3mins and still going. I have had other queues hit 30min+ at which point I give up. As for Elite well I gave up even trying to start the queue for Elite anymore. This change has all but killed that part of the game.
It’s a terrible system and I feel like I have been doing nothing but wasting my time all week. If something is not changed by the 29th I am going to take a break and stop logging in twice daily and stop spending money. It really had ruined the STO experience for me. Its not helping that all the new content is broken so I have not managed to even play the game this week. Only log in and waste time. If I cannot pick and play the content I enjoy anymore there is no point logging in or spending money anymore.