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New feature idea - Distress call.
nuketf
Member Posts: 51 Arc User
So, we all had those times playing missions, when you die 3 - 4 times before you rage quit and take a break, well, here is a idea...
After you die say, 3 times, your coms officer says "Sir, they heavly out number us! should I send a distress call?" "Yes" "No"
If you hit no, play as normal. If you hit yes..
"Ok sir, I sent it out! Lets hope some one is out there.."
Now, say you are sitting at earth space dock, you bring up missions and there is a new tab... Distress calls.
In side this tab is every player that has an active distress call. You click on it, and warp to them, helping them in the mission!
Every time you help in a distress call, you gain some short of reword!
After you die say, 3 times, your coms officer says "Sir, they heavly out number us! should I send a distress call?" "Yes" "No"
If you hit no, play as normal. If you hit yes..
"Ok sir, I sent it out! Lets hope some one is out there.."
Now, say you are sitting at earth space dock, you bring up missions and there is a new tab... Distress calls.
In side this tab is every player that has an active distress call. You click on it, and warp to them, helping them in the mission!
Every time you help in a distress call, you gain some short of reword!
AKA, Beard of borg. Owner of the title "Should have left"
Post edited by rattler2 on
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Comments
Honestly, STO has been losing me in the past years, due to just the same thing over and over... But a system like this, I would love to hope on and help players beat a missions, wave goodbye, and help the next!
Wait... so... let me get this stright... you're tired of doing the same thing over and over again... but you want to add a "feature" that allows you to respond to someone else's call for help... so that you can do the same thing over and over again.
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I know it sounds weird, but it feels... different with a system like this.
I'm not mad at this idea.
With regards to BMR's statement, it's another thing to do at least. Repetition is MMO gameplay all over, adding another thing to repeat wouldn't be terrible, plus folk like helping folk. Plus if nobody is biting on TFOs there's not much else to do. Helping a newbie with those pesky Vaudwaar or Vorgons might be just the ticket.
A new player, in there T1 maranda, sends out a call for help... Then, out of no where there call is awnsered, and the Defient class warps in, and guns everything down in seconds! Or even more so, the Universe class warps in, towering over everything, as it blast away!
They'd probably monetize it somehow, though. Either by selling 'Distress Call Tokens' for the one needing help or 'Response Tokens' for the one wanting to help.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
I don't think so, there is a lot of content that is not monetized. Patrols, TFO, Random TFO gives you stuff for playing, to name a few.
I'm not knocking the idea, I just found what you said odd.
We can sorta do this already, though? Not in the way you describe, but any player needing help with a mission can go into chat and request help. The players team up and go into the mission together.
But what you're describing sounds awesome, though. I'd be down for it.
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i see. And yeah, it would be awesome!
Still, it's a very cool idea.. I mean there are players all around the game just running around doing nothing.. makes sense to give them the option to actually help people.
I mean helping out a newbie would give some people warm fuzzies?
It's a good idea, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Things like this usually fall into one of 2 categories..
1. We don't have time.
2. It's too hard.
Just assume it's covered by one of those, good idea though!
If it were to be implemented, probably add an off switch in the options. Some players won't want to be bothered by message spam.
In most random teams, newer players are probably happy if they get a chance to shoot anything at all. A single powerful player can easily destroy most enemies - the amount of firepower needed vs the power available is seriously out of sync.
So I doubt it's going to make things more enjoyable to less powerful players if another powerful player warps in, leaving even fewer things to shoot at.
While it sounds cool to be able to help out other players more effectively, I'm just not sure whether a feature like this would make much of a positive difference in a game like STO. Struggle seems to be too rare a feature, and power creep too much present in the game for something like this.
We definitely need more randomness though, so I certainly would like to applaud the OP for thinking about things like these.
So first up the abuse. All you would need is someone to intentionally die several times in the same spot over and over to create a distress call, then have your partner in crime answer said distress call. Rinse and repeat for desired rewards.
Now for the part that's going to have people calling me an elitist. Part of the reason why people fail so many times over and over in this game is due to user error. Either their tactics are bad and they're simply refusing to adjust said tactics, or their build is a subpar light show that looks pretty but does less DPS than many ground builds. In the game currently if folks have a basic cohesive build of items they've picked up from missions, such as mk xii very rare stuff, or even just a bunch of mk xii greens they picked up from the exchange, and proper boff powers to back up that build, they should be able to clear anything in this game on normal mode with no issues. mk xii very rare will also get you through advanced content no issues, and your foot into the door for several of the elites. Point being, there are many an instance where it's not the game, but the user themselves that is the issue.
I know folks don't want to hear that but there are times when people are running around with objectively bad builds that contribute nothing to the team save a pretty light show. Those folks have no business in advanced or elite content yet. If we want to really address issues of folks not being able to get through stuff, then there needs to be better resources for folks to go to and understand power interactions, what each skill does, what different weapons do and their firing arcs. Doesn't have to be anything insane, can be like the dungeon journal WoW uses. If you're fighting X go here, if you're fighting Y here's the abilities they have so you can plan around it. Also doesn't have to give folks the current "meta" build either, just saying "here's some advantages to using all beam arrays on a cruiser" or basic tool tips.
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So, the very first time you played STO, you never died? Day one, before digging into all the formulats and DPS tables, etc, before all that, you never died?
And, all systems can be abused, the random PVE can be abused due to 90% of the PVE's you can just park, AFK, deal damage, and go onto the next. The biggest abused system in the game is how you can transferr dill from charater to charater!
EDIT: If anything, the player would see the massive DPS the user is throwing out, with the player wanting to find out how to deal that much damage.
You're completely twisting what Dark meant. Like me, I highly doubt Dark went looking for tables and formulas to figure out what we should use and do. I've seen number of players through the years that don't build with some type of armour and healing as a basic part of being 'self-sufficient survivability' to see them through. You don't need tables and DPS charts for that, and I certainly haven't looked or even considered it. I could also go into a good number of silly things that some players just won't do that are plain common sense to do. As side what Dark says about this, this is could be abused as another form of AFK abuse if all people do is call someone into a big space battle and alt-tab into their latest 5 minute hentai fix, whilst someone else does all the work for them.
The OP's idea is a great idea, despite the potential pit-falls.
I'm so tired of seeing the "why call it an MMORPG instead of a MSORPG" argument every time someone suggests people do a little leg work for themselves in solo content to prepare for team content. Heaven forbid people actually take the time to actually read what their abilities do and farm out some basic FREE GEAR from the Episode missions before they step into team based content. How dare I suggest people actually prepare a little before stepping into team content so they're actually contributing and not just putting on a light show that does nothing. How dare I expect a minimum amount of effort from people to learn the game. As I've said elsewhere, lets suppose you have a TFO that requires everyone do a minimum of 20k DPS to clear the content. If you have 4 guys doing the 20k minimum but the 5th guy is only doing 2k, then that run is going to fail because of that 5th guy not being ready for the content yet. I'm sorry but dude doing the 2k has no business in team based content yet as they are not ready. Even if the other 4 guys in that run are doing 100k each and could carry that dude, they shouldn't have to.
The rewards you get from Episodes are meant to give you gear that you can slap on your ship and use to get into higher tiered content. You play the solo missions and get the free gear to get your foot in the door. You can then use that gear to get better or additional items you can use for your ship and work your way up the gear ladder. I will never understand why people are so opposed to having free gear given to them from missions and having to pick a few pieces of that up first, or even selling some keys and buying a cheap set of exchange mk xii gear and making sure their ducks are in a row before going into team content, save for wanting their instant gratification now.
This game isn't as complicated as people make it out to be. The only complicated bits are trying to figure out what traits and abilities you may want to utilize for your own build. If people would take the time to read what their abilities do, read what the traits do and so on, they would find very quickly most of their questions would be answered. If not then they can always ask someone who is more experienced or dare I say it do a little research on their own, GASP. You don't have to be a DPS dragon chaser to have fun.
As to where people can learn, as I've suggested plenty of times, create a dungeon journal so people can have a bunch of basic information in one place. They can read through to find answers to basic questions and so on. Won't outright say "use X Y Z on your ship for insta win" but will give them the basic info. If after they've been given better access to information, if they're still having issues then that tells me one of two things is going on. Either they may require assistance from a more experienced player (nothing wrong with that) or they're simply choosing not to learn.
With all that said, I have no problems helping people who legitimately want help and want to improve. What I will NOT do is waste my time on the lazy the expect everything handed to them. There is a difference between the two.
For the final bit which is the abuse. Let's suppose this was implemented. All someone would have to do is die a few times, put out said distress call, then have their friend or whoever show up and reap the rewards. Rinse and repeat infinitely. Point being dying shouldn't be a common thing. Yes it's going to happen sometimes depending on what you're doing, but it shouldn't be so common that this is even necessary. This would ultimately be little more than a band-aid solution that never addresses the real problem and again is like handing your older sibling the controller to beat the mission for you. Does it work yes it does, but it doesn't help you get better.
Read what I said above again and slowly. Dying should be something that's uncommon to rare. If people are dying then simply handing your controller off to your older sibling, which is what this amounts to, won't help you in the long run. If you are dying you need to step back and figure out why you're dying. Do you not have enough healing? Do you need to adjust your tactics and so on? Show me anywhere that I claimed to have never died. If/when I die in a game I don't keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. When I create a toon and started unlocking abilities I made sure to read what those abilities do and figure out how they work with other abilities. If you just run in blind button mashing you're going to have a bad day. I didn't need to look at charts, formulas or DPS tables to figure out the basics. I actually read the tooltips and paid attention to what the game was telling me. Did I get it as quickly as I would have liked, no I didn't. But point being is that I did eventually learn because I wanted to learn and get better. As I said above, I'm all for helping people who legitimately want to learn and get better. What I'm not going to do is waste my time on the lazy who simply make excuses.
Second, I'm not fond of TFOs where you can just park and AFK either as that in my book is poor design, and mechanics like that should be used VERY sparingly.
Being able to transfer dilithium from character to character is working as intended and is not an abuse. If you honestly think they would let something like dilithium transfers keep happening FOR YEARS if they thought it was an abuse, you really have no business speaking on matters of game development. I really hate to say things like that but if they considered dilithium transfers an abuse that's one of the first things they would fix.
Lastly, I can't tell you the number of threads I've seen where someone gets into a run with a high DPS person then comes onto these forums to complain after the fact demanding damage caps or something else ridiculous. I also can't tell you the number of TFOs i've been in where people will choose to just sit there doing the bare minimum in pug runs just to mooch rewards. Players in games almost ALWAYS take the path of least resistance to get to a reward. If there is 30 guys between me and an objective that aren't part of the quest, why am I going to fight those guys if I don't have to? Why am I going to fight those guys if I can just sneak past them and move on with my day?
I'm not opposed to helping folks who need it, but your proposal would simply be a band-aid without addressing WHY those players keep dying in the first place. Are they new to the game? Do they need to change tactics? Is their build subpar? Unless there is a bug going on which is completely out of their control, it's usually them being new, needing a change of tactics, or subpar build. Sorry if it makes you mad for me to say that, but I'm not going to sugar coat things either.
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depends on what I'm going into. Are you expecting to clear a Battle of Korfez with only 9k? If so you have no business in that TFO. If it's a generic normal mode TFO or certain advanced mode TFOs, not going to bother me.
As for only pulling 9k, do you have a goal of doing better and being better in the game? Are you open to improving if able to do so? As a tank I can pull 140k easily enough. I realize I am the exception and not the rule. If you are doing the minimum amount of damage as required by the TFO and doing objectives and such, I don't care who's in there. If someone is trying to come into a TFO while only doing 9k when the queue itself requires a 20k minimum, then we're going to have a problem.
As to everything else, as I said previously, I'm not opposed to helping people. What I don't do is waste time on the lazy who have no desire to improve. Dying in this game should be uncommon or even rare. If people are dying to the point that something like this would even have to be considered, this tells me there are underlying issues at play. As said previous, are they a new player? Do they need to change tactics? Is their build subpar? Is it a combination of the 3? Everyone in this game can succeed and do well if they actually try to do it. This game is about 20% gear and setup, the other 80% is piloting.
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"depends on what I'm going into. Are you expecting to clear a Battle of Korfez with only 9k? If so you have no business in that TFO. If it's a generic normal mode TFO or certain advanced mode TFOs, not going to bother me."
I mainly play random TFO, advanced.
"As for only pulling 9k, do you have a goal of doing better and being better in the game?"
I like my play style, park over an objective, turn on sentry mode, and watch the light show, as the massive universe class hovers and attacks all it can.
"Are you open to improving if able to do so? "
If it does not change my play style of being a mobile/imobile defense battle station.
"If someone is trying to come into a TFO while only doing 9k when the queue itself requires a 20k minimum, then we're going to have a problem. "
And where does random TFO say "you need this amount of DPS to play" ?
"Dying in this game should be uncommon or even rare. If people are dying to the point that something like this would even have to be considered, this tells me there are underlying issues at play."
Honesty. I though it would be a fun idea and fit the theme of star trek, ships taking to much so send out a call for help. I would love to help people with missions my self.
"What I don't do is waste time on the lazy who have no desire to improve."
Or maybe, the "lazy" like playing in a serten way. For example, I am starting to haveing fun playing as real federation. I lower the health to 50%, then i use augrment boarding party, so then, the crew is captured along with the ship - no one dies. I do hold my punches until I can get the team over there.
An other build I did, it did less then 5K, but I tested in Elite Patrol - my shield tank was able to have my ship survive me going AFK for 30 minuets, come back, and still alive. Tested vs borg, and my shields did not go down.
I am the type of player that thinks of compleatly weird play tyles and play like that. I don't care about DPS.
If I am "condescending" in this instance it's because I'm tired of seeing certain arguments every single time myself or someone else dares suggest people do a little leg work or prep work on their own to overcome issues. I'm tired of seeing certain arguments every time someone complains about having issues and I dare suggest they need to alter their build and/or tactics. I'm tired of every time people complain about difficulties in game, it's always the game's fault and NEVER that they the player are at fault. I'm tired of every time people complain about issues and people like myself or others try to help them in good faith, they throw it back in our faces and call us every name under the sun. I'm tired of those people who complain about issues then try to hide behind the "i'm just trying to have fun" excuse as to why any advice given goes in one ear and out the other. I'm tired of people who have no desire to learn and improve coming on here, whining about the game and how hard of a time they're having, then wasting the time of other people who are actually trying to help them.
Sorry but truth hurts. Sometimes people need to hear that their build is objectively bad for what they're trying to do, because sometimes it is objectively bad. Sometimes people need to hear that their tactics are bad, because sometimes their tactics are objectively bad. Sometimes people need to be told they are not ready for certain content because they're not. If a team is going into an Infected Space Elite and all the team meets the minimum DPS requirement, but the 5th guy is only pulling 2k DPS and dying every other second, I'm sorry but that guy has no business in that queue as they're not ready for that content. One day they will be but that day isn't today. Being new, having a subpar build, or having bad tactics doesn't make one a bad player. What makes one a bad player is refusing to learn and get better and overcome those issues. When people refuse to learn and get better when by their own admissions they're having issues, it wastes their time and everyone else around them, including any TFO teams unfortunate enough to get grouped with those people.
I am not now nor have I ever been opposed to people having fun, so please don't try to put words in my mouth. Part of why we play games is to have fun. One can deal great damage and survive while still having fun. One can also have a respectable amount of output that contributes to team runs while still having fun. The concepts aren't mutually exclusive. I'm all for folks having fun so long as that fun isn't at the expense of other people. Prime example is the one I gave above of the ISE and guy doing only 2k DPS. Dude isn't contributing anything to that run and is hindering his team. Finally I am not opposed to people helping other folks in this game. So long as people are willing to learn and get better and the person offering the help is genuine, it's something I'm glad to see.
What I am telling you is that while I am not opposed to this proposal on principle, I'm opposed to it because of how easy it would be to abuse, and because it doesn't address WHY those people are dying over and over to start with. This proposal is the equivalent of handing the controller over to an older sibling and asking them to beat the fight for you. Will it get you through the level in that particular instance, sure it will. But what happens if they need to play that level again and the older sibling isn't around? The older sibling isn't always going to be around to help and at some point the younger sibling is going to have to stand on their own two feet.
Lastly there is a very big thing I'm surprised none has brought up. What happens if someone goes to answer said distress call of another player, but that person can't beat it either? What happens then? Does another distress call go out? What do you do then? Ultimately this proposal would be nothing but a band-aid that never addresses the root problem of the issues to start with.
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What you say is fair enough BUT, the WAY it it is said is FAR more important. when I tried to do TFOs, and the very few times I thought I was ready for advanced, I never got some one saying, Hey, lets talk about your build/tactics/whatever. what I got was "you suck stop playing this game" "Git Gud" and don't try to tell me that doesn't happen, it does, more often than not, and I have sent screenshots to GMs and customer service over it. Thankfully a certain fleet that is no longer in the game was a large part of it but some of those "L33t" players are still out there, like some cancer waiting to strike. I like the OPs idea but it's going to talke far too many resources to implement, and any sort of reward would be exploited, and the whole mechanic could be used to do nothing but troll less capable players.
The part in bold right there is your problem. As you've done plenty of times before you're jumping to conclusions by assuming that criticism of one's build or tactics automatically means they're trying to belittle a person. Or in this case criticizing the idea. You need to understand that just because someone criticizes something it doesn't automatically mean they're belittling something or hate the person. In this instance I am criticizing the idea because it doesn't address WHY those people got into a situation to need something like this to start with. You ever hear the old saying "give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime"?
This idea is the equivalent of giving a man a fish. Sure this may help that person get past a particular encounter they've having issues with in that moment. At the same time it doesn't address WHY they found it difficult to start with. All you've done is skipped our person ahead without addressing why they needed to be skipped ahead to start with. When you step back and give people resources to know what everything does, such as a STO equivalent of a dungeon journal, that also explains some basic concepts, you give them the knowledge they can use to figure out things for themselves and in turn you get better players. Thus by addressing WHY they got stuck to start with, you've taught the person to fish and fed them for the lifetime of their STO career. To reiterate the point I am NOT, I repeat am NOT OPPOSED TO HELPING PEOPLE WHO NEED IT. I am opposed to band-aid solutions that don't address the actual problem.
As another already pointed out, putting people on the ignore list doesn't keep me from being grouped with them. As said above it has nothing to do with my standards, but everything to do with addressing the actual problem instead of applying band aid solutions.
Regardless of whether it's a single player mission or a TFO, people should have the basic performance to get through the content in a reasonable timeframe and not take 20 years to get one mission completed or die every 5 seconds. If it's team based content again they shouldn't be dying every 5 seconds and should have enough basic performance to contribute to their team. It doesn't have to be top 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the game, but if a TFO requires a minimum of 20k from everyone on the team, they should at least be able to pull that 20k.
Lastly in regards to rewards, if the goal is to help people out, you send the wrong message by offering a reward for it. Because what's going to happen is people are going to hop in, grab the rewards, then bounce. Then you're right back to square one of that person still being stuck. I've seen it plenty of times. All of this also assumes of course the person using the feature actually WANTS help and isn't just looking for someone to beat the mission for them. Point being however if you truly want to help people as you seem to indicate you want to do, then you will be far more effective by addressing WHY they would need a system like this to start with, vs applying the system as a band-aid solution.
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First up I find it funny that you try to bash me for a "wall of text" then you post one of your own by that same logic. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, single player missions, patrols, and TFOs all operate using the same mechanics and principles and invariably are linked. the only difference is in the scale various mechanics take place. If a player is having issues in normal mode episode missions they're going to have those same issues in TFOs and team based content. It's like having issues playing a guitar on your own but suddenly trying to join a band expecting that magically your issues will disappear. What I said has everything to do with what is being requested. I know full well the OP intends this to be a help to people. What I am telling you is that it's not the right kind of help. It's a band-aid solution doesn't actually address the problem. Much like putting a bucket under a leak in your roof stops the floor from getting wet, but doesn't fix the leak.
Second, get this through your head, it has NOTHING to do with folks not playing the way I do, but everything to do with actually addressing the issue of why they would need to utilize a system like this to start with. Dying should be uncommon to rare for people in this game, especially on normal mode anything. If someone is dying so much that they need a system like this, then they have some serious issues that need to be addressed. Unless the person has ran into a bug or has internet issues, dying over and over again on normal modes is 100% something they're doing/not doing. Meaning they have issues with their tactics or build, sometimes both. That doesn't make them a bad player, it means what they're doing isn't working and they need to change something.
As for your line I highlighted in bold, that is NOT what I said and I will thank you to stop trying to put words in my mouth. Quote the exact line you believe I said that. What I actually said was I have no problems helping those who need it that actually want the help. What I won't do is waste my time on the lazy who refuse to learn and get better. There is a HUGE difference between someone who wants to learn but is having a hard time grasping things, and someone who just flat out refuses to learn. The first group are people who want to improve and are trying, which I will work with as long as they need it and I'm able. The second group I have no time for because no amount of help I could give will change a thing for them.
If I display a "mistrust in other players to learn the game" did you stop to consider that maybe it's because I've been given reason to mistrust? Plenty of times I've seen people posting here on the forums talking about issues with the game, yet when folks offer help such as build changes or tactics changes, it gets thrown back in our face and they double down on blaming the game. Prime examples being the threads that come around every time Red Alert events are going on where folks complain about "DPSers killing things before I can even load in or get to a target" and wanting everyone nerfed. I've also PMed people plenty of times after TFOs when I've noticed they've had an issue staying alive and said "i noticed you seemed to have a hard time in that TFO right then, is there anything I can help you out with" only for them to throw it back in my face and call me everything but a milk cow. Just like you say you have issues with folks saying "git good", you should also have issues with people calling folks an elitist because they dared offer to help. It goes both ways.
If you enjoy helping other people and are able to get them help they need to improve, then good on you, keep doing that. The issue has never been whether any of us having issues helping folks. The issue is whether this system offers the right kind of help to address an issue.
As to the fish analogy, are you really suggesting that it's better to let people keep struggling instead of addressing why they're struggling to start with? I'll give you credit, that one actually made me sit back in my chair and do a double take. You're free to think this distress call thing is a good idea, and for that matter I'm not opposed to it in principle. If folks want to help others out in a manor like this by all means. The difference between the two of us in this instance is I would rather cure the disease vs just treating the symptoms. Giving people a resource such as a dungeon journal where they can learn different basic concepts is alot less work intensive than something like this system would ever be and is much more likely to happen than a system like this.
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