21 replies to this topic

[Khalcruth]

I have the same question as a couple of other people -

If things stay the same as they are right now, where are Units supposed to recruit from?

It seems to me, the best way for a unitless person (say, Fred) to decide if they want to join a unit and play in Faction Warfare with that unit (say, the Way Cool Kids) is to play some games with people from the Way Cool Kids. Theoretically, that should let Fred decide if he likes playing with the Way Cool Kids, and it lets the Way Cool Kids decide if they like Fred enough to invite him into their unit.

But I don't understand how, in the current system, that's ever supposed to happen. How does Fred ever meet any of the Way Cool Kids in the first place?

Fred can't meet any of them in Faction Warfare - he's prevented from playing with them. It used to be that he could join up with a 10 man group of the Way Cool Kids and get to know them that way, but that's no longer possible.

Fred can't meet them in the Group Queue of Quick Play - they could invite him to play with him in a group if they already knew him, but he can't initially meet any of them that way, because he's barred from just jumping into that Queue by himself.

Fred could randomly meet people in the Way Cool Kids unit in the Quick Play Solo Queue. But this seems very unlikely - unless they're a really big unit, he's unlikely to ever see more than one of them at a time, and it could go for a very long time before he saw any of them more than once.

The only thing I can see working right now is
- Fred creates his own one man unit (say, the Lonely Kid)
- Fred drops in the Group Queue of Faction Warfare with several members of the Way Cool Kids
- Fred communicates that he isn't really a Lonely Kid member, and is interested in joining the Way Cool Kids
- at some point Fred disbands the Lonely Kid one man unit and joins the Way Cool Kids

Is that really what PGI intended with separating the solo and unit queues?

For the record, how I ended up with the unit I joined - I played Faction Warfare a few times, and got stomped by people who were grouped up (specifically, on teamspeak). I noticed that if I wanted to play Faction Warfare enjoyably, I needed to be grouped up and coordinated, too. So I went to the Steiner teamspeak hub, and started grouping up with people there. My enjoyment of Faction Warfare increased dramatically. Eventually, I played with people in a particular unit a lot, and then joined that unit.

I just don't see how that is ever going to happen again for new players, though. If I had been barred from playing with my unit in Faction Warfare (because they were in a unit already, and I did not have a unit yet), I never would have met any of them.

Edited by Khalcruth, 22 April 2016 - 11:49 AM.

[Chemie]

also, Fred has to pay 10MM CB fee to get the invite from that unit (if he does find it).

[HighTest]

Beats me. I'm not entirely sure that some of these queue-splitting maneuvers were very well thought-out...

[Count Zero 74]

If he found an interesting unit he makes his own 1 man unit joins their faction and then drops with them.
After a few weeks if he likes them and wants to stay he joins the unit.

Where's the problem ?

[Flyingleanpocket]

I think this is a very valid concern, and a major downside to having the separate queues.

It's much more natural to meet other player by PLAYING with them, and it saves peoples time and energy on both the side of the unit and the recruit not to have to advertise and interview etc prospective players.

By playing with randoms you can usually see that people are or are not :

Playing CW in your Clan / House
Are reasonably competent / similar skill level
Have a desire to work as a team to win
Are not ********

But thats just my take as a, as a somtimes competent, non unit attached FW player

[Khalcruth]

Count Zero 74, on 22 April 2016 - 12:41 PM, said:

If he found an interesting unit he makes his own 1 man unit joins their faction and then drops with them.
After a few weeks if he likes them and wants to stay he joins the unit.

Where's the problem ?

The problem is that very first step - how do you find the interesting unit? Where are you supposed to meet members of that unit? It used to be the case that you could meet them in the community warfare drop queue. But when there are separate solo queues and unit queues, then what?

[LORD ORION]

Yeah, another brilliant idea....
Big bad units are so mean... let's punish them.

Except the good units this was aimed at have a billion c-bills in their coffers, and since they are good can make you pay the entrance fee if you really want in.

Meanwhile the more inclusive community units (which are extremely large compared to the big mean merc units) are now hosed when it comes to finding a place for people to play FP casually.

BTW, good job calling it FP, that acronym is now actually being used as "****ing PGI"

Edited by LORD ORION, 22 April 2016 - 01:17 PM.

[Husker Dude]

Khalcruth, on 22 April 2016 - 12:56 PM, said:

The problem is that very first step - how do you find the interesting unit? Where are you supposed to meet members of that unit? It used to be the case that you could meet them in the community warfare drop queue. But when there are separate solo queues and unit queues, then what?

First step should be visiting the faction's TS hub. If you're in Steiner, you're in luck, there are almost always groups dropping on the hub, and they're good about picking up solo players looking to join. Just jump into their channel and try to get in a group that's dropping, you can get good drops without even being in a specific unit that way, and eventually you can find your way into a unit that suits you from there.

[Count Zero 74]

Khalcruth, on 22 April 2016 - 12:56 PM, said:

The problem is that very first step - how do you find the interesting unit? Where are you supposed to meet members of that unit? It used to be the case that you could meet them in the community warfare drop queue. But when there are separate solo queues and unit queues, then what?

How about the recruitment sections of the forum? Lot of units post their TS data there.

Anyone that wants to join a unit and has at least a few working braincells should have no problems, a lot of new players are able to find my unit for example, can't be that hard then.

[Ghogiel]

Same as always.

Go into the dozens of TS that are running for this game and drop with other players

Look at the countless recruit threads and fill applications or whatever.

Get on leaderboards and events and you will be approached

If you want to play in the other queue and impress other unit players, make a one person unit.

People are always asking in faction chat about joining or recruiting.

[Tranderas]

I found my unit when I got involved with the community of one of its casters. They helped me through my formative couple months as a trash-tier pug with no mech-building skills. I'm still trash-tier, but at least I can build a mech, and I have tags I share with a bunch of great players who are fun to talk to.

[Kin3ticX]

Chemie, on 22 April 2016 - 12:08 PM, said:

also, Fred has to pay 10MM CB fee to get the invite from that unit (if he does find it).

i'd make a progressive fee system

0-50 members: 25k per player

51-100 members: 50k per player

101+: 100k per player

Edited by Kin3ticX, 22 April 2016 - 01:44 PM.

[Ghogiel]

Kin3ticX, on 22 April 2016 - 01:44 PM, said:

i'd make a progressive fee system

0-50 members: 25k per player

51-100 members: 50k per player

101+: 100k per player

That's like pennies

The point to the cbill cost in the first place is to encourage smaller units. Which would make FP better over all. Obviously it's PGI though and they ****** that up by not starting the fee when the unit system was introduced, or making the recruit cost retroactive, and just keeps a unit status quo and hinders new units and new players only.

Edited by Ghogiel, 22 April 2016 - 01:48 PM.

[Kin3ticX]

Ghogiel, on 22 April 2016 - 01:48 PM, said:

That's like pennies

The point to the cbill cost in the first place is to encourage smaller units. Which would make FP better over all. Obviously it's PGI though and they ****** that up by not starting the fee when the unit system was introduced, or making the recruit cost retroactive, and just keeps a unit status quo and hinders new units and new players only.

I dunno man, honestly I think a 17 million recruit fee is just half way to the right place.

Mercstar has lots of people coming and going. The whole point of the fee is long-run attrition to push down the size of units due to player turnover(which every unit has in some form). I just think 50k is 50k away from actually working

Edited by Kin3ticX, 22 April 2016 - 01:55 PM.

[Mystere]

Count Zero 74, on 22 April 2016 - 01:31 PM, said:

How about the recruitment sections of the forum? Lot of units post their TS data there.

According to PGI (old data), only 10% of the player base visit the forums.

[sycocys]

It was brought up several times since they announced the split queue and summarily ignored.

So I guess your only option is to pay the fees to create a 1 man unit and break it to hook up in the unit queue.

[Count Zero 74]

There is no fee for creating a 1 man unit

And it seems a good idea for bigger units to create a special unit to test recruits for some time.

No point in paying millions for a new member and after a week he decides he doesn't like it here and leaves.

Edited by Count Zero 74, 22 April 2016 - 03:01 PM.

[WVAnonymous]

Count Zero 74, on 22 April 2016 - 03:00 PM, said:

There is no fee for creating a 1 man unit

And it seems a good idea for bigger units to create a special unit to test recruits for some time.

No point in paying millions for a new member and after a week he decides he doesn't like it here and leaves.

Farm teams. Bull Durham with stompy robots.

[Nightmare1]

I'll agree that splitting the queues will make it harder for Units to attract new pilots. A lot of the newer pilots my Unit brings in are often the result of mixed drops. They decide they like TBRN after interacting in-game and then decide to apply.

Forcing new players to make Units and then try to drop is an unnecessary hassle. A lot of the newer pilots don't know how to do that either.

[AnTi90d]

..not to mention that if you try to use LFG as a solo and miraculously, after several hours of being in it, find a group that invites you..

They can't even start the god damn game because it'll **** out an error saying that someone is from the solo queue and the game can't start.