Dev Discussion Looking for On Duty Menu Feedback

You will always be my favorite Dev but I'm sure he is great nonetheless

Would it be possible to have a lobby, where all current queues needing players are listed, as well as which toons are queueing, and you can simply join any that you want?

Queues could be either public or private.

Public queues anybody can join exactly as it is when you open-queue at present, private queues require sending an invite request to be approved by the group leader?

Both queues could have a comment area from the people queuing on what feats they want, or notes such as "This needs 2 Tanks" etc.?

It occurs to me that this would make queueing into old content less time-intensive - anybody browsing the lobby at a loose end might jump in for feats or styles etc., and you'd not have to try to get people's attention when the queue pops not to break a particular feat etc.

Allow solo players to play all forms of content.

Make everything so players can enter whether solo or with group of friends at their leisure.

Also take out any mechanics that require multiple players.

Change The Content Relevancy

Problem

Usually Devs add (Combat Rating +10) With Each DLC which if great but after players get a few pieces of gear the fun is over and the feeling of geting more powerful and getting something new for ones character is gone. The result is getting bored after loot drops max out. Players have very few options as to how they can continue to gain levels of new power for their characters.

Solution

Difficulty Meter

Creating a system not based on a single DLC making top tier content but rather making all content top tier.

Each tier would be locked until players finished content of the previous tier and attained stats, xp level needed to gain entry into the next tier.

Create a new leveling system that is based on a tier leveling system that can be applied to all content.

This could be achieved by giving players a difficulty meter tier 1-100

Yes I know 100 is really high but it needs to be high so developers don't need to keep moving the goalpost and players can always improve their characters.

Like queuing up players can choose what level they want to play at.

New On Duty Random Maps (map generator)

The random map generator would use a theme based on the original instance but would randomly generate generic maps for players making it very interesting.

Playing the same maps over and over is boring but getting a new map every time is exciting because its mysterious!

If we apply this randomness to the maps and encounters as well as things players find in their adventurers such as powers and loot found this makes players may enjoy DCUO more

Each level would have random maps lot and encounters.

Change/fix the orders of the missions from non paid content to paid content.

Example T2 & T3 duo's has been out of order for years.
Should have been

T2
Light house
Subway
Aircraft
Flash back

T3
Dlc The 3 duo's battle from earth
The Police Station/ Nightclub

DCUO has never been great on detail. There's very little consistency in the text or oder of things. R&D Feats arndomly switch between "Parts" and "Assembly" for every time I log in.

Everyone would like to be able to queue undersized or solo for any content, which I'm fully on board with, though I'm not sure this is the type of feedback being asked for. However, if this is implemented, please include a "Minimun Party Size Required" in the info for the handful of alerts/raids that have mechanics that prevent solo completion.

I would like to see the Episode # included in the info somewhere for all the content since so many weekly events are "Episode" based instead of "Tier" based. (example right now "Bonus Catalysts for episode 31-39" doesn't really tell me a lot without having to google the episode list.

I would like to see a new section tab for 4/8+ man bounties and missions. This would go a long way in helping grind older count bounties like Titan robot, JLD, and soon Calc Bot, Wonderse, etc and letting on CR level folks complete their Daily/weekly.

The problem this causes is that earlier content is already difficult to queue into. And that is likely why you want to queue into it without having a full group? If you make it playable with less people, there is literally no way that it will pop for players that are at-CR.

I suggested earlier a lobby for people to pick up queues. From my experience, that would seem to be just as useful, particularly if it had an "Enter Now" option - enter now, without a full group? But that solution does not stop other people queueing in for a full group. Yours does. Not everyone is at endgame. And some will just become disillusioned whilst they are fighting to get a queue to pop. You need to consider the game as a whole, not just your wishes (which are, still, entirely reasonable - but your solution is not).

I'm sure that the original question was intended to get feedback on how the "On Duty" interface works. But asking that will inevitably bring up the ongoing issues with queueing in general - and then slowly or quickly wander into rewards and CR Relevancy.

There is little point in reworking the On Duty interface until you understand and deal with the underlying problems. Which is that the interface can stay the same until the end of time, but if it is not accessing content people want to play, then your focus should be on that, not the interface.

No. "Everyone" would not. People at-CR would like to queue content. With a full group. To play the game as it is intended. Removing that option for them is really not acceptable. Not everyone wants to get carried to endgame, or pew-pew through content. Some people like to learn their roles on the way up, and no wonder - if they can't manage them when they hit endgame, they are slated, dropped, and made to feel like idiots.

Yes. Something like this.

You can do that (somewhat) by sorting by location, rather than Urgency.

Let's get this straight: If there are no new players, this game is on a clock.
If you increase the barrier for new players to get to endgame, this game is on a clock.
If the game can't teach players roles, this game is on a clock.
Only one of those (the latter) is actually the fault of the Devs. Don't expect them to add to their mistakes. Which means that 1 and 2 are likely taken extremely seriously by them.

Perhaps you misunderstand me or I'm not understanding you. Allowing max CR to solo queue would do exactly as you're requesting. It would get high level CR's out of the lower queues. No more carry. Now.. having to wait 20 or so minutes for an alert. with only CR relevant chars. that's a different problem entirely. I did not intend it to mean low CR should be able to queue above their appropriate weight class so to speak if that's how you interpreted my comment.

This only gives you sorting and location. I'm not seeing how that solves the issue of actually trying to find a group. The LFG channel is a really messy way to handle finding a group for this stuff. It "works" sort of.. for the player base that even knows LFG exists since it's off by default. But it'd be alot more player friendly to have it as part of the On Duty UI.

No. It would make those queue times infinite.

Perhaps my previous post might make my ideas clear...

"Would it be possible to have a lobby, where all current queues needing players are listed, as well as which toons are queueing, and you can simply join any that you want?

Queues could be either public or private.

Public queues anybody can join exactly as it is when you open-queue at present, private queues require sending an invite request to be approved by the group leader?

Both queues could have a comment area from the people queuing on what feats they want, or notes such as "This needs 2 Tanks" etc.?

It occurs to me that this would make queueing into old content less time-intensive - anybody browsing the lobby at a loose end might jump in for feats or styles etc., and you'd not have to try to get people's attention when the queue pops not to break a particular feat etc."

THAT is what I want. People that are playing at-CR could make a private queue, but still be visible. To other people at-CR. Anyone that does not care would make their queue public.

I feel like if I ready up for a run, and someone leaves the group I shouldn't have to ready up again. Though I feel like this issue carries over to many of the UI in the game where certain things you do just don't save when you come back to it. Its mostly prevalent within the R&D station but can be applied with the on duty tab to where if you close out certain content tiers it'll stay closed out everytime you open the on duty tab.

I would like it if it showed suggested stats for other support roles such as Vitalization and Restoration as it does with Dominance.
I'd also like a search function attached to this UI. Maybe even a feat button which takes you to the feats for that content so you can see what you have completed.

I wish it didn't stutter as you scroll down on the list of content.

Thank you! woooooooWOOOOO0

Is it possible to have all instances to be able to queue up with x amount of players.
Like the more players in the instance the harder it would be like some game that has this system.

Not going to read this thread this AM.

HOWEVER....these are UNIVERSAL changes that should have been mentioned already.

STYLE TAB tied to a direct key/button
FEATS tab tied to a direct key/button

I am on mouse/keyboard and this is already beyond annoying/tedious.
I can only imagine how much moreso for those using controllers.

Example:
WTF cares about the Reputation status...which is easier to get to than Styles or Feats (one button vs two+)...

This needs to be a PRIORITY imho.

The only things i can think of in order to improve the on Duty menu is, to add the Shortcuts used in Lfg to those instances.
Possibly both since villain and heroes use different ones for Lfg.

Example:

Heroes:
BoP:Clock Tower (CTN)
BoP:Clock Tower Elite (CTE)

Villains:
BoP:Clock Tower (OP35N)
BoP:Clock Tower Elite (OP35E)

This will help new players navigate easier through Lfg and find groups for their desired content easier too.

Another thing to add could be a little picture of the most iconic place of that instance, so players that are not too familiar with certain content can remember easier, which instance is wich.

Bring back the portals within the wings, so that we can walk into the older raids