Test Discussion Episode 41: On Duty UI

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but since there isn't a specific thread:

Omnibus feedback:
Having duos, alerts and raids in the same queue isn't a very good idea, not only we are very likely to get multiple duos in a row, but we also are now very less likely to get a elite alert or elite raid queue to pop, since everyone will be running either the omnibus or specific instances, the only elites that are going to pop are Panopticon elite, Zoo Elite and Dark Multiverse elite for the rare drops (And with stat clamping in place they are pretty much unbeatable with randoms, but this is something for another thread).

The Omnibus was designed as a tool to quickly get you in a game and hopefully decrease queue times for everyone as the game will now select a priority queue instead of having to queue for specific instances, but since there are no longer loot locks, it makes no sense to run all instances in the game. The reason many of us queued for multiple instances was because we were locked for the fastest ones. With this in place, if I get a queue for B.O.P alert, I'll just cancel it, as it's much harder for the same amount of marks as 2 runs of the Ferris Aircraft duo (and almost any duo/solo really).

In my opnion we need a few changes or this system will only make queues worse for everyone:
- Have a elite omnibus that grants you elite renown boxes like the ones in the anniversary event.
- Have multiple daily and weekly missions to beat different pieces of content and/or highlighted content for bonus rewards like source marks, quarks, nth metal, ally xp and stabilizer fragments.
- Have 1 separate tab for duos and 1 for alerts/raids
- Have a weekly themed "event" option on the omnibus, example:
Week 1 - Lantern related content
Week 2 - Amazon related content
Week 3 - Tier 2 content
Playing a number of event options will give you specific rewards.

I know the idea is to let people have freedom, like Mepps said the team doesn't a problem with someone playing Oolong Island for the entire day, but I don't think it's great for the game if everyone farms Sunstone Matrix 30 times a day for free marks while new players continue to struggle to get a queue and people who are trying to play the game "properly" have to face a 40 minutes arkhan run for like 1 mark/10 minutes

Bug: I tried to queue for a instance on custom queue then I think I opened the new on-duty again and I couldn't leave the custom game queue, I had to relog, sorry for not having more specific steps.

This. They mentioned on the stream they pulled out solos so that it didn't auto-queue you in those, but isn't that going to happen if you queue in with 2 (auto-duo) or 4 (auto-alert)? Maybe there really weren't enough queuing and it checked down to duo, but clarification would be welcome.

It also seems like these are just intended for normal versions of instances, correct? No more events given the way you're doing clamping now and elites won't pop from the omnibus?

My concern with the quick pick section of the UI, is that, yea, it lets you que for ALL que-able content in the last 3 episodes, but it's alittle off since you of course will constantly get a que from solos and duos...so much that no alerts and definitely no raids would pop...

The options for quickplay are too limited. We should have more quickplay categories/sections and have the ability to favorite a category/section so it gets prioritized to the top of the list. If that is too much to add than maybe add in a filter to be able to select content by solo,duo,alerts and raids along with the ability to have another filter for tiers/CR.
Another idea would be to have a category/section for which content friends/league mates are playing or in queue for.
I get that you want the player base to play older content but it seems like its being forced a bit with this setup. Its also lacking event missions and legends content categories/sections...which I presume is why the old UI is still an option to be used.
It needs work...but it looks nicer I guess.

Have the option to be able to select quickplay for duos.... a quickplay for alerts.... a quickplay for Raids.

Having everything all at once is simply not a good idea.

And quikplay for solo Missions is pointless. No reason to have quickplay for solo.

Just let players select the solo they wish to play. No one will click to play a random solo Mission.
Quickplay to form random groups.... sure.... but no point when the "group" is only 1 player.

I agree with the general feedback the others have pointed out.

We should have the options to queue for duos, alerts and raids separately.

Also, having a random solo instance is pointless and players should be able to simply select the solo instance they want to run since there are no lockouts anymore.

This was my main complaint. I did an 'on-duty' of LnW and was asking people to queue in Omni. Several people said they did, but they were popping duos vs eventually filling my LnW. We should have a way to either only queue for duo/alert/raid, or deselect each one from the 'all' it appears to be now. If I want to get into raids, I should have the option to only omni for Raids. I don't mind waiting 5 or 10 min to get into a random raid, but if they think people will be using Omni that much, that poor sap wanting a specific run for feat/drop/checklist purposes will be screwed as he waits for 7 other people to hit the button within 20 seconds of each other (or whatever the timeout is currently). And if it requires 7 other people to actually select LnW...what was the change for?

Almost 2 hours (granted...out of the 'test' pool of users) and the LnW never popped, and all the while people did say they were trying omni and were getting into alerts or duos. Never heard anyone say they got a random raid.

Hmm....

Interesting! So, you may need to make a group of 8 players in order to queue quickly and randomly for an 8 man raid using the Quickplay menu? Agreed: what is the point of that? It's IS surprising that the Solo's are separated out but not the Duo's or 4-man alerts.

It sounds like it’s the same problem as live is now when trying to get 8v8 to queue for PVP. Maybe the search algorithm needs looking into?

Add my voice to this. After seeing how it works, I would like the duos and alerts separate. Sometimes you just wanna run raids. And I, personally, dislike running duos and alerts with strangers, although I can tolerate fully pugged raids. And I don't see the point of the random solo either.

Yeah, but if you can get 8, you could just go in on On-Duty. My understanding of what was proposed was that if someone or a few someones queued on duty, quick play would backfill the missing spots, but if it requires all of them to hit the button at the same time or quickly after the next person did, it will be tricky unless you maybe had 6 or 7 to queue up.

This system is meant to be on top of the regular que imo.

Lets say youre cr90 and need Paradox, you queue for paradox in the custom play ui.

If players hit the quickplay button now, you get into a queue with that person for paradox.

This is only working if the Custom already existing queues are preferred by the quickplay feature.

So you will get into a queue for paradox and only get into lower queues if no one has a custom queue active.


Im not sure if thats how it works but otherwise, that what youre describing will always happen. On test server there are basically no custom queues anyway so ofc you will always get into a duo queue.

Is there a way to separate quick play into solo, duo, alerts and raids individually? If not, can this be looked into?
Edit
Example
A. Elite
B. Duos only
C. Alerts only
D. Raids only

Or any combination of the four.
Hopefully this makes more sense.

We are talking about it tomorrow. The UI is largely data driven so we can change it up pretty easily, even on a weekly basis if we wanted to for some reason.

I completely agree with your point of view. I think people will just farm FOS3 and call it a day.
Removing loot locks is nice, but if there is no incentive to run all content, everyone will just farm a single thing.
I think keeping loot locks and a drastically increasing the drop of source marks would make this system much more diverse.

However, since it was already anouced, I would suggest the inclusion of Amanda Waller box or something in those lines.

Could just be the way I have my monitor adjusted, but the highlight color in the Omnibus seemed a bit understated. I don't know, just seems like it could pop a bit more. Maybe use a more contrasted color.

Thanks for getting the controller working with it though.

Awesome TY

Not sure if this is the right place for this but Omnibus not properly showing when someone is ready or qued for something. Found it to be a bit confusing compared to the old you UI.

I like to feel OP very rarely, so in my opinion the stat clamp could be even more aggressive.
However, i can totally see that this is not a shared opinion amongst the great majority of players, so i thought you may be able to add a toggle option to nerf your stats even more - to a point its minimum content stats. And this would then grant double loot or double source marks.

Im not the type of guy to run 2 normal raids for 20 source marks in 20 minutes but rather 1 elite or harder Raid (in this case) with double rewards in 25 minutes although it doesnt make sense in terms of efficiency.

I know that there would be either issues with dividing players even more if those become seperate queue systems or lower players not realizing the impact of that and only seing the rewards but not being ready for the "challenge". So this would need to be a toggle option, just like role selection and needs restrictions like a certain amount of CR, SP and Augment level required. Then you could queue up for old content with others, while still enjoying your own playstyle and still helping new players.

The only flaw is its exploitable nature, so some players may choose to get carried by others for more rewards.The required stats should be fairly high in order to prevent that as much as possible. For example, min CR: current episode min cr, SP: 150 below maximum SP and Augments: current episdoe min Augments 4x.

Is something like that a possible thing for the future or never going to happen?