To Devs, Grouping Idea

Good idea...There are a lot of tweaks in game that could make it a lot smoother, but this, like many other great ideas, seems beyond the developers current programing abilities.

You mean like a lobby type in those w2p in arena games? honestly I would like a revamp in grouping(not random)and I like your idea, but its just me that i dont like lobby based MMos and whereas I like the Instance based or open world.

As many people play 2 roles so if a group needed a dps and you can see that just invite them to the group and go dps. This would help alot of people, especially in the lower tiered content.

You don't know business..... at all. Bugs are an unintended fudge up, and are fixed for the same reason an out of date, boring, redundant grouping system would be. So you keep your current customers and attract new ones. Business isn't as bare-bones as building ad plugins everywhere lol. You want to make your product as appealing and fluent as possible.

If you have to have high cr players then yes you have to take the extra time to get the right player. How is that more difficult than blindly shouting and hoping there's a troll that sees and responds and doesn't get invited by someone else first? To pm 20 people would take what? 3 or 4 minutes? Or you could shout 15 times once every minute over lfg.... Common sense, and basic math...

Btw peoples power cost do not rise with cr. Your base power does so you are actually easier to keep up. In most t5 content it's more difficult to stay full because dps dump more power to burn asap, healers and tanks use more power to stay alive due to hard hitting enemies.

the expression "build a business argument" or "business reason" means that there is a reason that financially makes sense for these changes. typically that means either a change is being made because something is being overhauled as part of another initiative anyhow so changes can be made at the same time and included at that point... or it means that changes are being made to add additional functionality that will result in revenue generation. i gave simple examples that i thought you could follow along.

changing an existing system that works, for no reason other than someone doesn't like it, is a waste of money and will never happen. especially not in this game. an example of this is; the WonderWoman voice actress was disliked almost universally by the playerbase but it made no financial sense to go out and spend money on a new actor just because the players didn't like it. instead, the devs took note and decided they would make the change in the future when the opportunity came. when DLC8 came requiring the VA to come in and record new content they had that opportunity to use a new VA and redo all the previous lines. you see, there was a business reason for the change and the cost of the change was covered in development for the new DLC and the DLC was also expected to generate revenue.

since there is no obvious change to the onduty grouping system that would allow them to generate revenue from it, it is highly unlikely they'll revamp something that works simply because 1 player posted about it on the forum. if the system was broken (as in it didn't work) or was bug riddled, then they could build a business reason to go in and make suggested/requested changes or revamp it entirely.

if you knew business, at all, you would know that this is how live products work.

You seem to not understand the principles behind business. Specifically the business functionality of a free-to-play mmorpg. The "someone doesn't like it, who cares" principle is not how business works. A lot of people don't like it and that means even more cash you don't receive. You have a very simplistic understanding of business, it's about making money but everything isn't as direct as just putting things up for sell. You want to offer an enjoyable product, and experience for the customer. In this case you want the product to run smoothly and hopefully make the consumer either A get hooked and buy membership, or B enjoy it enough to buy the next dlc. So if the person buys a dlc or is just playing free and he/she isn't enjoying their experience that is a lot of money left on the table because it is never just "someone doesn't like it" especially in this case.

It's actually pretty direct in this instance. You want people to pay for new or additional content and this is the access to said content, so even in your, more simplistic view, this would be a business decision.

i just explained how it works in a live product; and specifically, WITH EXAMPLE, how it works in THIS game. instead of acknowledging that, you metaphorically stuck your fingers in your ears and started yelling "na na na, i know more than you" to me -- erroneously, no less. lol

now, unless you're making over 90k / year, own your own business, and are at least 25 years old; there is absolutely nothing i can learn from *you* about business. based on your jejune post here i would suggest you stop and instead pay attention to what other more knowledgable posters are saying, rather than what you think you understand.

The pug life struggle for groups... Don't miss it one bit.

I disagree. What others are implying in this thread and in other threads (and what I have experienced too) is that the current grouping system is flawed and creates barriers to entry for new gamers (i.e., consumers). This barrier has a potential to keep out gamers from reaching further into end game content, subscibing, buying dlc, and spending money in the marketplace. By making it easier for people to connect with the core content, you are enabling increased gaming (i.e., spending). Yes the system works, no one denies that, but the potential to increase the gamer base (i.e., consumer base), means more profit. Seems simple to me and I don't own my own business or make 90 k (but I am over 30 and have a Master's degree-not that it should matter).

your opinion is irrelevant because the fact (not opininion) is the game is built the way it is. and it's grouping works.

the problem with the avg player voicing their opinion on things in the game that upset them, is they misidentify problems and the sources of them. what you're having a problem with is CR elitism and disorganized players that waste time entering instances. that's not the same as grouping problems. there is no system on the planet that will allow you to circumvent stupid or disorganized players (this is also a fact lol). if you want to stream line the system for finding a group you must build a new system entirely or revamp the game's built in system which is the LFG chat channel.

if you have a problem with CR elitism than you need to actually address that specific issue by re-hiding CRs or making gear un-inspect-able etc. moving the Scorecard out of the instances and attaching it to the new upcoming leaderboard league systems is another step to take away the hyper competitive-ism that leads to CR discrimination. these are all solutions that address the core fundamental problem we're all upset about. the Devs are not stupid -- they know how to develop a game better than anyone posting in this thread and they understand better than any of you how changes to some aspects of the game have repercussions across the whole game.

so no, revamping a system that is largely unrelated to aspects of the game that most of us have a problem with, without any real business reason to do so, is highly unlikely.

Isn't this what happened with the recent graphics update though?

not at all? wow.

this game's lifespan on the ps3 is finished. the ps3 is finished. if DCUO hopes to continue on for years it has focus on the platform it's players will be using; ps4. GU31's graphics update directly benefitted the only 2 demographics that matter going forward -- PS4 players and PC players. that update modernizes the appearance of the game making it attractive and compelling for new players and migrating players to play and subscribe. it has an indirect financial benefit to the game's long term survival.

I can respect that. That is insightful. You are absolutely right that the devs know what they are doing. I think that newer players do have a different perspective on the game and that it should hold value as there will always be people new to the game. I am commited to the game the way it is and I want to be better at forming groups. I guess I need to suck it up and start using LFG, join a league, or just live with what I can get with PUGing.

This cannot happen!!! I need cr99 players to carry me through fos1!!!!

i think every new player comes into the game and just about every one of them joins the forums and starts posting about how the game can be improved. that's fine -- i've made quite a number of such posts myself. but i've learned that you have to actually understand the product and how the game *actually* works so that you understand it and any underlying systems thoroughly, before you can start making suggestions on ways to improve the game. otherwise you start asking for revamps to things that don't address the problems you're unhappy about.

don't get me wrong, CR elitism and time wasting users are annoying and problems. but the OnDuty tab is not a group finder -- or meant to be. it's for existing groups. and the queue system is just a matchmaking system also -- and unrelated to these problems. both the OD tab and the Queue work perfectly. it's the people using them that are broken so systems need to be changed to work around them and not fix parts of the game that aren't broken. if that makes sense.

What I meant was most of us, or at least the ones I spoke to on the USPS3 anyways, did not have a problem with the graphics of the game, but instead with the freezing and lagging. However, it was the graphics portion that was updated. That's what I was referring to when you mentioned, "revamping a system that is largely unrelated to aspects of the game that most of us have a problem with".

Also, who says the PS3 is finished? The PS3 has been out since 2006, and yet it's predecessor, the PS2, was only announced as being finished this year. If PS3 lasts the same amount of time, that means it'll be around another 7 years. Also, one of the devs mentioned earlier that they will continue to support the PS3 for this game, and have made no plans yet on when they will stop.

yes i understood exactly what you meant and my reply addressed you. the freezing and lagging is the result of the PS3's platform limitations -- the devs have acknowledged this on a number of occasions. there is no fixing that can be made on that issue. that platform is dead and development going forward will be made on the ps4 and PCs.

the graphics of the game were revamped because there was a business argument to do so. yes the graphics ran fine as they were but they did need to be updated for the PC and for the PS4 and the migration period was the perfect time to do that and build the cost of those updates into the migration. this is yet another example (along with the WW VA) of exactly what i was explaining -- it is required to update the aging visuals to secure the long term survival of the game on the PS4 and PC. if the devs felt that the game's survival was directed at the ps3, they would NOT have updated them. the fact that the PC could use the update this whole time, yet the devs ignored an update until it was required for migration to the PS4 platform is very telling and gives you all the information you need to know about this game and it's future on the ps3.

common sense says so. norms in the technology and gaming industry says so. actions by the devs reinforce all of this. no one is saying that it will be an immediate change. it will happen over the next year or possibly 2 depending on how quickly players adopt the new console.

http://kotaku.com/sony-wont-be-abandoning-the-ps3-after-releasing-the-ps-595304106 - "We have no intention of immediately shifting from the PS3 to the PS4." Kawano said.

also the devs said they'd support the game on the ps3... but do you know what that actually means? support could simply mean "will it run?" that doesn't necessarily mean that new content will be developed for it. it's more likely that you'll start seeing barebones new content that will run on the ps3 and new powersets etc only available exclusively on the ps4 and PC.

I think the issue here is that you and I have different definitions of what finished is. To me, being finished means something alot more immediate than a year or two. Personally though, I figure that the game will be supported for longer than that, though I wouldn't mind if it was dropped earlier. I'm just basing that off of how long the previous system lasted, and guessing the PS3 will last equally as long.

As for the system being supported meaning it'll be given only parts of a DLC with certain elements like new powersets being exclusive to the other two platforms, I don't see that happening myself. They've never made things excluded from one console before when it comes to this game, and doing so now would set a precedent that I'd rather not see. Also, what would be the point of continuing support if it means you only do it the bare minimum?

What I'd like to see is for them to release a DCUO2 at some point that would be only PS4 and PC-only, that would include a new engine that's better equipped to handle this game. I know alot of the issues are with the PS3 system itself, but I'm still reading of some on the PS4 system that are having trouble playing the game as well, as well as some PC players that have issues as well. I think I recall reading at some point that the engine used in this game is an older one, and changing it would hopefully help fix alot of the problems.

Either way though, all this is just guessing, and we may have to wait a year or more to figure out how this will all occur.

Somehow this thread went from an incredible grouping idea to a discussion with dcuo's accountants.