PvP Rank Decay or Solutions to a Dwindling PvP Queue

Please consider something like this to help keep PvP momentum between patch launches.

It's frustrating to watch and hear that PvP queues move to 30 minute + queues after 1 week on Materia for matches up to Gold.

(To make Top 100 on Materia, you only need to get Gold 2 at the moment)

Please understand that there are still plenty of things I enjoy with Materia - sub 25ms ping after being on JP/NA servers for 8+ years is a blessing, for example; so transferring is not an option.

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Originally Posted by Larunda

Please consider something like this to help keep PvP momentum between patch launches.

It's frustrating to watch and hear that PvP queues move to 30 minute + queues after 1 week on Materia for matches up to Gold.

(To make Top 100 on Materia, you only need to get Gold 2 at the moment)

Please understand that there are still plenty of things I enjoy with Materia - sub 25ms ping after being on JP/NA servers for 8+ years is a blessing, for example; so transferring is not an option.

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...have you considered rewards for actually making us play in Ranked? Portraits are a one and done and Crystals are available in the Battle Pass.

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Originally Posted by Reinhardt_Azureheim

...have you considered rewards for actually making us play in Ranked? Portraits are a one and done and Crystals are available in the Battle Pass.

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Honestly, Portraits should of been handled not on the season won, but the total amount that have been won in total.

as for rewards, we've already covered this in other topics. which then devolves into the Haves and Havenots, so I won't bring that up.
[specially when it comes to unlocking ancient t100 items for all.]

If anything, I'd say something repeat able needs to be added. and a change to the matchmaking. since there is no point to hold those who like to climb for the sake of it to be held back.<as for those who care about pvp anyways, til the very end, will do so, even without lack of reward. it's largely matchmaking that holds it back>

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Originally Posted by GTK0HLK

Honestly, Portraits should of been handled not on the season won, but the total amount that have been won in total.

as for rewards, we've already covered this in other topics. which then devolves into the Haves and Havenots, so I won't bring that up.
[specially when it comes to unlocking ancient t100 items for all.]

If anything, I'd say something repeat able needs to be added. and a change to the matchmaking. since there is no point to hold those who like to climb for the sake of it to be held back.<as for those who care about pvp anyways, til the very end, will do so, even without lack of reward. it's largely matchmaking that holds it back>

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I won't go into detail about the Top 100 stuff either, as opinions are heavily split on that stuff. I know my opinion is controversial, so yeah I agree.

But the matter of fact is that Ranked needs something that is unique to Ranked. Doesn't matter if it might be a rehash of old stuff or something desirable and/or repeatable. As much as I had a dislike for how Feast played (I played tank), I had more reason to ever play Ranked even if I didn't get Top 100 than now in Crystalline Conflict, which I think is sad.

I prefer the current system. I couldn't care less about ranked. Sorry people. Happy to see less of the good stuff locked behind rank.

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

I prefer the current system. I couldn't care less about ranked. Sorry people. Happy to see less of the good stuff locked behind rank.

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If you don't care about Ranked, then why should your opinion matter?

Bye, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

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Originally Posted by Reinhardt_Azureheim

If you don't care about Ranked, then why should your opinion matter?

Bye, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

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It seems nobody else does either since you all can't get queues. Too bad, so sad.

Competitive ranked modes arent dead when the rewards arent good enough, they are dead when the game mode isnt designed well enough.

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

It seems nobody else does either since you all can't get queues. Too bad, so sad.

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Apparently people can only show we care if there are enough queues. We can't get queues because not enough people play, but not enough people play because there is no incentive to play. So apparently we don't care.

And quality of whatever is left in the higher ranks has lessened over a period of no unique rewards, because nothing is at stake.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...9662/image.png

Tbh, there is always queues, it only doesn't exists in the way Promotion matches are handled/streak.

it's why people always will divert from matchmaking, to Rewards.

From top to bottom, there are always matches, but when you get to promotional/large streak, it starts to lessen.<only exception is lower rank promotional since it's expected to be many new, and old rankers there.>

The only thing I would change to the everyone can get it eventually Series Pass/Chain. is it should be TimeLimitless.<benefiting the consistent Players, whilst the new players dont miss out on anything, whilst giving new items a type of pseudo-TimeExclusivity til other players catch up to the current Series>

also, idk how many Ranked Players would Rather grind out a new/old Series in Casual. they will always do so in ranked.[unless they one and done on reaching crystal] <I find it kinda shifty when they use the fact people can Complete it on Casual like if players couldn't in ranked.>

if anything. maybe a new SeriesPass/Chain locked to Ranked before it becomes available to all would be better.
[with a large exp requirements, but larger exp the higher Ranked you are..,]
<Ranked Series/Normal Series. where the Ranked Series shows up on the normal after a delay after awhile.>[I only bring this up as a potential middle ground, as I prefer how it is today. The only ones that can tell someone is Ranked by rewards if they look it up, or if they played Ranked. and in the end, players care not that you've played Ranked or were t100 in the past, they only care if they are. Hence why the value of Ancient t100 rewards staying locked, no longer has any worth.]

TLDR:
A middle can be reached, but there will always be preferences between players.
[PVP has always been about Current "Skill" Placement, not past claims. So I'm all for new rewards as long as they aren't locked for eternity.]

In either case.., Rewards, are always a topic. and will always come up, even if it exists. at some point rewards won't cut it if people can't be bothered to reach it or try. Thus the system, matchmaking, variety of activities and other things need to draw others in as well.[might even need a filler queue for Ranked at some point for those who would rather fill spots once they've reached their desired spot without a hit/gain on their number]

Casual queues pop around the clock, therefore the mode is fun enough to pull in people consistently even without a roulette to give PvE rewards.

Ranked is just dead in the water because there's nothing worthwhile beyond your first Season to push. Whether it's Series rewards, PvP currency, achievements etc. Casual is just way faster AND easier, especially to high rank players to grind.
Right now there's basically no reason for Ranked to exist, the level of competition keeps getting lower aside from the handful of people that have stayed active since beginning. Season 4 had LESS people in Crystal rank than in Top 100 on Light, it's that bad right now.

They really need to add more incentives to play Ranked or reform the whole thing. Going through the past PvP discussion there has been plenty of good ideas for general rewards or changes to the whole tier system (whoever decided on the star system? lmao). Hell, if nothing else they should at least give us titles for multi-top 100 rankings as stop gap while they try to figure things out, that would at least give something small to aim for the active regulars.

Sounds like the answer should just be get rid of casual and just make everyone play ranked? Then the people who care about ranks will “git good” and the rest of us can just lose enough games to get the series rewards and move on.

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Originally Posted by Blindheart

Sounds like the answer should just be get rid of casual and just make everyone play ranked? Then the people who care about ranks will “git good” and the rest of us can just lose enough games to get the series rewards and move on.

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This would probably work and also make Casual matches more enjoyable for the average player as they would meet others closer to their skill level, however just seeing your rank is somehow stressing to alot of players and turns them off so it might need some trickery to make it seem like it matters less for them.
They should definately have the Crystal score thing from get-go and have more adjustments when teams aren't completely balanced, I guess they could just show your score and then only show ranks at the end of Season where the system counts certain % of players into each Rank based on total scores.
However the current system does need some tweaks, even with completely unbalanced teams you can get +/- 100 or extremely close to it, it should deviate far deeper into higher or lower numbers when team imbalances are present. Otherwise it's just the Star system without winstreaks and very minor occasional adjustments (like 99 or 101 instead of 100).

Probably the biggest hurdle from the change would be practising new Jobs, if you are already at your real rank, there's no way to just swap around and instantly perform at your main's level. Then again I think fighting game players are familiar with this and just take the L's until they learn the character but for a team game it might be considered griefing by others if you do it at high rank.

Another thing that might get into crossfire from such change is the potential of party queues, people have asked at the very least to get duos in Casuals for long time so they can play with friends for fun. In ranked every single member of team that coordinates through voice chat increases their team's potential dramatically. So if it's ever going to happen, it's less likely to do so in Ranked only setting.

I really hope they find somekind of solution for the current situation, it would be a good start towards expanded PvP systems (imagine a PvP relic that covers all game modes, roulettes for RW and CC among other things.)

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Originally Posted by Reinhardt_Azureheim

Apparently people can only show we care if there are enough queues. We can't get queues because not enough people play, but not enough people play because there is no incentive to play. So apparently we don't care.

And quality of whatever is left in the higher ranks has lessened over a period of no unique rewards, because nothing is at stake.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...9662/image.png

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I'm all for adding more incentives as long as it isn't handled exactly like before. I think titles for example could work (they were a thing before the revamp anyway) so long as they are extra fancy like the legend titles are. Or maybe a very detailed trophy people can display in their houses and apartments. They might have been a thing before the revamp too but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, I realize that not everyone has one of those, but it would still be something unique and collectable that they could potentially show off.

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Originally Posted by Vahlnir

I'm all for adding more incentives as long as it isn't handled exactly like before. I think titles for example could work (they were a thing before the revamp anyway) so long as they are extra fancy like the legend titles are. Or maybe a very detailed trophy people can display in their houses and apartments. They might have been a thing before the revamp too but I'm not 100% sure. Anyway, I realize that not everyone has one of those, but it would still be something unique and collectable that they could potentially show off.

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I'd take smaller steps first and just introduce a system that encourages play in general - namely an upgrade in the Tier rewards. Think about Wolf Collars, but a new version of it and corresponding shop for it. What matters right now is play incentivisation in all tiers, which you get this way.

Lock a PVP exclusive hairstyle to top100 and watch ranked queues go through the roof.

Casual players will complain ofc.

But they complain about anything that makes them actually PLAY the game anyway.

The best way to keep players queuing for a game mode is to just make it fun to play. Bribing players with rewards only goes so far, at a certain point it's just plain not worth the time and effort if it's not fun.

That said, there's no amount of bribery that will make me want to queue for ranked CC in its current state. It's a mess and not worth my time.

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Originally Posted by Xylira

The best way to keep players queuing for a game mode is to just make it fun to play. Bribing players with rewards only goes so far, at a certain point it's just plain not worth the time and effort if it's not fun.

That said, there's no amount of bribery that will make me want to queue for ranked CC in its current state. It's a mess and not worth my time.

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That's the issue, Casual queues are popular and pop all the time because people enjoy playing CC. There's currently nothing that warrants the existence of Ranked as there's nothing really to gain beyond what you already get from Casual.

A simple fix would merely make it so all future rewards are gotten first through ranked, and show up in the series rewards 6 months later. People who want those rewards now will suffer ranked, people who are willing to wait will wait until the series rewards for it come out later. And before anybody questions what they will put in the series rewards until then, a reminder...we have all those seasons of the Feast rewards just waiting to be re-released. All of those glams, all of those mounts.

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Originally Posted by SturmChurro

It seems nobody else does either since you all can't get queues. Too bad, so sad.

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The game mode is clearly fun enough to get people to play it - casual mode queues for Crystalline Conflict still pop frequently. However, there's no reason to play ranked because ... there's no rewards. The mode itself is fine, but there's no reason to queue for ranked if there's nothing to gain from it.
Quite literally why I stopped queueing for Ranked lately. I might enjoy the gameplay, but there's no reason for me to do it again if there's nothing to gain from it.

Just look at all the people who does roulettes. How many of them do you think would continue queueing for a roulette each day if tomestone reward for the roulette was weekly instead of daily and if there's nothing else attached for the role-in-need after? Not very many, I assure you.

All these Crystalline Trophies? Utterly worthless. I'm overfilling with them because I already bought out the shop a long time ago.

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Originally Posted by DixieBellOCE

Lock a PVP exclusive hairstyle to top100 and watch ranked queues go through the roof.

Casual players will complain ofc.

But they complain about anything that makes them actually PLAY the game anyway.

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Top 100 rewards would just be written off as unobtainable by casual players.

I'd still complain though, unless the hairstyle was ugly.

The solution is to just get rid of casual que.

Seriously they are the exact same thing, I don't see why there is even a seperation.

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Originally Posted by DixieBellOCE

Lock a PVP exclusive hairstyle to top100 and watch ranked queues go through the roof.

Casual players will complain ofc.

But they complain about anything that makes them actually PLAY the game anyway.

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Damn, level 60 Bard main coming in hot with that zinger!