Ban premade parties in Frontline please

[Exmo]

You’re suggesting splitting the queues, which is different to what the person I was responding to is suggesting; the results might be different: solo queue might be more popular than group queue but solo only day might be less popular than group day. I don’t like the split queue idea because of how it would affect queue times and for how long a queue might pop for. Right now in Crystal I can queue into a Frontlines match at 2am my time solo or with friends. With a split queue i don’t believe Frontlines would pop on either queue at that time. You could call me selfish but I prefer the ability to play Frontline—both alone and with others—llater in the night/morning than any theoretical benefit of splitting the queue.

On Light after 12am you can queue for 30+ mins before the queue pops, and that's solos and premades together.

A simple solution would aggregate players queuing over the past 15 minutes and either spawn a second instance for premades if the numbers warrant it or retire the instance for premades if too few are queuing. This way, quiet times of the day are mixed, busier times have exclusive instances. If a premade wants to stomp solo players and nothing more, they need to queue out of hours, but the majority of solo players won't suffer that experience anymore.

[Mawlzy]

You’re suggesting splitting the queues, which is different to what the person I was responding to is suggesting; the results might be different: solo queue might be more popular than group queue but solo only day might be less popular than group day. I don’t like the split queue idea because of how it would affect queue times and for how long a queue might pop for. Right now in Crystal I can queue into a Frontlines match at 2am my time solo or with friends. With a split queue i don’t believe Frontlines would pop on either queue at that time. You could call me selfish but I prefer the ability to play Frontline—both alone and with others—llater in the night/morning than any theoretical benefit of splitting the queue.

Understood, and I don't consider that selfish at all. There's a lot of moving parts to consider.

I swear multiple problems would be solved if team size was reduced, or when queue times crept up the queue would pop with smaller teams. Putting the maps on a 6-hour rather than 24-hour cadence would also help, since many of us skip one day in three currently.

[CamuiKushi]

The proposed changes would make it less fun for people who play FL more than once a day, IMO. There are plenty of other things they could do to help with meta-teams crushing rouletters. But I don't think this is it.

[Mawlzy]

The proposed changes would make it less fun for people who play FL more than once a day, IMO. There are plenty of other things they could do to help with meta-teams crushing rouletters. But I don't think this is it.

Switching from burst to sustained damage would help, which is apparently what the devs thought the 7.1 patch would do. I'm still troubled by that. Was that the case in CC?

[Aravell]

Switching from burst to sustained damage would help, which is apparently what the devs thought the 7.1 patch would do. I'm still troubled by that. Was that the case in CC?

CC is still very much heavily burst focused in the sense that if you don't instantly delete someone, then you wouldn't be killing them slowly anyway.

Also all the MP removal abilities and crowd control just increases the potential to burst someone down, especially since they also reduced the duration of Purify.

[OliviaLugria]

She mentioned here that Shatter (which used to be her most successful map, I believe) has become less so since 7.1. Overall I regard her as more effective than any of the other active commanders on Aether. I personally prefer more chaotic encounters. The appeal of PvP for me is that each fight is different. That is less true when the only effective strat is playing follow the leader of the premade.

Just to be clear, we still manage to stay above 50% on shatter. It’s just harder to overcome rng and targeting now.

Thanks for the compliment though. New guide is officially out, you should take a look.

[Mawlzy]

Just to be clear, we still manage to stay above 50% on shatter. It’s just harder to overcome rng and targeting now.

Thanks for the compliment though. New guide is officially out, you should take a look.

Ah nice it's out of preview. I have dipped into it on multiple occasions. Good gravy, honey, if they actually add role actions in 7.2 you're gonna be busy again.

What is driving the RNG on Shatter, though? You mean primarily the initial spawn pattern?

[TofuLove]

Ah nice it's out of preview. I have dipped into it on multiple occasions. Good gravy, honey, if they actually add role actions in 7.2 you're gonna be busy again.

What is driving the RNG on Shatter, though? You mean primarily the initial spawn pattern?

IMO the biggest RNG on shatter is who you get queue'd in with. How many of them are good players that can press buttons and aren't sidetracked by "objectives".


On the subject of the original thread, i haven't read all 14 pages:
My opinion about premades is that there is too much crowd control that can effectively do the following mechanic: drk for suck in - dnc/warrior/reaper do the stun/remove guard/paralyse - big aoes follow up.
Purify change has been good, however good players were rarely getting caught by drk meta stack anyway. It only still really exists in shatter in a similar way [as pre 7.1], because a lot of casual players get sidetracked by ice and don't see the meta stack coming towards them in a very obvious way.

In general people should be able to q in with friends. That's why mmos are fun.

[OliviaLugria]

Ah nice it's out of preview. I have dipped into it on multiple occasions. Good gravy, honey, if they actually add role actions in 7.2 you're gonna be busy again.

What is driving the RNG on Shatter, though? You mean primarily the initial spawn pattern?

The ice spawn rng always being 50/50. It doesn’t matter how fast you break your own ice if the enemies then proceed to take so long that your ice can be skipped. Getting skipped once is recoverable, but if it happens twice you’re basically out of the game (unless the enemies are just bad)

[Wilford111]

As certain as the day is long, premades are the absolute bane of Frontline.

By far worse than players who idle at nodes, players who don't know their class yet, players who are just there for the XP, players who are allergic to healing.

By far more impactful than tiny potency changes or adjustments to job balance.

Premades completely suffocate any chance of fairness. They make a team dominate. It takes active effort and cooperation between the other two teams to deny them a sure victory.

The only people who like premades are people who regularly play in premades.

To combat this, any number of the following changes could be made:

1. Prevent premade parties from queueing to FL or only match premades with other premades.
2. Prevent players from placing markers on themselves or teammates.
3. Prevent waymarks from being placed within 10 seconds of the most recent waymark placement.
4. Prevent chat sound effects.

Thank you, and remember - premades are the worst!

Agree 1000%.
I'm in a losing streak in Frontline due to being unfortunate enough not to have a premade in my alliance.
It just sucks that THAT is the determining factor whether you win or not. It's not fun.

EDIT: whoooops I just read the entire thing and I do disagree with point #2 and #4. Sound effects are essential for your team to pay attention to where they should be going. Targetting someone is also good for some sort of group cohesion. Premades are bad, leadership and cohesion is good.