Frontlines queue is broken.

[Barboron]

After waiting this long, the queue finally popped...

<Only taking this first bit as a quote to direct my response to this post as a whole. I didn't want to fill up the post with everything.>

Half your argument is just invalid, wrong, or misinforming.

Sure, pressing commence and having your registration withdrawn does happen, it happened to me also. This isn't happening exclusively with Frontlines though.

As for wait times displaying 20 minutes and the actual time taking 40 minutes, you're obviously failing to pay attention to where it says "Average Wait Time", 'Average' being the key word here. Just because the queue doesn't pop on exactly 20 minutes, does not mean that anything about the queue is "broken". If it's average, some will have a longer queue, some shorter.

As for the joining in progress, this could have been mere coincidence. Another player in the data centre may have had that space and not have pressed commence in the time you were trying. That would be why you had the chance to change jobs several times before actually getting in.

It's not just the times that are bad, the system is literally broken. I would be perfectly fine with a 20 min queue if I knew that I would end up in a match at the end of it - however when an estimated time is 15 mins and I am still in queue after 40, then there is something seriously wrong.

the system is literally broken

literally broken

literally

No, just no. And again...

when an estimated time is 15 mins and I am still in queue after 40, then there is something seriously wrong.

[Altena]

Half your argument is just invalid, wrong, or misinforming.

We have literally spent days testing what is posted in my OP.

Sure, pressing commence and having your registration withdrawn does happen, it happened to me also. This isn't happening exclusively with Frontlines though.

While true, it is still a bug that needs addressing.

As for wait times displaying 20 minutes and the actual time taking 40 minutes, you're obviously failing to pay attention to where it says "Average Wait Time", 'Average' being the key word here.

As mentioned, "average wait time" may be 20 mins, but when 3 people are sitting there for 40+ (even closer to 60 on some occasions), then the "average" wait time is not very average is it?

Just because the queue doesn't pop on exactly 20 minutes, does not mean that anything about the queue is "broken". If it's average, some will have a longer queue, some shorter.

As above, I don't expect the time to tick over to 20:00 and the queue to pop. I am not stupid. However when the "average wait time" over the course of 2-3 hours sits around 15-20mins with queue times of 40+, it is not average at all.

As for the joining in progress, this could have been mere coincidence. Another player in the data centre may have had that space and not have pressed commence in the time you were trying. That would be why you had the chance to change jobs several times before actually getting in.

This was tested on multiple accounts (admittedly I only cycled jobs and got in with SCH once), however when the game was running for 5+ mins (yes I did actually attempt to do this over a 5 min span, waiting a minute or so on each class), then after finally getting in on SCH, there were still an additional 3 slots unfilled.

I find it extremely hard to believe that it took 5 mins of constant withdraws for the queue to finally hit me.


However since you are so sure that there is nothing wrong, please explain why someone who queues into Frontlines BEFORE someone on the same class, actually ends up getting a pop AFTER. The priority system is poor at best.

[Codek]

The average time tracker doesn't take consideration on what GC your joining as (it was originally built for a jobs based comparison). For every 1 Immortal Flame 1 hour queue, there is 4 Twin Adder 15 minute queue's. Average wait time for all players = 24 minutes.

This oversight is becoming more clear and skewed each passing week as more players jump ship from TA...

[Altena]

The average time tracker doesn't take consideration on what GC your joining as (it was originally built for a jobs based comparison). For every 1 Immortal Flame 1 hour queue, there is 4 Twin Adder 15 minute queue's. Average wait time for all players = 24 minutes.

That would make a reasonable amount of sense.

This oversight is becoming more clear and skewed each passing week as more players jump ship from TA...

This is another issue that I didn't bring up because it's not really something that can be fixed.
Why did they have to make Frontlines bound by GC? If it was simply because of lore, then it was a pretty poor design choice.

It was inevitable for one GC to be weaker then another - which causes more people to switch, obviously affecting queue times. In addition to this, it breaks up FC's that have many different GC's, and does not allow them to play in the same party. A simple fix that would solve a lot of queue issues would be to remove the GC pre-reqs, and simply have 3 different "sides". However it seems lore is more important then function.

[Barboron]

As mentioned, "average wait time" may be 20 mins, but when 3 people are sitting there for 40+ (even closer to 60 on some occasions), then the "average" wait time is not very average is it?

You still don't get how averages work. If one GC is in demand, the queue times will be longer while those in a GC of lesser demand will have shorter queues. Also, the last person to queue will have an instant pop anyway and likely the few people before him. Although I do suspect that the system won't take into account your queue time if you withdraw your registration which would explain why average queue times would be a lot shorter in other cases where queues are 2hours+

there were still an additional 3 slots unfilled.

I find it extremely hard to believe that it took 5 mins of constant withdraws for the queue to finally hit me.

You really can't tell what other people are doing across several servers who are queued for the same GC. There is a tendency to AFK while in a queue for almost any instance, that explain why there are players missing from the start of a match. Players might also be in the middle of a craft and intentionally withdraw or allow the clock to run down, in cut scenes, or may have to afk just because of an emergency, door, food etc. Just because queues aren't popping for you right away, you can't say that the system is broken.

[Altena]

You still don't get how averages work. If one GC is in demand, the queue times will be longer while those in a GC of lesser demand will have shorter queues. Also, the last person to queue will have an instant pop anyway and likely the few people before him. Although I do suspect that the system won't take into account your queue time if you withdraw your registration which would explain why average queue times would be a lot shorter in other cases where queues are 2hours+

Yes I didn't know that the estimated wait times were shared among GC's.

You really can't tell what other people are doing across several servers who are queued for the same GC. There is a tendency to AFK while in a queue for almost any instance, that explain why there are players missing from the start of a match. Players might also be in the middle of a craft and intentionally withdraw or allow the clock to run down, in cut scenes, or may have to afk just because of an emergency, door, food etc. Just because queues aren't popping for you right away, you can't say that the system is broken.

I do understand how the "withdraw" system works. It was actually included in a hotfix at the launch of Frontlines (because originally 72 people had to accept before a match would actually go through which was aggravating). I welcome the change, however the major reason I am saying they aren't functioning correctly is:

Player A signs up for duty.
Player B signs up for duty 5 mins later.
Player B gets a pop 10 mins later.
Player A is still waiting for 5+ mins.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. In fact we were spending the whole day and this would be true half the time. I will also add that both players (there was actually a third but I am keeping it at 2 for a simpler explanation) were all queued on the same class.

This is just one example of how the priority system is failing.

Is there a rank matching system in place as well?