Please consider adding a new frontline mode for premades

[awesomega]

Please consider adding a new frontline mode where you can do battle with 16 npcs.
This will solve many potential problems with the current que system.

I propose a format where a team of eight does battle with 16 npcs. You could even make it so half of a given team will keep hitting ice as they get slaughtered and the other have kite around to make it a more realistic gameplay experience. Maybe have a few nin hide around bases too, teams of 5 pld, have the opposing npcs fight each other, ect...
Also you should make this format count towards mounts and hand of mercy titles, so it wont be a waste of time for those interested. Maybe even have a leader board where top amounts of kills are shown or post highlights of a large amount of kills to showcase top players.

[awesomega]

I feel this will fix some current issues:

a. Currently premades have priority play status among the que list. This allows the people qued in the same gc the ability to play in a timely matter. The premades will have insta pop with the exact same gameplay experience, so it wont affect them at all.
b. This also helps grow the community. Casuals that try pvp wont quit when they are immediately slaughtered or farmed at their spawn point. Typically these people complain about ffxiv pvp and blast how much it sucks all over the place weakening future interest.

A lot of players arent interested in games where your teamed with weak players or when random people dont follow your every <se.1> command but for those that dont mind it they can que in the classic format, for long chaotic games.

Anyways, for your consideration.
/endsalt

[TiaHariberux3]

Please consider adding a new frontline mode where you can do battle with 16 npcs.
This will solve many potential problems with the current que system.

I propose a format where a team of eight does battle with 16 npcs. You could even make it so half of a given team will keep hitting ice as they get slaughtered and the other have kite around to make it a more realistic gameplay experience. Maybe have a few nin hide around bases too, teams of 5 pld, have the opposing npcs fight each other, ect...
Also you should make this format count towards mounts and hand of mercy titles, so it wont be a waste of time for those interested. Maybe even have a leader board where top amounts of kills are shown or post highlights of a large amount of kills to showcase top players.

So basically smth like bots? No just no even a bigger "NO" cause you want achievements etc. counting in there

[Enlial]

Im pretty sure op is being sarcastic.

I hope?

[Rilasha]

It's not really going to help anything. If premades really wanted to play with real people in the queue that we have now, they'd still all queue solo or whatever at the same time and still get in the same party. The only benefit that I can foresee over the current system by removing the ability to eight stack in FL is that solo players in the same GC as the premades will have a chance at getting a queue pop.

I don't like premades as much as the rest of solo players (win rate dropped 6% overall since Seal Rock, about 75% 3rd places in the last few weeks, rip Adders) but there's not much you can do to stop all the skilled PvPers going to one GC and stomping the other teams.

[Zojha]

[...] but there's not much you can do to stop all the skilled PvPers going to one GC and stomping the other teams.

Well, removing GC queuing, which is a more than common suggestion to help with queue times already, would already help quite a bit, no? You can then freely distribute the people among the factions based on their winrates. Disallow premades of more than 2-3 people as well and you already cut down the effect by a lot.

Or, go the way of solving the issue as community and encourage people to boycott FL whenever a coordinated premade comes around. With a bigger playerbase, that's not really an option, but since it's so small, that can be very effective - just gotta make sure the message is clear. If the premade doesn't realize the boycott is because of them, they are unlikely to change their behaviour.

[FunkYeahDragons]

Well, removing GC queuing, which is a more than common suggestion to help with queue times already, would already help quite a bit, no? You can then freely distribute the people among the factions based on their winrates. Disallow premades of more than 2-3 people as well and you already cut down the effect by a lot.

Or, go the way of solving the issue as community and encourage people to boycott FL whenever a coordinated premade comes around. With a bigger playerbase, that's not really an option, but since it's so small, that can be very effective - just gotta make sure the message is clear. If the premade doesn't realize the boycott is because of them, they are unlikely to change their behaviour.

It's not an option in the current community, either. If you don't want to play when the Balmung and Gilgamesh activity surges, you likely won't be playing at all. Played them this weekend when I queued for the first time in ~2 months with an FC mate and at least our waits were under an hour.

[Zojha]

If you don't want to play when the Balmung and Gilgamesh activity surges, you likely won't be playing at all.

To be honest: If the premade stomps enough for me to even notice it's a premade (I don't look at names), the game isn't fun and I rather do something else - and consequently do just that. Personally, I feel that if the games are shit, I am no worse off not playing them.

Plus, that is exactly why the mechanism works in the first place. Boycott and strikes in general do not work if things remain functional during the period. If you boycott unethically produced products, that only works if there's a harsh cut in the companies profit margins caused by it - if the product remains profitable, they won't change their behavior. Same applies if you and your co-workers strike against abusive work conditions. The company won't care one bit if business is not considerably affected. It's an action made to forcefully induce change by exerting the power you have due to the interdependency of the parties. And that only works if you actually have power.

[FunkYeahDragons]

To be honest: If the premade stomps enough for me to even notice it's a premade (I don't look at names), the game isn't fun and I rather do something else - and consequently do just that. Personally, I feel that if the games are shit, I am no worse off not playing them.

Plus, that is exactly why the mechanism works in the first place. Boycott and strikes in general do not work if things remain functional during the period. If you boycott unethically produced products, that only works if there's a harsh cut in the companies profit margins caused by it - if the product remains profitable, they won't change their behavior. Same applies if you and your co-workers strike against abusive work conditions. The company won't care one bit if business is not considerably affected. It's an action made to forcefully induce change by exerting the power you have due to the interdependency of the parties. And that only works if you actually have power.

Interdependency: assuming the PVP community cares much about itself, which it doesn't.

At worst, big groups of 8+ people can get 8v8 queues without much difficulty or just do 4v4s. And this isn't something that should need to be boycotted outside of particularly disruptive tactics. Half the fun of any game is playing it with other people, ideally there's just either matchmaking or a big enough crowd with enough organized players that you rarely see a full premade stomping on a group of all-randoms.

No reason for players to punish themselves or each other when very little of this is our fault. It's annoying as hell to lose to the same premade over and over, but it's not their fault there's no competition and not enough of a population to get games without them in a mode that was designed to be a free for all. Anyone with friends in PVP wants to play with them, and no one likes losing--even if people are hive-minded about GCs, that's to be expected in PVP.

Would it be nice if people would be more nurturing to their own community, and try not to crash events with big premades that other people don't like? Sure. What would be nicer is developers who understand that people aren't going to be this way, and understand how to make a PVP community thrive, anyway, so that it doesn't have to come to stupid discussions like boycotting a dying area of the game because good players like to play together.

[Rilasha]

Well, removing GC queuing, which is a more than common suggestion to help with queue times already, would already help quite a bit, no? You can then freely distribute the people among the factions based on their winrates. Disallow premades of more than 2-3 people as well and you already cut down the effect by a lot.

Or, go the way of solving the issue as community and encourage people to boycott FL whenever a coordinated premade comes around. With a bigger playerbase, that's not really an option, but since it's so small, that can be very effective - just gotta make sure the message is clear. If the premade doesn't realize the boycott is because of them, they are unlikely to change their behaviour.

So it all comes down to abolishing GC restrictions... which is what everyone wants but SE won't give us...

The boycott reminds me of "If I can't have it, you can't either" and then FL will be a barren wasteland in the short term. They'd stop for a bit, no one would get a queue since the FL queue hardly any people. They'd come back, slaughter one game if they even get one and then the cycle repeats.

At least I can play JP Frontlines during that time... Not many people have the option like I do.

Hmm... am i only solo player that likes to go against premades as those are only times enemy actually gives decent challenge? PvP would be boring if there wasnt any premades running tbh. So i must say no to this topic as it would ruin my fun.

It's not fun at all when that premade is coordinated enough to team wipe you in 30 seconds. Rinse and repeat about 5 times since they go to the other team after they wipe you and come back to wipe you again.