Updates to the Commendation System [Suggestion]

[Hibikii]

Okay, I was hesitant to post in the first place and my worries were confirmed.. out of all replies two people actually read and understood the idea.

Most of the commendations are given to tanks and healers. That means that people who want the burger king crown usually pick these and so it decreases the queue times for the rest. If we speed up the generation then it's going to negatively influence the queues.

Tanks and healers tend to receive commendations if they saved the parties ass in raids, otherwise no-one commends a tank for tanking or a healer for healing. That's a sad reality. Go back two years and a tank would get most comms, not anymore (again based on a number of EU worlds).

@Anaree

-raises eyebrow- I start new characters all the time and have not noticed a change in the frequency of comms at all. 1000 comms is hardly steep, I have three characters that have more than 3x that, and a few others that meet it or are really close.

You play on Siren - NA servers don't have the commendation issues a lot of the EU worlds do.

If people could comm before leaving a duty it could probably be really easily exploited. I don't think this should be changed at all.

I never said that; I asked for the commendation screen to be displayed at the end of duty, as it is right now, but making a choice on it a mandatory thing, including an option that reads "chose not to commend". The idea is to make players aware that the screen exists while giving them the choice to still not commend anyone.

I do commend players I think did a good job, the majority of players out there give a damn to even open the commendation screen.

[SturmChurro]

Tanks and healers tend to receive commendations if they saved the parties ass in raids, otherwise no-one commends a tank for tanking or a healer for healing. That's a sad reality. Go back two years and a tank would get most comms, not anymore (again based on a number of EU worlds).

That is not how it works here, or at least for me. I am lucky to receive ONE commendation for solo healing the entire raid, as evidenced in 'The Copied Factory'. I actively rescue, and resurrect people dying to stupid over and over and over and over and over and over and over, and GET NOTHING. That's how it is. Commendations are random everywhere, you are lucky to be acknowledged at all.

[Risvertasashi]

-snip-

I like the spirit of your suggestions but I feel there's a few ways it can be improved.

IMO, the best similar system I've seen doesn't try to hold you in a duty - instead, you can access it more or less any time. For example, you can leave and immediately requeue, and while in the queue for the next roulette or whatever else, then you can pull up a list of people you might like to commend. You could also do it before you left the duty (like now), or even into the next duty as long as you haven't finished it yet.

Essentially, the idea is to remove time and place restrictions - not so dissimilar from yours, but forcing interaction with a prompt is usually a UI-no no.

As for incentive, I think the challenge log is a bit of incentive, but I do think it could be improved too. Utilizing the previous example again, their system gives a small amount of exp for giving out commendations - the FFXIV equivalent could be, I don't know, maybe 2 weekly capped tomestones and 5 uncapped tomestones? Small, but giving them out consistently adds up. Or EXP if not max level.

But the biggest part I would like to see is removing the restrictions on when and where you can comm someone after the conclusion of a duty.

Lastly, that system requires giving as well as receiving to maintain rewards you get for receiving a lot of commendations. Something like this wouldn't be so easy to incorporate into 14 since here, commends are a simple counter on your character profile. But it might be something worth thinking about if it ever became more than that.

[Solarra]

I like your ideas. I generally give commendations if people are helpful, play well or are simply good company, but very often I find people leave before I can comm them. In that case, I assume they don't actually want the commendation, so I'm not sure I'd give one to someone who had already left the instance, even if I could.

[Rasikko]

Just let me comm people that already left.

[Pixiehawk]

Just let me comm people that already left.

This. By the time I load when the fights done I'm lucky there's anyone left in the instance. I'd love to actually commend on occasion.

[PyurBlue]

All I'd want to see is the ability to comm someone who left (though maybe they left because they didn't want comms, I've done this) and the ability to comm multiple people.

[AbelArchaniEA]

The current commendation system has a few key flaws that could be improved.
Namely:

• no incentive for players to commend anyone
• no rewards for using the commendation system (a small challenge log reward not included)
• the inability to commend players that leave a duty early

All of these factors make it increasingly difficult for new players and players who, for any reason, had to or chose to start a new character. In relation to the mentoring system this makes it nearly impossible and certainly not feasible for players to work towards becoming a PvP/PvE mentor in any realistic time frame.

This holds especially true for anyone who was allowed to become a mentor under the temporary 500 commendations rule that has now been raised by a steep 200% requirement.

After some consideration the following changes would likely benefit the commendation system:

• a selection the commendation dialog should be required to leave a duty
• in accordance to the prior point - an option "chose not to commend" should be added
• include the ability to commend party members that already left the duty

There's more options like allowing additional flavors to the commendations like "skilled dps player", "good party support" etc. but the main idea is to have a player have to interact with the commendation window - even if it's just to click "chose not to commend".
As things stand now - especially on new worlds - players simply rush out of duties without giving as much as a consideration to the commendation window, so raising awareness of it could greatly help.

NOTE: this suggestion is written from an EU-perspective based on the observed commendation behaviour of three worlds and is not necessarily applicable to other worlds / regions or data centers.

Ohhh hey look; another thread of people whinning about the game

[Maero]

Except it is not whining?
OP was making suggestions to improve the system as were other players...

[RyuSaarva]

there should be no rewards for giving commendations, you are not suppossed to instantly get mentor status and if you started playing in 2019, you should not be a mentor if you ask from me anyway.