CC ranked que times

[Nuggetr]

I typically don't make forum posts but I didn't see a thread about the current state of CC que times. Maybe its just this DC? Even though its pretty active in terms of player base.

I thought I would share a grievance I spot at the moment. it seems like CC has declined sharply just due to the que times being so long (10-15 minutes 4-11 PM EST and usually with the same 10-13 people. this is plat+ for context).

During seasons one and two you could get a tons of games going prior to prime hours. Now you need to wait until those prime hours and sometimes those prime hours don't even trigger a single game. Yes I understand the game mode was new so its popularity rose sharply as endgame content but the dramatic fall is really what I wanted to point out here.

I understand with how the rank system works that it might deter people from participating, one might argue if you want to PvP, just play a PvP game since the PvE system is more robust. However, I cant help but wonder given that the ff team has clearly focused on PvP attention since the start of Endwalker, the current state of CC, at least to me, just feels like a massive let down in terms of reward structure and a systematic approach.

If I was to purpose for a fix, I would remove the ladder system or heavily revamp it. an example of a revamp would be, decay for top 100 and no de-ranking for crystal and below. Also allow people to travel to other DCs to que up for ranked. These near-term fixes would be a dramatic improvement for those who are active in PvP and would increase the PvP participation by the more casual base again.

[brancinaed]

This problem caries over from the previous PvP game mode The Feast. The main problem is cheaters taking top ranking spots push out the good players who give up once they reach Crystal then every body quits queueing for ranked.

I propose solutions like
1. Consolidate the queue
Remove ranked queue. Splitting the queue between two modes kills incentive to queue for one or the other. People will queue sync into casual or ranked but queue syncing into rank ruins competitive integrity as people match fix in Discord.

2. Remove and return old ranking rewards.
If even the rank 1 players can't play fair everybody should get participation rewards.

3. PvP Roulette
Include Rival Wings and Crystalline Conflict into the PvP roulette system. Lots of people really enjoy Rival Wings! Crystalline Conflict is also a good game modes but cheating in competition for rewards ruins them. Remove the competition and reward us for participation up to numbers like 5,000 wins.

[Nuggetr]

This could be something to look at long term in order to increase the participation rate, but at the current moment there are small fixes that can be triggered down their development pipeline that would immediately fix que time issues. I dont work for square though, I dont know how they cycle between their franchises or teams.

[Towa-Musa]

I typically don't make forum posts but I didn't see a thread about the current state of CC que times. Maybe its just this DC? Even though its pretty active in terms of player base.

I thought I would share a grievance I spot at the moment. it seems like CC has declined sharply just due to the que times being so long (10-15 minutes 4-11 PM EST and usually with the same 10-13 people. this is plat+ for context).

During seasons one and two you could get a tons of games going prior to prime hours. Now you need to wait until those prime hours and sometimes those prime hours don't even trigger a single game. Yes I understand the game mode was new so its popularity rose sharply as endgame content but the dramatic fall is really what I wanted to point out here.

I understand with how the rank system works that it might deter people from participating, one might argue if you want to PvP, just play a PvP game since the PvE system is more robust. However, I cant help but wonder given that the ff team has clearly focused on PvP attention since the start of Endwalker, the current state of CC, at least to me, just feels like a massive let down in terms of reward structure and a systematic approach.

If I was to purpose for a fix, I would remove the ladder system or heavily revamp it. an example of a revamp would be, decay for top 100 and no de-ranking for crystal and below. Also allow people to travel to other DCs to que up for ranked. These near-term fixes would be a dramatic improvement for those who are active in PvP and would increase the PvP participation by the more casual base again.

it wont change until next series pass.

[Egnasya]

This might not be news for a lot of people, but for me this is an episode of "today I found out".

So, I came here to find out why starting yesterday I wouldn't get near instant invites to CC as I was used to. I suspected there was some server issue going on but turns out no. The answer is simply, people are abusing the system.

The ranked CC que is apparently split into two tiers, the lower tier including bronze to gold ranks, and the upper tier including platinum to crystal ranks. Those tiers do not mix. As long as you stay in the lower tier, so never exceed gold rank, your que will be good. Once you enter platinum "this late" into the season, you will rarely if ever see an invite.

Why? Because there is a rush in the beginning of a season where those who are very interested in placing high try to get to crystal rank as fast as possible, and then just sit there and never que again, which they can do because their rank doesn't decay, so there is nothing to gain or maintain. This effectively means that after a while there are never enough players for the que, and seeing as others pick up on that being a thing the situation worsens further, because why would you even que when you know it won't happen?

So it seems my mistake was winning too much and now I can't play anymore. Fair enough I guess.

There are no words for this other than, yeah this is a pretty big blunder. One that honestly could have been prevented during development by thinking for 5 minutes maybe, or doing a Google research for the same amount of time if the former suggestion sounds too wild. But it is what it is, I'm a tiny bit pissed but I won't lose sleep over it. I just won't waste any more time waiting for a que that never happens.

[Valence]

This might not be news for a lot of people, but for me this is an episode of "today I found out".

So, I came here to find out why starting yesterday I wouldn't get near instant invites to CC as I was used to. I suspected there was some server issue going on but turns out no. The answer is simply, people are abusing the system.

The ranked CC que is apparently split into two tiers, the lower tier including bronze to gold ranks, and the upper tier including platinum to crystal ranks. Those tiers do not mix. As long as you stay in the lower tier, so never exceed gold rank, your que will be good. Once you enter platinum "this late" into the season, you will rarely if ever see an invite.

Why? Because there is a rush in the beginning of a season where those who are very interested in placing high try to get to crystal rank as fast as possible, and then just sit there and never que again, which they can do because their rank doesn't decay, so there is nothing to gain or maintain. This effectively means that after a while there are never enough players for the que, and seeing as others pick up on that being a thing the situation worsens further, because why would you even que when you know it won't happen?

So it seems my mistake was winning too much and now I can't play anymore. Fair enough I guess.

There are no words for this other than, yeah this is a pretty big blunder. One that honestly could have been prevented during development by thinking for 5 minutes maybe, or doing a Google research for the same amount of time if the former suggestion sounds too wild. But it is what it is, I'm a tiny bit pissed but I won't lose sleep over it. I just won't waste any more time waiting for a que that never happens.

This is actually stricter above gold than you think it is. Each rank can only be paired with the league directly below or above, which means plat and crystal usually never meet (unless you're the last riser of your league, which counts one league above for queues). You'll get plat/diamond games, and diamond/crystal games, but never plat/crystal.

There is even more vicious cases actually, due to that last riser exception where you end up late in seasons climbing up to 3 stars diamond 1, and end up in the crystal pool for queues, but too bad for you because all the crystal players stopped playing early. Still amazed this isn't fixed by the way, but at last on my DC crystal players come magically back to life in the last weeks before the next season usually...

[Mistress_Irika]

Throwing in old rewards is only putting a bandaid to the retention issue. If everyone was to collect every single piece of reward pvp has to offer would they continue playing? Was the game mode fun while you were obtaining the rewards? If either answer is no then another solution must be made. Besides, there's only so much rewards that the devs will add for one game mode. Rewards are tricky. I think it can be solved though.

About rankings, on the other hand, I'm going to be somewhat biased since im more on the competitive side than the casual side. Here's my suggestions when it comes to competiveness.

At best, delete rank mode. Sure, it will just about kill anything left that resembles competitiveness. However, if a small group of people decide to run tournaments here and there the competitive side of pvp won't exactly disappear if other players outside of that circle becomes interested seeing the tournaments (I mean, I do think that small tournaments have a better reward than the top 100 rewards.). That could encourage the devs to start participating a bit more with the community like they did with the 2018 feast tournament.

At worse, add rank decay to those that are in Crystal rank, add a game protection system for those not in Crystal rank, and have players actually demote if they're not performing well regardless of rank. After 4 seasons of sitting in feast q for 7 hours after half the season was done last expansion I have heavily been against making the ladder super easy to climb. Easy ladders are a curse for those at a low rank. Imagine being bad or being late with climbing that you have to sit in time out and watch the top players play in order to learn. Same thing was going to happen had nothing changed after season's 2 CC. Of course when brought up that queues were dying at the lower end some people were willing to sacrifice the lower rank ladder's access to the game for their Crystal rank for the simple fact that they feel that they should not be punished because of their teammates....
In other multiplayer games the lower ranks has the most playtime while those at the very top has the longest queue times depending on roles on that game. Why should final fantasy be the exception regarding this?

[RyanCousland]

This problem caries over from the previous PvP game mode The Feast. The main problem is cheaters taking top ranking spots push out the good players who give up once they reach Crystal then every body quits queueing for ranked.

I propose solutions like
1. Consolidate the queue
Remove ranked queue. Splitting the queue between two modes kills incentive to queue for one or the other. People will queue sync into casual or ranked but queue syncing into rank ruins competitive integrity as people match fix in Discord.

2. Remove and return old ranking rewards.
If even the rank 1 players can't play fair everybody should get participation rewards.

3. PvP Roulette
Include Rival Wings and Crystalline Conflict into the PvP roulette system. Lots of people really enjoy Rival Wings! Crystalline Conflict is also a good game modes but cheating in competition for rewards ruins them. Remove the competition and reward us for participation up to numbers like 5,000 wins.

i might be wrong in inferring this but are you suggesting putting casual and ranked as just one mode? if so that would lead to this forum being littered with complaints more so than it already is

as for the whole cheating thing i think its way over blown or its just a certain DC but ive fought against/with a good majority of the top 100 and not single player is a cheater, assholes maybe but cheaters no

i do think casual should be in the daily roulette along with RW

[Ziyaal]

Queue* /10char

[Divinemights]

This problem caries over from the previous PvP game mode The Feast. The main problem is cheaters taking top ranking spots push out the good players who give up once they reach Crystal then every body quits queueing for ranked.

I propose solutions like
1. Consolidate the queue
Remove ranked queue. Splitting the queue between two modes kills incentive to queue for one or the other. People will queue sync into casual or ranked but queue syncing into rank ruins competitive integrity as people match fix in Discord.

2. Remove and return old ranking rewards.
If even the rank 1 players can't play fair everybody should get participation rewards.

3. PvP Roulette
Include Rival Wings and Crystalline Conflict into the PvP roulette system. Lots of people really enjoy Rival Wings! Crystalline Conflict is also a good game modes but cheating in competition for rewards ruins them. Remove the competition and reward us for participation up to numbers like 5,000 wins.

Why don't you just ask they remove Crystal Conflict then?
Last thing every PvP need is reward for participation.