Vote to Kick is absolutely needed, if SE has any interest in the Duty Finder being a useful and enjoyable feature. However, any time this topic comes up there's always a few people who just say "no vote kick will be abused" and leave it at that. So, here are a few limitations/solutions that I think would help minimize abuse:
- New players (characters who have not successfully completed the dungeon before) cannot be kicked. A new player could still troll the group, but realistically I don't see this happening at all. Nobody acts like that in a dungeon they still need to complete for story mode, and all the trolls who are causing problems today are people who have already finished the dungeon. Besides, by definition, whatever X% of players this includes is still smaller than the 100% who can't be kicked today.
- No kicks may take place during combat, no kicks while loot is being rolled on, and no kicks after final boss has been defeated. No kicking a player in the first few minutes of them entering a dungeon, for any reason. I'm tempted to include something about kicking just before the final boss, though I'm not sure about the particulars.
- In a Light Party, you need 3 out of 4 players to pass a vote to Kick. In a full party, you need either 6 or 7 out of 8 (I'm not sure of exact number in this case, perhaps the requirement could fluctuate based on circumstances).
- There should probably be limits on the amount of kicks a player can vote in per day, or perhaps a cooldown on kicking for any particular group.
- Replacements for kicked players must be drawn from the random Duty Finder pool. Maybe you can manually invite a friend or FC member if the party was fully put together before originally entering the dungeon (I can imagine ways that might be abused, but they seem rare/impractical enough not to be a widespread problem).
- A player who is kicked while "disconnected" will count as having abandoned the group, and will suffer the penalty for leaving. Apologies to those of us who get legitimately disconnected against their will, but this is necessary to deter the players who intentionally "disconnect" rather than leave.
- The penalty for leaving is increased in general, and further increased with each group you abandon per day. Penalty for leaving a group that includes a first-timer is also increased.
- Boss rooms cannot be entered unless all players are alive and within a reasonably small radius from the entrance to the room.