CQC x ARX

[Linventor]

Okay, hear me out. We got a PvP arena mode that apparently no-one plays. We got this fancy new premium currency. Here's what ya do: You patch up any bugs that arena mode has, maybe add a fresh coat of paint, and then you put the premium currency in - AS A REWARD FOR WINNING, SEPARATE FROM THE CURRENT WEEKLY CAP.
Obviously, you'd only get a reward if you're going up against randoms (to prevent farming with friends), but this would be an INSANE improvement over what we've got right now!

Please, share your thoughts.

 

[metatheurgist]

I'm reminded of the joke about the boy that needed his parents to tie a steak to him to get the dog to play with him.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Why only reward winning? shouldn't you get Arx for participating? Perhaps give some more Arx for winning, but isn't this suggestion to make CQC more attractive, and earning Arx could be what is needed to make more players to engage in CQC, regardless if they would win or loose... more participants means better match making, which should make the experience more fun to fights against similar ranked players.

 

[Linventor]

I'm reminded of the joke about the boy that needed his parents to tie a steak to him to get the dog to play with him.

I mean... Yeah, but CQC isn't exactly warm and fuzzy.

Why only reward winning? shouldn't you get Arx for participating? Perhaps give some more Arx for winning, but isn't this suggestion to make CQC more attractive, and earning Arx could be what is needed to make more players to engage in CQC, regardless if they would win or loose... more participants means better match making, which should make the experience more fun to fights against similar ranked players.

Yeah, having a reward for simply playing would be important. Maybe something akin to the TF2 end-of-match screen, where you get rewarded based on how well YOU did that round. What's important is that the reward for winning is enough of an improvement over the participation reward that there's a motivation to win. Of course, the addition of more game modes could help immensely. 4v4 "carrier matches" ('conda/'vette/'cutter, 2 fighter pilots, 1 gunner, 1 pilot), something like payload matches from TF2, even straight up RACING. Last I checked, the second C in CQC stood for Championships.

 

[Sylow]

So the fix for something which is generally not well received, not seen as fun or rewarding gameplay is not to make gameplay better, but to attach pseudo-financial rewards to it?

Then why go the ARX route at all? Why couldn't I just give FD my account information and they transfer me money for playing CQC? (And they'd have to pay me better than my current employer. For my current job is more fun than CQC. )

Sarcasm aside: I think this is a completely wrong direction to go. Adding extrinsic rewards doesn't make it a fun part of the game. It would merely migrate from "is there but doesn't bother anybody" to "now grind here for ARX". Which is not an improvement in any way.

 

[Drelthar]

I think the only way FD would do this, would be with a couple of winners getting extra ARX over the cap, and actually just coding in arx gain on the normal cap basis, maybe, maybe as one of the faster ways to earn it up to the cap. (Then again, making it faster to the cap might just mean the start of a month has lots playing, then week two has what we have now)

 

[Linventor]

So the fix for something which is generally not well received, not seen as fun or rewarding gameplay is not to make gameplay better, but to attach pseudo-financial rewards to it?

Then why go the ARX route at all? Why couldn't I just give FD my account information and they transfer me money for playing CQC? (And they'd have to pay me better than my current employer. For my current job is more fun than CQC. )

Sarcasm aside: I think this is a completely wrong direction to go. Adding extrinsic rewards doesn't make it a fun part of the game. It would merely migrate from "is there but doesn't bother anybody" to "now grind here for ARX". Which is not an improvement in any way.

Yeah, it'd at least need to be enjoyable on its own terms before adding rewards.
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT RANK GRINDING, AM I RIGHT?

I think the only way FD would do this, would be with a couple of winners getting extra ARX over the cap, and actually just coding in arx gain on the normal cap basis, maybe, maybe as one of the faster ways to earn it up to the cap. (Then again, making it faster to the cap might just mean the start of a month has lots playing, then week two has what we have now)

Exactly. If we add a limit to the maximum amount of ARX one can earn through it, then that would be more of the previously mentioned issue, namely only playing to grind ARX.

 

[CMDR DragonHorn]

Do you guys really think that people don't play CQC because they don't get meaningful rewards?...

 

[Bloodsign]

Why only reward winning? shouldn't you get Arx for participating? Perhaps give some more Arx for winning, but isn't this suggestion to make CQC more attractive, and earning Arx could be what is needed to make more players to engage in CQC, regardless if they would win or loose... more participants means better match making, which should make the experience more fun to fights against similar ranked players.

Reward should be given for achievement. Not necessarily winning only, but kills, ranking up.

 

[Drelthar]

Do you guys really think that people don't play CQC because they don't get meaningful rewards?...

I mostly haven't played it because I can't get a match as quick as I'd like.

I think the OP's idea is, this might entice more people to play, thus resolving the matchmaking problem.

 

[posthy]

First, i don't understand why are so many people seemingly obsessed with arx. It's a currency you can buy some cosmetics with. it won't affect your gameplay in any way, you can't sell it for real money, so why is it so important?
Second, I still think CQC should be part of the main game as a sport, using virtual telepresence similar to what multicrew is based on. That way you'll get arx normally for battling in the arena, because yo're playing the game.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Do you guys really think that people don't play CQC because they don't get meaningful rewards?...

I gave up trying CQC due to the fact that there was hardly anyone to play with...

I mean how fun it is to be a experienced beginner, that got matched against an Elite... it quickly got boring to get blown into pieces all the time....

Or when I encountered someone that is even worse than me, that I could dominate... it quickly got boring to shoot the other player over and over....

so several tries and that sort of sums up my experience. I do not think i ever had a CQC match that had all slots filled with players...


So something needs to make CQC more attractive. Because it can be quite fun to have a fight against people that are on your skill level, so we have the issue with bad match making, so it is not hard to understand that when it is hard to find good matches, players give up trying, so they stop visiting CQC, so this turns into a downward spiral of more and more players doing this, and if you do decide to try it out again more people, you are most likely to encounter an "empty" CQC again...

So CQC needs something else get people hooked into the activity... and now when so many people seems obsessed with Arx, it could be potential thing to attract more players into CQC, to make it more popular, and hopefully that is enough to attract enough players to be regular CQC players as well.

 

[Sylow]

I mostly haven't played it because I can't get a match as quick as I'd like.

I think the OP's idea is, this might entice more people to play, thus resolving the matchmaking problem.

But why do you think you ge matches not as quick as you'd like? Do you really think it's because people don't get a few cents worth of virtual currency there?

If you now tell me that CQC was a busy place before ARX was introduced, this might be true. But CQC was an empty place no matter if there was ARX or not. People play to have fun. Which CQC apparently doesn't provide enough of for them. So unless an hour of CQC gives you ARX of equivalent value to an hour of works pay, the suggestion falls flat. While actually doing that would be crazy for FD.

It's not easy to come up with any worse idea on how to promote CQC and to make it more enjoyable than to have it as a way to grind ARX. The very BEST the suggestion could do is to make people enter it to get ARX, at the price that initial dislike is turned into active hate and aversion and the mode getting a lot of bad reputation, being hated and avoided even more than before. And that is still, as said, the BEST possible outcome.

 

[Drelthar]

But why do you think you ge matches not as quick as you'd like? Do you really think it's because people don't get a few cents worth of virtual currency there?

If you now tell me that CQC was a busy place before ARX was introduced, this might be true. But CQC was an empty place no matter if there was ARX or not. People play to have fun. Which CQC apparently doesn't provide enough of for them. So unless an hour of CQC gives you ARX of equivalent value to an hour of works pay, the suggestion falls flat. While actually doing that would be crazy for FD.

It's not easy to come up with any worse idea on how to promote CQC and to make it more enjoyable than to have it as a way to grind ARX. The very BEST the suggestion could do is to make people enter it to get ARX, at the price that initial dislike is turned into active hate and aversion and the mode getting a lot of bad reputation, being hated and avoided even more than before. And that is still, as said, the BEST possible outcome.

I'm not saying it'd work.

 

[Sylow]

I'm not saying it'd work.

Hehe. True.

 

[CMDR DragonHorn]

To be fair, CQC has a TON of potential, because let's face it - CQC is the only modern space flight arena shooter on the market right now, with amazing flight and combat model. Sadly all wasted due to several bad gamedesign decisions. It might be salvaged, but it would require significant effort from FD to actually collect community feedback and improve lacking parts, fix stuff, etc. Maybe even sell it separately from the game for peanuts price (might even get more people into Elite this way), but I don't believe ARX would make it popular even in a slightest. On top of fixes and improvements, more ships, ability to customize loadout maybe? Without stupid grind locking? But to be honest, I just don't see dev team concentrating on it any time soon, if ever... Sad though, putting effort into unique game on its own and letting it rot... smh.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Nice idea.

 

[metatheurgist]

To be fair, CQC has a TON of potential, because let's face it - CQC is the only modern space flight arena shooter on the market right now, with amazing flight and combat model. Sadly all wasted due to several bad gamedesign decisions. It might be salvaged, but it would require significant effort from FD to actually collect community feedback and improve lacking parts, fix stuff, etc. Maybe even sell it separately from the game for peanuts price (might even get more people into Elite this way), but I don't believe ARX would make it popular even in a slightest. On top of fixes and improvements, more ships, ability to customize loadout maybe? Without stupid grind locking? But to be honest, I just don't see dev team concentrating on it any time soon, if ever... Sad though, putting effort into unique game on its own and letting it rot... smh.

It was already a stand alone product. it failed. It was not worth the effort maintaining. The key problem was always that it was separate from the main game. If it was part of the main game then it would naturally be a consideration as an arx source.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

I think CQC and ARX have one thing in common : both aren't well-received (huge understatement) and might as well be shelved to clean up the code base.

ELITE and a Nintendo'esque "Super Mario Brothers in Space" Arcade Mini-shooter just don't fit.

Now it could be easily revived and given far more utility and purpose (as a Simulator) - but that'd require alot of work and innovative design. Both aren't to be expected from FDev.
It'll likely remain one of the features barely used due to being less than half-baked. ELITE's own "zombies" we drag along... technically doomed/dead but still onboard.