FDev please notice: the international CQC community requests improvements for this great game!

[r08y]

Cross play would add players, but probably would be a moderate software effort. Community goal with big pay out would bring players into the current iteration to gather statistics and player data and maybe recruit a few longer term players and could be done today with existing code couldn't it?

 

[EdzUp]

I think as have said before that dividing the games was a bad idea, we need arenas IN the ED universe which players can visit to watch matches not be separated to play in. Unreal tournament brought people together because it was the game, make ED:Arena a skill tree IN the ED universe with televised (via YouTube and twitch) matches and results and highlights in ED via Galnet.

It could be huge with the right backing or stay as a small insignificant sideline if not

 

[SushiCW]

Pups are necessary in the game, maybe it's not good for some & it could be eventually changed a little bit, but not too much. Because without it, it could unbalanced the game more than it is now, like giving too much advantage for some ships.
cheers

Even more to the point, the powerups are necessary to make the territory important. WEP gives you a high risk (because everyone is watching it), high-reward objective to try to snag before others do. Shield gives you a place to flee to. Stealth can be both.

The basic flight/shooting mechanics are solid, but having another metagame layer on top of that adds a lot.

 

[Jankules]

Removing musketeer from cqc will be great start!

 

[cmdr_Giboulot]

Removing musketeer from cqc will be great start!

+1

 

[Steven G]

Removing musketeer from cqc will be great start

ah yes, here we are. But there is a way to play & not face Musketeer, & you found it i think. Remind me how did you got your CQC elite ?

 

[Jankules]

ah yes, here we are. But there is a way to play & not face Musketeer, & you found it i think. Remind me how did you got your CQC elite ?

I See BOSS has send his minions to talk,coz he is buzy uploading videos on YT of other cmdrs,bothering my squad members,contacting inara.cz on dalie basis...feeding his big EGO....

Ps. I usually play everyday 04-06 ingame time,you are welcome to contribute to my Elite5 cqc rank

 

[cmdr_Giboulot]

I See BOSS has send his minions to talk,coz he is buzy uploading videos on YT of other cmdrs,bothering my squad members,contacting inara.cz on dalie basis...feeding his big EGO....

Ps. I usually play everyday 04-06 ingame time,you are welcome to contribute to my Elite5 cqc rank

Can't see your squadron in the ranking...
Are you sure about that mate?

 

[Steven G]

what a joke.
minion, lol, i got my vid too...
but, you don't answer the question, why ? tell us how you got your elite, many of us are very curious to know how to be elite without facing the other cmdrs & how to reach a K/D of 254.
please, tell us.

 

[MUSKETEER]

 

[MUSKETEER]

I See BOSS has send his minions to talk,coz he is buzy uploading videos on YT of other cmdrs,bothering my squad members,contacting inara.cz on dalie basis...feeding his big EGO....

Ps. I usually play everyday 04-06 ingame time,you are welcome to contribute to my Elite5 cqc rank

Oh I remember you. The other day you suddenly showed up in CQC Arena with CQC Elite rank already.. no other CQC player ever seen you before..

What squadron are you from? Ancients of MUMU?

 

[Jankules]

Oh I remember you. The other day you suddenly showed up in CQC Arena with CQC Elite rank already.. no other CQC player ever seen you before..

What squadron are you from? Ancients of MUMU?

Thanks musy for stats boosting....and big thanks for great video 2years ago...



But here are actually the real ones

 

[MUSKETEER]

It shows how much you were dying when you finally decided to play between 3,770,000 XP and 3,690,00 XP against real players that shoot back. Still your stats look so dodgy. You know all normal players have about 20-25k kills at that XP.. You have 37k.

 

[Steven G]

Thanks musy for stats boosting....and big thanks for great video 2years ago...

honestly, it wasn't a good idea to come to face the cmdrs who play CQC regulary, with such stats, because CQC is the hardest elite rank to get & most of the cmdr who try to get it 'normally', 'honestly'.
it's clear that you got those stats by farming your alt accounts. & this is not the way to play this game.
so, don't complain & path your way, this topic is about how to improve this game mode & due to the way you farm your elite rank, your opinion doesn't interrest the others.

 

[Jankules]

honestly, it wasn't a good idea to come to face the cmdrs who play CQC regulary, with such stats, because CQC is the hardest elite rank to get & most of the cmdr who try to get it 'normally', 'honestly'.
it's clear that you got those stats by farming your alt accounts. & this is not the way to play this game.
so, don't complain & path your way, this topic is about how to improve this game mode & due to the way you farm your elite rank, your opinion doesn't interrest the others.

I feel anger here,fine,i dont post anymore,keep driving out new players with this kind of altidute ingame and on forums,and keep farming each other in empty lobbies for rest of your lives...enjoy

 

[MUSKETEER]

I feel anger here,fine,i dont post anymore,keep driving out new players with this kind of altidute ingame and on forums,and keep farming each other in empty lobbies for rest of your lives...enjoy

Why are you angry?

You played against your alts until you reached CQC Elite rank. Only after that you played a tiny fraction of your total CQC time (less than 1%) properly against real players.

Hardly enough exposure to PvP experience of the Arena to feel angry.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

(Just to be clear, I do not represent the international community (have never claimed to do so) but I am part of it and in intense contact with international CQC-players.
Just to be clear, I neither represent nor speak for a Cmdr Musketeer.)

Hello FDev, the international CQC community has ideas which are presented by dedicated, cross-platform CQC players here. Please have a look!

First of all, I would like to mention that a member of the CQC discord channel has been in touch with the community team already and has passed ideas directly onto Fdev for consideration to be made for changes to CQC.

Here some of the bullet points of the international CQC community presented by dedicated, cross-platform CQC players :

• Power-Ups
  • Power-Ups offer temporary in-game buffs across all 3 game modes: weapons power, shield strength, speed, and stealth.
  • Their locations are marked by white circles on the radar, and flying through them grants the benefit.
  • They are always located in the same position on each map. They also always last for the same period of time.
    
    
    Issues
    • Power-Up locations are easily memorised, giving experienced CQC pilots a strong advantage over newer players.
    • In arenas such as ‘Ice Field’, Power-Ups are placed closely together, allowing powerful combinations (see weapons and stealth below) to be picked up quickly.
    • The above points encourage unfair gameplay practices:
    • “Looping” – flying through Power-Ups one after another to stack them up, and repeating as soon as the cool-down allows (which is tracked in the HUD – and can be further assisted by audible timed warnings in external programs such as Voice Attack).
    • “Camping” – the practice of staying by the Power-Up locations waiting to pick them up rather than engaging in the game-mode.
    • Looping and Camping are not “cheating” but offer unfair advantages especially against newer and experienced players, negatively affecting the health of CQC.
    • The benefits themselves are generally considered well balanced with the possible exception of the weapons damage increase (especially when paired with stealth).
      
      
      Suggested Changes
      • Respawn timer randomisation: changing the set time for Power-Up respawns to a range (e.g. 10 – 90 sec)
      • Location randomisation: while keeping their physical locations on the map the same, randomise which Power-Up appears per-respawn at those locations.
      • Remove Power-Up stacking: flying through a second Power-Up immediately causes the first to expire.
      • Weapons Power-Up reduction: consider reducing the 45 seconds length of this Power-Up, or its effectiveness from a 100% damage increase to a 50% increase. Taking the weapons power-up could also be changed to slow the weapons capacitor regen rate.
      • Clear & obvious weapons identifier on whoever has taken the weapons power up – glowing aura, bigger weapons graphics, red exhaust trail (similar to the player who has the flag in Capture the Flag) etc.

• Rewards
  
  Issues
  • There is little incentive for Elite Dangerous players to try out CQC. Without meaningful rewards, it is often felt as “wasted time”.
  • Many disregard the Elite Rank as an unachievable goal that “doesn’t count” and which has no interaction with the main game.
  • Players receive a nominal sum of credits for playing CQC. To achieve Elite in the CQC rank, players must accrue (on average) 22,000 kills. This equates to approximately ~17,000,000 total credits, averaging to fewer than 800Cr per kill.
  • 
    
  • Suggested Changes
    • Increase credit reward 100x. This would equate to an estimated 500,000Cr and 2,500,000Cr per hour for beginner to advanced players. Even a 200x credit increase, would amount to 5,000,000Cr per hour – still well below main game earnings.
    • Allow CQC gameplay to contribute to the capped 400 ARX that players may earn weekly through playing.
    • Upon hitting each Prestige Rank, the choice of a specialised paint job for use on the ships.
    • Introduce regular CQC Community Goals, with tier based rewards based on number of kills or wins. This could include a weekly / monthly ‘double XP event’ or an exclusive double engineered module only accessible through playing CQC.
    • Stronger interaction with the main game – CQC arena hubs in the main game (which could also be accessed through CQC matchmaking), where CQC wins from those areas have consequences for BGS, such as improving faction morale.
    • Allow players to opt for engineering material rewards in lieu of credits (albeit at a slow rate). 1 x Grade 4 / 5 material per completed match for example.
    • Allow players to customise their CQC ships, by using paint jobs, ship kits, weapons and engine colours purchased in the main game.
    • Add an unlockable main game CQC decal similar to the ones on offer for the other Elite ranks, matching the rank icon below.

• Ships
  
  Issues
  • CQC players have a small pool of ships to choose from: the Condor, Sidewinder, Eagle, and GU-97 (which was added by Frontier in a later patch after the original 3). The Sidewinder in particular is not a combat focussed ship, and is barely used.
  • Suggested Changes
  • • Add the Taipan and/or a Guardian Fighter with additional unlockable loadouts, increasing the total number of loadouts to 15 or 18 respectively.
    • Make fixes to some of the already existing ships such as the Sidewinder (increase the agility slightly and fix the Frag Cannon, which is less damaging than the stock laser).
    • Rebalance some of the existing ship module unlocks – amour booster and shield booster modules are too weak to be useful.
    • Changes to ships weaponry – possibility of regen beams to allow for further depth to team play.
    • Fix the ‘target subsystems’ options, as this would add extra depth to combat.

As I wrote above, these are some of the bullet points and have been developed exclusively from the experiences of the CQC-players and are considered to be in urgent need of improvement.

FDev, please, show us of the international CQC-community that you are watching and listening. We know that you have a lot of projects on your to-do list but please comment as to when we can look forward to CQC improvements.

I like these changes a lot. Very easy to do, the Taipan and other ships already exist in the game so there is no dev power needed on top. Power up RNG should be fairly easy as well.
I also approve of increase rewards as CQC is objectively the worst income source there is.
And lastly I also would like to see CQC in the main game. A location where you can watch for instance.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

For those of us who don't play CQC, although like the idea of it, there needs to be incentives to play CQC.

One is bot support, so there is no waiting. I know some people will say implement X and Y and it will become popular so bots aren't needed, but then you're still at the mercy of timezones, platforms, etc., and maybe you are still waiting. Its never going to be popular enough to ensure there are no long waits. Its no Overwatch or Apex Legends or Fortnite.

Another is the credit rewards are worthless, although since how easy it is to get credits these days, i'm not sure increasing them would have any benefit. HOWEVER, decals and other things might help.

Any other changes might help somewhat, or maybe hinder them. As we can see, there are those who are for and against certain ideas, as you'd tend to find with any game and suggestions. The only way to know if they would help or not would be to implement them.

Another question that needs to be asked is whether FD should spend even a single dev manhour further on CQC. I'm sure there are plenty would do not want FD paying any attention to CQC when ED itself needs so much love.

I'd also like to point out that anyone who claims to represent any part of the community is immediately suspect.

I'll just throw in my personal preference for what i'd like to see in CQC. Higher ranks unlock the ability to change your loadouts to SLFs in the main game. Now that would get me playing CQC.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

PS: If everyone could stop waving their credentials around like it supports or validates their opinion it would be great. Everyone is entitled to their opinion regardless of how much they have played CQC or even if they haven't. There is no right or wrong here, only opinion.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

And lastly I also would like to see CQC in the main game. A location where you can watch for instance.

I think the issue with this is each CQC match is self-contained and the only people who can affect lag and other network issues are the players in the session. If you have the match somehow visitable/visible in the main game (and you also need to ensure specatators can't interfere with the fight) then they can also affect the network.

It is well known in ED that the more players in an instance the more issues you have. The last thing CQC players want is lag being induced by Crimson Kain who is sat watching the fight.

Also, at the distance you could watch from without interfering would be signficant, most you're really going to see is just exhaust trails and weapon fire and occasional dots moving around. If there is a demographic that want to watch live CQC matches, and networking could be made solid, then a spectator mode might be the best option. Like a list of ongoing CQC games where you can enter as spectator and watch from various points of view.