How can CQC be revived?

Ezren

Ezren
Ian Doncaster said:
Main CQC Discord: 2,662 members

Major PVP Discords
Galactic Combat Initiative: 1,831 members
PvP League: 424 members
ECCE: 728 members

Major Powerplay Discords
Federal United Command: 1,390 members
ALD Discord: 1,161 members
Alliance of Independents: 883 members
...and some other powers, right? Can't be bothered to look them all up but they're probably not significantly bigger.

...and for comparisions, some actual big ones
Fleetcomm Exploration Discord: 12,863 members
General Elite Dangerous Community: 15,730 members

All very inexact, of course, but it's not giving me a "CQC is a minority interest, unlike PvP which is super popular" impression. (In practice Powerplay probably easily beats both, and, well...)

Main-ship duelling wouldn't work particularly well with the CQC format, since the high-end engineered ships probably wouldn't die once in the 7:30 allowed for a free-for-all deathmatch unless they got unlucky, and the scores in 15 minute TDM would also be pretty low. I'm not saying a simulated duel tool (with manual lobbies and matchmaking) to save you the trouble of trying to get everyone together in the same system wouldn't be a good thing - absolutely it would - but if Frontier were going to implement one, starting from CQC wouldn't really gain them very much.
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I've been in the CQC discord for years, I can't remember the last time I checked it.

A lot of these ideas have been suggested time and again, it's just a matter of getting them to happen. The CQC format is great, the LOS radar and high-speed, twitch-accuracy requirements make it exciting. It just needs a little love.
 

NeilF

NeilF
Ian Doncaster said:
Main CQC Discord: 2,662 members

Major PVP Discords
Galactic Combat Initiative: 1,831 members
PvP League: 424 members
ECCE: 728 members

Major Powerplay Discords
Federal United Command: 1,390 members
ALD Discord: 1,161 members
Alliance of Independents: 883 members
...and some other powers, right? Can't be bothered to look them all up but they're probably not significantly bigger.

...and for comparisions, some actual big ones
Fleetcomm Exploration Discord: 12,863 members
General Elite Dangerous Community: 15,730 members

All very inexact, of course, but it's not giving me a "CQC is a minority interest, unlike PvP which is super popular" impression. (In practice Powerplay probably easily beats both, and, well...)

Main-ship duelling wouldn't work particularly well with the CQC format, since the high-end engineered ships probably wouldn't die once in the 7:30 allowed for a free-for-all deathmatch unless they got unlucky, and the scores in 15 minute TDM would also be pretty low. I'm not saying a simulated duel tool (with manual lobbies and matchmaking) to save you the trouble of trying to get everyone together in the same system wouldn't be a good thing - absolutely it would - but if Frontier were going to implement one, starting from CQC wouldn't really gain them very much.
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And had CQC (fighters) instead been an investment into the core game, along with just a modicum of effort for some scenarios, millions of owners of ED could have had the option to engage in fighter vs fighter based gameplay within missions, CGs, Powerplay tasks, within PvE and PvP styles...

Instead that development was ploughed into a stand alone dead end, and for the following four or so years ED's combat depth has all but remained the same, still a fraction of what was offered in space combat games 25+ years ago.

The management seems to have little desire to push the game's depth and involvement forwards, and far too often seem to lack the ability to understand what developments will and will not benefit the game. Hence we end up with a history of four years of mediocre bolt on (often questionable) efforts, and gameplay scenarios which have all but remained as shallow as they started in the game all those years ago.

CQC/fighter based gameplay should have been put in the core game back in 2015. It should have been utilised, leveraged and build upon to offer move involved PvE and PvP gameplay. Even now, it's not too late for this to take place... But instead we're going to now seemingly get "building bases" so we can buy carpets and paintings for them from the store. Meanwhile, the core gameplay in ED will (seemingly) remain as shallow as 2015, a fraction of what was on offer in space games back in the 1990s!

/rant

ps: This is of course in no way a negative comment to those that enjoy CQC as it is. To me it's simply a shame this style of gameplay is not better utilised by being offered in the core game as part of its experience, to offer an even more interesting and varied combat experience in it!
 
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DragonIV

DragonIV
I really enjoyed DeathTrack when I was in college late last century. An Elite version of that would be pretty cool. Racing circuit, but with full guns. Winner is either first or only finisher. Now that's an offline game version that'd be a blast.
 

Noddie

N
I enjoyed it a bit, but the matchmaking waits got longer and then people stopped playing because of it. So they got longer. I've logged in a few times to try it, but every time it's a wasteland. For me, I think it was too restricted with only (I think) 2-3 ships and maps.

Getting it back? - maybe some challenges like a group of players try to take down a capital ship whilst a group of other players try to stop them, and then swap sides. Maybe include racing. Maybe players vs bots in big scenarios? Basically flesh it out a little and offer a bit more variety.
 

Amanojaku

Amanojaku
Substantial arx as a reward might do it. I mean, the mechanics are there...

People would at least hit cqc once or twice a week if they knew it would be a quick way to pocket some arx.
 

MUSKETEER

MUSKETEER
Problem also lies with ED community. People are used to choosing who they play with (solo, pg) and always winning (because they fight only stupid NPCs in much inferior ship) and even in PvP dying is optional as everyone can easily leave the fight.

People just feel entitled to rules being bent for them, feel entitled to have it easy way out. But the arena has its own rules, you either have what it takes and get good at it or you whine, rage quit and say cqc is dead or whatever.. in which case good riddance.
 

zombieapocalypse

zombieapocalypse
Bring it into the main game and have a mode where Commanders can use their own ships. FD could implement it as risk-free PVP arena (just pretend it's a simulation or something) with leagues/leaderboards and in-game rewards. You could even have a training mode using NPCs or friends, so that people can mess around with tactics and different loadouts.
 
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Morbad

Morbad
Many of these suggestions are really horrible...offering increasingly large carrots to bribe participation of those who have little to no interest in the mode is just going to result in a lot of bitter grinders flooding CQC.

Only the suggestions that involve better matchmaking; such as the ability to get an actual match browser, or being able to enter the queue from the main game, seem like they'd actually improve the experience, even if some of the others would temporarily inflate player numbers.

Lateralus said:
(when do players ever fighter vs fighter eachother in the main game? never).
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I've done this, not especially often, but considerably more frequently than never.

The main game fighters aren't well suited for interesting combats with each other though. You either have a fighter with hitscan weapons, which means if you fire first, you win...or you don't have hitscan weapons and you can't hit other fighters unless the opposing pilot is an idiot.

mojonaut said:
Look on the bright side, while they're distracted with developing mini games, they're not adding more bugs to the main game. :)
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Assuming they can't break entirely unrelated features...

Ian Doncaster said:
All very inexact, of course, but it's not giving me a "CQC is a minority interest, unlike PvP which is super popular" impression. (In practice Powerplay probably easily beats both, and, well...)
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CQC is far more specific a thing than "PvP". Most avid CQCers may well be in that discord. Most people engaging in PvP on even a semi-regular basis probably aren't represented in any of those channels.

Demascus said:
3 plus years is a little late to revive a corpse.
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Only for raise dead.

Resurrection can work on remains that have been dead for a decade per caster level.
 
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