How do I host a CQC match?

[Shinkaze]

I have (3) good friends with Elite Dangerous accounts that have never gotten past the training scenarios.

The learning curve is too great for their level of desire.

That said they are ALL interested in playing a private CQC match to skill up.......only there is no interface for inviting friends to play 1:1 CQC much less host a Deathmatch, or have a private session with just CMDRS I know.

CQC Would be far more useful if I could
1) Host a CQC Match and set as either private or public
2) Specifically invite another player to 1:1
3) play over a LAN (ya know..... Elite Dangerous LAN party) for a local ladder match

I am very surprised that CQC doesn't have these basic use cases covered. Is there a reason?

Is there some rational why the default method is to only play against random people I don't know?

 

[GJ51]

I don't CQC - but I'd suggest that you and your friends create your own Private Group to become more comfortable with ED.

That way you could deal with the learning curve at your own speed without interference from seal clubbers.

 

[Shinkaze]

I don't CQC - but I'd suggest that you and your friends create your own Private Group to become more comfortable with ED.

That way you could deal with the learning curve at your own speed without interference from seal clubbers.

...only I'm 65,000 LY away at Beagle Point.....and can't enter the newCMDR-permit-zone anyways.....

 

[Bloodsign]

Another option, OP, is to try the team death match or capture the flag modes with CQC. They are much less used as far as I can tell, so less chance of having others join in.

 

[Bloodsign]

CQC tips for noobs (that I learned the hard way):

If you don't have four pips to systems (shields) in CQC, you might as well not have any.

Fixed weapons do actually have a little bit of gimbal to them.

The Sidewinder sucks at CQC unless you're quite a good pilot.

In CQC, you should be shifting pips constantly as the situation changes.

Use countermeasures! Rember that heat sinks are actually a countermeasure too.

Try to ambush enemies and pick on ships that are distracted by others.

Find ship builds that work for you, experiment!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Another option for helping them out that doesn't require you to come all the way back from Beagle first might be multicrewing in to help? Though they'd need to get enough money together for a Cobra III first.

Is there some rational why the default method is to only play against random people I don't know?

Basically because that's as far as Frontier got before stopping major development work on CQC. The ability to set up matches with specific memberships would be great for running tournaments and so on, but isn't likely to show up any time soon.

I have (3) good friends with Elite Dangerous accounts that have never gotten past the training scenarios.

There is one workaround, but you'll need four additional friends to make it work.

1) Get four more friends
2) Two of you each make a squad with three of the others (so you have two squads of four) in the CQC interface
3) The two squad leaders then hit the same "join mode" button at the same time, and hope...

If you're lucky, this will put all eight of you in the same match, no-one else will be able to get in, have fun. If you're unlucky, it'll put one squad in one existing match which had four or more spare spaces, and the other squad in its own match.

As J.States said, this is more likely to work in the TDM and CTF modes which have a smaller general player count.



The other workaround is just to show up to TDM mode as the four of you (do not make a squad [1], just all hit queue at once), join whatever match there is on, and see what you can do. Mostly what will happen is you will die, but CQC is the only game mode where you get paid for that rather than it costing you, and you'll pick things up as you go along.

[1] The reason for this is that the TDM matchmaker, when deciding which players to put on which team, tries very hard not to break up squads. So if you show up as a four, and there were four random veterans hanging around, if you don't go in as a squad it'll probably be two vets + two beginners on each team, which will be a reasonably even match though you'll spend a lot of time exploding. If you went in as a squad, the matchmaker would say "well, I've got a team of four, and I've got these four other players, so I guess they're the other team" and you will get horribly murdered.

 

[Shinkaze]

Another option for helping them out that doesn't require you to come all the way back from Beagle first might be multicrewing in to help? ...

I fear I have derailed my own subject by conflating "how to onboard friends into Elite Dangerous" with "How do I host my friends in CQC"

Yes we can allways multicrew but to what end.....to watch me grind another few hundred Jumps across the Abyss? My intention with getting ym friends in CQC is to have a no-consequence shoot-em-up where their ship can blow up and they just respawn and get back into the game immediately. It's a great way to get comfortable with flying, combat, controls and spatial awareness without having to deal with learning how to navigate, FSD, land and take off......if anything it gives them a reason to want to learn how to do those other non-CQC things.

Basically because that's as far as Frontier got before stopping major development work on CQC. The ability to set up matches with specific memberships would be great for running tournaments and so on, but isn't likely to show up any time soon.....

I'm suprised the ability to host a deathmatch wasn't the first piece of functionality built, it's core to the usability of playing in an Arena. If there is a dozen people out there like me wanting to host an Elite Tournament to get friends interested in playing, then that is easily dozens if not hundreds more people that might purchase the game just to play in a tournament.

That is why I said it's such an obvious piece of necessary functionality for a successful deathmatch, that I have to wonder if it was intentionally not included.

My Day job is building multi-player VR Experiences and match making is key and core to the first step to creating the environment. Giving player hosted death matches is a super simple change that would make CQC infinitely more appealing.

Imagine a world where you meet up with a couple of CMDRS at Beagle Point and ya say "Anyone want to CQC?" and the 5 people that say yes actually get to play together.