CQC The problem with CQC in my opinion

[gingervegeta]

MY THOUGHTS ON CQC (ARENA)

It's a real shame as cqc is really good and alot of fun but there's nobody using it .
I think the problem is that it's a very different style of game from Elite and from elites reputation. So alot of elite fans don't try it because they aren't necessarily shooter players and shooter players don't even look at it because they have no interest in a sandbox space game . As I play both sorts of games I'm one of the minority that wants to play it but can't . It's a pity because I think alot of people are missing out on a really fun game. Maybe Frontier should have it on the Playstation and Xbox stores as a free to play demo (maybe for a set time with you're progress saving if you buy it or elite as a whole) that way it may encourage more people to play it and bring in some new players. Also I think they should bring adverts for the arena in station displaying top players to help promote it in the main game , they could even add betting game credits in the black markets .

 

[Meeklo Braca]

As much as I would love that to work, it sadly won't. Arena was already released as a standalone game (no Elite: Dangerous main game needed), but was dropped by Frontier as it added an extra level of dev time for different builds, etc. It was a steal at $10, and was even made free for a brief time. Personally, I don't think they gave it enough time to grow before axing it.
Maybe if Arena was released after the PS4 launch, it could have gone differently.

CQC seems to be the update that directly changed or solidified FDev's mind of "we won't update something that not enough people play"

 

[popuptoaster]

CQC failed for three reasons,

1. Gameplay style very different from the type of players who were mostly buying ED when CQC was originally released.
2. It was not integrated within ED despite apparently being part of the same universe (and having a rating in the ships GUI), it's supposed to be the equivalent of an E sport so let us access it via a console in stations.
3. You could not use or transfer assets from within your game of ED, so no taking one of your SLFs into the battle, also not enough loadout customisation bearing in mind the game that spawned it.

FD had LOTS of feedback about CQC and pretty much ignored all of it, thay can't have been surprised it failed.

 

[SushiCW]

CQC failed for three reasons,

1. Gameplay style very different from the type of players who were mostly buying ED when CQC was originally released.
2. It was not integrated within ED despite apparently being part of the same universe (and having a rating in the ships GUI), it's supposed to be the equivalent of an E sport so let us access it via a console in stations.
3. You could not use or transfer assets from within your game of ED, so no taking one of your SLFs into the battle, also not enough loadout customisation bearing in mind the game that spawned it.

FD had LOTS of feedback about CQC and pretty much ignored all of it, thay can't have been surprised it failed.

You missed the matchmaking and "I can't find a game when I want it" problem, which is *actually* the #1 issue.

 

[popuptoaster]

You missed the matchmaking and "I can't find a game when I want it" problem, which is *actually* the #1 issue.

That wasn't a huge issue at the start, it could be slow sometimes but nothing like as abysmal as it got over time.

 

[SushiCW]

That wasn't a huge issue at the start, it could be slow sometimes but nothing like as abysmal as it got over time.

It's snowballed, but it was *always* the #1 issue. At first it was "it takes too many minutes so I gave up, matchmaker sucks" or "I got in and got wasted by completely unfair opposition, matchmaker sucks."

Now it's mostly "I can't get a game at all" which is even worse, but has the same root cause.

 

[kilvenny]

Strange - I have played several nights this week and got a game within a 30 seconds. The only issue is that I am against people ranked 40 ranks above me, but hey ho its good practice.

 

[SushiCW]

Strange - I have played several nights this week and got a game within a 30 seconds. The only issue is that I am against people ranked 40 ranks above me, but hey ho its good practice.

There's actually a "primetime" band that still has decent population, but it's pretty narrow. If you can hit it regularly, consider yourself fortunate and enjoy!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

There's actually a "primetime" band that still has decent population, but it's pretty narrow. If you can hit it regularly, consider yourself fortunate and enjoy!

Yes - "no-one plays it" is an interesting numeric question - and you're definitely much better off if you can hit the "late Europe/early US overlap" timezone. On PC - which seems to be the best-populated platform, from what I hear - there are a couple of hundred people signed up on the unofficial chat, at most a third of whom show up on my contacts list - and I generally play in a fairly narrow range of times. So there's probably well over a thousand people if not more trying to get a game at least occasionally across the 3 platforms. I see 10-20 times as many different people in CQC as I do flying around in Open (and I spend a lot more time in Open than I do in CQC), according to my contacts panel. So, there's a lot of people out there wanting to play at least sometimes... can you get six of them online and queueing at once for TDM without external coordination on Discord? Virtually never. How many thousands would you need to get it reliably working across platforms and timezones as things stand? Probably more than the 10,000 who participate in the average CG.

Either of "queue from main game like Multicrew" or "see the current matches and waiting lists in each mode from the searching screen" would make it so much easier.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

• Move it into the main game by adding a button to somewhere on the ship HUD.
• Let CMDR's queue and join for CQC from anywhere in the game.
• Provide tangible in-game benefits from participating (anything from paintjobs, to engine details, to decals).
• Link CQC with Power Play; where the success/failure of games directly contributes to the PP struggle.
• Have "friendly" matches that don't impact on PP (more for practicing).
• Have PvP and PvE scenarios.
• Provide a progression tree; as you gain experience and rank up, you get access to rare weapons and mods for your ships. Some of these unlocks could be transferable into the main game.
• Allow CMDR's to build their own CQC fighter which they can take with them for SLF.
• Allow CMDR's to use their own ships (Anaconda et all) in large-scale armada battles (hosted on servers by Frontier for obvious reasons).
• Host frequent solo and group tournaments that provide amazing rewards ( "ship alternate looks" for example ).
• Host emergency system take over matches that greatly contribute to the fate of a system ( PP only ).

The problem with CQC? It doesn't have any of the above; and you have to leave the main game in order to queue which nobody wants to do.

 

[tgarpestad]

• Move it into the main game by adding a button to somewhere on the ship HUD.
• Let CMDR's queue and join for CQC from anywhere in the game.
• Provide tangible in-game benefits from participating (anything from paintjobs, to engine details, to decals).
• Link CQC with Power Play; where the success/failure of games directly contributes to the PP struggle.
• Have "friendly" matches that don't impact on PP (more for practicing).
• Have PvP and PvE scenarios.
• Provide a progression tree; as you gain experience and rank up, you get access to rare weapons and mods for your ships. Some of these unlocks could be transferable into the main game.
• Allow CMDR's to build their own CQC fighter which they can take with them for SLF.
• Allow CMDR's to use their own ships (Anaconda et all) in large-scale armada battles (hosted on servers by Frontier for obvious reasons).
• Host frequent solo and group tournaments that provide amazing rewards ( "ship alternate looks" for example ).
• Host emergency system take over matches that greatly contribute to the fate of a system ( PP only ).

The problem with CQC? It doesn't have any of the above; and you have to leave the main game in order to queue which nobody wants to do.

That is a pretty good list and I agree with most of it. I would also add a ingame chat for cqc that is activated when ppl are queuing. With this kind of chat, you could actually know if there is someone else queuing for a match.

 

[HaDes55]

I don't know how you get a game in 30 seconds, I have been waiting minutes and get nothing.

 

[ChiefRedCloud]

I'd like to try it out ... i.e. fly it ... even if there's no one to shoot or better yet get shot by. I've read that it looks quite nice ... You would think that with so many clamoring for PvP that this would be so much more popular. Perhaps it's too level a playing field for some ... Yea I know, don't go there ... so I'll stop there ...

Chief

 

[HaDes55]

MY THOUGHTS ON CQC (ARENA)

It's a real shame as cqc is really good and alot of fun but there's nobody using it .
I think the problem is that it's a very different style of game from Elite and from elites reputation. So alot of elite fans don't try it because they aren't necessarily shooter players and shooter players don't even look at it because they have no interest in a sandbox space game . As I play both sorts of games I'm one of the minority that wants to play it but can't . It's a pity because I think alot of people are missing out on a really fun game. Maybe Frontier should have it on the Playstation and Xbox stores as a free to play demo (maybe for a set time with you're progress saving if you buy it or elite as a whole) that way it may encourage more people to play it and bring in some new players. Also I think they should bring adverts for the arena in station displaying top players to help promote it in the main game , they could even add betting game credits in the black markets .

The problem is you do not get a game, I just tried for an hour to get a game, the longest I waited in one go was 15 minutes!, still told me it was match making, the game does not exsist!!!

 

[Blian]

Yep, there are good times and bad times. Come to the Discord channel, and you'll see when there are games going.