Button to Join Lowest Pop Instance

[CatboyPrincess]

When attempting to join a Relay or Cetus or Fortuna or instance, the player is given an unsorted list of instances that are labelled with a descriptor for their current population. The player needs to join one of them.

On this screen, I would like to suggest adding a button to join the least populated instance in that list.

I enjoy seeing other people's frames populate instances, but I don't always appreciate the framerate losses that can result from heavily populated areas. Having this button gives the player a convenient point of access for the least populated instance which presumably would help that player's FPS. This helps with the quality of life in Warframe.

Edited November 23, 2018 by Gwyndolin-chan

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

11 hours ago, Gwyndolin-chan said:

When attempting to join a Relay or Cetus or Fortuna or instance, the player is given an unsorted list of instances that are labelled with a descriptor for their current population. The player needs to join one of them.

On this screen, I would like to suggest adding a button to join the least populated instance in that list.

I enjoy seeing other people's frames populate instances, but I don't always appreciate the framerate losses that can result from heavily populated areas. Having this button gives the player a convenient point of access for the least populated instance which presumably would help that player's FPS. This helps with the quality of life in Warframe.

Yeah I suspect that would immediately lead to having to spin up more instances, as the lower population instances would reach the "busy" threshold more rapidly while the busy wouldn't really fill up. 

That means greater server strain on their end. So greater costs for the company with little actual improvement for you over the current system. 

If you want a calm instance, just scroll down a bit. 

[CatboyPrincess]

I don't see why more instances would immediately need to be spun up. Would you mind explaining that?

If I thought scrolling down just a bit was more convenient than a button, then I wouldn't be offering this suggestion.

Moreover, I want the least filled instance in a convenient manner. One that is closest to being completely empty.

Edited November 25, 2018 by Gwyndolin-chan

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

14 hours ago, Gwyndolin-chan said:

I don't see why more instances would immediately need to be spun up. Would you mind explaining that?

I believe that there's a certain threshold that when passed, causes the server to spin up a new instance. But it's not when all lower instances are busy. I figure that's why there's always a calm instance at the bottom of the list, and why if the first instance is calm, then a lot of the time there's only the one, but for the popular relays there are often multiple calm instances. 

A system that causes us to always fill the calmest instance, would cause us to cross that threshold on multiple calm instances, without necessarily crossing the line to busy on any of them. 

It like having the rules "if any bucket crosses 1/3 full, put out a new bucket" and "for x% of the people filling the buckets, always fill the bucket with the least water". 

So it's a matter of having to balance your convenience with what's best for their bottom line. A lot of the time, the bottom line is going to have to win. 

[CatboyPrincess]

I'd rather not consider a suggestion's viability against pure speculation about how DE codes their game. They are more than capable of adjusting the server spin up rules to accommodate, if necessary. If you would please focus on the merit of the suggestion itself instead of speculating on DE's capabilities, that would be appreciated.

Anyway, building on the original suggestion, I really enjoy quieter relays as well, so being able to hop into the quietest one would be nice.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Gwyndolin-chan

[(PSN)guzmantt1977]

Well, that's the thing. I don't really see much merit. I understand that it's something that you believe you want, but the way that I see it, they've already created a system that allows you to choose a quieter instance or a more busy one. One that takes only a little bit of effort on our part to use. 

Worse, what you're asking for won't really be a way of getting what you say you want. Calm instances become busy, and busy ones become full. The opposites are also true. 

The calmest relay right this instant, may not be in a minute. So how do you guarantee that the relay you join remains calm? 

[CatboyPrincess]

Their system is less convenient to use for this purpose because of the lack of a button to join the absolute lowest population server, guaranteed. The button solves this issue.

I don't need to guarantee the relay I join remains calm. My intent isn't to guarantee my relay remains calm. If I as a player notice my current relay's population is an issue, I can quickly leave and join the next calmest relay.

That said, if everyone was railroaded into using this system, the amount of time it takes to fill up a relay is a literal fraction of the amount of time it takes for a relay to fill up, 1/n where n is the number of relays. The number of players per relay would be approximated by p/n, where p is the number of players. Now with this function, it's easy to see that the number of players per relay will grow very slowly compared to the number of relays available.

So, mathematically speaking, the relay I would join through the click of a button is virtually guaranteed to be relatively calm for quite a while. That said, I'm not suggesting railroading all players into always choosing the least populated server. I only care that I, as someone who doesn't like crowded servers, but who likes seeing some other players populate the world of Warframe, don't have to waste time looking at a server list that isn't even sorted by population.

For the record: https://i.imgur.com/4ziXB4n.png

where are the calm instances?

Edited November 29, 2018 by Gwyndolin-chan