The Hosting system needs more clarity and transparency

[LapuLapo]

So I just finished making a bug report about (what I believe to be) a very common occurence for players who come up against the dreaded spectre of Host Migration in Warframe. And i have some additional thoughts on the current system more generally now.
(https://forums.warframe.com/topic/1121707-host-migration-resulted-in-frozen-lobby/?tab=comments#comment-10976192)

I know these bugs and squad crashes are pretty common, and that may or may not change in the near future. 
So I have a few suggestions on how to help alleviate some of the bad outcomes that Host Migration has been bringing for a long time.To make the best of the current system.
 

1) At bare minimum, we need some kind of change to the current "Extract" or "Battle" screen in endless missions. Before the screen was reworked to the new UI, one could see the mission squad list on the right hand side of the screen, and then figure out who was Host, and see if said person was trying to leave the upcoming wave. It was an easy decision, if you wanted to avoid host migration, you leave when the host leaves. Simple.
The way the screen works now, the names seem to shuffle out of order (so that the list of players in-mission differs in sorting from the list of players at the Extract choice screen) and more importantly, there's no feedback as to who is or isn't host. Ideally, the host would be clearly marked in this scenario.

2)A more widespread change: Hosts should be told they are hosting. I know there are ways to figure this out if you are savvy to the game systems. (Ping tracker being omitted, the "1" next to the host name in the squad list.) But this needs to be exceedingly clear for people including new players who might not realize that this is how games are run in Warframe. I think Hosting should be obvious for the Squad and the Host themselves. (I suggest  changing the default (1) to denote (HOST) as a start.)

3) Additionally I feel that hosts should be prompted before leaving squad (say in Open-World zones) or aborting missions (anywhere else) and simply be told "You will trigger a Host Migration, are you sure you want to disconnect from the squad?" This will at least help the more conscientious hosts to realize that they're going to cause the rest of the squad a bad time, and ask their party about it or at least warn them about whats going to happen. 

In my personal experience, I can hardly play open-world public squads. Because an easy 2/3rds of the lobbies I spawn into are immediately disbanded by someone leaving.. Oftentimes an MR1-3 player who might not even realize they were hosting a whole squad. Meanwhile if I ever end up hosting a PUG in an open world I know to let my party know when im planning to leave and give them time to get to the gate or finish anything time sensitive they're up to. I think more would-be hosts would act similarly if they knew exactly how hosting worked in warframe more directly and easily when informed by the game systems themselves rather than through negative trial-and-error from too many poor host migrations.

Hope this is digestible, and feel free to point out any flaws or add on your own suggestions to the idea of making hosting clearer.

Edited August 19, 2019 by LapuLapo

[peterc3]

15 minutes ago, LapuLapo said:

I know these bugs and squad crashes are pretty common

You're in a bubble where only people that have a problem share their experience. The people who would gain anything by posting this in the forums are already the type of people who would know what's going on.

[LapuLapo]

1 hour ago, peterc3 said:

You're in a bubble where only people that have a problem share their experience. The people who would gain anything by posting this in the forums are already the type of people who would know what's going on.

Which is exactly why I think there needs to be efforts to make awareness of these problems more clear and plainly accessible for all players?