Concerns for Matchmaking in Hard mode.

[Deminisis]

I haven't seen anyone mention this before, so I'll voice my concerns about the upcoming Hard mode missions and public matches.

If anyone has done Lich missions recently, you might know about the problem of finding public matches. When Liches first dropped, it was extremely simple to find 4 man teams hunting liches and killing thralls together. There was a good chance that there was dozens of groups doing missions in Lich territory on every relevant planet, and recruiting chat was actively looking for teams. Now, months after the Old Blood update, its become an issue to find anyone. I've run through several nodes solo and maybe only met a few players from the time I created my lich to the time I finished them. Even during peak hours, i'll still be playing alone half the time.

The problem is not only has the hype died down, but there is simply too many mission nodes.

So currently there are... 232 mission nodes... not including railjack. As far as I know, Steel Path will introduce a hard version for each node, meaning 464 missions will be available. How likely will it be for me to find a public match like this? After a month or two, will players being forced to solo entire planets because there isn't enough ongoing public missions on each planet? Recruiting chat will only help so much, as players move on to other activities (Vault relics, Eidolons, Nightwave challenges) as time passes. I'm certain Steel path will be forced into solo content for all but the popular affinity nodes (Hydron, Akkad, Adaro, etc) in a number of months.

Please think about condensing mission node numbers for Steel Path as well as for Liches. Rotating viable nodes like fissures might be another option, but I'd rather see harder nodes reserved for a select few planets.

[[DE]Rebecca]

Hello!

2 things to unpack here - Lich Matchmaking (we have this on the review list because it's been brought up many times)
Steel Path - this is why we reduced it to 1 tier of difficulty vs. 2.

While we do not have rotating Steel Path access in the cards as it's outside the spirit of the journey, we are reviewing it for Liches! 

[rapt0rman]

Wow, you got a direct response, fancy.

But yeah... it's the star chart, just harder. That's really all it's supposed to be. If they can solve these problems for the regular star chart, then Steel Path would follow suit anyways.

 

[CeruleanHex]

16 minutes ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Hello!

2 things to unpack here - Lich Matchmaking (we have this on the review list because it's been brought up many times)
Steel Path - this is why we reduced it to 1 tier of difficulty vs. 2.

While we do not have rotating Steel Path access in the cards as it's outside the spirit of the journey, we are reviewing it for Liches! 

Maybe consider doing something for Liches that's similar to what you guys did for Railjack with matchmaking -- let people see/join what open parties there are per planet, so finding squads isn't as difficult.

[tarfeef101]

I really don't want to see the solution become less options for the player. 

In reality, unless the rotational rewards are changed in the steel path, it will behave like the regular star chart for the most part. At the beginning/release, everything will be full as people burn through progression and mastery. Once that settles, the few nodes with the best rewards will get the focus. In the end, people don't care about 1K credits or serration, they want axi relics, endo, etc. So the rewarding nodes will continue to get the focus. If infested enemies at the higher levels give enough XP, then kala-azar/akkad will become popular xp farms (too lazy to do the math to figure that out myself for this post). I think your concerns are a bit out of proportion. I'd want to wait and see what happens once most of the target playerbase finishes the "hard star chart" and settles into their new routines. I expect it won't be significantly different from the current star chart.

[Nazzami]

Something i had one my mind for awhile too, not just for hard mode but every time a new mission type gets added a new node is added then when people are done with it less it a farming node it forgotten about. Personally i think nodes in general could be cut down to something like 4-7 nodes per planet then just have mission types leading to the assassination node rotate so long as a 1-2 node per planet stays as a endless mission.

[Magus_Tahir]

19 minutes ago, Nazzami said:

Something i had one my mind for awhile too, not just for hard mode but every time a new mission type gets added a new node is added then when people are done with it less it a farming node it forgotten about. Personally i think nodes in general could be cut down to something like 4-7 nodes per planet then just have mission types leading to the assassination node rotate so long as a 1-2 node per planet stays as a endless mission.

Possibly. However there are nodes that people use for familiarity, farming, and rivens in such. And this is not a Warframe specific issue look at games like WoW or FFXIV that have been around awhile. WoW addressed this in Cataclysm by altering the vast majority of the world and updating it. Something along those lines would be healthier I feel than just removing nodes down to a set amount. 

That said after having the ability for so long to just access the node I want when I wan't I am not sure if I would be able to adjust to having restrictions on that personally. On top of the feeling of the world shrinking.

With that said if I wouldn't mind a node reduction if we kept all the nodes but designated some of them as solo only/stealth only and removed them from the games matchmaking systems creating areas for alternate play styles to thrive I feel that would be a better option. 

[Deminisis]

1 hour ago, [DE]Rebecca said:

Hello!

2 things to unpack here - Lich Matchmaking (we have this on the review list because it's been brought up many times)
Steel Path - this is why we reduced it to 1 tier of difficulty vs. 2.

While we do not have rotating Steel Path access in the cards as it's outside the spirit of the journey, we are reviewing it for Liches! 

Thanks for the response! ❤️ Didn't think I would get one.

I'm glad to hear Lich nodes are being looked at and hope Steel path will be successful.

57 minutes ago, CeruleanHex said:

Maybe consider doing something for Liches that's similar to what you guys did for Railjack with matchmaking -- let people see/join what open parties there are per planet, so finding squads isn't as difficult.

Sounds interesting, but It would have to be more transparent on whats open than railjack's "Join anything that's available." I'd rather be able to pick someone's exterminate or rescue that is open than getting randomly thrown in an excavation or defense mission. If I at least know what I'm about to join I could bring the proper loadout first.

[(PSN)Stealth_Cobra]

For liches, I think the easyest solution to implement would be to make the planets invaded by are lich global / shared between players on any given day. For example on day 1 , the lich would occupy earth, mars, venus and mercury, while on day two,  he would move his influence slightly and invade let's say earth , mars, uranus and Neptune, that way everyone would be playing the same nodes on roughly the same planets instead of being spread all over starchart. This would also allow a reset of already cleared nodes every day, similar to what occurs when your lich levels up,  giving you more mission variety without having to fight your lich. Maybe the overall spread of liches could be limited to less planets (right now you can pretty much infect 8 planets easily, maybe limit this to four planets on lvl 5 liches. The "starter" planet of a lich would be random between the four planets, hereby ensuring that there's players playing on all four planets and not everyone on earth since earth is the first node infected for everyone on a monday. Would also mostly preserve the feeling that the lich is different if you do multiple liches per day.

For hard mode starchart, I think the only solutions is to make sure the difficulty level is not obscenely difficulty to the point where it pushes everyone away forever after the initial clear, which currently looks unlikely with 250% increased armor , health and shields and enemies with 5 million EHP. If the challenge is there but it's not tedious to clear nodes, people will keep playing the gamemode, but if not, people will grab the rewards and it'll be a desert afterwards asides from a few leveling and farming nodes and hotspots.

If it ever gets to a point where both regular and hard mode starchart are deserted , perhaps consider matchmaking regular players with hard mode players, even though that would allow hard mode players to trivialize the content by being carried by noobs killing enemies 10 times faster than they do, but it's better imho than having two totally deserted starcharts, one empty with a couple noobs and one empty with a couple vets running the hotspots. I do think eventually you'll have no choice but yo cut down the actual size of the starchart to make it more manageable and to promote actual coop.

 

[Gentleman_Bird]

If the rewards for the Steel Path collectables are good enough that people are gonna want to keep doing it, then recruit chat could still be viable.

[Pendragon1951]

Personally the only reason I would do hardmode is to farm the Exsumis on Earth to get the armor then that would be it since anything else, in my opinion, is not worth playing hard mode

[ES-Flinter]

Armor from eximus? Can you please tell me more?^^

[A7roboBOT]

1 hour ago, ES-Flinter said:

Armor from eximus? Can you please tell me more?^^

You can get Dax armor, like Teshin has

[Twisted_Wisdom]

Steel Path challenge > actually finding other players to do particular Steel Path missions with is a problem.