Feedback on SP Fissures

[CrownOfShadows]

So it's been a bit now, and due to excessive boredom, I've been playing a LOT of SP fissures.

Positives: it's somewhat challenging, it's engaging, it's fun, and there's a bonus +1 SE and an acolyte if it's long enough.

The main negative I'm experiencing is matchmaking - there simply aren't enough people playing them. I go into SP fissures expecting to play alone now.

Now, this is off-season; that is, there's no new prime rotation for people to spam farm, and it's pretty deep into the off-season too, but here's the basic problem: I queued up for an SP fissure. Nobody on start. Eventually, 1 more showed up, and we finished. Did it again. Nobody on start, 1 after I was a bit into it already, and then 1 more at the last possible second. Did it again - solo the entire time. So then I tried a regular fissure out of boredom - bam instant 4 man squad, and they hated me because I was just wrecking all the pitiful spawns with my SP build. This is but the latest example out of days and days of the same thing. Sometimes it's a little better, sometimes it's worse - depends on the day and the time. Sometimes I actually get a full 4 man on SP, sometimes I get nobody back to back.

You surely have the stats DE, you know exactly how the traffic is fairing across this divide.

The solution? I have no idea. It's complicated. Do we spawn fewer of both types? What if there were only 2-3 relic missions available at one time for each side? Do we restrict just the basic fissures so there are less of them in an attempt to drive traffic to the SP? Do we restrict just the SP fissures in an attempt to funnel traffic? Do we increase SP fissure benefits in an attempt to attract more players?

My knee-jerk reaction at this point, at least in the off-season, is to restrict SP fissures to only 2 offerings at a time, with increased rewards (2 relics, extra void traces, automatic refinement upgrades, random resources, whatever), as I think this would generate the necessary traffic. On a prime release, we'd surely want to expand it back out to a full offering and drop the extra rewards.

All I know is that SP fissures feel bad because cracking a relic solo is a tragedy, and cracking a relic with just 2 people is not much better. And wiping maps in regular fissures isn't satisfying for anyone involved (I guess except at the reward screen, where they benefit from my rads). But would I rather solo a tough SP relic mission, or destroy maps in standard with 4 relic offerings?

.... hmm.. another possibility, one that won't ever see the light of day, is to totally redesign SP relic missions with fresh content and unique gameplay. But alas, I dream too big, too often.

[Merrcenary]

7 минут назад, CrownOfShadows сказал:

Do we restrict just the basic fissures so there are less of them in an attempt to drive traffic to the SP?

lol nope

[CrownOfShadows]

Hmm the more I think about this... yes.....

ADAPTIVE offerings - probably worth investing in for the future. Incentivize and restrict offerings during the content droughts, then relax them during the flood.

Could also be applied to Nightmare, Invasion and RJ fissures too.

[CrownOfShadows]

5 minutes ago, Merrcenary said:

lol nope

Well, inevitable power creep will eventually see their demise. We're super close to it already. When MR11's are playing SP, why should we keep regular fissures around at all?

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

I don't know how easy/hard this would be to implement, but maybe if the game had a feature, that would let you know how popular a certain node was, when you actively searched under certain parameters. Like if you had a search or tab, that you could click on, specify "Steel Path" and "Relics" and then the game would search around, and let you know "These two Relic Missions are popular right now" and then if you'd like more odds at having company/full team, you can gravitate towards that mission. Could also be great elsewhere, if you say enjoy doing Disruption or need help with a certain activity, and see others are doing it (I know the game has a type of version, with the squads etc tab, but its a bit basic).

I've mostly be doing Steel Path Relic missions, with it set to solo, but the few I have done in public, I got full squads, but... I also chose to do the popular missions, meaning Capture, Exterminate and Hydron. I imagine there are certain Relic missions that on Steel Path will be decently populated most of the time?!? Hopefully at least. I've been enjoying the solo runs though all the same. 

[LSG501]

The biggest issue, if you ignore imo stingy SE, is why would I bother with making my life harder when I have the exact same rng on the easier missions and I can basically run faster.

Unless you specifically want a challenge or SE there is basically no reason why I'd pick SP fissure over a normal one.... it doesn't even have better drop rates of rare stuff.

 

[CrownOfShadows]

55 minutes ago, LSG501 said:

The biggest issue, if you ignore imo stingy SE, is why would I bother with making my life harder when I have the exact same rng on the easier missions and I can basically run faster.

Unless you specifically want a challenge or SE there is basically no reason why I'd pick SP fissure over a normal one.... it doesn't even have better drop rates of rare stuff.

 

Yeah, and this issue gets compounded with the relic drops. One relic drop verses four? Uh, I'll take four, thanks. In a very real way, if these matchmaking rates continue, playing SP fissures is actually less rewards.

[iHaku]

i think it'd be good enough to just remove the missions you'd rather run on normal anyway, and then only offer 1 mission per relic.

this also means splitting the mission rotation from normal and SP, but its for the better i think. the main reason to play SP fissures is to fight tougher enemies and in rescue, sabotage and capture you dont really fight enemies, besides the reactant ones. with only endless left, maybe up the Steel Essence to +2 aswell, and that should be enough kova per mission to be a good incentive for endgame players to mainly do relics in SP.

[(PSN)haphazardlynamed]

MEH

I don't care about public matchmaking for Fissures (SP or otherwise)

if I want something specific, I'll do an LFG Radshare for it.

public is just random relics, No expectations, therefore it's also irrelevant to me if no one shows up.

[GourangaPL]

acoltyes dropping more and more SE in survi are ok, but also each next relic in endless should give more SE

also chance for rare drop should be higher in SP and we should be able to pick 2 rewards at once