" Join A Lone Tenno " Functionality

[Lluid]

Hi all,

 

New players often face the fact that many regions of the system are completely empty of other Tenno. Their matchmaking state is "Online" but they experience a solo game, which is sad. Some of them complain about that and ask for help in the chat. Others have less fun than they could. Others probably leave the game.

 

However, it seems quite a few of us really like to help new players. I personally don't care about getting the best stuff, or lots of credits and xp as fast as possible. What I like is simply fighting for the Tenno cause, enjoying the gameplay, interacting with nice people, crushing heads without spamming my ultimate.

 

The problem is that the helpers don't have an easy way to jump in missions where they could be useful. So it seems that a simple functionality could solve this. It can have various implementations :

 

1. One simple button in the navigation system, "search and join a lone Tenno, anywhere".

2. One button in each planetoid, "join a lone Tenno, in any mission of this region". (great if you want to also look for resources, or if your mods fit a given enemy type)

3. An option to highlight the sectors where there are 'Online' squads of only one Tenno, in the planetoid screen. You just pick the one you want and ask for joining them. (there used to be a counter of the number of squads on each node, let's do the same but for lone Tennos or incomplete squads)

4. A lone Tenno could send a SOS from his mission which would trigger an alert (maybe only for those who check a specific option to receive these alerts)

 

I prefer the 3rd one.

So, what do you think ?

 

Other little details :

- It would be great if we could join a 'Online' mission when a lone Tenno dies (like in my 4rth option above), which would delay his bleedout timer by 20s until we connect and try to save him. Would be some kind of dynamic-real-time-little-event-for-a-good-purpose. The Lotus would tell him "I sent an alert message, hopefully a fellow Tenno will come". After all, the dead Tenno is 'Online' so he didn't ask for being ambushed by 30 Grineer, alone.

- There could be a "rating" system, although not necessary at first. The "lone Tenno" would have this simple question at the end of the mission : "A fellow Tenno joined you because you were alone, was he helpful ? Very helpful / neutral / Nope he rushed or trolled" (those are only debatable answers as example)

-

...it would be nice if the helping tenno got nerfed based on the level/difficulty of the area...

 Yep, I  think the best would be to nerf the damage of his weapons and abilities, but not the rest (crowd control, heals)

Edited July 28, 2014 by Lluid

[TheHeraldXII]

In general they could do to show how many Tenno are active in a region and where from the nav console. Joining games is a pain because of the node system and with every update to the planet navigation, DE has made it harder to find where people are to join them. I for one can't stand hovering over every sodding node in the system to see who's playing where.

In direct response though, yeah, a quick join funtion would be amazing just because it'd make games easier to find for everyone. It beats the community agreeing on one node to play forever and after because splitting up the missions you play just makes finding players a pain. Also something like "search for (mission) of level (x-y) would be neato. The two could be combined, with (any) being an option for what mission to search for.

[Semshol]

They could just put a DOT on the big empty space that is a node and that'll tell you how many games are on-going.

 

You can then expand the node and start a game or 'Join a Lone Tenno'.

 

I actually think this system would be fun. I kinda wanna show up with my decked out gear and just murder everything Rambo style. I'll give them a war like they wouldn't believe!

[Rydian]

Back in like U8 or so the navigation displayed how many people were in a mission without you having to hover or select.  This made it very easy for me to hop into missions with other people.

 

Now it's annoying and a gamble if I get an existing party or have to click other missions and see.

[88DJK]

+1 for this

 

Also (for me) the navigation display of how many ppl are in a mission is totally.. and i mean totally broke!

[td-pe]

Interesting idea to call for help in an overwhelming mission.

If people don't find other players it could be  due to technical issues. Like, I sometimes got the error message that my ping was too high so I could not join any of the available missions. Or (a few updates back) that I'm behind a strict NAT - sometimes people could not see me online or join me.

Or maybe it's a regional problem? When (also a few updated back) I switched region settings from West Europe to North America, there were suddenly a lot less players in the chat rooms.

[AandOE]

Anything that tells me where there are people at in the system, akin to the U13 planet nodes, would be great.

[Qloshae]

I would totally LOVE a system like this!

Maybe then unlocking the planets will be more fun. I mean, I am rank 9, but still got a lot of sectors locked because I haven't seen any value in playing alone against swarms of high-level enemies and losing revives.

Also, a lot of times I find myself just picking a random mission and going, would be nice if I could just connect to someone already playing who was alone.

 

Maybe a selection of game types tho?

[WytchHunter]

This would have been spectacular when I was just joining, I had to solo half of my missions and pretty much use a revive on every mission I didn't have help with. Alot of the mods that actually make you good come from hard areas one person with an unmodded weapon cant get to or beat by themselves...  Though it would be nice if the helping tenno got nerfed based on the level/difficulty of the area like they leveled with the enemies like they do to us. Say if a tenno joined into a match against vor, they wouldn't deal 100k damage headshots to him and instantly win the game on exterminations by pressing 4 or shooting a few times. Or better yet if they actually scaled based off the tenno they were joining, so they were just a bit stronger than the loner to give a boost without breaking their gameplay experience.

[HAYABU5A]

this is a legit idea +1

 

would give veterans something to do 

[DalaiLlama]

I wouldn't even need a huge reward or a reward at all; from the perspective of a newer player, having a powerhouse to save me when I was consistently downed in my first time against the Corpus would have been a blast.

 

Perhaps add some sort of mastery level cap or a mastery level selector so that I could focus on the newer players, I wouldn't even need to be rewarded.  Thinking about this, this sort of "drop-in assist" may go some ways in helping new players and thus improving the new player experience to a degree.

 

I don't say this often, but DE, please consider.

[Rydian]

If a list system would prioritize 1/4 player missions over 2/4 and 3/4, that'd be nice too.

[Bernkastal]

+1 for sure.

I'd love to help lower level players, chat with them and give them a safety net to try more aggressive play styles they'll be using later on in the game.

[[DE]Momaw]

A "Quick Mission" button would be nice. Players who are alone in a mission with their matchmaking mode set to Public are eligible for quick matching, with priority given to players whose mastery rank is similar to yours.  I believe DE has previously expressed interest in something like this.

 

I also really like the idea of solo players being able to request reinforcement if they get overwhelmed. Ideally it would offer the mission to anybody that just clicked Quick Match, with an indication that it is a "hot" insertion to a mission already in progress.  Though I think it should cost them something.  Like they have to give half their mission rewards to the player that saves them, if the mission turns out successful. Shouldn't be spamming SOS calls.