Please Bioware: Add some incentive to get people to queue for Flashpoints.

As I am sure you all know, there is an extremely long wait time to get into non-tactical flashpoints (for dps) while leveling ever since Kuat Drive Yards (KDY) was added. I would like to preface the rest of my post by saying: There is nothing wrong with the addition of tactical flashpoints like KDY, in fact I think it's a great way to earn experience points!

I am bringing this up, as I am sure many have done before me my concern that due to the nature of KDY (group composition and minimal conversation with NPCs) many players who would have otherwise queued for classic style flashpoints have opted instead to queue for KDY. This presents a problem particularly for dps characters (though I have even seen some healers complaining about wait times) that causes extremely long wait times when queuing for normals.

I would like to propose an incentive to encourage players to queue for, and finish normal flashpoints.
A few suggestions:

1. Increase experience gained by some substantial percent when players queue alone for normal mode flashpoints. This would increase the number of both tanks and healers queuing and perhaps provide a small decrease in wait time.

2. Implement cross server play for normal flashpoints, again increasing the pool of players available for flashpoints as well.

3. Remove roles from normal flashpoints and adjust each one accordingly. Similarly to KDY flashpoints would no longer require a tank or healer, allowing groups of four dps to tackle a flashpoint without a very long wait time, in fact wait times may even be similar to that of KDY.

4. Add more tactical flashpoints to the game while leveling. Sometimes repeatedly running the same flashpoint can become extremely tedious, this option would allow for a more diverse pool of instances for players to choose from, reducing this problem greatly.

I apologize if others have posted similar threads, I felt this issue was not exactly one that many post about.

Actually, if playing a tank or healer for flashpoints rewarded double the usual commendations, it would somewhat make up for the general bad behavior, disrespect, and failure to follow instructions of non-tank/healer players. Sure, more dps would queue as fake tanks and fake healers, but if the other 3 players are competent, that faker can be booted and the flashpoint completed with a companion tank or healer.

On my DPS I PUG queue willy nilly, however there isn't ANY incentive that will make me PUG queue my Tank, my Tank is for guild and friends groups only

Queue times were long for DPS well before the introduction of KDY or other TFPs.



I refuse to GF with my tanks due to the sheer volume of lunk-heads I encountered when I did use GF. Between Jump Monkeys and Overload/Force Wave spammers, I can earn those comms in much less irritating endeavors.
Bottom line on this, is you can thank players who suck for the lack of Tanks queuing.



1.) I actually agree with this. I think if the purpose of the GF is to put people together that don't have a full group then there should be a higher XP reward for those who queue solo.

2.) Absolutely not. Do you honestly believe that your server is unique in having significantly more DPS than Tanks or Healers? If you open up cross-server, you will not solve the problem you are addressing. Now, the pool of DPS in the GF queue will be open to every server - not just your own.

3.) I have mixed feelings about this. I understand why you want to do that. On the one hand, I actually think it is a good idea. On the other hand, I can see a lot of people getting to level 55 with no idea how to play their character (which isn't unusual either).

4.) Is basically the same as #3 if you follow the thought through to conclusion. Removing role requirements from SM FPs essentially turns them into TFPs.

Here is a much more simple solution. Roll a Tank, learn to play and queue for GF. Your queue times will be dramatically reduced.




If *everyone* had to learn how to tank/heal to unlock DPS character slots, then a lot of silly DPS player habits would evaporate.

I take it you are not talking about HM FP's but the normal ones. Two of the devs and Eric answered your last two questions about a week ago on twitch , well kind of the same questions as you stated. So for 3. they basically said they wouldn't be making Tactical FP's out of the normal ones as they would have to be built from the ground up. So for 4. they said that the story lined FP's would be tactical to begin with , I'm assuming they will still be level 55 though as to carry on the new story line. Then maybe HM versions later on. So that gives you some idea , not quite straight answers to your direct questions but some insight.

Cheers,

BadOrb.

Actually, if playing a tank or healer for flashpoints rewarded double the usual commendations, it would somewhat make up for the general bad behavior, disrespect, and failure to follow instructions of non-tank/healer players. Sure, more dps would queue as fake tanks and fake healers, but if the other 3 players are competent, that faker can be booted and the flashpoint completed with a companion tank or healer.