I'm wondering why I have such trouble joining my friend or people for fleet actions.

It always seems to put us into seperate instances.

I can understand that due to my friend being a Vice admiral and me a commander that it may split us up due to level fairness but what I don't get is why would it do it if we're in a team set to matching level??

I've also had trouble jumping into instances with people of the same rank. I really want to defeat the crystalline entity but there's no way it can be done when you can't muster more than 5 or so people because they keep getting put into different instances.

The main reason I got this game was to play with my friend but missing out on fleet actions is really rather lame.

Is there anything that can be done to improve your chances of being put into the same instance? I understand fairness not having high level with the lower levels but sometimes that's a good thing, especially when it comes to the Crystalline entity. Is there not a choice? Level restricted instances or free for all no levels barred. Would be nice if you could choose.

Want to play with friends

The only ray of hope we have on this is a mention of private Fleet instances for these, which (I assume) would allow any of your fleetmates to enter the same Fleet Action to take it on together, regardless of rank.

When STO first launched, the Fleet Actions were not level banded like this. I, and many others found it to be FAR more enjoyable that way, but their were problems. Namely, RA5 players coming in and absolutely destroying Fleet Actions like Starbase 24, and taking all of the top spots from the players who could actually use the rewards.

They instituted this system to alleviate that issue, and to give capped players more to do that poses a decent challenge. While it fixed those problems, it also did alot of damage to the team dynamic of it all. Fleet Actions were STO's biggest selling points, and being unable to do them as a fleet, or having to deal with the major headache that level banding introduces really took a toll on them.

I wish they were able to come up with a more elegant solution at the time, but atleast we know it's on the drawing board. Until then, cross your fingers.

Hmm I see...really is unfortunate...yes a private or non level banded selectable option would be perfect.

Depends on the mission you are doing. I frequently group with lower ranked members of my fleet to assist in their leveling. We have yet to run into your situation for regular missions. Fleet actions are a different story though. That started happening when the VA variants of FAs were implemented.

Was long before VAs were in game... but it did seem to get even more difficult to weasel yourself into a different ranked instance with 2.0 come to think of it.

Any mission you can name in particular? Or just all missions no matter what.

Fleet Actions. Which is what the thread was all about, no?

This was because a 'Exploit' was discovered, where if members of different levels join a team with matched levels, enter a Fleet event, then disband the team, all the members revert back to their original levels... If this was allowed, we would have the same situation that led to level banding in the first place, with high ranking characters acting like sharks in a feeding frenzy in the lower level fleet actions...

Then having special instances set aside for mixed ranks would be a nice idea I think. At least.

They surely must expect that when people create a fleet and want to play as a fleet they won't all be at the same level.