The leaver penalty has been around for a very long time. Now, as for the queues sending you to the wrong instance, I have seen this happen very often. Just yesterday I ran ~20 STFs and two of those STFs sent me to the wrong map. The first time I was on my tac queued up for Cure Ground Elite. The game launched and I ended up in Cure Space Normal...no problem there ~5 minutes later I am finished and I enter CGE without a problem. The second time was on my science officer. I had queued for Infected Ground Elite and landed in Khitomer Accord Ground Elite. Now, that may seem like an error on my part, but two other players on that map said in team chat that they had queued for Infected Space Elite.

In addition to my own personal encounter with it, I have also had about four other missions where players claimed in team chat that they had queued for a space mission. Now, I would understand if this was isolated incident, someone may have inadvertently misread the queue message. This is too widespread to be user error. There is certainly a bug floating around with the public queue system.

My only wish is that players would stick it out and finish the mission. 2 out of the 6 missions where someone noted they queued for the wrong map had leavers once the mission got hard. KA ground normal with only 2 players on my Level 46 engineer was interesting due to the shield room, but in the end it only took 10 minutes longer than needed. Now the Infected Ground Normal with that same character (3 players for the boss fight)...let's just say my fleet tribble spat out four fleet marks before the mission was over and I got a lot of practice using the engineering class. Ground can be a lot of fun, all it takes is an understanding of the mission strategies and practice, just like any space mission.

Well, thats the problem.. most new players jump directly to Elite because of the better rewards.

I agree with this post!

The wordings and attitude you sometimes see in the chat on STF or after someone playing STF are sometimes very harsh.. and that is my biggest issue. It may not be intensional but words can still be hurtful despite how 'true' it might be.

PUG naming might not be intensionally hurtful .. but how it is used it gets a negative sound to it.

I myself have problems with program crashing since the game has a memory leak that is not handled in a mac computer .. unfortunately that happens sometimes during STF and I can't really control it. However logging in again I usually are able to rejoin the STF if its not over before that.

I just wish They would teach the dang thing to know the difference between when a player clicks to leave early and one being dropped out because of server or internet problems.

and what attitude is that?

Again you're judging without reading between the lines and the points I am bringing across. I am referring to abusers of STFs. It is obviously you do not fully understand the problem with drifters.

Also; who said anything about one group being more important than another - I stated that a well trained & seasoned player made team, is the better team over a PUG.

I already defined what a PUG is -

Now let me define a good team for you:

A) They know the objectives
B) Each know their role
C) They know how to spec their ships for battle
D) They communicate very well with each other

Is a player made team more important than a PUG, no - Is it better? Yes

I think you're very confused in regards to a leaver penalty policy and also in regards to Team Gameplay. This has nothing to do with a "Get-a-life" attitude or looking down at people as people.

My aspect is purely from a Gameplay standpoint and not on the social aspect of the game. Telling people to get a life by referring to "get offline," only reflects the same attitude in which you speak against. Makes your argument lose any credence it had.

It is obviously you do not, otherwise you would fully understand from a gameplay aspect of it.

I comprehend the Real Life aspect of it, and unfortunately; good folks, decent people, have to pay the price because of players that have no respect for others and the game. That is why I myself among a few here stated it should be cumulative.

Foreign players will suffer more lag issues etc... due to distance - while I do recommend a 24hr account ban, that does not mean the system is perfect. Heck I rather settle for a 1hr account ban to make it fair for folks that are having RL issues or PC problems, even connection issues.

Heck I stated it on a previous posting: I rather have the Kick option before going to the extreme of 24hr account ban.

A) Kick voting Option should be implemented
B) I favor a 1hr ACCOUNT wide ban than a 24 hr one
C) A 24hr account wide ban should be a last resort

Lets be realistic, if something is giving you that much anxiety and frustration it should be avoided at all cost. Again, no offense, if Elite is too much, then you ought to settle for normal until you get the premise down packed or belong to either a Fleet that specialize in EliteSTF or make friends that do them and run with them.

PUG grouping will only get you scoffed at & yelled at by either Elitist wannabes or noobies that are frustrated to the extreme.


and I don't have a family of my own? And I don't have several degrees of my own? And I don't have a real life job? to feed my family, pay my bills, and pay for the internet in which I spend a little of my time on a daily basis, for my gaming hobby?

Sir, you are NOT the only one with a reality, with a life, and with an understanding of what should be a priority. What you just mentioned, all of us here are going through. So please Sir, do not confuse the issue at hand.

Yes it is a game, a video game, and we have not lost our focus, least some of us have not. You are confused in regard to the topic at hand. If life is that frustrating for you, and a video game is only making it worse, then I have to politely say, maybe you should go offline for a bit and tend to your needs.

Players have recommended a more strict penalty for an aspect of the game that is being obviously abused. I am seperating RL from the gaming mechanics and strictly speaking about gameplay issues.

Thats where I think you are confusing yourself, since I am not referring to private matters but gameplay issues - Changes will not make everyone happy, not everyone will be pleased, however; given the current issues with STFs, a account wide ban is a necessary evil.

Do not confuse reality with an obvious gameplay issues - again telling folks to look into a mirror in regards to reality, gives little credence to your arguments.

We all have lives and enjoy our pass time in a virtual hobby. I admit some of us are more passionate about gaming than others. I am not passionate, but merely addressing gameplay issues.

Hence the game's programming issues - The game mechanic is off and is leading to various issues.

I do not know if Cryptic is going to do anything about it - You would think it has a simple solution.

There is no helping that, only thing that can prevent this is by forming a Team of your own with players you know well, communicate with, and can plan out accordingly.

I feel for folks that go through that abuse, I usually tend to add players with such disrespect to my ignore list.

Next time you read that garbage, use that one feature that Cryptic at least got right - its called placing him or her on your ignore list,

Unfortunately; The term PUG does carry a negative tone by the gaming community - However; keep in mind what a PUG really is -

First things first - It is NOT inferior people, bad people, ignorant people

It merely refers to a disorganized, randomly placed group of players with a high hit or miss success rate during a gaming dungeon.

Hardware issues and software issues from a few players should not entirely hinder the implementation of kick options and account wide ban for the game's end game dungeon.

I sympathize that you are having those issues, in which in this case, I have to agree with daveny, Cryptic needs to do a better job in having the server recognize a player's connectivity issues during an STF - and allow them to bypass the Leaver penalty.

Just curious, are there any new plans on modifying the Leaver Penalty in general.

I know many here have brought several ideas to the table regarding the matter, and expressed their views for them, however; I am wondering if Cryptic is at least taking a second look at the situation.

Happened to me and the whole group, we were queued for Nebular Rescue, then found ourselves in Hive Onslaught, lots of "WTF?" chat. Bailed and banned.