Solving Long DPS Queues

• MMORPG

• Final Fantasy XIV

I saw someone somewhere (FC chat maybe?) mention that they wished FFXIV would make their dungeons 5-man instead of 4-man so that DPS queues would go faster. (Belghast also recently lamented over the problems of leveling DPS.)

It’s an interesting idea but I don’t think going to 5-man would significantly help the problem of slow DPS queues. I’m quite sure the ratio of DPS to tanks and healers in any given MMORPG is probably something like 25 to 1, if not 100 to 1. They would have to make dungeons into 10-man affairs with 1 tank, 1 healer, and 8 DPS to have any significant effect on DPS queues right now, in my opinion.

And that would be awesome, but it would only be awesome during peak times on populated servers around expansion launch time. The rest of the time, everyone would be waiting in a queue.

It occurs to me that perhaps they should make dungeon parties variable-sized, based on the server population at any given time of day. Peak time? You need 5+ DPS, 1 tank, 1 healer. Off time? Back to 2 DPS, 1 tank, 1 healer.

Of course then you’d have to make significant changes to the dungeons to make them more dynamic. Though it doesn’t sound like it would be that hard to implement. Simply add a multiplier to the health of each mob or boss based on the number of extra DPS slots. (I would think you’d want to have the difficulty ramp up in an exponential curve as you add more DPS, instead of a linear progression.)

It’s probably not that simple, though. I’m sure there would be other factors to consider as well, like interrupts. It would be silly if you could reel off 10 interrupts on a boss from 10 different people in a row. Maybe increase the interrupt cooldown timer by a multiplier based on the number of DPS as well. Maybe increase all cooldowns on long-term DPS abilities (for example, the Bard ballads).

Here’s another idea: Tank and heal bots! If DPS has waited more than five minutes, give them some AI bots. It’s not like tanking or healing is hard. Zing! Hey-oh! rimshot

(Seriously, they have some healing and tanking AI programmed into MSQ duty instances already. And also in that new thingy where they train new players to play in groups.)

DPS queue problem solved! Send me lots of money. Thanks!