It's the shipping that kills me.

To solve the problem, I must first become the problem

I don't think even the hideout preloads. At least, that setting does nothing for me :)

Yes. Just log people's average loading times, assign them a value on the NASA to potato scale, then re-check the value every week. Then try to prioritize that in the matchmaking. It won't work every time, but it'll work better. Potatoes won't notice a difference, and the higher-end computers will on average see quicker loading times.

Indeed, that's how this thread came to be. Though I'd rather just have less downtime and more uptime in my gaming.

Late comers could just be spawned in at any available spawn calculated to be furthest away from a PMC. Problem solved.

Yes, I would literally wait

I'm much in the same boat, brother. It's baffling how some don't see it either as an issue, or an area ripe for improvement. I'm not married to specifically my thought. If someone has a better one, I'll happily endorse it.

Agreed. That's why I want to wait 2.5 minutes, not 4. Or 8.

Also, the game being slow and methodical does not translate into being stuck on the loading screen as part of the experience.

Don't tell me you enjoyed the 30 second countdown over the new 10 second one. Then multiply that several times over and you get waiting for players.

I'm very patient in-game, most raids take at least half an hour. I am not patient outside of the core game, nor should anyone have to be.

To be fair, I said four minutes in total. 6 minutes is horrendous, but that doesn't make 4 great 😊

I've done that for a thousand raids, not really that much fun to be honest.

It's an idea that has only upsides, no downsides. And for those thinking it'd be harder to successfully match make, just make the rule a priority and not a must.

Make use of that in-game Tetriz model

No, four. For other people it's five, or even ten minutes. The issue and solutions are the same, regardless.

"Play another game", the exfil of choice for those filled with more hot air than hot ideas. Much as Tarkov might not be for me, discussion might not be for you. Much love, and may your raids be ever fruitful.

No, you would only halve the pool if it's a hard rule. I would make it a priority rule, and if it can't be fulfilled the game skips it and matches spacers and potatoes.

To be fair, that's my loading time. In totalt it took four minutes since I had to wait for players.

Yes, one idea would be to magically give everyone better hardware...

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On the other hand, policy settings for when and how to deploy are a matter of changing a few numbers over at BSG.

If my max waiting time on Customs would be up to 7.5 minutes in this example, then that's really an issue. Multiply that by 10 other people, then that becomes a lot of minutes lost where people could be playing the game instead of staring at it.

Ok then, so I'll modify my idea to lower the force deploy to one minute after "waiting for players" initiates. Having one or two players holding up an entire lobby really isn't an optimal solution.

I have had queues longer than that, too. Now, can we go back to discussing how things could improve?

Ideally, I'd like to optimize the loading, but that's far more complicated than lowering the threshold for when the 'taters can't hold up the game any more. It was mentioned in the thread that the 'tater buffer is currently five minutes. Make it one. If they spawn late, so be it. Have them spawn the furthest possible away from any other PMC, so no one gets a nasty surprise.

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If a majority can enjoy the game faster, that's the right move.

Say it three times in the mirror and the Vengeful Potatoman comes.

From what I hear this did indeed used to be a huge problem, and now it's downgraded to a problem. It's easy to dismiss every load issue by itself, but it all adds up. Especially for those with shorter gaming sessions, spending a larger percentage of their time loading something. Loading the game, loading vendors, loading hideout, loading death screen, loading back to stash. It is an accumulative effect, which seems to have been strangely normalized in some sort of defeatist view - "used to be worse", "it's BSG", "just live with it,"what about bug x that I feel more strongly about". And so on.

I know BSG are not active here. How ever, of course they read what goes on here and take stock of current discussions. That doesn't automatically translate into getting the issue resolved, or even accepted as an issue in the first place, but at least it can be brought up for internal discussions. That's about the only course of action end-users have, and they should exercise it. The nuclear option is to stop playing, but I would argue that most players want to address their issues, not walk away from them. It's a great game. Could be better.

I usually go around the loading circle

It's my third wipe. I'm sure the same people who think the current state is fine thought that was peachy too. We're moving up in the loading circles of hell. Doesn't make it good, though.

Quite! One thing to fix would be quicker loading times ;)

Hehe, my brother. While I'm sitting on a overclocked i9, it's five generations old and mobile 😅

I suppose I could do, though the closest low ping server is in Mother Potato land.

Tetriz of course

I have a 1999 retro computer with 120gb IDE drive, that should do it. Or I could put the game on a compact flash-drive.

How long the actual wait time is varies wildly between regions and servers, so ymmv. I have quite a clear understanding of what goes on during loading, as I fulfill basic reading requirements and can see what the game clearly states it's doing. It's waiting for other players to catch up.

So you think that when Streets have 20-30 PMC's roaming (exact number in upcoming patch currently unknown. 60 entities total), letting them all wait for one potato is a good time investment for BSG? That's roughly a man hour of time lost per raid, every raid, every day. The more people can actively engage with your game, the better. This is like the most basic concept of game design. You think it's some way to separate the "true" fans from scrubs... Okay, I guess.

Again, you seem to be confusing playing patiently with patiently waiting to load. If you have hours upon hours to burn on loading screens in all your raids put together, good for you. I'd rather cut down on the waiting time and play more.

My PC decent gud. Potatoes, not so.

How would that help me waiting on other potato cpu's?

I'm lol'd and appalled, sir.

The matchmaking is done at this point in the process. Now we are waiting for all the potato pc's in the lobby to catch up. For up to five minutes. That's the issue. Choosing more servers is entirely irrelevant at this point.

I like that idea. Hell, I'd even take a Tetriz clone mini-game.