Solo players (i.e. referred to here as "PUGs") do not coordinate very well. As a result, PUG-heavy teams have a tendency to lose badly to teams that are better able to communicate and coordinate. More often than not, teams that can successfully apply teamwork are usually heavy on grouped-players rather than individual players.
Grouped-players don't want to be dragged down by PUGs that don't want to play as a team.
Grouped-players (at least most of them) want better matches vs just "clubbing seals".
The Proposal:
Remove the ability for solo players to queue for matches in Faction Play. If "normally-solo" players want to play Faction Play, force them to use the LFG (Looking-for-Group Queue) and get into groups - or finally join units. The permitted group-sizes in Faction Play should be: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12 (as in Quick Play, but unlike Quick Play there's no solo queue).
The Outcome:
This will likely take a lot of the selfish solo-PUGs out of Faction Play (i.e. the ones that are incapable of teamwork), allowing for more consistently competitive matches that might bring teams back into Faction Play. In the short-term, the FP-population will decrease as all PUGs are cut out on day one. In the middle-term, the FP-population will gain back a few players as the non-selfish PUGs start returning via LFG, or unit-drops if they went on to join a unit. In the long-term, with match quality vastly improved, FP-population will begin to rise back up.
Likely counter-point:
The most likely counter-point to this approach is that the Faction Play population might collapse. If it is, in fact, the case that PGI waited too long to act and it's too late to save Faction Play. Then PGI should take the opportunity to just shut-down FP for 4-6 months and relaunch it after making some major changes.
Originally proposed by @Tarogato-MWO (/u/Tarogato on Reddit) in this post on the forums.
The Problem:
The problem is three-fold...
The Proposal:
Remove the ability for solo players to queue for matches in Faction Play. If "normally-solo" players want to play Faction Play, force them to use the LFG (Looking-for-Group Queue) and get into groups - or finally join units. The permitted group-sizes in Faction Play should be: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12 (as in Quick Play, but unlike Quick Play there's no solo queue).
The Outcome:
This will likely take a lot of the selfish solo-PUGs out of Faction Play (i.e. the ones that are incapable of teamwork), allowing for more consistently competitive matches that might bring teams back into Faction Play. In the short-term, the FP-population will decrease as all PUGs are cut out on day one. In the middle-term, the FP-population will gain back a few players as the non-selfish PUGs start returning via LFG, or unit-drops if they went on to join a unit. In the long-term, with match quality vastly improved, FP-population will begin to rise back up.
Likely counter-point:
The most likely counter-point to this approach is that the Faction Play population might collapse. If it is, in fact, the case that PGI waited too long to act and it's too late to save Faction Play. Then PGI should take the opportunity to just shut-down FP for 4-6 months and relaunch it after making some major changes.