Looking for Group? [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

Zliten

03-01-2007, 07:44 PM

Hello friends, I am working on a new version of the "Looking For Group" system, and before diving head first into creating it, I would like to get some feedback from you. My personal goal with a LFG system is to make it so easy to use, it becomes second nature. The system should support searching for players, and searching for groups looking for players. It should respect your ignore list and give preference to your friends list. I would even like it so that you can set it up so you do not have to invite people to your group, but your friends can auto-join your group if they want. If you have had experience with the Everquest Looking For Group window, what did you or did you not like about it, how can that be improved upon. I see that there has been some request for a system like that on the forums, and I think we can use some of that and improve on that. One of the ideas, I would like feedback on. You might be able to set yourself as LFG, then by finding a quest in your quest journal and doing (something) with it. It will search for other characters in the world that are also LFG and have that quest. One of my other ideas that is just in the thoughts stage, is that when you create a group it will automatically list your group as looking for more. You can then easily click 1 button and it will un-list it, or you can click another button and set specifics for the type of group members you are looking for. This I think would work well for those of us that love to be in full groups as much as possible, but I think would probably be turned off ( and yes, there would be an option to turn it off) by those that only duo. Or how about if you are on and solo, and one of your friends logs on, should the system automatically try to group the two of you and add friends of level range as they log in. So please, if you have any ideas about features you think would make a looking for group system either easier or better to use let me know. I may not get to reply to every post or idea, but I will read them all. Thanks again. Zliten

Rashaak

03-01-2007, 07:47 PM

I like your idea's, but I would much rather see effort put into revamping the GRT...

Mareth

03-01-2007, 07:50 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote> My personal goal with a LFG system is to make it so easy to use, it becomes second nature. The system should support searching for players, and searching for groups looking for players. It should respect your ignore list and give preference to your friends list. I would even like it so that you can set it up so you do not have to invite people to your group, but your friends can auto-join your group if they want. </blockquote>I think this is a nice touch (assuming it's optional obviously), however, could we get a middle-ground between ignore and friends? I don't like putting people on ignore, but I'll often add people to friends with a note on them for whatever way they've wronged me or so <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> So not friends, but not people I care to see if logs on or not, but people I want to avoid grouping with again. /ignore has so many other bad effects, I don't really find it usefull. As for LFG, please allow us to specify what we're LFG for <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Snowdonia

03-01-2007, 07:51 PM

I'd personally like to the ability to type in a line of text saying what you're interested in doing. Like, you'd type "/lfg Looking to do HQs or epic kills only" and this would put you up as looking for group but when someone searched for people looking for group they would see the person's comment about what they are looking to do. Some radials to tick for this via the LFG window would be nice as well I'm sure but they shouldn't replace the ability to make a comment.

Zliten

03-01-2007, 07:55 PM

I should have included this in the first post, but if nothing else when going "LFG" there will be an area for one to put any comments they would like within a character limit of course, so that when you do a "/who lfg" it would show "Zliten 45 Conjurer - Looking for some gnomish adventure in Steamfont" Or something similar. Edit, Spelling FTW

Elisse

03-01-2007, 08:01 PM

The main features of the EQ LFG tool that I have missed in this game are: 1) The ability to add comments to your lfg listing 2) The lfg window itself, so you don't have the results of your LFG search potentially scroll past your chat window. 3) The groups looking for more, again, with text comments. The idea of prioritizing by friends I am iffy about. Like another poster above, I use my friends listing as a way to keep track of a variety of people in the game-- from who is a friend's alt, to someone who gave me a great deal as a tradeskiller, not necessarily things that are going to be relevant for my search for a tank to round out a HQ group. Likewise, I would hope that if a feature for auto-joining groups, or auto-adding members was put into place, that it would be both optional, and turned off by default. Or at a minimum, give you the option to change your personal default. I would really hate to have to remember to click a button to prevent random strangers from joining us every time my husband and I set out to duo. Drive-by invites without some sort of /tell first drive me crazy enough, without having people just appear in my group window. I think that the vast majority of what people would like to do with LFG and LFM tools would be accomplished by the ability of groups and individuals to set their own comments, and have those comments visible to others. In my opinion, another very useful thing would be the ability to sort and fillter the LFG listing by such criteria as subclass and level, but also by archetype. Edit: As an afterthought, what about the possibility of automatically being able to filter AFK people out of the LFG listing, or clearly have them show up as AFK when listed, if they're not filtered out.

rollando

03-01-2007, 08:03 PM

- Joining a group should always be a choice, even with your best friends, so do not make anything automatic. Just make it possible to invite directly from the LFG window or friends list. - The LFG tool should let the players type what they want to group for. Maybe a menu offering a few options ( eg xp grouping / general questing / specific questing ) could help. - Add a way to display lockouts. -

SisterTheresa

03-01-2007, 08:13 PM

First off, there should be a thing so people actually USE the LFG tool. Ugh ...Forgive me if I place this because of what is in WoW but I do like how there you can choose an actual zone and see who is LFG in there. Easier to see if there are people before you get there.And honestly, can you fix the darn guild window when looking for a guild? Make THAT like EQLive with the large bilboard where guilds can list info about themselves instead of looking at the SAME guilds .. all .. the ... time.

Cadaveria

03-01-2007, 08:14 PM

I'm basically mirroring what the others have said...allowing for a line of text regarding what you want a group for is a must.Group looking for players is also a must, with checkboxes for what levels/classes are desired.I am not too keen on the system automatically trying to group me with my friends when I/They log in. Maybe I read that wrong, but the way I understood it, it sounds like an annoyance.

Zliten

03-01-2007, 08:21 PM

Cadaveria@Befallen wrote: <blockquote>I am not too keen on the system automatically trying to group me with my friends when I/They log in. Maybe I read that wrong, but the way I understood it, it sounds like an annoyance.</blockquote>And that is why I have that listed as a thought, not something that will for sure happen. The conversation so far is great and about what I expected. I do thank you all for your comments and would love to see more from you all. Thanks Zliten

Sebastien

03-01-2007, 08:24 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hello friends, I am working on a new version of the "Looking For Group" system, and before diving head first into creating it, I would like to get some feedback from you. My personal goal with a LFG system is to make it so easy to use, it becomes second nature. The system should support searching for players, and searching for groups looking for players. It should respect your ignore list and give preference to your friends list. I would even like it so that you can set it up so you do not have to invite people to your group, but your friends can auto-join your group if they want. If you have had experience with the Everquest Looking For Group window, what did you or did you not like about it, how can that be improved upon. I see that there has been some request for a system like that on the forums, and I think we can use some of that and improve on that. One of the ideas, I would like feedback on. You might be able to set yourself as LFG, then by finding a quest in your quest journal and doing (something) with it. It will search for other characters in the world that are also LFG and have that quest. One of my other ideas that is just in the thoughts stage, is that when you create a group it will automatically list your group as looking for more. You can then easily click 1 button and it will un-list it, or you can click another button and set specifics for the type of group members you are looking for. This I think would work well for those of us that love to be in full groups as much as possible, but I think would probably be turned off ( and yes, there would be an option to turn it off) by those that only duo. Or how about if you are on and solo, and one of your friends logs on, should the system automatically try to group the two of you and add friends of level range as they log in. So please, if you have any ideas about features you think would make a looking for group system either easier or better to use let me know. I may not get to reply to every post or idea, but I will read them all. Thanks again. Zliten </blockquote> Hello! I am not familiar with EQ1's current system but here is some of the feedback you requested. =)(1) The most important thing is to make a distinction between someone looking to join a group, and a group that is recruiting more members.(2) Any of the ideas that you mention which involve automating the group formation process completely, I would not approve of. Even if it is someone on my friends list, I don't want them to just suddenly appear in my group. Look, there could easily be a situation where I am talking to a specific person about joining my group, he is checking with his wife to make sure he has time to come along, and then suddenly someone else that I added to my friends list only because I groupd with them once and liked them just randomly appears in the group. There are 1,001 different scenarios I could paint along these lines. Your spirit is good and well-meaning, but auto-joins and auto-recruits, under any circumstances, goes too far.(3) The idea of search for other LFG folks who share a particular quest in common is a cool one, but I worry that in practice it won't get used that much and so might represent wasted effort. People generally prefer to communicate things like this "verbally".(4) If you want to see a neat system for semi-automating the group making process, check out Guildwars. Basically, anyone can just invite themselves to your group at any time. It doesn't mean they join the group tho. What happens is that you will see their names in italics in a seperate area of the party UI. You essentially wind up getting a list of "applicants" to your party.. you can see class and level and make a determination as to whom you wish to accept. At first this seems a bit odd to one who is not used to it, but as you grow accustomed to this it becomes, as you say in your post, second nature. Groups happen very readily and fluidly because of this aspect of the game's culture.

Ebjelen

03-01-2007, 08:25 PM

I, also, do not like the idea of auto-grouping. Grouping should be by knowledge and consent. My healer toons have all had to block group invites in the past. Auto-invites would be a nightmare.I do like the part about respecting ignore lists. I'd like to see an ignore guild option. There are some guilds on my server whose groups I don't normally join.

sayitaintso

03-01-2007, 08:25 PM

the one in EQ1 was pretty good, how about using that with a preferred zone selection added in...

Cadaveria

03-01-2007, 08:25 PM

Yay! I was quoted by a red name! *grin*On a more serious note, I had always wondered why the LFG tool from EQ1 wasn't just directly transferred over to EQ2. I'm really happy that you guys are looking into it. And even happier that you came to us for feedback on it first <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Savara

03-01-2007, 08:26 PM

It would be nice if having a lfg tag up auto posted to level channel, since that is what most people use. Also, it would be good to be able to search by the recruitment classification (tank, healer, dps, CC). Since these are the roles that everyone is looking to fill for groups. It can be accomplished by using archetypes, but dps spans more than one.From the recruitment perspective it would be nice to input a role, as listed above and get names with the ability to fill the role and be able to click their name and have an automatic tell sent to the person with the groups average level and intentions(nest, lab, heroic quest, etc.) and an invite request. This information would be saved for future use to click on the other names listed in case the first person declines. If the previous search was always saved it would make it easy to use the same information for future queries.

Zard

03-01-2007, 08:37 PM

I want to be able to set the LFG flags for any number of characters on the same account while logged in.Let's say I have two characters, a Templar and a Necromancer. My Templar is dependent on groups, he cannot solo effectively, but I do not want to sit around waiting for someone to invite me or wait for tank to be LFG so I can start a group. My Necromancer, on the other hand, excels at soloing so I would rather play him than wait to get my Templar into a group.The problem is that my Templar cannot have his LFG flags on while I am playing my Necromancer so I have to advertise for the Templar, as a proxy, in the appropriate chat channel. This works but it would be nicer if the LFG window had the option to select my Templar, configure his LFG flags and continue playing my Necromancer. If I get a /tell or /invite for my Templar then I could talk to the inviter and relog to join him with my Templar.

interstellarmatter

03-01-2007, 08:38 PM

A looking for group for your alts would be awesome. If would be cool to be able to play around crafting with an alt while you left your lvl 70 dirge open /LFG for instances. Edit: ^^ I was ninja'd

Seltha-Larren

03-01-2007, 08:42 PM

My biggest beef with the current LFG system is people who are anon/roleplaying and LFG don't show up. It seems to me that if you are looking for a group, those other flags should be temporarily suspended so you can get an accurate picture of who you may be inviting to group.Automatic grouping is kinda a neat idea but I think it could run into problems (like forming a group with 4 healers and 2 mages), however I have a few ideas for the new LFG window.1) The "find group" tab, this searches for existing groups that are in your preferred level range (defaults to yellow, white, and blue con) and not yet full. This lists the name of the group leader, plus the zone they are currently in, and has a "send tell/request for group". The leader of the group can also set a group option (ala lotto/autolock/etc) which changes the group's visibility on this tab to the following: everyone, friends/guildies of group members, and nobody.2) The "available to group" tab, this is where you put yourself on the list of people looking for a group. It should have a free text field which allows you to specify what type of group you're looking for (eg "KoS/EoF instance, MoA1-4, or SoS claymore") and the ability to say "will mentor down to x level".3) The "find member" tab, this is where a group leader can find people to add to their group. Again, it should default to the preferred level range (yellow/white/blue) plus include people who will mentor in a different colour. It would be nice to set up a 'watch for' so if you knew that your healer was leaving in 30 minutes and you needed to find a replacement, or if you were short a DPS class, you could get a message notifying you as soon as the person(s) who fit your criteria turned on /lfg. Probably just a check box next to classes/archtypes would suffice for critera selection.4) There should be a way to filter any of the results by zone lockout timers and expansion/adventure pack ownership.5) This is harder to implement, but it really would be the icing on the cake - the ability to "find group" and list "available to group" as alts, for example I might /lfg as 70 mystic, 65 illusionist, 30 mage, and 45 monk. Have the tell prefix set up to do something like "/tell <leader> I have an alt <blah> the <level/class> that I can swap to, [cursor here]" or in reverse "/tell <person> I noticed your alt <blah> was lfg, [cursor here]"Edit: ^^ I was ninja'd twice... ;)

Zard

03-01-2007, 08:44 PM

I want an option to indicate what level range I will mentor to so, for example, if someone if looking for Guardians in the level 30-35 range my level 50 Guardian will appear on their candidates list with his actual level listed and a visual indicator (italized, color, etc.) that he will be mentoring. The UI could be a single slider field where I select the lowest level I will mentor to.EDIT: Basic idea as option#2 & 3 in post above ^^^

Captain Apple Darkberry

03-01-2007, 08:57 PM

It would be nice to have a Group LFM option... ...and that would be the only place I could see an automated invite working, is if you list ~Group LF 20 - 25 Healer~ then someone who matches the criteria could get an auto invite.It would also be nice to have it show who was in the group so the the person LFG can group with friends more often... ...or avoid grouping with griefers/exploiters/dorks.The idea mentioned where it ~cues you up~ for a group invite allowing the group to choose sounds cool, assuming the cue has a set time and that getting in one groups cue doesn;t exclude you from others while you wait on them to make up their mind.

Fortai

03-01-2007, 09:02 PM

Looking for More tag would be important. A group of 5, who just lost one could be searched as: "Looking for backup healer: Unrest 67+" for example. If the options allow, we could check that we need healers who are 67+, so all healers who are LFG who are above level 67 could see this message, as an example. By the way, all the recent Dev posts asking for feedback from the community are VERY appreciated. Please keep it up.

Rashaak

03-01-2007, 09:04 PM

Okay...this is gonna look crappy...BUT...this is something that would be interesting to seeDrop down box ~ I'm looking for: EXAMPLELooking for Group Looking for Raid Raid looking for More Group looking for More Looking for Work Looking for Weaponsmith Looking for Alchemist Drop down box ~ I'll be on-line for: EXAMPLEUnlimited 1-2 hours 2-3 hours 3-4 hours Drop down box ~ Looking to work on: EXAMPLEHeritage Quests Any quests Experience Signature Quests Access Quests Raid Instance Tic Mark ~ Willing to Mentor *check box if you are willing to mentor*Tic Mark ~ Zones *check boxes by tier* EXAMPLE:Tier 1-9 *check box* Tier 10-19 *check box* Tier 20-29 *check box* Any *check box*(to many zones to list all of them by name...) Only in EoF *check box*Only in DoF *check box*Only in KoS *check box*All *check box* Tic Mark~ Accept invites from group *check box* Accept invites from raid *check box*Allow request to join Group *check box* Allow request to join Raid *check box*FYI...have the ability to save search functions...much like the broker advanced search options work...

Kojomojo

03-01-2007, 09:09 PM

I would like to see a checkbox next to quests that allows me to put in there that i am looking for help with it...Claymore comes to mind on this.... The way it would work is I would click on the quest box to indicate I am looking for a group on this quest, and search fro other players currently on, who are also looking for help with that quest. I could then send a tell to those players and arrange to get together to work on said quest. I'd like to see the checked box stay checked until i manually unclick it, so that whatever i may be doing, or maybe even a couple days after i selected that i need help, that other players can see im still working on it.

Zenith

03-01-2007, 09:14 PM

I would like the ability to check off what instances you'd like to attend. Like check off unrest, olblisk, etc. Once you say gain access to a teir and/or have done access quest for that zone you gain the ability to flag yourself as wanting or whiling to go there.

Cadaveria

03-01-2007, 09:26 PM

Jubjub@Oasis wrote: <blockquote>I want to be able to set the LFG flags for any number of characters on the same account while logged in.Let's say I have two characters, a Templar and a Necromancer. My Templar is dependent on groups, he cannot solo effectively, but I do not want to sit around waiting for someone to invite me or wait for tank to be LFG so I can start a group. My Necromancer, on the other hand, excels at soloing so I would rather play him than wait to get my Templar into a group.The problem is that my Templar cannot have his LFG flags on while I am playing my Necromancer so I have to advertise for the Templar, as a proxy, in the appropriate chat channel. This works but it would be nicer if the LFG window had the option to select my Templar, configure his LFG flags and continue playing my Necromancer. If I get a /tell or /invite for my Templar then I could talk to the inviter and relog to join him with my Templar.</blockquote>This is a feature I'd most definitely like to see myself. I have the same problem myself (having 9 alts on one server). My lvl 70 toon doesnt log into 30-39 that often, and my lvl 38 toon cant get into 60-69, as an example.Great Idea, JubJub <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Mordion89

03-01-2007, 09:33 PM

agree, the ability to lfg as multiple characters in an account will most definitely come in handy

Lantis

03-01-2007, 09:41 PM

My problems with the current LFG system: 1) I have to disable /role every time I go LFG, else nobody will ever find me. (which leads to a different issue about /role vs /anon that doesn't belong in this thread) 2) LFM is definitely something to look into. The problem with LFGs is you rely on people finding you. Groups looking for more members cannot be found by other small groups of people also looking for more, preventing two groups of three people to merge into one single group of six, for example. Auto-join: bad idea. I can imagine some people logging in, and getting bombarded by 5-6 requests to group at once <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> However, having a way to pre-approve a join might be nice. For example, if someone goes linkdead, you don't need to look for him coming back to reinvite him - he could automatically rejoin the group when he logs back in. Something a bit like '/preinvite SomeName', or have the /invite queue requests so if the person isn't logged at the time you invite him, the invite reaches him when he logs back in. The same mechanic could work then when people talking over voice chat or waiting for someone to switch to an alt - the group leader could pre-invite him. I like the other ideas thrown in there: putting a comment (so you can be 'LFG EoF instance' for example). If you do implement a better, more intelligent LFG/LFM system, please make sure it doesn't turn into something like the current guild recruitment tool, which ends up being useless to most people and frustrating to many guilds as only a very select group of guilds ever show up in there, due to its automated filtering system. Which means, no automatic, non user-configurable filter - the end user should be able to fully get the list of available LFM/LFGs.

Powers

03-01-2007, 10:46 PM

Zliten, PLEASE include in the list of characters (either grouped or LFG) the RACE and CITIZENSHIP (or at least ALIGNMENT) of the characters. It is very important to many characters whether the person they're grouping with is a citizen of an enemy city or a member of a hated race. Level and Class are not enough to discern this information. It was a major failing of the EQ LFG tool and I don't want the same mistake repeated in EQ2. On a similar note, the /roleplay tag should NOT cause a character's information to be hidden. In fact, if you could display the /roleplay tag in the LFG tool, that'd be fantastic. Making it a search option would be beyond my wildest expectations. =) Powers &8^]

olivejoe

03-01-2007, 10:56 PM

I actually like the autogroup idea a lot, just don't tie it to /friends. Make an entirely new list for it like /autogroup or something. In my guild, as soon as someone logs on we are most likely grouped together. Typing it in is just a formality. I'm sure there are lots of people that would like this functionality as long as it doesn't interfere with existing features like your /friends list.

Tstorm

03-01-2007, 11:36 PM

It's been awhile since I've seen the LFG system in EQ1, but as I recall, it was fairly feature rich. The main things I can think of that would be desirable are: <ul><li>Level range</li><li>Zone </li><li>What is the target. Just knowing it's a group in Antonica, for example, doesn't cut it as it's a HUGE zone. A comments field might cut it, but I seem to recall issues with groups not really making good use of this (maybe it needs more structure or maybe there needs to be a "goal" field in addition to "comments"?)</li><li>Prerequisites. If there are access quests or other quest prerequisites, these are nice to know!</li><li>Ability to create a raid (not just single group) using the tool</li><li>Ability to restrict viewing to guild, friends, ally guilds</li><li>Give preference to guild, friends, ally guilds</li><li>Some sort of auto-grouping ability might be nice, but needs to have some restrictions (only use it with friends, guild, ally guilds maybe?)</li><li>Ability to look for certain classes to join group </li></ul> I love hearing this is being worked on. I rarely look for a pickup type of group just because of how spotty the experience can be. My advice is not to just think about it from generic grouping tool, but also based on different playstyles and personalities. An extrovert, for example, will tend to have little problem finding a group, but an introvert will have to be drawn in a bit more to get into a group.

liveja

03-01-2007, 11:46 PM

I like the idea of being able to look for people doing the same quest as I am. I'd also like to be able to look for people who want to go to specific dungeons or other zones, for whatever reason. It would be nice if we could edit a personal note in the GUI to that effect.It would be cool if, as a group leader organizing an instance run, I could see who is locked out & who isn't, before I invite them.

Zodiak

03-02-2007, 03:55 AM

I am a big fan of simplicity + usefulness. I thought that EQ1's LFG system served its purpose perfectly. Its very important IMO to have a text box where you can put whatever comment there you would like. Make it simple. It doesn't need flashy bells and whistles - just function.

Mirdo

03-02-2007, 04:10 AM

Sebastien@Permafrost wrote: <blockquote> (4) If you want to see a neat system for semi-automating the group making process, check out Guildwars. Basically, anyone can just invite themselves to your group at any time. It doesn't mean they join the group tho. What happens is that you will see their names in italics in a seperate area of the party UI. You essentially wind up getting a list of "applicants" to your party.. you can see class and level and make a determination as to whom you wish to accept. At first this seems a bit odd to one who is not used to it, but as you grow accustomed to this it becomes, as you say in your post, second nature. Groups happen very readily and fluidly because of this aspect of the game's culture.</blockquote>I like this idea. At least if you get yourself on a couple of groups lists you can potentially spend more time progressing solo quests without constantly having to tout for groups.I can see where auto-friend invite could work for very small guilds / groups of friends. I used to belong to one such guild (that still exists) that pretty much all group up whenever they log in. That said, I think it would propably see limited use overall. Maybe the end result would not be worth the time invested.Mirdo.

Wilko1981

03-02-2007, 06:54 AM

My thoughts mainly echo what other people have already added, but I will add them anyway <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Add a text line to LFG so you can put exactly what you are wanting to do Not sure about the idea of auto inviting friends, as others have said I think that would become more of an annoyance than a benefit in the long term Being able to search for others on the same quest stage would also be quite a big benefit Being able to see potential group members' lock out timers would also be useful, saving wasted time when forming groups

metacell

03-02-2007, 07:26 AM

<cite>olivejoe wrote:</cite><blockquote>I actually like the autogroup idea a lot, just don't tie it to /friends. Make an entirely new list for it like /autogroup or something. </blockquote>Or better yet, have a single list for all players you'd like to keep track of, with checkboxes by their names for Ignore, Autoinvite when logging on, Autoaccept invites, Notify when logging on, etc.This list could then be filtered (with a dropdown list or something) to show only Ignored players, only Notify players, and so on.

Captain_Xpendab

03-02-2007, 07:33 AM

Here's an idea I thought I'd put out for everyone to shoot full of holes. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I think it would be nice to also have a "bulletin board " window where people can not only specify the parameters of the group they're looking for, but can also specify the zone (via drop down menu) and a time and date. So if , for example, I want to do Nek Castle over the weekend, I can enter a date/time range, zone, etc., and see if anyone else is planning to do the same.

gm9

03-02-2007, 07:40 AM

Looks like I'm late to the party and most has already been said. I strongly agree with the ideas posted in the OP (except autogroup), and like many others here I also use my friends list to track people I do NOT want to group with (fixing/amending the /ignore feature so you get a popup when you are invited into a group/raid with a member you ignore or if you try to invite someone like that yourself would remove that issue). It was already proposed, but I wanted to confirm that I as well would love to be able to be /LFG for alts. What I did not see proposed but would like to see is having a full group able to search for replacements, something like /lfm "healer in 15 minutes". Also I would like the effective level range of the group members shown in the search window (effective=mentored level if someone mentors). And maybe how many members the group already has or even their names in a tooltip.

Pendant

03-02-2007, 09:31 AM

<cite>Captain_Xpendable wrote:</cite><blockquote>Here's an idea I thought I'd put out for everyone to shoot full of holes. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I think it would be nice to also have a "bulletin board " window where people can not only specify the parameters of the group they're looking for, but can also specify the zone (via drop down menu) and a time and date. So if , for example, I want to do Nek Castle over the weekend, I can enter a date/time range, zone, etc., and see if anyone else is planning to do the same. </blockquote>Great idea. There are bulletin boards on the wall in Royal Accountant Fowler's office in Qeynos Harbour for instance, would be a perfect location for this.I'm a great believer in KISS ("Keep It Simple, Stupid&quot<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />. Communication is important but there are often better ways to communicate than using lots of words. How about creating designated meeting points for groups / raids? For instance:<ul><li>outside Fowler's Office - by simply congregating there, players can indicate that they're interested in joining a guild writ raid. Requires nothing more difficult on the coding side than a simple notice on Fowler's notice board: 'those wishing to indicate that they are available to group for guild writs - please wait outside'.</li><li>a sign stuck in the sand near the Steppes Docks: 'Kedge's Lament Rescue Party'</li><li>a banner somewhere near Zek dock area: 'Emperor Fyst Must Die!'</li></ul>Such things would need to be subtle (wouldn't want to see Norrath filled with Disneyland queuing!) and in prominent locations (so that those passing by can see a group forming).One of the problems with this is that whenever I see a raid forming the tendency is to assume that it's full. Yes, I could wander over and ask if they need another, but I've tried that enough times to realise that it's fraught with problems (sometimes people will want to refuse me simply because I smell, which is entirely understandable <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />). How about enabling the Group/Raid Leader to carry some sort of banner while a group/raid is forming? This would:<ul><li>identify who the group/raid leader is</li><li>indicate that the needs more</li><li>could be (possibly?) clicked upon to provide those interested with details on what the group/raid is for and the levels/classes that it seeks...</li></ul>Thanks for listening, and thanks for asking for feedback <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Pendant

03-02-2007, 09:53 AM

'Friends' list: sinply including Adventurer / Artisan Class and level would help a LOT when trying to find people who can help with something.

Farzmek

03-02-2007, 10:06 AM

This is basically just a repeat of what has already been suggested, but hey, all the good ideas have been taken <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />I very much like the idea of the text line, if for nothing else another way to display comical one-liners. However, I fear that this will be used as a method for gold-spamming (just looking ahead a little). "Level 30 Warlock LTS gold cheap!" Perhaps the idea concerning the scroll-box would be better?I think that RPers and Anon's should still have their class/level displayed when they're LFG.I do not very much like the idea of auto-invites, as some of the people on my friends list are just people who are fun to talk to.To me, the key is ease-of-use. Not nearly enough people use the LFG function, and I don't really know why. Perhaps that would be a pertinant questions as well. Maybe having larger rounded buttons would persuade people to use the LFG function? Heck, I'd give up an update if just more people would use it.

Pendant

03-02-2007, 10:15 AM

Guild Members tab shows AFK status.I would like to see it also include LFG flag, when on.

Nahlis

03-02-2007, 10:35 AM

Some great ideas and I'm so glad your looking into this! Here's some of my highlights: 1. Love the questing idea, though I might limit it to only show people who have a quest that is still at least green to you -and- them. This will save trouble for folks who have quests still hanging around their journal from 30+ levels back. 2. A comments section is a must. Also the ability to search for people lfg by zone would be very nice. 3. Would really like RP and Anon to at least have the option to show up with class and level in lfg lists. I know a lot of people had to make the choice of getting rid of their RP status flag or stop using /lfg. I know I did. 4. As with most I don't like the idea of auto-invites for Friends, but what about a notification system? If I login I might get a message saying "Friend Zilten is looking for a healer and dps in group" so i know that one of my friends is forming a group. 5. /LFG for alts. BEST IDEA EVER!!!!! 'nuff said.

Hatr

03-02-2007, 10:58 AM

Definitely have it "see through" the /role or /anon flags. On a PvP server grouping is imperative, but so is hiding your class as best as you can. I want to be able to go out and quest/solo/whatever as I LFG, but I don't want to have to drop /role just to do so. I'd go so far as saying a simple tool that listed the class & level of everyone that is LFG (even if they are /role or /anon), with basic filters for level ranges, would be enough to make me happy. Maybe even another flag for why you are LFG -- quests, HQ's, xp, or PvP on appropriate servers. Start simple, get it refined and in place ASAP, and add the features as it's proven useful. No sense in spending countless hours creating a feature-rich application that only sees 5% of it's functions used.

Rotacidare

03-02-2007, 11:23 AM

Some great ideas here. I particuarly like the idea about having a tool for goups looking for more (LFM). That's very needed. One thing I think is of grave importance on PvP servers is to have your LFG tag above your head hidden to those of the opposite alignment. That's the main reason most don't use the system on PvP servers as it's like painting a big target above your head telling enemy players you are alone <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

bensilvi

03-02-2007, 11:30 AM

<cite>Rashaak wrote:</cite><blockquote>I like your idea's, but I would much rather see effort put into revamping the GRT...</blockquote> LFG is much more important than the Guild tool. Lets get groups toegether before Guilds.

Kendricke

03-02-2007, 11:54 AM

Quick images of the old <a href="http://everquest.station.sony.com/legacy/f_lfg.jsp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Enhanced Looking for Group </a>tool in Everquest:<img src="http://everquest.station.sony.com/legacy/images/f_lfg_screen-players.jpg" border="0"> <img src="http://everquest.station.sony.com/legacy/images/f_lfg_screen-players.jpg" border="0"> <img src="http://everquest.station.sony.com/legacy/images/f_lfg_screen-filters.jpg" border="0">By the way, I can't stress how much I loved filters. I'd love to even put in a preferred grouping list option (with notes, of course) that allowed for auto-invites for anyone who was in my preferred grouping list that was currently LFG the moment I formed up a group and put the LFM tag on (yes, please, bring back the "Looking For More" tag).To cut down on spam invites, set an option to allow someone to accept/deny placement in a preferred grouping list (similar to Yahoo messenger). Just because I think someone's a great groupmate doesn't mean they'll want me inviting them every other day.

Argyuile

03-02-2007, 11:57 AM

I would like to be able to be LFG with multiple characters, not just the one I happen to be on at the moment. 70 assassin or 38 SK LFG type of thing.

ArivenGemini

03-02-2007, 12:40 PM

Zyphius

03-02-2007, 12:58 PM

I'm loving most of the ideas mentioned in this thread. I would like to add one more. Add a selection for "invite to group" and "invite to raid" to the context menu when you click on a persons name in a chat window (the same menu that has "tell", "toggle ignore" etc).

Zliten

03-02-2007, 04:00 PM

To give you an update, I have narrowed down what I want to do to start. There are 4 things a person might want to do when LFG. I want to find a group I want to make or manage a group I want to see what groups are looking for players I want to see what players are looking for groups So this is what we are going to try to address first. Once we have that in a state where we are satisfied I think we will move on to include some of the other ideas. Like a new one I had this morning, and I think most people would like it. I am not saying it will happen, it is just an idea. When you are flagged as LFG, and a group goes LFM that you are qualified for, have the LFG icon change color, and display a UI notification. Keep the idea's coming but please lets keep them focused on Looking for Group. Although I did like the suggestion of making some sort of billboard saying looking for group next week, I do not think that is part of a looking for group system, but more of a messaging system. And now that you can access the forums from in game, I think that would be a much easier way to do things like that. Thanks again all. Zliten

TheBu

03-02-2007, 04:01 PM

Thanks, Frist thanks for someone doing something about a very important part of the game. The part that get alot of peaple into groups so they can start playing. Glad they realized alot of toons stoped using the lfg and started /lvl 69 chat "class x lvl x lfg " so why? one they can say what they are looking for. and two ther desprate.In order<ol><li>add a comment 1 line after the lfg toon. this can cover "fury lfg eof instances" or "lvl 70 pally lfg on moa trial 2"</li><li>LFM, so many little groups break up just so they can be found by other groups, bold or only show the leader.</li><li>afk status( shown as grey like in guild window)</li></ol>With those two. u will have a rocking lfg tool. #1 easier just like the guild window, we could have a standing msg to display on the toon when lfg. could even be a mouse over. #2 bit diffrent. Recommend only the leader is shown. could add more complexity to it by saying one of three tags. . LF tank, LF healer, LFdps if u added tags you might want to have it in a diffrent list. prob left(lfg) side right(lfm) side thing. may require more coding to invite another group to ur group. like a raid, asking the leader if they like to merge.ps /lfg for alts [ this could be handled by the 1 comment line also]ok the idea of auto grouping and sorting and looking for a class type is great if u have 100s of pep to look for group within th esame lvl. But it is not that way. Also let the pep do your processing distrubuted. So lets try simplicity and usefulness.

TheBu

03-02-2007, 04:09 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am not saying it will happen, it is just an idea. When you are flagged as LFG, and a group goes LFM that you are qualified for, have the LFG icon change color, and display a UI notification. </blockquote>That is a cool idea. +or - 5 lvls? i do like off loading to the users instead of the server, but the computation might not be to bad. but really i like to say thanks again for getting input.. I know sometimes with as many users as u have thing might get out of hand. I just like to say thanks.

DngrMou

03-02-2007, 04:19 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hello friends, I am working on a new version of the "Looking For Group" system, and before diving head first into creating it, I would like to get some feedback from you. My personal goal with a LFG system is to make it so easy to use, it becomes second nature. The system should support searching for players, and searching for groups looking for players. It should respect your ignore list and give preference to your friends list. I would even like it so that you can set it up so you do not have to invite people to your group, but your friends can auto-join your group if they want. If you have had experience with the Everquest Looking For Group window, what did you or did you not like about it, how can that be improved upon. I see that there has been some request for a system like that on the forums, and I think we can use some of that and improve on that. One of the ideas, I would like feedback on. You might be able to set yourself as LFG, then by finding a quest in your quest journal and doing (something) with it. It will search for other characters in the world that are also LFG and have that quest. One of my other ideas that is just in the thoughts stage, is that when you create a group it will automatically list your group as looking for more. You can then easily click 1 button and it will un-list it, or you can click another button and set specifics for the type of group members you are looking for. This I think would work well for those of us that love to be in full groups as much as possible, but I think would probably be turned off ( and yes, there would be an option to turn it off) by those that only duo. Or how about if you are on and solo, and one of your friends logs on, should the system automatically try to group the two of you and add friends of level range as they log in. So please, if you have any ideas about features you think would make a looking for group system either easier or better to use let me know. I may not get to reply to every post or idea, but I will read them all. Thanks again. Zliten </blockquote> Woo hoo!Things I think would make it a more useful tool:1. Being able to search a given level range for various classes...defaulting to +/- 5 levels of your own..but changeable. And click type selection boxes for classes. 2. Searchable both within, and outside your current zone, with search results listing them by your zone first.3. A way, in the search tool, for groups to advertise in more detail what they're doing, and what they're looking for in the way of additional group members, (similar to #5 below)....browsable by people lfg.4. For people looking for groups....some way of setting their own preferences as to zones, areas, dungeons, level ranges, etc.5. A notes box, to allow lfg players to explain what they can bring to a group, (experience in a given area, masters/adept III's, time restrictions, willingness to mentor, or be mentored, etc), viewable by people performing lfg searches.

Ariaya

03-02-2007, 04:32 PM

Tyrani

03-02-2007, 04:35 PM

I like a lot of the ideas here...On the note of being able to specify which instance/zone you want to go to or prefer...something I didn't see mentioned is having this tie into lockout timers, so if your lockout is set, don't show up when someone does a search for that zone.

Dejah

03-02-2007, 04:45 PM

Some very cool ideas so far. Here's something that I think would be cool that could be integrated into the Quest Journal and Zone Lock Out Timer windows. Basically, a way to flag quests and zones as something you would like to work on. If the system found that multiple people who were LFG all wanted to do instance X, the system could actually suggest lists of players catagorized by the activity in common. Here's an example:Eodnoj is level 70, and he likes to run the following zones and instances when he can: Mistmoore Catacombs, Unrest, Crypt, and Obelisk. When looking at this Zone Lock Out Timer window, he clicks the "Add to LFG List" button to add Unrest, Crypt, and Obelisk as a preferred zone. He uses the Zone Search tool, located in the LFG tool, to add Mistmoore Catacombs to his preferred zone list. Eodnoj is also working on his Claymore series of quests; he is currently on the Trading Information quest which takes place in Sanctum of Scaleborn. In his quest journal, Eodnoj selects the checkbox next to "Trading Information" to signify that it is a quest he wants to get help on. Eodnoj figures that it might be possible to get a few updates by joining a random Sanctum of Scaleborn group, so he uses the Zone Search tool once again to add Sanctum of Scaleborn to his preferred zone list.Eodnoj logs on one evening and opens up the LFG window. He does his standard search to see if any groups are LFM. He doesn't find any groups doing things that he wants to do so he turns to the Suggestions tab. The suggestions tab highlights a bunch of activities that the system has found other LFG players interested in doing. Zone: Crypt of Valdoon (3) Zone: Mistmoore Catacombs (1) Zone: Obelisk of Blight (3) Zone: Unrest (8 ) Zone: Sanctum of Scaleborn (0) Quest: Trading Information (5)At a glance Eodnoj can see that a lot of people want to do Unrest. He clicks Unrest and the list of players is displayed:(P) Afksalot (M) Gandolf (P) Healsalot (S) Legolas (M) Necroguy (P) Popedude (M) Pullsaggro (S) StabstuffEodnoj isn't a fighter, and at a glance he can tell there isn't one in the list. He clicks on Trading Information and sees the following list of players:(F) Arthur (M) Merlin (P) Nonamer (S) Ninjia (S) DancerEodnoj selects all of the players and clicks the Invite button in the suggestions window. All of the players receive an invite window with the comment field pre-populated with "Eodnoj has invited you to group. Reason: Quest: Trading Information". All but Ninjia accept and Ninjia sends Eodnoj a tell explaining that he was just about to log off. As the group heads to Sanctum of Scaleborn, Eodnoj sets up the Looking For More tool to be Trading Information.After a few hours of questing, the mage and scout have to go. The remaining three decide to do Obelisk of Blight. Using the Zone Search Tool, Eodnoj sets up the LFM tool to specify the Obelisk of Blight zone. He then clicks on the Suggestions tab like he did earlier in the night. This time the tab is a little different as he is already in a group; it only shows a list of people who match what the group is going to do. The list includes people who are looking to obelisk of blight specifically, and it also lists people who aren't specific in what type of group they are looking for. Eodnoj picks up the two people who were specifically looking to do Obelisk of Blight, and after skipping a few of the other people (based on comments in the LFG) he finds another person who is up for doing Obelisk of Blight. One great thing about using the tool to specify the instance zone is that it won't suggest people who are locked out of the instance already.<hr />In a nutshell, the system could let you:If Solo - * Specify generic LFG with Comment - or -* Specify Looking for Group to do X, where X could be any number of zones, or quests.(There would also need to be a way for a player to specify whether they only want to do the things they specified or if those are only preferences and they are willing to do other stuff).If Group - * Specify generic LFM with Comment- or -* Specify specificly that the group is doing X and is LFM, where X can only be a single zone or quest.This is ultimately very similar to having "Saved Searches", where a player can just log on and very quickly see if there are people doing what they are interested in doing. This is just a different way of implementing it. The downside of this (other than dev cost) is that it may be hard for new players to discover and learn what is capable in the system unless it is integrated well into other aspects of the UI such as the quest journal.

Zard

03-02-2007, 04:49 PM

In the LFM (Looking For More) window, I want to be able to specify Archetype, Class or Subclass by clicking checkboxes.If I want any tank, for example, I can select "Fighter" and it will automatically include Warrior, Crusader, Brawler in additional to all of the fighter subclasses (Guardian, Paladin, Monk, etc.).If I want a plate tank I can select Warrior and Crusader and unselect Brawler (if it was already selected by previously selecting Fighter)If I want an Enchanter I can click that and it will automatically include Illusionist and Coercer.If I specifically want a Defiler I can click that too.ps. Are Assassins still considered Predators or have they been reclassified as Rogues? (along with Swashbucklers and Brigands)

Anastasie

03-02-2007, 05:38 PM

Lots of great ideas. One thing that is still currently very annoying is the level range defaults as 1 to 60 and I have to manually change it to 70 every time I want to use the current LFG tool. Please update this, or perhaps let us set our own default level range on each toon. I would love to see a LFR option added. Sometimes it is so hard to find a group or find additional people to fill out a group. I cannot tell you how many times I am trying to fill out a group and all of the people that are tagged as LFG are really just waiting for a raid invite. Then there are other times when you are short people when filling a raid and it would be nice to know if there are people LFR. The filtering option sounds fantastic. If someone could filter that they are only accepting group or raid invites from their own guild - it could save a lot of hassle. Check boxes might be more useful when looking for specific classes or archtypes rather than drop down menus. Many times I may need to fill several different roles in a group and could do one search instead of multiple searches.

Sonnyjim_Grumblestump

03-02-2007, 07:22 PM

Sioned@Befallen wrote: <blockquote> One of the ideas, I would like feedback on. You might be able to set yourself as LFG, then by finding a quest in your quest journal and doing (something) with it. It will search for other characters in the world that are also LFG and have that quest.</blockquote> Wonderful ideas -- a thought about this particular one though... Could it be extended to include guild members? You already mentioned a LFG tool that is aware of your ignore list and gives preference to friends... If I could compare quest steps with 4 groups: Ignored, Default, Friends, and Guild, that strikes me as a very useful tool that would help people compare notes easily and quickly.

Dejah

03-02-2007, 07:36 PM

Sioned@Befallen wrote: <blockquote> Check boxes might be more useful when looking for specific classes or archtypes rather than drop down menus. Many times I may need to fill several different roles in a group and could do one search instead of multiple searches.</blockquote>I was picturing something similar to what they use in the Chat Options window. For filtering classes: - [ X ] Fighter + [ X ] Warrior - [ X ] Crusader [ X ] Paladin [ ] Shadowknight + [ ] Brawler + [ X ] Priest - [ ] Mage + [ ] Sorcerer + [ ] Summoner + [ ] Enchanter - [ X ] Scout + [ ] Bard + [ ] Predator + [ X ] Rogue

Jai1

03-02-2007, 07:42 PM

I think it's fantatic this is being addressed. I like that quests can be filtered. Lot's of people think it's hard to get groups in the game and anything that simplifies or improves that will be welcome.

mellowknees72

03-02-2007, 07:59 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hello friends, I am working on a new version of the "Looking For Group" system, and before diving head first into creating it, I would like to get some feedback from you. (snip) One of my other ideas that is just in the thoughts stage, is that when you create a group it will automatically list your group as looking for more. You can then easily click 1 button and it will un-list it, or you can click another button and set specifics for the type of group members you are looking for. (snip) </blockquote>I just had to post and say - OH PLEASE NO! If you want to add a feature similar to this - what about a pop-up that ASKS you if you're looking for more? PLEASE do not make the game automatically make you "LFM"!!This feature will punish (okay, "inconvenience", really) a lot of players who prefer to play in small groups. If one of us forgets to "unclick" the LFM option, we're going to be giving people false hopes of grouping. Please, please, PLEASE do not implement this.I'm all for anything to make the current LFG system better - but I think this would be more of a hinderance than anything.

mellowknees72

03-02-2007, 08:01 PM

<cite>Kendricke wrote:</cite><blockquote>Quick images of the old <a href="http://everquest.station.sony.com/legacy/f_lfg.jsp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Enhanced Looking for Group </a>tool in Everquest:<img src="http://everquest.station.sony.com/legacy/images/f_lfg_screen-players.jpg" border="0"> <img src="http://everquest.station.sony.com/legacy/images/f_lfg_screen-players.jpg" border="0"> <img src="http://everquest.station.sony.com/legacy/images/f_lfg_screen-filters.jpg" border="0">By the way, I can't stress how much I loved filters. I'd love to even put in a preferred grouping list option (with notes, of course) that allowed for auto-invites for anyone who was in my preferred grouping list that was currently LFG the moment I formed up a group and put the LFM tag on (yes, please, bring back the "Looking For More" tag).To cut down on spam invites, set an option to allow someone to accept/deny placement in a preferred grouping list (similar to Yahoo messenger). Just because I think someone's a great groupmate doesn't mean they'll want me inviting them every other day.</blockquote> One of the features of the old EQ LFG tool that I thought was REALLY cool was that you could add comments - such as the name of a quest you were seeking help with, or a certain location that was preferred. Honestly, I remember using the EQ LFG tool and it was awesome. I think something along those lines would be perfect in EQ2.

Sebastien

03-02-2007, 08:33 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>To give you an update, I have narrowed down what I want to do to start. There are 4 things a person might want to do when LFG. I want to find a group I want to make or manage a group I want to see what groups are looking for players I want to see what players are looking for groups So this is what we are going to try to address first. Once we have that in a state where we are satisfied I think we will move on to include some of the other ideas. Like a new one I had this morning, and I think most people would like it. I am not saying it will happen, it is just an idea. When you are flagged as LFG, and a group goes LFM that you are qualified for, have the LFG icon change color, and display a UI notification. Keep the idea's coming but please lets keep them focused on Looking for Group. Although I did like the suggestion of making some sort of billboard saying looking for group next week, I do not think that is part of a looking for group system, but more of a messaging system. And now that you can access the forums from in game, I think that would be a much easier way to do things like that. Thanks again all. Zliten </blockquote>That sound right. Focus on core features then guage how much additional effort you really want to put into this particular endeavor. For me, the core features, along with some filters and comments, are more than ample.BTW thanks for sharing your initial thought process with us.

Ponos

03-03-2007, 02:02 AM

The LFG window is something I should not have to monitor, but that will notify me when certain player-selected criteria has been met.I group for three reasons:1) Quests2) Named Mobs (Epics & Heroics)3) RaidsA) The LFG Menu should be set up where I can select from any quests in my Active Quest Journal. Once another player has also selected those quests from his Active Quest Journal, we should both get a notification and option to form a group.B) Once I enter a zone, my LFG Menu should list all Named Mobs that spawn in that zone. I can then select any of them and once another player has done the same, we should both get a notification. (This will probably be the hardest to apply, and might not be a realistic possibility.)C) There should be an option to "Auto Party" where the player selects to automatically group with other players based on player-selected criteria (class, level, zone, quest, ect.), and the LFG Search Tool will then find players who have selected similar criteria and a group will automatically be formed.D) This might already be in-game, but if I decide to "LFG," I do not want to have it pasted to the end of my name. I haven't played with the LFG window in ages, so don't know if this can already be selected.Thanks for offering us the chance to communicate our wishes to you!

electricninjasex

03-03-2007, 03:19 AM

If you wanted to go balls-to-the-wall, do it solid and right the first time, and end up with the LFG finder to end all LFG finders, Dehah's approach seems to be way to go.

Foolsfolly

03-03-2007, 11:54 AM

I would really like to see quests implemented into this system somehow. Give us the ability to mark quests that we are looking for a group to help complete, and groups the ability to find players who who are on a specific quest.

EtoilePirate

03-03-2007, 08:18 PM

With some of the suggestions circulating around the Friends list, I'd really love to see that get more sophisticated as well. If I could just create groups, that would be grand. For example, I could call one group, "Good Tanks," and one, "Great Healers," and one, "Total idots, no no NO." * * (I realize the /ignore command exists, but what a player would call his / her groups would of course be totally at his / her discretion. I almost never use /ignore. )

Ravaan

03-03-2007, 11:17 PM

I think as others have said just need to keep it simple. You don't need all these check box options and what not just simplicity. I would suggest this ...Group leader ... How many he has in his group ... what the purpose of the group is for ... what the group is looking for (Class wise)And for people looking for group, just allow them to type in a small message. To me thats really all you need.

ShadowMunkie

03-04-2007, 01:20 AM

I really like that you guys are pushing more for feedback on the actual users of your products, unlike most other games. The features stated above are all excellent ideas, the auto-group idea is also a good idea if it can be turned on/off. Another feature I would like added to the game is a replacement slot in the group/LFG menu that can be turned on/off depending on whether you wish to group or not. Say you have 6/6 people in a group and your tank is leaving. You should be able to turn on replacement slot and it will automatically search for a tank in the level range and class. It would automatically send a tell and invite to the first person found in the list. If he/she declines then it will add his/her name to a declined list, and continue to go through the current list sending tells and invites, until the replacement slot is filled. This will save time and effort, for a lot of groups and such that are seeking players. As I stated this feature has to be turned on in order to use it, for both the group and the invitee, so its not like your going to be getting random invites all the time. The replacement feature should only be accessible if there are 6 people in a group, so that its not abused.

Generic123

03-05-2007, 01:04 PM

One thing I'd like to see is some form of multi player LFG. E.g. If you are in a duo I'd like to have the ability to advertise that the pair of you are looking for a group and show up in searches.

Frexspar

03-05-2007, 04:55 PM

Unlike a few of the previous posters, I really like the idea of auto-invites. I have a bunch of very close friends/relatives that I almost always group with. They sign on at different times, and we group up when we can. Perhaps the idea that was posted earlier regarding /invite being queued if the person is offline would be an easy way to offer this. Then we could set up a macro: <ul><li>Line 1: /invite Frodo</li><li>Line 2: /invite Bilbo</li><li>Line 3: /invite Aragorn</li><li>etc...</li></ul>and click it when we log on. When Frodo logs on, he gets a standard group invite dialog without anyone having to look for him. It isn't a critical thing, just one of those things that would be nice to have.

Leatherneck

03-05-2007, 05:47 PM

Zliten wrote: <blockquote>Cadaveria@Befallen wrote: <blockquote>I am not too keen on the system automatically trying to group me with my friends when I/They log in. Maybe I read that wrong, but the way I understood it, it sounds like an annoyance.</blockquote>And that is why I have that listed as a thought, not something that will for sure happen. The conversation so far is great and about what I expected. I do thank you all for your comments and would love to see more from you all. Thanks Zliten </blockquote> I think it's a great thought, and easily made a non-annoyance by means of a on/off switch. Better, a set of preferences like:Auto-group Friends List? Y/NAuto-group Guildmates? Y/NAuto-group same quest? Y/NOther things would be an ability to see what zones have people LFG-ing and other zones that have people LFM-ing.When you zone in, it could pop a window that shows a list of people looking for a group.Although it might be a potential abuse-issue, you could include the ability to auto-summon a groupmate across zones to your group. It'd take some thought to make it exploit-proof, but that would be a very convenient feature.

Zliten

03-05-2007, 06:26 PM

<cite>Leatherneck wrote:</cite><blockquote>Although it might be a potential abuse-issue, you could include the ability to auto-summon a groupmate across zones to your group. It'd take some thought to make it exploit-proof, but that would be a very convenient feature.</blockquote> This sounds cool, but then what about call of hero, that is a spell that is important to keep the sanctity of. But to comment on all the other posts so far that I have not been able to comment on. To start I am going to try to keep it as simple and easy to use as possible. Once the foundation of a working LFG system is in place, then we will go on to add some of the other feature requests that have been made that will be used. It would be terrible to wate days of work on a feature that did not get used at all, when that time could be spent working on another system that needs work. Thanks again and keep the ideas flowing. Once we have the basics working I will try to post more about it. Thanks Zliten

chrystolr

03-05-2007, 06:31 PM

While your fixing LFG command how about the looking for guild command...its completly useless. I think only 10 guilds show up in it...and I play on the nagafen server where we can only see one factions quilds. And its almost always the same 10 guilds.

Leatherneck

03-05-2007, 06:33 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Leatherneck wrote:</cite><blockquote>Although it might be a potential abuse-issue, you could include the ability to auto-summon a groupmate across zones to your group. It'd take some thought to make it exploit-proof, but that would be a very convenient feature.</blockquote> This sounds cool, but then what about call of hero, that is a spell that is important to keep the sanctity of. But to comment on all the other posts so far that I have not been able to comment on. To start I am going to try to keep it as simple and easy to use as possible. Once the foundation of a working LFG system is in place, then we will go on to add some of the other feature requests that have been made that will be used. It would be terrible to wate days of work on a feature that did not get used at all, when that time could be spent working on another system that needs work. Thanks again and keep the ideas flowing. Once we have the basics working I will try to post more about it. Thanks Zliten </blockquote>I hear what you're sayin'.Perhaps if you make it:1) Only on joining the group, and;2) Have it put a debuff on the character (that lasts quite a while, 1+ hours), that prohibits use of the auto-summon-but not blocking CotH, and "sticks" through death, and I think you've got a start. edit*** 3) Have it only summon them to the ZI/evac point, not the group itself.

interstellarmatter

03-05-2007, 07:51 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>Leatherneck wrote: To start I am going to try to keep it as simple and easy to use as possible. Once the foundation of a working LFG system is in place, then we will go on to add some of the other feature requests that have been made that will be used. It would be terrible to wate days of work on a feature that did not get used at all, when that time could be spent working on another system that needs work. Thanks again and keep the ideas flowing. Once we have the basics working I will try to post more about it. Thanks Zliten </blockquote>Please get as much in the game as possible now. It will never be looked at again. Look at the guild recruitment tool. We were told let's get what we have so far and we'll follow up with a better system. It hasn't happen nor will it probably ever happen. Do what you can now because that is probably going to be the extent of it. A big thing that would please many players is to be able to keep /LFG for one character while playing an alt. This is a very common situation and would make many players happy.

TwistedFaith

03-05-2007, 08:55 PM

Hopefully this will catch the attention of the devs but I would love to see a 'AFK' tag added to the raid display. Just a little tag next to someone's name if they are AFK, small and hopefully simple to do but would help a great deal.

03-05-2007, 09:09 PM

WOW shocker! I have to reply!Ok first off I loved EQ1 lfg windows. When they came out with that 6-7 years ago I thought it was the best thing since ex-lax. But to add to THAT would be hard to beat. I'm excited just thinking about it. Hers my thoughts...1. Allow players to search for other players that are working on the same quest they are. Woot Godking here I come!2. Allow players to find groups by adding special comments such as "70 Conj lfg for last part of Fluttering Wing" quest. This can substantially help non guilded players that have limited communication about what part of the quest their interested in.3. Looking for Raid or Raid looking for "level / class"4. Looking for group with my 70 conj, 40 Fury or 25 swashbuckler - please send tell. Basically a various level of lfg that says I dont care which one but send tell anyway.WOOT I'm excited about this! Bringing the community together with a simple program...... GOOD JOB!!! Awsome concept! Finally !!!!!

03-05-2007, 09:12 PM

For nebs that dont know to attempt to find replacement players to fill their slots I would also recommend an "estimated time" display by the group leader. This would be a huge help cause lower levels have no idea what zones require a time sink or not.

tiki-jiki

03-05-2007, 10:02 PM

I would love the ability to have a character that i do not have logged in be lfg. I want to second this idea, and it would make finding pick up groups a lot easier. I can play a low level alt until a group or raid that wants my other character comes up. Great idea.

Fortai

03-05-2007, 11:02 PM

<cite>Leatherneck wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Leatherneck wrote:</cite><blockquote>Although it might be a potential abuse-issue, you could include the ability to auto-summon a groupmate across zones to your group. It'd take some thought to make it exploit-proof, but that would be a very convenient feature.</blockquote> This sounds cool, but then what about call of hero, that is a spell that is important to keep the sanctity of. But to comment on all the other posts so far that I have not been able to comment on. To start I am going to try to keep it as simple and easy to use as possible. Once the foundation of a working LFG system is in place, then we will go on to add some of the other feature requests that have been made that will be used. It would be terrible to wate days of work on a feature that did not get used at all, when that time could be spent working on another system that needs work. Thanks again and keep the ideas flowing. Once we have the basics working I will try to post more about it. Thanks Zliten </blockquote>I hear what you're sayin'.Perhaps if you make it:1) Only on joining the group, and;2) Have it put a debuff on the character (that lasts quite a while, 1+ hours), that prohibits use of the auto-summon-but not blocking CotH, and "sticks" through death, and I think you've got a start. edit*** 3) Have it only summon them to the ZI/evac point, not the group itself.</blockquote>Call of the Hero can only be used on people in a group anyway. I think adding this feature would upset a lot of conjurors, make the game much less challenging, and further bleed the classes together, getting rid of the sense of individuality that makes separate classes useful for different reasons. People like to be useful for a special reason, that's why we have 24 classes that can do different things. Adding this feature, even if it has more limitations than CoH, would undermine that.

Sirlutt

03-06-2007, 02:06 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Leatherneck wrote:</cite><blockquote>Although it might be a potential abuse-issue, you could include the ability to auto-summon a groupmate across zones to your group. It'd take some thought to make it exploit-proof, but that would be a very convenient feature.</blockquote> This sounds cool, but then what about call of hero, that is a spell that is important to keep the sanctity of. Thanks Zliten </blockquote>Having to wait while people come across 5 zones, a boat, a gryphon ride and 2 horses is why I am playing WoW these days. Doing an instance takes long enough without having to wait for 5 other people to run across grey zones. Its a simple matter of time, I dont have 8 hours a day to play EQ2, I have 2-3 and losing up to an hour of that traveling and waiting for others to travel puts the game way out of mine, and others reach.. I understand the "immersive" argument behind the travel.. and yes you should have to travel to an instance at least once on foot, but if I am running instances in the evenings with friends or guildies we should be able to get to the action.

Leatherneck

03-06-2007, 02:10 PM

Fortai@Oasis wrote: <blockquote>Call of the Hero can only be used on people in a group anyway. I think adding this feature would upset a lot of conjurors, make the game much less challenging, and further bleed the classes together, getting rid of the sense of individuality that makes separate classes useful for different reasons. People like to be useful for a special reason, that's why we have 24 classes that can do different things. Adding this feature, even if it has more limitations than CoH, would undermine that. </blockquote>Perhaps I didn't explain it very well. CotH can be used in group only, I know.This would only be usable upon joining the group, at the moment you elect to join it. It would look something like: "Leatherneck has invited you to a group:Accept | Decline | Accept and take me to the zone"

Muraha

03-07-2007, 07:24 AM

Wow - We managed to get 6 pages out of this post before the inevitable side track ranting about something that is nothing to do with the OPs question. FINALLY they are asking for our feedback. Can we stick to the subject and give it to them because whatever they release this time I would imagine will be what we are stuck with forever.I agree with most peopleLFG for altsLFR - looking for raidGLFM - group looking for moreRLFM - Raid looking for more I like the idea of tick boxes beside quests and I loved the post with the example given about trading info and OoB group but I think this is too unrealistic a dream and I would imagine it would take too much time to code. A free input text box on your LFG flag would suffice IMO.If you want to have your LFG system take into account friends list then the ignore window needs some extra features. Ignore this persons 1.Channell Chat 2.Tells 3. CompletelyI have people in my friends list with nasty notes beside them because of bad experiences but I dont want to ignore them in case they are selling a master I need on the trade channell. The bulletin board thing I think will just become an infestation of Plat sellers advertising and I cant see myself ever bothering to spend time looking at it. It would be nice to be able to advertise groups and raids in advance stating the date, time and reason for group/raid. You could bring up the say "upcoming events" window and scroll through the listings of groups and raids who need particular classes and get the group/raid leaders name so you can mail him/her. It does not need to have a way to presign up although it would be nice. You would have to take into account peoples personal time zone so that the times display correctly.Lastly, the LFG system could take into account if you play PVP or PVE. PVE has no such concerns about race, alligned or guild. If PVP players want these extra features lets give it to em but lets not delay the release of the PVE version as a result.Muraha

Lornick

03-07-2007, 07:38 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Leatherneck wrote:</cite><blockquote>Although it might be a potential abuse-issue, you could include the ability to auto-summon a groupmate across zones to your group. It'd take some thought to make it exploit-proof, but that would be a very convenient feature.</blockquote> This sounds cool, but then what about call of hero, that is a spell that is important to keep the sanctity of. But to comment on all the other posts so far that I have not been able to comment on. To start I am going to try to keep it as simple and easy to use as possible. Once the foundation of a working LFG system is in place, then we will go on to add some of the other feature requests that have been made that will be used. It would be terrible to wate days of work on a feature that did not get used at all, when that time could be spent working on another system that needs work. Thanks again and keep the ideas flowing. Once we have the basics working I will try to post more about it. Thanks Zliten </blockquote>I agree 100% with keeping the sanctity of CoH intact. But perhaps a compromise of sorts could be reached. For instance if there were a few select locations that group members could summon each other to across zone lines. I wouldn't even mind if there was a fuel cost significantly higher then the mage ones. But with enough restrictions I think something like this could be implemented without stepping on Conj toes too much.

emeraldrock jr

03-07-2007, 09:18 PM

One thing I would like is if you could specify a zone that you are lfg for. That would help a ton.

EvilIguana9

03-12-2007, 04:37 PM

One thing the LFG tool would benefit greatly from would be a means of broadcasting how long you will be available for. Choose the time you have to log off and people who are browsing for groupmates will see exactly when you will have to leave in their own timezone. I'd also like to be able to say whether I'm interested in doing a quick run of whatever versus taking a big block of time and doing as many instances/quests/levels as I can fit in. Maybe it's just my social awkwardness but I hate the whole process of leaving a group and it'd be nice if I could let people know ahead of time just how much I plan to do.

Ishya

03-13-2007, 07:41 AM

my 2coppers: don't make it level restricted, like only showing players in the range of the group or people willing to mentor will miss the boat <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

dj_krztoff

03-14-2007, 04:56 AM

Not sure if this was suggested. But perhaps, in place of the /friend command, there could be a different flag (/groupfriend?)we could put on people strictly for the /lfg purpose. I love the idea and don't want to see it slip by just because people are using the /friend command for other things.

Rahatmattata

03-14-2007, 07:08 AM

Please include some kind of looking for raid and looking for duel tag. I know... pickup raids = teh suck but for some of us it's all we can get. Also, I often spend a lot of time just standing around the docks in East Freeport and would like to have a (LFD) tag or something similar by my name so people will know I'm up for some dueling or duelbetting.

Vonotar

04-03-2007, 10:42 AM

Muraha@Splitpaw wrote: <blockquote>Wow - We managed to get 6 pages out of this post before the inevitable side track ranting about something that is nothing to do with the OPs question. FINALLY they are asking for our feedback. Can we stick to the subject and give it to them because whatever they release this time I would imagine will be what we are stuck with forever.I agree with most peopleLFG for altsLFR - looking for raidGLFM - group looking for moreRLFM - Raid looking for more I like the idea of tick boxes beside quests and I loved the post with the example given about trading info and OoB group but I think this is too unrealistic a dream and I would imagine it would take too much time to code. A free input text box on your LFG flag would suffice IMO.If you want to have your LFG system take into account friends list then the ignore window needs some extra features. Ignore this persons 1.Channell Chat 2.Tells 3. CompletelyI have people in my friends list with nasty notes beside them because of bad experiences but I dont want to ignore them in case they are selling a master I need on the trade channell. The bulletin board thing I think will just become an infestation of Plat sellers advertising and I cant see myself ever bothering to spend time looking at it. It would be nice to be able to advertise groups and raids in advance stating the date, time and reason for group/raid. You could bring up the say "upcoming events" window and scroll through the listings of groups and raids who need particular classes and get the group/raid leaders name so you can mail him/her. It does not need to have a way to presign up although it would be nice. You would have to take into account peoples personal time zone so that the times display correctly.Lastly, the LFG system could take into account if you play PVP or PVE. PVE has no such concerns about race, alligned or guild. If PVP players want these extra features lets give it to em but lets not delay the release of the PVE version as a result.Muraha </blockquote> I agree fully. If revamping LFG goes hand-in-hand with revamping the Community Window (Press Y) I would also like the possibility of establishing two lists, a 'local' list for the alt in question, and a 'global' list which applies to all alts on the account. It's always fustrating when you *think* you've grouped with somebody before.. but on a different alt. I notice that any Notes you add to a friend are stored on your local PC, but the actual friends list is stored on the server (otherwise I would have written a script to merge my alts note files on a regular basis). Basically if my healer likes a certain Tank, I should be able to find that Tank again with ease from any other of my alts... Failing that i'll go out and buy a A-Z notepad!

Zliten

04-04-2007, 09:20 PM

A quick update for you all and a request for some feedback on this. After working on this for a while, we have come up with an idea on instead of asking for specific classes, to ask for people to fill roles. This not only cuts down on the clutter, but will allow classes that can have multiple roles not be left out of searches. So here are the roles we are thinking of using, and if all goes well and we like the way it works, we would like to have the community to assist us in assigning classes to roles. ( Don't worry you will always be able to change the roles you want to fill if we do this, that way you are not stuck with the predetermined roles.) The roles we are thinking about now are Main Tank Secondary Tank Main Healer Secondary Healer Ranged DPS Melee DPS Crowd Control Thanks Zliten

liveja

04-04-2007, 10:05 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>After working on this for a while, we have come up with an idea on instead of asking for specific classes, to ask for people to fill roles. </blockquote> That's a great idea, Zliten. Thanx for the feedback to our feedback! But, seriously, please: strongly consider a way for us to let people know where we want to go & what we want to do. The LFG GUI in EQ1 was outstanding. Take that, make it over with class roles instead of specific classes. That's what I want to see.

Nordy

04-04-2007, 10:05 PM

Random suggestion:Maybe change Crowd Control to just Utility? Or perhaps Buffer or something?I play a bard, and currently bards don't do enough DPS to be considered for either ranged or melee DPS positions, and we also don't have enough crowd control to be considered for that catagory. As a Troub I have a little crowd control but not nearly enough to be classified a CC class. So this kind of puts me in in a place where I'm the worst of each section.Don't get me wrong, I know I'm fantastic for a group, and any group would be lucky to have me, but I could just see plenty of scenarios where I am left out because people look to specific catagories for specific things. If I put myself on the Melee DPS I'll get turned away because I don't do enough damage, and if I put myself on the CC list I'll get turned away because I can't really control crowds.

ArivenGemini

04-04-2007, 10:07 PM

Kendricke

04-04-2007, 10:09 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>A quick update for you all and a request for some feedback on this. After working on this for a while, we have come up with an idea on instead of asking for specific classes, to ask for people to fill roles. This not only cuts down on the clutter, but will allow classes that can have multiple roles not be left out of searches. So here are the roles we are thinking of using, and if all goes well and we like the way it works, we would like to have the community to assist us in assigning classes to roles. ( Don't worry you will always be able to change the roles you want to fill if we do this, that way you are not stuck with the predetermined roles.) The roles we are thinking about now are Main Tank Secondary Tank Main Healer Secondary Healer Ranged DPS Melee DPS Crowd Control Thanks Zliten </blockquote> I'll admit I'm skeptical. The game's based around classes. However, for the the sake of constructive discussion, let's work with the above constraints. <ul><li>I'm assuming that we each get to choose our preferred role? </li><li>Do we get to select multiple roles? </li><li>If so, what prevents someone from just choosing more roles in order to fit into more LFG searches? What prevents an Illusionist from listing themselves as Melee DPS, as an example? </li><li>What prevents someone from claiming to be Melee DPS, and you find out they're specced for tanking? </li><li>What if you just want a mystic, but your search for primary healer is cluttered by inquisitors, templars, and furies?</li><li>What if you want to filter by only good or evil classes (thinking RP or PVP servers specifically here, but really open to all servers)?</li></ul>

Kendricke

04-04-2007, 10:14 PM

<cite>Nordy wrote:</cite><blockquote>Random suggestion:Maybe change Crowd Control to just Utility? Or perhaps Buffer or something?I play a bard, and currently bards don't do enough DPS to be considered for either ranged or melee DPS positions, and we also don't have enough crowd control to be considered for that catagory. As a Troub I have a little crowd control but not nearly enough to be classified a CC class. So this kind of puts me in in a place where I'm the worst of each section.Don't get me wrong, I know I'm fantastic for a group, and any group would be lucky to have me, but I could just see plenty of scenarios where I am left out because people look to specific catagories for specific things. If I put myself on the Melee DPS I'll get turned away because I don't do enough damage, and if I put myself on the CC list I'll get turned away because I can't really control crowds.</blockquote>I always refer to these classes as "support". I love having bards in a group, but I'm in agreement that I'd have a hard time pegging a bard for any of the above roles. I just see bards as ...well, bards.

Zenith

04-04-2007, 10:15 PM

I'd definatly change crowd control to Utility and let a person check up to 2 classes. Like Dirge could choose utlity or melee dps at the same time. Or monk melee dps and one of the tanks. Or Illusionist as Utility or ranged dps.

arieste

04-04-2007, 10:18 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hello friends, I am working on a new version of the "Looking For Group" system, and before diving head first into creating it, I would like to get some feedback from you. My personal goal with a LFG system is to make it so easy to use, it becomes second nature. The system should support searching for players, and searching for groups looking for players. It should respect your ignore list and give preference to your friends list. I would even like it so that you can set it up so you do not have to invite people to your group, but your friends can auto-join your group if they want. If you have had experience with the Everquest Looking For Group window, what did you or did you not like about it, how can that be improved upon. I see that there has been some request for a system like that on the forums, and I think we can use some of that and improve on that. One of the ideas, I would like feedback on. You might be able to set yourself as LFG, then by finding a quest in your quest journal and doing (something) with it. It will search for other characters in the world that are also LFG and have that quest. One of my other ideas that is just in the thoughts stage, is that when you create a group it will automatically list your group as looking for more. You can then easily click 1 button and it will un-list it, or you can click another button and set specifics for the type of group members you are looking for. This I think would work well for those of us that love to be in full groups as much as possible, but I think would probably be turned off ( and yes, there would be an option to turn it off) by those that only duo. Or how about if you are on and solo, and one of your friends logs on, should the system automatically try to group the two of you and add friends of level range as they log in. So please, if you have any ideas about features you think would make a looking for group system either easier or better to use let me know. I may not get to reply to every post or idea, but I will read them all. Thanks again. Zliten </blockquote> I havent read the previous posts, so will dive right into it. I have several somewhat disjointed suggestions, so will voice them all. LFM: First of all, any auto-joining feature should be optional, as in *allow autojoin yes/no* Auto join should have several filters. 1 - level (accept levels from X to Y only, wiht X and Y customizable) 2 - role (accept classes _________ only, with every class selectable, multiple classes selectable and possibly archetypes, although if every class is on there, archetypes not really needed, just more convenient) 3 - accept unless ( a - on ignore list, b - in guild X (with space for up to 5 ignored guilds), 4 - has expansions (if someone doesnt have EoF, no sense them joining a Loping Plains group), 5 - time (available for at least X hrs) Aside from auto-join, please give us an option to type in what we are looking for. Maybe someone wants to relog an alt or whatever. Plus you cant really make it perfectly specific if someon wants a Warden with AE prevent or a Dirge or a maybe a Better plate tank, but only if he has a certain item or something. Basically we need to type in what we want. LFG: again, let us type in what we are looking for. some common options like instances, xp, X2, X4 raid are nice, but in the end some people look for very specific things in group. stuff from the LFM filters would obviously fit here as well. When looking for a group, allow us to see what people/levels/guilds are in the group. for auto-joining, same ignore list and ignore guild filters please. Thats all the suggestions i can think of atm. While you are at it, please revamp the group looting window, steal the NBG loot option from vanguard, its good <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Lornick

04-04-2007, 10:29 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote> One of the ideas, I would like feedback on. You might be able to set yourself as LFG, then by finding a quest in your quest journal and doing (something) with it. It will search for other characters in the world that are also LFG and have that quest. </blockquote> I think this is a fantastic idea! Some quests are retardedly hard to find other players working on the same one. I would even like for it to show players working on the same quest who aren't necessarily even online. That way I could send them an e-mail or something to see if they would be interested in arranging a time to work on it. That should be a filterable option though cause sometimes I wouldn't want that info.Having a place to put specific information up for others to see is a must as well. I maybe lfg but that doesn't mean i'm interested in ANY group. Also, i'm not a big fan of the auto invite idea. That would just be annoying. Perhaps just a text message when you log in like:"Your friend Lornick is in a group looking for more."And then if that is something you might be interested in then you could send ole Lorn a tell.

Zliten

04-04-2007, 10:31 PM

<cite>Nordy wrote:</cite><blockquote>Random suggestion:Maybe change Crowd Control to just Utility? Or perhaps Buffer or something?I play a bard, and currently bards don't do enough DPS to be considered for either ranged or melee DPS positions, and we also don't have enough crowd control to be considered for that catagory. As a Troub I have a little crowd control but not nearly enough to be classified a CC class. So this kind of puts me in in a place where I'm the worst of each section.Don't get me wrong, I know I'm fantastic for a group, and any group would be lucky to have me, but I could just see plenty of scenarios where I am left out because people look to specific catagories for specific things. If I put myself on the Melee DPS I'll get turned away because I don't do enough damage, and if I put myself on the CC list I'll get turned away because I can't really control crowds.</blockquote> Utility / Support Perfect, that balances it out from 7 to 8 and should be allot easier than dealing with 24 check boxes. I know some people also are worried about the auto join system that I was talking about many many pages ago, that was just an idea to help fuel the conversation, it currently is not on my list of what to put in the tool for the start. The goal is to make a Looking for Group / Looking for more Tool that is easy to use and will be used. Don't Panic. As soon as we feel more confident with the tool, I will try to post some of the paint ui mockups.

Lornick

04-04-2007, 10:55 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote> The roles we are thinking about now are Main Tank Secondary Tank Main Healer Secondary Healer Ranged DPS Melee DPS Crowd Control </blockquote> I don't see any reason to differentiate from main healer/secondary healer, ranged dps/melee dps or main tank/secondary tank. If I'm building a group and I want a primary and secondary healer then I'll recruit 2 healers and either assign them primary/secondary roles or let them figure it out themselves. Likewise with dps. When I'm building a group generally speaking I don't care how they do the dps as long as stuff dies in a timely manner. If there is specific instances where I want a certain type of dps I'm smart enough to look for the specific classes I'm interested in from a list. If there was going to be any specifics in the dps category, I would be more interested in a caster dps / scout dps category. Yeah, you could infer that the ranged dps are casters. But then you have rangers mixing it up. Overall I think it would be better to just combine those.One more idea... I would really like it if when I'm looking at a person on a lfg list if I could inspect the player from the lfg tool. If I'm building a group for a tough instance and need a strong tank, it would be nice if I could see who had the best gear without having to hurt anyone's feelings. I know some people will get their panties in a wad over that idea. But really it's best for everyone. If I put a whole group together and it turns out the tank has subpar gear for a tough zone then the group will either wind up wasting a lot of time in a zone they can't handle or hurt the players feelings by kicking him out and finding someone with adequate gear for the job. This doesn't just go for tanks either. If I'm looking for a strong dps and I see a necro wearing a bunch of acrylia jewelry (str/agi/sta ... aka melee gear) then I certainly won't waste a group spot on him (I use that example cause I've actually seen it). Maybe it's not fair, but I can infer alot about players based on their gear choices. Even without raid gear you can tell alot about a player who puts effort into his/her character and knows what they are doing by gear choices.One more thing. It would be nice if I could see how many total achievement points a player has earned on the lfg tool.

Josgar

04-04-2007, 11:01 PM

How about a feature that puts High Elves, such as myself, higher on the priority list! (Because High Elves are the best ya know) Meh time for seriousness: How about if you do autogroup, its not by your friends list, but by a check box for each friend. So if I had: Dlion Elion Erydan Frolic Jipsee Eldorn Haryal Steverdale Casade Cassey as my friends list, I would pick which ones would autogroup. (not sure if this was already posted somewhere) Another cool feature, would be showing what the loot type is set to with a graphical icon So lets say I have this group: Josgar Dlion Casade Frolic and it would display in the group window how ever it displays. Beside that would be an M for master looter, or a ticket for lottery, or FFA for freeforall loot. Another Idea is to do this with LFW and maybe even a looking for guild tab, so guild leaders can also go to people looking for guilds. (Since the guild recruit tool never seems to show any guild but the more popular ones) Another thing could show what expansions the group has enabled. Lets say the group: Josgar all expansions Dlion all expansions Erydan all expansions Frolic Basic, KOS then in the group window it would display the weakest link: Basic and KOS

Lornick

04-04-2007, 11:08 PM

<cite>Josgar wrote:</cite><blockquote> Another thing could show what expansions the group has enabled. Lets say the group: Josgar all expansions Dlion all expansions Erydan all expansions Frolic Basic, KOS </blockquote> Oh, I really like that idea too. Basically the more info about a player I can have before actually asking them to group the better imho.

Josgar

04-05-2007, 12:07 AM

<cite>Lornick wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Josgar wrote:</cite><blockquote> Another thing could show what expansions the group has enabled. Lets say the group: Josgar all expansions Dlion all expansions Erydan all expansions Frolic Basic, KOS </blockquote> Oh, I really like that idea too. Basically the more info about a player I can have before actually asking them to group the better imho.</blockquote>and if they were all grouped, it would show the weakest link, so you know where you could all go.

Lornick

04-05-2007, 12:47 AM

Ok, I actually read the whole thread. Probably something I should have done in the first place before posting =p Anyway, what I would like to see is a tool that is disgustingly simple and easy or as complex as players want. There are alot of fantastic ideas and they can't all go into a simple tool. So the initial interface should be very simple with only the basic info. So if your putting together a group all you have to do is check the boxes of the specific classes (or group roles) or search all by default and see what is out there. The result should look something like this:Search Results:Name...........Level..Class.....Notes.......Mrmeatshield 70....Guardian... looking for exp. Don't care where....... [Advanced Info] Mezzaroonie..70....Illusionist...Blight, Valdoon, Unrest, or MM Castle...[Advanced Info] Lornick...........70....Dirge..........Final Brell Quest, Unrest, or Nizara.......[Advanced Info] blahblah.........69....Brigand......Just wanna kill stuff... No quests plz.....[Advanced Info] Supaheals.....68.....Templar.....[[Currently Playing Sickko 36 Brigand]].[Advanced Info]Now say I click the advanced info on Lornick, I might get a window that looks like this:Lornick 70 Dirge 92 Achievement Points 6131 Health...................... 4756 Power 1316 Attack...................... 2214 Mitigation 387 Strength.................... 365 Agility 317 Stamina..................... 234 Intelligence 114 Wisdom..................... 2596 Cold Resist 4001 Heat Resist.............. 3622 Poison Resist 3325 Disease Resist......... 4873 Magic Resist 1909 Divine Resist............ 3383 Mental Resist Expansions/Adventure Packs Owned: All Zones Currently Locked out of: Laboratory of Lord Vyemm............. 3 days 16 hrs Crypt of Valdoon............................ 12 hrs 31 mins Obelisk of Blight............................. 13 hrs 55 minsQuests Currently Interested in grouping for: Riddle of the Vault...... current zone Sanctum of Scaleborn Mark of Awakening..... current zone Trial of Leadership Beyond the Rift........... current zone Nizara etc etcAlternate Characters that maybe lfg (click name for advanced info): Lorgast.... 70 Berserker Unclemike. 70 Illusionist Mein......... 62 WarlockTime alloted to play: 4 hrs 33 minsAdvanced Notes: I have over 4 hrs to play, but I'm on call for work so there is a chance I may have to leave abruptly today. I'm a heavy quester so if your on the same step as one of the quests I'm working on please send me a tell. I give priority to that over instances.[[Click here to inspect Lornick ]]Best of both worlds imho. Something extremely simple and elegant for the masses or something much more detailed for those interested in using the advanced features. Advanced features should have alot of optional filters for the players. Like if I don't want everyone in the world knowing my alts then I should be able to hide one or all of them. Also if i'm all goober and secretive and don't want people to be able to inspect me from the lfg tool then I suppose disabling that info is ok too... but the default should be on search enabled. The quest info should come from the player checking boxing in the quest journal. I don't want people to have to sift through 75 quests to see the handful I'm currently interested in working on. The stats, expansions owned, and lock outs shouldn't be hideable imho. Now that is a lfg tool =)

Lornick

04-05-2007, 12:59 AM

Oh yeah, and when you first click the lfg on thingie then you should get a little window that pops up asking for time available to play and you can either enter in how much playtime you have or click the skip button. That time available to play should continually update in the advanced info tab. So if I put 4hrs and I don't find a group for 2 hrs then the group won't expect me to be available longer then I originally listed.

Selfea

04-05-2007, 01:41 AM

Make that man a dev ^^

Mask

04-05-2007, 02:48 AM

<cite>Lornick wrote:</cite><blockquote>Ok, I actually read the whole thread. Probably something I should have done in the first place before posting =p Anyway, what I would like to see is a tool that is disgustingly simple and easy or as complex as players want. There are alot of fantastic ideas and they can't all go into a simple tool. So the initial interface should be very simple with only the basic info. So if your putting together a group all you have to do is check the boxes of the specific classes (or group roles) or search all by default and see what is out there. The result should look something like this:Search Results:Name...........Level..Class.....Notes.......Mrmeatshield 70....Guardian... looking for exp. Don't care where....... [Advanced Info] Mezzaroonie..70....Illusionist...Blight, Valdoon, Unrest, or MM Castle...[Advanced Info] Lornick...........70....Dirge..........Final Brell Quest, Unrest, or Nizara.......[Advanced Info] blahblah.........69....Brigand......Just wanna kill stuff... No quests plz.....[Advanced Info] Supaheals.....68.....Templar.....[[Currently Playing Sickko 36 Brigand]].[Advanced Info]Now say I click the advanced info on Lornick, I might get a window that looks like this:Lornick 70 Dirge 92 Achievement Points 6131 Health...................... 4756 Power 1316 Attack...................... 2214 Mitigation 387 Strength.................... 365 Agility 317 Stamina..................... 234 Intelligence 114 Wisdom..................... 2596 Cold Resist 4001 Heat Resist.............. 3622 Poison Resist 3325 Disease Resist......... 4873 Magic Resist 1909 Divine Resist............ 3383 Mental Resist Expansions/Adventure Packs Owned: All Zones Currently Locked out of: Laboratory of Lord Vyemm............. 3 days 16 hrs Crypt of Valdoon............................ 12 hrs 31 mins Obelisk of Blight............................. 13 hrs 55 minsQuests Currently Interested in grouping for: Riddle of the Vault...... current zone Sanctum of Scaleborn Mark of Awakening..... current zone Trial of Leadership Beyond the Rift........... current zone Nizara etc etcAlternate Characters that maybe lfg (click name for advanced info): Lorgast.... 70 Berserker Unclemike. 70 Illusionist Mein......... 62 WarlockTime alloted to play: 4 hrs 33 minsAdvanced Notes: I have over 4 hrs to play, but I'm on call for work so there is a chance I may have to leave abruptly today. I'm a heavy quester so if your on the same step as one of the quests I'm working on please send me a tell. I give priority to that over instances.[[Click here to inspect Lornick ]]Best of both worlds imho. Something extremely simple and elegant for the masses or something much more detailed for those interested in using the advanced features. Advanced features should have alot of optional filters for the players. Like if I don't want everyone in the world knowing my alts then I should be able to hide one or all of them. Also if i'm all goober and secretive and don't want people to be able to inspect me from the lfg tool then I suppose disabling that info is ok too... but the default should be on search enabled. The quest info should come from the player checking boxing in the quest journal. I don't want people to have to sift through 75 quests to see the handful I'm currently interested in working on. The stats, expansions owned, and lock outs shouldn't be hideable imho. Now that is a lfg tool =) </blockquote>Thats perfect, exactly what the tool should be imho.

Antryg Mistrose

04-05-2007, 06:03 AM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>A quick update for you all and a request for some feedback on this. After working on this for a while, we have come up with an idea on instead of asking for specific classes, to ask for people to fill roles. This not only cuts down on the clutter, but will allow classes that can have multiple roles not be left out of searches. So here are the roles we are thinking of using, and if all goes well and we like the way it works, we would like to have the community to assist us in assigning classes to roles. ( Don't worry you will always be able to change the roles you want to fill if we do this, that way you are not stuck with the predetermined roles.) The roles we are thinking about now are Main Tank Secondary Tank Main Healer Secondary Healer Ranged DPS Melee DPS Crowd Control Thanks Zliten </blockquote>Secondary tank and secondary healer are only required extremely rarely. Same as others have noted with the difference betwen melee and ranged dps. There are only 4 categories i've ever looked for: <ol><li>Tank</li><li>Priest</li><li>DPS</li><li>Bard/Enchanter</li></ol>There is still a bit of confusion over what you call brawlers, unless you allow players some discression to nominate which category they are n? For the infrequent times where you want 2 complementary priest types for example, you can check more details fo their class. Or when you want to be the only mage in an Unrest group........ <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Personally I'd find the inspect gear before inviting useful, as I've been stuck a couple of times with some treasured idiot who thought they could tank the toughest zones, but it does seem a bit intrusive. There is also the issue that I may be lfg as a tank (Shadowknight) but be crafting. So on inspection ... Its also amusing to hear a developer talk about crowd control as if that is an even remotely common requirement. If you must have 8, then: <ol><li>Main Tank </li><li>Secondary Tank </li><li>Main Priest</li><li>Secondary Priest (ie DPS priest ie. Fury)</li><li>Enchanter</li><li>Bard</li><li>Scout DPS</li><li>Mage DPS </li></ol>

Encantador

04-05-2007, 06:38 AM

Antryg Mistrose wrote: <blockquote>........ Its also amusing to hear a developer talk about crowd control as if that is an even remotely common requirement. ......</blockquote> As a 70 coercer, 'amusing' is not the word I would use. Sad, astonishing, 'enough to make a grown man cry in frustration', and lots of worse terms.Now back to Topic.There are lots of good suggestions through this thread especially on these last few pages. Could the suggestions for quest filters please be taken up as it is something that would make life easier for a lot of people. I know of no end of people with quests in SoS which only get progressed if they can drag a bunch of guildies there. Usually this is not impossible if the quest is a Claymore one, but for anything else it is virtually impossible.It would be beyond a first implementation but the ability to select one or more quests in your own journal and then search for people LFG with those quests would be great.Also the facility to play an alt while my main was available for LFG searches would make my personal playtime so much more enjoyable.

scl

04-05-2007, 07:33 AM

I'm sure this has already been mentioned, but I just haven't got the time to read everyone's replies. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Could you maybe adapt the guild recruit window to something similar for grouping? Players interested in grouping could then scroll through the currently active groups, which would display each groups current members, with icons to donate what kind of group it is - questing, xp, roleplayers, pvp etc. Players could then use a simple filter to only show the pvp groups, or xp groups for example. You could allow the group leader to type in some additional text and give them check boxes with which they can select what classes they are looking for. If you're a class they don't want, their group doesn't appear on your list. If you want to make it even simpler, just add a dropbox instead of checkboxes with "DPS", "Priest", "Tank", etc I think the trick is, making something that has many features, but appears to have very few and is extremely simple. Just pretend you're writing something that'll be used on a Mac! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Kasar

04-05-2007, 08:21 AM

<cite>Lornick wrote:</cite><blockquote>Lornick 70 Dirge 92 Achievement Points 6131 Health...................... 4756 Power 1316 Attack...................... 2214 Mitigation 387 Strength.................... 365 Agility 317 Stamina..................... 234 Intelligence 114 Wisdom..................... 2596 Cold Resist 4001 Heat Resist.............. 3622 Poison Resist 3325 Disease Resist......... 4873 Magic Resist 1909 Divine Resist............ 3383 Mental Resist </blockquote> This just makes me think of the random tells I've gotten when LFG. What's your mitigation? Well, I'm usually in offensive soloing while LFG, so it's considerably different than in defensive, and I don't wear the same gear for grouping, so this sort of stat sheet would be useless. A guardian soloing in defensive just to keep decent stats for finding a group.. I'd be on another toon within 10-15 mins.

Lornick

04-05-2007, 11:38 AM

<cite>Kasar wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Lornick wrote:</cite><blockquote>Lornick 70 Dirge 92 Achievement Points 6131 Health...................... 4756 Power 1316 Attack...................... 2214 Mitigation 387 Strength.................... 365 Agility 317 Stamina..................... 234 Intelligence 114 Wisdom..................... 2596 Cold Resist 4001 Heat Resist.............. 3622 Poison Resist 3325 Disease Resist......... 4873 Magic Resist 1909 Divine Resist............ 3383 Mental Resist </blockquote> This just makes me think of the random tells I've gotten when LFG. What's your mitigation? Well, I'm usually in offensive soloing while LFG, so it's considerably different than in defensive, and I don't wear the same gear for grouping, so this sort of stat sheet would be useless. A guardian soloing in defensive just to keep decent stats for finding a group.. I'd be on another toon within 10-15 mins. </blockquote>Ok be honest. Exactly how many pieces of gear do you swap out from soloing to grouping? 3... 4.. maybe? Even then I would put you on the outside of the normal. I don't swap gear often for my zerker solo or not. And even if you look at an extreme example of someone who swaps their entire gear set from group and solo play you can still tell at lot at a glance. Unless all your gear is crap then as a tank your mitigation won't go totally in the toilet no matter what you do and if your sacrificing mitigation for another stat then it should reflect on the statsheet as well. Anyway you slice it *I* would find it useful.

liveja

04-05-2007, 11:46 AM

<cite>Kasar wrote:</cite><blockquote>A guardian soloing in defensive just to keep decent stats for finding a group.. I'd be on another toon within 10-15 mins. </blockquote>As a Swashy, these days I primarily solo in Defensive stance. Doing so hoses my offensive skills, which causes my Attack to drop by over 100 points.Nevertheless, I think Lornick's suggestion is outstanding, & IMHO, anyone that doesn't want to send me a private asking why my Attack is so low is probably someone I don't want to group with anyway.

Galithdor

04-05-2007, 12:30 PM

Haha good ideas lornick <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Hope they can impliment it how you explained it because it would be a great tool then...a bit of eq1's fused with new eq2 lfg tool features <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

HippyKnight

04-05-2007, 12:53 PM

Someone already said it a couple of pages back but I'd also like to see some system where you tick a checkbox next to quests that you are looking to group for then the ability to search for others also looking to do any of the same quests that you are. Also I usually dont use the lfg tag simply because 9/10 times you get a tell saying effectively 'would you like to come to SoS and grind with us for 2 hours' .. gah.. no thanks. Perhaps a LFQ (looking for questing) flag might work that specifies that you are not up for endless grinding but just looking for a group for quests. If you cant be specific about what things you are looking to do then people will still leave the lfg tag off. Also the level channels can be a good place to find a group, however often I might log in my lvl 70 toon, find there is nothing to do and then log a lvl 40 toon for example. The problem is, if something did turn up on the lvl70 channel while I was on my lvl 40 toon I would have no way of knowing since my lvl 40 toon has no access to the lvl 70 channel. The opposite is also the case, if you are a lvl 70 group lfm but cant find anyone, chances are there might be someone playing a lower level alt who would prefer to come along with you, however unless you spam everyone one of the level channels for a lvl70 healer for example, you just cant get the message through. I think getting groups together would be helped by allowing lower level alts access to the higher level channels.

Catsy

04-05-2007, 02:34 PM

One thing I would like to request is that the UI not arbitrarily limit which or how many "role" checkboxes you can select for yourself. Yes, in practice, there is a limit--both in terms of how a character can be specced and in terms of what roles a class can realistically fill. But to offer an example... my coercer can easily fill Utility, Crowd Control, and Ranged DPS roles. My fury, with raid equipment on, can easily tank the first half of Sanctum and hold agro through dps alone, depending on the group behind him. It wouldn't be my first choice or anyone else's, but it's an option and something I've done for people trying to get down to the forge before. Yes, there will be idiots who try to game the tool by flagging everything. But this problem will be self-correcting if the tool respects your ignore list; the few idiots who foul the results will be quickly put on ignore. Another flag I'd like to be able to set for myself is "Willing to Mentor". I know I often am perfectly willing to mentor down for a lower-level group to experience content and AA opportunities I've missed, and have sometimes gone into lower-level channels looking for a group to mentor to. Given how difficult it's been lately to find low-level groups, I'm sure some of those lowbies would love to be able to find a high-level character to fill a critical gap.

Zliten

04-05-2007, 02:52 PM

Sotanyavejin@Guk wrote: <blockquote>One thing I would like to request is that the UI not arbitrarily limit which or how many "role" checkboxes you can select for yourself. Yes, in practice, there is a limit--both in terms of how a character can be specced and in terms of what roles a class can realistically fill. But to offer an example... my coercer can easily fill Utility, Crowd Control, and Ranged DPS roles. My fury, with raid equipment on, can easily tank the first half of Sanctum and hold agro through dps alone, depending on the group behind him. It wouldn't be my first choice or anyone else's, but it's an option and something I've done for people trying to get down to the forge before. Yes, there will be idiots who try to game the tool by flagging everything. But this problem will be self-correcting if the tool respects your ignore list; the few idiots who foul the results will be quickly put on ignore. Another flag I'd like to be able to set for myself is "Willing to Mentor". I know I often am perfectly willing to mentor down for a lower-level group to experience content and AA opportunities I've missed, and have sometimes gone into lower-level channels looking for a group to mentor to. Given how difficult it's been lately to find low-level groups, I'm sure some of those lowbies would love to be able to find a high-level character to fill a critical gap. </blockquote> Willing to Mentor has been on our layout since day 1, I thought it was a very important feature to have since mentoring is one of the most awesome systems ever made <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> As for being able to say you can fill all roles, yes that is part of the plan right now. A player can if they want select as many or as few roles as they wish to fill at that time, but if you see my wizard saying I want to fill the role of main tank, I suggest you keep looking for someone else.

Lornick

04-05-2007, 03:30 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote> Willing to Mentor has been on our layout since day 1, I thought it was a very important feature to have since mentoring is one of the most awesome systems ever made <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> As for being able to say you can fill all roles, yes that is part of the plan right now. A player can if they want select as many or as few roles as they wish to fill at that time, but if you see my wizard saying I want to fill the role of main tank, I suggest you keep looking for someone else. </blockquote>What are you talking about? Wiz tanks are da bomb!

Quda

04-05-2007, 03:55 PM

Any tool that helps me get into a group where I can get something, or get some quest I have done, then I am good.That one idea that has a stat sheet and advanced info is a great idea.Couple it with a possible search feature of target zones, so you can search for looking for group, target zone, SOS, and it will show you the poeple that are willing to go into SOS, or have quests for SOS that you can use as a selling point.

Espyderman

04-05-2007, 04:00 PM

Forgive me if im repeating.What about an LFR Tag (Looking for Raid). Lots of quests need raids to complete, makes sense to find others interested in the same. This should be allowed to be toggled with the LFG tag, so your doing one or the other, or both if you would like.LFG Options. Such as, i click LFG. I get a checkbox window appearing asking me to check whether i want to Quest, XP, Explore, Raid, duo or whatever. So when we do an LFG search, we can specify6 what kind of LFGers we want to look for. Sure, notes cover this, but it doesnt serve a filter well at all. I think this with notes would be an awesome addition.Quick Join Options. If you have groups LFM (looking for more) and a criteria is they need a cleric. If i login my cleric and click quick join it finds a group LFM for a cleric and makes sure its the closest group relative to the zone im in and autojoins me to this group. Groups LFM can toggle whether or not they want people who "quick join" their group. Basically you could login, click quick join and in seconds be in a group provided their are groups LFM for your class and level.One last thing. Look at how most FPS games use their join servers and filter servers functions for ideas, they have had to tackle this problem for decades and im sure you can steal a few goodies from them easy. Sidenote: Why is there not an account ignore option. Its great to be able to ignore characters but sucks they can make a new one to harrass you. Ignoring accounts is a simple way to avoid harrassment and most MMO's incorporate it.

Priestbane

04-05-2007, 06:52 PM

<cite>Lornick wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Kasar wrote:</cite><blockquote>This just makes me think of the random tells I've gotten when LFG. What's your mitigation? Well, I'm usually in offensive soloing while LFG, so it's considerably different than in defensive, and I don't wear the same gear for grouping, so this sort of stat sheet would be useless. A guardian soloing in defensive just to keep decent stats for finding a group.. I'd be on another toon within 10-15 mins. </blockquote>Ok be honest. Exactly how many pieces of gear do you swap out from soloing to grouping? 3... 4.. maybe? Even then I would put you on the outside of the normal. I don't swap gear often for my zerker solo or not. And even if you look at an extreme example of someone who swaps their entire gear set from group and solo play you can still tell at lot at a glance. Unless all your gear is crap then as a tank your mitigation won't go totally in the toilet no matter what you do and if your sacrificing mitigation for another stat then it should reflect on the statsheet as well. Anyway you slice it *I* would find it useful. </blockquote>Well, I drive an alt pally around who's got crap treasured mixed with odd-drop raid gear, and just swapping from sword and board to two hander and going offensive takes me from around 4K mit to 2900 Mit. With little modification. Yeah, I'd say that was a big difference.I'm generally opposed to a gear visibility requirement in a LFG tool. The game itself is NOT so hard that you can't take a skilled casual to do *most* content. Where you're doing hard content, suck it up and ask. Or know who you're grouping with (which granted, defeats the need for an LFG tool) for zones which are challenging.What I'd hate to see is a larger polarization of the playerbase based on gear. Attitude and skill and willingness to learn count a lot more than 40 hours of raiding per week, even in MMCastle.

JohnDoe058

04-05-2007, 08:03 PM

There are a lot of good suggestions here, IMO. However, I haven't seen any suggestions adressing the greatest limitting factor of all: Having no idea whether someone is good or not, until you've had the unfortunate experience of grouping with them....and having to either find an excuse for backing our on them, or bearing with them for hours on end.I've all but given up on PUG's, grouping almost exclusively with my guild...and until I can know if a player (whom I don't know personally) is good or not BEFORE grouping with him, any technical changes that could be made to the LFG system, won't help me a bit. I know that I don't stand alone on this.The following suggestion I make, knowing that many people will take a dump on it:Player "competency" ratings, on a per-account basis, determined by a composite average of anonymous votes from anyone who has grouped with them. These ratings would, of course, be viewable on anyone LFG or LFM.Yes, I know that this discriminates against less skilled players, and that's the point. If it can be determined, through dozens of votes from players who know from experience, that Player X doesn't follow orders, doesn't know his stuff, or just plain has an attitude problem, then other players should not need to have the misfortune of grouping with Player X, unwary of his lack of ability to contribute substantially to a group/raid. Feel free to comment on this, but don't just say "It's lame" without providing any real reason. And no need to call me a selfish jerk; I already know it.

mellowknees72

04-05-2007, 08:16 PM

Crack Junkie wrote: <blockquote>There are a lot of good suggestions here, IMO. However, I haven't seen any suggestions adressing the greatest limitting factor of all: Having no idea whether someone is good or not, until you've had the unfortunate experience of grouping with them....and having to either find an excuse for backing our on them, or bearing with them for hours on end.I've all but given up on PUG's, grouping almost exclusively with my guild...and until I can know if a player (whom I don't know personally) is good or not BEFORE grouping with him, any technical changes that could be made to the LFG system, won't help me a bit. I know that I don't stand alone on this.The following suggestion I make, knowing that many people will take a dump on it:Player "competency" ratings, on a per-account basis, determined by a composite average of anonymous votes from anyone who has grouped with them. These ratings would, of course, be viewable on anyone LFG or LFM.Yes, I know that this discriminates against less skilled players, and that's the point. If it can be determined, through dozens of votes from players who know from experience, that Player X doesn't follow orders, doesn't know his stuff, or just plain has an attitude problem, then other players should not need to have the misfortune of grouping with Player X, unwary of his lack of ability to contribute substantially to a group/raid. Feel free to comment on this, but don't just say "It's lame" without providing any real reason. And no need to call me a selfish jerk; I already know it.</blockquote> If there was some way to guarantee that people wouldn't be jerks and decide to flag people as poor players just because they didn't like them, that'd be the only way a "ranking" system would really work. It's not a lame idea at all, but unfortunately:1) It would severaly hamper "poor competency" players who are only "poor" because they're new. How do people learn to play the game without being able to play it? Poor players can become excellent players when given the opportunities to learn...and unfortunately, soloing only can often lead to a player who has no idea how to play in a group EVER, and2) It would allow griefers an entirely new way to grief other players (by ranking them poorly even if they are not poor players).In a perfect world where no one would ever take offense, would learn from their own ranking, and where no one would ever give someone a worse rating than they actually deserve, it would be great. Unfortunately, we all suffer from the human condition of being imperfect, irrational, driven by our emotions, etc.

JohnDoe058

04-05-2007, 08:44 PM

Pipes@Najena wrote: <blockquote>1) It would severaly hamper "poor competency" players who are only "poor" because they're new. 2) It would allow griefers an entirely new way to grief other players (by ranking them poorly even if they are not poor players).In a perfect world where no one would ever take offense, would learn from their own ranking, and where no one would ever give someone a worse rating than they actually deserve, it would be great. Unfortunately, we all suffer from the human condition of being imperfect, irrational, driven by our emotions, etc.</blockquote>You speak the truth.3 possbile ways to mitigate these problems are:1) Have separate ratings for "Competency" and "Attitude". The *hope* here is that if you're just mad at someone, you'd give them a poor Attitude rating rather than ranking them as incompetent.2) Negative votes from people who give a LOT of negative votes, would be weighted less. That way, "greifers" couldn't do much to hurt people's reputations.3) Add in a system-maintained rating called "Experience". This would tell you how many groups that a given person has been in, and/or how many votes have been made regarding him, to give an idea of just how seriously to take their ratings.

Lornick

04-05-2007, 09:06 PM

Sorschae@Najena wrote: <blockquote>I'm generally opposed to a gear visibility requirement in a LFG tool. The game itself is NOT so hard that you can't take a skilled casual to do *most* content. Where you're doing hard content, suck it up and ask. Or know who you're grouping with (which granted, defeats the need for an LFG tool) for zones which are challenging.What I'd hate to see is a larger polarization of the playerbase based on gear. Attitude and skill and willingness to learn count a lot more than 40 hours of raiding per week, even in MMCastle.</blockquote>A couple points I would like to make. First, it's not like when your putting together a group you'll have a million and a half people to choose from that are actively looking for group. Generally, your looking at 0 to 3 people for a specific role in a group that are lfg at any given time. At least that is the norm for me. Of those people often the person who gets the spot is the only one interested, or has the time available, or etc, etc. So any polarization you might see would be pretty small imho.Second, I would consider myself in the "skilled casual" category. I play about as much as a guy with a full time job and a wife can get away with and still stay employed and married. I would view being able to look at other's players gear/stats before grouping with them as a beneficial thing still. Since my play time is more limited then others might be, I would consider it time saving to know as much as possible about a player before inviting them to a group. I don't have the kind of playtime that would allow me to meet and group with the bulk of the players in my level category. So a good percentage of the time the people I invite to a group are first time meetings. Some of those I wish I could have avoided and would have done so if I had any hint of their playstyle (which could have been gained by inspecting before inviting). There is a possibility that some players might invite a dirge with better gear over me and I'm willing to accept that.Thirdly, players already make assumptions about gear based off of guild membership. Perhaps this isn't a very fair practice, but I've been guilty of it from time to time myself. Say I'm looking to build a group for a tough zone and I want a tank that can handle the job. I'll first look at my friends list to see if I know any experienced tanks online free to group. If none are available then I will likely skip checking the lfg tool and do a /who all 70 fighter. From that search result I will look for a Guardian, Berserker, Paladin, or Shadowknight (preference is in that order btw). I will look at two things before sending a tell. I'll look at their current zone cause I don't want to harass someone who is obviously busy. Second I'll look at their guild tag. Then I'll send a tell to see if the person is interested to the one that I assume will be a competant and well geared player from their guild membership. If they say 'no' then I work my way down the list by guild and class preference until I find a tank that will go. Hardly fair I know, and that is the current system. If I could inspect that list of fighters first, I might talk to them in a completely different order. Honestly, I would rather group with the guy that is like me and does the most he can with what he has. If a player has a bunch of hard won quest items or no trade gear from difficult zones then I feel that gives a better indication of skill then raid drops honestly. That's the guy I'd prefer to group with, but if he's in a casual guild then how am I supposed to find him with a /who all search?

Lornick

04-05-2007, 09:26 PM

Crack Junkie wrote: <blockquote>Pipes@Najena wrote: <blockquote>1) It would severaly hamper "poor competency" players who are only "poor" because they're new. 2) It would allow griefers an entirely new way to grief other players (by ranking them poorly even if they are not poor players).In a perfect world where no one would ever take offense, would learn from their own ranking, and where no one would ever give someone a worse rating than they actually deserve, it would be great. Unfortunately, we all suffer from the human condition of being imperfect, irrational, driven by our emotions, etc.</blockquote>You speak the truth.3 possbile ways to mitigate these problems are:1) Have separate ratings for "Competency" and "Attitude". The *hope* here is that if you're just mad at someone, you'd give them a poor Attitude rating rather than ranking them as incompetent.2) Negative votes from people who give a LOT of negative votes, would be weighted less. That way, "greifers" couldn't do much to hurt people's reputations.3) Add in a system-maintained rating called "Experience". This would tell you how many groups that a given person has been in, and/or how many votes have been made regarding him, to give an idea of just how seriously to take their ratings.</blockquote>I like the idea of a rating system and thought of it myself, but due to the obvious problem of griefers I didn't even bring it up. If they did decide to use something like this then one suggestion I would make is that in order to rate a person you would have to currently be grouped with them. That would eliminate alot of griefing right there since you don't typically group with jerks likely to do that kind of thing... at least one would assume. Combined with the above conditions I think it could work well.

Emperors

04-05-2007, 11:09 PM

One important thing to add to the basic system would be to be able to LFG while currently in a group. I know I 2box when I can't find a group, but would defenitely drop group if a full group needed me.

Yarginis

04-06-2007, 03:54 AM

Big fan of the player rating idea myself, and I feel the inspect player suggestion is a must. Yeah with the player rating, idiots can screw it up, but if you implement the system properly, that is avoidable in almost all cases. If you simply allow a player to rate someone only once per account, combined with having the rating system throw out ratings completely out of skew with the majority, and I think you will be fine. Say the scale is 1-10 and the player has an average rating of 8.5, receiving a rating of 1 will not affect the score because it is so far from the normal. It will however still be saved, so if he receives several more low ratings (meaning this 1 was most likely not just an angry player) it may be added in at a later date. (Maybe something like out of line ratings are expunged after 30 days if not remotely in line with the majority) By only allowing 1 vote per account, the means one or 2 disgruntled people cannot trash a good players rating. (If there are enough disgruntled people to trash it, then they likely have some validity) I know my friends list notes are currently all written in the form of "Class - *1-5 rating of skill*", it would simply be nice not to have to group with players to find out they are well below average. One other thing I'd like (another indicator of skill besides Equipment & rating) would be an average spell level indicator. Like app1 = 1, app4 = 4, ad3 = 6, master = 7 with a composite given. So if a player had 50% ad1 40% ad3, and 10% master (m1 and m2 are rated the same because of the limited nature of m2's) they'd show a composite score of 5.6 under spell quality. Only the spells of the players current level, and up to 13 lvls below would be counted to only rate on used spells. (You could also add in unupgradeds like ancient teachings & such if you'd like, but thats overly complex, and it's doubtful they will vary more than 1 quality lvl lower than their ranking due to importance) I'd really like an inspect spells option, but since thats not in game at all, I'm doubtful it would be added. A simpler option for the devs may be to implement calls for all conceivable searches a player may want, but only much out a fairly simplistic utility themselves, while making the calls easy for UI modders to access, so custom LFG tools could be added by the players, showing or not showing what ever options they feel is relevant to their play style when looking for group mates.

Vonotar

04-06-2007, 06:49 AM

<cite>Lornick wrote:</cite><blockquote>Ok, I actually read the whole thread. Probably something I should have done in the first place before posting =p Anyway, what I would like to see is a tool that is disgustingly simple and easy or as complex as players want. There are alot of fantastic ideas and they can't all go into a simple tool. So the initial interface should be very simple with only the basic info. So if your putting together a group all you have to do is check the boxes of the specific classes (or group roles) or search all by default and see what is out there. The result should look something like this:Search Results:Name...........Level..Class.....Notes.......Mrmeatshield 70....Guardian... looking for exp. Don't care where....... [Advanced Info] Mezzaroonie..70....Illusionist...Blight, Valdoon, Unrest, or MM Castle...[Advanced Info] Lornick...........70....Dirge..........Final Brell Quest, Unrest, or Nizara.......[Advanced Info] blahblah.........69....Brigand......Just wanna kill stuff... No quests plz.....[Advanced Info] Supaheals.....68.....Templar.....[[Currently Playing Sickko 36 Brigand]].[Advanced Info]Now say I click the advanced info on Lornick, I might get a window that looks like this:Lornick 70 Dirge 92 Achievement Points 6131 Health...................... 4756 Power 1316 Attack...................... 2214 Mitigation 387 Strength.................... 365 Agility 317 Stamina..................... 234 Intelligence 114 Wisdom..................... 2596 Cold Resist 4001 Heat Resist.............. 3622 Poison Resist 3325 Disease Resist......... 4873 Magic Resist 1909 Divine Resist............ 3383 Mental Resist Expansions/Adventure Packs Owned: All Zones Currently Locked out of: Laboratory of Lord Vyemm............. 3 days 16 hrs Crypt of Valdoon............................ 12 hrs 31 mins Obelisk of Blight............................. 13 hrs 55 minsQuests Currently Interested in grouping for: Riddle of the Vault...... current zone Sanctum of Scaleborn Mark of Awakening..... current zone Trial of Leadership Beyond the Rift........... current zone Nizara etc etcAlternate Characters that maybe lfg (click name for advanced info): Lorgast.... 70 Berserker Unclemike. 70 Illusionist Mein......... 62 WarlockTime alloted to play: 4 hrs 33 minsAdvanced Notes: I have over 4 hrs to play, but I'm on call for work so there is a chance I may have to leave abruptly today. I'm a heavy quester so if your on the same step as one of the quests I'm working on please send me a tell. I give priority to that over instances.[[Click here to inspect Lornick ]]Best of both worlds imho. Something extremely simple and elegant for the masses or something much more detailed for those interested in using the advanced features. Advanced features should have alot of optional filters for the players. Like if I don't want everyone in the world knowing my alts then I should be able to hide one or all of them. Also if i'm all goober and secretive and don't want people to be able to inspect me from the lfg tool then I suppose disabling that info is ok too... but the default should be on search enabled. The quest info should come from the player checking boxing in the quest journal. I don't want people to have to sift through 75 quests to see the handful I'm currently interested in working on. The stats, expansions owned, and lock outs shouldn't be hideable imho. Now that is a lfg tool =) </blockquote>I love this post! Classes should stay (don't want to have to inspect each person just to find out which 'main healer' can stack with the healer I currently have), but add icons to the end of each row for the 'Roles' in a similar way that a Guild can have icons for 'casual', 'organised' etc. You can drop the stats from the advanced window as these would be available via Inspect. This reduces the amount of information the game has fetch each time you click the advanced button. Also I would drop Alternate Characters as this would not be needed as long as we can give our alts LFG status while not playing them (plus it's pretty much obsolete if you have a large number of levels between you and your Alts, if somebody is inspecting my 57 Wizard they won't be interested in my 28 Mystic). For those who don't want to be inspected a 'decline inspection' option could be added. Otherwise this is perfect!!!!!

danmuntz

04-06-2007, 07:50 AM

If you're /anon or /role and go /lfg have it show your level and class in the lfg search window so those who are /anon or /role don't have to turn it off when going /lfg. ftw

Thoral

04-06-2007, 09:32 AM

Whenever I see people looking for a healer, they never say looking for a primary or secondary healer, they say which kind of priest they need. The same goes with utility roles. Usually someone needs a specific kind of utility, like bards or crowd control. I think a good way to break down the needs of a group without listing all 24 classes would be to list them by sub-classes and have 12 choices. Warrior Crusader Brawler Cleric Shaman Druid Bard Rogue Predator Mage Conjurer Enchanter

Lornick

04-06-2007, 12:07 PM

<cite>Magnamundian wrote:</cite><blockquote>I love this post! Classes should stay (don't want to have to inspect each person just to find out which 'main healer' can stack with the healer I currently have), but add icons to the end of each row for the 'Roles' in a similar way that a Guild can have icons for 'casual', 'organised' etc. You can drop the stats from the advanced window as these would be available via Inspect. This reduces the amount of information the game has fetch each time you click the advanced button. Also I would drop Alternate Characters as this would not be needed as long as we can give our alts LFG status while not playing them (plus it's pretty much obsolete if you have a large number of levels between you and your Alts, if somebody is inspecting my 57 Wizard they won't be interested in my 28 Mystic). For those who don't want to be inspected a 'decline inspection' option could be added. Otherwise this is perfect!!!!! </blockquote>Those are all good points. You're right about the statsheet and inspect option being redundant and your suggestion would probably be for the best so that people who feel like their privacy is being invaded when inspected (/boggle as if they can't be inspected if in visual range anyway) would have the option to keep others from inspecting them through the lfg tool. The reason I suggested both was so if your building a group and just want a quick glance at stats but don't care to look through the players gear you wouldn't need to bring up a whole new window. Plus I don't think hiding the statsheet should be optional but allowing players to hide the inspection option would give some folks piece of mind.I see your point about the alt thing. I still kinda like it since it wouldn't take up much space and even though their alt info might be available in searches that doesn't mean players would be able to see which options you could provide all in one window. Plus there is always the circumstance that I wouldn't necessarily want to have my alts lfg tags up but I might want my alt info available in my advanced info sheet. So for instance in my example perhaps I'm not in the mood to be lfg with my 70 zerker or 70 illusionist, but I don't mind if my group knows I have them in the off case that the tank goes LD and doesn't come back I could potentially log on my berserker alt so we could finish the instance.

Klanch

04-06-2007, 01:04 PM

I will agree with others who have said they would use LFG more if there was a way to compile a list of players they don't want to group with and stay invisible to them without using /ignore.I also like the idea of being able to use LFG when two-boxing.

BK613

04-06-2007, 01:20 PM

First, agree with the poster that said we need an-other-than-friend-but-not-ignore category. Someplace to note people like that great tank you grouped with, etc., but people that don't rise to the level of "friend" yet. Peer seems like a good word for that. Second, would like to have the ability to exclude friends and guildies from the do-not-accept-group/raid-invites filtering. IOW, if you are on my friends list and send me an invite, I will see it and can respond, but if you are not on my list, then it auto-refuses like it does now. Third, I also would not favor auto-joining. I don't need that kind of hand-holding. To me it is obvious that what the system needs to do is: -Communicate, as succinctly as possible, the needs of an individual for grouping or raiding. -Communicate, as succinctly as possible, the needs of a group or a raid for a specific type of individual (or individuals.) It's up to us, the players, how to use the info given. Finally, what ever you do come up with, please don't let it feature-creep into some overly-complex, bloated mess. And please don't remove anything that is currently useful (like how the "clear hotkey" option was removed and then had to be returned.)

BowB4Me

04-08-2007, 07:05 AM

I imagine others have said the same or similar but I don't have time to wade through several pages of opinion so here is my ha'pennorth. I think if one has 'LFG' activated then yes a note system would be fantastic so one can let others know which instances are wanted, or which quests, etc. Keeping such a sysytem very very simple, however, would also be an advantage - there is a danger of over-complicating things to the point where people revert to spamming for groups/members.If one does NOT have 'LFG' activiated then I think it would be a fantastic idea to not allow spam invites, other than (and this is important) from guildies or friends. I am always happy to help friends and guildies at short notice if I am not doing anything particulalry important, but would prefer not to be distracted by invites if I am otherwise engaged. I don't like having to actively opt out of receiving invites. Either I want to group - in which case I flag up - or I don't so I don't press that button.Personally I only flag up that I am looking for a group if I want an invite. If I am not flagging, I don't want to know about some fantastic pick up group on the other side of Norrath every 5 seconds just because they can't find one last person. Similarly I try to let the 'LFG' box do its job and let others know that I am looking for group fun unless it has been 3 hours and I am still waiting then I will try a few times and give up gracefully.If you can find a system that reduces the spam on chat channels then fantastic!!Bit random and i know i repeat myself but hey - its relatively early and I haven't had chocolate yet <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> xxx

SageGaspar

04-08-2007, 12:10 PM

I will agree with everyone else that the bare minimum this thing needs to have is LFG, LFM, and a field for notes. I think a rating system is a little bit over the top. A passive ability for people to check off their top five quests in their journal or something like that would be super awesome. Autoinvites sound neat and I think would actually be most useful for guild groups or raids -- personally I can handle inviting my immediate friends. A UI notification for a group opening up in your level range would be super awesome. Some others mentioned it but I will mention it again, LFG should override both ANON and ROLE. While you're at UI improvements, please please look into breaking down the flags into just individual check marks that decide whether you're anonymous to /who searches, whether your guild is displayed or not, whether you're roleplaying or not, etc, instead of combining multiple features into ANON and ROLE as they are now. There are many people that would like, for instance, to have the ROLE flag up but not be anonymous as the system forces you to right now.

tass

04-08-2007, 07:32 PM

Dont know if its been said but I think there should be an inspect button by the persons name to look at the gear they have and the quality of spells they've got. To many times u run into people with app2 and app4.

Rrys

04-09-2007, 08:22 AM

One thing I haven't seen is something about voice chat. I realize there are those who don't have it, those who hate it, those who will use it if asked and those who like it. As well as at least two sources for voice chat (Ventrilo and Teamspeak). So boxes for "No Voice Chat" (I really don't care why you don't have it, this covers both those who don't have it and those who hate it)box for Ventrilobox for Teamspeak.

sawthis

04-10-2007, 02:16 PM

I haven't read all the responses to this thread, but I will just reply on the original post. Basically, I think this plan has some good ideas, to allow friends on your friend's list to auto join as long as they are in the level range so that everyone will get exp. And especially the idea to be able to have groups Look for more, what I think the group LFM should be like is sorta like when you want to talk to a guild recruited, it should send the leader of the group a message with the persons name, their level, and what class they are.Ameilia lvl. 53 Fury would like to join your group. Then if you want you can click ok, to accept or, you type their name in or something.

Valdaglerion

04-10-2007, 03:45 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>I would even like it so that you can set it up so you do not have to invite people to your group, but your friends can auto-join your group if they want.-while I love playing with my friends, if I am in a group and the only spot we need to fill is a healer and in pops a tank because he is on the friends list, your group may be blown or WORSE, your friendship by having to explain that you really need a healer not a tank.<hr /> One of the ideas, I would like feedback on. You might be able to set yourself as LFG, then by finding a quest in your quest journal and doing (something) with it. It will search for other characters in the world that are also LFG and have that quest.In theory this is a good idea but to take it a step further means finding people that are within an acceptable step of you on that quest. If you have gotten beyond killing the meg in our favorite HQ - Saving Soles, about the last thing you want to do is get grouped with people on the step previous or worse, at the beginning of the quest if you are really wanting to advance. In shorter quests this obviously isnt as much of a problem but in longer ones it is.<hr /> One of my other ideas that is just in the thoughts stage, is that when you create a group it will automatically list your group as looking for more. You can then easily click 1 button and it will un-list it, or you can click another button and set specifics for the type of group members you are looking for. This I think would work well for those of us that love to be in full groups as much as possible, but I think would probably be turned off ( and yes, there would be an option to turn it off) by those that only duo.Listing the group automatically is a bad idea, I would rather see this as a option turned off be default as I think it would rarely be used. A group doesnt always have to mean 6 players, 2-4 can be more productive in the right combinations and more rewarding as tehe loot isnt spread as thin.<hr /><div align="left"> Or how about if you are on and solo, and one of your friends logs on, should the system automatically try to group the two of you and add friends of level range as they log in. Sure, people love to group and duo but I think it would drive me nuts if everytime I log in and just want to work on collections, do some banking, search teh broker, etc I automatically get grouped or requested to group with other friends that are currently online. This is akin to popup advertising you have to click no to all the time. Better to leave the options as ones you initiate. Also consider you might be on the opposite sides of the world from each other. Sure, hang on, I will be there in about 40 minutes....<hr /> Some things are simply not worth automating. Given that statement, I would like more information available for consumption for those times when I CHOOSE to use it.I like your ideas of improving search features. For instance:(1) You could make a search for all people marked LFG and then listing people with only matching open quests as you. Take it further by allowing the ability to cross reference those searches and showing higher ranked numbers at the top. (Search for LFG by Open Quests - 5 people with Saving Soles / 2 people with Return of the light, etc...) Such a search system would make putting together groups easier in the long run if you already know those people have those quests open AND if everyone is on the same step or close you could send a request to all of them at the same time to FORM A GROUP FOR SAVING SOLES. I think you get the idea here.(2) Searching for Friends by Zone would be another interesting search - where are the majority of my buds online playing now?(3) When designating yourself as LFG you should be able to denote which, if any, of your open quests you are interested in working on; Zone(s) you are interested in playing in; size of group desired (6 is not always desired); Open to Group and/or Raid; and yes I love the idea of being able to tag a custom tag line when all else may not be enough.(4) Much like the AFK option of adding a tag line the LFG should work the same with the other options used for search only. The other options could be a set of defaults you could change whenever so you dont have to set them every time you go LFG. I think we also need a DND (do not disturb). There are times you just want to solo and dont want to be bugged. Using the AFK to set the message for this is currently the only way to do this but then you get tells from people telling you that you arent AFK any longer. Granted, they are trying to be helpful but it simply defeats the purpose for those situations.There is my two cents worth for the moment. </div></blockquote>

Bastus

04-11-2007, 06:55 AM

I can't possibly have anything new to add to this thread after 10 pages <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> But I'd like to say that from what I've read from Zliten so far, it looks very good! Don't implement any auto-join, and it's all dandy. Any changes to the LFG tool is an improvement, anway. I imagine the tool should have several tabs, like[Individuals looking] [Groups & Raids] [Quests] [Friends] | | | | LFG / LFR LFM | Show if friend's group/raid is full or not. | Listing quests and the people wanting to do them

Spyderbite

04-11-2007, 08:59 AM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>"Zliten 45 Conjurer - Looking for some gnomish adventure in Steamfont" </blockquote> That just sounds naughty. XD Glad to see the LFG is getting a makeover. I don't have any trouble picking up or joining a group so I've rarely used it. But, I have guild mates and friends who will really appreciate this effort. <img src="/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

rubels

04-11-2007, 11:14 AM

There are a couple of things to the LFG , I whould like changed that whould probably make it more useful.Show class and level of LFG if player is Anon.Also on a side note for /friends list ... Any chance that the list chould be :Name : Buddyone Class:Templar Level: 70This whould make /friends more useful currently at lvl 70 100 AA my friends list is just used by me to know if there solid players or not.- Krovax

Chay

04-11-2007, 11:36 AM

<cite>tass wrote:</cite><blockquote>Dont know if its been said but I think there should be an inspect button by the persons name to look at the gear they have and the quality of spells they've got. To many times u run into people with app2 and app4. </blockquote> I think that is Raid Elitism going on there. I don't bother buying spell upgrades till I hit 57 as that is when the finals for most spell classes begin. Its a waste of money to buy a spell that you're going to outgrow very quickly. If I happen to have the rare I might get a adept 3 made for a key spell but for the most part its not an issue what level of spell a person has I'm much more interested in a persons play style, knowledge, and skill.

ZUES

04-11-2007, 11:40 AM

Please put a "save search" icon on there too.

Bastus

04-12-2007, 11:28 AM

Yeah, saving searches is a must!

ZachSpastic

04-12-2007, 01:27 PM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote>I would even like it so that you can set it up so you do not have to invite people to your group, but your friends can auto-join your group if they want. </blockquote> I stopped reading right there. Horrible idea.

Ardnahoy

04-12-2007, 03:19 PM

I apologize if these have been brought up before but I really don't feel like reading all the pages in this thread.The one idea that is extremely apealing to me is the LFG flag based upon quests in your journal. It would be awesome if there was a check box or something in our journal where we can flag certain quests. To keep clutter down, maybe we can only be allow flags for Heroic and Epic quests, and/or give us a certain amount of available quest flags per journal.To elaborate on the quest flags, it would be great if we could search for folks with the flags even if they are offline. Also, if the toon that has a quest flagged is not logged on, but the owner fo the account is logged in and playing a different toon, the search tool would show this, and we can then send tells to the person asking if they want to logout and bring the toon into the game.As others have already written, the EQ1 tool is a great start. Having that tool with the added quest flags would make me a very happy camper.

Zmobie

04-12-2007, 04:06 PM

I see a bit here and there mentioned, but nothing comprehensive about the special pitfalls this new system can have on a PVP server. It should NOT allow, for instance, someone with a Qeynos Level 70 to log on to a Freep Level 10 alt and find out what Level 70 alts are LFG and the zones they are in. I like the ability to see alts, but again, on a PVP server, if I am playing my Qeynos alt, and LFG there, I do not want people to be able to see who my Freep alts are, etc. I would say you cannot see ANYONE that is LFG on a particular side, if they are higher level than your highest character on that same side. I really hope this comes out, and works well... but I worry that there just aren't enough people LFG on any given server at any given time to be worth all the effort to create the tool. I'm worried that I'll just have a slick looking LFG tool that allows me to see the same 2 people that I already see spamming 60-69 level chat. --Plague

epyon333

04-13-2007, 09:39 AM

<cite>Zliten wrote:</cite><blockquote> One of the ideas, I would like feedback on. You might be able to set yourself as LFG, then by finding a quest in your quest journal and doing (something) with it. It will search for other characters in the world that are also LFG and have that quest. </blockquote>I like this idea. it would be cool to go into your Quest journal and Flag a limited amout of quests that your LFG for or have your current quests listed in the LFG window some how (maybe be a drop down scroll window with boxes you can check) so you could Flag them there with out going to your Quest journal.Then allow Players or groups LFM to search by quest to find players that have the quest there doing or starting flagged. Also allow Groups to go LFM on the Quest there working on so players can search for groups already formed but not full. Maybe for this list the groups/quest/part to avoid players needing to ask every group returned in the search what part there on.

Tyrus Dracofire

04-13-2007, 11:27 AM

i wasted almost 2 months and been waiting for 2 months to finish a quest when some guildmate are either busy or got sick of that zone after they had finished or part of completed steps and not getting helps, some of pick up groups didnt last long.i get fed up trying, tired of LFG for hours and all i see the /chats getting abused with trash talks or chuck norris jokes, or other game vs eq2 comparation flames.what will speed up faster? HENCHMENS! hire npc mercenaries for durations of few hours or aid in quest to get completed in timely fashion. if they are properly designed and not used for "farmings" to abuse mercenary system. have them zones designed for using henchmen and restrict from raid zones and some off limit zones unless thoroughly tested for decent challenges and artifical intelligence.Guild Wars isnt that too bad, however, getting the henchmen and they do come with penalities that made you share cash drops, making trophies drop little harder to find, they do get your quest task done on time, but useless in high end missions which required more human brains and fast response to deal with threats of mobs, they have add upgrade for henchmen with 2nd expansion, to upgrade them to become personal hero henchmen.i have few days left to play eq2, since wasting subscription fee for each months and not able to find decent group (LFG) for hours or even a week, and then log out frustrated. so many friends i knew and they are had move on to other games, quited, server transfer, and some not log on for long time even with alts.