Dungeon Finder System Eventually

[Breeti]

If a Dungeon Finder is not implemented in this game I will stop my sub until they put one in. Sitting around spamming "LFG", "LFG" in general chat is not compelling gameplay. After working all day and then finally sitting down to play to have fun I do not want to "LFG".

 

If you don't want to use it feel free to "LFG" all you want.

 

I agree with this, if I get to level 50 on my various chars and something isn't in the works, and announced to be implemented. I cannot see staying with the game.

 

As for the Dev and others comments that it takes away from exploration...I cannot see that as true. If people want to explore, they will explore, if they want to socialize they will socialize, if they want to find a group of friends to play with they will do that. If they don't want to do those things and just want to play the game, then...well surprise that is what they will do.

 

Right now by not having it in the game and by saying it is for the reason of the game not being mature and wanting to encourage exploration you are basically telling people how to spend their time on a game they are paying for, and that never works out well on either side of the coin

[Khaosbane]

this is stupid. all you casual gamers who want everything easy are already *********** this game up. if you want WoW go back to WoW. dont bring that **** over here.

 

totally agree with this..while LFD is a cool concept..why? ask in General and normally sum1 wants to run something..no need for a LFD in this game i dont think.

[Trundar]

totally agree with this..while LFD is a cool concept..why? ask in General and normally sum1 wants to run something..no need for a LFD in this game i dont think.

 

 

LFD tool = optional. If you don't want to use it, sit and spam general all ya want. I don't find sitting in front of an entrance spamming chat for 30mins like I did the other day fun. But to each his own.

[Demmieh]

I personally would love to see a dungeon tool implanted soon. As many have mentioned just standing around and spamming "LFG" is just to tedious, not to mention having to run all the way to the dungeon entrance as well. Edited December 24, 2011 by Demmieh

[DarthVarrak]

I agree with the OP on this one. LFD is a good concept, but it would work much better if it were same-server. It is no secret that cross-server tools make trolling and griefing all too easy because of the fact that you will probably never see the people again.

 

Before someone spouts off "L2 ignore list bro", that won't help you from ninjas and griefers while in the current dungeon. Yes, I could leave, but they could just as easily not have the mentality of a 9 year old. Why should those of us who want to get through the dungeon be punished because one person gets his giggles by annoying other people?

 

Before cross-server tools, there was a community, a lively community. Meet a ninja or griefer? Explain the situation on general, so nobody has to go through it like you did. It made people think before they acted stupidly. A reputation isn't always a bad thing, it can make people realize that their actions have consequences, which is an essential aspect of life.

 

If you are a troll/griefer and I have offended you, sorry, but I'm just giving my personal opinion. I am in no way, shape, or form trying to tell you how to spend your time, simply make you aware of how the world of MMO was before cross-server tools.

 

tl;dr Yes for LFD, no for cross-server LFD

[Erollisi]

I agree with the OP on this one. LFD is a good concept, but it would work much better if it were same-server. It is no secret that cross-server tools make trolling and griefing all too easy because of the fact that you will probably never see the people again.

 

Before someone spouts off "L2 ignore list bro", that won't help you from ninjas and griefers while in the current dungeon. Yes, I could leave, but they could just as easily not have the mentality of a 9 year old. Why should those of us who want to get through the dungeon be punished because one person gets his giggles by annoying other people?

 

Before cross-server tools, there was a community, a lively community. Meet a ninja or griefer? Explain the situation on general, so nobody has to go through it like you did. It made people think before they acted stupidly. A reputation isn't always a bad thing, it can make people realize that their actions have consequences, which is an essential aspect of life.

 

If you are a troll/griefer and I have offended you, sorry, but I'm just giving my personal opinion. I am in no way, shape, or form trying to tell you how to spend your time, simply make you aware of how the world of MMO was before cross-server tools.

 

tl;dr Yes for LFD, no for cross-server LFD

 

Don't forget also that when you meet someone nice. With Cross Servers, its good bye "forever".

[Baresark]

I am in almost complete disbelief of this thread. Adding a LFD tool would enhance the game for those of us who do not want to go through all the trouble of waiting around for hours trying to make a group.

 

So many of the objections are complete BS and seem to stem from people wanting to feel "1337" about a game. It won't ruin exploration because you can explore at your leisure. It won't lead to people standing around and doing nothing. It will simply make the game less annoying and even extend gameplay time in a meaningful manner. And by this I mean that running instances is a lot of fun. Grinding for gear is not a chore if you can do other things while waiting in a queue and not having to to spend needless hours standing around and spamming "LFG: insert dungeon here".

 

Also, people will still ninja all the loot they can and taking an eternity to find a group won't prevent this.

 

From a strictly business standpoint, it will make the game more accessible for everyone this can be a successful MMO without having to stand on back of the fact that it's Star Wars to make it successful. It shouldn't just be for fanboi's.

[DarthMuqq]

I am in almost complete disbelief of this thread. Adding a LFD tool would enhance the game for those of us who do not want to go through all the trouble of waiting around for hours trying to make a group.

 

Role a needed flashpoint class? I don't know, being a healer I don't 'stand around and wait for hours' for a FP group. Maybe 5-10 minutes for a tank...

[Ohnoto]

Last night, I got a group together for Cademimu. I play as a DPS, got another DPS and healer from our guild and I headed straight for Alderaan since we needed a tank. It took about 10 minutes, but we found our tank there, not at The Fleet. I used the emergency fleet pass back to The Fleet, and we proceeded into the Flashpoint.

 

I prefer doing that rather than hitting a button to queue and then stand around waiting for it to pop. Even if I'm out questing, it's annoying having a queue pop while doing something else and then being placed back in that location, not knowing if you will be around enemies that will attack you as soon as you come out.

Edited December 26, 2011 by Ohnoto

[Paskem]

All I know is - we need a better system then spaming LFG chanell ( general chanell ) in Space Fleet for XY time hoping to find a group.

 

Its boring, iritating an generaly awfull system that worked 7+ years ago, but its aincent today.

Much like I dont take a steam train to work, I dislike spaming chat chanells looking for people.

[Mac_Garen]

Here is an idea...

You may have a check button to choose either cross server or home server only.

Say you got a tank and two dps classes but after 10 min waiting there are no healers queing up, so you and your group make the decision to expand the search to cross server.

[CelticPete]

^^^No. An opt in program for cross server would not work - and does not work.

 

Here is why: Cross Server Dungeon/Flash Finders speed the average rate of advancement. You make finding groups faster - you finish instances faster. The gearing speed of the people that opt in increases. As a designer you do NOT want people to finish your game too quickly - especially those people who don't take the effort to form groups.

 

To compensate for this - the game designers inevitably either have to make the instances more difficult (almost always unpopular) OR they have to make you grind more instances. This is what they have done in WoW. I had a guildy who ran a new instance 100 times.

[FalnOne]

Hey, Just my 2 cents here and perhaps it's already been said. In my opinion, I think some people are too lazy to use the available, although limited, tools that we can use now. At times I've searched the social screen for LFG to see only less than 20 people with LFG on and even less with what they want to do. And I wonder how many even bother typing LFG in the search field.

 

My point is that we have a viable tool here already that no one uses. Is it that difficult for people to set a LFG message or do a search themselves? I guess it is, and some people would rather just be whisked away into some random group automatically with no interaction at all. I personally don't find how it is so bothersome, even with the General chat spamming. Perhaps some enhancements made, like a listing of heroics etc. so people don't have to be bothered with typing something.

[Areoss]

Cross server kills the server community. You wont get a feel for the good players on your own server...

 

You'll never get to see that one guy who is the best tank because he is uber! or that PvP Monster demon who can eat most people alive.

 

You'll root out those who are complete tools and don't deserve to be grouped with because of their offensive attitude or ninja looting or other reasons. Word travels faster and you get to know the community. The galaxy becomes more personal.

 

Dont opt for the easy option to get fast groups and easy epix. Work with the community and make friends. You do people favours, they'll do them for you. And you'll have a blast with it too!

[Mobiwang]

I remember my time in FFXI and you HAD to flag yourself as LFG and set a comment or no one would invite you (except on rare occasions).

 

Kids are just too spoiled these days with instant gratification. Don't want to wait 10mins for a tank? Either respec tank or make friends with one. I have 3 other people that I've leveled/grouped with since Mando Raiders. These are people I just randomly grouped with once day and we've done every FP together, starting on Hard Modes now.

[Mac_Garen]

^^^No. An opt in program for cross server would not work - and does not work.

 

Here is why: Cross Server Dungeon/Flash Finders speed the average rate of advancement. You make finding groups faster - you finish instances faster. The gearing speed of the people that opt in increases. As a designer you do NOT want people to finish your game too quickly - especially those people who don't take the effort to form groups.

 

To compensate for this - the game designers inevitably either have to make the instances more difficult (almost always unpopular) OR they have to make you grind more instances. This is what they have done in WoW. I had a guildy who ran a new instance 100 times.

 

If you have a limited amount of time to play, would you rather login and maybe find a team to run an instance with you or be certain that you will?

Not being able to find a healer or a tank after searching for 30 min and have your group disband adds to frustration.

Frustration hinders the fun.

Hindering players fun lead to subscription canceling.

Subscription canceling leads to the dark side or something...

 

:-)

[Kiry]

I want a LFD. I want to be able to find FP groups when I'm out doing things, not when I've decided to head back to fleet for some reason.

 

The fleet chat is spam now. The leveling range is very wide, and you see groups looking for FPs ranging from BT to HM Boarding party. This isn't a bad thing, but when people cannot find groups or get too frustrated, that's not a positive experience.

 

I ran BT with an alt last night with my companion healing because we couldn't find that 4th member. It ran fine, but I wondered - is this the start where FPs are not the way to play? You just skip them and level in the planets?

 

What happens when you have a large group of people that have never run any of the FPs...and are running them for the first time in HM? I guess there are always going to be firsts.

 

Imo, LFD didn't ruin a community. The community does that on it's own. The general chat on planets, is borderline horrid. The 14 yr old type conversations. The "your mom". The anal this or that stuff. Really not that great to listen to, and my ignore list grows.

 

All that has nothing to do with LFD...that's people on their own.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Kiry

[Suzushiiro]

I also suggest that the grouping does not automatically send you to the instance. As all the entrances are already based at fleet stations together, players can get back to them quickly through the travel to fleet ability (18 hour CD, I know.), shuttles while leveling, or binds back to ship docking bays.

Half the reason why the WoW dungeon finder drastically increased the ease of getting dungeon groups while leveling is that you were teleported to the dungeon and thus didn't have to drop whatever you were doing while questing to try and pull together a group.

 

I've personally played games longer without this feature than with it, and feel that with this feature it has ruined the immersion of the game. By doing this it has eliminated the need for exploration, as you stated also. It doesn't matter at what point a dungeon finder system is implemented, if done like this, it will ruin exploration.

 

In other games it has also reduced the full size of a game from the full world(s) down to the size of the major city players dwell in. Players feel that there is no reason to leave these cities because they can just queue up for the dungeon finder and wait for it to send them to their dungeon.

This is a completely moot point in TOR, as the entrance to every single flashpoint is in the main hub city. If anything a dungeon finder would increase the exploration or whatever because you'd be able to leave the fleet more.

 

 

As several here, I began my MMO gaming in WoW before Burning Crusade. I have since played most major other MMOs, including F2P ones, even if just a 10 day trial. Prior to dungeon finder, general chat in zones was active, people would chat about doing group quests and dungeons. Much like the current zones in Star Wars. People are socializing!

 

After the cross realm dungeon finder was released in WoW, chat became non-existent. The mentality was to queue up while questing, do the dungeon, get your gear and get out. Absolutely no socializing occurs.

 

Don't believe this? Load up a trail of WoW, go to The Barrens, which once even had t-shirts devoted to what was known as "Barrens Chat", go to Westfall, go to Silverpine. All of these zones have dungeons for people to do. Just sit and watch the chat that occurs, sit and watch how people ask for doing dungeon groups. Sit and wait.

 

The death of Barrens Chat had absolutely nothing to do with the dungeon finder. It was partially due to them introducing a significantly more efficient and rewarding way to get through that level range (Ghostlands) but mostly due to the fact that by the time LK rolled around WoW's initial growth spurt had long since ended and the vast majority of the playerbase was done leveling characters. Level-up zones becoming ghost towns is a thing that will inevitably happen to any MMO.

 

The lack of socialization in LFG dungeons, on the other hand, is more due to the fact that outside of early Cata heroics have been so facerollingly easy that there's no need for it. Had the system been introduced in BC you still would have seen plenty of talking.

 

 

Regardless, I do agree that if a dungeon finder happens at all it shouldn't be cross-server.

 

A server-wide LFG channel like WoW had for a while would also be pretty cool.

[Sitherus]

I like the current LFG setup witch seems to work for the ppl who use it. And if no one is available there...a /1 lfg ect..ect works.

[Mobiwang]

This is a completely moot point in TOR, as the entrance to every single flashpoint is in the main hub city. If anything a dungeon finder would increase the exploration or whatever because you'd be able to leave the fleet more.

 

 

 

 

The death of Barrens Chat had absolutely nothing to do with the dungeon finder. It was partially due to them introducing a significantly more efficient and rewarding way to get through that level range (Ghostlands) but mostly due to the fact that by the time LK rolled around WoW's initial growth spurt had long since ended and the vast majority of the playerbase was done leveling characters. Level-up zones becoming ghost towns is a thing that will inevitably happen to any MMO.

 

The lack of socialization in LFG dungeons, on the other hand, is more due to the fact that outside of early Cata heroics have been so facerollingly easy that there's no need for it. Had the system been introduced in BC you still would have seen plenty of talking.

 

Mostly correct. There are the 2 endgame FPs on Ilum. And a few on the other ships at the Fleet (if you don't count that as a hub since there's nothing else there and you have to take a speeder over to it).

 

Barrens Chat died because of LFD leveling and the fact that you could get to 20 in about 3 hours of /played time. With the XP bonuses and loot bags from LFD, it was far more rewarding to never step foot in an open world area. If there werent such lofty rewards for participating, the socialization aspect wouldnt have tanked so quickly.

 

But yes, if it happens, single server only. Reputation needs to be worth something. A quick way to discourage trolls/griefers/ninjas is for them to know that they can only do it so many times before they have to reroll.

[Traderalan]

I predict that DEVs are sitting in a big room right now, parsing through usage data and in absolute shock about how few Flashpoints groups have formed worldwide in the last week.

 

The current system the worst thing in a great game. Absolute failure in design.

[Mobiwang]

I predict that DEVs are sitting in a big room right now, parsing through usage data and in absolute shock about how few Flashpoints groups have formed worldwide in the last week.

 

The current system the worst thing in a great game. Absolute failure in design.

 

They won't find me in that list. I've found a group for every flashpoint in the game with little to no effort.

[Battousaien]

Didn't read through all the pages, but skimmed through, so I'm pretty sure it's been mentioned already.

 

I do not mind a LFG-tool in the future if they keep it within the server.

When they introduced cross-server LFG in that other game it completely ruined the community in my opinion and it promoted bad behaviour.

The chance of getting rolled into a group with the same person again was next to non-existent. The bad mouthing got worse. The behaviour got worse. Some random epic dropped and you could almost bet your money that someone would ninja it and leave the group.

 

If the tool is kept within the server I don't think the behaviour of players will sink as low. You will recognize different players you group up with and you should be able to build up a good reputation on the server.

And if someone is beeing a *****, for whatever reason, and keep having bad behaviour etc, my hopes is that that player eventually get infamous and people think twice before grouping up with him.

 

Keeping the LFG-tool tied to the server should still give very low queues I hope.

[Ohnoto]

Half the reason why the WoW dungeon finder drastically increased the ease of getting dungeon groups while leveling is that you were teleported to the dungeon and thus didn't have to drop whatever you were doing while questing to try and pull together a group.

 

The other half of that is that it put players into a group with just the press of one button. No effort, no searching, just press this one button and off you go. I asked this earlier, and I'll ask it again. At what point do you allow people to log in, press one button, and have things done for them?

 

This is a completely moot point in TOR, as the entrance to every single flashpoint is in the main hub city. If anything a dungeon finder would increase the exploration or whatever because you'd be able to leave the fleet more.

 

You should have read the first reply to the thread, the third posting of this thread and not just the original one. If you had, you'd see that I state the same thing. Here, I'll quote it below

 

This may not be as big of an issue considering you enter all the flashpoints from The Fleet, but it ruined exploration in other games. I am a huge explorer in games and don't want that ruined here. I also enjoy seeing active worlds and not just seeing everyone in the major city.

 

The death of Barrens Chat had absolutely nothing to do with the dungeon finder. It was partially due to them introducing a significantly more efficient and rewarding way to get through that level range (Ghostlands) but mostly due to the fact that by the time LK rolled around WoW's initial growth spurt had long since ended and the vast majority of the playerbase was done leveling characters. Level-up zones becoming ghost towns is a thing that will inevitably happen to any MMO.

 

My comments about Barrens Chat were regarding socializing done in zones and groups, and while leveling speed increases did effect that, what I am stating by my posting is that because of this system there is no socializing happening in an online multi-player game. It may not be the sole reason, but it does contribute to the reason. You quest, you go from point A to point B, at level 15 you get to do dungeons and away you go, pressing that one button where the game makes the decisions for you.

 

The lack of socialization in LFG dungeons, on the other hand, is more due to the fact that outside of early Cata heroics have been so facerollingly easy that there's no need for it. Had the system been introduced in BC you still would have seen plenty of talking.

 

I don't think that the timing of the system would have made much of a difference. It goes back to people being able to harass others with no consequences because they will never see them again, as well as players who don't want to work as a team, and the first time they happen to die, they leave the group.

[Triforceelf]

I think people are dramaticlly overstating ninja looting in the LFG tool in WoW. I had plenty of ninja's in BC, Vanilla, and Wrath pre LFG (The worst was having the Commendation of Kael'thas ninja'd TWICE by idiot warriors or paladins on my druid tank). Post LFG, you know what? I still had ninja's, and their were just as many. It didn't matter AT ALL. People who ninja do so whether or not they are in a random group with the LFG tool or if they are with people they found in general chat.

 

(If your interested, I was on rexxar, which had a rather infamous guild that was known to ninja loot - and they were around BEFORE the LFG tool.)