[Suggestion] A SWTOR Style LFG Tool

[Chromiie]

Sounds great and frankly it's dissapointing how useless cantinas are. Coming from SWG especially.

[SILKESLIM]

very good idea hope they implement it at sum point

[Desiirea]

I love the whole cantina's idea. I would like to see a bit more of a 'gathering' point on each planet. Might give each planet a more populated feel as a bonus since a lot of folks wrap up their play session on their ship instead of cantinas (I think this is done because from there you can access space missions/cargo hold/flying to fleet purposes). They simply don't have a enough reason to log on/off in cantinas. This would give them more of a 'use'.

[HydroMerano]

Still a wonderful idea, hopefully the devs will see it and consider it. :3

[Halofax]

So if you were lfg for a heroic quest in your area, would you have to port to the cantina?

 

Why not just put in a global chat channel and blacklist the trolls in it.

[CamerynD]

I'm in the camp of badly wanting a LFG tool. I like your idea, and it's a nice compromise.

[Slightlycampana]

If the LFG system is dressed up as a merc recruiting interface that would be awesome.

 

This is simply the coolest idea ive seen to deal with the underused lfg list system to date.

 

Id say no on que up with your companions, defeats the immersion aspect the OP proposes, but if that were implemented, i wouldn't cry over it

 

I think the companions ought to be able to do this for you. It's only going to be used if it's just as convenient or more convenient than general chat.

[MackumDog]

I am an anti LFG tool type person, because some (not all) have the ability to create lazy players who just LFG and warp about without being part fo the community.

 

Immediatly I read this idea, it reminded me of the days in Anarchy Online where the players would all hang about in the same areas waiting for buffs and groups. There was no formal system, it just happened.

 

I see this system bringing back that sort of community, people used to PvP dual etc and all sorts of messing about and chat while in these areas, I think the cantinas should be used like this and your plan promotes this.

 

 

Very good idea,

[Timesplitter]

Excellent idea

[Enico]

Great idea. We would need to be able to send our companions to sign us up though to make it more convenient than general chat. 5 stars

[jbrandond]

bump, this game needs some sort of LFD tool.

[bobmcbo]

/signed

[MageDK]

I like the cantina idea. I think that the game definitely needs a LFG tool. It can be limited to the same server or cross server boundaries.

 

I'm a casual player and I sometimes find it difficult to find groups for flash points even within my guild. I don't necessarily want to spend 30 to 45 minutes putting together a team.

[Derper]

Yeah no. I'm not.

 

WoW feature history lesson time:

 

A long time ago in late vanilla, the WoW devs implemented a LFG tool into wow that worked thusly:

 

Step 1: Walk into *any* tavern or inn in the game

Step 2: Right click on the barkeep or innkeeper

Step 3: Queue for a dungeon. *any dungeon*.

Step 4: Wait for people to be automatically added to your group

Step 5: Go to the dungeon you all signed up for, or decide to run after the group has formed

Step 6: Profit!

 

Didn't matter which inn or tavern. They all linked to the same queues.

The queue system would attempt to balance your group, but wasn't too picky.

The longer you waited, the less pickey it became.

 

I stayed in queue for days looking for groups with that system (*exactly* the same system the OP describes) and I never found a group. It never matched me with anyone. Nobody I knew every got a group through it. It took longer to find a group than it did to out-level the dungeon you were looking to run in the first place just by running quests. Then, when you reached the level cap you got groups for UBRS by spamming general chat and warlock-summoning reinforcements to the damn door.

 

I know...I was that warlock while I geared myself for MC.

 

This system was devised to fix the broken meeting stone-based queueing system that nobody ever used. When it was introduced meeting stones were converted to teleport your group mates to the stone so long as you had 2 people at the stone.

 

Guess what?

 

It.

Didn't.

Work.

 

A game with 10x ToR's population tried this system and it failed. Hard.

 

Sorry. The cantina idea is stupid. We've been there with healthier games that were just as devoted to instanced multiplayer content.

 

It doesn't work.

 

Try again.

 

Sorry.

 

WoW went from the exact system the OP describes, to the current LFG queue because the Innkeeper/Tavernkeeper/Cantina system sucks so badly.

 

You're lying, there never was such a tool.

 

I played WoW from autumn 2005 to 3 months into Cat, and I'm quite sure that the first LFG tool was implemented in early WotLK(looking through patch notes as I'm writing this, I will update it when I find anything).

 

Feel free to prove that you are right, and that I am wrong.

 

Edit: Fixed the last sentence in order to not reverse the burden of proof

 

Edit 2: I was wrong about the first implementation. The one with the three drop down menus were added in 2.0. The system was revamped to the automatic one(which in my opinion was far worse) in 3.3.

 

The bartender model, which Arandmoor spoke about, still never existed though.

Edited January 21, 2012 by Derper

[AdamChattaway]

Welcome to the cantina, can I buy you a drink?

A plausible SWTOR LFG Tool

 

 

SWTOR's community is split, and the devs have taken a side and stated their reasoning. However, I have come to the conclusion that they are just looking at one game's integration of the LFG and thinking they would have to do it exactly the same to be functional.

 

I have a different idea. . .

 

Let's give those Cantina's more use than filling up our rested XP bars, let's have them serve one of the purposes they do in the actual star wars universe. Let's hire bodyguards and mercenaries over a round of drinks.

 

The interface is simple, you would go to a cantina and talk to the bartender. This would open up a classic LFG tool where you designate your role and desired goal. Once you've "placed your ad" you can go about your business as normal. Should a group be found for you, you would be contacted via holo-recorder, and offered a shuttle back to the cantina.

 

The entire group would come back to the cantina to finalize their outing. Giving all members time to stock up on stims or last minute repairs. Once ready the group leader would be able to talk to the bartender again, and shuttles would be dispatched to carry the group to their desired group activity.

 

While the details are sketchy, and perhaps a bit convoluted, a system like this could encourage community interaction

 

Personally, if this method was used I feel that the tool should be planet specific. While flashpoints would be available from all planets and the fleet station. Meaning that to find a group for a heroic quest on Tattooine you would need to visit a cantina on the planet. However, to get a group for Maelstrom Prison (or any other flashpoint/op) you could go to any cantina in the galaxy.

 

TL;DR

• Cantina based LFG
  
• Shuttles to gather groupmates
  
• Server based to preserve community
  
• Brings life to empty cantinas around the galaxy
  

 

Thoughts? Reactions? Flaming balls of hate?

Tell me what you think.

 

WAY too much instancing in this game already, it feels like a single player game to me and no where near MMO size, ive ran past 1 player on nar shadda so far from the 39 online here, having to go back to cantina is no better then spamming in fleet, add a wow/lotro style LFG Dungeon finder so we can use it anywhere in the game to get a group is whats need, THIS is the reason theres hardly any groups as people are questing on other plannets and dont want to spam in fleet instead of quest, this is NOT the way to go and would be so frustrating.

[Mcfondles]

One question.. What do you mean "The devs have chosen their side?"

 

I thought they said that fixing the lfg tool was of high priority.

[Mcfondles]

bump for an amazing idea..

[MalignX]

Come, join us!

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=2527393#post2527393

[AzKnc]

No thanks. They should just copy paste the one from wow, leave them 0 room to screw up. Edited February 5, 2012 by AzKnc

[kammersgaard]

This is a really great idea, and I support it fully! Bioware please include this in a future update, and with the homing beacon idea to get shuttled back to your questing area or farming area it would be near perfect.

 

We can already send our companions on tasks from anywhere in the galaxy, which I presume is done by a shuttle or what not?

 

This would, as already said, give life to the cantinas and help players achieve their desired goal in most cases. It would also help the servers with lower population, because people wouldn't be chained to their respected fleets, searching for sometimes hours to get a group.

 

BUMP for a great idea, and in hope of a developer seeing this.

[Nitewolfe]

Welcome to the cantina, can I buy you a drink?

A plausible SWTOR LFG Tool

 

 

SWTOR's community is split, and the devs have taken a side and stated their reasoning. However, I have come to the conclusion that they are just looking at one game's integration of the LFG and thinking they would have to do it exactly the same to be functional.

 

I have a different idea. . .

 

Let's give those Cantina's more use than filling up our rested XP bars, let's have them serve one of the purposes they do in the actual star wars universe. Let's hire bodyguards and mercenaries over a round of drinks.

 

The interface is simple, you would go to a cantina and talk to the bartender. This would open up a classic LFG tool where you designate your role and desired goal. Once you've "placed your ad" you can go about your business as normal. Should a group be found for you, you would be contacted via holo-recorder, and offered a shuttle back to the cantina.

 

The entire group would come back to the cantina to finalize their outing. Giving all members time to stock up on stims or last minute repairs. Once ready the group leader would be able to talk to the bartender again, and shuttles would be dispatched to carry the group to their desired group activity.

 

While the details are sketchy, and perhaps a bit convoluted, a system like this could encourage community interaction

 

Personally, if this method was used I feel that the tool should be planet specific. While flashpoints would be available from all planets and the fleet station. Meaning that to find a group for a heroic quest on Tattooine you would need to visit a cantina on the planet. However, to get a group for Maelstrom Prison (or any other flashpoint/op) you could go to any cantina in the galaxy.

 

TL;DR

• Cantina based LFG
  
• Shuttles to gather groupmates
  
• Server based to preserve community
  
• Brings life to empty cantinas around the galaxy
  

 

Thoughts? Reactions? Flaming balls of hate?

Tell me what you think.

 

While i can see you put some thought into this system i have to say i dislike it.

Its far to RP like for my taste. It adds a lot of wasted time between the group being formed and actually starting the zone.

Frankly i do not care that the cantina's are empty! Also this would not change the empty cantina since as you say you just go there sign up and leave.

Seems to be single server based and i insist on a cross server for flashpoints.

Would not work for heroic open world quest.

 

i would prefer BW just make a carbon copy of Rifts system that allows for cross server instance zones and single server for open world quest.

 

If you want cantina's to come to life you need to make them hang out points.

Working paazk table, other mini game play areas. Maybe pod race betting hubs and so on. A place to while away the hours after your daily quest are done and while waiting for your guilds ops to start up.