Feedback request from James Ohlen - Group Finder

[Bansheeblitz]

I think a que for all the above needed. and a cross sever ability is vital for success. Maybe even add

 

Battle of Illum Que also

[Flxm]

There is not an option for none... i took no preference in that I do not have a preference for the feature at all.

 

I prefer the: be social, make friends and have accountability for your social actions approach. It is what builds communities. It is what levels out the classes across the 3 archetypes. It is what keeps people playing longer.

[Lesta]

Having played with group finders in both WoW and LOTRO, I personally don't care for them in any way, shape or form. Its been my experience that most people only use the Group finder for premade groups anyway and that most are still found via the /general LFG message, then once the group has formed using the finder to launch the instance. Random groups thrown together for content is a crap shoot at best and often you end up with classes that don't really go together. The other thing that happens is that people tend to not go anywhere in the world once a GF is introduced. Most people are hanging out in the main population center and jumping in from there.

 

Unfortuanely, there probably will be a gf for this game too but its really just unnecessary and irritating.

[chaosdefined]

There is not an option for none... i took no preference in that I do not have a preference for the feature at all.

 

I prefer the: be social, make friends and have accountability for your social actions approach. It is what builds communities. It is what levels out the classes across the 3 archetypes. It is what keeps people playing longer.

 

There was no option for none because thankfully, Bioware is a company that realises retaining customers is all about giving them access to the game they are paying for. People aren't paying a monthly fee to make friends and have happy conversations.

[ekwalizer]

Flashpoints and Heroics should be the priority, as the focus of the game is on the story. But if you are going to do it, do it right and make it all inclusive with check boxes for which content the player wants to queue for.

 

Cross Server queuing is not necessary, server merges are.

[chaosdefined]

Having played with group finders in both WoW and LOTRO, I personally don't care for them in any way, shape or form. Its been my experience that most people only use the Group finder for premade groups anyway and that most are still found via the /general LFG message, then once the group has formed using the finder to launch the instance. Random groups thrown together for content is a crap shoot at best and often you end up with classes that don't really go together. The other thing that happens is that people tend to not go anywhere in the world once a GF is introduced. Most people are hanging out in the main population center and jumping in from there.

 

Unfortuanely, there probably will be a gf for this game too but its really just unnecessary and irritating.

 

There is going to be one in Patch 1.3, but you can just not use it if that's your preference.

 

I mean surely if there were so many people who didn't want it, they could easily group together with each other using General Chat and their friends list right?

[Phyreblade]

Not operations, actually. I mean, I picked "all of the above", because a tool to help find groups for flashpoints, heroics AND world bosses would be awesome. Single server, only, yes. But operations should remain guild-focused efforts, I think. Even a pugged dps or tank can be found by most guilds through friends-list characters, leaving guilds with a far better chance of appreciating a working team approach to the fights.

[Sydeshow]

A lot of good advice in the thread.

 

I'd like to be able to "Queue an account" in an LFG tool. I'll log on tonight, and I have no preference if I run my sniper (DPS) or my operative (Heals). My main criteria is to keep the wait as short as possible.

[G-Girl]

Flashpoints first, other things after. And can we please have a shuttle pick us up from wherever we are and deposit us at the FP? WoW has had ways to summon members since before it had a LFG tool, so not having to spend ten minutes or more crossing a planet/lifting off planet/flying to fleet/landing at fleet would be a boon.

[chaosdefined]

Flashpoints first, other things after. And can we please have a shuttle pick us up from wherever we are and deposit us at the FP? WoW has had ways to summon members since before it had a LFG tool, so not having to spend ten minutes or more crossing a planet/lifting off planet/flying to fleet/landing at fleet would be a boon.

 

See that would be great as well. Don't have to automatically teleport everyone to the FP, just do the equivilent of summoning stones, where one person at the FP entrance can operate a machine to retreive the other members there.

[Paxsilva]

I think, a group finder should definitely be cross-server, because the tool inevitably has to take into account group composition and the equip of the players. You just can't do Lost Island if your char just turned 50. And if you're Rakata-equipped, you will propably prefer NOT to do the Black Talon again and again.

 

So, if the results are supposed to be satisfactory for most players, you will need a large group to pick from and the number of people available on a single server is just too low for that.

 

Of course, the tool should prefer server-internal groups to cross-server groups. So, IF the rare situation occurs and and there is (1) a complete group (tank, healer, two DPS) with (2) similar equip-level and (3) looking for the same flashpoints and (4) on the same server, the tool should build a server-internal group.

 

But I am convinced that this happens really seldom. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so *********** difficult (please excuse my Klatchian) to build a group using the chat.

 

I think you have to a make a choice here between two options that BOTH are not really satisfactory. Restrict the group finder to the same server and you will end up waiting for a group almosts endlessly (therefore, the question is if such a tool will really improve the current situation. I'm afraid it won't). Make it cross-server and you end up playing with people you didn't know before and will propably never meet again.

 

For me, not being able to play the stuff I want is the worst option, so my vote goes to a cross-server group finder, despite its obvious negative side effects.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Sireene
lang

[G-Girl]

Random groups thrown together for content is a crap shoot at best and often you end up with classes that don't really go together.

 

Because it's not like that happens when you have spent half an hour in fleet trying to get a group so you take whoever you can to make up the numbers. As a healer, I've found it a rare thing to get a group that even has a tank, let alone one that knows where to find his taunt button.

 

WoW's LFG tool requires you to set your role as tank, DPS, or healer (though you can tick more than one role) so something on that line would result in better balanced teams than the current hit or mis method. It won't help get you players who know how to do their job, but that's always gonna be a problem with PUGs.

[Talorya]

Not too happy with the way the choices are laid out by lumping no preference with all of the above.

 

The game needs a group finder, and a group finder should have ALL of the content that requires grouping as options, hence, GROUP FINDER, not raider/flashpoint finder. DCUO has a layout that includes all the activities that one can do with groups, you can queue up as a specific role or not and even has options for groups to try content without certain roles at a less rewarding level to learn the group content and how to work in a group as a role.

 

Do it RIGHT, and do a full on quality feature that leaves no room for people to go "that's not enough".

 

And for goodness sakes, RESEARCH the existing market when it comes to MMO necessities and features.

Many games have already perfected a lot of the features, and you're running around making these "unique" features that doesn't do half the job of existing mechanics. Don't reinvent the wheel, you can't afford to at this point when you're starting from scratch a decade behind the times.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Talorya

[Yavin_Prime]

All of the above in order to compete with competition. A group finder for everything mentioned in the poll would be a huge step forward. It can't just be for one of those things.

 

I agree all of the features would be great. I don't have RL time to look for groups so I just don't do anything outside of solo PvE and queued PvP right now... kinda sad realy but when you have a 7 month old baby that's just how it is.

[Jaksith]

I don't think Ops works very well, although I'd probably use it if it was available, as long as there was a means to 'evaluate' the character to ensure they wouldn't crash and burn inside.

 

Cross-server flashpoints, intra-server heroics, intra-server Ops would be my order of preference.

[The_Edge_Ender]

All of the above in order to compete with competition. A group finder for everything mentioned in the poll would be a huge step forward. It can't just be for one of those things.

 

Agreed. To truly make 15 USD a month worth paying for a game like this, we need access to all of its content. Those of us who are pushing for this group finder know that time is a valuable commodity, and every minute wasted doing nothing, is time that could be spend doing something else. We work, go to school, have schedules outside the gaming arena that need to be met, and many of us simply do not have enough time in the day to wait long hours to form groups to tackle the amazing content you at BW have developed for us. My opponents will argue that group finder takes away from social aspects of the mmorpg genre, but I rebuttle that a game should be just that, a game. As always, choice should be at the forefront of any massive gaming experience. Whether that choice be from crafting or the choice be from doing solo or group activities, there should always be freedom in mmorpg gaming. To force a segment of the population to adhere to the elite few is folly, and guaranteed to cost BW / EA money in the long run.

 

Many of us are simply not adept at the social graces neccessary to cultivate group relationships in games; therefore, we need the group finder addition to make this game worthwhile. We also need it to experience the missing parts of the game we have not been able to play. Still, others do not believe that mmorpg game play should be contingient on socialization. One of the biggest pitfalls of these games is when developers force players into interacting with eachother on a personal level. I for one, would rather play the game and rely on the teamwork of others to accomplish my goals and theirs. I am not above helping those in need, and in no way do I profess to being greedy or self centered; I merely want stop wasting my time and get to the game -- the whole game.

[Jaksith]

On a side note on this poll, so many people generalize in these forums about what they want and it's representative of what so many others want, yet this poll has 3,000 replies in a community of 1.7 million subscribers...that doesn't even qualify as enough of a sample for statistical analysis. Edited April 24, 2012 by Jaksith

[mindriot]

James, homeslice...your making a mistake not going cross server bro, a big freaking mistake. Other games went there first. Q times were to long, they ended up doing what they probably always knew they needed to do. Don't make the same mistake. Send a message that Swtor is here and doing what it takes.

[RabbiShekky]

Flashpoints and Heroics are probably the "must haves", so I won't bother arguing for those.

 

For Cross-Server, I have to throw my lot in with those who think it's necessary. Sadly, there won't always be enough players on any given server to form a group. Customers wishing to play at that time will not be satisfied, because they will be waiting in a queue for longer than a reasonable amount of time (whatever that is). If you allow cross-server queues, it seems that you would then divide that number of unsatisfied users by some value. Less unsatisfied customers is a good thing. Just allow folks to opt-out of cross-server if they're all that worked up about it.

 

The real problem with cross-server is accountability, not community. Jerks will be jerks, and there needs to be some way to deal with it. I'm a big fan of eBay-style ratings systems, but I'm open to other systems.

 

As for Ops, I really hope you do implement an LFG tool for this. I don't think you need to mess with the difficulty levels, but for people who have playtimes at odd hours, like after the kids have gone to bed on the West Coast, have a devil of a time finding a raid team that fits in with their schedule. Even with all the bad mojo that comes from that other game's LFR tool, at least I got to see the content. So far, I've only seen a couple of FPs in this game.

 

The LFG tool kept me in Wow for about 2 years longer than I would have otherwise stuck around. Take that for what it's worth.

[RabbiShekky]

A lot of good advice in the thread.

 

I'd like to be able to "Queue an account" in an LFG tool. I'll log on tonight, and I have no preference if I run my sniper (DPS) or my operative (Heals). My main criteria is to keep the wait as short as possible.

 

Nice point!

[RabbiShekky]

Not too happy with the way the choices are laid out by lumping no preference with all of the above.

 

The game needs a group finder, and a group finder should have ALL of the content that requires grouping as options, hence, GROUP FINDER, not raider/flashpoint finder. DCUO has a layout that includes all the activities that one can do with groups, you can queue up as a specific role or not and even has options for groups to try content without certain roles at a less rewarding level to learn the group content and how to work in a group as a role.

 

Do it RIGHT, and do a full on quality feature that leaves no room for people to go "that's not enough".

 

And for goodness sakes, RESEARCH the existing market when it comes to MMO necessities and features.

Many games have already perfected a lot of the features, and you're running around making these "unique" features that doesn't do half the job of existing mechanics. Don't reinvent the wheel, you can't afford to at this point when you're starting from scratch a decade behind the times.

 

I second you on DCUO's group finder. It's really good stuff. They've even recently found a way to buff a team so they can go without a particular role, although I haven't seen how well that's working out.

[dankat]

In regards to whether it should be cross server or specific server, why not give us the option? Have a little bubble in thing at the top of the LFG tool's menu asking whether you want to queue cross or specific server, with obvious advantages to both. In specific server it would obviously help keep the community in a server and at peak times it would not be to much of a drag, while in cross server it is good if you want to know people from other servers and it is more convenient as the queue would be quicker. Just a thought, but if not that, specific server to retain a community within the server, which it is my idea more important as it reflects that it's and MMO with consistent players within a server I can put on my friends list and play with.

P.S. Why not add an in game lobby screen when you log in that gives you all the daily and weekly missions on the Fleet, shows the latest game news and the story so far.

[riotlation]

From what I see in the poles Flashpoints is a must. Looking for a group has all ways been difficult even during the vanilla WoW days. I also believe that not having a queue system in SWTOR is actually a step backwards. I like doing PvP It's a blast but I really more enjoy the story line in quests, Heroics and the story line inter-graded in the Flashpoints. I think the most frustrating thing for me is being a Tank and not being able to get a group. What should have happened I believe is instead of all the legacy stuff that came out in 1.2 which only really rewarded players lvl 50 and players that had multiple toons. Bioware should have provide the queue system. I guess that's beside the point. Flashpoint queue is a must for next patch I believe.

[EyeRekon]

All options are important for the LFG system so it shouldn't be specialized to any particular option. Desirable features

• Specify who you're looking for (roles, classes, skill tree)
  
• Specify what you intend to run (radio button for event type, drop down to select quest). Or "other"
  
• Specify criteria you wish to exclude (ex: non-BH healer)
  
• Option to Auto-Fill with whoever meets the criteria
  
• Option for manual approval of group applicants by group leader
  
• Ability to declare loot policy
  
• Auto-Populate desired Min & Max level of applicants based upon selected quest, allow modification by Group leader.
  
• Be able to use LFG system to fill a party for a quest already in progress. Be able to indicate that it is in progress.
  

[EyeRekon]

My opponents will argue that group finder takes away from social aspects of the mmorpg genre, but I rebuttle that a game should be just that, a game..

 

I have no idea why opponents of this feature believe that those who use it will take some sort of vow of silence and not socialize with their group. Requiring that people invest in socialization as a prerequisite for running in groups are control freaks trying to make you play the way they want you to.