Feedback request from James Ohlen - Group Finder

[Deli]

All the above with Flashpoint as the main priority. Make it cross servers for maximum efficiency. The pros outweigh the cons. Convenience is what keeps World of Warcraft going and going for years.

[Groovymarlin]

Certainly all of the above are important, but for me Flashpoints are definitely the MOST important. I've missed a lot of content because it's so hard to get together a group for FPs.

[DiogoAutilio]

Just for : Forming a group for Operations and Forming a group for Flashpoints.

[Turista]

The most important thing is to RELEASE IT ASAP.

 

PvE is close to dead in this game for most people outside of leveling.

[WiltenRose]

Flashpoints with QT to the FP (like warzones). That way more players would want to do FP's without a major interruption to their leveling/etc. Vote to kick, rage quit = timer to requeue, etc.

 

Ability to queue for a FP would be based on minimum gear ratings & level. You wouldn't want to group up with a new 50 to try and run HM Lost Island...

 

Cross server queuing would also be optimal. That way less populated servers/factions could enjoy the FP content as well without waiting in a queue all night. Create a friends list which spanned servers. This could help facilitate cross-server queuing with your friends from other servers.

 

This was my thought as well.

[Shiro_Shishi]

While I assume you will eventually get this finder for ALL the stuff, the question is MOST important right now.

 

Then I would say Flashpoints, Story and Hard mode

 

It's a fast and better way to geared for OPs. I have barely played ANY of the Flashpoints and thats because people just think it's too big a hassle to get a group together. Everybody WANTS a group, but nobody want to MAKE a group. Which is sad and silly, but very true.

 

I would put Heroic's second for the same reasons.

[Kalthalos]

All of the above.

[Glower]

All of the above really.

 

If anything Flashpoints, and Heroic Quests. And maybe even with the world event at the moment. Queuing with world boss quests or something when they occur.

 

Operations are kinda low on my scale, just because you are usually going to already be in a guild if you want this to occur. As Operations get easier though more informal groups occur, so thats where this would come in.

 

This!

[Kadeya]

Please bring this to the game sooner than later. Players like myself that do not play at high activity levels are really limited about what we can do, mainly at end game.

[Dressari]

I feel I need to jump on the side of AGAINST a group finder tool. People in this game are more than capable of forming groups and socialising with other players to attain what they want. Placing in a tool to form random groups removes that aspect of the MMO and forces players to socialise only in their guild or small respective friend groups. The idea of this MMO is to make friends and bring people together.

 

Not everyone wants to join a guild granted and the LFG tool may benefit them more than the non guided players. The only major benefit it would have would be that the LFG can stretch over planets but there is an easy way around this and that is to create a LFG channel that would span over the entire game server for Republic and Empire. It cannot be that difficult to implement surely?

 

It's a double edged knife that can go one of two ways, and usually both ways are in the wrong way. What we do not want to happen is to reduce the community of players to anti-social FP/Ops runners who are just in it for the experience and gear, that is only half the fun of the game.

 

Ask the groups of people who have actually spent time forming Ops to kill World bosses, the communication and the banter was more than a laugh and made it worth while. There's something to be said about spending the time to form groups to do things.

 

And I will know many of those players here will turn round and quote "I don't have the time to wait." That's fair point maybe you don't, but you spend money to play this game under Biowares rules you're not obligated to stay and they're not obligated to fulfil your whims on a moments notice. The simple fact is, if you don't have the time to invest into this game to get what you want, don't play at all.

 

I do not want to see what little communication that goes around in general chats and guilds be scrubbed out by tools that streamline and remove the socialising aspect that makes an MMO. I will however give credit to some of the benefits. If we're going to have a LFG tool, it should be just for flashpoints normal at that, not hard, not ops, not heroric quests. There is a reason it takes so long to earn WZ commendations or Ops gear, because it makes the time and effort worthwhile. Lets not shorten that to the point where everyone hits their top gear quotas with in a few weeks of playing.

[Vincynt]

I think the most important thing for a Group Finder would be Flashpoints, followed by Heroics, then Operations. Most people that do Operations are going to stick to their guilds for the most part. Though I would say all of the above in the poll. Again my priority list is based on if we can have some but not all when the finder goes live.

[TheyCallMePyro]

Finding a flashpoint group is nothing more than sheer luck at this time. You can sit in the imperial fleet for hours with your /lfg note on and spamming chat the entire time and never find a group. We need the ability to easily advertise to others our willingness to run specific instances and the role we're performing, and to allow others to find us.

 

Here are the obstacles as I see them:

- You can't find anybody outside your zone. The majority of people looking to run a lvl 15 flashpoint are questing in the lvl 15 zone, while the flashpoint is in the Fleet. Finding people for a flashpoint is either ineffectively clogging general chat with your requests or directly soliciting everybody in the appropriate level range like a used cars salesman

- There's no automation for joining groups. If you're looking to run a flashpoint your best bet is advertising in the Fleet, but you can't quest or do anything much more interesting than being afk while in the Fleet.

- There's no dual spec. While this isn't an issue for the earlier flashpoints as they're not difficult enough to really require specific specs, in the later flashpoints not having a tank or a healer will make your run rather difficult, and while leveling as these specs isn't impossible due to the companion system, it's far from optimal.

 

It's not impossible to find a flashpoint at the current time - it's just a headache of an experience that frankly, an MMO of this era shouldn't force us to endure.

[Cortic]

Flashpoints by far. I've been playing since January, have 2 50's and still have not been through all of the flashpoints in the game. Not only is it near impossible to get a group together for them but due to the length of time it takes to complete them party members usually leave 1/2 way through leaving groups stranded. HM FP's are the quintessential method of gearing toons up prior to Operations or even filling out gear holes however in its current iteration getting a FP group is a rare luxury.

[Shiro_Shishi]

@Dressari

 

Bioware would like people to play their game they worked very hard on. A group finder would only help this. Tons of people haven't even seen a lot of the Flashpoints.

 

I get the whole "social" aspect that you want, but you can still get that from guilds. Heck, you could even meet NEW friends with the group finder.

[wjchristenson]

My vote is to not have a group finder. A group finder tends to kill the social atmosphere of a game, as of right now people actually have to take a minute to talk to other people in order to run FP's. Adding a group finder for FP's I feel would really hurt the a social aspect of the game.

 

Yeah, then people don't group at all as it is difficult to PUG it.

 

Let's be honest, I have a clique of friends that I run with. I don't run any FP's unless my friends are on to make a full group. I'd run more FP's if a LFG system was put in with gear & level requirements. I could group with 2 of my friends and PUG the 4th with relative certainty that the 4th was at least somewhat qualified to go.

 

I have a limited play window @ night. Being able to queue and get in a FP in under 10 minutes would be awesome. You'd never get that on my server spamming the fleet.

[BigGun]

Finding groups for flash points would be the most important aspect of the group finder but a heroic mission option would come in close second.

 

You could try adding an Operation finder, but I don't think it would last long. Even EC story mode is not for PuGs.

[StoleHearts]

Even having a large guild, we all have scattered alts at different levels and combinations of classes that rarely line up outside of being 50. It's either a 'run me through this' request or 'Let's do a HM' after reaching max level. People who are so opposed to this claiming it will kill community really should look at it from another point of view. A group finder actually tosses you into the mix of people from the community in ways that most people normally wouldn't get otherwise.

 

I'm the type to solo my storyline, so I only talk to people on the field. Chat usually consist of playing chatting for fun or people asking for help. People who know what they are doing are usually talking in guild chat/on voice chat and ignoring text chat/or just minding their own business.

 

I always looked at a group finder tool for actually putting people together as a good thing. Wouldn't talk to nearly as many different people otherwise.

[dipstik]

world bosses, +10 datacron, all of the above would be nice.

 

it really is a shame the lfg tool available never caught on.

 

please dont make the cross server optional. I love playing with many of the same people.

[chaosdefined]

Levelling up without a group finder is fairly outdated in this current time of MMO's. I'm amazed it's taken this long to even be thought of by the developers. Having to break away from doing missions to sit around in the Fleet hoping to find people of the same level to group with?

Yes there is another way of doing it, but it is also an extremely outdated way.

 

I do find it ironic though how people complain about how this is an MMO, community and socialising and then go on to state no Cross-Server because people on other servers are not to be trusted.

 

This is an MMO, so put an end to segregated and sheltered 'communities'.

[JaggedOne]

#1 is FPs, #2 is heroics. Your poll wouldn't let me click more than one item, so I selected all of the above, even though I don't think it is needed for ops. I would suggest that you start with just FPs and possibly heroics, and see how it is received and how it works.

 

And for the love of God, please DO NOT EVER make it cross-server. That completely ruined WoW....don't listen to any arguments people put forward in favor of it...no matter how loud the babies cry, it is a terrible idea!!!!!

[CelticStorm]

I absolutely despise cross-server group finders. I've quit every game that has implemented any cross-server-anything. The mood and attitude of group members are significantly better when you group with same-server players. People know they will get a reputation, good or bad, and behave accordingly. I think going cross server actually diminishes a "community feeling" rather than strengthening one. I like to think of it as an initialization to introduce you to people on the same-server for people that are e-shy and maybe afterward will stay in contact with the group members if you have a good experience.

[Varteras]

All of the above with priority set on Flashpoints. I wouldn't care if Heroic Missions didn't get added but I know many people would like that. Once those two are taken care of I'd like to see Operations added to a group finder tool.

[thebigdoubleu]

I feel I need to jump on the side of AGAINST a group finder tool. People in this game are more than capable of forming groups and socialising with other players to attain what they want. Placing in a tool to form random groups removes that aspect of the MMO and forces players to socialise only in their guild or small respective friend groups. The idea of this MMO is to make friends and bring people together.

 

I respect your opinion, but I want to bring up the flip side of the coin. Wouldn't an LFG tool actually bring people together? People will be socializing and chatting once they are grouped together, and it's generally a more personable chat since people are actually connecting to each other while working together. Without an LFG tool, many players simply won't have the opportunity to do this in a group setting.

 

In my MMO experience, I have met most of my friends over small group settings. I think an LFG tool will greatly facilitate the social aspect of an MMO rather than, as a few suggest, take away from it.

 

I know some players have said people can use general chat to LFG instead and that adds to the social atmosphere of SWTOR. A lively general chat does make for a good social atmosphere, but I think many players simply don't have the time to hang out at fleet essentially repeating LFG messages. Repeated LFG messages in general chat, in fact, doesn't actually reflect a healthy server because it means there's not enough people to actually run things together (or they are spread out over instances). This is especially true of players who are levelling. When people are faced with a choice to spend their limited playtime actually playing versus spending time in a fleeting HOPING to get a group to play, the choice is obvious.

[chaosdefined]

#1 is FPs, #2 is heroics. Your poll wouldn't let me click more than one item, so I selected all of the above, even though I don't think it is needed for ops. I would suggest that you start with just FPs and possibly heroics, and see how it is received and how it works.

 

And for the love of God, please DO NOT EVER make it cross-server. That completely ruined WoW....don't listen to any arguments people put forward in favor of it...no matter how loud the babies cry, it is a terrible idea!!!!!

 

The hypocrisy in your statement is rather amusing. So far the only people crying, shouting and accusing other people of being big mean nasty people are you lot.

[Varteras]

#1 is FPs, #2 is heroics. Your poll wouldn't let me click more than one item, so I selected all of the above, even though I don't think it is needed for ops. I would suggest that you start with just FPs and possibly heroics, and see how it is received and how it works.

 

And for the love of God, please DO NOT EVER make it cross-server. That completely ruined WoW....don't listen to any arguments people put forward in favor of it...no matter how loud the babies cry, it is a terrible idea!!!!!

 

Basically what they are saying is only listen to them and people like them.