Feedback request from James Ohlen - Group Finder

[Coffyn]

Flashpoints should be done first. The logic for assembling a group does grow from that point. Since an 8 man raid is essentially two 4 man groups. Also, flashpoint LFG means easier leveling, or completing daily/weekly quests for the HM flashpoints.

 

Operations can be built in later once the initial logic is solid. (i.e. test small, but then expand)

[PezSlynx]

It would be wonderful to have an option to flag as looking for group for world boss fights or world events like the current one.

[Obiwan-Kalossi]

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.

 

First post = BEST post. My sentiments exactly!

 

Hopefully this will be in a future patch as I've been waiting for it since early access. Good job BW! Keep it up!

[BabolPhil]

If a group finder for flashpoints and operations was introduced, it would be a fantastic update for the game.

When first played the game i was surprised that it wasn't any kind of group finder, but i know it' a new (and great) game, which needs still some time to get perfect (like any other great game). I trust in the developers team!

 

"Han shot first.":wea_02:

[Vhaegrant]

I probably spend far more time playing SWTOR than I should. The key word in that sentence is 'playing'. Having levelled a couple of characters to fifty and a third well on the way I don't tend to find the effort spent trying to organise a group to be an effective use of my game time.After the initial freshness of early access faded, heroic missions and flashpoints of a level appropriate to my character get shelved and if necessary returned too when able to solo them. I don't think I'm alone in that play style. Even during early access I was encountering players who would rather return to the starting worlds with their companions to do the heroic missions rather than group up.

 

The main issue I see is that many players have a main (or two) that is used for guild runs but when not scheduled for end game OPs they drop onto an alt. This means that they are not technically available to the server population to support end game flashpoints although I am lucky enough to be in a guild where players on low level alts will hop onto their mains to get a flashpoint run through.

 

I feel there needs to be a way to flag characters within your legacy as available/ interested in running content.

 

This allows you to crack on with levelling alts while not requiring a player to sit idle hoping that enough other players just happen to want to do the same thing.

[oakamp]

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.

 

All of the above is the only reasonable option,

cant multi vote

[RobertoThePot]

I wanted to vote for heroics and flashpoints, sadly I couldn't do it so my vote goes for flashpoints

[JediGinn]

WHY would you limit what group you are looking for??? If i want to do an operation, let me look for a group for operations. If I want to group for a flashpoint, let me group for a flashpoint???

 

WHY the H. E. DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS do you need a F**king poll for this?!

 

no offense and Flame off... sorry... I just see to many stupid things being focused on... JUST like the FAQs at PAX

 

P.S.S. How about a poll for Which servers to merge....

Edited April 18, 2012 by JediGinn

[Obelisk-Kai]

Flashpoints is obviously the most important.

 

The inexorable logic of the feature though will be to expand to Operations (with story mode probably adapted to serve as the default difficulty level) and cross server. The sooner these features are embraced and worked with, probably the better.

[Holytoe]

Definitely flashpoints only, which got my vote in the poll, should be in the group finder. And you should not have to be in fleet to do this. Until a proper method for QUICK loot control/assessment is added, flashpoints seem to be the "gear sweet spot" for leveling 10-50.

 

Gear Roll Window popup needs a "need for companion" button which will have a reduced RNG amount (say 1-50) or 1-10. Point being, if everyone greed rolls the item they all equally have a chance to get it. A Need Companion Roll would trigger if no Need Rolls occur.

 

Another issue is if the companion is used as a member of the group in a heroic or flashpoint, most players still do not relent and let you roll need to gear the companion up with that upgraded gear. If the Gear Roll Window can remain simple but allow players to see the companion's contributions, it may be easier to allow a companion to receive priority in a loot roll system.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Holytoe

[Aurorai]

I myself voted for all of the above, while I was lucky enough to do all the flashpoints during launch, most people I know and on my alts never really experience them just because they are serious hassle. Having to sit somewhere spamming LFG in chats doesn't really aid the social experience IMO. Regardless of which way you organized it, chat spam or a LFG tool, I feel that most of the socialising will be done during and possibly after finishing a flashpoint or heroic, the only difference is how long it takes to set up. Not everyone has the free time to be standing on somewhere like the fleet for sometimes hours

 

That being said however, I think operations shouldn't have a automated LFG tool, at least not just yet. As others have stated, this is typically done by guilds, friends and so on. Since not everyone has those opportunities, what may be nice or useful to have would be some sort of window where you can simply flag yourself as being available for an Op with some details about yourself which is independent of region( i.e we could see these players whether they are on the fleet, or off questing, and so on). This wouldn't automatically find a group, it would simply aggregate information on all the players who are available in a place so groups lacking particular roles can contact (socialise) and get them together. I feel that would promote the social aspect a bit more for those who don't always have full groups.

 

As an aside, I would love if any new content such as phased heroics or flashpoints in the future featured more of those crew skill "shortcuts" for lack of a better word. I liked feeling that my crew skill could impact on a flashpoint by repairing something with scavenging or slicing this/that etc. , opening up new options and some added re playability

Edited April 18, 2012 by Aurorai

[FeelFlow]

All of the above, please and it's great to hear that you're doing this.

 

Long gone are the days when people would hang around a LFG channel in MMOs - it seems like a feature from 10 years ago now.

 

Single server is fine - but there will have to be server migrations, I expect.

 

Keep up the good work (although I'm not sure about the recent armour design direction...)

[nakomaru]

Cross-server is the only important feature for me.

[GhoXen]

I think that group finder for flashpoints should be server-specific.

 

However for heroic quests (where for the most part there isn't a lot of loot drop), I think group finder should work cross-server. It's literally impossible to find people for 4-man heroic quests otherwise on servers where there is either low population, or the majority of the population are sitting at 50 not rolling alts.

[tkinnunzero]

Right now, Flashpoints are #1, so that's my vote.

 

In the future: Operations.

[shadowen]

Why can't there be one system that handles all group content in the same way? If it can auto-magically match up people based on what quests that have in their quest log, all the better.

 

I'd love to be able to place a check box next to the entries in my quest log and have the system match me up, no matter where I am in the galaxy, with other people that have checked the same things in their quest log.

 

I could select an Operation, a Flashpoint, and a Heroic instance. If the system finds players to match me up with for any of my selections, it can prompt me to join then. If I decide to join it will stop searching for my other selections, and group me up with the playters that it found. If I decide to wait it will start searching for the remaining selections in my list and move the one that I skipped to the end of my list. This type of system would very easily allow me to create a daily "to-do" list of content that I want to complete that is automatically cycled through as players become available.

Edited April 19, 2012 by shadowen

[Tenceriker]

Cross server group finder for everything. Period.

[Jhayden]

you know,i understood why you guys didn't want to put in a finder, because you wanted to promote better communication.... but i think in this day in age, the cons just out way the pros here... an LFG finder is much more sophisticated and satisfying. We can chat once we have the groups set.

[JMBMCMXC]

I don't believe that the game needs a group finder at all, i enjoy looking for fellow companions on my server when i want to complete a group related activity. However, out of the options listed i think players would benefit most from a Flashpoint group finder, especially those on lower populated servers.

[DarthTHC]

But what will you do when single server only helps people find groups on the 8% of servers that are heavy pop?

[Keldain]

For me, I would like one that was limited (at least at first) to Flashpoints and Heroics only. Let WoW do the experiment with its raid finder - I think it's too early to see if group-finding for this type of content is really a success or not. Personally I think automated group-finding for Raids/Ops necessitates such a huge lowering of difficulty for this type of content that it makes it meaningless and that's not necessarily a good thing for the playerbase and is DEFINITELY not a good thing for the developers as, for example, in WoW Dragonsoul (the first raid available in raidfinder) was consumed at an alarmingly fast rate and while some people viewed raidfinder DS as a stepping stone to "real" DS I would say a vast majority felt like they had killed Deathwing, so where's the next new content? I'm bored - give me more!

 

Even speaking as an incurable altoholic who hasn't reached endgame on any of his 16 toons yet, I can tell just from the general feeling around here and other community places that Bioware should definitely be focussed more at this point on adding harder endgame PVE to the game - not more accessibility to endgame PVE. Ops are seem to be kinda accessible enough as it is.

[Deividoff]

I think allowing people to find groups automatically for Heroic missions and flashpoints would serve the most people and would make the biggest impact. There are plenty of awesome heroic missions available and allowing people to get into groups for these easily would positively enhance the leveling process, which is pretty good already. Edited April 19, 2012 by Deividoff

[tkinnunzero]

I'd love to be able to place a check box next to the entries in my quest log and have the system match me up, no matter where I am in the galaxy, with other people that have checked the same things in their quest log.

 

I could select an Operation, a Flashpoint, and a Heroic instance. If the system finds players to match me up with for any of my selections, it can prompt me to join then.

 

This would be the best option. You could even use it to group for normal quests if you wanted more social points or to see and hear other players' characters up close.

 

While I hope for that pie-in-the-sky, I'm willing to settle for just Flashpoints for now

[Koensayr]

Flashpoints are primarily what I'd want to see first. Heroics will be rougher as you'll have to have some kind of gear check to make sure it's not grouping lvl 50's in lvl 40 gear with 50's in PvP or heroic gear, or else the usual complaint fest will insue. Since gear and mods come with numerical ratings, it could be instituted relatively easily I'd think, but then your opening the door to the great gearscore wars.

 

Operations? Well I have my reservations. I didn't really enjoy the raid finder feature in WoW. Not because of the programming or mechanics, but rather it's the age old problem: Getting five people that can work together can be hard at times (4 in the case of ToR), as you expand that number upward the probability of people rage quitting, or booting members, goes up pretty quickly. The rest would be nice but not really all that neccesary except on low pop servers. Anyways, my two cents on the subject since you asked.

[Bigbozo]

One of the saddest things this game suffers is that on my 50, I have still only done Esseles and one other lowbie Flashpoint. They have really good little stories, and are a nice break up from the grind of levelling, in between warzones.

 

You are getting close Bioware, very close, just scrabble over the cliff edge, pull yourselves up and you are on mount Golden Age of your MMo.

 

Really impressed with everything added so far, give this game 6 months and you have yourselves a diamond, once all the sub quit threateners have gone onto something else to wreck for everyone.

 

 

Ten years from now, when you log onto this forum, they will still be here.

 

I voted for all the above, althought some have valid points for excluding ops.

 

I would like to see some sort of cross server though. I'm sure someone will point out the math that is doesn't increese the % of tanks/healers in the overall queue. But when then number of tanks/healers on your server is 0 it actualy does.