Baratachela Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 I have had a lot of fun reading about the stories on weird encounters in Group Finder (http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=633655). As my guild does not really run ops, I have been relying on GF for my leveling. If HM55 FPs pop up rather easily (at least on my healer), Ops have been another story. So it got me thinking. Announcements in Fleet General Chat are OK but usually take you forever to get a group going and I'm sure I'm not the only one with no support group for raids... What I would love is just show up and get into a group and start raiding within a few minutes. So I built http://swtorops.com/. It's basically an operation booking system for SWTOR... You pick the server, op, date, the toon you want to play with and you're ready to go. I don't know if it is going to work, but I built it anyway. And it's yours to try out. It's totally free for now until I figure out what I can do with it. Spread the word, find bugs, insult it or praise it, use it or despise it, let me know if you love it or hate it. Yours truly, B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwence Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 harbinger gf groups take like 5-10 min to assemble on any given day/night Also your post seems to imply you're going to charge money for this glorified raid calendar at some point? That's a joke right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flavmad Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 Group finder would be great if ppl actually picked the real role they play. As for noobs, teach them. you were all noobs at some point, same as I am now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wainot-keel Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 harbinger gf groups take like 5-10 min to assemble on any given day/night Also your post seems to imply you're going to charge money for this glorified raid calendar at some point? That's a joke right? If people use it, if the tool works, why not charge something ? Anyway, biggest problem with this is actually being an event calendar with complete strangers. You can have trouble with no shows and other issues with your own guildies. With pugs could be really messsy and you might end up replacing and pugging on fleet half the team, kinda beating the purpose of even signing up for this. Another thing, while I sometimes I joined pugs through Group Finder, I never plan to do it. It's just a thing of the moment. I might be on fleet, I see someone advertising the group and perhaps I say "why not". Or I simply go about another thing. It's a very casual thing for me. Planning for it... hmm..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenGoalie Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 A lot of servers (or at least, that's the impression I've gotten from the forums) have an Allies channel (/cjoin allies) that look for ops, so you don't have to be on fleet to join one. This can be pretty fast or fairly slow, depending on the time of day, but generally works fairly well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenGoalie Posted November 19, 2014 Share Posted November 19, 2014 If people use it, if the tool works, why not charge something ? Because people will stop using it (assuming they did in the first place) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baratachela Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 If people use it, if the tool works, why not charge something ? Anyway, biggest problem with this is actually being an event calendar with complete strangers. You can have trouble with no shows and other issues with your own guildies. With pugs could be really messsy and you might end up replacing and pugging on fleet half the team, kinda beating the purpose of even signing up for this. I have not decided how to monetize the site. Indeed if the service works and is widely used, there should be a way to generate revenue from it. Is it by subscription at the risk of losing a massive share of users or via advertisement, pure goodwill donations or anything else, that I have not decided. One of the main reasons I built the site is that on the Begeren Colony, where all my toons are stationed, it really takes forever to get a pop on GF. And the Allies channel is dead empty. Only the fleet sometimes have groups going but quite often they die out. What I realized from the feedback I got is that the tool is seen as a glorified pug scheduler and most op aficionados don't like pugs that much. Even more with the damn x12XP thing going on... So I'm thinking maybe I can add the option to create "private" events where you can set a password of some sorts that you communicate to your friends or guildies beforehand so they can register for the event. That kind of defeats the purpose of what the tool was originally built for (people with no support group) but it may add value. Another option would be to have the list of toons on a server available for "invite". That becomes a social thing where you actually connect to other players and reform SWTOR groups outside SWTOR. That would require more work but is not far-fetched. That's also when the feedback players get from past events via the post-review starts making sense. The score you get from the review may be related to the score of the people that review you to try to encourage groups of regulars to take newer players on raids. I don't know, the possibilities seem endless to do something really cool. All comments appreciated. B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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