DEVS: Please Consider an Open Group Mechanic

ArchivedUser

I've played quite a few mmo's now, and one thing that has always frustrated me and many others, is trying to join a group that is actively engaged in an encounter.  Things like taking down a world boss, grinding monster groups or special bosses in the wild, running open world content, or even pvp'ing on a large scale all come to mind when I think about the difficulty of joining an already active group.  

As a player or small group that happens upon the larger group, it's hard to easily get invited.  Simply because you send a /tell or /whisper to a random group member, but they wind up not being the one who can invite you to the group, and/or the group is fighting making it difficult for them to see your messages, or having stop fighting just to invite you to the group.  Especially if it is a time constrained, or difficult fight.

What I suggest is a toggle command for all groups.  Where the group leader or co-leader(s) can select the option to be an "open group" (if they have the spots to add more players).  That way, when a outside non-grouped player approaches the open group, they then can right click on any group member to get a pop-up box to join the group instantly.  This would remove a barrier of entry that would help people group up more versus just staying solo.  It also encourages a more social game play interaction, and it helps alleviate being shut out of content for single players or smaller groups, just because a larger group is in the area. 

/Thoughts?

ArchivedUser

I played ffxiv.
There was a quest to get Zodiac Weaponscwhich required to travel around the world and kill raid bosses.

Now in what should be an awsome adventure to get something meaningful I found hords of players in the raid bosses locations forming groups in a LFG system. 
It was a total chaos abd it was boring.

I would throw one AoE skill to touch the boss and go to invade my fridge.
It was so boring how ez it was to kill those raids. Just RNG to get the quest items.

On the contrary I played Line][Age.
I was in a guild with all my friends since lv 40 (78 was the max lv at that time).
There was a quest that needed to be done to get my class to the third stage. In order to complete the quest me and other gladiators would form a group, go to the quest area and ask other people to join in for the Quest or just for lv up. There was nothing RP or social about it, do not missunderstand. It was a living open world in which in order to achieve a goal you had to come in contact, face to face with other players and either kill them or group with them because of a common interest point.

I find Group Finder, LFG and other such systems to make games boring. You just sit around lfg lfg instead of going out there finding your place in a community, or even playing your part in an open world of adventure.

ArchivedUser

Nice idea @Warkov. I've seen this work in multiple MMOs and I certainly could see it working in Ashes as long as the group leader gets to control it, or toggle it as you put it.

ArchivedUser

Sounds nice, I remember IS saying you will be able to post group requests in inns/taverns so maybe a group has to post an open request there and then a player has to approach it, kind of like taking a request

ArchivedUser

What ever encourages groups to form for some hero slaying is a good idea

ArchivedUser

nagash said:

What ever encourages groups to form for some hero slaying is a good idea

You'd need an army of those justice obsessed fools to kill even one evil overlord  

ArchivedUser

AutumnLeaf said:

nagash said:

What ever encourages groups to form for some hero slaying is a good idea

You'd need an army of those justice obsessed fools to kill even one evil overlord  

Makes it easier than killing then one by one

ArchivedUser

I liked Archeage in the sense that you would get invited to many raids with the radius invite and then they put a function thru which you could join public raids without any sort of invite. Honestly it is not a bad idea for this AoC to implement this.