Group Finder - but without instant teleportation and group finder with que and application

I think if AoC teams adds QoL feature to finding groups in this group finder through application and que system it would be much better then writing on chat (spamming usually because of how crowded server is - or not).

What do you think, is it good to have some QoL system to finding groups. I don't like WoW instant group que finder, but I like feature that they added later (WoW team) to que or apply to group via finder application.

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Leukael

Thought that my circle came up with that I like is a group finder feature based in the tavern.

So you go to a tavern and post something on the board in the tavern or outside it. It is only active while you're in the tavern but you receive apps from the same people who go to the tavern and use the board as well.

I like this idea because it gives players a reason to go to the tavern AND there's supposedly going to be games and a way to get a rested buff at the tavern so it creates a great synergy.

Ludullu

In theory, any node would have ~100-300 citizens (depending on the node's lvl). If we assume that even just a third will already have a guild and their own group (I'd personally assume it'd be more because of how ow dungeons work), that's leave 70-200 people who might be up for some farm. Now if we account for all the casuals/non-mobpve people, I'd think we could cut another half from that number. So at most we'd have around 100 people actively looking for a party during prime time within any given node. And that's barely over 10 parties, so they'd probably party up fairly quickly (that is if we have anywhere near good balance of classes).

Now obviously that's a lot of assumptions and there's even more unknowns, but when you don't have a global (or a fucking cross-server) partyfinder, the amount of people in your general vicinity, who would also want to party up at that exact point, will probably be fairly low. And because of that, the chat itself wouldn't be as spammed. Especially if Intrepid make a good chat UI with a separate "looking for party" functionality that would streamline the process w/o a direct UI window of "just stare at this and wait till it fills up".

Asgerr

I would personally enjoy seeing it done as some form of Bulletin Board feature.

Instead of shouting in the city about needing people for X dungeon or activity, maybe have a Bulletin Board section where you can post an announcement for a party for X dungeon.

You can post your ideal party composition (say you request 2 tanks, 2 healers and 4 dps) or you can request that at least 1 tank apply. Or you can leave it open entirely.

Players sign up, and once the full party is filled, you get put in a party chat, where you as the one who posted the announcement can give more details and offer a meeting spot and time.

It still requires some of the social interaction, but it's better than wasting time sifting through the many miles of text in cities.

You could also balance this by having the mayor decide if a Bulletin Board is put up or not. This could be done to limit ease of grouping, allowing the main Guild in town to retain control of much of the resources.

Dygz

The Ashes concept of a QoL group finder is open world housing.

raeyik

Did any of you play ffxi between '04 and like '09?

In that era of the game if you wanted to LFG you could flag for it. It showed your name, job/subjob, level, and then gave you the ability to write around 30 characters of info in a pop up box.

If you wanted to build a party, you would type (cause in those years a lot of commands were typed vs. ui elements) "/search lvl x -x" and could add modifiers like specific jobs, areas, the whole server etc. You could also just search for all , say, pld, not just those lfg. Occassionally, if you were hard on for a job you could whisper and hope they were game even if they weren't flagged.

No one shouted in global chat for a party. If anything, it became courtesy to whisper soneone and inform them how many you had in your pt already or how full it was.

I actually really liked the system. Due to server size, you had a reputation in that game just like ashes has hopes for player reps to matter. I personally believe that insta-que with anonymous automatch shouldn't be an option so that your reputation will matter and follow you for partying but I can also respect certain counter-argunents.

I dig the tavern idea for sign up. I guess ultimately I'm of the opinion that allowing an anonymous party-finder to do all the matching is a huge detriment to the community of an mmo. So as long as they decide on something better than that I'll be happy.

tautau

I also like the taverns as places where you can post notes to build a party.

This need not happen at the time of party formation. It would be more efficient to post something like "Healer looking to form party on 8/8 4PM Central at Irish Tavern. Buff meals supplied. Depending on party strength we will either hunt grizzly bears or venture into WildMan's Cavern. No players known to go corrupt allowed." Then the party forms up at the date and time indicated and, if the party works well, it becomes a regular thing.

Keep in mind that some taverns will be in Node's town/city, so those parties might tend towards townsfolk. Other taverns will be in freeholds on roads, so they may tend towards traders and travelers. Other taverns will be on freeholds out in the semi-wilderness near an entrance to the Underworld, so those parties may fill with hunters, underground dwellers and those hiding from civil authorities.

If your server has a wild area known to be the haunt of corrupted players, nearby taverns might have parties form of Bounty Hunters for group hunts of the corrupt...could there also be parties of corrupt hunting the Bounty Hunters?

In a node with a temple of a certain religion, the tavern board might include planned groups of players doing quests for the advancement of the node religion. Other posts might seek groups for quests for crafters, thieves, animal husbandry aficionados, brewers, spies or Rangers each doing quests for their respective profession. Heck, post you are seeking a party made up only of dwarves, just for the fun of it!

I think taverns which specialize in efficient party formation will attract more customers and make more money off sales and games of chance. If we the players utilize the bulletin boards anywhere near their potential, it will turn into a really fun part of the game.

"Short, fat Dwarf seeks to form party of beautiful, slender female humans and elves...archers preferred"

"Group of dwarven adventurers seek 14th member to gain revenge on dragon. Thief preferred." (We all know how that one worked out.)

Mag7spy

But if there is no party finder then people have to talk to people

akabear

NiKr wrote: »

In theory, any node would have ~100-300 citizens (depending on the node's lvl). If we assume that even just a third will already have a guild and their own group (I'd personally assume it'd be more because of how ow dungeons work), that's leave 70-200 people who might be up for some farm. Now if we account for all the casuals/non-mobpve people, I'd think we could cut another half from that number. So at most we'd have around 100 people actively looking for a party during prime time within any given node. And that's barely over 10 parties, so they'd probably party up fairly quickly (that is if we have anywhere near good balance of classes).

Don`t see the numbers stacking up. With viable groups dependant on is it 5 or 7 players of x class distribution, the number of parties that can group up within a given node, even at prime time will be quite low

Sathrago

It's a really good idea to create a system that let's players find groups easily. This helps players organize and group up quickly, and if made correctly should remove the chat spams for such a thing. Basically the best system would be copy pasting world of warcrafts group finder system, except like the op has said, remove the teleporting aspects entirely and place the interface for such a thing to be only within taverns.

I would go as far as saying let it show the listings of any adjacent nodes' group finder as well. This will increase the pool of players that see the postings without needing to dip into other servers or create a global party finder.

Ludullu

akabear wrote: »

Don`t see the numbers stacking up. With viable groups dependant on is it 5 or 7 players of x class distribution, the number of parties that can group up within a given node, even at prime time will be quite low

If Intrepid manage to balance their party design around their "one of each" goal, then, in theory, there'd be more healer/bard/tank/summoner classes just because they'd know that they're valued and would easily find a party. Obviously there'll be more dps classes just cause that is always the case, but with some proper augments you could substitute some missing class by having 2 members with the augments from said class.

This way, I'd assume, there's gonna be a way easier time trying to party up with random people in Ashes than in most other mmos. Well, that is if Intrepid succeed. So I do think it's gonna be possible to bring the amount of valid party combinations as close to the maximum amount of available players, at any given time, as possible.

CROW3

Not a fan of a direct group matching service. A node task/notice board would be good to provide one player’s info to interested other players.

But I’d rather folks rely on actual communications and community instead of anything that smacks of dungeon Bumble.

CroakerRPG

Quality of life, but for who?

I want there to be an active social experience in my MMOs. Talking with people, forming groups, making connections. Automating the grouping process harms that.

Sathrago

I'm sorry but spamming the local chat with lfg or lfm is not socializing. It's a tedious relic of the past that just isnt healthy for a modern play experience.

Depraved

Mag7spy wrote: »

But if there is no party finder then people have to talk to people

imagine spending 2 hours in town yelling LFG when you could have been playing the game T_T

Ludullu

Depraved wrote: »

imagine spending 2 hours in town yelling LFG when you could have been playing the game T_T

If there's no party for you to find within your node - you'd be sitting in town for 2h either way. party finder only works when you have direct teleportation to anywhere, not in a huge world like Ashes, where, if you find a dude who's from a node 50mins away from you - well, they wouldn't invite you to their party cause ain't nobody waiting for you for 50 mins to get to them.

And if there is a party that suits you in/around your node - they'll get you pretty quickly, because they'd be looking for exactly your kind of character.

Depraved

or i can solo kill stuff... and wont need a full party to farm mobs out in the open.

party finder for instances is nice and there arent many instances in ashes. im not sure why people hate the system

Ludullu

Depraved wrote: »

or i can solo kill stuff... and wont need a full party to farm mobs out in the open.

party finder for instances is nice and there arent many instances in ashes. im not sure why people hate the system

They hate it for Ashes, because instances will be mainly story-based and a one-time thing, while most ow dungeons will be difficult and you won't just solo them. The game is trying to bring back the social aspect of old mmos, and making an automatching party finder would go directly against that.

Azherae

raeyik wrote: »

Did any of you play ffxi between '04 and like '09?

In that era of the game if you wanted to LFG you could flag for it. It showed your name, job/subjob, level, and then gave you the ability to write around 30 characters of info in a pop up box.

If you wanted to build a party, you would type (cause in those years a lot of commands were typed vs. ui elements) "/search lvl x -x" and could add modifiers like specific jobs, areas, the whole server etc. You could also just search for all , say, pld, not just those lfg. Occassionally, if you were hard on for a job you could whisper and hope they were game even if they weren't flagged.

No one shouted in global chat for a party. If anything, it became courtesy to whisper soneone and inform them how many you had in your pt already or how full it was.

Should clarify that 'global chat' didn't EXIST in FFXI until 2011-ish.

People shouted in Jeuno and other hubs for Parties all the time, which I don't think was a negative, but I don't think it's a 'good idea' if Ashes has the same type of Search because the FFXI one reveals your location, yet this is much less useful if you can't SEE the location of the search-result players to use it for your judgement of if to ask them.

MaiWaifu

Why not just make friends while you play?

It's an MMO.

As long as you're not an ass, I'm sure you'll meet people you can whisper and get to know each other.

Halae

I'm gonna throw my support behind the bulletin board concept. Being able to advertise that you're forming a party for doing things without necessarily screaming for a tank in chat constantly feels like a good balancing point between socialization and convenience. You still have to seek out the guy that posted the party request and have a chat about expectations with them, but you're not forced to spam a node's local chat to find people either. It's a compromise, but I think it's a good one, especially since if bulletin boards are available to be placed in taverns (a reasonable idea, since people will want food buffs anyways) then taverns innately become fun meeting places where you can sit down and have a chat with potential party members over some mutton.

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