I used to use the LFG window quite a bit, but at the lack of others using it stoped and just watch the level channels as others have mentioned this makes it hard if your playing a lower level alt and maybe wanted to keep an eye out for a group or something to do on your lv 80 main. The best thing I've read so far is adding the ability to list all your alts and look for others LFG at all level ranges. This can also be accomplished btw by just typing text into the discription. What I would like to see is an auto grouping system say I go LFG it pairs me with others automatically for a group and bam there you go a group. Now how they code what is needed for a group I will leave to you 1 tank, 4 dpsers, 1 healer etc., but one way to do it is to go lfg and what other group members your looking for tank, healer, mage, scout etc. and auto pairs you with one that is LFG or becomes LFG automaticaly. So say me on my lv 80 conjy just looking for some help to do a heroic quest or something is looking for a tank and healer. I would go LFG and in the window select Tank and Healer if a tank is LFG for anything auto groups with me and same with healer. If one becomes available it would also group automatically. If people don't want to use the auto grouping system then they can just be more specfic as they are already doing with the level chats. The auto grouping system just makes it easier for people to get on get a group and get going without having to wait around for something specfic. I think that what the LFG system should really be for.
It would also be nice if when the auto group happens the group leader gets an auto summon ability to summon the group member. Can only work on group members and only once for each member. Only allowed to groups formed in this way ^^....
I find the LFG window EXTREMELY useful for forming pick-up groups... Except the problem, is, it's the same five people using it every time. Maybe if it was more well-known, it'd have better results. Also, I believe I am one of the few people on my entire server that actually uses the Group LFM tab.
When I'm looking to join or form a group, I always use the LFG tool, but the problem is, nobody else uses it. On Blackburrow, there are almost always zero entries in the LFM window, and maybe 4-5 people in the LFG window - who tend to stay there for hours at a time. Meanwhile, everyone else is spamming "LFG" or "LFM" in level chat while not having their flags up. I have NEVER found a group to join by looking in LFM. If I'm starting a group, I invite my friends and guildies, look through LFG to see if there's anyone I can bring in (if I'm very lucky, I'll get one), and then set up LFM and start spamming level chat. It's unfortunate that this is the only way to form pickup groups, because 70-79 chat is an absolute garbage channel full of squawking little children. If I'm not specifically looking for a group, I keep it off. I think the functionality of the LFG tool is great and pretty well implemented, although the "roles I can play" checkboxes are kind of redundant - I guess it might be helpful to brand-new players who don't understand the classes yet, but everyone else knows what classes can do what, and aren't going to invite a wizard to heal them regardless of whether they have the box checked or not. The only problem with the tool is that no one pays attention to it, and I don't know how you can solve that problem. The community is defeating itself.
Calthine wrote: I have a level 80 carpenter. I've spent hours with my LFW tag up and rarely if ever get a tell asking for stuff to be made.
Global chat channels make this utility choke. I think if there was transportation incentives it might be used more, but I can also see that becoming exploited way too quickly.
I use the chat channels if i'm LFG. If i'm hard up i'll throw on the LFG tag too but no one ever uses it to find people to my knowledge. Maybe some sort of ability to set LFG on an alt from a diff character? That way it doesn't tie all your alts to your account (for those afraid of their alts being known) unless you want them to be. Open up the window, check off the alts you're willing to group on, the role you're wanting to fill with said alt, put a little description in maybe and continue on your business with the toon you're messing around on while LFG with an alt.
Rothgar wrote: I'd like to see LFM on the heads of all group members, when group leader sets group as looking for more. When you are in a dungeon like COA it would be helpful if people just sticking their heads in the door could see at a glance that the gang hanging out at the door just wiped and is LFM.
my only problem with Eq2 is LFG atm is SO HARD to find a group nowadays....and this window doesnt help me at all.... 1-79 is a ghost town? no really there are plenty of ppl around a lot of the wanna group, but forming groups isnt an easy task... -CHANNELS ....why so many channels? why dont create a looking for group channel? so ppl will advertise there... i have many alts in all the lvls 20 30 50 , 70 , and 80.....if i am in my 30 defiler i cant "check" if in 70-79 there is a group going on for the DD ..... my solution : Create a LFG channel LFG window and this channel needs to be linked ....if some 1 puts a 45 Guardian LFG , automatically will update in LFG window.... LET me put all my chars to LFG!!!! , i hate to solo , if i can get a group for my defiler , ranger or shadowknight i will happy change char and join the group... i usally log on my 80 so i can access all the chanells (lame ~~) while playing an low alt i am wondering hell maybe is some lvl 80 group going on for an instance i want...and need 1 more....but how i know? i cant.... on a side note : Give ppl a reason to group over quest (at least 1-79).....right now ppl are force to solo quest to get AAs... u get more AAs questing solo than grouping....why nameds only give AA the 1 time? encourage ppl to group , dont force them but give ppl a reason to group over solo quest...... i am tired of asking guildmates hey wanna form a group to X? nah i rather solo, need more AAs , or nah .....no1 is LFG atm , will take years to get a healer/tank....blabla
Warnix@Crushbone wrote: I'm not sure that would help anything. 70-79 chat is already a garbage dump for all moronic conversation on the server, because it's pretty close to a global chat. A single aggregated LFG channel, because of its greater scope and accessibility, would just attract all that garbage and make it even worse. That doesn't make it a bad idea, I just think it will backfire. On the other hand, maybe that will make people use 70-79 more for grouping, hehe. When World of Warcraft made the LFG channel a global channel (the only one in the game at that time), it became virtually unusable for its intended purpose. Given how sorry 70-79 is now, I can easily see that happening here, even with EQ2's lower population. I don't really have a good solution here. The tools aren't the problem, the players are.
Not sure if it was suggested or not since I'm too lazy to read the thread. It would be nice if there were checkboxes on the LFG window for your entire list of characters on that account. Obviously each one being listed separately would cause the list to grow too much and people would think 80 people were LFG at a time, blah blah blah. Instead, each account could be granted one line and, in the case of multiple characters LFG, it just lists the level and the raid symbol (green plus for healers, yellow eye for scouts, etc) with a mouseover of each listing the level and class like in the group window. Otherwise, it lists level and class regardless of which character one is on. That way, people could go doodle around on an alt instead of sitting around bored on their main waiting for a group without worrying about missing out on what they really want to do with their play time for that session.
Hey Rothgar! I had a crazy idea pop into my head yesterday about the LFG thing. Is it possible to create an auto grouping mechanic? One that puts people together to group randomly based on group balance? Could be opt-in only of course, but you could add an exp bonus for joining the group. It would encourage people to group more because no one has to do the work of putting one together, the AI will do it for them and if they take a chance and participate they can get a little bonus exp and probably meet new people that they can group with again in the future. Crazy idea I know....
Dont know if its been mentioned, but could it be done that when you tagged yourself lfg, you could specify, in the lfg window, what chat channel you want to broadcast that to as well as selecting your alts on that server and their chat channel options Ex: [ checkbox (checked) ] 80 Ranger [ enterable text ex: lfg for shard runs ] [channel 1-9] [channel 70-79] [ checkbox (checked) ] 68 Monk [ lfg hat quest update need HOF ] [channel 1-9 ] [ channel 60-69 ] [ checkbox (unchecked) ] 33 Guard [empty text window because I dont want to group with him right now ] And so on and so forth for all characters on the server. Maybe the chat channel thing could be a [+] and [-] thing. As in add channel subtract channel. So with this after doing the lfg window, say 10-30 seconds between each character to keep spam down in the channel. My current character would hit the 1-9 and 70-79 channel up with "80 Ranger lfg for shard runs" 10-30 seconds later it would then hit the 1-9 and the 60-69 with "68 monk lfg hat quest update need HOF" All using your current char name so you could recieve tells. As well as a button on the lfg window to refresh the scripted lfg notes you already made but it will have another timer so you couldnt just keep hitting it over and over annoying people in the chat windows.
I think the whole idea of an improved LFG window was to cut out the chat channel spam. That when you opened the LFG window you saw all the info you mentioned, even for alts. A request to join a group for the character they wanted would be sent to the toon you were currently playing.
pinched this one from my time On WoW. how about meeting stones for instances allow automatic grouping for anyone wanting to do an instance. obviously set-up in a way that it wont put 6 tanks or 6 healers in 1 group but will provide nice balanced groups.
I believe it would be a great idea if you redesign the whole LFG mechanic to be acting like a game server list. Only this one would be like when you make a group with someone, your group is automatically added to the list in the LFG window, with every level and class, including the bold message that automatically reads in green color "Looking for 4 more people". And then when someone looks at that list, they click the button "Join" and it will send a detail request to the group leader (level and class) and that group leader has the ability to accept or decline the person. When the group leader accepts, that person is automatically joined to the group. I think this would greatly improve the usage of LFG window for everybody...
Ylis wrote: You don't need EQ2players to send tells to alts, all you need to do is use the new Launchpad and it's "Friends Network" if any of your friends log in on any of thier toons, and they did not go annon in the Launchpad Setting, you will get notified that they logged on(under the name of the person you /friend(ed) not thier current toon name.
Going out on a limb here... Since there are more elitest groups on Antonia Bayle, most commonly by those that use the word "suck" every fifth word, there is discrimination when looking for groups; the segragation of those with mythicals versus those that don't have the real word funds/time/or oddles of platinum to purchase their mythical updates. So on that note, could you add [ ] boxes to the LFG window, that has something like [ ] Fabled Epic [ ] Mythical Epic [ ] Epic Progression [ ] Mythical Progression This would note whether a player has what, is open for progression, and what groups/raids would be looking for as well.
My feedback. When I am flagging myself as "Looking for a group": 1. Let me specify LFG for any of the toons on my account. That way, when I'm on my Druid I can specify I am looking for a group for my Druid, my Mystic, my Illusionist, etc. All of those toons should show up as LFG but marked as "Offline (please contact XXXX)" (where XXXX is the name of the character I currently have online). When any of my character's actually join a group prompt me "Would you like to turn off LFG on all of the characters on this account now?" [Yes|No] 1a. Automatically turn off LFG for all of my characters if I am logged out of the game for longer than 10 mins. Until then, mark them as "Temporarily unavailable". 2. Allow me to have toons that are still flagged as LFG even if I am grouped on a character. Sometimes, I do stuff like invite a friend for a chat, invite someone to tradeskill for them, or otherwise just briefly help someone out for a few mins. I don't want to have to remember to re-establish LFG everytime. This ties back to the last part of #1 above. 3. Let me specify a freeform note next to the name of my toons that are LFG. That way I can denote that my Druid is looking for a Tier 3 TSO instance (eg. Palace of Fezhoul, Ravenscale, etc) and my Illusionist wants to hit up Poets Palace, Sol Eye, or a Tier 1 TSO instance. Or put any other stuff in there I want people to know. 4. "Role" is pointless really if you implement #3 above. Most people that have been playing more than a couple of months are aware of what a given class's primary and secondary roles are. For the rare exceptions to these just use a note. Examples: If you are a tank class that doesnt want to tank then just put "No tanking, will pickup adds if needed, good DPS" in your note. If your a DPS specced healer and you just want to DPS then put "Prefer backup healer/DPS role" in your note. 5. Allow people to INSPECT any of the toons I have put LFG up for. Even if that toon is offline. 6. Allow any of my anonymous/roleplaying characters to show up for other people in the LFG tool 7. Display a history tab for characters I have grouped with in the last 4-6 months. Display: Name, Class, Level. Allow me to put a note against each one (eg. "Alt of XXXX", "Good player!" or "Beware of grouping. Was constantly AFK"). This will help me track who i have grouped in the past and is useful for all kinds of reasons. 8. Allow me to add/remove characters to a "Favorites" list. This denotes that they are not necessarily a "Friend" per se but someone I would want to group with again. When I am searching for characters that are looking for a group: 1. Obviously allow me to search by class (checkboxes if i want to include multiple), level range, etc. The usual search parameters. You know the score. 2. Put characters on my friends or favorites list at the top of the results by default. 3. Show anonymous/roleplaying characters. Or disable those flags when they go LFG. Seriously, if your LFG and your anonymous then you should have your head examined anyway. People will want to know your class/level at a minimum. 4. Allow me to INSPECT any character that is LFG. Even if offline. 5. Let me see the current status of everyone in the search results. eg. Grouped, Offline (please contact XXXX), Temporarily Unavailable, etc. Plus any notes they have specified -- truncate in the search results and allow me to click a button to open the full note. Also let me see their guild-tag and current zone. When I am advertising that my group is looking for more: 1. I want to be able to specify specific classes, the overall level range and a freeform note to describe what we are doing or will be doing and the type of player i am after, etc. 2. When the group is full automatically remove the LFM entry from any/all search results people have open 3. Allow people viewing my LFM entry to see who the contact is, who is currently in the group (allow them to INSPECT also), who the current group leader is and which zone the group members are currently in. Also the details I specified in #1 above 4. Not sure if the command already exists or not but /lfm would be a nice shortcut to this window Even with all that functionality you still have to convince people to actually use the tool. That will be the challenging part. To accomplish that you'll have to make it feature-rich, easy to use (allow "basic" and "advanced" views) and overall give people incentives to use it vs just using the chat channels.
Originally I thought an improved mechanic to the LFG would be helpful but honestly, its the path of least resistance. Channel 1-9 has become the "GENERAL" chat channel because everyone gets it regardless of which toon you are playing on. Typing or even having a macro: Level 80 conj/guard/fury/warden/ill/coercer LFG, PST takes 1 button push. Configuring a LFG window with all that information each time you want to do something takes infinitely longer and so does consuming the information from the mechanic. This becomes more pronounced on servers with lower populations where you cant be as choosey about the things you want to do or where you want to go if a group is really what you want. Just something to consider as well.
