"Looking For Group" Feature Suggestions

Hi everyone,

I’m one of the engineers on the team, and the team and I wanted to get your feedback on a certain feature of the game. Specifically, the Looking for Group (LFG) feature.

Some questions you can ask yourself are:

• Do you use the LFG feature? If so, how often?
• Is the user interface confusing or straightforward? What changes would you make to it?
• Are there any features you don’t like when using LFG? Are there features you’d like to see added to LFG?
• Is the LFG window easy to find?

We may be asking for feedback with other systems in the future, so please keep your feedback and suggestions limited to the LFG feature. Also note, not all suggestions will be implemented into the game, and remember to keep in mind technical limitations and scope of work to accomplish such suggestions. Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions you’re willing to give! The team and I value all of your feedback.

- Thordalf

I have never used the feature.

First a possible stealth fix pushed to Test and now this? I think you're my new favorite, and I might just love you.

To the question at hand:

• I don't use the feature. I've opened it a few times, but nothing sticks out to me (either positive or negative). I think this is partly because of hearsay revolving around "oh, no-one uses that. Just go do agnostics to level." There is definitely more of an emphasis on soloing/moloing/baubling your way to 110, then find a "good" guild, and do heroics/raid until you burn out. (my opinion, other's mileage may vary)
• If a revamp made it useful to find groups, I'd probably use it. My playtime is very erratic due to work / kids, and having something like the duty-finder in FFXIV would be awesome and allow me to experience some of the heroic type content I haven't seen yet.

Hope that helps, and thanks for reaching out!

If you guys did what you said you would with the Dungeon Finder tool being cross server LFG may be viable again, but now it is fairly useless.

I have used it in the past, but not so much the last couple of expansions. Most use the LFG channel in game.

Have used it a handful of times in the past but probably only got a group once or twice and some players would drop upon seeing the makeup of the group/players stats etc. To the best of my knowledge no one really uses it at the moment due to the negative publicity it's received. I would love to see people using it again and it being a viable tool for grouping. Perhaps a way to ensure players are are reasonably close in stats, a small reward for grouping through LFG or filling your group through LFG (reward upon zone completion).
As Giga said cross server would be awesome.

Do you mean the dungeon finder?

If so, the big problem it had was that it wasn't intelligently building groups. You need a tank who can hold aggro, a healer who can single-heal the group, and a DPS. If possible you want a bard and chanter, and one more. But the various people ALSO need to meet the minimum Resolution and Potency for the selected zone. If they don't, it's not really a group, it's an exercise in frustration and ends up with people saying, "Oh HECK NO!" and dropping group.

Right now, people ask for group in the LFG channel. Just asking is relatively ineffective. You do better if you say "Group forming for {instance}, need X more, PST!"

The big sticking point for BoL groups is the relative scarcity of tanks.

I just don't get it...

Why flog a dead horse?
I have not seen a flurry of posts of players wanting or needing this feature.

Very few use it tht I know of, but I am just one player.

PUG seem to fall apart easily because they are usually unbalanced
(ever see an all mage group, they usually leave group)
and players feel a lack of trust of abilities of other untested players in group.

If we want/need groups, they are formed in open chat currently.

Please use dev time on other projects...like
1. Play testing programming before released to live to lessen breaking things and causing more required fixes
2. Updating the veteran rewards to show players that stick around are appreciated.
3. Update the HQ merchant to bring rewards for TLE play to be on level with current max level
4. Update the City raids.. they are already set up and languishing away.
5. New HQ
6. Update tinker blueprints//items to make higher levels of lesser tink items

You know, things that would be easy to set up and positively affect game play

1cp 1cp
Tappit

Thordalf, the main issue isn't the interface of the LFG window in my opinion. I am mostly a Solo player but I would still like to see this implemented if I ever have the power to do heroics.

The difficulties start with players have enough of X or Y stat to actually run the zone (Potency, Resolve, etc.) So as it is now people can use the feature and get placed into a group that is less than ideal (or straight up ill suited) for running a group zone. The majority of the higher-end players are not willing to go without an almost ideal group to save time and run more zones.

How do you solve this? Integrate certain stat minimums that display before you are able to actually use the tool to LFG, based on level. I understand below 120 this would be less of an issue but at max level it very much is an issue. There has to be some way of gating access to LFG for BoL zones based on Resolve and Potency requirements, maybe other stats I am unaware of.

My two cents.

I've used this feature about maybe twice over 13 years and it was at the start of my playing and even then I don't think I found a group. I did use dungeon finder when it came out to also test the waters and it was a pretty poor experience with unbalanced groups and unbalanced player gear/power levels.

I don't see this feature ever working in the current state of the game and the playerbase tending to stick to grouping with people they know. The few times I have seen posts in general/lfg this expansion has been groups midway through the dungeon and seeking a replacement.

If the system is going to work at all the UI for it should probably be consolidated into not having a LFM and LFG tab like it currently does. The roles system it has now is almost worthless as most heroic instances if not all have no need for a secondary tank or secondary healer role so consolidating that or removing it so you can just filter by classes/archetype might help. One feature that is almost a requirement is a resolve filter so you can set what resolve a person must be at to apply to the group or what you are looking for.

Edit: Also thinking on it a bit more. Most players in this day don't run dungeons for specific drops but to complete the daily and weeklies. The ability to add current content daily/weekly goals to the search might be nice as well as a reward for using LFG to complete the set of dungeons.

Just turned it on today for experimentation.

Automatically cancelled when summoning a merc to the party so I imagine that is a major reason why it hasn't seen use in recent years.

few things to make this great again is to have a listing that has the group application information of whats wanted and a list of players listed that queue to be picked for these groups.

Group application Customization

• Range of stats for what groups want (potency, resolve, fervor,etc)
• Specific classes wanted, ascension type wanted
• Custom notes for things like zone requirements or special gear/items that could be to alert group seeker of certain things.
• Type of group event (heroic dungeon,raid, quest, expert dungeon, overland,etc)
• Maybe zones you will be doing or types of zones based on xpac ( luclin: heroics, kunark: raid) could be xpac then type of zone as two drop down menus [xpac] [zone type]
• Type of loot settings with maybe custom note for things like shinies (ex: 1 per group member)
• Current players in group and amount of players needed

Player group profile

• name
• stats(potency fervor,etc)
• resolve
• type of xpac:zone wanted
• custom notes

It honestly just needs to be a listing for both player and group seeking players as to info. All it would do is list people wanting a group with their info and have a listing for the group of what they want for players to join the group. The group leader could just scroll through the lfg sector of quend players and hit invite or players quend could click a request invite on a group event profile which would alert group leader of them and their info. Maybe even have filters for player listings for min stats or resolve etc for group member seeker.

I've never used it and its a good bet I never will. I typically run only with guildies, friends, raid alliance members or I solo.

I really wish a robust LFG capability were available and that people used it, but I think most players are like Raff.... they'll stick with their guildies, friends, raid alliance members, or they'll solo.

As for me, I'm a casual player, and our casual guild members cannot survive heroic content (even with a full group of experienced players) with the current expansion... or even the prior one. If casual players are the target audience for an LFG feature, the game needs to get back to the point a pickup group has a reasonable chance to survive the heroic zones (in the current content). Those that are advanced in their gear and gameplay already have their groups and aren't looking to pick up players like me through an LFG feature.

I submitted a Design Document to Kander in 2014 on this. My suggestions would improve Dungeon Finder to consider survivability stats and add a Group Builder feature.

The current Dungeon Finder does not do a good job matching player survivability to content. It also disregards Alts. Players are almost never logged in on their main character but instead logged into an alt performing all manner of housekeeping and managing their inventory, adornments, infusing, overseers, mercenaries, and all other forms of progression.

When Dungeon Finder first came out, thousands of players enthusiastically tried it in the first week. Then it was quickly abandoned as people got slaughtered in mismatched groups where top geared players were matched with folks in handcrafted gear. Groups with 3 wizards and no tank were common. When Dungeon Finder came out, character level was the only attribute considered. As we know, even within one level ie. 90, 100 and 110, there can be a gap of as much as 40 times player power difference from one player to another. Dungeon Finder will let players group with as much as a 10 level range. It's highly popular for level 1-70 content and not used at all for anything higher than that.

Group Builder would take Dungeon Finder and put the tools into the hands of a motivated player. Anyone could browse through players who are logged in (and their alts) and assemble a group based on their class and seeing some of their survivability stats (potency, resolve, etc.) to make decisions on the strongest group possible for specific zones.

I wrote an article in 2011 (!!) called 10 Ways to Save Dungeon Finder and other than some terminology being obsolete -- Critical Mitigation got replaced with Resolve, Dynamic Dungeons went the way of the dodo. and Velious is obviously not the current expansion, I think it still rings true today.

There was a time when just about any 6 players could jump into an EQ2 dungeon and have some modicum of success. This hasn't been true for a long time. Starting with The Shadow Odyssey and firmly established in Destiny of Velious, group content in EQ2 is essentially a six-person raid. Survivability gear is absolutely essential. Without specific classes, healer choices, stances, adornments, ascension abilities, infusions, etc. group content is either a not-fun multi-hour slog, or just not possible.

Any improved Dungeon Finder / Group Builder must take the current state of the game into account and provide us with the tools to build groups that can actually succeed. The LFG/Dungeon Finder system built into the game hasn't been updated to reflect that EQ2 hasn't added content which "any 6 players can do" in like 11 years.

This x1000.

Imo if you want a succesful dungeon maker/LFG tool, it should be built around filling a group with a consistent setup (E.G 1 Tank, 2 Healers, 1 DPS, 1 Bard, 1 Chanter). Without enforcing some form of group setups, people will get badly set up groups and never use the tool again. [Or the other approach and dumb down a lot zones to a level that 1 tank, 1 healer + 4 others can clear it].

The other thing that you'll need to seriously consider, is that you'll likely need people to be flexible and play Alts, as there is a large imbalance of classes (Less Bards/Chanters/Tanks etc.) Having the LFG window be able to allow you to list alts etc. is fine, but making the game more alt friendly as a whole would be essential for that.

You may also want to consider bonuses for using the LFG/Dungeon Finder tool. There is going to be a risk using it generally vs setting up your own group manually. So award bonus missions for using it or something.

Ill like to provide some feedback on what I see is needed for people in EQ2 to even use such a tool in 2020. A lot of players have been asking for a LFG tool like you see in other games.

1) I think 1 player out of 1000 would ever use the tool for anything overworld related. So this has to be a heroic group thing.
2) Cross server. Population is so tiny it makes zero sense to make this server specific.
3) Auto port people inside the dungeon once a group has been assembled.
4) Gear check. Resolve, POT, CB, Fervor, ability tier checks for each difficulty.
5) Unique rewards is a must. A "PUG" bag with house items, chance for strong gear, spell upgrades, mounts, extra currency etc.
6) Make an additional tab where you can list your characters current strenght and either LFG/LFM for challenge modes. This should not be automated and should not port people inside the dungeon once the group is filled.

I feel like if all 4 isnt there, this would be beating a dead horse. There just is not enough players that use or would use the tool for leveling to be worth investing any amount of hours into it and its not required to ever group up.

Feldons write up is excellent.

I'm going to echo what others have said. It's going to be difficult to build a tool that is useful to players within the current game.

First, in addition to the screening and flagging tools already in place, you'll need to enable the group leader a way to screen potential group members before they are added to the group and give them the ability to accept or decline them.

For example, Gillymann pops up to the group leader as a potential member, and in addition to class, critical stats like pot, resolve, health (or whatever gating stats are the flavor of the moment) etc are right there for the group leader to review so they can make a decision.

Secondly, and I say this with respect and appreciation for posting the feedback request, a project like this is probably about 10 years too late. Given existing server populations, the only way I can see this working is if it's a cross-server solution.

And lastly, even if you guys come up with a slick new system, you're gonna have to incentivize people to use it, at least for a bit.

All that being said, I appreciate you guys asking for our thoughts

I don't see this ever working as players who want the reward will just queue at the same time as friends and manipulate the system.