"Looking For Group" Feature Suggestions

Whatever Db it links to..I don't care. As long as you can review available players.

Instead of showing stats, an alternative might be to show notable achievements.

Name of the highest level creature defeated along with its level - while solo
Name of the highest level creature defeated along with its level - while grouped
Name of the highest level creature defeated along with its level - while in a raid

Or perhaps, you may look at their titles. If the titles were grouped well, and easy to browse, it might be a quick way to decide to send an invite. Maybe group titles into categories with a "+" next to them to expand each category one at a time. (maybe toggle the expanded category rather than being able to expand them all at once. I am sure there are many titles)

Something along those lines. I know there are achievements given in the game. Maybe the LFG tool can allow players to choose 1 - 5 achievements and/or titles to display, or highlight, with the ability to browse into their titles and achievements further.

edit: Also perhaps the number of quests completed. Number of titles/achievements. There are probably a few numerical values like these that would quickly allow players to assess a player. Perhaps better than stats could do. (If it is what players want to do)

perma toggle on/off whenever going online for the group LFM/LFG feature please

The LFG tool as it stands, is meh at best. It is useless because no one uses it. All it does is tell people that players are looking to join a group or are looking for more in a group. Chat channels accomplish this much easier. The dungeon finder, on the other hand, is just bad. But I believe if we merge these together, and give it the ability to form a functional group (no one wants to see half a group of the same class, or half a group where the others went AFK and forgot they were lfg because it took so long) it could stand a chance. It should come with something where you select what content you are running, and the internal algorithm would compare the stat requirements to the stats of those wishing to join, and let them know if it is a match or not. That being said, I think gear progression needs to be fixed in order for this to work. Needing the gear that drops in the dungeons you want to run is counterintuitive. As you work through dungeons and get gear from them, your stats should naturally unlock more dungeons. And I feel a limited number of loot bags would offer great incentive to run these dungeons, provided the loot is actually useable by the class that loots it (nothing sucks more than busting your rump in a dungeon to get a piece of gear that is an upgrade... for someone else). That's my 2 cents on it

Not sure if you're even still reading this OP but I doubt a LFG feature would ever work as efficiently as, say, duty finder in FFXIV. There are just too many stats and they are all at the mercy of player input.

Grouping is the most frustrating feature of eq2. Because of the lack of grouping tools, the player base enforces strict stat discrimination in the choice of team players in the open channels, even beyond what is necessary for the successful completion of dungeons. If your resolve or pot is deemed insufficient, you will not be selected, period, even if the class doesn't matter and you meet minimum requirements. If you actually get into a group, the actual dungeon crawl is horrible and frustrating. The group runs from boss to boss, no tanks needed, BMs, Necros, Conjurers blow up everything. Bosses last 5 seconds, 10 seconds tops. run, boom, loot, run, boom, loot. someone on the team is always a dps bean counter, and you will literally be booted from the group if your dps is deemed insufficient, even if everything is blowing up in seconds, which they will demonstrate to you in a f'in spreadsheet. Grouping is the worst experience in eq2.

Sorry you have had this experience Ahoescht - to be fair EQ2 established one of the more complex but fulfilling stat array in MMO gaming. So much so, that things like the FF14 duty finder would cry at trying to put people together. This great achievement is also a torn in people's side when trying to PuG (pick up group). You really are at the mercy of those making the group of what they want and do not want. Even with stat consolidation and simplification, our system is still more complex than many.

At this point in the expac, yes, much grouping with established players is the run, kill, loot, repeat method because characters are overgeared. The beginning of expacs you have a more traditional dungeon crawl. Now, in a lot of cases, you do not even need a tank.

However, there are many people who would bring along any player at any level because the rest of the party is overgeared. I would try and find these groups of people on your server, and have a good time plowing through zones, and getting ready for the expac.

I disagree with some of this. My group doesn't "blow things up in 10 seconds". Until you hit 120, grouping has so far been a great experience, especially since I hate questing.

I do understand where you're coming from. Everyone is always strict on stats so you don't get blown up.
As a Mystic, I'm not even going to get on the parse (currently I do 20k in offensive stance at level 95) and if the mob dies in 0.0000001 seconds, I'm useless.

Dead mob = Can't hurt you = no healer or tank needed

So yes, I'm not surprised that you said grouping is considered "the worst experience", especially at 120. I know several people who have complained in the same way, saying that they were told they were doing "absolutely nothing".

I think i used it once or twice when it first came out and like many other features that were just not implemented correctly, it died out very quickly. I have been playing the game for 16 years now and not once felt the need to have like that. More so now then ever before. Why you might ask? I just don't want to run with groups that are so far beneath me in power that i'd rather not group at all. Then you have the glaring issue of low population on the server, we have trouble finding groups as it is whilst broadcasting in channels so the only thing that would happen with a "LFG" system is that search is automated. Essentially sit in queue and then wait. This means to have any sort of a working solution, you will need to make this all servers.

Then you come to the issue of scaling of content and people gear. The only way to make this as a fun lfg experience would then be is to have the power buff for everyone in the group and equalize all stats. So you could be twice as powerful as the other player but when you use the LFG tool all stats are normalised and you play at the same level. Now the obvious issue with that is why on earth anybody who has high stats would willingly want to be in a group where there stats are lowered and the zone completion takes a lot longer if they were to form a group on their own. So you see, its not the LFG tool that is needed, you need to fix a lot of things wrong in the game.

This leads me on to the final point. Is it all needed in the game at this stage? When so many players for years have been pouring their heart out regarding the game balance and the pay to win mechanics obliterating whatever worth doing is left in the game. Should not the resources/time be spent to address that?

Working on drawing a format at the moment that hopefully the devs can take a look at.
Actually, it’s very similar to the guild finder feature so they could probably implement it easily.

Looking at the guild finder, just a simple page with the leaders name, icons for what the guild is currently looking for (healers, damage, tanks), a small message visible giving a short description, and a button to click to send a notification to the leader signalling that your interested. Apply this exact same system to a group finder tool.
I don’t have the time to create a full visual format for this idea but you get the picture. Using the LFG tab is outdated and it’s shocking daybreak hasn’t come up with any substitute official. The format you presented is the best option so far, it’s just a little too in depth, maybe downsize the options to just one, a resolve requirement to apply. Simplified and easy to read.

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):
For either LFG or DF to work, there must be focus on "key stats" (i.e. HP/Res/Pot) and basic group composition (X number of tanks/healers/dps needed for a group).

I believe I used LFG in the first couple/few years of the game, but not often to a great degree of success. Now, in say the past decade, no. I believe I am of like mind with most other players in saying that "I know no one else uses LFG so why should I bother." A self-fulfilling prophecy to be sure, but it is as it is.

As others in this thread have called out, people have LONG since been picky for seeing certain stats in anyone that they would invite to their group, and if they don't have those stats, they fairly quickly get booted from the group. Sadly this is out of necessity, as the numbers in this game have long since gotten rediculously high, to the point that success in an instance is almost all about the stats.

I really like the suggested idea that the LFG window displays certain key stats, such as HP, Resolve, and Potency, as these seem to be a continuing theme as key things that people look at in deciding whether you're worth their time. Incidentally, this kind of behavior is exactly why I pretty much dropped out of trying to do Heroic content over the past few years and now mainly do solo and crafting content alone. If LFG and/or DF were fixed to the point of useful, I might just give that a go again. Not holding my breath on it though. As it stands now, if i feel like running in a group dungeon or two, I can go do that in FFXIV.

I saw that someone else did post a screenshot of FFXIV's Party Finder, showing for example how many of each major role (tank/heal/dps) have been asked for / filled in the group thus far. Agree, this is a good reference.

I know this thread asked for LFG only, but going to go on to suggest a bit about DF as well anyway, as it is VERY closely related to LFG. Here are some key things DF needs to succeed:

• Group composition: Your basic group HAS to consist of 1 tank, 1 healer, and then fill out the rest with DPS -- if a group wants to form a different makeup, they can form the group themselves.
• Full group or bust: DF should not start a group until a FULL group is assembled (do not start people on a zone on just 3 group members and hope that others queue up to join them, that does not work).
• Some classes can effectively serve either of two different roles -- for example, I've often seen arguments about monk/bruiser being a tank vs being DPS. Possibly, allow these classes to select which role they are queuing as, so if they know they are not setup as a tank, they don't get treated as one by the DF (but, if they DO believe they are capable of tanking, then they can do so). This is a behavior that is employed in WOW.
• Establish minimum stats for each instance to be able to queue for that instance in DF. For example, to queue for ABC instance you have to have X Resolve and Y Potency to even queue for that instance. FFXIV (and I think WOW as well?) accomplished this by having "item levels", and some instances required X average item level to queue for, but since we do not have this, I think minimum key stats would be the next best thing. Again, this would be a thing where you could manually form a group with any stats you want, but if you want to queue using the DF feature then you must meet minimums.

After looking at the feedback, I tried to make a mock up that is ?maybe? better.

LFG Window


LFM Window

Tried it once and had better luck using the LFG chat channel.

Is there going to be a
"Looking For Tradeskill/Crafting Suggestions


Not about the tradeskill windows, about the entire tradeskill class/feature itself?

I don't use it. LFG channel is where I believe most people fill groups to do things.

personally I really WISH EQ2 had adopted or improved upon the WILDLY successful grouping systems like FFXIV and WoW. These systems penalize deserters. Additionally in FFXIV they also have system to vote up best player of the run, which is excellent! People strive for that.

And lets be real the numbers don't lie. EQ2 is withering on the vine. WOW and FFXIV have massive subscriber numbers which then equates to $$$ and profitability. Happier players and drawing new players = more $$ for daybreak. which means more capability to staff which means more content. Win/Win.

To summarize ... EQ2 systems like /LFG shouting for groups is yesterdays way to play, busy people don't want to sit around shouting for groups... Its old, out dated and a dinosaur way of forming casual and temporary groups.

Since this thread was started like a year ago and has no further input from the dev who started it, how about just unpinning it and putting it out of its misery.

I use it occasionally. Usually when forming or looking for raid groups, for PQs or overlands. When the PQs dry up after an expansion has been out a while, the utility really drops off. And it's because of the raider stat requirements. Most people advertise in chat channels for specific fillers for their heroic groups.

I personally haven't really used the LFG feature, I've tried on occasions but to no avail, I believe the main reason it hasn't been successful is purely because not enough people use it ( if any ) , people generally would prefer to group with guild members and friends over random folk. this was even the case when the servers were more populated than they are currently. I personally think the only was the LFG system would actually be used if it offered something which couldn't be attained without using it, such as cross server grouping for instances. if this is possible...? I don't know.
That's my thoughts on this anyways.

One of the reasons I stopped seeking a lot of social activity in MMOs is the assumption that if you're online you want to group. LFG could be a great way to flag that in a yes/no way. But somehow it didn't lead to a social agreement that some people were busy. So what happens is, people use AFK when they're busy, or doing a questline, or holiday event. Maybe a timer would help? Busy (until 6pm EST)? Or it would help if people could just email each other even if they're f2p, sending someone a note is less intrusive and less abusive, because if you abuse someone in an email, there's something to trace that's easy to report.

There have been many iterations of LFG / Dungeon Finder / Neverwinterlike joining of dungeons already in progress. To me, the main issue is time. If I agree to join a group, and they repeatedly fail on the same mob, it's frequent, especially in a raid guild, to expect everyone to stay and hammer at it like lemmings with a cliff. Then you have to make up a phony excuse and log out. If you had planned to go to Frostfell later, now you have to use an alt outside your raid guild. Or you'll have some whining to put up with later.

Max tries on a mob would encourage me to join more groups. Max 8 tries in 72 hours then it's unattackable to you. Idk. That was the most dumb part of being in a raid guild to me. the "hammerhead bob" mentality. Get over it, go have some fun, it's a game.

Whenever I think about grouping with people I fear getting stuck on some dumb mob they can't kill and want you to fail on it with them endlessly.

Is there a name for that kind of trolling? Seems like there should be.