How would you like to group up?

Variety being the spice of life it seems that providing the most options possible would be an ideal scenario.

You will have people agree and differ on everything. Why not try to provide as many choices as you can.
Have a LFGroup LFRaid channel for people seeking a social experience.
Have a Call to Arms type selector for random mixing possibly with options of travel or porting. Quest objectives or just completion.

Having content variety is great too like those scenarios in world of warcraft that don't require class specific roles to go along with standard dungeon make ups. Flexible content for different raid sizes.

If forcing people to travel to content is what you want then at least set caps like you have to travel there at least once. Or some kind of achievement set to open up teleportation/portals.

I would suggest making a whiteboard of all the possible different things players could want from a topic. Narrow down the choices by removing the ridiculous ones, while combining others. Then create an interface that predefines the choices. And then tell the player if their choices are causing wait times or lack of group formations. And suggest specific removal of choices to better form groups. So if someone picks all the choices and isn't getting groups then they can know what is slowing them down.

For me the lack of options and being shoe-horned into someone else's idea of fun is what kills my fun.
It would take a lot of work to provide so much variety but isn't the point to provide an amazing experience for players not taking the easiest way out?

Open world events that only require participation rather than "tagging" or "grouping" seems to me to be a great way to get people to feel apart of the game.

A heavy concentration on world events that provide rewards based on your roles participation is a good way to support progression without dungeons and instanced events.

I have always loved the idea of PC games with Modding communities. Where Modders can create game content. It expands the game without the makers having to invest time and effort.

Seems some smart people could create a content creator thing that allows players to create content. There would need to be reward limitations or guides to avoid cheating I suppose. But some brain-storming in this direction seems like it could bear fruit.

Maybe place the creator on a PTR where it could get some beta runs and be voted on. With the best ones being added into the Game similar to the way Landmark is sandboxing items into Next.


This is all in reference to dungeons, world events, quest lines, or even raids.

My reply button is working

But seriously ... you have given a fresh perspective to the side of not wanting more convevience ... If you had read all those pages you would realize that ... but maybe it was better that you didnt?

I guess my point I was trying to say with my short awnser was ... people need to stop comming up with reasons why not to do stuff (negative) And be more constructive thinking of new ways to do stuff.
If EQ original is the model .... then go play it. But a next 2 generation game does not need to be hindered by those constraints.

Honestly I didnt like the new versions of D&D they came out with either .... but I cant find anybody that wants to play the original rule set.

I seem to align with the majority response on this one. Give us the option to form premade groups or stick ourselves in a random group selector thing. Also, a recent trend in games (more in Guild Wars 2 but less in Wildstar) was Dynamic or Public questing. Guild Wars 2 done plenty of things right and wrong, but the Dynamic Quests were one of the things it done right. It had the concept but it didn't go indepth as it should have.

Expand on the Dynamic Events/Public Questing. This could be magnificent to stage the Emergent AI in. Plus, having open "Jump in and help!" types of events fuel a more sandbox feel than running from hub to hub with people's ! above thei--actually, they already said they would NOT use the ! quests in the Lore panel. So if anything, they would be using a modified and improved form of Dynamic Events anyway!

So yeah, just give us options.

Still No reply *cry*

Anyway, I do still play eq1, Project 1999 baby, and after all the games I have played, it's the only one that has any real sticking power. Other then eq1, DAoC and Wow, I have never played any other game more then a year. To me that shows that most of the MMO's out now, don't have the immersion to keep me playing. Of course this part is all subjective.

Anyway, my point is not to be negative and I don't think I was being negative but trying to make the point that the "constraints" of the patriarch of this IP actually had purpose and aren't necessarily constraints. I don't know about you Mktavish but every game I have played that had a dungeon/group finder made the game instant dungeon crawls, which, IMHO, takes away from the community aspect which this team professes to love.

Not to mention the amount of interaction between the people in these instance groups, again from my experience, turns into, "GO GO GO GO", and then when the objectives are complete, everyone disbands. There's no talking and getting to know the people that your playing with.

All I am trying to do is allow the Dev's to look at some things that have worked in the past and not discount them because, "they're old" or because they wanna be the next huge game that EVERYONE loves. IMO, be the next best EQ game, not the next best ThemePark.

*edit* I am trying to actually read the whole thread, but gotta get some work done too, lol

like eq's faction system...that has been largely ignored for what... 15 years.

Keep reading then ... will get back to ya

But untill that point ... you can take your opinion and "Cramit"

Im sorry I overlooked your astute posts ... your opinion is what we need more of around here.

The options in the question were too limiting for me, so I'll admit I didn't answer it. Personally, the most fun I ever had was pickup groups in the early days of EQ. Even hanging around the entrance to lower Guk and partying while waiting for an opening in a group was fun. I still have friends from those experiences. There were some crazy group combos and occasionally a group that just didn't mesh, but I loved the unpredictability of it all. I also loved that the servers were worldwide servers and I often would meet people from around the world in the game. Over the years, I've actually traveled in real-life to other countries and met up with a few.

I know I'm in the minority, but I really find the need for an optimimum group to take everything down with 100% guarentee with minimal effort, and where someone's researched exactly what the entire encounter is going to be like rather boring.

To be fair, the matching system is an efficient method to create groups to run party-sized content but that's all it is. It sidesteps a large amount of community interaction and bond-creation (or garnering of notoriety) that is a positive byproduct of grouping for content. Quick to gather is just as likely to be quick to disperse without really giving a thought to whom you were with and only considering the goal-oriented aspects of why you grouped maybe with a bad aftertaste of That Guy. Automatic-matching tools are the white bread of LFG, filling but ultimately lacking the additions that lead to long-term health in a community. For all the good that an auto-LFG tool does it is a double-sided blade with negative-side noticeably the sharper IMO.

Traditional, soft tools are the best way for players to interact on the whole without an unneeded layer of software abstraction to put barriers between them as much as it would appear to tear them down.

Are there going to be a way to track questing with people in your group like when your questing with friends and you pick up a quest that they do not have will they also start the quest when you kill the first goblin that is part of that quest or maybe there should be a box asking if they would like to start that quest that you picked up.... I would love to see that in Everquest Next...

Which is WHY they like matchmaking systems. Good for their immediate "fix," bad for the game and its longevity.

I will never, till the day I die, get a twitter account. Not getting into why. So basically, IMO, if they lean on that in the game development, then I feel as if I will be ripped off when I buy the game. I paid for the game, I shouldn't be hobbled because of a THIRD PARTY outside factor. IMO.

I really didn't like the options in the poll: I love mechanics similar to the "public quests" in WH or GW2 that make it effortless for people already in proximity to group or to at least share credit, but i loathe those like "dungeon/raid find" in wow that dehumanizes the players, nurture trolls and trivializes the open world.

I did skim the thread a little (sorry, best i could do right now), so i know there are more people who share this view...

So i vote for "a more comprehensive poll, please".

Group and Sinlge play could also benefit from a player driven - sliding scale for Death Penalties, which can be adjusted only at specific times (eg. not in combat)

Simply put:
Low/Mid/Deadly Penalty - increasing drop rate / gold / experience / reward .....

This would add a greater element of risk v reward without having to ramp up the difficulty of encounters.

LFG: Big Bad, Dealdy mode.

good ideas for f2p cash shop:
1)more tabs in you bank/stash
2)teach your race how to shuffle (learn shuffle dance)
3)more cosmetic items in the "barber shop" like all the current hairstyles of One Direction.
4)hello kitty backpacks
5)ichigo's hollow mask
6)stongbad's boxing gloves
7) Jenna Marble's make-up
8) Captian jack's eyeliner
9) Barney constume


I stopped reading right here. pay to travel in an EQN is a very bad thing it is pay-to-win just not with items. example: if you and i have to get to place xyz before abc happens and you pay for it and i dont, well you won and i lost and the game is just another pay to win apps from another money grubbing company. since the world in EQN is ever changing because of events travel has to be equal. the speed in which any player can access the content should not be a pay wall like "clash of clans."

Why all the ruckus about "immersion" in a video game around fast travel? why is it so EVIL to access game content faster? the whole world has ingrained in all of us "do it faster," "get it faster," "faster," so why is it bad to think people want a video game to do something faster? if you think that is a bad idea maybe ya should look at society to understand the populous. instant travel to "pvp" zones, dungeons, cities i would have to be in favor of because it seems/is less down time between fun. i play games for fun, when its no longer fun its not a game and not played. artificially forced hurdles to overcome in game is a cheap developer trick to make people play longer i.e. "dailies." create more down time and less play time. if we have 1 character to be all classes that is less down time as well. ya dont have to spend 27 days logging in and out of all you characters to find item d.

i really hope they do some great things and not just arbitrarily limit players for more money. and no matter how ya work it out people who have more time to play will always have more than people that dont.

I want the option to complete small group content with pre-formed groups or to be randomly matched up with other players.

Pretty self-explanatory. Give an option for playing with friends, but also allow people to be matched with other players if a person doesn't have any friends online, or friends at all :c

Also, what about those overconfident dudes that brute force solo a dungeon? Do you encourage such behavior or not, I wonder?

I would like more options when doing pick up groups, AA over XX drop down, Member since XX dropdown make pick up groups more selective. If I am picky then I wait in a queue longer.

I'm usually online, alone,So random group ups are fine with me.
I have, However gotten grouped up with people that are terrible at what they do. (To say the raid/party failed is an understatement.)