...no no no, I'm not talking about Party Finder [PF] or Dungeon Finder [DF] or random que with random people.
When I started playing WoW at the end of Vanilla/start of BC, there was an LFG system of sorts. It was a glorified chat channel, but basically, you could go in, select what role(s) you were able to run as, the dungeon(s) you wanted to run, and then it would place you in this list on the tool (like the /who list or player/guild list) where you would be visible on the LFG tool for the role you were and the dungeons you were wanting to run. At that point, you could go about your business or look at who else was in the list, send a /tell, and then form a party.
Basically, it was a global version of the /LFG chat spam in the capital cities for people not wanting to sit in capital cities. I remember leveling a Paladin and I would get random tells from people asking if I would be willing to heal for their party (I always did), or sometimes I'd pull up the LFG tool when I wanted to run a dungeon.
As this LFG was basically a chat channel/network system, you had to /tell people, then /invite and form the party, then walk to the dungeon entrance/use the summon stone/use a Warlock to get the party together, then go into the dungeon. It was all on the same server, so no cross-servering. And this is actually how I met a lot of my early WoW friends and got guild invites after afternoons of running dungeons. In fact, to this day, I'm not sure why people go on and on about having to "shout in cities for groups" since the tool was in place for all of BC and all of Wrath until the final patch or two.
This was in BC, so before when they added the "modern" LFG tool (and removed the old one, though I THINK they added it back later, but who would even use it at this point?) where it would randomly match you to people and port you to the dungeons, which is when I started feeling the world get a lot smaller and a lot less interesting since people began to just sit in capitals in the dungeon finder until their ques popped.
I'm curious if there are any plans for chat channels/tools to help people find other people that are wanting to run the same content. Some people instinctively say "NO!!" to everything, hence my request you actually READ THIS before replying, since what I'm talking about is pre-dungeon finder days, back when people still had to /tell, still had to /invite, still had to walk to the dungeons, and still were dealing with people on their servers.
Or will we only have /shout as our only tool for forming parties with other people on our servers to go run content?
At this point I'm doubtful this is still planned but:
Brad talked about a "Matchmaking System" that was much more than a standard LFG tool.
He wanted to encourage people to make friends, not just groups. He called it PHarmony...the EHarmony of Pantheon.
Brad said: Players are given a profile to fill in which includes not just playstyle and play time preferences but also interests, hobbies, and so forth; the idea is that the game will help introduce you to other players with similar interests and goals.
That ^ being said, there was never a plan for "teleport to dungeon" type LFG tools. It was only to help players communicate.
That might actually be interesting for building communities.
Though what I'm talking about was much more game specific. Instead of a "Yes, I want to run dungeons at all times, even once I'm max level" it was "I'm a Paladin, I can currently tank or heal, am level 43, and I would like to run the second or third Scarlet Monestary instance."
Philo is talking about this...
And to my knowladge nothing more has been said about it. They say "all systems in for Alpha" But I would expect something this elaborate would be for later expansions.... so at launch... I have no idea.
I bet @Bazgrim Knows!
Renathras said:That might actually be interesting for building communities.
Though what I'm talking about was much more game specific. Instead of a "Yes, I want to run dungeons at all times, even once I'm max level" it was "I'm a Paladin, I can currently tank or heal, am level 43, and I would like to run the second or third Scarlet Monestary instance."
That was part of it. It was a standard LFG tool included with all the matchmaking stuff. We can assume that would include where you want to group, what you want to kill, lvl, class,any required gear etc.
It was just a more advanced version of a normal LFG tool I'm sure we have all used repeatedly, with minor variations, in many games.
Give us the ability to /who all lfg (class) (levelrange) and I'm happy.
If you want to wrap a GUI around it, great.
Zorkon posted one of Brads blogs about matchmaking. Brad also mentioned it in streams and interviews as well. We discussed it on the forums here at least a few times so i'm sure you can dig up those threads if you want to know more.
It hasn't been talked about in a long time. I wouldn't expect it to happen. It's not necessary.
I more just think some kind of chat channel/pane that allows you to form groups would be useful since the alternatives are /shout in a city (which people generally dislike), but I've no idea. I know in WoW, the pre-LFG tool in Wrath didn't seem to damage the community since the parties still had to be formed manually, it wasn't cross-server, and it didn't take players out of the world/teleport into dungeons.
Wondering if people would be as opposed to THAT as they are to general LFG/DF type tools (which I dislike myself because they kill the open world, server community, etc)
I don't doubt there will be a group helper tool that is more than the /LFG flag and channel.
It really wouldn't be difficult to code and would be excellent for the community.
It's been discussed several times before, though, so I'm not going to go into much detail, but, yeah, I think a significant number of people would find it unnecessarily tedious to wander from popular zone to popular zone spamming "/ooc 38 WAR LFG pref dungeon", crossing thier fingers while they kill a few trash monsters, then running to another zone, doing the same and then logging off later having achieved nothing when a group started forming 30 seconds after they left the first zone they went to.
Sure no one wants the dungeon group porter from Wrath of the Lich King, but a UI that helps put people together (assisting the social aspect, not eradicating it) is surely a no-brainer win.
I had to look up BC to make sure but it seems I did not play WoW long enough to see the group finder. Based on your discription it sounds simular to what EQ had for a group finder. I really hope VR adds a tool like this to Pantheon.
I think we all agree we do not want group porter system from Wrath of the Lich King.
I remember the LFG system they had in WoW during BC. It was a bulletin board type system that you could post yourself as available and what not. I liked it and thought it was a good way to implement things since most of the time you would get a /tell from the group leader and chat a bit before you would get invited. Something to that effect I think would be a good addition, no teleporting instantly, nothing automatic, just something to help communications.
Walpurgis said:I remember the LFG system they had in WoW during BC. It was a bulletin board type system that you could post yourself as available and what not. I liked it and thought it was a good way to implement things since most of the time you would get a /tell from the group leader and chat a bit before you would get invited. Something to that effect I think would be a good addition, no teleporting instantly, nothing automatic, just something to help communications.
I hope they keep things local in the world for lfg. I am not a big fan of long distance travel for a group, especially without maps lol I think it will be so horrible (and I hope summoners get CoH) Each area hopefully gets an lfg chat, perhaps a flag as well for ease of flagging long term. There will of course be a global LFG chat someone makes as they wait 45 minutes for a 20 minute trip.
/lfg "for x, y, or z"
/who lfg
Peter Paladin 25 LFG "I R tank!"
Jobeson Summoner 24 LFG "for x, y, or z"
Elly Enchanter 23 LFG "Its hard responding to so many tells"
...
The so nicknamed matchmaking system could also serve as a guide to new joiners who are seasoned MMO players in wantind to determine before character selection what classes might be needed on a given server.
If you can put in when you will most likely be on to play, and what timezone as basics, then be able to look at class distribution on various servers in your parameters, you would then choose the best server to play your class where it is most needed.
Alt-oholics may like that ability in they can place their alts oin servers where they will be needed the most.
So something related was talked about in the recent producer's letter (https://www.pantheonmmo.com/news/producers-letter-march-2021)
It's a feature targeted for inclusion in Alpha 1.
"We need an LFG tool for people to find or fill groups".
Obviously, that doesn't go as far as Brad's idea of a matchmaking system, but we might take it that VR including it as something they feel essential to even beginning Alpha is a positive attitude toward it's relative importance and it might see some expansion in the future, depending on feedback from Alpha.
In short what you are describing is not what I am looking for. In this case less is more.
starblight said:
- No need for gathering points the players will define them. Pantheon is based on zones and those zone line will be gathering points on their own.
- The porting is an issue for sure but I see the auto forming groups as maybe worse. Communication in formation of the group is key.
In short what you are describing is not what I am looking for. In this case less is more.
Yeah, i think there's definitely a limit too.
I would want plenty of categorising, filtering and searching features, but then it should just put you in contact and leave the socialising and actual in-game task of getting together up to the players.
Aiding people to identify a suitable group or aiding groups to identify suitable players is fine. It should then perhaps give you an interface making it easy to click (even multi-select) for /tells or /invites (though that has potential for annoying abuse) but what you say and what you do after that is up to you.
disposalist said:starblight said:
- No need for gathering points the players will define them. Pantheon is based on zones and those zone line will be gathering points on their own.
- The porting is an issue for sure but I see the auto forming groups as maybe worse. Communication in formation of the group is key.
In short what you are describing is not what I am looking for. In this case less is more.
Yeah, i think there's definitely a limit too.
I would want plenty of categorising, filtering and searching features, but then it should just put you in contact and leave the socialising and actual in-game task of getting together up to the players.
Aiding people to identify a suitable group or aiding groups to identify suitable players is fine. It should then perhaps give you an interface making it easy to click (even multi-select) for /tells or /invites (though that has potential for annoying abuse) but what you say and what you do after that is up to you.
Agreed, one of the variables in setting groups in EQ was time it would take to get everyone together. If we had a wizard or druid in the group, we would reach out to people much farther away with the line "We'll come pick you up", it also opened up the world to where the group wanted to adventure. If there was no group porter, then we focused more on people and locations nearby.
Never did we feel like, "Man, if the system would just teleport us all together, this would save time", I logged into EQ just to pre-move my character to the planned hunting spot for later that evening, as I did to actually play. :) As well as banking, organizing, shopping for supplies, etc. :) It wasn't always about adventuring and questing, but it was just part of the game, and made you that much more invested in things.