#1 change needed in AO: Make finding a group easier

I recently stopped playing my Fixer for a week and a half because I got fed up with standing around for 30-45 minutes trying to get into a group. Once I spent most of my night trying to get into a group. When I finally got into one, we hunted for about 15 minutes and then broke up. Needless to say, I didn’t have any fun that night.

I also don’t like the fact that to do anything worthwhile in the game you have to have a 6 person group which limits where you can hunt. I’d love to hunt in someplace else other that Broken Shores but I can’t because that is the best place for me to find a group. Here are my suggestion for making it easier to find a group.


Team making a request for more members

• Team leader can post a global request that they are looking for more members.
• Only team leaders can post the request so you must have at least two people to make one
• A short description can be entered about what the team plans to do or current situation such as “Doing team missions”, “Halfway through Camelot dungeon”, “Attacking clan scum”, “Defending 2HO”
• A level range restriction can be entered or a default one will be generated based on the current members of the team.
• Optional: A location (zone or static dungeon) can be entered. It should default to the current zone but can be cleared if there is no zone preference.
• Optional: A side restriction can be entered. This will determine who can see the request.
• Optional: The team leader should be able to specify the professions that are needed by clicking on one or more professions listed in the dialog.

Player looking for a team to join

• Player should be allowed view a list of teams looking for members by typing in a command
• Player should be able to filter the list on any of the fields.
• Player should be able to see player references for all the players currently in the team that is looking for members.
• Player should be able to request to join a team by pressing a button. When they do a tell will be automatically sent to the team leader that contains the level, side, profession and current zone of the player.
• The player must still travel to the group to actually join it if accepted.

By making it easier to join a group, players will feel less pressure to hunt in one place or do the same thing over and over. The population will spread out which will reduce lag. There will be less downtime. It could actually become possible to log on, get a group and play if you only have limited time. Groups will be able to replace members easier.

For all of those reasons, this is my number one request for the game.

Nice suggestions. Daoc has something similar. Groups and individuals can set a "looking for memebers" or "looking for group" tag that will have them show up in a list. It got mixed reviews depending on how many people actually used the feature on a particualr server.

Why not a windows where incomplete group are posted with the name of the leader? Like in DAOC if a remember correctly (didnt play since beta)

Oops, my system is only one way. Players can only select teams, but teams can't select players. In a way I wanted finding a team to feel like getting a mission. A player types in a command and gets a list of all the things that they can do with a team atm. If something looks good they click a button and off they go.

On second thought it should probably work the other way around too. If there aren't any teams that you are interested in when you check, you should be able to flag yourself as looking for a group. That way you can go off and do something else like shopping or even starting a single player mission. Then as teams start forming you'll get tells if they are interested in you. The key point is that you only have to flag yourself once instead of standing around for half an hour /shouting LFG.

Though group finding doesnt NEED improvement you can also improve something. I like the idea about tags and being able to view who is in a team but you cant find a group? Alot of times in lush fields there are TO MANY teams to get a spawning point and most of the time I can scrap a team together from ppl looking for a team though most teams dont have docs (they are to hard to solo play so many dont bother with the profession). Also one thing I dont like, I was solo hunting in lush with my fixer to get monster parts and there isnt anywhere for me to hunt lv 50 mobs. Now I could go all the way to clodnye and fight those bubble things that spit rocks but that is a good 25 mins away with my high run speed. And they are spread like omni-forest and no real spawning point like lush with mutie camps.

I like this idea :) bump

A little self bump here because it would solve one of the problems with team missions.

If you could just mark your self as looking for a group, you could go on about you business and not have to hang around the mission terminal. When a full team was ready to go, then everybody would go to the mission terminal to get the mission and then get out. There is less lag and everyone is happy.

Also, I’ve got the feeling that getting a group of 6 people willing to spend a HUGE amount of time to do a mission will dry up after the novelty wears off. It’s not that people won’t want to but that they just won’t have the time. Anything that can be done to help people find each other for grouping will make a big difference.

Yes, it would be great if managing team formation was improved. I see it as a system where you would "register" yourself as a team organizer, describe some characteristics of the team (solo mission, team mission, hunting) (expected time commitment) (loot order) etc, with perhaps narrative as well. Players looking for teams would review the list, and be made aware of the lvl spread and composition of the group as it is forming, etc.

My big question is, would Funcom entertain such an idea? If they would, then it would definitely be worth the effort for users to take a stab at writing a spec for how they would like it implemented.

It may also be true that Funcom does it the way it is currently done because they want to encourage the growth of socialization skills as a by-product of the standing-around down-time.

This idea would, in my opinion, be well received.

I, personally, don't look for teams anymore (even at low levels) - if a team is asking for members, I'll join. However, I rarely state "lvl * MA/Fixer etc. looking for group" because its never answered.
(Am I just plain unlucky? - I've played for around 3 hours without finding a single team once)

Then, to top it off, when I am on my way to a mission: I received "Do you want to join so-and-so's team?" (I suppose I am unlucky: Can't find a team when I want one, but they want me when I don't want them :) )

Anyhow, this feature should eliminate that problem (hopefully).

(Edit: Blanch, I just checked out the link "New stormlands logo" on your signature, very....interesting...to say the least [right..... I get the feeling I missed something :) ])

Here

would make me do /anon for good.. and it would generate incredible flood..

in my vision I would see 'team terminal' where players could insert themselves or team insert it presence.. when team needs ppl you could just goto the term see all the avalaible players at your level and so on. I know maybe its not the perfect way but I didnt like all the things you suggested.

Only good thing in DAOC was team finding maybe you should get some ideas from it :P

I would rather have a button on my team window labeled Search. When you select it, it pops up a list of all active teams in the zone, or in missions in the zone, that are:

a) have a free spot
b) for your side only, omni/clan with neut teams being in both, i wouldn't show the opposite side as it will cause problems in pvp with knowing who's around in the zone
c) you must be within the teams level min/max

i.e. if you can't group with them, don't show them

The list would have the columns as follows:

1: (LeaderName) (Profession Graphic Logo) (Level)
2: (MemberName) (Profession Graphic Logo) (Level)
3: (MemberName) (Profession Graphic Logo) (Level)
4: (MemberName) (Profession Graphic Logo) (Level)
5: (MemberName) (Profession Graphic Logo) (Level)
6: (MemberName) (Profession Graphic Logo) (Level)
7: (team side "omni/clan/neut")
8: (level range "78 - 85")
9: (leader is outdoor or indoor playfield)

This would be in a scrollable list, and you could determine how many spots are free by the number of empty membername columns.

This would also display the members no matter what zone they are in. If one person on a team is in a zone and you do a Search it would display that team.

The Profession Graphic Logo's would be the color that the person would be if you targeted them, green-red. They could also put these logos in those little spots on the team window... would be nice...

Also if you have someone on /ignore that person would highlight so you know you do not want to join that team. Unless it's the only team left and you just have to get a team.... hehe

Maybe also give the Leader another option to Turn-off their team from the listing. But by default it should be left on to make it used. That is one iffy tho, cause if people don't use it, what's the point of having it... :)

my 2 cents, for what it's worth... i think this would be very useful...

note the difference with this is, it has to be something automatic... if it takes upkeep by the members, no one will use it...

Quickly read.. but seems that Valoren has good post there. Just above this.

I'm thinking a simple way would be this...it wouldn't eliminate spending time, but it would definetely shorten it. I guess it might get a little colorful... :D Oh well, it's just a suggestion.

If you are a solo player looking for a team, you click one button. Everyone who is in a team that you are high-level enough to group with has a colored triangle above their head- maybe there would even be differently colored triangles for different amounts of players...for example, green for 2, yellow for 3, orange for 4, red for 5, and purple for 6. Then you could basically run through a zone looking for anything but purple triangles, asking to join groups. This ALSO displays a teal triangle above YOUR head.

If you are a team looking for members, you click a button and all players looking for teams have teal triangles above their heads.

If you see a large problem with this please point it out....I didn't think much about the concequences...(sp?) :D

I'd love to have a feature like this.
So, bump :)

Probably the easiest fix for Funcom would be to make the stupid channels global. Restricting them seems to have been their way of restricting spam. However, there are not enough people playing this game to create spam.

Also, make those damn lft channels available in missions. There are many people who are doing solo missions but would rather be in a team. However, because they dont' wish to sit in BS for an hour looking for one, they've gone and started a solo one. If all those solo missioneers could hear team requests, they might stop their solo mission and join a team.

All in all, the ultimate fix is to have more people. When you're in NLC or BS and there are only 3 other people there, you aren't gonna get a team very easily no matter what you have implemented. :)