bryanleo9 said:DPS will be a dime a dozen as they are in all the MMO's I have played and I can see them having long wait times for groups. Healers and tanks on the other hand will probably not wait long at all.
Yes but it shouldn't be quite the same difficulty as other MMOs. Most MMOs since WoW have utilized a party finder that auto groups players and warps them to an instance, they also tend to be cross server queues.
When players don't warp to one another so being local is somewhat important and when they are not competing with multiple servers worth of players, things really look up for DPS. Many/most groups I imagine will center around 1 tank and 1 healer which leaves 4 slots for DPS/CC (66% of each group). The turnover rate for those 4 slots is much higher than for tank/healer as well.
Nephele said:Tralyan said:2. My biggest pet peeve in MMO's are drive-by-invites. I absolutely detest when someone runs by and tosses a group /invite without so much as a /tell "howdy doody". Having a giant LFG tag above my character just seemed to make people think doing that was OK. This is a personal gripe, but a huge reason why I didn't make use of the tool.
Just thinking about those drive-by invites get me all riled up. For MMO's being social in nature, people go to great lengths to NOT be social, sometimes, and I just don't get it.
I hate these too (both for groups and guilds). Sadly, a huge number of players seem to think it's perfectly acceptable to do. I don't want to lay the blame at the feet of the LFG tool, because I don't think that's the reason. Likewise, while I'm sure that the queue "culture" in most recent games just makes it worse, the problem existed before there were such things as queues and dungeon finders. Even back when all we had in EQ was an /ooc and a /shout channel, people still did it.
So, while I absolutely agree with you in your pet peeve - I don't think that should prevent us for asking for good LFG and grouping tools - or from using them.
Maybe VR could implement automatic replies to invites. Y'know, how when you went AFK you could type /AFK "Be right back, don't steal my tacos" - and anyone who sent you a /tell would receive that message?
Give me an option to send an automatic /tell to anyone that invites me without the requisite greetings.
Punk Punkasaurus /invite Tralyan
/tell Punk "Hey, didn't yo momma teach you manners?"
Come on VR. Let's make this happen.
I hate, detest, abhor..drive by invites, without the other person making the effort to treat me like a human, instead of a class needed in their group that I don't know anything about, where they're going, do I have the same goals..etc. So limit the auto invite...drastically. We are trying to promote community...that means you have to TALK to each other...you're not choosing a soft drink at a vending machine. :P
Perhaps we need Captcha codes to prove that the other person contacting us...is not a robot. :P
I'm envisioning a Group Manangement System: -
When you want to start a group you call up the GMS tool.
You create an LFG message and fill in a list of what group members you already have, then click boxes for what types you would like to fill the remaining spots.
You perhaps can select what zone and maybe what dungeon you are wanting to get to.
People who want to join a group call up the GMS and do a search for the zone/dungeon they want to group in or simply if there are any groups nearby.
They should be able to search based on any criteria (so they can play alts while waiting) not just their current character.
When a group is a match, you can click to send a canned tell or make a personal one.
If there is a match but the group is full, you can go on a waiting list managed by the GMS.
If there is no current group, you can store a description of what you want and go about your business.
When a group becomes available, GMS sends a tell or it notifies you to send one.
When a group leader leaves, the GMS passes leadership to another (or you can do that manually). The waiting list belongs to the group, so is not lost.
What do we think?
The time will vary because of many factors. This list is based on things I observed in vanilla EQ and P99.
1. How many of your friends are online and available?
2. How good are you at making new friends?
3. Is what you're doing in game something that interests other people?
4. Are you a nice person?
5. How good are you at your selected class? ( this one is controversial but Elitism exists)
6. How hard and how long is the content you'll be going after?
7. How popular is the area you are trying to get a group in? Really popular = less turnover time and more selective picks.
8. Do you work cooperatively with others?
9. How old is the content you're going after? Players who've already beat said content rarely have reasons to revisit.
10. Is a world event happening? Often times people stop leveling to participate.
11. Is it a weekday or weekend?
12. Are you playing on the right server for your active playing times?
Just had a random idea, so I thought I would post it here.
I know message boards have been discussed a couple times regarding different things, but what about having a message board in cities/trade hubs where people can post that they are LFG? Now, hear me out...
I'm not proposing that this would/should replace a windowed LFG system. Brad has stated there will be a system like this in place. I assume the LFG system mentioned by Brad will be only for players who are currently online. The message board, on the other hand, would be for future scheduling purposes. People who don't have a set group of players to play with can post on the message boards something like:
[Player name] [LFG or LFM] [Date] [Estimated time to come online] [Class] - [Kaen] [LFG] [Feb 16] [10:30pm CST] [Cheerleader]
(The above would all be drop-down menus so as to avoid any abuses, or wasting GM resources with policing the message boards.)
When a player comes online and gets a group, the message is erased from the boards (messages are not ereased before the listed time unless done so manually by the player), OR 1 hr after the estimated time (as displayed on the board) the player's LFG message is deleted.
Let people search by day and relative time frames.
People can post on the board one day or even several days before their projected/desired play time. The main goal is to allow people with similar ambitions to more easily coordinate with each other and plan ahead whenever possible.
(Should players be able to add to or look at message boards from anywhere?)
I think this would be a nice feature that proactive players could use to pre-form groups, or at least help create a plan or a list of people whom they hope to contact. For example, I might log in and search for people who will be on around 9pm CST the next day. I can try to message some of those players the day / night before and see if they would like to group up at the time they listed on the boards and how likely they are to be online at that time. They could then tell me they will for sure be on, or they might be 10-20 minutes late, depending on traffic, or whatever.
A tool to encourage socialization/direct messages, and minimize "LFG" time.
Kaen said:Just had a random idea, so I thought I would post it here.
I know message boards have been discussed a couple times regarding different things, but what about having a message board in cities/trade hubs where people can post that they are LFG? Now, hear me out...
I'm not proposing that this would/should replace a windowed LFG system. Brad has stated there will be a system like this in place. I assume the LFG system mentioned by Brad will be only for players who are currently online. The message board, on the other hand, would be for future scheduling purposes. People who don't have a set group of players to play with can post on the message boards something like:
[Player name] [LFG or LFM] [Date] [Estimated time to come online] [Class] - [Kaen] [LFG] [Feb 16] [10:30pm CST] [Cheerleader]
(The above would all be drop-down menus so as to avoid any abuses, or wasting GM resources with policing the message boards.)
When a player comes online and gets a group, the message is erased from the boards (messages are not ereased before the listed time unless done so manually by the player), OR 1 hr after the estimated time (as displayed on the board) the player's LFG message is deleted.
Let people search by day and relative time frames.
People can post on the board one day or even several days before their projected/desired play time. The main goal is to allow people with similar ambitions to more easily coordinate with each other and plan ahead whenever possible.
(Should players be able to add to or look at message boards from anywhere?)
I think this would be a nice feature that proactive players could use to pre-form groups, or at least help create a plan or a list of people whom they hope to contact. For example, I might log in and search for people who will be on around 9pm CST the next day. I can try to message some of those players the day / night before and see if they would like to group up at the time they listed on the boards and how likely they are to be online at that time. They could then tell me they will for sure be on, or they might be 10-20 minutes late, depending on traffic, or whatever.
A tool to encourage socialization/direct messages, and minimize "LFG" time.
Excellent thought, though I think the GMS (Group Management System - my expanded LFG tool) could be further expanded to include a calendar/booking element on the LFG information. It could be done all-in-one. I get the attraction of a 'notice board' in town where people might meet, but if the GMS is a 'global' UI it would be annoying to have to go to the town center to set up a future group (if you were say, logging off at a dungeon mouth and wanted to organise a group for the next day).
As I type this it makes me realise the same UI should/could be used for raid calendars, depending on whether those are intended to be heavily contended (not my favourite experience) or scheduled.
GMS comprises: Set up groups. Look for groups. Manage waiting lists. Group/Raid/Event calendar.
Cynwulf said:I do not believe waiting 30 minutes for a group was the norm in EQ i played it in open beta and when it released and usually found a group within 5 minutes. On the rare occasion you didn't would just solo blue or green mobs until a group opening opened up. Or explore.
A lot has changed over the past 19 years. There is a good reason why the designers of EQ1 & EQ2 were forced to add Mercenaries to the game and allow multi-boxing of accounts in order to create teams and more importantly to stay in business. Game like FFXI even allowed a player to summon three Mercenaries to form a team since players were so scarce as the game was maturing.
Lovecraft said:Cynwulf said:I do not believe waiting 30 minutes for a group was the norm in EQ i played it in open beta and when it released and usually found a group within 5 minutes. On the rare occasion you didn't would just solo blue or green mobs until a group opening opened up. Or explore.
A lot has changed over the past 19 years. There is a good reason why the designers of EQ1 & EQ2 were forced to add Mercenaries to the game and allow multi-boxing of accounts in order to create teams and more importantly to stay in business. Game like FFXI even allowed a player to summon three Mercenaries to form a team since players were so scarce as the game was maturing.
As someone who still plays EQ 1, this is true. In 2001 the server population was approximatly 3,000 on line at peak (back when they showed this.) Groups were much easier get. Over the years the population is about 300 now. WIthout mercenaries or playing solo classes, EQ just doesn't work. Too many expansions that spread theplay base too far away is also a problem. I like hearing that in pantheon high level and low level content will be in the same zones.
Finding a group has always been easy, 10 mins or less. NOW, finding the group you want, hunting where you want, killing what you want may take more time.
It's a balance between desires and needs.
Not even figuring that a group does not have to mean 6 people, it just means "not solo".
With a well done LFG tool, grouping should not be an issue, even in the old days with just an LFG flag above your head, finding a group was meer minutes.
The LFG tag and tool in EQ were a great thing. Many people didn't use the LF(more) feature but I formed countless groups with this feature. As a wizard, if I couldn't geta group, I would search the LFM results and start picking up players. Sometimes it would be the holy trinity but most times I would grab other wizards, mages and necros and we would go on to get great experience without needing a healer, or tank for that matter. The biggest hange up to forming groups back when EQ was at its peak was the lack of clerics. It had to be the least played cl;ass behind pally. I hope pantheon makes 3 great healer classes, so people aren';t just waiting in dungeons for the lone clerics to show up. Countless groups instanly break up when they would have to log.
I hope the developers of Pantheon will take note and avoid all the issues that FFXI players had to suffer through to get a spot in a group.
You know without reading all suggestions, complaints you guys brought up a good point.
In EQ you had to spam LFG 20 lvl so and so... This was the only way to get a group or spam it in the zone you where in. Unless you where in a larger guild and spamed guild chat.
Later on it evolved to LFG tools. Not very practical and more complex then needed to be.
You really need a system right away, practicial and very simple to locate and invite. Possible LFG tools with Zones perferred? this time? If used at the start would make it more simple for everyone to catch on. A person looking in on a group could scroll through the zones and possible classes and levels to determine if they fit the area they wish to fight in. Otherwise we will be back in 1999 LFG in chat all over again. A system clearly out of date and a total waste of our online play time.
Fulton said:... With a well done LFG tool, grouping should not be an issue, even in the old days with just an LFG flag above your head, finding a group was mere minutes.
Agreed on the first point, with a well done LFG tool.
Disagreed on the second point. There were certain classes, no matter how well played you were, that had a real challenge finding a group in EQ1 for the first two years. Foolishly, I played one of those classes and can personally attest to sitting for hours spamming zone chat LFG. Now, obviously, I learned my lesson and won't be playing those undesirable classes again, but even so, it was a real problem and was incredibly disheartening at the time.
Essentially, you feel as though (and you're right) that you exist solely based on the charity of others, and only get the opportunity to perform your role based on the charity of others. Not a good place to be.
disposalist said:Kaen said:Just had a random idea, so I thought I would post it here.
I know message boards have been discussed a couple times regarding different things, but what about having a message board in cities/trade hubs where people can post that they are LFG? Now, hear me out...
I'm not proposing that this would/should replace a windowed LFG system. Brad has stated there will be a system like this in place. I assume the LFG system mentioned by Brad will be only for players who are currently online. The message board, on the other hand, would be for future scheduling purposes. People who don't have a set group of players to play with can post on the message boards something like:
[Player name] [LFG or LFM] [Date] [Estimated time to come online] [Class] - [Kaen] [LFG] [Feb 16] [10:30pm CST] [Cheerleader]
(The above would all be drop-down menus so as to avoid any abuses, or wasting GM resources with policing the message boards.)
When a player comes online and gets a group, the message is erased from the boards (messages are not ereased before the listed time unless done so manually by the player), OR 1 hr after the estimated time (as displayed on the board) the player's LFG message is deleted.
Let people search by day and relative time frames.
People can post on the board one day or even several days before their projected/desired play time. The main goal is to allow people with similar ambitions to more easily coordinate with each other and plan ahead whenever possible.
(Should players be able to add to or look at message boards from anywhere?)
I think this would be a nice feature that proactive players could use to pre-form groups, or at least help create a plan or a list of people whom they hope to contact. For example, I might log in and search for people who will be on around 9pm CST the next day. I can try to message some of those players the day / night before and see if they would like to group up at the time they listed on the boards and how likely they are to be online at that time. They could then tell me they will for sure be on, or they might be 10-20 minutes late, depending on traffic, or whatever.
A tool to encourage socialization/direct messages, and minimize "LFG" time.Excellent thought, though I think the GMS (Group Management System - my expanded LFG tool) could be further expanded to include a calendar/booking element on the LFG information. It could be done all-in-one. I get the attraction of a 'notice board' in town where people might meet, but if the GMS is a 'global' UI it would be annoying to have to go to the town center to set up a future group (if you were say, logging off at a dungeon mouth and wanted to organise a group for the next day).
As I type this it makes me realise the same UI should/could be used for raid calendars, depending on whether those are intended to be heavily contended (not my favourite experience) or scheduled.
GMS comprises: Set up groups. Look for groups. Manage waiting lists. Group/Raid/Event calendar.
Kaen said:disposalist said:Kaen said:Just had a random idea, so I thought I would post it here.
I know message boards have been discussed a couple times regarding different things, but what about having a message board in cities/trade hubs where people can post that they are LFG? Now, hear me out...
I'm not proposing that this would/should replace a windowed LFG system. Brad has stated there will be a system like this in place. I assume the LFG system mentioned by Brad will be only for players who are currently online. The message board, on the other hand, would be for future scheduling purposes. People who don't have a set group of players to play with can post on the message boards something like:
[Player name] [LFG or LFM] [Date] [Estimated time to come online] [Class] - [Kaen] [LFG] [Feb 16] [10:30pm CST] [Cheerleader]
(The above would all be drop-down menus so as to avoid any abuses, or wasting GM resources with policing the message boards.)
When a player comes online and gets a group, the message is erased from the boards (messages are not ereased before the listed time unless done so manually by the player), OR 1 hr after the estimated time (as displayed on the board) the player's LFG message is deleted.
Let people search by day and relative time frames.
People can post on the board one day or even several days before their projected/desired play time. The main goal is to allow people with similar ambitions to more easily coordinate with each other and plan ahead whenever possible.
(Should players be able to add to or look at message boards from anywhere?)
I think this would be a nice feature that proactive players could use to pre-form groups, or at least help create a plan or a list of people whom they hope to contact. For example, I might log in and search for people who will be on around 9pm CST the next day. I can try to message some of those players the day / night before and see if they would like to group up at the time they listed on the boards and how likely they are to be online at that time. They could then tell me they will for sure be on, or they might be 10-20 minutes late, depending on traffic, or whatever.
A tool to encourage socialization/direct messages, and minimize "LFG" time.Excellent thought, though I think the GMS (Group Management System - my expanded LFG tool) could be further expanded to include a calendar/booking element on the LFG information. It could be done all-in-one. I get the attraction of a 'notice board' in town where people might meet, but if the GMS is a 'global' UI it would be annoying to have to go to the town center to set up a future group (if you were say, logging off at a dungeon mouth and wanted to organise a group for the next day).
As I type this it makes me realise the same UI should/could be used for raid calendars, depending on whether those are intended to be heavily contended (not my favourite experience) or scheduled.
GMS comprises: Set up groups. Look for groups. Manage waiting lists. Group/Raid/Event calendar.
For sure. It would make sense to incorporate all these elements into one feature.
I like both of these ideas, but disagree with separating them. Hear me out.
There is often a lot of discussion about "but, why go there...?" when it comes to player-made housing and towns, especially when they're separated. Why build a house if it offers nothing in the way of convenience (crafting tables, vendors, bank, etc?), but if they do have those amenities, why go into town? It's a tricky balancing act, to make player housing more than just aesthetic, and to make the towns have meaning, all at once.
Not to mention the very sad state of affairs that inevitably happens in MMO's, as the content expands and new continents/areas are unlocked, of previously populated cities and towns becoming sparse and empty. Log into EQ live and take a look at Qeynos and Freeport.
I think Kaen's idea is a step in the right direction to give more meaning to towns. Make the tools available, but make them accessible only in towns, and that's just one more reason for towns to be useful. I think that could only help, especially later down the road. It seems like a good options between making tools TOO easy, and making them overly tedious.
Crazzie said:You really need a system right away, practicial and very simple to locate and invite. Possible LFG tools with Zones perferred? this time? If used at the start would make it more simple for everyone to catch on. A person looking in on a group could scroll through the zones and possible classes and levels to determine if they fit the area they wish to fight in. Otherwise we will be back in 1999 LFG in chat all over again. A system clearly out of date and a total waste of our online play time.
I think zone /ooc LFG messages is inevitable as it is the fastest way to advertise your availability in a dungeon without having to navigate menus etc. If a group is looking for any DPS and a rogue is /ooc LFG then why not pick up that player instead of pulling up the LFG window and putting whatever extra info in and screening through all the names? I imagine there will also be a lot of /ooc from players doing camp checks as well.
Tralyan said:There is often a lot of discussion about "but, why go there...?" when it comes to player-made housing and towns, especially when they're separated. Why build a house if it offers nothing in the way of convenience (crafting tables, vendors, bank, etc?), but if they do have those amenities, why go into town? It's a tricky balancing act, to make player housing more than just aesthetic, and to make the towns have meaning, all at once.
Not to mention the very sad state of affairs that inevitably happens in MMO's, as the content expands and new continents/areas are unlocked, of previously populated cities and towns becoming sparse and empty. Log into EQ live and take a look at Qeynos and Freeport.
I think Kaen's idea is a step in the right direction to give more meaning to towns. Make the tools available, but make them accessible only in towns, and that's just one more reason for towns to be useful. I think that could only help, especially later down the road. It seems like a good options between making tools TOO easy, and making them overly tedious.
I'm not sure there really needs to be more draw to cities. It's where you go when you need something specific: to train/buy spells, bank, do some crafting, trade/buy/sell wares to other players, occasional quest or event, or to hang out when bored. They aren't likely to be bustling areas full of players like Orgrimmar (at least back when I played/early in WoW), mostly because faction restrictions limiting races and regional markets. I imagine there will be 3 main cities (one on each continent) where players tend to go and the rest will be like Erudin, Grobb, or Ak'Anon where players rarely go unless passing through or stopping to buy some spells. In EQ Freeport was only teeming with players because of the EC tunnel trading market, otherwise it likely would have been just as empty as anywhere else.
Without a hearthstone to pull players back to cities/towns before they log and no rest exp, players will spend a lot more time out in the wild. So having an essential grouping tool only available in towns would probably lead to players not using it in favor of whatever is more convenient.
dorotea said:Most of us probably have less time to spend uninterrupted just playing a computer game than we once did. I think two hours is far too long to be a minimum time to play productively. Granted anything much shorter might be better spent adventuring solo or crafting, which is one reason I have been an advocate for plenty of things that can be done solo but that are LESS productive than group content so as not to be more attractive to players when they do have time to group.
While I don't want it to be too easy to bypass content, I also don't really see tedious time wasting as "hardcore". If it takes half an hour to form a group and then another half hour for the slowest or furthest person to get to where the adventure is that is a LOT of unproductive time. And then when everyone is finally there good bet a person or two went afk while waiting and isn't back yet.
I would guess that most of us would foam at the mouth at the thought of a groupfinder that teleports the group to a dungeon. Why? Because we see that as typical in "modern" games that are too easy, too simple (not quite the same thing) and generally evil in all respects. Even if that teleport returns us to precisely where we were when the group breaks up or if we leave the dungeon (whatever comes first) so that we cannot use it to bypass exploration and content.
But older games often did have conveniences that allowed one or more classes to summon or be summoned by others. Because these have a longer history in the MMO world and are somewhat less intrusive than a "full service" groupfinder perhaps a few classes can be given this type of ability - perhaps classes that are near the bottom of the "useful to a group" list to help balance that out.
It's funny, I have way more free time now than I ever did back in highschool and college. I'm not sure if I am the norm or not just speaking for myself here. A two hour play session is not a lot of time for most MMORPG players so I'm not sure where you are coming from here, this isn't an FPS, RTS, or single player RPG. I think crafting will be an excellent option for when you only have 30 mins or so to play but soloing I am not so sure you'd make a ton of progress with less than 2 hours of gameplay unless the game is setup very casual like WoW, GW2, etc. with very fast leveling and weak mobs.
It seems Brad is going to have some kind of LFG system in the game so I will wait and see before commenting on that further. I just don't want a "dungeon finder" or "raid finder" that is cross server and teleports everybody to the dungeon/raid. I've seen enough from that system to know it kills communities. I am fine with certain classes having summon spells, portal spells, or whatnot. Those spells should be somewhat costly to use though through needing expensive reagents to cast.
What I am interested in is how vast is the world going to be, is it going to be like Vanguard where it is insanely huge? Will the different races starting cities be extremely far apart? Will the world be setup in such a fashion that dungeons are in centralized locations or will they be scattered all over the place like Vanguard and EQ? These are the sort of things I would need to know to comment on how much fast travel/teleportation players will need. Depending on how things are set up a "convenience" becomes a "necessity". It would be a bummer to start as a gnome and be isolated from the popular low level dungeons for example. Other questions would be: how early do you get a mount and how fast will it go? How many classes will get move speed buffs? Will there be any kind of portal item? A lot of this boils down to good world/game design.
When I played on Agnarr last year I used the LFG tool exclusively for finding reps when a group member had to log. Check the lfg window and see who is available and start sending tells asking if they are interested. I agree, sending a tell asking someone first is much more polite and effective than sending somone who is lfg a random invite.
I would say though the majority of the time we would end up finding a a guildmate, checking our friends list or asking in the class channels for a rep. Still the lfg tool has it's merrits and I hope it's utilized in Pantheon.
I'm of the opinion that you should have to run everywhere unless someone has a portal that can get you in the ballpark area. I'm also totally fine with 30 minute LFG. I'm a slow-gamer. I log in and take in the world around me while talking to people and being immersed. If I don't find a group quickly, I can progress in other ways.
Iksar said:Crazzie said:You really need a system right away, practicial and very simple to locate and invite. Possible LFG tools with Zones perferred? this time? If used at the start would make it more simple for everyone to catch on. A person looking in on a group could scroll through the zones and possible classes and levels to determine if they fit the area they wish to fight in. Otherwise we will be back in 1999 LFG in chat all over again. A system clearly out of date and a total waste of our online play time.
I think zone /ooc LFG messages is inevitable as it is the fastest way to advertise your availability in a dungeon without having to navigate menus etc. If a group is looking for any DPS and a rogue is /ooc LFG then why not pick up that player instead of pulling up the LFG window and putting whatever extra info in and screening through all the names? I imagine there will also be a lot of /ooc from players doing camp checks as well.
OOC can annoy groups when not able to find a spot for that one player. So i would like to see a smaller type LFG tool instead of spam. OOC was abused, usually we turned it off if too much spam. The LFG tool in EQ was just to complex i thought and didnt really work all that well. But a more simplified tool might work in place at the start of it all. OOC is a rough system, never was great never was bad it was just there combined with all the meme spams of date. I really couldnt say what would work and what wouldnt work, as nobody really has touched too much on this other then a really complex non working system i keep hearing about. Old school players like things simple.
I actually liked Aradune's comments on the subject. I think as long as the LFG tool by itself doesn't facilitate fast travel like some games that instaport you to a dungeon, I'm cool with an LFG tool. More so, I like his discussion on potential ideas to augment finding not just group mates but longer term 'friends'. One such example I could think of is being able to list your general play times in an LFG or 'social finder' tool so that maybe I could find other people that play the same times I do so I could find a 'permagroup' or at least something I can play in frequently. I had that in EQ1 and loved it. I could always bank on the fact that a set group of 5 people always logged on aroudn the time I did, and we had a good mix of classes to create the perfect group. It was epic while it lasted. Some of my favorite times in EQ bar none... and I would totally love an in game tool that allowed me to not just find mates for a single group encounter but other players I could hang with on a more permanent basis. EVE online was agood example, the guild finder allowed you to add play times to your guild listing, which really really helped when you were trying to find a guild to join out of the millions available.
Going back to the instaport issue, I do think including tools such as 'Call of Heroes' or other spells that could bring a player to you would be cool, but it would need to be within the context of the game mechanics and not just some arbitrary dungeon run tool because then I think yeah that would only contribute to the 'find people, run dungeon, forget people' mentality that is prevalent in other MMO's.
I genuintely feel for those folks that want to play on only 2 hours and get stuck LFG the entire time. It's happened to all of us at some point and it sucks, but I don't think there is any magic cure for that. I went LFG for hours many times on my warrior even with an in game LFG tool during PoP...
Sorry but any tool for instant portal to payer feature in group making is unappealing to me. I'm fine with days to speed up travel (landscape portals would be one option. Enough to get to general areas, not every location ever) or player summoned portals both work. Any tool that facilitates instant travel when making a group would render world exploration or travel nearly meaningless imo.
Have people already discounted any viable ways to form groups via messaging or chat? It sure seems like this became a "how to make a good LFG panel" discussion rather than "what are the multiple ways to make a group?" and discussing the merits or implementations of each.