I ended up with a rather long character list exactly because I couldn't find a group during my playtime. My main for the longest time was Rogue in EQ, so it was pretty much required if I wanted to do anything. Later on I rolled more self-sufficient classes as alts that eventually became my mains.
At some point I got so fed up of not getting groups that I started casually two-boxing, usually a Shaman + something.
I think 1-2 hours is the minimum committment, assuming the group is already up and running. If you have to travel, break camps/into a dungeon etc, then you might need more. I prefer to group for 2-8 hours depending on the day and time, but I feel pretty comfortable with 2 hours as long as some progress is to be had.
>I think 1-2 hours is the minimum committment, assuming the group is already up and running. If you have to travel, break camps/into a dungeon etc, then you might need more. I prefer to group for 2-8 hours depending on the day and time, but I feel pretty comfortable with 2 hours as long as some progress is to be had.<
And that is 2-8 hours without any long afk (dinner, phone call, visitor) unless you are going to be carried by the rest of the group. Which may not be possible if content is challenging and you are the healer or tank.
This supports the argument I have made from the beginning that Panthon *needs* to have solo content that gives real experience and loot and that a player can profitably do at any level.
Not in dungeons - those should be for groups.
Not giving experience even close to that which a group can get - we do *not* want people incented to go solo.
Not giving loot even close to what a group can get - we do *not* want people incented to go solo.
But enough to encourage us to log on even on days when we can't commit hours and hours and hours without interruptions.
How many of us with jobs will be able to do this during work hours? Not too many.
How many of us with families will have this much time uninterrupted between getting home from work and going to bed? More but its still an issue.
If a typical group requires more than one-two hours to form the group, get to the content and actually *do* the content and be done - a night of grouping will be the exception not the rule for many of us.
Bronsun said:We're all assuming what? That grouping will be easy or difficult? somewhere in between?
This question isn't really for the full guild ready to start playing at launch or groups of friends and family who have a built in gaming support system. This question is the for the loners or couples that play games together. The people who enjoy playing games, but don't have a lot of friends who do. People like me.
Will there be a way outside of general chat or LFG to find parties looking for extra players? A group finder of sorts. Something like a UI list, that shows groups looking for more players or single players looking for a group so that it takes the spamming chat element out of it. Warhammer Online had it back in the day and it made finding group easy to locate. Scrolling through the wall of spam is one of my least favorite things.
Of course I want to hear everyones response for an idea.
Thoughts? has this topic been covered and I missed it? If so I'm sorry.
Thanks
:D
Honestly, I believe you let the community decide the best way to find group members. Like people will start to gather in a certain town or city and from there people will LFG in chat. The community will create a system that works.
It will happen, but like all things, if you're proactive, you usually can overcome it.
Usually when I couldn't find a group, I started one. And often I was that annoying person who did the /who all cleric 20-30 - you looking for a group if no one was readily available (I always tried to look a few zones away)? I also often enjoyed tackling content with non-traditional groups. Not only does it expand your skillsets/abilities, but the additional challenge that often results is usually (for me) more fun than dominating content with the perfect quarternity group. And, usually, I made a friend after as they enjoyed the group and it became less and less difficult to find/start groups each time. If you invite or start a group though, do try to be a good player and not disband it within minutes.
The best thing is, even if you're an introvert in real life, you don't have to be in an MMORPG - no one "knows" you outside of potentially guildmates or real life friends. If you're anti-social in a MMORPG that will require you to be social, it will be difficult to find groups. Try to make friends and jump out of your comfort zone of inviting the same 5-6 people everyday. Don't always join guild groups, or perma groups, etc.
If it doesn't work - choose one off the list that Keno suggested.
I usually unsub and quit the game the very first time this happens...
jk
I think with mentoring and all the stuff brad has planned to help people connect. it will happen, but not a lot. hopefully
CanadinaXegony said:Simple solution do something else til your guildies log in...explore, work on Perception, craft etc. And don't tell me you won't have any friends to play with, if that's the case you're falling down on the job, tell your friends about Pantheon. :)
Cana
None of my RL friends are going to play Pantheon; they're either into D&D, WoW, or just don't want to commit to anything time consuming :(
jadaski said:CanadinaXegony said:Simple solution do something else til your guildies log in...explore, work on Perception, craft etc. And don't tell me you won't have any friends to play with, if that's the case you're falling down on the job, tell your friends about Pantheon. :)
Cana
None of my RL friends are going to play Pantheon; they're either into D&D, WoW, or just don't want to commit to anything time consuming :(
Well then you're just gonna hafta make friends with the rest of us ..here. :) Pleased to meet you my name is Cana. :)
CanadinaXegony said:jadaski said:CanadinaXegony said:Simple solution do something else til your guildies log in...explore, work on Perception, craft etc. And don't tell me you won't have any friends to play with, if that's the case you're falling down on the job, tell your friends about Pantheon. :)
Cana
None of my RL friends are going to play Pantheon; they're either into D&D, WoW, or just don't want to commit to anything time consuming :(
Well then you're just gonna hafta make friends with the rest of us ..here. :) Pleased to meet you my name is Cana. :)
I'm probably going to go by the name of Switzy in-game, and pleased to meet you too! I main healer in every MMO I play, so hopefully the traditional scarcity of my role will be a foot in the social door.
"If you invite or start a group though, do try to be a good player and not disband it within minutes. "
This was in my experience the most frequent and also the most annoying case . I would be contacted by somebody saying he was building a group for , say , Guk . I travel there from Faydark and see that we are 2 DPS and 1 enchanter (me) . OK so we look for a healer . Everybody knows that this needs some patience but after 15 minutes the GL announces "Can't find a healer . Good luck and see ye ." and leaves . Now we are 2 stranded in Guk, we lost time and have to go somewhere else or log off .
Very frustrating
I just had an idea for a feature in a Looking-For-Friend tool. It is not fully thought thru, but at least I have not seen it mentioned elsewhere.
If you could somehow rate your grouping experience with individual players, the system could suggest LFF-players ranked in accordances your preferfences. You know, "people who liked that guy also liked these ones". Of course, it should be completely anonymous.
Kalok said:From what I gather from previous streams, there will not be a group finder. I, personally, think that group finders are a bad idea. Group finders are too "Wow-ish" for my taste. In addition, there will be things to do other than just fighting that will occupy my time, such as exploring, working on Keeper, things like that.
As you surmise, there will not be a typical group finder that brings disperate people togther just for a short time. That said, helping people find groups and then stay in a group is paramount to Pantheon and of extreme importance. Unlike earlier social group-oriented MMOs, Pantheon will take a proactive approach to helping people not just find groups but make real relationships that last.
I played Final Fantasy XIV for a while - it had some really nice features. Ofr course, some that were not as good.
Very convenient group finder. Get a group, get teleported to the contents, get teleported back afterwards.
I still remember my 11th group in FFXIV. Someone in the group actually said something to someone else in the group. Turned out it was a mistell but ooh the drama (as everyone else put her on /ignore for violating the unwritten rules).
No that isn't what we want in Pantheon.
We want and quite likely will get a very good system for finding people that want to group in the same area or for the same content that we want. It will let us contact them quickly and easily. We will actually talk to them as part of the process of setting up the group. This last part of the process - talk - is what "modern" groupfinders tend to leave out.
Plus many other things are important to socializing and forming groups - not least active guilds. I expect a detailed and robust guild functionality far better than most or all currently popular MMOs. This will enormously help in grouping.
Aradune said:Kalok said:From what I gather from previous streams, there will not be a group finder. I, personally, think that group finders are a bad idea. Group finders are too "Wow-ish" for my taste. In addition, there will be things to do other than just fighting that will occupy my time, such as exploring, working on Keeper, things like that.
As you surmise, there will not be a typical group finder that brings disperate people togther just for a short time. That said, helping people find groups and then stay in a group is paramount to Pantheon and of extreme importance. Unlike earlier social group-oriented MMOs, Pantheon will take a proactive approach to helping people not just find groups but make real relationships that last.
Yeah. I didn't mean to imply that there wouldn't be ANYTHING. Just that it wouldn't be a group finder and that it wouldn't be the end of the world if you didn't find a group one night, that there would be lots of things to do in addition to adventuring.
>it wouldn't be the end of the world if you didn't find a group one night, that there would be lots of things to do in addition to adventuring.<
Let us hope that when we want groups we will be able to find them most days. But as you say, it is certain that even on a crowded server this will not always be the case. Plus there will be the days when we just don't have time or expect too many interruptions. Family aggro can be devastating to plans to group. Almost impossible to detaunt a wife or husband or child that doesn't understand that Pantheon is more important than "real life" - whatever *that* is.
All the more reason why Pantheon needs to have, and will have, other things to do on those days. Crafting, harvesting, soloing. VR has, thank all Gods (the entire pantheon of them) said that they recognize this and Pantheon won't be a game where the choices are log on to group or don't bother to log on.
dorotea said:>it wouldn't be the end of the world if you didn't find a group one night, that there would be lots of things to do in addition to adventuring.<
Let us hope that when we want groups we will be able to find them most days. But as you say, it is certain that even on a crowded server this will not always be the case.
I agree. But even at the height of EQ, there were times where there just weren't "groups to be had" in your areas, even if that weren't the case on most days. Some days it wwas just a pain in the neck to try to find groups. That's all I meant by that. Thta's not even countig the many nights, sometimes weeks at a time, where I would intentionally choose to not group to go do things on my own, like explore. I have a feeling that there will be plenty of things to do based on them commenting that htye want to build a living breathing world.
At the peak of my gaming with EQ1 and when it was full server population there were still moments when i could not find a group. Either due to raids or other circumstances. In these instances i became the PUG Leader and would form rag tag groups to just get little chunks of exp in a sub optimal group setting. I was flexible with location as long as people were happy with the choice. It all comes down to willingness to take the lead on group forming when there is not the standard group available.
I will admit that fast travel makes this easier, but i still want travel to mean something. If i wanted to adventure on the far corner of the world i would have ran my sorry excuse over there. I wouldnt sit in Velks LFG if i wanted to group in Old Seb. thats just dumb. However if a group is forming in OS and they want me i will tell them i will be there when i get there and start running my tail off. As a rogue or monk i had the unique ability to catch up to the group if respawns had started. I cant tell you how many times this actually happened cause they wanted my picklock for Crypt camp in OS.