do the old skool way

 

/who

 

put in the search window what ever u r looking for,

 

either:

 

powertech if u after a tank

 

or lvls

 

25-30

 

and unlike the /1 it will cover everyone, not just people in the fleet. just give em a /w and see if they want to join.

 

last night i did mand raiders on my 25 healing sorc, took me 40 mins to get group and finish the FP. just did /1 to get the dps then searched lvl range 25-28 for a tank, got one on my 3rd /w who was infact lvling on tatooine, if i had just been spamming /1 i wont not have got him.

 

just sitting in fleet and spamming /1 wont get you far.

 

So instead of spamming for 40 minutes, how about putting your self in a LFD queue while you continue to do missions or whatever things that are fun to you? I know, I know, it's too logical and it doesn't "build community." All we need now is for someone to explain how communities are built while spamming LFG Colicoid War Games over and over.

I hope there is never a "dungeon finder"

 

Because...?

But you find it fun to sit in any major city and just wait for a queue to pop like in WoW? I mean it takes so much time to type 'LFM <insert random flashpoint here>' and then continue questing or doing your crewskills? And as far as summoning everyone...All of the flashpoints are accessible from one central point, which takes a very short time to get too.

 

Community is what builds MMO's. Take the community away you have a glorified RPG that might as well be on a system that you can just use 3 to 7 npcs to go and do your content with. If the mix of playing with a community and getting that progression isnt fun for you, then maybe MMO's arent for you. If someone wants that 'hardcore' progression, then you shouldn't be doing it in a pug anyway. That'sw what guilds are for.

 

Just my .02 credits.

 

So... how does spamming LFG Red Reaper on the space station "build community" again? Other than a "community" of spammers I mean.

Adding a group finder without causing the consequences that WoW's dungeon finder came with could perhaps be done in some way. If it could be done without causing those problems, I wouldn't mind it at all.

 

These are the consequences that I would like to be avoided:

1. "Heroic" dungeons being too easy.

In order to make the dungeons doable for a uncoordinated groups of strangers, blizz made them extremely easy. And there was no alternative for those that wanted 5-man content to be challenging.

 

2. Lack of variety in terms of difficulty, length, amount of trash, nr of bosses etc.

All the new dungeons in wow are equally easy, roughly equally long, roughly the same amount of bosses and trash. To randomly be assigned a very hard dungeon, or a very long one would probably just be a pain. But the "solution" to simply not make such dungeons isn't very good. I'd prefer to have variety. Short ones, long ones, easy ones, hard ones.

 

Just so you understand where I'm comming from: I don't like to spam trade for groups, nor do I like to queue up for zergable content. I play with my friends, some of which I found in the game, some of which I brought to the game and some which brought me to the game. The argument "if you don't like dungeon finder, you can still form groups by spamming trade or play with friends" works for how groups are formed, but it doens't apply to the variety, difficulty and sense of progression. And THAT is what I care about.

 

I'm perfectly alright with having a bunch of equally long, easy zergable dungeons in a PUG-finder system. As long as I get a few that are fun and challenging, worthwhile the time just for the gameplay itself for a well coordinated group using voice-chat, knowing eachother etc.

 

Nice summary of your thoughts, and here's my feedback-

 

1) Blizzard didn't dumb down heroics because of LFD tool. The WoW Dev Team said the reason Blizzard made heroic content easier is becasue they were only used by a small percentage of players, and the effort that want into creating them didn't justify their usage.

 

2) You make the mistake of thinking what's easy for you (and some others) is also easy for most players. Again using WoW as an example; Blizzard made dungeons and content easier for most players precisely because they reasoned the average player wasn't l33t and had little interest in being so. Since we're talking about profits and losses in the real world, Blizzard made a business decision to please the masses.

 

3) LFD has nothing to do with how difficult heroic instances are. Nothing. BioWare probably have some idea of the "ideal" range of content progression, and they will adjust difficulty based on real data they get from the percentage of players attempting and completing easy, medium, hard, and elte content.

You know I understand you ppl wanting to build community. There is more than one way to do it. You while I'm in my LFG tool, I can be down on whatever planet building a relationship there with others around my same lvl. Hell, i may even make a friend while I'm ACTUALLY PLAYING THE GAME and find out he want to do the flash point of heroics too.

Does Anyone rember the "Gathering stones" from before the Dungeon Finder on WOW i wonder would that work better?

It destroys community? Really? Can't see that. I mean in these days of Ventrillo, Teamspeak, and Raid call who the heck that is guilded is not on voice? Heck, other than when there are few guildes online I never talk to the "community" at large, and trying to build a group by using chat is just pointless. I could see if we were back 12 or so years ago before voice chat but given their ubiquitous usage that argument really doesn't apply.

I might be getting off topic, but bioware better hurry up too, with Diablo 3 coming out soon. Lets see what would I rather do, spend hours trying to find a group and can't, or go play that new shiny blizzard game. Hmm tough decision.

This may be a little out of topic but seeing as people are complaining that a LFG tool will remove the community aspect of SWTOR. Which I feel is a bit far fetched.

 

As far as I'm concerned a real community can only exist if you have MMORPG that are more sandbox such as UO or SWG with a more realistic in-game economy. Since the best items may not necessarily come from PvE raiding or PvP.

 

Trade skills and combat skills share the same skill pool limit. Which severely limits a players ability to produce items for themselves.

 

If you are an adventurer/combat oriented character - you do not have the means to craft.

If you are a crafter you do not have the means to fight.

You can pick skills in between here and there but you will not be as good as the pure crafter or pure combat devoted char.

 

This form of limitation forces players to seek out crafters to attain better equipment, social items, miscellaneous items (repair kits for speeder bikes), consumables etc etc.

Crafters in turn are forced to sought out Resource Gatherers (Miners/Farmers) or adventurers for items acquired only through combat. (Skinning Hides/Salvaged items etc)

 

 

Additionally the Quality of the product is also dependent on couple of factors

1) Skill Level of Crafter / Kind of Schematics unlocked

2) Type of Materials used

3) Quality of Materials used

 

This means thats crafters who are able to produce better items are much more highly sought after and are normally on some players friendlist to get the best equipment from them.

Crafters who aren't able to produce high quality stuff could also sell their produces at a cheaper rate - catering to those with limited budget.

 

Crafters in turn also seek out Resource Gatherers who are able to provide them

1) Sufficient Quantity of materials needed

2) Quality of Material provided

 

In a game like SWTOR or WoW that is severely structured and progression is extremely linear. From T1 to T2 to T3 and so on and forth. And all players can fight as well as craft. Instances in a way also isolates players from one another. You trade privacy/convenience for something else. The crafting is also very structured and linear, you must have X and Y to craft this item. Unlike in SWG adding an additional component may result in a better or worse product. Depending on the quality.

 

So what you can do...I can do as well, as long as we are of the same level and having the schematic. It takes a way a certain uniqueness.

 

There will still be a community but it won't be the same as those in Sandbox MMOs and I certainly don't consider them as a very solid or strong community.

 

 

--- LONG POST --- I know it. But to reiterate.

Having a LFG tool will NOT take away the community at its current form. Not having it may be detrimental as people now are getting busier and busier with short attention spans. Spending 30 mins LFG/LFM to do a flashpoint at the Fleet is not fun, the whole point is to retain players not frustrate them to the point of boredom and thus leaving the game.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Cemellyn

The whole ruining community thing is stupid. If you want to run a dungeon with people from your server you still could with a dungeon finder system. I play in the mornings quite a bit and it's hard to find groups even as a healer.

 

The only alternative to a dungeon finder would be a global LFG system. High level players are also on Ilum and Belsavis doing dailies or screwing around on their ship and spamming for groups on the fleet doesn't get the message to them.

...We have to struggle with shouting over a congested chat channel and try to flag ourself as LFG that I'm certain 80% of the player population is unaware of...

 

 

I cannot wonder anything else to be addeded to the game which currenntly I feel is missing.

Pls devs, do it. This game deserves it!

 

Many Thanks in advance! I'll keep hoping for this as I strongly believe that this is the last thing left to make this game the shining diamond that all of us were waiting for!

Just wasted a healthy chunk of time on the station waiting to get into a flashpoint. Actually it's the second time today. But there's no need for an LFG tool. And I tried your /who. Useless.