Good advice, but it's inconsequential for lvl 50 Hard Modes, for which it takes an upwards of an hour to find a healer for.

Give a couple weeks and you will be fine. People are still leveling, you are in the small minority of people that has reached level 50. People level at different speeds, but those already at 50 are faster than the average player. I'm not saying its good or bad, just how some people are.

I think people are dramaticlly overstating ninja looting in the LFG tool in WoW. I had plenty of ninja's in BC, Vanilla, and Wrath pre LFG (The worst was having the Commendation of Kael'thas ninja'd TWICE by idiot warriors or paladins on my druid tank). Post LFG, you know what? I still had ninja's, and their were just as many. It didn't matter AT ALL. People who ninja do so whether or not they are in a random group with the LFG tool or if they are with people they found in general chat.

 

(If your interested, I was on rexxar, which had a rather infamous guild that was known to ninja loot - and they were around BEFORE the LFG tool.)

No one is overstating ninja looting. Read more about what we are saying, because you state the same thing. Everyone that has stated about ninja looting from those on the server also mention about the consequences. You mentioned that there was a guild famous for ninja looting on your server, that is the reputation they built on their own by their members action and you knew what you were getting into if you grouped with them.

If there had been a cross server looking for dungeon tool at the beginning of WoW you would not have known about them, but those people would instead be harassing others they will never see again.

Same server LFG tool is a nice idea but does not work. I was in rift and wow when they tried it and both had to change it to cross server because there simply wasn't enough players. Same happened with wow's recently former raid same server system, nobody uses it.

In my opinion, if you want a community, commit to a raiding guild, there will always be that option and they are more social then you can ever get in the general chat window and conversing with your friends list. For a casual player like me and as an estimate, 60%+ of players the dungeon finder is all I play for, grouping is the best part of these games and its too hard to find groups without it. You get the odd idiot with it but mostly, people just want to play the game, and failing that, wait 2 minutes for the next queue.

I believe people are too vague when they talk about 'losing the community' and 'losing the social aspect of the game.' In my experience it just means that I hit the top level, see alot LFG chat, not for my dungeon, and still mssing a tank and healer. It happened until the dungeon finder was added in wow for me, once i hit the cap, absolutely nothing left for me as a casual player.

My sub will definetely depend on this once it hit 50 and I'm praying they add this. Not to worry though, if not, Back to WOW or GW2, 2012 woot!

Same server LFG tool is a nice idea but does not work. I was in rift and wow when they tried it and both had to change it to cross server because there simply wasn't enough players. Same happened with wow's recently former raid same server system, nobody uses it.

WoW has never had any same server automatic grouping system. It also did not work in Rift because, as you say, population issues, something that is not a problem in this game, and I don't see becoming a problem due to how extremely well this game has been done.

If you peeps would take the same amount of time to find a group, then you would realize, that you don't need a LFG tool.

Click on region tab and switch e.g. Imperial Fleet to 50 sorcerer and you get all the level 50 sorcerer on your shard, then proceed to ask them all if they would like to group up and after a 2-3 days you know that many people, that you won't need a LFG tool anymore, because you have them in your friendlist or they on yours already, but no, that would be inhumane to actually itneract with other specimen on your own.

After all we build cities and stuff with a LFG tool aswell.

Edit: Just read that hardmode bull. Takes me 15 minutes to find a new healer, but I am actually reaching out to them instead of /1 LF Healer BT HM for an hour.

People who ninja do so whether or not they are in a random group with the LFG tool or if they are with people they found in general chat.

 

well, I usually build my own groups. people on my ignore might see the LFM, but I will never see anything from them, which pretty much excludes them from every group I build. now imagine that times three (1 ninja = 3 pissed people), or even times 10/20+ if you get notorious enough to piss of a guild.

as you said, these cretins will probably be ninjaing anyway - but their chance to do so is severely reduced the more people they piss off.

LFG Tool, big no no.

If you want LFG, go back to WoW. They have it, if you're here on ToR or even the forums instead, you must have a problem with WoW and I'm willing to bet it's one of a few reasons:

1) You went through content so fast (thanks to an LFG system that lets you go there and be done with it in little to no time after release) and now you're bored

2) You're sick of people you group with (guild, party, bg, etc) and the LFG tool isn't helping

3) You've made enough alts, and the LFG tool isn't helping you level any faster because of lack of low-levels to queue

All of these problems: Result of LFG tool. Oh look at that.

If you keep comparing this game to WoW and find it "lacking", guess what, you're gonna have a bad time. Maybe you should just cancel your sub now and keep your hard earned money from those evil greedy Bioware Jews.

You know who's going to care if you cancel your sub? Not Bioware, they make **** tons of money and not just from TOR. EA? **** no. They make more money than you can count. That **** worked with Blizzard because Diablo II is 20 years old, Diablo 3 won't come out for another 20 years, and SCII still hasn't taken off in Korea, so WoW is their only money-making enterprise. No one else is going to care if they lose $15 a month from little sniveling brats when they make multi-millions off other things (Mass Effect, FIFA, Madden, Battlefield). Especially when doing what those little brats want would cost them millions of dollars in development costs, labor, server capacity, etc. Instead, they just DON'T implement it and fill their bathtubs with hundred dollar bills. tl;dr YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT QQ HARDCORE 4 LIFE

This entire generation thinks it's entitled to everything and they look at the LFG tool as the pinnacle of laziness. They don't have to do anything, even in an instance. Move in a circle to avoid the fire? Most can't even do that. But I'll be damned if all I have to do is just quit group and do the same thing and find another place I can be lazy.

I played WoW since vanilla. Molten Core? BWL? Yeah I know you raided those with 2 other 85's for ***** and giggles. Back in the day, you had to know 39 other people to get **** done. Getting 40 people to cooperate? A FEAT OF THE GODS. Almost impossible. Now, all you have to do is stick out your thumb and ride a wave of mostly fail and a few good people that actually still play the game consistently. And you don't even need 40 people, you can do it with 25. But yet somehow, the fewer people in the group, the more fail (an inverse relationship, look it up)

I left WoW because Arenas ruined the class system (everyone became "balanced"...what a bunch of *********), and then LFG ruined everything else that was good about that game (the social aspect, you know where I once had my friends list full and was constantly tanking for people I didn't know IRL but knew fairly well in-game). In fact, I'm STILL friends IRL with people I met in vanilla, and I'm even in a guild with some of them here on TOR. I can guarantee you no one can name the person that ninja'd their precious Halloween Pumpkin Bag a few months ago or whatever the **** they give out at holidays now in that **** game.

The current TOR LFG tool is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Know how it works?

1. Press "O"

2. Click "Who"

3. Click the "Looking for Group" option

4. Enter a comment (LFG HAMMER STATION. I like all caps so I get noticed more)

5. ???

6. PROFIT

Or you can just do the first 2 steps and see people who are LFG (which are listed first, gee look at that) and they even have COMMENTS HOW WACKY IS THAT?! But those of you too lazy to actually press more than one button won't do this, and you know what? Good riddance. Go back to WoW. Go play Rift or whatever else MMO tickles your ******e. I'll be here playing TOR enjoying the surprising ease of this game.

Personally, I think everyone advocating the LFG tool is the same guy on a T3 network trolling the **** out of everyone else.

They'll allow for mass server transfers Ohnoto. You'll be able to FREE OF CHARGE transfer to/from that server during this date. A NECESSARY PRICE to uphold the balance required of this game to please its considerably divergent playerbase. If the game "Rift" can allow free server transfers from all to all servers, I'm sure SWTOR can allow this.

Or you can just NOT implement a LFG tool. It's actually easier than your suggestion.

Just sayin.

If people want to explore, they will explore, if they want to socialize they will socialize, if they want to find a group of friends to play with they will do that. If they don't want to do those things and just want to play the game, then...well surprise that is what they will do.

Your logic: If people want to commit mass murder, they should be able to commit mass murder. Cause, they like, totally have the right to do what they want, it won't hinder anyone else doing what they want to do. Like living.

I predict that DEVs are sitting in a big room right now, parsing through usage data and in absolute shock about how few Flashpoints groups have formed worldwide in the last week.

 

The current system the worst thing in a great game. Absolute failure in design.

Oh man I don't know how to use the LFG tool because it's hands on I actually have to type "LFG Hammer Station"? **** THIS GAME I'M CANCELING MY SUB

Good advice, but it's inconsequential for lvl 50 Hard Modes, for which it takes an upwards of an hour to find a healer for.

Yeah man all those level 50 healers out there, it's a wonder there's none of them around to heal an instance just 2 weeks after launch what a wacky coincidence

LFG Tool, big no no.

 

If you want LFG, go back to WoW. They have it, if you're here on ToR or even the forums instead, you must have a problem with WoW and I'm willing to bet it's one of a few reasons:

 

1) You went through content so fast (thanks to an LFG system that lets you go there and be done with it in little to no time after release) and now you're bored

2) You're sick of people you group with (guild, party, bg, etc) and the LFG tool isn't helping

3) You've made enough alts, and the LFG tool isn't helping you level any faster because of lack of low-levels to queue

 

All of these problems: Result of LFG tool. Oh look at that.

 

If you keep comparing this game to WoW and find it "lacking", guess what, you're gonna have a bad time. Maybe you should just cancel your sub now and keep your hard earned money from those evil greedy Bioware Jews.

 

You know who's going to care if you cancel your sub? Not Bioware, they make **** tons of money and not just from TOR. EA? **** no. They make more money than you can count. That **** worked with Blizzard because Diablo II is 20 years old, Diablo 3 won't come out for another 20 years, and SCII still hasn't taken off in Korea, so WoW is their only money-making enterprise. No one else is going to care if they lose $15 a month from little sniveling brats when they make multi-millions off other things (Mass Effect, FIFA, Madden, Battlefield). Especially when doing what those little brats want would cost them millions of dollars in development costs, labor, server capacity, etc. Instead, they just DON'T implement it and fill their bathtubs with hundred dollar bills. tl;dr YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT QQ HARDCORE 4 LIFE

 

This entire generation thinks it's entitled to everything and they look at the LFG tool as the pinnacle of laziness. They don't have to do anything, even in an instance. Move in a circle to avoid the fire? Most can't even do that. But I'll be damned if all I have to do is just quit group and do the same thing and find another place I can be lazy.

 

I played WoW since vanilla. Molten Core? BWL? Yeah I know you raided those with 2 other 85's for ***** and giggles. Back in the day, you had to know 39 other people to get **** done. Getting 40 people to cooperate? A FEAT OF THE GODS. Almost impossible. Now, all you have to do is stick out your thumb and ride a wave of mostly fail and a few good people that actually still play the game consistently. And you don't even need 40 people, you can do it with 25. But yet somehow, the fewer people in the group, the more fail (an inverse relationship, look it up)

 

I left WoW because Arenas ruined the class system (everyone became "balanced"...what a bunch of *********), and then LFG ruined everything else that was good about that game (the social aspect, you know where I once had my friends list full and was constantly tanking for people I didn't know IRL but knew fairly well in-game). In fact, I'm STILL friends IRL with people I met in vanilla, and I'm even in a guild with some of them here on TOR. I can guarantee you no one can name the person that ninja'd their precious Halloween Pumpkin Bag a few months ago or whatever the **** they give out at holidays now in that **** game.

 

The current TOR LFG tool is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Know how it works?

 

1. Press "O"

2. Click "Who"

3. Click the "Looking for Group" option

4. Enter a comment (LFG HAMMER STATION. I like all caps so I get noticed more)

5. ???

6. PROFIT

 

Or you can just do the first 2 steps and see people who are LFG (which are listed first, gee look at that) and they even have COMMENTS HOW WACKY IS THAT?! But those of you too lazy to actually press more than one button won't do this, and you know what? Good riddance. Go back to WoW. Go play Rift or whatever else MMO tickles your ******e. I'll be here playing TOR enjoying the surprising ease of this game.

 

Personally, I think everyone advocating the LFG tool is the same guy on a T3 network trolling the **** out of everyone else.

 

 

 

Or you can just NOT implement a LFG tool. It's actually easier than your suggestion.

 

Just sayin.

 

 

 

 

Your logic: If people want to commit mass murder, they should be able to commit mass murder. Cause, they like, totally have the right to do what they want, it won't hinder anyone else doing what they want to do. Like living.

 

 

 

Oh man I don't know how to use the LFG tool because it's hands on I actually have to type "LFG Hammer Station"? **** THIS GAME I'M CANCELING MY SUB

 

 

 

Yeah man all those level 50 healers out there, it's a wonder there's none of them around to heal an instance just 2 weeks after launch what a wacky coincidence

Since you are talking about "generation" I am 30 years old and I have also played various MMOs (including WOW for years) and I strongly recommend addition of a LFD tool.

I dont want to be rude but it is people like you who I dont want to be a part of "my community" who think they are too elite and dont have manners to convey their message in a nice way on forums. You are clearly saying that if I dont agree with you I should stop playing this game! WHy should I be forced to follow what you think and feel.

Also I only get 3 hours to play everyday and even though I start forming groups it is very rare that I end up with a full group and able to run just 1 instance in 1 day. I am not sure if you like to waste your time looking at the random chat on fleet but I dont. I want to "play" the game.

LFD tool is always an option and you can opt out of it and use the chat to get groups but let others play the way they like. May be there are people who dont want to talk to other people, they dont want to make any unnecessary friends. They just want to log on and get some content and progress done. BECAUSE THEY ARE WORKING & HAVE VERY LITTLE TIME TO PLAY. It is very subjective. No one is ruining your community. If you don't like those kind of people don't befriend them.

Please don't force the things that you like on others.

Sorry but I think the developer hit it right on the head. It wouldn't be right to put that into a game early on. However after the full content of the game has been explored, played, and witnessed I hate having to waste time traveling back to the same location every time I want to farm gear from a dungeon(flashpoint). Could you imagine the level of annoyance in WoW if you had to travel to Outworld every time you had wanted to do dungeons? I am personally happy they plan to implement in this way.

Ditto. I was an advocate of no dungeon finder. However, after spending half a day to find one healer for a HM; I'm regretting my choice and my server. QQ.

Background – I’ve played World of Warcraft since its original release, and still play it today. My point being I played without a LFG system for most of the time I’ve played World of Warcraft. Looking back I do have some good memories of putting groups together and running a dungeon or two, but now I’ve been contaminated with the LFG system and there is no going back. I don’t agree with everything World of Warcraft has done with the LFG tool, but I believe, in the end, the benefits outweigh the problems.

Additional thoughts about some issue I’ve seen brought up:

When the Dungeon Finder first came out in World of Warcraft (I’m referring to its release in Wrath) you had to go out and find the entrances to the dungeons at least 1 time on that particular character before you could queue for the dungeon itself, wouldn’t that be a solution to the exploration of the dungeons problem?

As far as implementing a cross server flashpoint finder, I have no problem with it. I wouldn’t complain if they restricted it to same server, but I believe the best compromise would be giving players the option to choose.

I know I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking for groups for dungeons, it isn’t fun anymore. I’m fine with the delayed release of the LFG system, but I hope they don’t wait too long.

Here is what a developer stated 2 days ago on this issue.

Improving our LFG system is high on the list of features that Systems Design wants to add to the game. We want this to be good not just for helping people find Flashpoints and Operations to run, but also other multiplayer content like heroic missions. A key emphasis will be on advertising for specific role needs (healer, tank, DPS). This feature is currently in the design stage, and once this feature has moved beyond this to a development stage and has a firm ETA, I'll be coming back to you guys to give more details.

 

We've known we would need to revisit this feature for a while. In the level-up game, finding players isn't too rough because, with few exceptions, everyone in that level band is either on your planet or on the fleet. Once more and more players hit endgame, and are spending their time in more places, the need for this feature is going to increase. Note that right now, high level players have the opposite problem - there aren't enough other players up there to group with. This problem will dissipate as the game ages, and more players reach the later levels.

 

That being said, our design team doesn't philosophically believe that cross-server Flashpoints are good for the game at this stage in the game's lifespan. There is huge social pressure to not be a jerk that goes away when the odds that you will never see these people again is high. I'm not saying never - there may come a time in the future where we reevaluate this - but at least in the short term, we believe this will cause more damage to the community than good.

Source

As a former wow player, b4 and after the dungeon finder, I see ups and downs. But I do ultimately support a dungeon finder.

ups:

Quick groups (almost instant if you are a tank)

All business (run dungeon, get loot, get out)

Mostly overgeared people running dailies

Downs:

Not Noob Friendly

No communication (no friending)

No consequences for ninja looting or being a baddie

Member kicking doesn't work

People quit and leave groups easily

I'm in a large guild consisting of 300+ members. Reason for joining this guild? Another channel to spam LFG. It sucks how there isn't a global lfg channel. My server pop only has 120-190 ppl on the republic fleet at a time.

I spent 1hr + just trying to set up a group for Maelstrom Prison. 30minutes to get a heals and 1 dps. Nearly 25minutes spamming to find 1 extra dps.... DPS!!!! took a 15minute break and attempted again for another 30 minutes.

I would like BW to learn from Blizz and improve and create a better dungeon finder. Do not enable cross server partying. Make it easily to group without messing with the community overall.

After sitting around for over an hour last night, trying to find a flashpoint group, I'm pretty convinced some sort of queuing mechanism needs to be in place. I literally asked every friend I have if they were interested. I asked in my guild. I asked in General. I asked people who were flagged LFG. No dice.

Maybe it's because I'm a dps? Maybe my character smells bad? Maybe it's the wookie's fault? What ever the reason, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I log into the game to play and have a good time, not to sit around, hoping to find a group. Enjoying this game shouldn't feel like effort. It's a game, not a social networking site.

It's actually sad. I was excited when I hit 50. I really enjoyed the leveling process. Now, it feels like I hit a giant wall.

Sorry if this has already been said, I got to page 5 and went to the end. Why not only have the FPs "enterable" from the planet who's range they FP is for? Surely then it would be easier to find people of the apropriate level to group up with? I am for a LFFP tool as I loathe spamming channels at the best of times; and I rarely do the outside heroics because of that too.

Its a real pain in the *** when you travel to the fleet with intent on forming a group, only to delve into spam hell. Then you have to go all the way back to your questing area..

This means

Hangar

Run to Ship

Load ship

Run to Pilot seat

Select planet and run back to door

Run to the orbital station

Run through orbital station

Run to Shuttle to get back to Planet

Take taxi back to where you were before

In Wow... Oops no group? Well i'm going to take a FP back to my town or... wait i can use my 1hr/15min hearth! No load screen or just 1. Done.

Its not like this game is a open world mmo where you can trek by foot from hoth to corellia. Theres so many instances to go through.

While they fix the LFG thing lets please use the one we have. I will make grouping easier.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=172781

I'm okay with a LFD tool.

 

 

I'm not okay with cross-server queueing.

Same viewpoint here. I am fine with a LFD tool. I just do not want the tool to be cross server.

While they fix the LFG thing lets please use the one we have. I will make grouping easier.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=172781

because it dont work, i have have had it on always, and only i had it on, nobody care about it, its useless

the current system is really bad for a good game. which is hanging out in fleet and and spamming the general chat.

Its like seriously the most crude method.

Quite a bit of resistance from cross server stuff. But still need some kind of tool other then this current horrible method. A flashpoint channel, or a group finder that is just of the server.

Also... why not have flashpoints tied to the planets that are of the same level as the people who will run it (or permit a person to be on the planet of their level and waiting on then going to flashpoint).

because it dont work, i have have had it on always, and only i had it on, nobody care about it, its useless

The only reason it does not work its because no one knows how to use it or people dont use it. If we get people to start flaggin itll be better fr the server as a whole.

I played WoW before and after the LFD tool was implemented and I loved it. It let me who gets off of work at 5 to get in do 1 or 2 and get done have dinner and spend time with the GF. On the other hand I do see where it did make it so some call them elistest or jerks or whatever had no reason not to be a jerk because you'll never see them again. How about this and i'm not sure how this would be done and or if it is even fessible.

After each FP or Operation each person gets voted on how well they played and depending and on how played and respected other people and depending on how many votes you got depended on like how many credits or gear or tier gear or whatever yout. Maybe that would force people to behave. Just me thinking outloud. The only downfall is people being a jerk and giving you bad ratings.... but I don't know.....

I just know that i'm almost 50 I want to do some operations and FP but don't want to wait hours upon hours to get a group together.