Dungeon Finder Needed Badly

1 more thing about my stance and why it was so against a LFD tool.

Its this simple. My guildmates and Fiancee say this too me in the last 24 hours.

MMOs are not as much fun when you are not playing with other people. The best part of them is being on vent or guild chat laughing it up while playing the content. This is the Social aspect of the game that I and many people who have played MMOs before LFD ever came out.

Yes some guilds are full of drama queens. That does not change the fact that the majority of guilds in MMOs play to have fun and want members of the same mind set as themselves. This is part of my social interaction outside of work, school, and family. This is where I make friends that last a long time, ask my friend Weavea who has been playing a long side me since 2003 back when I met him on Wanderhome in SWG. Friends are made in MMOs you can not take that away, if you do its becomes a solo player game, which if I wanted one I would go play Dragon age, or NWN2 or maybe even some old NES games.

I play MMOs for the social interaction between players.

It's interesting seeing your viewpoint. For me, in WoW (sorry, I know, it's just I played a lot) the little bit of interaction I would get in a good Dungeon Finder group was enough social interaction to last me all day. I'd been in really good/fun/social guilds, too. But found out in the end that I only needed that time spent in a dungeon with 4 other strangers.

So I am going to soften my stance a little after talking with fellow guildies about this. Many seem to be in agreement about a LFD tool.

Here is what we feel would work very well and why.


LFD tool will be SERVER ONLY
LFD tool will not group someone to a group where they are on someones ignore list
LFD Will not port you into the instance
LFD tool will have 4 Roles that a person can signup for. Healer, Tank, Ranged and Melee DPS
LFD will pull 1 person for each role and fill that role. So no imbalanced Melee only groups and such.

LFD being server only will give you a reputation on your server. This will tie directly into the ignore list, if you are an *** hole, steel loot for your companion without asking first, or cause problems you will be punished for it in the long run. If just about everyone you ever run with add you to their ignore list you will sit in queue forever. Tough **** if you cause that much grief you earned your right to have problems getting a group.

LFD being server only will have a long queue times if you are a solo player who tends to never talk and get to know people, or ever join a guild. An MMO is based on community and people making friends. NOT solo players wanting to be anti-Social. If you get into a group with 3 members from a guild, you mesh well, they might want to recruit you This is good for you and good for them. Next time you may not have to wait an hour or 2 in Queue. If you are willing to make friends off people you meet in groups you will not need the LFD tool much but for the odd time 2 or 3 people need an extra person or 2. The guilds that need 1 more often times to do a Hardmode will find that 1 off in the queue, making more Flashpoints happen.

You will not need to be ported to the instance. This is so you can go out in the world and explorer it. To off set having to go back to the fleet to run the next instance, I recommend that the fleet pass Cold Down be moved down to 1 hour. Most instances take that long so it will be up about the time you are done.

Loop sided groups have not been too much of an issue with SWTOR however I have seen boss fights that all melee groups will have issues and what not. This will help balance out DPS range and Melee classes.

This is a big Omission by me because I was set in stone against the LFD tool because it does make the game too much like Never winter nights lobby game. Join this server do X amount leave, dont talk to the people. Yes I played NWN1+2 and Diablo 1, I play MMOs for the social interaction, which if you can get groups within 10 minutes of clicking the easy button it becomes the same Ginnie pig wheel. Server only also holds you majorly responsible for your own actions, if you are are a detriment to the group or cause too many problems it will affect you.

Holy crap. Color me equal parts shocked and delighted to come back to find people rationally discussing either side and conceding individual points. Holy friggin crap. There may be hope for the human race yet.


1) Still in favor for x-server, only because it seems it would add to the brevity of waiting instead of doing. But not a deal breaker for me.
2) Definitely in favor for the LFG tool taking into account your friends/ignore list.
3) Would like there to be a teleport as I also feel there is a bunch of useless load screens inbetween X and Y the majority of the time.
4) Would love to see a 3rd mode (Nightmare or whatever) so the "leets" can get their uber gear from their awesome group coordination or what have you.
5) Even if there were no LFG I'd be in favor of "If you cannot equip it, you cannot roll Need on it", period.

1) Still in favor for x-server, only because it seems it would add to the brevity of waiting instead of doing. But not a deal breaker for me.

5) Even if there were no LFG I'd be in favor of "If you cannot equip it, you cannot roll Need on it", period.

This would be a deal breaker for me. It would make the game too much of a multiplayer Diablo, Neverwinter nights game to me. If thats the type of game I wanted to play I would do that. Keeping it Server Only keeps people accountable for their own actions, AND can promote Social interaction. Example that 3 people from a guild needed a 4th member and that person being recruited into the guild.


This should be done just because to many people are greedy for no reason at all. If you wanted to add in a button "Companion Need" so be it. It would be NEED > Companion Need > Greed > Disassemble

also Adding in a friends list and taking that into account is a VERY good addition to the LFD tool. This could be used as a community builder too.

The LFD finder can not be too accessible or people loose respect for others and people act as they are no longer responsible for their actions. If the Queue is a 30 to 60 minute Queue, you better be respectful of others and be willing to make friends. Or that Queue will turn against you.

The 2nd is often because people are not willing to take responsibility for their actions. AKA finding a guild that fits their play style. They would rather make the Game a Solo Massive Player game then say ok I need to be responsible for my time, its not Bioware's nor anybody else's responsibility.

Really?
(and it's not optional, once an LFD is implemented it becomes the only way that people group for dungeons in the game, guilds stop doing guild runs because they want to spend that time on raids)

I think we can all get in the same boat together. Yay. My disagreements with any of your points are philosophical and I'll concede that while I get perhaps 5% of my socializing from SWTOR, or that I don't believe in online community, it may be real enough to others to warrant concerns. I am much more willing to listen when you're so rational about it.

If X-Server is the only thing everyone ultimately disagrees on, and they stated at the beginning that it's not in the pipes as of now, I think this whole thing is looking up. And only a handful of people had to throw sissy fits.

Subroasian is Right here MalignX and Manathayria. This is why I for the longest time was against LFD tools. Because its this simple as I quoted above. If the LFD is SERVER ONLY guilds will still be guilds because the amount of time you will spend Waiting for the queue to pop will very and the fastest way to get a group is a GUILD/Friends. However If your guild is short that 1 or 2 people, It will be fairly fast to get them into a group.

True Compromises means everyone has to be willing to give up something. Truth is LFD people should give this up or the BS will start over with 2 sides set in stone with no middle ground.