group-finder
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Dark Age of Camelot takes aim at group finder and bug fixes
An end-of-the-year community Q&A at Dark Age of Camelot revealed that the team has a lot on the docket for Patch 1.117, including the long-awaited casual group finder and a heap of bug fixes. "We think that focusing our development resources on bug fixing for an entire patch cycle is something that hasn't been done in a long time and is something that will make everyone's gameplaying experience that much better!" Broadsword posted. Other topics discussed include freeing up space in quest logs, plans to update the patcher, and ideas to help out starter guilds. The Q&A even revealed that there will be "official Broadsword player reps" and "scheduled raids of all sorts" for trial accounts, although details on those will be coming later.
Patch 6.0.2 preview highlights upcoming UI changes
Those bags in that header image may look like a disorganized wreck now, but they're about to get cleared out a little sooner than expected. Blizzard released a preview of upcoming UI changes for patch 6.0.2 yesterday -- that's patch 6.0.2, the pre-patch for Warlords of Draenor, not the expansion itself. Along with all the pre-expansion content quests, the new character models, and the preview of Upper Blackrock Spire, we also get all those lovely space-saving improvements ahead of time. That's on top of a host of other really cool UI improvements, including a new and improved Group Finder that includes the Premade Groups function. In addition, the new map and quest log will make an appearance, the new Void Storage tab will be unlocked, you'll be able to check out your handy new reagent tab in your bank, and you'll be able to sort your bags more easily than ever before. I have to admit, while I'm excited about being able to sort my mounts and pick a few favorites, I'm far more excited to see rows and rows and rows of empty bag slots. For more of what to expect in patch 6.0.2 and how this will change the way you play, check out Blizzard's full preview on the official site.
World of Warcraft adding party finder functionality
World of Warcraft is expanding the functionality of its group finder tool in Warlords of Draenor so that making a group is easier than just inviting your friends and shouting in a city. The new group finder interface is designed to help players locate parties looking for the same content, from pre-made PvP groups to teams trying to take out a particularly obnoxious group quest in the zone. Group finder groups can be designated for PvE or PvP, with the former allowing for a variety of group-based PvE encounters (quests, dungeons, raids) and the latter opening up for PvP options (rated battlegrounds, arenas of all sizes, faction leader assaults, and so on). Players can either join a group or start a new one, with leaders setting both the designated goal and the requirements for would-be party members to join. Take a look at the full preview for more information on this expanded functionality.
SWTOR's Spoils of War update offers casinos, tweaks group finder
In Star Wars: The Old Republic's most recent dev blog, designers Chris Schmidt, Alex Modny, and George Smith discuss the major game systems headed to servers with the 2.8 Spoils of War update -- specifically, the Nar Shaddaa Nightlife event, PvP tweaks, and the story mode ops group finder. Nar Shaddaa casinos will feature slot machines that award special buffs, weapons, armor, cosmetic abilities, and mounts -- like a ridable Rancor -- to lucky gamblers. Participants in Galactic Starfighter matches and Warzones will begin receiving double rewards, and two new ship variants, the Assault Bomber and Skirmisher Gunship, will become available. In an effort to reduce queue time, the group finder will utilize the 16-man story mode difficulty for operations and bolster gear rating for all players. Rewards will also be increased. Read the full dev blog at the official site.
LFR, Warlords of Draenor, and you
I've been thinking about the changes coming to LFR ever since yesterday's big post about raiding in Warlords. One of the things that seems really clear about the changes is that LFR is now seen as part of a progression path for raiding - at least some players are expected to go from LFR to normal raiding in the expansion. With the removal of shared set bonuses and even tier gear from LFR being entirely gone, LFR feels to a degree like it's being downshifted in difficulty and placed in a different position for player use than how it is currently employed. Right now, for many players, LFR is their raiding. They don't run flex or normal, much less heroic. And with dungeons basically only for valor farming, LFR has become an important part of people's endgame. The idea of making LFR a stepping stone to normal raiding via the incoming group finder is interesting to me. Since you won't be able to get tier gear, or scaled down versions of the same loot as in normal/heroic/mythic, LFR feels like it will simultaneously have less and more importance. The effort to elevate dungeons to a much more prominent role in endgame (especially challenge modes, which will actually reward gear) and make it so players have an incentive to try and make the jump from LFR to normal/heroic raids. It's an interesting shift in priorities, but what will it mean for players who currently use LFR as their endgame?
Raid design evolution and Warlords of Draenor
Blizzard has posted parts one and two of a series of Dev Watercoolers, discussing raid design over the course of World of Warcraft. Now part three is live, highlighting and explaining where raiding is going in Warlords of Draenor. The post covers new systems like the Group Finder (basically integrating the OQueue style functionality), buffs to LFR, explains the new Mythic difficulty and flexible group system for normal/heroic, and discusses how raid lockouts will work in Warlords, with each raiding difficulty (Raid Finder, Normal, Heroic and Mythic) having its own lockout, and how valor points will be scaled back to prevent players feeling like they have to clear each raid difficulty each week. If you raid, you should probably check it out. The full text is reproduced behind the break.
Ask Massively: Too many MMOs still lack serious LFG tools
David is angry. No, David is pissed. And he's right to be. He wrote to Ask Massively with the following rant: Developers clearly see PvE instances as a key part of the MMO experience. So why do so many of them fail to ensure I can access this content with a solid group finder? I have been trying to play something other than World of Warcraft (which does have a group finder) for a number of years. But even my current pick, The Secret World, commits this sin. I usually end up annoyed at spending time in LFG channels trying to form a group, so I give up, first on grouping and then on the game. So why do they design games where they assume I am joining the game with four like-minded individuals who have the same gaming schedule as I do? Why do they assume I want to spend time in public channels showing how little I know about the game whilst trying to form a group? Don't make me go back to WoW. Unless I can access your content, there is no point in making the content! I have a theory, but you're not going to like it, and you might end up back in WoW when I'm done.
The Daily Grind: Have you made any friends via groupfinder mechanics?
Raid finders, dungeon finders, and various LFG mechanics are becoming a modern MMO staple, but apart from throwing together five or six strangers and hustling them through a piece of content, they don't strike me as being particularly social. I do use them to clear content I otherwise can't do, of course, but whenever I've attempted small talk I've been met with indifference. On one occasion I even got some outright hostility! "Less talking, more DPS," was the family-friendly gist of it. What about you, Massively readers? Have you made any MMO friends via group finder mechanics, or are they simply a means to an end? [Image source: EQ2Wire] Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Should Blizzard revamp in-game voice chat to go with the group finder?
Defective of Ysera-US emailed me recently with an interesting question -- did I think Blizzard should revamp the in-game voice chat to accompany their new Group Finder, coming in Warlords of Draenor? Yes, believe it or not there is an in-game voice chat, added in patch 2.2 to the resounding derision of the playerbase. Back in 2011 WoW Insider surveyed players, and found that only 4% of players use it. And having been in that 4% myself, they should stop. In a world where so many options exist, the WoW in-game voice chat really is one of the worst, for WoW at least. And Blizzard know, quite apart from jokingly derisive tweets from devs, that it's bad. They even said, again in 2011, that the next time they revisited it they wanted it to be a big change, similar to how LFG revolutionized dungeons.
Warlords of Draenor: Flex, Group Finder and Raid Finder's roles
Blizzard Community Manager Lore has been posting about the future roles of Flex, the new Group Finder, and Raid Finder in Warlords of Draenor. You can, as usual, see Lore's full post after the break, but what he's talking about is how, thanks to the success of Flex as a raid system and the resultant awkward position of LFR, a reshuffle needs to happen. LFR has been wearing too many hats. It's been end-game progression for some, a gear grind for others, and a way to see the sights of a raid for even more, as well as everything in between. That's a hard act for one difficulty, that is simultaneously too hard and too easy. But thanks to the runaway success of Flex, due in no small part to group-finding systems like OpenRaid or oQueue, the devs think they can make some changes to the tuning of LFR. The idea, it seems, is that the new Group Finder will make it just as easy to find a Flex group as it currently is to find an LFR one. Then, LFR tuning can be altered, allowing Blizz to "better provide for both the "busy raider" and "sightseer" styles of gameplay as a result." So it seems likely that, if this remains the case (we're not even in beta after all) LFR will become the tourist difficulty. Flex via the Group Finder, and with friends, will become the new way to get meaningful progression encounters. And that makes sense, given how it'll be renamed to "Normal" come WoD. Hit the break for Lore's full post.
Clarifications on Cross-Realm raiding and Warlords' Group Finder
Community Manager Lore has released some additional clarifications on the differences between the cross-realm functionality being added to the Raid Browser in patch 5.4.2, and the new Group Finder being introduced with the new expansion in patch 6.0. These two features are entirely different things -- the Group Finder is an all new feature being built from scratch. This new Group Finder will allow players to find and create groups for any content at any level. The cross-realm functionality in 5.4.2, however, is just that -- cross-realm functionality. Currently, the Raid Browser only allows players to see other players from their own realm. In patch 5.4.2, players will be able to see cross-realm players as well -- something that is similar to what the popular addon oQueue already accomplishes via the BattleTag system. Follow after the break for the full post from Lore.
LFG vs LFM for Blizzard's Group Finder tool
We've been talking a lot here on WoW Insider about the new group-finder tool Blizzard will be putting together to rival the tremendously popular oQueue (yes that is the real link) come 6.0. Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street mentioned another tidbit on Twitter which tied in with what our commenters here at WoW Insider have been bringing up. @JoDReaper @Bashiok @oliviadgrace Random matchmaking and pug forming are two different and valuable features with different audiences. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) November 22, 2013 One reason why I love reading the comments is that they often point out ideas and insights that I would otherwise have missed. And exactly that has happened here. As the tweet Greg responded to said, the new system needs to be an LFM system not an LFG system. And, as several commenters have added, here's why. So what's the difference between LFG and LFM? Greg hits it in his response to the tweet. On a basic level, LFG is an individual looking for a group, and LFM is a group looking for more individuals. Think back, if you will, to the days of Tol Barad. Once your faction had won the battle on the island, your trade chat would suddenly fill up with "spriest LFG" along with their item level, the relevant achievement for the boss at the time, if they had it, and the request to either PST or /w, depending on what side of the Atlantic you were playing on. It always amused me how, although Trade was filled with LFG, barely anyone started their own group to LFM. As a tank, at the time, I often did exactly that, and believe it or not, I would be ready to go in no time.
Patch 5.4.2: This is just the beginning for Blizzard's Raid Finder
We posted earlier about Blizzard's first steps towards building their own answer to oQueue, leveling various criticisms at what they had done so far for patch 5.4.2. Basically, you can head back and read the previous post, but the changes so far have all been to the existing Raid Finder tool. The one that nobody knows exists. And the one that nobody can find. Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street was quick to add, though, that this is only the beginning for Blizzard's group finder. @Bashiok @oliviadgrace Takes our crappy old raid browser and enables some cross realm functionality. Still doing a new Group Finder for 6.0. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) November 21, 2013 So we can allow ourselves to hope for better with 6.0. What would you like to see? Personally, I think oQueue, for all its bugs and quirks, does a pretty great job of finding cross-realm groups for people. I'd like to see something that mirrors oQueue, but with fewer issues like spam, memory use, and more. Of course, with Blizzard designing this themselves, it's very likely to be the case that it doesn't suffer any of these ills. I'd love to see it have all the ilvl restrictions, completion restrictions and other group restrictions applicable, and to have the option to appear offline, or hide. One big thing, too, is visibility. It needs to either be integrated into the LFG panel, or have its own micro-menu entry. The single thing that such a system needs, as I mentioned in the earlier article, is people. It needs to be right in players' faces, more convenient than the competition. I believe Blizzard can do it, but to replace such a popular addon that's done so much good to the game, they'll have to do it well.
The Daily Grind: Are group finding tools a necessity?
In Guild Wars 2, there's no interface for you to queue up and immediately flash over to a group from anywhere in the world. On the one hand, this means that you have to actually go to dungeons and interact with people willing to take on the challenges. On the other hand, this also means that you need to hurry up and wait in order to gather your fellow adventurers, a problem that's only exacerbated when something goes wrong and you all have to die and respawn. World of Warcraft's dungeon finder tool is sometimes seen as the greatest way to jump in and experience dungeon content, while at other times it's seen as an effort to tear apart server communities and trivialize the experience of working together to clear something. So today we turn the question over to you, our readers. Are group finding tools a necessity in this day and age, or would you prefer to play games without them? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Secret World's group finder coming next week
Are you friendless in The Secret World? Has your guild game-hopped to the next new shiny, leaving you to wander the paths of Transylvania cold and alone? Take heart! Next week's Digging Deeper update will not only feature a bunch of new content but also a new group finder tool. It's cross-dimensional too, so you're free to pick from the entire online playerbase when forming a party. The patch drops on Tuesday, September 11th.
Star Wars: The Old Republic's guide to the group finder
In a perfect world, all Star Wars: The Old Republic groups would be composed of several friends working together. But sometimes your friends aren't online or just have other things to do, and for those times, there's the Group Finder tool. But why is it that you can select a role you can't perform? Why do you queue up as healing or damage but always get picked for healing? How does the whole daily reward work? For answers to these questions and more, production team member Toni Phillips has put together a rundown of some of the Finder's more esoteric features. Phillips explains that daily rewards require you to complete the final step of the Flashpoint mission rather than simply clear the last boss, which usually involves clicking on an object at the end. Role selection, meanwhile, is determined by what your advanced class can do rather than what you're currently able to do, and if you select multiple roles, the finder will tend to pull from the rarer roles first. For more information and a more thorough breakdown, take a look at the full guide.
Hyperspace Beacon: Four reasons you should come back to TOR for 1.3
Currently in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I am leveling up a couple of alternate characters. My main is a Sith Marauder, but I felt like trying the other Sith class and at the same time try the Jedi Consular class that I didn't finish during beta, mostly to see for myself whether the story gets any better. (It doesn't.) The mechanics are extremely awesome, though, and that's enough to keep me playing the class. But that's not the only thing that keeps me playing it. In fact, I think I can safely say that I would not still play the class if it weren't for update 1.3, which is just one of the reasons I believe players should consider coming back to SWTOR. Whether you're an altoholic or not, update 1.3 has finally completed the game. If the game had launched with the features that now exist in game, I don't believe we would have seen such a sharp decline in subscriptions after launch. I'm urging you to try the game again, not because I'm being prompted to but because I think these quality-of-life additions really make this game what it should have been all along.
Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.3 update arrives today
Star Wars: The Old Republic's patch 1.3 has been in the news for a while, but the wait for it is finally over. After extended maintenance on the game from midnight to 4am PDT last night, the "Allies" update is up now.Those new features include the Group Finder tool, which is something that SW:TOR players have been seeking since launch. There's also the Legacy System, for players with more than one character, and Adaptive Gear, which is armor that can be modded in combat for other abilities. If you've been out of the game for lack of one of these features, now's the time to jump back in.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR's group finder and server transfers
Update 1.3 for Star Wars: The Old Republic is nearly upon us. Developers at BioWare hope that this update gives players a better sense of community. In other words, some server populations are really low, and it sucks to play on them. Update 1.3 hopes to diminish that feeling of loneliness with the two biggest features in 1.3: the group finder and server transfers. Game launches vary in scale and scope. SWTOR's launch was huge! Over two million copies of the game were sold, and over 150 servers spun up the first week. That made some of features you'd find in older MMOs redundant. Group finders and server transfers are really not necessary when you have everything that you need at your fingertips.
SWTOR devs hint at mega-servers
We saw this with DC Universe Online: when the population dropped below the level SOE was looking for, it decided to combine all the individual servers into a small group of mega-servers. The same thing could be a distinct possibility for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Yesterday, we reported on PC Gamer's interview with Lead Game Designer Daniel Erickson. When asked if the new group finder would be cross-server, Erickson replied that it would be single-server because "we are coming up on a huge move to servers with massively higher population caps than we have today." Of course, there are no details about these massive servers yet, but this quote does suggest that BioWare is looking for a critical-mass solution that is more than just simple character transfers. We will be sure to keep you abreast of the details as we inch closer to the launch of Update 1.3.
