Guild Wars 2

It’s very hard to find a group of random people together to do dungeon runs when your friends aren’t online. You have to wait outside the dungeon, or advertise in town. And people who may want to do the dungeon may not even be in town, cause they got bored of looking and left to do something else.

So why not make a dungeon lobby at the dungeon’s location that’s a small room similar in aesthetic to the dungeon, where people can go, wait and join up with other people to do dungeon runs. So people have a dedicated place to go and wait, if they wish to do a particular dungeon, and don’t have anyone else to do it with. This will not only make it easier to group up with people, but it will also reduce the LFG map chat msgs in towns and maps.

Personally i believe the lobby should also have a merchant, it’s a pain to have to go back to town to sell all your loot each time you run a dungeon and waste money warping back.

I’m entirely for this, tbqh. i explained the dungeon system to work pretty much like this based upon expectations and general setup of the game. I was rather surprized to find out that it doesn’t work like this…

Though if i were to suggest a way to set it up, i would (instead of a waiting instance for a particular dungeon) advocate going the ‘GW-Nightfall Sanctuary’-way … which would be one big central waiting area, from which all dungeons could be entered. This would reduce the need to hop all around the world LFG if all you want to do is ‘A’ dungeon. One could just go to this ‘central dungeon chamber/cave’ and, find a team that needs somebody, then run the dungeon. As the gaming population settles down, and data about dungeon runners becomes more stable, this central area can then also be used to facilitate running dungeons with people from other servers, aka. it be a true ‘central’ area.

This chamber/cave could have a mixture of tunnels (with zone-portals at the end), Asura Gates and tunnels with Asura gates at the end. You would enter this central place through every dungeon gate in the world, at the end of the dungeon you would get the option to exit to this central place or into the world.

This central dungeon chamber/cave should atleast have a vendor and an armor repair. So that people can ‘hop out’ to sell or repair their armor. I might not be a bad idea to have crafting stations there, so people have access to their banks and can do some crafting while they wait for a team. A couple of jumping challenges (of sorts) might keep people somewhat busy as well…

ps. a mixture of both could be an idea as well. In a sense that there is a small waiting area for each dungeon, that links to a central cave/chamber, and from this central cave/chamber all other dungeon waiting area’s can be reached. This would give more options in regards to creating a waiting area designed in the style of the dungeon to be played (instead of merely designing the tunnels/entrance). It would make it more clear who’s waiting for which dungeon, and people from several servers waiting for a specific dungeon can more easily be put together…

Yeah i agree, i think having a mix of the big complex area with Asura gates leading to the smaller waiting areas with same dungeon aesthetic would be best. So people who only want to do one dungeon can wait in the smaller area, and not take up space or map chat for people in the big complex who are willing to do more than 1 dungeon. Since ppl will undoubtingly be spamming LFG in the chat lol.

I just dont know if arenanet would be willing to implement the big area, since it’s kinda like the heart of the mists, but for PvE. Especially if someone would be able to instantly teleport for free to dungeons they haven’t unlocked on the map yet. Maybe make it so, and asura gate to a dungeon in the complex is only useable for you, when you’ve discovered it yourself on the map, out in the world. And vice versa for the asura gates in the smaller waiting areas. So you still have to find the locations in the world to access them.

I agree, I would like to be able to make a group while out exploring in time to jump/run to the dungeon when everyone is ready instead of hanging around waiting so some form of lobby would be good, Not so sure about a common area but maybe lobby that allows people from different servers to join each other so you can always find a group easily.

I was just coming to the forums to suggest this very same thing. Grouping in the more populated servers might be little easier, but on the lower population ones, its pretty tough.

I really thought there would be a lobby system in place just based off how the dungeons are setup. For example, AC is a level 30-35 dungeon in a 1-15 zone. In order to get people for the group, you will need several people 30+ hanging out in a zone they really don’t need to be in.

I was also thinking this could go beyond the server you are on, as some of the dungeons may just not have a following on your server.

Jam.4521:

I agree, I would like to be able to make a group while out exploring in time to jump/run to the dungeon when everyone is ready instead of hanging around waiting so some form of lobby would be good, Not so sure about a common area but maybe lobby that allows people from different servers to join each other so you can always find a group easily.

Then there would have to be multiple overflow servers for the areas, as there would no doubt be too many ppl there at once if it was all servers. So it might split it up too much, and you’ll have a few overflow servers with not that many people in them. But i do like the cross server idea. Maybe make it that, the dungeon lobby is connected to the 2 other servers your server is vsing in WvW. So you always have a lot of people in the dungeon lobby, but not too many. Then if u find people you like, you can friend them. Then when a new WvW match starts, you can try find new people. So your list of contacts begins to slowly grow and there’s always people to play with.

@Nevarato, that seems to be a nice work around in regards to limiting the amount of people that can enter the specific/general waiting areas, i like it

I agree that major improvements need to happen for the group finding aspect of the game. The current system feels like im playing World of Warcraft circa 2004 when everyone was just yelling anywhere and everywhere they could with LF1M blah blah dungeon. Its a tiring ancient method of finding a group and its no fun to sit there aimlessly trying to spam chat and find people. If a dungeon finding tool is not implemented then they need to do something like this lobby system

on a side note when i am forming a group and i decide to take the leap of faith to open the LFG browser window theres absolutely nobody there ever. Ive seen probably 2-3 people use it since the game launched when i have opened it to look. its obviously not working

There is a LFG browser window ?!?

A window
A list of available dungeons
A list of available modes / stories
A button “apply”
A Que from anywhere in the world
A Cancel/Accept pop up bubble

and here we go…. easy to program and no need to gather in any specific location.

Ronah.2869:

A window
A list of available dungeons
A list of available modes / stories
A button “apply”
A Que from anywhere in the world
A Cancel/Accept pop up bubble

and here we go…. easy to program and no need to gather in any specific location.

Agree with this, also show the class of the players applied as well. I noticed people calling out for certain classes so it should display your class on the window. Level.. maybe not, since I’d assume you shouldn’t be able to apply for a dungeon you don’t meet the requirements for anyways, obviously.

Simple.

That may be simple, but how boring it is at the same time… why solve something with another boring interface panel, when it can also be solved by creating an ingame equivilent.

Arghore.8340:

That may be simple, but how boring it is at the same time… why solve something with another boring interface panel, when it can also be solved by creating an ingame equivilent.

People who prefer to shout out on /map for LFG and LFM would obviously do so if they wish. So if you and others find the interface boring then that’s fine. I mean they have a rather silly LFG system already, it’s there but not many use it, only a few, no one is forced on it. So it’ll be the same for the Dungeon LFG; people would still continue to shout on Map, or queue, or do both.

I rather explore other zones and continue doing what I wish while waiting for a dungeon pop-up than just standing around in the same zone spamming LFG and LFM.

I agree we need a better way to form dungeon parties, since as stated the dungeons are often in areas where people who want to do those dungeons wouldn’t normally be playing.

A physical lobby room is not appealing to me at all. Why would I want to sit in a boring room when I could rather be out in the world playing? Boring.

The LFG tab in the [Y] Contacts menu is a start, but I’d like to see something more like the PvP Browser window (accessed by talking to the “PvP Browser” NPC). So instead of just listing people nearby with the status “LFG” we could also see what those people are LFG for (i.e. a particular dungeon).

I could mark myself LFG and then a pop-up could appear where I’d choose which things I’m LFG for. Maybe I want to do explorable mode in AC and CoE, but I don’t prefer one over the other. I could then mark a check in the box by each. Then other people who are marked for the same could see me on their LFG lists, even if we’re not currently on the same map. Doesn’t that sound convenient? I know this is something easier said than done, but I know a lot of people would love an in-game LFG system like this.

+1 any method to form a dungeon party with similar skilled players (other than spamming map chat) would be a much needed addition.

I agree with the UI and check box idea combined, especially as it would be a quicker implementation and you can do other stuff while waiting.

That way you can advertise specifically for more than one dungeon.