Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

I recently started doing more dungeons and I can say I really appreciate the LFG tool, it does the job and prevents spam in map chats.

But: I think it can be a lot better by adding a second way of finding groups, by an option to tag yourself as “open for invite” for certain dungeons or other content and then allowing groups to find you and other players. This is especially useful if you’re solo and looking for several dungeons to play, for example. Or players new to dungeons who don’t want to start a group from scratch. Or just for signaling “Hey, I’m in region X doing hearts / events and wouldn’t mind grouping!”.

City of Heroes had a similar system and another great prototype can be found in the Secret World mod “Field Agent Locator” (see screenshots). So the basics could pretty much be:

• Toggleable “Looking for Invite” button
• Checkboxes for dungeons / modes you’re looking for
• Optional small text field to add info about your character / role / search etc.

You could add more functionality on top of that, but this would already allow for a faster and more comfortable way to find other players, I think. Possible group leaders could search for e.g. a certain dungeon and get a list of all players looking for it, including their class, level and optional info -> invite and fill your group.

It would be great if the current beta LFG tool could be expanded in this or a similar manner. Any comments or additional suggestions on this subject are also appreciated.

Thanks in advance. :)

Honestly, I don’t see how it could be done properly.

Your way of doing it just seems like something that would end up with people using it to cherry pick the best DPS or whatever. And that’s definitely not a good way to go about it.

On the other hand, I am not sure that implementing some kind of queue system (like what we have with WvW) would be that good of an idea either.

Sure, there would be some cherry picking, but that isn’t too different from all those groups with texts like “LFM 80 EXP ZERK ONLY”, is it? There are always people trying to maximize their runs and farming, but that’s certainly not the whole community.

In my experience, the additional opportunity to be easily found, to say “Hey, I’m here and willing to be part of a group for X and Y” can seriously increase the chances of actually getting in one. Not only does it have the potential to make group forming a lot faster (because group leaders can actively search for players instead of just waiting for joiners), but it could also be an incentive to group more in open world regions as well.

If you aren’t part of a big, active guild, but still enjoy group playing now and then, this could be a good way of getting people together. And just to be clear, I wouldn’t remove the current LFG system, just add another feature.

I disagree with your suggestion. For the reasons Olba stated, and the fact that it will encourage people who will inevitibly just idle on the invite, afk, etc.

Just because there are already ways to cherry-pick, doesn’t mean we’re supposed to add more.

I still don’t quite get the problem you guys have with it. At the moment, you can either spam map chat in Lion’s Arch or the dungeon’s region or you have to hope for a dungeon group to pop up, matching exactly your build and desired path / story. So you keep that LFG window open at the edge of the screen and wait. Or you start a group from scratch, which is an option, but might not always the most desirable or comfortable way.

By just adding an “Looking for invite” ability, you can

• be available for several dungeons or activities at once, not just one. Or without constantly clicking in a LFG window.
• make open world content much more welcoming for random grouping.
• tag yourself ready for a group either way and continue to play solo till you get an invite.

I don’t really see the issue. Neither do I think people would mark themselves looking for an invite and just go idle, nor do I think players would be more selective in the players they want in their groups than before.

If anything, this could actually benefit players. At the moment, you never quite know if a group leader kicks you out immediately because he’s looking for those “OMG EXP 2000+ ZERK” builds and just didn’t mention it in his group text. But if you get invited because you marked yourself willing to do a certain dungeon, there would be no reason to kick you afterwards.

It’s added functionality to encourage and simplify group-building and I think it can benefit the game quite a bit.

Ben Newell.1759:

Here’s something else to consider. Being “open for invite” is functionally identical to listing yourself in LFG and then closing the LFG window. A party of four will see you as an individual and have the option to “invite” you by merging.

This exactly. As far as I’m concerned, the LFG works perfectly fine the way it is. Auto-queue comes with way too many complications and issues. With the current one I’m able to find the group I want when I want for what I want to do at the time.