Jump to content
  • Sign Up

LFG Improvements - Discussion / Ideas


TPMN.1483

Recommended Posts

The LFG could do with a refresh to enhance the ability for players to connect and perform activities together.

I would like to see everything that is going on in the world, better find groups or players that want to do something together who may be doing other things.

Currently it can be frustrating to find players for content or what's going on in the current LFG system.

I put together some rough ideas of what could be improved based on the current LFG, in a PDF file:https://www.dropbox.com/s/i20s6eoyo5luo9m/LFG%20Presentation%20BW.pdf?dl=0

This was the best way to compile my thoughts for sharing, bonus points for those who read it - it covers a lot of ideas !

This is a mock up of ideas only that covers four key areas for improvement:

• Display

• Icons

• Categories

• LFG Search and Find (Activity and Gamer search) - allowing notification for gamers when suitable LFGs appear.

I would be interested to know what you would want from a LFG system and what should it do !

TLDR; I love the LFG, would like to see improvements - add comments to this thread what you want to see improved. Bonus points for looking at the document .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By far the biggest issues is how its filtered, followed having no way to advertise "Looking to Join" under multiple categories.

From a Player perspective, we should get 2-3 levels of granularity, so its possible to address a whole content block without having to selectively check each map. This will also greatly help for group leaders and activities that span multiple maps, or the leader is willing to do from a list of maps based on interest. Being able to search them all at once would also be a bonus.

Secondly, we could benefit from a notification system when a group advertisement comes up in a chosen set of categories. On the flip side, a feature to let players express interest in a category, which can help signal to a Commander how many people are waiting around for a group to open.

On its basic premise, this 2-way notification should speed up the organization process for Pug groups, since its no longer relying on players actively searching LFG at specific times to find those openings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"starlinvf.1358" said:By far the biggest issues is how its filtered, followed having no way to advertise "Looking to Join" under multiple categories.

From a Player perspective, we should get 2-3 levels of granularity, so its possible to address a whole content block without having to selectively check each map. This will also greatly help for group leaders and activities that span multiple maps, or the leader is willing to do from a list of maps based on interest. Being able to search them all at once would also be a bonus.

--- Glad you raised this, its in the document, I agree completely that there are too many maps etc..

Secondly, we could benefit from a notification system when a group advertisement comes up in a chosen set of categories. On the flip side, a feature to let players express interest in a category, which can help signal to a Commander how many people are waiting around for a group to open.

--- Glad you raised this, its in the document, 'looking for player, ' & 'looking for activity' - last page.

On its basic premise, this 2-way notification should speed up the organization process for Pug groups, since its no longer relying on players actively searching LFG at specific times to find those openings.

-- Agreed !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@knite.1542 said:Some sort of party leader system. If you create a party, I don't think people should be able to kick you from the party that you created.

It used to be like this, but it gave rise to a problem of Party leaders PUGing the majority of Dungeons, then kicking one or all of the party to let their friends in to claim the reward near the end. The vote system also allowed a party to oust their leader if he was misbehaving. It offers a solid power balance on the assumption that there is no collusion among the party. It also makes collusion a requirement to abuse party mechanics, which makes it way more obvious if they're frequently seen together. It also forces them to be present during the hard work in order to hold that majority; there by reducing the efficiency of the scheme.

Compare that to a system where 1 guy can make 4 people do all the work, and kick them so 4 of his friends can claim the rewards. Or 1 guy holding an instance hostage unless the rest of the party submits to their demands. This was even worse back when instances were tied to the party leader.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

@BENICE.3284 said:For search I actually think a highlighter could make things a lot easier just for knowing what players are actively doing. Highlighting the category and subsection for any with a party/squad.

I agree. Like app bubble notifications on your phone. They could make money through a server Megaphone to alert people about organizing big metas or events too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@XYLO.7031 said:I agree. Like app bubble notifications on your phone. They could make money through a server Megaphone to alert people about organizing big metas or events too.

I'd say don't give them anymore ideas for the cash shop but I'm sure they thought of everything already. Just taking their sweet time with it all...Actually that reminds me I thought they should have an in-game calendar for organized events. If there was an option to open invitations to the public as well not just being limited to guilds that could work too. Could possibly have an alarm system tied to chat and an app.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

They do change things on it, but never anything all that major. Not too long ago they changed the order, added some new groupings and combined some stuff. But I get the feeling they don't have the technical capability to dramatically enhance it.

The biggest problem is the negative feedback loop that so many empty categories creates: nobody looks at most of the categories even if they would like to do that content, because nobody ever joins/advertises there, because nobody looks, because etc. etc. etc.

The answer obviously isnt just "force everything into a bigger pool and make it more annoying to look through," so Im not sure what can be done short of adding new systems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Yup - minor changes grouping into categories have started , so they are working on it. Right now there is a lot of empty categories.An investment in the LFG area would increase player engagement as it would help connect people with activities that they want to play and be more intuitive for players than scrolling through lots of empty categories.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd recommend something that filters certain amount of people out. For example: Whenever I state "no toxic people" in m lfg I always people insulting and harassing others for minor mistakes. When I say chill run it should be a chill run! I hate running with people who only stress and can't read descriptions. For your info, I play since 2012 and I speedclear raids so I'm NOT casual before you make any assumptions! Sometimes I just want to relax and have fun in a game for once.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are a heck of a lot of tabs now, initially I thought maybe having the option to merge tabs together might help, for example being able to group all LS3 maps together, all LS4 together etc, but then you'd just see loads of groups listed as "meta" and have to check which map it is for anyway.

So maybe an idea would be to just have the LFG detect which map you are in then default to that tab when you open the LFG, so if you're in a core map it'll open straight onto the core tab, if you're in HoT it'll open the LFG tab for the HoT map you're in, same with LS maps etc. That would be convenient and make it simpler for newer players to see at a glance what's happening in the map/zone their in. Obviously you'd still be able to then manually navigate the other tabs like now as well. If the game tracked which map you were in and linked it with the LFG then maybe there could be an option to have it notify you with a small popup or icon on the UI when a new group is listed for that map, that might prompt people to see there are things going on in the map they could get involved with, although as all core maps are one group it probably wouldn't work there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I'd like is some option like 'show all active groups'. Often at the times I play, there are very few active parties - being able to see what they are (expand all places where there are active parties) would save me the effort of expanding/unexpanding each area to see what may be going on.This would probably help players find content - A big group on this map? Probably something happening there - let me check it out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"killermanjaro.5670" said:So maybe an idea would be to just have the LFG detect which map you are in then default to that tab when you open the LFG, so if you're in a core map it'll open straight onto the core tab, if you're in HoT it'll open the LFG tab for the HoT map you're in, same with LS maps etc

I've been waiting for this for so long. Only seems logical to me and I have no idea why ANet hasn't done it already. Browsing through lfg is so annoying, especially if you accidentally close the window and reopen it. And please make it recognize "Mistlock Sanctuary" as a fractal "map" and default to the AR appropriate fractal tab.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As it is, it's too much complicated and, although I didn't think much thorough, in my opinion, it's just a matter of simplifying with 3 simple options:

1) Game Type (basic PvE, advanced PvE (i.e. metas), Raids, WvW or PvP2) Role (DPS, Tank, Healer)3) Profession / Specialization (Firebrand - for Healbrand/Quickbrand - Scourge, Alacgade...)

This and a description box to state some details (i.e. meta train in Bjora & HoT, strike train...) I guess it should suffice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Post last updated March, 30, 2020)

Stage 1: Mission & Vision:

  • An easy to use & enhanced 'looking for group feature' (LFG) that encourages activities for guilds, players of all ages and levels/skills

Recommended Methodology: Scrum/Agile/Rapid Prototyping

Premise:

  • The need to connect:A: a player (alone) seeking a group - 'looking for activity'B: a group 'looking for player' for a common activity/goal

Current LFG UI/UX issues:

  • Current contacts/LFG window have too many tabs, categories need streamlining
  • top left mini-panel confusing, not connected to LFG pop-up window
  • Frustrating to find players for specific group content (top left mini-panel, LFG UI)
  • Can not tell what events (player initiated) are current active in the LFG panel, or on which map
  • No filtering function for categories by game-mode (dungeons/strike missions/pvp/wvw etc.) or map
  • Can not sort categories (e.g. alphabetically)
  • No way to advertise "Looking to Join" under current all existing categories
  • Current contacts/LFG window does not offer a quick view of all events/groups in-game at a glance, segmented tabs/adverts
  • Advertise button hidden under LFG window
  • No party leader system for person that created the group (existed in GW1)
  • Avoid abuse of "kick" function by party leader right before mission ends with rewards (current UI has vote kick function)

Lingo/Semantics:

  • Specific key "words" (lingo) should be used for buttons & any group related interactions (consistency), example: current top left mini-bar has "Create Squad" and "Leave Party", does buttons imply Squad = Party? Players may become confused
  • 3 different terminologies in-game currently: 1-5 people (party), 10-people (raid squad), 10-50 people (tagged squad), should they all just be called "Group"? Possible common lingo for buttons: Search Group, Browse Groups, Look for Group (LFG), 5,10,50 person Group
  • Chat text triggered function (similar to GW1), player types "lfg" in chat, game lists them right away

Visual:

  • Need Bigger fonts (adjustable)
  • UI needs to be minimalist using KISS principle
  • Players/parties can have active icons/indicates in-game so other players know they're looking for groups or people
  • Mentor tag extra functions? Do players know what it's used for? Tag can be reworked for smaller groups maybe?

Nice to have features:

  • Searching content across all maps/game modes with click of a "search" button
  • Set it and forget it notification function: 2-way notification for random Pug groups: no longer relies on players actively searching LFG at specific times to find those openings
  • Event "Highlights" (world meta-event/player driven) where large crowds start to emerge in a certain map, just so others can join in; event alerts players too
  • Alarm/Calendar/alert in public text chat of big meta events
  • Favorites (bookmarking) function for events? Teammates?
  • Player: 'any active groups I can join at the moment?' *clicks open LFG window for quick glance
  • Search filtering: by guild name, by game mode, by description keywords, by player count (1-5, 5-10 raid, 10-50 squad)

Additional UI notes from players on Reddit:https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/a6gppp/enhanced_squad_ui/?utm_source=BD&utm_medium=Search&utm_name=Bing&utm_content=PSR1

Posts by players related to Squad Panel from WvW Forums:

  • Hover over short descriptions ("Zerging", "Havoc", "I want bay", etc). This is to encourage easily defined parties at a glance.
  • More shapes to customize squad tags and encourage smaller groups to run with "their own" tags.
  • Squad size indicator, such as 1-3 chevrons beneath the tag to indicate 1-10, 11-25, 26-50.
  • Map/team chat should note if the talker is a commander (this is just to boost peoples egos and make them want to tag up for it).
  • Ability to set simple attack/defend objectives for bonus points for the entire squad.
  • Players reported joining a squad/group, then group suddenly disbands (due to leader leaving before player joined), no auto-designate feature when a leader leaves
  • Party features: Mentor Marker visible only to party members (for helping new guild members/players), do not want the whole map to think I am doing events.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...