Most useless tool ever: LFG

[HtFde.3856]

The deficiencies become apparent with the Labyrinth farms - after trying 30 groups and getting "The world you are trying ...." messages, I gave up on it. It WOULD be useful if it would filter out full maps and only show maps where you can join but I assume this is hyper-advanced programming and thus not available within the next two decades.

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@"HtFde.3856" said:The deficiencies become apparent with the Labyrinth farms - after trying 30 groups and getting "The world you are trying ...." messages, I gave up on it. It WOULD be useful if it would filter out full maps and only show maps where you can join but I assume this is hyper-advanced programming and thus not available within the next two decades.

Had the same experience....and then thought to actually look at the map I was on, and voila, a squad was running the maze ^_^

[HtFde.3856]

Well, I think that is the smartest thing (unless you own a tag and are willing to lead) - wait till in YOUR instance someone tags up. Alas, my instance had 3 people in it ...

[MokahTGS.7850]

LFG for Lab is not needed...literally every Lab will have a commander if you wait 5 min.

[Sobx.1758]

@"HtFde.3856" said:The deficiencies become apparent with the Labyrinth farms - after trying 30 groups and getting "The world you are trying ...." messages, I gave up on it. It WOULD be useful if it would filter out full maps and only show maps where you can join but I assume this is hyper-advanced programming and thus not available within the next two decades.

That makes no sense, people constantly join and leave the maps, so you'd just keep seeing flickering squads in lfg when mulktiple instances of the same map would get repeatedly filled or left by singular people. Also considering that when one player leaves the instance, the squad shows up in lfg because instance isn't full anymore and then multiple people can join the squad before one of them swaps instances and fill them up again, your so-called-solution would solve exactly nothing.

[MikeG.6389]

The LFG is not related to where the player who posted his/her group is actually located. You can put an LFG up in any category from wherever you are.

[Danikat.8537]

@MokahTGS.7850 said:LFG for Lab is not needed...literally every Lab will have a commander if you wait 5 min.

It's needed if you want a particular kind of squad. I don't like the ones which skip bosses because doing those breaks up the monotony and some commanders/squads are extremely strict on what's allowed and also extremely competative, which leads to things like refusing to revive anyone even when you're standing right on top of them because it slows down getting drops. I prefer to avoid those and go for the more relaxed groups and for that the LFG tool is really helpful.

[HtFde.3856]

@Sobx.1758 said:

@"HtFde.3856" said:The deficiencies become apparent with the Labyrinth farms - after trying 30 groups and getting "The world you are trying ...." messages, I gave up on it. It WOULD be useful if it would filter out full maps and only show maps where you can join but I assume this is hyper-advanced programming and thus not available within the next two decades.

That makes no sense, people constantly join and leave the maps, so you'd just keep seeing flickering squads in lfg when mulktiple instances of the same map would get repeatedly filled or left by singular people. Also considering that when one player leaves the instance, the squad shows up in lfg because instance isn't full anymore and then multiple people can join the squad before one of them swaps instances and fill them up again, your so-called-solution would solve exactly nothing.

You have this problem with Metas as well. Try to join the Gerenth or Tarir. You always end up with the same problem - full worlds. And if you're unlucky and struggle through the Meta you may end up with a HP party on your map that does not want to participate in the Meta but won't leave either. So it was all for naught.

I'm not saying that it is an "easy" thing to solve and ANet has painted itself into a bit of a corner with Meta participation and advance on some maps but a solution would be welcome where parties looking for people and people looking for parties could actually come together and not be locked out by "world full" messages.

If need be, you could transfer such a group and all aspiring joiners into a new instance. You'd "just" have to deal with how to take Meta participation into the new instance and how to transfer Meta achievements from various instances into the new one.

[MokahTGS.7850]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@MokahTGS.7850 said:LFG for Lab is not needed...literally every Lab will have a commander if you wait 5 min.

It's needed if you want a particular kind of squad. I don't like the ones which skip bosses because doing those breaks up the monotony and some commanders/squads are extremely strict on what's allowed and also extremely competative, which leads to things like refusing to revive anyone even when you're standing right on top of them because it slows down getting drops. I prefer to avoid those and go for the more relaxed groups and for that the LFG tool is really helpful.

To be honest, it just sounds like you should tag up and run. People will show up and follow.

[Taygus.4571]

@"HtFde.3856" said:The deficiencies become apparent with the Labyrinth farms - after trying 30 groups and getting "The world you are trying ...." messages, I gave up on it. It WOULD be useful if it would filter out full maps and only show maps where you can join but I assume this is hyper-advanced programming and thus not available within the next two decades.

pick squads with less than 20 people in them.

ie, start at the bottom of the lfg list.

[Aenaos.8160]

You need to git gud at playing the LFG. Simply a l2p issue. Once you do you will smell the right groups and maps to join like a blood hound quaggan hunting for dolyak bacon.

[Danikat.8537]

@MokahTGS.7850 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:

@MokahTGS.7850 said:LFG for Lab is not needed...literally every Lab will have a commander if you wait 5 min.

It's needed if you want a particular kind of squad. I don't like the ones which skip bosses because doing those breaks up the monotony and some commanders/squads are extremely strict on what's allowed and also extremely competative, which leads to things like refusing to revive anyone even when you're standing right on top of them because it slows down getting drops. I prefer to avoid those and go for the more relaxed groups and for that the LFG tool is really helpful.

To be honest, it just sounds like you should tag up and run. People will show up and follow.

That's what I do if I can't find a group I want to join (on a map without an existing tag of course), but I can usually find one. I only had time for 1 lab run last night but I found a squad which checked all the right boxes relatively easily.

Interestingly this year there seem to be Labyrinth squads advertising in both the Central Tyria section and the Festival section. I went straight to the Festival section, but I wonder if those ones will be easier to get into because some people won't think to look there.

[Goettel.4389]

Not saying LFG is perfect (it isn't), but it took me 30s to find a squad.Tip: at times like these when a ton of people are running the lab, you're best off to join and join-world a squad way down the list. It'll fill up quick.

[Ayakaru.6583]

There are three major problems.People have no control over which world you're in. You're randomly placed in a megaserver, regardless of friends or guildmates, and your only chance of moving is with a taxi. You can not decide to leave or join a map in your own whim.

Secondly, neither you, or the party/squad have any knowledge of population. The cap is 150, but somewhere close to 100 people start to fight over slots. It seems only one person can enter at a time, while other people get the 'full' message. So you end up spamming join in order to get through that bottleneck.

And lastly, often a result of the previous two, someone ends up on a map and want to play in a different behaviour than the present squad. This results in the squad shouting toxic slurs to the lone wolf, who in no way had any power over being in the same instance as a squad. This is usually not a big problem, unless you count for event scaling. But this is a huge problem in the labyrinth. Some people are more efficient alone, others are more efficient in the squad. This friction never ends well.

[HtFde.3856]

@Taygus.4571 said:

@"HtFde.3856" said:The deficiencies become apparent with the Labyrinth farms - after trying 30 groups and getting "The world you are trying ...." messages, I gave up on it. It WOULD be useful if it would filter out full maps and only show maps where you can join but I assume this is hyper-advanced programming and thus not available within the next two decades.

pick squads with less than 20 people in them.

ie, start at the bottom of the lfg list.

That, alas, isn't working well in the Lab. After I levelled one of my Alts on my "other account", I decided to do a bit of proper grinding with my main. So I tagged up and ran. Open Squad - I had 6 (!) people in the squad but maybe 40 people running after me but refusing to join the tag. So ... squad size doesn't really tell you how many people feel anarchistic today and follow, but refuse to join.

[Zaklex.6308]

@HtFde.3856 said:

@Taygus.4571 said:

@HtFde.3856 said:The deficiencies become apparent with the Labyrinth farms - after trying 30 groups and getting "The world you are trying ...." messages, I gave up on it. It WOULD be useful if it would filter out full maps and only show maps where you can join but I assume this is hyper-advanced programming and thus not available within the next two decades.

pick squads with less than 20 people in them.

ie, start at the bottom of the lfg list.

That, alas, isn't working well in the Lab. After I levelled one of my Alts on my "other account", I decided to do a bit of proper grinding with my main. So I tagged up and ran. Open Squad - I had 6 (!) people in the squad but maybe 40 people running after me but refusing to join the tag. So ... squad size doesn't really tell you how many people feel anarchistic today and follow, but refuse to join.

That's how I do it 50% of the time, because that can be the best way to do it when you're also doing something else at the same time and might not be able to follow along 100% of the time.

[Knighthonor.4061]

I was wondering why there were so few people on the map

[Taygus.4571]

@Ayakaru.6583 said:There are three major problems.People have no control over which world you're in. You're randomly placed in a megaserver, regardless of friends or guildmates, and your only chance of moving is with a taxi. You can not decide to leave or join a map in your own whim.

Secondly, neither you, or the party/squad have any knowledge of population. The cap is 150, but somewhere close to 100 people start to fight over slots. It seems only one person can enter at a time, while other people get the 'full' message. So you end up spamming join in order to get through that bottleneck.

The cap for lab is much much lower... like around 30

[Luthan.5236]

The weird thing is that people don't even seem to use it as intended. There are lots of parties for the festival dungeon just using the top ("open world" I think) party search category. Some were using the festival->parties thing but more were using another category though.

As for open world map instances and being full: The squad leader should be able to open a completely new map instance - only locking it to squad members at the beginning. (Then when full opening it for others random to fill it up more if more players needed.)

[lare.5129]

choose squads with less than 10 people. It is easy.

[kratan.4619]

That, alas, isn't working well in the Lab. After I levelled one of my Alts on my "other account", I decided to do a bit of proper grinding with my main. So I tagged up and ran. Open Squad - I had 6 (!) people in the squad but maybe 40 people running after me but refusing to join the tag. So ... squad size doesn't really tell you how many people feel anarchistic today and follow, but refuse to join.

This would be me, I almost never join the squad in labby, there really is no advantage to it to begin with, also, I am not going to be necessarily dedicated to the squad's goals while I am in there. I may take a break, run the race, run around carving pumpkins, etc.

[Daddicus.6128]

Ummm, just choose a group that's towards the bottom of the list.

[Danikat.8537]

Since I was reminded of this again today: At least the GW2 LFG tool lets you choose a group, and if it's not right for you for any reason it lets you leave and find a new one right away.

Other games I've played with LFG tools it's only for dungeons/raids/equivalent (for anything else you're back to spamming map chat for a group), and once you select which one you want to play and which role you're doing (tank/healer/DPS) you're dumped into the first group with an opening for that role and leaving gets you slapped with a penalty and sent to the back of the queue. If you find that group is actually 1/2 way through and you'll miss stuff you want to do, or they speak a different language or they're role-playing 1st time adventurers who want to debate every step of the process and you were hoping for a quick run...oh well, you should have known better than to use the LFG tool - go find a guild dedicated to that content and use them to find groups in future.

I agree the LFG tool in this game isn't perfect and the game design creates some new problems which could be addressed (although this one is mainly an issue at Halloween), but I still prefer it to any other LFG tool I've seen. I've often wished other games had one like GW2 does, can't say I've ever wanted it the other way around.