Autogrouping - experiences ?

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Hello, everyone,

the thought just occurred to me that I've never read about player experiences with the autogrouping system here in the forums.

So now I'm asking : Did anyone here actually use it ?

And if so - how were the experiences ?

Alrik

[Circon]

Used it several times. Convenient for wilderness groups or when leader is AFK.

[Mastikator]

Great when in wilderness areas or extremely casual groups.

Once I tried to create one open group, and when I opened the group I instead joined a different open group. Strange, but it turned out well.

I use it a few times when I do wilderness S/R/E, but mostly even then I just solo.

[nibel]

Awesome for wilderness because it allow free join for 30 minutes. You can go your way, and people that join dont have to wait until you finish your fight to get accepted.

For quests... tried once in a while. The autogroup 5-minute range is too short, but the LFM showing up how much time you expended on the quest is a great tool. More half-filled groups that want to start asap should use the autogroup feature, so we dont join a run of pit that is going for 80 minutes already (you'll never clear this -80%).

[cyghost]

I easily join a quest if it is one I want or need and hasn't started too long ago.


And I start all my quests soloing (on hard), with this turned on, and more than most I get at least one or two who joins :D


I am impatient and prefer to solo rather than to wait around for a quest to fill, but I like playing with others so it works well for me.

I think when I TR again, more may join if I can open elite :)

And as others have said, it works really well for Wilderness Areas.

[Vargouille]

Once I tried to create one open group, and when I opened the group I instead joined a different open group. Strange, but it turned out well.

This is currently by design. When you opt for this grouping, it joins you to others already with that group type if possible (given the quest, difficulty, etc.). Ideally this means you can set what you like and automatically join like-minded individuals, whether you got there first or not.

[Coyopa]

I've used this feature a couple of times in the beginning. I hated it. I hate that when someone in my group opens the quest or wilderness and has this option turned on that it opens the group up for others to join - even when the person with this option turned on is NOT the leader of the party. Personally, I feel this is a solution in search of a problem and the time spent developing this would have been far better spent working on bugs.

[DarkForte]

I tried this once. The second most notoriously annoying player in the server joined my party and I had to break party and reset my instance. I never used it again since.

[Kwyjibo]

...I hate that when someone in my group opens the quest or wilderness and has this option turned on that it opens the group up for others to join - even when the person with this option turned on is NOT the leader of the party.

Agreed!

[Mastikator]

This is currently by design. When you opt for this grouping, it joins you to others already with that group type if possible (given the quest, difficulty, etc.). Ideally this means you can set what you like and automatically join like-minded individuals, whether you got there first or not.

Even if one is the Shavarath Wilderness Area and the other is Enter The Kobold?

[der_kluge]

I've used it a few times, mostly for Wilderness areas.

At first, I was really confused, cause I could never figure out how people were creating LFMs for things like Cannith Manufactory. lol

My only complaint about it is the fact that if you use it once, it becomes your default. So, for a while, I kept forgetting to toggle it off when I entered a quest, and then I'd have to quickly disable it once inside the quest.

I was attempting to solo Taming the Flames a while back, and the moment I entered the quest, I heard a "ding!" and someone joined me. And then as I was explaining to him that I intended to just solo it, and forget to turn it off - two more people joined. Needless to say, we gave it the old college try, but ultimately failed. But it was a weird experience - it was like I had voyeurs into my failed solo attempt. lol

[Rawel_San]

I've used this feature a couple of times in the beginning. I hated it. I hate that when someone in my group opens the quest or wilderness and has this option turned on that it opens the group up for others to join - even when the person with this option turned on is NOT the leader of the party. Personally, I feel this is a solution in search of a problem and the time spent developing this would have been far better spent working on bugs.

I believe this is not the case anymore for a bit, since I got a prompt today when someone joined my "private"
lfm and entered the instance asking whether or not I wanted to change the group to public. I don't actually
ever deny people but I do prefer to be able to decline when about to complete so I prefer keeping private.

[Galeria]

I find most people confused by it.

I was accused of "ninja-joining" a group where the leader had no idea he had a public lfm in a quest where the original leader had dropped group. After a few minutes of trying to explain to him there was no way to "ninja-join", I dropped as he obviously wanted a guildie to join instead.

He could have just said, I was holding that spot for someone, sorry. The whole accusation thing took a lot longer.

It is fine for wildernesses where people know what to do- a little more complicated for the hand-holding let's-stay-together groups.

I find myself avoiding public instances where the leader states they do not want to lead- usually it's for more challenging quests and I don't want to lead either. Or I'd put up my own LFM.

[Coyopa]

I believe this is not the case anymore for a bit, since I got a prompt today when someone joined my "private"
lfm and entered the instance asking whether or not I wanted to change the group to public. I don't actually
ever deny people but I do prefer to be able to decline when about to complete so I prefer keeping private.

What you're talking about is separate from what I'm talking about. However, let's talk about your example for a minute. If the leader of the group is already in the wilderness or quest and the group is marked 'private', then it shouldn't matter what anyone else's settings are. The leader has already chosen! If I'm in the middle of a fight, the last thing I need is 'So-and-so entered your quest. Do you want to make this a public group?'. Even if I'm not in a fight, if I wanted a public group then I **** well would have made it a public group! Don't bother me with questions that are pointless because I already answered them.

Now, back to what I'm talking about. I've posted an LFM and have not entered the wilderness or quest. I'm idle* waiting for others to join (*where 'idle' equates to 'doing something other than progressing toward an experience reward'). Now, I've posted an LFM, making this a private group. Someone in my party decides to enter the quest or wilderness and has the public group option turned on. Again, my selection for a private group should take precedence since I am the party leader. As the party leader, if I wanted a public group, I'd have made it public. So, as in the example above: Don't bother me with questions that are pointless because I already answered them.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

How do I open up an LFM for wilderness areas ?

I recently tried, but was confused as I could only choose quests from the list, not wilderness areas, as it seemed to me.

And, yes, I think this autogrouping feature needs to be explained more thoroughly, by more tooltips and/or more notices on the LFM dialog box itself.

[jsaving]

In general, I think the auto-grouping feature is a nice way to PUG "on short notice" when you don't care who joins your party. With almost everything in the game completable with almost any party, I find myself using the auto-grouping feature most of the time when guildies are unavailable for particular quests or wilderness areas.

I do have a couple of complaints about the system, though. One is the endless parade of pikers who want the elite completion without doing any work -- that gets old fast, and needs to be addressed. Another is that auto-grouping can block completions when a quest requires the entire party to gather in a particular spot -- it's very common that 1-2 players won't have any clue where to go, or are piking, or are such poor players that they die quickly with their stones in an inaccessible position. A final thought is that there *really* needs to be an option to auto-block people who aren't physically standing at the quest entrance, to avoid "group bloat" from people who "just need to sell and repair" but somehow never make it to the quest. For me, auto-grouping fills a different role than LFMs and I think there needs to be more recognition of that in the auto-grouping system.

[Coyopa]

How do I open up an LFM for wilderness areas ?

I recently tried, but was confused as I could only choose quests from the list, not wilderness areas, as it seemed to me.

And, yes, I think this autogrouping feature needs to be explained more thoroughly, by more tooltips and/or more notices on the LFM dialog box itself.

You don't choose the wilderness area from the quest list. Those aren't in there. You use the free-form comment area. For example:

"Vale slayers"
"Gianthold s/r/e"
and so on.

You pick your level ranges and advertise for players. (And, yes, it is 'advertise' not 'advertize'. Someone - well, several someones - working for Turbine can neither spell nor use spell-check)

[sk3l3t0r]

You pick your level ranges and advertise for players. (And, yes, it is 'advertise' not 'advertize'. Someone - well, several someones - working for Turbine can neither spell nor use spell-check)

I believe the issue here is British English "ise" vs. American English "ize"

Similar to the confusion of the words ending in "or" and "our"

Example:
Favor vs Favour

[Therigar]

I have not created any LFMs using the automatic grouping but have joined several only to find that their leader had.

My experience is that those groups ran just as smoothly and easily as any other group. And, since this is my typical experience in PuGs I think it is a good system.

Kudos to OP for asking the question.

[dterror]

I believe the issue here is British English "ise" vs. American English "ize"

Similar to the confusion of the words ending in "or" and "our"

Example:
Favor vs Favour

This might be true...if it weren't spelled with the 'ise' here in the U.S. If you look it up in a dictionary (or just go to dictionary.com), both versions are perfectly valid though.

[sk3l3t0r]

This might be true...if it weren't spelled with the 'ise' here in the U.S. If you look it up in a dictionary (or just go to dictionary.com), both versions are perfectly valid though.

correct, and of course depending on a person's origin and current geographic location. Some Britts do live in the USA and some Americans do live in the UK ;)

[Talon_Moonshadow]

The problem I have is that I do not really understand ho wto use it or how it works.

I also feel like there are bugs with it... like when it prevents me from joining another LFM. :(

I need some good instructions, and I think it needs tweaked a bit.

[Aldieb]

Last day, with a full party, we made some quests and EVERY freaking time one of us entered a quest the 'public group' thing popped up and put a full group on the lfm list.. And EVERY time I had to go to 'create LFM' panel and dismiss it.. I hope this is no WAI .__.

[Terebinthia]

I tried joining a few and gave up initially, but was doing really low level stuff.

Discussed with a more zergy associate when I was doing a quick Orchard farm and he liked it for wilderness areas because people could join and drop as they pleased, so I am a bit less anti auto group ist now :)

I remember there being some kind of quirk with you not being able to invite if you tried to join one of these things which made me more cautious. Has this gone away now?

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

I do have a couple of complaints about the system, though. One is the endless parade of pikers who want the elite completion without doing any work -- that gets old fast, and needs to be addressed.

This seems to be Newbies believing that BB + Streak is the normal way of playing, so they'll try that.

Of course they anticipate not being able to do the quest on elite difficult themselves - so they pike - while still getting the famous BB !

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

I believe the issue here is British English "ise" vs. American English "ize"

Similar to the confusion of the words ending in "or" and "our"

Example:
Favor vs Favour

The Wiki doesn't have "Favour", for example, or any BE spellings.

[sk3l3t0r]

The Wiki doesn't have "Favour", for example, or any BE spellings.

http://grammarist.com/spelling/favor-favour/

I personaly find Wikipedia and most Wikis as unreliable because people intentionaly post wrong information just for kicks. There are exeception ...ddowiki being one :), however my experience has been that I can't trust them.

A quick test in a popular word processor.

Open Microsoft Word if you have it, type Favor, spell check, probably comes up right. Chances are your language setting is set to English (U.S.)

Switch your language setting to English (Canada) or English (U.K.) and re-check...it will come up as mispelled and suggest Favour

How to swap lanaguages for your entire document in Word.

1. CTRL + A to select all
2. Click Tools > Language > Set Language, select the version of English you want to switch to.
3. Spell check again

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

Thank you, but I'm already writing in German language. ;)

In Germany, most pupils learn BE at first in school, really corrct, accent-free BE, and AE comes much later.

That's why I'm always spelling like in BE.

With "the Wiki" I meant the DDO Wiki.
Searching there using BE spelling is not always supported (the Wiki's search function at least gives me a link to "Favor" when I type "Favour").