Option to enter quest in progress when joining a party from the LFG panel.

[Xionanx]

Title says it all: True story, skip to the *** mark if you only care about the proposal.

So I recently TR'd, and as usual I'm putting up LFM's as I "E BB" through the lower level quests. I am on Khyber, and I have come to expect that 99% of the players are this point are familiar with quests and quest locations. However today was different.. today, not 1, not 2, but 3 different people joined my parties and had NO IDEA how to get to the entrances. We are talking "Water Works" "Shan-to-Kor".. and "Redfang the Unruled". 3 separate people, over the course of a few hours. These were obviously new players, looking to join one of the ONLY lfm's available to them in their level range, to group with some people. So then.. I am faced with a decision.. do I exit the quest, reset it, and the lead the lost sheep new player by the hand to the quest.. or do I attempt to talk this person here while I keep doing the quest. Being the TR zerger that I am, I opted for attempt to talk person to quest.. which.. in all occasions resulted the quest being over by the time the person got anywhere near to finding their way to it...

I FEEL BAD FOR TURBINE AT THIS POINT...

***

The idea is simple, when a players joins an "Open Party" LFM from the quest panel several things happen:

1. The quest is Automatically SHARED with them.. no need to ask for a share
2. Upon accepting the shared quest, the player is then asked if they want to ENTER THE QUEST. (the quest entry window will pop up)
3. When the player this enter.. they enter the quest.

No muss, no fuss, no running through wilderness areas.. no explaining to new players how to get somewhere.

This is a feature who's time has come.. I really cant think of a good reason why (other then possible technical limitations) that this isn't already a part of DDO. Again, we have a dwindling player base, and anything that makes it easier to retain new players by facilitating their access to fun should be done.

TLDR -
New player lost unable to get to quest = frustration, disappointment, rage quit
New player able to enter a quest from the convenience of anywhere = fun, enjoyment, happy player

Removal of barriers to fun should be a high priority for a game thats loosing subscribers.. (also note that veterans might actually run raids more if they didn't have to trek through 20 loading screens to get there)

[UurlockYgmeov]

they tried but it never really made it to live. something about a 'feature' or too many issues.

doesn't solve the problem of the players who are then lost after the quest is finished... ;p

[Saekee]

It would be nice to at least have the quest auto-shared.

[Questdoer]

I agree with this....

[Kasiddy]

/signed, but there are some quests that can't be shared or sharing doesn't work well.
So some details to work out, but in principle, yes, this.

Had a similar issue recently when someone could not figure out how to get to the second half of waterworks chain or either couldn't clear their on their own. His communication wasn't great and ended up dropping from group. It occurred to me only after he dropped that the directions "turn right then all the way to the end" may have been inadequate and that he may have not been able to clear on his own. It is so easy to take the harbor for granted now.

[Xionanx]

Happened again.. this time in sorrowdusk AND threnal.

Quality of life improvements needed very much

[Rofaust]

Turbine probably thinks Bracelets of Friends are your answer :P

[GeoffWatson]

Turbine probably thinks Bracelets of Friends are your answer :P

If they worked in quests they'd be worth using.
Maybe even if they just worked in wilderness areas.

[davmuzl]

This kind of quality of life stuff should have been in place from the start. It's part of their business model to make some things inconvenient so the store items are baught, but in the end it just makes the game worse. I would rather pay a reasonable price for an expansion every year than having to buy stuff like bracelets of friends and healing potions in the store.
In this particular case I feel like there is also an arguement to be made that being able to port to a quest instantly takes away from the game. This matters less for DDO actually since half the time you "travel" when entering a dungeon anyway, but taking away the traveling completly is not a good solution imo.
For raids this is completly different, just because it's really annoying when a group has to wait 5 minutes for 1 person to enter.