Grouping really sucks to play if you are not in NA

[AbyssalMage]

Yes, the Sarlona server environment has the time zone you are looking for. I sure hope you do speak/write Chinese though, as least the pinyin part.
At least the bare bones part:

Ni Hao => Hi
Zai Jian => Bye
Wan Ang => Good Evening
Zao Ang => Good Morning
Sheng Wang => Favor (quests)
Guo Ren => Countrymen (specifically Chinese)
Xie Xie (or Xie Le) => Thanks
Wo Bu Shi Zhong Guo Ren => I am not Chinese
>> => Haste Please
Qing Yi Zhi => Heal Please
Qing Si Wang Bao Hu => Deathward Please
Qing => Please

First off (if this is accurate) Thank You!!!

There is also an Australian/Oceanic population server, and a Korean one. I do not remember which server it was though.

I wonder if SSG would share this information (and lock it at the top of the General thread). It would help new players coming to the game (if they exist). Maybe the average Peak (and low) population times for each server based on Eastern Standard Time. That way they can then decide which server would be best for their play time (Not everyone works "9 to 5", now sing it ;p) Well, hopefully someone at SSG could comment if this would be possible.

[Shadow_Jumper]

Ghallanda has good NA/EU time zone. It does quiet down around 1-2 AM EST and picks back up around 10 AM EST. However we have seen an influx of players from other servers/time zones.

[askrj1]

in thelanis the most active raiding groups are chinese (and they type... "know it cause we can't teach you" lol)

For the record, we're Japanese :|

And it's mostly a disclaimer because most of the we cannot afford to teach in proper detail what you need to do in the raid. We've lost a good number of players over the years as well so beyond a range of 6-10 relatively active players as core members we tend to end up pugging the remaining slots.

To the OP: As others have mentioned different servers tend to have a different demographic, if no one is active on your times you might want to take some time to check out other servers.

[Question2005]

Love the empathy

To the OP: yes, late night play in DDO can be frustrating. I think there was a snowball effect of people leaving the game once the population reached a certain lack of size: people left because there was no one to group with. This is why there is such a discrepancy between NA and other populations. This has plateaued (or actually, may have even improved - I used to see 65ish in the who tab. It doesn't seem to get this low now).

An idea, which you might already do: Find someone to play with regularly during your time zone. Start Legendary TS on the difficulty you two can duo. Fill in progress - it normally fills if people can see it progressing. Finish TS. Then do Fire on Thunder. Probably half your raid will stick around, so it will fill fast. Make sure your characters can cover roles, stats needed etc. I'm a late night player and this works for me.

My guild easily has 30-40 people on during NA peak times, especially if there are scheduled raids that day.

So far ive only found one other person who lives in a similar time zone as me in the guild.

One other perosn on my friend list has a similar timezone, but she plays very infrequently and we often cant group due to different level ranges. Infact, the last time we were able to group was more than 3 months ago.

I add people to my friend list as much as possible...but most of them are not online much, or am online when i am unable to play. A lot of the people i see online in the who tab are afking or about to go to sleep. My peak times are pretty much NA early morning...so while theres a few people whos staying up late, most people have already headed off to bed or am about to.

[Question2005]

Yes, the Sarlona server environment has the time zone you are looking for. I sure hope you do speak/write Chinese though, as least the pinyin part.
At least the bare bones part:

Ni Hao => Hi
Zai Jian => Bye
Wan Ang => Good Evening
Zao Ang => Good Morning
Sheng Wang => Favor (quests)
Guo Ren => Countrymen (specifically Chinese)
Xie Xie (or Xie Le) => Thanks
Wo Bu Shi Zhong Guo Ren => I am not Chinese
>> => Haste Please
Qing Yi Zhi => Heal Please
Qing Si Wang Bao Hu => Deathward Please
Qing => Please

There is also an Australian/Oceanic population server, and a Korean one. I do not remember which server it was though.

Sadly im on Cannith, before starting I did ask if there was a server I should be joining in particular and mentioned my time zone. Most people told me to go Cannith anyway, nobody said anything about an Oceanic server.

[Question2005]

Healthy MMOs have a robust grouping scene around the clock. I'm not in the DDO doomed camp. In fact, I think the game has improved, with perhaps a resulting small increase in population; however, DDO is, unfortunately, long past the easy grouping around the clock stage.

They do, yea. Even in Vindictus, which has NA and EU specific servers, I can get parties for most end game stuff very quickly. But with the way DDO handles raid timers, most people just wait for scheduled raids with the best group they can get to do the highest difficulty they can, because thats what the game tries to get you to do.

[Question2005]

like others pointed, sadly that depends on the server

i mean, if your trouble is that most players in your server are american (cause its the same timezone north and south XD) you would even find more people in wayfinder lol

in thelanis the most active raiding groups are chinese (and they type... "know it cause we can't teach you" lol)

sorry to say that, but unless your server becomes the default one (when was the last time thelanis was the default server? sigh) or you pay to play, in another server by transfering your main or... they migrate servers

yup, i would migrate servers, but guess what happens when someone points "grouping sucks in DDO" ? the fanboys attack cause in their 5 meter world, that's not a trouble, in fact pretty sure crappy DDO servers wouldn't handle much more population, that's why you don't see DDO advertising

and for others it is a trouble, and for others it sucks, and i understand them (i spend less time in DDO due to being so repetitive and cause most times you're soloing so... like in other single player times, you don't focus so much)

btw don't feel bad for piking 1 quest while eating, it's not your fault needing to eat or pee on playing time

others can stay in the same place for hours like it is a job, you're not forced to do so

Im on cannith, which is the default server and which most people told me to join even when I said I was in Australia.

[askrj1]

Im on cannith, which is the default server and which most people told me to join even when I said I was in Australia.

We have some Asian timezone players and also a handful of Ozzie/Kiwis in Thelanis... AU/NZ Friday night raids do happen, maybe not every week though.

[Question2005]

Had a LFM up trying to get people for either the RL saga or abbot. Been like, 6-7 hours i think.

People joined, got bored of waiting, then left to do other stuff.

This is kinda ridiculous, what do i need to do, pay people?

Its peak time in europe now even. But all im hearing are Americans saying they need to go to work.

[lillentle]

To be honest Question... I don't believe you.

Here in Aus it's basically just as bad in terms of players and the americans being asleep, but It shouldn't take that long to fill a group? When I run the dailies I am normally filled within the first 20 minutes, or at least have 4 players, no matter the time.

I'm on Khyber, which has a little bit of a smaller population than Cannith.

So I can't see how this is happening to you. Are you making sure the quest is actually selected in the LFM and you've started it, so it says "active time 2 minutes"?

[SkyJ89]

Fortunately DDO grouping does not require u to group with people in order to start a quest. U could start the quest solo while putting LFM up. Some other game are not that fortunate and does require u to gather a full party in order to start a dungeon. So I wouldn't fret about it. Just follow your playing schedule and keep the LFM up. If someone joins u, all the better.

[Peter_Stauffenberg]

Which difficulty are you posting the LFM's for?

Most players on heroic seem to want to run at least reaper 1. That gives a 120% first time bonus XP and they gain some reaper XP while doing it. If you post LFM's on elite or lower then quite a few people won't join. On epics you can see XP farming runs EH + EN or something like that. LFM's for those should get people.

People hate waiting for quests to begin so they usually don't want to be the first to join a LFM. However, once you get the first 2-3 in then the last slots often fill fast. To prevent nobody wanting to be the first to join you can actually start the quest solo. Then people know they don't have to wait and join even if they're the first.

Then comes the question whether you can run the quest solo on R1 or not. If you pick older quests then it should be doable for most builds with a healer hireling. Another issue can be traps. If you want the trap bonus and expect to solo a bit you could splash a level of artificer or rogue and get those traps yourself.

The worst you can do is to keep a group that's partly filled waiting for the last few people. Then you can see people drop out rather than getting the last slot filled. So better start playing once you have some people in the group. Let others join while you're inside.

Also be prepared for people jumping ship at short notice. Leaving is very contagious so when one leaves you also see others leave. Maybe because they don't want to wait for the next quest or they saw a more attractive LFM being posted (raid or a chain they need).

I come from Europe and play on Khyber. I'm used to solo a bit, but most of the time I get at least 1-2 people in my groups. In my evening I often get full groups since the Americans show up. it's definitely more fun playing in groups, but being solo won't stop me from running. My main advise is to just start doing the quests and people will join. Waiting for a full group simply takes too long.

[sk3l3t0r]

Yes, the Sarlona server environment has the time zone you are looking for. I sure hope you do speak/write Chinese though, as least the pinyin part.
At least the bare bones part:

Ni Hao => Hi
Zai Jian => Bye
Wan Ang => Good Evening
Zao Ang => Good Morning
Sheng Wang => Favor (quests)
Guo Ren => Countrymen (specifically Chinese)
Xie Xie (or Xie Le) => Thanks
Wo Bu Shi Zhong Guo Ren => I am not Chinese
>> => Haste Please
Qing Yi Zhi => Heal Please
Qing Si Wang Bao Hu => Deathward Please
Qing => Please

There is also an Australian/Oceanic population server, and a Korean one. I do not remember which server it was though.

reps for this

Allied Farmers guild is one of the bigger Chinese Guilds out there, there must be a good 5-7 Chinese guilds on Sarlona.

Also there is PINOY a Filipino guild I used to be part of and bump into once in a while. But most of their players have retired from DDO. We still stay in touch outside the game, but most have stopped playing.

[MeliCat]

Hey - I hear you. On Khyber. Aust time zones. So I get on after most US peeps have gone to sleep, and too early for the Euros.

We have a guild of aussies, singaporeans, malay and some late night US people, and super early UK peeps. It kinda works. Still the dead times for the lfm panel

Our guild has a user chat channel and we have access to other user chat channels, but we usually have to start raiding pretty late to get things to fill. People get to know the times though and look out for people's organising.

I hope you find a solution that meets where you are at.

[Vish]

Question2005,
You might want to consider the Sarlona server
I sometimes play early morning,
And run with the Chinese
There are also Aussies there
Granted, early morning lfm isn't too full,
Sarlona has middling pop...,
But if you are a decent player, and get to know some,
You should be able to find lfms
They raid too, more inclusive,
But I've pugged raids with them before
But it's kinda more about having a good rep
And them knowing you're a contributor

So you might try Sarlona,
Only advice I can give

[Amorais]

Try playing on Wayfinder. Its supposed to be a German server. I'm in the UK but there are so few players on getting a group is a tough ask. Not sure what the DDO player base is right now but its got to be extremely low after this amount of time and no advertising to speak of.

[Krell]

Had a LFM up trying to get people for either the RL saga or abbot. Been like, 6-7 hours i think.

People joined, got bored of waiting, then left to do other stuff.

This is kinda ridiculous, what do i need to do, pay people?

Its peak time in europe now even. But all im hearing are Americans saying they need to go to work.

You're going to have to take some action if you want things to change. Complaining here won't help. If it was me, I would log on to each server for a week or two during my normal play times and make a note of how active the LFMs are. Once I determined which was the most active for my time, I would transfer my character. Maybe none of them are active enough for you and you'll just have to deal with it. But if you enjoy the game, my advice is to do something to try and improve your situation. You may end up in a lot better place.

[LurkingVeteran]

Cross-server dungeon finder. Make it happen. Incidentally, it may also limit the effects of lag by dynamically scaling up (or down) the number of servers based on need.

[Deadlock]

Had a LFM up trying to get people for either the RL saga or abbot. Been like, 6-7 hours i think.

People joined, got bored of waiting, then left to do other stuff.

This is kinda ridiculous, what do i need to do, pay people?

Its peak time in europe now even. But all im hearing are Americans saying they need to go to work.

Peak time in Europe = Ghallanda's your best bet. It's where we moved to when they shut down the EU servers back in 2010.

If that's your main playing hours, then that would be my suggestion.

[elkorm]

Peak time in Europe = Ghallanda's your best bet. It's where we moved to when they shut down the EU servers back in 2010.

If that's your main playing hours, then that would be my suggestion.

yeah for staring at your lfm 1h 3 days in a row for daily reaps r5 before closing it down.