Question: How Did You Find Your Core Group?

I've been playing this game nearly every day for quite a few months now, and have come to the conclusion that the majority of people I play with do not fit the same play style as my own. No, not saying that there's anything wrong with everyone playing the game differently, but my problem is, I cannot seem to find anyone. :/

To keep it short, I want to find an FC/LS with people focused on downing Coil and fighting primals that play often. Thing is, I'm not sure how to go about it any more. Using Party Finder, asking others who are in bigger FCs, and even shouting have yielded few results. So I took it to the forums and am hoping for anything. x.x

But, still brings me to wonder, how did everyone else find people they like to play with? Doesn't have to be specific, or even about end game content. Maybe it will give me an idea on where to look for some like-minded people. :)

I switched FC due to "issues". Ran some content with members and they saw I was a decent player. Then they asked me to join their static.

You get more done being proactive, many cases, make your own. Join an established FC saying you hope to run coil and would be willing to organise it. Show initiative and ask for help, but take time to settle into the FC first. Try and do smaller content with players, offer to help on anything. In other words, get the other FC members attention, in a positive light of course ^_^.

I didn't, and I probably won't.
The game's structure doesn't really lend itself to the style of socializing I prefer. :-\

Well, I havent had to do any FC jumping, since I lead one ^^; Im not an endgame player really but I have plenty of people I love playing with. I have one FC (obviously) and one LS only. I think what sets my group apart (or so Im told) is that the LS is treated like an FC. We never use FC chat unless its for a specific FC message (someone's chocobo needs to be taken out of stable to level up), and everyone in the LS has equal opportunity in events and such, so we get a huge group of people of a much bigger mix. I'm of the impression a lot of other FCs require you to be in them to go to coil and stuff with them which kind of restricts who they meet, because they're not bringing in people who have FCs they're happy in.

I tried...it's quite difficult to find a group of actual competent people i guess. For now i'm trying out my most recent group i joined but they already have a core group. so that is just a way of saying "we're going to stick you with new, random people that join". Not getting my hopes up.

It could just simply be a case of i'm not looking hard enough. Have not been back to this long enough to really gauge any people.

I said "Hi, I'm new" and someone picked me up.

Seriously. lol

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Originally Posted by Dark-Saviour

I didn't, and I probably won't.
The game's structure doesn't really lend itself to the style of socializing I prefer. :-\

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I have some people I play with, but the majority of them don't look at the game the same way I do. Hearing that I'm not alone doesn't make me feel much better. Makes me want to drop it right now and go play something else. o.o

My FC / LS is semi-laidback, not as hardcore as FCs like the big ones. I've been with them in other MMORPGs. As corny as the name "Dragon Killers" and the FC Leader's name of Rpg Pro sound, it's a great group. Sure, we have our ups and downs, but that's mainly because we won't adjust to the game's endgame community. We want to play the game how the developers wanted us to. For instance, doing a normal non-0-click run of Turn 2, and actually being able to run Turn 3 for completion's sake. I don't care what people do to break us apart, I like the FC I'm in, even if we only have 5-7 active members (including myself.)

Not requiring a website or voice chat sometimes actually helps get more members, contrary to popular belief.

I don't have 1... I jumped around various grps as mainly a back up guy, since my work timing is totally Alien.

I didn't start T6 for like around 2mths after release.

Met mine around October, when I was trying to clear Garuda HM. They liked me and my friend enough that we eventually joined them.
Since I was the most talkative and active of my buddies, I got invited to the eventual Coil group as the melee dps.
As we progressed, our leader eventually played less and less, and I sorta became de-facto leader. The leader didn't like how we progressed, and me and the others kinda hated how he ran things around, often shoving things to me to fix. So he transferred off to another server, while me and the others merged to a raider FC.
I think the one thing that helped us keep together during that rocky time was that we talked to eachother a lot, and most of us were on the same page on the whole situation.
Discussing your issues in a group can makes things better, rather then being like my former leader who just did things his way.

Today, I'm still in a group with 4 of the original members of the Coil group with a T9 clear, and I couldn't ask any better people to play with.

TLDR: Communicate a LOT. Be willing to talk to others about issues. Have a off game chatroom.

EDIT:
Anyway, to answer the main question, since I went on memory lane: Start a raider LS.

I did this a few months back. I started an LS for raiders who didn't have a group to meet up in. I saw a large amount of people in PF looking for a group, so I simply invited each of them in. I made the req to join was to have T5 exp, which imo usually indicates some seriousness in raiding.
The LS grew well enough, I even invited some FC leaders in so that they could either pool out from the LS or have some of their own members join it.

For now the LS is currently sorta dead, since the hunts made the static grouping kinda moot. It doesn't help that most of the people that joined didn't want to start a group on their own, and preferred others to pick them up. This sort of things never really work out, if you want a group, you have to make it. My LS is only there for you to seek out others like you, if you are unwilling to connect to others and interact, you won't be joining a group anytime soon.

I didn't keep track, but I know that my LS produced at least 1 raider group that managed to fly on it's own.

Sambo

Ever since I got curious of his LS creation, I've stayed with Distant World.

I suggest maybe remembering the FC of the players that stick out when you use PF. Sooner or later, (in my case anyway), you'll start seeing repeated FC names coming from good players, and the one that repeats itself most sounds like a good one to join. I've also yet to meet a good FC that has a huge number of people, and it's usually harder to stick out in those. I myself would do this if I already wasn't in a small, tight-knit FC with 3 other like-minded players, I just wished we got enough members to do some SCoB >.<

I understand what you mean about the difficulty of finding 7 other like-minded players. I've been joining statics ever since SCoB came out and it can get frustrating when you watch an encounter fall apart because the same people are making the same mistakes and don't communicate. I read about people in the forums downing T9 and Savage Coil, and logging on and playing with 7 other people like that while taking down the hardest content this game has to offer sounds like a dream come true.

Minus one person, everyone in my static met on SW:TOR. Not all of us were in the same static on SW:TOR though. Basically half of us were in static A, the other in static B. But we all competed for server firsts and got a few. When SW:TOR's content release slowed to a deathly crawl our statics fell a part. Luckily, enough of us switched to FF14 to create a static.

Folks from FFXI for me.
For coil, joined a PF, left a good impression, got invited to join them for static. (for pretty much everytime I need a group. Takes a while though)

Use PF instead of DF to get parties going, try to add the players who do well on your friendslist and tell them you are starting up a party and would like them to join. Eventually you will find a full pt of people on your friendslist that you can do content with together.
For me personally I played since beta of 1.0 and most of my friends there still play in ARR today. So I've been playing with the same people for years meeting new ones along the way.

Met a lottttttt of people from 1.0 , still play with many of them, others I just did random ex primals with when they were new and we meshed.

I frequent the bluegartr forums (not the cutting-edge Blue Garter group). We have enough people on my server that we have a social-ish linkshell about it.

One day someone offers a healer spot in a static and I accept. The group is more or less a pickup group that keeps meeting up, everyone in different FCs and such. Still in that static today, with a few alterations, and we ended up downing T5 before 2.1, downing T9 before 2.3, and making a FC together.

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Originally Posted by GaiaGuardian

But, still brings me to wonder, how did everyone else find people they like to play with? Doesn't have to be specific, or even about end game content. Maybe it will give me an idea on where to look for some like-minded people. :)

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The group I play with on a regular basis is a few people I've known for many years. One is my best friend of nearly 26 years (I'm only 31 next month). And the others are ones I've met and hung out with in during my service in the Army. We're all spread out across the US and we use video games (specifically MMOs) to hang out and do stuff together.

One thing I would recommend (as not everyone can or should join the military) is get on VOIP. Be it mumble, ventrilo, or teamspeak. Being able to chat like you're hanging out IRL is a great thing. You get to chat with like minded peeps (all playing the same game) but while playing the game you don't have to just chat about the game but other interests too. Before too long, your 'core group' extends beyond FFXIV into other games and you always have someone to try out newer games with.

If you're just hooking up for statics, coils, extremes.. the relationship is one of convenience, and not friendship. Once the goal is done, or you leave the game.. its all over. If thats ok with you, then by all means stick to that. But for those of you looking for more. I suggest finding a FC that is active in VOIP. If you're a console player, switch to PC if you want the camaraderie I am speaking of. Its well worth it if you can afford it.

Soon after launch, I started forming a coil static out of my LS members. I'm a leader of a mid-sized LS but it still took a while to figure out the run times, choose the members and put it all together. Personally I looked for matching time schedule, play skill and personality that wouldn't clash with others, and of course party composition. Eventually I still had to recruit a tank from the outside. After some scouting in primal runs I found one that also joined the LS. Another member in my LS wanted to put together a coil static and did the same a while later. The most important thing you need in a static is an organizer, or leader, that the other members can get behind.

A good strategy for recruiting members is to look for people that come in sets. Friends that like to play together, couples, married people, siblings and so on. They can usually tolerate being around each other and play at the same time, so as long as they also have the button mashing skills, they're keepers.

A good strategy for leading a static is that if you're not a perfect leader yourself get someone, that complements you, to co-lead it with you. This has grown to be the case in my static.

As for how to keep it all going through the dry spells and frustrations, lag problems and growing pains? No finger pointing or blame game, and a lot of tolerance and perseverance. I still have the same 7 other people in my static I started with a year ago.

I still haven't found mine and I'm starting to doubt there ever will be one. Tbh I seem to get along better with NPCs - I mean, hey, at least they stick around. \:

I thought I had one, then I was stabbed in the back. Can't trust any other FCs not to do the same so forever alone.

Stood in Wineport.
Got picked up because no BLM was available.
Made some great friends.

Found my first core group randomly while standing around in Wineport looking to PUG Coil. They all quit with patch 2.1. Found my second core group after someone recommended me to them. They sadly quit with patch 2.3. Now I'm looking for my third group, hoping they have longevity and not immediately quit the minute a patch shows up that they don't agree with.

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Originally Posted by GaiaGuardian

I've been playing this game nearly every day for quite a few months now, and have come to the conclusion that the majority of people I play with do not fit the same play style as my own. No, not saying that there's anything wrong with everyone playing the game differently, but my problem is, I cannot seem to find anyone. :/

To keep it short, I want to find an FC/LS with people focused on downing Coil and fighting primals that play often. Thing is, I'm not sure how to go about it any more. Using Party Finder, asking others who are in bigger FCs, and even shouting have yielded few results. So I took it to the forums and am hoping for anything. x.x

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Maybe its time you created one, that way you can select those who fit your needs. A lot of times, a lot of players like you are also looking for the same type of FC/LS but are stuck like you, they can't find one. So if you start one, you can now gather those who are like you.

Hope this helps =)

Some of us in my FC have a linkshell we use for raiding but we only do Tue and Thur 7:30cst-10:00 sometimes 11cst.

Start a LS, join PF groups that are there working on stuff or start your own. Be talkative in the groups, mention you want to do such and such, if anyone bites invite them to the LS - keep going until you have plenty of people you enjoy spending time with then start working on a static/semi-static with them.

Unless you will put in the work don't bother too much with FCs because a lot of FCs were created around a core group and the rest is just support for them to pickup ppl if they need a sub.

I started on this game because a RL friend had been playing it and wanted me to try it. Saw it for $15 on Steam and said 'why the hell not'. Joined his FC, but there were some problem people in it so a few of us left and founded our own. Several people from my last game (Dragon Nest) have come over here to play with us, so the FC has plenty of people that we already know in it. Whenever we meet someone fun/cool ingame that's not in an FC, we'll try to recruit but we aren't very pushy about it. New members sometimes bring other friends, and everyone is really welcoming and helpful. It's more of a family atmosphere than anything. The interests among the players are widely varied; some of us are further into the content than others, but have no problem helping people play a bit of catch-up.

I had the good fortune to stumble into a wonderful linkshell a few months back and it's all due to a dance-off and the color pink. Yep, seriously. It's more of a social linkshell than anything, but again interests are widely varied in it so there's a few endgame raiders. A few of them were looking for tanks for a SCoB static, but hadn't had any luck finding any. I was actually still struggling with T5 (even party finder can be really terrible for it... loldivebombslol) but they were willing to help me get the clear in order to join them. We just downed T6 for the first time last week and are now working on T7. I'm in a few other linkshells as well, but they aren't nearly as active as Pink Panthers.

Soooo basically my advice is just get out there and be social. You never know what you'll fall into. I've met some really cool people through everything from PF to the ENTM contest. It's always fun to ask your ST party what server they're from -- you never know, maybe one of them will be from the same server as you. :3

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Originally Posted by Lyrinn

I thought I had one, then I was stabbed in the back. Can't trust any other FCs not to do the same so forever alone.

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It's too bad the developers probably won't allow personal housing to have chocobo stables.

After my old static broke up, was pugging coil for 3-4 weeks without much headway and decided to look for a static. Saw an advertisement on PF, pmed the guy, trialed me on titan and levi ex, guess they were pretty happy with me and got in. About 2 months later, we cleared T9. I guess I'm really lucky reading some of the stories here.

Our problem is that we are on Balmung, a server with character creation restrictions that prevent new waves of players from providing new grouping opportunities. What you are describing is the same situation a lot of scattered players have found themselves in, including myself. The best any of us can do is talk with other players. I'm in SUN right now, so I can at least tell you there isn't any recruitment for SCoB statics at the moment, but we did have people getting T5 clears. Perhaps we might be able to do a more moderate/humble attempt at a raid group to at least start t6, but it depends on player interest.

Also depends on if everyone can stop asking to play all three different roles, because I'm getting stretched thin for gearing purposes, and it just makes me hate playing everything. :(

Yeah recruitment usually dies off at the end of a patch cycle. Should pick up again shortly before 2.4 hits though. What do you mean by restrictions that prevent new players from grouping? I know balmung is the unofficial RP server, but what does that have to do with finding a group?

You have my interests OP and I'm in a similar boat. Really wish we were on the same server.

Luck of having some awesome people join my FC. \O/

I'm sure it's been suggested already, but just in case, have you perused/posted to your server's forum?

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Originally Posted by skaterger

Yeah recruitment usually dies off at the end of a patch cycle. Should pick up again shortly before 2.4 hits though. What do you mean by restrictions that prevent new players from grouping? I know balmung is the unofficial RP server, but what does that have to do with finding a group?

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There are character creation restrictions on Balmung because of the server population. After looking at some other servers, I've concluded it must affect new players just as much as current ones. Not saying there aren't any new ps4 players. There just aren't as many proportional to the server pop as there are on other servers, which on a larger server means things don't get stirred up enough.

I'm in the same boat as you OP.

I started playing this game with IRL friends. At the time, First Coil still had the lockout and none of my friends or those in the FC really wanted to bring me into the raiding fold with them.

Then I joined an RP FC that also raided end-game. I realized that I had different wants and needs from them: consistency, multiple raids per week, etc and left to form an FC of my own with a dear friend.

This has left me static-less at the point where I was just learning to do T7. I like to think I am competent and have T6 on farm but trying to PUG in PF has been a pain where the groups just dissolve in 2 wipes or just 1... leaving me to think that I'll never find even the players who seemed quite competent and -know- that they are competent since they're in HA gear from higher turns etc. It's quite frustrating because I want to give up and go "fuck SCOB raiding" but I know I can't say it because well... I do care about it. I want to progress in that but I can't find it and building one has been less than fruitful. :/ To say the least.

It's enough that I've shed tears over it at work several times per week out of sadness, depression and frustration.

Be helpful. Join people you don't know and help them out with primals/whatever. Talk to strangers in town if there are conversations going on in say. Meeting people gets you in new LSs and that opens up a lot more opportunities. I met someone in a roulette last year who was funny and on our server so I added him to my flist, met people through him, got invited to a LS, met more people, and eventually ended up joining an awesome FC. Have you considered transferring servers?

Still haven;t found a core group for raiding
long story short
started playing with small group of friends
was recruited into an FC with like minded players (RL friends joined me)
RL friends eventually wanted to form their own FC so had to leave FC #1
ended up being alienated by FC#1
new FC "with RL friends" fell apart due to drama - all friends but 2 stopped playing
joined a 3rd FC after meeting someone in game
said someone then generated drama and left for another server.

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Originally Posted by Fendred

There are character creation restrictions on Balmung because of the server population. After looking at some other servers, I've concluded it must affect new players just as much as current ones. Not saying there aren't any new ps4 players. There just aren't as many proportional to the server pop as there are on other servers, which on a larger server means things don't get stirred up enough.

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But isn't the whole point of character restrictions is because the server is already near the limit of how many players it can support? It seems like its less a problem of new players, but just that your raiding scene on your server is saturated. But anyway, the problems that you mention give further support to your idea of multiple tiered raids, which i like a lot. It lowers the barrier to entry for raiding and ensures that more people can partake in the content, which hopefully will transition to more activity for fcs and linkshells and hopefully 24 man raids at the level of coil in future.