How do you effectively recruit for your FC at endgame?

Hello guys, I really need some advice.

So a few months ago my entire FC took a break from the game, all at the same time. We were at about twenty active members at the time. Roughly a month ago, the other leaders and myself came back to the game, fresh from our break.. but we were the only ones that came back. Roughly five out of the original twenty.

Since then we've been actively trying to get some new members, but nothing seems to be working. It doesnt help that we're all on a relatively underpopulated server, but Lamia is home.

My current method is going through the Player Search list and sending /tell's to anyone that's not in a free company, asking if they would like to join. I dont send random invites, and I dont spam them with /tell's, and i avoid shouting as I know all of this is frowned upon.

However, I rarely ever get a response from the /tells. The only people I see in the player search are either newbies who im assuming dont know how to reply to /tells or are not interested in a FC, or people at 60 that are not in a FC because they simply dont want to be in an FC.

Any and all tips you guys have on recruiting some new people, please share them.. As of right now my only method is sending /tell's and that's not working at all. We're determined to get our FC back on the right track, but I need a little guidance on what works to successfully recruit.

Thanks in advance. :]

I don't think your going for find that many people interested till next main patch. Also don't expect those players to return to the game after how its been for the last 10 months.

Yeah i'm not expecting the old members to come back sadly. That's why we're moving on and trying to get a fresh batch of new members. I just cant seem to figure out how to get members. We dont mind Sprouts, we were all new at one point. We just want active members.. And that is proving difficult.

The best time to do this would be just when a patch drops since that will be the time the servers will be most active

If you are going to send random /tell or invites you might also want to pay attention to profile messages

after creating 2 alts and a server transfer, I had a lot of random "blind" FC invites when I had a message on my profile saying that "blind" FC invites will be rejected and to send me a /tell

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Originally Posted by Ageofwar

The best time to do this would be just when a patch drops since that will be the time the servers will be most active

If you are going to send random /tell or invites you might also want to pay attention to profile messages

after creating 2 alts and a server transfer, I had a lot of random "blind" FC invites when I had a message on my profile saying that "blind" FC invites will be rejected and to send me a /tell

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Yeah I do send the /tells, but I NEVER just send invites.. When I was leveling my alt it was literally the most annoying thing in the world. I send /tells but I never get any responses.. I dont know if they are ignoring them, if they have their /tells muted because of goldspammers, or if they just dont want to join. But when most of them dont even reply I have no idea why.

But both of you have given the good advice to wait until the next patch, which makes a lot of sense. I know quite a few people that are planning to come back just for the Deep Dungeon. That being said I would still be interested in what methods you guys use.. There has to be a more efficient way than just sending /Tell's to people..

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Originally Posted by Cinno

It doesnt help that we're all on a relatively underpopulated server.

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That's being quite generous in consideration to Lamia's population and we have over 500 FCs on the server, what makes yours unique enough for people to join?

I think that's what most FCs on our server forget when recruiting and if people were interested in joining a particular type of FC, they would seek it out.

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Originally Posted by Cinno

Yeah I do send the /tells, but I NEVER just send invites.. When I was leveling my alt it was literally the most annoying thing in the world. I send /tells but I never get any responses.. I dont know if they are ignoring them, if they have their /tells muted because of goldspammers, or if they just dont want to join. But when most of them dont even reply I have no idea why.

But both of you have given the good advice to wait until the next patch, which makes a lot of sense. I know quite a few people that are planning to come back just for the Deep Dungeon. That being said I would still be interested in what methods you guys use.. There has to be a more efficient way than just sending /Tell's to people..

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SE should copy a function that's in FFXI that seems good on paper

Linkshell Concierge

basically you can leave a linkpearl with an NPC who keeps a list of Linkshells that are recurring for members

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Originally Posted by MihaelB

what makes yours unique enough for people to join?

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That's a valid point. To be fair, our FC doesnt really have any features that makes it unique. It's got the same stuff that every other generic FC on the server has. A House. Chocobo Stables. Airships. Etc. All the features every developed FC has. The only thing that really sets it apart is the people in it. But I cant exactly advertise that.

"Our members are awesome, talkative friendly and helpful!" That's being advertised by pretty much every other FC as well. :/ If people on our FC wante "friendly talkative fc's" theres a literal buffet to choose from.

So give me some ideas. What can I do to improve the FC to make it more unique and appealing to others? Cause I honestly have no idea how to set it apart. It seems everyone on our server thats in a FC is either in Bane/Nerve/ANRKY or they are in a very small Fc. Competing with those big ones is a joke at this point, so how do we set ourselves apart from all the smaller ones?

Any ideas would be highly appreciated.

"My current method is going through the Player Search list and sending /tell's to anyone that's not in a free company, asking if they would like to join. I dont send random invites, and I dont spam them with /tell's, and i avoid shouting as I know all of this is frowned upon."

this is what I do weekly and I'm running a 80 man FC by now D:

some differences between us there might be:
1. My FC prides itself on hosting Tuesday Casual mini game nights, Thursday old content clearing nights and Sunday movie or different game nights. We also once in a while host global events like glamour competitions. In other words we're doing all we can to stand out.
2. I'm on Odin. Very high pop. Low pop recruiting will always be so much harder.

Have an informative post / page on your group site that tells what you're looking for, what's your current setup, what's your current progress and aim for this patch, and your planned event schedule (or at least how many events you're running per week and how long they are). Tell which voice chat you're using, or if you aren't using any. Most importantly, describe what your group is like (very serious and focused on progression or mostly fun with relaxed attitude etc.) and what you expect from members. Advertise in party finder, on your server forums (perhaps also other server forums) and other FFXIV online communities like Reddit. Browse similar raid group advertisements to see what works.

Good luck!

Edit: I understood you're mainly looking for people to run Savage etc. with and replied based on that, but if you're just looking for people to join the FC, that's a bit different.

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Originally Posted by Taika

Edit: I understood you're mainly looking for people to run Savage etc. with and replied based on that, but if you're just looking for people to join the FC, that's a bit different.

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A few of our members are interested in Savage content and raiding, and would like to get a static together.. But we simply dont have the people for it at the moment. The rest of us have little to no interest in the Savage content or raiding.. So eventually it would be nice to have enough people to be able to have a static, without that being the primary focus of the FC.

Right now we're just trying to find members.. People to talk to, and play the game with. On a low population server with a small amount of friends/fc members even still playing the game, it feels pretty lonely most of the time.. We just want more people to play with.

I think the main thing in FC recruitment is to know what your group is about and make that clear in your recruitment message. In other words, think what you can offer to those who join and also what you expect from your members. Why should people join your FC and not some other? Make sure that everyone is on the same page. In addition to the current situation, it's also good to write about your goals for the future (like perhaps starting your own FC static for the next Savage).

IMHO the current system makes slamming your head into the wall of clearing current content not worth it for most of the server population. Sure you CAN put in the time and effort for the rewarding clears. Alternately though, you can just stay casual and waltz through most of it 3 to 6 months down the line un-synched with better gear. Last night I did an un-synched Odin for the first time since clearing it back when it was released... the fight went from a tight dps check to a complete joke. The same was true for the EX primals at release, vs when they raised the droprates on the ponies much later. I mean, if you are truely out of everything else to do in the game, the endgame grind is there for you to die over & over to, but at that point most would rather just play something else for a while.