Reduce FC Invite Spam

So something needs to be done about this. I've been receiving a ton of FC invites (20+ a day) because I'm not associated with one.

From what I understand, players are using the Player Search function, right-clicking anyone who doesn't have a FC beside their name, and selecting 'Invite to Free Company'.

This is really annoying when you're in the middle of playing and an invitation pops up in front of what you're doing.

My suggestions are as follows:
-Remove the 'Invite to Free Company' option from the Player Search. There's no reason for it. If people want to invite players to their FC, just stand beside someone who's a part of it.
-Add a cooldown for FC invites.
-Give us an option to auto-decline FC invites without having to use /busy?

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-Give us an option to auto-decline FC invites without having to use /busy?

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I think this is the best of the suggestions. It's both the least disruptive to people legitimately trying to invite friends and the most complete for people trying to avoid invite spam. Just let people set in their character options that they don't want FC invites and they won't get any.

(Ideally, also let the player inviting them know that it was auto-declined. That way, if someone forgot they had that option set when they changed their mind and wanted to join an FC, the inviting player would see it and be able to reply "/tell Player Name Sure I can invite you, but you'll have to change your auto-decline option first.")

i just made a post that could involve this, i wish they would just give us the choice to join a GC as a full company, use your credits to buy whatever actions you want, it would give solo players the benefit of actions and also the protection from fc's who hunt for numbers, i dont mind fc's but im at the point where I dont have the will to join an established one and work to fit in the clique or join an up and comer to build it up or just watch it fail.

The worst part is when they send you a /tell as well that's like "hey let me know if you need any help! I love assisting new players, so join my FC!" like if you're not in an FC then you must be new. They don't bother to check anything.

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Originally Posted by Niwashi

I think this is the best of the suggestions. It's both the least disruptive to people legitimately trying to invite friends and the most complete for people trying to avoid invite spam. Just let people set in their character options that they don't want FC invites and they won't get any.

(Ideally, also let the player inviting them know that it was auto-declined. That way, if someone forgot they had that option set when they changed their mind and wanted to join an FC, the inviting player would see it and be able to reply "/tell Player Name Sure I can invite you, but you'll have to change your auto-decline option first.")

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I especially like the idea of the auto-reply indicating the user has that option set.

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Originally Posted by Doozer

The worst part is when they send you a /tell as well that's like "hey let me know if you need any help! I love assisting new players, so join my FC!" like if you're not in an FC then you must be new. They don't bother to check anything.

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Also this. It drives me up the wall. They're just as bad as the gil-sellers!

First, I will say this, if you are getting too much spam, esp from the same player or fc you can report them because it is considered harassment. Talked to a GM about this when I rolled a new char on a different server and was inundated with invites to a certain fc by different players, which I suspect were mostly the same person on different chars just inviting when they were on alts as well as their main.

As a fairly experienced guild leader in a few different games I must say that FCs who just send rando invites are generally the worst guilds to join. If you send a random invite or even a stock greeting + invite it tells me you are either a very inexperienced guild leader or a guild leader that doesn't care about their members because all they are to you are numbers. If the leader is inexperienced there is room for them to grow, but to me its not worth it to give the other ones numbers. Regardless the invite gets declined and that person gets blisted.

Another way to stop receive invites is starting to create your FC and stop at the signatures request. Your character will be listed as with a fc even you didn't (still) created any.

Players starting a new FC need efficient recruitment tools. Better to throttle the search to players only in the main cities and not in combat.

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Originally Posted by Kochequ

Players starting a new FC need efficient recruitment tools. Better to throttle the search to players only in the main cities and not in combat.

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More effective FC recruitment would come from excluding people who don't want to join an FC, which an option to block such invites would do. People who are looking for an FC wouldn't set such an option. I don't see how there would be much correlation between whether people are interested in an FC and whether they're in a city or not.

To be honest, they could have 2 toggleable options available.

First a "Not looking for FC" toggle, which would auto-dismiss invites and would show that you're not interested in joining a FC in your search info.

Secondly a "Looking for FC" toggle, which would show in your search info that you are actively seeking an FC. In addition, they could also then allow for this toggle to be part of a dedicated search that works globally for use by FC's to recruit AND also open access to a dedicated FC recruitment chat channel, so that FC's would be free to post their advertisements to their hearts content. Maybe even have like a "Marketboard" type thing where FC's can post recruitment posts (With links to their FC details) and players with this toggle can then peruse this and try and find FC's they like the sound of and contact them for more information.

Thus, such a system would reduce blind invite spam (Since, that really annoys me... It's not that I'm against joining an FC, but please, at least try and get to know me a little beforehand y'know?), reduce the chat spam of people posting their recruitment macros and also create a more interactive system to aid FC's and people looking for FC's in finding the right players/FC to join.

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Originally Posted by CtrlAltDefeat

My suggestions are as follows:
-Remove the 'Invite to Free Company' option from the Player Search. There's no reason for it. If people want to invite players to their FC, just stand beside someone who's a part of it.
-Add a cooldown for FC invites.
-Give us an option to auto-decline FC invites without having to use /busy?

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For the love of Opo-Opos, PLEASE add this. It's rather head scratching why XIV doesn't already utilize this toggle in the character options. Fairly standard QoL improvement in nearly every MMO. You already have the option to submit an application to an FC should you ever decide to join one, so why not add this?

I would even go so far as to suggest changing the process. Make inviting to a FC an option that only comes up, should someone approached through a private message, reply to the sender. This would at least encourage recruiters to show a little courtesy in asking first instead of just throwing out blind invites.