Party recruitment interface, done right [SUGGESTION]

[MeowyWowie]

I know there's a thread already about the new "seek party" addition, although that covers more about how it works than suggestions to improve it.

Here's a very simple way to improve the system without removing what we already have SE. It's been said a million times before by many players.

• Add a "seeking party" flag

Don't be scared to take ideas from FFXI, it was your game after all. Allow people to toggle it on and off, and make a visual cue on the screen to show people are seeking a party. Further enhance the visual cue when we target them, showing which classes they are seeking on (more below.) Each class has its own icon already, should be pretty easy?

• Improvements to the above system:
  
  Allow us to search for parties by individual class. For example: I have a 25 THM and a 40 MRD that I want to join an exp party with, but I want to fish while I wait for an invite. I toggle those 2 on and when people search for members they see a 25 THM and a 40 MRD available. Once I join a party, my "seeking party" flag disappears for both classes. This way we are not locked to one class while seeking, and can seek for multiple classes at the same time.
  
  Adding a purpose section for each class would be nice as well. Can range from: Unspecified, EXP, Leves, Missions, Dungeons, etc, etc. Also include the option of adding our own text.

The interface used for seeking a party can be very simple. Menu > Party > Seek > select the class you wish to seek on and it's purpose > Click OK. I'm thinking mini pop up windows for purposes, each time you click on a class, but there's probably better solutions.

• Add a "search for members" option

Again, don't be scared to take ideas from your previous MMO. Allow us to search for seeking players by: All, Class, Rank, Area, Purpose, Name, etc, etc.

• Improvements to the "search for members" function:
  
  Give us the options of sending an immediate invite, automated invite message, and /tells.
  

  The immediate invite would be the same as FFXI's and FFXIV's current versions, automatically sending an invite to the player who then just has to /join as we currently do.

  The automated message would send a automated message to the player, translated in their language. Something like "Meowy Wowie wishes to invite you to her party. Respond with CTRL+R" When the player hits CTRL+R they can send you a tell to inquire about party setup, location, etc, before agreeing to join.

  The chat feature I think is self explanatory. Basically you just send a /tell to the person, asking if they would like to join your party. To me, this is the most courteous way to invite someone, by speaking to them directly, but again that's just me.

Again, the interface for this can be very simple. Menu > Party > Search > Select the parameters > Select the player > Invite / Auto Request / Chat.

In conclusion, I think those 2 additions would almost complete the party seeking and recruitment system we now have (Yes, Yoshi-P, no more "fix party recruitment" threads!!) Don't remove the system we already have, as it's good for what it's designed for, just rarely used.

FFXI had a great community for a reason, and FFXIV has a "mute" community for a reason. FFXI forced us to party and interact with each other, while FFXIV makes it very difficult to do so. They are near complete opposites at the moment. There's no reason we can't reach a middle ground. Don't force people to party, but make it easier for those who wish to do so.

Some may wonder why I didn't suggest just adding a /search feature that searches even those not seeking for a party. I thought about it, but realized that it would hardly be effective as you would not be able to see a person's total class layout, only the class they are currently on. IMO this addition is far better. Another reason might be because SE does not want us to know the server's current population, although they could simply just not show it. Don't get me wrong though, I would love to see /search implemented, but there are better ways to improve party recruitment.

Ideas, thoughts, suggestions? Please share.