The new seek invite function

[Sigmakan]

For those of you asking for a brief tutorial on the new "Seek Invite" system we updated the Lodestone with just that. We are taking all the feedback we've seen thus far, which is a lot as I'm sure you're all keenly aware, and will be discussing it with the dev. team.

In the future, we do plan to make it a more streamlined experience when seeking a party, similar to the party search systems of other MMOs.

That page is very misleading. It talks about how you get bonuses for adding more members (especially those close in rank) but fails to mention that SP is also reduced for each additional member. Personally I think the section at the end needs to be reworded.

[Kazimir]

In the future, we do plan to make it a more streamlined experience when seeking a party, similar to the party search systems of other MMOs.

AWWWWWWWWWW YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

[Lusavari]

I'm glad to see that some effort is being made... I'm sorely disappointed because I've been somewhat irritated with the search functions since Alpha... There were times back on Alpha where I wanted to see if one of my friends was online, and I was pretty much stuck with "/t Lady Gaga You on?" every 5 minutes.

I miss all the old functions I could use search for in XI...

Inviting people....
Checking zones to see the current populations so I could thusly make an estimate as to what camps would be taken or how many people were participating in a certain event...
Checking to see if someone not on my friendlist (I only have 200 slots to work with, and I can't friend 2000 people) was online that was supposed to participate in an activity with me...

And the invite and search comment functions were greatly useful, though in all irony the comments were never used for what they were intended for. Great way of seeing who wants what from an event though. Which was another great thing FFXI search did; give a quick visual of who was after something in a certain event.

Also, while we're talking about invites, can we PLEASE at least invite people from inside a raid if they DC? I liked the system of Dynamis where at the very least in a raid like Dynamis, if someone left and needed to re-enter, the server kept a list of who had previously entered, locking all after the 64th name out. Or you could place a 30 second logout time in a raid, and put it back to the way you all had it before. It takes log enough to get back in after a DC.

[Raistlin]

Visual flag, commands to seek and search, search filters like level, bigger screen with results and each result in a single line, etc.

[Fusionx]

At this stage in the game (and especially with recent adjustments to leves) partying for character progression feels like its more important than ever. I'm all for getting new content, chocobos, airships etc. But something HAS to be done about this and soon. Same goes for more linkshell management tools.
New content is great, but if its not easy to find people to do it with.. that presents problems.

[Neptune]

Did anyone see the seek invite function from patch note?

"[dev1079] Two new options have been added to the party search and recruit features.
Instanced Raid
Seek Invite
* Players using "Seek Invite" as their purpose when searching for a party will appear in recruit searches only when the recruit purpose is also set to "Seek Invite." "Purpose: none" recruit searches will not turn up players who have set their searching for party purpose as "Seek Invite."
"

I don't get the system and don't see anyone using it. This could me just me.

What do you guys think?

I'm clueless about how it works but it looks like a quick fix until a more robust system comes online.

[Rhianu]

When putting up a seek-party flag, the only, and I mean ONLY thing you should have to specify is what job you want to come to the party as.

Forcing players to specify the purpose of their party as well is asinine. If players want to specify a purpose, that's fine, but the system should not force them to do so.

FFXI got this almost perfect by allowing players to seek a party with just one button, which was clearly labeled "Seek Party." You just can't get any simpler or easier than that, which is how it should be.

Though FFXI didn't allow you to search for entire parties, only individual members, so even FFXI's system has room for improvement.

My suggestion is this:
When a player clicks on the "Party" button in the main menu, the resulting window should immediately display a complete list ALL available parties on the entire server, without regard to purpose, location, or level range. It is only after players have had an opportunity to look at this list that they should have to specify any filters.

A good interface design principle to keep in mind when building search functions is to never make it necessary to filter search results before the user knows what any of the results are. Filtering should only be done after the results are displayed, never before.

[SuzakuCMX]

When putting up a seek-party flag, the only, and I mean ONLY thing you should have to specify is what job you want to come to the party as.

Forcing players to specify the purpose of their party as well is asinine. If players want to specify a purpose, that's fine, but the system should not force them to do so.

The only fields you have to fill out when seeking a party are Purpose: Seek Invite and Class. The other fields are for people trying to create parties.

FFXI got this almost perfect by allowing players to seek a party with just one button, which was clearly labeled "Seek Party." You just can't get any simpler or easier than that, which is how it should be.

Wish we had one-button seeking :[

My suggestion is this:
When a player clicks on the "Party" button in the main menu, the resulting window should immediately display a complete list ALL available parties on the entire server, without regard to purpose, location, or level range. It is only after players have had an opportunity to look at this list that they should have to specify any filters.

Along with this, they should change "None" to say "Any" as that is how "Purpose: None" and "Location: None" function in both searching and creating, and they should also allow "Any" as an option when filtering classes/locations for "Seek Invite."

A good interface design principle to keep in mind when building search functions is to never make it necessary to filter search results before the user knows what any of the results are. Filtering should only be done after the results are displayed, never before.

Yep

[Rhianu]

The only fields you have to fill out when seeking a party are Purpose: Seek Invite and Class. The other fields are for people trying to create parties.

That's one more field than is needed. Like I said, the player should only have to specify their class/job, and nothing else. Also, seeking a party and creating a party should be separated into two different tabs within the window.

Anyway, I cooked up a simple mockup UI in MS Paint real quick for what I think the Party Search should look like:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/snuuj/FFXIV/interface_redesign/partysearch.png

It's only a rough draft, and there's probably room for improvement, but you get the idea.

[SuzakuCMX]

That's one more field than is needed. Like I said, the player should only have to specify their class/job, and nothing else. Also, seeking a party and creating a party should be separated into two different tabs within the window.

Anyway, I cooked up a simple mockup UI in MS Paint real quick for what I think the Party Search should look like:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/snuuj/FFXIV/interface_redesign/partysearch.png

It's only a rough draft, and there's probably room for improvement, but you get the idea.

It's not exactly more than one field since one of them is saying you're seeking an invite and not creating a party.