The current find/setup party system is great

[Rhianu]

There actually isn't anything wrong with the party menu, people are just either too stupid to know how to use it or too lazy to want to go through all the menus.

I'm sorry, but that statement right there is just flat out wrong. A good UI should be intuitive and user-friendly. Calling people stupid because the UI is poorly designed is just completely ass-backwards. The fact that people were able to form parties just fine with FFXI's UI is proof that it isn't people that are the problem. The problem is the interface.

[Malakhim]

So because i dont agree with your point im slamming my head against concrete ? alright.
The party feature does not work.I just put 2h as an example .
Dude , you can put the current party feature up all you want , the possibilities of getting a party are close to 0.Why? because is a shit tought out feature.if your understanding is so close you dont see i put 2h just as an example of time , could be 10min 30min 1h . The point is the party sea does not allow you to do somethin while you sea, as freely as a flag would.Also, you do not know what the possibilities of you finding the desired members are , unlike with the party sea system.

If people dont use it then is a worthless system , as simple as that.

I'm not saying people are using it and that it's the hottest thing since the advent of fire.

What I'm saying is that there is an inherent problem in having to wait any more than 20 minutes to find a party in a game that is(or at least was until I stopped playing 3 years ago) nearly entirely dependent on party play.

Picture this: You're in the dunes at around lvl.16 trying to get a party together to wail on snippers/pugs/damselflies... You have that ONE white mage that MAY join the party if you manage to get another 5 people together. Cool, you run searches, check out the recruiting lists, and send out party invite shouts. No takers. 20 minutes pass and you ask the white mage if he's still willing, as you FINALLY managed to find another DD. He says he has to go in 30 minutes. Fuck, he's out, and the other dude is getting impatient. Now you have to run even more searches. Another 15 minutes passes. The other dude says "fuck it" and runs off. Your entire plan is fucked because you can't get anyone, and there are no other parties seeking as the ones that are around are already full.

"Go do something else."

I don't fucking want to do anything else. I logged on to get some levels in my main class which I have no way of doing without a full party so I can make it to the next timesink the game has in store for me because this entire experience is an exercise in masochism and FUCK THIS GAME!

[Johannes_Mondego]

I don't use the party feature in this game because I don't understand how to, and its implementation is so bad that I don't want to learn how to either.

For example, I hit "Search". I have no idea what that means (search for people? search for parties? set myself as searching for party, etc.). Oh, the first field here in this new window is "Name", so it must be the "search for other people" case, like ffxi /sea command. In the "Purpose" field, there's no choice for people seeking exp, so I go for the next closest thing, regional leves. Location, hmm I have leves in Cassiopea Hollow... oh that's also not even an option, guess I'll just leave that field blank. Last thing is what class shall I search for... um but all the classes are greyed, save for the ones I have leveled. Er so this whole Search part of the interface must actually be to set myself as seeking party, so I select THM since I want to level that. Hmm then what the hell do I put in the "Name" field? Whatever, just hit "Begin Search" and see what happens... No Results. So it is not a flag system at all, but some sort of database query, so now I am assuming it's a function to search for already-established parties? That still doesn't explain the "Name" field though (do parties have names? is it the party leader's name? How would I ever even know a party leader's name, going to the zone in question and approaching people and asking them who the party leader is so that I can--- OH GOD NEVERMIND). So assuming it's a database query of parties actively recruiting, I blank the fields hoping to make it as general a search as possible. No results.

So which is it? A search function to find other people? A search function to find recruiting-parties? A way to flag myself somehow (since I can only search for my own class)?

I am thinking it is a search function to find already-established-parties-who-are-recruiting, but the way it works requires me to basically sit in this search window (which is buried 3 menus deep BTW) and spam "Begin Search" until someone is looking for a THM. Meanwhile I can't chat or craft or even walk around, the way these menus work. If I wanted to look for already-established parties in FFXI and talk to their leaders (which I wouldn't), I could just issue a command "/sea 25-30 valkurm" or whatever, and look for the names in gold, and continue to craft or chat or whatever.

[Zkieve]

I'm not saying people are using it and that it's the hottest thing since the advent of fire.

What I'm saying is that there is an inherent problem in having to wait any more than 20 minutes to find a party in a game that is(or at least was until I stopped playing 3 years ago) nearly entirely dependent on party play.

Picture this: You're in the dunes at around lvl.16 trying to get a party together to wail on snippers/pugs/damselflies... You have that ONE white mage that MAY join the party if you manage to get another 5 people together. Cool, you run searches, check out the recruiting lists, and send out party invite shouts. No takers. 20 minutes pass and you ask the white mage if he's still willing, as you FINALLY managed to find another DD. He says he has to go in 30 minutes. Fuck, he's out, and the other dude is getting impatient. Now you have to run even more searches. Another 15 minutes passes. The other dude says "fuck it" and runs off. Your entire plan is fucked because you can't get anyone, and there are no other parties seeking as the ones that are around are already full.

"Go do something else."

I don't fucking want to do anything else. I logged on to get some levels in my main class which I have no way of doing without a full party so I can make it to the next timesink the game has in store for me because this entire experience is an exercise in masochism and FUCK THIS GAME!

This have NOTHING to do with the party feature.
What you are saying is that there should always be people there for you to party with . Wth do that have to do whatever the party feature is good or bad ?

[viion]

I'm not saying people are using it and that it's the hottest thing since the advent of fire.

What I'm saying is that there is an inherent problem in having to wait any more than 20 minutes to find a party in a game that is(or at least was until I stopped playing 3 years ago) nearly entirely dependent on party play.

Picture this: You're in the dunes at around lvl.16 trying to get a party together to wail on snippers/pugs/damselflies... You have that ONE white mage that MAY join the party if you manage to get another 5 people together. Cool, you run searches, check out the recruiting lists, and send out party invite shouts. No takers. 20 minutes pass and you ask the white mage if he's still willing, as you FINALLY managed to find another DD. He says he has to go in 30 minutes. Fuck, he's out, and the other dude is getting impatient. Now you have to run even more searches. Another 15 minutes passes. The other dude says "fuck it" and runs off. Your entire plan is fucked because you can't get anyone, and there are no other parties seeking as the ones that are around are already full.

"Go do something else."

I don't fucking want to do anything else. I logged on to get some levels in my main class which I have no way of doing without a full party so I can make it to the next timesink the game has in store for me because this entire experience is an exercise in masochism and FUCK THIS GAME!

Umm that has nothing to do with pt system. Even the current system that will happen, just that you CANT SEARCH in this, You put up your requirement and you just hope people see you, you have zero control, you can go searching yourself, you're relying on them going in and finding you.

[Malakhim]

This have NOTHING to do with the party feature.
What you are saying is that there should always be people there for you to party with . Wth do that have to do whatever the party feature is good or bad ?

Absolutely nothing. I was pointing out that waiting for 2 hours is stupid, and saying do something else is just as stupid.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the party seek flag, but it would also be easier if as a leader(which I usually tend to be unfortunately) I could just send of a recruiting message for people as opposed to having to run an entire stratified scan every waking minute.

As someone posted before, there are two perspectives: that of the party seeker and of the leader, and the party seek flag only addresses the seeker, whereas having a system where you can set specific things you need in your current party would be great.

[Zkieve]

Absolutely nothing. I was pointing out that waiting for 2 hours is stupid, and saying do something else is just as stupid.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the party seek flag, but it would also be easier if as a leader(which I usually tend to be unfortunately) I could just send of a recruiting message for people as opposed to having to run an entire stratified scan every waking minute.

As someone posted before, there are two perspectives: that of the party seeker and of the leader, and the party seek flag only addresses the seeker, whereas having a system where you can set specific things you need in your current party would be great.

As a leader , this party feature is horrible.You have no idea who /when will join.You dont know if its posible to make a party. You have 0 control.How is this good ? I dont understand it.Leader NEEDS to make their party , is what leadership is about , about leading.Not about siting there and hoping whatever you get is worth a damn.

[Onidemon]

Anyone down for using WOW's party search feature minus the teleport to dungeon part?

It is a great system and very easy to use. You chose your dungeon, you chose you role "DPS, Tank, healer" and then the system will match you with other people automatically. They could use something similar but make it more flexible.

With this system you don't need to look and search for people. You chose what you want and wait for the system to do the rest of the work for you.

I don't want the teleport to dungeon part tho' ... i used to like meeting with the other party members, summoning them and travelling to the dungeon... it made the whole thing feel more like an adventure.

[Eekiki]

Yeah, the issue here is because it doesn't work the same as XI, and SE didn't bother to give us any info as to how it's supposed to work, no one could figure it out early on, and hardly anyone has ever bothered to use it.

If you've ever played Guild Wars, the search feature in XIV is almost exactly the same as that game's. It's kind of the inverse of XI's party search. Instead of a party looking for people to invite, people look for the party and join themselves.

As others have said, the only problem with it is no one uses it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with its design or function. It's just that most people don't even know it's there, and most people that do know it's there don't fully understand how it works.

[AlexiaKidd]

Yeah, the issue here is because it doesn't work the same as XI, and SE didn't bother to give us any info as to how it's supposed to work, no one could figure it out early on, and hardly anyone has ever bothered to use it.

If you've ever played Guild Wars, the search feature in XIV is almost exactly the same as that game's. It's kind of the inverse of XI's party search. Instead of a party looking for people to invite, people look for the party and join themselves.

As others have said, the only problem with it is no one uses it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with its design or function. It's just that most people don't even know it's there, and most people that do know it's there don't fully understand how it works.

Exactly, on top of that I honestly think that it is a complete lack of reasons to party that is making it so useless. Most people are in an LS and do their Leve's and any grinding with them, as you only need a few people (small groups 3-4 people) it is not hard to get the amount of people you need out of your LS so there is not any real need to pick up any randoms.