Greetings TORWarriors, and welcome to another exciting edition of Think Tank. Today, I’m thinking about Group Finder. Group Finder is a tool that will help you, wait for it… find groups. BioWare recently gave out some details on the system during the Official Star Wars: The Old Republic Podcast. It is one of, if not the most anticipated new features currently slated for Patch 1.3. In fact, Group Finder will fundamentally change the game. The changes will be felt mostly at end game, but they will filter down to the leveling experience as well. I hope BioWare has thoroughly thought through the issues and has solutions in mind. Let me elucidate on a couple.
Queues
"I hear the Healer line is shorter"
The interface was described as simple, yet robust with a myriad of options. You queue up just like you would for a Warzone today, only instead of Warzone, you queue up for a Flashpoint, or Operation. Queuing for Operations is such a big subject, we’ll tackle it separately in a just a moment. The interface will ask you to select the roles you are willing to fill based on your class. Guardians/Warriors, Vanguards/PowerTechs, and Shaodws/Assassians will all have the two choices of DPS or Tank. SWTOR does not have a dual spec system, so one of several things will happen:
~ Players will queue up for the role of the spec they are currently in
~ Players will clear their spec, and queue. Once inside they will fill out their talent points. This could get expensive.
~ Players will queue up for all the roles they can fill and just dps in Tank spec or Tank in DPS spec.
This doesn’t just apply to tanks. Everyone except for Gunslinger/Snipers, and Sentinels/Marauders will have two choices. The player base will quickly figure out what roles are in demand, and by extension have short wait times, and what roles are over populated leading to long wait times. In other games with a Group Finder type feature, Tanks typically are in demand, having near instant queues, while DPS are over populated and have queues in excess of 30 minutes. If this ends up being the case in SWTOR, expect Gunslinger/Snipers, and Sentinels/Marauders to scream for the ability to tank or heal. The varying queue times should give you another reason to build your offset as quickly as you can. The flexibility to fill either role will give you the option of picking the role that has the shorter queue times.
Daily Heroic
"What would you do for a Klondike bar?"
Another important point from the Podcast was the Group Finder is being designed to encourage players to complete one random Flashpoint per day. The reward wasn’t specified, but for it to work, I firmly believe it has to be commendations for gear. Which commendation depends on what group of players they want to entice to run Group Finder. As a general rule, player stop running content when they can no longer benefit from the gear it rewards. To get the maximum number of players queuing up for Group Finder, the reward would need to be Black Hole commendations. This ensures anyone who isn’t fully decked out in Black Hole gear has a reason to run the Daily Random Flashpoint. This puts some very well geared player into the queue. An overgeared tank can make up for a undergeared healer and vice versa. With some smart group finder algorithims, these players become the grease that makes Group Finder run more smoothly.
However, I think Rakata commendations would be a good compromise. Sure, anyone who is full Rakata might skip out, but it would provide a bridge from Columni to Rakata outside of Hard Mode Operations.
I hope BioWare has taken into consideration the vast range of difficulties of their Hard Mode operations. Players in general, but especially the overgeared players who are only running the Flashpoint for the daily reward, want fast, pain-free runs. Players will queue for the Random and drop group immediately upon seeing they got Esseles/Black Talon, Lost Island, or any of the harder ones. If there is no penalty for dropping group, you could see high demand positions (with their short queue times) drop group anytime they don’t get a Taral V or something similar. BioWare needs a solution for this when 1.3 ships, not in 1.4.
Operations
Taking THIS guy in a PuG? You are braver than I thought
The major news to me was that Group Finder will also let you queue for Story Mode Operations. I think this is wonderful news, and will be a boon to anyone who is stranded on a lower population server, or anyone who can’t find an Operation group with a convenient schedule. This is so big, it deserves its own topic.
Oh look, I gave it one.
Operations have bigger loot, which means bigger drama and players doing odd things. I would encourage BioWare to look at other MMOs with an Operation/Raid Finder type of feature and start designing solutions for the problems those systems have uncovered. Don’t wait for the player base to prove to you that yes, indeed, they are pretty much the same people behind the keyboards who play other MMOs, and the same problems those systems have will manifest themselves in Group Finder.
The two big issues to look at are loot and difficulty. There are mechanics in SWTOR Operations that even in Story Mode can’t really be over geared. I can’t speak to Black Hole, or the latter part of Karagga’s Palace, but even thinking through Eternity Vault shows the issue. Remember that Group Finder groups are PuGs (pick up groups). These groups are essentially groups of strangers. They don’t know each other, and don’t trust each. Moreover, they aren’t using a third party voice communication system like TeamSpeak or Vent. Now try imagining a group like this doing something like Ancient Pylons, or Soa. I know its story mode, but players are going to struggle to solve the puzzle before the timer expires, and no amount of gear is going to save you if you get stuck in the middle when Soa blows up the platform and you fall to your death.
But assuming these groups do somehow down a boss or two, the issue of loot comes up. BioWare simply must recognize that a simple Need/Greed system will fail miserably in this setting. Players will Need on gear for offsets, companions, and my personal favorite, Vendor spec. It’s going to happen. Again, BioWare needs a solution for this when the system is implemented, and they might already have one. Early on in Beta, the BioWare team discussed a way for looting in Operations to work. When the boss dies, each player gets a bag. In that bag is either a piece of loot for that player’s class or an commendation. What is in your bag is yours. It can’t be traded given to anyone else. I implore the developers to implement this system or something like it for Group Finder Operations.
Cross-server
To me, this is the least interesting discussion about Group Finder. Some compromise between queue time and the pool of players used to fill the group will be made. Start with players from the same server, but as queue times lengthen, extend the search to other servers. What the exact parameters are is up to BioWare to experiment with.
Your Turn
Is the SW:TOR player base all that different from other MMO players? Are you excited about Group Finder? What issues are you worried will crop up? Leave us a comment, below, and let us know – we want to hear from you!
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