Party Seeking Adjustment.

[SephYuyX]

Dont get on me if something like this has been brought up already, or w/e. Just some ramblings.

The way seeking is right now, is one of those things that most people dislike about FFXI. Why? Because it restricts you to 1 job. If you want to seek, you have to be on that job, and youre stuck to doing nothing else.

I had an idea today, because Tech Writing is a boring class, to improve the system. Keep in mind this has just come to me, so dont be too judging, and please bring in your suggestions as well, as im sure others have some better opinions.

Ill start with examples, because its a bit too hard to explain, and I dont feel like Photoshoping anything atm, maybe another time.

As it is now, when you do a '/sea all Trixi' you will see me /anon, /away, seeking, etc and/or have a PT/Mission/etc comment, what lvl my main and sub, and what jobs those are, as well as what area I am in. Other things such as nation and rank, as well as what my speach preferance is.

Now, with my idea, when you do a /sea all Trixi, you will still get all that info, as it is now with the system used in FFXI currently. If im on 75BLM seeking with rdm sub and the comment I have, you will see this as it is normally. If you do a /sea all 73-75 BLM inv, you will see the same exact thing.

Now. This is what I want to implement. I want to enable FFXI to have it so you can seek under what job you are currently, ie, BLM/RDM, as well as 5 other jobs, lets say BST/WAR, WAR/MNK, WHM/BLM, WHM/SMN and SMN/WHM. Under the 'Party' option id want to see 5 more slots, each with 3 sub slots. The 5 slots would be simply be Job 1 through 5, or Seek 1 through 5, or Alt Seek 1 through 5.. or something to that effect. And the 3 sub slots could be Main, Sub and Comment.

With the 3 subs slots, the first would be the slot for the main job youd want to seek alternativly, ie, WAR. The second slot would be the sub, MNK. The third would bring up the comment box, the same way it is done now.

One of the things SE might be concerned about, is seeking with a job you dont have, ie, seeking on 75PLD when yous is only 5, just so you can screw with people. With the Main and Sub option, it will only let you choose from the list of available jobs and what lvl they are, allowing you to pick only what you have. This will prevent from someone typing in PLD75, it will select PLD and what ever lvl it is.

So now that we have the alt jobs set up for seeking, how is someone gonna be able to find you?

The /sea all Trixi will still result in me seeking on BLM/RDM with whatever comment and etc, same with /sea all 73-75 BLM inv.

Looking for a WAR? /sea all 35-38 WAR inv, and that will result in seeing;
O[WAR37/MNK18]Mit/W10-oTrixi-JE-Area
It will show my alt seeking main, sub and what lvls they are as well as the comment to go along with it. rank/race/language/area will all remain the same as /sea all Trixi.

You will only be able to find me seeking on WAR, if you are looking for a WAR in that lvl range. Maybe thats something that can be changed? When doing a /sea all Trixi, you can also view what alt jobs that I am seeking under. But that may fall under 'memory restriction'.. idk.


Well.. I think thats all I have.. any suggestions/comments are welcome.

[Eternus]

SE cannot implement this due to PS2 memory limitations.

[NynJa]

SE cannot implement this due to PS2 memory limitations.

[Tymon]

SE cannot implement this due to PS2 memory limitations.

ftl

[epigram]

We will take it back to japan with us.

[Hirronimus]

What I enjoy right now about new method of seeking/making PT is that you have to search for specific level range and/or job needed to make a PT. Your idea is nothing new or groundbreaking, I'm sure a lot of people have thought about making broader scoap of search.

I'm not entirely sure how system registers seek and if it even does, but, here's how I think they can do this and bypass the afore mentioned PS2 memory limitations.

For example: I have 52 BLM, 66 WAR and 75 BRD, with Rank 9-2 BC needed. How registering for seek system could work. When you decide what you want to do, an "itinerary" if you will, you "register" them with system.

So when people seek under current search system, say someone is seeking /sea all blm 51-53, my name will come up, but at the same time someone's seeking /sea all brd 72-75 my name will also come up. Same goes for Rank mission.

The only problem I see with this not working, it will require multiple fields to enter discription of search comments for registered "search options". Too bad this will require tons of server space to make it work and in the end will congest connections.

[Faranim]

There is an easier way to implement this without requiring multiple search comments or anything like that.

There just needs to be a way of "flagging" a second job you want search to reveal for you.

For example, let's say I want to farm as SMN but seek on my WHM. so I flag WHM so it will come up in searches.

So if somebody did /sea all WHM 69-71, they would see me (still as SMN75) as well. It would then be up to me (since I flagged the job) to put in my comment "WHM 70 @xxxxx LFG" so that somebody who is looking can actually figure out my real job level.

But the chances of SE actually adding a feature like this is slim to none. Making friends and forming static parties seems to be the only effecient way to EXP other jobs anymore.

[Sheeny]

It's trading one evil for another. What'll happen when you invite that 75BLM who's seeking on his 56WAR? 20 minutes of muling - screw that.

[Hirronimus]

Yes, there's that, but a smart person would invite someone who has gear ready. Besides, if he's one of the first people to be invite, he has time to mule while leader finds other jobs to fill the spots. Now if he was member #6, I'd say tell him to forget about it.

Personally I have been in situations where I had 2-3 jobs worth of gear in my inventory/mog house, but the level difference restricted me to seeking only under 1 job.

[Sheeny]

Lately I've been levelling a job in the 60's and practically no one is ready even when seeking under the 1-job-limitation.

Maybe my server (Midgard) is a bunch of lazy bastards, but more often than not people always need time to get situated. They've gotta get their food (in-game/out-game) and AFK and visit moghouse and God knows what else that they should have done already before throwing up their flag. Well above 50% take *at least* 5 minutes to get ready from the time they were invited.

Normally people talk about how they'll throw their fingers up in a cross at the mention of a pick-up party, but everyone I know loves them. No getting a full party and then waiting 10-30 minutes to leave from that point because of 4 people sitting at the AH 'getting ready'. It's not even incredibly rare to have people get invited that need to LOG and mule gear over.
Pickup parties are like sweet sweet candy.

[nivlakian]

Normally people talk about how they'll throw their fingers up in a cross at the mention of a pick-up party, but everyone I know loves them. No getting a full party and then waiting 10-30 minutes to leave from that point because of 4 people sitting at the AH 'getting ready'. It's not even incredibly rare to have people get invited that need to LOG and mule gear over.
Pickup parties are like sweet sweet candy.

Maybe it's just me, but I found this paragraph confusing.

Edit: I suppose I may as well point out why it confuses me. It says people talk about how they hate pick-ups, but the people you know loves them. Then it says there's no waiting 10-30mins to leave (to xp camp), but how is there no wait when you said everyone takes a bunch of time to get situated once invited. You even say they have to log sometimes. People like that?

And... you posted a reply while I was editting. lol

[Hirronimus]

It's a rant and like all rants they have little to no sense, but... think he says he likes pick up PTs over actually making a PT that disbands and not replaces people when someone decides to leave.

My question is tho, what's the difinition of a pick up PT?

[Sheeny]

What's your definition of a rant?
I don't know why you want to twist a matter of opinion into an argument, but by all means, help yourself.


nivlakian,
To summarize my ill-written paragraph:
1) In my experiences, on my server, the initial forming of a party usually takes far longer than it should. Once a party of 6 is formed, there tends to be an additional 10-30 minutes before leaving as people weren't ready.
2) On multi-server messageboards I usually see people display a dislike towards pickup parties. Due to 1), I actually prefer pickup parties.

Point being, adding multi-job-seek functions would just add even more wasted time for people to get ready before shipping out.

[Krandor]

It wouldn't be terribly hard to just flag up on the jobs you want to xp as/are mostly geared up for. I can't speak for everyone but it would take me about 2-3 minutes to go to my MH change jobs and switch all my gear, food, meds, etc. I would need between my PLD NIN or MNK.

[Taku]

Ah, sounds like he is defining pick-up PT as when you replace someone in an already existing PT?

That paragraph confused me as well because I usually refer to any PT that's not a static as a pick-up PT.

[Hirronimus]

I wouldn't blame this solely on your server. The problem as I see it recently, the lack of quality in current player base has really gone down.

The "casual" players who finally catching up after 3 years of paying for a game where they play probably 1/8th of the time more than average player spends time playing, have not mastered to a degree the concept of PTing, sadly.

I don't know how long you've been playing, but from personal experience, back in 2004, making PT was fast and efficent process.

[Mifaco]

I hope you're kidding. Partying back in 2004 was a slow and tortuous process, especially if the only rdm/tank seeking were Tirriou and Dthax.

[Sheeny]

Yeah, pickup party to me is being invited as a pickup, or replacement. Never any waiting (for the invited) as you just meet up with the existing party.

[Hirronimus]

I hope you're kidding. Partying back in 2004 was a slow and tortuous process, especially if the only rdm/tank seeking were Tirriou and Dthax.

I got BRD to 75 fairly quick. PLD wasn't a problem in terms of invites until 72, that's when it slowed down.

I remember Dthax. I didn't have a "pleasure" of meeting Tirriou.

Replacement PTs can be good if members that remain are sticking around for at least 2 hours, but like Septimus stated in another thread, they can be huge waste of time.

[Septimus]

I hope you're kidding. Partying back in 2004 was a slow and tortuous process, especially if the only rdm/tank seeking were Tirriou and Dthax.

I have to thank both Dthax and Tirriou. Because of Dthax my evasion was capped when I fought Maat. Because of Tirriou I got parties almost instantly because people knew that I was capable of refreshing and dispelling.

Good times, good times.