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No, I am not a hardcore farmer.
Use the status flags in the team search window.
Send a broadcast or request message.
Start and lead your own teams.
I still consider it rude behavior to send unsolicited tells to people already on teams.
Let's just agree to disagree.
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Agreed we disagree.
I answer any tell I get with the same or greater courtesy than how it was delivered. I see no reason why someone looking for a team can't ask someone already on one if they would like another.
You'd be surprised how well people respond when you treat them like humans and actually tell them "no, can't use you right now, sorry" instead of outright ignoring them or calling them rude or somesuch. So many people just ignore the tells of others that getting a response, even a "no", is received well.
The LFT flag system is nice, but many people don't bother with it after a while.
[ QUOTE ]
No, I am not a hardcore farmer.
Use the status flags in the team search window.
Send a broadcast or request message.
Start and lead your own teams.
I still consider it rude behavior to send unsolicited tells to people already on teams.
Let's just agree to disagree.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm afraid i will have to agree to disagree with you as well.
If I just logged in, I may have missed any number of broadcasts for "team looking for more". I may not be showing up on someone's search; this sometimes happens to me. A team may have given up looking for more players. Etc.
There are any number of reasons why a team that might perform better with my archetype might not be actively looking for me the second I'm ready to team. A politely query complete with relevant information is never rude.
(One caveat; I'll generally only do so a limited number of times, because it's possible that all the greys on my search list are all on the same team. More than one query sent in ignorance to the same team MIGHT be considered rude.)
In reverse: Often I will try to assemble a team, and once the list of people who are flagged as LFT as exhausted, i will send concise /tells to unpartnered players of appropriate levels. Yes, I'm aware of the flagging process. I'm also aware that it is not used as often as it should be; witness the number of players who jump at the chance to join a team even though they're not flagged as LFT, and inversely, the number of people who decline team invites (or are AFK) even though they are flagged as "looking for anything". Sometimes, you gotta ask. It's an MMO. Communication is key, although I will never ask someone who has taken to time to flag themselves specifically as "rejecting all invitations" (or who say they're looking for a specific task in their comments that I am not doing).
edited to add: When anyone sends me a tell, if i can't aoccomodate I always try to send a response saying "no thanks. Good luck." If I send a tell and the answer is no, I always thank them for responding. Polite feedback is always appreciated.
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Yes, I'm aware of the flagging process. I'm also aware that it is not used as often as it should be; witness the number of players who jump at the chance to join a team even though they're not flagged as LFT...
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Bagheera, I don't think that the flag system is necessarily being mis/underused in those situations. I frequently am on but am not "looking for team" and neither am I "rejecting all invites". If I am crafting or running some solo missions then I am content to remain solo but am willing to entertain offers for teaming. Basically, if something good comes up then I am interested and if it doesn't then I am fine soloing.
I see "not looking for team" as "neither looking nor avoiding teams" since there is clearly an "avoiding teams" option and a "looking for team" option.
Pinnacle
Glowworm * Brrr * Lilinoe
Protector
Kid Trance * Ms. Impala * Red Helen
Virtue
Pooka Pete
My only complaint is the people who don't answer a tell, until 30 mins after you send it, then ask why you asked them to team if you had a full team. I usual give someone the benefit of the doubt and give them a few mins to reply in case they actually were afk. But one rude thing is a person who ask to join your team, and after you've completed the curret mission you are on nags about doing their mission. In that case they should start their own. But to the main point, good guide, usually though I don't give the specifics. "interested in such-and-such level mish" has worked for me thus far. I have no problem giving the specifics of the mission. I do see where that would be nice to know to let someone know if you are farming. Luckily though, at this point I pretty much team with the same people so all is well. And when a person does join the team, hello does go a long ways.
I think you need to add something about expecting too much at the wrong time. If you're logging in at 2 am, expect to solo. If you're logging in at 7-11 pm, teaming is gonna be a lot more likely.
If I feel the urge to play early in the morning, I grab a solo toon. It makes my life easier to go with the flow.
~Gabriel
Here is something else that may prove useful. I set up these keys a while back so that I could change my status without having to open up the team window. I keep my archtype up in the comments section of the team window but I never change the lft section. Instead I do the following:
F6 "lfgset 1" ---- This sets me to looking for team. I log in and hit this and I am now set to looking for a team.
F7 "lfgset 0" ---- This sets me back to default. I use this for the occasions that I have decided to solo and am not actively looking BUT I might join if someone asks the right questions.
F8 "lfgset 128" ---- This one sets me to not looking. Period. End of Story. Don't Ask.
These of course could be bound to any key or set up as a macro.
One more thing to add - the reason *why* sending (polite informative and brief) tells to people who are teamed already works so well for joining a team. Broadcast only reaches the zone you are in, and will not reach people who are already in a mission, so they will not see it (unless they happen to be standing around between missions, and to be honest I would prefer a team which did *not* spend a lot of time standing around between missions). Changing your LFG flag will only reach those who do a search after you set it, which people running missions are unlikely to do mid-mission. So the people who are teamed (and running missions) are not likely to see you for a while, if ever. But tells will get through, and if the recipient happens to be busy or does not like tells, they do not have to respond. As long as you send only *one* tell to a given individual, that should certainly not be ill-received.
Suspicious_Pkg, I am glad that you have found a solution that works for you. Just keep in mind that while your solution will work for people with large blocks of play time, people with smaller play time segments may prefer to get rolling with a team sooner rather than later. Personally, I find the idiots who sit there endlessly spamming broadcast looking for a team to be offensive (especially when they are in a zone where there happens to be NOBODY listening who *can* invite them to a team), and I typically wish that said "idiot broadcast spammers" would shut up and quietly start their own teams (by sending tells to the unteamed players of the appropriate level).
Clan_Jericho, I agree that expectations need to be realistic. But, I have found a team at almost any hour of the day, usually after sending only a few tells. The trick is to use the search tool to find people in your level range who are already teamed and contact them - most will jump at the chance to fill out their team if they can. I have even had people respond "no" because they were keeping the group small, then reply "yes" a few seconds later when they realized that I can AE (they were herding).
Trailerpark_J, Oh, those are good! I will be adding them to my own macros for sure, and will include them when I revise my guide above as well. Thank you!
No, I am not a hardcore farmer.
Use the status flags in the team search window.
Send a broadcast or request message.
Start and lead your own teams.
I still consider it rude behavior to send unsolicited tells to people already on teams.
Let's just agree to disagree.
We don' need no stinkin' signatures!