Pick up team do exist redside. Other than the early morning dead hours I rarely have trouble putting together a team with ten minutes or so of searching.
Dont's:
1: Don't just stand in a given zone broadcasting LFT over and over again.
2: Don't try looking for a team in a zone completely inappropriate to your level.
Do's:
1: Form your own teams.
2: Make use of the /search feature.
3: Make some friends.
4: Join an active SG.
5: Join a global channel.
My technique is pretty simple. First I bind a standard tell to all my characters.
/bind 0 tell $target, Hi. I'm putting together a $level team set to Relentless to run some non-AE story arcs. Would you be interested in joining?
Then I open the /search window, find some players in my range. I start with players that are my level, then I use the +1/-3 technique, then I open it up to the -6 range, and in times of desperation I'll go to -10 but only if the player I'm inviting is level 22 or higher.
Some things to consider. A quick look around the forums, or even just around broadcast in AP/Cap will show you that there are thousands of people who hate AE. They would love to join pugs. But they get covered up by all the spam. And for some reason they are unwilling to start their own teams. But with one politely worded tell, they are more than willing to join yours.
Is anyone else working on this arc? I've worked my way to the mission where you fight the font of power - definitely not soloable with those tornadoes chewing you up.
I just restarted playing my MM after a many month hiatus, and found that pickup groups are pretty much non-existant red side...
131430 Starfare: First Contact
178774 Tales of Croatoa: A Rose By Any Other Name ( 2009 MA Best In-Canon Arc ) ( 2009 Player Awards - Best Serious Arc )