All the COOL kids are doing it...

Inspired by Dechs' thread born of BillZ's thread...

Was hoping to inspire heroes to start pushing habitual use of the Search Flags (LFT/LFAny/LFTFs/etc.).

As a regular PuG builder/leader, I've noticed a remarkable decline in the number of people taking time (2 seconds?) to set these (when appropriate).

And yes, many team builder/leaders REALLY DO hit up appropriately-flagged players FIRST!

With GR right around the corner, new or returning players are popping in here, and in the Players Questions section, to say Hi and ask for advice.

Wouldn't it be great if we made a point of suggesting appropriate use of these flags with every Welcome/Welcome Back response?

Just talk it up or mention it in passing to new/returning players, like it's a standard thing to set your Flag every time you log in (again, when appropriate).

And "lead by example"? If Vet players get back to using them, themselves, and advocating for their use, the "movement" could really snowball and (too much to hope for?) we might even see these Flags become truly useful.

All my characters are set to "Looking for any" pretty much all the time when I'm playing. I only flag to not accept invites when I'm doing something that's timed, then I change it back to white. Also all my characters have the same thing in the field: Primary/Secondary and "I don't do AE".

I hide, but like I said, I'm always forming teams. I don't look at flags because I don't search for people. I ask on Virtue TFs and if I need to, Virtue United. Boom. Full TF no matter what time of day. I've even organized several impromptu mothership raids during off peak hours with nothing but global channels.

I think one of the things to push for is the use of global channels and especially the Mentor Project.


EDIT TO ADD: All that being said, I do agree that pushing the flags is a great idea that will result in a strong positive impact as there are plenty of people who search for them.

Great idea. When I'm forming teams it's unusual to see more than a half dozen people setting their flags for anything and this is on Virtue. Does the tutorial mention this at all? Might be worthwhile to lobby for a mission loading tip and a MOTD popup too.

If I'm looking for a team (and I usually am) my flag is usually set to ye olde white circle. I almost never get AE invites. I sometimes get TF invites which I will politely decline if I don't think it's likely I'll be around long enough to finish (or if it's too far under my level and I don't feel like undergoing the frustrating and pointless loss of powers).

I leave mine on the default "not looking" unless I really don't want anyone bothering me, then it's the red "refuse invites". I do the vast majority of my teaming with my SG or Victory badges, so it matters little to me, but I still get invites with the "not looking". Most team leaders seem to be aware that the default setting means absolutely nothing. I'd be more inclined to tell newbs about global channels than setting their search flag.

LEGION OF VALOR - Be a part of the Legend!

Hmm, thought the thread was about crystal meth. Anyhow, i usually leave my search on not looking for, i tend to get as many invites as on looking for any, so it never was much of a functional difference. as i see it i'm not looking for a team, but if one comes along and i'm not crafting, i wouldnt say no.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Heh, well, it's not like you have to constantly monitor the common chitchat. I only pay attention to them when I need/want something specific.

And a GM global isn't really a good example. Too specific to get much play, I'd think. Take a day and sign up for one of your server's major channels just to get a better feel.

LEGION OF VALOR - Be a part of the Legend!

...use my tags all the time, though really, that USUALLY means it's set to LF TF flag.

When it's not set to that, I have it set to the LF Anything Flag, as I'm up for missioning, but usually willing to get in on a TF as well.

So I never use the LF Mission Team, or LF Patrol.

Never hide though. Probably should, as I get tells asking me to join teams all the time, but eh, who knows, one of those tells might have me wanting to join the team.

Back before I hated people, I used to build teams. It was always a boon when I'd find someone with a white circle, because I was reasonably sure that that person would be an easy invite. "Not Looking For Any" people tend to need to be convinced, which I did, but it was just simpler to scoop up the people looking first. I found a lot of people looking who weren't set to looking, too. Would have made my job a whole lot easier if they were.

I encourage any and all publicity drives to make people use their flags more. It makes things so much easier for everyone, and it doesn't take long to do, either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

This is a good suggestion, Roberto.

I've been white flagged consistently. However, I'd like to point out that its a two-way street. The leaders need to run a search. I find its usually a 1/2 hour on Virtue before my toons get teamed, which is okay since I'm constantly crafting. Nevertheless, I find that fastest responses from team leads come not by the global channels, which I use as well, but by actually being in a zone they are in and using broadcast. It gets kinda maddening when in the late 30s to early 40s when I find myself hopping from Brix to FF to RWZ to PI using broadcast at each stop to get anyone to respond. All the while, I'm flagged, and have been using global channels. The broadcast still gets the response, eventually. Even those that do search tend to only search on the white. Most of the time, if I flag green for door missions, for example, I can expect even longer waits or no response.

On the flip side, I do lead occasionally, and being old school and proud of it, I first turn to the /search for filling a team, but often have even those flagged ignore my requests.

I'll put something in my sig.

The problem is that all the cool kids can't read.

Overall I agree that we should mark out LFG button appropriately. I keep mine marked not looking. A play session does not go by when I do not receive at least one tell or blind invite from someone who is either rude or can't read. Now, I do not go on a rant as much as I used to, but if the same person hits me up multiple times, or I keep getting spammed, I switch to decline all invites.

The tool does work, but people need to learn how to use it.

I definitely notice the difference when I set my "Looking for Any" flag. When I'm not in the mood to run solo and my friends are awol, I'll turn it on and run a quick radio/newspaper. I usually get a nice tell asking if I want to run <insert random activity> by the time I'm about half finished. True that sometimes happens even when I don't set it but not nearly as often.

I highly recommend it.

A good solution might be to change the way the flag works a little to a "set it and forget it" method. The player could set it and then have it remain set, including being set when logging on and off so it doesn't have to be REset when logging on. Perhaps include a reminder as to your status as part of the information dumped to your chat window upon logging on. When actually joining a team it would display an "Already On A Team" flag which would drop your name to the bottom of the lists when sorting the list by flag. Then upon leaving the team it would once again return to where the player had it set without the player having to REset it.

Of course, then you'll get people forgetting what, if anything, they have thier flag set to, but then one more reminder could be included in the team invite window: "Join the team? Yes/No. Team level will be X. You have your LFT search flag set to 'LF Task Force'."

Oh yeah, one more thing. The default should be "No teaming preference set" rather than "Not looking for a group". This would make the red "Do not accept invites" flag much more useful and meaningful for those who genuinely ARE NOT looking for a group and do not want to be bothered making them distinct from those who merely haven't bothered to set a default preference. If you do have the red flag set, perhaps a reminder window should present itself upon logging in so that people don't sit around Atlas for days wondering why they're not getting any invites anymore.

I always set mine to the "Looking for Any" flag when I log on.

I set for goals...if I'm looking for a TF, that gets flagged, for missions if on for a short while, or 'any' if I just want a good PuG-me-up.

I hate starting teams. I only do it with coalition or supergroup friends or in globals where I'm established. I hate talking to strangers so I'll never approach them to start a team, for the most part.

The game could really use an auto-teaming feature though, I'd *love* that...the stories would be epic and it would make teaming on low-pop servers very cool.

All the talk about hidden vs unhidden got my curiosity.

So late last night on virtue I did my own not representive not enough real data test of player population. So did a search in Talos Island and found 4 people in zone but /whoall showed 30!

Again, means nothing but it was an eye opener.

Part of the difficulty with teaming, searching and the search flags is that "Not Looking For Team" appears to really mean "Not ACTIVELY Seeking a Team, But Maybe If You Offer..." since there is also a Red Flag that means "Don't Ask, Leave Me Alone."

I think a one-time pop-up window when you intially enter the game with a hero stating what your flag is set to would be a good idea. The flags should be reworked so that you can set a default for the character that will remain. The pop-up window would remind you what you are set at in case you forgot.

What do you think the default setting should mean? "Not Looking For Team" is, whatever battles get fought over its exact parsing, taken to mean Neutrality. If so, it ought to be phrased differently, ie, "Will Consider Teaming Offers" or the like.

I have to shake my head about the stories wherein folks badger and harrass folks for invites that have politely declined. "What part of NO did you not understand?" It is so ironic because there are usually other folks around who WOULD like to team. I know I usually would, so leave those other folks alone!