Identifying Free Players

Here's my issue. I like to use the find team member list, to locate and invite players. When I do this I always send a tell asking the player whether they would like to join. Then I send an invite, only after receiving a response. If I don't get an answer I assume that they don't want in and I leave them be.

With the advent of free players, without the ability to send tells, I cannot receive a response from these people. So I have had to resort to sending tells and then sending an invite a few seconds later. My quandary is, I don't like getting or sending blind invites.

Is there a way for the devs to add an icon to the team locate list which denotes players which CANNOT send tells. That way I can send, sort-of blind invites, only to those that can't reply. Thus I would feel more comfortable with only sending non-response invites to those that would appreciate joining a team, yet can't voice that willingness.

Any thoughts on this possibility. How do you handle forming teams while accommadating free-to-play players.

I always thought that free players have access to /reply.

They can but it's most likely they don't know they have that ability.

But the OP can also ask them to respond in the LFG channel which was recently made available to free players so they could communicate that they were looking for teams and wanted to join teams because they don't have access to sending regular tells.

I didn't realize that they can reply. I learned something new today. It is most likely that new players don't know that they can either.

I do watch the LFG channel, but sometimes it is hard to see the dialog which is meant for me, some days it is zipping along. And I have noticed, on my server at least, that now most of the free players use only LFG channel, even for topics that ought to be sent via Help, which clutters my chat box.

I think I will amend my invite dialog to include the reply option. Thanks for the help.

As a long time player who absolutely despises people who send tells and two seconds later send the invite (STILL blind!), I very much appreciate your consideration and opinions on this subject.

Those of us who feel this way salute you.

Robin

Quote:

Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha ...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...

I concur with some of the other suggestions here.

Just put the information on how to reply to you in the tell you send them.

Such as: /t Prospective Teammate, Hi, are you interested in joining me for a Positron Task Force? It's level 10-15 and will exemp you to level 15 for its duration. (type /r before your message to reply)

Of course if the devs really wanted to ientify free players they could program a non combat pet to follow them around saying,



"Danger, Free Player.
Danger! Danger!"


j/k

Ok. Here's a question: If a freeb is invited to an SG and permitted to use storage, could they not use this storage to get around their lack of in-game trading with VIP's and Preems? I assume they can't use inventions since they can't make them...right? What about IO's? Special Salvage (event salvage, heck reward merits for that matter)?

I would like to see a way to identify free players. A couple of times I've been in DA trying to figure out why we can't start a mission, and it's because someone is free but, for whatever reason, thinks they are VIP and can do the content.

Also, I've personally found /r to be bugged. I'm not really sure what causes it, but fairly frequently when I use it I will get an error saying there is no player to reply to. However, I can immediately /t them, so I know they are still online.

I agree the LFG channel is the way to go - I've found it much easier than /tell'ing a lot of people.

Broadcasting "You can get free Paragon Points by typing "/up 1" " is also a foolproof way to identify free players.

The 'Backspace' key automatically brings up who last sent you a tell. I find it really useful for replying to folks that have a not so easy name to spell .

It would be nice to tell who's who... It can be hard to tell from a free player just starting and a new VIP person just when they just have 1 badge. But easier to tell when Several year vet is premium and has the incarnates unlocked but has no +1 under 50...

Oops, that above post is mine from my second account. I was logged in on it to use the transfer tool for beta and forgot to change accounts before posting on the forum.

Special Salvage cannot be traded at all.

Some other pieces of salvage, like Event and Invention, can be traded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

If you can get a visual on them...
The free players are the ones acting as mounts with VIPs on their backs, playing polo.



Oh, also, I like what you're asking and I think some sort of way to clarify a player's standing may bring more positives than negatives and would be an overall good idea.

So, what we're suggesting here is a sort of visual marker for our caste system whereupon the serfs can be more easily discerned from the nobility...

Last summer, somewhere, I had suggested the idea of having New/Free accounts be marked by having a small gold ring around at the base of their character - but it was wisely brought up the amount of griefing that that would lead to.

It's best that New/Free accounts not be "marked" in some way.

Best way to find out if someone is playing on a free account? Ask.