Let me start off about saying that I like what you've tried to do with this game. The social capabilities of the game are a step in the right direction, especially when trying to make this game stand out among other popular RTS games.
My favorite feature is co-op. It is absolutely essential in this type of game when you're going for a social feeling to the game. Having said that, the Looking For Group (LFG) system on this game is absolutely horrible for finding a co-op partner. I'm not the only person who thinks this. Just monitor the texts sent in the LFG channel. You'll notice many people complaining about it.
As it stands, every time you check the co-op box to look for a co-op partner, you make a single post in the LFG chat with a link to join your party with the name of your mission. After that, you wait to see if someone clicks that one link. That doesn't work. The appropriate route to go is to have a queue for each mission. If I click co-op for Homer's Run and someone else clicks it a minute later, we shouldn't both be posted in LFG at the same time. We should automatically be paired up. This is the bare minimum needed for the LFG system to be successful.
The bare minimum won't be enough to make the game as a whole stand out, though. You should be able to do other things while you're queued up and waiting for a co-op partner. In World of Warcraft, you can roam the world while queued up and waiting for a group to join a dungeon. In Starcraft II, you can view player profiles, achivements, other listed games (basically anything in their multiplayer menus) while in a lobby or queued up in a playlist. We shouldn't be restricted to a "Waiting for co-op partner..." screen. The game doesn't have a large enough user base to gaurantee<5 waiting times all the time, and frankly, I'm not waiting more than 5 minutes for co-op on a mission if I can't entertain myself in my capital city while doing it. It's boring.
There should also be the option to create a party, and tag your party as wanting to do certain quests (hopefully, more than one at a time). This wouldn't place you in the queue for doing those quests directly, but if someone is having trouble finding people in the queue (no one's online or whatever), then they could see the list of existing parties interested in that quest. They could then use Games for Windows Live to message you and get a direct invite to the party to play some co-op.
Here's the bottom line that you guys need to remember: the social aspects of your game are the only thing setting it apart from past Age of Empires games. They're a big deal. They need to be front-and-center. If they aren't accessible and easy to use, then people simply won't use them and you've wasted all your time creating them in the first place. Co-op is fantastic, but it's simply too hard to get into co-op right now. If you improve the LFG system, then everyone will get into the co-op system much easier and your game will begin to stand out.
|||I concur all above!
|||also if ya coop and ya link a quest say an avarage quest lvl me as a 23 had lvl 9 join for 1 sec and leave once they seen my lvl
|||I agree 100%
I think more people would use it if it was ok to do something else in game while looking for group. when i see someone in the LFG channel that has linked a quest im also interested in , i try clicking it, and 9/10 times it says its no longer available. maybe it should let people come in after the fact?.. . when i try making a coop quest, i wait 3 or 4 minutes max.. .then i just say the heck with it, and solo the quest.... cuz by the time i wait 10 minutes i would probably already be half done the quest myself.
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There are lots of good ideas here.
We agree that the existing implementation is limited. It's just a stopgap to a more thorough feature.
|||@OP
I agree completely.. The game has HUUGE potential, but it's crucial, CRUCIAL, that the devs act now and improve this extremely flawed UI.. It's not just the LFG, it's soo many other aspects of the UI, the entire interface in all departments are subpar and in most areas considered broken and unfit for use
If you act fast people will stay and you will get a larger player base as well, but if you don't overhaul the entire UI soon, then I fear it's not looking good.
I have a suggestion post planned that I will write up once I get the time one of these next couple of days.
I really see potential in this game, but the devs need to be willing to make some changes for it to be a success on a longer term.
~KanedaSyndrome
@KS
I'm sure they are acting on it. It doesn't seem like development for this game is over. I expect updates to come in soon, but not immediately. I'd rather wait an extra week and have something good, rather than get something unfinished. Keep in mind the game just released, most likely there will be hotfixes/patches out soon.
I agree with you though, the game has great potential. I hope to see it grow into something larger.
|||KanedaSyndrome wrote the following post at 08-30-2011 4:53 PM: If you act fast people will stay and you will get a larger player base
as well, but if you don't overhaul the entire UI soon, then I fear it's
not looking good.
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I might not be representative of the overall population, but I'm in it for the long hall. I'm not a hardcore player, but I see myself playing the game off and on for at least a year. I'm willing to give them a year to see what they can do, but I'm pretty happy with the game right now as I level up my capital. Once I get to level 40, I could see it getting a little boring without co-op. I hope a lot of other players are similar and still playing this game for a long time.
|||Agreed.
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