Party System needs a redesign, here's my thoughts..

[LoreChief]

There are a lot of parts of the party system that are really showing their age.  Many parts of the game are tbh, but this post will focus solely on the party system.

 

Issues:

1. You can't invite people to a party unless you click on them and use a skill.  It's difficult to add people to a party when they ask to join, because you have to find them - usually in a sea of loot, mobs, and other players.
2. You can't see what level everyone is in your party.  There are times where you can't figure out who you invited to the group that caused the Party Level bar to stop working (due to the level gap restriction).
3. You can't tell if people in the group are actually pulling their weight.  In high-density areas like Aqua Kings, many players will take advantage of the high activity of the area to stand amongst all the things and do nothing of value while they leech exp.
4. Targeting party members is also difficult due to the nature of the party window.  Names show in 'red' when you have them selected, but maintain showing in red even if you are no longer targeting them because you're attacking a mob.  There is too much emphasis on click precision when using the party window that results in mis-healing when you really need to get pinch heals in.
5. The Party Level system is not very well explained.  It is not intuitive either, so a lot of people don't even know what the point of it is.
6. The Party Settings are only visible to the party leader.  So if you joined someones party you can't tell if they have loot/exp on share or free-for-all or not.
7. HP bars are easily lost on the screen depending on the area.  I think adding a border surrounding the HP/MP bar, giving it screen priority, and using solid colors that makes it stick out would be a great idea.  I've attached a picture.

 

Here is a list of all my suggestions on how to fix this.

1. Allow inviting players to a party from command line similar to what you can do in other games like Ragnarok.  /invite Name
2. Allow inviting players to a party from community windows, such as Guild & Friends lists.  Right-click -> Invite to Party
3. Allow inviting players to a party from the chat window.  Right-click their name in chat -> Invite to Party
4. Show player levels in the Party window.  Highlight the level of the lowest and highest party members so that everyone can see when there is too big of a level gap.
5. Show activity level in the party window for each party member.  If they haven't attacked/healed recently their name could be greyed-out.
6. Make proper 'nameplates' for a party member, and make the whole area clickable not just the name.
7. Add a tooltip for when you hover over the Party Level that explains what the benefits are you are receiving.
8. Make the party settings visible to any party member that opens the Party Settings window.

Edited December 16, 2022 by LoreChief
Added an extra invite location

[Zeror]

Good suggestions. I like it.

[Majestic]

idk if all can be done.... engine and design limitation but pretty good ideas!

[hjvg]

some good suggestions i also find the hp/mp bar above someone`s head is to small and because of that its easy to overlook your party members

you can even party really below your lvl but exp will be turned off then but its hard see if that happens (when there is being fighted at the same time the chat will be gone fast)

also not sure if its true but you can invite a lot of members but i have been told when you got 7 or more in party the exp getting less? why then even allow more then 6 people?

Edited December 16, 2022 by hjvg

[LoreChief]

4 hours ago, hjvg said:

some good suggestions i also find the hp/mp bar above someone`s head is to small and because of that its easy to overlook your party members

you can even party really below your lvl but exp will be turned off then but its hard see if that happens (when there is being fighted at the same time the chat will be gone fast)

also not sure if its true but you can invite a lot of members but i have been told when you got 7 or more in party the exp getting less? why then even allow more then 6 people?

Precisely why I put in the part about letting us invite people from chat line.  You don't even need to click someone to find them and invite if you can just /invite their_name.

[Beedee]

I support this especially on the notion of showing peoples levels. 

I've seen a few instances where people scream and turn incredibly toxic yelling at players that they better be the level they said they were. 

To be fair if said player lied they'd just die or be impossible to keep alive if that was the case. But I think transparency would prevent mistrusting players from turning into toxic players. 

 

[DeathRups]

"8 Make the party settings visible to any party member that opens the Party Settings window."

That one was already avaible in 2006 (iRose) don't know why that is removed from the game.


 

[LoreChief]

I would also like to add to my original quest.

Please give us the option for an opaque/darkened party window background for the player nameplates.  Its so hard to read the HP against bright environments/backgrounds.

[shujin51]

On 12/16/2022 at 9:14 PM, Majestic said:

idk if all can be done.... engine and design limitation but pretty good ideas!

engine shouldnt matter. WoW could do all this and the game is old af. So why cant rose?

[Sneaux]

I love all of your suggestions and I think it'd be great for the QoL of for parties.