Game Needs a Quick-Join for Multiplayer

[ImAGodDmnDragn]

I love your game, but please PLEASE add some kind of "quick join" option where people can just quickly hop into multiplayer games with random people. One of the only things D3 currently has over this game is how easy it is to play multiplayer. We need some option to quickly join maps or quickly join into someone's story quest if they want to play a multiplayer game.

[The_Driver]

It's called public parties and people can opt into it. Which seems only logical, seeing as entries into maps are limited and ninja-looting can be done. Just imagine someone using up your portals on an uber-elder when you can't reliably kill it without using another portal (be it due to dying or refilling flasks etc).

[+|A.O|+]

it's already there xD

However, you don't get to skip quests.

So, if you have a quest that opens an area, you can party with someone who's completed it but can't go with them. You must complete all quests that open areas that the other guy has already completed..


Makes sense right?

[ImAGodDmnDragn]

You can look at public parties, but it doesn't seem like people often start them. There's no way, like in Diablo, to jump into a game with people of your same level. And yes, it probably couldn't work for maps because of how portals function.

[The_Driver]

Originally posted by ImAGodDmnDragn:

You can look at public parties, but it doesn't seem like people often start them.

I already gave some possible explanations for it, the whole game mechanics like loot, entrance portals don't really allow for it.

Originally posted by ImAGodDmnDragn:

YThere's no way, like in Diablo, to jump into a game with people of your same level.

Because you don't need the concept of "a game" when everything is instanced, you just hop into other peoples instances. And if you need new zones, you recreate those, not the whole game. D3 is much worse in that regard from a technical point of view.

Originally posted by ImAGodDmnDragn:

There's no way, like in Diablo, to jump into a game with people of your same level.

Although we got downscaling recently, so you may as well be same-ish level. Of course it doesn't really matter beyond a certain point, but D3 also doesn't care too much and matches lvl 200s with lvl 50s. Plus the public parties are respecting the act brackets (or is it level brackets) so the respective levels are approximately met.

[ImAGodDmnDragn]

I just know the multiplayer experience in D3 is much better in terms of joining random groups. And it's a shame as POE has a lot of potential for multiplayer because of how builds can play off each other. Right now I only play with friends and enjoy it, but I know a lot of the D3 people jumping ship might be turned off by how POE's multiplayer works. Sometimes you just want to quickly jump into a game with other people of the same level and that's not always an option.

[Grumpy]

Originally posted by ImAGodDmnDragn:

I just know the multiplayer experience in D3 is much better in terms of joining random groups. And it's a shame as POE has a lot of potential for multiplayer because of how builds can play off each other. Right now I only play with friends and enjoy it, but I know a lot of the D3 people jumping ship might be turned off by how POE's multiplayer works. Sometimes you just want to quickly jump into a game with other people of the same level and that's not always an option.

D3 has no entry system for rifts, has personal loot and is designed fundamentaly around the aspect of jumping in and out. PoE is with exceptions mostly played solo, has shared loot and your idea would especially in the endgame cause more harm than it would be good, like explained above.

If people get turned off because of such a marginal point, then so be it.

[The_Driver]

Originally posted by ImAGodDmnDragn:

I just know the multiplayer experience in D3 is much better in terms of joining random groups.

D3:
Quit your own game (costs 10s if not in town or the time it takes to port to town), set to public matchmaking (if not kept from previous attempt), join new game, teleport to party or do your own act of bounties; probably takes like 30s, as new game session starting takes quite a while
PoE:
Use social menu to find group, join, teleport to player, takes maybe 15s if you have a long load time

Although yes, actually finding the group is a bit more complex as you have more options in PoE, in D3 you have like {Rifts, GRifts, Adventure, Keys} IIRC, in PoE you have 160ish maps (although their tiers are variable), the campaign, lab, delve, and so on.

But maybe you're not interested in doing map x because that doesn't drop good divination cards, or you don't want to unlock it on your atlas because it would f up your future map drops (unless undone via costly vendor recepy)... random matchmaking is not really a good thing in PoE, unless it'd get a major overhaul. And things like choosing if you want progress to be kept or not just makes the UI mess that PoE already is messier.

[ImAGodDmnDragn]

I'm not sure what it would look like. You make good points about map problems (especially with the atlas). Which is why a lot of people end up just doing single-player. I guess there might not be a good way to incorporate easy multiplayer into Path of Exile. It's just a shame because of how much fun multiplayer is in the game.

[The_Driver]

Originally posted by ImAGodDmnDragn:

I guess there might not be a good way to incorporate easy multiplayer into Path of Exile.

At least not for the usual and currently existing content.

There could be some things like endless ledge, boss attack or so, where most of those problems wouldn't necessarily exist, because those "modes" or parts (I'm separating between that because it may be played with different characters or with your main characters etc) could be designed accordingly.

Although naturally, forcing multiplayer (be it a hard requirement or soft (by better/more drops, being easier or so)) for subsets of the game might not suit the audience.

[Grumpy]

multiplayer in PoE is only fun if you play with friends. in most random groups you have people which are not able to play multiplayer properly because they clear alone the map before you even could load into the map, having atrocius map clearing strategies, or you getting a full party with a lot of people with fcked up builds which do no dmg and just eat the portals.

[ImAGodDmnDragn]

While I'd agree that playing with friends is more fun than playing with strangers, I think there's a joy to seeing new and unique builds in action that you may not normally be exposed to. It's also a good way to make new friends. =) Also, and I know this belongs in another thread, but when are they going to do something with guilds?! XD

[Mozgus]

Beat the story today and this is the biggest flaw with this game and will likely make me quit. I do not have time to seek out dozens of friends and maintain social standards with them all, and sit in their hideouts for hours on end in prep for runs. I just want to play the damn game with people outside of my real job in real life. It shouldn't be a hard fix. All I know is the public party boards in all the cities are empty 95% of the time I check. This multiplayer system is definitely busted as it is.

[ImAGodDmnDragn]

Yep, I agree with you. This is still a big problem that they don't have a good way of addressing.