Party Finder Hub Area

[IgRA]

I’ve seen suggestions before about pub or cantina area aka bar in DRG, just one problem, I didn’t have a very good image in my head of how it would connect to the Mourningstar layout from them.

Now I got a bit different idea on something like that. I think there is a lack of clarity with the current Party Finder feature, firstly it’s not very clearly shown on operative selection screen, and I guess because it’s a late added feature, unlike other buttons in Mourningstar menu it doesn’t have an in-hub interface way, like Melk, Commissary and Penances do. A bit inconsistent that all other things have some place in actual map and often only from there, but not this (that I know).

My suggestion is that it was a room downstairs, somewhere behind the strategic map (to left where it’s unused?), not far from Dukane. It wouldn’t be loaded as part of main hub, but only when interacting with stair or when using party finder menu, transferring the character when entering any party. An actual waiting room rather than you being stuck in this menu, with more compact HUD of the party members and selected mission when the menu is closed. Other than new ones, the room would use assets we see in cutscenes, in the screens like the pre-havoc version of hangar, as well as this background screen. It would have a door that implies that it leads to hangar (not exactly a lot of realism, but neither is the main hub). I couldn’t think of a name for the room yet, but I guess it’d be in lore something reserved for top performing rejects only. It’s one thing to be dragged into a mission, and another to get something more than mid-flight briefing in terms of preparation, strategizing, and possibly even some encouragement/refreshment, with a decorative bar stand.

If Party Finder had a room, it would be more immersive, but there’s also other bonuses. By physically being close to strategic map, it would be more linked to playerbase that only uses the map to queue, than it only being in the menu. Because it’s a closed room with guards at post, players would equip their loadout inside in 3rd person (can then unequip weapon if you want to emote). The rarely used inspect operative feature could show player’s selected loadout too, making it much more useful to learn builds that others use and have a better idea of what your party is bringing. If you just enter this room from hub, you would see the majority of players in parties or active in this room, similarly to Mourningstar proper, but in the party finder menu there’s an optional flag “only strike team members are visible” to make things less hectic once you already are in a party.

[Murderer]

Sounds horrid, please not another loadscreen

Unless it goes straight into the mission screen and replaces the 60 seconds to deployment screen, but even then I’ll be honest that screen is fine, walking around during it wouldn’t make it a lot more interesting

[IgRA]

Well, it’s a room the size of that spawning room on Mourningstar or so, where it loads players’ weapon models and carry animations. I’ll admit when I had game on old HDD, loading times were a problem, but how bad could this be.

The point is not about just enabling walking. The things in ship hub world couldve all been in a menu, for ease of use, but each is an interactible world object even if you don’t strictly need to interact with each of them for long or in some cases not at all. Party Finder is meant to be a QoL feature, but the experience of it is just not encouraged in a similar way, even though it’s a bigger and unpredictable time commitment, to fill up a lobby than it is to use any stations. It also warrants some quality to it.