We really need someway to distinguise NM players to HM players!

Whether it be adding a tiny red icon above players heads, or whether they add a red helmet icon above players heads.

We need a quick and easy way to see who is set to HM in outposts!

Its hard enough to find HM pugs, but when you invite or join the wrong teams. It doesnt help! Its so frustrating having people invite you after you have posted "LFG HM" and the party is doing NM. Its even more frustrating when you post "3/8 HM" and a NM player asks to join!

It gets even worse when a NM player asks "what is HM"?

And its absolutely boils my blood, when your half way through a HM mission and someone says "Can we not just do Normal Mode, its far easier?"!

I had that happen in Gyala Hatchery last week. Just because we had died a few times, the ranger turns to me and says "Fish, can we not do NM instead?"

You feel like slapping them. I just said to the guy "I clearly stated I was HM when advertising for players. We're doing HM because we need it"!

And then he left the mission!

Anet please.... we need someway to make it more obvious what mode we're doing to avoid such moronic situations as that.

yea, that would be great. hell what would be better is a HM chat channel. only players who can do HM can use it and it can be disabled if needed, this of course might be abused in LA, Kamidan, and Keinege for selling but everywhere else it would be a boon. cause then you know who your advertising to is able to do HM.

but the op is good too.

Red helmet icon above player's heads = win. Perfectly sound idea.

Or everyone could finally start to use the Party Search feature that's been gathering dust ever since its introduction...

Problem I have with Party Search, even setting aside that it would be far more useful globally implemented, is that it doesnt even remember what you type in it when you move. For example, I type "Monk LFG HM" in there. I then stay for a while in that location and I might also ask on channel. No groups there so I move to another location and what happens? I have to re-type "Monk LFG HM" in Party Search. How useful is that? Might as well stick to asking on channel.

I agree though, Party Search has potential. I just have no idea why they havent done minimal things to improve on it, since its lack of use ought to tell them that... its lacking.

I would like to see a way to differentiate HM players in a location from NM players. I'd like to see a way for party invites and join requests to let us know what mode someone is set at. I had a topic some time back here that asked for the same thing and have no idea where it is now, so:

/signed

/signed

Excellent idea! I agree with tenshi, as well, a local channel for hard mode is a good idea.

Give us a red NM and HM above our heads

/signed
Didn't read anything but the first sentence, maybe I post this I'll read the rest.
I don't do HM ever, but yeah... still it'll be nice,

It was probably mine, about putting message boxes up telling you if a group is in HM! I also made a similar post to this one a while ago, but it vanished!

But i feel its someone we really do need, and it would remove alot of frustration and make forming parties alot easier.

I also agree the party search feature exists and it should be used! I use it myself. I post for groups in outposts, but you never get responces.

It annoys me even more when you enter an outposts, with dozens of people in it. But no one is posting in the local chat, no one is making any effort to form parties or speak. Its like they expect some magic fairy to apear and magically put them all together without any effort.

Then even when you do advertise for a group, most people seem to be asleep!

In addition to replacing the current icon signifying the number of people in the group with a helmet plus the number, perhaps when a person is invited, if the group is an HM group, there should be a symbol in the "invite" box so the person can see if the group is HM or NM.

We already have something though - when selecting either HM or NM above the party box as soon as someone joins who doesn't have HM, it reverts the whole party back to NM - so although it is a little annoying, at least there's a way of knowing if someone doesn't have HM when they join the party.

Put the helmet next to their health bar ,when you click on them.
No need to put more clutter on the screen and this way we don't have to ask for a on/off button. ( BTW this of course only in towns)

Thats actually not that great a solution! You dont always know which person can or cant do HM in the team.

Say you have a 4 man team, and you invite another 4 man team! The icon suddenly changes to NM! Who cant do HM?

You just dont know! There is absolutely nothing to indicate it.

And because people are just so utterly useless, they either 1) wont admit they cant do HM or 2) dont even know what HM is!

The problem then is, you break up that second 4 man team by kicking them all! So not only has your team had its time wasted, but you have always destroyed another party!

We need...

1) clear indication of who is set to HM.
2) messages to send to people who try to join teams they cant.

The issue with that idea, is you have to click on a person names to see who is doing HM. Imagine there are dozens of players in a town, you dont want to select them all one-by-one to find who is doing HM.

What you want is to enter an outpost or town, and be able to see instantly who is doing HM, or is set to HM.

Concidering that (I assume) about 10-15% of the population are actually doing HM, it wouldnt make the screen that cluttered!

Before clicking the + to add the person to your party , don't you ask them if they want to do HM at that town?

I'm pretty sure, you either ask the person ,before blind inviting them.
Or the person is saying in local that they are looking for a group to do HM at that town.

My point with this post is , you click on the person before adding them anyways,so why not?

For players set to Hard Mode without any other people in their party, have a red icon, instead of the blue one, above their head.
For a party set to Normal Mode trying to join a Hard Mode party/player, there should appear a message you can't merge/add unless you set mode to Hard Mode.
Same for a Hard Mode party/player trying to merge/add with a Normal Mode party/player.

Hard mode districts IMO. Makes it so you don't clutter the town with little icons and can still know who's doing what.

4 words:
Use party search feature.

You are asking for something that already exists. If you don't want to use it, you can't complain.

I actually do use it all the time, and I think once someone accepted me through it. Once out of the dozens of times I have turned it on.

I enter a town, post "Nuker lfg hard mode", click search on the party search and spend 10 minutes waiting. Then I move onto the next distract and do the same thing.

9/10 times I find NO one and no one finds me!

In an ideal situation you would have the choice to be picky. In an ideal situation we would have Hard Mode players swinging from the trees and crawling out of holes and flying all over the place.

The reality is that HM players are a very small minority of GWs.

We dont have the luxary to just walk into an outpost and casually pick and choose who to take. We dont have the choice to think "hmmm I dont like the looks of that player, Ill take someone else.".

You have to take which-ever Hard Mode players you can find.

And the point is that hardly any exist and only about 1% of players in an outpost are HM while the rest are NM.

This is why your idea is just a nuisance with how the system is at the minute. To have to click on a persons name to see whether their doing HM takes time. We need clear, distinctive icons or symbols to show who is HM and who isnt.

You need to know whether 1 in 10 people infront of you are HM or not.

You need to know instantly if someone is doing HM the second they enter a town.

If your in a very busy location, with people entering and leaving all the time, you havent got time to click on everyones name when only about 1% of them are HM.

Yes its not ideal to just invite any everyone and anyone you can. And in an ideal world we would have a choice about who to take. But the reality is that HM players are like gold dust!

Anet added two modes of play, so we need some way to instantly and easily distinguise who is doing which mode.

If these icons or symbols existed, then we would have the choice to pick and choose who we wanted! Then you could be selective because you would know who is HM and who isnt.

But having to select every player to see who is HM and who isnt, is far too time consuming and it just isnt user friendly.

/signed

hard to get a group for HM. Nice idea Fish

~the rat~