Outfit autojoin and other streamlining tools

[Stardouser]

I rewatched the GDC footage and this time I noticed Higby hit an Autojoin Squad button. So, I was thinking that when a person creates a squad he should have two choices; a simple create squad and a detailed one. The detailed squad create button will of course let the squad leader select several variables, one of which of course is whether or not to accept autojoin squad clicks from nearby players. And the simple create squad button will either create a squad to some standard spec set by the devs, or if you have custom created a squad before, it will let you choose from among preset squad configurations you've made. For people who regularly squad lead, it should even be possible to configure it so that their squad is automatically formed upon logging in.

And now, that all gave me another idea. So, Higby was talking about streamlining the MMO aspects so there isn't a learning curve just to get into a squad. Well, on to the eponymous topic of the thread; I was thinking that when an outfit is created the leader should have the option of creating perhaps a "time profile", ie the active time of day they expect to play on weekdays(weekends I assume are balls to the wall), for example, between 6 PM and 10 PM EST. Players will have this option as well. And outfits can also choose to turn on "accept autojoins", and players will be able to hit "autojoin outfit", and for people who have filled out time profiles it will attempt to match, otherwise it will just assign you to an outfit that needs filling.

I understand that some elite outfits will want to carefully recruit and they should be able to do so. People who just want to get up and running fast should be able to do that too. Why should new players have to sit around /chatting "any outfits recruiting"? Now, I do not know what motivation drives the majority of the people who go around saying "I don't want to have to join an outfit to do well", but I do know that at least some of them just don't want to have to do the MMORPG thing where you have to suck up to a guild. This isn't an MMORPG, every outfit should be at least somewhat serious about playing, whereas in an RPG the elite guilds you have to suck up to are the endgame raiders, usually, and family guilds that just putter around the game will usually just invite you. Anyway, this helps avoid that.

And, outfit text comms. Hopefully there will be voice comms, but as for text comms, I can't say I really like PS1's system of using your mouse to go to the chatbox. I kinda like EQ where you just hit enter and it takes you right to the chat window to where you can type, and it defaults to whatever default channel you specified(/say, /group, /guild, /ooc, whatever). But I don't know if that works here? Enter will no doubt be used on spawn screens and vehicle selection screens, but maybe when you are NOT at one of those screens it can indeed be used to send you to your default chat window? Or, should it be more like a modern shooter and J for global, K for outfit, L for squad?

Anyway, I saw the autojoin squad feature, and I haven't seen anything about autojoining outfits, and I thought that would be a great addition.