Thoughts on Mixing FMO and MMO OverWorld?

Merge them. I love the idea.

 

I personally would like to see FMO work like this so it isn't just a party meet up spot. It would be nice for it to actually dynamically have members of your friends list that are in either FMO or MPO mode show up on your world map and be directly available for grouping (obviously friends in SPO would still be no show). I believe the issue is the tech behind it runs into the problem of what to do when you have your only friend Ristra but she has Spoon and Bulveigh. You've banned Spoon due to irrational phobia of losing dishes and never met Bulveigh. She should see all 3 of you but you only see her.

 

I can think of a few work-around; here's one:

personA (pA)
personB (pB)
personC (pC)
personD (pD)

pA is friends with both pB and pC.
pB is only friends with pA.
pC is friends with both pA and pD.
pD is only friends with pC.

Make a friend list check when entering a new scene. If pA is already in a scene and pB goes to the same scene, if all players are friends (pA and pB = true) then pB joins pA's instance. If pC goes to the same sense, not all players are friends (pB and pC = false) so pC goes into his own instance of the same scene. If pD goes to that same scene, he'll find himself playing with pC.

If both pA and pD decide to leave their respective scenes, both pB and pC are left alone. Next time pA goes into the scene, pA could automatically join the instance with the most players and/or either join pB's or pC's instance randomly (if the amount of players in each instance is even).

Groups would also lock priorities for these scenes. If pA, pB and pC are in the same group, then they can all play together seamlessly. If pA and pB leave the scene, pD wouldn't be able to join pC in the scene because pC is in a group with people that aren't mutual friends with pD. If everyone in the group share the same mutual friends, those friends would also be able to join the group without actually being in the group.

This way, you seamlessly meet your friends out in the world and you can bypass it (or force it to group with someone specific) by grouping.

if (instance.isEmpty == false && (group || friends)) {

JoinInstance();​

} else {

CreateInstance();​

}