TSW Addon Spotlight: Software’s Field Agent Locator

TSW Addon Spotlight is a weekly series about addons in The Secret World. Every week I will examine an addon and discuss what it brings to the game.

Today’s spotlight is the first addon I’m featuring that I don’t plan to use outside of checking it out to write about – a dungeon finder for The Secret World! I’ll admit it. I’m a cranky old dinosaur and prefer old fashioned communication to form my groups – and I don’t consider spamming “Ankh group LF 1 healer, then gtg” to be proper communication. I like getting to know the people I’m grouping with, walking through dungeons and thoroughly exploring them, and generally taking my time rather than grinding them out as quickly as possible. I thought it was great that TSW didn’t have a dungeon finder, but I know I’m in a very small minority. The Secret World dev team is hard at work on their own dungeon finder, but until they finish, Software has just the thing for the ambitious dungeon goer in need of a team.

Click the little button below to read more about Software’s Field Agent Locator.

But I know that a lot of people will find this a welcome release, and for all that I won’t be using it, I do think it’s an amazing creation and well worth looking at. That’s what this is all about after all, finding and examining cool addons. Picking which addon to write about today was actually a difficult decision, marking the second week where I’ve had to sit and seriously think about what to spotlight. I’m terribly excited by this, and am hoping that this dilemma continues to happen! If anything, I hope it gets even harder as time goes on; I want a thriving TSW addon community, with tons of addons for everyone!

The first thing to note is that this isn’t an automated system; you can’t simply enter the queue and wander off to wait expecting to jump into a dungeon once it’s your turn to go. Taking a look at it, this is probably the closest thing to a dungeon finder that I would actually use.  You can see everyone who is looking to do a dungeon, but you still have to talk to them and form a group yourself (or join one). You simply pull up the HUD, select the role you’ll perform, the dungeons you want and the difficulty mode, and presto, you’re in the queue. You can see everyone else who’d like to do a dungeon, and they can all see you.  Most of the right click functions are available right from the HUD – players can be sent a tell, added as friends, or invited to a group right from the queue. It’d be perfect if there was a section for notes, so I could warn everyone I’m a cranky grump.

The sorting filters are pretty robust; search by role, dungeon or mode. And unlike Funcom’s filters, it doesn’t randomly reset – it actually stays filtered! How marvelous! You also need not worry about limited pickings, the Field Agent Locator displays people from all dimensions. From what I’ve been able to see, there’s generally somewhere between 25 – 50 people in the queue at any given moment, which is pretty cool. Every time I’ve taken a look at it, there have been people from all roles – yes, even tanks – as well as people looking for all dungeons at all difficulties. This addon is of course, more useful the more people use it, but even so, this is a pretty solid start! I have yet to look at it and not see a full group sitting hopefully – so if you are using this, don’t sit around and wait to be invited, start your own group and go!

Software has many other features in the works, like being able to view player details, and to check off multiple roles and desired dungeons. One of these days, someone will design an MMO that has no UI; simply make it easily moddable and the community will do all the work. Wouldn’t that be a trip? Thanks Software for this great addon!

Helpful Links:

Software’s Field Agent Locator

Secret UI

Official Interface and Addon Forums

TSW Addon Spotlight – Viper’s Deck Manager

TSW Addon Spotlight – TSWRP

TSW Addon Spotlight – Categorical’s Enhanced TeamGUI