Grouping w/ Friends Question

Guys,

I've checked through the guides--I think game development has out-paced the help files and FAQ's! That can be a good thing...

But I do have a question...

As a PL no0b coming from EQ2, it seems that groups are auto-assigned based on who's in-zone. What if I want to group with friends? Do we just have to time our zone-ins?

Can I invite, say, players X, Y & Z to a persistent groups (i.e., lasts across zones)?

Is there a group chat channel (that we can all see, no matter where we are, but others can't)?

Thanks guys, comments are appreciated...

-Gnerffed

Just create a locked game and invite up to 4 friends you want to play with you. You can boot others who join if you don't have room for them. Then you have your own private game to chat, etc.

To elaborate, groups consist of who is in the area with you at the time. If anyone leaves the area, they are no longer in the group.

If you haven't noticed yet, when you have a friend on your friends list you can "join" and "invite" them to a game. If you want them all to join you, make your own game and then invite them all from the friends interface. Now you are all in the same group. When you chat, everyone in the group hears you.

There is no "say" that only people near you see, there is no "shout" because group chat already talks to everyone and no one is in your area except your group. There are tells, but there are no "friend list tells" that I know of. If you want to talk to all your friends, you need to get them all in the same group.