Forced grouping?

Uberman

Let me apologize in advance.  I'm sure this has been covered (probably numerous times) before.

Am I understanding the MMORPG.com interview correctly?  Is TR going to have forced grouping?

Gamer5389

I'm not exactly sure what you mean but I have not heard anything about not being able to choose your party members.

Uberman

No, what I meant was, is there no solo design to the game (like Guild Wars)?  The reason I ask is because of this quote from the E3 2006 Preview:

"Tabula Rasa turns this concept on its ear by introducing a world where all players must cooperate to fight off a single NPC enemy."

_Shadowmage

Yes - everyone fights a common enemy the bane. There will be NPC's fighting alongside players on the battlefield.

I have read some articles that say you can do missions (which are instanced) solo or grouped. I would expect a group would have a much higher success rate than solo as solo you would either be a combat or a support class.

The main battlefields are not instanced and I havent read anything that says you have to be in a group to play on the battlefield.

Uberman

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Originally posted by _Shadowmage

Yes - everyone fights a common enemy the bane...

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Ah, ok, it occurs to me that I might have misinterpreted the quotation then.  Thanks.  

neuronomad

I have been trying to keep up with TR but haven't seen anything that said you couldn't solo most of the game only that it wouldn't be nearly as fun to solo.

KhanUK

I think the game will be like a lot of other MMO's out there (well... in grouping terms ) and have spaces where groups are and are not required. From what I've read groups will be in sizes of 6 and hopefully this will still be true in end game (I'm not a big fan of 20 or 40 man raids).

KhanUK
www.planettr.com
Tabula Rasa Fansite

neuronomad

I love 5-10 man groupings, but I agree with you anything much over that is just too much.   40 man raids are just too many people to have to contend with.

Unknown

I am uncertain as to what exactly they meant by that statement but when  I read about it before I was sort of getting the impression that they wanted thing happening in one portion of a zone to potentially affect other portions.

So that if group A is clearing landing zone 1 then maybe solo guy B will have less mobs coming towards him or something like that.  And therefore coordination across a zone in a sort of miltary style engagement can mutually benefit everyone.

Rugster

Would be nice to see a kinda force grouping, esp is something big turns up and everyone opens up on it, you should all get forced into one group so to share any xp/loot/rewards and also to allow you to see hp damage etc on anyone affected, once the fight is over, you could just leave the group or continue onwards.

But i expect this will never occur...perhaps instead, when you want to complete a mission you accept it and find yourself recieving a msg "5 mins to liftoff" then 5 mins later get teleported/zoned into a room with anyone else that's also on a mission of similar type, all in 1 group.. you can then decide wether to work together or solo, which is exactly what occurs in most groups anyway...

I'm sure everyone here has experienced groups where people in them spend more time looking after themselves than anyone else.

anarchyart

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Originally posted by Gamer5389
I'm not exactly sure what you mean but I have not heard anything about not being able to choose your party members.

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LOL

I'm so sick of people whining that they can't solo the whole freaking MMORPG. Why even play an MMORPG? Just play Oblivion and leave MSN running.

Anofalye

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Originally posted by neuronomad
I love 5-10 man groupings, but I agree with you anything much over that is just too much.   40 man raids are just too many people to have to contend with.

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10 is too many IMO.  8 is already stretching it much, 10 is definitedly too many players.  Personnally I find the 3-6 group ideal...I can live with up to 8...but 10?  That is too many IMO.

 

3 to 6 is great, as you remember easily who was in the group and who wasn't, everyone is important.  Some of my friends find 6 to already be stretching it, I doesn't...but to each their taste...8 however is definitedly stretching it for me.  In a group of 6, nobody really has to go low profile, but if a few want, they can...at 8, some players have to be low profile, weither they like it or not.

_Shadowmage

I think 8 is a great team size - it provides more tactical flexibility as you can split it into 2 - 4 person teams.

In addition it means you can have extra support classes - especially healers so if one healer dies the whole team doesnt crumble.

Lets face it - its a war so you are going to want more grunts (soldiers, commandos) than other classes because at the end of the day we need to kill the bane. But I would think a 2 or 3 to 1 ratio would be good. So in a team of 8 I would probably want 5 grunts (thinking 3 soldiers, 2 commandos) a couple of medics and a sapper.

In a team of ten you could add another grunt (or recruit) and another support class.

More than 10 becomes too hard to communicate and control.

I will be interested to see how this game plays at the start when you are all recruits. Not sure how a team of 6 or 8 or 10 recruits will go. Maybe we need to mix it up with some higher level classes taking recruits out on training missions.

fhtagn

I hope its like CoH. You can generally solo, but occasionally you will come across something (not required) like a giant monster, and will ahve to fight it off.

_Shadowmage

Well they have a big battlefield where i guess you can run around solo and there will be NPC's on the battlefield as well.

However I expect soloing a mission will be pretty tough. Eg an escort mission where you have to escort a group with supplies across the battlefield. Or infiltrating a Bane research facility.