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Players gain more XP from Grouping together
ThomasN7
87.18.7.148Member CommonPosts: 6,690
So much for people's theory that this is a single player game.
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This is the way it should be done. Don't force people to group who don't want to and make it worth your while if you do like grouping. A win/win far as I'm concerned.
But I'm sure there will be someone along shortly to say that this doesn't go far enough.....
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
It's not a theory it's pretty much a fact.
In FACT that little post right there pretty much shows that they are following the WoW system (another single player mmo) of partying. In that system every other person with you adds an party bonus of ( for example) 25 extra point before it's devided.
By the way, they need to reign in their folks if they dont want people to think this is a single player game because according to this dude in this interview for X-play..... this is a single player game. This is going to be WoW in space with lightsabers.
http://g4tv.com/videos/44832/Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Hands-On-Preview/
MMEEEEEHHHHH!!!
Tabula Rasa had a great system for giving out xp (not sure if they changed it in release). Basically you got bonuses depending on how many mobs you killed in a row. It also seemed to stack on top of people who were killing in your area. I think you had to help kill it, though. So basically you would stop and help people since you knew you'd get a chunk of xp. No need to group, but didn't feel quite solo either.
Of course, this was in beta and a long time ago, so I could be completely mental.
Those of us that want legitimate, accurate info on the game use Darth Hater.
http://darthhater.com/
Not third party sites that are known for being lazy when it comes to reporting on this industry, such as G4TV or X-Play.
If you honestly think this game is going to be little more than a single player game with an online component then you are sorely mistaken and I look forward to seeing people with this jaded viewpoint eat there words come launch.
Want some real info on the game, from people who have actually played it? Check out these podcasts:
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/15/gdc-trooper-hands-on-tor-game-play-impressions/#comments
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/19/darth-hater-episode-26-live-qa/
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/21/damion-schubert-on-balancing-xp/#comments
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/24/darth-hater-episode-27-gdc-week/
Makes sense and is a good bonus to group. I really don't understand why more mmorpgs don't have these types of systems in place. So many games "punish" you for grouping. Yes you can always take on harder content in a group, but the xp rewards shouldn't die with that grouping.
Asheron's Call 1 had something similar, where each additional person gave a bonus to XPs, up to a certain point. I remember tossing together rag-tag groups in the Lugian Citadel just for xp bonuses.
Bonus XP for grouping never works out because it takes time to get a good group, so people will still rather solo. I remember the old days when you'd run up to abit of content and people would invite you to group with them and PUG up. Now you don't even get that because all the content is soloable....
So the lead writer of this game, Daniel Erickson, is lying in this interview about being able to play the whole game alone except for dungeons?
MMEEEEEHHHHH!!!
Yeah, honestly, if the content is designed as solo content then even if you go to the trouble to put a group together it's going to being boring as hell. Because you'll be 4 or 5 (or whatever the group size is) killing stuff that can be killed by one person. How could that be interesting?
Plus, a big component of the game is going to be running through instanced "story" missions which always, always, always turns into what I think of as the "mad dash" mentality. Which means you don't talk, don't stop, don't look around or otherwise enjoy the experience...you just run through it helter-skelter as fast as possible and then it's "k thx bye", and you only get the "k thx bye" if you happen to be grouped with an abnormally sociable person.
You really can't have it both ways. A game is either designed primarly for grouping or soloing. A good grouping game can have soloing but not in a way that will make soloers happy and a good solo game can have grouping but not in a way that will make groupers happy.
So stop crying about it and start a group. Everyone complains but no one acts. "There aren't any PUGs anymore because everyone's soloing!" In the real world, you usually can't go up to strangers and invite them on your epic quest. You turn first to friends and family members. Guess what? It's the same thing in an MMO. Why would I group up with you, someone I don't know at all, when I could group with my friends or guildmates? Now if I didn't have any friends or guildmates, I'd be more than happy to join and meet a new person, sure. But that's just how society works these days.
I'll be in a zone minding my own business when someone gets the guts to say, "Starting group for , yes I know it's soloable but it'll be faster and better exp if we group." Usually, unless I'm grumpy or something, I'll join and make it easier on myself. The truly anti-social or lazy will probably ignore the obvious benefits, but that's their problem. Even if you only manage to get one other person, it's better, especially if they'll increase exp bonuses in groups.
Though I agree with Neanderthal above to an extent. It's hard to have it both ways, but, ignoring the fact that someone will always complain about something, you can come pretty close. Hopefully, BioWare will come pretty close. To everyone that's complaining about this, would you rather BioWare do nothing to encourage grouping and instead force it on people at max level (through raids and such) like WoW?
Ktanner totally called it.
Not once did he say the game would be a single player game, he didn't say anything close to this. A single player game doesn't give you options in how you would like to play. In a SP game you're not offered the option of playing with friends and you have no ability to do so. This is clearly an MMO that is doing nothing much out of the ordinary in terms of grouping compared to older MMOs. Most MMOs prior to WoW didn't require you to group either.
What he did say is you could level solo while missing content. So not only does grouping have the benefit of experience it also has the benefit of seeing all the content. It's a fact that SWTOR is an MMO, you're chosing not to accept this. I believe you are someone who wishes SWTOR to fail and not succeed. Just out of curiousity what MMO did you play. And why is forcing everybody to group such a good thing? Is it a tool you need to actually find groups? I could understand, you don't seem like the person I would bring along in a group.
That is a horrible excuse against bonus xp and isn't even acceptable as a coherent argument. How does the idea of gaining more xp with a group (no matter the size) sway people from having further interest in grouping? Most people grouped in older MMOs because it was a social activity to do. That plus being given further benefits (better equipment aside) would do nothing but encourage grouping, encouragement is a far better tool then let's say being forced to group with no benefit both financially and for players. It doesn't take much time to form a group in most games I have played to have released in the last 5 years and many of the times I'm asked to group by complete strangers for quests, group content and PvP.
I'm beginning to believe some of you don't like the idea of having to LOOK for a group. I've also seen your name in the vet forums for SWG, Varny. You do realize SWG was almost completely soloable? It was a buff centric game, this made almost everything soloable except for a small bit of content. I recall soloing Krayt Dragons as a TKM, it took time but hardly any effort. Or basically two maning a large portion of DWB or clearing some of it solo. There was hardly a reason to group. I would dare say SWG is more group based now then it was pre-nge. People will group, giving group players tasty aditions like xp bonus, better loot and other things will entice solo players. You won't get every solo player, but that's their calls. Not yours or anybody elses. Deal with it.
First of all, the fact that you actually said that most MMOs before WOW didnt require grouping shows that you know nothing of old MMOs so i am not going to waste my time answering all those MMO question you are asking.
Second, Of course this game ISNT a single player game it's an MMO, that's not the discussion. The discussion is in it's play style, and the fact that you can complete most of the game alone makes this MMO play LIKE a single player game. And THIS cannot be denied.
MMEEEEEHHHHH!!!
Many will groan if I apply experience from Cryptic's games to TOR, but I think it is valid to say that if an MMO does not substantially force people to group, then they won't do it. The little tidbits I have heard about TOR's plans for group play, including this one, sound too much like Champions, it won't work. They need to reconsider forcing people to play in groups from the mid-game onwards, or it will be a solo-fest.
People like to be independent, that's just the way it is. Playing with friends is always fun, but when it comes to getting strangers to work together, it is like asking for help on a job you could do yourself.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
Those of us that want legitimate, accurate info on the game use Darth Hater.
http://darthhater.com/
Not third party sites that are known for being lazy when it comes to reporting on this industry, such as G4TV or X-Play.
If you honestly think this game is going to be little more than a single player game with an online component then you are sorely mistaken and I look forward to seeing people with this jaded viewpoint eat there words come launch.
Want some real info on the game, from people who have actually played it? Check out these podcasts:
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/15/gdc-trooper-hands-on-tor-game-play-impressions/#comments
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/19/darth-hater-episode-26-live-qa/
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/21/damion-schubert-on-balancing-xp/#comments
http://darthhater.com/2010/03/24/darth-hater-episode-27-gdc-week/
So the lead writer of this game, Daniel Erickson, is lying in this interview about being able to play the whole game alone except for dungeons?
Soloability doesn't equal single player. The sooner you realize that the sooner you may have an opinion worth expressing.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
Yes, it does.
When you can play the whole game alone except for a few ares the game is pretty much a single player game.
And that is not main the problem to worry about, the problem is the fact tha this turns the game into a tremendously easy game that you can fly through.
MMEEEEEHHHHH!!!
So since it's a game, why in the world would people want forced grouping?
You said it yourself, people would rather progress at thier own pace and group when it's convienient. Forcing people to group only makes them dislike the game. As a form of entertainment with an every growing list of competiton, developers would be stupid to go againt the wishes of the majority to quell a small population with some old school notions.
I've been playing VG lately, and it has plenty of questlines and dungeons that no solo person could ever even begin. I'm trying to get the armor from VT, and no solo person could even get in the door. So the game is not solo-able, at all, in that respect.
But, do I *have* to do that quest, get that armor? No.
That is what I hope for this game, you don't actually have to group, unless you want the best stuff and want to experience the whole game.
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
I doubt most people really want a game that has forced grouping, but I think most would love a game that offered both fun and challenging solo content as well as fun and challenging group content that offered comparable rates of progression. From reading the OPs link, it appears they want the game to be less challenging for groups with a comparable rate of progression. Im all for soloers and groupers being able to level up at the same rate, thats a huge plus for both sides. Im really against the game becoming easier just because I have friends and enjoy grouping more than soloing. They really need to have seperate group content and solo content (and large scale raiding!) or the group content will just be boring.
You do realize that you can do that in WoW too, right? I never realized that WoW wasn't an mmo but a single player game cleverly disguised as an mmo.
I want MMOs to go back to their original mold.
This will just cut down on the tremendous amounts of moron that get on these games just to screw around. This have people that LEARN how to actually play or else they dont get to play.
MMEEEEEHHHHH!!!
So you want MMOs to return to being crap.
Check.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
Agreed morons get out of our genre and go back to counterstrike stuff like that!
Don't know but ToR hasn't shown any groupcontent at all so if its heavily solo based then it will fail, because obviously there are tons of crap games like that.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
Old MMO's may be crap to you but im sure you've heard the saying, "One mans trash is another mans treasure." I enjoy the old mmo's because they seem to be more about the adventure to max level not the race to max level.
One thing that always made me laugh about people bitching about "Forced Grouping" , some people seem to bitch about it when they are leveling. But if you think about WoW or most any other games End Game what is it?. Well slap my ass and call me Sally its forced grouping. What do you do in WoW's endgame, you're forced to group up and either Raid or PvP. You can't solo those dungeons to get better gear can ya now? So WTF is the difference if you're forced to group up to level up your character? People never cease to amaze me.