Stories that focus on the individual should never require parties.

Just to give a wonderful, live, working example of what most casuals are getting at:

Last night, I went to acquire an Inferno Lamp for Ifrit access. Now, if you remember, you have two methods of acquiring this.

Option one: get the item from the NM, Flamefist Ahlygg Roh
Option two: get 5 inferno tapers from lesser Amalj'aa

Now, being that I was solo, I ran out to the stronghold west of Broken Water. For about 30 min, I soloed lesser Amalj'aa and got 6 tapers. Another set of players ran up and they offered me a pt. Before I logged, I pted with them for about 30min. In that time, I got another 12 tapers. By pting, I doubled my rate of gain. Unfortunately, I had to log before we attempted the NM.

So what is my point? I was able to progress as a solo player. However, grouping up sped up the rate of progress. And the best part? It did not require a full group or a specific party setup.

Another great example is the acquisition of company seals. There are solo methods, small party methods, and full group methods. The best and most efficient way to farm these is in a group - but you can in fact make slow, steady progress as as solo player.

Casuals aren't crying to make the entire game solo (far from, it in fact). I think most other players confuse this and get extremely hostile/antagonistic. Casuals just want more engaging content to do. Hamlet could have served this purpose... but SE missed the boat on that one. SE didn't have to make Relic Weapons dependent on full-party content. They could've went with other designs that placed just as much emphasis on time investment, yet still be accessible (like my inferno taper experience).

1.0 isn't very friendly to casuals or players who are late to the game - this much is true. 2.0 doesn't have to be and shouldn't be (Yoshi seems to understand this based on recent information).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by giolli

Just to give a wonderful, live, working example of what most casuals are getting at:

Last night, I went to acquire an Inferno Lamp for Ifrit access. Now, if you remember, you have two methods of acquiring this.

Option one: get the item from the NM, Flamefist Ahlygg Roh
Option two: get 5 inferno tapers from lesser Amalj'aa

Now, being that I was solo, I ran out to the stronghold west of Broken Water. For about 30 min, I soloed lesser Amalj'aa and got 6 tapers. Another set of players ran up and they offered me a pt. Before I logged, I pted with them for about 30min. In that time, I got another 12 tapers. By pting, I doubled my rate of gain. Unfortunately, I had to log before we attempted the NM.

So what is my point? I was able to progress as a solo player. However, grouping up sped up the rate of progress. And the best part? It did not require a full group or a specific party setup.

Another great example is the acquisition of company seals. There are solo methods, small party methods, and full group methods. The best and most efficient way to farm these is in a group - but you can in fact make slow, steady progress as as solo player.

Casuals aren't crying to make the entire game solo (far from, it in fact). I think most other players confuse this and get extremely hostile/antagonistic. Casuals just want more engaging content to do. Hamlet could have served this purpose... but SE missed the boat on that one. SE didn't have to make Relic Weapons dependent on full-party content. They could've went with other designs that placed just as much emphasis on time investment, yet still be accessible (like my inferno taper experience).

1.0 isn't very friendly to casuals or players who are late to the game - this much is true. 2.0 doesn't have to be and shouldn't be (Yoshi seems to understand this based on recent information).

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This!!!!

This is exactly how I feel about solo and group content.
As a casual I sometimes feel as if other players see me as a pestilence to kill the game but guess what, "we" don't intend to kill a game, nor to get the ultimate items, achievements etc. served on a silver plate, at least as far as I can speak for myself.
And no, I don't want to play an offline game because there is something that online titles have that offline ones don't: They are an open ongoing world and I do enjoy the company of others. I love chatting, I love seeing others around, in the towns, on the fields. It makes the game alive and not as if I'm caught in a virtual box with no connections to the "outer world" that is doomed to "end" in a couple of hours.
However for a casual it is just not always possible to depend on a party. I see it from myself: I only did 5 primal fights against ifrit ever because I do have a lot to do in real life and have short time at hand (and this is something many many encounter: So only because we have to work a lot or have to manage many things irl we are not allowed to have fun here?
Can we not be caught by the story, the graphics and the magic of a game only because we have not this much time? It's a bit like looking through a shop window but being forbidden to enter. Like I said, I don't want everything on a silver plate but I want to be at least a legitimate part of this virtual world).
I am NOT saying that Primals should be soloable however this is an example of how little I can actually do as a casual.
Except for doing guild leves (that are not really the core of the game) I can't do much that is challenging. I love group play but it is not possible for me all the time if it takes 1h to gather a group and my daily play time only contains 1h...
I want at least to be able to do the core, the main story solo if I have to. Why not mixing both options like Giolli said (also for the main story):
Solos can do it but have slower progress or simpler modes with less rewards (totally fine with that!!!) while groups have (much) faster/ more efficient progress.

It can't be that the options to play a game are "not at all" or "sell all your days to it". There must be an in-between somewhere and the way giolli described it is something that I really wish for and that will hopefully be enhanced so that hardcore gamers can make the maximum out of the game but casuals can have a great time, too. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Goufunaki

As for the GC missions at least, don't design the fights to be so party heavy.

This game isn't exactly booming with people on the same quest as you yet, or those willing to repeat them again for nothing. Too late to change that now, I know. But if I had a plot that wasn't going to be around for long, I'd want everyone currently playing to have a fair chance at experincing it.

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So the people that enjoys challenging fight will not get it just because you want to read the story which is accessible from other sources? You can read story elsewhere, but you cant experience a challenging fight only by watching.

I suppose i agree they need to add more incentives so people would help, but no to dumbing down.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chardrizard

So the people that enjoys challenging fight will not get it just because you want to read the story which is accessible from other sources? You can read story elsewhere, but you cant experience a challenging fight only by watching.

I suppose i agree they need to add more incentives so people would help, but no to dumbing down.

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Either challenging for a full party, or stupidly easy for one person, we're all going lose those GC fights come 2.0 anyway. No sense wanting to keep that at full 8 man lv50+ difficulty if you're only going to do it once or twice, however, when the real reward is seeing what happens next. I could watch youtube vids, but I'd rather progress myself.

Besides, you have other means of challenges as well with primals, hamlets, special level 50 leves, cutters cry, aurum vale. And these are things that are repeatable after you finish those with a chance of earning better/multiple rewards. Can only repeat story fights if you're with somebody that still needs it.

I'll never understand why there are so many people that want significant content to be single-player in a massively-multiplayer online RPG. :I

Keep in mind, the "O" stands for "online", not "only".

:)

Another note:

While 1.0 has its design flaws... the community is equally at fault. Note, what I'm about to say tends to happen with most MMOs - so its vital that players find the best LS "fit".

A couple months ago, I was fortunate to find a very welcoming LS. Everyone was nice and helpful for the most part. However, a bulk of its members were playing at least 6-8 maybe even up to 10-12 hours a day. Because of this, a bulk of the players tended to gravitate towards each other - no different than a clique really.

In one instance, the whole LS was off helping some members complete some quests. Another member who recently logged in asked for assistance. I had nothing better to do and offered to help only to have him dismiss my offer completely. "Oh, I'll just wait for so-and-so and so-and-so to finish up. Thanks anyways!"

I felt kind of shafted because he would rather wait for one of the other players to help him. I understood he'd rather play with someone he knew better - but I was trying to be helpful, trying to be social and going out of my way to be a part of this new LS. I had even organized a few raid groups that helped members complete all sorts of quests - so I was "trying".

Eventually, I had to take a break due to some demanding work projects. I let the LS know I would be MIA for a few weeks. To my surprise, I had been kicked from the LS when I came back. Not so much as an email or a message saying why I was kicked. Talk about a kick in the face!

So yes, the community is just as responsible for making or breaking the game.

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Originally Posted by giolli

If anything, you have three pillars of content...

Top Tier - These are your full party raids and instances. These off the most lucrative rewards. Currently this includes, Ifrit, Moogle, Garuda, AV, CC, Hamlet, Darkhold, Company, AF and Relic Weapons.

Middle Tier - This is content that will at least require light party to complete. The rewards will won't be a awesome as Top Tier, but they'll still be worth completing for many players. Currently this includes most NMs, Dzemael, strongholds.

Bottom Tier - This is solo content or content that may require an additional player. It is the most accessible and rewards are "sufficient". Currently this includes seal farming, gil farming, levequests.

Yoshi talks about his 3 pillars that make it an MMO and that you need it balanced in order for it to stand. The content that makes up a MMO is no different... you need a balance of Bottom, Middle and Top Tier content. Too much on the bottom, and the game won't be of interest to anyone (not even casuals!). Too much on Top, and you really alienate casuals (your biggest audience!).

Currently the game is very top heavy. Even middle tier content is relegated to seal farming (Darkhold) and completionists (NM achievements and items). Even Hamlet requires a full group - which is unacceptable imo. Something like that should be scalable.

Progress through your company should open up Top Tier content as it currently does. However, to continue through the rest of the soloable quests, you should not have to complete any of the raids or instances. I am actually okay with AF having a dependency on Top Tier content. I am actually okay with Relic Weapons having a dependency on Top Tier content but right now its just too painful in its current implementation.

Some people just want to play the game (could care less about the shiny rewards). In its current state, its just to painful to experience a bulk of the game. Hopefully this will all change with 2.0.

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Couldn't agree more. I've only been playing for about 2 months and my progress for my GC has halted entirely because I cannot find a group for "It Kills With Fire (Limsa Lominsa)". My LS is pretty small and we rarely have more than 3 people on at the same time. Sitting around ANYWHERE waiting for a group just so I can make progress is incredibly frustrating. I wouldn't mind it if I had to go level up to finish it alone, but it requires 4 people just to finish it. The game absolutely needs some balance when it comes to low level content vs high level content, especially in a game they are trying to attract new players to.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by UmJammerSully

I'll never understand why there are so many people that want significant content to be single-player in a massively-multiplayer online RPG. :I

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loggos

And no, I don't want to play an offline game because there is something that online titles have that offline ones don't: They are an open ongoing world and I do enjoy the company of others. I love chatting, I love seeing others around, in the towns, on the fields. It makes the game alive and not as if I'm caught in a virtual box with no connections to the "outer world" that is doomed to "end" in a couple of hours.
However for a casual it is just not always possible to depend on a party. I see it from myself: I only did 5 primal fights against ifrit ever because I do have a lot to do in real life and have short time at hand (and this is something many many encounter: So only because we have to work a lot or have to manage many things irl we are not allowed to have fun here?
Can we not be caught by the story, the graphics and the magic of a game only because we have not this much time? It's a bit like looking through a shop window but being forbidden to enter. Like I said, I don't want everything on a silver plate but I want to be at least a legitimate part of this virtual world).

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Like I said, casuals don't want to break a game or turn it into an antisocial mess.
We just like those games, too, but don't have as much time at hand as others.
We are neither pleeing for making no content for groups anymore but for giving the options for both parties: Players with a lot of time that can explore the game to its fullest and casuals that can still taste the magic of a game, not as efficient and with the same "glory" as full time players but for the sake of plain fun and enjoyment. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChiefCurrahee

side quests and job specific quests should be solo.

MULTI-PLAYER ONLINE STORY should be MULTI-PLAYER

NOT SOLO!

I don't care if you're a casual player and have limited time to play. Schedule your limited time to get the story done if you want to progress in that manner.

Don't dumb down the game for the people who won't or can't devote the time, provide alternative content but don't make XIV: SWtOR.

if you do you lost my sub.

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This is the kind of attitude that alienates new players. "Game too hard? Go cry to Blizzard, SE doesn't care." This isn't a viable business model. I'm pretty sure SE doesn't want to only pander to grognards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Teakwood

Sadly, it's pretty much impossible to have content that is both -solo- and -interesting-, and it goes against the entire idea of an MMO. I sympathise, but there's really no way around this.

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I disagree. It's entirely possible to have interesting solo content. Make it fast paced, introduce some puzzles. I can't remember the last time I saw a puzzle in an MMO, and I would love to see it in either party or solo content. Just because you aren't playing with people doesn't mean it cannot be interesting. If it did, why would people play by themselves so much?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by viion

I like how people are "noway i disagree", "should be party only!", "need to work together"

Yet if you guys didnt rush through it on day 0 minute 1 you'd realise people DONT WANT TO HELP! lol

You can shout for hours on end these days for AF Armor and it can take days and days until you're very lucky and enough people who need it build up.

Hardly anyone helps, its all LS Onry, Grind Raids/Hamlets Onry. And thus the people who have busy lifes who come late to the show get fucked over because they cant do anything. And more annoyingly cannot even attempt to do it with all these stupid BS restrictions.

There should be a difficulty scale, so you can join into anything, with any amount of people and the content dynamically scales itself. A lot of games are doing this and Yoshi has mentioned it kind of in recent interviews.

So I can go do the story solo, and at least complete it with no reward, but if i go with 8 i can get awesome rewards.

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Or a different approach. Why not take a page from Guild War's book? Give us NPC henchmen that we can add to our party and then tackle the content on our own so we CAN catch up to the people who spend all of their time on this game. No need to adjust difficulty, just grab henchies and go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Goufunaki

Because I hate resorting to /shouts for hours or even days just to progress in a plot. I enjoyed running through the main scenario's plot because I could go at my own pace if I was leveled high enough to do it. Job quests, and the latest grand company quest in castrum novum, however, give me headaches.

I'm not really in a position to have a full LS ready to help me whenever I need it (they have lives), and at times I feel like more of an annoyance when shouting for random people to come help me. I even used the search/party options, but it seems like no one ever really uses them on my server, even after the merge.

CC/AV/Primal (hard) raids for rare kick ass loot when beating them I am more than fine with having a full party. If I don't finish those, all I miss out on are some rare items.

I realize the job quests, mini primal runs, and a few GC missions are promoting party play, but when it deals with a story line centering on only one person, and no one else is interested in doing them because they already rushed through them after an update, it turns fun into frustration because now my progress is forced to a halt.

I'm not asking for everything to be spoon fed to me, things should be challenging, but I just mainly want my character to experience what happens next in his story whenever I have time to do it myself.

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I feel the same. Just like some of the job quests that require a party to beat a boss. It's really stupid as if i am not playing for a couple of weeks after the patch and everyone is already done with it. Once i come back it will be a pain to find pple to help me with it.

They can force party if they want to but send us into raids and dungeons where people always go for different reasons so i can do my job quest there at the same time and not find 8 pple just to help me beat a boss they have no interest in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jynx

I'm sorry I still don't get it.

Why make a genre that thrives on multiple player interaction and make all that interaction pointless? It's a crying shame that some people have a hard time finding groups but should everyone have to suffer?

You can't design a boss who needs to be incapacitated to kill if it has to be scaleable for solo, and in that extent who would even party if you could just face-roll the entire game because it's scaled for every single person to be able to solo it.

I guess people just don't have that sense of satisfaction that comes from gathering your friends and slaying a behemoth sized monster and reaping the rewards or watching your friends finally get past that slump. I don't get why any sane MMO developer would make their game less dependant on community interaction. Your just asking to get yourself compared to single player games that don't have to focus on anything but delivering a single player experience and then falling short on being able to deliver.

Multiplayer games are designed around being....multiplayer.

Single player games are design around being....single player.

MMO games are designed around being....MMO's!

If you go the "no loot" route then what would the point of soloing content even be? If you reward stuff like primal drops why have all the hassel of having other players know a strategy and trusting them to pull it. Why bother having any real hardship becasue you can just do it yourself whenever you want and get your reward. Christ only a handfull of people would party if that was the case even if the drop rates were abysmally low solo.

...I just don't get it.

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Nobody is asking for the game to be made "single player onry". But for those of us who haven't been around since launch or don't log on during times when people who speak English are awake, the game has become an exercise in frustration for finishing content. It is incredibly hard to even form a simple strategy when you have language barriers. But these people still want to play this game, so they still log on and give it their best shot. It sucks when you aren't even allowed to TRY because of party requirements.

People still hold on to these ancient ideals of "what an MMO should be." They don't apply anymore, you need to catch up with the times. One of my favorite MMO's of all time was Dark Age of Camelot. You needed a group for everything in that game. I loved that game. Would I enjoy it nowadays? No. No, I wouldn't. Why? Because newer ideals have spoiled me, and the waiting would drive me nuts.

Spamming shouts for groups is a thing of the past in almost every other successful MMO out there. You can either A) do something comparable for your character on your own (comparable, not the same) or B) groups are much easier to put together because the game has a system in place to make it easier.

Anyone that says otherwise is simply a masochist.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Astorlok

I disagree. It's entirely possible to have interesting solo content. Make it fast paced, introduce some puzzles. I can't remember the last time I saw a puzzle in an MMO, and I would love to see it in either party or solo content. Just because you aren't playing with people doesn't mean it cannot be interesting. If it did, why would people play by themselves so much?

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They have no friends who want to play with them.

There's a fine line between being group based and having to have a party just to perform even the most mundane task, which is what most XI players seem to want.

The hostility towards these ideas come from it being an annoying and never ending theme on these forums with casual players thinking everything, not just some things, but everything should revolve around and be built on how little they can play or how bad they are at the game (or even how ineffective they are at making friends).

It's like the cries to nerf Garuda (seriously?)

Or the claim that Darklight is unfair to casuals even though hardcore players and casuals share the exact same drop rate and have an equal chance at attaining Darklight (skill levels aside) on any given run. Just... stupid.

And the complaining about relic weapons. First it was GC seals (when they've had months to get ready for it) and then it was Hamlet seals (when they're easy to attain) and now it's everything else.

And here we have a thread QQing over one mission (one... mission) presenting some difficulties for a solo player because that player, on ONE NIGHT, had a problem getting together a group to do what he wanted, so now a game nerf is in order.

I think the real problem is the community. Not simply "the community," the community that wouldn't leap at the chance to help whoever do whatever whenever he wanted to do it, but the man in the mirror, the one who plays in a linkshell with a bunch of inactive players from 12 months ago, doesn't decide it's time to move on, and is left wondering why he can't accomplish anything in an effective and timely manner.

My observation is way too many linkshells are clinging to something that doesn't really exist anymore (their linkshell) and suffer only having 3 people to talk to and whine with instead of just merging or finding a more lively group to play with. Only the Japanese players and the best NA endgame linkshells (maybe 2 or 3 on a server) are adapting with the times and as a result they're effectively and rather painlessly getting things done (Missions, relics, DL, Hamlet, etc).

Everyone else is stuck in a 2010 mindset inside a 2012 game and wondering why easy things like Hamlet or doing a freaking story mission seem an impossible chore.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Goufunaki

Because I hate resorting to /shouts for hours or even days just to progress in a plot. I enjoyed running through the main scenario's plot because I could go at my own pace if I was leveled high enough to do it. Job quests, and the latest grand company quest in castrum novum, however, give me headaches.

I'm not really in a position to have a full LS ready to help me whenever I need it (they have lives), and at times I feel like more of an annoyance when shouting for random people to come help me. I even used the search/party options, but it seems like no one ever really uses them on my server, even after the merge.

CC/AV/Primal (hard) raids for rare kick ass loot when beating them I am more than fine with having a full party. If I don't finish those, all I miss out on are some rare items.

I realize the job quests, mini primal runs, and a few GC missions are promoting party play, but when it deals with a story line centering on only one person, and no one else is interested in doing them because they already rushed through them after an update, it turns fun into frustration because now my progress is forced to a halt.

I'm not asking for everything to be spoon fed to me, things should be challenging, but I just mainly want my character to experience what happens next in his story whenever I have time to do it myself.

---

What are you currently stuck on? I'm on your server.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarthTaru

The hostility towards these ideas come from it being an annoying and never ending theme on these forums with casual players thinking everything, not just some things, but everything should revolve around and be built on how little they can play or how bad they are at the game (or even how ineffective they are at making friends).

It's like the cries to nerf Garuda (seriously?)

Or the claim that Darklight is unfair to casuals even though hardcore players and casuals share the exact same drop rate and have an equal chance at attaining Darklight (skill levels aside) on any given run. Just... stupid.

And the complaining about relic weapons. First it was GC seals (when they've had months to get ready for it) and then it was Hamlet seals (when they're easy to attain) and now it's everything else.

And here we have a thread QQing over one mission (one... mission) presenting some difficulties for a solo player because that player, on ONE NIGHT, had a problem getting together a group to do what he wanted, so now a game nerf is in order.

I think the real problem is the community. Not simply "the community," the community that wouldn't leap at the chance to help whoever do whatever whenever he wanted to do it, but the man in the mirror, the one who plays in a linkshell with a bunch of inactive players from 12 months ago, doesn't decide it's time to move on, and is left wondering why he can't accomplish anything in an effective and timely manner.

My observation is way too many linkshells are clinging to something that doesn't really exist anymore (their linkshell) and suffer only having 3 people to talk to and whine with instead of just merging or finding a more lively group to play with. Only the Japanese players and the best NA endgame linkshells (maybe 2 or 3 on a server) are adapting with the times and as a result they're effectively and rather painlessly getting things done (Missions, relics, DL, Hamlet, etc).

Everyone else is stuck in a 2010 mindset inside a 2012 game and wondering why easy things like Hamlet or doing a freaking story mission seem an impossible chore.

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Darth -

First of all, if you read the thread at all, you'd realize no one is asking everything to revolve around how little a casual player plays.

Second of all, making things personal by suggesting how ineffective someone is socially isn't getting anyone anywhere. Simply, its a tacky argument that has no merit. It's far from constructive.

We are all here because we love FF and we love MMOs. We are all passionate here - proof being that we are all still here after almost 2 strenuous years.

It's okay to disagree and it's even more okay to be constructive. We all love the game for our own reasons.

At the end of the day, lets not work against each other. Lets work together (even when we disagree)!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarthTaru

`Guofunaki who doesn't want to play with anyone`

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I think he does. Its just really hard to though when everyone sticks to their own clique and ignores everyone else :/. How do you think a new player feels when they have to wait a year to get a four man party for mini Ifrit? It really sucks.

<nb4 'It's an mmorage'
its a social game, but its hard to be social when the 'society' is ignoring you :p

One of the things i like about FFXIV is that there is the option to level solo, and to experience the storyline on your own should you wish.....If i think back to FFXi and say for example i got 5 hours play in an evening, id say a good 2-3 hours was spent looking for party members, then getting to camp only for someone to drop out, and back to square one and everyone demoralised...Of course also you had to take into account that some jobs were more in demand. Many nights i had members of the ls i was in say how they were struggling to get exp parties etc, and myself spent many a night lfp only to give up because my WHM was less essential than say BRD or RDM. Also everything to do with the storyline needed a full and balanced party and after playing FFXI for about 6 years only really finished the original storyline, and Zilart, and Promathia....i fell behind with the Treasures and as everyone else had completed it noone wanted to help so eventually i gave up...
....As a new player to FFXIV ive been able to level pretty much as i want, and experience the storylines as i level, and only need help a few times... So yes solo is a good idea for storyline content......Im going to partly contradict myself now because with content such as Ifrit, Garuda battles etc this stuff can only be done in a properly set up party, which ive never experienced, so ive no idea about party mechanics etc, and battles like this are no place for a noobie, and i have no desire to get bawled out by some OMFG you cast thunder instead of Blizzard type player so im kindof stuck between a rock and a hardplace..... Maybe a good idea would be to keep the storyline soloable, but have dungeon leves every 5 or so levels so people are lfps at the aethyrte points giving people more opportunity to try out party mechanics and learn well before party play becomes essential....this is only thoughts of the top of my head...

i noticed something about gears of wars adding story to higher difficulty missions.. how about something like

1. Unlock full story and prestige with full party and full drops
2. The easier the difficulty, the less story is revealed, but progress is made, tempting players or leaving players who have to solo some content be enticed to find out more about whats going on by gathering more players. while players who have completed the story already get a cookie


, preferably coconut.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by giolli

Its understandable that some content and rewards are exclusive to such content. However, things like ranking up in your chosen company shouldn't require you to do a raid or full party instance. Some people would rather be playing the game then sitting lfg for significant lengths of time

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Huh? You need a party for seals?
Solo GC leves - don't need a party
GC supply and provision missions - don't need a party
rank 25+ chocobo caravan - don't need a party with level 50

But Op said it himself: "Stories that focus on the individual should never require parties."
GC missions that focus on the individual (where you are not told you can't do it alone) are soloable. But the castrum novum mission don't focus on the individual, but on the cooperation between all grand companies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Astorlok

Couldn't agree more. I've only been playing for about 2 months and my progress for my GC has halted entirely because I cannot find a group for "It Kills With Fire (Limsa Lominsa)". My LS is pretty small and we rarely have more than 3 people on at the same time. Sitting around ANYWHERE waiting for a group just so I can make progress is incredibly frustrating. I wouldn't mind it if I had to go level up to finish it alone, but it requires 4 people just to finish it. The game absolutely needs some balance when it comes to low level content vs high level content, especially in a game they are trying to attract new players to.

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Can I suggest if all you're interested in is getting past it, then when you shout for help open it up to all nations. You lose a few seals for doing it with outsiders but it increases your chances of finding people willing to help.

RE: main stories & scenarios. I kinda think it doesnt make sense to solo them. the story at present is around all 3 nations uniting and making a stand against the Garlean empire (hence the quest united we stand) there's nothing united about going to do it solo.

Now thats not to say I'm against solo content entirely because sure it'd be great to have a side story or something I can progress along in my own time. (thats kinda how I treated the adventuring fellow stuff in xi solo content I could fill time with) this though as I said way back on page one is the problem with the main scenario its designed to be done solo and it sucks, no epic challenges no epic fights. just a whole load of running.

What they need to do is simply increase your chances of getting people to help with the content. Logos aboove is in my ls so I'm very aware of her play times and yeah it sucks for getting stuff done. I think though that if players got a reward for helping people then getting help would be much easier. even something simple like it kills with fire offer people 500 seals for helping out in a fight that takes a couple of minutes. You'll soon get 3 volunteers. and I also think the content finder plan will help alot in this situation.

I consider myself a casual player. partly why its taken me so long to run av/cc. I love group stuff much more than solo stuff though and imo united we stand was perfect. a brilliant fight bit of a challenge. required a strategy, not just a case of beat the transmitter till it dies. and i actually thought wow that was awesome especially with the cs involved in that quest. made better by being surrounded by friends when we did it.

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Originally Posted by Felis

Huh? You need a party for seals?
Solo GC leves - don't need a party
GC supply and provision missions - don't need a party
rank 25+ chocobo caravan - don't need a party with level 50

But Op said it himself: "Stories that focus on the individual should never require parties."
GC missions that focus on the individual (where you are not told you can't do it alone) are soloable. But the castrum novum mission don't focus on the individual, but on the cooperation between all grand companies.

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actually, if you read my previous post in this very thread, I acknowledged that GC seals can be acquired through a variety of means. What I referred to in this post that you quoted were a number of GC quests that require you to do an instance raid.

I don't think the content should be soloable, however, I do think they need a better way of finding people to do it, as well as lowering the requirements people wise. Most non-endgame story content should not require more than 4. Also, If you've noticed quests take literally 3/4ths of the time it did in FFXI to complete.

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Originally Posted by giolli

actually, if you read my previous post in this very thread, I acknowledged that GC seals can be acquired through a variety of means. What I referred to in this post that you quoted were a number of GC quests that require you to do an instance raid.

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Yes, but my answer was more about this

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However, things like ranking up in your chosen company shouldn't require you to do a raid or full party instance.

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You don't need to do a raid to rank up in your company. All what you need are seals.

And the only mission you need for rank up is to rank up to sergeant third class and this mission is a solo mission.

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Originally Posted by Dzian

Can I suggest if all you're interested in is getting past it, then when you shout for help open it up to all nations. You lose a few seals for doing it with outsiders but it increases your chances of finding people willing to help.

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I have been doing this, sadly to no avail. I would love to have a feature that rewards you for helping lower level characters. I'm positive I would use it all the time once I hit 50. Heck, make the rewards just GC seals and people who want to spend some time levelling crafting but don't have any manuals on hand could pick up a lowbie group and help them with some quests or leves or GC stuff and either get enough seals for a manual or a chance for a free manual. I think Level Sync would be a nice addition as well.

Still stuck on United We Stand. >_<

Even when I do manage to form/join a party, I try my best to explain certain strategies based on what I've read, but I never have any luck. One loss, and people start quitting either frustrated or don't have time to keep playing. Meanwhile, I want to keep going, but have no party anymore.

Wish at the very least the Content Finder could be squeezed in now before these quests go away. :(

Here is the order of Priorities, as listed by Yoshi-P

1. Final Fantasy
2. Rpg
3. MMO

Following those priorities, I've gotta agree with the OP here. Sure, there can be storyline content that requires a party, but let that be the epic Grand Company Storyline that we've been receiving of late. I do want a personal story that refers to just my character, that I can complete on my own as a battle class. We've got room in here for both, let's do it!

Some scenes I just want to have my character be the spotlight the bada** the Hero/Heroine. And other times, I wanna be a part of an epic team, or even an alliance, working together to take down big challenges.

Final Fantasy games and RPGs were about both, so let's accommodate both.

Then we can have the strong MMO concepts like large scale PvP battles and long progressive working towards epic loot. Building up the self into something far and beyond what merely the story requires.

A truly epic game can and should accommodate all of this.

The fact that we need groups to do stuff doesn't bother me as much as how SE added this speed run element to everything, so every time it's "ERMAHGERD SKIP CUTSEENZ GO GO GO"

Yeah, we can watch 'em in our inn rooms later, but it ain't the same as when we're right there about to do battle.