Is this game going to be solo friendly? or have you scraped that.

[Zenaku]

I just have to say again that while people do want to solo, this was the party based gamers last hope of a party based game unless they wanted to go back to FFXI (which most can't, I can't stomach it, I watched a blm get from 1-85 in 8 days), while they should have a game that has solo content for lower levels (ffxi at level 10 go party, was a lil harsh for some), this whole game should not be soloable, the majority of leveling should not be soloable, that isn't an MMO, not matter what excuse you have. The WoW model of "solo through quests till you hit 80 and then do endgame with a group" is so lame. ALL FF games take advantage of learning your job or class over time. If you don't group play lets say around rank 30 and up, you don't know how to group play. The group play at this level should lead us to the group play at endgame. (that being said, it looks like endgame strategy will be......ZERG. LOL)

I agree mission should not be soloable the only thing that should be soloable is a way for you to level up by killing mobs. They should make leves if you click on Solo you should be allow to solo it without issue. But this is a party base MMO i got pretty sad when i could not party up to do mission i was like come on really -.- they don't have to be crazy like ffxi where you needed good party set up and it was hard like hell. just something in the middle for both players who play a lot and don't play a lot.

Playing Solo from 1-max then party is not a great way to do it. You wont know how to play with others and how to work as a team. Sadly i don't know why ppl play a mmo just to solo and never talk to anyone.

Whatever sadly i just want a game i can enjoy if it become like wow then i guess i have to deal with it. if it like ffxi mix with wow w/e as long as i can enjoy it with my friends and not just solo everything.

[Anty]

The game at the current state is just gamer unfriendly no matter if you solo or youre partying, its still in open beta (even though its not called beta anymore). So a lot of things might (and i do hope so) change a lot but i dont really think its goin to get more solo friendly. The more soloable content an mmo has the less need of multiplaying it actually needs making it pointless to be called an mmo even. (thats what i think at least and thats the biggest problem with all the current mmos around, be it wow, rift, aion , age of conan, etc. etc.)

People gather for "endgame" dungeons only, then leave without even saying goodbye usually since most mmos turned into solo-rpgs with and open end. Even the group content is seen as a necessary evil for most players who are used to solo all the way up to the highest lvl. If anyone wants this kinda game i think the market is full of these games. I hope ffxiv isnt turning into one of them. And mixing the elements usually isnt cutting it for any of the ppl. Its below average for the ppl seekign multiplaying, and its not enough for anyone who likes the solo content.

If a game gets more solo orientated i prefer a good offline rpg by far since the story/questing and immersion is so much better. An mmo lives only because the interaction with players. If a developer cuts the needs of multiplaying too much an mmo dies and/or often attracts a bad community since its not about working together anymore. Its about soloing awesome gear then hoping to get some other gear-horny soloers to join you for a short time to get some other even better trophies asap. Sozializing isnt happening.

[zaviermhigo]

"If a game gets more solo orientated i prefer a good offline rpg by far since the story/questing and immersion is so much better."- Anty

Exactly, the storyline in this game is great but few and far between so even if people have the ability to solo missions its insane at how far between they are. I had no real sense of that storyline effecting the current world I was living in at all. I think SE forgot that mmorpgs are at first built off of rpgs and the things we do in the game should effect the world somehow. I just feel like they told us we were going to enter a world in "uneasy peace", and you get that in the cut scenes, but the world seems just peaceful, not uneasy. The outside world, I can't fix that, but these missions were fluffer pieces and if they would of given us a serious group based mission, with a serious group "themed" (togetherness, fraternity), then people wouldn't be asking for more from those stupid quests.

[Shiyo]

The game at the current state is just gamer unfriendly no matter if you solo or youre partying, its still in open beta (even though its not called beta anymore). So a lot of things might (and i do hope so) change a lot but i dont really think its goin to get more solo friendly. The more soloable content an mmo has the less need of multiplaying it actually needs making it pointless to be called an mmo even. (thats what i think at least and thats the biggest problem with all the current mmos around, be it wow, rift, aion , age of conan, etc. etc.)

People gather for "endgame" dungeons only, then leave without even saying goodbye usually since most mmos turned into solo-rpgs with and open end. Even the group content is seen as a necessary evil for most players who are used to solo all the way up to the highest lvl. If anyone wants this kinda game i think the market is full of these games. I hope ffxiv isnt turning into one of them. And mixing the elements usually isnt cutting it for any of the ppl. Its below average for the ppl seekign multiplaying, and its not enough for anyone who likes the solo content.

If a game gets more solo orientated i prefer a good offline rpg by far since the story/questing and immersion is so much better. An mmo lives only because the interaction with players. If a developer cuts the needs of multiplaying too much an mmo dies and/or often attracts a bad community since its not about working together anymore. Its about soloing awesome gear then hoping to get some other gear-horny soloers to join you for a short time to get some other even better trophies asap. Sozializing isnt happening.

Yeah I agree 100% with this post, there's enough solo oriented games out there already, us party players need a game for once, please?

Solo to cap - > do raids is really boring imo T_T I hate that design model.

[Burn]

Yeah I agree 100% with this post, there's enough solo oriented games out there already, us party players need a game for once, please?

Solo to cap - > do raids is really boring imo T_T I hate that design model.

But thats the way current MMO's are, you either adapt or suffer a horrible fate. They obviously need to put their own unique spin on things so its just not rehash of whats out there currently. This game would have been in so much better shape had homework been done of what works and what doesn't work in today's mmo's.

Yoshi-P wasent brought on just because it was the cool thing to do, he was brought on because he's played those mmo's, he has the experience and has done his homework. He will take elements from those games while putting the Final Fantasy spin on it.

This will be a very solid game once the pace of the game is sped up, the focus needs to be on unique gameplay, not on excessive grind, roadblocks, cute systems that slow the player down at every corner.

I know I don't wanna be playing FFXI 2.0 if it goes to a party only type MMO where if my job isn't the popular job that i'm waiting hours for an invite. I played both DRK and THF early on XI and that experience was terrible, I never want to go through that horror again of leveling such unpopular jobs while other jobs got many many more invites.

[Mugiwara]

Don't forget the "OMG!, I can't get to Max Level Cap in 2 weeks! This GAME IS SO GRINDY!!" people. Please don't turn this into a MSPORPG(Massive Single Player Online Role Playing Game)... Also, I agree its already too many other casual MMOs out there to try to claim the market. We need something different.

[Shiyo]

But thats the way current MMO's are, you either adapt or suffer a horrible fate. They obviously need to put their own unique spin on things so its just not rehash of whats out there currently. This game would have been in so much better shape had homework been done of what works and what doesn't work in today's mmo's.

Yoshi-P wasent brought on just because it was the cool thing to do, he was brought on because he's played those mmo's, he has the experience and has done his homework. He will take elements from those games while putting the Final Fantasy spin on it.

This will be a very solid game once the pace of the game is sped up, the focus needs to be on unique gameplay, not on excessive grind, roadblocks, cute systems that slow the player down at every corner.

I know I don't wanna be playing FFXI 2.0 if it goes to a party only type MMO where if my job isn't the popular job that i'm waiting hours for an invite. I played both DRK and THF early on XI and that experience was terrible, I never want to go through that horror again of leveling such unpopular jobs while other jobs got many many more invites.

Then go play rift, WOW, or one of the other 9000000000000000000000000 soloable MMO's, or hell, even a single player game. Some people like to play MMORPGS for you know, the MMO part. We aren't all anti-socials who enjoy playing alone the entire time, alone = boring.

[Chezen]

People wanting to get to level cap in 2 weeks are not necessarily solo. Neither are rude or gear seeking players.

The market is full of "these games" because they get a lot more players when they have solo/casual content than when they don't, so mixing the elements seems to have worked rather well actually. It's allowed not only for soloing, but friends and family to play together no matter what their skill level or actual level of interest in the game. The only ones that ever seem up in arms about it are the "diehards". Mmos are not dying, they are just changing.

That being said, I don't want to see a bad community either. But bad community =/= solo players. People not wanting to play with you is not a crime. People who grief, make rude/racist remarks (especially over global chat), ninja-steal, hotdog the dungeon, etc, etc, are the ones who make up a bad community, and they can be anyone.

[deekapowski]

Wow(the expression not the game)! A lot of strong feelings about this. They seem to revolve around

"Why play an MMO if you only want to play solo?"
"MMO means Massive MULTI player."
"There's a difference between solo friendly, casual friendly and solo equal to partying."
and
"I don't want to be 'handicapped' by needing a party to enjoy/get the most out of this game."

So here's how I look at it. I presume people play games like this to be the hero (or villian, but you get the idea). I might be alone, but to me the "character" is the selling point of an MMO. I have lots of console games I can play for the reason of graphics or gameplay. I simply want to be in a world where I can easily have my character work and be able to deal with the expected (storyline, random mobs, etc.) and unexpected (an aspect only other people can bring to a game in an age of gamefaqs and placenameofgameherepedia). My biggest story gripe against this game is that at r 29 out of 50 instead of feeling like a hero, I feel like a forest ranger. I never had this problem in WOW, FFXI, RIFT, DCUO, LOTRO, etc.. (and most of these games I didn't event get to level 29...)

So. Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four came out at the same time, nobody questions the experience of either of them. Effectively they are both r50s. The Fantastic Four does handle larger challenges than Spider-Man and has fancier toys because of it. But the Human Torch doesn't think he's better just because he's on a team (side note: who defeats who is entirely dependent on the circumstances).

Now what I think everyone forgets is just because a person may want to "play" a game by themself does not mean they want to be alone. In FFXI, this translated into chatting on the linkshell while I solo'd and occasionally helping people or getting help. In an ideal MMO, the players would change the way the game's play just the same as the rifts do in that game. Not just pvp, but actually adding flavor and surprise to the world. The closest they have to this is second life, but that game is a whole other story. Actually, Little Big Planet works here, it's a bunch of people actually adding more to the game not just following the crowd that all goes to the same place anyway. But the point of the rant is that I believe there should be a path that solo players can take to solo all the way to max rank, because in fantasy there are lone heroes and there are bands of heroes. I don't believe it should be the same path as group play but I believe they should be roughly balanced. I do think that parties should be privy to certain items easier than a solo player. It's supposed to be easier for the Avengers and the fantastic four to get a jet than Spiderman.

At the end of the day, you are playing a mmoRPG. I think you should play a RPG the way you want to play, not metagaming or being forced to metagame because of game mechanics. I also think that the point of making a mmorpg world is to try to make mechanics that enforce this process and allows people to band together, but doesn't force them. What do you think?

[Belial]

Wow(the expression not the game)! A lot of strong feelings about this. They seem to revolve around

"Why play an MMO if you only want to play solo?"
"MMO means Massive MULTI player."
"There's a difference between solo friendly, casual friendly and solo equal to partying."
and
"I don't want to be 'handicapped' by needing a party to enjoy/get the most out of this game."

So here's how I look at it. I presume people play games like this to be the hero (or villian, but you get the idea). I might be alone, but to me the "character" is the selling point of an MMO. I have lots of console games I can play for the reason of graphics or gameplay. I simply want to be in a world where I can easily have my character work and be able to deal with the expected (storyline, random mobs, etc.) and unexpected (an aspect only other people can bring to a game in an age of gamefaqs and placenameofgameherepedia). My biggest story gripe against this game is that at r 29 out of 50 instead of feeling like a hero, I feel like a forest ranger. I never had this problem in WOW, FFXI, RIFT, DCUO, LOTRO, etc.. (and most of these games I didn't event get to level 29...)

So. Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four came out at the same time, nobody questions the experience of either of them. Effectively they are both r50s. The Fantastic Four does handle larger challenges than Spider-Man and has fancier toys because of it. But the Human Torch doesn't think he's better just because he's on a team (side note: who defeats who is entirely dependent on the circumstances).

Now what I think everyone forgets is just because a person may want to "play" a game by themself does not mean they want to be alone. In FFXI, this translated into chatting on the linkshell while I solo'd and occasionally helping people or getting help. In an ideal MMO, the players would change the way the game's play just the same as the rifts do in that game. Not just pvp, but actually adding flavor and surprise to the world. The closest they have to this is second life, but that game is a whole other story. Actually, Little Big Planet works here, it's a bunch of people actually adding more to the game not just following the crowd that all goes to the same place anyway. But the point of the rant is that I believe there should be a path that solo players can take to solo all the way to max rank, because in fantasy there are lone heroes and there are bands of heroes. I don't believe it should be the same path as group play but I believe they should be roughly balanced. I do think that parties should be privy to certain items easier than a solo player. It's supposed to be easier for the Avengers and the fantastic four to get a jet than Spiderman.

At the end of the day, you are playing a mmoRPG. I think you should play a RPG the way you want to play, not metagaming or being forced to metagame because of game mechanics. I also think that the point of making a mmorpg world is to try to make mechanics that enforce this process and allows people to band together, but doesn't force them. What do you think?

It's nice to see people put this into words intelligently without being harassing, and I like your points on this a lot. But if you saw any of the "casual vs. hardcore" threads, regardless of the few of us who can convey and discuss good ideas, it generally gets lost in the shit-throwing that goes on on these forums. And I think balancing for solo players, and group players, is extremely difficult, especially with this game and it's already shaky foundation.