:: summon your Path Companion in regional levequests (solo mode)

[Dreamer]

That is a poor argument. Those who prefere to play solo will do it regerdless, you cant force them to party with you.
Try to see the things less black and white please. There are people who DO play in parties but also want solo time.
I have a lot of japanese riends and i can see why so many people there choose to play solo.
Many of the people i know work 6 days a week and come home late evening almost every day, some can only play longer on weekends and that is when they usually meet up with LS buddies to have fun but people sometimes also just want to play for half n hour before they go to bed.
You can not expect them to team up or looking for a party every time they want to play and you cant deny people fun.

There's nothing black and white about it, it's already a shade of grey. All of the DoL leves are solo'd. All of the DoH leves and crafting is solo. All of the DoW and DoM leves are soloable. All of the main questline (that I've seen so far) is soloable. Grouping as it stands is completely optional. We don't need anything that is going to further discourage it.

[Lusavari]

Look. Everyone has play preferences. I believe the upcoming battle updates will encourage more party play. However, let's bare in mind that while party based content and battles are required, you need a fair share of things to do solo. I find it really rather sad something as cool as the Pathway companion is wasted. I was really hoping when I was introduced to mine that I could call her like my NPC. Besides, as long as you keep proper limitations on calling them it's all good. The Signal Pear and Tactics pearl allow for a safe balance. You can call them for 30-90 minutes a day, once a day with maybe a back up for several times a day. Either way, you end up with a fair limit to x number of times a week you can call them. Plus they do work in parties.

Let's not forget the survey results. Pretty much everyone really wants to see party play. But having the Pathway companion definitely won't hurt. XIV over compensated for XI at the beginning, but things are going to balance. I'd like to see more party based quests and missions, but the party size of 4 is way better than XI's standard of 6. Those extra 2 slots made a lot of difference, both in ease of doing a quest, and length of shout times. The Dev team is on the right track aiming for group sizes of 4 and 8 instead of 6 and 18. However... Yeah, we still need a share of light soloable content, and the Pathway companion works great for that. At the very least, add several Leves that are aimed at the soloer, and mention their companions will automatically be called.

Which makes me think of the biggest flaw in leves. It's always too random. I always just wanted my full selection of everything available there, and I can pick and choose what I want off the complete list instead of a random load out every time. That would also give me more options in rewards because sometimes, I just don't want Pugilist marks...

[Ayerc]

Ahh, I see we're descending into the solo v party debate. How about we leave that one out of this thread? We know S-E has an interest in creating content for BOTH soloers and partiers. Grasp that first on your own time, then move on to the merit of the idea mentioned please.

Xatsh, I don't see why a penalty is needed, just don't give the party bonus. A duo of PC get the bonus, add the NPC option on leves, just don't add the bonus for the second member.

[Zenaku]

Ahh, I see we're descending into the solo v party debate. How about we leave that one out of this thread? We know S-E has an interest in creating content for BOTH soloers and partiers. Grasp that first on your own time, then move on to the merit of the idea mentioned please.

Xatsh, I don't see why a penalty is needed, just don't give the party bonus. A duo of PC get the bonus, add the NPC option on leves, just don't add the bonus for the second member.

Ya but it seem that it be 4party for easy events and 8party for one that you really need to think and plan it out. So as far as adding real solo events it be 4 party and 8 party for more planing it out and more team work. I don't see them adding stuff you can really solo.

So it be

4 party max
all you need is a tank healer dps,dps and you really don't have to plan out much it really easy event you can find ppl to team up and do it right away.

8party you need to think about it plan maybe you need a off tank or a healer just cureing one tank and really think it over.

But soloing? i think it be guildleves events stuff.

[Randis]

now why would i want to group all the time? seriously?
Those arguments are very weak.

If parties are required in endgame or for certain events, those who play solo will be at a point where they will have to play in a party too, naturally.
Other than that, why would i need to party all the time?
Sometimes and whenever i can? SURE but always? Come on...

I do socialize a lot more when i play solo. In party people hardly chat at all anyway,
It's when people do solo activities when they start socializing and chatting.
Join a random LS you will see that most people talk mostly while crafting or doing other solo activities.

Be honest, this isnt about MMO RPG community fun. IMO the greatest aspects of a MMO RPG is all about making friends, socializing, playing together. Playing together does NOT have to be reduced on button mashing in a stressed grinding party without even talking with others.
As it is atm in FFXIV the best about party is when you get a good deal of SP per hour or loot when you kill NM, nothing more.

Just say it:

You want your NM loot and you are pissed coz you cant find enough people for a party.
This has nothing to do with fun and gameplay. Some people are madly focused on their stats and gearing up, LEVEL LEVEL LEVEL, LOOT LOOT LOOT
Where is the fun?

I would enjoy it a lot more if the battles were more strategic and if battle regiment was a lot better and useful.
I did like parties in FFXI a lot better and i think that this days it should be even better.
And what about the general gaming experience? its not all about hitting your level cap and gearing up you know.
I loved my mog house, i loved gardening, i loved fishing with friends sometimes, i enjoy walking around in casual gear, i love chatting with people and making friends. i like shopping in the wards and many many other things.

That being said, please TRY to stay on topic.
I don't see why you guys need to spam this thread with your anti solo play crap.

[Ayerc]

But soloing? i think it be guildleves events stuff.

This is exactly what the thread is addressing: activating the Path NPC when doing Guildleves solo. I'm not for activating the NPC anywhere anytime a la XI, just during Guildleves when I'm not in a party.

Outside of that, there is plenty of opportunity for S-E to create exciting, strategic solo content. In all actuality, soloing typically takes more strategy as you have no one else to rely on but yourself. If you disagree, Google Kanican's blog and see what he has to say about it all.

[Lusavari]

Just wanna shout this out there, should we be allowed to use the companion more, I think we should also get permanent access to the Merchant's Ward. Sort of essential as someone may get tired of their companion.

Also... Gear customization please. Or at the very least something to update them over time.

[Chardrizard]

Guildleves was made to encourage soloing and casuals that doesnt have alot time in their hands.
There are more contents coming for party plays, alliance play, big party play, whatever you call it.

Why do people treat as if Guildleves is the only content we are going to have?

[Lusavari]

Well. The problem lies more in the fact they left leves up to us to decide which ones to solo and which ones to do as parties, and the scaling system didn't adjust to match things very well. At the end of the day, it upped the monster's level rather than just it's HP and DEF. Soloing you want an even match monster with roughly the same HP as you. And baring in mind the original XP system, if you were in a party, you wanted a monster with LOTS of HP so everyone could get a turn to hit it to get more skill points.

Instead, you ended up with a monster that just hit a lot harder and had roughly the same HP as you still. Not an effect way to skill in parties, especially with the old system. That in turn drove people away from ever trying to group for leves. It was also what caused people to quit in droves and not come back to try things out once things got fixed.

Either way, what I think needs to happen is there needs to be some leves that are ambiguous (Part or solo) and then some that specifically state solo, and some that state party. I also think that a few leves need minimum party sizes to even activate and those with party caps.

In short... The entire leve system needs revamping or at the very least a whole lot of new leves.

---------------

Also, OP, don't you think you should add a devtag for the leve quests?

[Xatsh]

Guildleves was made to encourage soloing and casuals that doesnt have alot time in their hands.
There are more contents coming for party plays, alliance play, big party play, whatever you call it.

Why do people treat as if Guildleves is the only content we are going to have?

The issue is party vs solo play act against each other, making one better hurts the other. This is why no true game that is solo and party friendly works. While they might be adding endgame/midgame where 99.999999999% requires groups. If you are required to solo to that point, because there is too much focus on soloing and no one groups, that is where the problem comes into play.

Grouping should not be an endgame and raid only activity, it should be the primary focus throughout the entire game. They can add solo based stuff because it is obvious people need it especially the NAs where over 90% of the mmo population here is use to solo mmos, but in the end there has to be a advantage to grouping from rank 1 all the way to endgame.

The issue with the Npc is the possibility of it making soloing more effective on leves, thus diminishing the need to group. Why get a duo besides the chance of a link (which is not that great with only 2 ppl anyways), when you can run in pop a npc and solo all the leves on harder difficulties and get pretty good sp. The Guildleves and Party system are designed to be able to group up extremely quickly for leves, from what I see Guildleves are not a solo activity they are a casual activity... big difference.