Request: I don't want to solo the main scenario

[Dragon]

@ the demon souls thing

DS NG is hard, go beat the game with a dagger or fists >.> that's hard.

Like I said, any game can be "hard" through artificial self-impositions...

[Hyrist]

Like I said, any game can be "hard" through artificial self-impositions...

Let's get more specific. How would you make it more difficult, would you allow this difficulty to be optional, and why?

Also, try to keep it short. The more we break down the issues to it's basic structure such as desires and solutions, the easier this conversation becomes on all fronts.

[Zaaku]

Let's get more specific. How would you make it more difficult, would you allow this difficulty to be optional, and why?

Also, try to keep it short. The more we break down the issues to it's basic structure such as desires and solutions, the easier this conversation becomes on all fronts.

By gentley reminding players that they are in an M M O and to quit trying to solo a major event alone. The story line is just as potent is not more important an aspect of an MMO. If you make it bypassable by a single player you just ruin the after wards when they feel like they just *beat the game* yet don't feel very heroic or satisfied in their task.

Cripes sake people you are in a massive MULTIplayer online game! It is supposed to be played with friends and complete strangers! Gives players tools to do content solo when they are time constrained or prefer to level at their own pace is fine. Those are our leves (Also I'm pretty sure Hamlet defenses), and solo jobs are for. A game should never be designed to allow a single person to do what a full party can at a different difficulty. That completely undermines the purpose of partying in the first place. Also there are only a dozen at the most fights in most story lines that really are a bear. With the weeks upon months of time players will continue their subscriptions you're telling me they can't suck it up just a few times to earn a powerful item and complete a one time story line?

If so then MMO is not the genre they should really be investing their time into >.>;

[Roj]

"Hi, Im Victor Kiam. When my wife bought me FFXIV, I was so impressed I bought the company"....
"Then I put the monthly fee up to $200/month and made the game solo friendly for busy people with busy jobs like me. Now I don't have to grind pointlessly or tolerate those whiny, stupid know-it-all college kids or unemployed tossers who live their entire lives through an MMO any longer!"

[Lucas_Castle]

Tot he original poster: I agree there should be some storyline content that should require party play to get through, but I disagree that solo quest lines should be abolished. Honestly I don't think I could find anyone one who would do the first level 1-20 quests with me and why should they, there is nothing to them play wise really. I haven't gotten into the story beyond that as I'm level 25 but if you make it party play only, honestly how easy do you think it would be for people to get people to repeat that content? You'd have people shouting "I need 4 people for my level 10 story quest" and they'd hear nothing back, save a few generous people and in LS you'd get "Sorry bro already did that one". It is an MMO game but sometimes I can only play for an hour or 2 and during the story I'll log out, and ill come back into it and be able to continue. IF it came to the point where I needed people to progress through that content then I'd have to plan ahead and make sure i had the time, which really I can't do everyday, sometimes like to come on and play and I've got my friends to chat with, sometimes I'll party up with one or two people for fun, and I'm sure I'll be getting into party content soon enough, but I want options, I don't want to be forced into party play to progress, that's why I didn't stick with FFXI, I didn't have time to camp for 2 hours to find a party, and spend hours chaining one enemy at a time. I like FFXIV current structure and I don't think they would do what your asking cause there are a lot of gamers who want the choice to solo or party and you can't use "too bad, it's an massively multiplay game go play something else" mentality on us cause we do like the multiplay aspect, but we like to solo it sometimes too. TO me it seems liek grand company shoudl be a party based campaign and the main scenario should stay solo until the higher levels and then should be party based. But I do not like this idea of eliminating solo play out of the game.

[Hyrist]

If so then MMO is not the genre they should really be investing their time into >.>;

Zaaku, remember the initial, overruling statement I emphasized this entire conversation?

The root goal is to get as many people here as possible for as long as possible, while keeping them entertained and engaged. NOT to force your individual ideas as right or wrong above one another.

Any conversation or statement detracting from said goal should be flatly ignored.

You just broke it.

More so, you broke it with a logical flaw - that the content of a subject should never exceed the bounds of it's initial impression.

For example: The word Kodak, in any language, means nothing. However, people who know the context of the word know it is the name for a brand of film.

However, by your logic, because the name means nothing, it should just be only a made up word and nothing more.

Let's clarify this further with another example: Blue Mage

If we were to take this by its initial impression, and without context of the actual substance of the subject matter. All you would see is this:



By that assumption: Blue Mages should never be hybrid characters designed to wield swords, as per the typical tropes surrounding the term 'Mage'. However, factually this is what we have:



And even that context is flexible. Khimari wielded a spear. Quisits didn't even wear blue and wielded a whip. Strego wore red and used wands, so on, and so forth.

So there really is no real reason why a Massively Multiplayer Online game should be limited to ONLY hardcore online players, or strict multiplayer concepts. It's just a label, not a gospel.


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This also ignores the underlining problem you have, which you really are not addressing:

"People who can do things on their own, won't play with me each other!"

To have to state or even imply that means that playing solo, in an online world is so compelling to many people and should be preserved to preserve the player population, not reduce the population by forcing them away from that attraction.

Your solution would be to get players to play with each other more making them in order to progress.

My solution would be to get players to play each other by making them want to for faster progression and more unique rewards. (Note I did not say 'better' here. I agree with Yoshi's stance that the best gear should be crafted.)

Mine would keep far more players on board in the long run - which should be everyone's goal here. Meeting your requests for content that caters to you, should not come at the cost of that goal, and if it does - then you are being as anti-social and as selfish as you claim the solo players are.

[Rokien]

Like I said, any game can be "hard" through artificial self-impositions...

Thing is, I love daggers, they are my favorite weapon. So, I didn't choose to put that harder difficulty on myself, I just wanted to play with daggers.

[Dragon]

Thing is, I love daggers, they are my favorite weapon. So, I didn't choose to put that harder difficulty on myself, I just wanted to play with daggers.

Even though you love daggers, you could still have chosen a better weapon. I'm not saying DS/DkS are the easiest games ever, but I don't think they deserve their reputation without context. Hell, I'm even saying this while I had a tough time in Demon Souls my first time around (DkS was different, as it was the same thing as DS and while I felt it was harder, it was definitely easier first time around because I knew what to expect).

Let's get more specific. How would you make it more difficult, would you allow this difficulty to be optional, and why?

Also, try to keep it short. The more we break down the issues to it's basic structure such as desires and solutions, the easier this conversation becomes on all fronts.

In the case of the Souls franchise, extremely dynamic AI being perhaps the most important (which is hard to program, but not impossible). On the other hand rather than just fighting one-two bosses at any one point, minions could've jumped in throughout each boss battle and have a more free-roaming atmosphere during the boss battle where the boss would run to previously unlocked areas (like a 4-4 boss battle could have the boss going back to 4-1 area).

In FFXIV, more dynamic AI would also be nice...