Stories that focus on the individual should never require parties.

[Amyas]

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

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

[Undrentide]

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...

[Veltaine]

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.

[Felis]

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

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.

[Dzian]

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.

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.

[giolli]

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.

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.

[Grimwald]

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.

[Felis]

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.

Yes, but my answer was more about this

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

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.

[Astorlok]

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.

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.

[Goufunaki]

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.