Solo dungeons and Gambit system

[Warlyx]

they could balance dungeons for solo mode , lowering the dmg and HP maybe add a npc that can heal u , no different than some class or main story quests.

[SpiritMuse]

I used to play WoW before...
When pandaria come out Blizzard introduce boost system... I'm completely mad about it.
They introduce boost to help new player to catch up veterans but the drawback is many boost player at raids who doesn't know anything.

In leveling progression there is story and lore in it, they taught us about the class and learning curve in it for the basic group mechanic just like guildhest.

Later on most of the veterans will no longer go there, so if we have npc that would be nice.

Yeah, I did the boost thing with Pandaria. Had a lower level paladin that got boosted to 80 and I subsequently had no clue what to do with all these hundreds of new abilities. Took me a good while to figure it out.

[Eye_Gore]

Maybe just do it for the pre-50 dungeons. Though not sure how it would work. How would the NPC's position themselves or move from AOE's for alot of the dungeons thats critical to staying alive. It's been a little while since I ran low level, but things like if the tank was an NPC. How would they know to pull the boss into the crystal veil, or pull them near pillars? Things like that, I know there are many more positional or AOE events that have to be done properly or expect a wipe.

I guess the only thing would to be reduced damage output from the monsters, but then do the rewards get reduced also unless in a party of players? Seems like the programming behind it would be a bit taxing. It would be neat to have something like a practice mode or something. Something to get in and get the lay of the land. I know most dungeons are pretty linear but I have taken a few wrong turns here and there and got into some trouble.

[synesthetic]

Maybe just do it for the pre-50 dungeons. Though not sure how it would work. How would the NPC's position themselves or move from AOE's for alot of the dungeons thats critical to staying alive. It's been a little while since I ran low level, but things like if the tank was an NPC. How would they know to pull the boss into the crystal veil, or pull them near pillars? Things like that, I know there are many more positional or AOE events that have to be done properly or expect a wipe.=

That's what I've been worried about, too. I'm curious how the devs would pull it off, but just given how some dungeons and mechanics in general are, it's hard for me to be optimistic.

Like would an NPC tank in Brayflox-NM pull Aiatar out of spit, and make good use of the arena?
Or what if you're in AV and your NPC tank stays in acid puddles, never eats fruit, doesn't avoid Bad Breath, or dies to Coincounter's Heavy Swing? At least a third of the tanks I've seen in there don't even know how to avoid stuff like Swipe and Swing even after I tell them what their AoE range is, and they just keep dying; I'm even more scared of an NPC tank I can't communicate with. I know I've seen bots sort of avoid AoEs by just running away whenever their target's using a skill (even if it's not an attack), but a primitive AI like that could cause more trouble, like aggroing mobs.

Another thing that I dread is the idea of new players learning from bad AI. Would NPCs single-target everything, even against mobs? Would tank AI know how to handle mixed mobs of ranged+melee, or know to Flash/Overpower enough so that a player could AoE? Would healer AI be retarded like a chocobo in healer stance, spamming Choco Medica instead of Choco Cure when there's just one (near-dead) person?

[Rhaja]

I thought this was something that was actually happening in Heavensward through our GC's? And I don't think t would be too terribly difficult to implement; you would just have to control things through a pet bar and formation. Have an option to move party incase a hazard appears, make them immune to stage hazards that can't be esuna'd. Your healer would never run out of mana either. Hell, this could be a "safe" way for tanks to get comfortable with larger pulls.

In regards to having a tank as an npc, it would just naturally generate more threat than you could in most cases. I think people are too focused on making it feel like an actual party than what it could be; a method to get through a run that requires a absurdly long que.

And to prevent the whole, your not in a GC for the first few dungeons, make it shared with the adventurer's guild. Or just the adventurer's guild, god knows that thing is mostly forgettable.

[Tint]

would be funny if the NPCs are playing better than real people xD (and they will)

[Firepower]

I thought this was actually happening in Heavensward too, I also remember a remark about having them loiter around your personal home. You could use the current resistances from the current pets (smn/sch) so that dodging aoe's aren't a major problem.

Though things like moving aiatar outside of poison puddles, breaking bubbles, killing adds and coincounter's aoe's, I do find would be difficult without manual instruction which either mean taking them out from the solo version of the dungeon or giving the player a "npc party" hotbar.

[Saseal]

They sort of already have this - if you think of some of the solo fights and FATEs with NPCs in the MSQ or job quests. They're not TOO bad - they do keep you alive once you've hit the HP trigger (in terms of the healers), but they're not all that smart, either. I wonder if they'll be programmed to actually dodge AoEs or if they'll be as derpy as the originals. Can you imagine a Tank NPC? I wonder how they'll pull mobs.
Or position enemies (such as in Amdapor Keep at the last boss for Catastrophe, or reacting to the pulse damage orb, etc.). It's possibly they may restrict such system to the lower level dungeons (such as pre-level 30/35) where placement mechanics don't matter so much.
Which is still fine by me - then I can still level my alts and lower jobs and spam lower dungeons all day

If they do this, I wonder if we would have a "team" that we hand pick ("I'd like one paladin, one conjurer and a thaumaturge with a side of suicidal tendencies, please"), or if we're just given the trifecta at random (one run you get a pugilist, another run you get a rogue, etc).
I'd love it even more if you get like a personal GC team and assign them classes... mixed with the ability to pick out looks like retainers >.> I'd dig that - and hug em and squeeze em and not care how stupid they were.
Or, maybe even level them like the Chocobos o________o TEAM DERP 4 LYFE.
(though, as far as looks go, I can sorta see it being more like the housing NPC scrolls. Pick a race and gender and boomf. It is what it is)

[Saseal]

Though things like moving aiatar outside of poison puddles, breaking bubbles, killing adds and coincounter's aoe's, I do find would be difficult without manual instruction which either mean taking them out from the solo version of the dungeon or giving the player a "npc party" hotbar.

Oooo good idea. Too bad I didn't read all the posts before derping about that same point z_z; (placement specific mobs/bosses/etc)

I thought this was actually happening in Heavensward too, I also remember a remark about having them loiter around your personal home.

Then, you can yell at them, all day, to 'get off the lawn', 'You break it, you bought it!', etc while shaking your fist xD
Dang kids these days.

[LineageRazor]

Not sure how I feel about having a NPC squad to "solo" dungeons. Would they be stupid?

To be honest, when it comes to sub-30 dungeons, NPCs could be blithering morons and still give you clears. At those levels, there's little in the way of fancy mechanics, and mobs are so gentle that DPS can, and often do, tank them with minimal stress on the healer.

Dungeons higher than 30, on the other hand, could be a different story. Particularly in dungeons like Dzemael or Aurum Vale, but even dungeons like Stone Vigil and Qarn have some (relatively speaking) fancy mechanics to them that a derpy NPC would have to have some pretty clever programming to deal with. However, I'd imagine that level 30+ dungeons are going to be much more active with players for much longer, due to the fact that the new jobs start at level 30. There's not as great a need for the Derp Squad there...

Ooh, all this talk of derp... wouldn't it be kinda cool if your Derp Squad actually contains members from Derplander's crew? It'd be a way to finally integrate them into the game proper, rather than just as trailer fodder...