Static Group vs Individual Progression

blastermaster

Been thinking about this for a while now... I loved my days in EQ and I've been playing MMOs with the same "crew" since that day.

Over the years, our situations have changed (jobs, kids, etc.) and we started to have a hard time to be able to stick together. Some still play every night for 4-5 hrs a night, other will come only 1 out of 2 nights, etc. I'm sure you all understand how that goes.

We used to run different characters/groups based on who was online, but even with this, there would come a time where some would have progressed more than the others, and where it was close to impossible for those players to join us (or others to help them).

ex.: There are 2 guys who don't play as often, so as soon as one of them is online, he will use is main (and only ) character, so it means we go with the main group.. but guy #2 ends up getting behind, unless guys #1 does not log in the night after when guy #2 is logged, but this mean that the others (who are mostly always there) will have progress more than both of those guys, etc... )

I mean, it's normal for people who play more to progress faster than others, but is there a way for people of different "levels" to still be able to play (and progress) together ?

Does it absolutely have to be something implemented by the devs?

If so, what would you recommend they do?

If not, how do you work around that problem (if you ever had to do it) ?

Question for VR (if you guys ever stumble on that post..), do you have any plans regarding this? I know there were some systems in place in Vanguard (the Caravan system if I remember correctly), so are you considering adding something similar or something new?

Panther2103

The only real way to have a system where a higher level can level with a lower level in a group would be some form of level sync, which FFXI had and it worked pretty well. You can sync the party to all be the same level and you can farm based off of that. 

That's the problem with being in a static group though. You always have real life issues somewhere, or someone is having a problem somewhere. We just always worked around it, or would level alts when one person couldn't be on. 

TwoTubes

There will be a mentor system that allows a higher lvl player to temporarily delevel in order to group with a lower lvl player.  I suggest you read up on it.

edit: there will also be a caravan system in Pantheon but that is very different.