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Heavily Interdependent? errr
Whisps
Member Posts: 3
Dammit, it was looking really good up until i read that. Not that i mind grouping with people alot, i just depise RELYing on grouping with people to progress, seems to FFXI like. If you didn't play that let me tell you. FFXI while a fun game at first with a great atmosphere was insanely redundant and slow paced, no skill in any way majority of classes just auto attacked mobs to death. You could only lvl if you were in a group with people because otherwise a mob 2 lvls under would completely own you, plus having to group with random pick up groups is lame you always run into a jackass, and there are no static groups are low lvls so.......i pray they implement slightly more soloable mobs for those who dont have time to wait around for a group. ^_^
Ct3e67gT
Comments
You are going to be able to solo without a lot of problems, In vanguard there are 3 kinds of npcs: Casual npcs, Group npcs and Raid npcs. Casual npcs are designed to be killed solo or with a small group. Group npcs are designed for groups and will be very hard to solo. Finally Raid npcs are meant to be killed with a raid, probably one of those npcs will be impossible to solo and almost impossible to be killed with a group.
Solo in vanguard while doabe is not going to be the best way to get experience.
Sound like EQ2 I really hope you are wrong. What I read is that there will be a few soloable zones and rest is meant for groups.
If you really hate LFG then you want to have as little solo content as possible. In EQ early days it was never an option to go with other then a full group. When they made meeles able to solo a little bit and made it worth to duo then grouping dropped to almost nothing. I played enchanter so I had no reason to complain about LFG but that changed with that too. Timeframe, it happend with the luclin expansion.
I turned lvl60 in middle of that expansion and the group I had was AE groups in seb or duo with my druid gf. When they rewamped CT the group started again for some months and same happend with LDoN in PoP rest was more or less solo and duo. There were groups but risk reduced to nothing so I found them so boring and preffered the more risky solo had to offer.
actually its like eq1.... i will say this, if you don't have time to wait for a group this game probably isn't for you. im sure you will be able to solo but it will probably depend on what class you use, some class's im sure will simply be unable to solo at higher levels. btw this is pure speculation but thats how eq1 was and from what they are saying thats what they are shooting for.
read this http://www.vanguardsoh.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1044304#post1044304 then come back and talk to me about the vanguard/soe fiasco.....
I played EQ1 for years, but have been playing EQ2 since launch. EQ2 has some great features, and the graphics are truly amazing (I looked at WoW, but it was just too cartoony for my tastes). But... there is just something missing, something that just doesn't get my blood pumping like EQ1 did. After giving it some thought over time, I've come to realize what makes the game much less than EQ1 was for so long: There is just not enough interdependency to make the world believable or fun.
Now, coming from a player who spends most of his time soloing, I'm almost amazed myself that I've come to this conclusion. But here is some of my reasoning for it:
In EQ1, you truly needed other classes to achieve anything great. Sure you could solo, but to really tackle a dangerous zone or to find the good loot, you needed help. This made us socialize with other players and search for players to go adventuring with. Sure it was frustrating at times, but when a good group came together there was just nothing else like it. I met a lot of fun folks and made many friends this way, and to be honest if I could've just soloed these zones I would've missed out on the real fun of the game.
When you got yourself into trouble (as in corpse run into a baaad place), once again it made you seek out help. It was also fun on the flip side when you found yourself asked for help from another player for a dangerous corpse run or some other noble undertaking.
I could go on and on with examples of how interdependency makes the world you're playing in more enjoyable and real. But I will just say this, what sets a MMORPG apart from just a regular old game is that you are playing in a world of real people. If you're not forced to play with these people to work towards a common goal, you might as well be playing a one player game with a world of nothing but NPC's IMHO.
I've just now started looking into Vanguard after hearing some promising things, but I am getting very hopeful. For me, I hope it's very tough and very interdependent between players and different classes.
Whisps, just wanted to pass on a little information you might not have heard.
Vanguard will have casual, group, and raid oriented areas. The bulk of the game will be group-oriented. But a casual (solo, duo) areas will provide the ability to level up, earn loot, and see progression in those loot drops that allows for continued advancement in the casual areas.
However, the gear in Vanguard will be teired, so that a player who only ever plays in casual areas will not be equiped to significantly impact group content, and might well be rather ineffectual for raid content.
This philosophy might not be to everyone's taste, but perhaps it will ease some of your concerns.
The new information about the combat system being released by Oloh (here, here, and here) lead me to believe that a player truly skilled at thier class will have much greater success in whatever progression path they choose to pursue than others. Which has to appeal to pretty much any player.
Plus, Vanguard is very aware of the concerns of players in finding groups. They are working on tools to make that more possible, and designing the layout of the world to promote it. (Things like casual areas adjacent to group areas, so that you may solo or duo until finding your group. And outposts that are natural centers of services and bind points near to adventuring areas.) Plus, there have been hints at means in place to keep regular groupmates together. If you choose to be a part of a Caravan, you'll be moved to the last city/outpost that your regular groupmates were in, should they travel to a new area while you're offline. Making it more possible for you to log in and quickly meet up with them.
Your concerns are not going unheard. Believe me, there are many who share them. However, Vanguard is a game meant to focus on community and interaction. Promoting solo'ing to a point where it would be nearly as profitable as grouping would be self-defeating to that focus.
-Feyshtey-