One of the best and most awesome things about City of Heroes was how (before the last few updates anyway), there really wasn't much you couldn't do in the game alone. The single-player experience may be slower, but you know... slower is good sometimes for following the story and finding creative ways to play your character to overcome the challenges.
Playing alone isn't always just a matter of choice, it's necessity. As a married father of multiple kids, one of the biggest issues I always had with City of Heroes is having to flake out on a team to deal with family or avoid team play entirely (except for very rare instances where I could get several hours of uninterrupted time).
I'm not asking that the game bend itself to solo-players, but don't forget us either.
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This summarizes my hopes and dreams for CoT. Check it out if you'd like.
I'm pretty sure in at least one article on the net someplace Posi stated that this was a lesson learned by the original CoH dev team at some point. That is, the game was first and foremost designed with the "DnD adventuring party, but superheroes fighting villains instead of adventurers fighting monsters." mindset and for this reason they tried to make different classes with different strengths and weaknesses so that hopefully everyone would have a need to team up with someone, like in a paper and pencil RPG, which nobody plays by them self (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb-sCNfE0bM). The problem this thinking eventually exposed is that people have a real need to play video games solo, for reasons you mentioned and/or because they just prefer it that way. So CoX eventually got wise to that and made strides towards changing things accordingly.
I never once teamed with anyone on CoX that I actually knew in real life, not once. I didn't know anyone in RL that even played CoX.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
I can't find the specific posts, but I'm pretty sure the devs have stated that solo play will be an option for most of the content -- though there will likely still be some team-only content like the task forces in CoX.
Spurn all ye kindle.
The wonderful thing I experienced with the CoX community was the understanding that RL comes first. Perhaps I was just lucky enough to team with the right people. Also becoming a member of the Repeat Offenders Network went a long way with that as well. A lot of the people from RO that I played with are my friends. I've met some of them in RL and would like to think I'll eventually meet others as well. We try to stay in touch with each other whether it's on Facebook, text messaging, or through the RO website. I never felt like I was a burden to my teammates when RL interfered. They always understood if I had to go AFK because of my kids, ex-wife, or some other family related emergency. I never minded when they had to do the same. I would even tell them to go ahead and door sit while we finished up the mission so they wouldn't lose out on the bonus xp.
I do not think that will ever change with me. If I'm teaming with somebody in CoT and something comes up I'll be more than understanding and will still offer to let them sit out the rest of the mission while they take care of whatever needs to be done and still benefit from gaining the xp, inf, badge, merit reward, etc. of the mission. We also had so many people from all over the place that finding somebody to team with day or night was never a problem. We never specified certain builds to play with. Every time it was, "Hey we are about to do an ITF, wanna join us?" "Sure, what do you need?" "Bring whatever you want. We'll make it work." And we did. We never discriminated. This boggles my mind when I hear people complain about having to team with other people, or say they can't find anybody to team with, and instead wish to solo a MMO. I would like to think that CoX was a much stronger community than other MMO's and we were more tolerable towards other people as well. Again, perhaps I just was really lucky in that respect.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
Totally understand the soloist mindset. Hated needing to team with others against my will just to complete objectives for missions. There was much of the game i never got to see just because i hate teaming too. Its why i fell in love with the mastermind. I suck at melee, somehow i can never seem to get close enough i always find myself rapid firing my mouse buttons only to get the "Not in Range" red-print. Im better at range but ranged is usually too single target and i can never drop enemies quickly enough. Masterminds were the solution. Take out all the enemies, at range, safely. All the while giggling as my ninjas front kicked the spit out of my enemies., or my bots melted them into the floor plates. And completely without the help of others. We ALL agree we loved this game, and look forward to its predecessor. But we each took away from it different aspects of it.
I think thats what i liked most about CoH, I could run by myself for levels and levels then hey i find a good team and without hurting my solo play i could run that cool TF or Trial and then when it broke up right back to my soloing. I love the easy interchangibility. the multi-facetting. The variety. Also we were playing Heroes! Heroes are never rude. Heroes HELP people. Its just what we do.
Yeah, that sounds like a Jedi. Massacre a whole room full of people, then stand around apologizing for it. - Swtor NPC
I played mostly support toons in CoX because I wanted to be in an "in demand" class for teaming up to do task forces. When you could get a Mastermind blueside at level 1, I got the demons set and rolled one. I found that playing an MM had striking similarities in play style to my defenders. It was as if, for the defender, the rest of team was your "pets", and they had a smarter AI (usually).
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
agree u guys i hope CoT not make my character has 20 levels of largely solo questing to get through before they're even set loose in the game world, and there's this ongoing story thread about being the chosen one or some shit. But it's somewhat undermined by that niggling knowledge that there are a hundred thousand other chosen ones running around, some lower leveled, some of them higher leveled
whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster and when you look into the abyss, the abyss also look into you, -Friedrich
[img]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm106/hinata1032/Kitsune.jpg[/img]
It's not that I didn't ever team or never wanted to, it's just that sometimes I didn't have the option. Timing, server, and life needs sometimes necessitated that I play alone or not at all.
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This summarizes my hopes and dreams for CoT. Check it out if you'd like.
I too loved support characters and MasterMinds, but it became really difficult to play certain character types who couldn't solo at all. I'm not suggesting overpowering characters who shouldn't be powerful, but maybe there should be multiple paths to victory (kind of like Deus Ex HR).
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This summarizes my hopes and dreams for CoT. Check it out if you'd like.
I agree, as a long time CoX player, there were times where it was rather hard to get a group together due to the time I was on. This could mean a mission might be a bit tricky, but was still doable. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed teaming up with people & making new friends as well. I was so looking forward to ESO, (Elder Scrolls Online) until I started playing the beta & discovered that "teaming up" was nearly a nightmare, when you could manage to do so. Then almost every mission still had to be done by each individual on the team. What the heck is the point of teaming up, but everyone in the group must still complete the task on their own? Plain silliness. I loved the team chat as we worked together to complete a mission. It was a way to often times make new friends, new SG contacts & or both.
Deeds Not Words
I'm certainly with you on wanting to be able to solo most of the content, and I wouldn't want to see an entire system locked out of solo play (i.e. Incarnates before the DA revamp). However, for regular missions I wouldn't need anything other than a difficulty setting mechanic comparable to that of CoX. Speaking as someone who mostly soloed a troller and a defender to 50, I'm fine with the idea of it taking a bit longer if I choose not to team.
Spurn all ye kindle.
What about multiple pathways for completion? For example your in a story arc, you start out the mission solo, so you choose to do the "recon" mission, and complete it. Then three other people jump onto your team, and so you've got some more muscle, and so you choose the "Take em down" option for the next chapter in the story arc. Then after that mission everyone else leaves leaving you solo again, and so you choose the last mission as "One on one showdown." I realize the idea isn't fully formed, I guess the basic premise I'm saying is for each mission there could be multiple ways of completing an objective, to help negate the solo vs team issue. Perhaps not all of my idea is actually feasible, even as I explained it I didn't totally like it, but it's just an idea to soundboard off of.
Love is like a Rhino, short-sighted and hasty; If it cannot find it a way, it will make a way.
-Flavor text on Crash of Rhinos.
I could definitely get behind these kinds of options as long as none was locked behind either solo or team play. Sure, it might be tough for a solo player to do "Take em down" or a bit boring for a team to do "recon" if the majority have to sit still while one character infiltrates, but I'd want the player(s) to be able to make the decision every time.
Spurn all ye kindle.
I think it might get tedious if every time your solo you 'have' to do a recon type mission, so yeah, I'd say make it so the player got to choose the pathway he wanted to follow. Perhaps coupled with a difficulty changing mechanic would be the best way to go about it? "I wanna beat down the Arch villain! On Easy please!"
Love is like a Rhino, short-sighted and hasty; If it cannot find it a way, it will make a way.
-Flavor text on Crash of Rhinos.
I loved teaming , but I also enjoyed running solo from time-to-time; either because I wasn't in the mood to team or didn't have the time. Also, I didn't have a regular group with whom I played for much of my time in CoH and truly detested standing around spamming "LFT" until someone bit. It usually didn't take long before an invite came anyway. If it didn't, I was happy to keep going it alone. The "background chatter" always made the city feel more alive than playing a single-player game.
Everything I've read seems to indicate they're extending the philosophy of freedom of choice to as many facets of the game as possible without it degenerating into freeform anarchy.
"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."
One of the ideas that CoH flirted with (and other games since have worked towards) is what I like to call "Solo" group content. Basically its content that anyone in a zone can work towards completing, but no single player can complete alone.
One of the examples from CoH was the Rikti Mothership. It didn't take much to start it off, but as it went on more and more poeple would join in.
In CoT it would be great if a similar idea could be implemented, but on a more accessable scale. Here's a quick rundown of how this might work, I'll call this content type "Zone Missions":
First Stage:
Defend Warehouses from attacks by Cyberpunk's
A single player can clear all the cyberpunks from one warehourse, of course it goes quicker with a team.
Second Stage:
Once all warehouses are cleared out a new stage pops up visible to the whole zone
Stop Cyberpunk riot.
Cyberpunk groups spawn throughout the city, these groups are large, one player can definately defeat some of these guys, but if there aren't other players there helping a single palyer will get overwhelmed.
Third Stage:
Once the zone passes a certain threshhold of Cyberpunks defeated
The cyberpunks are attempting to power up a robot monster! Destroy the transformers connecting it to the power grid
Players flock to Transformers and attempt to destroy them. This will require numerous heroes working towards keeping the the Cyberpunks defending the Transformer down, as well as dismantling the transformer.
Fourth Stage:
If the players stopped the transformers from powering up Boss Cyberpunk and his elite gaurds show up for a royal rumble with the assembled players
If the players failed to stop the transformers the robot monster activates and the gathered players must fight the robot monster.
The zone event ends and players are rewarded based on some point structure for their involvement in the zone event.
This is just a vague outline. The idea is each major district would have some sort of zone event like this. Maybe they start by defeating X enemies in the district, or maybe it starts by destroying Y objects, it could even just be a random spawn that happens from time to time. There are tons of optoins. It could be a straight fight from beginning to end, or you could mix in hunting for clues, or assembling objects, or escorting civilians to safety. The idea is escalating player involvement, where palyers are funneled from individual achievements to objectives with multiple people in a single area working towards the end goal.
Of course the key to this working is having some sort of visual representation on the player's HUD to signify that a zone mission is in progress and what stage it is in.
This sounds like the typical public quest. Rifts had a slight wrinkle on it in that there are rifts which can be closed by one player while other rifts spawn enemies that are tough enough to require a group.
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[font=Pristina][size=18][b]Hail Beard![/b][/size][/font]
Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
I am made a bit uncomfortable by the somewhat bait & switch idea of something that changes from single- to multi-player as one progresses. I suppose as long as the progression was clear before one began that could work.
Spurn all ye kindle.
Maybe the ability to make our own companion or sidekick at char creation, give them generic UI. But let us select thier role and power sets. That's one thing is love to ser implemented.
"Gotcha!"