Vonb Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 (edited) The social levelling was described as something to encourage people to get together and play in a group etc... make new friends right? After levelling a few characters, one to 50 another to 45, and doing as many Heroics / Flaspoints as possible to get there, my social levels are still extremely low, and do not let me access much social gear at all. I hear that people 'grind' social by repeatedly running the Esseles / Black talon and space baring through it all. Is this really the way people get to high 'social' level... by doing the same Flashpoint dozens of times and space barring through it all? It seems to me that is the exact opposite of what 'social' should be... I might be missing something, so please tell me that I am! Edited May 13, 2012 by Vonb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HKDeath Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 (edited) I might be missing something, so please tell me that I am! I could tell you that you're missing something, but I'd be lying. You seem to grasp how it's done perfectly. Edited May 13, 2012 by HKDeath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V-Serp Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Even doing that it takes forever. Social should be like legacy and be for all your characters on your server. Also you should get social points for doing warzones or chatting in general chat. Isn't social in an MMO talking to each other? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FITorion Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 There is no LFG tool yet. So the Esseles and Black Talon flashpoints are the easiest to find people to do. They also are good for grinding affection with your first companion. Once 1.3 and thus the LFG tool hits then I look forward to doing all the flashpoints. Until then I'll help out people leveling alts wanting to do Esseles and/or BT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drudenfusz Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 I think there are not enough different ways to get social points in game, no social points for teams which hunt world bosses, no social points for teams which do PvP (I think one or two points per MVP would be nice), and so on... it's all about the shared conversation, but if I join someone who has already done the conversation we don'T get anything for doing the heroic together. It's really sad how it is cureently in the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaz Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Leveling up, I was constantly doing Flashpoints and planetary Heroics. I was still Social 1 upon reaching 50. How? That's easy. Most FPs/Heroics have zero social triggers mid-quest. They only have social triggers for the initial quest-gaining conversation and the final quest-ending conversation. Nearly everyone already has the quest prior to grouping (thus not receiving social points for the initial quest conversation), and then they drop group before turning it in (thus receiving no points for the final quest conversation). I can't count the number of times I requested... no, flat-out BEGGED folks to stay together for turn-ins, and they didn't even say a word in response prior to dropping. Even players who had previously stated that they were doing these quests for the social points. This is primarily why BT/Esseles is run so much. It is one of the very few quests that have several social-point moments during the quest itself. So even if you are being social, most of the time the game doesn't recognize it. My response? I put my time in, and got nothing, so it's no longer worth my time. But it's still frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thominoh Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 Games like this are not well designed for social interaction.. There are just too many barriers.. The first problem is the leveling mechanic.. Because questing seems to be 95% of the PvE experience, seldom do you find alts or "late" newcomers on the same quest at the same time to really socialize, let alone get social points.. If I was dev, I would award social points based on "kills" while grouped.. NOT some chat requirement of interaction.. Further with the quest thing.. I've always felt that social grouping and leveling should of been based on quest turn in's, not the over used "kill 10 rats" thing.. Instead of having so many NPC's that you are forced to interact with, why not reduce the number of questing NPC, to item turn in NPC's.. Example: Go to Mr NPC and turn in 5 (new item) and receive commondation, credits and experience.. Doing this you allow random people anywhere in the zone to group up socially without any questline restrictions or limits.. If I and the group I'm in want to camp one area for 15 items, that is our option,, IF we wish to move around the zone at OUR discretion that is our option.. IF people come and leave the group, it does NOT effect the groups game play..... THIS in my opinion is more social then what MMO's are doing today.. It gives game play more of a sandbox feel, then a linear path in which you feel pushed to follow.. Just saying..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerion Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 I find it telling that MMOs, even since EQ, try and try and try to incentivize grouping/social. I mean to put in incentives, you have to start with the premise that players aren't going to group/socialize. So the question becomes, why do developers of MMOs start off designing a game and its systems with the presumption that players aren't going to group? The next question becomes, if players are presumed not to group, then why even develop a system to persuade players to do something they aren't inclined to do? I'm sure someone will state " there are incentives for grouping because grouping up takes time and can be difficult". Okay. But why is that? If people wanted to group, you'd think it would be easy, you'd think there would be no reason for creating incentives to group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andex Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 (edited) I leveled 1-50 with 3 other players. By the time I hit 50, I was Social VIII. With the changes from 1.2 patches, completing quests and bonus quests now grants social points, as well as conversations. Remember to start and end mission conversations together. This includes Flashpoints. I'm not ashamed to say I spent the last social level and a half, to X, by doing some Black Talon runs. The unfortunate part about being Social X is that it affords me absolutely nothing special. I get a vanity title, Big Time, and free access to the /doublelasers emote, but they removed my Galactic Party Bomb ( ). Social Gear used to be bugged (it needed to be unequipped and re-equipped for the armor/mod/enhancement to take effect) and, at this point in time, it can't be reverse engineered into augmented gear to serve a viable purpose. It's fun for leveling, if you have the access to it and want to waste some credits by ripping the armor/mod/enhancements out of other pieces, and it has a few vanity items (Alderaan has Social VII pet and mount, though you'll be very hard pressed to have that social level by the time you get to Alderaan), but it remains more a "Yeah, I got it." and less of an important contribution to your character (unless you're a completionist.) Edited May 13, 2012 by Andex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBSIP Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 the current system is very friendly to IRL groups or alt groups doing the full leveling process together. Pugs, not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vonb Posted May 13, 2012 Author Share Posted May 13, 2012 Ok thansk for the replies, Well that means the changes to make social gear adaptable to various armor types are irrelevent to me as I won't grind mindlessly the same FP dozens of time to be able to buy that gear. Or is there any changes coming soon to improve that really less than stellar situation? Oh also, I am not sure how this thread ended parked in the Flashpoint section... it is not about Flashpoints, it is about social and how to level it to get gear... oh wait no I figured it out... running the Esseles / Black Talon dowens of times is the ONLY way.... and they ARE Flashpoints I guess... that must be the reason, surely it can not be anything to do with trying to make another major flaw of the game less visible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SentinelDranoel Posted May 13, 2012 Share Posted May 13, 2012 the current system is very friendly to IRL groups or alt groups doing the full leveling process together. Pugs, not so much. ^ pretty much, me and my fiance are social 4 right now at level 40 without even attempting to collect social points Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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