Mentoring System soonish???

[DukeAtreides]

Would love this.. why don't we have it?

We got a great group of friends in our community, and we have to create these silly leveling pacts if we want to level together damn it.

 

Do what must be done Bioware! Give us some sort of Mentoring/Sidekick system!

Edited May 21, 2013 by DukeAtreides

[TheBBP]

I hope so. This is my number 1 needed feature.

[MrHotter]

I'd like that.

 

We have enough in place to help with this already...bolstering/universal planetary commendations/group finder.

 

I guess they just need to work out a 'reverse' bolster system.

 

Imagine all the groups that would be doing the lower level flashpoints if we could be getting basic or planetary comms for mentoring.

[Icebergy]

I have never understood the appeal of these type of systems.

[Ocho-Quatro]

City of Heroes/Villains had a great system for this....

 

Scenario:

 

Four people want to play together. They are level 20, 22, 40 and 55. The 40 and 55 players want to play with their friends/guildmates to help them level in story/planet content without nerfing their exp.

 

The level 22 player is given the group lead. That will automatically raise or lower the "effective" level of everyone else in the group. This means, the level 20 player will now have a "bolster" to level 22, and the level 40 and 55 players will have a "reverse-bolster" to level 22. Their stats will be reduced appropriately, and they temporarily lose access to all skills purchased/trained after level 22.

 

The level 20 receives equivalent experience for his actual level, as does the level 22. (i.e. if they are fighting level 24 baddies, they BOTH receive exp based on a +2 scale, and not +2 for the level 22 character and +4 for the level 20 character.) The level 40 does not receive character experience at all, but instead receives legacy experience and credits (equivalent to his level). The level 55, assuming that he is not legacy-capped, will also gain legacy experience and credits.

 

There would also be a tier of achievements and possibly a title/titles for time spent "mentoring" lower level players.

 

Now, to keep the powerleveling culled to a minimum.... I'd imagine there would have to be some sort of cap on the level-cap to bolster UP. (not DOWN tho....) Maybe 10 levels maximum?

[ImpactHound]

I have never understood the appeal of these type of systems.

 

I feel bad for you, not wanting to play with a broader range of players in a social game. Then again, TOR does push the single player story and encourages people to play alone which is contrary to MMO design, so I get where you might be coming from.

[Icebergy]

I feel bad for you, not wanting to play with a broader range of players in a social game. Then again, TOR does push the single player story and encourages people to play alone which is contrary to MMO design, so I get where you might be coming from.

 

I have plenty of people to play with already. Maybe I am the one that should feel bad for you, since you need to seek out more people to play with?

[Ocho-Quatro]

I love the internet.

 

How quickly the OPs point is forgotten, and the thread devolves into insults and snide remarks.

[Malastare]

I find myself wanting this more and more.

 

Now, this is not a complaint, so listen to everything before you judge: The over-level experience penalty has done a lot to destroy the idea of people helping each other through quests. I know why it was done. It's a suitable solution to prevent trivial power-leveling and I think it actually solves it in a realistic manner. That said, it's fairly aggressive, and my wife and I found that we couldn't actually level together unless the characters were within 2-3 levels of each other.

 

We normally level up specific pairs of characters. Once, I re-created a character and had the awkward experience of running around Tython with some smuggler following me. We couldn't be grouped, or I'd get only a tiny fraction of XP. She couldn't start any fights because then I'd get zero XP. There was nothing for her to do, but follow patiently and kick anything big that I couldn't kill in a couple seconds.

 

Now... if there were a mentoring system, she could have grouped up and we could have played together. She wouldn't have cared that she didn't gain XP. That wasn't the point. We just wanted to play together without totally gimping my XP gain.

 

At the same time, I've seen a number of mid-level characters offering to help new players on the low planets. This is really nice of them, and I'd like to do the same thing... but I know that if I help someone on Coruscant with my Level 29 Shadow, they're getting next to no XP for all the quests we do. I'd happily scale myself down to their level to help... if the mechanic simply existed to allow that.

 

I suspect that if this was added and mild rewards given (planetary or basic comms), that we'd see more people willing to travel back to the earlier planets (or even later, challenging planets like Hoth) to help others through quests. It would be a nice way for people to get a change of scenery and do some quests they haven't done in a while.

[Ocho-Quatro]

That said, it's fairly aggressive, and my wife and I found that we couldn't actually level together unless the characters were within 2-3 levels of each other.

 

I have this problem while leveling with my wife also. I enjoy PvP, especially while leveling, since hitting 55 with capped warzone coms, is a nice easy/fast way to grab the Partisan Ear, Implants & Relics as a stopgap while I wait to get BiS. However, since I enjoy PvP, and my wife hates it with a passion, I tend to do it while she is not online. So eventually, I start to creep away from her in level, especially with Daily PvP bonuses, and have to stop, and figure out a way for her to catch up so I don't start nerfing her exp while we are playing together.

 

I'd much rather, be able to play my toon as a I please, with or without her online... and if I outlevel her, I could just reverse-bolster myself, and do HER missions until she catches up and then we can continue playing as normal.

 

It would be a really nice QoL addition for sure.

[Rieverre]

Honestly, I sort of want adaptive instances, or the option to - if you're on a planet and running quests that are already grey for you - 'reverse-bolster' down to their 'recommended' level. You have to wonder why that isn't standard fare - that way, devs could balance content easier, players would complain about content being too easy less, and completionists would actually have some incentive to go back and hit stuff they've missed before without it being a walk in the park (amusing as it is, I loathe facerolling stuff just because I wanted to get in a space mission, and maybe a few flashpoints, and suddenly I'm overleveled for my place in the quest chain).

 

This is actually my issue with a number of MMOs, and one that - to a limited extent - City of Heroes/Villains had a handle on. Most instances there were adaptive to one extent or another, scaling not just to level but to number of people in your party.

[Ocho-Quatro]

City of Heroes/Villains had a handle on. Most instances there were adaptive to one extent or another, scaling not just to level but to number of people in your party.

 

That raises another interesting point that I had forgotten about with CoH/V...

 

The difficulty slider.

 

You could go see a certain NPC that would let you set your own difficulty. You could choose to never have "Arch Villains" in a mission, which would be the equivalent of a Champion in SWTOR if you were doing something solo... You could also scale the overall difficulty, which affect the number of mobs in an instance, the number of Weaks vs. Standards vs. Strongs vs. Elites ratios... You could even set yourself, to be treated solo, like an 8-man team. You could also set it so that the mobs you faced would be anywhere from (iirc) -3 to +3 of your level.

 

Basically, you could tailor the difficulty of the missions you faced, to the experience you wanted either solo or in a team, and you were rewarded accordingly with exp/currency gain based on the difficulty levels you chose.

 

So.... Did you outlevel a mission? Not a problem. Just crank up your difficulty and make it still a challenging encounter. Did you hit a new area too fast and you can't clear a mission because you're underleveled and can't find a team? Just crank the difficulty down a bit.

 

It wasn't a perfect system, but it certainly had it merits, and that, along with the Exemplar/Sidekick system imho should be standard operating practice in any current MMO in my opinion.

[Malastare]

Honestly, I sort of want adaptive instances, or the option to - if you're on a planet and running quests that are already grey for you - 'reverse-bolster' down to their 'recommended' level.

 

Adaptive leveling is a slightly different effect. It ends up feeling a lot like Skyrim, where you're always challenged.... and never actually powerful. You can't ever really get ahead of a particularly tough fight, such as the end of the first chapter of the Agent quest as a Sniper. With the sight bugs and a general mismatch in strengths, the only way I beat it was to get a few more levels. The last thing I'd want is for the quest to scale up.. or for me to be scaled down to it. I'm all for learning new ways to fight, but that's not a terribly friendly way.

 

I'd want it to be optional. The goal is to avoid hamstringing the XP gain of everyone else in the group, so the simplest solution seems to be to allow me to downscale to the group-leader's level. No need to rebalance quests. No need to write code to automatically adjust quests. Just an anti-bolster to keep me from facerolling everything. Same quests. Same experience for everyone else. Only adjust the people who choose to be "mentors".

[AlaricSevGirl]

I am 100% for a mentoring system. As a guild we play together a lot but for the lowbies to not get experience is just crazy. GW2 did it right. Down level the higher level player to content level. Now GW2 doesn't take away abilities but they are weakened.

[ScarletBlaze]

I would like this as well. As my shadow is 55 but the one person I would love to group with is level 43 and when I grouped with him it diminishes his experience. If I could group with him without hurting his xp that would be great.

 

Another friend has the same problem. She just started playing again and her boyfriend would love to group with her without diminishing her xp. He is lv 46 and she is 13. This is something I think is very much needed.

[ScarletBlaze]

I have never understood the appeal of these type of systems.

 

Maybe the appeal for these type of systems is where it allows you to group with a lower level friend without causing her to loose any xp because of you. I know I have guild members who would love this as well as I would like this.

[Khevar]

I have plenty of people to play with already. Maybe I am the one that should feel bad for you, since you need to seek out more people to play with?

What a snide comment.

 

I've got plenty of people in my guild that I could level with. But if we're more than 5 levels apart, xp is nerfed into oblivion.

 

How cool would it be for friends that already run raids together, and who get along great, to be able to level their alts in a group whenever they felt like it, despite any disparity in character level?

 

Can you truly not see the value in this?

[JimG]

I have never understood the appeal of these type of systems.

I have plenty of people to play with already. Maybe I am the one that should feel bad for you, since you need to seek out more people to play with?

 

Talk about clueless. It has nothing to do with finding people to play with. When people have various characters at differing levels from their friends, it allows them to play with their friends despite significant level differences.

[Ocho-Quatro]

I have never understood the appeal of these type of systems.

 

This type of system is NOT for powergamers or progression raiders. It simply will not appeal to the type of player who mostly enjoys engame raiding, min/maxing and striving for Server/World Firsts on new content clears. (So Icebergy, in looking at your forum signature, I am not surprised that you don't see the appeal of this type of system, because it doesn't benefit endgamers very much.)

 

This type of system, slows the progression of higher level players, in turn prioritizing the social aspect of the game in lieu of progression.

 

Neither one of those 2 playstyles is right/wrong/bad/good..... The "right" way to play this (or any) game, is whatever gives YOU the most enjoyment.

 

So while it's not a system that will hold benefits for EVERYONE, it's a worthwhile addition to the game for a large portion of the playerbase. Pretty much everything is that way.... When they add a new warzone, do the strict PvE'ers really care? No. When they added Nightmare Mode to Explosive Conflict, did the PvP crowd, or the casual players who still hadn't cleared Hard Mode care? No. Not every bit of content or game addition is going to be in everyone's wheelhouse.

[JLazarillo]

CoH did this great and I loved it there.

 

I don't know that it would be as useful here though. Because of the way this game is built around the story missions, and because of how long travel to a different area takes, it's not particularly convenient to change gears and go help a friend as is. I think that problem with the system would need to be fixed before mentoring would be useful.

[Rieverre]

I'd want it to be optional. The goal is to avoid hamstringing the XP gain of everyone else in the group, so the simplest solution seems to be to allow me to downscale to the group-leader's level. No need to rebalance quests. No need to write code to automatically adjust quests. Just an anti-bolster to keep me from facerolling everything. Same quests. Same experience for everyone else. Only adjust the people who choose to be "mentors".

 

Yup. I specifically said 'the option to reverse-bolster'. Or just leaving the current way things are played/scaled as 'classic' mode.

 

Also, we've already seen something along these lines, or at least I assume it was thus intended, in the Macrobinoculars quest line, where certain instances at least claimed to scale to group size. I'd want more of that, because after checking out a few other MMOs I have to say SWTOR does grouping and group-questing better than any of them. It's outright painful trying to level with a friend and go through content in other MMORPGs for me now.

[Ocho-Quatro]

...because of how long travel to a different area takes, it's not particularly convenient to change gears and go help a friend as is......

 

That raises an off-topic point for me........... Fade To Black Taxi Rides.

 

I've leveled 4 characters from 1 to 50, and a slew of others into the mid 30s-40s..... And I have thus far taken 3 of my 4 50s to 55 and I am working on the 4th.

 

And in over 300 total character levels, I have seen "fade to black taxis" on exactly ONE planet: MAKEB

 

So, the most recently added planet, with the newest content, and probably some of the best graphical displays of landscape and "world" rendering..... I don't get to see whilst speedering around because the taxis are fade-to-black nearly instant travel. BUT... the umpteenth time I finish the planet story on Alderaan... I have to spend literally (I've timed it) FIVE MINUTES on the taxi ride from the last mission area back to the spaceport. Hoth, Belsavis and Voss? Same thing.... So... the planets I've seen a dozen times over the past year, I am stuck riding the full taxi lengths, and the new planet I have to skip?

 

Another little nice QoL addition, would be an on/off toggle to enable/disable ALL taxi trips to be "Fade-to-Black" or "Real Time Travel".....

 

/end off-topic rant.

[ImpactHound]

I am 100% for a mentoring system. As a guild we play together a lot but for the lowbies to not get experience is just crazy. GW2 did it right. Down level the higher level player to content level. Now GW2 doesn't take away abilities but they are weakened.

 

They're bumping UP in the new Living Story content they put out monthly now also. I took a level 11 into the new islands they opened and was bumped to 80 because it's a limited event zone. I was definitely missing the punch from being a talented, geared 80, but I could at least get the armor from achievements and participate in the group events killing champions, got the jumping puzzle done too.

[Malastare]

Yup. I specifically said 'the option to reverse-bolster'. Or just leaving the current way things are played/scaled as 'classic' mode.

 

I was taking more issue with the idea that you would be reverse-bolstered to the quest level, rather than the party level. Basing it on the quest level makes it similar to adaptive-level quests (albeit in a backward manner). If I'm mentoring a level 20 character on Imperial-Balmorra, I want to run a Heroic-4 as a pair of Level 20's, not have one or both of us dropped to Level 16.

 

Also, we've already seen something along these lines, or at least I assume it was thus intended, in the Macrobinoculars quest line, where certain instances at least claimed to scale to group size.

 

You do know that there are loads of quests that scale to group size right now, right? This is particularly true with class quests, where it's common for mob groups to spawn an additional Elite if you play with three people. Some 2-man Heroics do it. Some higher level instanced quests do it. It's very real and it already exists.

 

In fact, some of them scaled to the point that they were way harder in groups of 3 or 4. There was a bug once (at least I hope it was a bug) where one of the quests in the Bounty Hunter line (the encounter where you need to assemble a jetpack) would spawn whole extra groups of Strong/Elite mobs to toss at you if you had three or more group members. In that case, it became nearly impossible to complete at the quest level as you were swamped with Elites and other mobs with no room to run or control aggro. Dropping one group member made the fight more manageable.

[Vassise]

Isnt this more of a role playing feature?