Solo mode for heroics...my thoughts

[LordArtemis]

seriously..asking to be able to "solo" what's designed as "group" content..is asinine.

 

You have a right to feel this way. But I would say perhaps that making that point qualifies instead.

[Zekim]

I have to agree with the idea of soloable heroics. I am almost purely a daytime player and more often than not, its just hard to find a group. I would support heroics that are scaled to group size but the rewards should be scaled down the same. I often try to solo 2 person heroics as a personal challenge and the payout can be nice in the end but I do enjoy getting a group together whenever I can. It just isn't always an option.

[CosmicKat]

You normally have some good ideas LA but this one is like building a pen to keep the cows around the barn instead of closing the barn door.

 

Fix the problems with the group content, not the problems that arise because group content is minimal and poorly implemented.

[jorill]

It would only work with heroics anyways. The AI on companions isnt good enough to handle most of the boss mechanics. Its not even smart enough not to use aoe if something is cc'ed. Also I like this idea in general because it gives you something else to do with your companions

[well]

It is a good idea despite what some say.It is a game first.You can solo the game so there is no reason there can't be heroics to solo.For some it is difficult to find someone to group with.Myself I don't like dealing with the drama.The rare times I have grouped besides PVP it hasn't been fun.I damn sure don't want to be stuck with some of the folks on this forum.Legends in their own mind.You get two in the same group and they spend all the time butting heads.I don't need to waste my time with that.I can get it in real world for free.Games are suppose to be fun:eek:

[ELRunninW]

A. It is true, you are playing the wrong game if you do avoid groups. If you can not find one, join a guild, there is no excuse for not joining a guild and still complaining about not being able to find a group.

B. Heroics are by no means necessary for anything.

C. You can solo heroic missions, I have done that, except for missions that require more than one person to participate due to mechanics. Heroic missions are already challenging.

 

I see no reason to change anything.

[CosmicKat]

It is a good idea despite what some say.It is a game first.You can solo the game so there is no reason there can't be heroics to solo.For some it is difficult to find someone to group with.Myself I don't like dealing with the drama.The rare times I have grouped besides PVP it hasn't been fun.I damn sure don't want to be stuck with some of the folks on this forum.Legends in their own mind.You get two in the same group and they spend all the time butting heads.I don't need to waste my time with that.I can get it in real world for free.Games are suppose to be fun:eek:

 

What you are describing are flaws in the game design, not in the players.

 

1) TOR never forces or properly incentivizes grouping. Thus, most people never do it.

2) If people never group, they never learn how to group.

3) Because of 1 and 2, players never learn to "play nice" with other players. There are no consequences to being a jerk.

4) In an MMO, if you have people grouping up for the first time in their 20-30's, something is seriously wrong.

5) TOR will never, ever be a group-centered game. Those who wish to solo will always have that option, no matter what is ever done to improve or expand group content.

[gorstram]

Obviously heroics were designed to be a group effort, and I am sure many folks have seen what it is like when you try to run 4 man heroics with 2 or three players and companions to fill the empty seats...especially if you are not a few levels above the mobs.

 

Bioware has the metrics, so they know for sure, but my guess would be that many folks skip the heroics, and do so because it is tough to get groups going for them. Folks seem to rarely use groupfinder. This ends up causing players like myself to perhaps skip a good portion of content.

 

So what if we could run a heroic using three comps...a solo mode?

 

Here is how I think it would work.

 

First, it would be treated like an open world area with respect to loot, so rewards would be equal to a regular mission reward at the proper level. Next, it would obviously offer quite a challenge....comps are no replacement for players, so if the difficulty remains the same, it would make for some challenging play.

 

Might be nice for some folks that are looking for some challenging gameplay during the course of the game. You would still want to group up if you can, because the rewards would be substantially higher for less effort.

 

What do you guys think? Do you think this would make getting groups for Heroics even worse?

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Well worded post as always Artemis. I think that if we were to look at this as an evolutionary step to the game, then perhaps. But let's look at the purpose of heroics. The heroic missions were meant to be a completely optional quests that you could take on with other like minded players to obtain better loot and experience from an area of the map. They purposefully took these missions out of the planetary quest chains in order to make them optional.

 

Later on, some players were crafty enough to be able to solo heroic 2+ missions, and some classes can even duo the heroic 4+. But the thing is, heroic 4+ were meant to be as challenging as a flash point without actually leaving the planet one was adventuring on.

 

So the question is, do I stand by the intent of the developers to maintain heroic 4+ as group content, or do I support being able to summon more comps in a solo capacity?

 

I would have to say, due to some glaring PvP issues, that I would have to put my support behind maintaining the status quo. If the extra companions disappeared when another player arrived to do combat, similar to how they disappear when others if a group arrive to fill the max number of players, then I would be okay with the solo mode. It's different, and would breathe a little life into leveling characters.

[zachass]

To be honest, I did not read all 6 pages of comments, so excuse me if this has been touched on already. One possible flaw in a 3-companion group, is that many classes don't even get a third companion until Act 2 of their storyline e.g. Balmorra/Taris. So the majority of Heroic 4's up to this point would be impossible for some classes.

[jorill]

To be honest, I did not read all 6 pages of comments, so excuse me if this has been touched on already. One possible flaw in a 3-companion group, is that many classes don't even get a third companion until Act 2 of their storyline e.g. Balmorra/Taris. So the majority of Heroic 4's up to this point would be impossible for some classes.

 

I think it was touched on that you can get treek and hk at lvl 10 so you would have 3 companions then

[zachass]

I think it was touched on that you can get treek and hk at lvl 10 so you would have 3 companions then

 

Fair enough. I didn't really think about that. Although, from an RP perspective, how long would you suppose HK would tolerate Treek in your group before "initiating assassination protocols?"

[psandak]

I do tend to skip the planetary heroics for the simple fact that groups can be hard to get together. I have soloed a handful of 2+ heroics being several levels over and having a decently geared companion.

 

And there is precedence for group content being converted to soloable - When the burning crusade expansion came out in WoW, most of the vanilla/legacy/original world "group required" quests were either eliminated or converted to solo content.

 

I am not saying BioWare should follow Blizzard's example. What I am pointing out is that the OP does have a valid point and a "solution" that has been implemented in another game in the past.

[well]

What you are describing are flaws in the game design, not in the players.

 

1) TOR never forces or properly incentivizes grouping. Thus, most people never do it.

2) If people never group, they never learn how to group.

3) Because of 1 and 2, players never learn to "play nice" with other players. There are no consequences to being a jerk.

4) In an MMO, if you have people grouping up for the first time in their 20-30's, something is seriously wrong.

5) TOR will never, ever be a group-centered game. Those who wish to solo will always have that option, no matter what is ever done to improve or expand group content.

 

I agree with a lot you say.The thing it is about extra content.That shouldn't be a problem.It is better to have to much then not enough.To be honest I doubt I would do to many.I just don't have the time.Between going thru the game,crafting, farming for the crafting and dailies it keeps me busy. For selfish reason I want as many players as possible playing the game. I also PVP and if you remember before the consolidation how long it took to get in a game.Seemed like forever.So I want as many people playing this game as possible.

[Ottoattack]

Solo mode for heroics, is a cool idea, but its not really a big issue. Most heroics can be soloed with healer comp, if you are highly geared, and other have stupid button check (Aurora Cannon in Section X) to force people to group. But I rarely run into problems finding people for heroics, between 10 and 1 AM, as role usually is not important. If you need exclusive tank or healers though, GL, cuz you won't find any.

[LordArtemis]

I would like to add that you would not be able to summon the third and fourth companion until you are inside the heroic.

 

You can run heroic 4 mans with two players and two companions, so really you are just replacing the second player. Also, I suppose it could be possible to design this system in such a way that adding another player to the group would remove one companion and boost the rewards....if you get at least one player, you lose a comp and the rewards would reset to normal.

 

The question about this, however, is couldnt this be exploited? A person would solo almost the entire instance and then when they get to the final battle/boss they would get another player to join and finish it, and get full rewards.

 

I think solo mode should remain solo mode for the entire instance...you choose solo mode, you get reduced rewards regardless of whether or not you get other players to join.

[JimG]

So what if we could run a heroic using three comps...a solo mode?

Sorry, never gonna happen. They'd have to make some major structural changes to be able to allow 3 of your companions out at once. They aren't going to go through all that effort just so you can find a group for heroics easier.

[jorill]

Fair enough. I didn't really think about that. Although, from an RP perspective, how long would you suppose HK would tolerate Treek in your group before "initiating assassination protocols?"

 

haha, yea. I was thinking the same thing you were though until that was brought up

[LordArtemis]

Sorry, never gonna happen. They'd have to make some major structural changes to be able to allow 3 of your companions out at once. They aren't going to go through all that effort just so you can find a group for heroics easier.

 

I don't agree. There are missions in the game where every companion you have joins the fight.

 

You would have one companion to directly control (as normal) and two autonomous companions. They would work the same way they work in class missions when summoned.

[LordArtemis]

nope give an inch and people will want a mile. Open heroics to 3 man comp group and people will want HM's that way also.

 

The "give an inch" reason is never a valid reason for anything IMO. Not only is it not the case every time, it doesn't matter if folks want more...folks wanted more for universal comms and comm limits, and got both. Now they are asking for comm caps for higher comms to go up...not a bad request.

 

Some times subsequent requests can be good ones.

[TW-Cool]

As long as you get maybe half the rewards, I will agree with the idea of solo heroics with 3 companions. Good luck to BW-EA for trying to control when to give what rewards though... Perhaps having a button that enables "3 companion solo mode". Once you enter that mode your heroic quests get converted to Solo quests. Whenever you leave that mode, any solo heroic quest you have gets reset and returns to Group heroic mode.

 

 

I recall a Trooper story mission where you worked with all your companions and thought that was cool.

 

[CarpeSangrea]

Why do people like this even bother playing mmo's in the first place?

[JamieKirby]

Normally, i would say 'keep heroics as group quests' but from experience with players in a storydriven mmo, a choice of grouping or solo'ing something with a diminished reward system for the solo version would be preferrable, the amount of times i get moaned at to skip the conversations when in a group, it really ruins the experience for me, regardless if i have seen it or not.

 

At this rate, grouping in swtor is like wow, because all they see is gear grinding, instead of stories to be told and the way i see it, the solo versions should be completeable just a single time per character and no more then that.

[Sith-Viscera]

Normally, i would say 'keep heroics as group quests' but from experience with players in a storydriven mmo, a choice of grouping or solo'ing something with a diminished reward system for the solo version would be preferrable, the amount of times i get moaned at to skip the conversations when in a group, it really ruins the experience for me, regardless if i have seen it or not.

 

At this rate, grouping in swtor is like wow, because all they see is gear grinding, instead of stories to be told and the way i see it, the solo versions should be completeable just a single time per character and no more then that.

 

 

I Concur, He is right. I mean i can't tell you how many times i never got to see some aspects of heroics, or some FP even, because everyone i'm grouped with they want to SKIP the parts of the campaign they deem a waste of time, maybe to me it isn't and plus i want to experience the whole show, so to speak.

 

Solo with Companions would be perfect for those times when a group just isn't SUFFICIENT enough to complete YOUR Goal as well as your SWTOR ADVENTURE....

[LordArtemis]

And that's the idea.

 

I'm willing to bet that most folks solo most of the game while leveling. I'd also bet that most folks skip heroics. Adding the ability to run heroics solo, even with reduced rewards, would add more content and slow down the leveling process IMO...and that is how it should have been from the beginning.

[Test_Eagle]

I support this for heroics such as the seeker droid and macrobinoculars, one off heroics. I haven't completed the end heroics on any of my characters simply because I can't find any groups. If BW is going to create these type of one off heroic missions that will have less and less people doing them after a while, then they should have some sort of mechanism to help those who come to them after the majority have done it.