Solo Everything

[Katushe]

 

NO, no, no.

 

Find a good guild.

 

No, no, no.

 

I don't like coordinating with other people. I like my guild. I don't like doing ops. With my guild or not, regardless.

 

I hate the wait for the group to be formed, I hate ppl that waste my time by messing up, I hate socializing.

 

Why would I be FORCED to group up? Why?

 

I don't care about rewards. I want to play the game-play. Alone. I pay the sub alone, I want to be able to enjoy the entire game alone.

 

@ aerockyul

 

[...] if everything was made soloable it would not affect you in any way. If it was boring, no suspense, easy to do and so on, that be the problem of those doing it solo. Not your problem. [...].

 

^this. For all those "This is a MMA" arguing guys.

Edited March 8, 2017 by Katushe

[AngelCath]

I would love this too, being able to finish quests without spamming fleet. When I am online I want to actually play, not sit on fleet and hope that someone wants to do a Starfortress with me.

And I HATE having to spam chat to form a group.

 

I have actually stopped playing the game because I do not want to start KOTET without finishing the Voss Starfortress,

 

Before anyone tells me to get a guild - I play 18 alts on my main server alone. I do not spend enough time on any specific character to be "active" in a guild, and I doubt any guild would want all my alts.

 

Alternatively add the story important group content to group finder, like the Shroud and the Star fortresses.

Edited March 8, 2017 by AngelCath

[SteveTheCynic]

I have actually stopped playing the game because I do not want to start KOTET without finishing the Voss Starfortress,

So get in there and do the Voss Star Fortress, then.

 

Take your highest-ranked companion and go.

 

Clue time: I have only ever done these with my character and my companion. Never, ever with another player, and I've done all six fortresses.

 

And Voss was the first.

 

And I did no research and just dived in and did it.

 

I didn't know there were grappling hook points to move around the ring. I didn't know how the ring rooms worked. I didn't know what the shield objects were for. I didn't know, well, pretty much anything.

 

I died.

 

I fell in holes. I tried to walk along ropes that are just visual with no actual object there, and fell in holes. When I worked out about the grappling hooks, I sometimes got turned around by the wonky mechanics of the hooks, and walked off the edge I had just landed in and fell in holes. I forgot to put my sunscreen on and got fried to a crisp. I stopped concentrating on the fights in the ring rooms to concentrate on the mechanics and got squished like the inattentive moron I had just become. I let Lana beat me in the aggro race so she got squished(1) and then I got kerbstomped by the Exarch once she wasn't healing me any more.

 

I died a *LOT*.

 

But I won in the end because it's yet another instance of the Jennur's Horde Rule: when something is hard, you have an opportunity to learn to play better.

 

(1) This was before the Great Companion Nerf of 2015, and their defensive stats were bugged. They were very strong, but squishier than the first K'lor Slug you ever faced on Korriban, when you came back as a level 60 before KotFE came out and faced it again.

[Tsillah]

+1

I agree, though it may take a little exploration to find the right type of guild.

 

How do you make operations soloable anyway?

Take out the boss mechanics and just make the bosses normal champions.

 

That's probably what story mode should be and then we have have Normal Mode back where we have all the proper mechanics that story mode used to have.

Edited March 8, 2017 by Tsillah

[AngelCath]

So get in there and do the Voss Star Fortress, then.

 

.

You think I haven't?

 

But a side effect of playing a lot of alts is that you do not have great gear or high ranked companions on any of them, because I am more interested in playing the stories than grinding for gear or affection.

 

I have been in there, and I have died, and died, and died and died.

I am usually quite stubborn, but the thought of doing this over and over again 18 times.... that is not fun anymore.

I want to finish the stories in the best possible way, but getting stuck because of being forced to group up is not fun for me at all.

 

Oh, and I have finished the Shroud quest on one of all these alts, the seeds on exactly one as well.

I run FPs sometimes, but those I can get into through automatic queues, no spamming and waiting for that.

[casirabit]

My objection isn't to there being a solo option, just that the solo option is so incredibly boring. I know that's subjective. But Bioware wouldn't make these solo encounters fun for anyone. As I said, I would have agreed completely as I was 100% solo for most of this game's existence, but what they did with the Revan fight was so off-putting that I wouldn't trust Bioware to be able to make solo options engaging on any level.

 

Not so sure about that. Sometimes doing things solo or with 1 other person can be better than having to deal with a large group of people who can't stop arguing back and forth. I can see both sides of it.

 

I did operations but it wasn't that much fun due to constant arguing back and forth, i.e. who was the better dps, who was the better tank. Half the time I just wanted to tell them shut up so we could finish the operations. True not every group is like that.

 

soloing or duo play can be a little more fun as you don't have to deal with those types.

 

Though making operations solo I don't think will work as some of them have puzzles that require more than 1-2 people.

[psandak]

I would love this too, being able to finish quests without spamming fleet. When I am online I want to actually play, not sit on fleet and hope that someone wants to do a Starfortress with me.

And I HATE having to spam chat to form a group.

 

I have actually stopped playing the game because I do not want to start KOTET without finishing the Voss Starfortress,

 

Before anyone tells me to get a guild - I play 18 alts on my main server alone. I do not spend enough time on any specific character to be "active" in a guild, and I doubt any guild would want all my alts.

 

Alternatively add the story important group content to group finder, like the Shroud and the Star fortresses.

 

I know guildmates with 44 characters across three servers that they play regularly. Don't assume no one will take you in. There are plenty of socially oriented guilds that form groups on the spur of the moment simply because they are online at the same time and want to play together.

 

I did operations but it wasn't that much fun due to constant arguing back and forth, i.e. who was the better dps, who was the better tank. Half the time I just wanted to tell them shut up so we could finish the operations. True not every group is like that.

 

My main raiding group does some of that but all in jest; we have a REALLY good DPSer that all the others want to reach, and on the off chance someone beats this player someone asks, "what happened?" and we all laugh .

[Andryah]

Though making operations solo I don't think will work as some of them have puzzles that require more than 1-2 people.

 

This was actually tried years ago in Rift. They were terrible. You earned reasonable XP, but the rewards were trash, and they quickly got boring. The only actual merit they had was you could send new raiders in the guild to run through them to become familiar with basic layout and mechanics before they actually participated in actual raids.

 

This is probably the most solo friendly MMO on the market right now.. and yet that is not enough for some people. Some people want it even more dumbed down and trivialize OPs content in the process.

[casirabit]

I would love this too, being able to finish quests without spamming fleet. When I am online I want to actually play, not sit on fleet and hope that someone wants to do a Starfortress with me.

And I HATE having to spam chat to form a group.

 

I have actually stopped playing the game because I do not want to start KOTET without finishing the Voss Starfortress,

 

Before anyone tells me to get a guild - I play 18 alts on my main server alone. I do not spend enough time on any specific character to be "active" in a guild, and I doubt any guild would want all my alts.

 

Alternatively add the story important group content to group finder, like the Shroud and the Star fortresses.

 

Our guild does not limit the number of alts in a guild. Some guilds might but there are those that are "alt" friendly. I can understand not wanting to put your alts in different guilds as I wouldn't want to do that either. I have 14 toons, split between empire and republic and my republic toons are in one guild and my empire toons in the empire guild.

[FerkWork]

Can I get a whole Operation for every KotFE/KoTET Chapter then?

[aerockyul]

Not so sure about that. Sometimes doing things solo or with 1 other person can be better than having to deal with a large group of people who can't stop arguing back and forth. I can see both sides of it.

 

I did operations but it wasn't that much fun due to constant arguing back and forth, i.e. who was the better dps, who was the better tank. Half the time I just wanted to tell them shut up so we could finish the operations. True not every group is like that.

 

soloing or duo play can be a little more fun as you don't have to deal with those types.

 

Though making operations solo I don't think will work as some of them have puzzles that require more than 1-2 people.

 

Dealing with the other players in game was one of the reasons I was solo most of the time as well. But then I teamed up for a 2+ heroic once, then a 4+, then a FP, and on and on, finally realizing what I was missing. Other people are certainly very good at finding new ways to waste my time in pugs. But there are more good pugs than bad, luckily.

 

I completely empathize with people who want solo options. I could care less about the "this is an MMO" crowd and their perches above the solo player, loaded as they are with dozens of friends who are around 100% of the time that they're also playing. If Bioware decided to put training dummies into operations and call them "solo", I'd do them once for the cinematics/cutscenes/story, and then go back to trying to group up for the same thing, and I wouldn't care if the solo player does them once or dozens of times.

 

As to the thing about puzzles in the operations--it would be just like the Red Reaper (for example), with that big droid and the red/blue holograms on either side of it. That used to mean something, and then they made the solo/tactical versions, and now you just get to beat the HP sponge while two colors sandwich the action, just glowing and hovering there for no reason.

Don't put it past them to make a puzzle irrelevant, it would actually be very easy for them to do. They could also make the boss-fight part of the puzzle so irrelevant in difficulty and damage output that you could run the puzzle by yourself and just go back to wacking the HP sponge.

 

Not saying I'd do anything like that more than once, but I'm resigned to caring if people find that engaging or not.

[Ralei]

 

i want to see the end of the dread masters storyline someday just as much as other solo-leaning players. I'd just rather pay for an unlock of the cinematics/cutscenes than to slowly whittle down 100 million hp worth of training dummies to get to the same point.

 

yes, please! <--- all caps.

Edited March 8, 2017 by Ralei

[PaxSithari]

+1

 

How do you make operations soloable anyway?

 

It's more fun with other people.

 

I was thinking about it, and IMO it can be done. Let's take everyone's favorite noob op, EV:

 

Droid - Strict timer, about 1/3 HPs, all mechanics left in. "I have been armed" you'd better stack under him. Red circles? Avoid. Knockback? Oh yeah. Burn phase desperation race? Yeppers.

 

Unless you know how to sneak by the adds to Gharj, you get to fight them. Except, make them all gold, and triple the number of them. Not fair for a soloable op to give a ton of CXP because you're farming champion level mobs.

 

Gharj - All mechanics left in. Adds left in. Platform and lava left in. Knockbacks left in. Again, dps race.

 

Puzzle - HM mechanics. You still have to solve it, and each time you click you get a lockout debuff, where you have to fight spawned mobs. After 3rd set, you get the Acklay. Not know how to solve, and clicking randomly? Much like in regular op, you get more Acklays.

 

Council - you have to fight 1 of each type: one assassin, one lord, one marauder. They spawn individually, but on timers. Your companion is locked out of helping - it is a one-on-one fight. You only get 2 kolto stations for the duration. Also, this is the only place in the entirety of the op to have Kolto stations.

 

Soa - ALL THE HARDMODE MECHANICS!!! Platform falling, you HAVE to kill pylons in order on way down, your companion gets thrown into Mind Traps regularly, or goes flying. On floor, JesusDroid gets frozen/Mind Trapped 10 seconds before pylon drops, so YOU have to kite him to it.

 

As a raider, this would be a fun test of my skills. This is also a great way to introduce real mechanics, the actual op mechanics, to the new/solo/too whatever to group players.

 

Would it be difficult? HECK YES it should be; It's an Operation, not a fetch and gather planetary mission. The difficulty level should be far higher, to reflect the level of the intended content. Operations are the highest level of PvE content. In a story sense, they are missions that gather the best of the galaxy's best, to do the impossible. It shouldn't be a walk on the beach. Look at it like this: an Operation is the equivalent of throwing a party for the Queen. Normally, you delegate things like decorations, food, guest list. But you want to do it all yourself, so you're going to bust your buns to make it fantastic. Same here - you're going to not rely on JesusDroid to do everything, you're not going to AFK while the boss fight goes on (like you do in Revan), you're not going to be in level 10 greens and breeze through.

 

If "solo all the things" players don't want to work at this, then please elaborate why not.

[VegasTheLost]

As to the thing about puzzles in the operations--

 

It's pretty sad that Oasis city can be somewhat ignored now as well as the Fortres' maze. Wonder how long will it take to take out the colors in TFB... It's just sad.

Edited March 9, 2017 by VegasTheLost

[iFruit]

I'm on Red too, and per topic it's impossible to get a party for an SM op through GF.

Been trying for 2 weeks during EU prime time and only had a single one pop up.

No problems with other GF content tho, usually pop quite fast

[SteveTheCynic]

But a side effect of playing a lot of alts is that you do not have great gear or high ranked companions on any of them, because I am more interested in playing the stories than grinding for gear or affection.

I have (counts) more than 50 characters. One has done all six Star Fortresses solo in the Heroic mode. And yes, I like playing the stories. Well, except Agent, and I'm not *that* fond of JK either. But I picked one character (my favourite Commandogirl, Kylath of the Argentis Legacy - she has a mononym because I created her before 2.0 came out) and did the grind necessary to get the gear that would help me do the SF missions. And I cranked Lana's influence up. When I did Voss, Lana was rank 21, and my gear was around 216 average (good but not maximum for 4.X times).

 

If you can't do it, you do what's necessary to make it so you can. You pick a character, and you crank that character's alliance specialists to rank 10 to get the buff object clickables (especially Aygo Beywan, who gives you a tanky turret you can place during big fights). You rank up a companion to mid 20s or so. You crank your gear on that character, and for that, you can just crank crafting to 600 on multiple characters (Synthweaving, Artifice, Armstech if you pick a tech class, Biochemistry, and Cybertech - do Armormech instead of Synthweaving if you want tank armorings) and make 228-purple gear that should be more than strong enough to get you through a DSF mission.

 

Or find people to help you. Join a guild and ask them for help. There *are* good guilds out there. (In my guild, I'd be the one giving help on the DSF missions because I did them before anyone else in the guild.)

[Battilea]

Gharj - All mechanics left in. Adds left in. Platform and lava left in. Knockbacks left in. Again, dps race.

The DPS race idea wouldn't work well, due to people who are healer or tank spec'd. Especially the latter, as the more tanking gear costs you DPS. With an op, the devs can make certain assumptions about how many of each role, but solo, the split between roles is one of one, and zero of the other two. A companion in DPS mode won't make up difference (and most likely wouldn't even be an option for a tank-spec'd player). Now say the devs toss in an extra NPC that you pick a role for, and if you pick DPS, it does make the difference. Well, then unless you have to have a tank, be it NPC or otherwise, DPS types with DPS NPC (and companion healer) will breeze past the timer.

 

So basically, DPS checks have to go, unless the damage comes mostly from a non-player source (like the final fight in the underwater lab).

[SteveTheCynic]

Oh, and I have finished the Shroud quest on one of all these alts, the seeds on exactly one as well.

I run FPs sometimes, but those I can get into through automatic queues, no spamming and waiting for that.

Oh, yeah, thought I should answer this:

• Oricon: Kylath (mentioned before) is still waiting to do the two Ops to finish the Oricon story.
  
• HK-51: Yerka Kolar (Lightning Sorc) did this with the help of Cheltika'jenik, Shadow.
  
• Dread Seeds: Yerka Kolar needs to do the H4.
  
• KotFE: Story done on multiple characters.
  
• KotFE: (romancing Koth or Theron): Probably never going to be done.
  
• KotFE (deromancing Lana): Why would you want to do that?
  
• KotFE (reromancing a returning class companion): My agent will get back in the sack with Kaliyo. Eventually.
  
• KotET: Done on multiple characters.
  
• KotFE companion recruitment drive: Kylath has recruited everyone EXCEPT that she killed Skadge.
  
• KotET (Peacemaker): Why?
  
• KotET (Bloke): I have a Marauder who'll be ready to start, Soon.
  
• Take three years to finish a character's base class story: Yep, done that. My very first character, too.
  
• Shroud of Memory: Yep, done that. Simultaneously distressingly tragic and hysterically funny.(1)
  
• Shroud/Seeker Droid: Yerka Kolar and Kylath have both done part of it.
  
• Pick option 1 in the Cantina when option 2 was available: Yep, done that, too. On a dry-run insta-60, not a real character.
  
• Give a character a stupid name on purpose: Well, Be-bop'alula suggests this might be one of my achievements.
  

 

(1) It's difficult to gasp in shock and laugh out loud at the same time.

[PaxSithari]

The DPS race idea wouldn't work well, due to people who are healer or tank spec'd. Especially the latter, as the more tanking gear costs you DPS. With an op, the devs can make certain assumptions about how many of each role, but solo, the split between roles is one of one, and zero of the other two. A companion in DPS mode won't make up difference (and most likely wouldn't even be an option for a tank-spec'd player). Now say the devs toss in an extra NPC that you pick a role for, and if you pick DPS, it does make the difference. Well, then unless you have to have a tank, be it NPC or otherwise, DPS types with DPS NPC (and companion healer) will breeze past the timer.

 

So basically, DPS checks have to go, unless the damage comes mostly from a non-player source (like the final fight in the underwater lab).

 

These options would be for people who don't want to group up, the dedicated solo player. They will have to learn to maximize their dps output, even if they're heal/tank spec.

 

The reason for a dps check is so the player has to do their fair bit of imput. Like you pointed out, Manaan solo you have your companion and JesusDroid do everything, the buff from the fire makes your damage minimal compared to theirs. Revan fight you literally can tab out or AFK and still win.

 

Still waiting for the option for solo PvP. C'mon BioWare!!! I want to play Huttball against NPCs. Why do you make me group for my Huttball???

[Halinalle]

But a side effect of playing a lot of alts is that you do not have great gear or high ranked companions on any of them, because I am more interested in playing the stories than grinding for gear or affection..

 

Shadow in 228s and 230s + two companions at level 50

Commando in 234/236/240/242 (

) + two companions at level 50

Guardian in 228s and 230s + two companions at level 50

Sage in 216s w/ three 228s (haven't played much since 5.0) + one companion at level 50

My original main has one companion very close to level 50.

 

Since I use legacy gear in many cases I can send at least armor to alt, in some cases I can send everything that can be send to alts using legacy gear (mainhand, offhand, armor).

Edited March 10, 2017 by Halinalle

[Gelious]

I'm on Red too, and per topic it's impossible to get a party for an SM op through GF.

Been trying for 2 weeks during EU prime time and only had a single one pop up.

No problems with other GF content tho, usually pop quite fast

Dude..... *triple facepalm*

 

You are doing it completely wrong! No one in their right mind waits for pop up in GF for an operation. You go to fleet, you start doing circles on your mount around the place and you watch the general chat for phrases like "LF (insert number here)tank\heal\dps (insert name of ops)GF"

That's how it was always done. I play on Red Eclipse too, and getting into SM op was never a problem.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Gelious

[Syal]

I play at RedEclipse, most populated EU server...

 

I have a quest for H4 shroud and its impossible to collect enough players!

I have a quest for Kaon Under Siege (thanks for making it 70lvl - not) and group finder is dead!

I have a quest for Corporate Labs and group finder is dead!

 

Make EVERY quest in game soloable... solo mode for operations, solo mode for flashpoints, FOR EVERYTHING. I cant enjoy the game because there is noone to play with. I dont care about loot... I want to complete EVERY quest in my quest log and its impossible. You changed things and created Veteran and Master... where is CASUAL mode just for quests and learning tactics. Operations should have CASUAL mode as well... I want to try it solo without watching 1hour long video.

 

100% Agree !

 

Who care that the whole content can be done solo ? The main feel is that every one (solo or group) can reach all the game content.

 

To my experience, am waiting since 3 days to do a world boss, posting on several forums, requesting on general channel, but none want to stop their duty to help. So, in this case, SOLO is the issue answer to me !

 

I'll go deeper in saying that SOLO can allow some player to well stuff and join group for veteran duty.

 

View the lake of player in my server, there are some content who cannot be done : Operation/flashpoint/World Boss. So, the solution should be able to do all those content SOLO, OR at least allow player to increase the number of companion into its group.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Syal

[Battilea]

These options would be for people who don't want to group up, the dedicated solo player. They will have to learn to maximize their dps output, even if they're heal/tank spec.

That's the point. It doesn't work, because it can only be meaningful to handful, not the majority. If you put it at tank levels, a DPS solo player doesn't care, because he'll make it with ease. Furthermore, you'd have to balance it around the single weakest class in terms of DPS output. If that means healer A, while healing, has the crappiest output, then the check might well be trivial for healer B and the tanks. To put it another way, it would be like putting in a damage soaking check. If you balance it to the people least able to soak damage, that being DPS, then it is meaningless to tanks and healers. If you balance it for them instead, then DPS cannot do the content. Which is why boss fights typically have things that require damage avoidance, rather than soaking. Levels the playing field. But in this case, with a DPS check, it only punishes a small percent of the population.

 

That isn't as much of an issue with group play, as group play is balanced around what you do best, rather than that other thing you can do when you're not doing what you're best at. Group play also means you don't have to worry as much about the worst at a role. You set the number at something like 90% potential, and the ones above it can make up for those below it. Solo, you don't have that flexibility. If healer class A does 10% less damage than healer class B, and C does 10% more than B, well, C won't be there to make up for A's lack of output when A is doing a "solo op". There is less margin, less wiggle room, less way to compensate for minor balance issues.

 

It is also worth noting that such a thing creates imbalance, rather than balance. DPS does things faster, but at a greater risk of dying and therefore failing. Which means if they spend half the time doing things, but fail half the time, then things are balanced (ignoring repair costs),because in the end, DPS and non-DPS spend the same amount of time/effort for the same reward. But if you put in something that gives non-DPS that same 50% failure rate, then DPS gets the same reward in half the average time, and therefore DPS is the superior choice.

 

And then there's the tank factor. For healers, there's some minor stat differences between what their offensive stats and healing stats are. Like trading off alacrity for crit, but both stats at least help both sets of abilities. For tanks, it's just a wee bit bigger, since absorb, shield, and defense don't raise your DPS against a single target. So now you're asking tanks to maintain two sets of gear so they can optimize, a penalty other roles don't have to pay.

 

Now, I'm not saying it is impossible to balance. You could rig up something where there is constant damage that a DPS class has to move constantly to avoid, thereby reducing their DPS, but that isn't so high that a healer/tank can't just soak it, thereby allowing them to continue doing DPS, giving DPS and non-DPS a similar average time to complete, as well as a failure rate that is close. Or maybe that every minute, damage being dealt to the player goes up, so DPS gets into trouble sooner than tanks/healers. But regardless, it would still be nigh impossible to balance well, and create even more balance issues between classes.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Battilea

[ludoviccb]

I'm on Red too, and per topic it's impossible to get a party for an SM op through GF.

Been trying for 2 weeks during EU prime time and only had a single one pop up.

No problems with other GF content tho, usually pop quite fast

 

GF never was the way to get into a group for operations. People get on fleet, make their group then queue in GF. That way they don't have to wait a long time for the missing tank/healers to complete the group in GF.

[IanArgent]

Dude..... *triple facepalm*

 

You are doing it completely wrong! No one in their right mind waits for pop up in GF for an operation. You go to fleet, you start doing circles on your mount around the place and you watch the general chat for phrases like "LF (insert number here)tank\heal\dps (insert name of ops)GF"

That's how it was always done. I play on Red Eclipse too, and getting into SM op was never a problem.

 

This, probably more than anything else, is the biggest barrier to people getting into Ops. You can't play the game while you're trying to get into an Op. Every other group activity has a functional group finder, in that you can set and forget, and go out into the world and do something. Ops, you have to watch the jawa jokes on fleet and spam chat with LFG.