How are solo players finding the push to group?

[Kaedusz]

So we're about half way through the qualifying period to get Darth Hexid, and I was wondering what the experience of other solo players has been? Have you grouped up in order to try and get the new companion? If so, how was it?

 

My girlfriend and I have never grouped with anyone but each other in this game before, but this weekend we gritted our teeth and fired up the group finder. Got False Emperor with 4 x DPS, no tank or heals, and gave up after limping our way past HK-47 with multiple wipes. One guy quit, and I think the rest of us realised that Malgus was going to tear us a new one. So ended our foray into group play. We haven't dared attempt the PvP route so far.

 

How has it been for others? Was our experience par for the course, or were we just unlucky?

 

Again I'm interested in hearing about the experiences of other players who do not normally do Flashpoints or Warzones but decided to put themselves out there because of the bonus companion on offer. If you regularly do this content, and just want to come here to point and laugh at the noobs and the introverts, please keep it to yourself. Thanks.

 

When you are a normal player(meaning that does everything in the game there is to do) 1 failed FP is just a single drop of water in a heavy rainfall. In other words that failed fp should be beneath your notice, at least.

You just leave and requeue while pouring in your glass, without even looking at the screen.

 

But because of some screwed up reason some people never group and when they do it's the event of the century for them, lol.

 

Fascinating.

 

Also how does being introvert makes you not group. I don't see much connection between being one in real life and in game.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Kaedusz

[docbenwayddo]

But because of some screwed up reason some people never group and when they do it's the event of the century for them, lol.

 

I group a lot. With guildies and friends. I do not and will never willingly self-inflict Group Finder. This isn't a push to group activity, it's a push to Group Finder Queue and the illusion of "population" and "activity."

[Adrian_T]

Update:

 

We decided to try again. Got Mandalorian Raiders with 2 tanks (1 being me this time) and 2 DPS, still no healer.

 

Wiped on the first boss and the other two players left. We got out 1 healer companion and 1 DPS companion, and finished the FP by ourselves with no more deaths.

 

So much for being social, but hey we are 1/3 of the way to Darth Hexid now.

[Ghanima_Atreides]

 

Also how does being introvert makes you not group. I don't see much connection between being one in real life and in game.

 

Being an introvert makes you uncomfortable in unfamiliar/unexpected social situations; sure, being behind a screen makes it less confronting, but doesn't eliminate it.

[LunaticFringer]

As with most events, haven't really had a problem with it.

 

I'd say the merge has helped queues. But even if we hadn't had the mergers yet... usually the key, unfortunately for those that don't have the time, is to knock it out the first few days while everything is hopping before interest wanes on it.

 

I'm apprehensive about certain things that have happened in the course of the Merge... but I would point out it was nice for them to allow different Group Queue objectives to count. IE... I guess there is a chance this would've been far worse had they required only OPs and Master Mode FPs for it.

 

Everyone really ought to have a good chance to clear this for the freebies if they want to.

[icrusoe]

I won't get Hexid, I think. I prefer not to group. I loathe PVP, and I already have Arcann.

I don't see the point of all the companions. Other than getting your romanced/favorite character back, of course. But that would only be fun if Bioware built on the romance further, or let us opt out of using Lana or Theron in every single thing.

Sure, if you need Lana because of story, let us at least skip out of Theron, or the other way around.

 

I haven't spent hours and hours romancing a character, just to leave him/her home while I drag along the annoying, and boring Lana on a mission. My character would've killed her long ago if it was possible.

 

So, I'm just waiting to begin a new romance (Arcann), and keeping my fingers crossed that all companions will come in handy in some way. Maybe missions where each planet they're from needs aid, or their specialty is critical to a mission.

Where Blizz' ability to hoard scrap is combined with Yuun's ability to find things, and they build a weapon for fun during Alliance down time. Only that weapon threatens to release a virus that C2-N2 happened to spill while cleaning Dr Oggurobb's lab.

 

Or why not the option to go to the places our missing companions say they're waiting and get them (like Corso). Or maybe give us the option to look for clues trying to find our missing friends. I would think at least the ones you liked in your team would be a priority to find when there's nothing to do between missions. That's what you should be able to use the companions for, finding lost crew mates.

 

But I digress. Point is, I doubt I'll be getting Hexid.

 

(I apologize for any typos)

[denavin]

So we're about half way through the qualifying period to get Darth Hexid, and I was wondering what the experience of other solo players has been? Have you grouped up in order to try and get the new companion? If so, how was it?

...snip

 

How was it you ask....

 

Well I finally got my 3 successful groups done.

It took 20 attempts with group finder, and 17 failed groups to finally get there.

 

I did not do any FPs that bolstered, only Story mode or Veteran mode.

 

But the groups were more frustrating than fun....

If we had ONLY DPS then there were 4 fights in different rooms and everybody dies Nobody stayed in a group. My Sentinel is no tank and I would always find my self alone then quickly dead in these groups.

If we had a Tank then the Tank was the first to die and then to rage quit.

If we had a Healer, well that was a totally special kind of stupid. The healer would usually only heal themselves. Or if the healer got hit they would run to another room and let everybody die. On one occasion we had 2 healers, you would figure that there was no way we could loose, right? Well not when one healer only did DPS and the other one only healed himself or his friend, but NOBODY ELSE.

Many groups would not even start as somebody would either not respond and timeout or quit before the group was even formed. If I were to count those groups then there were over 100 attempts at forming a group with the Failed Group Finder.

 

Yes grouping with a bunch of toxic whinier players was just too much fun.

 

Grouping was a lesson in futility, when it comes down to Coordination, Skill, Knowledge and Ability's in playing this game. I would have had better success in simply jumping off of a building, than I did by spending hours and hours trying to first of all find a group, then to find a group that's worth a damn.

 

PUG, commonly means Pick Up Group.

 

But in reality it can mean Pretty Useless Group, or Potentially Unskilled Group, or Particularly Unfriendly Group, or... well you get my drift....

 

 

So all in all was a total PItA. But its done and done so No need to every do that stupidity again...

[Tashia]

I just did what it told me to do -- 3 random groupings in group finder, in pve ( as long as the toon was eligible ) --

done, finished ( just like I did for good 'ol Pierce and that droid thing ... in pvp ... ) -- got my guildies to help with one after a terrible group thing ( that I wish I could forget) ..... and I am done --- no more group finder for me ...

I got Hexid, that is all I wanted ......

NEVER again -- I'll stick with guildies from now on .....

[casirabit]

with the pvp just run around couldn't be easier and with not getting the reward for the FP it only works when you can get the daily reward so that means all must be selected in the list of FPs so if you have 3 toons just que up for a vet flashpoint on each toon and it's done nice and easy.

 

I was eligible for the daily rewards, did the vet flashpoints, all FP were checked. NO CREDIT.

 

14 toons all level 70.

Edited November 19, 2017 by casirabit

[Shayddow]

I don't like being pushed to group. The Pvp stuff was actually less toxic than some of the people in flashpoints. And, the way they group you is not too good either. Ideally you should have tank, healer and 2 DPS. Half the time we had 4 DPS and then would wipe, and some of the "better than thou" folks would say , well, don't use this or that rotation, don't use AOE (ummm... you're SUPPOSED To use AOE if you are going after adds, yes?). We wiped because we didn't have a healer, not because I cast chain lightning on the adds as a DPS..... :::sigh:::

[PiiTarr]

But because of some screwed up reason some people never group and when they do it's the event of the century for them, lol.

 

You have no way of knowing all the reasons people may have for not grouping up.

[DenariusJay]

Welcome to internet gaming. 1999 called and said it wants its party back...

[ZeroTypeR]

Honestly, the event doesn't bother me in the least. I'm about 90% solo, so I don't mind participating in pvp or fp's every once in awhile, that and the event only calls for 3 pvp or a fp runs, so not a big deal. Edited November 20, 2017 by ZeroTypeR

[Stonehewn]

Solo player here.

Did 3 PvP runs, apologising in advance to the rest of the team as I had no idea what I was doing - which didn't matter as everyone else was doing the same thing!

It took about 30 minutes to get the unlock.

I actually quite enjoyed it, and may venture into PvP again.

[KumbayaGOD]

Solo player here.

Did 3 PvP runs, apologising in advance to the rest of the team as I had no idea what I was doing - which didn't matter as everyone else was doing the same thing!

It took about 30 minutes to get the unlock.

I actually quite enjoyed it, and may venture into PvP again.

 

if you are really new , saying that you are first time in pvp wont be get a backlash since everyone need to start sometime and i would usually give friendly advise to them how to improve

[Hudlar]

Update:

 

We decided to try again. Got Mandalorian Raiders with 2 tanks (1 being me this time) and 2 DPS, still no healer.

 

Wiped on the first boss and the other two players left. We got out 1 healer companion and 1 DPS companion, and finished the FP by ourselves with no more deaths.

 

So much for being social, but hey we are 1/3 of the way to Darth Hexid now.

 

Congratulations!

 

I just finished FP #2 (Veteran Boarding Party). The other three players were great, and it went really smoothly. We did have a healer, which made things much easier. Once again, no one said anything in chat but "Hi" and "Thanks," so raging jerks have definitely not been an issue so far.

[ImmortalLowlife]

I'm 99% solo. I did the 3 PvP matches in one afternoon. Took less than an hour iirc. I don't really PvP much, but I know how to play my class. And my merc is geared in tier one set piece gear with augments. Didn't have any issues in two of the matches....I won one, lost one, and actually got 20+ kills in both and only died 3 times total.

 

That 3rd match tho.....They put me in a HuttBall match. I've never done that before. I was completely lost and petty much useless. But I ran around around going pew pew pew until it was over.

[Asmodesu]

I'm 99% solo. I did the 3 PvP matches in one afternoon. Took less than an hour iirc. I don't really PvP much, but I know how to play my class. And my merc is geared in tier one set piece gear with augments. Didn't have any issues in two of the matches....I won one, lost one, and actually got 20+ kills in both and only died 3 times total.

 

That 3rd match tho.....They put me in a HuttBall match. I've never done that before. I was completely lost and petty much useless. But I ran around around going pew pew pew until it was over.

 

Nice matches! but that final sentence, yeah that sums up most of my PvP'ing and I enjoy PvP! I'm just not hardcore about it, I know what to do ... most of the time, but prefer just hitting people with my oversized glowstick.

[Jagaimee]

It was fine for me. I got to meet people from my group of friends for the first time in-game, and we had an absolute blast tearing through three flashpoints together. Thank you, fellow Quinnmancers!

 

I usually stay far away from grouping. I used to do flashpoints here and there, but I stopped for about a year...I was really nervous to do these flashpoints again, even though I knew I'd be among people who wouldn't care if I messed up.

First flashpoint: Umbara (tactical mode, at least). Which I had never done. And I was the tank. Which I had never done, either. But we had a Nightmare-level raid healer with us, so my fears were greatly lessened...

We steamrolled through, one-shot every boss, and posed for a picture at the end. Same thing happened with the other two flashpoints, Boarding Party and The Foundry.

 

So, all in all, it went VERY well!

Edited November 20, 2017 by Jagaimee

[Asmodesu]

Since the United Forces thing I've met a lot more nicer people around the place randomly thanks to Bergeren Colony or w/e it was called being put into SS realm. It's been nice, not as many trolls on fleet as I remember during the times I played beforehand so hopefully things are settling down - or I'll just stick to playing on week day afternoons xD

[kimiko_tomiyama]

I found the least painful way was to group for story mode uprisings. The first one was a wipe because we had no tanks, but the next three, done over consecutive days while working on CZ. It was tolerable in that all but 1 of the other 12 people were there just for Hexid too.

 

As for the groups themselves, 1 group had a guy who'd done it before trying to help advise us. He was cool. The second group just had a preamble of "Who is tank?" The other 2 were silent as graves. It was less group activity and more 4 solo players trying to reach the same objective. One group the members didn't even say the customary 'ty'. Everyone just quit the group and left.

 

My takeaway was the second group was the most tolerable in that, while there was no conversation, everyone was competent enough to finish up and the minimal social pleasantries were observed. Still, barring another semi0forced activity like this in the future. Uprisings and group finder are like the train wreck of the Umbara flashpoint. IDid the minimum requred to get the reward and, having done so, never looked back.

 

I mean, I get the point behind the event. But it was something to suffer through and not a novel new experience for me.

[Kaedusz]

Being an introvert makes you uncomfortable in unfamiliar/unexpected social situations; sure, being behind a screen makes it less confronting, but doesn't eliminate it.

 

What you described seem more like social anxiety, not being an interovert.

[ShadowzGreymoon]

I was able to get mine through the PVP Warzones. I did them 3 times, on a few separate characters. 1 was a low level Operative, and the other two was my level 70 Sniper, and my level 70 Assassin. Even Unranked WZs I didn't get hassled because I did protect the nodes , I helped capture a point, and I killed a hutt ball carrier a few times. Mostly though the WZ players were more interested in insulting each other since server merge, and talking a lot of smack, I just went in, did my dailies, and left. I do like low level PVP, but I also do like level 70 PVP, it gives a sense of accomplishment, but mostly I am a solo player, I didn't get to finish the DvL to get Master Ranos, but I'm glad I was able to find a way to get Darth Hexid, and I got the achievement legacy wide, so I'm just hoping I didn't hit that bug, but it shows in my legacy achievements. Only one I'm missing is the Group Finder FP one, and I'm not to high on the list of flashpoints, and I don't belong in any guilds.

[Adrian_T]

When you are a normal player(meaning that does everything in the game there is to do) 1 failed FP is just a single drop of water in a heavy rainfall. In other words that failed fp should be beneath your notice, at least.

You just leave and requeue while pouring in your glass, without even looking at the screen.

 

But because of some screwed up reason some people never group and when they do it's the event of the century for them, lol.

 

Fascinating.

 

Also how does being introvert makes you not group. I don't see much connection between being one in real life and in game.

 

Being an introvert makes you uncomfortable in unfamiliar/unexpected social situations; sure, being behind a screen makes it less confronting, but doesn't eliminate it.

 

What you described seem more like social anxiety, not being an interovert.

 

I am not a psychologist, so perhaps I was not using strictly accurate terminology. Regardless though, people of all types play this game, including some who find interacting with strangers to stressful and confronting and also those who simply prefer to use the game for their alone time or do not enjoy grouping for whatever other reason.

 

The bar is set low enough on the achievement for Darth Hexid though that I can imagine many of these people being tempted to give it a try in the hope of getting the new shiny. With this thread I was really just trying to reach out to those people and find out what experiences had been like.

 

If you're the kind of person who groups regularly and for whom one failed FP is nothing then yes it probably seems strange to you that people would worry about it, but I did try to gently point out in my OP that you're not really the target audience for this thread.

[Calarand]

My girlfriend and I have never grouped with anyone but each other in this game before, but this weekend we gritted our teeth and fired up the group finder. Got False Emperor with 4 x DPS, no tank or heals, and gave up after limping our way past HK-47 with multiple wipes. One guy quit, and I think the rest of us realised that Malgus was going to tear us a new one. So ended our foray into group play.

Sadly, that's exactly what happens after devs turn the game into a solo adventure for a year, expanding solo content, making flashpoints solo-friendly, and drawing solo players into the fold en masse only to turn their back on them later just because they suddenly remembered this is supposed to be an MMO.

 

Now you have all those people who never tried - and never enjoyed - group content, trying to do it and failing because they simply don't know how. It's bad design, bad strategy, and bad treatment of the player base.

 

I may sound bitter, but for me SWTOR was like the holy grail of multiplayer games - it offered me the possibility to be a part of a living world with other people dancing on mailboxes and doing stupid, funny things on the fleet, but at the same time I had the possibility to do all of the story content solo without having to deal with others.

 

Personally, I've accepted the fact that I will never have Hexid in my roster. I'd rather not have that companion than force myself to play the game the way I hate to play it. I can only hope that there won't be any more content like that gated behind group activities in the future.