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Grouping in TSW
Kebeck
Member Posts: 323
So with two days in for some, I'd like to know how is the grouping in this game.. Is it like every new mmo coming out these days where the emphasis is put on solo play with little to no reasons to group and play alongside other players ?..
I tried one of the beta weekend, thought the game was interresting, but my computer had a hard time running it.. Didn't played for more than 2-3 hours.. So now with a new PC, wondering if TSW could help me wait for GW2.
So.. how's been the community so far ? A lot of grouping or everyone does their own thing, rushing to cap as fast as they can.. ?
Comments
yes
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Lao-Tze
Are you saying that from personal experience?
I see groups of people everywhere I go (not mobs, groups moving together) in Savage Coast. Hoards of people are LFG and doing the dungeons.
There are plenty of people playing solo but that's expected. Most people haven't tried or realized that grouping up means they could be doing harder content.
leveling(skilling up, ability point farming whatever you call it) is a thing of the past. its just there to occupy you during your free 30 days
grouping for anything besides instances or BGs is mainly for social reasons everything else is tuned for solo play.
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
Lao-Tze
No offense, but, i don't see where GW2 is any different from this.
Forced grouping in mmorpg themeparks today is suicide for the company. Like all of them, you can group up, and if i'm not mistake since i haven't tested this yet, you get an xp boost for being grouped up. Again not sure.
But, yes, like all mmorpgs today, you'll be able to do almost everything besides dungeons and pvp solo. It's where themeparks and general mmos are going.
Definitely not rushing but enjoying it. Still in the first zone tbh and have the first group instance left. So far I haven't grouped but it's just me. I like to do things my way and slack around in this game. Seeing a lot of groups running around though and ads for cabals too. If you want an awesome PvE game then TSW might be it. You can have some PvP too ofc but PvE is what makes this game truly shine.
Lack of grouping in mmos is due to content that is to easy. Why should you group if you can just run most things on your own. We have seen it time and time again. Easy mode= no grouping in all games
. Thanks for the easy mode devs lol
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
No offense taken.. And maybe GW2 won't be that different indeed, but I'm hoping that the dynamic events, shared mobs and loots, WvWvW will help build a strong community.. That plus the no sub is keeping me interested in GW2... Not that I'm seeing it as the holy grail of all MMOs..
And I don't agree with you about the forced grouping as I think, in my opinion, that it is the central point that devs should focus on.. I'm one of those that think that MMOs should add a very distinct line from single player RPGs.. Again, only my opinion..
Thanks for the replies, keep them coming !
The majority is right. People that group should be rewarded for it. You should not be punished for not grouping. Playing a game should be fun and not feel like a second job. The idea that you should be forced to do things and in some way be punished if you dont play like intended is just bad and boring game design. Rewards = fun. Getting punished = boring.
If people dont want to group it means rewards you can get when grouping are not good and interesting enough. They can fix that in a positive and fun way.
But, of course , if there is no reason at all to group it is also bad.
easy for you to say. every mmo in the past 8 years has been custon tailored for people with no interest in playing an mmo for anything other than erping in their free gear. the rest of us are bored our of our damn gordes. is a few on rails dungeons and a couple of gank/zerg fests really enough to satisfy a statement like " if there is no reason at all to group it is also bad"?
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
same here, i see people mostly moving in groups.
No, there are world bosses. AND all maps got zones with elite mobs which you have to be in a group to do. So your wrong.
LOTS of Grouping, always see players running in groups. Few times ive asked if i can work with them - and not a problem. The looking for group channel is always buzzing with players making dungeon runs. After the sterile and anti-social experience that was star wars ive realised something rather important.
Generally younger players dont socialise anymore, they rush through games and will never do something unless it is directly related to their own need to be powerful in game.
Older players still want to socialise and do.
With TSW being a game that attracts a more mature player it has already established a better in game social atmosphere than many mmorpgs I have played. Really enjoying the community feel and finding out recently the social plans the devs have im very pleased with this aspect of the game.
HAve not played that much yet but just got to the second area of kingsmouth, the first there is not that many quests where you would need to group up but when you get to the second area there are some harder quests.
I have grouped up for a few different quests now and you also get better loot drops so thats one mjor reason to group up
Also just going around the zones you tend to help people out in trouble or on the same quest as you.. its just the way things work...
Myself im not rushing to end game, im taknig my time doing all the side quests.. plus im busy in RL so not much time to put into it..
So far im very impressed.
There's LOTS of grouping, trust me.
I'm in the 3rd area. The first two areas were easy and the "need" for the group is not present, but in the 3rd area things tune up, mobs get harder, missions get harder, going from a place to another is more difficult... yes you can still go solo but it's way way way easier, safer and better with a group. When you find out that if you pull an add you will probably die, and there's a long way to go back to your corpse, you won't refuse a group even if you preffer playing solo.
And the way quests are done (usually a quest leads you to another quest) means that the party can go on for hours. Usually it goes like this: i log in, i take some quest, it leads me to an area, there are already 1-2 people there, i start a party with them (don't be afraid to do that) and then i play with them from quest to quest for like 2-3 hours. Usually we pick more on the road. In the end we add each other as friends (usually) and now i'm receiving tells asking me for grouping in the first 5 minutes after i log in lol. The game gets difficult, you want and like a group.
Frankly, this is the first modern MMO where i actually grouped a lot (and i'm not talking about Rift's auto-grouping feature or such).
There is no rushing involved, since most of the players that rush through the content do it usually for some sort of a recognition. Here, in a no-level system, noone can actually see other player's progress and there is no level cap per se.
Anyway, I'm playing as a healer, and I'm enjoying the group content. Instances (Polaris, Inferno) are a blast.
REALITY CHECK
Yes the *lfg* channel is buzzing! and im looking forward to do the dungeons and all, but atm
im in the same boat like the poster above, the pve and questing and riddling is so enjoyable in this game that
its rewarding to go slow. Means i take my time read all the text enjoy the voiceovers and adore the scenery.
In one of the betas i was..boa that looks dated but now ..man the graphics are realy on the upper end of the mmorpgs out today.
Best regards
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There is no real advantage to doing the world bosses, and most of them aren't part of any of the main quests. There are some quests that take you passed them, to basically give you a 'peak', but there is no practical reason to kill them.
You get faster exp (ap/sp), and better loot running dungeons. Same deal w/ the areas w/ elite mobs. They are there, but atm there is really NO reason to go there. As such, it becomes more of a social thing. It's something that's there if you wanna check it out w/ your friends, but there's no insentive to PUG it, at all.
The grouping is literally either a social thing ("hey, anyone wanna group w/ me? getting bored by myself"), or for dungeons ("LFM Dungeon X, need 1 tank, 1 healer, and 2 dps!"). That's it. You don't see anything else in chat, period.
that pretty much sums up my play experience. Some people dislike beeing invited to group tho.
Thanks for all the answers follks !
Decided to give the game a shot this morning. Downloading at the moment and I'll come back giving my impressions on the matter of grouping for anyone else, socializers like me, that might be on the fence about this game.
What I intend to do is go through the tutorials and then try to not do a single quest by myself (maybe except the story quests, haven't tried those during beta)... Let's see where it'll get me. Until then, feel free to keep giving your grouping experience.. Love the reading !
if you decide to go templar can always hit me up if you want to join the MMORPG templar guild:) got about 23 members now and always looking for more:)
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
The main difference, although there are others, is that everything in GW2 is cooperative.
Let's take an Event that is essentially an escort quest. These are fairly rare but they do exist.
A person goes up to an NPC and the NPC says "Hey guard me while I go from point A to point B. Oh and by the way I may get attacked a pre-determined locations".
Fine this seems the same. But in most MMOs once the person starts it that's it its their's. In GW2 as soon as any random stranger gets near you they see it as an event on their map AND WILL GET XP for it even if they start half way through. Thus when you start this "quest" in GW2 you often get random strangers killing your mobs. But guess what? This is a GOOD THING. Because you still get xp and credit and so do they. When you see this you become happy instead of angry or sad like in other MMOs.
You can easily start an escort "quest" in GW2 alone and wind up with 5 people helping you out at the end without ever asking. Now most events(90%+) are not initiated in this way but there are a few that work this way and they are the closest things to tradiitional MMO quests and therefore the most useful to illustrate the difference.
Whereas in TSW many quest have inherently uncooperative mechanics such as kill tagging etc. Not that this is TSW's fault. Its standard in the genre. But all in all TSW definitely tends towards doing your own thing. Partially because you can do them yourself and that is more convient, but also for another reason.
The questing in TSW is sometimes something a group would be faster to do it with. For example in Savage Coast there is a quest at the academy to close a bunch of rifts which mobs. Running around the academy and covering ground etc is just gonna be faster and more convient with a group.
On the other hand in Kingsmouth there is a simple quest to pick up a cleaning ladies cell phone, read the message, find a hidden drop point, then go into the church and find a code and enter the code. This is very much NOT group oriented. Which is fine, but many of the more puzzle sorts of quest do not lend themselve to grouping. They are not necessarily inhibited they simply are not helped.
TSW works like any other questing MMO as far as grouping, it just has the added wrinkle that a significant number of quest are also heavily puzzle based this presents two problems for grouping:
1) spoilers. I am sure people who don't want spoliers will be hesitant to group with strangers
2) little gain from grouping. You might as well group in some cases of being in same area and killing same mobs. But for the quests with no killing at all there is very little reason to group unless you just like it.
agreed. I really enjoy TSW but questing works like most others where its mostly designed as a single player affair but allows grouping. In GW2 they designed the whole system around allowing as many people to participate as possible in any given quest. Both systems have their ups and downs and really just depends which you prefer.. I personally like both for differn't reasons.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
personally i found it mostly solo in the beginning then once you leave kingsmouth it was grouping here and there, then blue mountains alot more grouping
and for GW2, there are alot of areas in PVE where if you pull more then 1 mob you're dead, and alot of "world bosses", so not so soloable