Make Grouping Great Again.

@Lord British, @DarkStarr, @Chris, @Berek, @Everyone Else:

This is personal to me, and may not apply to most of the player-base, but I suspect quite a few people would agree and/or stand behind my request to make grouping great again. Specifically, I wish it had been included in the "Top 10" priority list (I guess an argument can be made that it could be wedged into #6, "Improved Enemy Behaviors").

After Persistence, and certainly after gaining in Adventure Level, I began actively participating/contributing in Control Points with members of my guild (and occasionally with random groups). This, along with some other mid-level activities, was one of the reasons I played Shroud of the Avatar so much. It was fun. Exciting. And with the variation in Control Point zones, as well as Control Point mobs, it never really got dull. It was the number one group activity I participated in, ever.

In fact, it's really the only reason I play games. Not just to be social, but to socially interact with people while adventuring.

Today we have the Monkey Room in K'Rul, but it's missing that special something that Control Points had. There are other zones where I could go with a group, but again, it's not something exciting, fun or engaging. The only thing that has come close so far is the Kobold Expedition Camp, but that's it...just one camp. I don't know whether or not that new zone will satiate my needs.

I get that grouping shouldn't be the only activity. Yes, I enjoy going out alone and adventuring or gathering. But that is 25% of what I like to do.

Leaving aside the reasons why Control Points were "nerfed" in the past, they held out great promise (at least to me). It seemed that it would be possible, through some of that magic Portalarium was conjuring, to make Control Points an actual "hotspot" in the game if mechanics were created to entice factions of players to fight over it. This could have been the Guild v. Guild mechanic or some other faction-based mechanic.

The beauty of this would have been allowing the player to choose to enter Control Points in Multiplayer Mode or Solo/Friends Mode. Not interested in fighting others or in PvP in general? No problem, enter in Solo/Friends Mode and avoid that hassle.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and pretend to "program". I don't want to attract Chris' ire. But, I will be presumptuous in asking that grouping be wedged into the "Top 10" priorities. And while I enjoy everything that has been done by Portalarium to date, and am excited about the future release plans that have been delineated, it would be great if mechanics/content could also include those activities meant for groups.

 

Ok, other than reducing the loot and experience, what aspect of control points was changed to make them un-fun?

 

Control Points were something a group use to be able to do but it was also being done to an abusive point... It was being done with 2-3 players all the way thru the waves now it requires more then 2 groups!!!
As my guild and I have attempted to do brightbone several times over we decide to give up the control point and let it reset at certain points to avoid death and the ever looming loss of XP....

So Control Points have gone from being far too easy to far too hard.... However it just another form of grinding xp infact its a rather lazy way of doing it and you get decent reward as it is.... So I am not sure that fixing it is exactly a good idea as its currently one of those things thats a goal, someday we will conquer that control point with 2 full groups, we are getting close but we already farm it and utilize it for xp bye simply letting it reset at different waves depending on the strength of the group...

So I don't really believe it needs to be fixed persay, it already gives out a ton of xp and high end loot off of random drops as it is....

Infact this game needs more of the reverse content, more higher end solo-able stuff....
More Non combat activity, better fishing, better taming, treasure hunting, mini games etc.... <---- This should be the priority for dev's...

There is already an over abundance of group activitys - Daemon, Dragon, Kong, Phoenix Trolls etc....

 

What do you mean by "more then two groups"[sic]?

 

I assume he meant more people than is currently possible to get in one group, but of course, I bet that is determined by the abilities of the members in the group.

 

I think the group fun can be enhanced simply by increasing the bonus to experience for being in group. Right now it's 10% per person which even if you are killing faster still usually calculates as less experience unless you find the right spot with endless spawn and players of equal caliber. Most spots don't hold up for more then three people though. If we raised the per person experience bonus even by 5 to 10% more there would be a better reason to group with varying levels of players rather then just charity.

 

I think grouping can be fun well depending on the people and their ability to have fun or not. I get the 'meh' part of grouping for this game at this time. Having more variety of creatures would help a lot. I was one who enjoyed control points too, not so much for the xp which could be taken away as incentive and the feature itself could be a thing to do as even a quest with rewards etc. It should not be taken away. We have no epic creatures at this moment. Devs say they want to work on the creatures to make them more interesting but as with everything, we say if they succeeded in this. The recent reaper in the game is so amazing, they really did a win with him. His animations and how he surprises you and is a tougher creature all add to interest for him. Surprising creatures not standing around waiting for you but appearing, flying out of the sky, appearing out of rocks or a tree that disguises them for example.Hes pretty cute.



We need sea life and sea creatures (also water life).







Air creatures flying out at random places









unusual and scary creatures









We have very little to play with right now. Here's hoping for much more.

edited- oops creatures I meant

 

I pity the forum-goers with poor connections.

 

I mean we had two full groups, try to do brightbone, the first time around we discovered a bug with music buff's that we have since worked with Port to fix...
However to date our attempts to do brightbone all the way have gone with out success...

 

I think what you search are Theme Park Games (like GW2, WOW, Tera etc.), that are serving you group content on a silver-tablet. But in a Sandbox driven
game it is the player that needs to work out content for himself by his own creativity.

For example: The guy who run's several book stores (can't remeber the name, sorry) and sell them to players (the books of course). He even have a platform created where writers can pubslish books.

I think that is a good example how sandbox-creativity works.

 

In the moment you get per partymember 10% more xp, but the basic xp is divided .. As long as this basis is not changed, it is not worth acting in a group. The game should reward group play and not punish. In addition, monsters should be integrated into the game, which are not soloable. There is no better way to achieve a common goal with a group. We play an MMORPG and not a solo game

 

Just to say, XP or gold rewards are meaningless to me, as well as solo or for groups, the feeling of beating the challenge together (or solo) is way more important to me.

 

Agreed.


We need some sort of tiered group objectives. So that sure one can solo a scene but to get the most out of the experience players need to cooperate. Not to reduce the solo experience but rather to enhance the group one.

Not just for organized groups but also sometimes for spontaneous ones as well.

For instance first wave and second wave in a control point drop a "scheme paper" which tells you what scheme is up that day (cycle changes regularly). Then you need to act on specific points in the scene within timeframes to achieve a common goal.
Like one scheme being raise three flags, A B C, in that order to unlock a loot room. Then you need to both defend the raised flags, but also -in order- get someone to point A then within a timeframe get someone to point B and then within another timeframe to point C. Where if you lose the control point you need to start over. etc

 

I don't group much and don't have a lot to say about group content, but I do think it would be very good for the game if control points were popular scenes one way or another. All players are going to go through them at some point, so it's more important for them to be fun and impressive compared to some random scene.

 

What about making CP's controllable for a group as long as they stay in the scene, but flag them PvP as long as they controll the point.
Controlling the CP grant the group , what is flagged PvP 1000 gold and XP per player who enters the scene to pass through (unflagged and not initially involved in the CP thing or PvP) ???

So, get a group wipe the controlling Mobs , controll the Pass, get XP and gold for anyone passing by (not exploitable that much if every char only counts 1 time per 24 hrs) and beware of another group who may want take over the controll and attack you.

 

No I don't like this as I don't PvP much well or rarely and i would like the control points to be fun group things to do again.

 

So what is fun? @majoria70

One say XP grinding, another say PvP , next one dance party

I sure get what you want to say, i for myself aren't involved in PvP until now, but if we talk about control points and passes, what is there supposed to be controlled?

PvE encounters? Sure I agree , but then make it that passes aren't meaningless and controlling them is more "connected" to the world and logic.
Maybe no way to run just through them and beeing only a timesink and 2 loading screens.

To circumvent there are many options: pay the NPC , teleport to a friend, use the Lunar Rift.

Passes and their control need to be something meaningfull like sieges need to be more meaningfull.

 

The most fun times I had in this game were the control point parties. Most challenging and rewarding, required a party.

 

We tried it some time ago, but had no chance

I agree this would be fun and challenging to do. How is it going now with a strong high-level group?
What was the change to make this no more fun?
I just know that people "exploited" it too much and get too much XP from it.

 

It was not an exploit, it was called playing the game. It was the highest, hardest thing to do, the next step for high level players, and the only thing that required a party to do. It was that mentality right there that is why they were taken away.

"What was the change to make this no more fun?"

Now, on final wave, you either get a boss, or the FINAL wave, they just end now instead of just keeping wave after wave coming at you.