Party Play And Group Activities

Aye that is a good thing. I think they are working on improved group mechanics also. I know they mentioned something like raid frsmes. But yes balance is very important.

 

Open up Covetous. Need me some harpies.

 

option to play online..ok...whats the point for me to play online? playing with friends,otherwise I don't need that option

 

Before they required you to be in party to skin animals killed by another player, it was pretty easy to ad hoc join with another player just killing things for adventurer exp, and skin their kills in exchange for a little gold or 10% of the hides. It was a nice way to group and get to know new people. Now I don't even ask because if I party to skin their kills, I'm feeding off their experience. Unfortunately the answer requires more development work. The party UI should have a way for the party leader to toggle who in the party gets adventurer experience. It might be nice for the loot system to share all the loot and to be able to toggle who in the party gets loot. I think it would be a "share" toggle on each player in the party. For example, "Share gold", "Share Adventurer Experience", "Share looted items", "Share gathered items", "Share Producer experience". If you don't share you also don't get. Another cost of this system is that it will take more time to 'configure' a party, particularly for large parties. It already takes quite a bit of time just to organize a party and get everyone to the location.

 

I think it would be something to have the option, but I don't feel this belongs with the leader. Each player should have the option to opt out, and this should be shown on the UI to anyone else in the group. If its not in the player's control, its just another thing that will cause players to quit grouping in frustration. "I joined a group and they turned off my xp when i wasn't looking!"

I'm totally fine with turning off xp if all I'm there for is to help a new player, or they are grinding on monsters while I go mining. Just don't make it something where players have control over one another.

 

I think producer xp should work the same as Adventuring one. When party member harvest something, the xp split according to levels between party members with 10% boost per party member. That way someone can harvest and someone can fight and no one will feel liek losing on anything.

Another thing that must be fixed is to adjust spawn rates:
1) the more mobs are killed in the scene the faster they respawn
2) the more nodes are harvested the faster they respawn
3) the more people in the scene the faster respawn rates (or rather more things spawned)

Bigger scenes would help (especially mines should be much larger imho). Etceter Crag Mines are quite good though it has quite linear layout between levels. Most mines are very small though.

Also it would be nice to have some mixed level scenes. With easier and harder areas. So there is stuff to do for high and low level players.

 

Yea, it's just a suggestion. I was thinking of the opposite case where a player turns on share to steal from the group until they notice but you are exactly right that the stealing can go the other way.

 

one thing about sharing exp. I myself in the past have partied with myself on alts. It was easy for me to park one alt and he would gain of of me just killing stuff in the scene. I had to go back and move him as he would go afk once in awhile. Is there something to prevent this in the future. In testing I didnt mind doing it but now its persistence and should not be allowed.

 

Why should this not be allowed?

 

I guess its just morality. some of us have different views on it. Its a touchy issue for sure. Me I see it as not playing the game but gaming the system even if the mechanics allow it. YMMV.

 

It may be possible to mitigate this by distributing adventurer exp according to the percentage of damage given by each player. I think this is the current method in WoW. But then you harm the efforts of guilds to advance lower skilled players more quickly in a group. Tradeoffs.. Tradeoffs..

 

The only way I see that it could be advantageous is if you have a second account with a pure crafter and you want to share producer XP with that avatar in a scene with lots of high level nodes. If producer experience isn't shared then I really don't see any advantage.

 

Like I said, its all about perception. The perception in this case is the community. Its up for them to judge, not us.

 

Good discussion. Trophy options are a particularly good idea - eventually it would be nice to see further crafting potential from creature type. IE - phoenix feathers made into a cloak, or its claw/talon made into a cane or a dagger. It could give a bonus of some kind or just look cool in the title. Using this example, the field dressing skill of the player could play into the loot drop, the same way you can get an extra animal hide, or a head or whatnot. I would like to see some real treasure loot drops, but if devs want to avoid this, dropping rare (or dare I say ... unique!) crafting resources would be great. This gives more utility to master-craft skills too. In this vein there could also be something like alternative reagents that offer a bonus to the spell - using phoenix feathers again, they could give a +10% damage to fire spells, or they could replace sulfurous ash but not be consumed. Just some thoughts.

Strayed into loot there for a minute, but going back to party exp I think some great points have been brought up - the exp sharing controls might be nice, though I question if that's the solution - shouldn't this be balanced in the game already? I'm not sure how split works currently, but maybe it doesn't need to be as simple as a total for each mob split by the number of players in the party. For instance, rather than 1000 EXP for a solo player becoming 250 EXP for 4, it could be 1000 EXP for a solo and 500 EXP for 4.

Likewise, if exp is scaled by the number of times a player has fought a mob, an old hand might receive a lower percentage for killing a familiar creature while party members on their first kill of that mob would receive more. What about special exp bonuses for extraordinary performance?

What we want is a reason for people to group OTHER than just because they can't kill the thing on their own.

It also seems plausible that there will be more quests tied into these adventures in the future. This doesn't have to be "save the town, kill the dragon", but maybe somewhere in the dragon's hoard the player might find an item that can be returned to an NPC. I would like to see quest-fulfilling items worked into the loot table.

Group crafting and casting scenarios would also be excellent. Or even puzzles that require more than person (weighted triggers, simultaneous action, etc.)

 

Some great suggestions Themo, I especially like the Fishing Wheel, Group Foresting and Mining ideas. The recent changes to party Exp have severely detracted from, rather than adding anything to the game. I cannot think of any valid reason why an MMO game (Clue in the name there) would benefit by discouraging group play, especially when a lot of content such as control points actually require a party to complete. Under the current system, you can earn more Exp points hunting solo, and the control point loot is no longer enough to make the lower Exp worth while for most players. Before wipe I would play in at least three parties a day, after wipe I think I have probably played in less than ten to date....

It's not a good environment to support continued growth and strengthening of the community.

 

I would like to see them add to our existing mines. Below would be my HLBR's proposal (High Level Business Requirements). If the DEVs like what they see here, please reach out to me in PM and I would be happy to help with detailed business requirements .

• When you arrive at the 3rd level of the mine there would be a portal. Placement of the portal could be in the rear of scene where those rock formation steps are located in the back of the room.
• As a player passes through the portal there must be several checks made before passage is granted.
• Only allow players through that have not already completed this adventure that day. Flagged players will not be granted access.
• The second check would be that the group has 4-8 present players, otherwise passage will not be granted for the group.
• Upon passage the group enters a small staging room with a magic barrier. Once a player passes through the barrier it will trigger a mob wave event.
• 5 skull or higher difficulty Mobs would spawn in waves from various spawn points. Blend the mobs so there are Fauns that can mez and heal, Mages, Archers, and Warriors. This would promote the group to work together and form strategies.
• Should the group defeat all waves, they would have the opportunity to harvest all of the nodes in the scene.
• Quadruple the nodes in this scene (1 time harvest) OR create Giant Veins which would have more than the typical amounts of resource.
  
• If the group wipes during the waves, they could run back to the portal entrance staging area for a rez at the ankh and set up for another attempt. In this scenario, the wave event would be reset.
• If the group decides they are not suited to defeat the waves, they would pass back through the portal and arrive back in the 3rd level of the mine where they entered. A failed attempt at the waves will not flag the players from trying again later that day.
• If the group successfully defeats the waves this would flag the players for their daily run of the adventure, prohibiting them from doing it again that day. The magic barrier in the staging room would be turned off.
• When the last node is harvested, it would trigger a boss fight for the group.
• The boss would offer an exceptional amount of exp if defeated. Possibly a nice chunk of gold coin that splits between the group and perhaps the chance to drop a trophy of some sort or perhaps a tied in quest reward.
• If you defeat the boss, the adventure would be complete (no more spawns and no node respawns as mentioned above). Once this group scene is cleared players would use the portal at the entrance staging area room to exit the mine.
• If you fail to defeat the boss, the group would be permitted to rez at the entrance and try again OR they could exit through the portal and arrive back at the 3rd level of the mine. Doing so would flag the players which would prohibit them from entering this adventure again for the duration of that day.

 

This is a good idea and I would definitely enjoy something like this.

I think the overall take away though is that the group content is lacking. Especially at higher lvls when xp amounts become extreme and needing good group content that makes the grind enjoyable is the only real way to keep people playing IMO. I think most MMO devs get that there needs to be a grind and why but they always miss the point that whatever the grind is, it needs to be entertaining. Back in the EQ days, communicating over the internet was still a new thing and sitting in a group talking to other people across the world was amazing and fun. Now, that has completely changed and I find that many game devs forget how to make a grind fun or just haven't come up with a good way to replace the previous iteration.

This is the task before our devs.

Say what you will, but the control points were fun before. They were the best source of xp and you got time to type/talk with your group mates and enjoy the time. They still got grindy after awhile, especially when too easy for some. However, if the devs can think of a way to make something akin to this entertaining for a bunch of hours, they will reap the rewards with players. I certainly like the idea above by @Arthur Ironfist , however it also feels a lot like a daily and could get annoying in that way as well.

I wonder if some multiplayer only, open world dungeons with many hard monsters where you could camp certain locations for mats and/or drops would be the best solution, much like EQ dungeons of old, but that could also just be my preferences showing through rather than taking into consideration all players.

EDIT: Maybe even a multiplayer only zone with multiple control points. One group could do one but if multiple groups enter the zone and take over the other control points as well, then a "war" event would occur with more mobs and boss mobs for each control point. Just a thought.

 

I also don't understand this at all. My girlfriend recently started playing and it's hard for us to play together because we have to keep moving from zone to zone if we want to gather any resources. It seems very detrimental to bringing in new players (on top of just not making any sense).

 

All this game is grinding, all this game is based on getting XP to spend on skills, every place where XPs can be obtained don't promote the team playing, contrarywise, if you play with friends it's an obstacle to accumulate Xp so you do that only to help friends (but you don't like it) or just to chat and wait to be alone to get again XP ...

I think that there should be more promotion for the team gaming, to make this game a real online game and to make this game more fun to play with others!

 

AoE farming can be ok in a small party setup. Can assist training mobs back to the kill zone.

Some areas have fairly dense mob clusters. Control points can be reset after 3/4 waves, depending on your level.

Would be nice to have some strategy mechanics for party play. Combos, etc. And some proper flank attacks to make a viable rogue/assassin character