Solo mode

[zealex.9410]

Its an MMO, not a single player.

[Josiah.2967]

I would love smaller group content.

If I had my way it would beFractals - 2-3 PlayersDungeons - 5 PlayersRaids - 10 players

Rift added Chronicles. Which were like 1-2 player dungeons. That way you got to access the story, received nearly the same rewards (slightly lower drop). I actually miss that.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

@"mikilopta.1089" said:Do you think this game needs solo mode? Such as "solo mode" in fractrals or even perhaps raids? What do you think?

I would like to see GW1 style heroes added for dungeons, fractals, and raids but with better AI and the ability to give role instructions to the heroes. Given the nature of fractals and raids being forced multiplayer content it excludes players who don't have the time to focus 100% on them. People who are caregivers, have intermittent on-call work or even those with medical issues like game related headaches and attention issues need to be able to park their character for a bit and come back at it. As it is now it wouldn't be fair to other players in a party if someone needed to break for a moment. It's also not fair that a group of players are excluded from the content because they can't focus 100% on the game.

Heroes could be drawn from a player's own character lineup since they build them out. Roles such as healer, tank, guard, taunter, range attacker, etc could be set to each of them to help the AI direct them. In many ways it would attest more to the player's gaming skill to solo it with a set of AI heroes because they would have full control over how they are utilized.

[Ol Nik.2518]

I would like to have a solo or NPC-assisted mode for dungeons and fractals since they are needed for legendaries. Legendary weapon crafting is a solo journey, not a group effort. And I strongly believe that one's ability to find a group should not affect this journey.

I think that raids are fine as they are as long as they stay more or less isolated from the general PvE. Instead of a solo raid mode, I would love to see an open-world legendary armour.

[Asum.4960]

The reason this community at large struggles so much to get into group content like Raids in the first place (about which the hardest part is finding 9 other players with a similar mindset) is because the game is already largely solo mode, with people lacking strong communities to get into group content together with.

If GW2 needs anything, it's more group-, and less solo content, so people actually have opportunities to form connections and communities that will not only keep them engaged with the game for longer and more consistently, but also allow for a much easier transition into group content like Raids without hitting a wall as casual solo player with the only available option for them being to pug, which is bound to lead to conflicts as players of drastically varying experience levels and expectations converge, which could also reduce the hostility of more casual players towards the quality group content.

It's an MMO after all.Wooden Potatoes described GW2 quite accurately as "people playing alone together", which imo is quite harmful for an MMO.

That's not something that should be perpetuated further by invalidating the few bastions of multiplayer left in this game with solo modes as well.

[kratan.4619]

@lokh.2695 said:No I don't think this game needs a solo mode. It's an MMO, as in massive MULTIPLAYER online. You get the hint.

I play an MMO to play alone with other people, not to group with them. I have almost no desire to even have interaction with them. It is like going to a mall to shop, lots of people around, all doing similar things, nobody has any urge to interact with each other beyond their group of friends.

[dobbeh.7382]

Why are people playing an MMO for solo content? Seems counter-intuitive to me.

[Hashberry.4510]

@"Asum.4960" said:The reason this community at large struggles so much to get into group content like Raids in the first place (about which the hardest part is finding 9 other players with a similar mindset) is because the game is already largely solo mode, with people lacking strong communities to get into group content together with.

If GW2 needs anything, it's more group-, and less solo content, so people actually have opportunities to form connections and communities that will not only keep them engaged with the game for longer and more consistently, but also allow for a much easier transition into group content like Raids without hitting a wall as casual solo player with the only available option for them being to pug, which is bound to lead to conflicts as players of drastically varying experience levels and expectations converge, which could also reduce the hostility of more casual players towards the quality group content.

It's an MMO after all.Wooden Potatoes described GW2 quite accurately as "people playing alone together", which imo is quite harmful for an MMO.

That's not something that should be perpetuated further by invalidating the few bastions of multiplayer left in this game with solo modes as well.

Face it, this just is not a raiding game. The player base is not really interested.

And people playing together is just fine, Anet has a great mmo for that.

[Ol Nik.2518]

@High House Dobby.5316 said:Why are people playing an MMO for solo content? Seems counter-intuitive to me.

MMOs tend to have economies driven by players. For some of us, this is the most interesting part of the game.

[Ashen.2907]

@mikilopta.1089 said:Do you think this game needs solo mode?

Nope. Not at all.

[whoeverxwins.1279]

@Ototo.3214 said:

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@Ototo.3214 said:Only thing I'd really like to see be made easily soloable is specifically the story mode route of dungeons. Just so people can go do those and enjoy the stories. Could cause problems with the dungeon frequenter infinite achievement though.

Dungeon Frequenter applies only to explorable mode afaik, so if you were doing Story Mode, it wouldn't count.

A simple way to fix this would be to massively boost the power of the NPCs with you, and maybe include more, so you could indeed solo it. But this is abandoned content, so I doubt we will ever see fixes or changes for them.

I could have swore story modes counted but I can't check right now. And I know it's abandoned content but I feel like that is kinda why it should be soloable...I guess? Since it can be a pain to find people willing to watch cutscenes with. More helpful NPCs would definitely be a start.

Edit: forgot I could check the wiki and it does say this "Dungeon Frequenter requires completion of eight different paths including Story Modes"

Story mode does count. And with the right build, many if not most professions can solo story mode dungeons. The only one i couldn't do on my Reaper was Honor of the Waves.

[kharmin.7683]

@kratan.4619 said:

I play an MMO to play alone with other people, not to group with them. I have almost no desire to even have interaction with them. It is like going to a mall to shop, lots of people around, all doing similar things, nobody has any urge to interact with each other beyond their group of friends.Well said!

[Raknar.4735]

@High House Dobby.5316 said:Why are people playing an MMO for solo content? Seems counter-intuitive to me.

Probably the same reason why people play MMOs for lobby-based content like dungeons and raids, to have fun.

[Ototo.3214]

@whoeverxwins.1279 said:

@Ototo.3214 said:

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@Ototo.3214 said:Only thing I'd really like to see be made easily soloable is specifically the story mode route of dungeons. Just so people can go do those and enjoy the stories. Could cause problems with the dungeon frequenter infinite achievement though.

Dungeon Frequenter applies only to explorable mode afaik, so if you were doing Story Mode, it wouldn't count.

A simple way to fix this would be to massively boost the power of the NPCs with you, and maybe include more, so you could indeed solo it. But this is abandoned content, so I doubt we will ever see fixes or changes for them.

I could have swore story modes counted but I can't check right now. And I know it's abandoned content but I feel like that is kinda why it should be soloable...I guess? Since it can be a pain to find people willing to watch cutscenes with. More helpful NPCs would definitely be a start.

Edit: forgot I could check the wiki and it does say this "Dungeon Frequenter requires completion of eight different paths including Story Modes"

Story mode does count. And with the right build, many if not most professions can solo story mode dungeons. The only one i couldn't do on my Reaper was Honor of the Waves.

Yes, but it's quite frustrating to attempt with many builds people would probably want to use. I kinda wish they were more like....actual story instances, if that makes sense? Doubtful it will ever happen, but one can hope.

[Zaklex.6308]

No, because there's nothing stopping you(except you) from doing any content in the game solo as it is right now.

[Asum.4960]

@Hashberry.4510 said:

@"Asum.4960" said:The reason this community at large struggles so much to get into group content like Raids in the first place (about which the hardest part is finding 9 other players with a similar mindset) is because the game is already largely solo mode, with people lacking strong communities to get into group content together with.

If GW2 needs anything, it's more group-, and less solo content, so people actually have opportunities to form connections and communities that will not only keep them engaged with the game for longer and more consistently, but also allow for a much easier transition into group content like Raids without hitting a wall as casual solo player with the only available option for them being to pug, which is bound to lead to conflicts as players of drastically varying experience levels and expectations converge, which could also reduce the hostility of more casual players towards the quality group content.

It's an MMO after all.Wooden Potatoes described GW2 quite accurately as "people playing alone together", which imo is quite harmful for an MMO.

That's not something that should be perpetuated further by invalidating the few bastions of multiplayer left in this game with solo modes as well.

Face it, this just is not a raiding game. The player base is not really interested.

And people playing together is just fine, Anet has a great mmo for that.

I can only speak for myself, but for me it has been for the last 2 years and I'm pretty sure the game would not have managed to retain me as as much of an active player over that time if it hadn't been for Raids and especially Fractal CM's and the little communities I formed in that type of content which I was completely lacking before.

I was pretty anti Raid too even up until around PoF and thought they just weren't for me, without ever having tried them.The reason I sought out and joined a training group was actually because up until that point the Raid masteries weren't hidden and I had not gotten spirit shards for all of HoT (which was changed shortly after, so aside from maybe Legendary Armor there was really nothing left to entice people to try out Raids), so I thought I better just finally get that done before PoF by at least finishing one encounter.

I hadn't intended to super get into Raiding or anything, I just wanted to get that done and finally check them out for a bit.

Once I experienced Raids though it felt like, much like with Fractal CM's, that that's what GW2 was made for.It's almost like everybody who bought GW2 bought a box with a mechanically interesting toy inside, but 90%+ of the playerbase is just playing with the box, scoffing at those who like the actual toy inside, with Anet perpetuating that split by mostly just developing effortless content for the box, like stickers and pins to put onto it, while never actually advertising the toy inside.

After beating that more difficult content and the satisfaction you get from earning that progress with your group of people after all the failure that comes before it, it's hard to go back to open world and story, where everything dies in literally 1-3 seconds, most of what you do is pressing F on things, and even for major story bosses you need to actively stop yourself at boss HP threshholds like 75%, 66%, 50% etc., just to see if they have any enjoyable mechanics and let them do their thing, because otherwise you accidentally burst them down before they get to do anything, with actual failure, regardless of what you do, not even being an option.It's just in such a sad state.

Now it's perfectly fine to still enjoy that content and I don't want to tell anyone not to, but I do feel a bit sad/disappointed about so many people never actually experiencing what this game could and can be and instead just scratching around on the surface, because they convinced themselves that this kind of content just isn't for them, just like I did.For some people that may actually be the case, but if Anet had been better about advertising Raids, developing them and incentivising players to give it a shot, I'm sure so many more players would enjoy that content today.

But considering the advertising of Raids has been limited to things like a single blurry screenshot in a blogpost, I don't think you can expect a thriving raiding community to come from that, nor do I think it's fair to say that it's just not a "Raiding game", whatever that means, and that people at large just aren't interested, when Anet never really tried to make people interested in the first place to see if that was true.

[Hashberry.4510]

Oh I think raiding is great, just that raiders will always be left dissatisfied with the pace here.

[Thornwolf.9721]

@EmmetOtter.8542 said:Even though the game is a MMO there's lots of things you can still do solo but Raids and Fractals were specifically added as group only content. And that's how they should stay.

but people have soloed them (In the case of raids, three manned them.)

[Tinker.6924]

@Thornwolf.9721 said:

@EmmetOtter.8542 said:Even though the game is a MMO there's lots of things you can still do solo but Raids and Fractals were specifically added as group only content. And that's how they should stay.

but people have soloed them (In the case of raids, three manned them.)People have flown to the Moon too but that doesn't mean you can cash in your frequent flyer miles to go there.

Big difference between getting a special solo mode and soloing the content. You can always run in the door, by yourself, and see how it goes.

[Ashen.2907]

@EmmetOtter.8542 said:

@Thornwolf.9721 said:

@EmmetOtter.8542 said:Even though the game is a MMO there's lots of things you can still do solo but Raids and Fractals were specifically added as group only content. And that's how they should stay.

but people have soloed them (In the case of raids, three manned them.)People have flown to the Moon too but that doesn't mean you can cash in your frequent flyer miles to go there.

Big difference between getting a special solo mode and soloing the content. You can always run in the door, by yourself, and see how it goes.

Designed to be soloable.

Qualify it however you like, the facts don't change.

[Thornwolf.9721]

@Ashen.2907 said:

@EmmetOtter.8542 said:

@Thornwolf.9721 said:

@EmmetOtter.8542 said:Even though the game is a MMO there's lots of things you can still do solo but Raids and Fractals were specifically added as group only content. And that's how they should stay.

but people have soloed them (In the case of raids, three manned them.)People have flown to the Moon too but that doesn't mean you can cash in your frequent flyer miles to go there.

Big difference between getting a special solo mode and soloing the content. You can always run in the door, by yourself, and see how it goes.

Designed to be soloable.

Qualify it however you like, the facts don't change.

Game ain't challenging, therefor I see this as a non-issue. I hope they make it harder and enforce player interaction.

[Tukaram.8256]

@kratan.4619 said:

@lokh.2695 said:No I don't think this game needs a solo mode. It's an MMO, as in massive MULTIPLAYER online. You get the hint.

I play an MMO to play alone with other people, not to group with them. I have almost no desire to even have interaction with them. It is like going to a mall to shop, lots of people around, all doing similar things, nobody has any urge to interact with each other beyond their group of friends.

That is me, and I think many others. The MMOs are kind of like being in a city, to me. I love cities and crowds - it does not mean I am running around making friends all day ha ha

@"Tekoneiric.6817" said:I would like to see GW1 style heroes added for dungeons, fractals, and raids but with better AI and the ability to give role instructions to the heroes. Given the nature of fractals and raids being forced multiplayer content it excludes players who don't have the time to focus 100% on them. ...

I asked for this in another thread, the other day. I would love to see GW1 style heroes available. Especially for things like the personal story. I just got PoF a week ago, and pretty much everyone else has already done the story - what to speak of Thorns, and the core game. Using your hero pool for personal story would be awesome. I have never looked at fractals or raids (not sure what either of them are), and don't recall ever going in a dungeon. I play open world, and do the story up to the point I can, I have never finished a personal story. Hireable heroes would be great! :)

Some people do not try to understand other people's playstyle. They want to think their way is the "right" way. There is plenty of room for all of us.

[Cuks.8241]

There is not plenty of room really in a sense because the resources of the development team are limited. And since this is a mmo it focuses on group content. There are just a few successful mmo games out there for players that enjoy them and many many single player games. What you want is to change the core focus of the game which as a mmo was always group play.

[Raap.9065]

A lot of "modern" MMO's focus too much on the solo aspect, even GW2 does to an extent with the story missions (which can be played in a group, but there isn't really any reason for doing so beyond your first play-through).

The strength of MMO's however, is their social aspect. This ranges from tight communities, to simply the idea of "playing alongside other people within the same game world". Working against this key genre strength, seems very counterproductive.

That being said, I believe 2 changes could be made related to this:

• Old story mode dungeons could be made solo/duo-friendly, similar to Arah was updated a few years ago. A lot of people never got to see this content and nowadays no one really does those anymore. A revisit of this content for solo/duo play might be interesting. Perhaps if the concept of duo instances works out, maybe the remaining dungeon paths can be updated for 2-man gameplay. This would properly set apart dungeons and fractals in terms of content audience; Fractals would be your "endgame traditional instanced PvE", where as 2-man dungeons would fall somewhere below that.
• The oldest raids (currently the HoT ones) should see an introduction of a more casual "raid finder" mode. It would feature all the same bosses and mechanics, but a notable reduction in difficulty. Reward-wise, you'd get your mastery unlocks, but none of the prestige rewards. An automated group finder would significantly improve accessibility of the content, although I know this is a sensitive subject.

Edit: With that said, one of GW2's key strengths is the open world, lets never detract from that.

[Crab Fear.1624]

@kratan.4619 said:

I play an MMO to play alone with other people, not to group with them. I have almost no desire to even have interaction with them. It is like going to a mall to shop, lots of people around, all doing similar things, nobody has any urge to interact with each other beyond their group of friends.

Going to the mall is still group content. You may do it solo or with a small group of friends, but it doesn't change the fact that the mall, and the stores within require multiple shoppers (players) to stay running.

And besides, you went to the mall where there were people around when you could have stayed home and ordered what you wanted online, alone in your dark windowless bedroom.