My big beef with content is just the opposite of yours, Ogham. Things in my opinion are simply far too easy. A high level NPC is made but all it does is hit hard in/out of interlock, and no change in strategy seems to ever have to be made to take it down. There's plenty of Time-consuming group content, but there's no challenge anywhere.

I'm not going to argue that all those things you have problems with are solo-able because for most people they aren't (The GM box itself is not solo-able by a normal player, though.).

I think Rarebit's getting on the right track with this latest patch. The missions are completley solo-able for a level 50, but then there's Wright as well. A team of people can take her on and get some decent loot and would, if she and her NPCs didn't break so easy and maybe even if she had Runtime going along with all her other override abilities, be a sufficent challenge for those seeking a challenge and yet not be completley necessary to obtaining the content. It's just a little extra thing people can do.

But there's always going to be content that if you want to get you'll have to group up. Once people stop farming it which is usually around the next update or two, you're going to have to either pay people for the items you need if they're available, pay them to help you farm. I don't think just because some players have problems with group content that future group content should be cut down on or made easier for those of us who can get a group to successfully get the content.

The pattern I see forming is the starting content or "bottom-tier" for the update is solo-able. Then as you progress through the content of the "mid-tier" to "high-tier" requires either a sharp player or a small group of players to complete that part. And hopefully what will emerge off of that is a nice challenge for those of us without a challenge but not have it just be some tedious tank of an NPC that you have to slowly wither down over and over. I know Rarebit's tried making challenging things such as the Daimyo box and Wright to give an items that aren't super-awesome stat items but instead have a specific function or look, but again the broken record says "It's time consuming, not a real challenge."

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Ballak wrote:

So you're saying we shouldn't help each other out, and we should just be able to do everything by ourselves. Okay.

Keep going for the forum cq's big guy.  Maybe you can trade them in for a medal or something once the servers shut down for good. 

Seriously the OP is wrong in his premise, but other posters have pointed out maybe we need to start thinking about getting away from heavy team requirement content considering our status as a Massively Hemhorraging Online Role Playing Game.

 

Oh yes, because getting rid of the teamwork aspect of the game will definitely put us in the right direction for an MMO.

I can only agree with the SSR Captain raeder stuff, he needs to be toned down as it is a "FFA" construct, this shouldnt mean you have to form unlikely alliances with people to get new clothing.

I would also like a challenge, something that would make me say "Wow."

It would need to be something like a high level boss spawning wave after wave of Npcs that constantly swap dodges and resistances dynamically that drop an article of clothing 1 in 30.

Something that requires some strategy.

Ballak wrote:

Villemar_MxO wrote:

Ballak wrote:

So you're saying we shouldn't help each other out, and we should just be able to do everything by ourselves. Okay.

Keep going for the forum cq's big guy.  Maybe you can trade them in for a medal or something once the servers shut down for good. 

Seriously the OP is wrong in his premise, but other posters have pointed out maybe we need to start thinking about getting away from heavy team requirement content considering our status as a Massively Hemhorraging Online Role Playing Game.

 

Oh yes, because getting rid of the teamwork aspect of the game will definitely put us in the right direction for an MMO.

Please point out exactly where I said "get rid of the teamwork aspect of this game."  I'm guessing you don't do nuance very well?  Context? 

privaronT wrote:

Heres the sad truth dude.. most gamers are dumber than bricks and struggle at the simplist of tasks. Heck they even invented a game system to market that demographic called the Wii.

Harsh. 

Cadsuane wrote:

privaronT wrote:

Heres the sad truth dude.. most gamers are dumber than bricks and struggle at the simplist of tasks. Heck they even invented a game system to market that demographic called the Wii.

Harsh. 

Alas, the truth do hurt sometimes.

I think there needs to be more soloable tasks and now we have the 11. missions.

The game needs a balance of solo and team.

We are getting there, but the team items need to be valuable than solo.

I agree with the need for making some of this content more readily available to players who need to solo. It's not that people want to always solo, but for some timezones it can be far too challenging to find any other players. For example when I was playing last night, I only found 5 other players in my hardline hopping and none were over level 20.

When I first bought this game I was attracted to the fact that most, if not all, of the content back then could be handled solo. Too much of the new high level content is aimed at group work now. That's all well and good if you can find a group. But for those who can't, why deny them that content?

I think it would be helpful if something was done to ease this problem. I'm sure there must be something that could be done, even if it's by way of temporary simulcra or something that are specifically purchased for the task for an example - although it's probably better if I keep any real ideas to my own topic, if I ever come up with something feasible.

Villemar_MxO wrote:

privaronT wrote:

Ballak wrote:

 Failed Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game

I thought that would put it back in perspective. Another fun little analogy for you.

You dont throw a demotivated toddler into the deep end of a swimming pool when they cant even walk.

Oh let Ballak get his forum cq's.  To your point, I'd be surprised of we have 500 full time subscribers left total.  That's what, 1/200,000th the player base of WoW?

In a perfect world I'd say, team up noob, but that would be on a cruise ship, and were clinging to an inner tube.

 

Only 500?

Nah, surely there are more of us than that!

Nah, surely there are more of us than that!

It may not be that much more. At a stretch I'd say there was around 2000 subscribers, and that's being generous. To futher the point of my first post though, when I was playing at what would be early evening for me, there was a grand total of 7 players, including myself, in the Matrix proper (not counting the archives or constructs) on the Syntax server -- and that's supposed to be the busiest server.

That's just enough people to get one mission team going and to allow one person to AFK dance at the hardline of their choice. =/

we all know the tricks, doesn't make em soloable tho. Not that I need em to be. I think when new content - that is worth it comes on, people get there in great numbers and help each other out. Maybe if you don't have many friends, well...yeah. But basically this is MMO policy, team work. That's why it takes more than a team to kill Wright.

*edited* Not worth my time

Chuui wrote:

Nah, surely there are more of us than that!

It may not be that much more. At a stretch I'd say there was around 2000 subscribers, and that's being generous. To futher the point of my first post though, when I was playing at what would be early evening for me, there was a grand total of 7 players, including myself, in the Matrix proper (not counting the archives or constructs) on the Syntax server -- and that's supposed to be the busiest server.

That's just enough people to get one mission team going and to allow one person to AFK dance at the hardline of their choice. =/

All I know is, the Natives are Restless.  By chance, me and another member of my faction both have the same subscription cycle, and both of us are going on a 4-week on/2-week off cycle times with the patches.  My subby expires today, and I'll be back Dec. 11th (which is when I'm guessing the next patch is).  There's nothing to do these days.  Although, while it was kinda cool to get caught up on stuff, I can't justify the price.   And, I did bring my lvl 25 Mech alt to 30 this patch in order to access 1/3rd of the content that I priviously had access, it was a completely joyless chore.  So I can't sit and powergrind for long sustained periods of time.

Getting back on topic, Recursion is barren, Vector isn't much better.  Syntax is the only server I see that ever gets to medium.  (Actually Vector hit medium twice, a week ago, on the afternoons on Saturday & Sunday; but that was because of a priviously planned tournament).

In a perfect world?  Yeah teamwork all the way.  But the population is so low (at least on 2 out of the 3 servers) that that needs to be taken into consideration.  I think the merge idea is good to look at as a temporary fix.  And yeah I might have lowballed the number back a while ago upthread, but I'd say at best 700-800.  And since the Winter Holiday is anamalous with ppl coming back on break etc., after that expect to see a huge drop.  And the economy is still quite bad, many of us have to be more strict about our entertainment dollar.  Hence my 4 week on / 2 week off new MxO schedule.

so much in this game is solo playable alrdy, adding more just doesnt make any sence. and the high levels are needed for those of us that are actually good enough to solo them... we need a challenge 

Chuui wrote:

I agree with the need for making some of this content more readily available to players who need to solo. It's not that people want to always solo, but for some timezones it can be far too challenging to find any other players. For example when I was playing last night, I only found 5 other players in my hardline hopping and none were over level 20.

When I first bought this game I was attracted to the fact that most, if not all, of the content back then could be handled solo. Too much of the new high level content is aimed at group work now. That's all well and good if you can find a group. But for those who can't, why deny them that content?

I think it would be helpful if something was done to ease this problem. I'm sure there must be something that could be done, even if it's by way of temporary simulcra or something that are specifically purchased for the task for an example - although it's probably better if I keep any real ideas to my own topic, if I ever come up with something feasible.

Chuui hit the nail on the head here. As it is, I don't have the time commitment for MxO as much as I used to in 2005. I'm busy with college and martial arts training, something I'm not willing to give up. As it is, this game is gearing more towards the unemployed or school students than it used to be. Hell, I barely have any friends online just because they have a personal life to attend to (pretty much every U.S.-based players in my faction.). The only thing that keeps me subscribing to this game are the critical missions since my chances of attending Live Events have been nill since last Spring, and with the recent format, I feel partially screwed on soloing missions when it comes to dealing with multiple level 51 NPCs at the same time, and god-forbid the scripted level 55 Agent.

The main problem with this current format not every single player has connections, nor knows when each server has a "hot jack-in timeslot" because pretty much 90% of us are either in school, college, or have a job. Real life comes first for everyone, and I barely have enough time for this game as it is. Right now, I'm jaded enough to cancel my subscription two months from now if this system stays in place permanently. I've been around since the end of Nightfall, and this game is not solo-friendly anymore (don't say "Use facebook/Myspace/etc.". I only see ten lvl 50 Zion/EPN players max on my buddy list if I'm lucky enough, and only have three active faction members whenever I log in, which means my chances of enjoying the content are pretty much nill).