Anyone else irritated by solo instances?

iord_stryker

So basically myself and my wife play together and it bothers us that the main quests have to be done solo when the rest of the game can be done together. Does this annoy anyone else? Should we have the option to run them with a group?

VoidBlue

Only if I was purely soec'd to be group played as in pure tank or healer

GreenSoup2HoT

Yeah, i wouldn't mind if it was group. Personally, i hate how i have to do quest's in general to move on. What if you like just to roam around?

I also think that all monster's anywhere should just scale to your level, this way you and your friend's can always play together no matter the level. There will always be higher level monster's that will give you more exp but if i go to help a lower level friend at least scale it to my level so it's still fun instead of one shot's.

Austacker

Only reasons to do a solo instance.

• Get the skyshard
• Kill the boss for the achievement

Repeat for every solo instance in the entire game.

gg

OzJohnD

solo instances are for story line progression ... annoying if you want to multiplayer for all of ESO, but otherwise a nice idea.

Sometimes you want to have private time in your pain

ontheleftcoast

I think there was an intent to make sure players were still capable of solo play. Remember, this game is somewhat dyslexic in what it thinks it is. Is it a solo game you can player with others or an MMO that lets you solo even the toughest group challenges? So I'm guessing some "bright bulb" in ZOS decided this was necessary so characters didn't get to veteran ranks only by playing with others. A sort of in-game version of "You must be this tall to ride the Molag Coaster". Needless to say it's pretty annoying. There are also some solo encounters that were clearly designed as group encounters but later patched to be solo and not well thought thru. The horde of Yokudan ghosts that attack you at the end of the DC quest line in Bangkorai used to drive me nuts until I figured out that ghosts can't swim. ;D

six2fall

I'm irritated with solo load screen watching

anitajoneb17_ESO

Austacker wrote: »

Only reasons to do a solo instance.

• Get the skyshard
• Kill the boss for the achievement

Repeat for every solo instance in the entire game.

gg

Except that solo instances don't have any skyshards.
OP is referring to main quest / mages' guild / fighters' guild.
You are confusing with so-called "solo dungeons" which are called "solo" because they are "solo-able" but they're actually public, not instanced; so OP can do them together with friends / wife. They have skyshards (most of them).

Oh and most of them are quite pretty, and have related quests, and a story/background which is always nice to discover.

With your reasoning, the entire game (and any game in fact) could be summarized as "explore - discover- kill mobs - get XP and achievements - rinse - repeat". Makes no sense.

Eshelmen

Think that's annoying? Try havin your wife and you queue for a group.

starkerealm

Austacker wrote: »

Only reasons to do a solo instance.

• Get the skyshard
• Kill the boss for the achievement

Repeat for every solo instance in the entire game.

gg

Yeah, those are delves. You can actually run them with friends if you want. Hell, you can run them again with friends if you feel so inclined.

The OP was talking about cases where you couldn't bring friends along to double the fun and wanton murder.

That's just a little bit different.

starkerealm

Eshelmen wrote: »

Think that's annoying? Try havin your wife and you queue for a group.

*shakes fist at Mass Effect 3's multiplayer*

iord_stryker

I have no issues with it being being soloable my issue lies with being forced to play that way.our classes are built to compliment each other..my wife is basically our tank and healer and I'm dps which works great together for questing and such but throwing us into solo leave me with precarious health and her with low damage.

Winterpsy

Solo instances can be managed easily with support builds too. You just set up a non support bar.
I personally loved them. Could play without fearing the randoms cleaving through enemies making the map too easy. I loved that challange, and wish there could be more like that.

Actually I can imagine instances that allow 2-4 players to team up, and scale to that group, in number of enemies and in difficulty. but if you don't find anyone it will be the usual solo.

Group questing..

Vegaroth

Funny thing is im always annoyed by forced group content (like Craglorn questing). Im a solo player, but i can understand your point of view, things should be optional, and main story questing should be able to duo / solo.

adriant1978

Duo play is quite poorly supported in this game. Most "levelling" content is designed to be soloable and can sometimes become laughably easy with a second person, while "endgame" content is typically pitched at 4-man groups.

AngryNord

Austacker wrote: »

Only reasons to do a solo instance.

• Get the skyshard
• Kill the boss for the achievement

Repeat for every solo instance in the entire game.

gg

There are skyshards in solo instances? Since when?

starkerealm

AngryNord wrote: »

Austacker wrote: »

Only reasons to do a solo instance.

• Get the skyshard
• Kill the boss for the achievement

Repeat for every solo instance in the entire game.

gg

There are skyshards in solo instances? Since when?

1 in the tutorial... to match up with the 16th in Cold Harbour and the lone shard in Cyrodiil... and... you know, that's it.

Enodoc

Yeah it's a shame you can't bring anyone else along for those quests. Story-wise, it makes sense though; you are The Hero, the one (and only one) who can save the world. During those storyline sequences, another player with the same "The Hero" status and abilities wouldn't work.

Tandor

I'm all in favour of having options, so group options for what are at present solo instances coupled with solo options for what are at present group dungeons would be good (even tho' it wouldn't really work very well for "Hero" based main storyline questing).

I'd similarly be in favour of an optional PvE instance of PvP zones, as well as optional open PvP instances of open world PvE zones. Give people choices and options, don't force them down one way only, and especially don't allow them to play one way through most of the game and then suddenly have them hit a brick wall where they can't continue without following a different approach.

Alucardo

Being socially inept (yes I'm aware this is a MMO) I really like the Solo dungeons. I hate it when I'm in the zone frying enemies and someone busts in and screws up my cycle. If I look like I need help, fair enough, but having them follow you around killing your mobs induces homicidal thoughts. So no, I'm not irritated by Solo instances, however I'm aware some people are. It would be nice if there was an option to choose Group or Solo, and obviously just increase the enemies strength and health if they select a group instance.

kevlarto_ESO

Not really, I enjoyed it, there is a ton of game to play grouped your story is supposed to be well your personal journey, so many different camps today, some players claim to much solo content other complain not enough solo content in a social massive multiplayer online game, back to the old saying never going to please everyone.

IIIMPIII

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

Yeah, i wouldn't mind if it was group. Personally, i hate how i have to do quest's in general to move on. What if you like just to roam around?

I also think that all monster's anywhere should just scale to your level, this way you and your friend's can always play together no matter the level. There will always be higher level monster's that will give you more exp but if i go to help a lower level friend at least scale it to my level so it's still fun instead of one shot's.

have you played mmos before?

maybe we should just get to max level as soon as we log in too. also max ap. so we dont have to worry about playing

AlienSlof

Again, I'd like to have the choice. Sometimes I play solo, sometimes I pair up with my husband and we play as a pair. We'd like to remain paired up for the whole game, storyline quests and all. Just as I'd also like the option to solo all of Craglorn.

Choices and options are good. Forcing solo/group are not.

Tessie

VoidBlue wrote: »

Only if I was purely soec'd to be group played as in pure tank or healer

@iord_stryker @VoidBlue A RL friend and I who are normally solo only players rolled a Templar (dps/heals) and a DK tank to try to clear the dungeons. We both had to change ability bars around and it took much longer than someone spec'd for it. It was extremely frustrating because it really broke up that evening of game play. I understand that the story line is a "there can be only one" type of thing and it wouldn't make thematic sense, but as a player I didn't care.

Is it doable? Sure. Do I understand why they did it? Yes. Did we complain about it for the rest of the night? Yes.

Huggalump

YESSSSSSSS

i don't know why it bothers me, because it's not like im interacting a lot with players when im questing, but for some reason it really irritates me when I have to go through a portal to "enter a dream" or whatever

NewBlacksmurf

Yyyeeessss

Especially cause it should be co-op due to the ring of Mara stuff or just cause it's an online game

Lleksu

It's ludicrous! But I don't see it changing. Been this way since PC launch.

I've lost so many RL friends who played because we always got separated. Having to wait outside while they did their solo bit was rubbish.

We wanted to play together! That was the whole point and generally is the main idea behind an MMORPG - playing with others! Now that they've pretty much all gone, I like that I can solo stuff though.

Why can't phased areas just sync everyone in the group to the group leader's phase? The same way that dungeons scale to the group leader's level.

asteldian

Can't say it bothered me or the wife too much. If nothing else it helped encourage build diversity as things needed to change when doing stuff alone, so it helps players realise their build potential rather than have themselves stuck in a defined role which will only become an issue later on.

Enodoc

If anyone's interested, the proportion of quests that are solo-only is about 2%.

UrQuan

I have no problem with there being some content in the game that is forced solo, and I have no problem with the fact that the amount of forced solo content is so small compared to the total amount of content. I have no problem with the Fighters Guild and Mages Guild questlines being forced solo, and I would have no problem with having a couple of other questlines be forced solo.

What I do have a problem with is the main questline being forced solo. If you didn't actually have to complete the main questline in order to progress to different zones, then I'd have no problem with it being forced solo. Since you do have to complete it to get to your Silver & Gold zones, however, I have a problem with it. My own personal play style is mostly solo, so it hasn't been any sort of a barrier for me personally. I still have a problem with it, though, because people who really only enjoy playing in a group (especially ones whose build and play style are entirely built around support) shouldn't be forced to play solo in order to progress. If content is optional, then that's fine: it can be forced solo or forced group. If content is not optional, then it shouldn't be forced either. In my mind the ideal setup for the main questline would be to make it instanced to you, but allow you to bring 1 other player that you are grouped with if you choose.

NewBlacksmurf

Enodoc wrote: »

If anyone's interested, the proportion of quests that are solo-only is about 2%.

kinda should be 0% as the focus of the game should allow these quests to be completed solo but the instance should not limit to solo. Min should be 2 - 4 as this would also help the other quests that are actually solo only as well (I think its a lot more than 2%)

Solo Quests = instanced solo, quests where when grouped only one person gets quest progress regardless, inability to share a quest even if it had prior steps.

Basically the game having this MEGA Server concept should be intuitive enough to either start the quest progress or allow a group member to skip prior progress with a group member.

I know that rubs people wrong but people for the most part either want to play with others or play alone.
Think about joining others while questing, it builds a desire for ppl to play together an help others.

Right now, it creates an idea that is better to play alone...which is an issue overall for any online games with quests in this nature.
PPL want TES to be a play with friends....think of Diablo 3's way to handle quests vs. a World of Warcraft affect.