All Group Content Should Have A Solo Option

Sovaso · January 2017

Solo vMoL hm.
EZ

Tapio75 · January 2017

LOL... Solo option as a massive step backwards? MMORPG, with a solo option on everything, that would be progress and interesting compared to forced grouping that exists in countless sub par MMO's all over the map.

But i dont think solo option would be the best way.. Rather a guild wars 1 style or DDO style, that i would have loved.. Massive cities with all sorts of people to meet friend, then you go adventuring in the world with people you meet in the cities or alone if there is no people that would like to play like you do.

Solo/private instances would not take anything away from group players but instead, it would make their experience even better since they would not have people in group s that really only want some achievment for a dye or want some item from the dungeon. These folks who are not motivated for group play would have option to go alone and do the thing they wa<nt their own way, at the same time, groups would consist of peoplee who are REALLY interested in doing group content at full motivation.

I also believe rthat player numbers would increase as there are more optoions to play for all kinds of people out there.

Katahdin · January 2017

Not everyone can solo everything and some classes solo things much easier than other classes.

My biggest problem with that once the initial rush of a new content release, you have a very difficult time getting anyone to help you.

So you have to literally rush through any new content just so you can get it done.

When they changed all the world bosses, I rushed all my characters through them all while people were still farming them. Now I don't ever have to do them again and after that, I can't stand doing them right now because it was so painful trying to get them done.

I rushed my characters through the bosses in Wrothgar, Hew's Bane and the Gold Coast for the same reasons.

I just spent the last month pounding Craglorn to get all my characters through that story and content because I am afraid that at some point, no one will be there and getting the bosses, hard delves, dungeons and story done will be impossible.

I would much prefer to not have to rush all my characters through the content that I am unable to solo but I feel I am forced to do that so I can complete it. It doesn't allow me to enjoy the content at my own pace because I'll nevet get it done if I do that.

Before anyone says "lol L2P Git Gud"

I have soloed normal Fungal Grotto on a stam NB. Ive done a few vet dungeons (in a group) including vWGT, vCOA, and some others on a stam NB.

Group dungeons (pledge dungeons) and trials should stay group. Overland content, all delves and Craglorn dungeons (which are so long and unrewarding, almost no one does them) should be soloable (or change/bump rewards to make them more desirable to do).

Wifeaggro13 · January 2017

Tapio75 wrote: »

LOL... Solo option as a massive step backwards? MMORPG, with a solo option on everything, that would be progress and interesting compared to forced grouping that exists in countless sub par MMO's all over the map.

But i dont think solo option would be the best way.. Rather a guild wars 1 style or DDO style, that i would have loved.. Massive cities with all sorts of people to meet friend, then you go adventuring in the world with people you meet in the cities or alone if there is no people that would like to play like you do.

Solo/private instances would not take anything away from group players but instead, it would make their experience even better since they would not have people in group s that really only want some achievment for a dye or want some item from the dungeon. These folks who are not motivated for group play would have option to go alone and do the thing they wa<nt their own way, at the same time, groups would consist of peoplee who are REALLY interested in doing group content at full motivation.

I also believe rthat player numbers would increase as there are more optoions to play for all kinds of people out there.

it really does not you would think that game design would work. the genre was never about soloing and story. the games that have made it to the 10 year plus mark had plenty of group prgression and plenty of solo experiences. but they had a very distinct end game community that was dedicated and kept enriching and expanding that area of the game. most MMO's are shutting it down buy 5 years and they are very solo casual centric. if they do survive the games are heavy barbie doll content and light on actuall content.

Cadbury · January 2017

Sovaso wrote: »

Solo vMoL hm.
EZ

Teemo

-dab-

Grileenor · January 2017

Palidon wrote: »

Many may disagree but it is my opinion there is too much Group Content forced upon solo players. I am a solo player. I do not like running in groups. The World Bosses, Undaunted Pledges and much of Craglorn with the exception of the Craglorn quest line are all geared for group play. My suggestion is to have a solo option for all group content. The rewards do not have to be the same since the difficulty would change but there should be a solo option.

You chose to play a MMO. MM for massive multiplayer... There are solo games for solo players out there. ESO does have more solo content than most MMOs anyway. This is as if someone would complain that milk is white.

QUEZ420 · January 2017

The entire game is ez mode solo n u can reach cp cap without even looking at grp content whatsoever... "group content" is named that for the obvious reason.

AlnilamE · January 2017

Katahdin wrote: »

Not everyone can solo everything and some classes solo things much easier than other classes.

My biggest problem with that once the initial rush of a new content release, you have a very difficult time getting anyone to help you.

So you have to literally rush through any new content just so you can get it done.

When they changed all the world bosses, I rushed all my characters through them all while people were still farming them. Now I don't ever have to do them again and after that, I can't stand doing them right now because it was so painful trying to get them done.

I rushed my characters through the bosses in Wrothgar, Hew's Bane and the Gold Coast for the same reasons.

I just spent the last month pounding Craglorn to get all my characters through that story and content because I am afraid that at some point, no one will be there and getting the bosses, hard delves, dungeons and story done will be impossible.

I would much prefer to not have to rush all my characters through the content that I am unable to solo but I feel I am forced to do that so I can complete it. It doesn't allow me to enjoy the content at my own pace because I'll nevet get it done if I do that.

Before anyone says "lol L2P Git Gud"

I have soloed normal Fungal Grotto on a stam NB. Ive done a few vet dungeons (in a group) including vWGT, vCOA, and some others on a stam NB.

Group dungeons (pledge dungeons) and trials should stay group. Overland content, all delves and Craglorn dungeons (which are so long and unrewarding, almost no one does them) should be soloable (or change/bump rewards to make them more desirable to do).

Consider it a challenge, then.

I personally really enjoy the fact that they buffed world bosses. It was a bit ridiculous that you could solo them with a character that had a mish-mash or skills they were leveling up.

And honestly, even in the days before One Tamriel when the silver and gold zones were not scaled, I always found someone in those zones when I was questing, so if anyone needed help with a dolmen or world boss, it was there.

Also, Craglorn has the best delves in the game.

Riejael · January 2017

When the following zones have group content versions (II Dungeon or DLC level group difficulty) of their Solo content (Quests and Delves):

Bleakrock Isle
Bal Foyen
Stonefalls
Dashaan
Shadowfen
Eastmarch
The Rift
Khenarthi's Roost
Auridon
Grahtwood
Greenshade
Malabal Tor
Reaper's March
Betnikh
Gelnumbra
Rivenspire
Stormhaven
Bangkorai
Alik'r Desert
Wrothgar
Hew's Bane
Gold Coast
Coldharbor
...and I'm sure I'm missing one or two zones.

Then we can talk about the smaller group dungeons with their single quest in each being made for Solo. There's a literal 500:1 solo to group ratio in quest content alone.

Just the vanilla solo content alone far outweighs all the group content (including public dungeons, world bosses, and dolmens) added with DLCs.

Lets put the Multiplayer back in MMO.

There's literally 5 Elder Scroll solo games compared to one multiplayer. So there's that comparison to be made too.

AhPook_Is_Here · January 2017

Palidon wrote: »

Many may disagree but it is my opinion there is too much Group Content forced upon solo players. I am a solo player. I do not like running in groups. The World Bosses, Undaunted Pledges and much of Craglorn with the exception of the Craglorn quest line are all geared for group play. My suggestion is to have a solo option for all group content. The rewards do not have to be the same since the difficulty would change but there should be a solo option.

You can actually do all of that stuff solo now.

Gandrhulf_Harbard · January 2017

Grileenor wrote: »

You chose to play a MMO. MM for massive multiplayer...

Multiplayer does NOT mean "group".

It never has.

All The Best

Soella · January 2017

I would love to have "story mode" for all group dungeons/trials. Slowly go through quests, listen, watch - there are tons of already existing content which is not available for a lot of players.

The simplest implementation - scale player 6/20 times more than they are scaled now and remove mechanics which require more than 1 player, remove all loot to avoid any exploits - would be enough.

vyndral13preub18_ESO · January 2017

Chadak wrote: »

To everyone trying to hide behind the ricepaper-frail deflection of 'go play skyrim', consider very carefully that Elder Scrolls has no player base without the single player game fans having been handed this MMOificated Elder Scrolls game rather than ES6.

All I and a number of my friends have ever wanted was multi-player LAN play in our elder scrolls games.

So we're making due with this MMOified thing. We weren't touching it at release. It was a crap MMO hitting all the same pants-on-head ridiculous points as pretty much every mmo that came before it, but this one had Elder Scrolls lore and graphics.

Big.

Freaking.

Woop Dee doo.

For most of two years, we mocked this games very existence without mercy or relent.

Why? Because it was, in our eyes, a pathetic nd arrogant betrayal of a playerbase nearly 20 years in the cultivating.

One Tamriel got some of my groups attention. We looked into it. Some of us liked what we were seeing in the massive de-MMOifying of the newest elder scrolls game.

I've been running around in game with anywhere from 2-7 of my best gaming and work buddies since one Tamriel hit. We're liking it pretty ok. We mock the unexplained absence of underwater exploration, but it isn't a big deal that it isn't here.

What would be a big deal would be if we couldn't play most of it like an elder scrolls game. Ya know, like more than half of us have been doing since Arena and Daggerfall kept us awake far too often on school and work nights.

I'm fine with content requiring a group, but the simple fact at hand is this - Elder Scrolls does not have, and has never had, a hardcore multi-player customer base.

Me and my buddies are not antisocial. We've had no trouble doing every bit of group content we've felt like doing so far.

We couldn't possibly care less about the vast majority of players not in our real life clique though.

Why not?

Because we're here for an elder scrolls with multi-player experience, not the experience of putting up with every one man clown show in the game.

We don't care about your metas. We don't care about your achievements.

Did we recently complete white gold tower with no tank and everyone off healing while dpsing? Rather fantastically, we did.

Do I have a clue what the difficulty setting was? No.

We'd still have preference for LAN/Internet multiplayer.

Then we wouldn't have to put up with the annoyingly MMO junk.

So, yelling at people like me and mine top 'go play skyrim' is really about as effective as poisoning yourself and waiting for us to get sick.

There's an amazingly good chance we don't care what you think, and if Bethesda/Zenimax bother us into quitting, you won't hear much about it.

Because we basically don't care what you think.

And I think too much MMOification is crap in an elder scrolls game. I'm liking One Tamriel pretty well. I'm not liking how mmoified all the skills and powers are, but it could be worse.

Ta.

I understand what you are saying, but Im sure you also undertsand that wasnt the game they set out to make.

They werent trying to make another single player ES. Or a drop in out multiplayer ES like diablo. No, they set out to make an ES MMO. On purpose. I understand that may not be what you and your friends like, but there are actually people who like the MMO part of an MMO.

For example I like having solo content leveling and for casual game play i like have content that is meaning full for 2-4 man groups. But for end game i like have 4 man dungeons and larger trials. Or large scale Pvp. I enjoy having a go at things with random people and seeing what happens. Because i find it fun.

I understand you might not enjoy the same things. But at the same time i do find it odd that you and your friends would purchase an mmo when you obviously dont like mmos. It seems like that would be me hating on single player games, buying skyrim and the complaining that i cant play with other people. Or buying some of the Final Fantasy Strategy Games then complaining they werent like the original FF. Of course they werent, because that wasnt the game they set out to make.

I get it you guys love ES. That is great. But they set out to make an MMO. That is what they made. And even at that like 99% of the game content can be completed solo. But i cant understand why someone who dislikes MMOs would purchase an MMO.

Hartagon · January 2017

I wish they would just put a story mode on the dungeons with stories.

I still haven't even done like half of them because I can rarely find a group for older normal dungeons. And when I do everyone is in a hurry... So I am sitting there having the quest conversation and I come out of it only to see the group is halfway through the dungeon ahead of me already.

TerraDewBerry · January 2017

Palidon wrote: »

Many may disagree but it is my opinion there is too much Group Content forced upon solo players. I am a solo player. I do not like running in groups. The World Bosses, Undaunted Pledges and much of Craglorn with the exception of the Craglorn quest line are all geared for group play. My suggestion is to have a solo option for all group content. The rewards do not have to be the same since the difficulty would change but there should be a solo option.

Gods.. I would love a solo version of group content.. just to have the option.

mikeabboudb14_ESO · January 2017

i don't like groups. cant stand how they rush through everything no exploring nothing. In all my years of playing MMOs i have only come across one guild i did not make that was worth the effort. I find most guilds are created to support a small group of players and leech off the other. All content should be solo orientated with group content being the option.

Tapio75 · January 2017

I find it extremely awkward when other people try to force group on others while the other side just want both options to be available.

All delves would be much better as private instances, you could do the solo or with a friend or friends, why force it to be with random people who's playstyles interferes with each other?

Dungeons are the thing where the need for private instance is really required. As it is now, these groups are almost always ruled by elitis min maxers who dictate who can and can not do the content. If you are looking for relaxed progression, you need to be in a guild with similar minded people which really is harder than one can imagine as we all have our guilds right now, there are folks that wwe enjoy talking with and we have guild stores and banks and all, but ifts strangely hard to find people who want to go slow on dungeons. Everyone seems to think its best done very quick.

I am especially screwed because i have always loved sneaky characters who carefully plan every move, attack from behind and do things slowly but efficiently. I have yet to find anyone who can cope with my patience but i do know at least one person who could play with me this way but dungeons are made for bigger number of people than 2.

And i dont really care about any gear that these places drop, i just want to go there alone or wwith some friend to see the place and delve in the dungeon as it were in fantasy.

We could have both sides happy with both options available in at least delves and dungeons, also quest bosses, but the other side thinks, that game has more appeal when something that other side does not really like, is forced on them, how well has that ever worked?

dday3six · January 2017

What happened to a person simply saying, "This is not something I enjoy", and moving on, opposed trying to alter everything to fit their whims.

NewBlacksmurf · January 2017

Miss_Morphine wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Miss_Morphine wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Disagree

It should actually be the other way around

All solo content should have at least a duo or trio option

With the exception of vma and main story quests all of it does...

@Miss_Morphine
Actually All and no exceptions. Especially the main story and vMSA

It's a game forced to play on an online MMO server so all content should allow at least two or three

It's as simple as one character being talked to and the others just taging along....it is One Tamriel right?

I agree when it comes to the main story quests. I never really understood the decision to make them solo only.

vMA? I'm not for diverting a large amount of resources to make ESO into Skyrim but I'm not for taking things from niches either. It's a different kind of content that appeals a lot to some people. Why would I want to make it basically dead in its current incarnation? We have vDSA for the same thing in a group. It would become another vDSA and the scoring landscape would completely change, killing the place for some.

I think you're adding things that aren't written
For vMSA it's as simple as allowing more than one person. I'm not asking for a redesign or change in difficulty

I would suggest duos exclude a leaderboard and the loot shouldn't be the same but to do it seems more than fun with another person.

Wifeaggro13 wrote: »

Miss_Morphine wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Disagree

It should actually be the other way around

All solo content should have at least a duo or trio option

With the exception of vma and main story quests all of it does...

no it really does not .its solo content . what he is saying is the content should have a group option that is un soloable with itemization that is greater then the solo version.

I'm actually not suggesting new itemization. I'm just suggesting ppl should be able to join another.
It's like co-op but only the main player is progressing so I could help one another and stay grouped instead of sitting outside of an instance for 15-30 minutes.

Hartagon · January 2017

dday3six wrote: »

What happened to a person simply saying, "This is not something I enjoy", and moving on, opposed trying to alter everything to fit their whims.

Well I mean this game was literally made to bring in players of a SINGLE PLAYER RPG series you may have heard of called "The Elder Scrolls".

Would you rather everyone that doesn't participate in group stuff just quit?

WoW tried that in WoD with their raid or die game design... The game lost over 60% of its subscription base (from the expansion's launch to the next time numbers were reported)... And I assume it lost even more than that because they refused to release subscriber numbers during quarterly calls from then on.

Catering only to endgame group content in an MMO kills the MMO.

Jeremy · January 2017

Palidon wrote: »

Many may disagree but it is my opinion there is too much Group Content forced upon solo players. I am a solo player. I do not like running in groups. The World Bosses, Undaunted Pledges and much of Craglorn with the exception of the Craglorn quest line are all geared for group play. My suggestion is to have a solo option for all group content. The rewards do not have to be the same since the difficulty would change but there should be a solo option.

You can already solo World bosses, Undaunted Pledges and much of Craglorn.

So you are asking for something that has already happened.

IronCrystal · January 2017

Tapio75 wrote: »

Dungeons are the thing where the need for private instance is really required. As it is now, these groups are almost always ruled by elitis min maxers who dictate who can and can not do the content. If you are looking for relaxed progression, you need to be in a guild with similar minded people which really is harder than one can imagine as we all have our guilds right now, there are folks that wwe enjoy talking with and we have guild stores and banks and all, but ifts strangely hard to find people who want to go slow on dungeons. Everyone seems to think its best done very quick.

How did you come to this conclusion? No "elite min maxers" dictate what you do in a dungeon. You find people who want to do what you do and there's no problem.

People try to go as fast at they can because they are farming items or keys. They don't want to be held back by you. If you are using group finder, then you are setting yourself up for this situation.

How hard is it to find friends? Tons of people enjoy the immersion of this game and would be willing to play at your pace with you.

NewBlacksmurf · January 2017

Hartagon wrote: »

dday3six wrote: »

What happened to a person simply saying, "This is not something I enjoy", and moving on, opposed trying to alter everything to fit their whims.

Well I mean this game was literally made to bring in players of a SINGLE PLAYER RPG series you may have heard of called "The Elder Scrolls".

Would you rather everyone that doesn't participate in group stuff just quit?

WoW tried that in WoD with their raid or die game design... The game lost over 60% of its subscription base (from the expansion's launch to the next time numbers were reported)... And I assume it lost even more than that because they refused to release subscriber numbers during quarterly calls from then on.

Catering only to endgame group content in an MMO kills the MMO.

It's an odd question because if you play solo....how would we know you're not playing anymore or if you quit?

idk · January 2017

EvilCroc wrote: »

As one of the wisest people on this forums said (sorry, I don't remember your nickname):
"MMORPG - Massive multiplayer online role play game. What exactly in this definition says there should be any group content?"
I can agree with the OP. At least Craglorn should be real solo friendly, as One Tamriel have promised.
And I still can't forgive ZOS for new world bosses.

@EvilCroc your bosses because WBs are to much of a challenge. They should be a challenge. Most of them can be done wiki but they should require a decent group of 12 at least with maybe only 6 if they're amongst the best on the server.

Currently most are a joke.

Tapio75 · January 2017

Like this Indoril cryp im now doing, i just wanted tpo immersively sneak behind enemies and kill them quickly to not raise an alarm, yes this is not needed but the story is much more fun this way... But like countless other similar places in ESO, the crypt is full of players, killing everything, always going with the sprint button glued down. There is simply no way to do this the enjoyable way, all i can do to finish the quest is go to the end of the crypt and finish the quest

This could have been exellent part of TES series if the MMO crap would have been left out and just made an TES game with many other players online at the same time

AlnilamE · January 2017

Well, if all the folks here who said "I would love a story mode for dungeons so I can experience the quests" in this thread are playing on the same server (or even split 50/50), all you have to do is group up together and do the dungeons in normal mode.

@Hartagon , @Ahnastashia , @Soella and @mikeabboudb14_ESO for example.

You seem to be looking for the same experience. Get together and run the dungeons in normal mode and take your time enjoying the stories!

EvilCroc · January 2017

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

@EvilCroc your bosses because WBs are to much of a challenge. They should be a challenge. Most of them can be done wiki but they should require a decent group of 12 at least with maybe only 6 if they're amongst the best on the server.

Currently most are a joke.

No, they should not be. Forced grouping in overall solo zones is nonsense. Delves, dolmens, even public dungeons are easily solo-able. WB - not. This is sick. I need to w8 people on each WB just to complete zone map. Waste of time.

Hand_Bacon · January 2017

When shopping for a game, look under the heading, "Single Player".

AlnilamE · January 2017

EvilCroc wrote: »

Giles.floydub17_ESO wrote: »

@EvilCroc your bosses because WBs are to much of a challenge. They should be a challenge. Most of them can be done wiki but they should require a decent group of 12 at least with maybe only 6 if they're amongst the best on the server.

Currently most are a joke.

No, they should not be. Forced grouping in overall solo zones is nonsense. Delves, dolmens, even public dungeons are easily solo-able. WB - not. This is sick. I need to w8 people on each WB just to complete zone map. Waste of time.

There seem to always be people at world bosses though. At least in NA. I've not had to try and solo one that I needed yet.

dday3six · January 2017

Hartagon wrote: »

dday3six wrote: »

What happened to a person simply saying, "This is not something I enjoy", and moving on, opposed trying to alter everything to fit their whims.

Well I mean this game was literally made to bring in players of a SINGLE PLAYER RPG series you may have heard of called "The Elder Scrolls".

Would you rather everyone that doesn't participate in group stuff just quit?

WoW tried that in WoD with their raid or die game design... The game lost over 60% of its subscription base (from the expansion's launch to the next time numbers were reported)... And I assume it lost even more than that because they refused to release subscriber numbers during quarterly calls from then on.

Catering only to endgame group content in an MMO kills the MMO.

No, it was made to captialize on existing fanbase and market them an MMO that differentiated itself from the SP TES titles. Not tide players over until the next TES installment. You understand the idea of competing market shares? Why would Zenimax want to make a game that will compete directly with another game they also make. It's a pyramid and profit all travels upward.

WOW has massive sub drops with every expansion, anymore. The market has changed, players don't wholly dedicate themselves to one game as often as in the past. So they have a surge of returning players to see, the new content, and then they move on. This is quite common in gaming culture today. WOW is just still on one of the biggest of scales, so it attracts the most hoppers.

The same can be said of catering only to the single player market as well.

What needs to happen is that players need to realize that content is made for different demographics, and if they want to run solo that's fine, but it doesn't mean that everything in the game needs to be solo friendly.