Give us the option to SOLO everything. Its time.

[Lum_Levits]

I've been playing for a long time, maybe 6 months after the game came out. Level cap was like 7 or 10 or something...I can't remember. I quit, come back, quit, come back, ect...

Frankly every time I come back I find it a major pain in the ass to find groups.

FIRST- I don't know why you had to mess with the party system. Is there anything you can JUST KEEP SIMPLE? I click on it and I no longer have any idea what the hell I'm even looking at. It looks like groups that formed hours ago, completed what they were doing and for some reason their join advertisement is still in the list. What the HELL was wrong with the old one. I looked, saw a group looking or full and I joined or started my own. I hardly ever see players running around with the icon above their head because the whole system is way to complicated and new players do not want to take 20 mins to figure it out.

SECOND- There is no one playing. Population is nothing like I remember it, to be expected. Game is both old and overwhelming complicated for new players.

THIRD- I don't like people. I don't want to play with people who zerg or pike. I don't want to play with people who only have time to play one quest in a 4 part adventure. I don't want to play with a 13 year old from Japan who thinks swearing in English is the coolest thing in the world. I don't want to sit in a advertisement room for 2 hours watching people come and go because it takes too long to find a trapper or INT or WIS or whatever....

FORTH- Should I wait a week of not leveling a character so I can finally find a group to do Necro?

FIFTH- I don't want to wiki "How to solo XXX" watch a you-tube video and then fail 30 times before I am able to cheese my way into the area that requires two or more players.

SIXTH- I want the option of doing a raid with a hireling. I hate raids with other people. Most Ive never done, I want to explore it on my own at my own pace. Not get left behind and lost because they are on their millionth run. You can look back at my THIRD example and ad this here too.

Believe it or not, some of us can't play every night at precisely 7pm meet up with our good friends who also have the same playing styles and complete your game. I'm on at weird times, days, and take weeks off sometimes.

Im sick of opening up my completed quests log and seeing greyed out quests because I either didn't want to go through all the BS research to find out how to solo them or I couldn't find anyone when I was ready to do them. Now I'm 8 levels higher then that raid/dungeon....bummer guess I'll never get that one done. I've even searched YouTube videos of parties doing some of the raids/dungeons just so I can see what they are like. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is what I pay you guys for, SO I CAN PLAY THEM, not have to watch other people play.

I don't have the answers to fix it but we as paying players should not be excluded from content because you feel we should be all buddy buddy with each other.

Get rid of the 4 players/hires required to activate a switch or glyph. Let us have more hires at one time. Lessen the rewards for solo play...make a solo instance for a raid with less rewards...come up with something I'm not thinking of here.

[Toro12]

How about instead of looking for a group on the lfm , post your own?

[Uska]

There is to much that is already soloable it's MMO not some home CRPG and hirelings are the single worst thing ever added to this game yes including the realms

[Ancient]

Get rid of the 4 players/hires required to activate a switch or glyph. Let us have more hires at one time. Lessen the rewards for solo play...make a solo instance for a raid with less rewards...come up with something I'm not thinking of here.
Learn to box :)

But actually, there are very few things that have an absolute requirement for multiple people. Some things are very tough without multiple people (Shroud is a great example). I think that is the sweet spot for design... tough enough to satisfy the hold hands and sing together crowd, but just possible enough to have level 28 players still running a heroic level quest.

While I agree with your philosophy that everything should be possible to solo, I don't agree with your desire that it should be easy to solo.

[Lum_Levits]

There is to much that is already soloable it's MMO not some home CRPG and hirelings are the single worst thing ever added to this game yes including the realms

Yea I agree with the hireling issue. Since I used my very first hire they still have not been able to code a hire to stand there and do absolutely nothing until you command otherwise....but that's a whole other topic. I was referring to their ability to pull a switch or activate a glyph.

If I sit in a party room trying to start a party for Pit or Necro or whatever and two hours goes by? Or they say "I don't zerg/pike and they do". Seems like I just wasted a lot of playing time just to complete some stuff I wanted to complete.

Whats the point of making a player not solo? It would still be an option for the player who is paying real money to play.

Maybe this would be less of a issue for me if I logged on and saw more then 3 groups looking for players, or went to the market area and saw more then 8 players.

[Livmo]

It's already possible to solo all the content in the game without hires. You can also multi-box a party of 6. You will need 6 accounts to do that. I have 4 with all the content and the other 2 will have to wait till the next Black Friday sale.

Although I did not complete the raid, I tested it and you can multi-box 4 accounts and get all the levers in VON5. You could do that with 2 arties and 2 dogs too, or could, but not so sure about doing that now after the hireling changes.

Likewise in the lower necro you could get into that one quest with 2 arties and 2 dogs or just multi-box 4 toons.

Also when you multi-box you get more chest pulls (all the toons are yours) and you can take breaks, AND not have to deal with griefers and the socially challenged.

[Uska]

Yea I agree with the hireling issue. Since I used my very first hire they still have not been able to code a hire to stand there and do absolutely nothing until you command otherwise....but that's a whole other topic. I was referring to their ability to pull a switch or activate a glyph.

If I sit in a party room trying to start a party for Pit or Necro or whatever and two hours goes by? Or they say "I don't zerg/pike and they do". Seems like I just wasted a lot of playing time just to complete some stuff I wanted to complete.

Whats the point of making a player not solo? It would still be an option for the player who is paying real money to play.

Maybe this would be less of a issue for me if I logged on and saw more then 3 groups looking for players, or went to the market area and saw more then 8 players.

I wish the game would make something require real people like killing everything to slow to leave an area so as to stop multiboxing but I am in a minority there, but I joined the game to play with others and I miss the days when it was more required. you might be on the wrong server though I see lots of groups of many levels on Khyber quite often and if I start one it fills fast

[Livmo]

I wish the game would make something require real people like killing everything to slow to leave an area so as to stop multiboxing but I am in a minority there, but I joined the game to play with others and I miss the days when it was more required. you might be on the wrong server though I see lots of groups of many levels on Khyber quite often and if I start one it fills fast

I did too, but there are so many b-holes in-game I've gravitated towards multi-boxing. I used to be a die hard PUG fan and for the most part still am. Maybe more of the amicable PUGers have left and we are at the bottom of the barrel in terms of player behavior.

However, there are allot cool people still left in the game, they just don't PUG or post groups anymore and stick to guilds/friends/channels/multi-box.

When you combine broken game mechanics like dungeon alert, the major lag spikes we've been getting since last Nov or whenever they popped, and bad behavior, it creates the scenario we are experiencing.

Like a snowball rolling down hill?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3b1vHZwHCg

[Impaqt]

Yea I agree with the hireling issue. Since I used my very first hire they still have not been able to code a hire to stand there and do absolutely nothing until you command otherwise....but that's a whole other topic. I was referring to their ability to pull a switch or activate a glyph.

If I sit in a party room trying to start a party for Pit or Necro or whatever and two hours goes by? Or they say "I don't zerg/pike and they do". Seems like I just wasted a lot of playing time just to complete some stuff I wanted to complete.

So dont wait. start the quest. Play at a lower difficulty if you cant faceroll elite.



Whats the point of making a player not solo? It would still be an option for the player who is paying real money to play.

There are very few hard obstacles to players soloing. and you do realize you can indeed use multiple gold hirelings right?



Maybe this would be less of a issue for me if I logged on and saw more then 3 groups looking for players, or went to the market area and saw more then 8 players.

Are you on wayfinder by chance? Are you playing off hours? Have you considered trying another server?


the vast majority of the quests in this are, indeed, quite easily soloable. If Elite is too difficult for you,Play hard.

the dev quoted in my sig is our current head honcho. I doubt you'll see anything getting even easier to solo any time soon.

Raids do not need to be soloable. In fact, you'll find most players nowadays would encourage INCREASED co-op in raids.

[Lum_Levits]

It's already possible to solo all the content in the game without hires. You can also multi-box a party of 6. You will need 6 accounts to do that. I have 4 with all the content and the other 2 will have to wait till the next Black Friday sale.

Although I did not complete the raid, I tested it and you can multi-box 4 accounts and get all the levers in VON5. You could do that with 2 arties and 2 dogs too, or could, but not so sure about doing that now after the hireling changes.

Likewise in the lower necro you could get into that one quest with 2 arties and 2 dogs or just multi-box 4 toons.

Also when you multi-box you get more chest pulls (all the toons are yours) and you can take breaks, AND not have to deal with griefers and the socially challenged.

So again why bother with forcing players to group with others. People just find a way around it. I would never do this as I consider it cheating. Just my own values, not stepping on your preferred method. Then again, you probably wouldn't be doing this if they made it so one person could at least attempt it without a multi-person requirment set into the quest.

Also I never said make solo easier I mentioned a penalty of make loot lower if your there to solo. Except named items, I should of added.

I have toons on every server. Tonight I am playing on Khyber. There are 20 Pugs. 8 are 5th level and lower, 4 are 6-12, rest are 12+. Its 6:30 pst here and I would think on the busiest server DDO has it would be triple that amount.

We aint in the good ole days. Less players and more content means less chance of getting a party of sane players to run something you either want or need to run. If we had a solo option I could come home from work log on and start playing what I consider fun or need to finish. Instead its, log on, wait, cross my fingers, hope for the best, and if doesnt go good tell myself "there's always another day".

[Impaqt]

So again why bother with forcing players to group with others.


you are imagining this "forcing of grouping".


People just find a way around it. I would never do this as I consider it cheating. Just my own values, not stepping on your preferred method.
That sounds like an excuse to me. There is obviously no cheating involved in the vast majority of solo completions.


Then again, you probably wouldn't be doing this if they made it so one person could at least attempt it without a multi-person requirment set into the quest.

what quest are you talking about?



Also I never said make solo easier I mentioned a penalty of make loot lower if your there to solo. Except named items, I should of added.
So you dont want it easier, you just want it not as hard? What exactly would be the point of lowering loot if its not easier? and why just lower the loot that no one cares about?



I have toons on every server. Tonight I am playing on Khyber. There are 20 Pugs. 8 are 5th level and lower, 4 are 6-12, rest are 12+. Its 6:30 pst here and I would think on the busiest server DDO has it would be triple that amount.


so you makeup a random number to expect?



We aint in the good ole days. Less players and more content means less chance of getting a party of sane players to run something you either want or need to run. If we had a solo option I could come home from work log on and start playing what I consider fun or need to finish. Instead its, log on, wait, cross my fingers, hope for the best, and if doesnt go good tell myself "there's always another day".

exactly what quests do you feel "Require" groups?

because every Necro quest has been solo'd.

The Pit Has been Solo'd

Xorian Cypher has been solo'd

The only instances in this game that are legitimately locked out from being solo'd are Von5, and the Titan Pre-raid. (I'm probably missing a few, but with over 300 quests in DDO, we're talking less than 5% have actual mechanics in place to make soloing intentionally difficult)

So get better at soloing, or play on a lower difficulty.

[icycoldfire]

I can't believe this thread exists... Why on earth are you playing an MMO when you just wanna be able to solo everything? This games needs to go (back) in the opposite direction of that - not the other way around.
IME it's neither hard to find groups nor hard to create my own group for stuff, so maybe like has been suggested you are playing at bad times etc.

[Tscheuss]

This game has more than enough solo-able content. I know; I have soloed much of it while exploring. I have also received help, when I asked for it, to get past group mechanics. Helper joins party, enters quest, calls hire, helps me through the co-op section, then leaves. You see, it's not just solo vs. group; there can be a middle ground.

Whether PnP or DDO, DnD has always been a game that demands imagination and rewards ingenuity from its players. :)

[TeacherSyn]

This game has more than enough solo-able content. I know; I have soloed much of it while exploring. I have also received help, when I asked for it, to get past group mechanics. Helper joins party, enters quest, calls hire, helps me through the co-op section, then leaves. You see, it's not just solo vs. group; there can be a middle ground.

Whether PnP or DDO, DnD has always been a game that demands imagination and rewards ingenuity from its players. :)

What he said.

DDO is based on the party mechanics of D&D. Be it hireling or live party, you may need and should use a party to complete things.

Soloing the game is extremely difficult but not impossible--nor should be desired unless you want a unique experience. I did it recently to push the stealth mechanics to their limit, and it was fun. I would have died countless times on soloing with a slay-fest combat agenda.

And while some raids are soloable, that's not what a raid is for. It's meant to kill a 12-man party, and will never be built for solo play.

I don't want to attack the OP for what they'd like to enjoy, but this game is based on D&D principles where combat and cooperation are sometimes needed, often designed for great reward. You have to group up, even if they're hirelings, to get some of the best stuff. And being sociable to find players that want to play like you won't hurt.

Does everybody want an easy-button nowandays? I know it's hard for some of us to come out of our introverted shell, but geez! DDO works because people talk and play together.

[JOTMON]

How about instead of looking for a group on the lfm , post your own?

This is what I got from reading his post
~snip~
he played a long time ago.. quit, come back, quit, come back, ect...
FIRST- do not want to take 20 mins to figure it out.
THIRD-don't like people.
FIFTH- don't want to wiki
SIXTH- hate raids with other people.
~snip~

So lets look at DDO..
its a MMORPG:

MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together.

Raid: Often used with mmorpgs.
It involves players banding together to succeed at a common goal- such as taking over territory, killing an opposing faction, or most commonly killing big scary internet monsters that drop coveted items.


You want DDO to change the premise of the game to cater to your perceived need to solo without having to figure anything out or play with others because you sometimes spend money in between quitting and coming back to the game.

The DDO store "gold seal" hirelings can be summoned anywhere within the quest and you can have more than one of these (different named ones) at a time.

[MadCookieQueen]

This is what I got from reading his post
~snip~
he played a long time ago.. quit, come back, quit, come back, ect...
FIRST- do not want to take 20 mins to figure it out.
THIRD-don't like people.
FIFTH- don't want to wiki
SIXTH- hate raids with other people.
~snip~

So lets look at DDO..
its a MMORPG:

MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player online RPGs by the number of players able to interact together.

Raid: Often used with mmorpgs.
It involves players banding together to succeed at a common goal- such as taking over territory, killing an opposing faction, or most commonly killing big scary internet monsters that drop coveted items.


You want DDO to change the premise of the game to cater to your perceived need to solo without having to figure anything out or play with others because you sometimes spend money in between quitting and coming back to the game.

The DDO store "gold seal" hirelings can be summoned anywhere within the quest and you can have more than one of these (different named ones) at a time.


+1 couldn't have said it any better ^^

[Vellrad]

Now all dumb console games are like what you want: basically single player game with optional co-op option, and they all require constant internet acces.

Go play some dumb new age console junk and leave MMOs as they should be.

[Enoach]

While I agree that it does not feel like we have the population such as during the Hey day of DDO I actually think DDO's current population suffers from the following:

The Population is now spread out between levels 1 and 28. So even if we had the same population such as when Gianthold first made its appearance and level cap finally went beyond 10 this same group is now spread over more levels. Also with TR and ER in the game very few players stay at level cap of 20 or 28 for any extended period of time.

Again because TR is an option and many are still doing these some in multiples for a specific end build and some for completionest purposes they like to speed through lives and not take time in quests many running on the highest difficulty to garner both Bravery Bonus and Favor in the same process.

These combined have redefined grouping. Yes it is easier to group if you have a pool of people to work with such as static group of friends or guidmates.

So what is someone to do in the current climate?

Put up LFM's for things you want to run

Now these may not fill or may not attract 3 to 5 other players but there are very few quests that have mechanics for 2 or 4 players to actually complete. Some of these quests have workarounds for this as well. When you pull up the quest at the entrance you will see warnings indicating such and that Hirelings may not be sufficient. Knowing which of these quests have this mechanic can actually help you, such as the 1st series in Necropolis you can put up an LFM and run any of the other 3 quests while your group fills and when you have enough you can do that quest.

The server you are on and the time of day that you are playing does have an impact on availability of groups. I actually recommend spending time on each server during your standard play times to check out the current population. Some servers are dead during certain times of the day. Finding the server that has the population you are looking for is key to having more groups available for what you are after.

[Ametrine]

Maybe you're playing on a empty server???
I play on Sarlona; I ran several pugs last night (all I created).

If anything I'd like to see more quests that were not solo'able. Right now I can solo most quests on EE and I only have 5 past lives; easy is boring.

[phillymiket]

THIRD- I don't like people.

Well, that tells the whole story.
Don't need to read further...
I already like this guy. :-D

But I do disagree with him.
Contrast is nice and there is plenty of content to cap while soloing.
Leave the Von 5s etc alone.

I suggest OP be either less OCD and forget about the greyed out areas or more OCD and research how to solo them.

[Missing_Minds]

The only instances in this game that are legitimately locked out from being solo'd are Von5, and the Titan Pre-raid. (I'm probably missing a few, but with over 300 quests in DDO, we're talking less than 5% have actual mechanics in place to make soloing intentionally difficult)
I think he is thinking of the Necro I quest where ideally you have a minimum of 4 people. Each one to stand on a pressure plate at the same time. I remember duoing that one before multi boxing and hirelings ever existed. I forget the name of it.

Also the swim in Delera's part... 3 was it? Been so long. But I can't remember if that was required or not. I don't think you could truly solo that one.

[Impaqt]

I think he is thinking of the Necro I quest where ideally you have a minimum of 4 people. Each one to stand on a pressure plate at the same time. I remember duoing that one before multi boxing and hirelings ever existed. I forget the name of it.

it never required 4 people. we would hold mobs on the pressure plates long before we had hirelings and pets.

EVen Dead, they light the pad.

Now, with hirelings, its even easier.



Also the swim in Delera's part... 3 was it? Been so long. But I can't remember if that was required or not. I don't think you could truly solo that one.

Its part 2, and yes, you need a lever puller. Before hireling, you had to bribe someone to pull it for you. Today, a L1 Hireling is all you need. Summon at beginning of quest and leave em there. Once you clear the room, pull them to you and have em pull the lever twice. no problem.

Xorian Cypher is the toughest to Solowith Hirelings nowadays due to need to get the hireing to pull a lever you cant easily see after you do the runes with em.

[Connman]

...

Likewise in the lower necro you could get into that one quest with 2 arties and 2 dogs or just multi-box 4 toons.

...

Just on this note, the spell "halt undead" will make it happen for you, if you are patient, and a little lucky.

As far as solo the game, might I suggest a youtube search for some videos of the ubers doing just this, note your not going to find any videos of me trying, because usually I fail then throw my keyboard in disgust.

[Sebastrd]

There's no law that says an MMO can't support solo play as well. Options are always a good thing. Sometimes it's nice to play alone for a bit, and sometimes I hop on and don't have the time to gather a group or know that I could be pulled away at any moment and don't want to leave a group hanging.

If you prefer group play, that's fine. But don't act like you have the right to force folks to play with you just because DDO carries the MMO label. If you're having trouble finding people to play with, maybe the problem lies on your side of the screen.

[Impaqt]

There's no law that says an MMO can't support solo play as well. Options are always a good thing. Sometimes it's nice to play alone for a bit, and sometimes I hop on and don't have the time to gather a group or know that I could be pulled away at any moment and don't want to leave a group hanging.

If you prefer group play, that's fine. But don't act like you have the right to force folks to play with you just because DDO carries the MMO label. If you're having trouble finding people to play with, maybe the problem lies on your side of the screen.



But DDo Does support Solo play in nearly every quest in the game. So what are you getting at?

[JOTMON]

There's no law that says an MMO can't support solo play as well. Options are always a good thing. Sometimes it's nice to play alone for a bit, and sometimes I hop on and don't have the time to gather a group or know that I could be pulled away at any moment and don't want to leave a group hanging.

If you prefer group play, that's fine. But don't act like you have the right to force folks to play with you just because DDO carries the MMO label. If you're having trouble finding people to play with, maybe the problem lies on your side of the screen.

The premise of the game is teamwork.

Gary Gygax the game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson. Gygax has been described as the father of D&D.
When asked about the game.. he said..

"I shall attempt to characterize the spirit of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. This is a fantasy RPG predicated on the assumption that the human race, by and large, is made up of good people. Humans, with the help of their demi-human allies (dwarfs, elves, gnomes, etc.), are and should remain the predominant force in the world. They have achieved and continue to hold on to this status, despite the ever-present threat of evil, mainly because of the dedication, honor, and unselfishness of the most heroic humans and demi-humans-the characters whose roles are taken by the players of the game.

Although players can take the roles of “bad guys” if they so choose, and if the game master allows it, evil exists in the game primarily as an obstacle for player characters to overcome. If they succeed in doing this, as time goes on, player characters become more experienced and more powerful - which enables them to contest successfully against increasingly stronger evil adversaries. Each character, by virtue of his or her chosen profession, has strengths and weaknesses distinctly different from those possessed by other types of characters.

No single character has all the skills and resources needed to guarantee success in all endeavors; favorable results can usually only be achieved through group effort. No single player character wins, in the sense that he or she defeats all other player characters; the goal of the forces of good can only be attained through cooperation, so that victory is a group achievement rather than an individual one."

[UurlockYgmeov]

the ONE reason to not make this so:

It would turn DDO into that other game - DDO for Dummies.

[letour]

The premise of the game is teamwork.

Gary Gygax the game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson. Gygax has been described as the father of D&D.
When asked about the game.. he said..

"I shall attempt to characterize the spirit of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. This is a fantasy RPG predicated on the assumption that the human race, by and large, is made up of good people. Humans, with the help of their demi-human allies (dwarfs, elves, gnomes, etc.), are and should remain the predominant force in the world. They have achieved and continue to hold on to this status, despite the ever-present threat of evil, mainly because of the dedication, honor, and unselfishness of the most heroic humans and demi-humans-the characters whose roles are taken by the players of the game.

Although players can take the roles of “bad guys” if they so choose, and if the game master allows it, evil exists in the game primarily as an obstacle for player characters to overcome. If they succeed in doing this, as time goes on, player characters become more experienced and more powerful - which enables them to contest successfully against increasingly stronger evil adversaries. Each character, by virtue of his or her chosen profession, has strengths and weaknesses distinctly different from those possessed by other types of characters.

No single character has all the skills and resources needed to guarantee success in all endeavors; favorable results can usually only be achieved through group effort. No single player character wins, in the sense that he or she defeats all other player characters; the goal of the forces of good can only be attained through cooperation, so that victory is a group achievement rather than an individual one."
The problm it's not pen and paper. We are in video game. In the pen and paper, you shoud already have teamate there for the run. In video game, that's not how it work. A lot of situation, in video game make soloing a ot more desirable.
The no-solo game:
One situation, you have an hour to play. You put lfg for the content you want to play. to late, you find your teamate after 20-30 minutes of wait. you start the quest and bring some pots while waiting for an healer. an healer after 45 min to late, you can't complee that quest in 15 min.
Solo version of the game :
You have one hour. You select the quest you want to play and take les than an hour to complete. grab an hireilng for Healing. Put or lfg with ip or not. Someone join fine they will join in the quest, no one join, fine you can complete the quest with a bit more difficulty.

Another situation :
I personnly try to do necro 2. I post lfg and start the quest. No one join. After, more than half an hour, I arrive at the quest where I need to pull three levers at the same time. Still no one join. i have the choice afk a bit whie waiting, recall and do not complete the quest .

What if you to run in retless ises, necro 2, necro 3 or other not popuar adventure pack or quest. You can't. This life I pan to finish my house c to have artificer. I need to run the house c raid. I'm afraid i may not have any mate when i will put those on lfg. Why, no one want any thing for those raid. I's pretty much dead. You also need 12 poepe to join and explain them what to do. The content is to difficult. No. FInding poepe to complete quest with no solo mecanism yes.

I aggre quest should be harder to solo on harder difficulty but no anti-solo mecanist pease. :)

[Nefatron]

Now I dont on the norm like to come off this .. blunt but..

Thats the dumbest thing ive ever heard....

it's DnD dude.. its group play..
Rest of us are screaming for server merge's to get more groups going and youre trying to kill the game further?

Man you want solo action go play a Kill all deathmatch in some FPS.

[Sebastrd]

The premise of the game is teamwork.

Gary Gygax the game designer best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson. Gygax has been described as the father of D&D.
When asked about the game.. he said..

"I shall attempt to characterize the spirit of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. This is a fantasy RPG predicated on the assumption that the human race, by and large, is made up of good people. Humans, with the help of their demi-human allies (dwarfs, elves, gnomes, etc.), are and should remain the predominant force in the world. They have achieved and continue to hold on to this status, despite the ever-present threat of evil, mainly because of the dedication, honor, and unselfishness of the most heroic humans and demi-humans-the characters whose roles are taken by the players of the game.

Although players can take the roles of “bad guys” if they so choose, and if the game master allows it, evil exists in the game primarily as an obstacle for player characters to overcome. If they succeed in doing this, as time goes on, player characters become more experienced and more powerful - which enables them to contest successfully against increasingly stronger evil adversaries. Each character, by virtue of his or her chosen profession, has strengths and weaknesses distinctly different from those possessed by other types of characters.

No single character has all the skills and resources needed to guarantee success in all endeavors; favorable results can usually only be achieved through group effort. No single player character wins, in the sense that he or she defeats all other player characters; the goal of the forces of good can only be attained through cooperation, so that victory is a group achievement rather than an individual one."

You'll get no argument from me. However, the D&D in DDO left the building a long time ago; and even if it hadn't, DDO is no substitute for the table top. They're different animals.

[Sebastrd]

But DDo Does support Solo play in nearly every quest in the game. So what are you getting at?

My point is that every few days there's a new thread complaining about the ability to solo in an "MMO" game or some other such travesty; I hate threads about forcing everyone to play the OP's way.

[Catteras]

How about instead of looking for a group on the lfm , post your own?

Why does someone always reply with this like it's the magical solution to getting groups?

When I post LFMS (elite for BB) during prime time, I typically get 1 person to hit it while I'm in the first quest. Maybe another couple while I'm in the second quest. By the time I'm on my third quest, I MIGHT have a full party. Now if it's a chain, either people drop at the last quest because they aren't flagged, or we have to rerun the first quests. (Shoot...many times I remove the LFM after the first quest in the chain and run it with however many people we have because I don't want to be bothered with people asking if we can rerun quests to flag.)

TBH, I just solo most of the time because it's easier than dealing with trying to get a group. I find that I can solo the majority of quests on heroic elite or epic hard (for BB) with little trouble. I run self-healing melee characters (think paladin, FVS, etc.), so I'm sure that helps.

Regarding heirlings, I love heirlings. Yes, they are stupid piles of c r a p a lot of the time, but with a little smart playing I can get them to do what I want most of the time. I just have to anticipate their stupidity and react accordingly.

[Ancient]

My point is that every few days there's a new thread complaining about the ability to solo in an "MMO" game or some other such travesty; I hate threads about forcing everyone to play the OP's way.

Agreed!

[Nefatron]

Why does someone always reply with this like it's the magical solution to getting groups?

When I post LFMS (elite for BB) during prime time, I typically get 1 person to hit it while I'm in the first quest. Maybe another couple while I'm in the second quest. By the time I'm on my third quest, I MIGHT have a full party. Now if it's a chain, either people drop at the last quest because they aren't flagged, or we have to rerun the first quests. (Shoot...many times I remove the LFM after the first quest in the chain and run it with however many people we have because I don't want to be bothered with people asking if we can rerun quests to flag.)

TBH, I just solo most of the time because it's easier than dealing with trying to get a group. I find that I can solo the majority of quests on heroic elite or epic hard (for BB) with little trouble. I run self-healing melee characters (think paladin, FVS, etc.), so I'm sure that helps.

Regarding heirlings, I love heirlings. Yes, they are stupid piles of c r a p a lot of the time, but with a little smart playing I can get them to do what I want most of the time. I just have to anticipate their stupidity and react accordingly.

Ya dont like people.. But you want groups..

You post lfm's then avoid helping anybody to flag?

If i really had to guess man, its your social skills.
If I want a full group for a quest Ill sit and flag people for it..not duck and dodge them lol

It sounds like you have the game on lock? If you already solo most of it why ruin it for the rest of us?
Really all you need is some lever pullers for a player like your self.

[Enoach]

Why does someone always reply with this like it's the magical solution to getting groups?

....

While it is not the magical solution, it is a solution that does have a much higher success rate than sitting around waiting for a group to form for what you are interested in running.

Now I see many people mention waiting for the group to fill before starting. I think this is part of the issue, especially when you have limited time to play. Turbine went a long way in making it possible to solo quests by introducing hirelings (limit one per player) and Gold Seal Hirelings (limited only by the amount of room you have in your party). The next misconception is what is a standard party size. While the party size is capable of 6, quests were designed so that a party of 4 should be able to complete. Using the standard hireling two players each with a hireling will have the bodies needed to complete any quest in the game.

The reason why some people wont join an in progress quest probably has to do with joining one in the past where the lead player simply bypassed all the mobs because they knew how or they bottlenecked them in such a way that anyone following would not have a chance to get past. If you are going to have that type of play style then it is best to note that or not put up an LFM. Give potential party members a chance to catch up to you.

[Connman]

...because I don't want to be bothered with people asking if we can rerun quests to flag.... (what I am replying too)


...
If i really had to guess man, its your social skills.
If I want a full group for a quest Ill sit and flag people for it..not duck and dodge them lol...

(quoted because yeah duh listen to this guy)

So on this note, you might just find when you do things like go back and flag people, or just throw random "remove curses" on people standing next you with mummy rot because it is driving you nuts as you try to set your enhancements, YOU JUST MIGHT MAKE A FRIEND OR TWO

Heck I don't like most people, they say stuff like "gee Phin you sure can be a jerk"*(modified for forums lol) and even I am able to make friends, try it, you might just like it.

Just food for thought.

[slarden]

Over 90% of the content is solo-able so maybe you should give some kudos to Turbine for giving you so many options.

[janave]

I am surprised at the offense replies, since the OP clearly has some very valid (and testable) points, there are server times that it is impossible to form group, especially for dated/unpopular content.

Without Pugging the game is kinda dead, guilded people with enough players to fill 2-3 raid parties any time may not feel that way, which is the most likely source of misunderstanding requests like this one.

Most new players will want to PUG, and seeing empty lfms or joining TR zergs will not keep them in this game.

[nobdog]

A couple things. It annoys me when people bring up the "this is D&D!" argument as ammo against solo content. In D&D the DM can tailor the content to the group, so if there is only one player, he can design the dungeon around that player. Solo was always an option in D&D. Heck, the oD&D basic red box set had a solo adventure in it that you could play without even a DM. If it were more like D&D there would be more soloable content, not less.

As for "why play an MMO if yer gonna solo?" Lots of reasons. Maybe you just can't find a group. Maybe you like living in a world with people you can trade and communicate with but are otherwise a lone wolf. To me an MMO would still be fun even if grouping wasn't possible, but you still had auction houses and chat rooms or taverns. Also of note they just don't make single player games that run like an MMO. There certainly aren't any single player games that come anywhere near close to the DDO experience.

OP wasn't asking for content to be made easier for soloers, he was just asking for it to not be designed to discourage soloing. Things that discourage solo are things like " kill two monsters on opposite ends of the dungeon at the same time", "pull two levers at the same time" "step on these plates while someone else swims through a maze".
Sure most of these challenges can be "gamed" by either dragging a monster all the way across the dungeon or having a hireling and mashing the use button while you try and run through the gates beelfore that hireling decides to disregard his "stand here" order, but it's definitely metagaming through and not just a solo difficulty thing.
I'm not sure I agree that all content should be soloable, but I do agree to some extent that it's silly to have dungeon design involving 4 people flipping levers in certain order. How do the monsters get in or out? What do they do if they need to run out for groceries or use the restroom? Most dungeons do not have bathrooms or beds, so I'd imagine most monsters commute.

[Postumus]

Why does someone always reply with this like it's the magical solution to getting groups?

When I post LFMS (elite for BB) during prime time, I typically get 1 person to hit it while I'm in the first quest.


Yes that reply ("just put up your own LFM") is pretty worn out. It isn't 2012 any more. LFMs don't fill like they used to regardless of server.

[Sehenry03]

I like some quests to need multiple people to do certain things. Everyone knows of the various quests that do this. I enjoy running the necro quests where you have to split up...although you really don't need to split up it is different and fun.

Leave the quests like they are. Leave it so a very few quests do require several people. We are talking about a handful of quests and if you don't like to group or can't find a group...np don't do that quest. Why does Turbine have to cater to every single crowd on every single item? I understand that groups are harder to get (I argue this as I put up an LFM at all hours and NEVER have issues getting 1-2 people to join) and I understand some people don't WANT to solo. No biggie there are tons of quests to run that you can solo so leave the VERY few that require people alone so that those of us that like these quests still do them.

Hell I don't like Delirium but I don't ask them to change it just because I think its kinda lame...I just don't run it.

[Tscheuss]

There are a handful of quests that cannot be soloed, and there are also a handful of quests that MUST be soloed. Let's not mess with the balance, m'kay? :)