Party Size XP Bonus

[dragnmoon]

Rewarding players for having smaller groups would just discourage grouping. New players would be screwed since everything is always much harder the first few times you do it. Imagine being a newcomer to this game and being 100% unable to find anyone to run the goodblades quests with you because the only people you would be seing running them would be twinked out alts that would solo them for the max xp possible. Nevermind how hard it would be to find a decent tank through the low-mid levels that didn't just solo everything or duo things with his guildy cleric friend.

Where does that leave the guy who just bought the game? Sitting in the wavecrest LFG for an hour and a half before giving up and going to play on his Xbox or worse yet WoW, never to return.

Well Said..

Alienating new Players.... Bad Idea..

[dragnmoon]

Umm I dont know tell me I want to be a ninja too

Well you can always try AskaNinja.com

[Lorien_the_First_One]

I think flipping yoiur numbers is a much better idea this game was thought up as mainly a grouping game and solo 2nd just like its parent pnp game.

But pnp DOES give a bonus for smaller groups. And for good reason. If XP is supposed to be a measure of the work you did through combat or skillful evasion then being able to handle the same problem with less resources (ie less people) deserves a proportional increase in XP.

[binnsr]

I wouldn't be opposed to xp bonuses for soloing a quest, but bonuses for 2-5 member parties would be detrimental to encouraging grouping -- as has previously been covered.

[Uska]

But pnp DOES give a bonus for smaller groups. And for good reason. If XP is supposed to be a measure of the work you did through combat or skillful evasion then being able to handle the same problem with less resources (ie less people) deserves a proportional increase in XP.

Bad idea in a mmo to discourage grouping in pnp a gm can adjust the reward according to how hard he felt you had to work your idea can only hurt the game new players have enough trouble finding groups sometimes your idea will make it near impossible

[tihocan]

I am opposed to this idea for the same reasons stated by other people.

[Klattuu]

In many cases I run a dungeon with some close friends only(like 3), especially when I only have only an hour or so to play for the evening. The Issue I have is that we are rewarded the same XP as a full 6 member party. Being a developer I cannot imagine that it would be very difficult to allocate +% bonuses for parties that may contain like 3 members. This would allow me to play more often and not have to spend most of the night acquiring a full party.

Let me know what you think?

DDO is a party based game. Giving a reward bonus for less-inclusive behavior is contrary to one of the game's main philosophys.

The concept: for the completion of a task, you get a reward. The more people you include on that task, the more efficient that accomplishment becomes. The more people you include increases how much XP you can earn in a certain period of time and with additional skills allows for greater XP rewards through completion of optionals. Your bonus is already built in - it just isn't blatently obvious.

[Zenako]

Agree with most, you DO NOT want to build in any mechanic that would discourage grouping. Doing anything that would impose a penalty on adding in another character to a quest would be a bad idea. Many times I will start a run with only 4 or 5 characters and leave the LFM up and add in more as we move along. Adding in those extras does NOTHING to detract from the treasure or experience of the members already in the party so it is a no brainer to bring them in.

As for giving a bonus for Solo, that might fly, much like you can get various other 5-10% perks. Perhaps a 10% bonus for completing a quest entirely solo might work, since the added ease of completion by adding even a second person would way more than offset the loss of that bonus.

[clericz]

rogues and rangers would never level...

[binnsr]

As for giving a bonus for Solo, that might fly, much like you can get various other 5-10% perks. Perhaps a 10% bonus for completing a quest entirely solo might work, since the added ease of completion by adding even a second person would way more than offset the loss of that bonus.

Actually, there are times when adding a second person makes things more difficult at least for me.

[Laith]

I wouldn't be opposed to xp bonuses for soloing a quest, but bonuses for 2-5 member parties would be detrimental to encouraging grouping -- as has previously been covered.

my thoughts are similar.

you could easily build a party that could cover every complication with 3 members, so anything beyond that could really be considered "gravy" for most quests.

IF there ever were to be bonuses for small parties, definately shouldn't apply to parties of 3+. Should probably apply only to solo. Even then, the bonus shouldn't exceed 15-20%. You're (apparently) not being penalized -that much- for using a smaller party: otherwise you wouldn't be doing it.

if people are willing to spend 20 extra minutes in a quest to get +10% for conquest, then they'll undoubtedly be willing to not invite someone for the same reward.

[Zenako]

Actually, there are times when adding a second person makes things more difficult at least for me.

Oh yeah... I know where of you speak... Was running a Harbor quest the other night with a group. Could probably have run it clean solo, but with a group, we ended up with a near wipe...I suspect some of the players had never run that particular quest before, and we (the party) kept waking up too many mobs at once. Not intentionally most of the time, just when they were running away from attacking monsters and happened to run into new areas instead of back into already cleared parts....it was a challenge running all those stones back to the shrine while killing the named mobs at the same time....

[Dariun]

Only my opinion...

I think they should offer more XP for smaller groups because:

1. Doing the quests with smaller groups is more of a challenge and takes more time and should be rewarded accordingly.

2. Improving solo and small group play would make this game significantly friendlier to new players and encourage a growth in player base. For everyone who stays in the game because they met a great group or guild, there are a large number who get frustrated and quit because they are uncomfortable with the forced grouping before they learn the game controls, they are intimidated by veterans with twinked alts tour guiding, or some know-it-all schmuck explained to them in detail why their TWF WF ranger is a stupid character.

3. It's very hard for small groups to advance beyond lvl 8-10. Changing the XP allocation for small groups woudl fix this problem. I play in a static group of 4, so, uh, I like this idea...

Anyway, I think "more options" = "more players" and "more players" = "more revenue" and "more revenue" = "more game development" and "more game development" = "everyone who likes DDO benefits".

My 2 cp.

P.S. I doubt this will get implemented. An alternative suggestion of mine would be to change the "too high level for this quest" penalty to be lessened for smaller groups doing a quest within 2 levels. E.g., 3 lvl 10s doing a lvl 8 quest would get 100% XP instead of 80% XP, but 3 lvl 10s doing a lvl 4 quest would still get the full XP penalty for being overlevel.

[peavey]

As you said you play in a static group so of course you are all for this, obviously everyone who agrees with this doesnt remember when they were a "newb".
If they were to implement a system such as this one it would ruin the experience of the game to new players.
If you think that less people in a group is more options you are blind, because if smaller groups get more xp who is gonna let the newcomer into their party if they have no knowledge of the quest. Certainly not you as you play in your static group, if this were to happen DDO would be in a worse state than it already is.

Only my opinion...

I think they should offer more XP for smaller groups because:

1. Doing the quests with smaller groups is more of a challenge and takes more time and should be rewarded accordingly.

2. Improving solo and small group play would make this game significantly friendlier to new players and encourage a growth in player base. For everyone who stays in the game because they met a great group or guild, there are a large number who get frustrated and quit because they are uncomfortable with the forced grouping before they learn the game controls, they are intimidating by veterans with twinked alts tour guiding, or some know-it-all schmuck explained to them in detail why their TWF WF ranger is a stupid character.

3. It's very hard for small groups to advance beyond lvl 8-10. Changing the XP allocation for small groups woudl fix this problem. I play in a static group of 4, so, uh, I like this idea...

Anyway, I think "more options" = "more players" and "more players" = "more revenue" and "more revenue" = "more game development" and "more game development" = "everyone who likes DDO benefits".

My 2 cp.

P.S. I doubt this will get implemented. An alternative suggestion of mine would be to change the "too high level for this quest" penalty to be lessened for smaller groups doing a quest within 2 levels. E.g., 3 lvl 10s doing a lvl 8 quest would get 100% XP instead of 80% XP, but 3 lvl 10s doing a lvl 4 quest would still get the full XP penalty for being overlevel.

[Dariun]

As you said you play in a static group so of course you are all for this, obviously everyone who agrees with this doesnt remember when they were a "newb".
If they were to implement a system such as this one it would ruin the experience of the game to new players.
If you think that less people in a group is more options you are blind, because if smaller groups get more xp who is gonna let the newcomer into their party if they have no knowledge of the quest. Certainly not you as you play in your static group, if this were to happen DDO would be in a worse state than it already is.

I know this is conventional wisdom. I think it's wrong, but that is just my opinion.

I dislike full parties as I find it less fun to play in them (there is less for everyone to do, there is more jerk potential, and level appropriate quests below lvl 7 are too easy).

I clearly remember being a "newb" and trying to duo through the harbor with a rogue and cleric.