Expand solo difficulty's availability

[dharq]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=203008

While reading the thread above, it occurred to me that we have a pretty significant problem on our hands as a community... New players struggle to learn the quests and how to play their characters.

Think about it. In a traditional open world MMO, players can test and try different things with their characters in order to get a feel for what they can and cannot do. In DDO, we have some of the (if not -the-) most incredible instances and amazing depth and diversity of character builds, but we have no chance to learn how to test things and optimize our gameplay without significantly impacting the performance of groups that we join.

This is especially true after level 8 or so when the solo setting on quests begins to disappear.

How are new players supposed to learn the quests without impacting other players? Most players I know will agree that knowledge of the quests is more important than builds, party composition, etc., but suddenly, at the midpoint of the game, new players lose a very useful setting in DDO that allows them to experiment and learn the instances. It would also provide them an opportunity to learn the instances which might lead to more people willing to start groups in the LFG interface--providing everyone with more grouping opportunities. (And isn't it strikingly coincidental that the group listings get significantly fewer as people begin to hit level 8 and beyond?)

This could also be used as a teaser setting, if you will, to allow new players or f2p players a chance to experience a quest or quest line before purchasing it in the store. Marketing shows us that samples work.

So why not open up the quests and allow all players, f2p/premium/vip, to have a solo setting available in all non-raid quests?

[Zenako]

With the advent of scaling, running a quest on the normal setting, when by yourself is really not all that much different than the solo settings on some quests. The reason the solo setting was developed in the past was to give a significantly less challenging quest experience to those players who wanted that type of experience. The Scaling Tech now accomplishes pretty much that on ALL quests now. They could in fact probably eliminate the solo setting from all quests at this point without impacting gameplay much at all.

[dharq]

That's an excellent point, but from a business standpoint, I'm proposing the solo setting for a couple of reasons:

1) It forces the player to run the instance solo. They can't group or use hirelings.
2) It reduces the xp/reward significantly.

Why is this important? Because Turbine has to generate revenue from the game or else it goes away. By offering a solo setting, you're allowing the players to experiment with their character, gain first-hand knowledge of the quests, and become familiar with new quests, but you aren't removing the incentive for players to purchase or earn the higher-level content in the store--they still need to purchase or earn that content in order to experience group play and have access to the higher XP and equipment rewards.

[Uska]

A huge thumbs down mmo's should encourage grouping and dnd even more so and with the addition of scaling your idea is pointless and unneeded, you want solo dnd play nwn and leave my ddo alone. and some quests (very few ) are impossible to solo, part of deleras at least one in necro., xorian(possible but very difficult)

[dharq]

I respectfully disagree, Uska. The very idea is to give new players the experience with the quests that they need to feel comfortable leading and participating in groups.

As in the thread I linked above, experienced players get frustrated with newer players when they don't know the instances as well, and something needs to be done to bridge this knowledge gap in order to help assimilate the newer players into the existing community.

You are correct in that some of the quests couldn't be completed solo, but playing NWN won't help new players learn these quests and get the knowledge they need to be comfortable leading future groups.

Group play is and should remain the focus, but solo play does serve a purpose by providing players a chance to get to know their character and the content of the game.

[Uska]

I respectfully disagree, Uska. The very idea is to give new players the experience with the quests that they need to feel comfortable leading and participating in groups.

As in the thread I linked above, experienced players get frustrated with newer players when they don't know the instances as well, and something needs to be done to bridge this knowledge gap in order to help assimilate the newer players into the existing community.

You are correct in that some of the quests couldn't be completed solo, but playing NWN won't help new players learn these quests and get the knowledge they need to be comfortable leading future groups.

Group play is and should remain the focus, but solo play does serve a purpose by providing players a chance to get to know their character and the content of the game.

They can play solo just go in that way on normal setting and your fine but some quests are and should remain impossible to solo due to switches and the like.

[dharq]

True, in terms of quest difficulty, they can complete most quests on normal difficulty solo, but as I stated before, the solo difficulty setting has some inherent drawbacks to it that make it a better choice for revenue generation (XP penalty, minimal favor reward, inability to group).

You preserve and possibly enhance the likelihood of players purchasing modules through the store. You open up currently unavailable quests for new players to gain firsthand knowledge of the content. You increase the likelihood of new players feeling comfortable to start groups in higher level content, and you still retain the emphasis on grouping (better XP, better favor, better equipment rewards, raids, etc.).

[Uska]

True, in terms of quest difficulty, they can complete most quests on normal difficulty solo, but as I stated before, the solo difficulty setting has some inherent drawbacks to it that make it a better choice for revenue generation (XP penalty, minimal favor reward, inability to group).

You preserve and possibly enhance the likelihood of players purchasing modules through the store. You open up currently unavailable quests for new players to gain firsthand knowledge of the content. You increase the likelihood of new players feeling comfortable to start groups in higher level content, and you still retain the emphasis on grouping (better XP, better favor, better equipment rewards, raids, etc.).

I dont think they should waste dev time on this when there are already options.