You seem to be a little selective in your Statesman quotes yourself. I'll repeat this one for your benefit:
"I think every Archetype should be able to solo. The reason doesn't matter - just 'cause you're soloing doesn't mean that you should be prevented from enjoying the game."-Statesman-
Street sweeping is not fun for most soloists for any appreciable length of time. It's repetitive, without story content, and therefore not enjoyable as the main solo available activity.
Most AT's can no longer solo a good deal of the missions. Before they could. That wasn't their doing, it was the devs, purposely or not, it was the game we've been playing for the better part of a year now. It wasn't appropriated by the soloists, they didn't go into Cryptic offices and put guns to the developers head. It was de facto the game the developers made. They have now radically changed the proportions of what can be soloed and what is exclusively team play.
A large proportion of those players who have enjoyed soloing, if the boss buff is left in, will no longer be able to do so. They are expressing the opinion that there had to be other options available for making group play more rewarding that didn't come at the expense of what the solo players were enjoying. If they can't get this issue redressed, they will ultimately leave in dissatisfaction with the game. This, undoubtedly, would make you and others happy but I'm not so sure it will make Cryptic and NCSoft as happy as I suspect there are a lot more of us than you would be comfortable acknowledging. A reduced revenue stream means reduced resources for further development and content additions and the number of servers running.
I haven't visited the forums all that often so I can't really say with any authority but I haven't seen the page total climb on a thread like this since the Marvel lawsuit thread started. It's a hot topic. Be a shame for Cryptic to find out the numbers of soloists here the hard way, by a big decrease in subscription. That would be a hard lesson to learn.
I think one of the most important metrics to know for this discussion would be just how many mission doors are opened by singles, duos, and parties of three or more, pre I3 and post I3 a couple of weeks from now. It might give something (though not dead accurate without other metrics) the proportion of soloists in the game and the subscriber vulnerability to this issue. I suspect Statesman has some data somewhere available as even he has acknowledged the need to redress aspects of this issue and is working on something to satisfy both sides (his last post to this thread).
I suppose what it really comes down to, from a business perspective, is what are the main selling points of this game in comparison to other MMO's. Because really, from NCSoft's point at least, that's what really matters. I think the genre is one, the graphics quality, the character creation tool. But you are either stubborn or naive if you don't count all the press about solo-friendly and the promotion of that feature. If I was NCSoft, hell, if I was Cryptic, that's an item I would want to know right now. How important to CoH commercial viability are the solo-friendly features that HAVE been there. If it's small, then who cares, anything we give the solo crowd is gravy. If it's significant (and it doesn't have to be over 30% to be more than significant, then I'd be worried if I cut that group off. In most businessees you have to have a good answer for why you chopped off 30% of your revenue stream. Is CoH different enough from other MMOGs without that solo friendly aspect to survive in what has been described as a near saturated market? Maybe so, maybe not.
There's the bototm line reality of this team versus solo play/content argument. Aside from your insistence it's a zero-sum equation when there's no reason it has to be.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Teaming wasn't broken before, and this is not a fix to it.
[/ QUOTE ]
People routinely solo missions spawned for 6+ players. How can that not be broken? If one person can do is alone what challange does it offer a team of 6?
[/ QUOTE ]
i'm guessing you're talking about PLing herders *mainly*, which has nothing to do with teaming being broken or not. plus those who you're talking about are a very specific builds. most of the ATs can't do that.
besides spine/invul scrappers, or burn/invul tankers, i don't know any AT that do it on regular basis.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
but god help you if you get one of the hidden team missions or missions with an unannounced boss.
[/ QUOTE ]
If this happens its a bug. Petition the GMs thats one of the reason they are there.
[/ QUOTE ]
I think it's unreasonable to expect people to send petitions every few missions. The game is riddled with these missions.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The fact that the overwhelming number of games for PC are solo games (or solo games, with an afterthough MP component to it), to me at least, indicates that there's a huge market for soloable content.
[/ QUOTE ]
It also indicates that its far better to deliver solo content in other game formats, which is why any MMO is going to place team content first.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's your opinion. Personally, the emphasis they placed on solo viability was why I picked up the game. I suspect it's what drew quite a few others as well.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Which is all entirely beside the point... solo players want, at the very least, missions that can be soloed. If you have content not designed to be soloed, I'd gather most people are fine with that... just don't stick it in a single player mission.
[/ QUOTE ]
There are plenty of missions solo players can do. Most people can even solo those missions with bosses in them once they adjust. If you stopped assuming every single mission in the game was a single player mission perhaps you would no longer have reason to complain.
[/ QUOTE ]
I don't assume that every mission in the game is a single player mission. I didn't even before the I3 boss changes. I wish they were, but they aren't. And I do have a reason to complain: the portion of missions that WERE solo viable pre-I3 became significantly smaller with the addition of boss changes.
Pre-I3 missions that weren't soloable for everybody included missions requiring simultaneous actions and missions requiring you to defeat an Archvillain. Now, a great many people find "any mission with a boss in it" added to that list.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It is becoming more and more apparent that the real source of much of the discontent is coming from solo players who have appropriated 99% of the games content...
[/ QUOTE ]
99% would entail a whole lot more than "some missions" and "some streetsweeping." But nice try.
[/ QUOTE ]
Ummm ya it entails more then some missions and street sweeping. That is after all the whole point. The solo content you were promised is street sweeping and some missions. The content the devout soloists have appropriates as their own and refuse to give up is everything that isnt a task force or trial.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hogwash, again. And I don't appreciate you misquoting me. I fixed it in this post, but your post is incorrect.
You say that "devout soloists" have tried to "appropriate" 99% of the game's content:
Soloists, from the beginning, have had:
SOME missions minus the few in the 30's with an archvillain
SOME streetsweeping.
Issue 2 rolled out, and all of a sudden they had:
SOME streetsweeping
SOME missions minus the few in the 30s with an archvillain minus the host of 40s missions with AVs minus all the simultaneous clicky missions.
Post Issue 3, soloists have:
SOME streetsweeping
SOME missions minus the few missions in the 30s with an archvillain minus the plethora of missions in the 40s with an archvillain minus simultaneous click missions minus any mission with an Elite boss minus any mission who the difficulty increase has made too tough.
In contrast, Team players have access to:
EVERYTHING
And soloists have appropriated 99% of the game's content? You can say that with a straight face?
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
No, they became outraged when the one area (missions) that everybody should 100% be able to participate in (soloists AND groupers) was unneccesarily changed so that only groups could do all of it. It was bad enough with the missions that have AVs showing up. It's even worse with bosses now.
[/ QUOTE ]
missions = 100% of the ongoing content of the game. Making them all soloabel and trivial for groups makes this a nearly 100% solo game. Again it comes back to the point of the people opposing this change thinking nearly 100% of the games content was specifically designed for them.
[/ QUOTE ]
In addition to the points I just mentioned (hopefully) showing you how silly this is, missions in no way equal 100% of the game's content. Task Forces and Trials make up a substantial amount. Events, which usually have an Archvillain or at least one of the new solo-unfriendly bosses, make up another portion of he content.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Repetition on your part doesn't make it so.
[/ QUOTE ]
Nore does such silly comment on your part make it not so. A truth does not become untrue because its repeated. Since you seem to have trouble with the search feather I took the liberty of doing a quick search on your behalf and came up with the following quotes from statesman.
[/ QUOTE ]
Great? You refuted what? That all missions aren't soloable? Who said that?
For an umpteenth billion time, so you'll hopefully comprehend:
In my opinion, I wish all the missions were soloable.
I, however, am accutely aware that all missions aren't soloable. The problem is, however, that the boss changes (the ramifications of which it appears Statesman wasn't fully aware, since he thought bosses don't normally spawn in missions without warning) severely reduced the already minimal level of soloable missions.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For example, explain why returning the bosses to their pre-issue 3 state and then sliding the difficulty slider to maximum difficulty won't accomplish what you want out of the game.
[/ QUOTE ]
I already addressed this in a previous post.
[/ QUOTE ]
What is this, proof by nonexistent reference? I just went over every post you've made in this thread, and you've done no such thing. Unless the search function is borked, the only post you've made in the past week that even contains the word "slider" is the one I'm responding to. If I've missed something, please provide a link to the post where you address why the difficulty slider (or minor modifications thereof, like higher difficulty settings) couldn't fix this perceived "broken" team play that the increased boss difficulty is supposedly addressing.
[ QUOTE ]
I've been discussing many of these issues internally with the team...and I think I might have something interesting that satisfies both parties...but I've got to do more research first.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hi Statesman! Persuant to helping you guys with your numbers a bit, I kept track of some figures in a recent mission:
Character: Valde Punitor, lvl 11 scrapper on Infinity, Hard Boiled
Mission: Defeat Unlucky Pete; given by Alfonse Rubel
This mission contained: many lvl 9 mins and lt's. Two lvl 9 Abberant Eremite un-named bosses. Many lvl 10, 11, and 12 mins and lts. Unlucky Pete was not a boss, but instead was a lvl 11 lt.
Because I was lvl 11, the eremites conned white, and presented little difficulty for me, as they were both alone. The mission was not overly difficult for a scrapper, but probably would have proven more difficult for some other ATs.
[ QUOTE ]
"I think every Archetype should be able to solo. The reason doesn't matter - just 'cause you're soloing doesn't mean that you should be prevented from enjoying the game."-Statesman-
Street sweeping is not fun for most soloists for any appreciable length of time. It's repetitive, without story content, and therefore not enjoyable as the main solo available activity.
[/ QUOTE ]
And how does that contradict anything I have posted? Saying people can solo is not at all inconsistent with his quote on who can/should be able to solo what. Its only your insistence on what you think you should be able to solo that is in contradiction.
[ QUOTE ]
Most AT's can no longer solo a good deal of the missions
[/ QUOTE ]
Bull
[ QUOTE ]
A large proportion of those players who have enjoyed soloing, if the boss buff is left in, will no longer be able to do so.
[/ QUOTE ]
Again Bull
The new bosses are still soloable by almost every power set of every AT with the correct power selection and tactics. The only real concern is the lucky one hit that can put many ATs in the hospital and statsman has already indicated he is working on that.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Teaming wasn't broken before, and this is not a fix to it.
[/ QUOTE ]
People routinely solo missions spawned for 6+ players. How can that not be broken? If one person can do is alone what challange does it offer a team of 6?
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, first off, only a very, very few people at thehighest levesl 45+ did that. If by routinely you meant they did it over and over again you're right. If by routinely you meant this comprised more then, say, 1/1000 of all missions completed you're wrong. I don't see that such a small fraction of mission sis really all that representative. Moreover, typically, these same missions did offer a significant challeneg to a team of 6. Not every team of 6, but many of them. Now, if you are saying that all content should be geared toward the most uber min/maxed players with thebest possible builds and themost fantastic strategies out there I respectfully disagree. Maybe, maybe, those should be taken into account, and for that I point you to the mission difficulty slider, but all missions should not have that as their lowest possible difficulty setting. That's insane.
Infinity:
Ellen, 50 MA/Inv Scr
February Night, 14 Ice/Ice Blstr
Guardian:
SilverSwordmaid, 29 Kat/Rgn Scr
Vicious Killer, 33 Emp/Enrgy Def
Electromagness, 40 Rad/Rad Def
Sense of Humor, 50 Fire/En Tank
Virtue:
Kickfest, 50 MA/SR Scr
Freedom:
Glorious Ending, 29 EM/DA Bru
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Teaming wasn't broken before, and this is not a fix to it.
[/ QUOTE ]
People routinely solo missions spawned for 6+ players. How can that not be broken? If one person can do is alone what challange does it offer a team of 6?
[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, PUH-lease. That one was just bunk. One person is not doing what a team of six does. The missions are, and always have been, scaled for the number of people going in the door. The numbers a team of six encounters in a mission are WAY higher than what a single is doing and so the one is not accomplishing what the team of six does outside of a relative comparison. That's the whole point of the scaling. The one DOES accomplish the mission with a number of mobs appropriate to one hero, the team accomplishes the mission with a commensurate greater number of mobs appropriate to whatever team size goes in so that the mission remains challenging for the greater number entering. Effectively, in terms of absolute numbers and types, proportions of mobs faced, it is two different misisons. The two are in no way directly equivalent. Give me a break.
[ QUOTE ]
Seriously he says these same things with such regularity can consistency I have to wonder of some of you people even read these forums.
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes, he keeps reaffirming his 'vision' and the fact the bosses were effectively bugged as they were not meant to be soloable.
Many of the posts in this thread (mine certainly) are about the fact that whether Statesman's vision of forced grouping is a sensible idea at all. People like teaming, that's great, however most people in this thread do not and suggest many very good solutions to allow hardcore team players to get a good game and soloists to do the same.
For me, the boss changes are managable. I can still just about take two red bosses.. however if I get an AV what these changes DO mean is that my original group of 4 now has difficulty in taking them. It's bad enough being forced to group, but being forced to group into a much bigger team with a pic n' mix of AT's is, in my mind, unreasonable.
If I'm selfish, these boss changes can stay (however I think for the squishies, they shouldn't) but if it's Statesman's plan to keep piling on barriers to soloing then I think he should reconsider. These changes are symptom of the problem, not the cause. Luckily, if I read his last posts correctly, he's going to do that.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Teaming wasn't broken before, and this is not a fix to it.
[/ QUOTE ]
People routinely solo missions spawned for 6+ players. How can that not be broken? If one person can do is alone what challange does it offer a team of 6?
[/ QUOTE ]
i'm guessing you're talking about PLing herders *mainly*, which has nothing to do with teaming being broken or not. plus those who you're talking about are a very specific builds. most of the ATs can't do that.
[/ QUOTE ]
Herding goes way beyond what I am talking about. Even on impossible the typical spawn for a 6 player mission is trivial for a large number of builds. The people herding pre issue 3 (and possibly post issue 3) were fighting 10+ spawns simultaneously. I.E. it was supposed to take a team of 6 people to fight one of these spawns and they were fighting/killing 10 of them at time, often solo.
The only thing I agree with Moridin saying so far is...if you come across a non-contact mentioned boss in a mission...petition.
There are so many instances of this that CS will be flooded and something will get done fast.
This thread is getting pretty pointless now to be honest, every possible point of view has been expressed and now people are just quoting each other for the sake of hammering their own point of view across.
There is no discussion here, no willingness to accept another person's point of view, just lots of self-righteous posturing.
"Step away from the thread people. Nothing to see here!"
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Teaming wasn't broken before, and this is not a fix to it.
[/ QUOTE ]
People routinely solo missions spawned for 6+ players. How can that not be broken? If one person can do is alone what challange does it offer a team of 6?
[/ QUOTE ]
Okay, PUH-lease. That one was just bunk. One person is not doing what a team of six does. The missions are, and always have been, scaled for the number of people going in the door. The numbers a team of six encounters in a mission are WAY higher than what a single is doing and so the one is not accomplishing what the team of six does outside of a relative comparison. That's the whole point of the scaling. The one DOES accomplish the mission with a number of mobs appropriate to one hero, the team accomplishes the mission with a commensurate greater number of mobs appropriate to whatever team size goes in so that the mission remains challenging for the greater number entering. Effectively, in terms of absolute numbers and types, proportions of mobs faced, it is two different misisons. The two are in no way directly equivalent. Give me a break.
[/ QUOTE ]
Not true. There are a number of missions (most notably the warwolf/shadowhunter ones) which level 50 tanks routinely invite 5 other people, two of which are being powerleveled, to come in the door for. Then they round up all the mobs and kill them, all by themselves. They may use a few defense inspirations during the process, but they use no help whatsoever from teammates.
Infinity:
Ellen, 50 MA/Inv Scr
February Night, 14 Ice/Ice Blstr
Guardian:
SilverSwordmaid, 29 Kat/Rgn Scr
Vicious Killer, 33 Emp/Enrgy Def
Electromagness, 40 Rad/Rad Def
Sense of Humor, 50 Fire/En Tank
Virtue:
Kickfest, 50 MA/SR Scr
Freedom:
Glorious Ending, 29 EM/DA Bru
[ QUOTE ]
The new bosses are still soloable by almost every power set of every AT with the correct power selection and tactics. The only real concern is the lucky one hit that can put many ATs in the hospital..
[/ QUOTE ]
ummm... I call [censored]?
again.
in case you missed it, this is why i called [censored] on that statement the first time.
there is no way you can seriously think your statement holds water. it is so patently and completely wrong that I dont think I can sit here and argue it without getting a headache.
facts: most powersets/ats (other than SOME tankers, SOME controllers, FEW defenders, FEW blasters and MOST scrappers) lack the DPS/ HPs/ or Holds to effectively overcome the HPs and DPS of a "new and improved" boss.
for every 1 powerset /AT combo you can name that CAN solo the boss, i'm sure the community will come up with 2 that can't. Or at least dont want to spend 15 minutes whittling away the boss' HP incrimentally. Thats not fun. Thats what killed EQ, and killed DAoC. No BOSS should take that much time. (AVs & monsters & "raid" content nonwithstanding)
[ QUOTE ]
Seriously he says these same things with such regularity can consistency I have to wonder of some of you people even read these forums.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hrm, yes, well in the case of the statements concerning the amount of increase in boss trength (Statesman says I2 +1 = I3 even con, it's been documented it's way more, on the order of a 60% increase), the numbers of sappers in a group (Statesman says 1 down from 2, many see more than that), the numbers, or even presence of, undocumented bosses in missions, repeating something over and over doesn't make it true, if it wasn't true the first time it was said.
[ QUOTE ]
Thats what killed EQ,
[/ QUOTE ]
EQ is not dead.
[ QUOTE ]
Personally, the emphasis they placed on solo viability was why I picked up the game. I suspect it's what drew quite a few others as well.
[/ QUOTE ]
And tougher bosses that can still be soloed if you do so skillfully and only occur in some missions make soloing non viable?
[ QUOTE ]
And I do have a reason to complain: the portion of missions that WERE solo viable pre-I3 became significantly smaller with the addition of boss changes.
[/ QUOTE ]
You were soloing missions that were never intended to be easily soloable, if anything you got more value then you were promised out of the deal.
[ QUOTE ]
Soloists, from the beginning, have had:
SOME missions minus the few in the 30's with an archvillain
SOME streetsweeping.
[/ QUOTE ]
And from the beginning you were supposed to have
Streetsweeping
Some missions minus a few with archvillains and possibly some with bosses
As see it you got more then you were given extra not deprived of anything at all. Which is why I suggested is that the real problem was you became accustomed to easily doing things that you were never intended to do solo and now take them for a right.
[ QUOTE ]
In addition to the points I just mentioned (hopefully) showing you how silly this is, missions in no way equal 100% of the game's content. Task Forces and Trials make up a substantial amount. Events, which usually have an Archvillain or at least one of the new solo-unfriendly bosses, make up another portion of he content.
[/ QUOTE ]
How many task forces and trials are there? How many missions? Even accounting for the different lengths TFs and trials make less then 1% of the games content.
[ QUOTE ]
Again Bull
The new bosses are still soloable by almost every power set of every AT with the correct power selection and tactics. The only real concern is the lucky one hit that can put many ATs in the hospital and statsman has already indicated he is working on that.
[/ QUOTE ]
"The correct build" is the key quote in there. If you haven't maximized your build, you're in for a rough ride, assuming you can solo bosses at all, which is not nearly as common as you seem to be assuming.
I gather that Statesman had some measure of disappointment with the number of people taking Hasten and Stamina. I can't imagine that making it impossible to *not* min-max your build with powers such as that to get by was in fitting with his design ideals. But perhaps I am mistaken in that.
There are plenty of games which cater to experienced players and people who spend days studying guides on which skills to take to optimize their characters. Nothing I've read has ever led me to believe this was supposed to be one of them.
Someone who slotted one attack instead of another and who doesn't have access to high-level friends to feed him the influence to keep his enhancements constantly topped should not find themselves unable to solo the generic bosses that appear in virtually every one of their missions.
The arrogant inaccuracy of your statement stands on its own, a shining pillar of wrongness in a wasteland of the ego.
@Mindshadow
[ QUOTE ]
Not true. There are a number of missions (most notably the warwolf/shadowhunter ones) which level 50 tanks routinely invite 5 other people, two of which are being powerleveled, to come in the door for. Then they round up all the mobs and kill them, all by themselves. They may use a few defense inspirations during the process, but they use no help whatsoever from teammates.
[/ QUOTE ]
While this is somewhat true, the tank would usually ask for help in wiping out the mobs (after they are all nice and stacked) so that it doesn't take him forever.
Still here, even after all this time!
[ QUOTE ]
And tougher bosses that can still be soloed if you do so skillfully and only occur in some missions make soloing non viable?
[/ QUOTE ]
I play the game to be entertained.
Tougher bosses (that are designed to give entire teams a challenge) that (even once their damage is toned down) will smear a squishy in two hits, especially later in the game when status effects can easily hold you later may still be beatable, but it's a pain in the [censored] and misses the "fun" component entirely.
[ QUOTE ]
You were soloing missions that were never intended to be easily soloable, if anything you got more value then you were promised out of the deal.
[/ QUOTE ]
I was promised the ability to create a "lone wolf hero" and live out my wildest "comic book fantasies," so I'm not sure I agree with you.
And you still seem to be missing the point that, even if the game WAS originally intended to be that way, its solo component has functioned fine without these changes. If its team function was lacking, changes could have been made to fix the team function without stripping even more enjoyability from soloing.
[ QUOTE ]
How many task forces and trials are there? How many missions? Even accounting for the different lengths TFs and trials make less then 1% of the games content.
[/ QUOTE ]
By my count, there are 19 or 20 trials/tfs with issue three, and most have at least 10+ missions. I doubt that's 1% of the content.
And even if it WAS 1% of the content numerically, those are often where the most innovative content in the game is found. You just can't compare the Tsoo Shenanigans story arc (much less the Kill X missions, which are glorified street sweeping) with the Eden Trial for spectacle or fun.
[ QUOTE ]
Most AT's can no longer solo a good deal of the missions
[/ QUOTE ]
Bull
[ QUOTE ]
A large proportion of those players who have enjoyed soloing, if the boss buff is left in, will no longer be able to do so.
[/ QUOTE ]
Again Bull
The new bosses are still soloable by almost every power set of every AT with the correct power selection and tactics. The only real concern is the lucky one hit that can put many ATs in the hospital
[/ QUOTE ]
Bull, back atcha.
This thread is replete with concerns that while Tankers and Scrappers seem to have little problem with the buffed bosses, Controllers (outside of a few selected powersets), Defenders, and Blasters generally have a great deal of difficulty. So unless you've played all these powersets yourself and can say with authority it's not a problem, your statement is the one unsupported. It's pure speculation on your part flying in the face of the vast majority of posts on this subject, both in this thread and others in the forums.
I am a very tactical player, making careful plans in both missions and street sweeping. My main is a heavily SO slotted blaster. I can still take on an orange conn boss (other than melee freaks in an office due to rezz) using many inspirations. But I have NO chance to take on a red. I simply can't damage them fast enough, long enough to take them out before they can lay me flat and I'm not talking about single shotting.
The combination of the increases to their hit points, their resistances/defense, their regeneration and, most importantly, their damage output, is just to high to jump over. They hit multiples harder than I can, heal faster, and take forever to damage. A loaded alpha snipe that once would take them down by a quarter to a third now takes them down MAYBE ten percent, prehaps less. Using twin beanbags for disorient to minimize their damage output, I'm still cycling through my available attacks close to ten times before being layed out in defeat. I'm carrying 15 slots of inspiration and burn through them in the process.
Perhaps if the big increase were just to their hit points or hit points and defenses they would be doable, but tedious. Running away and reloading those inspriation slots and going again doesn't help, they've nearly fully regenerated before I can get back to them.
So please, unless and until you've personally run these now solo nerfed archetypes, it is apparent from personal experience and the anecdotes of others in this thread that when you make such a bull excrement statement such as that that you simply don't know what the hell you are talking about. And yet you want to say it so confidently despite your utter lack of any support other than your own sheer speculation.
Following these back and forth exchanges I sometimes get the impression that what your argument really boils down to is "I got mine, jump off! Don't bother me with your concerns. Don't do anything to endanger what I wanted."
We're not asking for 100% solo, that's a strawman. We're asking to maintain a level of soloing the game supported from launch until now with this one issue in I3. It's part of what brought us to this game, it is part of what would drive us away if gone.
[ QUOTE ]
And even if it WAS 1% of the content numerically, those are often where the most innovative content in the game is found. You just can't compare the Tsoo Shenanigans story arc (much less the Kill X missions, which are glorified street sweeping) with the Eden Trial for spectacle or fun.
[/ QUOTE ]
Tsoo Shenanigans is a work of art compared to the Tsoo Coup. Nothing says fun like five warehouses full of ninja in one chain.
Team content (such as the Trials, or even some of the tougher story arcs) is already superior to solo content in a lot of ways.
It's the carrot versus the stick. "Group and you can do Cool Thing X" instead of "Group otherwise you can only do Suck Thing Y".
I don't think the latter was what most of us signed up for.
Grouping is fun! Anyone who _wasn't_ having fun grouped certainly isn't going to enjoy being forced to do so.
@Mindshadow
Regarding the numbers of bosses in mission, we ran into some very strange numbers tonight.
We had a mission called 'catch electronics thief' (not exact wording), a level 22 freakshow mission. We had 4 people in the team, the mission difficulty was easiest, Hard Boiled.
The mission included approximately 50 freak tanks, which were definitely not mentioned in the briefing. 
There were maybe of total 10 minions and lieutenants in there, the rest were bosses. How do I know the total of tank numbers? My tanker had never faced them before and the tank badge meter was almost exactly in the middle of the slider afterwards. All the tanks were level 22 or 21.
This is not normal, right? Don't get me wrong, it was a fun mission, but it could've been a total suicide as well.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Teaming wasn't broken before, and this is not a fix to it.
[/ QUOTE ]
People routinely solo missions spawned for 6+ players. How can that not be broken? If one person can do is alone what challange does it offer a team of 6?
[/ QUOTE ]
Assuming this is true, particular builds can do this, not anyone in general. Given this, your logic is quite faulty. When smoke grenade was broken, */Devices Blasters could go toe-to-toe with enormous spawns because they could not be hit. It doesn't follow from that the same spawns were no challenge to any team without a Dev Blaster.
To put the point plainly for you, any build that can solo a mission spawning for 6 is clearly broken. Fix the build, don't bugger up the game to adjust for it.
Now if you are talking about herding, that's not exactly "soloing" now is it?
Hey all, I think we all should give Moridin_ a break. We should all just fess up and change our tactics.
/sarcasm_on
Granted I probably had NO IDEA on what tactics to use to get my Energy/Energy Blaster to Level 40. Thank gawd for that respec! Therefore I suggest that Moridin_ just send us his UBER-BUILD AT character build-out so we can call have fun playing cloned characters (aka Agent Smiths).
If our tactics are wrong, please post the appropriate tactics for each AT / Build so that we can see the light. Please be specific by including inspiration management for maximum defense, health, and endurance performance (heavy emphasis on endurance).
Thank you in advance for your unquestionable insight to the world of CoH.
Yur biggest fan,
Little Demon
/sarcasm_off
[ QUOTE ]
Teaming wasn't broken before, and this is not a fix to it.
[/ QUOTE ]
People routinely solo missions spawned for 6+ players. How can that not be broken? If one person can do is alone what challange does it offer a team of 6?