have an option to run tf/sf with fewer than minimum team size
By
Aura_Familia,
Posted on: 2011-02-23 24:16 in Suggestions and Ideas
I think this would please a lot of sections of the player community. It would give the "no forced teaming" crowd a way to get their incarnate components solo without having to grind for shards, it would allow the min/maxers to take on the challenge of soloing the higher end TFs without having to waste time finding padders, and it would make people who enjoy less popular TFs (Synapse anyone?) a way to run their favorite content without having to drag along people who don't want to be there. I see absolutely no reason not to do this
/signed
/Signed
I want to see if Alpha can solo/duo an ITF 
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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I vote for this as well..
Friend and I did a duo ITF and it took a good 25 mins or more to find enough peeps willing to join team so we could duo it.
(ps - Thank you Vanguard heavy.. couldnt have done it without you ! )
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You may not see a reason but apparently the Devs do.|
Originally Posted by Irish Fury
I see absolutely no reason not to do this
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People have been suggesting something like this pretty much since the game launched almost 7 years ago and it still hasn't happened. I'm not really saying that's right or wrong. I'm just saying that out of the literally hundreds of QoL improvements that have been added to the game over the years this hasn't been one of them.
Perhaps it's something the Devs simply don't want to budge on. The Devs have actually added quite a few features over the years to make it easier for players to adjust level and "I'm equivalent to X number of players" type difficulty settings and the ability to run through all sorts of arcs via Ouroboros. My guess is that they consider those things to be enough of a "concession" to those interests.
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Have the devs ever spoken to the reason for not including this option? Many of my heroes and especially my villains are not "works well with others" types, so the option to play those characters the way I see them would be awesome.
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Originally Posted by Lothic
You may not see a reason but apparently the Devs do.
People have been suggesting something like this pretty much since the game launched almost 7 years ago and it still hasn't happened. I'm not really saying that's right or wrong. I'm just saying that out of the literally hundreds of QoL improvements that have been added to the game over the years this hasn't been one of them. Perhaps it's something the Devs simply don't want to budge on. The Devs have actually added quite a few features over the years to make it easier for players to adjust level and "I'm equivalent to X number of players" type difficulty settings and the ability to run through all sorts of arcs via Ouroboros. My guess is that they consider those things to be enough of a "concession" to those interests. |
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I'm sure some Dev somewhere has commented on it. I don't have a link handy but like I said people have asked for this for years so there must be -some- reason the Devs are against it whether they've publicly told us that reason or not.|
Originally Posted by Irish Fury
Have the devs ever spoken to the reason for not including this option? Many of my heroes and especially my villains are not "works well with others" types, so the option to play those characters the way I see them would be awesome.
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My guess is that they want at least -some- content in this game to remain multiplayer oriented. The Devs have bent-over-backwards to make as much of this game "solo-friendly" as possible. But there's no rule or law that says they have to make it 100% solo-friendly.
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my biggest beef with the current system is needing padders
if i know i can solo or duo a sf, i want to start it right them instead of wasting other poeples time for them to pad and wasting my time finding the padders to start it
another benefit of solo sf/tf is that you dont have to worry about other poeples time constraints, you can take however long you want to do the tf
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You know you can probably solo or duo a given TF/SF.|
Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
my biggest beef with the current system is needing padders
if i know i can solo or duo a sf, i want to start it right them instead of wasting other poeples time for them to pad and wasting my time finding the padders to start it another benefit of solo sf/tf is that you dont have to worry about other poeples time constraints, you can take however long you want to do the tf |
The Devs even know you can probably solo or duo a given TF/SF.
But as far as they may be concerned they don't WANT you to do that. I realize that may be a totally arbitrary and unreasonable policy on their part. But it is THEIR game - they can do whatever they want.
To them the idea of "padders" probably isn't seen as the negative you see it as. They probably figure that "encourages" people to work together - even if the work only lasts long enough to start a TF/SF.
Again I'm not strictly defending the Devs' position on this. I'm just trying (for what it's worth) to interpret the "tea leaves" we've been given for the last seven years.
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/signed... a million times. please, please, please.
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Castle did here |
Originally Posted by Irish Fury
Have the devs ever spoken to the reason for not including this option? Many of my heroes and especially my villains are not "works well with others" types, so the option to play those characters the way I see them would be awesome.
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| Seriously, though, to the best of my knowledge we won't be changing minimum sizes of TF's/SF's. The minimum sizes stand as "warning labels" to newer players that these missions are more difficult/time consuming/whatever than other missions. It's a small, but important function. |
/signed
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Thanks for the link, but that seems like a pretty weak excuse. Many story arc missions give a warning/disclaimer that multiple heroes/villains will be needed for completion, but I still have the option to go it alone. Why not add a similar warning to the beginning TF dialogue? I guess we are beating a dead horse with this request, but it is something that seemed like a no brainer when I first started playing. I was actaully surprised I couldn't attempt TFs alone.|
Originally Posted by BrokenPrey
Castle did here
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How about this? Instead of a prohibitive mechanic to function as a warning, we remove that mechanic and add an actual warning.
something i hear suggest before was if they were clicked when you had under min team size they would do their rant that this was meant for x amount of people and would be nearly impossible for less and then you would have a dialogue option saying something like "im willing to risk it" sort of disclaimer type thing
You should form a global channel for people who are interested in this, that way you can talk to people who will pad those TF/SFs since they understand your motivations instead of needing to wait.
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I'm guessing you don't play too many table-top roleplaying games. The classic mindset that "The Game Master is always right" is present even in computer based MMORPGs. Clearly you don't have to like it (or even understand it) but if you want to play the game you'll play by the established Dev rules.|
Originally Posted by Irish Fury
Thanks for the link, but that seems like a pretty weak excuse. Many story arc missions give a warning/disclaimer that multiple heroes/villains will be needed for completion, but I still have the option to go it alone. Why not add a similar warning to the beginning TF dialogue? I guess we are beating a dead horse with this request, but it is something that seemed like a no brainer when I first started playing. I was actaully surprised I couldn't attempt TFs alone.
How about this? Instead of a prohibitive mechanic to function as a warning, we remove that mechanic and add an actual warning. |
Frankly I still marvel just how solo-friendly this game is regardless of this one particular issue. There's really no reason it MUST be as solo-friendly as it is already. The Devs have already given in on 99 of 100 "solo vs. team" issues already. The fact that they want to keep this one last one may be irksome to some people but it's ultimately fair all things considered. At least the "workarounds" for it are simple enough.
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i dont mind doing tfs on large teams, but this suggestions is more for when your on during a period of low activity and still want to do a tf, but may not have enough or any people interested in joining
i really dont mind the team based activities, but i rather have an option to bypass it if there is something preventing team activity (whether low activity, low interest, or who knows what else)
i know one thing the devs have supported in this game is the ability for the players to have options and i would rather have this over turnstile teaming anyday, if i want to team ill ask in global channels, if i want to solo a tf/sf, then i would like the option to
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You are correct. This game is extremely solo-friendly, and I am extremely grateful that the devs have provided solo alternatives to nearly everything in the game. It is this soloability that initially attracted me to this game (although I do prefer teaming now that I'm here). This is just a minor annoyance in a game that is as close to perfection that I can imagine a video game being.
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Originally Posted by Lothic
I'm guessing you don't play too many table-top roleplaying games. The classic mindset that "The Game Master is always right" is present even in computer based MMORPGs. Clearly you don't have to like it (or even understand it) but if you want to play the game you'll play by the established Dev rules.
Frankly I still marvel just how solo-friendly this game is regardless of this one particular issue. There's really no reason it MUST be as solo-friendly as it is already. The Devs have already given in on 99 of 100 "solo vs. team" issues already. The fact that they want to keep this one last one may be irksome to some people but it's ultimately fair all things considered. At least the "workarounds" for it are simple enough. |
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I know there are players like you who would "like" the option to do this.|
Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
i dont mind doing tfs on large teams, but this suggestions is more for when your on during a period of low activity and still want to do a tf, but may not have enough or any people interested in joining
i really dont mind the team based activities, but i rather have an option to bypass it if there is something preventing team activity (whether low activity, low interest, or who knows what else) i know one thing the devs have supported in this game is the ability for the players to have options and i would rather have this over turnstile teaming anyday, if i want to team ill ask in global channels, if i want to solo a tf/sf, then i would like the option to |
Problem is that desire alone has not been enough to convince the Devs to change their minds. *shrugs*
The Devs clearly don't want people to solo TF/SFs, but at least they ALLOW it to happen, even if they force you to jump through some hoops to do it. Look at it this way: the Devs could have been strict about it and programed the thing to automatically stop a TF/SF once the team size dropped below a minimum number. I'd say the way it works now is going to be the best compromise we get from this. *shrugs*
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This option doesn't exist likely for these reasons:
1. Lots of players will probably get frustrated when they see how boring/hard it is to solo a TF. Sure you can quit at any time, but there's the reward at the end of the tunnel which will keep a lot of players playing and burning themselves out.
2. It serves the purpose of encouraging teamplay, which should be the case because IMO, teaming is so much more fun than soloing in this game. To encourage soloing in a game where soloing isn't nearly as fun as teaming is a bad idea IMO.
3. The vast majority of people do TF's for reward merits, incarnate components, and accolades. All of these depend on the TF completion time for efficiency, which isn't at all what soloing is good for(which is exp/inf/tickets/drops per minute).
4. Not having any padders around is odd, and is likely a very rare situation, but I might be wrong.
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Okay the minimum of one most likely will never happen.
How about giving the Freedom Phalanx TFs a minimum of 4, like their counterpart SF have. I never understood why Manticore needs 7 
It would still make you need a team and if you wanted padders you would just need less.
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for major tfs i could kind of see your point, but for non lvl 50 tfs it should be much less like i really dont mind posi because it only requires 3, so if you and a friend want to duo, if one of you has an alt account to pad with your good to go|
Originally Posted by BrokenPrey
Okay the minimum of one most likely will never happen.
How about giving the Freedom Phalanx TFs a minimum of 4, like their counterpart SF have. I never understood why Manticore needs 7 It would still make you need a team and if you wanted padders you would just need less. |
i honestly see no reason that any tf has a requirement of more than 3
All task forces should be able to be started by a solo player. I have yet to see a good reason why not.
I also feel they should spawn for the normal task force minimum. Meaning if I want to do a solo ITF, I need to deal with spawns set for 6, including AVs. It would be a shame if the option was added but they were dumbed down to make them easy.
If you do it with just one person, it is no longer a Task Force and becomes a story arc.
If they ever allow us to run them solo, without padders, I would fully expect them to apply the story arc time/reward ratio to it.
Want to solo an ITF? Sure, but now you get 9 merits for it, because it is shorter than a lot of story arcs in the game. Same goes for any of the shorter TFs. Things like Synapse would be worth maybe 20 merits. Just look how much the merit reward of old Posi was reduced when they added it to Ouro and let us solo it, if you want an example. It went from 64 merits to 26 or so.
The term "Task Force" itself defines it as inolving multiple people. Look at any real world example of something called a task force, do you ever see a task force that is ONE guy?
The most I'll ever expect is the old version added to Ouro after a revamp, just like what happened with Posi.
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Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
Every tf should be able to be started with a minimum of 3. A solo option is not really needed if the minimum on some of these was dropped to 3.
Some of them requiring 7 or 8 makes absolutely no sense, when it's been shown that waaaaaay less than that can complete them.
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You know that's a good idea actually - I wouldn't mind seeing all TF's and SF's added to Ouro, with the appropriate rewards reduction, able to be started solo. That covers all bases I think - it keeps the minimum team size for the actual TF's, but gives the folks who want to solo them an opportunity to do so.
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Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
If you do it with just one person, it is no longer a Task Force and becomes a story arc.
If they ever allow us to run them solo, without padders, I would fully expect them to apply the story arc time/reward ratio to it. Want to solo an ITF? Sure, but now you get 9 merits for it, because it is shorter than a lot of story arcs in the game. Same goes for any of the shorter TFs. Things like Synapse would be worth maybe 20 merits. Just look how much the merit reward of old Posi was reduced when they added it to Ouro and let us solo it, if you want an example. It went from 64 merits to 26 or so. The term "Task Force" itself defines it as inolving multiple people. Look at any real world example of something called a task force, do you ever see a task force that is ONE guy? The most I'll ever expect is the old version added to Ouro after a revamp, just like what happened with Posi. |
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please please please give us an option on tf/sf contacts to start them with fewer than the minimum team requirement
i like to duo and solo sf, but its a freaking pain because its literally the only thing in the game that requires padders to do anymore
if i get on when theres not a lot of people on and i want to do an sf, its an extreme pain whether your getting an actual team or want to solo or duo it
while i understand they are more team oriented tasks and stuff, i think more options would always be better, cause if i want to try soloing ITF/LRSF/whatever sf, then at least make it easier to start it
an example today, ive been trying to find 3 padders to start a silver mantis, so far i been waiting and asking around for 45 minutes and 0 responses which i could have been using actually playing the game and running the sf i have to spend trying to find poeple to help me start it, its plain not fun