why doesn't the single player game of CoH work for you?

I'm actually playing a level 42 character instead of deleting and starting over. I have 3 accolades and am working on Portal Jockey. So I just soloed the Tina McIntyre arc.

It is not great content compared to SSA1 or really good AE arcs (see my sig), but it is actually pretty good. And it is fun to play through.

Now I rarely solo much, I prefer teams. But I remember when I started years ago I did the solo content. It was fun and it was what I considered the game to be (teaming was so much harder then).

I've tried getting back into the solo again but either I've done it a dozen times (Striga), I get sent to the KR hero corps agent, then the Hollows, then a security chief, then the PvP zone person, etc and I give up.

The other issue I have with it is that the introduction is not compelling.

"X works on cases involving the Warriors" is not something that makes me want to go talk to them. The contact introductions are like the dullest wikipedia entries ever.

Do you play a solo game in CoX (all or part time)? What part of it works for you, and what part drives you away?

Well, I prefer solo.

I am now preparing for rotted fruit.

The title of your thread implies that the solo game does not "work" - that is completely in error, as it works for a significant portion of the playerbase just fine. I am actually a bit offended at the title of this thread for starting from a negative and asking people to disprove it.

I solo nearly 80% of my time in game, and generally only team with friends at scheduled events (weekly TFs).

I have repeated content several times - mostly in story arcs that I enjoy, some for the story (O Wretched Man) and some for the particular challenges, but also some arcs which have specific rewards I want (Stephanie Preebles' arc with the wedding band, Monty's Midnighters arc, etc.)

It does work. If it didn't, I wouldn't play the game at all. Not that I'm a raging team-hater per se but I see teaming as an "extra feature" rather than a primary draw.

I'm pretty much solo all the time, these days, except for trial stuff.

The single-player game works just fine for me.

The parts that most frequently don't work are the parts that expect you to be able to team up with other players (missions with multiple elite bosses in one group and iTrials are my biggest gripes currently).

This is especially true when the content I want to run isn't 'popular' -- I ended up running a small but solid group through the 1st Terra Volta respec trial last week when it was the WTF in order to get a Notice of the Well for my Incarnate character, but the process of recruiting was painful.

I have no idea how I'd have gotten as far as I have into the Incarnate content without being able to run Dark Astoria solo to 'prep'.

--
Pauper

Ive always enjoyed the solo content, I love the story arcs but I've recently started to multi-box a lot so does that count as teaming?

The solo content (well, duo- I team with my wife) is the core reason I'm still with CoH:

I've been here 7+ years
I haven't run an Incarnate trial in about 6 months.
I haven't done a Task Force in.. well, longer than that.
I've visited a PvP zone once in the last year.
Heck, I can count the number of TF's I've done on one hand.
I've done DFB once heroside, once villainside.
I've yet to do DiB.

With the mix of newspaper/scanner missions, starting locations, Praetorian story paths, tip missions, "classic" arcs, signature storyarcs, and zone-based story arcs I get a good enough mix for leveling that each character's path is varied. (I also don't bother taking all of them to 50, as the endgame isn't much interest to me, so the leaner selection of content in the mid-to-upper 40's doesn't affect me much).

I solo by large preference when I play anything that doesn't require a team. I don't resent having to have a team for some things, but if I don't need a team, I rarely join or form one.

And when I do team, I always prefer it being with people I "know" from global channels. That's one of the cool things about this game - you can solo and still be socially active. I don't ignore other players (I'm actually fairly chatty - shocking I know given my post count). I just don't always team with them.

I solo 99% of the time, if not more.

Game works great for me- there's a lot of crappy older content, but it's getting easier and easier to ignore/skip over as they add decent repeatable missions & new story arcs at various levels.

I've been playing mostly 50's or lowbies since my return- last night I logged in my level 24 scrapper, hit 'find contact' and WOW there are a lot of them in the First Ward! Haven't played any of that stuff yet.

So, yeah, plenty of old stuff needs an overhaul or replacement, but single player was massively improved during my year long hiatus.

I solo most of the time as well, and really wish there was a way to play thru TFs solo. I'd probably do some of the Shadow Shard TFs if I can solo them, but I don't have that many hours to do and once with a team.

I tend to enjoy teaming when I do it, but I prefer to team in a happenstance sort of way.

For a while now, I've become somewhat self absorbed, so to speak, in that I really just enjoy logging into the game, focusing on my character and running nothing but rather generic content: radio/paper missions and the safeguards/mayhems, tip missions and just general street sweeping.
I love it.
I'm not sure what it is, but when I've tried playing some of the newer story arcs, I just get very disinterested.
My wife occasionally likes to run arcs and I'll team up with her for them, but I often find myself being more annoyed with the arcs than enjoying them.

I'm not ready to lay any blame on the writing or the arcs' mechanics or anything and just attribute it mainly to my own feelings and interests for the time being.

Either way... I've been vastly solo-only for a while and enjoy it quite well.

I might be a bit turned off by the thread title if I didn't think that Dug just likes to initiate potentially interesting discussions. Thread title wording can sometimes be as poor as headlines and I'll not think more on this particular one.

I solo easily 95% of the time, if not more. Only time I team is for Mothership/Hami Raids, Incarnate Trials and occassional TF/SF (the latter two I only bother with on my badger, specially the TF/SFs). Heck, some of the TF/SF content I could probably solo to an extent (with HVAS/Shivans as needed) if it wasn't for the min team requirement.

That said, the only reasons I can see the 'solo game' not 'working' is:

1) Some ATs have a harder time of it as others
2) folks get sick of running some of the earlier content over and over again, which results in PLing in DFB and DiB (which...is kind of hypocriticial if you think about it....)

I solo whenever I'm not on a team.

Seriously, I solo quite a bit, on both sides. As I usually alternate gameplay from hero to villain back to hero etc., it tends to keep arcs/missions/etc. more fresh. The times I will team up? TFs, trials, or giant monsters. Or if I happen to see cries for help from someone.

I mostly solo, or play duos with my wife. I don't have any problem with it. There's enough varied content that I can do alot of different things, from the actual story arcs to MA content to Signature Story Arcs, etc.

I almost exclusively play Redside where I think, aside from the new Mercy Island (which rather blows), the writing and missions are all much better. If I make a new character, I usually just street sweep my way to the ferry and go right to Oakes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eltonio This is over the top mental slavery.

Whachoo talkin' 'bout, Willis? CoX has been more successful, IMO, at balancing the solo and team aspects of the game than any other MMO out there.

While I don't feel that MMO's are meant to be experienced primarily solo (any more than ships are meant to stay in port, even though they can), the fact that the CoX design has always made solo play an equal partner to team play has been one of its best features.

I do both solo and team play. I am convinced you make these crazy threads each week for attention and post count.

I play solo about 90% of the time, only forming a team for SG stuff, TFs and trials.

I do almost nothing but solo and the occasional baf/lam (really occasional).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

Soloing works for me - just like teaming does too