How to make solo action thrive
I've been inactive for three years, and I only just subscribed to share some ideas about the design of solo action. Broadsword has dedicated more time to this playstyle in recent years than anyone could reasonably expect, but still the result is muddled.
First, I'd like to put into words what I think the design (of solo action) should aim to achieve:
Maximize the chance to encounter...
1) as few enemies as possible
2) as frequently as possible
3) in a natural way
I have tried to summarize my suggestion in a single illustration. It revolves around small repeatable quests that are designed to generate a steady flow of random traffic (in a made-up area).
Supply quest: collect 3 boxes and 3 rubble
Kill quest: kill 1 wolf and 1 bear
Buggane quest: pray to the sun and moon
1) All the best structures are condensed into one general area, and connected through quests. This way the different structures and quests compliment each other, rather than compete for the attention of players.
2) Players are given complete freedom to do quests in any order and direction. In return, players expose themselves to half of the structures per quest. This is a healthy mix between freedom and exposure. All you need to do to keep things random is to encourage players to vary between the three different quests.
3) Stealthzergs will struggle in this environment. None of the structures are essential, which means questers can be expected to constantly avoid the ”worst” structure. This is an easy adjustment for questers to make. Simply take a different route. Stealthers will need to play in smaller numbers to thrive.
4) Lastly, I want to point out that this suggestion does not require everyone, or even a majority of players, to do quests. Questers are a crucial part of this environment because they take the first step and initiate action. They are the constant traffic that attracts more action, and they maintain balance and unpredictability. Even if you hate doing quests, it does not logically follow that you should dislike a quest environment. Questing is the best thing that other players can do for you.
I know this probably seems like too much effort to put into a suggestion that will never happen, but I don't mind. I can't help it. I'm happy to answer any questions you have, and I'd also like to hear what solo action looks like today in your experience.
First, I'd like to put into words what I think the design (of solo action) should aim to achieve:
Maximize the chance to encounter...
1) as few enemies as possible
2) as frequently as possible
3) in a natural way
I have tried to summarize my suggestion in a single illustration. It revolves around small repeatable quests that are designed to generate a steady flow of random traffic (in a made-up area).
Supply quest: collect 3 boxes and 3 rubble
Kill quest: kill 1 wolf and 1 bear
Buggane quest: pray to the sun and moon
1) All the best structures are condensed into one general area, and connected through quests. This way the different structures and quests compliment each other, rather than compete for the attention of players.
2) Players are given complete freedom to do quests in any order and direction. In return, players expose themselves to half of the structures per quest. This is a healthy mix between freedom and exposure. All you need to do to keep things random is to encourage players to vary between the three different quests.
3) Stealthzergs will struggle in this environment. None of the structures are essential, which means questers can be expected to constantly avoid the ”worst” structure. This is an easy adjustment for questers to make. Simply take a different route. Stealthers will need to play in smaller numbers to thrive.
4) Lastly, I want to point out that this suggestion does not require everyone, or even a majority of players, to do quests. Questers are a crucial part of this environment because they take the first step and initiate action. They are the constant traffic that attracts more action, and they maintain balance and unpredictability. Even if you hate doing quests, it does not logically follow that you should dislike a quest environment. Questing is the best thing that other players can do for you.
I know this probably seems like too much effort to put into a suggestion that will never happen, but I don't mind. I can't help it. I'm happy to answer any questions you have, and I'd also like to hear what solo action looks like today in your experience.
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What about bringing back the roaming guard (old rp quest guards) and have them roam the supply lines and give them a large stealth detection area. It wouldn't stop the camping but it would make the campers move around a bit more.
There's nothing more emberassing than reading a soloers, undoubtedly with an inflated sense of self, ask the game be modified around thief social disfunction.
I agree, however low risk high reward is bountiful and you see a lot of players in the game taking the shortest path with least risk associated with it. Whether its XP, RP or BP. To the point there is no need to even attempt High Risk choices.
Interesting read Mctee, very judgmental of you to assume and state solo's have social dysfunction and an inflated sense of self - our sand box arena caters to all play styles and all play styles are required to feed the food-chain. Whats embarrassing is seeing a lot of groups happy to run around killing solo's for hours on end and then disbanding at the sight of even numbers and then going on to complaining they cant find anything to fight. People need to stop fearing the enemy but that wont happen until they start only fighting Trolls, Celts and Saracens instead of Mctees, Talds and Shaylons. Remove Preconception and Emotions from RvR and all play-styles will improve. Its annoying getting spammed on discord because you killed someone in an RvR zone.
But these quests are low risk. To give an example, you have two areas with rubble (both within running distance) and you only need to collect three pieces of rubble. Easy peasy. This is why I felt the need to state that over time it will amount to a great deal of exposure, meaning solo players will have a good chance of finding each other.
To clarify why questers play an important role... Imagine you are looking for (solo) roaming action. This questing environment is an obvious place to go to, because in addition to other roamers, you can also expect to find a few questers. Even if we assume that only 5% of solo players are questers, this place is better than any place without 5% questers. It's no accident that the routes in my suggestion outline a roaming area. This suggestion is an attempt to unite roamers, campers and questers as part of the same solution. Questers are not victims in this scenario. You can play however you want, and the more quests you can squeeze in between kills, the more successful you will be.
Ok Adolf jk
And stealth zergs are no problem
If your smart you avoid where they will be so its your own fault you die to them
If you want to solo
You should ask for a battle ground with nohelp and combat tags instead of changing the game its self
So that only people who want to or are ready can solo
Amen!! Coming from a soloer I have to say you nailed it. There is no such a thing as a fair fight.
The only way to have a 'fair fight' is to arrange it. And I despise it. I hate the fact that when I see people fighting I have to be wary and think: Are these realm mates who need help or people dueling I have to avoid? Nothing kills more the game than this. If you don't want to "upset" anybody you have to be avoiding fights you can win and only fight those you are going to lose. Even while you are on King's Gear!
And yes, let's not even get started with battlegrounds. Most of the time you are the only one there so if a ganker is on the watch just get ready to die non stop because no one is there to help at all. Crazy to see what DAoC has become!
In your experience, can you describe where you typically find solo action without running into stealthzergs?
I don't want that. Do you want that?
I would not mine a solo bg or something like that not that i solo a lot (lol Normally get my a.. handed to me)
Stealth is normally around the safe paths and the ev towers sometimes roaming from one spot to the next or at Quest spots like the eggs
Iv played in most of the stealth zergs and they dont normally hunt solo poeple but and the same time if one happens to go by sure its fairgame
I know back in the day poeple used to duel in the ring of the labyrinth i see fee poeple in there now so could be a great place to go downside is you cant use bug in there, not sure aboult the solo buff
And the main reason i think stealth is so many now is they dumbed them down to much that anyone can play them and ontop off that they are squishy so when everything you can kill heaks back up to full ljke 3 times over in one fight, thats stealth omost impossible more most people solo because they rely on burst damage. If the fight gose on to long they are then out match so they then vanish or die and most dont want the ladder
Sry for the story lol
+1... Again.. Couldn't have said it better
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@Rangerjohn97 yes i can understand its frustrating about adding/helping and getting yelled at or left to die - a solo battleground wouldn't work because these same ppl that want it don't typically fight each other in todays climate unless there is nothing left to fight and rather than fight they tend to log - everyone wants to kill a kings gear quester.
To sum it up - in todays climate - whilst we can determine who our foe is by name, looks or spam - we will make a decision before the fight even starts wether to add, run, attack, respect them. Granted there is a percentage of us that don't take note of whose who and whats what - but there is also a large percentage that do.
good question... no easy answer.
on what side of the equation do you like to err ? you want to upset a dueler or you want to upset a lowby/newby that stood no chance and could be shocked about not receiving help from an ally/realm mate ? depends a lot on your attitude towards the game i would guess, is it e-sports or is it realm vs realm where everyone in the same realm is part of the same team ? are your realm mates part of your team or competition for the same resource (enemies) ? if your whole realm is your team, then i'm not even sure that the concept of adding makes sense. then there is no adding, just helping/protecting someone on your team, whether he needed help or not...
if you see 2 people fighting and you don't know both, you probably don't have time to look up their names on excidio before the fight is over, lol. is it a fair assumption that if you have never seen the name of your realm mate before that he probably is a low RR ? is it then safe to assume that if he is fighting a named char he will probably need / expect help ?
to add or not to add, one of the hardest questions in the game.
This makes no sense to me. An abundance of questers is a bad thing? Perhaps it is the word "quester" that causes confusion here. To me, a quester is a soloer. Nothing more. Nothing less. From a design point of view, a successful quester is NOT a player who runs quests for three hours straight with no interruption. A successful quester is a player who finds a good fight while running a quest, which (assuming an abundance of questers) is very likely to happen before you run in to any gankers.
I also disagree with your argument about camping. My suggestion involves FOUR structures. Historically, solo action has often involved much less. Remember when it was mostly the ruined keep and the maze? Remember when it was mostly EV docks? Remember when it was mostly bow town?
What is the supply quest now? (I honestly don't know) I think partly it involves collecting 35 rubble from the maze? Yet my suggestion to collect 3 rubble from the maze OR another location is unrealistic due to camping?
Let me try a different explanation of my original suggestion above. Say we remove the quests. What is likely to happen? All the action will end up at ONE structure. The other three structures will be dead. What happens when gankers run over the one popular structure? Do soloers move to another structure? No, because they're dead! What seems like an easy solution is simply not what happens. Soloers will continue to go to the ONE popular structure because a stealthzerg (or whatever) is better than no action at all.
The whole point of the quest system in my suggestion is to BREAK the staleness of camping. It doesn't even matter how many questers there are. If one structure is camped by gankers, then you can expect an increase in quest activity at the other three structures. There will be no dead structures. Worst case scenario is that gankers form smaller and more mobile units. This is generally a good thing.
Without players no amount of equations are going to work.