Guild Wars 2 - SCALING instances & Why PVE in GW1 is boring/tedious

henchmen + heroes are computer controlled allies and they are very predictable in their behavior...even if the Artificial intelligence was improved they'd still be like this...

I find PVE Boring because when I play with 7 other computer allies I don't at all feel I'm doing anything majority of the time other than selecting a target for them to attack and watching a crapload of fireworks go off when they get to that target and this is the same thing for each target I send towards them...I might have to attack a bit slower sometimes if the spawns are thick but its almost predictably as boring

With REAL PEOPLE in PVE missions/quests which is becoming very rare these days its more spontaneous and random so not knowing makes things more fun and interesting

And its lonely as well playing with 7 other computer allies

but yeah i don't feel i'm even playing the game when i play with 7 other computer allies...like i said its select target they run in...fireworks go off....target dead and move on...I can maybe get a heal in if i play healer or get a few attacks in as a warrior but overall its like why bother???

* I HOPE I HOPE I HOPE Guild Wars 2 has some form of SCALING the # of monsters of an instance depending on how many people ENTER ...which would mean actual solo play like Pre-searing and early areas of Factions which I MISS because the tempo of the game changes when you're alone and YOU ALONE are killing the targets and running back to heal etc...it feels more rewarding and it feels like i'm actually playing.

Dynamic scaling of instanced areas would be interesting, though wouldn't that also mean if you had a quest/objective in an instanced area, you could go in there without a party thereby making it easier due to a lack of monsters?

Unless ANet balances it out REALLY well so the difficulty is still the same.

I still have mixed feelings about GW2's persistent worlds. On one hand, we can meet new people and things are more spontaneous, on the other hand, how will they pull of quests that dramatically change the enemies in explorable areas, and we still need to know how camping for quest foes/farming will work out.

I'm hoping GW2 will basically instance dungeons and missions.

Thats true...maybe for those quests they would be REQUIRED to have group so you would then need to bring in the henchmen or other real people with you

Have you played world of warcraft?

The ability solo hunt is there all the time but the bigger quest rewards require a group of 4-5 people sometimes and the really big quests/missions/raids require the full i don't know how many but a lot...

I think thats a great setup...people can chose the way they want to play

right now i don't think playing with bots can be considered playing alone...and playing with those 7 other computer allies is so annoying and boring...I haven't even bothered to finish EOTN or Nightfall

This kinda reminded me of Diablo 2. If more ppl entered the world the monsters became stronger. I just hope they won't ad heroes and henchmen in gw2..

Why Not? Heroes are a good additon to the game. Hell, I still remember how hard was to get into a pug at the beguining. And when you cant find anyone to do old quest. Heroe's are the way to go.

No, with real people it just becomes frustrating. We need scaling in the form of difficulty, not quantity of monsters.

That's right, make PvE hard. I don't want GW2 watered down like this game has been so that every scrub and his grandmother can complete the game by hitting C + space.

Yes, this is the way scaling should work. But even then, Diablo 2 was ridiculously easy. You could solo everything without breaking a sweat. Just.. lol @ baal. Hardcore mode was a great addition which i'd love GW2 to include. But again, the only threat to you dieing was other people PK'ing, not monsters

What kind of impact would that have on farming you think?

Yes, but if the environment scales, you can do it by yourself without heroes.

Solange, I support your idea completely. In fact, they kind of have to do something like this. Heroes and henchies are rubbish. If they work, they're so effective that you hardly need to do anything. If they don't work, it's because of frustrating AI or their inability to a simple thing that any sentient being would do. Either way, it's not that enjoyable.

I used to play a lot of single-player RPGs. I don't anymore simply because there are... none. Every RPG that comes out these days is a Japanese RPG or it's an MMO (ANet can call this a CORPG but it's the same thing). But playing alone could actually be quite intense. If things turned bad, you had the pressure was on. You were completely alone and had to be self-reliant.

But there's a lot to say about being in a group with other people as well. When everyone does their job well it feels great that everything worked in concert and you were a valueble contribution to it.

For the record, WoW didn't start this. To my knowledge the only thing new WoW brought to the MMO table is the auction house. Even that I'm not so sure. WoW is just popular because it does relatively well what other MMOs do. The ability to solo hunt is in every MMO except this one (monk farmers aside).

Diablo 2 was fairly easy for much of it (and depending on whether or not you used the standard builds or if you went with something more unique), but I remember those random bosses with multi-attack lightning enchanted. You hit them and they send out a wave of sparks. If any single one of those sparks hit you, you die instantly. That was recklessly difficult. So I would say scaling how strong the monsters are also needs some care when making it. Keep in mind there are some ele bosses in Factions capable of one-hit kills on people with no DP.

might allow everyone to farm not just the people with 55 builds or specially designed farming builds

Plz no, i wanna see some realistic.

I'd have to agree with this.

It would be hard to implement, but it would be fun to have scaled areas that would make it so you could solo like you can in Shing Jea or Pre-Searing. Those are the areas that I enjoy playing in the most.

I like the feeling you get of being able to handle things by yourself. Right now, the only way to get that is to use a specific build that's only made for farming and not much else.

They have already mentioned some of the features they are trying to get into GW2. It's already sounding as though it's geared toward solo play more so then now (meaning playing alone without the ai). Although i don't know how or if they will have similar henchman, they have already mentioned a companion system and a balance (buff?) for players that want to go out without said companion. The companion will also not take up a party slot, share loot or drops, from what i understand.

As far as dynamic scaling, i think it's really long overdue that games implement random mobs, pathing, skill fluctuations and environmental effects as an integral part of the play experience. The biggest problem with it is hardware/bandwidth limits, which may be less of an issue with multi-core processing power and higher bandwidth being cheaper these days.

There will be a slight scaling whe yu don't bring a companion, but there will be only one companion.

I bet there will be areas fit for soloing and other that you can only make in parties.

That's the best, just like now.

I think a lot of people get bored bringing henchmen around all the time. Heck, I know it bothers me. But there are some problems with scaling. I mean one, it makes many parts of the game soloable, which seems like it makes the problem worse rather than better. And second, if ANet can't handle skill balance, what makes you think they can handle scaling balance?

I kid, I kid.

Mostly.

Balance + Fun > Realism. Plus, this is a video game, realism doesn't exist.

Should do what D2 did and just scale the difficulty.

Can't really talk about this without knowing about how character levels and items work in GW2. If it is more geared toward high char lvl cap and elite item system (aka D2, WOW, ect.) then I can see how solo play would be a lot better (experience actually matters!). If it's still like GW with char lvl not meaning crap after max and just showing the numbers (speculation) and mediocre, non-gamebreaking items/weapons, then there is really no point, since then it would mean Anet is bringing back the whole mystical "skill>time" system that died somewhere after 1 yr of GW and your characters shouldn't be able to take on anything by yourself (yes yes, it's very counterintuitive).

/unsigned. I hate scaling. I have never seen it done well in any game, and most of the time it's done truly god-awfully, like in Bards Tale or Oblivion.

And I do like my games to be tethered to reality, thankyouverymuch.

They'd kill off a large percentage of sales if that happened.

We don't want to play with you, ok?

have heroes + henchmen if you want

but if you want to play alone and actually PLAY the game and not have henchmen/heroes taking kills away this instancing scaling on monsters would give that option

I want that pre-searing/early prophecies solo and shing jea feeling...i could play and explore on my own as the game progresses you are forced to play with people

Missions + Quests would require more people lets say

Its lame when you can just move the slider and choose the difficulty. Just add full hero teams to gw2. And add easy areas, harder areas, hard areas, very hard areas etc..

In hard mode, you forget the fact they have to press the Ursan button and then c + space + 1 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 1.

Diablo 2 style scaling would be interesting, but GW shouldn't be the type of game you can beat solo like D2...

This would require reworking a significant portion of the game, not including the nearly impossible balancing issues with class' currently designed for support.

AKA it would be a different game entirely. Why not just make a different game to begin with? Or go play Diablo. That works to.

Scaling in Diablo 2 is great, but unlike in GW, it's possible to solo every area. What would monks do?

But I wouldn't it like in Oblivion, where a wolf could be as hard as a strong lich... Or opposite, a lich as weak as a wolf.

aren't 55 monks or general farming monk builds the best right now at complete solo farming?

They have smiting if they chose or we don't even know how primary secondary or they'll even go that route with Guild Wars 2 is being handled

They don't need to "rework" Guild Wars 2. It hasn't yet been worked on.

I didn't play Bards Tale but the OP idea is really different from the one in Oblivion. It's more like the one in D2.

Oblivion's scaling was made so that you could finish the game at lvl 1.
In D2 you couldn't, you'd get pwned. All monsters had a fixed lvl which went up if someone else joined your game, and down if they leaved.

That means that you can play alone if you want, or with people. The only difference is that you don't need henches.

/signed

And 'bout reality... I don't see big-busted blondes in miniskirts casting meteors while in the air IRL, personally.

The ability to solo hunt is in every MMO except this one (monk farmers aside).


Although Monks may be the most common, and perhaps the most effective, solo farmers they are not the only option. Most professions have solo farming builds that work reasonably to very well.

That's true. The point is though, they don't finish missions solo. They just farm very specific areas.

Heroes take the MMO out of MMORPG. Pick your slice here people, you want a solo-oriented game or a team-based? If you want a solo game, scaling is the way to go. If you want a team game, hell, no more heroes. They make the game seem solo.

Oh IDK, from what I am seeing from GW2's description, it seems like a solo game. In fact, it seems like WOW.

It is a different game altogether. Plus, if D3 was out, I don't think any of us would still be playing GW.


And stop thinking of classes in terms of GW1 classes. They might revamp them. Look at D2, everyone thought Pally was a weak healer or the Druid would be a weak supporter, they turned out vicious. Just don't make that many heal abilities and solo-oriented kickass game is made.