What gives with grouping in this game?

I really don't understand the mechanism for parties being formed.

The first time I left pre-Searing Ascalon, I left immediately on accepting the quest and went straight to the conversation with Tydus etc. and a party of henchmen.

Now I've just done the same with another char and first got a timer before starting, then went into some kind of PvP area with a French stranger in the party before getting to the main event. After exiting I was in the French district.

Does this game form groups with other players automatically, or can I actually decide if I want to play the game on my own?

When you do the quest to leave pre, it sends you to a pvp encounter with randomly formed groups (There seems to be a sort of matching mechanism, but I don't know the details on how it forms the groups.)

After the pvp part, you do the quest to kill Vaatlaw with Rurik.

If there is no one else doing the same quest at the time you do it, you skip the pvp part entirely and go directly to the quest to kill Vaatlaw.

You choose your own groups for most of the game. As far as I have seen, you don't ever have to join with another player as long as you stay out of PvP beyond that one anomalous forced Pvp.

No, you can group with AI if and when you like. What happened was the little PvP thing brings a few people together, then you have a little quest thing you have to do (clear some grawl and charr out of a cave thing), then you go into post-searing, and you walk into Ascalon City. You ended up in the French district because the guy you grouped with was the group leader (must have loaded before you in the PvP), and he has the French Districts as his default. You can change back to English at any time without penalty, and can group with full AI if you want.

The Pre- to Post-Searing encounter is there to introduce the PvP mechanism to new players. Don't base your entire expectation of grouping off of that. Once you're in old Ascalon, you can form teams up or join other people who are looking to team, then go out into the world w/ that team.

Also bear in mind that many people don't really consider the game as truly beginning until you've reached level 20 and gotten max gear. Since Prophecies was the 1st GW game, it progresses a bit more slowly, and thus the time to get to level 20 is prolonged.

Thanks, that clears it up

They should probably work on it a bit. It's confusing to say the least for a newbie like me to get matched up to someone who doesn't speak a word of English, throwing you into the PvP area before the mission, then dumping you in a foriegn language zone on exiting. It's confusing enough seeing all those henchmen in your party for the first time!

Roll on un-newbieness!

One related question while I'm on the subject; how much of the Prophecies Campaign is actually soloable with a group of Henchmen?

Eventually, I want to join a Guild, PvP, the whole nine yards. For now though, I'd like to play alone for a while to get used to the mechanics.

I read it'd be a lot easier with Heroes, though I understand I'd need one of the other Campaigns for access to them? (I only have Prophecies at the moment)

^All of every campaign is Solo-able with Heroes and Hench (H/H for short). You may struggle in EotN dungeons though.

Pretty much the entire game can be done with a full party of henches.

Thanks for the quick replies

If you've just started playing I'd expect you'll find it difficult to solo with henchmen at first though.

I'll see how it goes. I've a lot of experience in other MMORPGs etc., so am quickly picking up what to do and what not to do. I fully expect a good few dirtnaps though

One final question. Is there any indication of how many party members are suggested for a given quest, or do you have to use trial and error?

As I understand it 'henchies' get loot distributed to them as if they were actual players, so logically you'd want to solo any quests that you are capable of doing alone?

No, use a full party all the time. With loot scaling, loot isn't distributed quite like you think it is.

Basically with loot scaling, it doesn't matter whether you solo or not because the game will scale how many items drop based on the number of people in your party. You will get the same amount of drops going solo as you would a group. There are a few exceptions to this rule, such as gold items, green items, and tomes in hard mode (since you're new, don't worry about tomes for a while). As HawkofStorms said, always go with a full party.

Thanks. That knowledge alone has probably saved me one or two of those dirtnaps