If we need to team up for the world boss, are we really playing the “entire game solo.”
If we need to trade with other players in towns, are we really playing the “entire game solo.”
If we get our backside handed to us in the Fields of Hatred and we need help to turn in the shards, are we really playing the “entire game solo.”
If others get to a camp or event right before us and they do everything, so we now need to wait for it all to reset, are we really playing the “entire game solo.”
Is it “most of the time” or “entire game solo”
"but most of the time you will be alone; and the exception would be something like the world boss event. That is a huge undertaking where you want to allow more players into that space so they can tackle the challenge together; and then there is towns for the opposite reason." - Angela Del Priore.
“The level to which you engage in those connected experiences is still up to you. You can choose to play through the entire game solo — from campaign all the way to end-game — and that will be just as valuable and successful as a way to approach the game, as someone who might choose to group up for the large majority of it.” - Angela Del Priore.
Personally, the way I see it is that if you fighting together with others (even if you’re not partied up), then you’re not really playing solo, especially if other players can deal damage to the monster you’re fighting, and as such “help” you take it down.
However, I believe that others (likely including the developers) see it more like if you don’t have any need to party up and in fact can complete objectives and/or defeat enemies without ever partying up, then you’re still playing solo even if there are other players nearby fighting the same group of monsters as you are.
I don’t think the idea is that you will always be alone but rather that you don’t need to interact with other players to engage with the content. Hopefully this also includes not requiring trade for decent item progression.
They state the world boss is an exception where it’s effectively built for you to play in a group but I would argue that providing you can just “turn up” and join in then you are still playing solo even if there are other people there.
If you are ever forced to join a party to experience content then I would say it’s not entirely soloable.
So if going solo into the PVP zone is not viable because people always group and it makes it impossible to play solo then I would say clearly this is not soloable. However if going to the PVP zone dynamically shards players based on party size so that solo PVP players only ever fight other solo players then while difficult it would still be solo play viable.
So I think if you are defining solo as “never even see another player” then no, this game will not be that.
If you define solo as “joining other players is not mandatory for progression” then this game will hopefully fit the definition.
Personally I like to think of the other players not in my party in the same way as a Barbarians in Act 5 of D2. Just because there are other Barbarians out there trying to fight the forces of evil doesn’t mean my role isn’t going to be significant.
My main concern to be honest is that some players at high level will be able to go back to low level areas and just insta-gib things, especially if there are low level world bosses. I hope they shard players so that this doesn’t happen.
Also I hope they don’t sell silly cosmetics where other players look silly, I can’t just pretend other players are wandering adventurers if they are running around in unicorn hats or whatever.
What crying because world bosses make you team up. Just skip them like I would choose to do. As long as they don’t tie important updates to world bosses to force you to fight them to get it then we will be fine.
What do you expect to be able to run around and handle everything in a PvP area solo. I would agree if it were 1v1 but if it is like 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4 or more I would say no. I would expect to team up with other players to beat another team of players.
Compare world bosses and PvP and I could say that the great majority of the game would be solo, campaign to endgame would be entirely solo and that is what I think they are talking about. Where the world bosses are not part of the campaign nor part of the endgame. Neither is PvP part of the endgame.
That’s not a solution. All content (excluding PvP obviously) must be 100% doable solo. “Just skip them” is merely ignoring the issue, not solving it.
Other ARPGs have tough bosses, equivalent to D4 world bosses by concept, and they are 100% doable solo. Just to throw an example, the raid bosses in Borderlands series. While they do scale by the player number in toughness, grouping still makes facing them easier yet still being perfectly doable solo.
Just going to touch on the one aspect here, world bosses.
I don’t know how many of us here played WoW in the early days. But there was one event that still sticks in my mind as perhaps one of the greatest multiplayer/multifaction events I ever participated in an online game.
The event was the Ahn’qiraj war effort and the battle royale on the day of the instance opening involving both Horde and Alliance factions.
What an incredible event it was! Literally thousands of players in the zone, running for fresh mini world bosses with highly desired loot and the epic battle finale to kill the brood mother. It was a huge zergfest and ranks amongst one of the most enjoyable experiences I ever took part in during my gaming career.
I wouldn’t mind the occasional event like this. It was hella fun. Despite soloing for the majority of time outside of raids, I liked the massive multiplayer experience provided by the opening of the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj.
I remember the entire Silithus zone being so laggy due to number of players there for the opening that it crashed the server a number of times, so I went to bed.
Silly me I didn’t know that Borderlands was online only. Whoops I just checked they have offline mode. So it would make sense that they wouldn’t be like D4’s world bosses where they are not soloable.
It is not like I am missing out on anything if I don’t fight them, unless like I said certain drops are tied to them.
Ignoring the issue would mean that I wouldn’t know that they exist. So instead I would make bold claims that world bosses don’t exist at all. So then I would claim that outside of PvP the game is entirely soloable.
Depends on what you consider solo. I can play everything in LA that I want to solo. I have no interest in PvP or raids.
By that, I mean I am not forced to group with others. I do not consider being in the same area as forced grouping unless the game automatically places me into the group system for the game. So being phased into a WB or local event with others without being in a group means I’m still soloing. I understand some enemies require many players but grouping is not required.
D4 will be like this with the added bonus of not seeing other players constantly like most shared world games. D4 won’t require dungeons to have more than one player to enter, nor will it have raids requiring multiple groups of 4 players.
So I guess, the most of the time solo just means you don’t have to be in a party but may come across others from time to time.
No it doesn’t. This is their game and their vision. They don’t have to make optional content they want many players to engage with at the same time soloable. This just like the online vs offline debates, where offline people claimed they needed an offline option or the game would be DoA.
Seems to me that it’s “most of the time”. Usually when devs say “the entire game” they don’t really mean 100% of the content as much as the entirety of what they consider to be the game’s journey.
Again, it depends on how you define solo play, there is no forced group content. There may be some other players in the area, but you won’t be excluded from any content because you do not want to join a party/raid.
Honestly they should just allow folks to create private rooms, then folks who want to play with others (partied or not) can do so, while folks who want to play actually solo (or with a few selected friends) can do so.
I’m just going to expect solo will be an option, but a grossly sub-optimal one to the point you’d be an idiot to not play with others if you want timely progression.
