single player?

[Markus]

This may be a bit of a noob question, but will Champions cater to solo players? I know, I know MMO's are for teaming....except they are not.

Will I be able to solo from lv 1 to whatever the last lv is? (BTW how many lvs are there?)

[Unwilling]

This may be a bit of a noob question, but will Champions cater to solo players? I know, I know MMO's are for teaming....except they are not.

Will I be able to solo from lv 1 to whatever the last lv is? (BTW how many lvs are there?)

As far as I can tell, this game will cater to both the lone wolves and the teamers. And the max level at the moment is 40.

[Garethas]

Yes you can solo to max level! 1 to 40

[Kolman]

Massively.com says the powers work well for both soloing and working in a group. So you should have no trouble [unless you choose all "rank 1" powers. Then you might be a little on the weak side. :p] I dunno how the power strengths go though. :eek:

[Snoop221]

You can Solo but you will need a team for some things

[Marvel]

They confirmed that the game will contain solo and team gameplay for the players. But, I don't want understand why players would want to solo the entire game by themselves? It's an MMO which is a Massively Multiplayer Online game. What's the joy of playing by yourself and isolating yourself from the game's community? Players who are primarily soloing are really wasting their time, and need to look at single player RPGs instead.

[Exticle]

My question is, the game says you need an internet connection to play. Does that mean you need a gold xbl membership?

[Emanon]

My question is, the game says you need an internet connection to play. Does that mean you need a gold xbl membership?


No, you just need a silver gamertag to play MMOs on the 360.

[Emanon]

They confirmed that the game will contain solo and team gameplay for the players. But, I don't want understand why players would want to solo the entire game by themselves? It's an MMO which is a Massively Multiplayer Online game. What's the joy of playing by yourself and isolating yourself from the game's community? Players who are primarily soloing are really wasting their time, and need to look at single player RPGs instead.

I wouldn't call soloing a waste of time or isolating from the overall comunity. Some soloers just like having a chat channel and people to talk or listien to with while they're playing. Others just enjoy the randomness of seeing other players running around do stuff while they're doing their thing. Personally while I'm off in the field farming mobs or crafting, guild chatter really makes a difference between me having good time or not.

[SaintKairos]

sometimes soloing content is inevitable if you can't find a good group, or you don't want to bother with a pug and just want to work on some private goals now that can contribute to gameplay with your friends later.

understand though, that this game is different from CoX in that it has a lot of content that is actively pursued by the player in the open gaming persistent world, not in instances. This means that being around others is often a given, and using good MMO manners is a must.

There will be instances and more private content, but it is not like CoX, where nearly all the missions are private and can be scaled in difficulty to your team or desired challenge level.
much of what you're trying to do is around other people.
feel free to solo, just be mindful of others.
(and without revealing too much I'll just say that the game is fun to solo, but boss battles definitely benefit from some teamwork, but this is true for most games so I"m not really saying much;)).
-

[Hisaki]

They confirmed that the game will contain solo and team gameplay for the players. But, I don't want understand why players would want to solo the entire game by themselves? It's an MMO which is a Massively Multiplayer Online game. What's the joy of playing by yourself and isolating yourself from the game's community? Players who are primarily soloing are really wasting their time, and need to look at single player RPGs instead.

I wouldn't call it a waste of time. I've been playing MMOs for about five years now, and I'd wager 90% of that time has been solo. Some people enjoy the MMO experience because of the teaming, others enjoy it for the social interaction, and still more enjoy it for the gameplay, and of course there are mixes of those. I don't like teaming all that much, but I do appreciate the ability to talk to others, and the gameplay can make or break the experience for me.

Granted, I also like single-player RPGs as well, but MMOs have their own unique feel, too. For me, and probably several others, soloing is a fun way to pass the time while playing a game we truly like. The others around us make the world feel more alive, and give us people to chat with. More importantly (for me, at least), there's the feeling that, someday, we'll hit the level cap or pull off something impressive using only our own force, and we'll be recognized among others. And in a game like Champions, where heroes are a dime a dozen, being recognized as a true, literal superhero for your accomplishments by your peers is definitely a worthwhile experience.

However, that's just my opinion. Yours is noted, and respected, but we all have different ways we like to game, even if they seem weird to others :)

[noviere]

Players who are primarily soloing are really wasting their time, and need to look at single player RPGs instead.
It's a videogame -- anyone playing it is "wasting" their time. Do solo players get less out of the game than team-players? Perhaps. But if they are having fun, who cares?

Also, I'd love it if you could point me to a single-player super hero RPG that has hundreds of hours of gameplay, regular content updates, and nearly limitless customization. I'd be buying it in a heart beat, along with Champions Online. ;)

[theNater]

Also, I'd love it if you could point me to a single-player super hero RPG that has hundreds of hours of gameplay, regular content updates, and nearly limitless customization. I'd be buying it in a heart beat, along with Champions Online. ;)
I second this motion!

There are lots of reasons to want to play Champions Online; community is only one.

[Marvel]

It's a videogame -- anyone playing it is "wasting" their time. Do solo players get less out of the game than team-players? Perhaps. But if they are having fun, who cares?

Also, I'd love it if you could point me to a single-player super hero RPG that has hundreds of hours of gameplay, regular content updates, and nearly limitless customization. I'd be buying it in a heart beat, along with Champions Online. ;)

I see what your saying and I respect players that solo from time to time when necessary. But, soloing the entire game itself sounds a bit overwhelming and slightly ridiculous. Won't by playing by yourself from level 1 to the max level of the game decrease the rate of playtime and experience gained compared to a player who spends more with teaming with teams or their Super Group/Guild? XP that is gained from grouping (which increases the number of enemies) is more than a player who solos entirelly, don't they get a benefit from that?
I apologize if I'm offending the way some people play, I just don't understand really... :o

[Solarfox]

XP that is gained from grouping (which increases the number of enemies) is more than a player who solos entirelly, don't they get a benefit from that?

Sure and if how fast you level up is the only thing that maters then you're going to be more likely to group as much as possible.

A lot of people don't want to hit max level ASAP, but want to be able to take the time to check out the game at their own pace.

I'll be playing CO with at least one friend whom I'll play with when ever he's around. But I'll also have a character to play solo so I can take as much time as I want to explore, read, ect... Without having to worry waiting other peoples time. I like playing solo from time to time, because then I can go where ever I want and do what ever I feel like without having it effect someone else.

But even if I'm going it solo, that doesn't mean I don't interact with others. I can chat over a global chan, help chan, SG chan, ect...

Very few people will solo from 1st to max level 100% of the way. But even if they do so what? It's not like them doing so interferes with someone else. Don't bother with the "If everyone solo's then I can't find a group" either. If someone prefers to solo then odds are they wouldn't bother with a game like CO period if they couldn't go it alone.

[darkangel32]

well, i dont think it is solely an issue where they always want to solo, for some it is, for most people they just dont want to have to be forced to group. the missions they put in with coh where you had to have 2 to 3 people to do them, sometimes it would take me forever to get a group to do them, it was frustrating, hence i did not like those missions and would either drop them or just not do that contact any further.

sometimes i just like to run around and do stuff on my own with a general chat or a guild chat to talk to people. social interaction in mmos doesnt have to be teaming. sometimes i like to team up with people in my guild and do stuff, really depends on my mood and how much time i have to play.

It is frustrating to me when people bring that old tired line of its an mmo to prove their point about forced grouping, some people dont like to be in a group all the time. some people are just tools and i dont want to play with them. some people are not very good at playing a game, i know in coh plenty of people were idiots at playing their characters, which if they were nice i would help them, if they were jerks i would leave group or kick them if i was leader and champions sounds like it is gonna be more player skill based than coh was so im sure we will run into people that have no clue as to how to play their character here also.

also keep this in mind, there have been plenty of solo heroes in comicbooks, spiderman, thor, captain america, iron man, hulk, all before avengers, wolverine was before xmen and many others. a hero dont always have to have a group so why should a champions hero be forced into that role.

[gonemad321]

Personally I got for whatever fits my character and mood. I think with my main character I will solo most of the game, though sometimes that might get boring and lonely. I think is really cool that Cryptic is letting us choose between soloing or grouping withouth really affecting your capability of leveling. Personally I will play my character and enjoy it as much as possible. I won't be really in a rush to hit the max level, and I totally forgot what else I was giong to say because I have been up for waaay too long...:D anyways can't wait until CO comes out
p.s. need some sleep...need some sleep...need some sleep...

[theNater]

I see what your saying and I respect players that solo from time to time when necessary. But, soloing the entire game itself sounds a bit overwhelming and slightly ridiculous. Won't by playing by yourself from level 1 to the max level of the game decrease the rate of playtime and experience gained compared to a player who spends more with teaming with teams or their Super Group/Guild? XP that is gained from grouping (which increases the number of enemies) is more than a player who solos entirelly, don't they get a benefit from that?
I apologize if I'm offending the way some people play, I just don't understand really... :o
For some of us, XP gain and fun are different things.;)

[Marvel]

For some of us, XP gain and fun are different things.;)

I'm sure many people consider both!

[Solarfox]

Bottom line is either a game can be soloed or it can't. There's no real in between here, other then having some content that can't be soloed i.e. raids or taskforces... But either the game can be soloed to max or it can't.

Most people don't want to exclusively solo from 1st to max, but I'd also say that most people do want the option to group or not depending on what they are feeling like at the time. Between CoH and WoW I believe the standard in MMO's now is to at least allow for solo play but have group only content. I've not played WAR or AoC so I'm not sure how those games did it.

Again it's not the fact that most people want to be anti-social, it's that they want the option to group or not. They want to be able to go solo if the mood strikes them, or they have limited time and don't want to waste half or more of their play time finding a group.

[Nightmare]

And some of us like to team with buddies but work odd hours and tend to play when noone else is on and so wind up "having" to solo or else never play...

[Downfall]

And some of us like to team with buddies but work odd hours and tend to play when noone else is on and so wind up "having" to solo or else never play...

Yep.

I remember many times when everyone logged off at 3 a.m. and I was all alone. It was really bad considering how low Pinnacle's population is.

[darkangel32]

what was your character on pinnacle, i was muscleboy and pharohs wrath mainly had a few others though. and yeah late at night finding a group was a pain, heck after a couple of years finding a group anytime was a pain somedays.

[suicidejocky]

I will be one of those wanting to solo the game, because I will want to do things my way (right or wrong) and don't want to have to worry about the other players or slow them down. I have my own style, agenda and preferences in how I play and know that it won't be shared by other players.

Soloing will allow me to play the way I want to play and not have to worry about being a pain to others.

Besides, when you intend to be the best as what you do, you don't need others - you use them.

[General_Maximus]

I can see how players should have to team up for the big threats, but for the little stuff you really should be able to just solo it in my opinion.

[Apothic_IO]

I'm really happy you can solo the game to max level. I don't have a problem with grouping, I mean you will level faster for the most part in groups. if hitting the max level cap in a week after the games comes out you'll want to group like crazy then. Plus if you solo it's not like you are all alone. Like what others have brought up you will see other people zipping around you as you grind. On top of that you will also have global chat which can be OK from time to time. If nothing else, you can join a supergroup and chat with them and group for hard battles and raids.

[Grit]

They confirmed that the game will contain solo and team gameplay for the players. But, I don't want understand why players would want to solo the entire game by themselves? It's an MMO which is a Massively Multiplayer Online game. What's the joy of playing by yourself and isolating yourself from the game's community? Players who are primarily soloing are really wasting their time, and need to look at single player RPGs instead.

Not teaming does not by any means mean you are isolated, i have no idea where people come up with this stuff.

[SaintKairos]

Not teaming does not by any means mean you are isolated, i have no idea where people come up with this stuff.
especially because the game has open missions where heroes can co-op without teaming, and just naturally assist one another in a task without any worries over exp theft. any colaboration, whether communicated or not aids eachother in such a mission.

also, as I said before, much of the game is in a persistent world. Instances are not as heavily relied upon for content and progression as door mishes were in CoX. they're there, but they are the cornerstone of content.
result? people solo around one another and can even do impromptu co-oping ALL THE TIME.
this means that spawn camping CAN be an issue, but no one knows yet whether it will be a serious problem.
Open Beta will show us what large numbers of people will do.
for now it's just good to know that there are things to do in the open, and Co-oping is rewarded, not punished.
-

[AlienOverlord]

well, i dont think it is solely an issue where they always want to solo, for some it is, for most people they just dont want to have to be forced to group. the missions they put in with coh where you had to have 2 to 3 people to do them, sometimes it would take me forever to get a group to do them, it was frustrating (HECK YES!), hence i did not like those missions and would either drop them or just not do that contact any further.

sometimes i just like to run around and do stuff on my own with a general chat or a guild chat to talk to people. social interaction in mmos doesnt have to be teaming. sometimes i like to team up with people in my guild and do stuff, really depends on my mood and how much time i have to play.

It is frustrating to me when people bring that old tired line of its an mmo to prove their point about forced grouping, some people dont like to be in a group all the time. some people are just tools and i dont want to play with them. some people are not very good at playing a game, i know in coh plenty of people were idiots at playing their characters, which if they were nice i would help them, if they were jerks i would leave group or kick them if i was leader and champions sounds like it is gonna be more player skill based than coh was so im sure we will run into people that have no clue as to how to play their character here also.

also keep this in mind, there have been plenty of solo heroes in comicbooks, spiderman, thor, captain america, iron man, hulk, all before avengers, wolverine was before xmen and many others. a hero dont always have to have a group so why should a champions hero be forced into that role.
Very much agree with ALL of your points. I'm glad that others have explained that overused argument of 'It's a multiplayer game' is no reason to not have solo content available at EVERY level.

First let me say I don't mind working with others. I really enjjoyed things like CoH's monster spawns or Warhammer Public Quests (which I understand will be in CO). But my friends are in other parts of the country so I can seldom group with them online, I have to rely on grouping with strangers.

And my very WORST experiences in any online game were in CoH mission groups that required me to team with strangers. I've seen the "I'll just be gone for a minute" player who then leaves the entire group sitting around for 15 minutes. Or the 'I'll be right there' player when you're trying to form a group who then decides they need to run off and do something else :mad: And getting a group together was sometimes so difficult, you felt the need to stick with even a bad group just to try to finish the mission.

I think part of the problem was that some CoH mission took so long rhat when you had a bad group it just made them last that much longer. I think there are some easy solutions could solve some of these issues.


Forced group content should only done take small 15-20 minute chunks. If you have a bad group, it's over quick. If you're lucky and find a good group you can keep doing more 20 min chunks.

An effective and FAST method of gathering a group is essential. Teleporting to gather players at the mission to group should be available to everyone, not just certain characters with a particular power.

A very robust Grouping system. Easy UI with filters that help people with similar goals/objectives to locate each other.

These goals/objectives should include AMOUNT of time they have to play during this session (short, med, long, infinite - I don't know why grouping system always ignore this).

Something that allow grouping based on -specific- objective or missions but maintains the ability to choose players rather than automatically assigning groups. Server-wide searches, not just in your zone (To match ability to bring people from other zones) CoH's system was okay but pretty basic, it could use more options.


The one thing of CO that has truly disturbed me was hearing that the last part of story arcs would require groups. CoH had some truly excellent storylines and I don't want those spoiled in CO by being forced to group with tools. I will gladly give grouping with strangers a chance but don't make it harder than it already has to be.

[Nightmare]

Also useful is when I want to play my new alt and my buddy wants to keep workking on his main. If there was no solo content then one of us would have to swap toons. With solo content we can play and still chat.....

Hmmm brings up a question....can you group with people and be in diff. lvl zones?

[Unwilling]

I enjoyed both aspects of CoX, but there has to be an ability to solo--or an offline single-player mode. If you can't gather a group in a game that forces that, then what's the point of the game anyway?

I wouldn't worry too much. I plan to mostly solo, or team up with roleplayers.

[geriand]

They confirmed that the game will contain solo and team gameplay for the players. But, I don't want understand why players would want to solo the entire game by themselves? It's an MMO which is a Massively Multiplayer Online game. What's the joy of playing by yourself and isolating yourself from the game's community? Players who are primarily soloing are really wasting their time, and need to look at single player RPGs instead.

If you can find me a single player Superhero RPG with this much character customisation then I will tip my hat off to you sir.

[djshef]

If you can find me a single player Superhero RPG with this much character customisation then I will tip my hat off to you sir.

Freedom Force 1 and 2 aren't too bad of games.

[General_Maximus]

Freedom Force 1 and 2 aren't too bad of games.

Not quite as customisable though.

[Warbler]

Well, my problem is, the only way you can get the super leet loot in other games is to group. Maybe a sliding difficulty scale that will allow you to play the same content at a more difficult level and thus get more exp for a mission and/or better loot would be best. Obviously, some content should only be accessed by groups, but they should be clearly not part of the regular grind. Also, start a mission from the beginning as something only a group can accomplish. What I hate is getting to the end of a chain only to find the last part requires I find two other people to help me beat the final bad guy. The trash mobs leading up to the final guy might be cake, but he's waaaaay above my power level for reasons that make no sense. And when you consider that we're all trying to create our own little comic book story, it kinda sucks if the hero of the story (read: your character) has to get help to beat his archenemy.

So yeah, here's how I see it.

1) Clear delineation between group and solo content
2) No solo chains that end in an "elite" scenario that requires additional party members -- at least make it possible for the solo hero to pull out the victory without being five levels higher than the boss.
3) Sliding scale for solo players who want to experience the game content and have access to gear normally available only to the group minded players by playing scenarios at a more difficult level. In other words, make it fair for the guys who don't always want to group for every little thing.

[k1klass]

I enjoy to solo to later levels while I'm taking time to enjoy and learn how to play the game, I've just spent a couple of months it lotro and what i found hard there is that they are a lot of story line group quests from early levels, but due to majority of players being higher levels sometimes it was hard to group up to do these quests or not possible to find a group which is why by the time id got to 26 id had enough and canceled my sub.