Guild Wars 2

Would it be possible to scale dungeons down for solo play?

I like to play solo most of the time and would enjoy exploring dungeons in a scaled down version for 1 player. Maybe even with a friend instead of a full group of 5.

Rewards at the end? Yes. But not as much as you would with a full party of 5. Maybe like 5 – 10 tokens with a DR in place and some experience / money as well.

Maybe have paths just for solo or mini-parties.

I guess the goal or point I’m trying to get at is appealing to those who would like to run dungeons, but by themselves or with a friend.

great suggestion!

in addition to solo, we could also get scaling for larger parties (say 10 or so) with scaled up rewards. also, possibly just having difficulty settings (1 easy – 10 super pro mode)may do the trick as well.

Also, this could add to their “We want you to play the way you want to” style along with your scaling suggestion, Swagger.

And yes, I am suggesting this as seeing that the dungeon runs are in the monthly

I just like the idea of hopping into a dungeon that I can solo without troubling anyone for a group.

I don’t think dungeon-play should be made solo. Anet designed dungeons for a specific niche in the game; to challenge groups with harder content than is on landscape.

Maybe one day if some dungeons are hardly ever being run by groups anymore then that might be cause to make them solo-friendly so that content does not go to waste.

I think dungeons should scale to however many players enter (with a cap of 10)
It would be great to have a solo version of the dungeons in this game.

I have a feeling that you are playing the wrong genre. MMOs are all about playing with other people. You may wanna try out some great sRpgs like The Witcher 2

Giving each dungeon a single, solo path that offered less rewards would be nice. Sometimes I want just a few more tokens but have a problem gaining a party even with gwlfg.com.

Tarn.1374:

I don’t think dungeon-play should be made solo. Anet designed dungeons for a specific niche in the game; to challenge groups with harder content than is on landscape.

Maybe one day if some dungeons are hardly ever being run by groups anymore then that might be cause to make them solo-friendly so that content does not go to waste.

I posted this in a previous post but make the “Story mode” soloable with a minimal reward so you can get the story aspect of it (the destiny’s edge storyline seems like an awesome story)and make it sort of like a training mode for noobs so they can feel more comfortable running group content. Because right now you can’t complete your personal story with a group wich is definatly a bummer.

Swagger.1459:

great suggestion!

in addition to solo, we could also get scaling for larger parties (say 10 or so) with scaled up rewards. also, possibly just having difficulty settings (1 easy – 10 super pro mode)may do the trick as well.

THIS would be a blast! Great as a guild events!

YES lets take Dungeons and make them Solo style in Guild Wars 2 a MMORPG, which stands for Mass Multi Online Role Playing Game. Lets throw to the side that this game; Guild Wars 2, main premise is to get people to work together as a team and a group, rather than Alone. I mean I am not 100% sure here but I am thinking if Arena Net and NC Soft didn’t want this game to be focused around those Ideals they would have just gone with how Guild Wars worked.

Since Guild Wars you had heroes and you could solo everything minus the Underworld.

Kaimick.5109:

Since Guild Wars you had heroes and you could solo everything minus the Underworld.

You can add the Underworld to it ;D Because I did it with heroes.

kokiman.2364:

Kaimick.5109:

Since Guild Wars you had heroes and you could solo everything minus the Underworld.

You can add the Underworld to it ;D Because I did it with heroes.

Well originally and up to Nightfall you still needed a group, you could use your hero’s as fill in’s for empty spots, but you could never go in with just you and hero’s. To my knowledge at least, only played till the end of Night fall.

Chainsofstrife.3840:

I posted this in a previous post but make the “Story mode” soloable with a minimal reward so you can get the story aspect of it (the destiny’s edge storyline seems like an awesome story)and make it sort of like a training mode for noobs so they can feel more comfortable running group content. Because right now you can’t complete your personal story with a group wich is definatly a bummer.

After reading the responses on the idea and understanding where I wasn’t thinking when posting the original post, I feel that Chainsofstrife has something in mind that would work best.

Story Mode – Soloable
Explorable modes – Group
——————————————————-

At least I’m not a developer, so no harm done in throwing the idea out there to see how people feel so I can better understand what it is I’m poking at.

Massively Multiplayer.
Guild Wars 2

Why are you expecting solo play in a genre focused on multiplayer?

Toxyn.9608:

Massively Multiplayer.
Guild Wars 2

Why are you expecting solo play in a genre focused on multiplayer?

I just wanted to throw the idea out there for those of us who like to go out and solo things every now and then. I’ve played this game mostly solo, unless there was that Champion in the way or event boss wrecking havoc that I can’t fight alone.

In a world of guilds and groups, I like to solo from time to time and having a special path in a dungeon for that would be something fun to do (and mainly if I don’t have alot of time to play at one time but want to run a dungeon suited for a quick solo play).

kokiman.2364:

I have a feeling that you are playing the wrong genre. MMOs are all about playing with other people. You may wanna try out some great sRpgs like The Witcher 2

Redundant argument. MMO simply means “massively multiplayer online”, i.e. many people playing the same game on the same servers at the same time. It does not mean having to play as a group 24/7.

I would like to see a solo/scale mode for dungeons for the simple reason that there are times where I want to actually explore the dungeon rather than speedrun it like the majority of people always seem to want to do. Also, it means not having to put up with insufferable elitists who demand gear linkage before or during a run, nor does it mean having to put up with morons who elect to boot you out after the final boss.

uknortherner.2670:

Redundant argument. MMO simply means “massively multiplayer online”, i.e. many people playing the same game on the same servers at the same time. It does not mean having to play as a group 24/7.

I wanted to use this statement but didn’t know how to word it, but you have done it for me and I totally agree with it.

As far as your second statement, this is something I also agree with. Having that solo option to explore the dungeon and all that. Also, like you said about not being booted from the dungeon would be a plus that would go along with a solo path.

To be honest, No.
MMO
Also I lack to see all classes would be able to solo

PS: where u got the solo class:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiWWkwM7HIQ

If you want to play solo, there are a ton of single player games out there for you to play, this is an MMO which are based on playing together with other people. The whole world can be explored and played completely on your own, in contrast dungeons are designed to be the part of the team-based gameplay aspect of GW2, making a solo mode for these completely destroys their point and purpose.

i want to play gw2, i like the style i like classes and sometimes when my friend are not on line, i would like to solo a dungeon besides other content.
if you want run dungeon in a group you can still do it…
this MMO sorry excuse is very lame.

edit: solo content doesn’t destroy anything, adds possibilities!

uknortherner.2670:

kokiman.2364:

I have a feeling that you are playing the wrong genre. MMOs are all about playing with other people. You may wanna try out some great sRpgs like The Witcher 2

Redundant argument. MMO simply means “massively multiplayer online”, i.e. many people playing the same game on the same servers at the same time. It does not mean having to play as a group 24/7.

Yeah but if someone doesn’t want to play the multiplayer aspect of the game why not just playing an offline rpg?

kokiman.2364:

Yeah but if someone doesn’t want to play the multiplayer aspect of the game why not just playing an offline rpg?

I like both aspects of the types of gaming (solo / multiplayer), I just like to have the option of solo and the option to group up when I feel like it – all in an MMO. I was wanting to see if adding a solo option to dungeons would be something to add to the game.

I completely agree with this suggestion, especially given I’ve seen it show up in the daily requirements now.

Thanks for suggesting this!

Toxyn.9608:

Massively Multiplayer.
Guild Wars 2

Why are you expecting solo play in a genre focused on multiplayer?

MMO is not indicative of grouping constantly, it is only indicative of lots of people ont he same server as you, in the same world, in which you may interact with should you choose.

Guild Wars? Really? Where are they? How can they possible make it into a game that allows you to change what guild you belong to at the drop of a hat, FASTER actually than that even. Should Guild Wars actually ever make it into the game they will have to stop allowing multi-guilding to make it even remotely matter.

Genre focused on multiplayer? The genre hasn’t been focused on multi-player ever since WoW mainstreamed the genre and their method of PvP catered to solo play.

Lets face it, in the efficiency category you farm materials faster (no waiting on people to loot or for people to catch up if you get to a harvest node first), you level faster solo (again being able to go from location to location the exact moment a heart is filled without waiting ong roup members), map exploration is faster everywhere but Orr (again, not having to deal with others that may be slower or have issues reading the map)…every aspect of the game, you are simply more efficient while solo.

In all honesty the elitist mindsets are what is driving players to solo. Pre-WoW you would see people go out of their way to help others (anyone remember legendary weapons and armor in EQ? To make a full set of armor for one person required no less than 200 players all working on YOUR armor for minimum of a month, anyone expect to see that happen with today’s generation of gamers?).

So yes, I want to see solo-dungeouns, scalable dungeouns, and 10 man double party dungeouns.

I would also prefer if Orr worked like a PvE version of WvW…the server against the AI essentially so that when a temple got taken we could realistically hold it, and make use of seiges and variable defense plans against an AI would help train people for real WvW.

It would be great if you could rather than solo it have your alts join you as AI controlled players. Maybe would require too much AI programming though, the AI is fairly dim atm.

having your alts aiding you when there’s nobody else available would be awesome

Cardstar.1963:

It would be great if you could rather than solo it have your alts join you as AI controlled players. Maybe would require too much AI programming though, the AI is fairly dim atm.

smekras.8203:

having your alts aiding you when there’s nobody else available would be awesome

You guys have an interesting fun little idea there! But I’m sure that could be used for another thread, which I would +1 any day. /agree with it might require too much programming there :P.

For those of us that like this idea, what kind of rewards would go along with this?

Thinking about it, any form of dungeon token would probably make the community stop grouping and just do solo which is not my intention to suggest. Maybe some karma / silver / mystic coin / mystic stone / etc. like you get with dailies (maybe some laurels too) Rewards that are there if you want them, but aren’t a necessity.

I, too, would like to see scaled dungeons from solo to raid sized parties. Some of the comments here include, “why play a MMO if you want to solo” really confuse me.

ANET knows excluding those who play solo would severely impact its sales and appeal. Much of the game has been devised to improve solo play — e.g., not requiring a designated healer.

Many couples prefer to play as a team where they can talk to each other in the same room without trying to fight, type and coordinate with others. They can play on their own schedule.

So, I must ask those who are against allowing solo/ small groups into dungeons, how does allowing solo/ smaller group dungeon play affect those who prefer to play in large group and large guilds? What does one lose by excluding others from dungeon play? Status, prestige or is this just “in group” versus “out group” dynamics? That is, “Cool dungeon running group” versus —- you name us.

Dynamic events allow group cohesion regardless of whether you are a solo player or are there with 10 guild buddies. I have not noticed anyone seemingly refusing to help / raise / heal someone in a dynamic event because they are not in “their” guild. And if dynamic events can be scaled then dungeons can be scaled.

You do know that other games require coordination of 40 people to clear dungeons yes? Why would you think a group of 5 people is big? Just by that fact Anet already made these dungeons as easiest for you to access as they can be.

As for playing solo, yes Anet designed GW2 so you can play solo, the whole world EXCEPT dungeons because they are there for challenging teamwork that you cannot get anywhere else in the world. Making them solo defeats their whole purpose and what makes them special. A solo dungeon would just be a series of events which you can btw do anywhere in the world anyway.

Also, you do realize that the rewards for a solo dungeons would need to be equally 5 time smaller then, and the rewards are small enough as it is now. People will then complain that those hours spent into solo dungeons simply aren’t worth it, and then nobody will play them. Raising the 5 man dungeon rewards is risky because it might screw up economy.

It doesn’t need to be solo, but I would like a scalable version of the dungeons that don’t require 5 people, at least for story mode.

Like RayKoke said, I play this game as a duo with my girlfriend, and most times bringing on three more people just creates undue hastle and pressure (so far, people have been super serious about speed-running dungeons, which is something we’re not interested in.)

We’re not even interested in the rewards, just experiencing what the dungeons have to offer environmentally and aesthetically. Making the story modes scalable to a less-than-5 team would allow that without having to deal with slowing others down and/or dealing with “weak link” drama.

They should make story path solo mode and add as reward 1/3 of explorable paths reward tokens.

Actually though, I’d like better the cooperation in a duo mode.

Agreed, at least the Story Mode (or some optional version of it) should be solo-able.

I know that — traditionally — the main purpose of dungeons is to provide a setting where teamwork is at the forefront and boss mechanics can be made much more interesting. Still, it doesn’t follow that it should also be the method of delivery for an important aspect of the story, or even as the only method of getting the tokens that you trade in for special gear. I mean, the only reason people even run these dungeons beyond the initial story mode is so they can get tokens for gear that their single character will use on their own, afterwards.

Reward players for grouping up and applying synergy, certainly — but don’t cut solo players (or smaller groups) out of a major aspect of the game.

Hi, I am also very interested in a solo mode for dungeons in GW2.I play solo most of the time.I have explored 70% of the GW2 world and I would like to explore the dungeons as well solo without bothering anyone.I would like to play at my pace in the style I feel most comfortable, which is solo.
On my server,there are 4 guilds that have about 5oo individuals.Only 7-10 people are on line at the times that I play .Getting a group of 5 for a dungeon is problematic as these individual have their own goals .
Please do not deny game content to solo players. I want to see whats is in dungeons since I paid full price for the game just like the group players.
Many Thanks!!!
Aragon 8759

Elthurien.8356:

I would rather just have solo dungeons designed for 1-2 players or more mini-dungeons. The mini-dungeons in this game are brilliant, there should be a mini dungeon for each of the main dungeon themes.

^^ quoting from another thread ^^

This would be something I would love to have as part of solo dungeons. Mini-dungeons that are themed from the main dungeon with rewards that fit that mini-dungeon. Obviously not as much as you would get if you ran the main dungeon, but something fun and worthwhile to acquire like I mentioned above (karma, coin, laurel, etc)

Scaling dungeons? I like that.

I’ve always hoped this idea would be implemented. I’d really enjoy playing a Dungeon solo or with 1 or 2 friends. I’d play them far more often! Simply scale the mobs and loot to suit the number of players involved, just like Events. At the moment I’ve only completed 2 Dungeons, because I rarely find anyone else willing to play Story mode. I’d be quite happy to play them solo!

Elthurien.8356:

I think dungeons should scale to however many players enter (with a cap of 10)
It would be great to have a solo version of the dungeons in this game.

That would be awesome, have it scale from 1-10 players.

I would say make the Story mode range range from 1-10 players, and make explore mode range from 5-10 players. Story mode is actually telling a story that is a part of the main story happening in the game, so I feel it would be important to let everyone have access to that content whether they can find a group or not for it. Explore mode seems to not have much to do with the story line, take AC for instance, it is basically dealing with the consequences of the Story Mode, but it is not directly a part of the main story of the game like the Story mode is.

Removes the MMO out of the game. I play this game to play with others. If I wanted to do a dungeon solo, I’d play Zelda.

Dredg.4890:

Removes the MMO out of the game. I play this game to play with others. If I wanted to do a dungeon solo, I’d play Zelda.

1- MMO just means a massive number of people online playing in a persistent world, nothing to do with grouping.
2- ok, having dungeon scale from 1-10 people, means you have to do the dungeon solo instead of playing with other people?

Elthurien.8356:

I think dungeons should scale to however many players enter (with a cap of 10)

You’ll run into game-mechanic problems with groups of ten. Many AoE effects are capped at 5 targets, so players could actually “steal” boons or heals merely by standing in the wrong place. As a result, the metagame would tend to favour battlefield-modifying effects (such as Wards, Smoke Fields, and Projectile Reflection). Meanwhile, the increased enemy firepower will tend to kill animal companions very quickly, and the larger groups will rapidly hit the condition-stacking limit on enemies (making Rangers and Necromancers even more shunned by powergamer/elitist players!). Finally, it’s sometimes difficult to “read” enemy attack cues when they’re covered by 5 players’ worth of visual effects; this would become a serious hindrance with 10 players.

I’ll admit that there are suggestions on this forum to address each of those issues. Until they’ve been handled, though, I don’t think that 10-player dungeons would be a good idea.

P.S. You might also need some mechanism to “lock in” the group size (and difficulty) or implement a “participation level” for dungeons akin to that for Dynamic Events. Otherwise a skilled player could spend a half-hour running a solo dungeon (or maybe a lot less time if they’re good at glitching and skipping), reach the final boss, and invite nine friends/guildmates. Presumably all of the skipped mobs will suddenly become tougher as additional players enter, but who cares? The newcomers jump to the waypoint, fight the boss for a few minutes (admittedly, this will require some skill since the boss will be scaled up), and then everybody collects 60 tokens.

eisberg.2379:

Dredg.4890:

Removes the MMO out of the game. I play this game to play with others. If I wanted to do a dungeon solo, I’d play Zelda.

1- MMO just means a massive number of people online playing in a persistent world, nothing to do with grouping.
2- ok, having dungeon scale from 1-10 people, means you have to do the dungeon solo instead of playing with other people?

1. Massively Multiplayer Online game. Last I checked, multiplayer games were meant to be played with others or against others.

2. If such a scaling mechanic were implemented, what would be the point? Would you get the same loot for doing 1 as you would 10? less of it? more of it? We now run into the problem of finding groups, something we as a community have already developed a workaround for due to the lack of an in-game solution beyond the boundaries of chat channels.

Furthermore, dungeons are tuned specifically for multiplayer fights. The downed mechanic would be worthless, or we’d have to completely scrap it/rework entire bossfights. Can’t do AC path 1 solo, unless Hodgins was removed completely. Bye bye story.

The veiled hope is that the OP wants to farm dungeon quality loot without the hassle of actually doing the dungeon properly.

Not to mention how bad botting would clog up the instance servers.

Kaimick.5109:

YES lets take Dungeons and make them Solo style in Guild Wars 2 a MMORPG, which stands for Mass Multi Online Role Playing Game. Lets throw to the side that this game; Guild Wars 2, main premise is to get people to work together as a team and a group, rather than Alone. I mean I am not 100% sure here but I am thinking if Arena Net and NC Soft didn’t want this game to be focused around those Ideals they would have just gone with how Guild Wars worked.

Since Guild Wars you had heroes and you could solo everything minus the Underworld.

I’m so tired of responses like this. MMO can ‘stand for’ so many benefits of a shared world without requiring you to coordinate at any time with anyone. The markets, helping each other in the open world in events, a reason for crafting besides a legendary, and so on. The mmo that understands that most people don’t want to coordinate their time and strategy around even one other person will be the mmo that runs away with the next 15 million strong player base.

The 10% of people who enjoy hanging with other people online will continue to argue against this rationale, because they like playing with their friends. So what? So stand in a city with your friends, and up the difficulty level and play with them if you want. I still maintain that solo content is the way to go, even in the mmo, as a definition of a run away success.

Skyrim is a wonderful game and all content is solo. And yet, as an older solo player who can’t stand coordinating with a bunch of 20 somethings who should be completely happy with it, I still feel empty when playing it. An mmo is about people just being there, being around, but not a requirement for me to achieve anything. And there is nothing wrong with that. Wise up anet. Don’t resist the obvious. You didn’t put in any kind of decent grouping functionality and you want people to play like they want. I’m seeing the living world stuff leaning towards grouping. Big mistake.

I never thought I would go back and play gw1 after gw2 came out…

We have solo dungeons.

Mini-dungeons and jumping puzzles.

aren’t there builds and professions that can already solo some of these? like the lvl 34 engineer that did AC or the (laugh) SCEPTER guardian that did Arah? With enough time and effort you can do these by yourself already.

why are most of you putting down this suggestion because this game is an mmo? have you guys completely forgotten how Gw1 allowed you to solo missions with henchmen, so why shouldnt we be able to do the same in gw2? i actually begun to play gw1 because of the fact i dont have to group up for missions, yet get the same type of mmo experience i was after.

recently i have read and heard a lot of players wanting/suggesting to be able to do things by themselves and solo the content they paid for, then get put down by you guys saying they should stop playing and find a new game, just because of the fact they dont want to play with other players.

dungeons are hard to organise an irritating to find a group without having to use 3rd party apps. One of the most annoying things so far has been the f&f dungeon, i was able to solo all the things before hand then bamn, i have to find a group to complete this so far soloable content.

Oh, and in the case for most dungeons, they become contested before i can even organise a full group.

i completely agree with worldbro on this, just because i dont want to play with others players, shouldnt force me to play others games that have a completely different feel and aesthetics. I enjoy giving and receiving help from other players for crafting and itmes, or accessing a marketplace, having a guild and etc, things that arnt available in games that arnt mmo’s

lowering my rewards would be great in return for soloable content. Im all for this.

BigMoser.8790:

Also, this could add to their “We want you to play the way you want to” style along with your scaling suggestion, Swagger.

And yes, I am suggesting this as seeing that the dungeon runs are in the monthly

I just like the idea of hopping into a dungeon that I can solo without troubling anyone for a group.

Best idea ever actually. This would be awesome, we wouldn’t need to be troubled by the zerker only groups that pick only three classes all the time for their party builds too.

dungeons should never be soloble. doesnt make any sence.
If you refer towards gw1 the henchies you will know that gw1 isnt an mmo. it was instance based. with tops 5 friends else you had the henchies. and later some heroes.
And if you dont like to make friends or talk to anyone fine.. please play a sp game skyrim.

Redbear.5910:

dungeons should never be soloble. doesnt make any sence.
If you refer towards gw1 the henchies you will know that gw1 isnt an mmo. it was instance based. with tops 5 friends else you had the henchies. and later some heroes.
And if you dont like to make friends or talk to anyone fine.. please play a sp game skyrim.

Stop with the Skyrim recommendations. It’s getting tedious. Solo players wanting to play solo has absolutely no impact on your style of play at all. There’s nothing stopping you from spamming LA map chat for hours to pull together a five-man squad. Elitist morons demanding specific builds for dungeon speedruns affect everybody – solo players and multiplayers alike. I’m not interested in speedrunning dungeons, nor putting up with elitists who demand a gear check before each run. I want to enjoy the dungeons at my own pace, and if it means doing them solo, then so be it.

Also, to further shoot down your argument about GW1 not being an MMO because it was instance-based – guess what? The dungeons in GW2 are instanced as well! Is GW2 not an MMO then?