Jump To Lightspeed Archive
Thread: Group Mission aspect unfair to us
EnZoFiRe
Tue Dec 07, 2004 2:30 pm
#27
I chime in on these "forced grouping" threads every time I see one. I know it will do absolutely no good. There is a small (I believe) but vocal segment of the SWG population that wants forced grouping and involuntary PvP. These people will eventually control the game because they are vocal. The last time I looked outside, I lived in America, I can "wear shoes, or go barefoot", I have the option in most situations. If I want to go to a fancy restuarant, I must wears shoes. If I don't want to wear shoes, I don't go to the restuarant. You ask, what this has to do with SWG? Everything. I have had fun grouped and I have had fun solo. I have the choice and I excerise my right to choose. I don't choose to PvP, so I don't go to deep space and I would never demand that PvP be ended there to accomodate my style of play. Play this game your way, but allow me to do the same. The devs will never be able to make everyone happy, and for that I pity them, but thus far they have done a good job on building a "GAME" that everyone can enjoy. Now just give the solo guys some realistic, attainable,content and we will be happy.
SharkBoy007
Tue Dec 07, 2004 2:50 pm
#28
I, too, thought that once. But then, a group of us (we're Imperial pilots) had to group up to get some of the higher tier missions done, and I am completely reformed, I see the light, hallelujeah! There was just something incredibly cool about a flight wing of TIEs coming in and getting the mission done. We talked about it for hours afterwards 
While it sucks that it's sometimes hard to get a group together, you really should try it. Here's some suggestions for getting a group together:
1) Post a message on your galaxy's message boards, asking for people to group with. On Radiant, there's actually a group of mercenaries you can hire to help you.
2) Join a guild. Conversely, if you are in a guild and it's not working for you,find another one to join.
3) If you're in a guild, and yourguild is too small or never has enough players on, do what I've been doing. As my guild suffers from both issues,I've simply worked on forging alliances with other Imperial guilds.Now we have access to pilots who are willing to help us. You can always find help, and the big plus? You meet some cool people you might not have met before, and you get to make new friends. However, be just as willing to throw down help from your guild for them
4) Be willing to group and help other pilots, even if it doesn't immediately benefit you. It will eventually get around that you are a go to kind of person, and you never know when you'll meet people who will be thankful enough to be willing to help you whenever.
5) Group, even if it's just for the flavor of creating moments like the movies (Luke did NOT solo the Death Star, and neither did Lando or Wedge).
Hope this helps. If you're on Radiant, and an Imperial player, send me a /tell or an e-mail, and I'll be glad to help out. If you're not, well then, I guess you're on your own
Mox Shehalis
NACHODEWI
Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:29 am
#29
Well let me add my opinoin to this...A couple of days ago I was helping someone complete his mission and after surviving for over an hour we got taken out. The entire mission was failed because we got killed after completing most but not the last of the objectives. Now the entire mission has to be done again. Now this was with two of us. Now imagine if that guy tries to do this mission solo? This is a horible design decision by the devs. Forcing people to group just to master their profession is a bad decision because its hard as hell to get people to group up to begin with. Now you ar asking people to spend hours helping you on your mission. i had a hard enough time getting people to help me during my time of playing the ground game. I wasted days and weeks asking people to group.
Imagine a bunch of new players getting JTL for Christmas. How long will it be before they quit in fraustration once they start getting killed doing the same missions over and over? How did JTL manage to make it out in this state that fraustrates a lot of the players? Someone with common sense was needed in this decision making process.The devs killed the GCW and i was wondering what they would do to totally screw JTL. It looks like we have the answer.
Sure there are always power gamers and their uber groups already place who always get the high end loot and content but mastering ones profession should not be uber impossible! Save the uber hard content for some future high end loot mission. Its silly to make this expansion geared towards the power gamers who have their power gaming friends to help them. The devs need to stop the bs and fix this before people walk away instead of waiting then be forced to bribe them back with free passes to play the game.
PetaByte32
Wed Dec 08, 2004 6:12 am
#30
Cuality wrote:
Sylia wrote:
Cuality wrote:
i soloed storm squadron. if you cannot solo the pilot missions then perhaps you either need to bone up on your piloting skills (i.e. twitch) or get some friends. Friends are easier to buy than skills.
That's got to be the biggest steaming pile of B.S. I've seen in a long time.
Just asnwer this, how many of your alt's where flying along with you when you "soloed" them all?
There are 2 Storm Squad missions that simply can't be solo'd, I know because I spent 3 weeks trying.
just because you can't cut it... i had some trouble with a few missions, but soloed all the way up to master. The corvette took a little doing, and i guess i am not too proud to admit that i found someone who was pounding on it when i arrived in system so just grouped with him and finished it off. Now at master, i have learned the methods of soloing corvettes.
which storm squadron missions did you have problems with?
No way dude. I am in SS too and no way in heck you can solo some of those missions. SS is the hardest of all squadrons in all factions hands down. I have done alot of the other missions in the other factions and they were easy by comparison. And you freely admitted you grouped to get the corvette hence you did NOT solo all of SS.
How about T4M3 I believe is the one. You escort one transport. Then dock with another and escort it. Finally you go help a squadron of NPC fighters and a gunboat. The first escort is being attacked by A-Wings every 3 spawn. And they purposely pull you far away from the transport. Stay away too long (1.5K+) and you lose the mission. The second escort is actually easy as I was at one point 3k away from the transport and nothing happened. Then there is the final part where you got I believe 12 fighters all Tier 4 and 5. And two gunboats that will chew through a 2500HP shield in 2 shots even at 550 meters.
So please dont say you soloed it. I had 13 Imps with me on that one mission and 4 of them were Aces in Oppressors that were loaded out and we still lost. I had to beat it by letting my guild do it while I stayed 2k meters away and took out a few stragglers.
Tyranus
OddjobXL
Wed Dec 08, 2004 6:33 am
#31
I've just made Master Pilot running CorSec missions. I'd say it's probably not fair to say most (Tier 3 and up) are soloable unless you can afford new ships as soon as possible and, then, figure out how to optimize all your configurations out the wazoo (keymapping, weapon grouping, hotkey ability and program use, target selection, etc.). Even then not all players are going to have the kind of eye-hand coordination that other players do.
That said, I agree that it's alot more fun to fly in groups and I disagree, extremely, that's its all that hard to find groups. If you're just here to fly solo missions and not interact with anybody else odds are you'll have a better experience in X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter or another single-player flight sim. But if you've gotten into the 'intent' of the MMO design you should already have at least two or three people you count on for various things and each of them knows two or three people. All of these folks need help with missions just like you do. If you're not completely insulated inside a monolithic PA that's all flying the same missions for the same factions/squadrons odds are many of these folks are flying completely different gatekeeper missions than you have. Helping each other out isn't just necessary in these cases - it's also getting you more game for your money. Helping folks out with their gatekeeper missions is a heckuvalot more entertaining than flying duty mission after duty mission or hunting random pirates for experience grinding.
How to meet people without feeling forced to join a PA or walking around and hollaring like a homeless guy in a starport is just as simple as slowing down and looking for interesting folks to hang with. It's alot easier if you're a roleplayer. Roleplayers tend to be older, or at least more mature, and are more interesting to be around - if you can stand folks actually getting into the whole Star Wars thing. I find it much more palatable than the 'thee' and 'thou' set of other MMORPGs myself. We're talking about criminal scum, bold rebel guerillas and swaggering Imperial overlords. Why is it easier? Well, you can 'search' for roleplayers using the <cntl>-P function and also by profession. Roleplayers are more likely to respond to intelligent pages out of curiousity if nothing else. We're a minority and, well, something or someone new is almost always potential entertainment.
Okay, so you're not a roleplayer and frankly that whole 'Star Wars' thing is goofy - besides, I don't like playing with other people. Aside from wondering why you're here I do have some suggestions: Join a PA. Just do it. Get over this 'I don't like to play with other people' thing and just reconcile it within yourself that you're going to have to if you want to advance as a pilot. Roleplayers bond just around being roleplayers. Nonroleplayers tend to be more function oriented in approach. What do I get out of this? If you're not in a PA there's no good expectation that you'll be able to find anyone to help you because they don't know if you'll really be around to help them down the road. If you're in a PA that does create the expectation.
TheBlackPope
Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:07 am
#32
Juusman wrote:
This is a MMO.. in case you've forgotten. Grouping is the best thing about JTL, and has brought the best experiences to SWG so far. All you people who think "grouping" is to get harder missionsneed to change your mindset.
/applaud
If you dislike grouping so much, perhaps you should put JTL in the cupboard and pick up an old copy of X-Wing.
Ramona_Garcia
Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:11 am
#33
In most cases you only need one wingman, and a mission goes from "hard/impossible" to "doable without much trouble". Now, getting one wingman is not that hard at all unless you purposedly ignore all other players. Not only is it far more fun to grind exp while helping others out - and you get to see many more different missions that way - but you are also faster when flying with someone, since the same ship gives equal exp to you even if you killed it all solo, or if you only damaged it a bit (like 5% or so I think) and a friend or 2 killed it. So, there are built-in incentives to group in space.
You do not need all that fancy reverse engineered loot and best possible ship either - I fly a dunelizard at master, and with mainly crafted or reward stuff in it. I did not use flight computer programs during the trip to master either, and we all know how much of a difference those make (Capacitator overload... can we say "fire constantly into the next week"?). I did not play a twitch game before JtL since, oh, Wing Commander 4 or so, and JtL was my very first time with a joystick as well.
If I can master pilot, then so can everyone.
Amuro0079
Wed Dec 08, 2004 7:54 pm
#34
If you play on a low population server and at odd hours, chances are, you won't be able to find groups even if you're part of a PA.
Kalaf
Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:22 am
#35
Because space fighters are not designed to fight alone. BTW you can solo at least 1/2 the total missions in any of the tracks.
SplinterCellDude
Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:37 am
#36
My suggestion would be to find a guild with a lot of good pilots ad have them help you.
NACHODEWI
Thu Dec 09, 2004 5:30 am
#37
What percentage of players are in guilds? Finding people to group with is just as hard now as it was since the inception of this game so requiring groups in this kind of environment is only going to lead to fraustration. Anyone who is not in a guild with active pilots will tell you that players are not anymore likely to join you on missions with JTL so you are stuck with not being able to master your own profession and not being able to find help on most days. Since JTL shipped I've only been able to get help twice.I know I am not the only one with the problem and I am sure the majority of fraustrated players don't post on the forums. The devs can bury their head in the sand or deal with this before people start leaving in fraustration.
Zhentarim
Thu Dec 09, 2004 9:08 am
#38
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum...
I think the missions are bloody hard for once and shouldrequire help.The problem about this game is that everyone wants to master any given profession within a week or less becuase that's how it has been since the introduction of super doc buffs. In space you can't buff, in space you need twitch skill and in space you need wingmen to cover your back. If you for some reason aren't able to get or find either of the two latter, you can go make some money on the ground while searching for people to help you. See someone with a pilot tag over their head? Send them a tell or mail that you seek aid. If mastering pilot really is that important to you, you should be prepared to sacrifice time to get it instead of just "groundgaming" the master box.
If you are annoyed by the way JTL is played you are probably going to hate the Combat Upgrade as well...
As a side note:
Ifyou play on anamerican server and have trouble findingaPA with memberswho are online at odd hours try joiningone with either alot of European, Asian or Australian members - chances are they'll be online when you are.
Message Edited by Zhentarim on 12-09-2004 08:11 AM
EnZoFiRe
Thu Dec 09, 2004 9:42 am
#39
I think the problem with getting a group together is the length of some missions. I have failed the patrol mission over Dantooine many times. This is both with and without a wingman. The boring patrol points (10 of them) causes potential group members to leave after the first failure. If we could meet at the tough parts of the missions, I think more people would be willing to help. I know I would. If we could bypassed the parts of a mission that have been completed, it would cut down on the boredom.