Ranger Archive
Thread: Solo groups...Evil or Necessary?
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Calculus_Entropy
Fri Jul 02, 2004 8:30 am
#1
Scarin wrote:
Actually, he wasn't grouped when I was hunting rancors and had the most problems. (I was in one of those "Solo rancor groups" most of the time so I couldn't invite him. I'm not proud of it, but a Ranger has got to make monkey somehow right.)
I took this from one of the droid harvester threads as I didn't want to hijack that thread, and I think this will become a large thread.
Solo groups...are they so bad? Given the inability to pull decent missions from a terminal while solo, this seems to be a viable alternative to finding critters. TH said that if you can't find spawns, then you need to go get a mission for them. Solo groups allow us to pull missions that suit the current combat system (a think solo groups will go away after the CB).
I have only solo-gouped once, but let me tell you, it was pretty nice. We were acutally getting a group ready for the Corvette, and had some spare timeso I decided to run missions. I was able to pull Stormtrooper camps with 5 stormies and complete the mission by myself. It was great...I finally could a) hunt out of my player city and not be forced onto an adventure planet and b) pull a mission that was challenging for me.
Let's hear your thoughts on the evils 
of solo-groups.
of solo-groups.
SeanBlader
Fri Jul 02, 2004 8:41 am
#2
I know as a mastercarbineer andnearly master ranger with a level 19 petit took me an hour to bring down a lair of Huurton Stalkers that I'd picked up the night before in a regular hunting group. It was like a level 99 mission I think, and I only got 11k credits out of it. I don't even think about going after the 31k missions you can get from doing Mokk Shamans out of a improved job market city. I can't handle one Mokk, let alone 4 of them. I just don't think it's worth it to go in with a suit of kinetic composite and use it up on those missions just so I have to buy another one. Now level 99 storm trooper missions are alittle easier I'm sorry to say, but I haven't been out to try them since I dropped the speed from dabbling in bounty hunter. I was thinking about going after rifleman, but didn't want to make any drastic changes like that before the combat balance.
I say solo groups are a product of a poor combat system and while they may be useful now, they are sorry solutions for overpowered players.
Phenix1050
Fri Jul 02, 2004 8:45 am
#3
I like it for the ability to have challenging critters.
I could never pull an Enraged Rancor mission by myself (and to be honest, I can't kill a full nest by myself...I hunt w/ Fred and usually at least one other) but with solo groups, I can get a good level creature and have a hell of a fight. Me, Fred and another Master Ranger (d'oh where's my memory) were hunting and because the other guy didn't have a lot of combat skills, I was tanking with my BH skills. Needless to say, I ended up taking a beating...but I had fun. KD'ing an Enraged Bull Rancor is perhaps my favorite thing to do in this game. It's so fun to see that little icon pop up and then one second later see them collapse...
That being said...I think that they are an over-used part of the game. Even in "solo" groups I like hunting w/ a real group...using tactics, everyone going for one stat pool...it's a lot more fun w/ others, IMHO, than to go out and simply murder a creature for the XP. I hunt for the hunt. I get beat up and I walk it off because it's the HUNT that I live for. It's no fun sitting there and killing something I have no use for. After the "solo" group i did the other day, I had a stack of 6k hide and 3k bones...neither of which are particularly great...but now I remember that every time I craft a camp (for some reason, I hate using factories, so I make each one seperately) I got that hide from a great hunt.
Thus, I like grouping to get tough missions, but not hunting alone, and not hunting for XP. In the end, I'd like to see people forced to ask for help. I'd love to see a time when people came up to a Ranger and said: "hey, I'm having trouble with some critters. My friends and I want to go on an expedition for a Rancor. We need your help."
That's the ideal world, where combat is balanced and Rangers have ACTUAL hunting skills.
Thus, my feeling are: Solo groups are okay for now, they allow the creation of high-level mobs...but I'd like to see a day when people have to rely more on each other and only a hunting party of several people could take down a high-level creature.
Fred_Skinner
Fri Jul 02, 2004 8:50 am
#4
Dathomir was giving really good stuff on Eclipse a while back and 2 of them dropped on a Rancer (side note: PLEASE DEAR GOD GIVE ME MUTIPLE HARVEST! I'M MISSING ALL THE SWEET RESOURCE COMBINATIONS!). To be effecient I resorted to the soloists group to pull Enraged Rancors, for no other reason then pulling more harvest. I brought friends so the monkey was not that big of a deal but my volume was: I had 5 contracts out, 2 for the meat and 3 for the hide, at the same time.
but my volume was: I had 5 contracts out, 2 for the meat and 3 for the hide, at the same time.
KaiRaene
Fri Jul 02, 2004 8:58 am
#5
I enjoy solo groups for easy cash. Lame? Yeah.
With the organics and inorganics I harvest for guild members free of charge it takes a little money. When I hunt for hides I hate running to and fro to a mission terminal. So, I just wander til I get what I want. When I hunt I want to just roam... take out what I can and move on. These practices dont always make me the best money... I'm not greedy so I dont care much. Most of my needs are taken care of via the guild. Nothing pleases me more to jump off the starship and just wander off into dathomir killing brackasettes and rancors when I need bulk bones or hides.
But, travel tickets, bike repairs, buffs, and food does cost. So, I run a few days of solo missions to get a million.. then I go back to doing what I enjoy.
dhcpSilicon
Fri Jul 02, 2004 9:01 am
#6
They're evil AND necessary. I'm sure instead of letting people pick the difficulty level they'll just nerf us all down to a level where you'll really need 20 people to hunt a Rancor 
Iseult
Fri Jul 02, 2004 9:19 am
#7
I have a mixed take on these:
1) they are great, like you said, for finding higher-end creatures, esp. now that all of the natural spawns have dried up. Of course, if you are hunting for resources, you suffer a 40% reduction unless you ungroup, but here again the size and qty. of the critters usually makes up for this.
2) their high pay out (esp. on the adventure planets) really doesn't encourageplayers to hunt for other players - these solo groups really don't encourage people to interact with other players to get credits. I mean why would anyone hunt for stuff to sell on the bazaar when you can just go to Dant and 5 - 10 30k solo missions per hour. Why be a crafter, etc..
I myself use a version of a solo group to hunt on the starter planets for resources -- I can group my alt and our droids and we can get our mission level up to 33, which means a few more creatures per lair, though not necessarily increased payout -- and I know of at least one other ranger who has picked up CH just for the purpose of raising the level of his missions, esp. on the starter planets where our mission level seems to be capped at 25.
Iseult
Master Ranger/ Mediocre Rifleperson
Bloodfin
Master Ranger/ Mediocre Rifleperson
Bloodfin
Vorpaks
Fri Jul 02, 2004 9:54 am
#8
I don't like solo groups for one reason: they are so over-used on dantooine that the whole server is borked. The whole place looses packets like a seive there are so many people + mission spawns + player houses and cities. It's insanity!
Other than that I think they encourage the wrong type of mentality. People are grinding not only xp, but credits, and forgetting about star wars entirely. However, if that is the play-style they find fun I am not going to try to take it away. They can play their way and I will play mine. I just stay away from dantooine. Dathomir is a little better, but I've found it rife with poachers (I HATE poachers). I'll usually spped a good way into no where before looking for a random spawn.... if anything is even spawning except missions.
Mostly I stay on Endor. I don't know why, but there are very few people there on Radiant. Just how I like it. 
I don't think you'll find too many people here who knock the idea of hunting solo. I think we have a lot of solo-type Rangers. However, we will knock the type of person who generally does these missions. The grinders. Bleh. But as long as they all stay away from Endor I'm happy.
Other than that I think they encourage the wrong type of mentality. People are grinding not only xp, but credits, and forgetting about star wars entirely. However, if that is the play-style they find fun I am not going to try to take it away. They can play their way and I will play mine. I just stay away from dantooine. Dathomir is a little better, but I've found it rife with poachers (I HATE poachers). I'll usually spped a good way into no where before looking for a random spawn.... if anything is even spawning except missions.
Mostly I stay on Endor. I don't know why, but there are very few people there on Radiant. Just how I like it. I don't think you'll find too many people here who knock the idea of hunting solo. I think we have a lot of solo-type Rangers. However, we will knock the type of person who generally does these missions. The grinders. Bleh. But as long as they all stay away from Endor I'm happy.
TomtheBitx
Fri Jul 02, 2004 10:18 am
#9
Well, if I am after a quick buck then sure I would solo group hunt. But, sometimes I'm after a certain meat/ hide and really need to get as much as I can, as fast as I can. In the latter case, I bust out my areatrack and search for wild lairs. If you tap the lairs just right, you can get a huge ammount of critters per lair compared to mission lairs. The resources can be more plentiful then and I could have a higher potential for cashing in than with missions.
So, in the end, I'm after some money. It just depends on the shifts.
My opinion on solo groups? Pain in the neck. I wish I could just get them alone. After all, I am a TKM / Master Ranger. Thats a lean, mean, hunting machine.
frightwig
Fri Jul 02, 2004 11:09 am
#10
They are both evil AND necessary!
I needed to find carnivore meat on Talus last night (Talus, the no/low spawn planet!) and ran to Dantooine to form or join a solo group so that I could pull Tortur missions. (a whopping 70 units of meat).
Now, I can easily handle torturs without even being a master rifleman yet. Unfortunately I can't get them from the terminals on my own, and carnivore meat creatures don't even seem to show up on Talus for me.
Anyway, I had to go to dantooine to form a group to raise my mission levels. I went to Talus but the group eventually got smaller as people left and then it snowballed as we got down to 6 or 7. I started getting angry tells of "d3wd **edit**?", "y u on Talus?" and "regroup dude". I probably should have just joined a group rather than form one, but I needed to be group leader in case any other Rangers wanted to join me later on Talus.
Solo groups serve a purpose and I like the benefits.. But it's also very impersonal. If you're forming a group, you're just trying to invite everyone you see... they'll accept or decline, or already be grouped.. No talking. If you're looking for a group, you just spam and someone will /invite. From my experiences, there's no chatting (no one wants it or has time for it) in /groupchat. Let's face it, the majority of people there are just out to farm as many credits as possible by soloing everything with their buffed swordsman.
But I guess if it weren't for so many of them, we couldn't get bigger groups. Trying to form a large group of Rangers (or any players) wanting to just hunt Torturs is next to impossible. Besides, Torturs got no 1337 13w7
I needed to find carnivore meat on Talus last night (Talus, the no/low spawn planet!) and ran to Dantooine to form or join a solo group so that I could pull Tortur missions. (a whopping 70 units of meat).
Now, I can easily handle torturs without even being a master rifleman yet. Unfortunately I can't get them from the terminals on my own, and carnivore meat creatures don't even seem to show up on Talus for me.
Anyway, I had to go to dantooine to form a group to raise my mission levels. I went to Talus but the group eventually got smaller as people left and then it snowballed as we got down to 6 or 7. I started getting angry tells of "d3wd **edit**?", "y u on Talus?" and "regroup dude". I probably should have just joined a group rather than form one, but I needed to be group leader in case any other Rangers wanted to join me later on Talus.
Solo groups serve a purpose and I like the benefits.. But it's also very impersonal. If you're forming a group, you're just trying to invite everyone you see... they'll accept or decline, or already be grouped.. No talking. If you're looking for a group, you just spam and someone will /invite. From my experiences, there's no chatting (no one wants it or has time for it) in /groupchat. Let's face it, the majority of people there are just out to farm as many credits as possible by soloing everything with their buffed swordsman.
But I guess if it weren't for so many of them, we couldn't get bigger groups. Trying to form a large group of Rangers (or any players) wanting to just hunt Torturs is next to impossible. Besides, Torturs got no 1337 13w7
Rooks
Fri Jul 02, 2004 2:17 pm
#11
Hmmm, I use my pets to get missions.
I pull easily lv 40-56 depending on what pets I pull out and group with.
But then again, I actually have to use my pets on the mission, so not sure if this matters to this thread or not.
Cephalo
Fri Jul 02, 2004 2:28 pm
#12
I think it's a shame that their are so many animals that can't be found except through missions. As a BE, it's especially frustrating because not only do I have low weap skills, my need for particular creatures is not related to their difficulty.
Nastzguehl
Fri Jul 02, 2004 4:47 pm
#13
I think they are evil, they take away the part of playing together, with all this solo playing we get more and more a online single player game. Everyone wants to get everything immediately. Very few have the patience to enjoy what they are doing in this game. After the CB we will see a lot of people that aren't able to play and hunt in a group because they have never learned to use the skills of each group member to the favor of the hole group.
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