Parties: necessary & worthwhile

[Gravemind]

It seems to me that in just about every mmorpg I;ve played, the party system was horribly underused. Why? Because the simple equation of "less xp per kill + more people kill more mobs faster = good xp" rarely, if ever, results in getting more by the end of the day.

Now it seems to me that if we had a party system that gave a significant + to everyone in the group, it would promote two things.

1. People spamming with "LFG! LFG!"

2. The real RPers having a good reason to spend more time hanging around in the tavern RPing and waiting for people to show up and form a hunting pary


I used to play in a NWN server that was heavily focused on D&D RP, and the thing was that a) it was literally impossible for a lowbie to survive even the weakest goblin and b) the death penalty was so severe, no one dared go out alone. This led to one of the best RP communities I have ever seen, brought out by the necessity of team play.

Now I am not suggesting make it that severe, but just make it a much better option to work as a group in all things and it'll do wonders for the in-game community

[Caarrie]

we already have groups and group exp that is split when you are fighting in the group.

[RoberetGoldsmith]

  Yep, we already have those....

[Gravemind]

Yes, but seeing as the XP is split, it's usually more profitable to just kill things on your own. What I'm suggesting is rather then split it, first multiply it by the number of group members, then split it, or something similar so that you actually get more xp by being in a group then you would otherwise

Group work could even be applied in other ways, for example, two miners working together and getting more ore then they each would individually


What I'm saying is, wouldn't it give the community a boost if the things that are generally done solo all the time (mining, farming, leveling etc) suddenly became things that groups of people did together, because it's better that way?

[John80sk]

the title's a bit deceptive but I actually kinda like the idea.  Perhaps you shouldn't receive equal amount of experience as you would if you got the kill yourself, but getting more like 75% would make grouping a bit more lucrative than in its current state.  I especially like the idea of applying it to areas other than combat though.

[weltall]

(exp*members)/members == exp

[Eloras]

As this picture of the alliance recently blockading camp banished shows, grouping does have another useful purpose too

http://s409.photobucket.com/albums/pp176/Eloras_bucket/?action=view&current=shot218.jpg

[Entevir]

I agree that working in a group should be more profitable then working solo. This would also help unite PLing and Roleplaying to a greater degree(Link to follow soon). No-one trains alone and when you are in a group communication will occur and that will help people who come from games like WoW to integrate easier into the roleplay setting.

Just my two thoughts of tram.

[khoridor]

Nope. Working solo is more profitable.
When there is profit.
Group work makes things easier, or possible.
Let's develop ideas of things to do that could only be possible by a group. For example, how to handle combat practice between PCs? How about crafting complex objects that require at least 2 crafters to make it?

[Gravemind]

I agree that working in a group should be more profitable then working solo. This would also help unite PLing and Roleplaying to a greater degree(Link to follow soon). No-one trains alone and when you are in a group communication will occur and that will help people who come from games like WoW to integrate easier into the roleplay setting.

Just my two thoughts of tram.

That's exactly the idea I was trying to get across

[Entevir]

Actually i read something on this. Will try to find it but it said that people learning in groups from 4 to 12 had the advantage over people learning alone. Also i think i just wrote everything down to fast. Working in a group should hold some demerits. You would earn less but not that much less. I would say a fifth of the experience would be

[John80sk]

Nope. Working solo is more profitable.
When there is profit.
Group work makes things easier, or possible.
Let's develop ideas of things to do that could only be possible by a group. For example, how to handle combat practice between PCs? How about crafting complex objects that require at least 2 crafters to make it?

Not really true at all.  As far as experience in combat goes there's a lot more to learn from fighting with a group than there is to learn just improving your own skills.  Watching others is also a major learning tool, it's hard to see what you're doing wrong, it helps to have eyes on you.

As far as mining goes, having two people working together to find something is obviously better than just one person.  That's just common sense.

[khoridor]

If it was common sense, it would be true. 2 persons can achieve more than one, but can also achieve less.
Besides, I suggested somewhere else that group miners could keep a higher morale, therefore losing less mental stamina; but as far as sharing goes, if it's profitable for one, it's a loss for another (for ex. 5+1 = 3+3)
About combat, fighting solo and as a team are different "skills". Plus, in a fight, you should be fighting instead of watching your allies techniques. Remember that this is about working (practice), not learning. For the latter, you've got your teacher (that's the pair of eyes on you); and PC trainers have been requested already.
So I stick to my question: what could be requested that cannot be achieved by working alone?

[John80sk]

It is true that if there were only six ores out there then that would work just fine.  Instead we're talking about finding veins of ore, so increasing the efficiency of mining makes perfect sense.  Just like trying to find something in a field would be easier with a group of people rather than one.

In combat if you're not paying attention to what your buddy's doing there's a pretty good chance one of you is going to end up dead.  As far as it being different skills, not really considering how general the skills are.  Coordinating your strikes with another person is being skilled with your weapon of choice.

[Da_Kaos_Child]

i kinda think you all missed how the game is currently.

If you created a healer in this game , you are at a huge disadvantage already.

You get XP relevant to the damage you inflicted on the Mob/Creature/NPC

whats a standard party healer/warrior/ranged/scout

the healer gets no XP
the scout gets minimal xp
the ranger gets some XP
and the warrior gets lots of XP

now im not going to say this is straight out bad.

this eliminates power leveling. (as it stands there is no level system here) - so if your a new player you cant just walk around with a big player and pick up PP
you can get loot while traveling with the big/old player. but no PP or very minimal for the little amount of damage you inflicted.

i was thinking about this a couple of days ago myself.
i was wondering if the dev team could use the (when you view someone else and it gives you a rough gauge of their combat strength to yours) to make a forumla similar to other games
to distribute the XP.

so if i was considered near impossible to defeat by another player , they would get like 2% of the PP/XP for being in the party.
where as if the other player was about the same strength as me the XP/PP was divided 50/50 - so if was the healer and my group member was the warrior , i would not be at a disadvantage for keeping him alive.

But aside from all that. how it currently stands you are better off gaining PP on your own , or standing there taking hits for you friend while they struggle to hurt the beast/NPC

I travel to unexplored places with friends in groups for safety reasons not to gain more Tria or PP

the group thingy is a usefull way to keep track of the people your looking after and to seperate the journeyers chat into another window

Also i would like this game to not include a mini map or an indicater of where your party is located.

the speech bubbles that show through walls is enough to indicate direction of sound , for when they are shouting at you [which adds so much more realizim to the game]