Like a lot of players, I have very little time to play and when I get any real time, it is often at odd hours when it is impossible to find others to group with. Like so many games before it, SWTOR is falling into the trap of creating some interesting content but limiting it to groups. In less than 2 weeks I have gotten everything the game has to offer without doing the mind numbing dailies or having a group.

 

All of the flashpoints and 2/4 man heroics should have a scaled version for solo players. Same rewards, same level of challenge but give the ability for all of the working people that have families and lives to get the most out of it.

 

I can hear all of the fanbois now... Yes I know I can do daily stuff, I can do crafting and I can roll up another alt and re-do the same stuff I just did. I am not talking about the stuff I can to, I am talking about what I, and a ton of others like me, CAN'T do, and that is play the most fun and rewarding content in the game.

 

There is a serious lack of player base for finding groups to begin with and will be for a long time to come. Also with the fact that many people work one or more jobs and have families, we don't have the time to spend more time finding a group than we do actually running the content.

 

For my money, I want to be able to log on, play any content I want that is level appropriate and be able to do it solo.

Many people don't like groups to begin with and would never join any sort of guild but time is still the biggest thing.

 

I will keep an eye on changes but for now, in well less than a month I have exhausted the game. Those that like groups can always continue to play that way. Those that don't like that or just don't have the time for it, should have the means to do the same content, get the same rewards and get the same value for their money if they are subscribers. Just because all of the other MMO's didn't do it that way, does not mean it wouldn't be better.

 

I am sure the fanbois will line up quick to flame this and spout the virtues of groups and how the world would fall without them. Save it.

This is my opinion and one I am sure is shared by a majority of the players. I have asked 25 people at random and all 25 loved the idea so the few flamers on a forum would mean nothing.

Before the comments of "This is a MMO not a single player game" arise, I personally do prefer to solo content, only grouping occasionally for flashpoints but I do try to do all the heroics at least once, which is fine on the early planets as there are quite a lot of people doing the heroics. Later planets however have lower populations so I find it is mre difficult to get a group for all the heroic 4's (Most heroic quests are heroic 4 by that stage).

 

So while I dont agree with making the whole game soloable I don think there should be a few more Heroic 2+ quests later in the game than Heroic 4's.

Flashpoints and heroics are optional content. If they don't suit your schedule, don't run them. If you want to run them anyway, level up and solo them. Except quests needing to press 2 or 4 buttons, anything can be soloed a few levels later.

 

I never had issue to find enough people complete heroic calling in the general chat, this day or the next day (except the macro-binocular heroics). Albeit it wasn't uncommon we were less than than the number to run them.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Nkya

For that same experience.... go back and replay KOTOR and KOTOR2 again.

 

...in well less than a month I have exhausted the game...

 

^And that is totally bogus.....

 

I have played since Day 1 of Early Access. I do a lot solo.... I DO play with other people. I play with my guild, I use the Group Finder, and I play in a lot of PuGs.

 

I have seen the story content for:

Jedi Knight

Jedi Consular

Trooper

Bounty Hunter

Sith Inqusitor

 

I am currently working on the storyline for:

Imperial Agent (just finished Chapter 1)

Smuggler (only level 13)

 

I have not even started the story for:

Sith Warrior

 

I have done all of the Flashpoints in Normal and Hard Mode. I have done all of the level 50 operations in Story/Hard/Nightmare and I have done both of the level 55 operations in Story Mode (8 and 16) and TfB in 8-man Hard. I still haven't done Hard Mode Scum & Villainy, nor NiM of either.

 

I have five level 55 characters, and I am still leveling others. I have seen FIVE complete stories, working on 2 more, and still have 1 to start fresh.

 

I have been playing since DAY ONE - and I have not "exhausted" the game as you claim to have done in a mere MONTH.

 

..., I am talking about what I... CAN'T do, and that is play the most fun and rewarding content in the game.,,

 

Want to know WHY it's fun and rewarding? Because you experience it with other players. The idea of solo'ing dumbed down group content, makes me sad.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Ocho-Quatro

Your post is awfully hostile, especially considering you are in quite a significant minority. In fact, I think you are the first "solo player" to have such a huge superiority complex that I have ever seen.

 

While I would be in favor of them adding more content for soloing, I think what WoW is doing with their proving ground system would be awesome. Group content is group content. If you don't want to run group content, don't run group content.

 

Also, almost all the H2s and H4s are in fact soloable if you have the gear/skill or overlevel them by a little bit.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Icebergy

Why on earth would you not join a guild?

You can already solo almost everything, it will just take more time and leveling-up/gearing-up.

 

Planetary heroics: Most heroic 2+ are a good challenge at level for most classes if you and your companion are well-geared. Otherwise, you can level up more and come back. Heroic 4 you can out level them and come back (you have to level up just the right amount for it to be doable but not a cakewalk).

 

Pre-50 Flashpoints: You can solo these easily by out-leveling them by 7+ levels. Will very good gear on you and your companion, you can perhaps do a bit earlier than that.

 

Level 50/55 heroics: With enough gear, these should be soloable unless they require multiple button presses. (Black hole heroic doable; Section X heroic not doable.)

 

Level 50 flashpoints: You should be able to solo these with basic (rating 66: basic comm and craftable, also cheap on the GTN) gear on you and your companion. If you find it too hard with basic gear, you can (slowly)* get some elite (rating 69) gear solo from elite comms. You can also buy ultimate (rating 72) gear on the GTN if you find that an acceptable "solo" thing to do (though it will be costly** for someone who only plays solo).

 

Level 55 flashpoints: Here you'll hit a bit of a wall, but there are a lot of level 50 hard mode flashpoints and going through them could reasonably be thought of as a "solo end game." There is a video on the forums of a sentinel in ultimate gear (and with his companion doc in ultimate gear) soloing level 55 Athiss. You could buy this gear off the GTN for a huge amount of credits without doing any group content, but it would take a while to get the credits and even then I'm sure it isn't easy (and you may need to be a sentinel). Currently each of these flashpoints is just a remake of a level 17-29 flashpoint, so you can see the content that way at least.

 

Not soloable: Heroics requiring multiple button presses. Operations.

 

*[To get the elite gear through comms will take a while solo. You can get 12 elite comms from the makeb staged weekly, and 3 from priority targets (killing world bosses: you can solo low level ones). Still, that's many weeks to buy the gear with commendations. If you aren't a purist, you can buy even better gear off the GTN (see below).]

 

**[To get this rating 72 gear as a solo player: Run dailies until you have 35*5 = 175 basic comms. Turn them in for 5 vials of stabilized isotope-5. Buy a mass manipulation generator and and 5 exotic element equalizers off the GTN (the dailies to get the 175 basic comms will have given you enough credits). Find a crafter who will take all these and give you a piece of rating 72 gear. If you have a lot of credits built up, you may be able to just buy the gear or the 5 vials off the GTN outright.]

Edited July 17, 2013 by cxten

You have quite the hateful comments in your post OP that I doubt are necessary for inciting decent conversation.

My short answer: Most of the game is already soloable. I'm not sure what you're asking for. Heroic 2s and 4s are easily soloable at their level and if you can't it's you, not the game.

Honestly I feel that the group finder tools that are put in these games are your answer. Yes technically it's still multi-player content you're engaging in, but the amount of communication/interaction people in those groups partake in make it seem like it's really just you and 3 companions (that aren't nearly as interesting as the npcs waiting for you on your ship).

All of the flashpoints and 2/4 man heroics should have a scaled version for solo players. Same rewards, same level of challenge but give the ability for all of the working people that have families and lives to get the most out of it.

 

While I support the idea of creating solo versions of existing content, I *don't* support the idea that the rewards should be the same. If they were, why would *anyone* run with a group? The reason that group content provides better rewards is to encourage people to work together. The content is, generally, still pretty easy and is only scaled high enough that it's difficult/impossible for subnormal group sizes to complete it.

 

I'm also amused at your "same level of challenge" statement. How do you achieve the same level of challenge for mechanics like the beastmaster on Mando Raiders, where the entire point of the fight is to keep the dogs separated from the boss himself while having to regularly taunt back and have DPS and healers bounce the targets? The only way to create a construct like that for solo content would be to have the boss stand still and just require that the dog be kept out of melee (which would pretty much happen by default anyhow). There are plenty of fights where the entire *point* is to create a situation where the group has to work together in more ways than just "tank and spank", especially when there are mechanics that require explicit action from individual roles: threat drops, tank swaps, boss placement, cleansing, etc.

 

Solo content is easy because there's not much you can do to make it that hard without making it impossible for some roles/classes to do outright. Group content, because it makes the assumption of certain composition and capability for each role *within* that composition, can create nominally more difficult/complex strategies thanks to having more bodies and guarantees of specific abilities.

 

So, I support the idea that there should be more solo content, especially solo or small group variants of a lot of the end game H4s (especially the Seeker Droid and Macrobinocular quest lines), I don't agree that they should have the same rewards. The difficulty wouldn't be the same and, even if it were, it would eliminate the impetus for people to actually group up.

Wait...let me get this straight...you asked 25 players if they agree with you and now you're under the impression that the majority of SWTOR holds your opinion?

 

Honestly, I don't care if it's already been said, but this is an MMO. Massive multiplayer online game. Whats the point of making a MMO if you're going to eliminate any need to play in groups? There is none.

 

I'm sure there's going to be new SW console games coming out sooner or later. So I suggest playing the solo content you enjoy on SWTOR then switching over to them once they're out.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Radzkie

I am sure the fanbois will line up quick to flame this and spout the virtues of groups and how the world would fall without them. Save it.

This is my opinion and one I am sure is shared by a majority of the players. I have asked 25 people at random and all 25 loved the idea so the few flamers on a forum would mean nothing.

 

I will NEVER understand this mentality. Internet forums are centers of debate. If you do not want a debate on the subject then do not post your comments.

 

Secondly...so you asked 25 out of about 1.5 million players (500K subscribers and another roughly 1 million F2P), and you REALLY think that is a solid sample? Guess again. That being said, I would bet you are right that a majority would at least embrace more solo content...but not for the reasons you think.

 

- Very casual gamers like yourself would embrace it to see the content they are missing

- middle of the road gamers would embrace it to see content they might be missing and to acquire gear they would not normally be able to get.

- hardcore gamers would embrace it simply to get gear faster.

 

Yes, there's the exploit that you are overlooking. If solo content gives the same rewards as group content, then yes a majority of players would love it for the simple fact that they would never have to deal with groups. You are right groups can be an exacerbating part of gaming, but it is the rewards that make it SOOOOOO worth it. Make those rewards available through solo play and this game will become KOTOR3 (Probably what you wanted anyway).

 

And believe me, I completely understand your lack of time reasoning. Having a job, and an SO, and RL social life, and hobbies other than playing SWTOR, eat into my game time. But unlike you, I have accepted the fact that I will not be the hardcore player I was a decade ago playing MMOs like EverQuest. Basically, like everything else in my life, I schedule my game time. I also accept the fact that due to my lack of dedication to SWTOR, I will never get the best gear available; what I can get and do have is good enough for me because it is more than adequate for how I play.

Much as I expected, lots of useless and off-topic responses. Considering most are old WoW players, I guess it should be expected though.

I only saw 2 people actually partially address the topic accurately, the rest were so far off they might as well have been in a different thread.

 

I am only talking about things needing 4 people or less and no, they are not all easily soloable. Many are hard to do even with the right number of people when it gets to the bosses. Content can also be created to be just as challenging for a solo player as for a group. Of course it takes thought, but well worth it.

 

Also, since I asked those 25 real, in-game players, not fanbois, dungeon crawlers and "l33ts", the responses would be very different.

 

After 55, you can craft (yawn), do dailies (yawn) or roll up more characters and do it all again. That is fun for a while but after 3 imps and 4 pubs, that gets old fast.

 

There are always those that love getting in large groups and doing scripted stuff that takes an hour or two and that is just fine, there should be plenty of that. But finishing quests that go on forever only to end up needing to do 4 man heroics is just plain stupid. You did all the rest of it alone, why screw it up and change it mid stream?.

 

There are just tons of ways to have it all. Plenty for group players and plenty for solo players that don't like doing the same boring stuff over and over. It is such a rich world with so much story that such a very simple tweak would add so much to the game without taking anything away.

 

Really a moot point at this juncture though. I decided 1 month was more than enough to spend on this in time and money. It just isn't possible for me to get my monies worth out of it beyond that.

 

Much better to just roll it back to F2P and lets my kids goof off with it. It should be able to keep them occupied for a little while.

I hate to say it because as a community I think that most of us want as many players as possible, but you are probably playing the wrong game. This is an mmo,and while there are things to do solo (Story aspects for one,) the main focus of an mmo is to play with other people. While it may not seem like a huge request, rebalancing the content to be soloable (when realistically most of it except for the operations is already) would divert attention away from developing the things that the majority of the player base actually wants.

I will agree there should be some flashpoints and heroics that can be soloed but in no way should the rewards be the same. If you can solo it then the rewards should be reduced based on that fact.

Really?

 

Also care to back up the claim that the majority of players feel the way you do? No I thought so.

 

So we are fanbois because we enjoy this game for what it is, an MMO where the best content is for groups? I've said this so many times and now I will say it again. If stand alone solo content was made that had similar rewards and was challenging then I would support it. However, I do not and will never support current raid content being made for soloists that content is reserved solely for groups and should stay that way period.

Edited October 6, 2015 by theUndead

What a useless **** thread.. "people who disagree with me are fainboizzz" i can see why you want solo content who would want to play with someone like you.

All of the flashpoints and 2/4 man heroics should have a scaled version for solo players. Same rewards, same level of challenge but give the ability for all of the working people that have families and lives to get the most out of it.

 

For my money, I want to be able to log on, play any content I want that is level appropriate and be able to do it solo.

Many people don't like groups to begin with and would never join any sort of guild but time is still the biggest thing.

 

Giving out the same rewards for a solo quest and a 4 or 8man group quest wouldn't make any sense. I mean if that was the case, why would you need any groups whatsoever? If you could get the same gear from all the flashpoints and ops alone, what would be the incentive to team up? Nobody would bother wasting time with the group finder and would just run everything alone since not having to set up a balanced group saves you considerable time.

 

That said, however, I'd really like to have an option to do heroic quests (and possibly story mode flashpoints) with my companions. I mean I have 7 (soon to be 8) companions out of which 6 (soon to be 7) are just sitting on the ship doing nothing. Now we'll have 2 or 3 tank, 2 or 3 healer and 3 pure DPS companions and it would be nice to actually use them. The problem with heroic 4 quests is that it's really hard to find healers for them sometimes, especially if you're doing obscure quests (like bonus series heroics) that most people don't bother to do.

 

Allowing people to run heroic quests with multiple companions would save a lot of headache for me, considering that my companions are always better geared than most people on the planet and they are intelligent enough not to break CC.

Edited July 18, 2013 by CommanderKeeva

****... you want solo content buy a gameboy

****... you want solo content buy a gameboy

 

But..... Gameboys are darned expensive now!

The best example of allowing solo players to have a dip of endgame/group content I know of are the chronicles in Rift.

They made solo/duo versions of some raid instances and adapted/deleted some mechanics inside to cater the reduced amount of players.

This way players could have a look at what it looks inside, continue the story and some more content was offered to players who play at odd hours, cannot/want not to group up or for whatever reason prefer to play solo.

 

However, the rewards got adapted too as rewards should always scale/represent the difficulty of the instance and the set-up required to get a group for it.

 

And yes, I have difficulties to understand ppl who want to have everything others get, but not do the same to get it.

 

Would I love to get my Xth alt geared faster/easier for ops sometimes? - Yes, but if I can get all the rewards without playing the MMOpart of a mmorpg .... then I could go back to a single player rpg and use the editor and just get all the gear I want and way faster too.

 

And there are a bunch of guilds out there offering a home to those who work long, odd hours, RL (kids, wife or cats first) priority players.

 

Maybe you should invest some of your time to find a guild, group of like-minded players ... I mean it shouldn't be too hard as the majority of players (following your research) support your ideas and views.

There are always those that love getting in large groups and doing scripted stuff that takes an hour or two and that is just fine, there should be plenty of that. But finishing quests that go on forever only to end up needing to do 4 man heroics is just plain stupid. You did all the rest of it alone, why screw it up and change it mid stream?.

 

Um, there is NOTHING like what you are describing in this game. All planet heroic missions are considered side quests and are therefore optional - they are NOT part of the overall planetary quest line. The only quest line I can think of that remotely fits into what you are describing is the "Jedi Prisoner" quests, but in all candor all that does is link three consecutive Flashpoints into a single story arc. And even it is optional (I did not complete it on my first character until I did the HM version of Maelstrom Prison at level 50).

Nerds will find anything to argue.

There is no way you have exhausted the game OP. No way. There's a lot for you to experience. For instance have you maxed out your rep in things like the PvE space missions? That doesn't take tons of time, is fun, and would fit in your schedule of being this busy family nine job human being who clearly wants to have their cake and eat it too.

 

Regardless, I do agree that heroic 4s should be heroic 2+s. The time has long since passed where heroic 4s meant anything. It's a shame cause early on those were great additions. Just the way it goes.

 

Also, you're getting what you want. Or I should say Bioware is compromising with players such as yourself:

 

"For Flashpoints, we have made quite a few changes to give you more options on what to play, and how to play them. For starters, all of the Flashpoints which are important to the core story have had a Solo Mode added, similar to what we did for the Forged Alliances Flashpoints. Also, those Solo Modes are repeatable, so you can play through them again if you want! "

 

You're also getting solo mode story chapters regularly with this new expansion. You're getting everything you could want. If you can open your eyes to see it that is.