Encourage Soloing as a Viable option - Mega Suggestion Thread

Started 26 Jan 2021
by Taniquetil
in Suggestions
Hello,

I cannot take credit for all of the below suggestions, these have come from a range of different players who either play solo currently or would like to play solo with a touch more viability. I wanted to provide all the suggestions in one thread for context and discussion.

Please try and keep the responses constructive and helpful and any well received comments will be updated in the 1st/2nd Post here for housekeeping.

I will not discuss standalone events as GM's have already stated they're looking at that on an occasional basis, which is great. @GMs, also appreciate many soloers have burned bridges and previous attempts have been soured but I'd beg you to carry on trying to support all playstyles including solo.

  • Solo Task Zone
    • Rotating task zone available to soloers/smallmans, similar to gvg, only visible if solo or smally and not recently been in a fg. Needs to be given a whole zone, similar to the task zone. The reason the task zone works is that it is readily available in game, not everyone follows forum updates and discord updates, so the format in game is the most prevalent.
    Currently many players just roam the task zone solo just kinda waiting to die to a full group to collect RPs on tick, this doesn't teach anything about the game or help to improve a players experience. If they were able to do this in a zone where they were able to solo, and encouraged/rewarded for doing so they'd learn at the same time as getting rps, and even have a chance of winning a fight.
    Molle/Trelle etc These are too small and encourage /bowtowns and reduce the 'unexpectedness of the encounter' and also reduce viability for casters due to LOS or less kiting potential or use of terrain, a larger zone would also mean more work for any brave groups who want to kill solos as an 8man, meaning they need to run around a bigger zone (that they do not have any knowledge of it's whereabouts) to find people rather than just steamrolling a single location occasionally.

  • Fairfight Rp for a loss 1v1 - Similar to GVG Fairfight. *ONLY AVAILABLE BELOW RR6*
    • The essence of soloing for me is the wild and unpredictable nature of roaming around in enemy lands. I choose most of my fights and they do not include a bow most of the time. I want to maintain this aspect of the game and I believe encouraging lower rr players to solo is one way to go. Give them rps on 1v1 deaths for instance. Give them double task participation for solo encounters maybe. Something like that. And only for people under rr5/6, after that you are free to eat.
    Restricting location: Could maybe tie this to the above zone so that it's easier to police on a location basis.
    NOTE:Challenge heard around potential for RP farming, perhaps make it only provide rp bonus once per opponent per day, reducing the potential for rp farming and meaning it's more beneficial to fight a variety of opponents instead of the same person over and over again

  • Kill/Collection/Roaming Task Adjustment
    • Pick one/any/all of these, but a series of options to encourage soloers to move away from traditional locations and go out roaming, or finding X mob, perhaps killing guards solo is less viable or sustainable, but some form of incentive to move and roam through certain zones. This could be tied to the above zone for example to encourage movement.
    Payout for doing so should be higher if solo. Rationale for this, a group already gets a 20% bonus to rp for being grouped and killing a soloer (seems bonkers but not here to argue to change that), as some compensation the soloer could get an increased reward for solo kills comparitively to compensate for the rp bonus which seems to encourage zerging.

  • Fairfight popup in game if solo?
    •  Again much of the lack of participation in fairfight list or solo lists seems to stem from a lack of knowledge or accessibility in the same way /task is available. /gvg requires 1 person in 8 to be aware of it and spread the word to all, /fairfight requires everyone to know it, and remember it each time. Perhaps a level of automation/offer to join after acquiring a solo kill or soloing for a while in rvr would help it.

  • Solo/Small Community Council
    • As per the 8v8 balance changes council a perhaps create solo community council to help provide feedback on some of these tests. Strictly no balance changes to be made based on solo discussions, purely to discuss the viability of any trials that get put in or feed back on suggestions/proposals for testing.

    Slightly more left field, shorter options

  • Halving cooldown timer of horses
    • making it less interrupted by pots not used in combat, such as Ablative if user has not been in combat for a minute. Currently even opening the doors in the solozone activates the timers. Completely appreciate that horses are not wanted to be seen everywhere, or in any way be abusable for kiting purposes, but hopefully a couple of minor adjustments can make them slightly more viable.

  • Reduce Disease timer
    • Or give a very slow casted cure disease, or apply a cure disease to a tinder after 20-30seconds non combat. Yes I agree even as an assassin this timer is just so cruel, leaving a visible diseased and low on life for 2+mins after a fight is basically begging for them to die to a passer by and feels unecessary.

  • Debuff to rps in solozone if not killing groups of equal size.
    • ONLY in the solozone. Everywhere else, fair game, but in the solozone, if a group is coming to steamroll solos it shouldn't net them a huge amount of rps, they've made a decision to actively grief groups of smaller sizes, there are 13 other zones for them to earn full rps in still with no repercussions.

  • Further reduced Rps for high RR solos killing low rr solos in the solozone
    • Fairfight should be a fairfight, not a RR10/11/12 rolling a RR2 repeatedly, the RR2 should be encouraged to brave the solozone and stand a chance to find someone of similar RR.
Tue 26 Jan 2021 1:38 PM by Taniquetil
2nd Post for suggestions given in this thread to keep organised.

evert wrote: ↑
Tue 26 Jan 2021 1:54 PM
Easy one, hastener next to the solo porter. Improves quality of life, can't really see the downside (now that there is no direct port), and there is already one in the smallman zone where it is useless!
Tue 26 Jan 2021 1:54 PM by evert
Easy one, hastener next to the solo porter. Improves quality of life, can't really see the downside (now that there is no direct port), and there is already one in the smallman zone where it is useless!
Tue 26 Jan 2021 2:51 PM by DJ2000
Taniquetil wrote: ↑
Tue 26 Jan 2021 1:37 PM
Solo Task ZoneRotating task zone available to soloers/smallmans, similar to gvg, only visible if solo or smally and not recently been in a fg.
As long as a Zone can be entered by anyone/anygrp, these Zones will remain the same as any other "location". Complaints would not stop.
Even though the idea itself was kinda crazy, i did like the part where an timed Event/Task Zone appears, that only allows solos to enter for the duration, to compete/fight/etc within in the zone. Its never in the same place, so no camping. During the event solo may join, in the downtime they may do their regular "runs".
I guess its way to much work for too small of people that care. Solo hunters would also be against it, as they would lose some prey. w/e
Iam not against, but i highly doubt we're ever going to see anything close to your suggestion.

Taniquetil wrote: ↑
Tue 26 Jan 2021 1:37 PM
Fairfight Rp for a loss 1v1 - Similar to GVG Fairfight. *ONLY AVAILABLE BELOW RR6*
Fairfight popup in game if solo?
The amount of work and thought you have to put into the "anti-abuse" Part of it faaaar outweighs the implementation of the idea itself.
The 1v1 /bowtown-Heros to blame that spawned an unhealthy following that takes everything too far for their own "enjoyment".
Again, iam not against it, but don't hope for anything; don't expect anything.

Taniquetil wrote: ↑
Tue 26 Jan 2021 1:37 PM
Kill/Collection/Roaming Task Adjustment
There could be something done, but why implement PvE into Solo play?
iam quite indifferent about this one.

Taniquetil wrote: ↑
Tue 26 Jan 2021 1:37 PM
Solo/Small Community Council
How do you know there is none already in? The current project may revolve around 8v8 setups, but that doesn't mean there are none involved that prevent implementations of abilities that could break the "solo" part.
I am also not sure, if your and the GMs definition/understanding of the Player council involvement is the same. They may be way apart.
But in general i would support you on this and also vote for someone representing "Solo" in that council.
/
On the other hand, noone can stop you forming a council yourself with "likeminded(?)/accepted(?)" players and put in the work to put out some well-thought-out stuff, instead of throwing the same ideas around that other individuals brought up once.

Taniquetil wrote: ↑
Tue 26 Jan 2021 1:37 PM
Slightly more left field, shorter options
1. Halving cooldown timer of horses
2. Reduce Disease timer
3. Debuff to rps in solozone if not killing groups of equal size.
4. Further reduced Rps for high RR solos killing low rr solos in the solozone
1 - The Playerbase vote was pretty clear about that, to have the Horses to be almost unusable in RvR. Would need a new Community Vote i guess, which i guess would have the same result as it is now.
2 - That is definately on their Agenda. The Question is when they're going to address it.
3+4 - Will never happen. Devs stance on this should be clear by now.

You put time into this so i do want to acknowledge your effort and also respect what you are trying to achieve with it, even though i may not sound all to encouraging.
Tue 26 Jan 2021 8:43 PM by Blitze
Love the ideas...

As I have been a glutton for visi-solo punishment since the server started, you can see my opinions in my old posts, like the OP I want to see more variety of solos and more peeps have fun doing it! (varied classes & RR).

Let’s accept solos get there own random zone every 45mins... So now what is the nature of said task in that new task zone (as the capture the flag format won’t work)...So suggestions:

1. Collect Ears

Get a deathblow then you get an Ear, hand-in at NPC. (More Ears u hand-in the bigger the task tick)
After you get a solo kill you get 1x Ear item in your inventory, if you die the item disappears.(you can hold more than one Ear and the more you give in at once the bigger the bonus, but this would be risky.) to hand-in; either have a few NPCs in different locations or have a 20s summon spell to hand-in
(Tough for casters to get to a NPC, good for stealth)

2. Rage

A NPC spawns in a random loc, first solo to click gains buff that makes them deal 10%more dmg and take 20% more damage and sprint drains 5extra endu per tick. You get a deathblow and the buff doubles the effects.. You get a bigger task tick for every deathblow whilst buff is active, there is a leaderboard
(I understand this would be great for snipers).

3. Debuff Plague

Whenever you move to within 1000 units of another player- They get your plague (& you get their plague)... The plague is a minor full stat debuff (Like -20 to all stats) and sprint costs 1more ; But you get 10% bonus on RPs earned. You get the same buff again and again for each person you meet (i.e. If you meet 10 peeps and get -200 stats, & sprint cost 20more end, lol, if you can kill someone in this state you get 100% more RPs though) The Plague effect isn’t purgeable and lasts until you die (or task ends).
(Dunno how this would work with Necro or Animst)

4. Naked fight

You can choose to use a slash command that disables all your Passive & active RA points whilst in zone... and if you do you get a bonus RPs cos of this.
(You could be more variable about this and let people pick their RR.... pick RR1 and get a bonus 150% RPs, pick RR13 ~70% less RPs)

5. Corpse explosion

When you die your corpse Instantly casts a one time 500 damage Aoe DD to everyone in 700 units
(This favours range/casters again)

6. Some Deaths Weigh Heavier

Every solo kill you get lowers your movement speed by 10% for an unpurgeable stacking buff and after 10 you can’t move!!!!. (You get 5% bonus RP Per stack)
(Good for speedsters)

7. Climate Change

Have Huge AoE terrain style effects and the more kills inside you get, the bigger the task tick
a) lightning storm (DD/rupt every XX secs, break spd )
b) locusts (DoT)
c) Blizzard (nearsighted)
d) Heatwave (no end/health/power regen)
e) Flood (snare)
Tue 26 Jan 2021 9:10 PM by Sagz
Blitze wrote: ↑
Tue 26 Jan 2021 8:43 PM
Love the ideas...

As I have been a glutton for visi-solo punishment since the server started, you can see my opinions in my old posts, like the OP I want to see more variety of solo and have fun doing it! (varied classes & RR).

Let’s accept solos get there own random zone every 45mins now what is the nature of task in that new task zone (as the capture the flag format won’t work)...So suggestions:

1. Collect Ears

Get a deathblow then you get an Ear, hand-in at NPC. (More Ears u hand-in the bigger the task tick)
After you get a solo kill you get 1x Ear item in your inventory, if you die the item disappears.(you can hold more than one Ear and the more you give in at once the bigger the bonus, but this would be risky.) to hand-in; either have a few NPCs in different locations or have a 20s summon spell to hand-in
(Tough for casters to get to a NPC, good for stealth)

2. Rage

A NPC spawns in a random loc, first solo to click gains buff that makes them deal 10%more dmg and take 20% more damage and sprint drains 5extra endu per tick. You get a deathblow and the buff doubles the effects.. You get a bigger task tick for every deathblow whilst buff is active, there is a leaderboard
(I understand this would be great for snipers).

3. Debuff Plague

Whenever you move to within 1000 units of another player- They get your plague (& you get their plague)... The plague is a minor full stat debuff (Like -20 to all stats) and sprint costs 1more ; But you get 10% bonus on RPs earned. You get the same buff again and again for each person you meet (i.e. If you meet 10 peeps and get -200 stats, & sprint cost 20more end, lol, if you can kill someone in this state you get 100% more RPs though) The Plague effect isn’t purgeable and lasts until you die (or task ends).
(Dunno how this would work with Necro or Animst)

4. Naked fight

You can choose to use a slash command that disables all your Passive & active RA points whilst in zone... and if you do you get a bonus RPs cos of this.
(You could be more variable about this and let people pick their RR.... pick RR1 and get a bonus 150% RPs, pick RR13 ~70% less RPs)

5. Corpse explosion

When you die your corpse Instantly casts a one time 500 damage Aoe DD to everyone in 700 units
(This favours range/casters again)

6. Some Deaths Weigh Heavier

Every solo kill you get lowers your movement speed by 10% for an unpurgeable stacking buff and after 10 you can’t move!!!!. (You get 5% bonus RP Per stack)
(Good for speedsters)

7. Climate Change

Have Huge AoE terrain style effects and the more kills inside you get, the bigger the task tick
a) lightning storm (DD/rupt every XX secs, break spd )
b) locusts (DoT)
c) Blizzard (nearsighted)
d) Heatwave (no end/health/power regen)
e) Flood (snare)

I like the ear idea, I would go so far as to say add 1 of the 2 options.

Option 1 - you dont lose ears when you die and they stack, but cannot be traded. I mean think about getting a solo kill then getting zerged down like 10 sec after. Each one is worth xxx rps and no change for the larger stack, its constant.

Option 2 - You dont lose the ears when you die, unless it is a solo loss, then when you die (only to another solo kill) the person who kills you gets the ears you had on you as a bigger reward. The larger the stack you turn in, the larger reward, thus risk reward for how many you have on you and how many you can lose. This option would not allow the ears to be banked thus abusing the stack amount and also cannot be traded. Trade in location could be any keep/tower lord as well as the docks and portal town so you dont have to run forever to turn it in. Just have to own the keep/tower.

HAHA would also be fun to have them not stack, and have the persons name on them and can make into a trophy, but that's a whole another idea lol

That is probably the only viable idea, the rest are not feasible or even attainable although very creative.
Tue 26 Jan 2021 10:57 PM by Catkain
I am in love with several women and one thread.

This is the thread.
Wed 27 Jan 2021 10:35 AM by Astaa
I just don't think any changes to solo would make any difference. The community is highly toxic and will run people over out of spite, the reward for them is 1-200 RPs

If it moves zone/area, they will just follow.

I would like to see another go at the solo zone, with a clear set of rules and active moderation (even as suggested, involving some sort of community council) any bow towning, any flaming, any cheating gets dealt with. In the case of bow towning and abuse, then the player gets banned from the solo zone, any cheating, the player gets banned full stop, using the existing warning then perma ban methods. It might be a lot of work for staff initially, but it's worth trying if it has long term benefits.
Wed 27 Jan 2021 1:10 PM by opossum12
The first requirement to soloing is having a thick skin. You are at the bottom of the food chain, big fish eats little fish. So personally I am against giving penalties for killing soloers. That's the concept of the game, kill people.

However, solo action is scarce. My main issue, when I run around on my champ, is that I don't really have anything to do in between fights. And sometimes it can take between 30 minutes before I find another solo fight (you get zerged in between).

I would just like having a bit of a reward for continuing to go out even after I get run down by a smallman/group for the 5th run in a row.

The ear idea is the same as just having a RP bonus when completing the solo kill rvr task, not sure it needs a complicated mechanic.

What I think would help more is having a collection task type of task, where picking up boxes in solo towns and mazes would give you something, like BPs as an example, and would count as a rvr task tick. This way you generate an incentive for others that aren't necessarily soloers to run around and go get their boxes or whatever instead of chain boat suiciding at task (to the opposing group of trash that camps the drop off).

Now, ideally you would need to be solo (ungrouped for the past 10 minutes) to prevent groups from disbanding/regrouping to pick it up).

Incentive can be whatever, I think BPs are nice because there is a bit of a market for them (not huge) and the reskin merchant is a great feature of Phx. The BP reward would be small, like get 500 bp for collecting 10 boxes kind of deal, with the turn in being at a high traffic area (bled/beno/dc docks)
Wed 27 Jan 2021 3:04 PM by Blitze
Anything to give an alternative to the chain suiciding for task tick is good.

BPs for a drop quest seems fine to me. Very efficient for Speedsters.
Wed 27 Jan 2021 4:23 PM by Lollie
Can you imagine the amount of stealthers lurking in the area waiting for people to pop along and pick thier box up?
Wed 27 Jan 2021 6:04 PM by Blitze
There shouldnt be just one place.....
Lots of places, each solo should be doing a different box from a different place to a different place (within solo zone)

I dont think a docks/drop congregation point suits this task type.

Some other task types would suit a congregation style (e.g. for the Weather type event where people would go in to get as many bonus kills as possible.)
Wed 27 Jan 2021 8:10 PM by nAAs
I think it would more be an attempt to have people move/roam, kind of like to capture the flag but more geared towards solos.

I doubt creating dynamic locations is that easy so maybe 'fixed within reason' similar to the spawnpoints created in the pvp event would be a good way to go about it. To cause random fight locations to break out in different areas and get people moving.
Thu 28 Jan 2021 6:48 AM by Sepplord
the point is quite clear...how should it be discribed with words that haven't already been said
Just because something isn't the 100% solution to your perfect dreamvision, doesn't mean it isn't an improvement.

That's like saying: what's the point of seatbelts, when someone crashes into a wall with 200km/h that seatbelt won't do much

Even if tons of people go there to farm solos, it would STILL be an improvement, since it would split those people between farming the taskzone and farming the solo-taskzone. Less chances to get overrun by a bigger force simply because the density is reduced.
The smallmen porters are huge for smallmen groups...they really rock. Sometimes there are fullgroups cruising around...so what. That's part of the game, doesn't mean the smallmen-porters are useless.
Thu 28 Jan 2021 3:21 PM by Sepplord
Lacyn HowboutDah wrote: ↑
Thu 28 Jan 2021 3:10 PM
get rid of SL pots
stealth is already the least detectable it has ever been, no truesight, no mos detection and pots behind keep/towerraids instead of being charges that every alchemist can cheaply refill
Thu 28 Jan 2021 6:21 PM by Astaa
Lacyn HowboutDah wrote: ↑
Thu 28 Jan 2021 3:10 PM
get rid of SL pots

get rid of vanish
Thu 28 Jan 2021 11:27 PM by nAAs
This isn't a thread about Stealth/Vanish/SL Pots. Stop the OT.

Good the GMs already made 1 change for solos on this thread, a small but appreciated start
Thu 28 Jan 2021 11:32 PM by ExcretusMaximus
nAAs wrote: ↑
Thu 28 Jan 2021 11:27 PM
This isn't a thread about Stealth/Vanish/SL Pots. Stop the OT.

Good the GMs already made 1 change for solos on this thread, a small but appreciated start

Don't you know? Stealthers are the only players that count, everyone else is an 8man loser, zergtard, or free visible RPs.
Fri 29 Jan 2021 7:00 PM by opossum12
Lacyn HowboutDah wrote: ↑
Thu 28 Jan 2021 3:10 PM
get rid of SL pots

If you get caught by someone popping a SL pot, you are literally the dumbest stealther on the server.
Sat 30 Jan 2021 2:45 PM by boridi
opossum12 wrote: ↑
Fri 29 Jan 2021 7:00 PM
Lacyn HowboutDah wrote: ↑
Thu 28 Jan 2021 3:10 PM
get rid of SL pots

If you get caught by someone popping a SL pot, you are literally the dumbest stealther on the server.
Please dont call me dumb
Thu 11 Feb 2021 6:16 PM by nAAs
Bump
Wed 17 Feb 2021 6:07 AM by Tamy
Hi there, is anything further planned regarding the mentioned "slightly more left field, shorter options"?

As an active solo (visi) player you can't imagine what a QoL improvement it was to get hastener back at the solo keeps. So thanks to for that!
A change regarding disease duration (from 3min to 1.5min for example) and the horse cooldown timer (from 60sec to 30sec) would increase that even further and aren't that time-consuming to implement nor would they have any major impact on the regular RvR.

Thank you for consideration.
Wed 17 Feb 2021 7:32 AM by DarkDavion
Hi guys,


I was thinking about a task with rotating zones in which you have to be solo to participate. Once you arrive in the zone every kill you do will guarantee you half the normal realm points and the other half will add up to the task reward. At the end of the task whoever has obtained the most kills will get 70% of the total task reward's realm points and the second one 30%.
In this way, those who love to solo roam will have a place to go, the much hated duels will not make sense because everyone will try to make as many kills as possible and this system will encourage 1vs1vs1vs1.

We can think about a solo task that is always in the game, just like the other tasks or about a solo task that appear just a couple of times during the day but that can only be joined by soloers.

I don't see negative consequences adding this...
Wed 17 Feb 2021 7:48 AM by Sepplord
most wouldn't join a zone/task that cuts their RP in half....
Wed 17 Feb 2021 8:09 AM by DarkDavion
I think yes bcs the alternative is 0 RPs, BTW u can raise to 75% and 25% to the task reward but the task reward must be attractive for encourage 1vs1vs1vs1 and prevent the duel jerk.
Probably if u let the 100% RP for the kill and other RPs for the task reward ppl will start QQ that is a RP farm...
They can at least try the solo task, is for sure better than nothing and if it works we can see a lot of classes playing there and not just 1vs1 classes
Sun 28 Feb 2021 6:18 PM by Tamy
Tamy wrote: ↑
Wed 17 Feb 2021 6:07 AM
Hi there, is anything further planned regarding the mentioned "slightly more left field, shorter options"?

As an active solo (visi) player you can't imagine what a QoL improvement it was to get hastener back at the solo keeps. So thanks to for that!
A change regarding disease duration (from 3min to 1.5min for example) and the horse cooldown timer (from 60sec to 30sec) would increase that even further and aren't that time-consuming to implement nor would they have any major impact on the regular RvR.

Thank you for consideration.

I'm still hoping on any form of reaction by the devs, so /bump. :-)
Wed 3 Mar 2021 3:45 PM by evert
I've got a new one, participation task for solo fights. Like the solo kills/solo zone kills task but you get it for losing too! Let's do it.
Wed 3 Mar 2021 3:51 PM by Nephamael
My best suggestion so far:

adding 1 solo teleporter at every east bridge of the outer zones = 3 teleporter

(behind DC southeast, behind Beno east, behind Bledmer northeast = 6 points of interest instead of 3 = smallmen have to move between them to farm solos = giving solos bigger timewindows to finish 1v1s before adds and faster spawn + 3 more options to dodge camped spots)


- https://imgur.com/a/OrfLJCD -
Fri 9 Apr 2021 12:32 PM by Babajaga
Ratatouille, up that topic with a french recipe.
Tue 13 Apr 2021 12:01 PM by Tamy
Let's just close this thread and call it a day I guess.
Mon 17 May 2021 1:07 PM by evert
Nothing will ever happen but I will repost therabbin's suggestion from discord since I like it so much:

What about adding a task (only for solo), with kill in hadrian/breifine/jamtland etc
Solo kill in hadrian 0/5
Solo kill in Emain 0/5
Solo kill in jamtland 0/5
Mon 17 May 2021 4:54 PM by Magesty
evert wrote: ↑
Mon 17 May 2021 1:07 PM
Nothing will ever happen but I will repost therabbin's suggestion from discord since I like it so much:

What about adding a task (only for solo), with kill in hadrian/breifine/jamtland etc
Solo kill in hadrian 0/5
Solo kill in Emain 0/5
Solo kill in jamtland 0/5

Can you imagine the amount of griefing/raging something like this would cause?

Minstrels running by and gleefully shouting to disable solo credit. Inexperienced/bad players innocently adding because “red is dead” getting flamed into oblivion by middle aged man-children who assume malicious intent. The solo angst is already a pretty potent thing, but adding a task for solo kills in some of the most populated zones is just asking for discord.

I get it. 90+% of the time I play solo. It is pretty unrewarding at times, especially as a visible, and even the “kill players alone” task can cause some grief, but I think instituting systems that purposefully derail standard gameplay (free form action) in busy zones is not productive. The tendency for opposing solo players to just stand around staring at each other is already way too high, and this seems like just another step in that direction.

Why does this type of dueling solo play need to be encouraged at all? Clean 1v1s are enjoyable without additional rewards, and trying to further build out an incentive structure for this type of fighting isn’t going to magically create more solo players. If any sort of change is made the goal should be to encourage people who might not have otherwise had the inclination to go out solo and engage with realm enemies on sight rather than incentivizing structured, clean fighting. The purpose should be getting players that don’t have the best templates and maybe aren’t the most skilled to get out there and mix it up instead of humping a keep until they have a group they are comfortable with. This would serve to increase small man/solo action along with being a benefit to the higher quality solo players that would otherwise be standing still on a bridge eye fucking enemy players they have no intention of engaging with.
Mon 17 May 2021 6:46 PM by Astaa
An increase in solo RPs would be nice, it wouldn't stop people mindlessly zerging/adding but it would make it more appealing/rewarding to try it out.

While there is a separate reward for solo kills in the form of a task, as a visi you are lucky to get 1 or 2 clean fights in an entire evening.
Mon 17 May 2021 7:11 PM by gotwqqd
Astaa wrote: ↑
Mon 17 May 2021 6:46 PM
An increase in solo RPs would be nice, it wouldn't stop people mindlessly zerging/adding but it would make it more appealing/rewarding to try it out.

While there is a separate reward for solo kills in the form of a task, as a visi you are lucky to get 1 or 2 clean fights in an entire evening.
It’ll be great for higher real rank players
For low RR they will remain fodder
Tue 18 May 2021 2:59 AM by Nephamael
It’ll be great for higher real rank players
For low RR they will remain fodder

What we really need is incentives to get the low rank solos into an area with each other and return after being killed.

I think an automatic reward for both players if the system registers a "solokill" = clean fight would be nice, where as the loser gets a bigger reward the lower RR he is, similar to the /task rewards.
Tue 18 May 2021 3:00 AM by Nephamael
What about adding a task (only for solo), with kill in hadrian/breifine/jamtland etc
Solo kill in hadrian 0/5
Solo kill in Emain 0/5
Solo kill in jamtland 0/5

If it was Solo kill in penninne/jamtland/breifine instead it would be worth a shot.

It would also help solos who are not endlessly advantaged by being able to play NA nights, to actually find 1v1s during their onlinetime (EU prime to NA prime).
Wed 19 May 2021 12:28 AM by Jingo NZ
This idea includes focal point, fast action, incentive for low rr to participate, and disincentive to standing around.

A NEW SEPARATE solo /Task zone on a 45 minute rotation
Only solo kills within the /Task zone will earn you contribution
Non-solo kills are worth less than normal in this zone. The multiplier equation is: x 2/(RR-1), with a max of 1.0.
For example, if you are RR1 to RR3 you get 100% of normal RP for non-solo kill. If you are RR4 you get 66% of normal RP, RR5 is 50%, RR6 is 40% …
Fights around keeps and towers are exempt from this reduced RP for non-solo kills.
Solo players can port to this zone (random drop location) from two furthest docks, or solo keep zone. (E.G Alb can port from Bold and Beno docks and Folley Lake).

And one additional thing to encourage people to fight naturally rather than duel towns…
After you get a solo kill you are worth +1000 RPs for 60 seconds.

Think about it… you come across 2 ppl fighting. You wait for them to finish cleanly so that the winner is worth more RPs, then you engage…
Wed 19 May 2021 8:55 PM by Adwaenyth
Jingo NZ wrote: ↑
Wed 19 May 2021 12:28 AM
Think about it… you come across 2 ppl fighting. You wait for them to finish cleanly so that the winner is worth more RPs, then you engage…

THAT is a terrible idea... vulturing is already a thing as it is and doesn't need to be encouraged. Especially because a lot of solo players don't WANT that kind of help after a fight but want to fight that player again themselves. I think avoiding /bow towns is more complicated than that.

Encouraging players to move away from their respective coastal keeps is certainly appealing, however granting RPs always finds a griefer to exploit a mechanic just for that alone. Greed is way too strong in people it seems.
Wed 19 May 2021 11:17 PM by Jingo NZ
Adwaenyth wrote: ↑
Wed 19 May 2021 8:55 PM
Jingo NZ wrote: ↑
Wed 19 May 2021 12:28 AM
Think about it… you come across 2 ppl fighting. You wait for them to finish cleanly so that the winner is worth more RPs, then you engage…

THAT is a terrible idea... vulturing is already a thing as it is and doesn't need to be encouraged.

Yes - vulturing is a (legitimate) thing. With this system the adder is incentivised to at least let the solo fight finish before cleaning up. Also, some solo players would be able to beat two players in a row and will get a nice dopamine hit and content for their YouTube video.
Thu 20 May 2021 6:29 AM by Adwaenyth
Jingo NZ wrote: ↑
Wed 19 May 2021 11:17 PM
Yes - vulturing is a (legitimate) thing.

So is adding.

If vulturing is legitimate, why should adding not be? Results are mostly the same. I see no solo benefit whatsoever in rewarding either.



The only thing that could work is a system, where the losing party will also benefit from that loss in a solo fight. A system to promote soloing must be encouraging to the solo winner and the solo loser, not to anyone else.

Also, as I said. People can get very creative in griefing even the most well thought out system, and RP rewards are only marginally beneficial in that.

The most problems for the solo community arise from groups killing soloers wherever they find them. Thus the majority of solo players are either speedsters or stealthers. Other people that are even interested in solo fights are mostly trying to get to a location with a reasonable chance of finding any solo, well aware that they might just be added and killed by any group or coast guard that happens to be there.

If you do not want seperate solo zones and no permanent /bow towns, options of what you can do are very limited. RP rewards do not help in that regard, because it only entices players to find the most creative way in griefing the soloers for it - or just not caring for it and going for the easy RP anyways. Also a lot of participants in /bow towns etc. are exactly the same people that are willingly griefing, vulturing or adding the solo players anyways when they are viable options to make fast RPs. That was perfectly visible when there were solo ports available and these /bow towns established.

Ad-Hoc the only thing that might (emphasis on might) be relatively grief proof with an RP reward would be a system with the following rules:

  • If you die, your task reward is increased by 50% of the rp you would have gotten, if the target would be killed now.
  • First rule does not apply, if your target was not at 100% health.
  • First rule does not apply, if your target was hit by any other player until you died.
  • First rule does not apply, if you gain any RP from that fight now or after release and return to the zone.
  • If you kill your target solo while dealing all damage (100% -> 0%) you qualify for a normal task zone bonus like current rvr task.
  • Task reward bonus gained that way is multiplied by your solo kills and devided by your total kills within that zone.
  • Task reward bonus is multiplied by 50% if you didn't have any kills.
  • Task reward is only granted, if you were without group the entire time of the task.

Add that as a requirement for the solo task zone and it might have a chance of working. Still a bit crude though that is the only way I could think of a solo task zone bonus without it being overtly exploitable.
Thu 20 May 2021 10:02 AM by DJ2000
Killing someone that just recently finished his fight will not result in a "solo kill worth +1000rp"... just saying.
Thu 20 May 2021 10:36 AM by Blitze
Soloing will only be a viable game style when groups and zergs don’t chase & instakill every last solo they see at clip range! Nothing else needs to change really.
Thu 20 May 2021 10:55 AM by DJ2000
/tag exists - so technically there are incentives.

The Fact that is not "working" is due to the community as a whole.
It is the nature of the Game.

For example:
Trying to implement EV as a place to be as a solo will only work if it's convenient in several fronts. And not all "Solo" have the same goal in mind. Just to name 2; Dock/bridge campers would never go to ev. Xp-gankers would also never go to ev. Both being part of the "solo" community.
So that would result in another "solo" faction not going to ev, the ones that hunts those 2 above.

It is not just "getting zerged". There are a multitude of reasons why it's not feeling good to be a solo.
(i didn't mention class balance for a reason)

But this is the Solo suggestion thread, not the solo complaint thread.
Thu 20 May 2021 12:12 PM by Sepplord
Blitze wrote: ↑
Thu 20 May 2021 10:36 AM
Soloing will only be a viable game style when groups and zergs don’t chase & instakill every last solo they see at clip range! Nothing else needs to change really.

It is already viable (with room for improvement) now though for some people...

Your argument hits me in a similar way people object to small improvements, just because it doesn't fix the problem completely. It's either defeatist attitude or maliciously masking the actual reasons for objecting.
Thu 20 May 2021 12:38 PM by Adwaenyth
DJ2000 wrote: ↑
Thu 20 May 2021 10:55 AM
/tag exists - so technically there are incentives.

I doubt that many that do add would know about that command. It's not really self explanatory and even if there were a rather prominent explanation for it, after seeing people starting a bug report for RP reset on all their characters with the current event, I doubt they would even bother to read something like that.
Thu 20 May 2021 2:47 PM by gotwqqd
Find desolate areas to pick enemies or live with and embrace your realm mates helping every so often.
Thu 20 May 2021 4:36 PM by Nephamael
Task reward bonus gained that way is multiplied by your solo kills and devided by your total kills within that zone.

That would benefit stealthers and punish all visible solos, especially casters.

As a stealther you can choose when to engage most of the times - a visible solo can not choose who to engage most of the time.

The clean solokillrate of my nightshade is at least 3x as high as if i solo on my eld and at least 2x of my hero. (reson hero has a high solokillrate is because the /bowtown duellers like merc arms warr do fight him and not run at sight )
Thu 20 May 2021 4:42 PM by Nephamael
/tag exists - so technically there are incentives.

The Fact that is not "working" is due to the community as a whole.
It is the nature of the Game.

The willingness inside the gvg community was initially very high to use /tag.

The main reasons why /tag is not used to its potential is of technical nature.

1) the /tag range is too short

= inconvenience for both the 8man and the solo as the solo thinks he gets run over and starts playing not naturally/running, especially in a ongoing 1v1 this can be devastating to the outcome. - Inconvenience for the 8man to have to go much closer than they want to not scare the solo or even having to run down the solo for quite a while - especially this often leads to 1 or 2 guys being angry at the solo for running and killing him, even if the rest of the group wants to /tag.


2) /tag being not usable for groups of 7

= inconvenience because 8men often run as 7 while waiting for the last slot to fill/come online - now the /tag macro doesn't work so everyone is like "omfg this sh** command, lets just run them all over again /tag is stupid" ....


I believe /tag can still be saved as a way to generate a small but significant positive impact for solos, but it would have to have a bigger range (i recommend somewhere in between 2700 to 3k) and needs to be usable by groups of 7+.
Thu 20 May 2021 7:33 PM by dalinvar
Simple idea, when you use the command /solo your name become gray to grouped enemies showing them you are not going to give any rps when killed by not-solo-player. Just soloers will get rps by killing you
Thu 20 May 2021 8:06 PM by bculpepper
I played a solo SB to LE/RR11 and I'm now trying a solo Skald. The visible solo experience is eye opening as compared to the stealth solo experience. I get rolled over all, the, time as a visible solo where with a SB/Vanish it was much more rare. I have a deeper appreciation of the visible solo now....

Penalizing people who kill solos will never (and should never) happen so its not worth suggesting.

The #1 thing solos need to have a fun playing experience is more visible solos. The reason people don't want to try visible solo its frustrating getting rolled over and over again. A RP reward for dying while solo would help.. or dying at a disadvantage (1v3 or 3v8). As long as the reward is only given by getting full damage from other players to prevent people from suiciding to guards I think it would be a nice encouragement to those that solo/smallman and maybe provide incentive on those nights when you die 5x in a row before you have any decent action.
Thu 20 May 2021 11:16 PM by BPICKEREL
dalinvar wrote: ↑
Thu 20 May 2021 7:33 PM
Simple idea, when you use the command /solo your name become gray to grouped enemies showing them you are not going to give any rps when killed by not-solo-player. Just soloers will get rps by killing you

I like this idea. I also like extra rps for remaining solo during a task
Sat 22 May 2021 6:11 AM by Astaa
I don't really like the idea of more layers of extra RPs. For the most part the issue is players attitude, which no amount of gameplay mechanics will change. People genuinely don't care whether they are zerging people down or how that frustrates fellow DAOC players. Whether that is right or wrong is another matter. I have played solo visi off and on since 2002 and it has always been the same, there were more groups that would spare solo players back in the day but 9/10 runs you would still get zerged down one way or another. Over the last week I have been spared by both Mid and Alb groups on hero, even in task zone, and in one case you could tell a player was told to pull off by the group, it is very much appreciated (sorry didn't get the names)

The reward for having a good evening as a solo visi outweigh the bad nights and that has nothing to do with RPs earned, I would rather lose 10 fair fights in an evening than just get run over all the time. I just find it strange in general when people say things like 'Wow last night was popping, I made X amount of RPs' like it's some sort of gauge for entertainment. I dabble with a void eld at keeps and the ticks are just absurd, for doing virtually nothing, I got nearly 15k in ticks for defending Crim the other night, had emain task, rvr task and then defence tick, boring as hell, most nights I don't get anywhere near that as solo visi, which is fine.

For a time, back on EU Excal we had a multi-realm IRC channel where we would rotate the "Solo zone" depending on how the evening was playing out, not sitting around in a circle bowing to each other (which I also dislike) but roaming about finding fights, and it worked. Probably outside of the rules but the GMs let it slide for the most part.
Mon 24 May 2021 1:43 AM by bculpepper
Astaa wrote: ↑
Sat 22 May 2021 6:11 AM
I don't really like the idea of more layers of extra RPs. For the most part the issue is players attitude, which no amount of gameplay mechanics will change. People genuinely don't care whether they are zerging people down or how that frustrates fellow DAOC players. Whether that is right or wrong is another matter. I have played solo visi off and on since 2002 and it has always been the same, there were more groups that would spare solo players back in the day but 9/10 runs you would still get zerged down one way or another. Over the last week I have been spared by both Mid and Alb groups on hero, even in task zone, and in one case you could tell a player was told to pull off by the group, it is very much appreciated (sorry didn't get the names)

The reward for having a good evening as a solo visi outweigh the bad nights and that has nothing to do with RPs earned, I would rather lose 10 fair fights in an evening than just get run over all the time. I just find it strange in general when people say things like 'Wow last night was popping, I made X amount of RPs' like it's some sort of gauge for entertainment. I dabble with a void eld at keeps and the ticks are just absurd, for doing virtually nothing, I got nearly 15k in ticks for defending Crim the other night, had emain task, rvr task and then defence tick, boring as hell, most nights I don't get anywhere near that as solo visi, which is fine.

For a time, back on EU Excal we had a multi-realm IRC channel where we would rotate the "Solo zone" depending on how the evening was playing out, not sitting around in a circle bowing to each other (which I also dislike) but roaming about finding fights, and it worked. Probably outside of the rules but the GMs let it slide for the most part.

After some further reflection I completely agree with this. The past 2 nights for me have been awful. I think I got in maybe 1-2 decent fights in 4 hours of gameplay and was killed by groups 90% of my other runs. The worst part is blowing timers trying to outrun a group and then having nothing available when you finally do find the diamond in the rough fight you've been looking for all night....

It is a player mentality thing beyond all else. In an 8v1 most of the time every single player who can deal damage rushed to cast/anytime style me just to have the fun of clicking that one button... even when I just sit down and concede.

TBH - it makes me sad more than anything else. I would love to do a solo visible but it just isn't working. I sometimes run with the BG, but if I can't have some solo fun my time in DAOC is probably limited. Funny thing - as I was typing this on my second monitor an alb 5-man killed me in the most obscure place I could think to find a decent fight...
Mon 24 May 2021 2:52 AM by bculpepper
I had an idea tonight which I didn't see summarized on the list so want to throw it out there. There was a hib group sitting and medding as I was on my Skald and ran within sight of them. They surely saw me but didn't pursue. I thought that was nice and I wish I could somehow express appreciation - but I don't want to get close enough to them to make them think I might add or give them the chance to kill me.

Phoenix Staff added the /tag command to give some incentive to 8-man groups not running down solos. Since this is already implemented maybe we can expand on it in a couple of ways:

1) Expand the range as far as possible. Maybe 5k units.
2) Allow the /tag command to work in reverse. I would like to have /tagged the group. If I tag them each member of the group gets a prominent message with "Player XXX has tagged you". This would accomplish 3 goals.
a) Now they know I'm solo and maybe won't see me as a threat to the 8v8.
b) They see my name as the person who tagged them. So on future nights maybe they will think 'thats the guy who is solo - lets leave him alone...'
c) They have no reason to kill me as they will get the rps bonus. If they kill me they lose the bonus
Sun 30 May 2021 6:02 PM by Nephamael
I had a interesting idea, just not sure if its easy to implement:

There could be a Toa-Style-Portal from each solo zone to each Frontier Keeps unused side:


Portal from

1) Hib solo zone to DC Southeast

2) Alb solo zone to Beno Southast

3) Mid solo zone to Bledmer Northeast


It would be
A) A faster way to Beno/DC/Bledmer (reducing the empty space between solo porter and the action areas)
B) An alternative way to boating (if Docks are camped)
C) Generating a point of interest at each portals entry and exit point = also generating action around the 3 solo zones
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