This discussion started in the “Release Date” thread. I wondered what people thought about it.
Which should have the focus, and why?
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For the new skill system , I believe team work can get more benefit this is no doubt.
1+1 = 2. But the question is who u r working with, and wut ur goal is.
If you rush to lvl up , better team up with player who has experience.
so you guys can separate jobs like one do source gather , the other one for craft.
if u like help others more, u can spent some time to teach new player methods.
Solo is the other kind of game experience, it will be more difficult.
You may need to create 2-3 more char and lvl up those at the same time to achieve the same result which will take u more time i believe.
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Team play is a good goal. Solo is fine too, but the community surrounding this game makes playing with others fun!
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There shouldn’t be a strong focus on one or the other. What we have now is the option for people to play as solo as they want and with as large of a group as they want.
When Titans are released, they will be a group focused thing and I can’t tell whether or not they’re going to implement any other group focused content. Not even meteor events are strictly group play even though you benefit more from being in a group of 15 doing them than if you were soloing meteors.
I just hate the idea of having the game focus too much on one over the other.
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Focusing on only one aspect of the game limits the game. So both should be supported and allowed and invested in.
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yeh team play for sure is always good… if you gel with certain people (common goals and etc)
Solo play is prob a main focus for most (in the sense of - not everyone - the new guys - will know anyone… so they will be happy exploring and doing their own thing untill they meet others) In that sense the new guys will figure out what they enjoy the most, what they dont like, what the cant/wont do etc… and then decide who best to join for that person/group…
In the other sense solo play is almost (my oppinion only) impossible now because as an example it talking about someone like myself…
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I don’t like building (only because i can’t build epic)
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i don’t like crafting tools/weaps higher than tier 1/2 because the extent of the process/materials and time needed.
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I am essentially a hunter/miner/explorer at the moment because of the above… however…
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Mining gets boreing fast (unless you are doing commission and can get a good price/trade)
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Hunting… is just meh when you don’t know how to effectively skill for it (got to watch a few more vids i guess)
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exploration is awesome fun… but there is not really any levels/skills/exp for it appart from the feats (which apparently has been calculated to take an actual lifetime!)
so my biggest hope is that the devs either
- make a great balance of all the above…
- find the perfect/most relaxed guild/community with common goals if you want but can do your own thing whenever (which i beleive i have now found)
But currently we are somewhat in the dark about all this until the devs release their actual game-plan 
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Group play keeps getting pushed, but, what I mainly see are solo players who may or may not have a shop stand or buy from shop stands (requiring no actual player to player contact), People mine solo, they hunt solo they even do meteors solo. I rarely see groups of even two or three. Never been on a group hun and don’t ever plan on it, so, have never seen a single large group. Cities have usually had few people in them. The most dots for players I have seen at once was about six in a city and they were spread all over. Usually even going to Moebious Plaza I never see anyone and if I do it’s one or two total. Boundless to me is a solo game pushing to try and become a multi-player game. I find that odd because it’s primarily a building game and most builders work alone as they are artists. Great sculpters and painters don’t make art as a team effort and most builders who are really artists won’t build as a team effort. They prefer it is actually their idea and their creation rather than a group project with their name on it. As long as Boundless makes sure solo play works fine it will be okay and group stuff is just an extra to get a different audience who can choose to solo whenever they get tired of group play.
By he way, I have done a small amount of group play and enjoyed it. I find if group play takes up more than about 1% of my play time I get fed up with it though. It’s a nice diversion occasionally. Heck, last night in LOTRO I played with a partner for the first time ever and had fun. No plans to do it again, but, last night wasn’t planned either. We happened to be in the same area and then ran around for a few hours together.
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The problem is people feel any bonuses towards group play are unfair towards solo play. How are the devs supposed to promote group play in an MMO if the solo players are against it?
One side has to concede.
which is why i am trying to explain that it should go back to being Boundless… and not try to rehash an old title (Oort Online) simply because the skills were free-from… do something you get better at it… groups were never forced/favoured by the devs as they are now… SP was never going to be a thing no idea why it started coming in (but i liked it at first because even when the skill system was new it was still almost free-form and boundless
I guess now i am saounding more and more like an X… maybe your right… but can you blame me?
I still love the game… i will still play it (how much longer is anyones guess) but don’t forget we are all exhausted atm… and when the new universe comes it will be all new/shiny and fresh once more 
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Group play should accomplish different things than solo play, and vice versa. For instance, you can’t very well group mine/gather; that’s a solo thing. But you can’t very well do high-tier meteors solo; group play accomplishes that more efficiently.
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They could add group mining content.
Why? The whole point is to focus both group and solo play. When the same activity can be done well by both modes, one will invariably win out. My entire argument is to keep solo activities and group activities separate - then you can have both modes of play.
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If they want to encourage group play they should be more creative about means of communication. For example, it’s been suggested multiple times to add things like guestbooks, mailboxes, etc that would allow for asynchronous communication. If I could get to know my neighbors better asynchronously, I might make more of an effort to try and meet up with them when our playtimes overlap.
I know Discord allows this to some degree, but it just doesn’t feel the same somehow as interacting with someone directly in-game.
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I agree, but I think they were caught between developing content for the solo players and trying to make an MMO, and ended up dividing the content too much and the end result is something that is currently lacking in the MMO/social area.
Group play works best when each member of a group has an important and engaging role to fill. The class system, the holy trinity of tank, dps, and healer.
Here, we have a skill system that allows players to choose their own path- and as a result, often dilute their abilities and try to cover every role at once! No wonder there is so little group play! Join a guild or community dedicated to cooperative play and Boundless turns into an entirely different game.
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Don’t forget a controller type. It’s more a holy square, than a trinity these days. And I think Boundless can do controller better than most games if they choose to.
Huh???
So there should not be bonuses to either side, both are viable options and indeed inside of the Boundless world both are very viable options!!!
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Shouldn’t the MMO parts of the game be encouraged? Seems like a lot of people would rather just play this solo, in which case, why was it ever made into an MMO in the first place?
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Since when does MMORPG require group play???
I played solo in Ultima Online I played solo in SWG those are both Sandbox Oriented MMORPG’s and this too is a Sandbox…
I think we once again have an issue here were the Newer generation doesnt know or remember what a Sandbox MMORPG is… And thus they lean on what they know World of Warcraft and the endless horde of Themepark WoW clones that have ruined the MMORPG genre for the past 12 years!!!
MMORPG does NOT mean group play required…
MMORPG means everyone should be able to play the way they want… The best MMORPG’s support every style of play…
Crafters
Exploreres
Shop Keepers
PvEers
PvPers
Achievers
Socializers
So styles of play are more group oriented and some are more solo oriented but none are more important then the other!
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The debate started because people were upset group play was being incentivized and given bonuses, not because solo play was possible.
I don’t think sandbox mmo’s have actually done that well in the last 20 years in terms of sales… so it’s hard to say how much the devs should focus on that aspect.
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