Loot frequency and game style

[Silvonis]

Just to reiterate what we've said previously, we have no plans on adjusting the game based on the alpha/beta population(s). As for the group vs soloing experience, we are designing Project: Gorgon with the goal of grouping in mind. That said, please feel free to continue your conversation(s).

[Citan]

While grouping should be the most efficient way to get gear, I want soloing to be viable at all levels and I agree that it's too slow to get gear while soloing at some level ranges. We'll be working on this in the future, though I'm not sure yet what form that will take.

(And again, please feel free to keep discussing.)

[INXS]

The difference between hunting with a group in a dungeon or hunting solo regarding great gear is the frequency i which you get good items. Solo hunting i've found some of the best pieces of gear and maybe yes i coud have spent time in GK and got alot of it but then again it could be non yellow stuff. It all comes down to your own personal goals, time when you want to complete the skills you are playing, some people take their time some picked new skills and just maxed them to 70 and need phat lewt right away. GK is the place for instant reward. I have one decent piece from GK only been there a handful of time, my best possessions are actually things i crafted myself better than anything i've found ingame in past 7 months.

[Tagamogi]

My best gear is also crafted, but since I've never done any of GK/labs/mants, that's probably non-surprising.

Throwing out an anecdotal data point here: I just ran through the No-Name (plant) cave in Gazluk wearing an eclectic mix of gear ranging from a level 40 purple ring to a couple purple crafted level 70 pieces. Total time about 35-40 minutes, including one death with extensive running back due to an unfortunate 4-mob clump when I wasn't paying enough attention.
Total gear loot:
Level 65: 5 items ( 2 orange necklaces, orange gloves, purple necklace, blue knife)
Level 60: 7 items ( purple beaker, orange necklace, orange knife, orange boots, blue pants, 2 blue chests)
Level 55: 1 blue necklace

Most of the gear was from the 4 chests in the cave, with 4 gear drops from assorted mobs I was killing.

That seems like perfectly nice and plentiful loot for the time spent to me? It's maybe not the most efficient place ever if you want level 61+ items for faster augmentation leveling but since half of my augmentation skills are still in the 50s, the drops are actually perfect for me. ( I haven't paid much attention to which cave drops what level gear in Gazluk, I picked the No-Name cave tonight primarily because I wanted to try out my new double-chance stun proc against the ghosts anyway. (The verdict there is that I love venomstrike stun. ))

[kazeandi]

30 players online really isn't a lot. You might get a team of 3 out of 100. People log in to do something for an hour after work, whereas setting everything up for a team, plus dungeon time itself, plus pain-in-the-butt mechanics like the epic fail of an inventory, make it just too much to bother.

I've stopped logging in recently myself, after many of my guildies went inactive. Playing something else, waiting for a promising patch. Might check out the new UI.

PG just isn't that great when you're solo all the time. Not anymore after 50, with all the artificial hardships, of which one is, as you already pointed out, gear progression.

Yeah, nope.

[Rowina]

While grouping should be the most efficient way to get gear, I want soloing to be viable at all levels and I agree that it's too slow to get gear while soloing at some level ranges. We'll be working on this in the future, though I'm not sure yet what form that will take.

[MENTION=59]Citan[/MENTION], is a better guild/group communication available in the new UI? i mean more like messages offline besides motd, looking for groups, locations of people (on and off if needed) etc and is it in this version? is it planned? I am curious

[Atis]

Grouping isn't easy with so much skills. Sure, when you are at level cap in 5+ skills you can just say "group to GK" but if all you have is 30lv sword, 20lv archery, 23lv fire, 15lv psychology, and your potential groupmates have just as random list, it takes too much time to figure out what can be a good place for all of you. Dungeons are designed a bit messy, simply saying "noob party to Goblin Dungeon up to West Chest" is not always clear. Some fancy stuff at key locations would help a bit. "A noob party in Goblin Dungeon, clearing from Red Pillar to Waterfall Tapestry." - not perfect but would work.

Add in a different inventory management behaviour and you have a group of ppl who need inventory breaks at different time. If I could just clear 2/3 of my pockets in 5 minutes and run with a group for next 3 hours without thinking about space, that would make grouping way easier.

[Silvonis]

[MENTION=59]Citan[/MENTION], is a better guild/group communication available in the new UI? i mean more like messages offline besides motd, looking for groups, locations of people (on and off if needed) etc and is it in this version? is it planned? I am curious

We will be sharing specifics as we move closer to releasing the first iteration of the new GUI, so please stay tuned to our social media outlets for GUI related news.

I will say that the new GUI has been completely redesigned and coded from the ground up. We did that in order to make it possible to have a wide degree of flexibility in adding new features and systems.

As I said, we will share more about it as move closer to it's launch but I would also preface that by saying that the first iteration won't necessarily have everything included from day one. The core functionality needs to be heavily tested and from there we can continue to compile and implement wish list features as we progress. That said, there will be improvements from the get go but it will be an ongoing piece of the development puzzle.

[Rowina]

I see. Thank you for your information [MENTION=1]Silvonis[/MENTION]

[Feral]

Enjoyed reading this thread and now that I have a forum account I thought I'd reply. I prefer soloing for the most part. One of the things that keeps me trying to like this game: its FLEXIBILITY. While there are many key decisions I disagree with about this game, I really appreciate that soloing is viable, even at max lvl. If I can't get in/won't join a GK group I have the flexibility to craft my own gear of equal and/or better quality! While I agree that the drops outside of GK seems sparse and often under lvl 65 it could be that yes, I am soloing and killing slower. Also I spend half the time freezing to death=)

Finally, for the solo player (which seems the majority in MMOs these days) the decision to rid the game of "bound" gear until you start tinkering means:

1. I may find gear I can use that someone else received from a dungeon run.

2. I willingly try out new gear, even with mods I might not use, to see if I like those mods better. If not, I can start transmuting.