Are NPC Party Members An Inevitability?

[Cosmic Janitor]

At some point you have to ask yourself why you play an MMO which is in so many places inferior to SP-games if you just don't want to play the MMO part of the MMORPG.

I think you'd be surprised how many people actually just enjoy the shitastic floaty hotkey combat of MMOs like WoW. For many it's also just the option to play with others, you can't just load up Geralt and then play together with your friends. I mean WoW has become popular because you could actually do stuff on your own in the first place, let's not forget that. WoW is the babies' first mmo as far as the MMO scene is/was concerned back in the day. So it's hardly surprising that people want to have more of that.

[stross01]

1. They are not "only tank or healer" affixes. Everybody can and should move away from Volcanic/Storming, avoid avoidable damage to get less Grevious stacks and use personal healing to drop them, DPS mobs evenly for Bolstering or single target prio for Inspired/Explosive. Hardly only healer/tank job. Even Necrotic can be made so much easier if entire team slows/stuns the mobs.

2. 80% specs are shit in M+? Hope you don't get your info from MDI only. I have seen every spec in game timing 15+, aside from Survival maybe.

3. Prideful is a seasonal affix, it goes away in 9.1. And Dungeon Tools with strict routes have been a thing since BfA. Reaping and Awakened were strongly about dungeon %.

They are only tank and healer mechanics.

1) You don't acknowledge that volcanic exists because it's a sub-1 second tap of a movement key to fully counter and negate volcanic. And you can safely ignore Storming's damage because it does essentially zero and is easily healed through leech, one tick of one hot one time that may already be on you and would've overhealed, and you can cheese the internal cooldown of how often you can be hit by it. Or, you know, don't bring melee. Avoidable damage is avoidable, isn't really part of the discussion, and is present no matter what affix or no affix at all, so I'm not sure how that's part of the discussion.

As far as bolstering goes, there are very, very, very few pulls that have a fat mob mixed with small ones, so not really applicable here other than "don't mix your mob sizes" or "don't chain pull", both tank concepts.

And necrotic, you just run with your VDH and ignore necrotic stacks from just sheer HP or the nearly zero CD phial of serenity (because every vdh is kyrian) OR your paladin with the same phial, bop, bubble, 50% aoe snare with no cd that doesn't need you to get near the mobs, etc.

2) Yes, indeed that many are terrible. Though, you're right about timing 15s. Someone could slam their head against a coconut over and over until it cracks open, which ultimately gets the same same result as using a hammer. That must make the methods equally valid, right?

3) You could indeed using a route previous to this season, but they were most assuredly not as rigid. No route was beholden to a single extra mob or extra pack or single neglected mob or pack. You could fully ungabunga every season affix before now, if you so desired.

[Chaotic1962]

I would love to see some companion stuff added like swtor has.

To all the people saying play a single player game:
Name me one. One single player game with WoW's rotation/combat, amount of classes, quests and things you can collect /do. Even without the dungeons / raids. Just the one will do.

[RemasteredClassic]

...DUDE. That would be SO awesome =O

I could see Blizzard giving folks a choice:

A. Alts as AI Party Members.
B. Premade AI Party Members (similar to WoD/Legion Followers/Champions)
C. Create your own AI Party Members.
D. A Combination of A, B and C.

For Alts, the EXP is split. They would get full Faction Rep as an AI Party member though. That would incentivize using Alts for stuff gated behind Rep. Level gates would apply so for example you couldn't bring a level 10 Alt into a raid. The reverse would obviously be possible but you would have the option of either scaling the higher level Alt's level down to yours, turning off EXP gains for it or a combination of both.

As for PvP. AI Party Members do 75% damage to human players but 100% damage to opposing AI party members.

Premade AI Party Members basically work like Body Guards only they have upgradable gear. They would all presumably have a backstory when you get them and occasionally they may give you quests. They would have generic names to other players using the same char in their party. Aside from the obvious faction-exclusive Premades, there are some that are Class or Race exclusive. As in you must be a certain race or class to unlock them.

Created AI Party Members always start at level 10 (15 for Death Knights and Demon Hunters). Same Race/Class restrictions as the player character. You can have up to 100 AI Party Members per faction (200 total) and the pool is accountwide. For Alts and premades, you would need to do short unlock quest on each alt after you unlock them on your main(s).

For any AI Party members, you would go to an Inn or speak to a Quartermaster in Quest Hubs to build your squad. You can switch up your party there but while out in the world you can edit still your party members. If an AI party member gets killed, you or another party member can use a Rez skill on them. If you get killed and at least one AI party member with a Rez skill is present, they can rez you. Unlike WoD/Legion, combat continues after you go down as long as an AI party member with a Rez Skill is still alive.

AI Party Members can have Professions. Alt versions have their full recipes available to them. Premades and Created, you can see a Profession Trainer. They can also learn Cooking and Fishing. When they're not with you, they'll slowly work on their crafts. You can also trade with them or have them make stuff for you.

AI Party Members can be used to help you clear Dungeons. They can also be used in legacy Raids or Dungeons. When you enter a dungeon or raid alone or with other human players, you're asked two questions. The first is if you want to summon your AI Party Members. If yes, your party will be teleported in. In a Raid or Legacy Raid solo, you will be asked if you want to summon AI party members to fill a 10, 20/25 or 40-man Raid. If you don't have enough in reserve, some temporary generic premades will be added to fill vacancies. If you have human party members, they can opt to add their AI Party members if you agree to have AI Party members.

...Just some stuff I had swimming around in my head. I plan to make a separate thread for all this soon =P

Blizzard please hire this guy!

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It should be real players only.

No should be, just options, more the merrier, win win. Don’t like it, don’t use it, someone else who does will.

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This is way better than increasing my own levels every expansion...I’d rather level up stuff like this and a combat mount, 4 specs etc as horizontal progression.

[intenz]

Are we talking about actual NPCs or is this a reference to the meme about leftist groupthinkers? In both cases yes it's an inevitability.

[Segus1992]

I can already measure a pretty good guess the overwhelming majority of folks here are disgusted by the idea but I do believe it is both inevitable and to a greater degree necessary to meet varying play styles and preferences.

...Plus, the MMO bubble popped a long time ago. The genre's not as popular as it was in the past plus other factors. This is why I feel NPC party members is inevitable. Time will tell though.

1) Why is it inevitable, exactly? If WoW drops down to below 1000 active players in any specific region, you can bet your ass that region is being shut down. In other words, while there are enough people to play, NPC party members will be unnecessary.

2) Why should an MMO cater to the people so aggressively antisocial that they can't even play with others through text and ingame avatars only? The difficulty in raids is teamplay, if you could cheat your way through that with NPC party members who are programmed to not fuck up (or fuck up in such a way that you as a player can mitigate it), that would just become the best way to play.

3) WoW is not as popular as it was, absolutely. There are still thousands of guilds pushing Mythic raids. Maybe this discussion can be relevant when there's only a dozen left, but chances are WoW will be dead for entirely different reasons at that point.

[Thes]

Something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsaE4pM9-cw? Haha

[Segus1992]

I would love to see some companion stuff added like swtor has.

To all the people saying play a single player game:
Name me one. One single player game with WoW's rotation/combat, amount of classes, quests and things you can collect /do. Even without the dungeons / raids. Just the one will do.

Monster Hunter? Dragon Age: Inquisition? Those are just the massive games off the top of my head that more or less matches what you're looking for.

WoW's rotation? Why is that a requirement exactly?

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Something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsaE4pM9-cw? Haha

If you've done Proving Grounds (MoP, WoD) as a healer, those are what sparked this discussion way back when. Problem is that they're specifically programmed for that content, and would likely double the amount of work necessary for raids and dungeons to be ready for launch. What's the gain? A couple hundred more people get to experience the higher difficulties in a low difficulty environment? I don't blame Blizzard for not seeing the profit in that - LFR is for those people.

[Nerovar]

I kinda feel like it will be happening at some point in the future. How it could look is a whole other topic though I have my ideas I won't get into detail on here.

I can already measure a pretty good guess the overwhelming majority of folks here are disgusted by the idea but I do believe it is both inevitable and to a greater degree necessary to meet varying play styles and preferences.

...Plus, the MMO bubble popped a long time ago. The genre's not as popular as it was in the past plus other factors. This is why I feel NPC party members is inevitable. Time will tell though.

Why would you need NPC party members? I keep getting told the game has 20 million players and is more social now than it was back in 2004.

The moment you need NPCs to fill up your group in an MMORPG because you can't find anyone to play with (despite cross-realm groupfinder) you might as well shut down the servers.

[Chaotic1962]

Monster Hunter? Dragon Age: Inquisition? Those are just the massive games off the top of my head that more or less matches what you're looking for.

WoW's rotation? Why is that a requirement exactly?

Why not? Its what defines your gameplay / interaction with the world.

And those two games are nothing alike between eachother / wow. Havent played Monster Hunter World but it looks more an ARPG, and DA:I Has nowhere near the ammount of gameplay, quests, class diversity or gear / mounts collectibles WoW has.

Which is my whole point that its pointless to say go play single player games. WoW has developed its content for 20 years, the sheer volume of quests and things to do is insurmountable compared to whatever a single player title has.

[arr0gance]

Myself and most of my friends who quit would comeback, but only if it was fully supported as an alternative way to gear progression. I dislike the idea of relying on others for my character progression, not to mention sometimes you don't even get to play the game if you cant join a group or cant find people to invite into your own group. Lastly, it would mean I can do dungeons or raids whenever I want without being beholden to someone else's schedule (which contributes to the game is like a job mentality). And the best part is if I fail the dungeon or raid its on me, no pointing fingers, no toxicity, no waiting for 19 other people to learn the mechanic, just play the game and have fun ^^

Would be nice to see WoW step up their game a bit because the lack of endgame progression for soloers feels very outdated compared to the direction many modern games are going.

You and your friends who quit are the last people who Blizzard needs to listen to. They aren't "stepping up their game" by allowing you to play a fucking MMO as a single player game.

[Segus1992]

Why not? Its what defines your gameplay / interaction with the world.

And those two games are nothing alike between eachother / wow. Havent played Monster Hunter World but it looks more an ARPG, and DA:I Has nowhere near the ammount of gameplay, quests, class diversity or gear / mounts collectibles WoW has.

Which is my whole point that its pointless to say go play single player games. WoW has developed its content for 20 years, the sheer volume of quests and things to do is insurmountable compared to whatever a single player title has.

See this is what I expected you to reply with, because you were never looking for suggestions, you were just trying to justify your whining about WoW not being catered to your antisocial playstyle. Obviously an MMO that's been continuously developed for almost two decades is going to have more content than almost any other game in existence. If sheer amount of content is what interests you and not interesting gameplay in said content then yeah WoW is going to be the only game that'll satisfy you. 90% of that content can be done solo though.

DAI is very much like WoW, but is indeed designed to end. Class diversity less than WoW? Ok.

Monster Hunter as a franchise is very much like WoW with a different style of combat. Kill big things, collect things, repeat for years. Sure is funny how you say the games are nothing alike if you haven't even played them.

[Chaotic1962]

Well yes, i do not need to play a game to see i wont be into it that much. The different style of combat is what put me off, kinda like Tera's did. And like people have mentioned, the lack of continuity. Dragon age was good but it re invented "my" character each expansion.

I was making a point that some people have a very specific itch they need to scratch when playing games, and wow provides a specific one not largely available. I see no reason for Blizzard not to introduce more options for players on how they approach the content they play, be it npc assisted normal dungeons or more mage tower type content, so long as it is optional of course.

[Super Kami Dende]

Monster Hunter as a franchise is very much like WoW with a different style of combat. Kill big things, collect things, repeat for years. Sure is funny how you say the games are nothing alike if you haven't even played them.

As someone who plays a lot of both WoW and Monster Hunter, They are hardly anything like eachother.

What the fuck are you even smoking.

[Segus1992]

As someone who plays a lot of both WoW and Monster Hunter, They are hardly anything like eachother.

What the fuck are you even smoking.

Alright dude.

[Makabreska]

They are only tank and healer mechanics.

1) You don't acknowledge that volcanic exists because it's a sub-1 second tap of a movement key to fully counter and negate volcanic. And you can safely ignore Storming's damage because it does essentially zero and is easily healed through leech, one tick of one hot one time that may already be on you and would've overhealed, and you can cheese the internal cooldown of how often you can be hit by it. Or, you know, don't bring melee. Avoidable damage is avoidable, isn't really part of the discussion, and is present no matter what affix or no affix at all, so I'm not sure how that's part of the discussion.

Ye man, go tell any high key pusher DPSers that they can stand in Volcanic/Storming, take unnecessary damage that WILL eventually kill them and get hit by another ability, ToP skeleton tornado for example, because they couldn't move while in the air. Or tell them not to nuke Inspired mob preventing entire pack from being stunned/interrupted. Or not mind their position with Quaking. If you really think Affixes are Tank/Healer things only then it just shows that you never stepped in any serious key run, and if you did, you made entire run harder for your team with this approach you presented.

[Queen of Hamsters]

And then the people choosing to play with NPC party members would be seen across WoW social media lamenting the good old days when everyone made life-long friends from simply logging in and typing "Hi!" in /gen.



If some people want it, go for it. I'd sooner not play at all than not do organized content with real people though.

[Tyris Flare]

ESO is about to add companions that sound like the SWTOR ones, fwiw, and it's debatably as popular as WoW now (in large part due to having console players)

[Bee76]

NPCs for what ?
If someone want to play solo, i suggest playing a solo game...not an mmorpg.

But, questions like this show how easy most of the content is, that you can assume npcs can fullfil the role of a real player.

My solotioun would be the opposite:

Tune content up. ALL content. Elite worldquests hould be so hard that you need a grp of good players, not just some afk players filling up your grp.
And yes im sorry for the solo playing ppl, but this is an mmo. Content and outdoor stuff should be so hard tuned, that no bot can handle it unless he is godlike geared (that would be a real adavantage)


but of course i know this wont ever happen. but if blizz decides to add npc bots for mmo stuff, im gone forever.

[AcidicSyn]

That'd be very interesting to see, though I see no reason to tune AI teams for stuff like mythic difficulty, even +0.

For everything that doesn't have the word "mythic" in the title though? Sure why not. It would affect my gameplay exactly not-at-all and I've seen some people in this very thread say they'd hardly notice the difference between a real person and an NPC in terms of both social and skill with regard to normal raids.

Would also be a great excuse for blizzard to develop a roster of new characters to participate in this stuff too. Though I am not sure 24 npcs would be necessary, maybe just 9 of em. Though any excuse to develop some new characters is a positive in my books. (Like Nazgrim, I loved watching him grow; too bad his alliance counterpart got shafted)