Other Social Bring Back Larger Groups - 20 Slot Capacity

SagoMactow · Feb 17, 2024

I have been a a few instances where we ran out of room in our group. Which has prompted me to bring this up.

When SWG went live, there could be as many as 20 people in a group. This really made it fun for everyone. The more people, the more things you can do.

Spin groups would not be limited to 8. More people leveling up means more people available to train you when you are ready.
PVP would not be limited to 8 in a group anymore. That 10th or 12th person can still join in on the action.
Space - doing convoys means you have enough room for a fully manned gunship and a bunch of people supporting it. Lower level spacers or even non spacers could join in on the action when in a gunship. Especially when L5 convoys are so intimidating due to the sheer number of NPC ships involved.
A larger group also provide more visibility to where everyone is. If there were 2 groups of 8, you could only see half of the people participating in the event.

Also, if the server population grows, or if there is a 'really" popular event going on, have the ability to link groups. I also believe, if you can offer something that NO other SWG server can offer (20 person groups for example) except maybe SWGEmu, that may entice people to come check out R3.

I can remember PVP events PreCU where we had 4 - full groups of 20 people each. Now I know nothing like that is going to happen now a days due to SWG players playing on different servers. But the potential possibilities really gets my hopes up.

If you are worried about groups being too large for content on Musty, then have a size limit cap on the instance?

Dagis · Feb 17, 2024

Depends on what your doing imo; for pvp / pve 8 man groups feels about right

SagoMactow · Feb 18, 2024

Dagis said:
Depends on what your doing imo; for pvp / pve 8 man groups feels about right

Hey Dagis,

Thanks for the input. Just so I fully understand where you are coming from:

So if the size of the groups were to .... let's say .... be expanded to 20. Would you stop inviting people at 8?

shintufelper · Feb 18, 2024

My main issue with going above 8 is it messes with game balance in a way that makes it even harder to balance various facets of the game.

Pros:

First off, this would be a great boon for ents and RP groups.
Good to help with coordination in pvp.

Cons:

If a pvp group can go up to 20, now you have to account for bacta spray hitting 19 people and balancing that monster of a heal bomb, and other similar mechanics.
GCW would get even more swingy, with control points being multiplied for up to 20 players per action instead of up to 8.
You would need less SLs in-game if an SL can buff 19 other people instead of just 7 other people(minor gripe).
For PVE, when the senate looked at credit payouts, we considered the efficiency of an 8man spin. A 20 man spin would be much faster and require a nerf to credit payout to make it so 20 man spins dont print money.
In space, its irrelevant, since gunboats get reduced drops in convoys. Also would have to make the convoys continue scaling above 8 players, and with how hard an 8 player convoy is I don't think any higher scaling would be doable even with 20 players.

Would either need to directly address most of these issues or, more ideally, just make a way to link groups for some limited functions, like location sharing and communication, to avoid the above issues.

SagoMactow · Feb 18, 2024

shintufelper said:
My main issue with going above 8 is it messes with game balance in a way that makes it even harder to balance various facets of the game.

Pros:

First off, this would be a great boon for ents and RP groups.

Good to help with coordination in pvp.

Cons:

If a pvp group can go up to 20, now you have to account for bacta spray hitting 19 people and balancing that monster of a heal bomb, and other similar mechanics.

GCW would get even more swingy, with control points being multiplied for up to 20 players per action instead of up to 8.

You would need less SLs in-game if an SL can buff 19 other people instead of just 7 other people(minor gripe).

For PVE, when the senate looked at credit payouts, we considered the efficiency of an 8man spin. A 20 man spin would be much faster and require a nerf to credit payout to make it so 20 man spins dont print money.

In space, its irrelevant, since gunboats get reduced drops in convoys. Also would have to make the convoys continue scaling above 8 players, and with how hard an 8 player convoy is I don't think any higher scaling would be doable even with 20 players.

Would either need to directly address most of these issues or, more ideally, just make a way to link groups for some limited functions, like location sharing and communication, to avoid the above issues.

Well, I certain do not want the game to be reworked to the extent you are leading to. I was never a fan of large changes to the game. The CU ticked me off, but I learned to live it it. The NGE .... that was a bridge too far .... waaaay to far.

There was a lot of enjoyment in the game having a large group doing stuff together. Perhaps finding a way to allow groups to link up would accomplish the same goal.

The ground game has radar, but no communication between groups. Space has neither.

I threw the idea out there. If the Devs think it is that difficult or involved then "I" would even be against it.

I did not know that gunships would reduce the drops in convoys. That is too bad, I am always thinking of how to get people involved / interested in different aspects of the game. That would have been a nice opportunity to introduce someone to space. Convoys certainly get my heart and adrenaline pumping.

I leave it in the Devs hands.

Aconite · Feb 18, 2024

I'll offer a few thoughts on this:

As briefly mentioned regarding Mustafar Dungeons (but something that would affect heroics, all dungeons, and instanced content), all of that content is currently balanced for the maximum group size we have. As mentioned by OP, we could subsequently limit the size of groups for certain content, but this seems counterintuitive to the core of the idea, which is more players being able to coordinate together is more fun.

For that reason alone, I'm hesitant to increase group size.

When I read the post, what I understood as the underlying point of the request is the ability to better coordinate between a larger group of players (chat) and the ability to have better visibility to what additional players are doing. That seems like something that could be solved for by approaching the system differently instead, and allowing groups to "link" together so they could chat/have visibility to each other, (e.g., "Squad A", "Squad B") without actually being part of the same group) as there's simply a lot of interdependent systems that would be affected by making groups larger as well (e.g., loot pooling).

I think the idea of linking groups (or squads, whatever) together is a more promising proposal as it doesn't involve delving into messing with existing mechanics that rely on the way they already function and would also provide the information you seem to be seeking (connected chat and location sharing).

SagoMactow · Feb 18, 2024

Thank for chiming in Aconite. You certainly do have an understanding of the core idea I proposed. With this information, I would agree, "linking groups" to provide better coordination, communication, and visibility would be a better way to go.

I hope this is something that is doable.

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Other Social Bring Back Larger Groups - 20 Slot Capacity

SagoMactow

Dagis

SagoMactow

shintufelper

SagoMactow

Aconite

Development Lead

SagoMactow

Other Social Bring Back Larger Groups - 20 Slot Capacity

SagoMactow

Dagis

SagoMactow

shintufelper

SagoMactow

Aconite

Development Lead

SagoMactow

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