Hi.

I don't mind a grind etc. and I use to play RFO - Whats the best game for constant partying and straight forward xping? I don't mind if its questing. I'm not looking for LOTRO, WoW or EQ2 where you party end-game only and have to solo grind 1-EndGame.

I understand that DDO might be ideal but i've played that to death.

Thanks.

Have you considered FFXI?

I've never played another game where people group so much for XP (you pretty much have to).

I had such a hard time just trying to get use to the controls that I gave up :)

I might give it another try tho, someone else recommended it.

Final Fantasy XI and Lineage 2 are very group oriented.

Much less hardcore but still fun to play in parties are GuildWars franchise.

LoTRO is nicely balanced between solo and group content.

I'm sure you are aware of difficulties in finding a good group in mmos in general, but that's for another thread.

FFXI, sure you can solo on some jobs all the way to 75, but for the most part those jobs aren't very welcome in parties to begin with. All the other jobs that don't solo for long are always in a party cause of the nature of the game.

Quests are optional and you don't do them to lvl up on, every XP point you earn is from out killing mobs mainly in a party.

You should give it another try and get used to the controls....they're not so bad once you figure them out which can take some time, but when ya do you'll see why they're designed that way. They work very well...

There is no rush to end-game either cause there is just so much to do between 1-75 and then when ya do finally get to 75...there is over 2 RL years of content if you plan to do it all!

someone had to post it, so let me take a lead this time..

DARKFALL!!!!

lol

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Originally posted by Wigan
someone had to post it, so let me take a lead this time..
DARKFALL!!!!
lol
 

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Yeah I think from the OPs post that he wants to play something thats actually out now, and not an eletists PvP ganking playground!

Originally posted by Khrymson

 

 

Yeah I think from the OPs post that he wants to play something thats actually out now, and not an eletists PvP ganking playground!

For all we know darkfail is the answer to the prayers of all mmo players. it got everything you could ever imagine.. although it may not be enabled yet :) Goblin scouts ftw!!

Originally posted by Wigan

For all we know darkfail is the answer to the prayers of all mmo players. it got everything you could ever imagine.. although it may not be enabled yet :) Goblin scouts ftw!!

False!

As soon as I saw the title, DDO jumped up and down screaming... but you've already played that. It is a fantastic game, and if you haven't done Permadeath yet, give it a shot. (If you are on Argonessen, the permadeath guild there is Mortal Voyage Permadeath Guild) It changes the game almost completely and takes grouping to the next next level. ;)

FFXI i think is the only other group oriented game, and I may give that a shot myself til Darkfall or something.

There may be a couple of indy group games, or you can try some tactical shooters for group play. (Ghost Recon 1 anyone?)

me again :) as much as it may not be an obvious choice, warhammer online may be an interesting game. I'm sure you heard of public quest system and open parties. Bottomline - you really never play alone. As any other title, WO has its fair share of problems, one of them being population issue which may prevent you from enjoying the game the way it is intended (that is in fun groups in all tiers - probably the starting areas are deserted). Picking up a good server is a strike of luck and it will directly infuence the way you experience the game.

I'm fairly sure there is a buddy pass request thread around here, why not give it a shot.

FFXI FFXI FFXI

nuff said.

Shin Megami Tensei Imagine group alot and soloing and u can make and catch pets!

Solo = No thanx

FFXI has virtually NO solo content (except fame questing...), It is forced group combat, you spend alot of time trying to form tight groups.

Its not like WoW where you can pretty much have any healer do anything and some random DPS and some tank and go to town

you got to know peoples weapon skills, how to chain them for extra damage, when to attack.

Healers get far more aggro in this game at early levels, DD get it mroe at higher levels, tanks have to compenstae with skill timing.

Originally posted by Newmeanie

FFXI FFXI FFXI

nuff said.

what he said

I would say City of Heroes since you can play the entire game through groups.

like said Final Fantasy is group aimed but its controls are a bit weird and its not easy to find groups alot of the time.

DDO but you said you played it to much and RF Online had grouping but last i checked they messed up the game

Originally posted by grimboj

I had such a hard time just trying to get use to the controls that I gave up :)

I might give it another try tho, someone else recommended it.

FFXI IS the partying game.Stay away from all NCSOFT junk,they are a sneaky outfit to say the least.

FFXi however is VERY hard,if you do not set your goals to high and do not expect speedy success,you will do just fine in the game.The game economy is the biggest flaw of the game,it is awful and the worse economy design i have ever seen.The reason is because it has to operate like a pyramid scheme,unless there is a steady constant flow of new players buying,then there is no selling.This is because everything must be player bought and sold,the NPC's will not offer you a decent price for anything,more like 1% of it's worth.

There is many different setups to play FFXI,so your controls are not limited,not sure what the problem was for the op?Personally i love using the keypad for movement,it has all the controls right there,and of course the mouse adds the extra.It is the best setup for any gaming.FFXI you need to learn how to setup macros,it is not that hard if someone shows you the ropes.The reason is because it uses logical common sense terms like /equip [guess what that does lol?] ...or  /attack  again simple no?.

Parties are often hard to come by because many players are sort of pacifists,the yare not pro active,meaning if you have the iniative and KNOW how to setup a decent party,that is your best option and will give you alot of success.

Guild Wars is almost entirely group content; the only exceptions are the (very brief) tutorials, pre-searing (the Prophecies starting area), and a handful of gimmicky side things that you can easily skip.  Your group can have other players, AI characters, or a combination of both.  That may or may not bother you, I guess, but it isn't hard to get other players to group with you.  If you really want eight players, as opposed to six players and two heroes (AI group members), that could be harder to do.  If you're looking for heavy grinding, Guild Wars isn't it; you did state that you weren't averse to grinding.

A big reason why you can find other players is that the game doesn't separate players into different servers to make them unable to group with each other.  Every single player on American servers looking to group for a given mission is stuck in the same outpost--unless it gets overcrowded, in which case it starts additional districts and lets you freely switch from one to another in search of a group.  If that's not enough, you can switch to English language European servers in search of more players.  Or you can even switch to other language servers, such as French, Spanish, Japanese, or Korean--though that might not be the best idea if you don't speak the language.

Puzzle Pirates also makes it very easy to get a party.  If so inclined, you can literally be on a ship out at sea with other players within 60 seconds of logging in more often than not.  The groups are of, well, widely varying quality, though--more so than you'd expect from PUGs in other games.

ffxi has some of the worst down time in any game. Also you an spend 15 minutes (without chocobo) traveling around a zone to get to your exp point, also if you get agro your only chance is to get to the zone wall which means possibly getting more agro.

the other down side is that you can actually delevel in the game so i would not recomend exploring, the other issue i had with ffx was that the art department doesnt seem to understand the concept of different types of mob.

You will probbly have encountered every single mob type before level 15. at which point you will notice that the bunies you exped on at level 1-10 are now in the 20-25 zone and they are probly a different size and or different colour.

ALso the biggest thing about ffxi is that the mobs are not colour coordinated you have to delve a mob and it might say "incredibly easy" and you will then die. where another mob will say "incredibly tough" and you will chain kill it.

i would definatly say if you want somthing that will last you 5 years try out ffxi i know my mates been playing it for a few years now after city of heroes and he cant get enough me personally found it boring after 2 weeks of playing a red mage.

Also if you like grouping you will need to level either RED MAGE (which you will solo till 36) white mag (cannot solo at all) or warrior.

after you get to about 20 and you unlock the subjob quest you will be expected to have a subjob leveled to at least 50% of your current level so if your red mage expect to have either white mage or black maged leveled, if your a warrior then level monk and or theif.

Either way the game is not very noob friendly infact its one of the most unfriendly games ive ever played. if you know anyone else who plays it then i recomend they get you to show you around. Also spells dont buy off the auction house UNTIL you have checked all the other shops some people shop buy the spells then put them on the auciton house at a higher price and new players will not realise that they can be shop bought.
 

I'd try out City of Villains. You can solo the entire game, but its much much better and more interesting grouped. The instances scale to the number of players in your party. The play style is a lot like DDO in that you get a quest, run through an instance, and then go back to the shared area to get another quest. The combat is a similar pacing as well, at least after you get a few powers. DDO starts out faster then slows down some. CoX starts out slower and picks up speed.

The character development is on par with DDO as well. There are lots of options. I think I prefer the unenforced roles in CoX. You don't find yourself looking for a healer for an hour just to start playing.

But the instances are boring as heck compared to DDO. You'll burn through them in minutes. Imagine every run in CoX being like your 10th run through a DDO dungeon. No surprises, but loads of action.