Solo Player Experience | Forums

[Grizzgolf32]

Just gotta play smart and not rush around like COD style

[mattrickl06]

I am going to do what I did in TD1 and discover all safehouses across the whole map while still at level one without engaging. Its a great way to have a good look at the map cos you have to sneak past overpowered NPCs who will 1 shot you if you are noticed.

[Ubi-Lucipus]

I'm sorry to hear that you've had issues with solo game play, if you can elaborate I'd be sure to note down the feedback for you.

[nacnaz]

How might the difficulty be impacted by methods other than upping or downing the numbers? What other mechanics and aspects of the game can influence difficulty? How might different gameplay options fulfill the same function without the collateral damage of fracturing the player base?

As a solo player there were two mechanics that impacted enjoyment to me: one was the grenade/RC car spam (I use "projectile" as the catch-all term for these), and the other was the high degree of focus-firing enemy AI engages in. I often (or rather, often enough for it to leave an impact on my impressions) found myself in a situation where I was behind cover with multiple enemies focus firing on my location. Movement in such a case is highly risky. While this focus fire was suppressing me, a projectile would be utilized, knocking me out of cover/doing considerable damage to the agent, exposing me to focus fire. With that number of bullets being fired at once, I was quickly downed or deep into my health bar before the stagger was over. If I were to dodge the projectile, I'd very often still riddled with bullets, because dodging usually means leaving cover anyway. With the way enemies are spread out across the room and the way cover is arranged, even doing a cover-to-cover move to a new location means I'll now most likely be in the line of sight of an emery AI somewhere. By the time I figured out where they were shooting from, I'd taken quite a bit of damage. The solo experience, ultimately, led to a "sitting duck" experience. In the balcony to balcony fight in the first mission of the beta (I believe it was the first mission), focus firing and AI awareness was to the point where all the enemies would be in cover while I was behind one of the full walls - so everybody in cover, nobody shooting. The moment I transitioned into low wall cover, they all popped up in such perfect unison and started focus firing on my location that I just started laughing. Not only did they all know the precise moment I switched to low cover, but they were able to do damage maybe not quite as quickly as if I were fully out of cover, but still quite a bit of damage considering 99% of my agent was behind the wall. (I'm pretty certain I recorded this moment, but do not currently have the means of posting a video.) I believe this example is a good microcosm of my solo player experience.

Other instances involved things like being hit with a grenade and RC car during focus fire while being attacked by a melee rusher, all simultaneously. Two of those things at once would be enough to put a solo player in a pinch. All four at once? I went from full armor to flat out dead in an instant.

For what it's worth, I do not mind hard games. Many times, I enjoy the hell out of them. But when a game feels like it's just throwing everything it can at you, that difficulty becomes heavy handed and a bit of a slog. I made it through the content without dying too much, but only by playing it so safe and slow that it didn't have any of that TD1 excitement. Speaking of TD1, I found that to be difficult to solo my first time through the content as well - but I also had a great time doing it, because it felt like I had a fighting chance (for one, there was room for error; getting caught in a bullet storm didn't nearly kill me outright, and I could heal pretty quickly if it did). It seems that some of the gameplay adjustments rightfully made to handle issues with PvP don't integrate well for the solo experience, where our agents move slower, heal slower, can't move when they heal, and have noticeably less health, and where enemy AI are just as if not more aggressive than ever. Ultimately, it does seem like enemy awareness, aggression, focus firing, etc. is geared for more than one player.

Perhaps some of these aspects of the solo experience that I personally found damning can be mended with skills not available in the beta (although impressions from the beta lead me to believe the assault turret and drone will be must haves - one to draw aggro and the other to heal; perhaps this is not the case, but if so it might be limiting - too soon to tell probably). It could also be that there is a way to approach TD2 that I'm not well versed in, I'm also open to that possibility. All I can say in that regard is that I played the beta for 10 hours or so, and never got a handle on it.

I really appreciate your responses in this thread - If something I said doesn't make sense or if it does answer the questions you asked, I'll be happy to clarify.

[Kynlore]

Well expressed.

[sgtnogo]

One thing I noted was that the enemies are made tougher if you fail a hard point and return to retry it. There was one hard point it took me 4 tries to capture. Most of them I got on the first attempt.

[Ubi-RealDude]

As a solo player there were two mechanics that impacted enjoyment to me: one was the grenade/RC car spam (I use "projectile" as the catch-all term for these), and the other was the high degree of focus-firing enemy AI engages in....

...I really appreciate your responses in this thread - If something I said doesn't make sense or if it does answer the questions you asked, I'll be happy to clarify.

(I read everything, just edited down the quote to save space.)

I appreciate you taking the time to write all that out, it was extremely descriptive and helpful.

How do feel about the different non-firearm options in combat? The skills and grenades and such... do you feel they provide a useful tactical advantage - such as a disengage, crowd control, or other form of utility?

Difficulty is definitely a fine line to walk, especially in situations like this that allow for squads and individuals with different setups. Needless to say, it is an infinitely interesting topic.

How would you describe the experience of playing solo against the experience of playing with a group, if you have played with a group?
How would you describe your ideal experience of playing solo versus the experience of playing with a group?

[lambeaufan]

I can't speak for nacnaz, but from my perspective playing solo meant a lot more chance at death. Either because you were being grenade/drone spammed and wouldn't even have time to use an armor kit, or because you literally could not run to a safe space before the spammed damage took it's toll. Also there were many times I had to return to a reload space that replaced my armor kits because I ran out during a short excursion. Meanwhile, while in a group, the risk is still there, and you may still be downed just as often, but having teammates around to revive you at least allows more conservation of armor kits. I love the difficulty, don't get me wrong, but sometimes the grenade/drone spamming seems a bit excessive, especially when running solo.

[Millenium_Exile]

How do feel about the different non-firearm options in combat? The skills and grenades and such... do you feel they provide a useful tactical advantage - such as a disengage, crowd control, or other form of utility

Non-firearm options helped mix things up I found using grenades to soften up heavy enemies was idea and could be used to get others out of cover. And skill can be used to provide cover when moving.

As for the npc's I found you could use some of there abilities against them.
And not just buy hitting there weak points.
The RC bombers for example if you timed it you can detonated it with a shot and it will do damage and stagger the enemies knocking them out of cover.
I found that when suppressed and a grenader is going to throw you just have to hit them and they will drop it.

So I've enjoyed the abilities that I have and what the npc's throw my way.

[Agent_Putt]

I had no issues completing anything solo whatsoever, the only thing i didn't try was an Invasion mission on Hard everything else was soloable. Heck even the DZ was soloable which i never thought was possible.