Multiple Person tasks

[theTrav]

Some tasks simply can't reasonably be achieved by a single person, particularly some lifting tasks.

If you wanted to create such a task, a reasonable interface would be for the first person to have an "initiate task" option, and then subsequent people would be able to right click the initiator and choose "help", and they would then be counted as aiding in the task while the initiator guided for stuff like lifting etc.

[shockedfrog]

I'm strongly against anything like this that would spoil the game for soloers. However, a bonus (a speed boost, or reduced stamina cost?) for those working together in this way would be nice.

[niltrias]

I'm strongly against anything like this that would spoil the game for soloers. However, a bonus (a speed boost, or reduced stamina cost?) for those working together in this way would be nice.

I dont much like backing up shockedfrog, but I agree for 99 percent of the situations. I think you should be able to do just about anything other than procreate by yourself.
Some tasks should simply be so difficult, and take such a wide range of skills, that it is NEXT to impossible to do it by yourself.

One possible exception might be sailing or rowing a large ship...

[shockedfrog]

The boat would be a reasonable exception, assuming the availability of smaller soloable ships that require less resources to make, and can access the same areas as a larger ship can, but are perhaps slower, harder to sail accurately, carry less cargo, take less damage before sinking, etc.

[Peter]

It is usually true that one person can almost always do a task. The gain from two people working together, however, can often exceed 100% efficiency; that is, if you have two people and two log cabins to be built, it will take longer for them both to work separately than for them work together on one and then on the other. This is not even counting such things as collecting resources and such.

Plus, if gives a chance for people to talk together while working on the same task, which builds strong in-game communities, which is pretty much the whole point. Of course, each additional person helps less; two groups of ten people can build two cabins faster than one group of twenty.

I'd like to see that skill requirements are relaxed for helpers, so that if a skilled player is building a structure, then someone new can help him out even though they don't actually have the skill to do it alone; this would address the problem of newbies being pretty useless to old hands and let them earn some thanks from them.

[theTrav]

I wasn't thinking about any of the tasks that are currently in game. I was more thinking about lifting really heavy items (boulders, possibly the tree trunks?) and yes, galleys and possibly even sailing boats (one guy on the tiller, one guy on the sails is typical of most catamarans and they're fairly high tech)

I think it would build community a lot, solo players would find it harder but they can still get help from other players if they asked nicely / paid well

[shockedfrog]

In my experience, MMOs that force this kind of teamwork create a very false sense of community except amongst those who are already connected elsewhere. I've only played a small number of MMOs which focus on solo play, but in those, there's a community that feels real, because those who work together do so because they want to, not because they need to in order to get something out of it, and everyone shines more as an individual rather than simply being there to make up the numbers.