Post smaller/older MMOs that are good to play as really big solo RPGs.

I've really been enjoying SWTOR and have been looking at LOTRO, FFXI, and Guild Wars 1. Are they worth trying?

>>3797517 (OP)
>Post smaller/older MMOs that are good to play as really big solo RPGs.
TOR is the only real candidate. You could also play FF14 and treat it as a very basic JRPG. If you have at least one more person you should check out DDO which is custom made for small groups of friends with how it approaches dungeons, for example.

there's no such thing as an mmo that's good to play. multiplayer games are garbage, and increasing the amount of players than can interact only makes them worse.

>>3797522
Weak bait. I'm not a multiplayer fan either but it's neat to walk around a big, lively world.

>>3797524
absolutely not, i don't play video games to socialize. video games are my escape from socializing.

>>3797526
weird genre to pick then, anon

>>3797521
>TOR is the only real candidate
I have been told that LOTRO, FFXI, and GW1 are almost entirely soloable, what gives?

>>3797521
I would add ESO as well.

>>3797588
Soloable is not same as "playing the game intended to be played solo".

>>3797594
>Soloable is not same as "playing the game intended to be played solo".
It is if there are no or few gameplay impediments to not having a group, which is what those games have thanks to AI companions.

>>3797521
>>3797594
I would The Secret World on top of those two. It's actually a game IMPROVED by playing solo and seeing as few other players as possible. Probably has the best writing and VA in the entire genre.

>>3797517 (OP)
Metin

>>3797605
I just can't play Legends. Lobotomizing decks and trying to rejigger the combat into a half-assed action rpg just fucks everything sideways.

>>3797517 (OP)
RIFT's zones have their own questlines to follow. There are some expansions so once you level high enough you can solo lower level dungeons and raids. There are even miniature versions of raids called Chronicles for 1-2 people. A very small group (maybe 3-5?) is playing on >>>/vm/ and there is a thread.
You can solo all content in Guild Wars. There are Henchmen (premade NPC companions in every outpost) and Heroes (custom AI that you get through some Factions/mainly-Nightfall/EotN quests and allow for fully customizable gear/spells/equipment. >>>/vm/ has an active flourishing guild with people on all the time if you have questions. We have plenty of people who are in the guild but mostly do their own thing.

I would second ESO and The Secret World.

>>3797517 (OP)
Anyone still play Dark Age of Camelot?

>>3797999
on the flipside you get all the content

Anyone every checkout Fallen Earth? It's still running, last I checked.

>>3797517 (OP)
DEAD Maze. literally dead and french.
i'm kidding. it's mostly brasilians and arabs. for a while this game and the mouse game was memed on 4chins IIRC. server is still up , but no more international servers so lag is expected.

https://deadmaze.fandom.com/wiki/Dead_Maze
somehow the uglier Project Zomboid and Don't Starve were more popular.

pic related: map of final area they made before it went forever in hiatus.

>>3797605
>>3798159
i should go back to this game, the combat just felt too slow for me

>>3798666
Is it an rpg though?

>>3797517 (OP)
GUYS is there an SWG Emu server that let's me pick any of the 30+ profession skill trees from the get-go? I wanna install it to toy around solo to test all the classes I never got to try out during the game's lifespan

>>3800245
>mfw you had to mentor other people to get master experience

>>3800253
no more masters. a dark age for the Galaxy

>>3800253
fact is MASTERHOOD ITSELF IS FOREVER DEAD. sad!

>>3800245
Doesn't SWG's crafting system basically completely preclude solo play?

>>3800636
No, why? It's not like you can't interact with other players when playing solo. If you mean something like found-only then yeah, you're fucked.

>>3797517 (OP)
If if you like LOTRO then maybe try DDO Eberron.

>>3800662
Eh semantics but to me if it requires other players then it isn't solo.

Just started LOTRO. It's feeling pretty damn comfy so far.

>>3797517 (OP)
I like this topic. I have compiled a list of such games I intend to play. They should fit your criteria. I don't communicate with anyone in MMOs, my chats are turned off.
>SWTOR
I only played it in 2013. Is it more solo friendly now? I remember it had elite zones or something where enemies just oneshot you.
> LOTRO, FFXI, and Guild Wars 1
These should be good options. Guild Wars especially is exactly what you're looking for. I'm currently playing it. It's a complete game, too. No mandatory cuck fees, the cash shop is irrelevant, the entire game is made for solo play. I also strongly recommend Guild Wars 2, it embodies solo MMO better and friendlier than anything else that's still alive.
>>3797521
>Dungeons and Dragons Online
Probably decent.
>FF14
I saw that it was possible to solo everything.
>>3797594
>The Elder Scrolls Online
I played this. It's alright but the paywalls are annoying.
>>3797605
>The Secret World
I don't know much about this one but I welcome your recommendation.
>>3797630
>Metin
Metin2? That one grindy game where rock music plays everywhere and all players use bots?
>>3798046
>RIFT
On my list.
>>3798052
>Dark Age of Camelot
I never heard being for solo play.
>>3798660
>Fallen Earth
I would need to check it out first. Never heard of it.
>>3798666
>DEAD Maze
Never heard of this either.
>>3800744
I agree. That's not what I would call solo play.

>>3800744
SWG is an example of where you can play solo, but you need others for basic economy. Does paying a dancer at the cantina to heal mental damage break the solo rule? No more than buying a new weapon from a merchant player after he gets it from a crafter. Problem with sandbox MMORPGs is going solo is utterly pointless since nothing is built for it. You want modern, story-centric MMOs for intended solo experience.

>>3800784
TOR very much underwent the same "dumbing down" phase all MMOs go through when they lose players. Companions are OP as fuck now so they'll serve you perfectly fine for group content. Shit, you can solo dungeons. You only others for end game group content like raids or PvP.

>World of Warcraft Ashen Order (aka Dinkledork Repack)
>Ultima Online Adventurers of Akalabeth
>Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine NewOrder or New Moon
>Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst Ephinea
>Phantasy Star Universe offline mode or Clementine
>Monster Hunter Frontier Online
>2009scape (Runescape)
>The Matrix Online mxoemu
>Conan Exiles with the AOC and EEWA mods
>London 2038 (Hellgate London)
These should be all playable without other players at all.

>Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Return of Reckoning
>City of Heroes: Homecoming
I think these have solo options.

>Dragon's Dogma Online
I think this one's not ready yet.

>Black Desert
I know you want smaller/older but it's reputation is that of a "Singlerplayer MMO"
>Dragon Quest X: Online
>Path of Exile Solo Self-Found
>Asheron's Call emulator.ac
>Bless Unleashed private server (xbless, origins)
>Dragon Ball Online Crisis
>Lineage II l2reborn.org
>Planetside Forever
>Ragnarok Online (too many options to pick here)
I have these in my list but I haven't looked too deeply into them.

>>3800788
I see. Thank you. Yes, that cycle is all too common. I enjoyed being a tank there.

>>3800789
I swear I like a lot in BD, but I don't care for the fact it's a PvP game with very token "farm this area" passing for PvE content.

>>3798660
>Anyone every checkout Fallen Earth? It's still running, last I checked.
Not anymore
It was a pretty decent single player MMO after the relaunch since the PVP Zones were pretty much empty and you could harvest important mats without being bothered

>>3800744
If you want a purposely designed solo singleplayer 'MMO', check out Erenshor.

>>3800784
TOR is very solo friendly. The main draw is the story content, all of which is solo except for a couple of side questlines from the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion.

There are three kinds of dungeons: flashpoints, uprisings, and operations. These come in three difficulties: story, veteran, and master (some only have veteran and master). Operations require a group of 8 or 16 but for the other two you can solo story very easily (many flashpoints even give you an extra companion in story mode to breeze through it), if you're good you can solo veteran and if you're REALLY good you can solo master on some of them.

The zones you're referring to are probably the heroic mission areas, which are dailies that are easier with groups but can be soloed.

Apart from that there are a few one-off enemies and world bosses that can't be soloed.

Guild Wars 1 is perfect, but you need all expansions, particularly Nightfall for customizable companions.

>>3800876
The steam version is sold together with the expansions automatically

I assume this thread is about playing active MMOs on public servers but sticking to yourself, however does anyone have any experience with running your own local server for solo play? I've done it with WoW a few times, though it's been a while since I actively played, nowadays I mostly just spend my time modding it.

>>3801244
Thanks for sharing, I never knew about this single player project. I've thought about trying the Warcraft games and then WoW but it always seemed like the least single player friendly MMO besides Eve

>>3801462
It depends on what you want to do. The questing experience is very solo friendly, 99% of quests are meant to be soloable with the exception of group and dungeon quests, which you could do at a higher level (though then they would no longer be very relevant in terms of rewards) or attempt to solo, which is a possibility for certain classes depending on a few factors like gear, skill, consumables and expansion. Wrath of the Lich King also added achievements that you can hunt, collectibles like mounts and pets no longer take up inventory slots so you can collect those if you'd like. PVP, dungeons and raids are for obvious reasons the left solo friendly portions of the game, but there are plugins to fix that. I've no experience with using playerbots but a lot of people seem to like them, you can populate your server with them so they run around in the overworld with you or I think there are toned down versions where you essentially just hire temporary bots to follow you around for a dungeon.
I've tried two other solofriendly approaches, one is using plugins that scale PVE content to the number of players (so a boss that has 40 million health and deals 30,000 damage per hit might only end up with 250,000 health and doing 1000 damage per hit, these ratios are entirely configurable so you can adjust difficulty on the fly) which will allow you to solo all dungeons and raids with the exception of a handful of encounters that by design require several players - these will have to be resolved using GM commands, but most encounters should be fine. The second option is to just add more power creep by configuring the server settings (like increasing the amount of talent points you get per level) or modding the server, though that requires some work. I really enjoy WoW's combat, if the difficulty is just right then it feels really nice to run a dungeon or two.

SWTOR is my game and I think it sets the standard for what a "solo MMO" should be. I have close to 1000 hours on it, playing on and off since 2013, and very little of that has been in multiplayer scenarios.

I play it mostly for the stories and for the opportunity to "be" in a Star Wars universe. Seeing other people running around, fighting mobs and doing stuff is an essential part of the experience for me. As is casually chatting with other players in the first few planets.

Other than that, you have a NPC companion with you at all times. They fight well, they interact with you, you can talk to them and even complete their individual quests that further fill out their backgrounds and personalities.

So even if you're playing solo, you never really feel alone.

>>3801471
Saddest thing is bots are more lifelike than actual players these days.

>>3801489
Have you checked out SWG? It's the same "being in Star Wars" feel, but on completely opposite end.

>>3801489
I have to agree, also 1000 hours in although I only started in december 2024. My only big complaint is how much content is impossible to finish (not solo, just in general) and how tedious the events feel.

>>3801521
I tried it a few times but it never worked out for me. The servers I joined were always empty, and I got the impression SWG is the kind of game that requires a big and active community. It just made me wish I had played it when it was still popular. I'm a huge fan of what it represented, as an alternative to modern "theme park" MMOs, and of what it promised: a true virtual community, which is impossible nowadays.

>>3801520
I've heard a lot of good about the playerbots module, at the very least a lot of users seem to be happy with it, but it isn't for me. Depending on how good they are it might be fun to do BGs against them but then they would have to be somewhat challenging and playerlike, it wouldn't be much fun crushing NPCs that just happen to have player names and a larger variance in their health pool.

>>3801541
PvP is a different matter, but at least they can talk to you.

>>3801521
Not him but when does Galaxies take place?

>>3800793
People always claim that "PvP is dead" but I see players getting killed everyday. When you're one step outside the safe zone afk fishing or horse riding you're basically guaranteed to die to some spastic troll who has nothing better to do than to waste your time.

>>3801765
Galactic Civil War era (OT trilogy)

>>3801489
The problem is that the writing is only good for the OG campaign. The special alloy droids were stupid. The Fallen Empire was retarded and I wish I had an option to genocide everyone involved. I finished it and there was some stuff about robots on an ice planet? Basically, the quality of the writing dropped HARD.

>>3802034
problem was they realized they'd never write anything as long and grand as the class stories were

>>3802034
>>3802073
I don't disagree, I only ever got past Shadow of Revan once. Class stories is where it's at. I don't think it's a problem at all, 8 class stories take hundreds of hours to complete, which is more than enough for any newbie player.

>>3800217
read its fandom page and tell me.

I replayed GW1 recently and do wonder if completely fresh players would enjoy it. The game is really vast so it's likely that they'll consult a guide or wiki, but the meta route involves hopping between NF and EotN to pick up all heroes then Factions for the PvE skills and Soul Twisting. Ironically Prophecies should be done later since it requires microing your heroes and doesn't offer much power progression. You'll be experiencing the narratives in a disjointed and backwards way.

>>3802156
It's very different from both modern story MMORPGs and total lack of stories back in the day. There's a reason why nothing else quite like GW1 exists.

>>3802156
In the GW thread on /vm/, we always recommend to start with Prophecies first.

>>3801471
Well I'm an autist (not literally) that prefers to be able to 100% every game I touch. Which means active MMOs are really a bad fit for me desu but older ones let me enjoy that living world vibe with a minimum of uncompletable forever grind bullshit.

>>3797517 (OP)
GW2. The main story spans vanilla to End of Dragons. The story peaks in HoT and season 4 and then declines after, but if you made it to the soft ending in S4 then you mind as well tough it out and finish End of Dragons anyway for one last climatic Elder Dragon battle.

>>3804143
It has enough achievements and rare mounts/pets to keep you occupied for several months, though you won't be able to get any of the PVP achievements (unless you create several accounts and run several clients so you can queue for BGs/arenas versus yourself but at that point you might as well just use console commands for the PVP achievements) and there will probably be a handful of some other achievements that should in theory require several people to complete, but just for exploration, reputation grinds, mount farming and basic dungeons then you're looking at hundreds if not thousands of hours of potential gameplay.

>>3804146
I've been playing this game since launch and man, does it hurt me.
It's always so close to being really really good and stumbles somehow every time.

>>3800789
>>Ultima Online Adventurers of Akalabeth
Seconding. There's even a /vm/ server that has been running for a long time.

>>3797517 (OP)
not a single mmorpg is sufficient as a single player title.

>>3805285
What do you mean?

>>3797517 (OP)
Which mmo has an interesting element system? Almost all have fire, lightning and ice.

>>3805690
FFXI has classes that care a lot about elemental resistances and shit. Mostly mages, but there's an elemental resistance-focused tank class.

>>3797521
>playing DDO
>recently announced they'll be deleting ALL existing servers
>people have to transfer to one of the three new ones
64bit or not this is clearly a cost cutting thing. I wonder if LotRO servers are next.

>>3805839
Lotro have already made 64 bit servers and are migrating people to them.

>>3805766
Thanks. I'll check it out. I know that I studied ff14, which is surprisingly good on a technical level.

>>3797605
Are they actually working on the Secret World Legends or did they do reboot and let it rot?

Last time I've checked, the old version had more content than the reboot.

>>3805285
UO Odyssey absolutely is

>>3805984
>Are they actually working on the Secret World Legends or did they do reboot and let it rot?
I don't think anything was cut out going to Legends. Also, no.

>>3806330
There is cut content from Legends, but it's been so long that I don't remember what it was. Also if you ever had an original TSW account you can still play it. Google how.

>>3800789
Red pill me on Phantasy Star Online. I see the name a lot but know jack fucking shit about it.

>>3807951
Not him but I played it a bit and it's a curious little game. It's based around instanced missions that you can launch solo or in a group from a hub that has merchants and other types of NPC. I didn't get very far because ultimately I just got bored. Combat is mostly about spamming one button, no real story, etc. But it IS Phantasy Star in 3D, which is what I was mostly interested in anyway. Check out Ephinea, the most popular private server, if you wanna give it a try.

>>3808201
>But it IS Phantasy Star in 3D
So there's a whole franchise behind it?

>>3797517 (OP)
Age of Wushu

>>3809318
Tell me more anon

>>3809318
I miss it.