Thread 3797517

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.

>>3810901
It's still going, no?

>>3812626
the brief period when we had that insane community is long gone

>>3808969
What do you mean? Phantasy Star as a series started all the way back in 1987 on the Sega Master System.

>>3797605
the secret world was such a sad story of funcom compromising the initial idea because they wanted that sweet sub income. one of the devs who worked on the game spoke about it on rpg codex of all places.

>>3797517 (OP)
>>3797521
I tried TOR and you faggots lied, this game is so fucking bad solo. Everything dies in one hit, bosses don't even scratch me, the world is jank and ugly as shit, there's 50000 different popups and I'm overleveled despite ignoring everything besides the main quest. What gives?

This shit doesn't actually feel like a videogame, moreso an expedited piss-easy treadmill so you can start collecting pixels at endgame. FFXIV at least picked up after AAR even if that takes a bazillion hours.

>>3821891
>Everything dies in one hit
>bosses don't even scratch me
>What gives?
It wasn't like that at launch. they kept updating it, and every update made the game gayer

>>3821891
mmo players are retarded and you are retarded for not understanding this

>>3822024
I don't hate all MMOs, and I like KOTOR, but this is just really pathetic and it feels like every big MMO (Retail WoW, XIV, ect) goes down this path.

Classic being a success should show that people enjoy a textured leveling process but, alas.

>>3821995
Many such cases.

>>3821891
The appeal is the story, and it is second to none in terms of what it allows you to roleplay in the setting. No story-based rpg has hard combat so wtf did you expect?

The worlds look fine and get pretty damn atmospheric at times. And wrangling popups is a standard mmo skill.

>>3797517 (OP)
Star Trek Online. Literally never talked to a single person while playing that game or interacted with any of the online features. It’s unironically the best game to play out the Trek fantasy.

>>3797517 (OP)
There’s a private server thing called WoW Single Player pack that lets you play WoW as if it was a single player party RPG game.

I would keep SWTOR installed to play now and then if it wasn't like a 60gb installation for a game I play maybe once a year.

>>3822321
I was in a guild but I barely said anything in it. I kinda lost motivation to keep playing after obtaining my dream ship and then doing some content in it.

>>3800789
came to this thread to plug city of heroes

>>3822643
>city of heroes
I like CoH because it's probably the only game short of EQ1 where you can still experience the old group format where enchanter/buffer was a dedicated role.

/vst/2119937

>>3822275
>wtf did you expect?
A game. SWTOR is a mediocre interactive novel with a cash shop.

>>3827139
Games are primarily about story, just like all art. ADHD gameplayfags can fuck off.

^bump retard woke up extra dumb today, lol

>>3822329
Buy a 1tb hard drive for 30 bucks and stop worrying

>>3832064
>1 terabyte harddrive
>$30 american
Can I do that with PS3 in 2025? I remember when a 1gb drive costed us 1 million dollars or more ages ago. I only have a 250gb on my illegally modified PS3 it fucking pisses me off like harder than a pissed off fish out of water that I can't pirate every PS1 and PS2 RPG known to man on her drive but sadly there isn't enough room available on the 250gb she came delivered with. Not to mention my concerns regarding potential buggy glitchfuckery transferring mod content from a 250gb drive to a 1000gb drive within the same PS3

>>3822653
You can speedrun pretty hard on homecoming with everyone being incarnates plus the classic kinetics/radiation power ups. There are a ton of difficulty options in the game and many are aimed at solo play too. I think people still solo speed runs the different task forces, but you can turn down the difficulty of arch villians to elite bosses if you want to , maybe even turn them off. I like the XP curve on homecoming, it feels like the game is less about grinding whats popular for your level bracket like on live and instead very open world/open ended. You tend to spend more time in ouroborous lol. There are always people playing, small and dedicated community, people tend to come back for a weekend or a few weeks in cycles its been pretty steady since launch hype.

>>3822275
>the story is second to none
the absolute. state.
>in terms of what it allows you to roleplay in the setting
>rpg lets you make choices
>they never change anything in the world because it's a FUCKING MMO duh

>>3822275
I also love a good story, but what you fags don't understand is that video games are an interactive medium. If I am supposed to fight a villain the story hypes as being super powerful, and I bowl him over immediately and with no effort, then the story failed. When I expect to walk over every encounter, there are no stakes.

>>3831035
>Games are primarily about story
lolno

>>3797521
>If you have at least one more person you should check out DDO
can't you just play the necromancer which was designed for single players?

>>3834463
Are you thinking about EQ?

>>3834271
Yeah that's an issue, but it doesn't totally undercut the entire game. Such is the nature of MMOs, there's always some compromise done by the developers (needlessly, but done nonetheless) to appeal to more players.
>>3834287
Stop being a left-brained autist.

BUMP

Anyone else played with guilds before but now prefer solo?
I started playing MMOs around 2009, but only about 7 years ago I really got into guilds and raiding etc mostly on PvP games
But recently I started going solo again and I forgot how relaxing and fun it is!
I think I joined guilds for the wrong reasons, I just wanted to appear hardcore and be part of something that looks cool
But I was going against my own nature, I'm antisocial as fuck and I'm much happier playing solo again

>>3834588
Stop being a faggot

>>3838220
I could never jive with guilds. People say they let you do group content easily but that's horse shit, every time I said "hey anybody want to do [group content]" it was crickets. Same with discord. Fuck anyone who spins this gay narrative about mmos that you only need to join a group chat and then any group content is a message away.

>>3797517 (OP)
while it's topical, remember to REDEEM the lotro coupon
https://www.lotro.com/news/lotro-free-questing-coupon-2025-en

>This Coupon Code will grant the following to your game account:
Quest Pack: Central Gondor
Quest Pack: East Gondor
Quest Pack: West Gondor
Quest Pack: Old Anórien
Region Pack: Far Anórien
Quest Pack: March of the King
Quest Pack: Battle of the Black Gate
Quest Pack: Legacy of the Necromancer
Quest Pack: Where Dragons Dwell
Quest Pack: The Vales of Anduin
Quest Pack: Mists of Wilderland
Quest Pack: The Wildwood
The Further Adventures of Bilbo Baggins
Quest Pack: The Blood of Azog
Quest Pack: Rangers and Ruins
Quest Pack: Yondershire
The Further Adventures of Elladan and Elrohir
Quest Pack: Mordor
Quest Pack: Minas Morgul
Quest Pack: War of Three Peaks
Quest Pack: Fate of Gundabad

>>3838220
I just liked guilds because it was people to talk to while playing that weren't just arguing politics in general chat

>>3838220
It doesn't have to be solo, group content is still fun but I haven't done the whole "endgame raiding guild on a strict weekly schedule" bullshit in like 10 years. I only fuck around with twinking (both PVE and PVP), solo play or custom servers.

>>3840015
Much obliged anon, I would have missed this otherwise

>>3840015
>still need to have the game installed to redeem the damn thing
just let me use the store from the website

>>3840015
The code THANKYOU2025 also gives you some stuff including a mount

>>3797517 (OP)
In addition to everything mentioned so far, I'd say PSO2. Partially because the game is so dead there aren't many people anyway, but its general design means you can do pretty much all of the story solo, as well as a lot of the instances, and really, even doing the "raids" doesn't exactly require you to interact with the other people in them. The gameplay is pretty fun, especially when most other MMOs are tab target, and I'd say it's a decently satisfying tropey anime story. The downside is that through over a decade of SEGA incompetence, the story itself is missing parts after a rework to the system for going through it, a lot of the side character NPCs barely have anything now too. Episode 4 is also a steaming pile of shit, but you can also kinda ignore most of the stuff in it. The game overall is a prime example of fumbled potential, but the good parts are enjoyable. All of this is about the "legacy" content, NGS is irredeemable garbage.