Community Question: Why don't you play public parties?

I've always liked soloing since it lets me be more immersed into the story, but I mostly don't go into public parties because of the FFA loot. I think it can easily turn people to focus on loot more than anything else, which I don't want to have to do to get something nice. I like to be able to focus on the game, which I can easily do while soloing.

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Erenor wrote:

I know it's a thread about "why do you not party?"...
but let me give you a heads up guys:

As long as the problem isn't your computer (which at times mine is and I play with insane lags...) you can influence your party by one simple and hard thing: Talking to each other, showing trust and giving the other the option to return this trust. I can only agree with nemesis here (tx for the very nice story! btw.) and would go even as far and say, camaraderie can be built anywhere. What do you guys do when a random player joins the party? Some are silent, some say "hi"... dunno I always try to welcome the player with his/her name, showing him I do care who joined my party.

This is true, to an extent. I don't party frequently, but when I do, there are a few things I do in hopes of building that sort of trust/camaraderie. The first thing I do when someone new joins is open a portal and say "TP up." This way they don't have to waste time in chat asking for one or worse entering a random one and trying to catch up with the group. The second thing I do is call named drops (orbs, quality/rare gems, uniques) in the chat to ensure that person gets them and nobody tries to ninja it. It seems like a strong enough deterrent. Lastly, if I really am liking my party enough, I'll sometimes split the jeweler's orbs from random 6s items that I picked up. While I don't generally run with the more hardcore crowds, I find this makes public partying a little less stressful for me at least, and I wish I saw others doing similar things - because they don't, I tend not to join other parties (also for reasons I listed before).

* FFA loot: admittedly my aversion to this loot style is fallout from DII. Some people are good, but when that gold text pops... savagery. As a general rule I kill mobs first and pick up loot only when they're all dead. Private parties help, but then there's:

* Computer: even with decent but old hardware my PC lags in PoE when there's lots of mobs on screen, especially during boss fights like Vaal when the corpses start piling up from his adds. Concerned it would be unplayable in party when the skills start flying.

(Core 2 Duo E4300 overclocked@ 3.0Ghz, 3GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 460 1GB GPU, 1650x1080, WinXP 32-bit)

* Pace: some like to rush, some like to be thorough. Many can't seem to stick together and wander off in random directions getting themselves and the party killed. People going to town randomly and AFK'ing does it too. Happened so often in DIII inferno as just being in the game buffed the monster difficulty- especially before all the nerfs. Is PoE any different? I get annoyed when peeps don't stick with the group.

* Communication: Much of this can be solved with communication. Part of the problem is stopping to type is cumbersome and can get you killed. It's very hard to coordinate this way. It's so much easier with voice chat which usually only happens with private parties of friends. Steam has ingame voice but the quality is horrible. If GGG implements it it should be high quality or nothing. The other factor is many gamers are shy. All of this means public parties are a lot more work.


Sounds like HC is the place to party up. Might give it a whirl.

For the most part I play solo because I prefer my own pace. Most of the public parties I've joined are fast runners and I tend to stroll through the areas killing and inspecting loot at a leisurely rate. I don't want to slow the group down, so I keep to myself.

That said, I will occasionally join a boss group if I'm near that part of the act. Then I just run, finish, and go back to my stroll.

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Mr_Bill wrote:

1. FFA loot system

2. Internet douche bags.

3. The game (so far) is designed so you can solo and isn't geared toward forced grouping.

These.

If the game ever adds forced grouping, I'll be the first to hit the quit button.

But then I'm the kind of guy who thinks every game should have a solo-mode for ALL content. I very much loathe MMO endgames that do do not.

I play public parties when I want to get through area's quicker or if I'm using a build that I can't just do the area solo at the time..
Also I play when I want to level quicker.

I don't play public parties when I don't know how long I'm going to be playing and might have to leave/put down my laptop for a bit to do something IRL.

In past patches I've actually found the best equipment while in parties, a few exalteds, a 6L armor..
I've only had exalted drop once while solo.

* Being a father of four, two of whom are under five, I never quite know when any online time I get will be cut short, which is not really conducive to the party play style.

* FFA Loot. Having played games with FFA loot systems in the past, I can safely say, I will never do so again.

* Pace. As others have mentioned, I prefer having the ability to play at whichever pace suits me, not one set by someone else.

Hey guys, if you don't play public party because of similar reasons to those that Kellog mentioned in the post above, just message me in game. I don't mind waiting for others or speeding up the game, I don't snatch your loot and I don't mind if you have to suddenly quit or go afk. What I do mind is when people stand on a loot with my timer instead of killing things. If you do that, don't message me. (Well, message me but I will probably quit the party if I am not in extraordinarily good mood.)

Edit: btw don't message me now, I'm not in game, this pc doesn't handle it. And I play with IGN Laura_Palmer lately.

I'm all for public parties and as long as I know I'm going to be one for at least an hour (married with kids) I'll have a public party up. I get the odd ninja but I boot them pretty quick, I even had Charon help me out a little while back (thank you). I'm usually on around 7am EDST after 7pm the same. Usual toon is Ptepic.
P.S. I don't don't chat much and it's not that I don't like you it's just I get distracted easily and as we know can lead to a very quick death :)