COOP easy... how about COOP difficulties?

So everyone always wins at coop... unless your ally is an idiot =p

How about harder levels of it? Have the current COOP be the 'normal' and then have a 'hard' (barracks 14) and 'nightmare' barracks 17. Yes, it would require a separation of the coop matching, depending on difficulty, but that can easily be arranged with another equal-skill player in faction/guild chat, so as to avoid waiting for 30 mins in Q (I'd want these battles to be difficult enough so as to warrant AVOIDING random player matches, or at least promote quality communication during the match)


Also--You mentioned a while ago that the NPC battles DO NOT actually match AP of the sent army (scales with, doesn't actually 'match)

How about a "sadistic" difficulty, where it -IS- an actual match... perhaps at barracks lvl 20. Since you don't equip units in PVE, this could possibly result in 2v1 or 3v1 as far as units go (depending on the gear brought in). Just have the NPC have only lvl 10 units, and just toss in as many as it takes to balance out the AP of the player.

There should be some kind of filter so I won't co-op with a player that is a lot stronger/weaker than me, the weak player will loose most of his army just because the AI is to powerful for him to fight which can lead to a total loss.

Meir017 wrote:

There should be some kind of filter so I won't co-op with a player that is a lot stronger/weaker than me, the weak player will loose most of his army just because the AI is to powerful for him to fight which can lead to a total loss.

This is the likely outcome for new players, but I think there are a lot of players who run small secondary armies or who enjoy backing up bigger players. I wouldnt want to see it removed as an option entirely.

One way to handle it would be to match low AP armies with large armies only after the player has a certain number of MVPs/CoOps under their belt. The assumption is that once you get experienced enough, the size of your army doesnt matter and you should know how to best use it on the battlefield.

Personally I'm indifferent, if it can be done effectively I think this is a great idea because I like a challenge. Now in the case of newer/lower ranked players I generally do assist and throw a single unit in to soak up the damage so their armies can get some xp and minimal deaths.

Personally, I'm all for more intense coop options. Not sure if it's coming, but it would pair nicely with the 'party' or 'group' Queues ive seen people asking for

Agreed. There is another thread that is almost a duplicate of this talking about possible requirements for "veteran mode" and "hardcore mode" co-ops.

Trick is to do it without splitting the player pool too much that we get long wait times.

Aye, that certainly would be the downside. Perhaps it could be worked such as the WoW queues; have the ability to choose an individual map (difficulty mode in this case) or for those wanting a fast Q, there could be a 'random' difficulty option to increase Q speed. I imagine an AP check would be in order to ensure players don't get ensnared in matches that they are grossly outclassed (or vice versa).

I can't find the other related thread. Please do something along these lines.

We just sent in three people with a total of over 3000 AP. We fought nothing but LI/LA/archers, and took a total of 24 casualties. Boring.

The best solution may be simply to have two queues: easy and hard. This would minimally extend the potential wait for a match. Newbs who want the challenge of playing alongside more experienced players can join the hard queue. Experienced players who like things the way they are now (if there are any) can join the easy queue.

I don't think you have to do anything specifically for new players: even with huge AP AI armies, they should be ok as long as they think about what they're doing. I normally only see small armies get killed if they lack common sense: e.g. isolating their army from the main force, rushing ahead of the main force, etc.

It's supposed to be co-op, even noobs can coop with veterans, as long as you actually cooperate.

One thing that you might want to limit is cavalry though: Cavalry, when used right, can pretty much wipe out the enemy force before a new player even engages.

on the easy vs hard coop settings: maybe you can enter the queue with a given preference: e.g. you could select 'hard' and depending on queue size you will be added to a hard game if enough other players have selected hard (and you would never join any battle that is harder than your preference). If the queue isn't big enough, you would be matched up with 'easy' players in an easier game (well...regular coop is easy enough)

Gwar wrote:

on the easy vs hard coop settings: maybe you can enter the queue with a given preference: e.g. you could select 'hard' and depending on queue size you will be added to a hard game if enough other players have selected hard (and you would never join any battle that is harder than your preference). If the queue isn't big enough, you would be matched up with 'easy' players in an easier game (well...regular coop is easy enough)

I think that a better way will be to have an option of adding a limit to the ap of the army that will join us in the co-op battle.

Now that encountering HI has become so infrequent I find co-op to be not challenging at all anymore. I would love to see an increase in difficulty.

Even if this isn't added, something akin to a nightmare co-op would be nice for capital sieges, so that we can fight for the decisive blow with friends. I feel like a move like that's the last time I'd want to be in the queue by myself, rather than fighting alongside my comrades to prolong what might seem like certain doom, or striking the decisive blow in a long and hard campaign.

Meir017 wrote:

Gwar wrote:

on the easy vs hard coop settings: maybe you can enter the queue with a given preference: e.g. you could select 'hard' and depending on queue size you will be added to a hard game if enough other players have selected hard (and you would never join any battle that is harder than your preference). If the queue isn't big enough, you would be matched up with 'easy' players in an easier game (well...regular coop is easy enough)

I think that a better way will be to have an option of adding a limit to the ap of the army that will join us in the co-op battle.

Sounds too limiting to me: I actually like playing with different size AP teammates, whether bigger or smaller armies. I like variety in battle (even if it's playing with Cavalry stealing all my kills)

You will have the option to limit the ap of the army or to leave it blank and not limit the ap of the army, and show us who will be joining the co-op before we accept it.