The Officially Unofficial Weekly Discussion #75: Do you (or have you ever) run teams deliberately that were not 1 or 8 characters and what is your ideal team size?

[DougGraves]

It seems people solo or people fill teams as much as they can.

 

Have you ever been in a team that was deliberately some other size?  Duo, or four, etc?

 

I have rarely encountered it but have enjoyed being on teams of 4 with the difficulty set to team size 8 instead of increasing the level difficulty.  Every character feels more important to the team.

[SeraphimKensai]

I will solo or run a full team like the rest, but I have no qualms about running small teams.

 

I actually like getting small groups of support toons together 3-5 players and running +4 content set for 8 for the added challenge as support toons are a very strong force multipler by themselves.

[Oubliette_Red]

I do a lot of solo when friends are not around, when they are then it's usually 3-5 on the team even for TF's/SF's though we will sometimes invite wildlife for those.

[SuperPlyx]

I occasionally see someone advertise for a 4 man team, I always try to join no matter what they doing. They are always fun to me. 

When I put together a team most time I will only recruit in lfg once or twice and if only 3 -5 answer that's fine with me.

[cranebump]

Not deliberately set on smaller team, but have run with plenty 3-5 teams. Like them a lot. Some time back, I posited the idea of advertising for "Star" teams, as in the 5 points of the star. But with star TF runs that idea is definitely out the window.

 

Optimal team size? I'd say 4-5.

Edited April 26, 2024 by cranebump

[Snarky]

Is this where I say I run 4 all the time in Summer Blockbuster?

 

If I form a team I want as many as possible.  My feeling is there is a "weak floor" and "strong middle management" on teams.  Then, if I am leading, an insane CEO.  The hope in recruiting is that you get a lot of the Mgt, and less of the floor.  But, unless you know the players through experience, you are shooting down a dark hallway. So, get more.  Always more.  A strong group of 3 can handle +4/x8.  So if we get those probably going to be fine with whatever crawls in to fill the other billets. The "comedy element"

 

Some of you may think i am being overly harsh...

[MrAxe]

Me and the wife run a duo. This gives me a break from the steamroll and presents much more of a challenge. It's nice to play a more difficult version of the game sometimes.

[ZekeStenzland]

I rarely have a target number of people when I make teams (with the exception of SBB). I just recruit until bored and then go with what we have. 

[Greycat]

Nope. Whoever comes by, comes by. I'm semi-regularly on a later night team that's often 4-6 people.  I don't need a full team to have fun, and it's often more fun with fewer.

[DaddyDayCare]

I have my settings for AV's and when I come across AV's I set up for a team of 2-4 members.  3 is preferred and never more than 4.  I ask for assistance from others that are in zone and close to my level.   I used to ask for help in the LFG but that was always a disaster. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Techwright]

Well, there was that time in the OG game where I ran 22 players through the Atta cave, but I was young, experimental, and had no clue what an exploit was.   (I can tell you that taking essentially a league into a wide cave with wall-to-wall trolls (the game apparently kept adding them as our ranks increased) is a heap of a lot of fun. But I'm wiser now and don't endorse exploits.  Perhaps some day they'll make it a league event.)

 

Ahem.  

 

Under normal play, however, I'm usually 1 or 8.  I have done a lot of 2-person teams with my best friend who is an infrequent player these days, but if I'm in a pug, I prefer 5 or more.  I've been in an awkward position once or twice where I thought the leader was going to recruit a full team, but tried to run the mission with just 3 players.  I find that a bit too personal for my tastes when we're all strangers.

[Kaika]

Honestly I prefer smaller teams but you rarely see them outside of SBB. Something that always bugs me is people who complain about everything being a steam roll but never play in small groups. CoH is a game that has a really big focus on force multipliers, even on SOs a team of 8 will usually always stomp due to this. Bring less people and you get less force multipliers and more personal responsibility, it's still very possible that things become a stomp, but even then you usually get to do more. I see messages in LFG all the time that clearly want a slower paced group but are still looking for 8 players, and that's honestly just not gonna happen with 8 players these days, no matter what your fighting, unless everyone is under-leveled, 8 players will evaporate it.

[NotsoevilDM]

I usually start a session soloing on my current project, while keeping one eye on the LFG channel for anything interesting. I will then either join with the current toon or switch to an appropriate alt.

 

And while people usually aim to fill teams with the full 8, when we are struggling to fill those last spots, I am happy to run with a smaller group.

[nihilii]

Yes, for sure! I love duos, trios, quartets. At that size it feels like you're closely working with each other's strengthes; and with semi-optimized characters, most of the "tough" tasks are a good challenge.

 

Even though it's happenstance, the game on x8 actually feels designed for 4 friends playing together. IMHO this is the peak experience.

[KC4800]

I consider me and my Tri-Cannon and my FFG a 3 man team.

[Uun]

I'll run whatever size, but I feel like 4-6 is the sweet spot. There's no challenge in running an 8-person team through most x8 content, but 4-6 people running at x8 feels pretty good.

[UltraAlt]

21 hours ago, DougGraves said:

Have you ever been in a team that was deliberately some other size?  Duo, or four, etc?

 

Yeah, sure, at least 2 nights a week for 2-3 hours.

 

I often run trials or task forces with less than 8. I have some set numbers that I think are doable for certain content. Once that is reached, I'm not going to sit around all day trying to fill. 

 

21 hours ago, DougGraves said:

I have rarely encountered it but have enjoyed being on teams of 4 with the difficulty set to team size 8 instead of increasing the level difficulty.  Every character feels more important to the team.

 

I don't set the team size to 8 when running smaller teams. I don't even jack it up to 6.

When I'm running teams, I'm more likely to increase the enemy level than spawn size.

 

If I want a huge number of opponents to fight, I have several of the Dynasty Warrior games.

Bumping the difficulty give me the challenge that I'm looking for.