Playing co-op with mates

Puteq

Hi, me and a few mates are thinking of getting WoW and playing it co-operatively, maybe one day a week or something. Thing is, I am not sure how possible that is or how it would work out. I have done a bit of reading up on how the game works, and I see that co-op is an option, but there are things to look out for like what race you choose, as some races start off on distant lands or something (Night Elves I think). it would suck if we all created our characters and then found that one of us is on the other side of the land! Is there any other thing like this i should be mindful of when doing this? And would it be a problem if some of us simply played 1 day a week when we were all on-line, but others of the group played a lot during the other days of the week (e.g. is there a problem if you are in the middle of a mission with the group, and even though it is not finished, you go off on your own and do other missions in the meantime before the group gets together to finish the mission they were in the middle of?). I know there would be implications for exp, i believe if you are considerably higher level than your group then you get less exp for doing the crummy missions that the group would be up to but that would not be a problem for us.

also, regarding required spec, here is the minimum according to gamespot:
System: Intel Pentium3 800 MHz or AMD Duron 800 MHz processor or equivalent
RAM: 256 MB
Video Memory: 32 MB
Hard Drive Space: 4000 MB

now i know the diff between minimum, and recommended (which is always higher), so what would you guys recommend? the weakest PC in the group is a P4 1.5 processor, 768MB RAM, 64MB graphics card, is this too weak to run it really? I wouldnt mind if the graphics dont look their best, so long as it runs OK

And is there any other useful info i should know about when considering playing co-op with a few mates like this? Has anyone else here done it? is it a bad idea for some reason?

Thanks for any info

koneko

Well, playing together is no problem at all in WoW, it's what it's for. If you want to play with friends, just make sure you all pick the same side (ie Horde or Alliance). You don't have to pick the same race, but if you want to play the first few levels together then it would be easier. Personally I'd say let everyone pick what class and race they want (do some research to find out good combinations), play the first few easy levels alone and then meet up to go questing.

If some of the group play more than others, then you will end up with a gap. Personally, I wouldn't like playing like that, when you're all around the same level you'll be fighting the same monsters, you can do instances together (they're like dungeons), everyone is fairly matched. If some are lower level they will get killed by the mobs others are fighting with ease. And trust me, when you start playing a game like WoW, there are bound to be some people that will spend all their time playing it and level much much quicker than others. If you're only playing 1 day a week you won't level very quickly, so a friend that is playing every day will level much quicker and the level gap will be quite significant. To an extent it's okay, the higher level people can help out the lower level people, but it depends on how you want to play. An instance group is usually 5 people of different classes, around the same level, taking on bigger bad guys. For instance you'd have 1 priest, 1 warrior (tank), 1 mage, 1 rogue, 1 shaman or paladin (that's just an example tho). Don't all pick the same class, keep some balance.

PC wise, those specs sound ok, but you'll probably have to turn the res and detail down a bit to get it to run smoothly, you don't want the FPS to start choking in the middle of a battle.

joe_chicken

Wow... you're really lucky... i'd have loved to have started like that, it's a perfect game for it

Puteq wrote:

what race you choose, as some races start off on distant lands or something (Night Elves I think). it would suck if we all created our characters and then found that one of us is on the other side of the land!

That would be half the fun for me... trying to find each other

But once you get to around level 10 or so (about 4-5 hours of playing.. maybe more) you should be able to get to all the big cities and find each other then. (You can still talk to them, even if you can't see them, so should be ok to find each other)

If you're playing it from the start with other people, you should decide who should do what, you don't all want to be the same class (classes are more important than races).

If you can all stay around the same level (after you meet up) and keep working in groups... then you should level pretty quickly

And if you're taking professions... make sure you balance them too

As for the spec... i sometimes run it on a laptop from about 2 years ago with 256 RAM and 1.5 GHz and in built GC... and its runs ok... don't wanna go near IF but for everything else it's grand

Trojan

It's easy to get to other starting areas when you're low level. If you die, don't res - just corpse run to your destination, res at the spirit healer there.

Orion

Good idea Trojan. I remember running through the Wetlands one time (L40ish) and met a L2 Night Elf heading for Dun Morogh. He'd started the game and chose an Elf but all his friends were human. I ran him to IF anyway out of pity

Bartonprince

Puteq wrote:

Hi, me and a few mates are thinking of getting WoW and playing it co-operatively, maybe one day a week or something. Thing is, I am not sure how possible that is or how it would work out. I have done a bit of reading up on how the game works, and I see that co-op is an option, but there are things to look out for like what race you choose, as some races start off on distant lands or something (Night Elves I think). it would suck if we all created our characters and then found that one of us is on the other side of the land! Is there any other thing like this i should be mindful of when doing this? And would it be a problem if some of us simply played 1 day a week when we were all on-line, but others of the group played a lot during the other days of the week (e.g. is there a problem if you are in the middle of a mission with the group, and even though it is not finished, you go off on your own and do other missions in the meantime before the group gets together to finish the mission they were in the middle of?). I know there would be implications for exp, i believe if you are considerably higher level than your group then you get less exp for doing the crummy missions that the group would be up to but that would not be a problem for us.

also, regarding required spec, here is the minimum according to gamespot:
System: Intel Pentium3 800 MHz or AMD Duron 800 MHz processor or equivalent
RAM: 256 MB
Video Memory: 32 MB
Hard Drive Space: 4000 MB

now i know the diff between minimum, and recommended (which is always higher), so what would you guys recommend? the weakest PC in the group is a P4 1.5 processor, 768MB RAM, 64MB graphics card, is this too weak to run it really? I wouldnt mind if the graphics dont look their best, so long as it runs OK

And is there any other useful info i should know about when considering playing co-op with a few mates like this? Has anyone else here done it? is it a bad idea for some reason?

Thanks for any info

Your PC's will be fine.

You can all start off in different places, and meet eachother right away. But you need to ask directions. Anytime i sstart a new character (say a night elf) i just run to ironforge. takes about 15 mins and a boat trip but i know the place better. It will be easy for you to do that.

All meet in Ironforge

Trojan

Do the L1-10 quests in your race starting area, then head to Westfall. That's the best place to level 10-19 quickly.

Jim

If you want to start in the same areas you can go Troll and Orc as Horde or Dwarf and Gnome as Alliance.

Just don't all pick Orc Hunter as your class as afriend of mine and 4 of his friends did.... Get a good mix of classes.

Trojan

Jimeatsmenu wrote:

don't all pick Orc Hunter as your class as afriend of mine and 4 of his friends did...

How could anyone be that stupid? Nevermind 4 of them.

Jim

Wasn't as bad as you might think. All they needed to do low lvl instances was a healer, then they just used all their pets to tank and them to dps.

They realised their mistake though before they got to 60. Most have 60 alts or mains different classes now.

Mad Mike

Jimeatsmenu wrote:

Wasn't as bad as you might think. All they needed to do low lvl instances was a healer, then they just used all their pets to tank and them to dps.

lol - Ive often wondered about a hunter only group doing instances. By selectively using growl and cower you could designate which pets would be tanks and designate the "tank" hunters to Spam heal their pets.

With regards to original post about playing co-op with your mates: If you want to stay friends "in game" you should really commit to levelling at the same rate. If you are not all similar level then grouping is no fun and not very rewarding. Unfortunately in any group of friends you inavariably get the addicts and the laggards (translate: have a life!!!).

dragon12

Trojan wrote:

It's easy to get to other starting areas when you're low level. If you die, don't res - just corpse run to your destination, res at the spirit healer there.

I believe this has been fixed in a recent patch. Or maybe the next one.

quarryman

yup, doesn't work.

Puteq

cool thanks for the info everyone. I have a much better idea now how it would work out if we were to try this anyway :-)