What party size is the open world content going to be balanced around? I'm a bit interested in the development of this game and would like to see an MMO that's not balanced around playing solo all the way until the endgame final dungeons/raids.

I'd personally like to see the difficulty of open world increase drastically as you level up/reach new job advancements. Since I have no clue what the levels are like in this game, I'm going to write this based on the assumption that leveling caps out at 100 (can be scaled for whatever this game's leveling is like). For example:

• Levels 1-10 (Beginner Class): Very easy to solo, basically a tutorial to help new players get used to the controls and interested in the gameplay/world before they're forced to spend time socializing and finding a party. (Ideally, it would take a few hours to get through these levels, rather than being done with it in under 30 minutes like how most games are nowadays.)

• Levels 10-30 (First Class advancement): Content starts getting kind of rough. Monsters start posing a real threat and you'll either be forced to slow drastically slow down and pick off your targets carefully one by one (and run if they attract more than one enemy), or party up. Content will be balanced around 2 player parties. This will encourage players to make a friend early on in the game to get them used to socializing (and not letting them solidify a solo mentality), while not inconveniencing them too much by making them spend large amounts of time forming full parties.

• Levels 30-70 (Second Class advancement): Content gets really tough. Enemies start having strength on par with strong individual players. Trying to solo is now a harsh gamble, only players willing to spend excessive amounts of time and preparation equivalent to trying to take down another player should be able to kill off monsters in a 1v1 scenario, and it should be extremely inefficient to try leveling without a party.

  Content will be balanced around 4 player parties, where the pairs from the 10-30 phase will be looking to join up with each other. Balanced party composition starts to be a thing, where players may start trying to recruit tanks/supports/healers specifically (although they don't necessarily have to have the perfect party spread). Maybe interweave the occasional rare mob spawn that's difficult enough to force singular/duo players to flee (no need to attach too special of a reward to this mob, it should be an obstacle players need to get through rather than something players specifically hunt for).

• Levels 70-100 (Third (Final?) Class Advancement): Content is now balanced around full 6 player parties, and singular players have long reached their limit. Solo players should be unable to beat enemies in a one on one scenario, and may have to resort to inefficiently training on lower leveled mobs if they still refuse to party up.

  Normal enemies are now a threat to even full parties, and will threaten to kill parties off if they've aggro'd too many enemies or are unprepared. The content should be difficult enough to keep parties on their toes at all times when hunting, although it shouldn't be too stress inducing or threaten wipes if the party is careful and knows when to disengage. Maybe true bosses spawn on rare occasions and force full parties to coordinate exceptionally well or work with friends/guildmates/nearby parties to take down these bosses.

  Although a full party is considered 6 players, I think they should have a bit of buffer room and be able to include up to 8 players for regular open world content so that friends don't get left out if too many log in at the same time. But any sort of bonus EXP for partying and general hunting efficiency shouldn't be noticeably increased past the full 6 player party (although you shouldn't impose a penalty either). Players should hopefully have a pretty solid roster of friends or a guild where they can draw party mates from by now, and shouldn't necessarily have to spend a ton of time finding a new party every day.

This is just my idea of what ideal party sizes would be like while leveling up in the open world, assuming this game isn't just a repeat of the "can be played solo or with friends" formula which just ends up being played solo every time. Basically I'm counting on the difficulty and harshness of the world to encourage players to try and socialize with each other and make friends for survival. People tend to really bond when they make it out of difficult situations together, something about friendships forged through fire and whatnot. I think that could really make the game more immersive/fun as a whole even if has the potential of being a bit frustrating at times.

Although this assumes that level 100 is the cap and that there are 3 class advancements, this can be scaled to whatever the game's leveling/class advancement system is like. It's also worth noting that the difficulty in these tiers aren't necessarily massive jumps between each tier, but an upwards slope with medium jumps in difficulty per class advancement. I have a few more ideas about how Open World PvP can help play into encouraging partying up, but I think I've already written far too much for now and would rather not derail this topic too much.

What are your guys' (and the developer's) thoughts what party sizes should be or how they should be encouraged/enforced?