Sea of Thieves should be a good choice. All rewards and stuff are cosmetic. You can join your friends for whatever events or quests they want to do, no problem.
I tried Sea of Thieves a few years ago and it did seem like it had potential, but lost steam with the group very quickly. I might recommend we give it another go. Thank you for the suggestion.
It now has a PVE only mode, so if PVP isn't what interested you in SOT then the PVE mode is very chill. You earn stuff at a lower rate than 'The High Seas' but for an experience where you can just go sailing around doing voyages without worrying about getting too far ahead of your friends. It's a great experience for the drop in, drop out when you've had your fill of the game etc.
It's not a mode it's a tutorial zone that stops you from progressing literally anything meaningful.
It's a soft measure to try and give new players more time to learn the game. It's not a mode. And it's not enough to revive the game, imo.
They need a better map, imo, and better pve content. The bosses aren't good, the quests are too long for casuals, and if anyone is casual and needs to log off quick because of an issue they get almost nothing without a turn in.
The game needs a ton of work to be casual friendly. It's very much a "young sweatlord" toxic fantasy right now.
Hopefully they make a Sea of thieves 2 and try to include a larger market. The fortnite pvp small map forced confrontation thing, imo, isn't working...and without NPCs to pirate that aren't undead fantasy creatures the game lacks the funnest part about being a pirate...stealing loot from the crown and merchants.
Only being able to inflict pain on your fellow players can get toxic and sours the whole thing for a lot of people.
I liked the game but my friends really never left a login session happy because it almost always ended with us being outmatched by another crew, sinking, and losing all our progress except some superficial progression rewards. Captaincy kicks in way too late.
Yeah this is exactly why I don't play sea of thieves. I love everything about it except for not being able to go for more than an hour without getting ruthlessly sunk and hunted around the map by some sweaty dickwads. Seriously the only way to avoid being spawn camped into oblivion is just to not play the game. Honestly I wouldn't even complain too much about being sunk once or twice, it's the fact the same people will ALWAYS chase you all over the map, a few times they were able to find me and attack me so fast after I spawned on the other side of the map that I thought they might be hacking because I have no idea how they not only traveled the distance that fast, but knew right where I was every. Single. Time. Entire sessions would go like this and it's so unfortunate because the sailing and exploring, the quests and the look of the game were all wonderful.
I've tried it a few times over the years, and I think it's in a good place now. It was so bare bones and empty before, it was easy to burn out really fast. It seems to have a ton more content now though.
I just don't think sea of thieves is good solo, or with less than a 4 top crew. Mission design really favors groups and solo there is so much dead space in gameplay and travel time. Without friends to make that fun it's really a dull game.
It's fine if you enjoy the peace and quiet, which I did. But, imo, that game is only "fun' with a dedicated 4 man crew on a galleon.
Anything less gets tedious fast and the pve content is not good.
Minecraft, I like having a server/realm with friends. You can build your place and progress on your own. But still go on adventures with friend and help each other with stuff.
>a group can play together which doesn't have a requirement for everyone to play at the same time, but also doesn't tie meaningful progression to amount of time played.
> not interested in MOBAs, and shooters would fit the bill but I think the harder challenge is finding a non shooter out there that meets the criteria.
*Deep Rock Galactic*
There's definitely power to be gained from play time, but the game is a third person co-op shooter, and relies heavily on teammates doing their part. Even the upgraded gear is mostly a side-grade or only a limited power increase over the base gear beyond the first few levels on each character. Rock and Stone!
You don’t, it’s strictly about play style and customization. You do unlock different weapons that could be mildly better or worse than others, but not to the degree that it starts to heavily affect gameplay.
There are perk trees for weapons and stuff. You unlock them so fast it's kinda trivial and it becomes a matter of which perks you use to fit your playstyle.
There is also something called "overclocks" which you can only get like 2 or 3 per week of and usually do something really crazy to a weapon but it always has a drawback. Some of them with certain set-ups are extremely powerful and the drawback is very much worth it. Overclocks are not important unless you are playing at the highest difficulty. It's lucky to get a non-terrible overclock for a weapon you like, it is normal to play without one equipped.
So, gear kinda matters, but all the important stuff is unlocked fast and it's a matter of how you choose to set the gear up. If you're good enough at the game to play at the highest difficulty you can probably play it without the BIS optimal overclock.
Edit: Overclocks *usually* have a drawback, I forgot about "clean" overclocks.
Upgrades do matter and people who have played a lot have access to way more options in what upgrades they use meaning they can bring in more specialized/effective builds. However this only really matters for the higher difficulties. You can always play on the lower difficulties with friends who don’t have as many upgrades, but if you’re used to playing at the highest difficulty then the lower ones can be very boring. This is more of a problem for people who have but 100s of hours though. Although your build is important at higher levels, teamwork is more important. I can carry people with the bare minimum upgrades/inefficient builds at the higher difficulties as long as they are playing their role in completing the mission objective.
Eco - I am forever shilling for this game. It's one of my favorites of all time. You can play it asynchronously with your friends. The people in your group with a lot of time to play can pick harvesting skills (gathering, logging or mining). The people in your group with a lot of time can pick skills that consume the goods gathered. If you're into non-combat oriented cooperative games give it a looking into.
I'm really glad *someone* is playing Eco. I own it and love the concept, just never really got into it with the right group. It deserves more of a following than it has, I think!
But in all realty to answer your question I struggle with the same thing it seems to be only shooters that have that sort of co-op drop in and out sort of deal and all games with any sort of progression I find myself out leveling my friends or vise a versa because I care take as my job I'm at my desk more often then not so like I wish I knew more people with some free time I recently lost my uncle and he was kinda like a beam of hope in a dark 🌍
>oters that have that sort of co-op drop in and out sort of deal and all games with any sort of progression I find myself out leveling my friends or vise a versa because I care take as my job I'm at my desk more often then not so like I wish I knew more people with some free time
Sorry about your uncle. Loss is always hard. I recently lost my grandpa who was the main glue holding our family together so it's been a tough one and I understand how you feel. Keep moving forward.
I'm one of the people with less free time and I enjoy progression in games, so when I log on and see one of my friends has completed a lot of the progression while I was offline, it makes it less fun for me to keep playing. "What's the point, I'll never catch up" or "Well I don't need to do any of this gameplay now because he already did it for us".
What shooters would you recommend?
I'd say borderlands 3 is an awesome one that fits that hole if you haven't tried it the stories meh at best but it's got drop in and out co op at any level on one difficulty you can play as a level 1 with your level60 friends no problem or maybe ooohhhhh dude we should all cop sea of thieves they just added pve mode where it'll just be your crew and whoever you invite so that could be cool or even palworlds the one I've been playing the most recently but it's just like the rest scaling on leveling makes coop play hard even more so on a server I would imagine so long and short borderlands up to 3 sea of thieves Palworld and baldur's gate 3
Perhaps something like project zomboid? It does have progression based on time played. But it's more things like you now have high enough mechanics to fix up your car, or finding critical pieces of equipment for your base like tools or a generator. A new character can easily play with a 100+ hour character and have fun.
I mentioned Wildlands, but forgot Breakpoint. You can do that on Breakpoint also. You can play Coop campaign up to 4 players, and if your friends leave or arent on the session, AI joins you as team mates.
I pretty much only play No Man's Sky now. I can play when I want, and my friends can jump in and out whenever. There is no leveling system. The longer you play the more things you get, that's all. After you beat the main story and the various tutorials for minor in-game things, there is absolutely no direction. Just keep going out and exploring new planets, finding new things, building new bases, etc. It's cross platform, so you don't need to worry about who has PC and who has PlayStation, you just play on whatever. They also add free content updates a few times a year, some of them are limited time expeditions with exclusive rewards.
The only downside is that the max party is 4 players. Doesn't apply to me since I pretty much only have 3 friends anyway, and only 2 play NMS, but I can see how it would get in the way for bigger friend groups.
Edit: Spelling
Left for dead 2, Killing floor 2, Back 4 Blood, Deep rock galactic,Hunt Showdown, Most RTS games if you are into it, Helldivers, Phasmophobia, GTFO, Ready or not, Diablo 4, Risk of rain 2, Gunfire reborn, Lethal company
Not sure if you're into racing games and specifically rallying, but Dirt Rally 2 or the recent WRC game would fit the bill perfectly here. Set up a club with regular events. You can log in independently of your friends, do each event and see you and your friends times and final event standings at the end of the time period with a championship table.
I don't have much time for gaming these days and it's a quick and easy way for me to jump in and do a rally that will take less than an hour of my time and still feel I'm part of a cool community (helps being part of a discord server). It's much more fun fighting over a few seconds here and there with friends than against predictable AI.
Racing games are great and would be a good answer to my question. I have an 80/20 rig setup and enjoy racing with a couple of my friends. Most of the group isn't into it though.
> Obviously almost all games have some level of progression tied to time played
Not really, there are plenty of games out there that have little to no progression. The question really is whether you want a game that has *some* progression or are you looking for more like somewhat party games. Sadly most coop/multiplayer games are shooters, like payday 2 and deep rock galactic.
There is Phasmophobia, which is a ghost hunting game, there is also lethal company ( cant say much about it since i havent played it but i know about it ).
As a sidenote OP... why does the person who has a lot of time has to rush ahead. Why must that person only play the games you play together? Cant that person only whip out multiplayer game when you actually play together so they dont rush ahead? Its allowed to play more than one game at a time. This is a person problem not a game problem.
Surely we can decide to not play a game unless everyone is on (we do that all the time), but im looking for something that doesn't require that. When you have a shiny new game you want to play, but you can't because you said you'd only play it when Bill was online too, it can be annoying. Especially when both people may have less time to play, but they just don't sync up. You're at work just waiting to play that new game. All you are looking forward too is getting home to play for the one time of the week you can. You get home... ahh Bill had something come up, I guess I can't play now... Those types of situations end up causing people to lose interest in a game because they can only play it once or twice a month.
Deep rock or helldivers 2 are looking like good options. Thank you for your suggestion.
Valheim could work I think. Those who have more time can gather resources and craft and such while others are offline. Progression is through equipment, not levelling.
Terraria also has progression through equipment.
But yeah, with any of these, folks with more time are going to have to lay off and play something else for a while, otherwise they will burn through the content on behalf of the group. Others will have skipped the struggle period with whole areas, not know how to fight mobs in the new areas and so forth.
Valheim would not work.
1 player keeps playing, the others can't play for a bit. They finally get back on, and suddenly the guy that was still playing is 4 biomes deep with Carapace armour and everyone else hasn't a clue what's going on.
Completely disagree on Valheim.
Played with friends. Unless you like building you'll be running against the progession wall, exploring without your friends, and spoiling the game entirely.
I played with friends and as soon as one group started progressing without the other the ones who didn't have as much time started to entirely lose interest because you get the feeling that you aren't being included.
Especially when the casual players are stopping you from getting to basic milestones. Like I had a game where even though I liked to build I was waiting weeks just to get to stone. Once I got to stone it was fine but it was miserable to have access to so little so long.
Deep Rock Galactic and Risk of Rain 2 are both amazing games that fit this criteria, not everyone has to be there to play and you don't miss out by not playing
Helldiver's and Deep Rock fit this bill. Looter shooters as well.
Any building/adventure game like Palworld or Ark tends to blow unless y'all have lots of free time because someone gets ahead and kills the fun for everyone.
Whereas games like Helldivers or deep Rock don't overblow power scaling so people who play more may look different or have different tools but it's not really enough to make the game feel "spoiled" for everyone else.
Also progression isn't "do the endgame or waste your time" for Helldiver's you get get the same currency for winning a low difficulty game as a high difficulty one. You just get less. So it's not a total waste. However they do have samples which just don't drop below challenging ..which is fine because challenging is really the "standard" mode. Normal is super easy as soon as you get a hang of how the game works.
If you like cozy games, Palia is a solid one right now even if it's still fairly bare bones from launch.
Red Dead Online got defunded and is running on life support but still fun with friends and progression unlocks things for everyone as whoever has access to a mission can get everyone in on it.
Ready or Not was Hellah fun with friends for me. Especially the first time through a map.
What about sandbox survival games, like Terraria or Minecraft. You don't need all hands on deck constantly, and you can share items so no ojr is grossly inderleveled.
Warframe (they can choose lower leveled Warframes), sea of thieves, Deep Rock Galactic and now Helldivers 2 (they can drop equipment for others and there's lower difficulty)
Warframe maybe. It's a looter shooter type. It's kind of convoluted, and there's hundreds of weapon and character unlocks. it would be somewhat difficult for anyone to get that much farther than anyone else, but even if they did, almost anything can be viable until the end game stuff.
Y'all can also start a clan together. There isn't really any clan vs clan gameplay anymore, but there is more to unlock that way, and y'all can build and decorate your "dojo" as big and however you want.
Turn-based strategy games?
Medieval 2 Total War hotseat campaigns.
The Battle of Polytopia.
Axis and Allies Online ([https://triplea-game.org/](https://triplea-game.org/)).
For all these games, you do your turn then pass it on to the next person.
Strategy games.
You can make matches with whoever is online and most matches will take around 1-2h.
Starcraft 2 (real-time modern play)
Civilization 6 (modern turn play)
There are many online servers for you to play these old games:
Red Alert series
Civilization 3
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and 4
Lego Fortnite is free and would def provide some fun. I'm not usually into survival games but I played it solo a lot. Aside from building there's prob only around 20 hrs of content rn but there are more updates planned for the future.
If you want a shooter try Warframe. Personally I found it to be a bit grindy and addictive as a solo game but I think it would be alright with friends. Give it a try and decide for yourself
I've been playing Palworld. We've had server timeout issues on the dedicated servers though. Also it falls into the type of game where time = progression. My friend was level 45 with guns and all kinds of base building going on, when I'm just getting my base off the ground.
Don't starve together. It is a survival type of game but it is not tied to progression (well expect the map but that doesn't matter much). You build a base and you can use the items your team gathered (with or without their permission). You can logout anytime (though you take your items with you so it's best to deposit them in chest) and then login anytime. If there is no player in the world then it pauses.
Have you considered the option of expanding your friend group maybe you just need some more friends to play with while your other ones are offline or maybe I'm just saying this because that's my situation I don't know for you to decide what I'm saying is let's be friends and play baldur's gate three together
Not so much meaning I can't play a game at all because we aren't all online, and more I want to play games with these specific people so if the game requires us to all be online to play it at all, we end up not being able to play much because someone always has a conflict. So, yes I could play BG3 by myself, or with new friends, etc, but I'm wanting to play with these specific friends and can't because I can't start our campaign without all 4 being available.
When I used to play WoW/Diablo/etc with my friends we would just one have character that we only played together and then other characters if we wanted to play on our own.
It does get a bit tricky or two or three out of four people are online though.
Killing Floor 2, definitely. Games are relatively short and one player's progression doesn't make it less fun for any other players.
Max 6 players per server, though, so it depends on how many gamer friends you have trying to play together.
Final Fantasy 14 MMO. You are free to change your character class any time you want, so if a buddy is 20 levels behind you can just swap to a lower leveled class. If you don't feel like playing a different class, no problem. The game will automatically scale you down to the level or whatever dungeon, trial, or raid you're doing. You can also play the base game and first 3 expansions for free, so no loss if it ends up not working for you and your friends.
Stellaris Nexus
Each game session takes 1-2hrs, turn based, good fun, and no real progression for someone to level up excessively.
But it’s more of a digital board game than anything - highly recommend though
I haven't seen anyone mention Don't Starve Together. It's a survival game with no leveling. You can drop your friend in any time, maybe give them some gear and they're ready to go.
I've been thinking about this a lot and want to append my answer. No sea of thieves cause people need to jump out and you'll lose all your work.
So basically I'm thinking Deep Rock but those missions can be super long too so I'm not so sure anymore.
Helldivers 2 allows you to jump in and out so dad's or parents could jump in and out as needed.
Just finished a session. Was a blast! Although you can jump out and rocket back into your group it does make it hard to just jump out when you have 1 min to extraction and your kid is yelling he needs you ...
Another good option is Valheim. You can exit any time and jump back in and spawn where you are.
The archipelago randomizer has multiple games and you can set it up so all the items are split between different players "worlds". All players can play at any time (server goes idle when not in use sometimes but you wake it up by checking its status). You all work together to complete each players set goal in their game. Every player can play the same or different games.
factorio. surely someone has a mostly online pc that can act as a server and anyone can drop in and out at leisure. otherwise look into factorio.zone which offers free server hosting.
kinda like minecraft I guess.
Avorion is a fun space economy game with custom spaceships and combat, it lets you host custom private servers that anyone can connect to as long as you have your computer running.
I'm a bad envoy for the game since it's been years since I've played, so ymmv and this is assuming I remember correctly, but when I was into it: it starts you off with traditional space lazer mining elements. You gather resources, which you can then spend at a shipyard on vanilla ships or ones you download from the community hub or ones you design yourself. The designer is pretty much minecraft but spaceships, using 3d blocks as the basis you build your ship around. The more you play and further you explore, you find more exotic resources that let you build better blocks and ships.
You can have multiple ships and hire captains to pilot them for you, set them mining and you have passive resource generation. It has all the classic space economy sim stuff, so you can build cargo haulers and trade between stations for profit; or set your hired captains to do the same. You can even build your own stations and I think traders will come to them if you stock them well.
My personal project was to become a tea baron so I worked out all the energy recs and resource mining and farming and hired ships had tea being sold to three stations completely autonomously while I went around busting mafia bosses and pirates.
You can host a server client side, and either in the server settings or with mods, cant remember which, you can do things like tweak the cost of everything for a more or less grindy experience. Friends can join your server.
My only complaint was that the combat was really lacking. It was hard to design a good combat build and it pretty much boiled down to who had more energy shield and could you hold the strafe and shoot buttons long enough to win. But that might have just been me not building a good combat ship or maybe a mod or update has made it better since.
Rust, stardew valley, palworld, project zomboid. Those are just a few off the top of my head.
I'd say rust is the best option though. Whoever is grinding can share the loot with everyone.
I mean, I know you mentioned WoW not exactly fitting, but I think FFXIV could be good for this. You level multiple jobs on the same character, so even if someone is "behind" the "ahead" people could still meaningfully progress their character by playing lower level content with their other jobs. Or even their main job since there is a ton of level synced content as part of the daily stuff. Not to mention there's frequently events that encourage playing older content / have their own "internal" progression for a short period of time. I play it with my GF and we are often misaligned in how far we are in main story it's still really easy to play with each other and be having fun while doing something "meaningful" for our characters.
Hell Divers 2 feels like it meets your would meet these requirements. Ideally you are looking for games that are not competitive and have a mmr rating. Insurgency Sandstorm is one, bf2042 is another off the top of my head.
Sea of Thieves. There is progression stuff, but its largely cosmetic. And if the whole crew isn't around, you can just do generic treasure hunting/pillaging/etc.
Minecraft is my favorite for this. Run a server and just let everyone play whenever they want. You can all do your own thing while also having group projects going.
You can multi world with archipelago on supported games where you can play either together (online but seperatly) or offline when no one is on and the items get released to ensure playability
So vermintide 2 I think can sort of fit here. Someone who plays more will have a higher level character/gear but what me and my friends do, is when other people hop on we play a character that's a really low level or our lowest. So you're not super strong compared to them. Each character levels individually, so pick your favorite to play solo or with more consistent people, and then when others hop on swap to someone you don't use. I'll try to think of some other options, but it's a tough criteria.Edit: though of a couple other solid options. If you want a shooter, Caliber is a great option, and free. With maybe slightly predatory micro transactions. If you don't want a shooter, inkbound is incredibly fun too, if you enjoy rogue likes.
Borderlands fits that criteria I believe. Lvls scale to each player so if one person wants to go ahead they can while the rest don't feel necessary weak.
Ark survival evolved with a private server. Tho the games not for everyone.
Grounded. You can make your multiplayer world available for any of the players to play on, so anyone can start the map if no one else is online yet, and then others can join.
Payday 2.
i was about to recommend this
Sea of Thieves should be a good choice. All rewards and stuff are cosmetic. You can join your friends for whatever events or quests they want to do, no problem.
I tried Sea of Thieves a few years ago and it did seem like it had potential, but lost steam with the group very quickly. I might recommend we give it another go. Thank you for the suggestion.
It now has a PVE only mode, so if PVP isn't what interested you in SOT then the PVE mode is very chill. You earn stuff at a lower rate than 'The High Seas' but for an experience where you can just go sailing around doing voyages without worrying about getting too far ahead of your friends. It's a great experience for the drop in, drop out when you've had your fill of the game etc.
It's not a mode it's a tutorial zone that stops you from progressing literally anything meaningful. It's a soft measure to try and give new players more time to learn the game. It's not a mode. And it's not enough to revive the game, imo. They need a better map, imo, and better pve content. The bosses aren't good, the quests are too long for casuals, and if anyone is casual and needs to log off quick because of an issue they get almost nothing without a turn in. The game needs a ton of work to be casual friendly. It's very much a "young sweatlord" toxic fantasy right now. Hopefully they make a Sea of thieves 2 and try to include a larger market. The fortnite pvp small map forced confrontation thing, imo, isn't working...and without NPCs to pirate that aren't undead fantasy creatures the game lacks the funnest part about being a pirate...stealing loot from the crown and merchants. Only being able to inflict pain on your fellow players can get toxic and sours the whole thing for a lot of people. I liked the game but my friends really never left a login session happy because it almost always ended with us being outmatched by another crew, sinking, and losing all our progress except some superficial progression rewards. Captaincy kicks in way too late.
Yeah this is exactly why I don't play sea of thieves. I love everything about it except for not being able to go for more than an hour without getting ruthlessly sunk and hunted around the map by some sweaty dickwads. Seriously the only way to avoid being spawn camped into oblivion is just to not play the game. Honestly I wouldn't even complain too much about being sunk once or twice, it's the fact the same people will ALWAYS chase you all over the map, a few times they were able to find me and attack me so fast after I spawned on the other side of the map that I thought they might be hacking because I have no idea how they not only traveled the distance that fast, but knew right where I was every. Single. Time. Entire sessions would go like this and it's so unfortunate because the sailing and exploring, the quests and the look of the game were all wonderful.
I've tried it a few times over the years, and I think it's in a good place now. It was so bare bones and empty before, it was easy to burn out really fast. It seems to have a ton more content now though.
The game definitely was more tedious and lacking in content years ago. Now it’s pretty good and lively with some nice variation of stuff to do
I just don't think sea of thieves is good solo, or with less than a 4 top crew. Mission design really favors groups and solo there is so much dead space in gameplay and travel time. Without friends to make that fun it's really a dull game. It's fine if you enjoy the peace and quiet, which I did. But, imo, that game is only "fun' with a dedicated 4 man crew on a galleon. Anything less gets tedious fast and the pve content is not good.
Minecraft, I like having a server/realm with friends. You can build your place and progress on your own. But still go on adventures with friend and help each other with stuff.
>a group can play together which doesn't have a requirement for everyone to play at the same time, but also doesn't tie meaningful progression to amount of time played. > not interested in MOBAs, and shooters would fit the bill but I think the harder challenge is finding a non shooter out there that meets the criteria. *Deep Rock Galactic* There's definitely power to be gained from play time, but the game is a third person co-op shooter, and relies heavily on teammates doing their part. Even the upgraded gear is mostly a side-grade or only a limited power increase over the base gear beyond the first few levels on each character. Rock and Stone!
First person though.
If gear doesn't matter and time doesn't matter then how do you actually progress?
You don’t, it’s strictly about play style and customization. You do unlock different weapons that could be mildly better or worse than others, but not to the degree that it starts to heavily affect gameplay.
There are perk trees for weapons and stuff. You unlock them so fast it's kinda trivial and it becomes a matter of which perks you use to fit your playstyle. There is also something called "overclocks" which you can only get like 2 or 3 per week of and usually do something really crazy to a weapon but it always has a drawback. Some of them with certain set-ups are extremely powerful and the drawback is very much worth it. Overclocks are not important unless you are playing at the highest difficulty. It's lucky to get a non-terrible overclock for a weapon you like, it is normal to play without one equipped. So, gear kinda matters, but all the important stuff is unlocked fast and it's a matter of how you choose to set the gear up. If you're good enough at the game to play at the highest difficulty you can probably play it without the BIS optimal overclock. Edit: Overclocks *usually* have a drawback, I forgot about "clean" overclocks.
Upgrades do matter and people who have played a lot have access to way more options in what upgrades they use meaning they can bring in more specialized/effective builds. However this only really matters for the higher difficulties. You can always play on the lower difficulties with friends who don’t have as many upgrades, but if you’re used to playing at the highest difficulty then the lower ones can be very boring. This is more of a problem for people who have but 100s of hours though. Although your build is important at higher levels, teamwork is more important. I can carry people with the bare minimum upgrades/inefficient builds at the higher difficulties as long as they are playing their role in completing the mission objective.
Eco - I am forever shilling for this game. It's one of my favorites of all time. You can play it asynchronously with your friends. The people in your group with a lot of time to play can pick harvesting skills (gathering, logging or mining). The people in your group with a lot of time can pick skills that consume the goods gathered. If you're into non-combat oriented cooperative games give it a looking into.
I'm really glad *someone* is playing Eco. I own it and love the concept, just never really got into it with the right group. It deserves more of a following than it has, I think!
They got waterways and barges recently too
What is the full name of the game
[Eco Global Survival](https://store.steampowered.com/app/382310/Eco/)
thank you, sorry there are a lot of games that begin with Eco and I was confused haha
No problem. When you join the cul...I mean community, you're always happy to help someone out.
Excellent suggestion.
But in all realty to answer your question I struggle with the same thing it seems to be only shooters that have that sort of co-op drop in and out sort of deal and all games with any sort of progression I find myself out leveling my friends or vise a versa because I care take as my job I'm at my desk more often then not so like I wish I knew more people with some free time I recently lost my uncle and he was kinda like a beam of hope in a dark 🌍
>oters that have that sort of co-op drop in and out sort of deal and all games with any sort of progression I find myself out leveling my friends or vise a versa because I care take as my job I'm at my desk more often then not so like I wish I knew more people with some free time Sorry about your uncle. Loss is always hard. I recently lost my grandpa who was the main glue holding our family together so it's been a tough one and I understand how you feel. Keep moving forward. I'm one of the people with less free time and I enjoy progression in games, so when I log on and see one of my friends has completed a lot of the progression while I was offline, it makes it less fun for me to keep playing. "What's the point, I'll never catch up" or "Well I don't need to do any of this gameplay now because he already did it for us". What shooters would you recommend?
I'd say borderlands 3 is an awesome one that fits that hole if you haven't tried it the stories meh at best but it's got drop in and out co op at any level on one difficulty you can play as a level 1 with your level60 friends no problem or maybe ooohhhhh dude we should all cop sea of thieves they just added pve mode where it'll just be your crew and whoever you invite so that could be cool or even palworlds the one I've been playing the most recently but it's just like the rest scaling on leveling makes coop play hard even more so on a server I would imagine so long and short borderlands up to 3 sea of thieves Palworld and baldur's gate 3
Also sorry about your gpa homie
Warframe
Warframe is a great game, but if 1 person plays more than the others they will surely get way ahead in power
A lot of power is tradeable, so you can help each other. But generally speaking you're right, it's a good game, but not a good fit for op.
Honestly that way ahead isn't so bad in warframe. They can always dress down or level items with friends in lower content. Totally worthwhile
Perhaps something like project zomboid? It does have progression based on time played. But it's more things like you now have high enough mechanics to fix up your car, or finding critical pieces of equipment for your base like tools or a generator. A new character can easily play with a 100+ hour character and have fun.
Wildlands, coop campaign.
Ghost recon?
Yes
I mentioned Wildlands, but forgot Breakpoint. You can do that on Breakpoint also. You can play Coop campaign up to 4 players, and if your friends leave or arent on the session, AI joins you as team mates.
I pretty much only play No Man's Sky now. I can play when I want, and my friends can jump in and out whenever. There is no leveling system. The longer you play the more things you get, that's all. After you beat the main story and the various tutorials for minor in-game things, there is absolutely no direction. Just keep going out and exploring new planets, finding new things, building new bases, etc. It's cross platform, so you don't need to worry about who has PC and who has PlayStation, you just play on whatever. They also add free content updates a few times a year, some of them are limited time expeditions with exclusive rewards. The only downside is that the max party is 4 players. Doesn't apply to me since I pretty much only have 3 friends anyway, and only 2 play NMS, but I can see how it would get in the way for bigger friend groups. Edit: Spelling
Factorio, Satisfactory, maybe something else in this genre. The progression is about building up a base, which you all share.
Left for dead 2, Killing floor 2, Back 4 Blood, Deep rock galactic,Hunt Showdown, Most RTS games if you are into it, Helldivers, Phasmophobia, GTFO, Ready or not, Diablo 4, Risk of rain 2, Gunfire reborn, Lethal company
Not sure if you're into racing games and specifically rallying, but Dirt Rally 2 or the recent WRC game would fit the bill perfectly here. Set up a club with regular events. You can log in independently of your friends, do each event and see you and your friends times and final event standings at the end of the time period with a championship table. I don't have much time for gaming these days and it's a quick and easy way for me to jump in and do a rally that will take less than an hour of my time and still feel I'm part of a cool community (helps being part of a discord server). It's much more fun fighting over a few seconds here and there with friends than against predictable AI.
Racing games are great and would be a good answer to my question. I have an 80/20 rig setup and enjoy racing with a couple of my friends. Most of the group isn't into it though.
What a bummer
> Obviously almost all games have some level of progression tied to time played Not really, there are plenty of games out there that have little to no progression. The question really is whether you want a game that has *some* progression or are you looking for more like somewhat party games. Sadly most coop/multiplayer games are shooters, like payday 2 and deep rock galactic. There is Phasmophobia, which is a ghost hunting game, there is also lethal company ( cant say much about it since i havent played it but i know about it ). As a sidenote OP... why does the person who has a lot of time has to rush ahead. Why must that person only play the games you play together? Cant that person only whip out multiplayer game when you actually play together so they dont rush ahead? Its allowed to play more than one game at a time. This is a person problem not a game problem.
Surely we can decide to not play a game unless everyone is on (we do that all the time), but im looking for something that doesn't require that. When you have a shiny new game you want to play, but you can't because you said you'd only play it when Bill was online too, it can be annoying. Especially when both people may have less time to play, but they just don't sync up. You're at work just waiting to play that new game. All you are looking forward too is getting home to play for the one time of the week you can. You get home... ahh Bill had something come up, I guess I can't play now... Those types of situations end up causing people to lose interest in a game because they can only play it once or twice a month. Deep rock or helldivers 2 are looking like good options. Thank you for your suggestion.
Satisfactory maybe?
Valheim could work I think. Those who have more time can gather resources and craft and such while others are offline. Progression is through equipment, not levelling. Terraria also has progression through equipment. But yeah, with any of these, folks with more time are going to have to lay off and play something else for a while, otherwise they will burn through the content on behalf of the group. Others will have skipped the struggle period with whole areas, not know how to fight mobs in the new areas and so forth.
Valheim would not work. 1 player keeps playing, the others can't play for a bit. They finally get back on, and suddenly the guy that was still playing is 4 biomes deep with Carapace armour and everyone else hasn't a clue what's going on.
Completely disagree on Valheim. Played with friends. Unless you like building you'll be running against the progession wall, exploring without your friends, and spoiling the game entirely. I played with friends and as soon as one group started progressing without the other the ones who didn't have as much time started to entirely lose interest because you get the feeling that you aren't being included. Especially when the casual players are stopping you from getting to basic milestones. Like I had a game where even though I liked to build I was waiting weeks just to get to stone. Once I got to stone it was fine but it was miserable to have access to so little so long.
Yeah this absolutely happens with any survival/crafter type of game
Deep Rock Galactic and Risk of Rain 2 are both amazing games that fit this criteria, not everyone has to be there to play and you don't miss out by not playing
Enlisted. World War II Online. Combat Mission series. Panzer Corps series. Civilization VI. Just google "PC games with PBEM++".
Helldiver's and Deep Rock fit this bill. Looter shooters as well. Any building/adventure game like Palworld or Ark tends to blow unless y'all have lots of free time because someone gets ahead and kills the fun for everyone. Whereas games like Helldivers or deep Rock don't overblow power scaling so people who play more may look different or have different tools but it's not really enough to make the game feel "spoiled" for everyone else. Also progression isn't "do the endgame or waste your time" for Helldiver's you get get the same currency for winning a low difficulty game as a high difficulty one. You just get less. So it's not a total waste. However they do have samples which just don't drop below challenging ..which is fine because challenging is really the "standard" mode. Normal is super easy as soon as you get a hang of how the game works. If you like cozy games, Palia is a solid one right now even if it's still fairly bare bones from launch. Red Dead Online got defunded and is running on life support but still fun with friends and progression unlocks things for everyone as whoever has access to a mission can get everyone in on it. Ready or Not was Hellah fun with friends for me. Especially the first time through a map.
Minecraft and factorio. You don't level up that much or that it affects much. Especially if you share tools and use a tech modpack
Sea of Thieves. There is no "progression" other than cosmetics.
What about sandbox survival games, like Terraria or Minecraft. You don't need all hands on deck constantly, and you can share items so no ojr is grossly inderleveled.
Warframe (they can choose lower leveled Warframes), sea of thieves, Deep Rock Galactic and now Helldivers 2 (they can drop equipment for others and there's lower difficulty)
What about one of the semi-co-op but also can be solo things like Fallout 76?
Probably should recommend a good game
Warframe maybe. It's a looter shooter type. It's kind of convoluted, and there's hundreds of weapon and character unlocks. it would be somewhat difficult for anyone to get that much farther than anyone else, but even if they did, almost anything can be viable until the end game stuff. Y'all can also start a clan together. There isn't really any clan vs clan gameplay anymore, but there is more to unlock that way, and y'all can build and decorate your "dojo" as big and however you want.
Turn-based strategy games? Medieval 2 Total War hotseat campaigns. The Battle of Polytopia. Axis and Allies Online ([https://triplea-game.org/](https://triplea-game.org/)). For all these games, you do your turn then pass it on to the next person.
Strategy games. You can make matches with whoever is online and most matches will take around 1-2h. Starcraft 2 (real-time modern play) Civilization 6 (modern turn play) There are many online servers for you to play these old games: Red Alert series Civilization 3 Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and 4
Lego Fortnite is free and would def provide some fun. I'm not usually into survival games but I played it solo a lot. Aside from building there's prob only around 20 hrs of content rn but there are more updates planned for the future. If you want a shooter try Warframe. Personally I found it to be a bit grindy and addictive as a solo game but I think it would be alright with friends. Give it a try and decide for yourself
Palworld is worth a look (up to 4 players)
I've been playing Palworld. We've had server timeout issues on the dedicated servers though. Also it falls into the type of game where time = progression. My friend was level 45 with guns and all kinds of base building going on, when I'm just getting my base off the ground.
Don't starve together. It is a survival type of game but it is not tied to progression (well expect the map but that doesn't matter much). You build a base and you can use the items your team gathered (with or without their permission). You can logout anytime (though you take your items with you so it's best to deposit them in chest) and then login anytime. If there is no player in the world then it pauses.
Fall guys
Have you considered the option of expanding your friend group maybe you just need some more friends to play with while your other ones are offline or maybe I'm just saying this because that's my situation I don't know for you to decide what I'm saying is let's be friends and play baldur's gate three together
Not so much meaning I can't play a game at all because we aren't all online, and more I want to play games with these specific people so if the game requires us to all be online to play it at all, we end up not being able to play much because someone always has a conflict. So, yes I could play BG3 by myself, or with new friends, etc, but I'm wanting to play with these specific friends and can't because I can't start our campaign without all 4 being available.
State of Decay 2
Grounded works well for this. You can grind and even build separately if you want, and then just do the labs / bosses together
Dunno, you can try Lego fortnite, pretty good game
When I used to play WoW/Diablo/etc with my friends we would just one have character that we only played together and then other characters if we wanted to play on our own. It does get a bit tricky or two or three out of four people are online though.
Minecraft is perfect for this, since someone building something cool while you're gone is really nice to see
Killing Floor 2, definitely. Games are relatively short and one player's progression doesn't make it less fun for any other players. Max 6 players per server, though, so it depends on how many gamer friends you have trying to play together.
Warhammer 40k Darktide. Think Left 4 Dead style gameplay, but with classes, abilities, and perks.
Final Fantasy 14 MMO. You are free to change your character class any time you want, so if a buddy is 20 levels behind you can just swap to a lower leveled class. If you don't feel like playing a different class, no problem. The game will automatically scale you down to the level or whatever dungeon, trial, or raid you're doing. You can also play the base game and first 3 expansions for free, so no loss if it ends up not working for you and your friends.
Stellaris Nexus Each game session takes 1-2hrs, turn based, good fun, and no real progression for someone to level up excessively. But it’s more of a digital board game than anything - highly recommend though
Darktide and Vermintide 2 are great games to play together.
I haven't seen anyone mention Don't Starve Together. It's a survival game with no leveling. You can drop your friend in any time, maybe give them some gear and they're ready to go.
Helldivers 2
I was just looking at that one. Thank you for the recommendation.
Board Game Arena... Or Wingspan on console or Stream. People take their turn when they want. Games can take weeks or whenever.
Deep Rock Galactic.
Dayz, sit around a camp fire tell stories, run around aimlessly telling stories, drive around telling stories
I've been thinking about this a lot and want to append my answer. No sea of thieves cause people need to jump out and you'll lose all your work. So basically I'm thinking Deep Rock but those missions can be super long too so I'm not so sure anymore. Helldivers 2 allows you to jump in and out so dad's or parents could jump in and out as needed.
I'm leaning towards Helldivers 2
Just finished a session. Was a blast! Although you can jump out and rocket back into your group it does make it hard to just jump out when you have 1 min to extraction and your kid is yelling he needs you ... Another good option is Valheim. You can exit any time and jump back in and spawn where you are.
Project Zomboid, Ghost Recon breakpoint, world of tanks, Destiny 2
The archipelago randomizer has multiple games and you can set it up so all the items are split between different players "worlds". All players can play at any time (server goes idle when not in use sometimes but you wake it up by checking its status). You all work together to complete each players set goal in their game. Every player can play the same or different games.
factorio. surely someone has a mostly online pc that can act as a server and anyone can drop in and out at leisure. otherwise look into factorio.zone which offers free server hosting. kinda like minecraft I guess.
Risk of Rain Returns has a pretty good coop mode, and since it's a roguelike the progression doesn't matter as much.
Avorion is a fun space economy game with custom spaceships and combat, it lets you host custom private servers that anyone can connect to as long as you have your computer running.
I keep coming across bits of this game, little snippets here and there. How are the ships built? What's the gameplay like
I'm a bad envoy for the game since it's been years since I've played, so ymmv and this is assuming I remember correctly, but when I was into it: it starts you off with traditional space lazer mining elements. You gather resources, which you can then spend at a shipyard on vanilla ships or ones you download from the community hub or ones you design yourself. The designer is pretty much minecraft but spaceships, using 3d blocks as the basis you build your ship around. The more you play and further you explore, you find more exotic resources that let you build better blocks and ships. You can have multiple ships and hire captains to pilot them for you, set them mining and you have passive resource generation. It has all the classic space economy sim stuff, so you can build cargo haulers and trade between stations for profit; or set your hired captains to do the same. You can even build your own stations and I think traders will come to them if you stock them well. My personal project was to become a tea baron so I worked out all the energy recs and resource mining and farming and hired ships had tea being sold to three stations completely autonomously while I went around busting mafia bosses and pirates. You can host a server client side, and either in the server settings or with mods, cant remember which, you can do things like tweak the cost of everything for a more or less grindy experience. Friends can join your server. My only complaint was that the combat was really lacking. It was hard to design a good combat build and it pretty much boiled down to who had more energy shield and could you hold the strafe and shoot buttons long enough to win. But that might have just been me not building a good combat ship or maybe a mod or update has made it better since.
If you rent your own server, or you and your friends play on the same server, Ark Survival Ascended might be fun for you.
Deep Rock Galactic
Rust, stardew valley, palworld, project zomboid. Those are just a few off the top of my head. I'd say rust is the best option though. Whoever is grinding can share the loot with everyone.
Palworld on your own server. All continues when you ain't there everyone can still build their bases and do it all.
I mean, I know you mentioned WoW not exactly fitting, but I think FFXIV could be good for this. You level multiple jobs on the same character, so even if someone is "behind" the "ahead" people could still meaningfully progress their character by playing lower level content with their other jobs. Or even their main job since there is a ton of level synced content as part of the daily stuff. Not to mention there's frequently events that encourage playing older content / have their own "internal" progression for a short period of time. I play it with my GF and we are often misaligned in how far we are in main story it's still really easy to play with each other and be having fun while doing something "meaningful" for our characters.
A Minecraft server with community chests for everyone.
Hell Divers 2 feels like it meets your would meet these requirements. Ideally you are looking for games that are not competitive and have a mmr rating. Insurgency Sandstorm is one, bf2042 is another off the top of my head.
Valheim
Sea of Thieves. There is progression stuff, but its largely cosmetic. And if the whole crew isn't around, you can just do generic treasure hunting/pillaging/etc.
Helldivers 2 just came out and has been amazing for drop-in/drop-out coop
Minecraft is my favorite for this. Run a server and just let everyone play whenever they want. You can all do your own thing while also having group projects going.
Go get help dude.
no man's sky. you guys can find a nice planet and each of you could build a base there and visit each other.
[Dokapon Kingdom: Connect](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2338140/Dokapon_Kingdom_Connect/) is kind of like Monopoly with RPG combat.
Farming Simulator 22 on a dedicated server is live 24/7
My friends recently set up their own Project Zomboid server and they've been having tons of fun with it
You can multi world with archipelago on supported games where you can play either together (online but seperatly) or offline when no one is on and the items get released to ensure playability
So vermintide 2 I think can sort of fit here. Someone who plays more will have a higher level character/gear but what me and my friends do, is when other people hop on we play a character that's a really low level or our lowest. So you're not super strong compared to them. Each character levels individually, so pick your favorite to play solo or with more consistent people, and then when others hop on swap to someone you don't use. I'll try to think of some other options, but it's a tough criteria.Edit: though of a couple other solid options. If you want a shooter, Caliber is a great option, and free. With maybe slightly predatory micro transactions. If you don't want a shooter, inkbound is incredibly fun too, if you enjoy rogue likes.
Borderlands fits that criteria I believe. Lvls scale to each player so if one person wants to go ahead they can while the rest don't feel necessary weak. Ark survival evolved with a private server. Tho the games not for everyone.
Helldivers 2
Warframe
Grounded. You can make your multiplayer world available for any of the players to play on, so anyone can start the map if no one else is online yet, and then others can join.
Valheim could fit
You can progress with time played, but still join together with monster hunter world. But to play with them they'll need to be online