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Feedback request from James Ohlen - In-game events


StephenReid

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Hello everyone! James Ohlen, Game Director for Star Wars: The Old Republic, is looking for your feedback on the game's development once again. This week, with the Rakghoul Plague finally contained, he's looking for feedback on in-game events.

 

James takes feedback directly via his Twitter account (@JamesOhlen), but if you're not on Twitter, his question is below and you can give your feedback here which will be passed on to him.

 

As always, we ask you to limit your feedback to the question at hand and keep your feedback constructive as well as on-topic!

 

Here is James' question for this week:

 

"The Rakghoul Plague was a very popular event. You’re going to see more surprises like it in the future.

 

I want to hear your thoughts on why you thought the Rakghoul plague was fun. Also, what kind of stuff would you like to see in the future?"

 

As a reminder, you can follow James on Twitter @JamesOhlen. You can also follow our main account @SWTOR.

 

I have no idea who you are talking to, but the only people I saw on my server who thought standing in one big mass waiting to explode and complete your daily was fun....well, you know what? I can't think of a single person.

 

When you hinted at 'dynamic' and 'community/GM powered' events, having us stand in one big mass on Fleet for 30 minutes wasn't really what I had in mind.

 

How about a story driven event next time? The <insert gang name here>'s crime spree has gotten out of control! Have randomly spawn gang members spawn and overrun any hub on any planet based on current existing player population. And, yes, that includes the Fleets as well.

 

Have quests that drive you along to find out what sinister conspiracy is behind this sudden uptick in lawlessness.

 

Have dailies that require you to kill X amount of these criminals.

 

Etc. Etc. I could go on for days. The fact that someone was paid to come up with the Rakghoul Event makes me /facepalm. Please tell me that isn't the real extent of your design team's creativity.

 

In this super poor economy, I'm pretty sure you can pick up some very cheap labor that's filled to the brim with much more imaginative ideas. Assuming you don't find some community member in this thread who does all the thinking for you. For free.

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Have quests that drive you along to find out what sinister conspiracy is behind this sudden uptick in lawlessness.

 

Have dailies that require you to kill X amount of these criminals.

I'm not sure if you knew about this, but the Rackghoul Plague event had similar quests like those. From discovering about the events that transpired to the crash of the Stardream ship to how the plague propagated onto tatooine. Everyday there was a new daily quest that came up during the week (and yes including kill x stuff, fetch x this, find this thing, click that, etc.) that got added in. There was even one scavenger hunt quest that involved hunting down wreckages throughout Tatooine as well. There were also new World Bosses that gave out a title for getting all 3.

 

There were around 9 quests total during the event (some of them were linked in a chain of quests together as well). Some of the quests also rewarded armor pieces to a unique armor set.

 

As for the topic in hand: My feedback to the event is that I liked it. Discovering all this stuff was fun and a pleasant surprise. I enjoyed doing the dailies and coming online with a new quest everyday. But what could be improved upon is probably the fact that there are people who never knew there were quests to be discovered. I had a friend who I got to talk to near the end of the event, and he had no idea there were quests on Tatooine for this event. All he knew were people infecting each other on the Fleet. Perhaps a quest that directly points them to go to Tatooine (maybe after viewing the news terminal on the Fleet) would've helped.

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Just being honest here:

 

I think it was popular because it was new and people wanted to see what it was about.

 

The Rakghoul thing isn't that interesting to me, it's Star Wars, light vs dark, rep vs imp. I'm pretty bored with the loading text that I'm pooling with everyone else at Carrick planning attacks on the Empire and they're doing the same.

 

I'd have even preferred some cooperative Imp and Rep action, a plague would threaten both factions afterall.

 

The getting infected by some annoying fool thinking it was fun to stand at GTN and explode was just irritating.

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It was a great event that opened up a lot of possibilities for faction v faction, open world pvp and the chance at some unique gear and pets. On that front, two thumbs up.

 

However there are a couple issues that I had which were exceptionally annoying.

 

First, the whole thing ended without a blip. Like a bad dream or something. Are you really telling me that the entire galaxy knows about an outbreak of Rakghoul plague on Tatooine through news broadcasts and not a single person comments after it gets cleaned up? That is some seriously bad PVE storytelling.

 

Second, the jawa vendor disappeared at the same time as the quests. At least have the specialty vendor stick around for awhile so people can dump their DNA. I didn't get back to the vendor in time due to family issues and not being able to play and now I have like 85 DNA just sitting in my vault with no way to get rid of them.

 

Lastly, I really liked that the world bosses on Tatooine got infected and that a new one was introduced. However, the demented fool who made the newest world boss next to impossible to kill was an ***. Immune to ranged attacks, a powerful pbaoe attack, entirely too many hit points, a damage shell and regeneration to boot was ridiculous. We had 17 guildies go after it for 2 hours, 12 of whom were level 50 and none of whom were less than level 40, and we couldn't get it down past 3/4 health. That's not fun, that's calculated sadism on the part of the devs.

 

Fix issues like that on the next go around and it will be a huge success.

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<snip>

First, the whole thing ended without a blip. Like a bad dream or something. Are you really telling me that the entire galaxy knows about an outbreak of Rakghoul plague on Tatooine through news broadcasts and not a single person comments after it gets cleaned up? That is some seriously bad PVE storytelling.

 

Second, the jawa vendor disappeared at the same time as the quests. At least have the specialty vendor stick around for awhile so people can dump their DNA.

 

Great event. The above poster is spot-on, however. I have DNA laying around in my bank and I'm hoping for a vendor in 1.2.x.

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  • 2 weeks later...
I loved the event, the only problem was that there wasn't any closure on it. Suddenly everything is back to normal. Great events always have closure. Keep up the good work, but give us an end to the event, not just a stop please!
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  • 1 month later...
  • It brought life to the servers
  • It made the world feel less static so more alive
  • It was well scripted and chained
  • Quests scaled
  • I liked the scavenger hunt
  • Go back to lower planets
  • The rewards where nice

 

 

Unasked question: what went wrong or should be changed

  • Not enough SW feeling bit too much WoW / horror movie
  • Waste of a good opportunity: the event should have been launched around Halloween.
  • Certainly not tailored for more casual gamer
  • Random companion reward is a miss in a such short time frame event
  • Too short notice, bad communication (forums vs in game and no emails either)
  • Way too short notice on announcement of the vendor removal and none official stepping in to at least address the concern.
  • There's no way a casual gamer would have been able to complete the scavenger hunt in a such short time frame without external websites. Next time at least point at general areas on the map.
  • Prerequisites for the new dailies was a bad move for such a short time frame.
  • Without context the "avoid Tattoine" message made it so some players indeed avoided them
  • Color choice of the crystal is a bad move to Razer products owners especially since you did not use all the available crystal color choices yet
  • Placing the event vendor not in a low level nor a neutral spot was a bad decision.
  • Removal of vendor after the event was a bad move, MMO wise.
  • The plague felt as griefing by others players: should have emailed vaccines to all players and told them how to get more.
  • Tag 10 players quest brought silly gathering in the fleet.
  • PvP tagging through the plague should not occur on PvE servers as PvP should always be optional on these.

 

 

 

  1. More Star Warsy feeling events
  2. With a bit more multiplayer components
  3. Doable by lower characters
  4. More casual friendly
  5. Make items BoL (Bind on Legacy)
  6. Keep vendors up afterwards
  7. No need to use external resources (internet based guide) to do the events in an acceptable time frame
  8. Better notification before and during the event both in and out game

 

this is 100% star wars felling. the first bioware star wars game they made had rakghouls in it and they became an intricate portion of star wars lore. and they event was a surprise event that incorporated the patch they just released. that was the theme! the rakghoul theme of the entire patch!!!!!! all in all you get 4 thumbs up from me seeing as i am a cyborg with four arms. but imho i think that you should stray from the rakghoul events for a little while so that players dont expect it when it comes back. i think something like one faction invading another faction would be fun as hell, or maybe a non factioned group causing chaos in the galaxy since the opportunity has been made available at them. keep up the good work and keep me interested as you have thus far! you guys are helping further the star wars EU universe and a major part of it. dont let the whiney babies dictate you and this game will go down a wonderful path and topple the mmo universe and leave the galaxy to u. follow in palpatine's footsteps and he will lead you to power, greatness, and wealth.

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HI I'D LIKE TO REQUEST THAT YOU DON'T OFFER RAKGHOUL EVENT THEN TAKE AWAY REWARD VENDORS BEFORE SOME OF US LEARN IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO BE ABLE TO GET THE BLACK-GREEN COLOR CRYSTAL, ONLY TO BE UNABLE TO GET IT AND BE LEFT WITH USELESS 'DNA', AS WELL AS OTHER GEAR THOUGH I GUESS A COUPLE WEEKS IS MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME TO APPEASE THE MORE FEVERISH PLAYERS :mad:
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Just one thing to add to all the positive comments that I also feel myself. I noticed several negative comments about "Cheating" in fleet, etc. I thought standing in big group in fleet and exploding was loads of fun! Not ot mention, I could stay logged in and explode, while taking care of my family around the house. Not that i would expect a repeat, but some aspect of the event that causes people to gather and interact in some non-combat way is an excellent feature of any event. Sanctioned swoop races could be an interesting event. Complete with gambling bets on the winners.
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It was really fun, though because of how the dailies were staggered, it sucked to be penalized for not getting in on it within the first day. I'd ahve liked to see some event closure. The intro was pretty cool, but it sorta fizzled out at the end. For future such events, it'd be great if we could get a GNN news broadcast talking about the aftermath or some such as just a little closing snippet. I'd also LOVE to see minor versions of this frequently enough that there should always seem like there's something going on somewhere in the greater galaxy (ambient newsnet stuff in Mass Effect was great for atmosphere and was great in the plague event... more would be awesome! Even if it's not necessarily event related and you just hear broadcasts while walking down the fleet talking about stuff that's happened during your class story... it'd add a lot of atmosphere; doesn't necessarily have to be in an in-depth cinematic, though for the end of a big event like the plague that'd be pretty rad).

 

As far as rewards go, I'd like to see more kinda cool aesthetic stuff like the Republic containment armor--it opens up some nifty possibilities for armored-looking smugglers and consulars--I'd love see a bigger variety opened up through this--possibly even some kinda crazy stuff like cross-factionish sets from events, if it's ever appropriate (within aestheric reason anyways... but getting something like a bright and shiny "good guy" version of a mando crusader set, for example, would be an awesome reward for an event about mandalorian renegades or some such).

 

Multi-planet events could also be really awesome and help capture the Star Wars feel of trotting around the galaxy on a mission, something that gets a bit lost in the game right now, since the story arcs are more of "Go to planet X story, then planet Y, etc." and don't really flow or jump around the galaxy as much--events are the perfect place to add that element! Find a beacon near a crash site on tatooine and trace it back to coruscant or something and end the event with a final showdown on Voss... or something. The possibilities are endless!

Edited by Halkyon
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I kinda didn't clue into the rakghoul event, and what it meant gear wise, but I did enjoy seeing people blow up randomly(lol). Really added an element of surprise to the gameplay. For future events, I would like to see another rakghoul event(so I can do something with this dna I have), a teranetek event of a sort, or perhaps a rakatetek/teraneghoul event? Seriously though, Tereneteks would be cool. Perhaps a pazaak or swoop race tourney?

...Or hey, maybe something about the Rakata still being around, maybe?

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I'd love to see different types of events, the blowing up was funny and I loved how it just sort of randomly started and the news channel thing was there lol. I'd like to have ones that are big celebratory events that unlock cool titles and social gear etc.
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I thought the event was really interesting story wise.

 

The only thing that bothered me was that it didn't go on long enough. I don't care about social gear, so it didn't really bother me, but if the event was going to have a new quest every day then it should have lasted longer to give people a chance to actually get everything done.

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every single player who came from wow with me LOVED the plague. it was seriously fun, a good chance for players who play alot to do the dailys and get some rewards and also totally awesome for casuals to log in and see the carnage. it did not ruin anyone game experience as far as i could tell and was nothing but awesome

 

things i loved:

 

the tv screens with the videos. gave all the info needed without some stupid text based bollocks ruining the immersion. big fan of that

 

the slow turn into BOOM. loved it. if you wanted to AVOID turning others, you had plenty of warning. if you wanted to turn others, you had plenty of warning....and if you wanted to AVOID getting turned, you had plenty of warning....and the effects where short lived if you got pwned.

 

the lore. great way to add info on upcoming major events in swtor. really good. maybe add half decent rewards to encourage ppl to do the quests. wow did this with the thrall quest line in cata and it was good. just to make it clear, make the rewards come from ONE CHAIN. something that can be done in 2-4 hours. not days of dailys.

 

one thing i would add is on use effect trinkets. i know there are pets, and thats great, but an on use trinket to remember the even by 3 years down the track and turn yourself into w/e related to the event to say ';i was there"

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  • 5 months later...

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

 

This thread reminds me this other thread where James Ohlen asked for feedback about planets ... we said Dantooine, Yavin, Dagobah, Dathomir, Kashyyyk .... they took note and came up with ... Makeb :rak_02:

 

Now with the awesome life day and christmas events i have the same feeling.

 

Maybe im in the mood today, but im starting to see the humorous point on it, can't wait for the next round of feedback request :D

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Does james ohlen even work at bioware anymore ???????, if he does i think they must have locked him in a cupboard or something and that lift sound we hear is him beating to get out. Cos we aint seen a peep from him since july. Edited by Shingara
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Does james ohlen even work at bioware anymore ???????, if he does i think they must have locked him in a cupboard or something and that lift sound we hear is him beating to get out. Cos we aint seen a peep from him since july.

 

Actual last I heard from him was discussing the more frequent patch updates around the time 1.4 came out, in September. But nothing since then. http://www.darthhater.com/tag/james-ohlen

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