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Are all flashpoints after the first so bland...?


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So I've been playing since early access and have done five or six flashpoints by now I believe.

 

I play the Empire, so the first flashpoint I got to do was Black Talon, which was... FUN.

 

It was great. It had a dynamic feel to it, it had plenty of conversation options with plenty of convo rolls and whatnot. It also had a fun final boss battle with knockback and a generally fun feel of dynamic combat.

 

But then I started leveling further and doing the flashpoints after Black Talon...

And every single one has been the same bland WoW-like dungeon experience.

 

No conversations whatsoever except a single "ZOMG MORAL CHOICE" scene, nothing particularly dynamic in terms of combat mechanics, and ridiculously boring and bland final bosses (I'm looking at you, Athiss).

 

So are all flashpoints like this or do they get better at some point...?

 

Or did the devs only put real effort and creativity into the first flashpoint to give a positive impression and then just decided to stop caring as much for the rest of the dungeons?

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this game, but I can't ignore what I'm seeing when looking at all the flashpoints I've done so far as one big picture: a picture that doesn't get any prettier with every new flashpoint I visit. :jawa_frown:

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There are several more interesting ones - though most of the ones from the dropship area are more like HS and Athiss in design. Cademimu was fun though. and most of the ones you get from other areas of the fleet or Ilum are more storied.
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How does hearing the same story over and over and over until you feel like just skipping it have anything to do with SWTOR specifically?

 

It's... the game's signature trait? The cinematic conversations, that is.

 

And it's not always the same. It's always different because you've got different party members who look and sound different, choose different answers based on option rolls and say different quotes for them.

 

I mean, if you don't enjoy the cinematic aspect, why play SWTOR?

 

This isn't a SWTOR fanboy rant though. I myself am probably not going to stay in SWTOR long term, but if I didn't enjoy its signature aspect, I'd not play it at all.

 

Thanks for the info though. Good to know they aren't all like the bland flashpoints I've encountered so far.

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It's... the game's signature trait? The cinematic conversations, that is.

 

And it's not always the same. It's always different because you've got different party members who look and sound different, choose different answers based on option rolls and say different quotes for them.

 

I mean, if you don't enjoy the cinematic aspect, why play SWTOR?

 

This isn't a SWTOR fanboy rant though. I myself am probably not going to stay in SWTOR long term, but if I didn't enjoy its signature aspect, I'd not play it at all.

 

Thanks for the info though. Good to know they aren't all like the bland flashpoints I've encountered so far.

 

lets see, i did BT about 4 or 5 times in normal mode at low levels and 7 times or so in hardmode ... there is no point in listening to all the dialogue over and over again ...

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No conversations whatsoever except a single "ZOMG MORAL CHOICE" scene, nothing particularly dynamic in terms of combat mechanics, and ridiculously boring and bland final bosses (I'm looking at you, Athiss).

Just wait till you see Cademimu. We did it at the recomended level, our 2 DPS got d/c, and I tanked the boss with a healer. The 2 of us downed it no problem at all.

 

 

This game is insultingly easier than WoW, BioWare treat us like we were special kids that found WoW challenging....

Edited by blackcerberus
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Just wait till you see Cademimu. We did it at the recomended level, our 2 DPS got d/c, and I tanked the boss with a healer. The 2 of us downed it no problem at all.

 

 

This game is insultingly easier than WoW, BioWare treat us like we were special kids that found WoW challenging....

 

Oh, I did see Cademimu... I accidentally died along with our tank, and the healer + damage dealer finished off the boss.

 

Though the Athiss last boss takes the cake in terms of cheesy, bland mechanics.

 

Yet that's where my question comes in: why?

 

Black Talon was fun, had plenty of conversations and the boss fight, while not particularly long, had huge knockback regularly, which really made for a dynamic feeling battle. And that was a bloody padawan.

 

Back when I was first doing it I felt that it was just an intro to the kind of dungeons they were going to do, that they were going to expand on the kind of flashpoint Black Talon is and multiply and improve the kind of experience provided there in the flashpoint that come after...

 

But they didn't. Instead they didn't bother adding any conversations except a lonesome moral choice somewhere in the middle and made the boss mechanics totally bland, boring and unchallenging. :jawa_frown:

Edited by ShadowMasterRP
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I have the same feeling OP. I have only done two flashpoints, but the contrast was overwhelming.

 

Esseles is pretty fun, it has lots of dialogue, but it's not boring dialogue and if you don't like dialogue it's easily fast forwarded with the space bar and number keys. It has a few memorable bosses, and it felt like it was in the Star Wars universe and like it had meaning in the Star Wars universe.

 

Then I played Athiss... which was boring as all hell. There was one piece of "dialogue" and it was really only a moral choice. Then there were the two boss fights, which didn't have any dialogue associated. Didn't make me as a player feel like even fighting the bosses because there was no emotional interaction whatsoever. The ONLY reason to play through Athiss was for the gear.

 

I understand that after the first 5 or so times you run a flashpoint that the gear becomes the only reason you run it. But I'm not into Flashpoints for the gear, that's what I want to use crafting for. I want to do Flashpoints with cool stories that match the Star Wars universe and use Bioware's amazing storytelling talent.

 

If I wanted a bump and grind and gear hording experience, I would go back to playing WoW. I want to play SWtoR for the experience because it's DIFFERENT from WoW in a lot of good ways, even if it has some early release balance issues and features that could be improved.

 

I think I'm done ranting. I hope they make more story oriented Flashpoints. I want flashpoints that are great story/combat wise but don't drop great gear. I want Flashpoints that are balanced with a pretty good story/combat experience and drop decent gear. Then finally I want Flashpoints that don't have amazing story, but drop great gear. If they have a balanced amount of all that I'd be happier. As it goes right now it seems that most of the Flashpoints fall in the latter category, especially the higher level Flashpoints.

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From what I remember reading and hearing Hammerstation, Athiss, Mandalorian Raiders, and Cadamimu weren't originally planned to be flashpoints (further confirmed since the only Hard Mode Flashpoints are BT, Boarding Party, Foundry, Directive 7, Battle of Ilum, and False Emperor). Therefore the progression from flashpoints would be from Black Talon to Boarding Party which would leave approximately 20 levels where there was no appropriate level flashpoint. If they didn't add those flashpoints in, people would be complaining about how there aren't enough flashpoints between level 15-30.
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I was actually coming here to make the same thread. It's the same way on Republic side. The Esseles was very engaging with all of its choices. Every following FP has been very bland. I hate to say it but it's almost like a bait and switch by Bioware.
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This game is insultingly easier than WoW, BioWare treat us like we were special kids that found WoW challenging....

 

Yes, it's that way at the lower levels, but once you get to max they become challenging... Did Initiative 7 yesterday as a 46 tank. Bulwark is very tough and requires good movement, very quick interrupts, and a pretty well geared tank and healer to finish.

 

The upper level boss fights are pretty engaging for only being 4 man instances. They require a pretty complicated strat in some cases and the dialog options in Initiative 7 are quite good. Hope there are more like that one.

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Has anyone done Boarding Party then? Does it have the same sort of interaction level that BT/Etheliss did?

 

Yes, Boarding Party as well as Foundry, Directive 7, Battle of Ilum, and False Emperor have a similar amount of dialogue as Black Talon. The flashpoints that the people in this thread have been complaining about are the ones that were added in due to the fact that the jump from BT to Boarding Party would be 15-20 levels where there is no appropriate leveled instance. I would rather have the extra flash points with less interactions/story-telling than to go from easy mode 2 man Black Talon to Boarding Party.

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Yes, Boarding Party as well as Foundry, Directive 7, Battle of Ilum, and False Emperor have a similar amount of dialogue as Black Talon. The flashpoints that the people in this thread have been complaining about are the ones that were added in due to the fact that the jump from BT to Boarding Party would be 15-20 levels where there is no appropriate leveled instance. I would rather have the extra flash points with less interactions/story-telling than to go from easy mode 2 man Black Talon to Boarding Party.

 

if this is true, thank christ. gives me some hope

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tell you the truth...conversation are nice for the first couple of time you run a flashpoint but it gets old fast. these days when I do BT Hardmode for Daily I will only take people that agree to skip the dialogue ...

 

So you wouldn't take someone who was geared/good but hadn't done the flashpoint before and wanted to see the dialogue?

 

No wonder I can get nothing done.

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Yes, Boarding Party as well as Foundry, Directive 7, Battle of Ilum, and False Emperor have a similar amount of dialogue as Black Talon.

 

This makes me feel better if the originals are similar (there are 1) more ineresting things coming and 2) hope for the teen/twenties flashpoints)

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Yes, Boarding Party as well as Foundry, Directive 7, Battle of Ilum, and False Emperor have a similar amount of dialogue as Black Talon. The flashpoints that the people in this thread have been complaining about are the ones that were added in due to the fact that the jump from BT to Boarding Party would be 15-20 levels where there is no appropriate leveled instance. I would rather have the extra flash points with less interactions/story-telling than to go from easy mode 2 man Black Talon to Boarding Party.

 

Pretty much this. The flashpoints start to pick up in terms of both dialogue and difficulty once you hit boarding party. The foundry in particular has some very interesting dialogue and boss characters. And the boarding party has some fairly difficult boss fights compared to the FPs that came before it.

 

But I agree what somebody else said about BT. You can only go through that dialogue so many times before it gets old and considering BT is a heroic FP that can be done as part of the daily you will be running that place a lot and all that dialogue just slows things down. Its awesome the first couple times you run it at lvl 10 but come lvl 50 it gets old.

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I've done battle for ilum 27 times, false emperor 13 times and D7 17 times, and earned little to no gear from most. Did the pvp daily s and earned 6 purples... always great getting purple upgrades for 5 minutes of game play.

 

It has made the flashpoints really boring for me because how easy it is to gear up in pvp apposed to flashpoints.

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