"I want to hear your thoughts on why you thought the Rakghoul plague was fun."

 

Fun: Lasted long enough so virtually everyone could participate; Involved exploration and cooperation

Not Fun: Was exploited to bring non-consensual PvP to PvE servers

 

"Also, what kind of stuff would you like to see in the future?"

 

The flip side of Imp. vs. Reb.: cooperation between them as the Hutt cartels make a move to swing a planet to neutral?

I thought the event was great fun! I really enjoyed going back to Tat for these quests, and it was fun seeing and working on new (and old) world bosses. The rewards were awesome, and I hope we have another chance in the future to get them again, or something entirely new!

 

The only thing that I think would be an interesting adjustment, although this would only effect pvp servers, is that when a faction is camping a vendor and spamming AoEs, they should end up being attacked by the vendor (and any vendor allies lying in wait? ^_^ ) if attacks hit the vendor. This would hopefully help prevent vendor camping if it's something the devs think should be discouraged.

 

Thanks again for a great event and I'm excited for the next one!

What I would like to see in the future:

 

A Revanite event, so that I could get a set of those swank robes they wear on Dromund Kaas. The pattern is not unique, but the coloring is. Also, a Revan mask reward.

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?"

 

The event was great. You guys may have dug yourselves in though. I liked the event so much that I'll be disappointed if we don't have another one in the very near future.

Edited April 27, 2012 by timidobserver

Loved the event, with a few issues.

 

I loved that there was no hint and it just happened. It really fit well with the whole idea of it being an outbreak. I really liked the fact that it was such a surprise.

 

I hated the companion boxes. Next time if you want an RNG based reward system, add a cheaper version and a more expensive "get what you want" version. So for example:

 

Have the existing companion box, 20 tokens.

Have the individual tokens, but they should be 80.

 

That way you can play luck or get exactly what you want.

 

The vaccine not lasting through death and its cost were very prohibitive. Also don't allow debuffs like that into Ranked Warzones when they come out. I don't want a temporary event ruining the balance of pvp. Thanks

i just wanted to add some things that i thought could have been done better;

 

1. i feel the event could have had a progressed story line and not just new quests every day... Something that builds up to the end of the contamination. this way it doesn't feel like a every day grind for 5-7 days of the same stuff

 

2. i feel there should have been an epic ending to the Event, not just having it disappear

 

What i liked:

 

1. announcements, news, and introduction on the fleet

2. loved the containment units on the spaceports.

3. loved the infection.

4. loved the fact that you could be spread the plague all over the galaxy

Edited April 27, 2012 by Jhayden

I thought the in-game event was awesome. I love how it was unannounced too. I think an event where the hutts or the mandalorians invade a neutral planet could be cool. Or, a conflict erupts between republic and empire on, say, Hoth. Maybe the force ghost of Malek possesses someone and both sides need to destroy him and his followers. Anything is cool honestly, it provides a lot of diversity to the game.

A short some up:

Since there was no advance notice, some people missed it because of vacation.

The daily chaining (one new daily when you finish the one of the previous day) was kind-of disturbing to people who couldn't play every day.

 

The plague lasted through death, while the vaccine didn't, which in some points wasn't all that cool, especially with those who did not own a level 50. (High price for vaccine)

My guild is of opinion it could have lasted a bit longer.

 

Also, especially for those on pvp servers, more than one vendor for the unique currency would've been nice. Vendor camping like hell, I've seen and heard it. Although some interesting wars did develop in the dune sea...

 

Negative effect on warzones was slightly annoying -- when infected, it'd randomly break your stealth (when you normally would get "stunned", which was disabled in WZs apparantly)

 

I'd say, keep the events coming! Good work!

 

This is pretty much what I would've written too. Good post.

 

2 most important points imho were:

 

- Daily chaining, it felt kinda dumb

- No epic ending

 

A forward notice, that would not spoil anything, would indeed be nice. Maybe a blog post, mention in patch notes or news "There will be ingame event starting in two weeks", but nothing more specific.

 

And yeah, the news reports were awesome.

Edited April 27, 2012 by Kauhu

PLEASE! Either Bring Back the Event Vendor or put the event items for DNA purchase on the menu of one the fleet vendors.

 

I have seen numerous people, in multiple SWTOR sites, who do not frequent the forums say they did not see any notice of it ending and are now left with earned DNA samples.

 

Personally my wife and I spent some decent time doing the event dailies each and eavery day and were storing up our Samples as we leveled to 50 to the tune of 250+ and now all that time was wasted.

In the future notices of the end of the event should be put on the Launcher....If it was there I totally missed it but I do not frequent the forums unless for a fix or issue need.

 

Just take care of your users and what harm is there to add the items for sale for this event and any future events to a fleet seller.....you've done much the same with the launch event items.

 

Thanks!

The event was sort of fun while it lasted, but the lingering after-taste remains. I'm still getting infected by players all over the place, and for most of my characters, the price of the vaccine means I'm basically just forced to find somewhere safe and do nothing for 30 minutes.

 

What did I like? A break from the same questlines I've seen since Beta. Aside from that, it was a bit of a nuisance, overall. There's no opt-out clause and with the vaccine not surviving death and some PvP matches paying absolutely nothing now (thanks for that, by the way) I couldn't afford to keep buying them, anyway.

 

Spawn timer on the PvP zone event boss could have been shorter. It took 6 attempts over the course of 4 days to kill the bantha because of competition from the other faction's Ops groups. Fun? YESSS! But with no notice and most people having little time to play, I think this aspect hamstringed a lot of players' shots at Containment Officer.

First: In my opinion this was the best thing you've done to the game since launch, I loved it! Thanks!

 

To me the important thing was that there were a lot of people on the same planet, trying to figure stuff out, helping each other. These things gave it a much more "community" feel than all other on-planet activities, which for me a lot of times felt like a single player game.

I don't think there had ever been this much relevant, interesting discussing going on in general chat, not even when when the game first launched.

 

I liked that you gave me a reason to go back to a planet which I really enjoyed being on during leveling.

 

I also really liked that we got some cool items, and that we didn't have to grind too much to get them, the amount of grindeage was just right IMO, not too easy but still not too time consuming. However as someone who's main is not using a lightsaber, (operative healer, so I rarely shoot also) I kind of wish that there was something else that we could have chosen as an alternative.

 

Really looking forward to the next event!

I loved the surprise drop of the event. I loved new world bosses and the World PVP that ensued from this event.

 

I wish there was a progressing story for this though, maybe a newscast that said "The Rakghoul plague seems to be coming to an end, cleanup should be completed in X days..." There was a story to the beginning of it, but the end was just flat. Log in and it's gone. (Including the vendor, I assume he had his share of DNA samples?)

 

I'd love to see live events though, ones that players could participate in. Specifically speaking, I'd love to see fleet invasions, culminating with the fleets getting destroyed (both, of course) so that players have to hang out on the beautiful planets you guys made, and not just the drab, enclosed fleets. Nothing makes me feel more confined in a galaxy than sitting on a space station.

 

(And yes, I know I'm free to explore. But ask yourself, where do all the players gather? Make social events happen in other parts of the galaxy. Star Wars is not just a space station.)

Event is over - I don't want to continually still become infected and have this crap affect seriously my gameplay. Maybe make smugglers not come out of their cloak for one thing or give some punative effect for all players.

End this event already.

I appreciated the event, but felt there was some additional planning that was neglected:

 

The announcements on fleet were cool, but as previous posters have said - there needed to be some change to the storyline as the event progressed to notify people of possible containment (end of event coming soon). I think part of the reason why people got annoyed with the announcers, is that it was the same thing..over and over and over. With variance, it's not as mind-numbing to listen to. (Perhaps also add a feature to make it chat only versus sound and chat. Otherwise you have players feeling forced to turn their sound off for a week so they can avoid having to hear repetitive announcements.)

 

The "random" companion customization was a cool IDEA, with exceptionally poor implementation. I would much rather have a random LOOK (between 2-3 customization appearance options) for a particular class than to have a completely random customization amongst all classes of both factions. This is due to the horrendous RNG luck that many people encountered. I personally have six customizations that I can only use one of for a character I don't even have that companion for (yet) on the opposite faction that I normally play as well as FOUR of the same for a class I will *never* play! (Out of six boxes, purchased at varying intervals... I received 4 Malawi and 2 Vector. All are Empire side, and I mainly play Republic. So not only is it not even my class, it's not even my normal faction!) (See URL for an example of a thread in the suggestion forum about the random customization boxes: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=430036 )

 

Not sure if this event will make a comeback, but some storyline/quests on additional planets would have been cool to make it truly galaxy-wide.

Edited April 27, 2012 by Boogety
tweak of statement

I loved it and had a blast though a few tips/annoyances.

 

- Daily's, they are good but making it so you have to do them to unlock more and more, it left no wiggle room for people that missed out on a few days.

 

- Was no real notice about the event unless you go to the station everyday or on the site.

 

- I would suggest events go for maybe 2 weeks, 1 week just seems abit short to me.

 

Overall it was a great first event, keep up the good work.;

Loved it! Was very well done. Having special Event World Bosses was really cool too, but sometimes difficult finding a group of 50s large enough to handle the difficulty of them maybe next time bosses that dont require such large groups.

Id like an event maybe pertaining to something with the Hutts or Wookies, or possibly a wide spread invasion of a certain species attacking a planet maybe each factions home world.

What about something with the Nightsisters and a Rancor world boss? Maybe tie in a Rancor mini-pet somehow?

The event was great because it brought new life to my server. It had new content that we had to discover for ourselves, and the fact that we knew it would only be around for a short time made us log in and play a lot during that time. Also, the fact that the content scaled to level made it a nice challenge that didn't exclude anyone from accessing it. I would love to see more of this in the future. Additionally, I think it would be awesome to do some events that had stories and quests revolving around faction conflicts to encourage more world pvp.

I loved the event, felt it was just the right length with tons of great touches and reinforced to me how well Tattoine captures the feel of the planet from the movies. My only real dissapointment was that one of the world booses was glitches on our server for the last two days and despite many open tickets this was not fixed. Because of this I didn't get the title. Since this is a one and done event and I aim to be involved in TOR for a long time this was a major dissapointment. I even opened a ticket to get the last achievement awarded because this wasn't my fault and this was denied. To have this happen at the end of a majorly awesome event that had a great story, cutscenes and support soured the very end of the experience.

No more RNG on purchasable loot items (companion customizations especially).

 

Making items that last 6 hours also last through death. Any PvP makes having an item that lasts 6 hours kind of a pointless exercise in wasting money.

 

Removing event specific buffs/debuffs after the event has ended. Seriously, the Rakghould Plague has been "contained" and yet people are still running around with the debuff and infecting each other in PvP.

 

More notice on events. I missed out on the first two days because I honestly didn't even realize anything was going on.

 

Not sure if someone listening to the broadcasts on the fleet would trigger a sound play for everyone else on the fleet or if it was just set up to play on a time interval. If it is the former, please change it to the latter.

 

Less of a "daily grind" to be able to complete everything and collect items like social gear and customizations. By this I mean the whole attitude of "Complete all the daily quests today and we'll give you another tomorrow so you can do it all over again". I don't have any issue with more quests becoming available as the event progresses, but I dislike the idea of having to do all of them each day to be able to do the next one. Would prefer it if I could miss a day or two and just go in and still be able to do all the quests as someone who hadn't missed any days. The current format put too much emphasis on players needing to log in everyday to stay on top of the event, and punishes you because you're busy outside of the game.

 

Edit: This is slightly off-topic, but it seems from the flavor of the event that we will not be seeing this return... Is there any plans to make event specific entries in the codex, things like titles, and even the special social gear more legacy wide, as to not punish those who are choosing to wait to make alts, since there are constantly being hinted things that are to come in the near future, such as new playable races and such. It's kind of annoying for someone who is a completionist to not be able to do something, simply because they chose to wait for another feature instead.

Edited April 28, 2012 by Kemic

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.

 

"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?"

 

1. NEVER do progression daily quests again. ever.
   
2. a holiday event that encourages killing of world bosses is OK, i don't mind that part.
   
3. groups, on servers that have the numbers to create world boss Ops , is a good thing.
   
4. an Ilum Christmas Tree Raising with Vehicles, or Vehicle defense/offense, in the PvP zone, hilarious fun. think about it.
   
5. Having Disease application flag you for PvP, is not a good thing at all, especially if outnumbered on tatooine at low level.
   
6. The Title is a good thing. it's a familiar, copied thing, but it works.
   
7. Without the title, i don't think people would have entered into RPO at all, even with the crystals/pets/custom belt.
   
8. NEVER do Progression Daily Quests AGAIN. Ever.
   
9. the disease mechanic was, and did break without a timer to know if it was going to tick/progress. it often got stuck in phases if the player had to travel, or got stuck on the fleet.
   
10. i think players had to work this holiday out by looking at Fan Site'n (plural of fan sites), which is akward, especially if they get it wrong. i'm thinking here of the crimson rakling (?) easter egg hunt.
    
11. RPO, was not casual friendly at all. you could not complete it in 3 days or a weekend.
    
12. making holiday events work for a weekend, should be a priority, even if it breaks what you have planned out over a 4 day cycle or a 14 day cycle.
    
13. the legacy bind customisations were not random, i have 2 of the same character, not my own classes either.
    
14. this was perhaps unfortunate. creating Tradeable Legacy items is probably not the option, nor is GTN Sellable Legacy Customisations, allowing the vendor to buy the customisation back, for a token. which could then purchase another random box, solves the problem, and adds a risk/reward value other than "farm tokens at 15 tokens/hour for ~2 hours in a stationary area"
    
15. Legacy items were a good choice, pity that the custom gear wasn't legacy bound, or purchaseable with tokens or DNA Samples.
    
16. it would have been better if the Daily quests handed out Legacy tokens for Custom gear, so that legacy options would be available for characters to trade gear between high and low level characters who didn't take part but could get to the vendor to buy the item required.
    
17. The event was not legacy Friendly, the title could only be gained by LvL 50 players.
    
18. the crystals were a good idea. Pity nobody could buy them or afford to buy them, due to the high cost and low appeal (15 tokens/hour = 6 hours of a player being in the same location, and dying at least 17x per crystal.)
    
19. the Economics were busted. the dailies didn't reward enough DNA samples for players to buy items with, the timer-based death, wasn't efficient or practical, a player had to remain in the same zone for periods of hours to collect these samples, often in the exact same position. you were encouraging griefing and AFK farming for tokens. which is inexcusable.
    
20. the orange/custom gear, was Progression Quest based. which means a significant number of people have 2 or 3 or 4 items and not the complete set. i would estimate 0.1% of the people who have 1 Containment Officer item, don't have the chest or belt. it' can't be higher than 5%.
    
21. you could have made the holiday a lot better by making the infections work, or setting the DNA Samples as GTN tradeable, even if only on the Neutral GTN (lore-based quarantine/health notions, like on eBay)
    
22. sidenote: why is there still a 50 post limit on the GTN 5 months after launch...
    
23. NEVER do Progression Dailies AGAIN. Ever.
    

 

Glaring, Obvious Mistakes that could have been addressed before implementation in no specific order,

1. Legacy Companion Character Customisations being random loot boxes.
   
2. Legacy Companion Character Customisations being limited to 8 Companion Characters.
   
3. Progression Dailies
   
4. Progression based holiday events in a Limited-Time Holiday Event.
   
5. Non-Purchaseable Custom Gear to fill up Holiday set items that may be missing,
   
6. Horrible Cost of Holiday based gear using Time/Tokens (DNA Samples/Hour)
   
7. Broken core Mechanic - Infection Phase timers
   
8. Non-Sellable DNA Samples
   

 

you don't need player feedback, you need to test the game and listen to that feedback from people who DO complete all of it, not just 20 people testing 20 things and getting the QA nod. change your QA approach or hire better MMO QA specialists.

Edited April 28, 2012 by toliman

Y'know, when I was eight, I went out trick or treating, and one house was giving out Hostess fruit pies. A lot better than the crap most people were handing out. But by the time I'd heard about this from one of my friends, it was too late, and they were out.

 

This was very upsetting to me. BECAUSE I WAS EIGHT.

 

So now that you're 38 and on the other side of the door, preparing and stocking up for the occasion, do you look back at that 8-year old and think: "hmm, maybe I should buy double the Hostess pies so if they turn out to be a hit some kid who heard and came over just for them doesn't have to go home unhappy?"

I think the event was pretty exciting! It gave players a reason to PvP and to try and gank the other faction of its World Boss they were currently trying to defeat. I also noticed that all of the perks you implemented into the event increased the activity of dying/dead servers, which made PvP a whole lot better for those servers.

 

Reading through all the responses, many players have already taken the pros and cons I would have posted before them.

 

As for a future in-game event... Krayt Dragons anyone??

I missed most of it due to, no advanced notice and lack of documention on the event.

I enjoyed the event.

 

Didn't care for the repeated news events - got to be intrusive after a while (add an opt out maybe).

Edited April 28, 2012 by Avako