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Feedback request from James Ohlen - In-game events


StephenReid

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What I found fun:

  • New Pets
  • Quests that players of multiple levels were in the same area doing --so you could interact for once with guildies lower down the level curve
  • the incentive to take down world bosses (though they should not be tauntable by a player who is not in the group that tagged the boss--especially if said player then repeatedly drags the boss to an evade/reset point)
  • the newscasts and general sense of "something is happening"
  • The continued story and flavor from Taris, Kaon and Lost Island

 

What I did not:

  • Having to spend money on vaccine at lower levels when money is tight
  • Getting flagged involuntarily for PVP on a PVE server by someone of the opposing faction exploding with the virus while you were standing around using the vendor for the event
  • Having the vaccine not last through death (and getting infected repeatedly in PVP warzones)
  • Having only one vendor for both factions on a PVE server--might be ok if there were a vendor with exclusively expertise stat items that the factions share, but don't force PvP on those who don't want it
  • the short time frame, daily quest progression that penalized players who can only play weekends
  • lack of notice of the event start and end date--in game email is better for many players or launcher messages

 

One thing they could have done is make quests you could do for experience to get vaccinated if you were low level, or you could pay the 2k by the time that is a trivial amount of credits to earn.

 

Players want to have control in the game, so anytime you take that away, it is less fun. Give people options, challenges and incentive to work together (especially across levels) with these events. For example, you could have an event of some kind of swoop relay race where the bikes are supplied by the game, so even a level 30 could particpate.

Edited by Padkhar
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My only complaint about the event is the fact that even though it's over, the plague is still hanging around in game. There was even an unscheduled maintenance the other night which I had hoped would wipe it from the servers, but no such luck.
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I loved this event, but have to comments: First, they should have lowered vaccine costs to accomodate newer players infected by "plaguebearers". Second, it might be nice to bring back Jeelvic for a while, and add Containment Officer gear to his inventory, for those who couldn't do the quests. As long as there is the plague, there will be tokens, so both of these i think are important.
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Liked:

 

- Epidemic Aspect of it in the social areas of the fleet/planet

- Containment Officer Suit armor reward (I'll likely use it for one of my companions)

- The Pet

- The Title

- The purchasable "stuff" (Crystals/pet/companion looks) & the two levels of crystals (Level 25ish and level 50)

- Containment officers getting hostile in the landing bays at the fleet and on tantoonie if you were infected and passing through

- the "news alerts" on the fleet

- "spawned" enemies scaling to player level (IE: The elite captain spawned from the console was level 50 for my 50s, but level 26 for someone questing on tantoonie)

 

Disliked:

 

- The chain aspect of the dailies (Have to complete all of the dailies prior to today to get the new one for today).

- Disruption to PvP/PvE Instanced Zones (Warzones/Operations/Flashpoints). I do admit, it was funny the first couple of times seeing a ball carrier in huttball explode because of the plague, but it ended up causing a few different games I played to be won or lost because of someone not realizing or accounting for the fact that either they, or the person they were relying on to help capture the objective, had the plague.

- Vaccine not persisting through death (Tied to PvP/PvE dislike).

- The frequency of the annoucement of the warnings on the fleet (If I was on the fleet for 15-20 minutes either waiting for the PvP queue or waiting to explode, I'd hear the alert 2 or 3 times).

 

Recommendations for future events:

 

- Unlock the full chain, from start to finish, for the last 2 or 3 days of the event to allow anyone/everyone to at least experience it once without being tripped up by the requirement to finish them in sequence (if possible).

- Unlock any orange gear that is obtainable through the quests to be purchased through the event vendor for the last couple of days of the event, if the full chain can't be unlocked for the last couple of days of the event.

- if a vaccine like stim is made for a future event to prevent something from happening, make it persist through death, either by buying a more advanced version (IE: 5000 credits for one that persists through death, or 2000 for the "only while you are alive" version) or through some other means (Event currency can be traded towards it/Biochem recipe is purchasable and craftable)

- Think about tying it to the capital worlds to allow a more diverse player group to experience it (IE: Level 10/11 and up as opposed to Level 22-25 and up).

 

Definately one of the more fun events I've played in this game or while playing WoW. I definately look forward to discovering the next dynamic event. This event was both relevant to the latest content, and got me doing a few things I never thought I'd do, like exploring Tantoonie.

Edited by Scripts
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I'll offer some feedback.

 

First of all, the main quest line of the event took place on a planet I could not go to. Until this week, I did not have a character above level 24. I am told the minimum level for Tatooine is level 25. So, the only option I had to participate in the event was catch the plague, die, and sell my DNA samples because I wasn't going to get to Tatooine to turn them in. That appears to have been naive on my part as the turn in was in a city and not out in the world with a bunch of monsters. Next time, I'll be better prepared. But it would have been nice to have some sort of non-spoiler official guide to the event on your website that explained what was going on and what to do. You don't have to be detailed. A "Get sick, go to Tatooine, talk to a jawa, there's a quest, rewards a-plenty" would have sufficed.

 

It would have been nice for the event to be split in to level range. Anyone from levels 10 - 20 have this part, 20 - 50 can do this part. You can do more of the event as you progress in level.

 

An opt out would also be a welcome addition. I did not want my characters to explode. But I also did not like having to spend two thousand credits on a vaccine that would go away if I was killed by some other method forcing me to buy the vaccine again. How about a one time fee for your own vaccine that you use once and it lasts a set amount of time no matter what happens to you? If you no longer want that immunity, either right-click it off yourself, or too bad, you must wait the full duration. The vaccine didn't quite work as it could have.

 

There was a lot of griefing on this. I didn't want to get infected yet someone would wait until they almost were about to explode and then run to a group and infect them all. And no guards near the cantina area? "We'll keep it confined to the airlocks. But if someone does get through, we'll have to wait for the band to die to know we have a problem on the Promenade." I thought that was just...wrong. One patrol would have been fine.

 

Unless I'm missing something, the Rakghouls come from Taris (that's where I first encountered them.) Why was nothing planned for Taris?

 

No closing event to the event itself? It just...ended. No news cast about a doctor finding a cure. No Republic / Imperial safety mail informing us the danger has passed. No broadcast telling us the travel ban to Tatooine is now over and the space lanes are all clear. Just one day it's there, servers down for maintenance, event done. *lets air out of the balloon* For a company that puts a lot of emphasis on story, Bioware dropped the ball on that part. I'm not trying to be mean. Just pointing out there was no closure.

 

OH, one last thing. Don't let a plague get in to a flashpoint or warzone. A Hammer Station party wiped when two people in the group died of the plague during a fight. That happened twice to me and I thought that was wrong. I never did a warzone during the event but I imagine it would be just as unsavory there too.

 

That's all I have. It was rather exciting. Maybe I can participate more in the next one.

Edited by Hyde_v
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This event was fun for roughly one day, then it was just grind. Same missions every day, or stand in a group at the fleet and get infected, just to gather another currency. It got old realy realy fast.

 

If you want to make future events egaging, beyond grinding, then make them progress, either through a quest arc for each player, or through changes in the area based on the achievement of objectives of all players in the area (like you had for PVP on Ilum).

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I loved the fact that it forced the Republic and Empire players together in close proximity on a PvP server. The first 2 days was awesome. Yeah I was ganked by people 10 levels higher than me but it was still fun. After that everyone kind of chilled and actually helped each other.

 

 

The gear and the pets were great as well as access to a new title.

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I would really like to see those Imperial News Stations become permanent fixtures. I found watching the news reports an engaging aspect of the storyline.

 

It would also be nice if there were more than one themed outfits. The outfit design looks outstanding on some races, but rather unappealing on others. Even within some races the skin colorations can make the outfit better or worse.

 

The guards in the docking bay were a nice touch, but they were so pathetically weak there was nearly no point even having them. A nice touch would be raising the difficulty of the guards you fight based on the degree of your infection and the danger you pose to the galaxy.

 

It would also be amusing if there truly were a location to report rakghoul sightings on each planet and the Fleet.

 

Lastly, The scavanger hunt needed clearer direction in game to find the locations.

 

In all you did an excellent job on this world event and I look forward to seeing more.

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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!

I missed it because of a deployment, but you won't see EA give a hoot about it. I'm disappointed that I missed it, and I would be grateful if they restored the Rakghoul event for another week, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

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hated it.

 

i explicitly signed up on a PVE server to avoid being forced into PVP.

 

and don't give me that "you neednt go there" cr**, my toon already was on Tatooine, and he is too low lvl for alderaan...

 

next time you do something like this make a pop up box with "Do you want to enter the PVP event ?" to give people to chance to opt out.

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I would have had it last a little longer, maybe 3 weekends (16 days) instead of 9 days. Some never got a chance to get all the daily unlocks done, as the information took a while to get around.

 

I would like to see a homeworld event at some point where the other faction invades. Or at the very least a contested planet is fought over, or invaded.

 

The dynamic event was great! I was on the fleet when it happened. It was a very welcome event that got many talking and many active also. Keep up the great stuff BioWare!

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I missed the event but just exploded with it today and LOVED it! Hoping I catch it again because it cracks me up. I think it would be cool if you had an event where people got random drops of parts to create their own pet droid.

 

It would be awesome if they could arrange the parts in different ways to make them more unique.

 

Yes I'm a dork.

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Overall, I loved the event. I participated on my level 40 and my level 50, both of whom got the DNA samples-purchased rakling pet as a result of their daily efforts.

 

I thought there was good immersion for players at a variety of levels thanks to having the news terminals and intercomm announcements on the fleet. I personally had a lot of fun with doing some in-character blogging about the event too on inquisitorsroadhouse.com since it was such a fun event.

 

I had one character's plague Origin quest get bugged, with the last piece not being clickable, which was not resolved by the end of the event, which meant she didn't get the rakling pet from it which was a bummer. And after having such a great iterative story, with new quests popping up each day, I was a little surprised and disappointed to have the event just sort of vanish at the end. I guess I was expecting some sort of finale. The cap to the story arc could have been a big world event, an all galaxy announcement, or even some sort of in-game mail letting me know that thanks to my hard work and DNA samples the plague had been contained. But these are minor areas for improvement. When I logged in and saw the plague had vanished, I thought I must have missed the end cap to the story.

 

Keep up the great work and please be implementing more of these in the future! A nice alternative to holiday events.

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It was indeed nice event. To answer the question why it was fun:

 

- Surprise event, long enough so one wouldn't miss it during a weekend holiday etc, but short enough to not become another daily.

- Soloable content, with some bonuses for teams.

- Reason to visit old planet (funny to see 75% of Tatooine population level 50 :))

- Nice idea behind the rewards, although infected companion, Ghostbusters suit or slime-colored crystal aren't really for my taste. Maybe for halloween. But the idea was good, special pet and the crystals with good stats especially.

 

For future events,

 

- It would be nice to have at least one really tough boss/encounter for solo play. None of the "bosses" in this event were really any challenge.

- The announcemets on fleet were really nice, immersive way to spread the word, but after few days they became bit invasive. Maybe just visual "news" at the screens with an in-game mail from "containment agency" or whatever it was would have been enough.

- Personally I found the virus spreading on fleet pretty hilarious and just like real virus spreading, but I can also understand some might consider it disturbing as well. And for really new players (though I dont see them spending too much time on fleet) 2k for vaccine is actually notable money. So a bit better "opt-out" might be good.

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Personally I loved the event. Specifically, I loved that:

 

- it came as a surprise

- it lasted long enough that you could take part in everything without playing every day, but not so long that you burned out on it

- it brought people back to a levelling planet

- it got people interacting with each other, whether in "plague parties" on the station or by encouraging ad hoc world PvP with the enemy

- it felt like there was some content for everyone: exploration, dailies, pets, world bosses etc. (pugging the world bosses was really exciting!)

 

If I had to criticise anything it would be that:

 

- the personal gating for the daily quests felt unnecessary. It was annoying to miss a day early on (like I did) and then be forever out of the loop as your friends go on about the newest daily (which you can't get yet). People should be allowed to "catch up" to a certain extent.

- the random customisation boxes giving duplicates. Unlike others I didn't mind the randomness in principle, but when you only have enough currency to buy five of them and you get two different ones and three doubles that you can't use or trade... that kind of sucks.

 

I do hope that there will be more events like this in the future and that they'll continue to come as a surprise. However, at the same time I'd like it if they didn't all follow the exact same pattern (just grinding whatever currency for the newest pet/crystal etc.) as this carries the risk of making things feel same-y and bland.

Edited by Tiranea
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I really enjoyed the Rakghoul plague event. It made for a nice break from regular activities.

 

Two corrections for any future events however. One, any counter to an event condition needs to persist thru death if the event condition does. Two, any event condition should not auto flag a player to PvP status even if oassed along by someone who is.

 

Other than those two points, which I didn't personally encounter but others did, the event was a blast and I loved it.

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This event reminded me of epic events back in Asheron's Call when the big bad evil guys would roam to lands and kill random players. I even got my in-game character name from one of these evil dudes.

 

World events like this are great and actually help to give us a sense that we are actually in a "living" and evolving world instead of just a game.

 

Here's what worked:

  • Completely random surprises like this are awesome. I think that pretty much sums it up and I look forward to more of these in the future
  • Making the rewards Bind on Equip was a GOOD idea for those who missed the event due to vacation; those players could purchase the rewards if they missed out, even though the amount of time the event lasted was adequate, in my opinion. People will still complain that they would have to then go and buy the items from other players, but this STILL gives them the option to obtain the items if they want them.

 

Here's where improvement should be made:

  • Players should not be forced to take part in the event in any way if they choose not to; imagine you just started playing SWTOR as a new player and you could not understand why you kept dieing from a plague that you had no control over, since it took place on a planet many, many levels above you
  • There should be multiple stages to these events. While you almost made it to that point with new dailies every day, that's not quite what I mean. What did not make sense to me was that the event just....ENDED. Server goes down for maintenance, and bam, the event is over. The players should have gotten new quests on the last day or so to try to cure the plague. It really didn't make sense to me for it to just abruptly end as it did.

 

I look forward to more surprises in the future along the lines of the magenta crystal, Taunlet, the Orobird eggs, and the Rakghoul event! These are the types of things that will keep me interested in SWTOR as I never know what could be around the corner.

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I didn't like it because...

 

1) Look at the fleet on both sides, there was widespread, non-stop afk camping/farming. The majority of the people 'participating' were not actually playing the game, just standing around collecting goodies. The goal of an event should not just be to have players log on, but to encourage them to play.

 

2) To characters who did not yet have a ship or the money to buy vaccines, the event was either prohibitively expensive or just not possible to participate in.

 

3) As a roleplayer, the event made no sense and did not fit a "Star Wars world".

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I my self loved the event, the fact that there was no anouncement beforhand, made it even better. This helps to give the gear and rewards you get for "completing" the event more of a rare status. As I my self managed to get all the containment gear for my main, the new title, both pets and a few crystals, I dont see the need to have kept the event going on longer, but I do sympathize with those who where not that lucky, but in the end, that's how it works. Maybe on the next event I wont be able to get anything out of it, and those who missed out on this will. For future events, there really is no limits to what you could do, but what I want most of all, is that when ever there is a big world event like this one, I would love it for there to be a proper aftermark on the planet(s) that were affectet.
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Personally, I think the event was slightly too short - esp. since it was not announced previously. Luckily for me, I did not have a lot of plans so i was able to login and run the dalies. There were those who missed the event simply because of the fact it wasn't announced and unless they came to the forums, never realized it was there. I only realized it was there because I was hunting for datacrons on Tatooine and all the sudden "Daily Mission Area" like "What is this?"

 

I think for the most part, the event itself was great. It was a nice break from the daily hum-drum and gave you something else to do. Contrary to what some are saying, I think the exploding was a great twist. I would have liked to see the Jawa vendor stay around a little bit longer to sell off my extra DNA samples.

 

here are some things I would say could have been improved upon:

 

1. Notification of the event. I know you want to keep some things as a surprise, but there just wasn't a lot of notification. Even in-game, the only notifications were on Tatooine and the Republic Fleet (of which I do not visit either on a regular basis). So unless you were to go there, you may never of known of the event. Even a simple in-game email would have been all it took.

 

2. Unlocking of the Dalies. Because of #1 and because of how the dailies unlocked, it made it difficult for some to complete. esp if you missed a day for any reason. I complete Dailies 1, 2, and 3, then my son gets appendicitus and I'm at the hospital for days 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. I only have 2 days left, and 3 pieces of equipment to get. It would have been nice if the prerequisite would have been complete the quest before it and then the new one will unlock. Daily unlock on the actual new quest appearing (quest 1 opens day 1, quest 2 opens day 2, etc...), but have it so that If I'm on day 4, I can still do 1,2,3,and 4, but I have to do them in order If I hadn't completed them previously.

 

3. Being kicked into PvP when someone explodes near you. This one wsas more annoying than anything. People were camping the jawa, or camping the boss spawn locations, throwing you into PvP, and then taking you out. Getting auto-flagged for PvP wasn't cool. And since Tatooine is an PvP world with both Republics and Imperials, just made it annoying.

 

4. Injections not persisting through death. While minor, it would have been nice if the injections persisted through death. I mean, the virus persisted through death, so why not the vaccine?

 

 

 

For future events, I would love to continue seeing world / universe wide events. i don't want them to become "normal" meaning "Hey, every 2nd week in April is Rhakghoul Plague week." I would like to see some random events as well.

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I loved the way that it unfolded. I logged in early Sunday morning close to the start of the event. I first noticed th kiosk pop up on fleet and after viewing the "news report" my immediate reaction was "YES! " I've played MMOs since UO was launched and I give you big kudos for how this went down. It brought a real sense of excitment and a feeling that it was an actual breaking news event. Players were reporting bits and piecess of information and like with any major news story, the internet was abuzz with both correct information and wild speculation. Well played. My only comment would be to keep the secrecy and scarity of official ingame info intact with future events. Figuring out what was happening had a real "fog of war" feeling. One improvement would be to leave the vendor up for a few days after the event.

 

^^ This.

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i know the game shouldnt be too focused on the "rakghoul" idea, but i think its still got a bit of life in it yet.

 

I am therefore thinking something like the rakghoul plague going to Hoth (huge planet with LOADS of open space like Tatooine had).

 

You would have infected Wampas attacking a base that you have to defend by using turrets first, then should any get inside the base you have to fight them without the help of turrets.

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Hi,

I think the event was overall really nice - well done !

Getting the codex entries so you found out what happened was appreciated, I like story.

I feel the following would be nice to consider for future events:

*Make some form of ingame tell that the event is now live and how long it will last. Perhaps via ingame mail or chat.

*The one daily quest per day in that specific questchain shouldn't have been one per day for late starters. You should be able to catch up atleast.

*Perhaps we should have some way of knowing how many codex entries can be found for an event.

 

Keep up the good work.

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