Jump to content

Gentlemen, I present to you…THE ULTIMATE POST.


mourasantos

Recommended Posts

I have a dream! That one day SWTOR will look something like this:

 

ADAPTIVE CONVERSATION SYSTEM

 

Guys, please...get it right. It's not about adding MORE story, it's about making the existing story more immersive, enthralling. Quality over quantity, always.

 

But how...?

 

Here's one way: program a mechanism that can learn your personality according to your conversation choices. Example. When an alien approaches your character with yet another meaningless and monotonous task (aka side-quests) the conversation wheel gives you, as always, three options to choose from.

 

1. Sure, I may be interested.

2. What's in it for me?

3. Stay away from me, alien.

 

Let's assume you chose the third option. Now that the system has learned of your xenophobic proclivities, your next conversation will adapt accordingly and ensure you're given a set of suitably disparaging options to choose from the next time an alien approaches you.

 

1. What do you want.

2. Oh great, a T'wilek.

3. Die, you alien scum!

 

The greatest benefit of implementing a system of this sort would be the immense contribution it would provide in terms of building a sense of individuality for players, to the notion that their characters have their own personalities, unique to themselves and no one else. This added appeal would likely draw the curiosity of new players, the kind of players this game failed to captivate so resoundingly—the non-MMO'ers, the casuals, the devout KOTOR fans who gave it a shot, but ultimately backed out because they felt it didn't live up to its franchise—in short, the guys Bioware should really be gunning for. Of course I realize this would require an enormous expenditure, both in terms of resources and finances, but in my opinion it would be a much more sound investment than the alternative, which is to continue saturating players with additional story content that, regardless of how captivating and well-written it may be, will ultimately feel increasingly derivative and even preposterous in the long-run.

 

Stay tuned, I'll flesh out this idea some more in the future.

 

 

CANTINAS

 

What if there were an instanced area inside all cantinas where you could hang out with the rest of the characters in your Legacy? You might even exchange a few words with them, the tone of their responses would be determined by their respective alignments, as well as the relationship you chose to assign them with: son, sibling, etc... Perhaps a barroom brawl might even break out between you and whoever you've assigned as your rival. Think of the possibilities.

 

CLASSES

 

Apart from combat based abilities there is no distinction between all of the different available classes to differentiate them from each other.

 

SOLUTION: obvious really, though pretty hard to implement: make each class unique unto itself. I'll start with the

 

BOUNTY HUNTER class.

 

You go to Nar Shadaa to place a a bounty on a rival player. The cost for doing this should be prohibitive enough to avoid tomfoolery (read: everyone and their mother has a bounty placed on their heads). As soon as the BH picks it up the target in question is flagged, a fact to which he will remain oblivious to just so long as he remains in a safe zone (the fleet). However, the moment the target lands on a contested planet a "kill clock" is initiated. Once this clock is triggered, the target is grounded to the planet and now has a set amount of time to avoid almost certain doom at the hands of his relentless pursuer, who has also been alerted to his target's unfortunate galactic meanderings: "Warning! Target spotted on Coruscant!"...or something to that effect...

 

"Ridiculous idea. It will never work. For one, what makes you think I want to take part in such a thing? And frankly I resent you for coming up with the idea, for trying to to flesh out something that would be truly fun for most people, when the best I've been able to come up with so far was demanding the Inquisitor class to be nerfed."

 

I understand your concern. I think the solution lies in adding an incentive for the player who's been marked with a Bounty to want to engage in the old cat-and-mouse game with the creation of an achievement system of sorts. You people seem to like gear, so lets keep it simple and stay along those lines. Say the targeted player manages to avoid the bounty hunter long enough for the kill clock to run out; he is then attributed with a title—"wily", for instance—that allows him to unlock access to a certain type of gear. Now consider he manages to escape yet again; now he's been attributed with the title of "sneaky", which in turn will allow him to buy tier 2 gear of the same achievement ladder. And so on...

 

WILY (escaped 1 Bounty)

 

The tier 1 gear this title unlocks includes a full armor set. Nothing fancy of course (more like rags, really), but unique-looking enough to be coveted by most players. What's really gonna steal the show though are the frag mines which will be made available to the player, the first of what will be a long-list of items used as counter-measures to Bounty Hunters. These babies can be real show-stealers If used intelligently (in other words, if you place them correctly and at the right time), often catching overzealous BH unawares.

 

Tier 2: "Sneaky"

Tier 3: "Illusive"

Tier 4: "Stealth Master"

Tier 5: "Escape Artist"

... Something along these lines. Get ready for some cool ***, ninja-style gear!

 

"Here's your basic fallacy -- the "kill clock". What's preventing me from logging off the moment I learn i'm being hunted? And what if I have an emergency and HAVE to log off?"

 

Good point. The solution, I think, lies in reverting the previous proposition, where instead of being awarded with a positive title (and the gear it gives you access to) you're penalized with a loss of experience points and tagged with increasingly negative-sounding titles—"Coward", for instance—the more often you do it.

 

- Witless

- Coward

- Chicken

- Spineless

 

...and so on...

 

In an ideal (mmo)world the attribution of each of these negative titles would be clearly reflected in your character somehow. For instance, for the Coward title, whenever one crossed paths with another player of higher level and stats an emote would be automatically triggered, forcing one to shiver and cower in front of everyone. Ambitious, I know, but potentially fun as all hell...

 

I don't dislike the idea, there's something to it. Could you pls elaborate on how the system would work on the Bounty Hunter end of things? Namely, how does he track down his target?

 

The manner in which Bounty Hunters track you down would depend on a number of variables, chiefly amongst which would be the gear they have gained access to. Regardless, all BH's would have at their disposal the same baseline equipment to start with—a tracking device that allows them to pinpoint your general location on a broad radius. What I didn't mention before was that, like his prey, the Bounty Hunter has his own achievement ladder, too. I'm not going to get into what it would look like just yet, but suffice it to say the higher up the BH crawls up this ladder, the more precise his hunting tools become. In the early stages his tracking device has a very broad radius, making his job that much harder. At higher levels, however, the BH is able to gain access to gear with a much better, tighter scope, a tracking device that's able to pinpoint his target's location with much more precision. This is of course affected by his prey's own position in the achievement ladder. For instance, if his target has achieved the rank of "Escape Artist", he will have plenty of counter-measures at his disposal to throw off the Bounty Hunter from his path. I'll get into all of this later....

 

*whew*

 

Alright, this is a work in progress. I'll come back to this and the other classes later.

 

COMBAT SYSTEM

 

The good old stats-centric, gear-based, mashing-numbers-on-a-keyboard approach to combat continues to plague the majority of MMOs out there. Unfortunately, SWTOR is no exception. Bioware should have made the most of the opportunity which having a massive IP in their hands such as Star Wars afforded them (essentially guaranteeing them a successful launch) by breaking away from the mold to do something truly innovative: implement a more intuitive, skill-based combat system.

 

Of course I'm not suggesting re-working the combat system in this manner is a priority for Bioware at such a late stage of the game. It would involve going back to the drawing board and a tremendous amount of resources they simply cannot afford at the moment. However, I maintain that the inclusion of this outmoded, even archaic system was its single gravest mistake, one from which they may never quite recover.

 

You know what, though? I could go on and on about my feelings concerning this issue, but the truth of the matter is there's someone who has already addressed all of my concerns and laid them out in a much more elegant manner than I ever could. Rather than bore you then, I'll simply provide you with the link to his article HERE.

 

Read it. Trust me, it's worth it.

 

COMPANIONS

 

Companions have many faults at the moment. Every time you click on them they have no more than couple of stock-phrases that quickly grow stale, at times even outright annoying. There is also a lack of interaction between them.

 

Give companions more speaking lines, and make sure these are appropriate to the surrounding environment. You don't have to go too crazy, keep it simple; if on Tatooine, have them comment on the blistering heat. Also, give us sporadic cut-scene on-ship where the companions are seen interacting with each other. Take companion affection into account in these scenarios. For instance, if your affection with Risha is high enough, and if Akavii Spaar's is equally high, then perhaps a "lover's feud" could be triggered the next time you step into your ship.

 

Finally, another issue with companions pertains to how their affection works. It’s appropriate that certain conversation choices should either please or displease whichever companion I’ve chosen to accompany me on my questing, but it makes little sense to see this exact same dynamic play out with everyone else I’ve left back at my ship.

 

From a technical perspective, it’s only a minor annoyance. Yet it’s the kind of thing that’s not only immersion-breaking (what are they, telepathic?), but also outright disruptive from a role-player’s perspective. Who’s to say that I don’t want to play as some two-faced sycophant who acts all squeaky-clean and nice in front of some of the more virtuous companions, only to reveal his true dark side in front of those more open to it?

 

EMOTES

 

The emote system is archaic. Sound is practically non-existent, the range of emotions available to our characters severely limited and, worse still, there are several emote commands which often repeat, making them interchangeable with one another despite their descriptive distinction.

 

SOLUTION: The Mayan Apocalypse is around the corner, how about taking advantage of some of the tools modern technology affords us? I heard something called Kinect is around... I trust you to connect the dots. SOE seems to have already done it with EVERQUEST II.

 

EDIT: It seems as if 1.4 has taken a minor step in the right direction as respects to the emote system. Bravo Bioware! Keep at it.

 

JEDI TEMPLE

 

So there's a cool little feature available right here on this website, a series of videos in which Jedi Master Marka Ragnos, or whatever, provides a brief summary of the major galactic events that took place during a wide stretch of time. Now, why isn't this integrated into the game proper? It seems as if it would fit right at home in the Jedi Archives on Tython. Just a fun little feature to keep players entertained, and help give the planet itself some character.

 

 

THE OLD HERMIT

 

I have this kooky idea that I think would function as a great incentive for exploration if it were ever implemented, an event of sorts that would only happen once a month, in which developers would place a vendor in some extremely off-the-beaten-path locale, for the most intrepid players to find. The lure would be that this vendor would sell unique, high-level stats items that would be coveted by all. Too bad only one player per server can find it each month. You could then post the lucky winners on this website.

 

 

FLASHPOINTS

 

Because their story elements are static right now FP's eventually become stale once you've completed them several times, and it doesn't take very long for experienced players to lose patience with newbies running it for the first time ever. This has been the cause for an increasingly wide-spread phenomenon, the SPACEBAR-feud. There are several ways to circumvent this problem, the easiest of which involves churning out MORE flashpoints. However, this not only the costliest of the solutions, it's also the most short-sighted one. The real key is to make the cutscenes found in EXISTING flashpoints as dynamic as possible. How, you ask?¹

 

Imagine a scenario where, after reaching a certain amount of social points, you're able to unlock a new ability which allows you to interrupt the normal flow of conversation by performing a suitably show-stopping action, something similar to the Paragon/Renegade system Bioware introduced in Mass Effect 2 (for the sake of convenience, we'll call this ability the SHOW-STOPPER from now on).

 

"Okay, I'm listening. Would this SHOW-STOPPER ability be available to all classes? And would it be executed differently depending on the respective classes?"

 

The answer is yes in both cases. Consulars would have FORCE PERSUASION, Smugglers would use SMUGGLER'S CHARM, Sith Inquisitors would rely on MIND DOMINATION, Jedi Knights would rock their JEDI MIND TRICKS, Troopers might use, say, SOLDIER'S RESOLVE, and so on...The only caveat would be that, by virtue of their lore, the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor classes would not be required to reach a certain level of Social Points in order to unlock the SHOW-STOPPER, they would have it available to them always, from the get-go.

 

"That'll never work. Offering those two an exclusive benefit like that would mean a massive, game-breaking disruption of the balance the developers were so careful to establish between classes. The next day you'd see a massive surge of players rolling those two classes."

 

Not if other classes are also given their own exclusive attributes. Not if you provide players with similarly enticing reasons for rolling them. You know the spiel: Smugglers would Smuggle, Bounty Hunters would Bounty Hunt, Imperial Agents would infiltrate the opposite faction in disguise, etc... The idea would be for this system to be developed as a sort of mini-game. By choosing either the Light-side (Paragon) or Dark-side (Renegade) options the system would be rolling the dice—just the same as it would do for the other standard conversation rolls—except that in this case if the roll was lost, you would then not only lose a (very) small amount of Social Points, but also be locked out from all future interactions for that particular flashpoint, unable to take part in any of the conversations. But, should you manage to win the roll, the upshot would be that you would then receive a substantial social points bonus in addition to performing the aforementioned kick-*** feat. The higher your social points level, the more likely you would be to win these rolls.

 

"Sounds moderately intriguing. Could you elaborate on how exactly this so-called conversation system of yours would work in-game by giving us a specific example?"

 

Since it's the first and most widely-known Flashpoint in Swtor, at least on Republic side, I'll be using the Esseles Flashpoint to illustrate my point: Say you’ve rolled a Jedi Consular, for instance. After tearing through a horde of maladjusted Imperials, you've finally arrived at that infamous point of the instance in which an (exceedingly rare) moral quagmire is presented to you and the rest of your player-companions. Normally everyone would be given two choices here, either 1.) pay heed to the straight-to-business T'wilek Ambassador's advice to sacrifice a small crew of ship operators in order to expedite your fight against the Imperial incursion, or 2.) ignore the venomous words spewing out from that pretentious ******'s mouth and decide to spare them instead. Now, if this system I'm proposing were to be implemented you would be given two additional choices to choose from beyond the three-branched limit which is currently set for us.

 

"You already told us that you idiot, get to the freakin' point already!"

 

Alright, alright, I'm about to! The thing is, there are two ways in which the whole thing could play out, so make sure to keep up, as it might get a little complicated from this point onwards.

 

OPTION #1

So in this scenario your ability to win a roll is tied to a number of factors, the first among which are your reflexes. You see, in order for you to even have a chance of rolling successfully on these additional Light-Side and Dark-Side options you would have be fast enough to click on them in the first place. Here's how it would work: two pulsating orbs of light, one red, one blue, would suddenly flash on screen, providing the player with only a fraction of a moment to click on them. If he succeeds clicking them on time he has a chance to win the roll, but if he fails, he's bound to regret it. This time-constricted, ticking-clock variation of the system should be familiar to players of Mass Effect 2, as it was lifted directly from it. However, contrary to that game, the difference here is that the appearance of these two options aren't a done deal – the rate at which they appear being mostly erratic so that players are kept continually on their toes, never knowing, or able to predict, the exact moment in which these orbs will decide to rear their heads.

 

"It's all fine and good to discuss the technical permutations of this system, but what does any of it mean in terms of narrative? How would these "feats", these extra social interactions, allow players take more enjoyment from the game?"

 

To answer this question, allow me to return to the Esseles scenario I've been using as an example. Assuming the player managed to be quick (and lucky) enough to win the Light-side Roll, what would happen is that an action specific to his Consular class would then be triggered (in this case, FORCE PERSUATION) so that, instead of having to talk his way out of sacrificing the workmen as he would otherwise he can instead induce an hypnotic state upon the Ambassador, thereby forcing her to revise the ruthlessness of her beliefs. Alternatively, if the player had won the Dark-Side roll, he would perform a similar action, though with a considerably more mischievous outcome, the kind which would surely be relished by writers, as it would present them with a vast number of opportunties to concoct humorous situations—an aspect which, presently, this game's narrative sorely lacks.

 

Speaking of humor, you know what else writers would love? The BACKFIRES.

 

What are the backfires, you ask? Well it's fairly self-explanatory, really: it's what happens when cruel fate conspires against you so that, even if you manage to click on either of the two intervention options on time when they pop up, your roll is still somehow lost. In these (not so infrequent) circumstances, rather than performing an heroic deed or terrific show of power, you're essentially reduced, much to everyone else's amusement, to making buffoon of yourself. Not only that, you're blocked out from any and all future conversations for that particular flashpoint.

 

Here's how the situation might develop: Your Jedi Consular attempts to hypnotize the Ambassador, yet, to his surprise and disappointment, the Ambassador simply shurgs it off, as if she were completely immune to its grasp. For a moment it seems as if that's that. But then, suddenly, something kooky and expected! A strange moan, an incoherent babbling is heard. Turn around to discover, to everyone's great shock, that the Consular's spell has somehow backfired and taken hold of another player instead of its intended target. Eventually this player manages to break free from this spell and comes to. Except that now, he's furious. How dare anyone meddle with his mind, the audacity...Boom! He or she strikes your Consular with a beeatch-slap straight to the face. You promptly drop to your knees, humiliated and locked out from all further conversation rolls.

 

OPTION #2 (THE MMO-FRIENDLY ONE)

Okay, so here's my second take on how the conversation interrupt system might work. You guys tell me which you'd prefer to see implemented (though personally, I'm partial to this one). Instead of having a system that's reliant on twitch-reflexes in order to work (which, according to the feedback I've received, seems to be a no-no in MMO's) it would be set up as follows: As the player accumulates social points a meter is gradually filled which, upon reaching its limit, allows for the aforementioned SHOW-STOPPER to be unlocked. Now you might be wondering, quite rightly, how all of this might work from a visual standpoint. Fortuitously enough though, it's as if all the groundwork has already been put in place in order for this to be seamlessly implemented, and no additional work would be required from Bioware apart form some slight tinkering. To prove this, lets take a look at what the conversation U.I. currently looks like:http://pikigeek.com/2012/01/21/star-wars-the-old-republic-review-a-tale-of-galactic-conquest/ Notice how there's an outline running half the blue circle's perimeter, before it gets cut off by the three yellow bars that indicate the conversation options? Imagine that it would it slowly fill up with a red meter according to to the gradual build-up of social points you accumulate. See where I'm going with this…?

 

"So if I'm understanding this correctly this meter would represent the amount of social points obtained by the player, right? So what happens when the meter is filled?"

 

What else? Once the red meter reached the apex of the the circle's contour, the blue core at the center would begin to pulsate, indicating to the the player that he's finally unlocked the SHOWSTOPPER. All he need do now is click the circle to replace the three standard dialogue options with the two new Light-Side and Dark-side options which have been made available to him. Of course, as I mentioned before, the player must be judicious about his use of the SHOWSTOPPER, for his chances of either striking gold or striking out are always, irrespective of class, 50-50.

 

Well, that pretty much covers it.

 

I'm sure a lot of you have yet to be convinced this system is really the most effective way of countering the general sense of staleness which has settled into Flashpoints, that churning out more of them with additional (and more importantly, NEW) story content is the only sensible solution to the problem, but I disagree with this whole-heartedly. Not only as it relates to Flashpoints, but to any and all story-centric endeavors Bioware decide to lay their hands on in the future, as well. Because, no matter how perfectly structured, paced and well executed, a story is bound to grow stale sooner or later. We have an infinite variety of books, films, television series and other such mediums of entertainment (of which video-games are also a part) to prove this, that a story is only able to capture an audience's attention for so long before its characters become stale and one-note, for the events surrounding them to start feeling increasingly implausible and contrived (see: soap-operas). SWTOR is no exception. I'll address this problem in more detail in a future separate entry, but the crux of what I'm trying to say here is that, rather than piling on additional story elements it'd be much more intelligent, not to mention fruitful, for Bioware to perfect the ones which are already existent. Finally, the development of further Flashpoints pose a functional problem as well, which sooner or later would have to be addressed: the LFG tool. I mean, think about it—players already have a hard enough time grouping up of a handful of flashpoints as it is, imagine what that queue would look like if you had twenty-five of them to queue up for.

 

¹ Actually, the answer to this addresses several other problems, namely the lack of differentiation between classes and the seemingly superfluous social levels system, both of which I'll tackle in more detail later on.

 

 

NPC's

 

 

Ah, immersion! Such a simple concept to grasp, yet so hard to achieve (at least for Bioware, from the looks of it).

 

Any player who's ever tried to really immerse himself into the game will attest to the fact that SWTOR's NPC's make it virtually impossible. Their movement¬¬, when there's any of it to speak of, is stunted and artificial-looking, making them look like no more than pawns randomly strewn atop a chessboard. And while this lack of movement is marginally acceptable to normal humanoid NPCs, seeing something like a flock of birds flying in place is off-putting to say the least.

 

But apart from these commonly addressed grievances there is something else about them (which, oddly enough, I've never seen mentioned) that irks me to no end, and this is how often they're placed across various maps in stacks of cloned groups. For example, you see a group of four republic soldiers who look exactly the same moping around like the clone wars started 3000 years too early and it's no one's business but theirs. I suppose this would be a forgivable offense if it were a rare circumstance but unfortunately, when it comes to SWTOR, it's the standard order of business.

 

If in doubt, check out THESE PHOTOS I took.

 

Believe it or not, that was all just in Coruscant.

 

Yeah, I know...

 

 

PLAYER HOUSING

 

I take spaceship housing as a given, so I won't be addressing it as I'm sure it's bound to be implemented in the game sooner or later. However there is talk amongst some of the more zealous players of an entire planet dedicated simply to player housing. Instead of creating an entire planet exclusively for the purpose of player housing—which is dumb—try adding a Mega-Skyscraper or two to some new area on Coruscant. The planet needs something like this badly anyway: for a capital planet, it's revolting how bare and...lifeless it is. Oh, make sure to reflect the real world intricasies of real estate -- the higher the floor, the more expensive it'd beb (with the penthouse taking the cake of course). Great way to make a boatload of cash too now that F2p is coming out.

 

 

SPEEDERS

 

Like any other vehicle that's ever existed in this, or any other galaxy, speeders need to have some kind of acceleration. Their current static velocity is unrealistic and poses a serious a hindrance toward immersion.

Also, it would be nice if we could get a distinct sound for each of the different engines. The Kurtob speeder did a nice job with this, its engine producing a distinct hum, but it would be nice if we could have more variety along these lines for the other speeders as well.

 

 

SPRINT ABILITY

 

Unlock sprint ability at Legacy Level 1 instead of having it available for new players from the onset, immediately after character creation.

 

 

HOLOTERMINAL

 

The holo-terminal on our ships used to communicate with our respective faction's leadership is constantly glowing blue, as if signaling it wants to be interacted with, even when it doesn't.

 

SOLUTION: Get rid of this. Yesterday. It should only glow blue when inter-stellar communications are warranted. At this stage, 90% of the time it does f-all beyond resetting my U.I.

 

 

FLEET

 

Scrap the faction fleet as the main base of operations. From a narrative perspective it makes little sense, the capital worlds should be the central gathering points for each of the respective factions.¹

 

Imagine you're a new player. Not just a new player, but new to MMO's in general. Apart from a few hiccups along the way, your leveling experience is a fairly smooth one up until you reach level 10. But then as soon as you hit fleet you're inundated by a flood of new, sensory overloading game-systems: vendors peddling wares you won't be able to gain access to for another 40 levels, level 50 players parading high-tech gadgets of the kind which you, at such an early stage of your adventure, can only dream of obtaining (even though every NPC and their mother is treating you as the galaxy's last ray of hope), the chat box is swarming with befuddling, MMO-specific terminology you can't make any sense of, etc...For these reasons and more, and as a newbie to MMO's myself, I was this close to unsubbing the moment I hit fleet. Of course most folks here won't be able to sympathize with this problem of new game systems being unlocked at too early a stage, given that they're veterans of MMO's, and consequently at least somewhat familiar with all of them already. Problem is, the issue isn't merely functional, it is narrative as well. For instance, the sense of heroism Bioware supposedly went to such great lengths to provide SWTOR's players with is instantly shattered the moment he discovers even the FREAKING VENDOR standing behind the counter on fleet is 40 levels more powerful than him.

 

That's right, the fleet is broken. Remember, for instance, those holo-terminals located below the main level, where people would gather around to do flashpoints, the ones in which you'd get a sit-rep, an intro, essentially a narrative purpose for doing them in the first place? Well, that's all gone now, made null and avoid by the introduction of group finder, left to simply gather dust. This is actually another huge problem in itself, but I mention it here only as means to highlight just how senseless the fleet map has become -- you've got a whole floor, even entire separate ships, meant to teleport you to flashpoints that are now completely useless. But anyway, I digress. On to the --

 

SOLUTION: Okay, so we've already agreed that flooding a new player with too much information as early as level 10 is not the ideal approach, right? And if we've agreed that walking around on fleet surrounded by level 50's who look meaner, faster, cooler, than your measly-leveled toon is a highly deflating experience, then we'll also agree on the need to avoid these emasculating encounters while at the same time figuring out a way to space out the rate at which players are exposed to new game systems at a measured pace. But how to do this? Well, try this...

 

Create a copy of the capital world that’s only accessible at level 50. Imagine you're playing SWTOR for the very first time. Having reached the capital planet, Coruscant, you're feeling understandably underwhelmed by its lack of scope, its corridor structure… In short, its lack of ambition. But! There's an area closed off to you, for whatever reason. A bridge of some sort, like what they did with the GTA series. You wonder what it's all about. But then, you reach level 50 and you receive a HOLOVID update informing you this area is now freely accessible to you and every single other level 50, PLUS anyone with a Legacy level above a certain point (Legacy 3 sounds fair, I think). Oh, I'm not suggesting the fleets should be scrapped entirely. Nay, I think they should be kept, only not as a galactic epicenter. So far there are three ships -- one used as an all-purpose hub, a gathering point for all players above 10 (Carrick Station, on the Republic side) and two more (gav daragon and another one whose name escapes me at the moment) for flashpoint teleporting purposes. Keep them, but make them restricted to players in 10 level increments. In other words, levels 10 to 20 you gain access to Gav Daragon. There, you'll encounter players who may, potentially, be slightly more advanced than you, but are still within the same realm of experience. There, vendors will sell you things you can actually gain access to, understand, and, more importantly, afford. There, the conversations rolling down on the chatbox won't be pertaining to things that you, as a novice, aren't quite ready to grok yet, etc...

 

Gav Daragon: 10 to 20

The other one I forget: 20 to 30

Some new space station made for: 30's to 40

Carrick Station: 40 to 49

LEVEL 50's and their ALTS (Legacy level 2 and beyond): CORUSCANT and Drommund Kaas.

 

The idea of streamlining the leveling experience so as to restrict encounters with maxed characters, to make it a much rarer prospect for first-time players, is bound to meet its fair share of detractors, especially amongst the hardcore crowd. These people are more likely to have little to no empathy with the first-time user because they've already gone through the grind, worked for ceaseless hours to obtain their much-prized gear, and so they'll be damned if anyone tries to take away their hard-earned right to show off their uber-cool characters decked out in resplendent regalia to the rest of the world. The thing is, though, this wouldn't be detracting at all from that sense of validation they so hunger for. In fact on the contrary, the end result of making level 50 encounters rarer would be that in those few times in which the newbie DOES run into a maxed character (say, for example, on a datacron hunt or as part of a world-event), he or she would then stand in awe of them, as if they just spotted an Elvis apparition. What's more, this way you wouldn't be just another level 50 lost in a sea of level 50's competing for attention on a fleet.

 

¹ Problem is, both capital worlds are highly underdeveloped at this stage; they just don't feel very "capital" at all..

 

 

HUTTBALL

 

Remove Huttball from the Warzone queue. Thematically, it doesn't make any sense for them to be included. I mean, they're called WARzones for christ's sake, not Hutt Games. Instead, make them a place. Yes, a place! Some kind of Arena venue, preferably located on Nar Shadaa (which by rights should be the capital of fun and games, but right now is the capital of zilch). Allow bets to be placed.

 

 

WORLD BOSSES

 

Nothing wrong with the bosses themselves, per se; the problem is the complete lack of narrative impetus to defeat them.

 

SOLUTION: Write an in-depth description of them in the codex. Provide a backstory, a reason for us to care. If those overgrown gerbils out on Tatooine are deemed worthy of three paragraphs, why the Force would a ten-ton cyclopean reptile be given a pass?

 

 

GROUP FINDER

 

I used to be nothing less than revolted with group finder. Not only due to the sheer amount of problems it brought to the fore, but also in part (or is it mostly?) because of its positive reception. I must have become jaded at some point though, because nowadays I seem to be practically immune to the spectacular show of ignorance SWTOR's player-base so often exhibits. It's the kind of ignorance best typified by those of you still scratching your heads, wondering what the hell I'm going on about, and it's you who I now address:

 

Do any of you remember how Flashpoints were run before the LFG tool was introduced? Do you recall the way in which the grouping up process was different back then?

 

"Uh…people would swarm the chat box with LFG invites?"

 

Yes, but no. The real answer is this: once you found enough people to group up, you would then all gather at the terminals on fleet to get a sit-rep from your respective faction's leaders (Satele Shan on the Republic side, Darth Malgus on Imperial) before heading to the instance proper.

 

"Oh yeah! I remember that. Weird, I haven't done those in a while…"

 

Of course you haven't! And the reason why you haven't is because they were made completely devoid of meaning with the introduction of the LGF tool. And while I'm sure this is far from being an issue to those players who've already hit level cap with at least one character and have run each and every one of the currently available Flashpoints multiple times (which, given the static subscriptions rate in SWTOR, are likely to be the vast majority), but for those who are new to SWTOR it poses a problem of nearly game-breaking proportions. Why? Because the purpose of those conversations wasn't just so that players could stack up on social points, it was to offer them a motive for wanting to run the FP's in the first place, a narrative incentive, a purpose. So what happens now instead? Well, what happens is that players are thrown into these Flashpoints without so much as a clue as to how and why they got there, what's happening, or what they're supposed to do. And as if this wasn't bad enough, even those players who are savy enough to realize the tool is broken, and so take it upon themselves to group up in the traditional manner, are bound to have hugely important plot threads spoilt for them sooner or later, since Bioware actually incentivates us to run Flashpoints randomly (by offering daily commendations in exchange), thus negating all our attempts to run them chronologically, as they should be. This is especially vexing considering we're talking about a developer that prides itself for its supposedly singular-minded focus on story.

 

But wait, I'm not done yet! There's yet another game system that was left broken by the introduction of the LFG tool. Remember all of those transport ships strewn across the surface of each planet? You know, the ones with the Robot quest-givers (aka flashpoint couriers)? Yup, that's right, those too are now bereft of any purpose whatsoever, and I can only imagine the amount of head scratching their continued existence has incited on new players.

 

In conclusion, given that two whole game-system were sapped of all functionality by the LFG tool, and considering too, that I've yet to hear even the slightest peep from the community about this problem (on the contrary, group finder has been been hailed, against all reason, as a much needed improvement to the game, one of the few things SWTOR's team has gotten right thus far), I think you'll find all the frustration and anger I once directed at this matter to be somewhat justified, or at the very least not entirely misplaced.

 

SOLUTION: From a functional standpoint the most quick-fire, least expensive, and easiest of solutions would be to revert the game back to its pre-Group Finder state. The only issue is that from a marketing and financial perspective this would be tantamount to suicide. I've devised a few potential workarounds to this problem, but after giving it some thought, I've decided this one would be the most practical: keep new players from using the Group Finder tool to run Flashpoints until they've completed them at least once in the traditional way.

 

There. Simple, right?

 

 

TRAVEL

 

There's a lack of incentive to travel. Why? Well, take a look at the real world for a clue. What's our own primary incentive to travel, beyond exploring different sights? The answer is exploring different cultures. What is a culture? A system. What is a system, in SWTOR's case? A mini-game. And right now, there is a total absence of systems unique to a particular planet to help differentiate them from each other, to set them apart. The sole exception is some crystal- making machine on Coruscant, and sorry to say, that's far from cutting it. Implement a system that's unique to a particular planet and you get a rudimentary form of culture. Implement a culture and you create a reason to travel.

 

Look to the real world for inspiration: want to get the best suits in the world, a special custom-made dose of sartorial sprezzatura? Go to Italy. Specifically, Napoli. Want exposure to that special, filthy-rich sort of decadence? Go to Monaco during the Grand-prix. Looking for the low-brow variant? Buy yourself a ticket to Vegas, where the Ed Hardy crowd like to congregate. And finally, if you're looking for the the best and worst of everything the world has to offer, then New York's your place (by the way this what Coruscant should be). Now think along Star Wars lines. The creme-de-la creme of swoop races, the final shebang, where all the top-end pilots go to prove their worth, would be on Alderaan. The best and rarest Jedi Gear should be found on Dantooine. Want to hunt for exotic animals, then Tatooine is the best (and only) place for you! You get the point, I could go on and on…

 

 

PLAYER ROLE

 

Players lack the sense that their decisions have any real effect on the game. It's true, too. None of our decisions really mean anything at the moment, regardless of how evil or goody goody two-shoes our respective paths end up being. The solution for this lies in that metrics program Bioware likes to brag about so much, that proprietary system they came up with to collate every single shred of data in SWTOR down to the last 01 bit. Instead of limiting its use for finding out where players die the most, or to determine class imbalances, use it for this: gather up intel on every single player's light side/dark side choice, every pro-republic or pro-imperial decision, every single warzone outcome, and make them all count. How? Server specific events. Rather than wasting time brainstorming what the next world event should look like, you should tie them directly to the results of said findings. Publish the results of these findings so players can keep up.

 

In other words, imagine you've determined that, on balance, more light-side choices have been on a specific server overall, than dark side ones. Change the world accordingly. Have it shift gradually to a chirpier, more festive kind of place. Conversely, if more dark side options were taken overall, perhaps vegetation begins to rot away, infrastructure begins to crumble...a darker, more foreboding ambiance in general begins seeping in.

That's one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is pro-republic vs pro-imperial player options. I'd include PVP and Warzone results as a factor in this, but the end result would be something like... I don't know, say more pro-Imperial decisions were made on one server... instead of having "Rakghouls Return" as the next event, have Carrick Station be attacked. Players will then have to deal with repairs for the foreseeable future until they turn the tide.Say too, that more Warzones were also won by Imperials than defenders of the Republic. Have the territory on a contested planet shift toward the Empire's favor as a reflection. Again, these results would be published for all to see, either in the holovid network on swtor.com. Preferably the first.

 

Sorry, I have this idea very clearly laid out on my mind but have to refine more it in writing.

 

It's feasible, trust me. Er, I think…

 

 

SOUND

 

So this section will be far more detailed in the future, but for now I only want to address a couple of minor issues. Lets start with jumping. Maybe I'm spoiled, but practically every other single game I've played has had some form of audio cue attached to a jump, usually in the form of a grunt, or squirm to indicate some kind of effort on the character's part. SWTOR should have this too.

 

My other gripe pertains to the background audio track, the ambient sound so to speak. It's dismal in this game, a real wreck. Its faults do not lie so much with its execution, but rather with the lack of diversity offered. Have you noticed, for instance, that practically all of the indoor locations in SWTOR use the exact same sound track between? You know what I'm talking about: those sounds of grinding machine parts, iron clanging, etc..

In short, the kind of soundscape that would fit a steel-mill or factory perfectly (both of which there are no shortage of in SWTOR), but stands out like a sore thumb in, for instance, a cave. The problem is, like I already said, the game uses this same soundtrack irrespective of the setting. The philisophy seems to be, if it's indoors, then we use it.

 

(To be continued)

 

SOLUTION: Self-explanatory.

 

 

U.I. DESIGN

 

It looks atrocious ever since the 1.2 update. I'm not against allowing player customization per se, but this new one makes a mockery of even the most basic principles of design. I'm shocked it even made it past quality control in the first place, to think it's persisted as is for this long is... i don't even know what it is...

 

You do know you can change the UI whenever you want? And the original UI is one of the default settings?

No, it's not. THIS is the original U.I.

And what in that picture could you not recreate in the UI designer?

If I have to lay it out for you then you just don't get it.

Do it, if it's that different from what we can use now you should be able to list the differences and what's impossible to recreate using the UI designer, what you're doing is a cop out

*Sigh* Fine, I'll give you a clue: Notice the blue, semi-translucent thing which runs from the character portrait down to the quickbars, seamlessly tying everything together. Notice how the quickbars don't overlap on top of each other, as they do in the CURRENT "Standard U.I.", but instead are all inside a box-like structure that keeps everything neatly stored. I could go on and on. I mean, even the pop-up informing you a friend has come on-line used to look a thousand times better. See for yourself in

(starting at 0:41 secs, then again 1:57).

 

 

VOICES

 

When players of the same class group together it's jarring to have to listen to two or more people with the exact same voice.

 

SOLUTION: Voice alterations, like EAX, are only part of the solution. The key is to add new voice work, period. Benefit? You sell them. Only 19. 99 for a new male/female voice pack! Easy money. Not all players will buy it, of course, but all will be able to hear these new voices. Everyone wins.

 

And as for EAX, I'd repurpose it for something else entirely. I'd use it as another indicator for moral alignment, so that the more Dark Side points you have, the more cold, gravelly and generally menacing your character's voice becomes.

 

Edited by mourasantos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 229
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Adaptive Conversation System

I like it. I think it'd be pretty entertaining. Trouble is, Bioware tried that with Dragon Age 2, I believe, but the impact seem rather negligible for the huge cost involved. I believe most players did not notice the difference because players tend not to fluctuate, so what happened was, for most players, their character's attitude swung one way and one way only. And so all the additional content didn't get the chance to be shown.

 

Personally, I'd be very entertained by it, but it just costs so much for such a marginal benefit to the player.

 

Cantina

Not sure where you're going with this. It sounds like fluff, but it's a hit and miss. For me, it's a miss. If given the choice of choosing some other feature, any other feature, I'd choose the other feature over this one. Sorry.

 

Classes: Bounty Hunter

Wasn't this done to some extent in SWG? Not a big deal though. It sounds intriguing. Can you get an entire guild to consecutively put out bounties on one character that you hate so that character can't leave the planet for days at a time?

 

My gut feeling is that these sort of feature works best in a full sim environment, like EVE online. SWTOR is aimed at a different kind of audience, one that is a lot more time constrained, and less likely to put up with this type of disruption to their plans, be it raiding or just logging on to do warzone dailies.

 

Companions

They already have a lot of flavour text. Just walk about the planets. Coruscant, especially, entering Dark Sun territory, Senate Tower, Senate Plaza, Slums, etc. Your companions will have something to say. Not all of them comment at the same places or for the same reasons. Kira Carson, for example, has lots to say about Taris locations.

 

I do like the other stuff you mentioned, like the cat-fight between Akaavi Spar and Risha, but it's very high cost content. It's entertaining as hell, but it gets consumed in a manner of minutes and it takes days to implement, not factoring cost for voice actors, staging, writing, etc.

 

A more feasible alternative would be like Leliana's dialogue options in Dragon Age, where you could always have a chat with her to get her to tell you one of her many stories. For SWTOR, it'd be nice once you've finished your companion storyline, to maybe just have a chat with them to hear their own stories or their interpretation of your major decisions in Acts I, II, and III. Sure, it's repeated, it's essentially listening to a story again, but it's better than the nothing you get now once your storyline is over.

 

Emotes

So you're saying that every SWTOR player now has to buy Kinect or similar device? I wasn't aware that the technology was so widespread on PCs.

 

Jedi Temple

That sounds kind of cool. How do Imperial players sneak inside the Jedi Temple for the archives though? And wait, weren't the majority of the archives destroyed by the Sacking of Coruscant? The library in the Jedi Temple on Tython is just what they managed to salvage.

 

World of Warcraft had something like that for cinematic shown when the major boss of the current expansion was defeated. Players that brought down the boss for the first time on the server unlocked the feature for other players to view.

 

I'd personally like to review the cinematics for the operations. Cause they had storylines, conversations, etc. Was really entertaining, especially the one you get for defeated Kephess. Too bad it was once-only. Would be nice if there was a holocron of the event that you could use on fleet.

 

The Kaon/Lost Island series was excellent too.

 

Flashpoint Conversations

Seems like the idea is to introduce an interrupts system that allows players to cut into the conversation being played out by other players. I don't see how makes this a more dynamic system. People will simply revert to interrupt as soon as they can, it becomes the new space-bar.

 

Player Housing

I thought ships were the player housing. All they'd need to a feature to allow us to decorate our ships (and I don't mean the current legacy unlocks.)

 

Sprint Ability

Sorry, but I hate this idea. The big problem with having sprint available at level 14, was that it created a dichotomy for groups at that level. People under level 14 could not move as a group due to them not having sprint. I remember what a pain it used to be. Vehicles weren't as much of a problem because for most flashpoints or instanced areas, you could not mount up on your speeder.

 

Also don't people unlock their Legacy at the end of chapter 2? That's a lot of levels where you won't have sprint.

 

I don't want to see people in Ord Mantell having group issues because they're in a mixed group of people completely new to the game and people with Legacy 1 unlocked.

 

Holoterminal

Don't click on it. But yeah, I guess we could have that disabled if you can't stop yourself from clicking on it.

 

Fleet

Sorry. I don't like this suggestion because I see it as a bad solution in search of a problem. Sure, for a newbie, fleet can get confusing. Why not fly someone directly to Coruscant after they leave the starting world? Just move the intro NPCs to Coruscant/Dromund Kaas and be done.

 

I don't like the idea of additional layers of segregation. WAR did that with their four tiers of content, making it troublesome for guildies to help each other out across different levels.

 

Huttball

For every player that hates Huttball, there's a player who loves it. Me? I don't care either way.

 

World Bosses

Nope. I hate world bosses. The engine doesn't handle them well. And some, like Nightmare Pilgrim, are so easy to disrupt (sure, it's a reportable offense, but it still ruins your night.) Also difficulty ramping is steep. You have Primal Destroyer, which is doable by most groups, the one in Hoth, which I can't remember the name of, (not Snowblind, the other one,) and then you get Nightmare Pilgrim, which requires two full groups of people decked in Rakata as their average gear level.

 

But yeah, a spiffy codex entry might be entertaining.

 

Group Finder

Nope. Sorry. Strongly disagree with you there. Group Finder is very buggy, and it lacks features, but the concept is good. It is in-keeping with the audience for which SWTOR was designed. That is to say, SWTOR players don't want to have to sit around in Republic Fleet hoping to form a group. They have limited time to play each day. They want to get things done. Group Finder helps this.

 

Travel

You want to kill a specific world boss? You got to the respective planet. You want to meet up for the role-playing event at the cantina on Nar Shaddaa? You have to go there. You want to do operations? Go meet up at Gav Daragon. You want two guilds to meet head on in a grudge match? Go to Tatooine's No Man's Land.

 

But I think I understand what you're saying. You're really talking about fluff that each planet could offer the player that is irregardless of leveling, wealth, gear, etc. Aren't you? Sure, I guess. Can't say no to more variety.

 

Player Role

This seems to be not so much player role, but impact on the server world based on player outcomes. It's a really intriguing idea. Reminds me of DAoC and how control of the relics and different keeps would grant bonuses to the players, given each realm a massive incentive to defend their lands.

 

I like the idea though, but it's like sitting on a pile of explosives. People tend to jump ship from the losing side. If losing warzones lead to penalties to the losing side, what do you think happen? DAoC could do it because they had three sides. If one side dominated, the other two factions would team up to mitigate the imbalance.

 

Sound

The grunt on jump is your personal preference. Maybe there should be an option to turn this on or off. I think most players will turn it off. As for the other stuff, I'm actually amused. SWTOR has many faults, but sound isn't one of them. SWTOR has some pretty amazing sound effects and music. So yeah, I'm quite amused that you'd find fault with it. But to each his/her own.

 

UI Design

Yeah. This is your personal preference. Sorry. Don't agree with you. I may hate the default layout, but at least I can move things around. That's essentially what 1.2 did. It gave me some ability to rearrange my UI to how I prefer it.

 

Voices

I agree with you. It does seem odd. But that's not a big issue for me in terms of all the other issues I have with SWTOR.

Edited by KindlyOne
Grammar
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, don't like the bounty idea at all. I want nothing to do with it. I couldn't care less about any rewards and I don't want to be penalized for things I don't want to take part in when it wasn't included in the game I bought in the first place. If I wanted to pvp, I would pvp and not everyone likes to pvp. Since that is not my thing, I say would say no to bounties. If it were a temporary limited BW sponsored game event concerning NPC bounty hunters, that would be one thing, but I play this particular game for the story and I don't want to be screwed with by other players getting their jollies.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Adaptive conversations, companion talk, and flashpoints...

 

You do realize that over half the $200 million budget for this game was spent on the voice acting? If you added one of those three suggestions it would be budget breaking. Computer RPGs from day one have had canned responses to canned conversation choices because it is easier and more importantly CHEAPER. They would have to charge $150 per box if they implement what you are suggesting (especially with F2P on the horizon).

 

Bounty hunts...

 

I'm with the person above me. NOT INTERESTED!!!!! I want to PvP when I want and how I want. I do not want to be forced into it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're forced into PVP scenarios anyway—as it should be—every time there's a certain type of world event, or when you go to a contested planet, or when both competing factions try to take down a World Boss at the same time, etc...

 

Oh, and over half of the $200 mil budget spent on voice acting? Impossible. You can get the vast majority of (quality) voice-actors on the cheap, it's simply not that expensive. And even if it were, you've got to spend money to make money.

Edited by mourasantos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're forced into PVP scenarios anyway—as it should be—every time there's a certain type of world event, or when you go to a contested planet, or when both competing factions try to take down a World Boss at the same time, etc...

 

Uh... No... I'm not forced into anything. I'm not on a PvP server, I don't PvP and I didn't do the PvP portions of the Rakghoul event, did not engage in any PvP during the Chevin event, do not do any world PvP in Black Hole, and will willingly leave an area if I mistakenly get flagged and go someplace where I will not be "forced" into if I am flagged. I am NOT interested in PvP and will not participate. I simply avoid it altogether.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, and over half of the $200 mil budget spent on voice acting? Impossible. You can get the vast majority of (quality) voice-actors on the cheap, it's simply not that expensive. And even if it were, you've got to spend money to make money.

 

When you have 1,000 actors voicing 4,000 characters and performing 200,000 lines of quest dialog in three languages it sure is possible.

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a358925/star-wars-the-old-republic-handed-guinness-record-for-voice-acting.html

 

http://tor.zam.com/story.html?story=28811

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uh... No... I'm not forced into anything. I'm not on a PvP server, I don't PvP and I didn't do the PvP portions of the Rakghoul event, did not engage in any PvP during the Chevin event, do not do any world PvP in Black Hole, and will willingly leave an area if I mistakenly get flagged and go someplace where I will not be "forced" into if I am flagged. I am NOT interested in PvP and will not participate. I simply avoid it altogether.

If you're not forced, then you ought to be. The distinction made between PVE and PVP servers is artificial, and one of the many outmoded tropes of MMOs that need to be well and truly done away with in order for the genre to survive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you have 1,000 actors voicing 4,000 characters and performing 200,000 lines of quest dialog in three languages it sure is possible.

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/news/a358925/star-wars-the-old-republic-handed-guinness-record-for-voice-acting.html

 

http://tor.zam.com/story.html?story=28811

Are these figures correct? If they are, you sure as hell wouldn't know it from the game -- half the NPC's seem to be voiced by the same person. Sounds more like a marketing strategy to me. Any two-bit voice-actor is more than capable of voicing several characters at once, and I highly doubt Bioware would be dumb enough to waste such a ludicrious amount of money hiring a horde of different voice-actors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're not forced, then you ought to be. The distinction made between PVE and PVP servers is artificial, and one of the many outmoded tropes of MMOs that need to be well and truly done away with in order for the genre to survive.

 

You really need to stop thinking that you're way is the only way. If there was no demand for pve, there would be no pve servers, but they exist and they're heavily populated. Not just here, but in other MMO's, as well. You say that pve is artificial and outmoded and needs to be done away with for MMO's to survive? That's your opinion, buddy. Opinion. And it isn't any more valid that anyone else's opinion. And in my opinion, you are wrong (which, again, isn't any more valid that anyone else's opinion).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You really need to stop thinking that you're way is the only way. If there was no demand for pve, there would be no pve servers, but they exist and they're heavily populated. Not just here, but in other MMO's, as well. You say that pve is artificial and outmoded and needs to be done away with for MMO's to survive? That's your opinion, buddy. Opinion. And it isn't any more valid that anyone else's opinion. And in my opinion, you are wrong (which, again, isn't any more valid that anyone else's opinion).

If you genuinely believed that then you wouldn't really go through the trouble of sharing yours with the rest of the world, now would you? But getting back to the topic at hand, it's my understanding that the onset of PVE-PVP server distinctions came well after the rise of MMOs, and that several of the most succesful mainstaples of the genre managed very well without them.

Edited by mourasantos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you really believed that then you wouldn't really go through the trouble of sharing yours with the rest of the world, now would you? But getting back to the topic at hand, it's my understanding that the onset of PVE-PVP server distinctions came well after the rise of MMOs, and that several of the most succesful mainstaples of the genre managed very well without them.

 

That's because early MMOs did not have PvP. back then PvP was the exclusive purview of FPS games. Back then MMOs were exclusively PvE.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's because early MMOs did not have PvP. back then PvP was the exclusive purview of FPS games. Back then MMOs were exclusively PvE.

A perfunctory read of wikipedia indicates otherwise. Apparently PVP's roots stretch all the way back to MUD times. As far as the more modern conception of MMO's are concerned, some of the genre's archetypal entries, such as Neverwinter Nights, saw it implemented as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A perfunctory read of wikipedia indicates otherwise. Apparently PVP's roots stretch all the way back to MUD times. As far as the more modern conception of MMO's are concerned, some of the genre's archetypal entries, such as Neverwinter Nights, saw it implemented as well.

 

Give it up. Too many people like pve for MMO's to eliminate that style. It just isn't going to happen any time soon, so you may as well forget it. There is no reason why you can't have what you want on a pvp server. For the life of me, I can't understand why people like you can't be satisfied playing your own game and have to screw with the way other's enjoy their games. I bought this game as advertised and pay my monthly sub. I will play the game I paid for the way I want within BW's TOS. Plenty of people that will jump on your bandwagon on pvp servers. Go there, play your own game, and leave ours alone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Give it up. Too many people like pve for MMO's to eliminate that style. It just isn't going to happen any time soon, so you may as well forget it. There is no reason why you can't have what you want on a pvp server. For the life of me, I can't understand why people like you can't be satisfied playing your own game and have to screw with the way other's enjoy their games. I bought this game as advertised and pay my monthly sub. I will play the game I paid for the way I want within BW's TOS. Plenty of people that will jump on your bandwagon on pvp servers. Go there, play your own game, and leave ours alone.

You seem to have mistaken me for some kind of rabid PVP fan, but the truth is I'm not all that excited about it. Particularly in this game. You see, Bioware's pig-headed insistence to cling to the standard MMO combat model (a stats-centric system posessing about as much appeal for the masses as advanced calculus) has made it so I tend to avoid it more often than not. In fact I'd much rather engage in PVE scenarios. That said, I maintain the distinction made between these two is an artificial one. It exists in no other game genre as far as I'm aware, and they've had a history of doing a whole lot better than MMO's have (particularly as of late).

 

Understand that in the grand scheme of things your personal approach to gaming is a highly idiosyncratic one that's not shared by the majority. By majority I mean the huge, criminally untapped (as far as MMOs are concerned) portion of the market that consists of a more casual player-base, the kind of people for whom PVP-PVE server distinctions serve as no more than just another obstruction, another layer of exclusion in a genre that already suffers far too much from a lack of inclusivity.

Edited by mourasantos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You seem to have mistaken me for some kind of rabid PVP fan, but the truth is I'm not all that excited about it. Particularly in this game. You see, Bioware's pig-headed insistence to cling to the standard MMO combat model (a stats-centric system posessing about as much appeal for the masses as advanced calculus) has made it so I tend to avoid it more often than not. In fact I'd much rather engage in PVE scenarios. That said, I maintain the distinction made between these two is an artificial one. It exists in no other game genre as far as I'm aware, and they've had a history of doing a whole lot better than MMO's have (particularly as of late).

 

Understand that in the grand scheme of things your personal approach to gaming is a highly idiosyncratic one that's not shared by the majority. By majority I mean the huge, criminally untapped (as far as MMOs are concerned) portion of the market that consists of a more casual player-base, the kind of people for whom PVP-PVE server distinctions serve as no more than just another obstruction, another layer of exclusion in a genre that already suffers far too much from a lack of inclusivity.

 

There are pvp servers and pve servers. Go where you fit and there is no exclusion. However, it seems that there are people who want to control how other people play their game rather than focusing on their own game. My playstyle makes money. Period. If pve didn't make money, it wouldn't exist, yet half the servers on SWTOR are pve and (IIRC) about half of WoW's servers are pve. So there being some big want/need for everyone who plays to pvp is all in your mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are pvp servers and pve servers. Go where you fit and there is no exclusion. However, it seems that there are people who want to control how other people play their game rather than focusing on their own game. My playstyle makes money. Period. If pve didn't make money, it wouldn't exist, yet half the servers on SWTOR are pve and (IIRC) about half of WoW's servers are pve. So there being some big want/need for everyone who plays to pvp is all in your mind.

Games make money, not servers.

 

SWTOR is my first MMO, and I rolled my main on a PVE server myself. The reason why I did this was due to its description, which misled me into thinking the PVP variant focused primarily, or even exclusively, on highly competitive matches between players, to the detriment of what interested me the most—story (I suspect this happens to a lot of other new players as well, which may account for PVE's continued popularity). However, once I had advanced far enough into the game I began to realize it wasn't the intrusive playstyle it had been made out to be, that an MMO based on the Star Wars IP beckons for some kind of competitive element between the opposing factions, that PVP scenarios are, in a sense, its raison d'etre. As you can imagine, I've since regretted my decision.

Edited by mourasantos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wish we had a bounty system in the game. A few of the things people seem to have issue with are:

 

1) "The Bounty Hunter is only on the Imperial side of things".

- What if we're to make the Trooper in addition to the Bounty Hunter to be able to go hunting via an arrest warrent vs the player bounty so both factions have the ability to do this.

 

2) "I don't want to be forced into something.."

- Make it like SWG did, and have it be initiated via PvP in the first place. If you're killed by player A you have the option to put a bounty/arrest warrent on them and the credits come out of your pocket and placed on the board for Bounty Hunters/Troopers to pick up. So simply put, if you don't want to partake in PvP, you don't have to and those of us who do, can.

 

3) "How would you make it so when someone has your bounty you don't just go to your factions fleet and hide"

- I'd say this is one of the bigger problems. By telling the person they have a bounty/arrest warrent on their head, chances are they will go hide. By not telling the player someone is hunting them, if they partake in PvP they should be watching their backs from every Bounty Hunter/Trooper that is around them. This only adds excitement to the game for both the hunter and the huntee'. As far as the planets themselves or the safe zones, I'm not sure since a lot of the planets are seperated and not within reach of the other faction, some of the contracts would only be able to be hunted by the same faction if they were in these sections? I'm not sure how I feel about this but I'm sure there's an idea for it somewhere out in internet land.

 

4) "If no one puts a bounty/arrest warrent on someone then there wouldn't be very many contracts available"

- Very true, however if you put it to every 20 kills nets you a 1k bounty (just numbers for sake of arguement) then if you PvP'd you'd be taking part in it even if you didn't want to put your own credits up.

 

5) "How would we know when our bounties/arrest warrents were online or off"

- Well, we'd have to do something along the lines of the bounty/arrest warrents would only be available if the target was online. So if you were to go grab a bounty/arrest warrent from the board, you'd only see the ones available for those who were currently online. If while you were tracking someone and they went offline, your bounty/arrest warrent would no longer be available. This would prevent people from holding their own bounties from others trying to collect. If while you're hunting them and enguage in combat, the player is not able to log off, go into an instance, quick travel/fleet pass, ect..

 

I do like your ideas on the titles but don't agree with how they'd be given, for instance letting the hunted know they are being hunted is a problem. Just don't tell them, plain and simple. Your titles could still be rewarded to them for the same things basically, just that they'd get them from fending off hunters, evading them for however long, ect ect..

 

I don't have all the answers but I do know how much I loved Bounty Hunting in SWG as well as being the hunted. It is some of my favorite memories from that game and a big part of the Star Wars universe and I feel it should have it's place here in SWTOR.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do like your ideas on the titles but don't agree with how they'd be given, for instance letting the hunted know they are being hunted is a problem. Just don't tell them, plain and simple. Your titles could still be rewarded to them for the same things basically, just that they'd get them from fending off hunters, evading them for however long, ect ect...

There might be something to that. Not warning players that they're being hunted might be something to explore. However, the way you presented the issue actually made me think of a new approach: say you were warned that you're being hunted by the hunter himself through a conversation that would take place between you and him, via holo-com, a kind of war-of-wits preluding the actual showdown. The hunter or prey would receive either a minor boost to their stats, or a penalty, depending on the outcome of the conversation, which in turn would be dictated by how filled your social meter was (refer back to the FLASHPOINTS section to see what I mean by the social meter). Think of it as a variation of insult sword-fighting.

 

Oooh, this is shaping up quite nicely.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Easy fix to the PVP/PVE argument. Make it an option to be available for bounties (on the part of the hunted) but make it worthwhile enough via in game benefits that people even on PVE servers will want to do it. I have little interest in PVP itself, but the idea of outwitting a hunter or sneaking away from him sounds awesome.

 

This got me thinking about how the story line with my smuggler could be improved- Give me some optional missions to actually smuggle something in game as a daily or weekly mission that has a big reward but also puts me on the bounty board. This way I have two options for daily missions- the safe, group-oriented PVE missions or the more dangerous, but more lucrative "bounty-worthy" missions. I would be totally in for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Easy fix to the PVP/PVE argument. Make it an option to be available for bounties (on the part of the hunted) but make it worthwhile enough via in game benefits that people even on PVE servers will want to do it. I have little interest in PVP itself, but the idea of outwitting a hunter or sneaking away from him sounds awesome.

 

This got me thinking about how the story line with my smuggler could be improved- Give me some optional missions to actually smuggle something in game as a daily or weekly mission that has a big reward but also puts me on the bounty board. This way I have two options for daily missions- the safe, group-oriented PVE missions or the more dangerous, but more lucrative "bounty-worthy" missions. I would be totally in for that.

If you read my post on the Bounty Hunter class (which is still a work in progress) you'll have noticed that I addressed this very same issue of how to make Bounty Hunting an inciting proposition for the prey.

Edited by mourasantos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Adaptive Conversation System

I like it. I think it'd be pretty entertaining. Trouble is, Bioware tried that with Dragon Age 2, I believe, but the impact seem rather negligible for the huge cost involved. I believe most players did not notice the difference because players tend not to fluctuate, so what happened was, for most players, their character's attitude swung one way and one way only. And so all the additional content didn't get the chance to be shown.

 

Personally, I'd be very entertained by it, but it just costs so much for such a marginal benefit to the player.

 

Cantina

Not sure where you're going with this. It sounds like fluff, but it's a hit and miss. For me, it's a miss. If given the choice of choosing some other feature, any other feature, I'd choose the other feature over this one. Sorry.

 

Classes: Bounty Hunter

Wasn't this done to some extent in SWG? Not a big deal though. It sounds intriguing. Can you get an entire guild to consecutively put out bounties on one character that you hate so that character can't leave the planet for days at a time?

 

My gut feeling is that these sort of feature works best in a full sim environment, like EVE online. SWTOR is aimed at a different kind of audience, one that is a lot more time constrained, and less likely to put up with this type of disruption to their plans, be it raiding or just logging on to do warzone dailies.

 

Companions

They already have a lot of flavour text. Just walk about the planets. Coruscant, especially, entering Dark Sun territory, Senate Tower, Senate Plaza, Slums, etc. Your companions will have something to say. Not all of them comment at the same places or for the same reasons. Kira Carson, for example, has lots to say about Taris locations.

 

I do like the other stuff you mentioned, like the cat-fight between Akaavi Spar and Risha, but it's very high cost content. It's entertaining as hell, but it gets consumed in a manner of minutes and it takes days to implement, not factoring cost for voice actors, staging, writing, etc.

 

A more feasible alternative would be like Leliana's dialogue options in Dragon Age, where you could always have a chat with her to get her to tell you one of her many stories. For SWTOR, it'd be nice once you've finished your companion storyline, to maybe just have a chat with them to hear their own stories or their interpretation of your major decisions in Acts I, II, and III. Sure, it's repeated, it's essentially listening to a story again, but it's better than the nothing you get now once your storyline is over.

 

Emotes

So you're saying that every SWTOR player now has to buy Kinect or similar device? I wasn't aware that the technology was so widespread on PCs.

 

Jedi Temple

That sounds kind of cool. How do Imperial players sneak inside the Jedi Temple for the archives though? And wait, weren't the majority of the archives destroyed by the Sacking of Coruscant? The library in the Jedi Temple on Tython is just what they managed to salvage.

 

World of Warcraft had something like that for cinematic shown when the major boss of the current expansion was defeated. Players that brought down the boss for the first time on the server unlocked the feature for other players to view.

 

I'd personally like to review the cinematics for the operations. Cause they had storylines, conversations, etc. Was really entertaining, especially the one you get for defeated Kephess. Too bad it was once-only. Would be nice if there was a holocron of the event that you could use on fleet.

 

The Kaon/Lost Island series was excellent too.

 

Flashpoint Conversations

Seems like the idea is to introduce an interrupts system that allows players to cut into the conversation being played out by other players. I don't see how makes this a more dynamic system. People will simply revert to interrupt as soon as they can, it becomes the new space-bar.

 

Player Housing

I thought ships were the player housing. All they'd need to a feature to allow us to decorate our ships (and I don't mean the current legacy unlocks.)

 

Sprint Ability

Sorry, but I hate this idea. The big problem with having sprint available at level 14, was that it created a dichotomy for groups at that level. People under level 14 could not move as a group due to them not having sprint. I remember what a pain it used to be. Vehicles weren't as much of a problem because for most flashpoints or instanced areas, you could not mount up on your speeder.

 

Also don't people unlock their Legacy at the end of chapter 2? That's a lot of levels where you won't have sprint.

 

I don't want to see people in Ord Mantell having group issues because they're in a mixed group of people completely new to the game and people with Legacy 1 unlocked.

 

Holoterminal

Don't click on it. But yeah, I guess we could have that disabled if you can't stop yourself from clicking on it.

 

Fleet

Sorry. I don't like this suggestion because I see it as a bad solution in search of a problem. Sure, for a newbie, fleet can get confusing. Why not fly someone directly to Coruscant after they leave the starting world? Just move the intro NPCs to Coruscant/Dromund Kaas and be done.

 

I don't like the idea of additional layers of segregation. WAR did that with their four tiers of content, making it troublesome for guildies to help each other out across different levels.

 

Huttball

For every player that hates Huttball, there's a player who loves it. Me? I don't care either way.

 

World Bosses

Nope. I hate world bosses. The engine doesn't handle them well. And some, like Nightmare Pilgrim, are so easy to disrupt (sure, it's a reportable offense, but it still ruins your night.) Also difficulty ramping is steep. You have Primal Destroyer, which is doable by most groups, the one in Hoth, which I can't remember the name of, (not Snowblind, the other one,) and then you get Nightmare Pilgrim, which requires two full groups of people decked in Rakata as their average gear level.

 

But yeah, a spiffy codex entry might be entertaining.

 

Group Finder

Nope. Sorry. Strongly disagree with you there. Group Finder is very buggy, and it lacks features, but the concept is good. It is in-keeping with the audience for which SWTOR was designed. That is to say, SWTOR players don't want to have to sit around in Republic Fleet hoping to form a group. They have limited time to play each day. They want to get things done. Group Finder helps this.

 

Travel

You want to kill a specific world boss? You got to the respective planet. You want to meet up for the role-playing event at the cantina on Nar Shaddaa? You have to go there. You want to do operations? Go meet up at Gav Daragon. You want two guilds to meet head on in a grudge match? Go to Tatooine's No Man's Land.

 

But I think I understand what you're saying. You're really talking about fluff that each planet could offer the player that is irregardless of leveling, wealth, gear, etc. Aren't you? Sure, I guess. Can't say no to more variety.

 

Player Role

This seems to be not so much player role, but impact on the server world based on player outcomes. It's a really intriguing idea. Reminds me of DAoC and how control of the relics and different keeps would grant bonuses to the players, given each realm a massive incentive to defend their lands.

 

I like the idea though, but it's like sitting on a pile of explosives. People tend to jump ship from the losing side. If losing warzones lead to penalties to the losing side, what do you think happen? DAoC could do it because they had three sides. If one side dominated, the other two factions would team up to mitigate the imbalance.

 

Sound

The grunt on jump is your personal preference. Maybe there should be an option to turn this on or off. I think most players will turn it off. As for the other stuff, I'm actually amused. SWTOR has many faults, but sound isn't one of them. SWTOR has some pretty amazing sound effects and music. So yeah, I'm quite amused that you'd find fault with it. But to each his/her own.

 

UI Design

Yeah. This is your personal preference. Sorry. Don't agree with you. I may hate the default layout, but at least I can move things around. That's essentially what 1.2 did. It gave me some ability to rearrange my UI to how I prefer it.

 

Voices

I agree with you. It does seem odd. But that's not a big issue for me in terms of all the other issues I have with SWTOR.

Even though you have some constructive thoughts, I think you need to re-read the Group Finder, U.I. Design, and Fleet sections a bit more carefully.

Edited by mourasantos
Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...