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State of the Game: My Opinion (Please share your thoughts)


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State of The Game: My Opinion

 

I first want to say that I have always respected Bioware for their devotion to story and producing quality games. With that said, I'd humbly like to share my opinion of the game so far.

 

First, your accomplishment of finally bringing engaging storylines to the MMO genre is MUCH appreciated. Full and complete voice-acting has been standard in most genres of games for years, and it's about time MMO's caught up. Most importantly, I have been having fun playing the game and I hope to continue to do so for some time. However, I feel that there are some things that are holding the game back from being as great as it could be. There have been many times when I thought that something could have been done better or felt incomplete, and some times that I was left shaking my head wondering what in the world you guys were thinking.

 

Don't get me wrong, you guys have done several things well, but I feel that with several elements you have followed the traditional MMO formula much too closely, or just dropped the ball. So I'd like to outline and explain my biggest concerns about the game, and make suggestions of how they could be fixed.

1. Customization needs to be a higher priority.

-Specifically, we need more options and it needs to be MUCH easier to customize our characters. In a game with an actual storyline, we're supposed to feel an emotional connection to our character. In order to do this, our character NEEDS to feel like an individual. I currently don't feel this way. I don't feel that I have created my character's appearance. I feel like I have done the best I could with what is available, but I don't really feel unique. This is especially true in the early levels.

 

I remember in a recent podcast you guys said that you like to give us a task to accomplish things. But it should NOT be a task to customize our appearance! Now I don't mean we should have all options available to us immediately, but as it is we have to work to change our clothes! As a level 50 with high grade gear, it would cost me more then 100,000 credits to unslot all of the mods out of a piece of armor. This is ridiculous! I have to pay 100k just to change my pants?! I have been wanting to change some of my character's clothing options, but have felt that it's simply not worth spending all the credits because I'm low on credits as it is. So even if I have the clothing I want, I can't afford to wear it!

 

We also need more freedom to customize. Any character should be able to look however they want, regardless of class or faction. I feel like my character's appearance is more based on how you the devs think he should look, instead of how I want him to look. Why does my Sorceror HAVE to wear robes? Why does my Bounty Hunter HAVE to wear heavy armor? Why can't I dress them the way I want to?

 

And why is there still no dye system? Personally I feel like this is something that should have been in since launch. The ability to change the color of our armor and equipment seems like a basic feature to me. This is one of those cases that have left me shaking my head in confusion. I know it's not a game breaking omission, but it's a basic feature. The lack of things like this leads to the current "incomplete" feeling I have about the game.

 

If I were to put the game's current level of customization on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being along the lines of APB (custom body proportions, face scaling, custom textures and other things), I would place SW:TOR at about a 4. I would like to see it at about a 6 or 7.

 

Suggestions to fix the problems with customization:

 

-Remove the credit costs to unslot modifications, allowing us to change out pieces of equipment for free.

-Remove faction and weight class limitations from all armor.

-Make all armor become adaptive, so that it acts as the highest weight class available to a character, (allowing anyone to wear any armor, provided they meet the lvl. requirements and whatever.)

-Make an orange Custom class version of ALL models of armor available.

-Create some kind of dye system that allows us to choose the colors of our armor, and if possible our weapons. (This needs to happen as soon as possible, at least for armor.)

-I would also like to see a voice pitch feature, which would allow us to raise or lower our character's tone of voice.

-A larger number of options at character creation would also be appreciated. For example why are Humans the only ones with facial hair options? A separate facial hair option would be nice for cyborgs and any other species that can have it.

-Oh and of course the ability to put any hood up or down.

 

2. The current crafting system is broken.

-So far I have tried Synthweaving and Cybertech, and have had two VERY different experiences. My main experience is with Synthweaving, and I'm sorry but it's just ridiculous. The crafting system is so complex, cumbersome, confusing and unintuitive that I hardly use it. This is another feature that has left me shaking my head. I was really excited by the prospect of crafting in the time before launch, but have been severely let down.

 

When I open my Synthweaving window, I am greeted by a massive list of recipes; most of which are for items that no one will ever want and there is no reason for me to make. And for every green recipe, I can reverse engineer it to learn up to 17 variations of that item. Of course in the time it would take to get the one I want, I could easily outlevel the item and obtain a better item through questing or Flashpoints.

 

Now, as a Synthweaver, I basically just look for recipes for orange items to see if they offer any kind of new cool appearance. But I see no real reason to try to craft and sell any items because I never needed to go on the markets to find armor so why would anyone else? When I have sold crafted items on the market I can only seem to sell them at a price that barely gives me any profit, and is therefore not worth the hassle. Of course I now have the option of making Augments, but finding recipes on the market that are good enough is hard to do, and if I do find one it is insanely overpriced.

 

That has been my experience with Synth, and I imagine Armormech is quite the same. My limited experience with Cybertech has been quite different. From what I've seen it should be a lot easier to keep my moddable gear upgraded. Plus, I get to make unique ship upgrades, speeders, and usable grenades? Yeah, I think I'll get a lot more use out of this.

 

Suggestions to help crafting:

 

-The system needs to be simplified and made easier to understand and use.

-Every item we make needs to be something useful that people would actually have a reason to buy, not a bunch of pointless fluff.

-The team really needs to go back and really figure out what the role of the different crafting professions should be and how they fit into the game as a whole.

 

-As it is, I regret taking Synthweaving and wasting so much time on it, as I get very little use out of it. I was thinking a way to improve Synth and Armormech would be to basically make them the tailors of the game. To do this, Synth and Armor crafters could learn to make an orange customizable version of most armors in the game. Perhaps when reverse engineering an item, there could be an option that would allow you to choose between receiving crafting materials or learning to make an orange item that looks just like that item (that has the same level requirement). This would be great. While on the fleet I've often seen people link an item and ask if there is an orange version of that item because they like the look so much. Imagine if you could just give that item to a crafter, they reverse engineer it and then make an orange version for you! (although if the item is bound they wouldn't be able to trade it... hmmm that's a problem.)

 

But anyway, some kind of system like this would really open up the options for clothes. Plus there are many armor models that are just going to waste because they are used on pointless items. I mean every planet has those Light/Medium/Heavy armor vendors but I've never bought anything from them because their items are trash with stats so low they're useless. Those are Art assets (work your employees put time and effort into) that are being completely wasted. If we could RE those items into orange item recipes, they'd actually get used.

 

Of course Synth could only do this with Willpower and Strength based items while Armormech could do it with Aim and Cunning based items. And I'm sure you would want to block off certain items like Social gear that are rewarded by other means.

 

3. Social tools need fixing.

- Most of the social tools and features need to be overhauled. The guild system feels like a bare minimum feature, the team search function is a bad joke, and the whole Social Ponts system makes no sense at all.

 

Now, I know the team search function is being replaced in 1.3, so I won't say much except that I really can't believe that such a useless tool was ever implemented and that it took this long to fix it. I'm sorry but this just seems like a terrible lack of analysis and judgement. In a recent video you mentioned how a team search function was "one of the most requested features." But the thing is... we should not have had to request a functioning team search feature! That's something that should have been a given and in since launch. This is the same way I feel about an armor dye system. We shouldn't have to ask for some of this stuff!

 

Another feature that has left me shaking my head is the Social Points system. I honestly don't know what the idea behind this was. If it was meant as an incentive to group up, it failed horribly. The current need for Black Talon or Esseles farming is clear evidence that the system doesn't work. Why do you only get Social points from group conversations, and why be rewarded when you get the lucky conversation roll? If the idea is to promote grouping and community, players should receive social points for any and all interactions with other players. I think it should basically be a system like Experience, that you only earn in a team and the larger the team the faster you earn them. So, playing with one other person doing basic missions you'll gain social points slowly. In a four man team, you'll earn them three times as fast, then give bonus social points for completing Heroic missions and Flashpoints. Do an Operation and earn them at an even higher rate. Take down a world boss and get a big mess of points. Also... PVP! Complete warzones or accomplish goals in open-world PVP and get social points (even if you're not on a team). And there should be greater rewards besides a few sets of Social armor. Maybe some special pets, or special consumable items that buff your whole team- like a team Stim. Special emotes also work.

 

Like I said, the guild system could really be expanded. At the moment it's basically just a group Friend list. I haven't had any experience with the guild bank as my Guild has basically been dead for a couple months.

 

Ways to improve the guild system:

 

-Let us inspect guild members even if they are offline.

-Let us search our guild for crafters and inspect their recipes. Then let us basically place an order with the item that we would like that person to make us. Then, whenever they are on, they can look at their orders, craft the items, and have them automatically sent to the recipient.

-Guild coalitions or whatever you want to call it would also be nice. Allowing larger groups to communicate.

-Some kind of in-game event calendar would also be great.

 

Other social features we need:

 

-Legacy friends! So that we can see if a friend is online regardless of what character they are on and regardless what faction that character is.

-Legacy banks to easily share items among our characters.

-Cross-faction chat. If I understand right, custom chat channels are locked by faction. Change this. Let's say I'm on a Republic character but some people are making a team to do an Imperial Operation I've been wanting to do, I'd like to know.

-Also, Chat groups. Essentially, just let us look at a list to see how many people are in a custom chat channel and who they are.

 

The market also needs to be improved. Combining the neutral market with the faction markets is a good start, but the system needs improvement.

Suggestions:

-If I sell a stack of items the price I enter should be the price per item.

-If I'm selling a stack of items the buyer should be able to buy as many of them as they want, instead of having to buy the whole stack.

-When I search for items to buy and I arrange them by price, it should be by the price per item.

-When on the Purchase tab, if I click drag and drop an item it should do an automatic search for that item.

-It would also be nice if there was some way to place an order for something we needed then have a crafter or supplier fill that order.

 

4. PVP could use some love.

-I'm not a hardcore PVPer, but I do enjoy it and it could be expanded upon. First of all would of course be open-world PVP. Tatooine's Outlaw's Den is a dead zone, and I never got to try Ilum's PVP before you guys killed it so I'm not sure what the problem was there, but fixing those areas and giving us a reason to use them should be high on the PVP list.

 

After that, ranked warzones would be nice as well as cross-server warzones, if that's possible.

 

Other issues:

There are a few miscellaneous things I'd like to add:

 

- What is with the insane prices for things like legacy rewards or some vehicles? Honestly I feel like I'm being punished because I DIDN'T abuse Slicing when I could. I've been 50 for a couple months and only recently hit 1 million credits for the first time and only when focusing on making money, and I'm a pretty regular player. I can't imagine how a casual player must feel. Maybe I'm alone on this one but the prices for some stuff seems way too high.

 

-The end-game system needs to be simplified and/or explained to the player. I mean, as a player, I shouldn't HAVE to go on the net to learn how to play the game. I'm still not positive on how everything works. So I need Tionese Crystals and Tionese Comms to get Tionese gear. And I get those from completing Hardmode FPs. Why is there two different Tionese resources exactly? I get Columi Comms from completing Ops, but I can also earn trade-in items that will give me a whole piece of Columi gear. I don't know how you get Rakata gear, I'm guessing from Hardmode Ops? And then Black Hole gear has better stats then my Columi gear but doesn't provide me with the Set Bonus for the Rakata Force-Master gear. So, I dunno. Skip the Black Hole gear? But then what am I suppose to do with all the Black Hole Comms I earned? Campaign gear gives me the bonus and has better stats, but I have no idea how you get Campaign gear. And then there are all the Daily Comms I've been working on earning. Let's see the mods are equal to Tionese gear, so wait I should have gotten those before earning the Tionese gear? Dang it! And then there are earpieces and implants which are better then the Columi ones, but can also be earned from the Rakata gear vendor, so... um, ok. Then there are relics which I don't think can be earned elsewhere. So use the daily Comms on the relics and the earpieces/implants, or just use them on the relics and get the earpiece/implant some other way? So, once I get all my gear up to Tionese level there's no reason to do HM FPs anymore? Ok, quick question... WHAT THE **** IS GOING ON?!?!

 

And honestly now, the game doesn't explain ANY of this to me?!

 

-And is there any reason to do space combat at lvl 50? The outfits don't excite me much and the only other thing is those item boxes, but I don't really like random item rolls because I don't even know if I'll be able to use the item I get. If not I just wasted a bunch of commendations and a ton of time for nothing.

 

-And although I appreciate the idea behind the Legacy family tree, in practice it just doesn't work well. First, I like to make my characters as unique as possible which means almost all my characters are a different race, so having them be siblings or parent-child doesn't really fit. Second, all of these character's stories are going on at the same time with them being approximately the same age, so again the parent-child thing is awkward. The difference with Luke and Anakin was that Anakin's story really took place long before Luke's. They were dealing with different events in different time periods. Personally, my "Family Tree" is just a straight line. I changed one of my characters so that she was my main's sister, but the rest are just ally, adversary, ally, ally... you get the picture.

 

-Also, I hate the way there are currently Dark-side or Light-side exclusive items. Once again I feel like YOU are telling me how to play my character because I have to follow a set path of Dark or Light in order to obtain certain items. I shouldn't be punished for being unique and not following your set paths.

 

-My newest character has Slicing (as I'm trying to find a better way to make money), and quickly realized that something was wrong. Why is it that any Slicing mission that rewards lockboxes that is rated above Moderate, always results in a LOSS of credits? Even if you succeed, the money earned in the lockbox doesn't even cover the cost to run the mission, making these missions less then a waste of time. They actually waste your time and money without a chance of a reward. I assume this is a result of the "fixing" that happened. A new player who's not as observant as myself could easily loose a lot of money on this.

 

-Why are some color crystals harder to find then others? This seems like a matter of preference, which means you get punished for having a certain preference. Like red or blue? Congrats you'll have an easy time getting the color you like! Prefer purple or pink? Good luck with that! Luckily my favorite color is green, which means it was easy to get the color I wanted once alignment restrictions were removed. I really wish I knew the reasoning behind this.

 

 

Ok, this concludes my post. Now there are several other things I would like to see, but these are some of my biggest concerns. Honestly I think you should take some time off from developing new content to really polish the game as a whole and fix some of these serious issues. I'm afraid that until many of these issues are fixed the game will still feel incomplete. Also, when you look at features, new or old, really examine the reason each decision is made. Like in a recent Q&A you guys said it was suppose to be cheaper to repair Heavy armor to offset the fact tanks would need to repair more, but then you created Light Armor tanks but never changed the cost of repairs. This is something that should have been caught and fixed, not forgotten about until six months after launch. In other words, spend some time to go through the game with a fine-toothed comb and really analyze the game and make sure everything is as good as it can be.

 

Again, all my criticisms come with the greatest respect because I love the IP and the world that has been created from the days of KoTOR 1, and I want the best for this game.

 

Thanks for listening,

~SocraticSteve

 

P.S. As with all my posts, please feel free to share any questions, comments, or to just sound off in agreement because the more interest we show, the more likely the devs are to take notice.

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I'm gonna finish reading Game of Thrones first. I can't have two going at the same time.:eek:

 

Ok I skimmed through section 1. I cant see anything wrong with your suggestions. Especially the insane cost of removing armor slots. I know some people have said how easy it is to farm credits by doing dailies but to me doing dailies bores me to death. I don't see why customizing your character's looks should be a grind at all. It's like waking up every day going outside to dig a big hole to and fill it back in just to put on a clean t-shirt.

Edited by Karabal
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A good read, thx for the time and effort you put into it OP. I agree with just about everything you said. In my opinion this game has never had a content problem. It's been a "lack of features" problem. Most people list the Large features that are missing, but it's the HUGE amount of small features that were left out that really bugs me.
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Your post is kinda long is what he is saying. :w_tongue:

 

Ah, well I wanted to make one consolidated post with all my opinions rather then letting them be buried in the other various forums. Plus, I believe this is important and wanted to get all of my thoughts out. I really want this game to succeed, but I have serious concerns.

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Ah, well I wanted to make one consolidated post with all my opinions rather then letting them be buried in the other various forums. Plus, I believe this is important and wanted to get all of my thoughts out. I really want this game to succeed, but I have serious concerns.

 

Meant no disrespect. Its an awesome post. Very detailed and analytical. Just gonna take a while to read and really think about your comments.

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Ahem. Sorry to burst your bubble but why are you even posting on this forum? As you are not currently subbed your posts are totally invalid. And unlike you I'm not too lazy to dig a little deeper.

 

BEHOLD!!! ChrisFTW FTL

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4557143#post4557143

 

i have unsubbed. but i've never wrote any unsub threads nor do you see me writing novels about how the game can improve based on what i hate and how it should improve. although I am thinking about resubbing. been thinking about it all day.

 

also to me the game itself is PERFECT. its the population issue that got me.

 

which means my post stands on its own merits.

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State of the Game?

Dead.

 

Just need to implement a Cash Shop and F2P.

 

Then, EA can dig a hole, roll SWTOR into it, and cover it with dirt.

 

Something EA seems very skilled at doing to MMOs.

 

If it just doesn't put a bullet in their heads.

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I took the time, SocraticSteve, to read through your post. It was very nicely written, and I fully agree with you on many points of view! In regards to a few things you posted...

 

1. Going through the story line of each of my Class Quests (for my main and alts) has been a very new & unique expierence for me. And you're absolutely right... we should be able to individualize our characters a bit more so we feel just as unique. I would love to be able to tweak things so if I see another Corruption Sorcerer, she won't look like me. Armor dyes would be awesome. They are reducing the costs of changing out armoring/mods/enchancements in 1.3 by 30%. That is defintily a step in the right direction. I spent almost 400k re-slotting my current mains gear and it was, to say the least, incredibly painful lol. You want your characters to look unqiue, and yet still have the appropriate stats needed to kick some butt. I know that Social Armor will become adaptive in 1.3 as well. You can then add Augment Slots to those particular items, so that will help! I know patch 1.3 won't be for another month or so... but, at least it's something.

 

2. I also have a Synthweaver, and prior to Augments being a critical success on Orange gear, I was always working on the whole "Green to Blue to Purple" crafting method. With the introduction of Orange gear crit'ing Augments, it really did make most of the other Schematics obselete (save belts, bracers, boots, and gloves) as people with established Mains were able to just keep trying (or purchase) Orange Augmented gear. That was a little disappointing, but I'm guilty of doing the same for my alts!

 

3. I really like the idea of being able to search for crafters & their receipes w/in the Guild. There are many times I've wished that was a function in SWTOR. Especially when you're on a low population server (which I know most of us suffer, and is going to be worked on with the upcoming server transfers) and you're unable to find what you need on the GTM. At least you could browse through your Guildmates Receipes and hopefully find what you're looking for.

 

4. I don't PvP so I can't comment on this haha.

 

I kinda like the idea that color crystals for your weapons range from easy to purchase all the way up to really hard to get. I don't think their idea was to "punish" you for wanting different color crystals. It's more like "Ok this Red & Black Crystal was because I kicked butt raiding Rakata level gear" and won the roll! So you start off being able to get basic color crystals (Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, etc.) on through to Magenta, ending with the Red & Back, Orange & Black colors that are only obtained via End Game Raiding. Green & Black were from the Raghkoul Plague event, so those are more "speical". I hope I'm making sense haha. I just like that system in general. You're rewarded the more you progress with Color Crystals as you are with your gear.

 

Black Hole gear is amazing even without the stats for the Armorning/Mods/Enhancements that you can use to fill in your one off piece from your Rakata Set, your Agumented Weapon, as well as upgrading your OH, Implants, Belt, Bracers and Earpiece. If you haven't achieved any of your Rakata pieces for their set bonuses, then you can abslotely focus on Black Hole gear and it will be a huge upgrade stat wise from Columi. It's all about balance... and this can be easily researched by reading the website and/or asking people ingame for help.

 

The whole Dark Side/Light Side deal is also something I think was implemented well. BW isn't trying to "punish" you for choosing a side, it's trying to give you added perks for whichever side you choose. You choose to either be "good" or "bad", and once you've chosen your path... you then get to purchase items from your Light Side/Dark Side vendors a bonus. Heck, you don't even need to purchase anything if you don't want to. If you want to be unique... ignore them altogether! I'm not sure why one would look at that as a punishment. But you're allowed you opinion. :)

 

With all, of that being said... I fully agree that there is room for a lot of improvment in SWTOR. Hopefully BW will listen to the community & work through some of the most major issues first and trickle down to the things that we just want in the game, even if it's for cosmetic reasons. I know... TL;DR here on my end too... Haha. I just figured I'd respond with some of my own thoughts/opinions as well.

 

Good Luck!! :D

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i have unsubbed. but i've never wrote any unsub threads nor do you see me writing novels about how the game can improve based on what i hate and how it should improve.

 

And yet the devs encourage players to express their opinions respectfully and in a well thought out manner, and that is exactly what the OP has done.

 

also to me the game itself is PERFECT.

 

Well, there you have it. That explains a lot. :rolleyes:

 

which means my post stands on its own merits.

 

As does the OP's.

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I never got to try Ilum's PVP before you guys killed it so I'm not sure what the problem was there, but fixing those areas and giving us a reason to use them should be high on the PVP list.

 

As I understand it, MMO players ruined it. Instead of having fun, they focused on farming and simply completing the daily missions by working with the other faction's players to set up massive slaughters for daily kills. They would line up in big circles, die, come back, and kill the other faction's players after they lined up.

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If This is true:

 

.... to me the game itself is PERFECT.

 

Why did you do this:

 

i have unsubbed.

 

If it was because of this:

 

... its the population issue that got me.

 

Then this:

 

.... to me the game itself is PERFECT.

 

Might not be so true.

 

I call shenanigans.

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State of the Game?

Dead.

 

Just need to implement a Cash Shop and F2P.

 

Then, EA can dig a hole, roll SWTOR into it, and cover it with dirt.

 

Something EA seems very skilled at doing to MMOs.

 

If it just doesn't put a bullet in their heads.

 

I'm sure we'll see a cash shop before too much longer. The foundation for it was already been laid down in the Legacy system. All they need to do is make it so that legacy unlocks can be bought with "nifty points" that you purchase with USD on the website.

Edited by Bluerodian
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Basically with the gear choices is like this:

 

A linear gear progression that other games have. Instances - regular, than Hard (heroic) than raids.

 

After a xpac is out you get new instances (at level cap) to speed bump you to new heroics and new raids. This makes things easy when you roll new alts or when you starting. But why would you do the old content of raiding?

 

Kinda strange that BW didn't get the gear choices right since they are so good with "linear" factors of this game..

 

I have recently checked back with my wow account and I was really shocked. There are more raids for the old content, than for the new! The ability to transform your gear and the achievements are getting a lot of people interested into raiding old content (since you really don't need to do it).

 

BW really screwed themselves out here. I think there is a fundemental difference between a "Codex entry" and "achievement". The lack of gear (visual) custom features is also killing it for so many people. I mean come on, who want to look just.. "boring"? As everyone esle... The moment I saw my own crafted speeder (as cybertech) I went like.. Whaaat the hell is that? Freaking Anekin made his speader from junk parts and it look like Christmas and I got this old refrigerator??? Tha hell...

 

On the side note: It was a real change from SWTOR to see a vibrant (even with trolls in gen chat) living, breathing server with people "wanting" to do stuff, old content and raids revisiting old areas... 10 min in game you can clearly see what SWTOR is lacking terribly. I don't think server transfers will change this much. It sure will be easier to get groups but, what for? I am giving up on this game really. Sad, because I was never a wow fan, I could only stomach new xpacs for few months and left.

 

I was a die hard sw fan. I "was" because I feel like SWTRO has deliberatly killed that in me somehow.

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They are reducing the costs of changing out armoring/mods/enchancements in 1.3 by 30%. That is defintily a step in the right direction. I spent almost 400k re-slotting my current mains gear and it was, to say the least, incredibly painful lol.

30% doesn't seem like enough. That's still at least 70k per item, which is at least 350k to change your head, gloves, boots, upper body, and lower body. I don't see why there needs to be a cost at all. It's preventing me from being able to change my clothes whenever I want. I don't understand the reasoning.

 

 

2. I also have a Synthweaver, and prior to Augments being a critical success on Orange gear, I was always working on the whole "Green to Blue to Purple" crafting method. With the introduction of Orange gear crit'ing Augments, it really did make most of the other Schematics obselete (save belts, bracers, boots, and gloves) as people with established Mains were able to just keep trying (or purchase) Orange Augmented gear. That was a little disappointing, but I'm guilty of doing the same for my alts!

But why did you bother with the green to blue to purple thing? Were you ever able to sell your crafted equipment? I mean I never needed to buy crafted armor. I hardly ever crafted any armor for myself. I got all the equipment I needed from missions and Flashpoints. While leveling up I occasionally made a belt or bracers if it was a good enough improvement, but that was it.

 

I kinda like the idea that color crystals for your weapons range from easy to purchase all the way up to really hard to get. I don't think their idea was to "punish" you for wanting different color crystals. It's more like "Ok this Red & Black Crystal was because I kicked butt raiding Rakata level gear" and won the roll! So you start off being able to get basic color crystals (Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, etc.) on through to Magenta, ending with the Red & Back, Orange & Black colors that are only obtained via End Game Raiding. Green & Black were from the Raghkoul Plague event, so those are more "speical". I hope I'm making sense haha. I just like that system in general. You're rewarded the more you progress with Color Crystals as you are with your gear.

See for me with the color crystals (at least when it comes to lightsabers) the color is a more personal choice. I mean for my main character I want a green saber. I have no interest or desire to get the magenta crystal. I don't even care about the black-red, black-orange whatever crystals. I want a green saber and even if that means my stats are slightly lower, I don't care. I don't even want a black-green saber, I just want a green saber. I'm not interested in "leveling-up" my lightsaber color. So the way I feel about it is why should it be easier for me to get the color I want, when if someone wants a purple or magenta one they have to go through a huge extra hassle. Do you see what I mean?

 

Black Hole gear is amazing even without the stats for the Armorning/Mods/Enhancements that you can use to fill in your one off piece from your Rakata Set, your Agumented Weapon, as well as upgrading your OH, Implants, Belt, Bracers and Earpiece. If you haven't achieved any of your Rakata pieces for their set bonuses, then you can abslotely focus on Black Hole gear and it will be a huge upgrade stat wise from Columi. It's all about balance... and this can be easily researched by reading the website and/or asking people ingame for help.

What website? I haven't found a clear guide of how the entire end-game system works.

 

The whole Dark Side/Light Side deal is also something I think was implemented well. BW isn't trying to "punish" you for choosing a side, it's trying to give you added perks for whichever side you choose. You choose to either be "good" or "bad", and once you've chosen your path... you then get to purchase items from your Light Side/Dark Side vendors a bonus. Heck, you don't even need to purchase anything if you don't want to. If you want to be unique... ignore them altogether! I'm not sure why one would look at that as a punishment. But you're allowed you opinion. :)

No, I'm not saying that they punish you for picking a side, I'm saying they punish you if you don't pick a side. You see I have a concept of my character in my head and how I want them to act. For their own reasons they may sometimes choose the dark side and sometimes choose the light side. If this means they end up somewhere in the middle with their alignment, then they can't use anything that has alignment restrictions (or at least very little).

 

Thank you for sharing your opinions.:)

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Great post man, it really sums up a lot of little things that they could do to improve this game fairly quickly. It's nice to see I'm not the only one confused about the whole crafting & PVP gear things. If more posts were like this we'd have a pretty awesome game on our hands.
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30% doesn't seem like enough. That's still at least 70k per item, which is at least 350k to change your head, gloves, boots, upper body, and lower body. I don't see why there needs to be a cost at all. It's preventing me from being able to change my clothes whenever I want. I don't understand the reasoning.
Haha I agree. 30% reductions doesn't make it "cheap" by any means. It's a step in the right direction. To be honest, I'm not sure they ever gave a clear reasoning behind why they charge you to remove Armoring/Mods/Enhancements... but it's there, and regardless if they will reduce it 30% hopefully they'll revisit further reductions in the future.

 

But why did you bother with the green to blue to purple thing? Were you ever able to sell your crafted equipment? I mean I never needed to buy crafted armor. I hardly ever crafted any armor for myself. I got all the equipment I needed from missions and Flashpoints. While leveling up I occasionally made a belt or bracers if it was a good enough improvement, but that was it.[/Quote]

Originally, when I started the RE journey, it was to better enhance gear I could wear on my Sorcerer. Prior to the Orange Augmented Crit gear... I was able to sell Purple items at quite a nice profit. Everyone was new on the server. People were still working on leveling their characters as well as their professions. Selling items on the GTM was never an issue... I can remember selling level 49 Artifcat items for around 100k, and if they Augmented, 150-200k. It helped out quite a bit getting my Speeder training/mount as well as leveling all my Gathering professions to 400.

 

See for me with the color crystals (at least when it comes to lightsabers) the color is a more personal choice. I mean for my main character I want a green saber. I have no interest or desire to get the magenta crystal. I don't even care about the black-red, black-orange whatever crystals. I want a green saber and even if that means my stats are slightly lower, I don't care. I don't even want a black-green saber, I just want a green saber. I'm not interested in "leveling-up" my lightsaber color. So the way I feel about it is why should it be easier for me to get the color I want, when if someone wants a purple or magenta one they have to go through a huge extra hassle. Do you see what I mean?[/Quote]

I kinda see what you're saying... but that "hassle" is just another mark on your journey from leveling up your character, running FP's, then HM FP's, then SM Op's, then HM/NiM Op's. It's just like w/gear. Rakata/Campaign level gear is obtained from End Game Raiding & is gear you earn because you teamed together with 7/15 other people to down really difficult content and therefore earned the gear upgrades. So, because someone is upset they can't get the gear that I earned running NiM KP/HM Denova, does that mean we should therefore demand BW put a Vendor on the Fleet they can purchase similiar looking gear from? No, I don't think so. The Color Crystal kinda follows the same exact equation for me. You can find a Color Crystal you like w/out having to run FP's/Op's... but if you really want a pretty Magenta or Orange-Black crystal with better stats, you either have to run the appropriate content or have a lot of credits to purchase it off someone who has put in the time/effort to run the appropriate content. Does that make sense?

 

What website? I haven't found a clear guide of how the entire end-game system works.[/Quote]

Oh there are so many different websites out there! You can obviously read the SWTOR website... but then there's http://www.torspy.com/, http://torwars.com/, http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/, http://www.askmrrobot.com/, http://dulfy.net/, etc. I'm sure there are other websites I have yet to stumble upon (or ones I've been on and just haven't bookmarked lol). I use Google frequently when I can't find something on websites I already have bookmarked, and will talk with fellow Guild members, friends on my Fleet, or post on other websites if I'm really stumped. When I started running End Game content on SWTOR, we were never given an "End Game Raiding" guide. Myself, along with 7 others, learned as we went. We read up/watched Youtube videos on boss mechanics from those who had done all the testing on the PTS. We wiped, and we went back in and kept at it until we downed 'em. I don't think it would make the game any more fun if BW gave us this "Raiding Guide for Dummy's" and told us exactly what we needed to do for every single boss fight (I'm not being condescending, I'm just using that as an example... there's a "for Dummy's" book out there for everything!). You just have to keep trying until you win the game! And then you get pretty purple gears, and prestigious titles for your efforts. :)

 

No, I'm not saying that they punish you for picking a side, I'm saying they punish you if you don't pick a side. You see I have a concept of my character in my head and how I want them to act. For their own reasons they may sometimes choose the dark side and sometimes choose the light side. If this means they end up somewhere in the middle with their alignment, then they can't use anything that has alignment restrictions (or at least very little).[/Quote] Ahh, ok I see what you mean there. Well, you choose to be right in the middle, so therefore you choose to not be able to purchase or use an item that is available for Dark V or Light V only. Maybe someday they'll consider this and be creative with those who choose to "meet in the middle". Unfortunately, there focus needs to be on current in-game issues before they start with a lot of the "little" things that can be fixed or altered. :p
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I kinda see what you're saying... but that "hassle" is just another mark on your journey from leveling up your character, running FP's, then HM FP's, then SM Op's, then HM/NiM Op's. It's just like w/gear. Rakata/Campaign level gear is obtained from End Game Raiding & is gear you earn because you teamed together with 7/15 other people to down really difficult content and therefore earned the gear upgrades. So, because someone is upset they can't get the gear that I earned running NiM KP/HM Denova, does that mean we should therefore demand BW put a Vendor on the Fleet they can purchase similiar looking gear from? No, I don't think so. The Color Crystal kinda follows the same exact equation for me. You can find a Color Crystal you like w/out having to run FP's/Op's... but if you really want a pretty Magenta or Orange-Black crystal with better stats, you either have to run the appropriate content or have a lot of credits to purchase it off someone who has put in the time/effort to run the appropriate content. Does that make sense?

"The Color Crystal kinda follows the same exact equation for me." For me it doesn't follow the same equation at all.

 

See, I look at it as a point of customization. I don't know about you, but I'm an RPer. I have a story behind my characters. My characters have a personality, and their appearance is based on their personality. And for a Jedi/Sith, their lightsaber color is a big part of their appearance. Now, if I really want my character to have a certain color lightsaber, then that's the color I want him to have. I mean if I want my guy to have a purple lightsaber, I'd be willing to use a crystal with 0 stat bonuses if it was the only way to get the color I wanted. I don't see it as a matter of obtaining the epic loot, I see it as having my character look the way I want him to. But as it is, the only people I have seen with a purple lightsaber bought the crystal from that special vendor before 1.2 came out. I have no idea how to find them now.

 

Armor is a whole different matter. As you level up you should gain more and more options to use, but then you can pick from those options to express your character's personality. But when there are only a few different hues for the lightsaber color, those options should be easily available to you. As a quick note though, I'm ok with the black core crystals or white crystals being harder to obtain as those are kind of a more unique thing.

 

Oh there are so many different websites out there! You can obviously read the SWTOR website... but then there's http://www.torspy.com/, http://torwars.com/, http://mmo-mechanics.com/swtor/, http://www.askmrrobot.com/, http://dulfy.net/, etc. I'm sure there are other websites I have yet to stumble upon (or ones I've been on and just haven't bookmarked lol). I use Google frequently when I can't find something on websites I already have bookmarked, and will talk with fellow Guild members, friends on my Fleet, or post on other websites if I'm really stumped. When I started running End Game content on SWTOR, we were never given an "End Game Raiding" guide. Myself, along with 7 others, learned as we went. We read up/watched Youtube videos on boss mechanics from those who had done all the testing on the PTS. We wiped, and we went back in and kept at it until we downed 'em. I don't think it would make the game any more fun if BW gave us this "Raiding Guide for Dummy's" and told us exactly what we needed to do for every single boss fight (I'm not being condescending, I'm just using that as an example... there's a "for Dummy's" book out there for everything!). You just have to keep trying until you win the game! And then you get pretty purple gears, and prestigious titles for your efforts. :)

I don't think you understand my problem here. I'm not asking for a guide on how to beat the individual Ops or Flashpoints. I'm asking that the game explain how Ops work and how the end-game gear system works. See, I feel like you, and the devs, are assuming that everyone has been a veteran WoW player for years. You're assuming that everyone knows what a raid is and how they work. I'm still a little unclear on the details. For example I'm not sure what that whole "Lockouts" page on the Mission menu even means. And why is it that you can join a raid that is half-way done? I find that odd. You see, I'm not familiar with the whole idea of raids.

 

You and the devs are also assuming that the players have experience with the type of end-game system that is in place, which I don't. So, if I understand right, the way they expect you to play is this: do Hardmode Flashpoints until you get all the Tionese gear, then stop doing HM FPs and do story mode Ops until you get all the Columi gear, then stop doing storymode Ops and do Hardmode Ops until you get all the Rakata gear. Then I'm still not sure where the Campaign gear fits in.

 

This system seems odd to me. Why am I being so strictly directed to play the content a certain way? I mean once I hit lvl 50 and finished my class story, I'd rather have my options be open to me, and play the content how I want. (Do Ops when I can find a big enough team, if I can't maybe find a smaller team and do a HM FP. If the server is kind of dead and it's late at night, maybe solo and do some of the repeatable Daily missions or stuff.) But so you're telling me that I'm not supposed to do that? Why not? And why was I never told this? Why was I just expected to know what order to play the end-game content in? And why is there an order at all? Do you see what I'm saying?

 

I never played WoW... please don't assume that I did and that I already know all this stuff.

 

Ahh, ok I see what you mean there. Well, you choose to be right in the middle, so therefore you choose to not be able to purchase or use an item that is available for Dark V or Light V only. Maybe someday they'll consider this and be creative with those who choose to "meet in the middle". Unfortunately, there focus needs to be on current in-game issues before they start with a lot of the "little" things that can be fixed or altered. :p

 

See, that's not a "little" thing to me. To me that is a MAJOR flaw in the game's philosophy. Like I said above, I'm an RPer. My character has a personality, and his alignment is a reaction to his personality. It's not like I CHOSE and said "ok, this character will have an alignment of Dark 3." No, the actions I had him make were based on his personality, and whatever his alignment came out to be was a result of how the game system saw those actions. Do you see what I mean? To me, my character's alignment isn't just like some experience bar where I try to get as many dark side or light side points as I can. I didn't CHOOSE to have an alignment in the middle, I played my character the way I wanted to and AS A RESULT his alignment ended up somewhere in the middle. (I think he's Dark 3 at the moment.)

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  • 2 weeks later...
30% doesn't seem like enough. That's still at least 70k per item, which is at least 350k to change your head, gloves, boots, upper body, and lower body. I don't see why there needs to be a cost at all. It's preventing me from being able to change my clothes whenever I want. I don't understand the reasoning.

 

On this point, and the other you mentioned regarding Legacy costs, there are virtually no money sinks in this game. I know you mentioned in your OP that you've been fifty for a couple of months now and just recently hit one million credits, but I wager a lot of the population is sitting on at least five times that. Money sinks are important in my opinion, otherwise your economy is pretty much useless.

 

I would be curious to know what you've been spending your credits on?

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As I understand it, MMO players ruined it. Instead of having fun, they focused on farming and simply completing the daily missions by working with the other faction's players to set up massive slaughters for daily kills. They would line up in big circles, die, come back, and kill the other faction's players after they lined up.

 

This is exactly what happened.

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This is exactly what happened.

 

In the end it's nothing short of naive to think that people will behave in an online community. Any game developer should know that when they allow something, players will do it. Perhaps not all, but enough to make it the new norm.

 

In fact I believe BW made it worse by not giving enough customisation options from the beginning. I completely agree with the OP on that point.

 

The added insult to the PvE community that you can craft orange gear with endgame look that you can only wear if you have a high PvP rank and not even give craftable boots and gloves to PvE just was a really bad decision.

 

Aion had a better idea where dying in PvP actually costs you PvP points. Now this game sucked on many levels but that small part of it was a good idea...their calculations of how many points you lost was ridiculous but it will stop people lining up to kill each other if you actually lose points because of it.

 

All in all they did some funny things. I really do like the game and that's possibly because I just love SW in general, but there are a few points that really could use improvement as the OP mentioned.

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As I understand it, MMO players ruined it. Instead of having fun, they focused on farming and simply completing the daily missions by working with the other faction's players to set up massive slaughters for daily kills. They would line up in big circles, die, come back, and kill the other faction's players after they lined up.

 

Poor implementation = poor results

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