So, what kinds of encounters are you hoping for in terror from beyond? I think an ops version of something like the fight with malgus where everyone fights the boss on their own for a brief period could be really well done; I'd also like to see the use of turrets in the manner of colocid war games on an ops level.

Anyone else have similar desires for the next operation?

I was actually hoping for some platforming - I know I know some people suck at this, but practice makes perfect.

I really liked the platforming in Soa, and it wasn't exactly that tough.

I enjoyed the clones in D7, but thought that even on HM they were too weak - borderline soloable.

I like the idea of a clone mechanic that either creates a stronger version of the character, or creates a full group at once - similar to the Infernal Council but a different fight depending on who you bring.

The Dread Masters of course.

+1 for the Dread Masters

+1 for the Dread Masters

+2 for Dread Masters

I'd like to see a mechanic where random members are "banished" to another area, and after the whole group is banished the boss "banishes" himself.

Or something where you have to split your team (like pylons in EV) but then have to rejoin mid fight.

Or something where he has long casts that can be interrupted / have to be interrupted and if you interrupt him he casts an instant with a huge knock back or long stun, or every interrupt decreases the cast time of his next ability (stacks until next ability is instant cast) when a cast is complete the stacks go away, so you have to choose which spells you get hit by, and each spell alters the fight in some form or fashion.

I just hate to see "tank and spank" fights. Platforming is fun too.

I'd like to see a mechanic where random members are "banished" to another area, and after the whole group is banished the boss "banishes" himself.

 

Or something where you have to split your team (like pylons in EV) but then have to rejoin mid fight.

 

Or something where he has long casts that can be interrupted / have to be interrupted and if you interrupt him he casts an instant with a huge knock back or long stun, or every interrupt decreases the cast time of his next ability (stacks until next ability is instant cast) when a cast is complete the stacks go away, so you have to choose which spells you get hit by, and each spell alters the fight in some form or fashion.

 

I just hate to see "tank and spank" fights. Platforming is fun too.

I think that could be an interesting fight. They definitely need to start thinking a bit more outside the box on these fights and for the love of god there better be more than 4 bosses in there.

I think that could be an interesting fight. They definitely need to start thinking a bit more outside the box on these fights and for the love of god there better be more than 4 bosses in there.

Sure. But only as long as it makes sense. They've been trying to stick with mechanics that can be visually represented or hinted at. So if every time you interrupt him he yells something, arcs his back, glows intensely and gains a stacking cast speed buff, it will help push the mechanics in the visual direction. However if he just gains a stacking buff with no other indications it will just be another boring mechanic. Sure you'll learn it just the same after a few attempts, but it won't add to the fight as much as, for example, the dialog between Jarg and Sorno.

It's called Terror From Beyond, the last boss should be Cthulhu. Have him never take a player below 1 HP, but balance it out by making him impossible to kill, locking you into a fight not against some computer generated NPC, but against your own mind as you slip into madness. I don't know if they're there yet with the technology of this game, but I'd also like it if even if you disconnect from the internet or unplug your monitor, Great Cthulhu still stares out at you, beckoning you to come back.

Or, you know, more enrage timers...

Sure. But only as long as it makes sense. They've been trying to stick with mechanics that can be visually represented or hinted at. So if every time you interrupt him he yells something, arcs his back, glows intensely and gains a stacking cast speed buff, it will help push the mechanics in the visual direction. However if he just gains a stacking buff with no other indications it will just be another boring mechanic. Sure you'll learn it just the same after a few attempts, but it won't add to the fight as much as, for example, the dialog between Jarg and Sorno.

You're absolutely right. However, I was simply talking about bare bones mechanics. With the way the game is done the visual aspect is very important.

But for your point, every time he gets interrupted he could say something like: "It's not nice to interrupt people", "You're making me mad!", "STOP IT!"

And when he casts and clears the buffs he could say something like: "Take that.", "How does that taste!", "PEW PEW!"

A visual indicator would definitely be useful too, like he could get bigger or turn more red or something to that effect (although that is already how to show the enrage so that might be a problem).

But to your point Jarg and Sorno is easily my favorite fight in the Ops thus far.

It's called Terror From Beyond, the last boss should be Cthulhu. Have him never take a player below 1 HP, but balance it out by making him impossible to kill, locking you into a fight not against some computer generated NPC, but against your own mind as you slip into madness. I don't know if they're there yet with the technology of this game, but I'd also like it if even if you disconnect from the internet or unplug your monitor, Great Cthulhu still stares out at you, beckoning you to come back.

 

Or, you know, more enrage timers...

whats wrong with enrage timers? Hittem harder

whats wrong with enrage timers? Hittem harder

Agreed, you should NOT be able to just sit there and do the same fight for an hour while you have a tank and a healer left...

HIT HIM VERY HARD AND VERY FAST...

C'MON...

HIT IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT

EDIT: forgot the not in shouldn't

I want a strong boss, but makes sense size-wise. I mean, let's look at Kephess, our current strongest ops boss in game.

Kephess is one man. One very strong man. In addition, he is "blessed" by the dread masters to give him supreme power. None the less, how does he survive against 8 Jedi? Double that in 16 man. It just seems dumb. And why is the big guy so intimidated by one Jedi guardian's taunting? Surely it would be faster if he killed the sniper who was behind him, pointing a rifle at his head.

Jarg and Sorno are hardly an exception, because it is 4 against 1. They don't Stand a chance.

Oh, and let's not forget Colonel Vorgath. No matter how many defected troopers and turrets he calls; he can not survive against 8 men.

The list goes on and on. But the point being; I want to see a true match against the 8 heroes in terror from beyond. Maybe all 6 of the dread masters, each with their own portal (the theme from TFB), and each member has to kill one (exception for healers).

I think my point is made: I want something to match my abilities.

I want the Sanity Meter from the Yogg-Saron fight. Creepy as hell as my guildies turned on me and began looking like tentacle freaks.

Essentially I want my mind to be blown

I want the Sanity Meter from the Yogg-Saron fight. Creepy as hell as my guildies turned on me and began looking like tentacle freaks.

 

Essentially I want my mind to be blown

Have to admit, there were tons of awesome mechanics in WoW raids over the years. I like some of the Denova mechanics, but they should become easier as better gear is obtained, not harder.

I'd love it to be a multi-wing raid with several 'routes' of progression, as well as a lot of bosses. Buuut yeah that wont be happening

Theyre definitely trying to go down the route of several small raids, which is fine if in future they actually deliver content quicker. As for multi-route raids etc, well that's something for the future I guess.

We've seen that big worm looking thing, and some big droid, and what looked like Dread Masters (could just be dread masters minions wearing similar masks).

I'd love to see a fight like Kael'thas or something with the Dread Masters, but ofcourse something totally original is absolutely welcome

Overall, if they deliver content of similar quality to EC then I'll be pretty happy ^^ we may all be bored of it, but is has been pretty good. Not perfect, but good. In particular Stormcaller/Firebrand, I really think that it's a very simple yet flexible fight.

Have to admit, there were tons of awesome mechanics in WoW raids over the years. I like some of the Denova mechanics, but they should become easier as better gear is obtained, not harder.

Remember the Sunwell when it first came out? That. Was. Amazing. God, I must have wiped at least 50 times before finally clearing that Raid.

I want Terror from Beyond to be the SWTOR Sunwell.

One of the things that has come out here is that SWTOR has featured some fairly engaging and interesting encounters in flashpoints. I actually think a number of flashpoints are just flatly better designed than operations encounters. A comparison I've used in the past to demonstrate this is Mentor vs Karagga. The former is manifestly more interesting than the Hutt, who was very disappointing in all regards.

A smart way to improve the quality of end game PVE would be to tune level 50 hardmode versions of all of the flashpoints, and create a scale of difficulty through them, with a couple joining Lost Island as tier 2, and others becoming tier 3, and stepping up the tuning accordingly. It would also be nice to see nightmare versions of all the flashpoints, with further scaling. Obviously we also need raid content desperately, but this would be a very nice sweetner.

With regard to Terror, my primary hope is for a longer form raid. I'd like to see an at least 8, but ideally 12, boss format. This is preferable in so many ways - perhaps the main one being the sheer epic feel of longer raids - 4 boss raids feel much more like flashpoints.

In addition to this the difficulty should ramp up in a fairly linear fashion, climaxing in a highly complex multi phase fight I'm going to remember in 10 years time.

Sadly the fairly recent podcast on this topic didn't hint at any of this, and there were signs they're thinking of going in the opposite direction, with short operations and fairly simple encounters to avoid bugs. I hope this doesn't materialize, and some risks are taken.

Bioware already tested the water for many different Mechanics:

Various Forms of Adds

Damage Shields

DoTs, that apply other non-pleasant effects (still missing a Wrack-like mechanic that really spices stuff up)

Mutli-Boss Bosses (which I think they done a lot better than previous games)

Plattforming with Soa

Bosses, that even arn't Bosses like Mentor

'Interrupt-now-or-press-to-respawn' and 'move-your-***-or-be-dead-stuff' recently, that really get's my hope up for more content (no more Void Zones that don't deserve the name)

All in all, even if your group is perfectly geared all encounters are so mechanic heavy, you basicly don't really outgear Denova hard mode - you get it done in quite close to an hour, but standing in ****, not tank swapping and not interrupting the stuff you're supposed to still wipes the group in no time.

Denova was really a step up from Tier 1 raids and I really hope the reason why there aren't a lot of yellow posts recently is because they're sweating away in dark rooms for us, so we can sink our teeth into new encounter mechanics sooner than later.

ps: I'm not sure we're ready to face the Dread Masters yet - story wise. They really make a good puppet master and main antagonist for both factions.

pps: On a side note, we lost one of our Raid groups Damagedealers this week due to boredom.

I think we'll get 2 bosses with lots and lots of trash that has almost zero chance to drop anything at all, followed by no more content for 4 months amid torrents of lay-offs at Bioware.

But they may re-introduce white crystals and make it free to play upto level 49; caaaaaaaaan't wait.

With regard to Terror, my primary hope is for a longer form raid. I'd like to see an at least 8, but ideally 12, boss format. This is preferable in so many ways - perhaps the main one being the sheer epic feel of longer raids - 4 boss raids feel much more like flashpoints.

The only problem I have with this is for smaller guilds who Op (like the one I'm in, we are just now forming our second Ops team since). Increasing the size of the op could make it harder for people to experience the content. Also, if they are going to increase the size I'd imagine that they would stick with their current format (ops are 8-man or 16-man).

The only problem I have with this is for smaller guilds who Op (like the one I'm in, we are just now forming our second Ops team since). Increasing the size of the op could make it harder for people to experience the content. Also, if they are going to increase the size I'd imagine that they would stick with their current format (ops are 8-man or 16-man).

What he means is that they should really add more bosses to the next operation, not change group sizes. I don't see how adding more bosses would prevent people from seeing the content. Unless I just misunderstood your post, in which case ignore everything I just said.

The only problem I have with this is for smaller guilds who Op (like the one I'm in, we are just now forming our second Ops team since). Increasing the size of the op could make it harder for people to experience the content. Also, if they are going to increase the size I'd imagine that they would stick with their current format (ops are 8-man or 16-man).

Adding more bosses is necessary to keep current subs active, and hopefully gain a few back that already unsubbed. 4 bosses that are dead within the night of release, coupled with the free commendations that BW likes to hand out like candy killed this game for PvE oriented guilds. There is no "carrot at the end of the stick" because people are fully geared in 3 weeks time. WoW had it right every tier.

What he means is that they should really add more bosses to the next operation, not change group sizes. I don't see how adding more bosses would prevent people from seeing the content. Unless I just misunderstood your post, in which case ignore everything I just said.

No, you're correct. I reread the part that I quoted after you said something. Maybe I was reading too many articles at once or maybe I was dozing; either way I was thinking he said he wanted groups of more than 8. After rereading I agree with what he said. Ops should be longer... Like I had mentioned earlier, my guild just started an Op2 (several "fresh" 50's) and we downed EV HM the first night, In a little over an hour and a half.

Adding more bosses is necessary to keep current subs active, and hopefully gain a few back that already unsubbed. 4 bosses that are dead within the night of release, coupled with the free commendations that BW likes to hand out like candy killed this game for PvE oriented guilds. There is no "carrot at the end of the stick" because people are fully geared in 3 weeks time. WoW had it right every tier.

Agreed. I will admit it is nice to be able to get geared relatively quickly, but at the same time, it almost defeats the purpose of doing Ops at the same time.

To wrap this all up, I think they could let people "have their cake and eat it too" with a group of bosses which don't have to be completed to finish the Op (I didn't want to call them bonus bosses because those are always like: "Go press this; go kill this; stand on one foot hopping back wards up a flight of stairs saying the alphabet backwards while drinking a glass of water from the wrong side of the glass"). They could maybe drop the same gear as the mandatory boss that they are near does or they could drop different gear (I mean like cross-grade gear [CP "=" BH]).

I would like a puzzle where there is a sword in a box, and when you hit the box with your saber......just kidding.

An encounter where teams of stunlocking Operatives would spawn from stealth and kill all the healer classes. Then the boss would laugh and then call in a healer to heal himself while the raid attempts to kill him without healers. If someone ninja rezzes a healer, the stunlocking operatives would reappear and kill the healer and whoever rezzed them.

Basically a winless fight so everyone would stop complaining that "They already did the content and they are bored"