sandbox/thempark and how it relates to swtor

well if you look at it from another angle. only the class quests themselves lock you in, you dont have to level on the planets the class quests are on. Prime example is alderann, that planet is so easy to skip if you so wish and just doing the class quests alone takes you deep into your story so adding other planets and alternative ways to level wouldnt hinder that it would just allow you to do something else with the class quests instead of the designated planets they are on.

Yeah, I agree if you think of levelling in an older Everquest 1 or DAoC sense then yeah you do have options.

But in the way SWTOR is marketed not so much.......... but if they could have bumped up story content to ~50% of levelling content that would have totally changed the nature of effectively the same game entirely.

Yes but there is a line you have to cross and which the devs did. If you have to much solo class story you remove the mmo part of the game, if you dont have enough then you lose the bioware story telling and you being in the adventure. Lets not also forget most of the class story is aimed at you getting companions and that is there primary role.

Now if they made something along these lines, class quests had a key minimum level they can be attained but after that level the quest automatically scales with your level so if you do something else whilst leveling then the class missions are always relevant. This could be done retro activly so added in new content wont be limited to top level.

After that throw in an achievment system to go alongside the codex, have something like a loremaster achieve with a very nice bit of fluff, be it a mount or something for completing lore master, aka every world quest in the game and its all good.

Quote: Originally Posted by Shingara

Yes but there is a line you have to cross and which the devs did. If you have to much solo class story you remove the mmo part of the game, if you dont have enough then you lose the bioware story telling and you being in the adventure. Lets not also forget most of the class story is aimed at you getting companions and that is there primary role.

Now if they made something along these lines, class quests had a key minimum level they can be attained but after that level the quest automatically scales with your level so if you do something else whilst leveling then the class missions are always relevant. This could be done retro activly so added in new content wont be limited to top level.

After that throw in an achievment system to go alongside the codex, have something like a loremaster achieve with a very nice bit of fluff, be it a mount or something for completing lore master, aka every world quest in the game and its all good.

Yeah you're right, but really how much of the current SWTOR levelling experience is done in a group?

Even levelling in a very close knit guild (that orginally came to SWTOR) I wasn't doing a lot of group levelling except for flashpoint and helping out with difficult quests or story quest parts.

I did the odd heroic 2 and 4 but mostly they weren't worth the time (and could be done later).


Really the game needs for end game for the MMO sense, but for levelling in the current amount of content moving the story quest up to 50% would help.

That's not to say the game couldn't be improved in a multitude of ways, however.

Its not so much how much of it is leveled in groups but how group friendly that content is. The none class story is just as group friendly as any other mmo but the class storys are limited, anyone going with the class cant get the mission if not the same class and anyone of the same class cannot complete in someone elses phase. That is good though as it allows the player to dictate what there char does within the story.

It also has to be considered that gameplay whilst leveling and endgame do not have to be quests or operations. Roleplaying and social gaming is also a big part, mini games, swoop racing and making a part of the game personal to you either through player housing of some kind, char looks and achievment systems.

Yeah, either way the story quests could stand being made more group friendly. That's a big fault in and of itself.

I wouldnt say its a fault. i would say it is a bonus. Can you imagine doing your class story and someone else altered it and you could never do it again. The self story itself doesnt have to be huge, yes it could have played a bigger role but doing to much class story would have limited alot of the world gameplay.

The only time you hit a bump in the road with it is when 2 of the same class are leveling together. When its with an alternative class it actualy adds more depth to the story as what your class does actualy is slighly mirrored in the story of the other class so you get to see the bigger picture.

I mean stuff like giving social points, not bugging you in ships and such. It's actually a real PITA to try and do story quest with others (and impossible in certain cases, of course).

Well the key is that you dont need to be hand held whilst leveling, leveling itself should never enforce group gameplay, it should encourage it but never enforce it. Also whilst leveling and at endgame there should be alternative things todo apart from extreme themepark. You need time sinks in a game and social aspects and minigames play the biggest role in that. The longer you can let people enjoy self motivitated content like sandbox and achievment stuff the longer the distance between people feeling or thinking there is a content draught or even ever having content draughts in the 1st place.

This is the first forum post I think I have ever seen that is actually well thought out and not just full of a bunch of "EFF the fanbois" or "This game is Dying."

Having played this game since beta and having played a little bit of The Secret World, I can say this.....SWG absolutly was ahead of its time. If that game came out TODAY (with 2012 tech mind you...engines, whatnot) it would be the game to end all games in my opinion. TSW is a very very cool game and while the modern era setting of it is pretty cool, it just didn't grab me the way WoW first did. (and lets be honest....WoW is the game to which all other MMO's are measured...sad but true). THIS game ALMOST grabbed me the way WoW did, but it just became a little too linear and a little too "I have done this a thousand time before except with Orcs and Trolls. At least we have lightsabers...but EHHH."

Now if there was a way to combine TSW---(which has pretty darn good voice overs in its own right and one hell of a story) with SWG flight simulator action AND SWTOR graphics and story......well then there you go. See companies seem to be focusing on one flaw of fantastic games and improving solely on THAT aspect. WoW had a subpar story that a lot of people didn't pay attention too...ergo SWTOR has the same dynamic gameplay as WoW, but with an excellant story. SWTOR was/is too linear, but it's shining grace is good story.....ergo....TSW takes elements of the voice over story driven game and combines it with a "not-so-linear" open/semi open sandbox style game....but it isn't Star Wars and there is nothing other than the character running around....no mounts...no side space missions nothing.

All three are great games.....the goal of the next developer should be to combine EVERYTHING into one. I have a feeling that Titan or whatever Blizzard throws at us next will be what THIS game was supposed to be. Think about it....Titan has been a rumor (copyrighted rumor at that) for a good while now and still no one knows anything about it. I think they are studying everything that is out there now and will create THE Game that shall end all Games. They did it with WoW...with all these other disappointments....they might be our only hope to do it again.