Swoop Rally PTS Feedback

Were the Missions fun?
I enjoyed them, though I think that the bikes should go a bit faster.

Were the Missions the right length (not too long, not too short)?
For the speed that the speed is going, I think it's a little long, but it's not ruining anything.

Were the objectives for each Mission clear?
Going through the first time, I didn't fully understand, but on the second and third run, it made sense.

Which gang's Missions did you like the most? The least?
I enjoyed the Ring/Flair runs and the Speed Orb ones, but destroying and setting off the fire works one seems to clunky in my opinion.

Did each gang's objectives make the course feel a little different?
Not really.

Were you able to easily stay on the course?
For the most part, yes. There was a couple times I fell off course.

Did you understand the bike abilities?
Yes, just getting the ability and the objective together took me a run or two.

Did the speed of the bike feel good?
As I mentioned above, I think the speeders should be going faster.

What did you enjoy the most? What did you dislike?
It was a nice change and something new to the game, so overall, I enjoyed it all, except the Sandstorm de-buff on Tatooine, that should either go away, or actually have sandstorms going off in the race. It didn't make sense to be slowing down and not knowing why.

First time logging into the PTS, I did not have any problems with it. I will definitely be doing so again.

LoL!

When I first heard of Swoop Racing, I was so excited!

Then I saw the actual thing and was massively, massively, massively disappointed...

What I saw looked more like Mario Kart at half speed, and a very, very cheap version.

If you want exciting, look at this: (and this is an ancient game by today's standards, yet 1000x more exciting)

FZero Super Nintendo Gameplay - SNES F-Zero Game Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn-Uu6-sHzI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REdRAlPysSU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9pIgHZe-KM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxfCICD4V8Q

If you want anyone to play Swoop Racing, you have to do better than F-Zero.

And then there is this video, which just makes me drool for pod racing in swtor... And Swoop Racing should stand up and take notes here too... Cause this video is sweeeeeeeeeet.

Star Wars Episode 1 Racer for PC Boonta Eve Classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8FVL46rZm0
This video makes the player actually feel like he is really doing 400-700 kph.

Simply put, instance the races and make them FAST!
REALLY, REALLY FAST.

Good job with this event, it felt very enjoyable and gave me some Darkmoon Faire vibes. I was expecting a multiplayer but you can just simulate that by having everyone start at the same time. There is some minor lag / desync (when jumping through the hoops) but nothing gamebreaking.

My main issue is that there still are no separate keybinds when morphing; they keybinds are shared with Quickslot 1, which in my case goes like 9, R, 6, 5, 4, which is fine for normal gameplay where the abilities are tied to muscle memory but makes for a bad experience whenever I'm morphed into a droid, turret, and now swoop bike.
Please allow us to add separate keybinds while morphed, so I can set it to something intuitive like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

For that reason, while I really enjoyed racing along the track, having to blow up the explosives and fireworks felt like a chore and quickly killed my enjoyment. Please reduce the amount from like 10 to 5, or add an optional course where you can just race without having to use abilities.

I did not see a vendor for the new reputation factions so I hope that this will be added eventually.

So i was watching SWTORISTA's video showing the new Swoop Bike Racing event, now being shown and tested on the PTS...

https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/comme...nt_test_video/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGq4E6axEqY

Here are my momentary comments (as i already said on Youtube), broken down one at a time, giving my first impressions of this event, as she covered it:

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[my FIRST impression, after just reading a few comments and having clicked PLAY on the video -- NOT having seen anything real, yet]
LOLLLL so what we are REALLY getting is just NASCAR for SWTOR ... lmao
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ok so now that i have actually SEEN the speeder and the way it operates WHEN ON IT and when ALLEGEDLY TRYING to do the courses ... THESE are my problems with this event already: THIS IS DUMB (not this video but the actual way this speeder in the event works, itself, in terms of PHYSICS and MOVEMENT). WHAT THEY SHOULD have done is just COPIED ALL of the CODE for SPACE MISSIONS and then just applied it to a PLANET SURFACE and made it SOMEWHAT ON RAILS the SAME way that the OLD SPACE MISSIONS ALREADY were. while giving you just a bit more control over everything. SWOOP RACING SHOULD just be SPACE MISSIONS but on PLANET SURFACES... oy but no, instead, this is BAD!!!!
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This is VERY VERY VERY BAD ... wow ... so very bad ... Players have FAR TOO MUCH "FREEDOM" and it causes CHAOS and this is going to be a giant stupid mess ... wow!!! This would have been far better had they just used the OLD SPACE MISSION MODEL as a means of NOT reinventing the wheel ... sigh
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my god ... i hope you DO NOT DRIVE an ACTUAL PASSENGER CAR in real life ...
Because your swoop racing in this beta test track is more like GRAND THEFT AUTO than anything else hahahahahahhaa
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I also wish that they had NOT put this race track SMACK DAB in the middle of all of that FARM LAND (that is otherwise used DURING A WAR ZONE some of the time ... like ... DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE for the devs / story writers there at Bioware to have done this? like ... this track should be PARTIALLY DESTROYED from all the WAR ZONE activities during the WAR TIME Pirate Incursion event on Dantooine. OY...
It would have made FAR MORE sense to put a track on TARIS or CORUSCANT (even if that one is not cross faction) instead of on some FARMLAND in a WAR ZONE... sheesh
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Also this SHOULD NOT EVEN be called a "race" when there are NO OTHER PLAYERS or NPCs "racing" ALONGSIDE or WITH you at the SAME TIME??? Have you ever seen that happen? THAT would be actual COMPETITION and a real RACE. But here, the MOST that this can really be called is just an OBSTACLE COURSE ... far more akin to TRACK AND FIELD than it is a REAL LITERAL "race". This is far more akin to FREE STYLE BMX on a DIRT TRACK in a SOLO way ... and it is NOT AT ALL like NASCAR or F1 (which i was more hoping it would be closer to). This is more like FANCY SKATEBOARDING than it is a real FAST thing.
What is more, is that there is NO REAL "SPEED" in ANY of these - especially not in the actual literal "speed" version of the race. It's doggone slow as hell.
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This event is JUNK. Even in PTS beta. Just ALL TOTAL JUNK. I swear i wish i was a dev for Bioware ... this kind of crap would NEVER see the light of day!
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soooo... LOL what are the chances, ON TATOOINE, that the Jawa Datacron BALLOON could have a mid-air collision with those new drifting pleasure barges? I think the devs should code that in ... just for ***** and giggles ... hahahhahhaaha I mean this is already a trainwreck anyway lollll Imagine all the pissed off people waiting for an hour on the balloon for the 2 datacrons, and then BAM!!! Fall to your death in the middle of a race track with bikes "whizzing" around everywhere lmao
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OK ... the Tatooine track is a TON BETTER than that HORRIBLE Dantooine track ...but I also do NOT like the sandstorm / exhaustion zone areas and slow downs on this Tatooine track. That was a VERY DUMB idea by devs... smh But there is going to be a real bad problem with these "Races". The CLASSIC and OLD and UNFIXED "Mouse look BUG" which INADVERTENTLY REVERSES the direction you are moving if you are one of those players (like me) who is accustomed to holding your right mouse button down while moving to maintain proper perspective. A LOT of players do this (not just me) and they ALL EXPERIENCE this same OLD UNFIXED Mouse-Look bug ... and this race is only going to EXACERBATE the complaints over this SUPER OLD UNFIXED BUG.
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Devs should also consider a GRADUATED SCALE of TIME taken during the race to give a BETTER (or worse) amount of CREDIT winnings .... Those with bigger scores and LOWER TIMES ... should earn more rewards and more credits! And those with less skills / less tricks / explosions / LESS bonus objectives done, and HIGHER race completion times should only earn LESS rewards and LESS credits. That is only fair. Especially if this race ever gets more than 1 person doing the course at the SAME time (which i doubt it ever will ... sigh)
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in regards to the explosion targets and the firework targets, the TAB key as a keybind for "change focus/reticle TO [nearest enemy] target" should be allowed to work so that you can just TAB + DOUBLE TAP the Explosive ability/action WHILE you race, so that you do not have to MANUALLY TARGET the item or area while u are trying to steer ... mehhhhh
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Watching Onderon "racing" and you said, "there's gonna be like 40 people on this track - how is that gonna work??" And my only answer is: well, I WOULD HOPE SO... meh. I think i dig the cave tho. and Onderon track is also better than the crappy Dantooine one. Sorry but my original vision of what "swoop bike racing" should look like, was in the UNDERCITIES of or ON TARIS AND CORUSCANT ... and even Nar Shaddaa -- not these other planets. I mean, WHERE are the BLACK VULKARS at, anyway??? I dont see them anywhere...
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So, SINCE we now have STRONGHOLD PVP in our RISHI strongholds, and they have made decos as cover objects and platforms for that stronghold... does this also NOW mean that we COULD (someday?) see SWOOP RACING (in smaller format -- like a kiddie version) of swoop bike racing on our BIGGER ESTATE type strongholds, like on our TATOOINE SH, ALDERAAN, or YAVIN IV ??? Those are the only ones with enough YARD or green space area where we could build a MINI TRACK of our own ... a custom mini track anyway. I bet that would make a LOT OF CARTEL COINS in REAL CASH REVENUE if Bioware ever thought of that ... eh? I can totally see this being done on Tatooine, Yavin IV and Alderaan strongholds ... just as we can do personal PVP in Rishi SH. Just an idea.
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LMAO so there are now going to be EXPLOITS -- OR -- GRIEFING in the PVP instances as SNIPERS and GUNSLINGERS CAMP out above the canyon race tracks -- like SANDPEOPLE do on Tatooine -- and knock people off of their bikes by shooting at them, or throwing a saber at them? or force lightning???
hahahaha NOW I CANNOT WAIT to go piss people off like this hahahaha
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What they could have done to just make the CREATION of these events, all of this... all a lot easier... is just allow us to do SOME racing on the already-existing TRAM TRACKS on planets like Corellia, and Dantooine. TARIS USED to have tram tracks ... but they are all destroyed. Planets like CORELLIA and ZAKUUL (and that weird flashpoint planet, where u fight the rhak ghouls in THE TION HEGEMONY?) - they all still have TRAM TRACKS though. Also, planets like BELSAVVIS, ALDERAAN, HOTH, and ILUM ALSO have a lot of free or empty unused space / room for adding TRACKS like this... not just Tatooine, Onderon, and Dantooine. Just sayin'. And it would be sweet as hell to be doing NIGHT racing on IMPERIAL TARIS. With all the lights ... And don't even get me started about MEK-SHA...
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Also, INSTEAD of NEW EVENTS (and crappy ones like this at that)... would it have killed Bioware to give us AT LEAST ONE NEW MAP for Galactic Starfighter???? i think not ... i mean, how many years has it been since we had 1 new map? since IOKATH? that was back in 2016 or 2017...
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The speeders WHILE RACING in these events, seem to act / operate / behave more like the isolated or limited ASSAULT WALKER MISSIONS in KOTET... with the custom controls and special action bar and smaller amount of keybinds... I agree that they should allow us to edit our interface and CHOOSE WHICH keybinds activate which, and allow us to move the Dismount (5) key FAR TO THE RIGHT ... if we want.
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For the DEVS who may be reading comments on this video post -- what are the ADVANTAGES or DISADVANTAGES of having the HPET (High Precision Event Timer) feature turned on in our motherboard BIOS settings, as to either allow or enable "fast" or SLOWER??? action in these "race" environments? does HPET get used by the SWTOR client at all? And is there any advantage or disadvantage to having it enabled, while playing this game / while RACING in this game?
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Just imagine the LAG ISSUES that we used to have on FLEET ... BEFORE Strongholds were invented in the game??? where we had HUNDREDS of people all crowding all over Fleet and it caused such super bad slow lag ... NOW EVERYONE is going to swarm these race tracks come June and i wonder just how much LAG will be caused and will DEFINITELY PISS people off when their bikes are not responding or steering the way they expected, due to the jittery CLOGGING of the data pipes when HUNDREDS of people are all going on these races all at one time. I hope they LIMIT the number of people PER INSTANCE when doing this, as they already do IN INSTANCED PVP zones (which work still not so great as it is, because this game is STILL HORRIBLY LIMITED to ONLY 2GB of 32-bit address space!!!)
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SWTORISTA, I really wish you had kept on using your IMP character in the middle of your video, instead of switching right back to the Pub character again :-\
I wanted to know what the differences were, if any, for Imp players.
--- end ---

^^^ THIS!!! SO MUCH THIS! i felt the SAME WAY! and it is NOT EVEN "FAST" AT ALL!!! AT ALL .... AT ALL !!!!

it is SUPER SLOW and RIDICULOUS ... there is NO REAL "Challenge" other than to be able to steer properly so as to NOT FALL OFF the higher level tracks ... and to not get knocked off your mount by Griefing PVPers LOL


AGREED 100%!!!! But i honestly think the devs or project designers, are only locked in their own little bubble worlds and do not really care about CONSISTENCY with OTHER REAL STAR WARS lore.

What they should have done, INSTEAD OF REINVENTING THE WHEEL, as they did do, is just make each mission a VARIATION of the RAIL SPACE missions, EXCEPT with more control ... and then put them on PLANETSIDE (obviously instead of in outer space which makes no sense) -- see my earlier long big comment on this.

I AGREE. I HATE the SUPER SLOW speed of the bikes!!!
I also hate the sandstorm slow de-buff. that was very dumb. I like your idea a lot better -- put sand storms (or mini dust devils) in there that [maybe??] cause visual distortions or not being able to see, but do not slow down or de-buff the bike or rider.

That same thing happened to SWTORISTA in her recent video about this (see my earlier comments for that linked LONG video).

YES!! We are one step closer to having Pazaak!

And that awesome music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xh2...0s&app=desktop

LOCATION: DANTOOINE

The area is too jammed in with the existing Dantooine buildings, rocks, critters, etc. It's claustrophobic and visually unappealing.

There are a few places where it's hard to tell which way to go to reach the next gate, without using the minimap. (Except on the Pit Screamers hoops run.)

Get the Dantooine Farmers off the track. They walk along the dirt paths like nothing's going on.

When the race countdown ends, you don't automatically move forward. You have to W/arrow/etc.


LOCATION: ONDERON

The QT drops me off waist deep in water. Seriously? 8{ Please put me up on the ramp by the lower mission terminal.

There are two places where I seem to lose track of where I'm supposed to go, even with the minimap. I go down three platform sections, do a ramp jump, and end up in a pack of enemies facing a wall. Clearly I'm going the wrong way. (Update: I went exploring on my personal mount and saw there's a hard, 90 degree right turn after that jump. It's too hard to see, especially if your graphics slow down during the jump.)

Put some holo-arrows on those metal walls, please, all along the course.

The traps look like something you're supposed to go through. It's very confusing. Perhaps make the top lights red and flashing? I saw one that flashed red but the rest were steady yellow.

I gave up on the Beks course. I couldn't see enough targets to blow up. Not even close, and it's not fun enough to put effort into figuring out.

Good luck to the people drinking at the bar right on the course! I bet the bartender sees a lot of blood and gore...

I start moving forward automatically when the race begins, unlike on Dantooine. Nice!


LOCATION: TATOOINE

The Beks explosion targets were too close together. They came before the cooldown was done and the ability was ready. I had to make little loops waiting. That really took away from the race experience.

For some reason, it was much easier to tell the difference between Beks fireworks and explosion targets on Tatooine, mostly because there is less to worry about/see on the race course, more time to see the target coming and figure out which one it is, and somewhat because the lighting is much better and higher contrast.


RACING

Why do we have to pilot to the start gate? Give us a speeder at the start line. Click to mount and start the race timer.

The tilted curves with the holo-arrows don't do anything. They're also ugly and look silly because you're going far too slow for them to make sense. Please leave the neon arrow signs but take out the metal ramp pieces. That will make the courses feel less cluttered, and make it easier to spot objectives.

I really don't like the speed boost. It needs clicking too often. Maybe it ought to activate only near ramps.
Which is another issue - sometimes you need speed boost on a ramp to make the ring jump, sometimes you don't, on the same rings.

I want to race on an obstacle course. Having to push all those little buttons at particular (predetermined, not tactical) times is... fiddly. It's not fun. If these were only bonus mission items or fewer were required during the race, I would enjoy it.

Perhaps the Beks race could be fiddly button pushing with mines, the Razor race could be for speed and steering accuracy, and the Screamers race could be an obstacle course? The Razor race would also be awesome as a group race, so friends can try to beat each other.

Blatant Beks:
* This is a slow moving gallery shooter. It's my least favorite race.
* Make the firework and bomb buttons light up when you're close enough to use them.
* We can activate fireworks from far away, but have to target explosions. Personally, I'd like to see both be range activated, not targeted, with a slightly lower range.
* I have a hard time telling the fireworks and explosion stations apart, even after a dozen runs. Maybe my PC graphics aren't up to the challenge, or my less than 20/20 eyes, or both.

Horizon Razor:
* A better racing experience than Blatant Beks, but too slow. This could be an awesome speed race. Go faster!
* Also, mines. Those seem to go better with the whole Beks explosions/fireworks theme. Make the mines disappear, please.

Pit Screamers:
* Adding hoops to mines and turn platforms and the rest makes a visually noisy track quite ugly. Please remove the mines. That's best saved for the Blatant Beks exploding fireballs course.
* Flairs take too long to activate. They shouldn't channel, they should be instant.
* Put some lights or neon signs or something on the grandstands, please. In some places, they look too much like walls/junk.


TECH DETAILS

The objectives were NOT clear. When it says, Ride the Swoop Bike, it ought to bring up a little window with my objectives, rather than waiting for me to luck into one and then giving me a floating text feedback that I can only see because I'm going slow and have time to read.

When NOT in a race, if you walk or ride a mount through the final gate, the crowd reacts (sound FX) as if you finished the race.

Plus, if I'm auto-starting just mounting the speeder, why am I not auto-starting when the race begins?

Is there any bonus for completing the race faster? If so, mention it. Make it obvious.

The Speed Boost isn't enough of a boost, especially for a power with a short cooldown that constantly needs clicking.

Do we get any customizations for our speeders? It's boring to pick the same one over and over, plus you look the same as others on the track. Maybe sell these at the Repairs kiosk?

Disable the racing abilities before the race begins. Otherwise, you might click one to see what it does, see nothing, and then be stuck in cooldown when the race starts and miss your first targets.

Move the enemy mobs away from the race track and racing tents/kiosks. It was an issue on Dantooine, even worse on Onderon down along the river.

We need a QT back to the start area for when we have to Dismount in the middle of a race because we are Stuck on a wall or bit of wreckage. Don't give us the Stuck frustration and then also a long ride back through mobs and mines.

The area with the mission kiosks and swoop bikes isn't always easy to spot. The gate sign at the entrance is the same as many signs elsewhere along the course. It could use a unique sign. That way, when you show up to an area you've never been to before, you have some idea of where to start.


BUGS

The emergency brake does nothing.

If I don't get to the starting line fast enough, I'm dismounted and returned to the finish line. Why?

On Tatooine, the traps are completely invisible. I had no idea what I was hitting or why.

The bombs blow up if you step on them, even if you aren't racing. Friends could clear the mines for racers. Also, you have to watch out for mines navigating the landscape for other, non-swoop racing missions. They should only be visible/active for racers, just like the rings.

There's no sound or visual FX for Flair at the grandstands on Dantooine.

It's confusing that you can only take 1 faction's mission on one planet at a time. You can take one faction's missions for all 3 planets at the first kiosk, then get locked out of taking missions at the other kiosks. It would be better to just offer all 9 missions without lockouts.

Logging out on the Onderon platform leads to logging back in UNDER the platform, in the water.

Sometimes the rocket boost through the hoop doesn't fire. Sometimes it shoots you OVER the hoop.
On Tatooine, sometimes it doesn't fire and you get STUCK on the sandcrawler hulk between ramp segments. Jump won't get you out, and /Stuck just moves you to the side without releasing you from the stuck area.

The meat vendor back wall flag (with the white triangles) flickers strangely, like when two objects overlap.

Chat's borked, but IIRC this is a known bug.


REQUEST

Release those metal walls, bleachers, gates, rings, speed boost pads, and such as stronghold decorations so we can make our own tracks. Thanks!

Add ramps so we can get into the viewing stands with the NPCs.

Add a terminal so we can speeder fly up to the barge to watch the races and party with friends.

Could the roast tauntaun vendor please sell meaty heals? He'd be better as a real vendor of... anything. Also, he'd make a great deco for strongholds.

Could the drink vendor either sell drinks or have clickable drinks like the bar counters on Mek-sha?

Could we race against friends? At least announce our finish time/score or something, either to the area or in group chat.


TLDR: I'd rather have all those assets to make my own race tracks in my stronghold. The Beks race was frustrating. The Dantooine location is crowded and ugly. But... with some changes, this event could be amazing.

My biggest want is to have a way to keep doing the races with no rewards, "exhibition/practice runs" if you will.

I enjoyed the races, I feel like its an opportunity for character investment to let us take our own speeders though.