In the perfect situation what I would like to see is either instanced housing right off the street like EQ2, or instanced neighborhoods. The housing system that I'd like to see is like the one EQ2 has, where you can manipulate almost anything. No hooks like LOTRO, please. To me hooks stifle creativity and don't let me make my house my own.

I don't think Bioware/EA really have a clue how much revenue SOE makes off of their EQ2 housing system, between housing items and sets in the cash shop to actual premium homes that you can purchase. I know it won't happen this year. Right now Bioware/EA needs to focus on getting their numbers up a little, but then they should shoot for sustainability, like player housing etc.

Tatooine has a nice big empty desert... Jokes aside.

 

What elements of sandbox gameplay do you think would fit in the current model of this game? Saying you want sandbox gameplay is nice, but you're not defining it at all.

How about pazaak in the casinos on Nar Shadaa? Or some pod racing on Tatooine or wherever? Or some ship personalization/customization...

And since you mention Tatooine's large desert if it was really a sandbox there would be no "turn back exhaustion area" messages on the screen...

I hope so.

Not sure how devs would implement this, but it would be friggin awesome if I could get a Skyrise penthouse or apartment in the faction homeworlds and Nar Shaddaa with new housing items and leagacy features I can unlock with more credits and cartel coins.

I mean it would almost be like the player ship, but with actually housing and amenities of a home.

Sandbox WHAT? Everyone always says that "sandbox elements" will save this game. Be more specific. Nothing just saves the games. Its specific ideas that help drive a game, not BS forum posts.

Here is a specific idea... Pazaak and pazaak torunaments. They could be PVP and/or PVE there could be title for those who win on different planets. The obvious place would be Nar Shadaa but there could be more. Gambling has always been attractive to people otherwise cities like Las vegas would not exist....

I sure hope there'll be sandbox elements in the future. I don't really like the whole theme park thingy, but it' s where we're at now.

Il second this.

Here is a specific idea... Pazaak and pazaak torunaments. They could be PVP and/or PVE there could be title for those who win on different planets. The obvious place would be Nar Shadaa but there could be more. Gambling has always been attractive to people otherwise cities like Las vegas would not exist....

Depending on how you do that, it can be sandbox or theme park. If you just put in place casinos run by NPCs then it's still just more theme park. If instead you only give people the deck of cards and the ability to challenge someone else to a game, then players can create the tournaments. Give guilds the ability to rent (instanced) commercial spaces and place card tables in them and suddenly you can have a player-run casino business. THAT is sandbox.

But to answer the subject line of this thread, "Not until they add more end-game." Right now that is the number one thing they are getting pummeled about, so it's what they are addressing first. Any kind of emergent gameplay features are either far down the road or... never, would be my guess.

End game is not the way to go. It has delivered next to nothing for the game with respect to retention since launch.

Concentrating on feature improvement and implementation, bug fixes, code streamlining and adjustments and adding repeatable "sandboxy" content should be the focus IMO.

Tatooine has a nice big empty desert... Jokes aside.

 

What elements of sandbox gameplay do you think would fit in the current model of this game? Saying you want sandbox gameplay is nice, but you're not defining it at all.

i think Hoth and tat both could use some sandbox tossed into it.

I'd like to see the following:

Planetary control pvp with pve included, cities would give buffs like vanguard has, that way controlling a city would be worth your time.

Customization for speeders.

Weapon appearance customization (allow mods that effect appearance and stats.. example.. a scope would increase accuracy)

Guild symbols to paint on my speeder

Item decay (except pvp gear.... rolling through comms would be so annoying)

Player housing EQ2 style (swg style would be wonderful but wouldnt work)

more customization for ships and allow others to join us on our ships

a biggy id love to see would be battlefront/swg style space combat. I like our current space combat, but id like to see both styles added. As well as player capital ships for guilds

Guild wars

armor dye

creature handler companions would be awesome. ( instead of calling a companion you could call a rancor or a crystal snake)

Here is a specific idea... Pazaak and pazaak torunaments. They could be PVP and/or PVE there could be title for those who win on different planets. The obvious place would be Nar Shadaa but there could be more. Gambling has always been attractive to people otherwise cities like Las vegas would not exist....

pazzak would be a feature or a game to play. How is that a sandbox element? Same with gambling. I am all for new features but lets be clear here: new play toys and sandbox elements are two different things.

i think Hoth and tat both could use some sandbox tossed into it.

 

 

I'd like to see the following:

 

Planetary control pvp with pve included, cities would give buffs like vanguard has, that way controlling a city would be worth your time.

 

Customization for speeders.

 

Weapon appearance customization (allow mods that effect appearance and stats.. example.. a scope would increase accuracy)

 

Guild symbols to paint on my speeder

 

Item decay (except pvp gear.... rolling through comms would be so annoying)

 

Player housing EQ2 style (swg style would be wonderful but wouldnt work)

 

more customization for ships and allow others to join us on our ships

 

a biggy id love to see would be battlefront/swg style space combat. I like our current space combat, but id like to see both styles added. As well as player capital ships for guilds

 

Guild wars

 

armor dye

 

creature handler companions would be awesome. ( instead of calling a companion you could call a rancor or a crystal snake)

Item decay would suck period, rolling comms is what PVE and PVP would suffer through.

The big planets like Hoth and tat especially could have elements thrown in. Phased "residential" zones for player housing. With prebuilt and upgradable homes, you choose the type and can fully decorate the inside. A hybrid of SWG and Skyrim. With the amount of landscape that could be added on the the planets with some exotic locations, it is possible. If the engine can actually handle such cases, as it has been heavily modified by Bioware.

Customization is there to an extent, the problem is, there aren't really enough unique schematics out there or variations that can set one crafter apart from another.

Paints, dyes and the such would be fantastic, except they didn't make all these armors with every colour spectrum in game. It's not the end of the world, but it is a lot of code and if you look at how the companion unify colours has shaped up... I am not sure if its a coders issue or a limitation of what they can make work with the engine they use.

Granted they could dev up a plugin for it, but that still has an effect on the system as a whole. I don't know what coding language they use or the parameters they have to work within, so I have no insight into the current dye issues. Doesn't look good for dye requests in this game.

Pvp objectives and planetary control should be something they take a look at. For two major reasons.

Player engagement.

Story progression.

Storyline wise, we are after the treaty and things are a rumbling calm. All out war is where the story will lead to, so taking planets from the enemy faction for any reason beneficial is an eventual must. It's a new layer of gameplay, it causes players to move around and love off fleet, in hot zones of conflict and makes the world look a little more alive than dead.

The problem with sandbox games and elements are that they are very community dedicated and focused. Not terribly casual focused, because people need to be there to make it work. Having both in one game is great, ideal if properly executed.

Execution is the problem.