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Halinmonk

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  1. When my interest in SWTOR waned some time ago it wasn’t because there was anything wrong with the game, but because I lacked the time, energy, and money at that stage in my life play. Coming back in these last few weeks has been more then refreshing…it’s been invigorating. Hearing my character’s voice, putting them through their stories, explore the world all over again, has been a wonderful experience. But as I approach the end of chapter 1 on my main replay, it’s becoming more and more difficult to play, not in terms of gameplay itself, but it terms of feeling….discouraged almost. Discouraged to do anything other than my class story line maybe, or discouraged from doing anything but continual advancing towards end game and new content. I understand the reasoning behind this decision. Or I think I do. The desire to focus on the new and exciting expansion, and its related makes perfect sense. For many players, getting there is the goal, not the story that comes before, and the focus has been –there- and not on older content that seemingly everyone has washed their hands off. I get moving certain missions to optional-only. I get putting large swaths of story into a streamline. I get the purpose, and I get why it’s being done, but it’s difficult to feel like this isn’t making it difficult to truly experience and love the SWTOR that’s on the server today, rather than love the memory of the one that was on the server more then a year ago. For me, SWTOR was taking that class story and with my friends or myself playing it to its fullest, exploring the world as we were given, and putting our characters against it, letting each mission shape them, change a little bit about themselves or reveal something new. And while all of that is there, it’s….different. Not in the writing, or even the rewards sometimes, but in the way the story is presented now. Taking the time, taking the breath to really explore the world and build a new set of characters around the story isn’t difficult in and of itself, but difficult to justify doing when it puts you so far ahead in terms of level and progression. Nothing is really gained, mechanically by doing exploratory missions, and they, when nothing is really gained, become a hassle rather than the next logical step in a larger story. A few things I should make clear at this juncture: I Don't Dislike The Class or Discipline System: I actually enjoy it a great deal. I feel like my choices are more rewarding, and my the exact sets of what I can and can't do more defined. Progression through a tree feels more interesting and fun overall, my main issue is that progression is to quickly gained. I Don't Think There Should Be One, Specific Path Through the Story: Everyone tackles content differently, everyone wants a different pace, and clearly the vanilla one was simply to slow for a lot of folks who wanted to get the endgame story more quickly. Anything I say or suggest here is out of hope to create options, so the largest number of players can enjoy leveling and progression most effectively. I Don't Hate Level Sync and I In fact Think It's a Step In the Right Direction: I just think it's a largely ineffective step to the problem I'm describing. Level Sync dose a good job of keeping the game difficult, but lowering max damage and health only goes so far, at present Level Sync doesn't account for the new abilities gain, or the personal skill that you develop over the play through at a certain class. And even so, Level Sync doesn't actually address the main issue I'm getting at, which isn't about difficulty so much as it is about pacing, your max damage may lock for a planet, but it will still feel like you don't have a reason to do anything but the class story lines as your level keeps climbing, and your head start on the next planet keeps growing. There are a couple of different solutions I see that could be effective, some of which from my understanding it wouldn't be to difficult to add, some of which have been discussed for a long time but always carry to many problems (problems I think I may have answers for), and some of which wont be good ideas but which I feel obligated to share non the less. They are as follows: Experience Slow and Stop Items Probably one of the over all simplest to implement, as far as my understanding goes, just adding a variation on the existing level boosters, that allow you to slow down experience gain (if you're just starting out and ready to play the game at a slower pace) or stop it all together (if you're higher level and want to even out) for the duration of the buff. The duration itself is the tricky part, and I think it might work better for a set number of missions or kills then set clock of time, though I would be willing to pay more for ones that last longer in game, up to and including a few days, or even indefinite until clicked off. The big issue that always comes up when we talk about this kind of thing, especially stopping experience gain, is worry that it will unbalance PvP by allowing more skilled players to hover at the high end of a level bracket and thus pick on newer or less skilled players. The counter seems pretty straight forward: most experience boosts are for specific aspects of play (or where, once upon a time), so what not extend that to slowing down experience, so you gain fewer experience from mission turn ins and kills in PVE, but gain experience normally in PvP mode, thus making it more difficult for players to hang on at the high end of the bracket with the use of the item. There's also the matter of distribution of the items. They could obviously go on the Cartel Market, for purchase in packs (if they have a set time duration) or single-time (if they are until clicked-off) and that would likely be the simplest method, though a more convenient one for players might be to place them on specialty-good vendors for data crystals or a steep amount of credits, either in addition to the Cartel Market or on it's own. This would make it easy for any player to access, and thus to scale their progression better. Hard Level Sync One possible option is also to add a hard Level Sync, like a cap, on the gains from specific to each planet. I.e you hit the level at which you normally be synced downwards, and you simply stop gaining experience on that planet. Though not ideal, this would mean you would never start a new planet over leveled, you'd always accomplish something on each planet in terms of progression, without having to worry about rationing which missions you do. Exploratory Mode Maybe my favorite, though also the most difficult to parse, is the idea of an 'Exploratory' mode of play, to go along with Exploratory Missions. Basically, when turning on exploratory missions, you also have the choice to turn on the old vanilla experience gains/progression, or one similar to it, meaning class stories will give less over all, and experience will be spread out over world missions. This way, not only can you create incentive for yourself to do those missions, but if you want to be over leveled you'll have to work for it, and getting there can feel more natural, and more like you earned it, or you can continue with just enough quests to get you where you're going, and bypass the others you don't care for. Though a challenge, I feel like this one especially could bring back those elements of vanilla SWTOR that I loved to death, and my friends did too. It could put us back into the swing and flow of an organic story, and what felt like a natural progression of levels along character development. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I suppose at the end of the day what I want is to feel like I am playing the SWTOR I feel in love with, the SWTOR I adored playing even when it was frustrating and difficult and we died nearly six times before killing freaking Zash and where crazy under leveled for Voss no matter what we did and when it seemed like Hoth would never end. That's what I want back, not a game with only a single, driving, goal that ends up a streamlined race to end game. I want the option to...step back, and do the missions, and fall in love all over again with the characters, the story, the companions, and the beautiful worlds that deserve their time to breath without diminishing other worlds. And I want all this without taking anything away from anyone else.
  2. It looks like the Traditional Nylite is pretty close, but I can't figure out where to find the Schematics.
  3. This used to be one of my all time favorite pieces of gear in the game, and could be retrieved from one of the Coruscant Heroics, but coming back from a long break and restarting a new character, I can't seem to find it all. Is it still in the game in some form? Or an equivalent piece of gear?
  4. ....Does anyone know why the hell it's packed to the brim with Republic Spies? Is this ever addressed in any story-line? Why or how an entire detachment of Republic Forces made their way to /Dromund Kaas/?
  5. Bioware DID say they wanted SGR in the game, but it got lost early on with the other slew of problems they faced in the game. However, now that the game is firmly on it's feet again it should be an issue any longer.
  6. Except Bioware DID "advertise as selling pizza" to put it in the analogy terms- SGR has been meant to be in the game since Beta and they still wish to put it in the game.
  7. Really? I've watched movies many many times and I've never once seen any Jedi turn invisible with the Force or heal wounds with it.
  8. It's interesting to think just how much changed in the power and perception of the force between Swtor and the main movies- in Swtor and before we have things like using the Force for Healing, turning invisible, spreading power to entire legions via "Battle Meditation"- basically the Force borders on functional magic. And yet by the time of the movies such power has dwindled to telekinesis and minor telepathy and very rarely fore sight of the future. I think it shows just how far the Jedi fell out of touch with the Force without the Sith to struggle against.
  9. The thing is, I think both Zash and Khem are good characters in their own rights, and both offer some cool stuff. It would work far better if you could have Zash as another companion- either by shoving her into some random Acolyte, or using "Mother" to make her a new body or something.
  10. Fixed, my apologizes. EDIT: At least....I thought it was fixed. How do you edit Thread Names?
  11. Her own body? Can we make this an option please? Somehow? I adore both her and Khem and both are insanely useful in their own ways, and I dread having to make the choice between them.
  12. It's not just Lucas that's the problem- no writer in entire Star Wars universe can friggin get their story straight on how DS/LS works.
  13. On Balmorra you meat a scared and fraught Sith Apprentice named Lerek Serrus, who the Consular can guide back to the light and convince to turn away from his Sith Master. I would have KILLED to get him as a companion. So much time is spent by the Sith turning Jedi and Padawans to their side, what about turning a Sith back to the Light? Gaining him as a Padawan? THAT would have been cool.
  14. I am still sad about the lack of Companion SGR.
  15. Have been a Child Of The Emperor? Hear me out- It's clear that Noman Kaar was always hiding great darkness in his heart, but his motives appeared to be pure. What's interesting though is his obsession with Jaesa- sure her power would go leaps and bounds to rooting out Baras's spies from the Republic, but there is another person it would royally screw over, The Children Of The Emperor. Of course then, if Kaar was a Child himself it would be a strong motivation to end her or sabotage her training....And yet, the story ends with Jaesa on the Dark Side, serving the Empire. Actually providing proof, or setting up a test to provide proof of Jaesa's ability would have been easy for the Council, and yet he chose the long rabbit chase route to make his point. Keeping her away from the Warrior would have been simple as taking her back to Tython (which the Sith don't even know the location off) and leaving her there while he sorted out the trouble with Baras. Keeping her from the Warrior (LS or DS) would have been as simple as reminding her how much the Sith had cost her personally and the galaxy at large. Hell it seems like at ever turn Kaar insured that Jaesa would ultimately defect to the Empire. It's almost....eerie. Wouldn't you say?
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