Suggestions from SWG Vet

[hizzler]

I am not going to rant on about “cancelling my subscription” or complain about how this game is going to “fail”. In fact, I submitted a game suggestion to the tracker this weekend and they responded back, asking that I post to the forum so here goes. First I should explain my position of perspective; I am an old school SWG fan (pre CU) and I think it’s fair to say that “our” people have some expectations of swtor and here are my personal thoughts:

 

The Community

One thing I love about MMO’s is that the community must be thriving, living, and growing on all different levels. The problem with swtor is there is a very straight forward line to getting what you need out of this game. Spamming of “LFG” is all the chatter you see happening and if it’s not that, then it’s the “entitled-generation” that are complaining that “WoW is this” and “WoW is that” and that they need to be lvl 50 right now. Compared to the SWG days where people HAD to group up to venture off into the world, just to handle a “kima” den. Great XP and everyone grouping as needed while learning their skills. This is the essence of MMO. A mix bag of people who are giving off great dps, debuffs, heals, etc…the point is, everyone joined just to group and have fun. SWTOR is not like this, there is a limit of 4 people to the group..the maps are not as open ended as SWG and when people group they are “required” to have certain classes be a part of their group. “LF2M Need Tank & Heals” Meh. This really disenchants the game to an actual “game level” instead of an immersion in an online world. I think bioware needs to focus on that a bit with any further updates. I also think those bubble-gum gamers will subside once they see they are lvl 50 and need to get back to the lich king asap. Panda power? -_- It might be the server I am on, but it seemed like there were more mature, intelligent conversations in the SWG Cantina the first month SOE’s game came out. Food for thought. Also, smack down on the inappropriate names on servers. People are getting away with some bad ones..

 

The Classes

All of these classes in the game are geared towards combat. You have to complete the story, thus pushing you to learn how to battle to get your quests finished. I think the classes are just fine. The stories are great, and are unique to the mmo realm; however they are missing a couple major components…social classes. In SWG there were players that were still a part of the community without heading out in the world with a blaster or lightsaber, and that is SERIOUSLY lacking from SWTOR. My suggestion is to add 2 social classes; the Entertainer and the Engineer. Entertainer could be used for the old method of gaining buffs, and restoring combat fatigue. Engineer can be focused on nothing but crafting, and allowing repairs to be done cheaper (don’t know about you, but repairing in some flashpoints gets REAL expensive if you continue to die) Engineers should be able to specialize in more than one craft (up to 3) and have the ability to craft special sets of armor unique from looted gear. Engineers should also be allowed a vendor store on their ship, as well as the entertainer to give enhanced specialized buffs from their ships as well. This would allow more social interactions which this game is missing! Some people aren’t in it for the combat, they want to just “hang out” in a star wars environment and meet people, for 15$ a month this should be accommodating those that play this style to. Give us a reason to go to the Cantina, besides logging out for rest XP.

 

Customizations

There are none in this game. So just when I think I have saved a really great outfit that stands out from the crowd, I see someone else with the same exact gear on. Don’t get me wrong, these armors and costume designs are fantastic, but to be able to change color or add a logo to gear would be nice. Especially for companions. This also dips back to the idea of an Entertainer class (a la SWG), and allow Entertainers to conduct the customized needs of gear for people. These social interactions not only keep things immersive, but also pushes some of the economy into a moving state. /tip was the greatest thing ever in SWG. I suspect the limitation of the character creation is based on stability of the game. The more customized characters in game the more laggy it would become? This is something they need to look at to make the game better. Lord of the Rings Online, and DC Universe allow you to save collected outfits and have up to 3 different looks, and still keep your current gear stats. There is an obvious issue in SWTOR with the stats becoming buggy (if I add a new mod or change out some gear my strength numbers drop to 200 when it should be 700+, once I re-equip the stats come back), it fixes itself eventually, but this needs to be addressed. Nobody wants to be in a galaxy where everyone looks the same. And where are the wookies!??!

 

The Combat / PVP

Some of the combat feels different from other MMO’s I’ve played (no auto attack?), but I don’t have much to complain in the way of PVE. I have had much fun with the content and the damage output for my characters, (Sith Marauder/Bounty Hunter) all that has been quite satisfying. However, we all know PVP is broken. (2- lvl 50’s vs. 2-lvl 44’s, and 2- lvl 38’s and they still lose??) And YES, I know how to play my class, as well as the others that were fighting. There seems to be an unbalanced metric for those that are lvl 50 which I heard the next patch will address by giving them their own bracket. Moreover though is being able to choose what type of PVP to enter, huttball, huttball… ugh huttball. To much! They need to add more instances for PVP to take place and there needs to be contested spots (on old planets as well) to allow variety of battles to take place around others that aren’t pvping yet (i.e. ops team vs ops team in front of the cantina on tattoine). This would build up the anticipation to reach level 50 more and add more interest to get into group pvp. This is a mistake SWG made, more random acts to happen in the world to make it unexpected….this is what makes MMO’s cool….that and a rare loot drops! =D One thing LOTRO did well is the use of titles by grinding out enemies, not only would you get a title, but certain accomplishments of grinding added bonuses to players stats. I would grind out Hoth all day.. and night.

 

The Graphics

I’ve heard mixed reviews of people having really bad problems with the graphics in this game, I run Nvidia in both my laptop and my desktop and this game has more polish than shiny new shoes! Yes, there are bugs (report them!) yes, there some glitches with NPC’s (report them!) and yes there are some quests that are broken (report them!) I think the art design is unparalleled in any other star wars games I have seen, besides Mass Effect and the KOTR games. Every landscape I come to on mountain peaks, I’ll take screenshots and enjoy the environment….but it’s just not large enough to make it seem overwhelming. Skyrim and Oblivion are good examples of large landscapes, and even LOTRO has some spanning parts of the map where you can see off into the distance and actually travel there to climb that mountain or statue, etc. SWTOR is missing the “massive” part of their planets in this MMO. In SWG (before you had a speeder) it would take you a good 10-12 minutes to walk to your destination, which I think SWTOR has streamlined, but I really do miss the large landscapes and player based cities and homes you could walk into and browse and just..explore! The Exploring is cool to find those datacrons, but the maps still feel confined and it’s not like there are several unnamed dungeons or caves that you pass along that you realize to yourself “Oh I gotta come back here when I’m higher level and see what’s at the bottom” instead it’s like, you have completed most of the quests here, now go to the next planet. This linear approach again, takes away from the immersion of the game. They need to make the maps larger, and make out of reach places apparent for the later leveling up in the game. You know you aren’t in a TRUE MMO unless you’re getting lost in the world at some point. Lol Finally, there is no weather system in the game. I complained about this in beta. There should absolutely be night/day swings, and rain, sunshine, snow, and fog for most the planets..these are advanced graphic options that should be implemented ASAP imo.

 

Small Touches

Since only playing up to lvl 44 (still not 50 yet) My last suggestions to make the game experiences better are to add the following:

 

-Add ability to use a temporary “boost” on your speeder to launch a 5 second boost to 120% (has a cooldown)

-Adjustable UI (already being addressed from what I read)

-Add the option to STOP the camera from snapping back behind the player. It’s so annoying trying to get those great screenshots while riding or walking. Yes I know I have to hold down the mouse button, I don’t want to do that every time and then have the camera snap back. More camera placement options please.

-Add more Emotes. I never see anyone standing in groups doing silly moves or star wars’esque type things. /smoke and /twirlpistol for Smugglers & Bounty Hunters. /float and /sithmeditate for Jedi & Siths. /polishrifle and /computerhack for Ops and Spys.

-Add a longer lapse for AFK/logouts. If I’m paying 15$ a month, I want to be able to let my character stand there and be a part of the galaxy even if I’m just waiting on crafting things to be done. Come on now.. (15-20min please)

-Make ships more meaningful. I group with my RL buddy all the time and we have yet to see better co-op things to do besides our class quests which we are both a part of. I’d like to check out his ship with collectables, as he would for myself and my adventures.

- Add an ability to call in a shuttle to get back to your starship from the planet! Going through those un-needed zones to get back to your ship is very lame.

-Allow players to sit in chairs in cantinas and starports (like when you are sitting on your ships chair) very trivial but another part of the immersion.

-Allow the Hologram dancers (CE) to stay up for more than 10 seconds.

 

Thanks to Bioware

I can bet my life it is not easy to manage a new mmo into the gaming world and I can’t thank Bioware enough for making my Christmas so frickn great. The launch was flawless considering the feat they needed to accomplish. The servers have been stable, and they resolved the que issues (on my server at least) This game is getting there, and if they listen to the community (not the whiners) and add some meaningful content and keep the intellect high on the involvement with end-game raids and complex crafting they will continue to bring in players that will appeal to the WoW’er’s and the Hardcore SWG’ers, and those that want to just play casually. That’s what makes an mmo, a whole lot of different levels of interest making the world thrive. Here’s to hoping that this game keeps pushing the boundaries of what a next gen mmo can be like. I think if they took some pages from LOTRO, DC Universe, and SWG that would be beyond anything they would expect this game to ever be. Cheers to all the devs and hard workers on this project. They got my subscription as long as end-game content is there…I love this game.

 

PS: I want my own Max Rebo playing on my starship!

 

-Rendus

(Helm of Graush)

(Never played a single day of WoW-thank god)

Edited January 9, 2012 by hizzler

[LordRelyks]

About customizations...they will soon be adding something similar to the armor coloring kit in SWG.

 

And Ill be damned, an MPI flurrian.

Edited January 9, 2012 by LordRelyks

[DarthRipley]

Dear lord thats a lot to read...

[Erosith]

to long to read

[krisslanza]

I'm not going to lie, I didn't read your whole post. But I want to comment on the idea behind it.

 

Saying you're a vet of another MMO isn't the best idea, in my opinion. MMOs need to stop copying one another too much, and trying to incorporate ideas from your favorite MMO into a new MMO isn't the best idea.

 

You end up with a really messy FrankenMMO if you do that, instead of something that wants to do what their design team intended...

[Mephismo]

Yeah it was really too much to read but you can be sure those that care will be glad of the info

[Fraxture]

I went snow-blind from the wall of white text.

But yes, coloring was in at beta by allowing it all to match your chest piece color scheme.

But it made it look like no armor progression was occurring due to the limited change in gear's look as you leveled.

 

They took it out so the could re-access it and come up with a better solution.

Edited January 9, 2012 by Fraxture

[hizzler]

Agreed with you Kriss, and I dont really condone directly copying from other mmo's but other mmo's somewhat have the right idea for direction, and some of those are overlooked in SWTOR I beleive.

 

Sorry for the long rant, been meaning to get my thoughts out there since beta, but Ive been enjoying the game-go fig lol. ahaha thanks to those that read. =P Just some things I wish were there...

[Toat]

Not SWG 2.0.

 

Therefore, your opinions are invalid.

 

Also, don't care about your opinions anyway and was too long to read.

 

*moves on to next post*

[Ceasaigh]

For god sakes read the entire post. You all have ADHD or something?

 

 

Great post. Well thought out and great suggestions. I too am a SWG vet of Pre CU and played it till it's announced end. I felt immersed and part of the world. In TOR I feel separated and detached.

 

 

I love the game it's entertaining and fun to play. I have a 50 Sith Sorc and a 34 Guardian. But more immersion would go a long way in making this universe seem like a universe and not a small world.

[Stradoo]

Not SWG 2.0.

 

Therefore, your opinions are invalid.

 

Also, don't care about your opinions anyway and was too long to read.

 

*moves on to next post*

 

Had good points.

 

Sorry you can't follow long paragraphs.

 

Glad you left to next post.

[ChimaeraUK]

Yeah i couldn't be bothered to scale that wall

 

To be honest though i really think a lot of people remember SWG through rose tinted glasses, yes it was a good game but it had some major problems. Announcing yourself as a SWG:Pre CU player kind of comes across as a bit egotistic, almost like saying i'm a competitive PvP'er so my opinion is more valid than yours.

 

Just a minor unrelated gripe though

[Meluna]

Hello all!

 

We do appreciate feedback, both positive and negative. However, we do ask that that feedback is constructive. Allison's thread goes into more detail about what we're looking for in feedback and how to make sure your feedback is constructive and helpful. Please take a moment to read through that sticky which can be found here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=141421

 

With that in mind, we're going to go ahead and close the thread. If you have suggestions for the game, we have a great thread for suggestions and encourage you to add yours to it: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=87349

 

Thank you for understanding and helping us make sure that the forums are as constructive and helpful as possible!