Datacrons

[Laiov]

Datacrons was one of the deciding factors for not re-subbing, what is required to do them would amount to exploiting in any other game.

Other games are a lot more anal about the use of terrain. The prevailing MMO philosophy is: it's there to look at, but don't touch it or we'll ban you. This is something I actually preferred about SWTOR. You can kite, jump up stuff, and so forth - and it's actually intended. People complain about the exhaustion zones, but I'd trade open expanses of textured nothing for useful terrain objects anyday.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Laiov

[bloopbleep]

I think the datacrons are spectacular. I love the platformer element in an MMO. So what if they're challenging, it's ridiculously fun.

[Noth]

Datacrons was one of the deciding factors for not re-subbing, what is required to do them would amount to exploiting in any other game. Presicion jumping wall walking , terrain exploits. Much of it is visualy absurd as you can make jumps you shouldn't be able to.

 

Never had any of these issues you speak of. All jumps were jumps I could normally make, never had to wall walk (there was always a platform underneath me. Never had to exploit any terrain and since when was precision jumping considered an exploit. Oh and my body type made it impossible to get 2 of the datacrons the normal way yet even the way I did them would not equate to exploiting in other games.

[Santium]

I think some of the locations are crazy, and impossbly hard to get.

 

In a world where jetpacks exist running along pipes and jumping from point to point to get to a location for the datacron. Is absurd.

 

I was trying to get some of them in Coruscant and with the internet lag and exact jumping needed. I got so frustrated I gave up.

 

BioWare, please fix. This is an MMO not Mario.

 

Have the toons use their hand to make jumps more realistic instead of dropping for missing by inches. If you know where to run and jump to why is it so hard to get it right. The way it is setup now it makes players look like idiots, not heroic.

 

I agree, they seemed like an after thought imo, There's no real reason to go back to places you have already cleared, Not like in wow I was always going back to old zones because i had changed my mind on my profession - or some New quest made us go back- and many other reasons..

 

Also some are really bugged, some cant be completed due to body size, I've gotten stuck on rocks and died for no reason, been shot into space with a MSSG thing then die- Did they not even test them...

 

Ive played flash games that were more fun and better made then Getting DataDrons

[prietke]

Some datacrons are hard to get and need really praticing the jumping skill.

But euhm hé nice thing to do to and pratice jumping if you dont wanna

fight.

 

Also the whole Codex; Lore, Beastiary, Species, Locations etc. is a nice

thing to do.

 

A nice break from fighting mobs, and will you get occupied and busy to find it all

for many hours c.q. days.

Edited January 15, 2012 by prietke

[zechio]

Just wanted to clear some things up for any newer people that might be turned off by datacrons. Note that I'm saying this as someone that HAS gotten them.

 

First, while some are challenging ( minority ), they are not impossibly hard to get. That being said, I don't really recommend trying for hours to get them. If you don't get it in about half an hour, leave. You can either try coming back later, or use any of a variety of methods to get there ( requires finding someone else, guildies are great, to do it though. ) Duel and grapple, friendly jump/pull, jump to enemy through a duel all work great.

 

Next, latency ( internet lag ) will not affect your ability to jump. TOR ( annoyingly, RE allows speedhacks ) lets the client dictate player position to the server, not the other way. That being said, actual computer lag WILL affect things. That should be expected though. See the above cheat methods for help.

 

Speeders/increased run speeds are never required. This includes the one on Belsavis with the false bridge. I made it fine without my speeder at all.

 

Ilum Aim ( I think it was aim ) is confirmed as bugged ( The one you have to run through the exhaustion zone real quick ), it does not actually get picked up.

 

You do not NEED to switch your run on and off. All jumps can be made with it on, though some can not be made with it off. That being said, some people find this help with some of the quick jumps, such as Nar Shaddaa Duros sector with the beams.

 

No luck is needed. All of the jumps can be made reliably. Ask anyone in my guild ( Imperium Inferi on Shadowlands. My name is Zemerick ), much to many of theirs annoyance, I can get to most any datacron in 1 try. Sometimes I have woopses, entirely my fault, and require more tries. It happens, I'm not perfect.

 

Depending on how you count it, only about 2-5 require other people. A couple of those are just in heroics, but can either be done by a 50 solo, or duo at most. Some legitimately do require more than 1 person though. Pretty much all of them can be made easier by going in a group. My guild has Datacron Run days for this purpose.

 

All that being said, I concur with previous utterations: $%^& Tatooines Balloon. I even did that crap back in Beta when it was 2 hours instead of 45 mins, but 45 mins is still WAYYYYY too long. Nar Shaddaa Correllia sector is the longest you should ever have to sit and wait for something just to try and do your datacron.

 

PS: You can check your datacron status per planet by opening your Codex, selecting Planet, and choosing which planet you want to check. Under the achievements section, there will be one for Datacrons. That being said, Quesh and Correllia are bugged. Quesh only has 3, but it says 5. Correllia says it has 5, but it actually has 7. 2 of the Correllia ones will count toward Quesh. Also, remember that the 1 on Ilum is broken and does not count yet, so expect that to say 4/5.

Edited January 15, 2012 by zechio

[Laiov]

Note that I'm saying this as someone that HAS gotten them.

Me too.

 

 

All of the jumps can be made reliably. Ask anyone in my guild ( Imperium Inferi on Shadowlands. My name is Zemerick ), much to many of theirs annoyance, I can get to most any datacron in 1 try. Sometimes I have woopses, entirely my fault, and require more tries. It happens, I'm not perfect.

It sounds like you are contradicting yourself.

 

It should be obvious to anyone who has actually completed most of these that it's highly unlikely anyone will oneshot on the first try every jump on every course, and not due to accidentally pressing the wrong button or being distracted by the household pet - regardless of whether or not you want to see your failures that way - but rather because jumping and surfaces seem to sometimes vary from obstacle to obstacle. Which means the player does not have complete foreknowledge of how a particular jump is going to behave and must learn on a per-platform basis in those cases. That is not mechanical reliability.

 

It is easily contrasted with classic platforming games like Super Mario Brothers or Mega Man, which have very reliable (meaning: universal) jumping mechanics. All platforms in those games are solid to the same points, all jumps from certain angles appear to travel the same inertial distances, and gear-shifting is amply provided for on even the smallest surfaces. Difficulty in those games is instead generated by the addition of moving or viscosity-shifted platforms, time limits, and the placement of mobs.

 

Take the cunning datacron on Taris, for example. Although it's not a difficult datacron to attain, the second to last gap that needs to be jumped clips oddly. Most of the platforms on that course behave in a uniform fashion, with jumpable edges, until you get toward the end and need to jump these two small gaps with the thin rectangular platform in between. The leading edge of that platform cannot be jumped from; you must jump ahead of the edge or you will be pulled down and you will fall off the course. This is an example of a situation wherein people should be toggling sprint. Toggling it off in this case, due to strictly limited running space; which is counterintuitive because the clipping irregularity here is that you actually need to jump a longer distance than is apparent.

 

While it may be possible to sprint that jump, you would be making it unnecessarily difficult for yourself in doing so. The only thing you accomplish by sprinting there is decreasing the lead time you have between keying forward movement and pressing the jump button, and, given the small space between the lip and the edge, you may even need to take it from an angle to compensate for that. Pointless.

 

It seems that some of the courses are designed this way deliberately. I wouldn't even be surprised if obstacle types were related to the type of datacron you get. 'Cunning' in this case, because you need to make a counterintuitve move, while the same planet's 'willpower' datacron involves insta-death and a long run for any mistake. Sticking with it is certainly an act of will.

 

In any event, it is bad advice to suggest that people ought to leave sprint on the whole time when toggling it one way or another is clearly optimum for certain jumps, and so is suggesting that to be familiar with one jump is essentially to be familiar with them all. This is false and you set people up to fail.

 

I would strongly recommend that people who are encountering difficulty consult the SWTOR-Holo.net guide Thamelas posted earlier for information on the platforming irregularities and quirks you will undoubtedly encounter while platforming. Because they do exist.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Laiov