metalgearyoda Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Can we get some more ways to earn social points please? I really don't see why grinding group PvE quests is the ONLY way to earn some of that cool looking gear. How about a way to get social points through real "social" interaction rather than just talking to NPCs? On a side note.... Why do I need social III to use outfits I buy with space coms? The two types of game play have nothing to do with each other. Ugh. reminds me of QQ about the AQ scepter quest. If it isn't hard then the reward isn't worth it. Stop. Please. I don't want to see "party time" titles on lvl 16s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zuqual Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I'd be satisfied if I had one way to earn social points. Unfortunately I have been stuck at 250/750 social 1 for I don't know how long. Common bug, but no eta from bioware about when they might get around to fixing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcalusine Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Social interaction. Player run events, cantina mini games, visiting other player's in their ships, helping players with questions they might have etc. etc. Anything would be better that PvE. I think I understand the real issue between us now. You want mini games, quickly repeatable events and ways to "grind" points. You are use to the other MMOs where leveling is fluff and endgame is the real game. Bioware has constructed an MMO where they would like leveling and story and making alts to exprence other classes stories. With endgame seemingly the afterthought. I know you will automatically get defensive by this statement but try to understand it. I have all the social points I will need in game at lv 29. Never did any mission twice never grinded anything or otherwise felt forced to do something for points. I played the game like I wanted. With friends and thus I was rewarded for it. I dont flaunt my points or think myself superior but i do think that I deserved them. Lets not turn this into an arguement about what it means to be "social" because that isn't going to change the fact that you have to do (x) to get (y) points Plus I DO see the pvp analogy as correct. If somebody said my character is extreamly valorous, I exude valor in all of my missions while leveling but I dont have valor points... I would tell them, it doesn't matter how valourus you think you are, that is moot. what matters is wether or not you participated i pvp.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metalgearyoda Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 You're missing the point. The title of the points is what makes it dishonest and hypocritical, but forcing people to do group PvE for what is actually role play gear, is bad regardless. It's not that I don't "get it".... I do. I just think it's stupid for the game to try and make people play a certain way if they don't enjoy playing that way, especially through restricting Role Play gear to PvE players. Just "role play" that you are wearing the role play gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aisar Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I have been running FPs constanly on my healer. Almost rank 3 at level 30. Having said that it does seem like you need too many FPs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KipMalice Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I'm level 50 and have completed every flash point multiple times, as well as hard modes and heroic quests as well. I am only Social II. Your full of bantha fodder, there is no way you have a 29 and a 37 with Social 4 unless you were grinding flashpoints and group quests for the points the second you hit level 10. Don't make up B.S numbers to support your side when you are just making stuff up, it destroys competent conversation. 99% of the stuff at 50 is bugged and doesn't give social points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcalusine Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I'm level 50 and have completed every flash point multiple times, as well as hard modes and heroic quests as well. I am only Social II. Your full of bantha fodder, there is no way you have a 29 and a 37 with Social 4 unless you were grinding flashpoints and group quests for the points the second you hit level 10. Don't make up B.S numbers to support your side when you are just making stuff up, it destroys competent conversation. I can prove it with screen shots, you didnt read my posts. I play the WHOLE GAME. every mission, every side quest, ever CLASS quest, every bounty board and every herioc with others... never solo... thats how i got there. I would not lie. now i have to take screen shots... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notebene Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Bioware never inteded you to grind Flashpoints to get social points. At least not as the PRIMARY way to get them. Sure they there but its not the most efficient way of getting them. Most people who play flashpoints arent interested as much in tons of dialog anyways. And putting more dialog in (repeatable) flashpoints that people skip after the first time anyways would be a move in the wrong direction. It wouldn't make people group any more then before. And getting people to group and experience STORY together is the goal. Fine, then my 2nd post. Daily heroics, 7-10 opportunities per quest. Ok, 5. Normal questing? Not going to happen so much for me. The whole 'class story' thing is already a problem with trying to hang out with a friend. You either have to spoil each other's story for the other, go do them both at the same time, and who ever finishes first waits, or if the person needs help, see 'spoiling', or run two different ACs of the same class, and do the quest 'twice' each time. The latter is what I'm doing currently with a friend, and while it seemed like a good idea at the time, the whole 'only one person gets to interact and advance it at a time' thing is just plain silly. I try sync up my questing with my class quest, so when I'm in the area for my class quest steps on a planet, I'm also doing other quests in that area, or the greater 'planet quest' steps for that area.... ...blech lost my train of thought! The point is, if the sole intention of social points was to get people to group 'just' for the little planet quests, then I guess I don't deserve them, and I think the whole system is then a wasted opportunity for a great mechanic. Those quests just aren't group content, and coupled with interweaving the class quests in, it's just not an attractive place to use them. So I'll be the poor schmuck at 50 advertising for normal BT runs for social points. I'd do the HM, but I'm sure I won't be good enough, and there's 'nothing' fun about joining a PuG and having Timmy McAwes0mzsh0rtz tell me I sukz0rz. Yeah, I probably do. I'm not going to get any better. I do the best I can. That will mean HMs are out, so normal BT for me. So be it. Unless they figure out a way to add a bunch of social points to Heroics, that'd be great. It would get me to want to participate in social, group content - which Heroics are. And I'll digress on the FP, for now. I can kinda see your point, or at least respect your opinion on that, and I'm sure there are others that share it. Having said that, I don't FP much at all any more. When I ran BT, I was thinking I'd do it a lot more, and was 'impressed' with the mechanic Bioware had developed to encourage more PuG dungeon running. But I digress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forgon Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 That's not two different ways. It's the same thing. Some people like group based PvE, some don't. What I'm asking for is an actual "social" way to earn these points, so what you're saying here doesn't really make sense. These points are about forcing people to do group based PvE... which has very little if anything to do with being social. Am I the only one scratching my head at this? Its your choice whether or not to talk to the people you group up with, but grouping up alone encourages you to talk to people and work with them as a team then not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcalusine Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 this is not here to troll or gloat. Just as proof the the guy who didn't believe it was possible to get the amount of social points i have at the levels I am at, without grinding. Lv 38 character. Play with one friend AT ALL TIMES. ALL QUESTS = social 4 http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/742/swtor2012012218492701.jpg Lv 28 character. Play with two friends AT ALL TIMES. ALL QUESTS = social 3, almost 4 http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4936/swtor2012012218504467.jpg Its not especially hard or confusing. You just have to be commited to playing with friends or grouping for the story quests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stenrik Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 This is just a small-picture rant, but I hate how fleet commendation gear requires social points to wear, because it's so unrelated. I mean how long does it take to get to rank 3 anyways? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bortman Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 At the moment, the only way to get any reasonable amount of social points is to level up in a group, and to run Black Talon/Esseles over and over again with a full group. None of the other flashpoints have enough dialogue choices to give any amount of social points worth mentioning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyPanzer Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 To me, the big issue with social points is the total, utter and complete disconnect between how they are rewarded and the content they unlock. There is a myriad of different content only available by having a high enough social level, geared towards a myriad of different player types, yet social points can only be gained in one very specific way, enjoyable to one very specific player type. And weirdest of all, it's not very social. Sure, it's tied to grouping, but the points are rewarded for doing the one thing that you can do as a group that requires absolutely no ineraction between the players: choosing convo options. Comparing it to the PvP valor system is just absurd. Valor is gained through PvP and grants access to PvP gear. To be comparable, social points would have to grant access to something deeply tied in to the thing you do to get them; conversation options. Say every social level gives you an extra convo option or something like that. I just want my damn pilot outfit, and I have the fleet coms to buy it with, but playing the way I liek to play I wont be able to buy it for the coming year or so. It doesn't make sense... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tcalusine Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 (edited) To me, the big issue with social points is the total, utter and complete disconnect between how they are rewarded and the content they unlock. There is a myriad of different content only available by having a high enough social level, geared towards a myriad of different player types, yet social points can only be gained in one very specific way, enjoyable to one very specific player type. And weirdest of all, it's not very social. Sure, it's tied to grouping, but the points are rewarded for doing the one thing that you can do as a group that requires absolutely no ineraction between the players: choosing convo options. Comparing it to the PvP valor system is just absurd. Valor is gained through PvP and grants access to PvP gear. To be comparable, social points would have to grant access to something deeply tied in to the thing you do to get them; conversation options. Say every social level gives you an extra convo option or something like that. I just want my damn pilot outfit, and I have the fleet coms to buy it with, but playing the way I liek to play I wont be able to buy it for the coming year or so. It doesn't make sense... lets be real here. there is no metric for how much you "chat" with friends. Or how good you are at conversations. So you aren't EVER going to get points for spamming general or any other absurb "social" thing. Bioware figured this would be a way to reward people for grouping since dialog takes place before and after quests.. What is the problem here? Also what is your suggestion for social rewards? People like outfits sooo they are cool rewards. Make them better people get jeolous and rage. Make them lamer and nobody cares or wants to get them. Once again. What is the problem here. I tried to be nice but all i hear is people QQ'ing that they dont have something they didn't earn. Edited January 23, 2012 by tcalusine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melkathi Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 The way social points should have been handled, in my opinion, is by earning points alongside the XP you earn while in a group. The game already gives you bonus XP, social points could be earned alongside them and go into a separate pool, same way legacy points go into a separate pool while being earned alongside normal XP. It would have made more sense than the current system. It would have made more sense if social level was joined for all characters of a server, similar to how the legacy system works. It would have been beneficiary for role-players especially (if social gear wasn't BoP) - then, if you felt it appropriate for your sith sorcerer, who started as a slave, to wear a shock collar because he/she always had been disobedient, you could wear it from the get go and wouldn't have to wait till extremly late in the character's life to get the concept right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninthcircle Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 lets be real here. there is no metric for how much you "chat" with friends. Or how good you are at conversations. So you aren't EVER going to get points for spamming general or any other absurb "social" thing. Bioware figured this would be a way to reward people for grouping since dialog takes place before and after quests.. What is the problem here? Also what is your suggestion for social rewards? People like outfits sooo they are cool rewards. Make them better people get jeolous and rage. Make them lamer and nobody cares or wants to get them. Once again. What is the problem here. I tried to be nice but all i hear is people QQ'ing that they dont have something they didn't earn. People arent QQing they are saying that the system doesnt work very well, and I tend to agree. I am social enough to earn some points but I have yet to reach social II, and not everyone's times coincide with thier friends so perfectly all the time to be on at the same times and do all the same quests, if you can then good for you, you are a minority trust me. Most of us have schedules and stuff that do not coincide perfectly with friends and so they decide to play and quest solo when they can actually play the game. Doesnt mean these people dont try to be social and stuff its just that the system in place to earn social points or the rate with which the points are earned is not a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lokai Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Step 1: find a friend Step 2: level up with friend Step 3: gain social points for each conversation choice 4 for wins 2 for loses step 4: ???? Step 5: profit i did this and am sitting at social V i could easily hit 7 or 8 if i did all quests in game i still have quite a few remaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnnyPanzer Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I realise that it's difficult to come up with another metric for social activity that wouldn't get abused. Rewarding chat would, like you point out, encourage spam. A slow tic while grouped would just mean people always stayed grouped, no matter what they were doing. But that doesn't mean that the game needs to spread the rewards for social levels all over the place. What should the rewards be? To be honest, absolutely a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g except orange gear. Valor is granted by participating in PvP and can be used to obtain the best PvP gear available. Social points are granted by participating in grouped PvE, so why not let the rewards be some awesome raid gear? Mods, epic armor and epic weapons, geared towards flashpoints and heroics. Just as an example, I'll bring up the pilot uniforms again. They are orange, but unless I slot them with great mods, they are useless in PvE. They are clearly meant to be used for RP purposes and for a specific look. And I'm not asking to get them for free. In fact, I think they cost waaaaaay too little. Up the fleet com cost ten times and I'm still fine with it, because it's pilot uniforms and it makes sense to have to do a ton of space missions to get them. But social points? Why? What does PvE have to do with piloting? I don't have the lifestyle that lets me do flashpoints or a lot of grouping. I have a newborn kid, and I always need to be able to quit the game in an instant. If that were to cut me off from some awesome PvE gear, I'd be fine with that. But the fact that it cuts me off from some of the best looking RP clothing is absolute nonsense. You can't PvP, you don't get the best PvP rewards. You can't grind very fats, you don't get to hit lvl 50 in no time. It makes sense to me. But if you can't group a lot, you don't get nice looking costumes? Nope, does not compute. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melkathi Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 This is just a small-picture rant, but I hate how fleet commendation gear requires social points to wear, because it's so unrelated. I mean how long does it take to get to rank 3 anyways? The worst thing is, fleet commendations are earned through the most antisocial action in the game: space combat where you can't even have chat on while playing Social rank 3 you can get in an afternoon doing Esseles/Black Talon over and over with friends. That is unless you are lvl 50 apparently. I hear you can't get social points then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninthcircle Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Step 1: find a friend Step 2: level up with friend Step 3: gain social points for each conversation choice 4 for wins 2 for loses step 4: ???? Step 5: profit i did this and am sitting at social V i could easily hit 7 or 8 if i did all quests in game i still have quite a few remaining. Not everyone's times coincide with thier friends so perfectly all the time to be on at the same times and do all the same quests, if you can then good for you, you are a minority trust me. Not everyone is as ****** and awesome as you. For those of us who are social, but not amazing as you should get at least something, but thats not how the system works, you gotta be hardcore like this bone-head to get anywhere with it and I really dont think thats what they intended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyper_ Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Social points are not targeted towards flashpoints, sure they are a way to grind them but they aren't the focus. They are there to give those people who level and quest together a reward. I do agree though that the pilot gear should not require social points. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dargor- Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 (edited) Sorry people but its really easy to farm BT/Esseles for a day (5-6 hours) and have rank 3 social. In just a single day of trying Edited January 23, 2012 by dargor- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DigitalPrime Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Yes I agree. Ive run a lot of FPs since Day 1 of early access & im nowhere near social rank 1 yet (gametime split over various characters). My friend who adventures with his misses is at Social Rank II already. Its gonna take me months if not years to get there. I think the social system is there to promote group leveling. Ive been leveling my second toon with a friend after hitting 50 with my trooper. And the amount of social points you get from group questing is massive. Im not even level 50 on this toon and i have social II already. But yeh, there needs to be more ways after hitting 50. But group questing and FP are fine for the leveling process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsheraII Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 (edited) The thing is, some rewards for other components of the game, like Space Combat, also require SOCIAL points. What's the connection between those two? Uhmmm, right, there's absolutely nothing social about Space Combat. If you're going to type in chat during Space Combat, your ship will be in red while you'll also have missed two out of the eight shield generators for your bonus objective. Next part, the social vendors. The gear obtained from those basically require you to be constantly grouped with other players, not only on flashpoints, but also during world arcs and class-missions. As someone pointed out already: nice way to spoil the story for eachothers' class, effectively reducing the thing that gives this game such a high replayability value over other MMO's. And you thought Social II was a pain to achieve for that Space Combat Pilot suit or the slave outfit on Nar Shaddaa (worth about 8 Esseles/Black Talon runs) ? Try the social gear on Hoth, which requires Rank IV. More Esseles/Black Talon grinding. So yes, alternative methods of obtaining SP should exist. Kill 100 mobs while grouped for 1 SP maybe? A guildbuff, giving members 1 SP/hour while logged in for a day after the guild cleared some operation or world boss? 1 SP for every player you give your classbuff, provided he/she doesn't have it yet? Edited January 23, 2012 by AsheraII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wutru Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Social interaction. Player run events, cantina mini games, visiting other player's in their ships, helping players with questions they might have etc. etc. Anything would be better that PvE. Good suggestions here. ^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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