Gilbara Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) OK when I first heard about this game I checked out the official videos of it, and the one that sold me was a video of Flashpoint Esseles. Once I actually did Esseles for real i thought it was an amazing experience. The story was awesome! It was told using powerful cinematic cutscenes interspersed with fast paced combat, In addition, the wonderful cutscenes allowed all four team members to participate directly in the dialogue and potentially change the outcome of the story, which made for a highly engaging experience. Not to mention the fact we were able to earn much social points together, and light side / dark side points, as well as titles. I got my friend to roll a character just to get them to level 10 so they could do Esseles. They LOVED IT! My friend kept asking when is the next flashpoint. Then came the next one, Flashpoint Hammer Station. And I could not believe the change. None of the elements in Esseles were even used in Hammer Station. The cutscenes were gone. Everything that made Esseles an amazing gaming experience was absent from Hammer Station. All you did was run from area to area, kill the group of enemies, and instead of an immersive storyline with cutscenes you got a voice booming over a loud speaker... what a let down. So I thought, well maybe the next Flashpoints are like Esseles. Nope. Athiss, Mandalorean Raiders, Cademinu, etc. are all totally devoid of storyline, and cutscenes. This is why I believe The Esseles was a bait and switch. Edited February 15, 2012 by Gilbara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IIII-IIII-IIII Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) Truth be told and the sad reality: If FP's were as long and story rich as Esseles, people would be on here raging that it "takes too long". The truth is Bioware can't win with a post-WoW (ie entitled, lazy, A.D.D., instant-gratification) "casual" crowd. That's the sad state MMO's are borderline forced to cater to nowdays. This board highlights that daily with the feigned outrage over nonsense. Edited February 15, 2012 by IIII-IIII-IIII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farbod Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Honestly, Ive always wondered why Esseles was by far and away the most involving flashpoint. All the other flashpoints are just corridors of mobs. Dont know why they made one like this and the rest so boring... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCommando Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I like how you stopped at Cademimu.. because the two right after that one have tons of storyline in it. Both Boarding Party and The Foundry were amazingly done. I havent done Taral V or the Maelstrom Prison but they also sound good. Keep going. Battle for Ilum and False Emperor are pretty good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infestedhobo Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I found that while most FPs aren't as involving as Esseles, Hammer Station is one of the worst culprits. They aren't all THAT bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotpar Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I read in an interview they made both story heavy and story light flashpoints in an attempt to cater to everyone. Unfortunately for me, I somehow managed to skip all of the story heavy flashpoints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-sasori Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) 1. Create a choice popup when entering a Flashpoint about if they want Story or Grind and if it should be Normal or Heroic. 2. Let people choose. 3. Profit by pandering to all groups. 4. Make -Sasori Lead Game Designer and win more $$ due to improvements for other mechanics And i agree it was a bait and switch. Some FPs offer good story, but nothing gets close to having consequences at all like the lvl10 flashpoints. What exactly happens if i chose to sabotage the other team on War Games? Not even a visible 10 second result cutscene...they might as well just put up a sign saying "Do you want +50 light or +50 Darkside points? Edited February 15, 2012 by -sasori Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IIII-IIII-IIII Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 1. Create a choice popup when entering a Flashpoint about if they want Story or Grind and if it should be Normal or Heroic. 2. Let people choose. 3. Profit by pandering to all groups. 4. Make -Sasori Lead Game Designer and win more $$ due to improvements for other mechanics not a bad idea premise, sasori. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timesplitter Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) Maybe they are keeping some of the instances short, so there will be room for future expansion of them. There might be a longer and hard mode version of the light flashpoints in the works at BioWare. Edited February 15, 2012 by Timesplitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotpar Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 1. Create a choice popup when entering a Flashpoint about if they want Story or Grind and if it should be Normal or Heroic. 2. Let people choose. 3. Profit by pandering to all groups. 4. Make -Sasori Lead Game Designer and win more $$ due to improvements for other mechanics That's what I was thinking as well. Too bad such a suggestion would require too much effort to implement, and thus get ignored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AislingKerrigan Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) Hammerstation - Cademimu were filler FPs added late in beta to satisfy a demand for more FPs through the leveling process. You'll also notice that NONE of these are playable in hard mode.. And that all the FPs that do have a HM version have plenty of dialogue/story. Taral & Maelstrom being my favorite.. I've also heard great things about Kaon. Taral V Maelstrom Battle of Ilum False Emperor Kaon Under Siege All have a healthy amount of dialogue. You can really just forget about every FP from 17-30.. Edited February 15, 2012 by AislingKerrigan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gryhmr Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 There are different FPs besides Hammer and Esseles. Some have a bunch of story some do not. If they all had story no one would do them because its the same over and over and over and over. As it is lvl 50s spacebar through it all pretty much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHastyTadpole Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 If they all had stories like Ess/BT, it would NOT be the same every time. The light/dark options actually changed the mission. ANyway if you are just going to <spacebar spacebar ohhhh dark side spacebar> through it, what does it matter how much dialogue there is? An extra 60 seconds of mashing spacebar should not be a dealbreaker. I was in the same boat as the OP, loved the 1st FP but just did Hammer Station and couldnt believe how horrible it was. Glad to hear there are still some good ones later, was afraid of the bait and switch as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Expedience Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I like story in the FPs, but doing them over and over it becomes obnoxious when people don't skip dialogue. I've seen every BT and Esseles conversation option dozens of times; with every possible outcome. You can only see these things so many times before it becomes a boring grind. I wouldn't mind putting up with 1+ hour runs depending on how fast people choose in conversations, if there were more than 3-4 bosses per run. But going through them and not even getting 1 piece of gear after being in there so long most of the time gets on my nerves. Doing constant mini-raids while leveling for gear you'll replace an hour later would be bad design and just plain silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reevax Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Truth be told and the sad reality: If FP's were as long and story rich as Esseles, people would be on here raging that it "takes too long". The truth is Bioware can't win with a post-WoW (ie entitled, lazy, A.D.D., instant-gratification) "casual" crowd. That's the sad state MMO's are borderline forced to cater to nowdays. This board highlights that daily with the feigned outrage over nonsense. You mean the vast majority of players who make it possible for people like you to play the game? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephenjohnp Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) After one run, it would just be tedious. Though there are a lot of story based ones. The fact that you make this thread shows your ignorance. Edited February 15, 2012 by stephenjohnp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kheldras Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) I kind of felt like in AOC... the City Experience is very very cool, but in no way an idication of later gameplay, as the Esseles is sadly no indication of (most) later Flashpoints. Yes the Esseles is a very cool story like a lived-in Movie. Same with the Black Talon... you know Highlevels still use the Esseles to farm Social points, cause you have only a fraction of Multiplayer talk in later Flashpoint. Yes, it feels a bit like Bait & Switch. Edited February 15, 2012 by Kheldras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IIII-IIII-IIII Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 (edited) You mean the vast majority of players who make it possible for people like you to play the game? I played MMO's before this supposed "vast majority" demographic discovered WoW and will once this "vast majority" rediscovers Tetris. Edited February 15, 2012 by IIII-IIII-IIII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky_walkerPL Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Yep, agreed with op. First flashpoint is how all should look like. And we need non-linear flashpoints! Cause right now it looks like that: - First flashpoint - WOW. - Every next one - gash... what a dumb, story-less grind - Maelstorm Prison & Taral V - ok, although still not very good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theangryllama Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 All the story based flashpoints are like this. Black Talon/Esseles Boarding Party/Taral V Foundry/Maelstrom Prison Battle for Ilum False Emporer Directive 7 Kaon under Siege The other ones you mentioned really were thrown in last minute for those who wanted to do flashpoints as they levelled. Without them there was a massive gap as you had BT/ES at lvl 10-12... and nothing else till late 30s early 40s. The ones mentioned above are the good ones similar to esseles with good storyline and interesting fights, they are also the only ones with Hard Modes available at 50. The others are meant to be nothing more than grinds for extra gear/XP with freinds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agarwaenn Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 The newest FP, Kaon, also has a good story (that will be continued in another new flashpoint with patch 1.2) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iain_b Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I like how you stopped at Cademimu.. because the two right after that one have tons of storyline in it. Both Boarding Party and The Foundry were amazingly done. I havent done Taral V or the Maelstrom Prison but they also sound good. Keep going. Battle for Ilum and False Emperor are pretty good too. LOL, this x 1000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthFreki Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 After one run, it would just be tedious. Though there are a lot of story based ones. The fact that you make this thread shows your ignorance. the fact that you reply to a thread like this in this manner just shows how you only want X without Y and are trolling. honestly I think it's a valid point, but I think it might have been one that needed more research. but we have NEVER seen people post with no research done before have we? oh wait yes we have. and those usually just bash BW for no reason at all, just to make it seem like more people hate the game than really do. I think the op's question is valid and a concern and good they are asking and don't deserver to be belittled for doing so. to OP: as others have said there are other FP's you will want to try before thinking there is no story in them. but to be honest there is no satisfying the populace that think that any new game should come out with 7 years of content on launch day -7 . Darth Freki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RocNessMonster Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 I wish there were more branching paths like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. Different choices lead to different bosses on different paths. It would add variety to doing the same instance multiple times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navimygator Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 Maybe they are keeping some of the instances short, so there will be room for future expansion of them. There might be a longer and hard mode version of the light flashpoints in the works at BioWare. God I hope not. If bioware starts releasing old content as new content like a certain other MMO I am finished! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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