Asuka Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Some planets lack starship accomodating spaceports so you got to go through an orbital station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monitorguy Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 The planets that have these are planets at war. They only can have shudeles land safely . The orbital fleet can protect the station. This is a MMORPG. So for the RPG part they make things work with the story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 (edited) The planets that have these are planets at war. They only can have shudeles land safely . The orbital fleet can protect the station. This is a MMORPG. So for the RPG part they make things work with the story I understand your POV and from a "story pov". It would be nice if there was some REASON for going to them other than their current use. In the example of "planets at war" why not have quest chains that "start" at the Docking station ... Right now they are just taking up space and time and are not really used (expet in certain "companion quests"). Perhaps make each "character" per player go thru this slog ONCE per character to "open" the path and then have a short cut "load directly to X" after. Edited February 21, 2012 by Urael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fadingdimension Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 planets are large, so where you land on any given station currently is just 1 city or area... maybe down the road there will be multiple options for landing on different sites that you will be able to choose from when going through the orbital stations hopefully this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terminova Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 The only reason I can think of, is because making a spaceport with separate hangars on a small settlement doesn't make sense "Reality" wise. But in all honesty, I would MUCH prefer just having a small lot where 4 ships all hang together, than to have to run through another spaceport/orbital station. Someone will complain that their ship is further from the elevator than someone else's. While having a separate story zone for each hangar may improve immersion, I believe it's hampering on quality of life as a whole by making getting from point a to b a needless hassle. That isn't for immersion, that's because part of the class storylines takes place in their specific hangars. Also, by having separate hangars, they won't run into bugs involving players not being able to board their ships. I honestly think some people would simply be happier playing a lobby style game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddller Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 any1 notice that when you press the exit door on your ship(fury etc.) to illum for example the next cutscene is you start to fly into the planets atmosphere is the orbital station that close to the planet? doesnt look like it as you take the next shuttle down n u c the planet in the background Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goretzu Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 The planets that have these are planets at war. They only can have shudeles land safely . The orbital fleet can protect the station. This is a MMORPG. So for the RPG part they make things work with the story Korriban is at war? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Destinov Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I understand the story-immersion aspect when it comes to "hostile" planets (i.e. Balmorra) versus fairly established planets (i.e. Alderran) that actually has a spaceport. But it is EXTRAORDINARILY annoying and superfluous. Maybe as a compromise, get rid of the elevators and have the class airlock lead directly to the shuttle? That would at least eliminate one step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marb Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 (edited) The whole getting to your ship system is very clunky. The orbital stations just add another layer of tedium. Solution: 1. Having separate docking areas for each classes ship is unnecessary. There should be a single large landing area with all the classes ships there. The entrance to each ship would be the green phase portal. 2. Remove orbital stations and star-ports and place the same large class ship area mentioned above on each planet. (having them open roofed would be cool, like the pre-release screen shots of the smugglers ship on hoth.) 3. Pre-record and make bik films of the ship docking/un-docking from planets and the fleet. Have these pre-recorded cut-scenes play as part of the loading screen itself. Edited February 22, 2012 by Marb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manigma Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 You are playing a MMO. I hate to point this out but the entire point of a game that never ends and cannot be beaten is to .... take up your time. Also, it kept them from having to create a new space port with your specific ships graphics at each planet. Obital stations create a time sink and also the illusion of travel. Why not make everyone teleport and fly everywhere? Why cannot I run 300 mph? Stop crying about little details and enjoy the video game. Yeah, by that logic they should just increase the level cap by 20 and force you to grind mobs for your last levels! grind ftw! Being a timesink is one thing, not adding anything meaningful/interesting and taking up time is another. It doesn't help that most of the orbital stations look very very similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragnarz Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Simple solution. Preference toggle : turn off transitions. while your at it, get rid of the long speeder travel. on most planets, the paths are linear and the speeder will go out of its way to go to where you want to go. best example of this is on taris. pick the middle landing, 1 zone west of the most eastern pad. watch the speeder go all the way to the east, turn around and then go to your desired location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murgatroid Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 exactly! I have a ship, why cant I land and skip all that stupid load nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryssprolls Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Yeah, by that logic they should just increase the level cap by 20 and force you to grind mobs for your last levels! grind ftw! Being a timesink is one thing, not adding anything meaningful/interesting and taking up time is another. It doesn't help that most of the orbital stations look very very similar. Pretty much this. Following the "this is an RPG" logic, we could get rid of any teleport option (this ain't star trek), never rez and nor craft any gear (how comes a mere savage beast like a talz is able to craft a clockwork-precise objet like a lightsaber guard without using the Force ? Long trips between planets with lots of loading screens and empty corridors runs are bad and things get worse when you factor in the social aspect of the game : I have quite a few guild mats already going back to our former games because of the lack of "social" in swtor. It is such a pain to reach a friend on another planet in order to help him then go back and resume your questing that my guildmates avoid meeting each other throughout the day until it is FP time, at which point they use their 18h CD fleet teleport... MMOs are a subtle balance between story immersion and convenience. It is all the more true since big names (WoW, cough) were successful at bringing great convenience to millions of players who, now, constitute a big chunk of the other MMOs customers... As, for one, think a transport beacon at the feet of your ship or allowing personal vehicles inside the spaceport hangars / docking station would do much for convenience without sacrificing much of the immersion. And a truckload less loading screens... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korben-Dallas Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I agree that orbital stations are lame... about as lame as the ship droid repeating the same non sense every time i board the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altyrell Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 oh great, another thread bashing the Orbital Stations. Some of the Orbital Stations have Quests involving them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altyrell Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Korriban is at war? Korriban doesn't have a big Spaceport Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnAskham Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 (edited) Orbital stations are junk, big empty hangers are junk, they contribute nothing and with all the stupid load screens, and especially transition screens that are out of sync with the activity, actually lesson the immersion level, not increase it. They should do away with as many empty run through buildings, orbital stations, and such while reducing the amount of load and transition screens required to move around the game world. Or at a minimum, put some options in place to 'auto skip' some of this stuff along with adding little conveniences such allowing binding at your ship, the use of speeders in hangers and stations, and decreasing significantly the cool down on the fleet pass. It is bad enough that every planet plus our ship plus the fleet station is a separate map that has to be loaded, some taking minutes of time staring at a blue bar, but then to be forced to run, not speeder, through a bunch of huge empty transition areas, just to get anywhere is so annoying and a clear time sink with no value. And little annoyances like this are what add up to players quitting this game. Having such little content coupled with so many bugs and performance issues is bad, add in little annoyances like this and people start saying 'f it, I'm going to play something else'. EDIT TO ADD: It's supposed to be a social game, so where are things like group summons so people can complete group content together without all the hassles of trying to get to the same spot? I thought I saw a set of items in one of the pre-release builds created by cybertechs that allowed for group summons, where the heck did they go? Edited February 22, 2012 by DawnAskham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goretzu Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Korriban doesn't have a big Spaceport They can still land there though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Appletaz Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Story and immersion. Did I mention that this is a "story-driven" MMO ? It's an immersion-breaking feature, by the way. When I run to my ship and click on the door to enter.... it has me taking off from the place where it has been parked. But really, all I have done is open the door to do whatever. That cinematic should only happen when I'm sending the ship to another location. So the immersion is lost. I overlook it mostly, because comments about it have been made all through beta and no developer found them viable. So don't argue "immersion" about this particular feature... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goretzu Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 It's an immersion-breaking feature, by the way. When I run to my ship and click on the door to enter.... it has me taking off from the place where it has been parked. But really, all I have done is open the door to do whatever. That cinematic should only happen when I'm sending the ship to another location. So the immersion is lost. I overlook it mostly, because comments about it have been made all through beta and no developer found them viable. So don't argue "immersion" about this particular feature... Certainly adds to their carbon footprint! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFC-Lawndart Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 (edited) People, On the techinical side, Orbital stations are the only way you can fuse 8 individual instances (class ships) into a one world zone. Granted, you can do the same thing at a space port on the ground however, that's were immersion comes into play. In the story line many of these planets are still in contestation with opposing forces. Therefore attempting to build a fully functioning ground space port would be a waste of resources as it would be constantly "nuked" from orbit by the enemy with no way to defend against such an attack. No military would even attempt this without air/space zone superiority which is still an issue on 90% of the planets. Orbital stations can be easily defended by fighters and capital ships and are a lot easier to establish as you can build it in friendly space and tow/launch it when you get to the planet you want. Now I realize there are some really big gaps in this from a operational military standpoint but that's because we are dealing with game developers not military logistical stratigists. Edited February 22, 2012 by SFC-Lawndart Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goretzu Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 People, On the techinical side, Orbital stations are the only way you can fuse 8 individual instances (class ships) into a one world zone. Granted, you can do the same thing at a space port on the ground however, that's were immersion comes into play. In the story line many of these planets are still in contestation with opposing forces. Therefore attempting to build a fully functioning ground space port would be a waste of resources as it would be constantly "nuked" from orbit by the enemy with no way to defend against such an attack. No military would even attempt this without air/space zone superiority which is still an issue on 90% of the planets. Orbital stations can be easily defended by fighters and capital ships and are a lot easier to establish as you can build it in friendly space and tow/launch it when you get to the planet you want. Now I realize there are some really big gaps in this from a operational military standpoint but that's because we are dealing with game developers not military logistical stratigists. Pretty sure shield generators (that stop such orbital attacks) are a major plot line in at least one of the films (and in fact in at least one of the planet quests in SWTOR). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigheadbrandon Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Put something interesting (GTN terminal, maybe?) in the corridor, and I'll happily run it every time. Otherwise, just replace the elevator with the ship's airlock and delete the corridor run. they used to have GTN terminals on every planet.. used to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnAskham Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 (edited) People, On the techinical side, Orbital stations are the only way you can fuse 8 individual instances (class ships) into a one world zone. Granted, you can do the same thing at a space port on the ground however, that's were immersion comes into play. In the story line many of these planets are still in contestation with opposing forces. Therefore attempting to build a fully functioning ground space port would be a waste of resources as it would be constantly "nuked" from orbit by the enemy with no way to defend against such an attack. No military would even attempt this without air/space zone superiority which is still an issue on 90% of the planets. Orbital stations can be easily defended by fighters and capital ships and are a lot easier to establish as you can build it in friendly space and tow/launch it when you get to the planet you want. Now I realize there are some really big gaps in this from a operational military standpoint but that's because we are dealing with game developers not military logistical stratigists. Of course, because everything in this game obviously follows some logically reasoning that fits perfectly into the game world. Like the fact I have a personally holocom I can use to talk to some people some of the time, even across large distance, yet other times I have to use the one on my ship, one in a base, one I found lying around, or one at a public terminal to talk to someone very close. Like the fact I have mail that gets delivered simultaneously to every planet in the universe WITH MATERIAL GOODS ATTACHED, yet the same mail system is unable to send and receive even basic text messages from my ship, even when its docked at fleet. Like the fact I can post an item on the GTN at Dromond Kaas and someone else can buy it 30 seconds later at fleet and have it immediately delivered to any and all mailboxes around the galaxy, regardless of how far away those mailboxes are located. Like the fact I can ride my speeder through the fleet station and hanger, through some planet hangers, tunnels and buildings, yet somehow it won't work in other hangers, buildings or orbital stations. Like the fact I can bind to an arbitrary point on a planet and instantly travel there as long as I am on the planet, outside the spaceport or hanger, and only do it once every thirty minutes. Like the fact I can instantly travel to fleet once an hour if I pay 1k credits or once every 16 hours if I'm cheap. Please stop trying to bring logic into this discussion. It has no place as MANY MANY parts of the game already break with logic when it comes to the game world itself. Edited February 22, 2012 by DawnAskham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dendore Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 if i had to pick one thing that irritates me in this game it would be this. run to shuttle, loading screen, run to ship, loading/splash screen, travel to planet, exit ship, loading/splash screen, run across station, loading screen. its just an annoying waste of time. i realise the point of mmo's is timesink but that time should at least in some way be entertaining not mind-numbingly boring. needs to be cut down somewhat. cutting out the run across the docking bays/stations to your ship would be a huge improvement. truth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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