Not enough diversity in quests, locations and monster design

[Nindoriel]

So I played through the Jedi Knight story and am now on my second character. I really like this game, I have a lot of fun and I will definitely play through every character's story. But as with everything there's a few things that bothered me.

 

 

Too many humanoids or droids

 

Most quests are about killing humanoids. This game has a lot of creatures, but most of your quests are about killing imperials/rep's or some gang members. Even if you throw in some alien race here or there, they all feel the same (probably due to the fact that they dont have their own skeleton). One of the reasons there are so many humanoids in game is because there's a lot of interior quest locations. It just doesn't make much sense to put animals in a factory, unless it's an animal lab.

 

 

Not enough diversity in questing locations

A lot of the planets are separated into smaller parts. But on some planets they all look and feel the same - prime example is Corellia. No matter where you are, it all feels the same. Interior quest locations have the same problem. Often it's some kind of factory. There should be more diversity in buildings. Throw in a temple or a tomb here or there. Or different kinds of buildings. Nar Shaddar would have been good for having a lot of quests take place in cantinas.

Positive examples here would be Hoth and Bel'savis. They still felt monotone in some areas, but they had a few things that made them feel different, like the lava or the ice spire on Hoth - or the Rakata ruins on Bel'savis.

A planet has a certain theme, like Tatooine is a sand planet, but if you're going through 5 different subzones, and they all feel and look the same, it just gets boring.

 

 

Quests are too monotone

 

Most of the time you are send off to some factory, you kill some humanoids and at the end you push some buttons on a console. I know it's a big theme in Star Wars, but there's too much technology involved in quests. Not every quest has to involve some interior place, where you fight through hordes of humanoids just to push some buttons on some computers.

There are good quests as well, of course. I liked the one where you had to seal the door to lock the beast away on Bel'savis. It wasn't really hard, but it was different.

I liked a lot about the Korriban quests, like deciding the fate of prisoners, and generally the whole Sith plots, intrigues and rivalry.

I liked the quest where you just arrived on Voss and you were talking to the Voss people. Again, not really hard, but just the 2-minute chat was more engaging than a 15-minute killfest in some factory.

I loved the quests in the old Kotor games, where you would try to solve a crime or try to defend someone in court. I would like to see more of that.

There's lots of other good quests in this game, but to my feeling the majority feels too repetitive.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Nindoriel

[Bigbozo]

with 2 50's a 45, and a 43, one thing I've noticed is that there are no spiders in this galaxy.

 

Also my bigest pet peeve with this game is: bonus stage 1; kill 20 of x mob. bonus stage 2; kill 40 of the same flipping mob.

[Touchbass]

Personally I don't like the questing structure in this game for alts , the first play through was above expectations but during my first alt it really hit me. Being forced to do quests is one thing I don't like about an MMORPG. I detest Nar Shadda, I should be able to skip the entire thing with my class quests without being penalized. That's what I loved about WoW, don't ilke a particular zone, you can skip it withouta penatly. Also, with VO, we lost a lot of quests. I don't have exact numbers but there are barely any quests in a zone to begin with. WoW had like 60+ in every zone and this game feels like it has 20-25+

[Andryah]

one thing I've noticed is that there are no spiders in this galaxy.

 

A very refreshing change of pace for an MMO too IMO.

[Andryah]

Too many humanoids or droids

 

Most quests are about killing humanoids. This game has a lot of creatures, but most of your quests are about killing imperials/rep's or some gang members. Even if you throw in some alien race here or there, they all feel the same (probably due to the fact that they dont have their own skeleton). One of the reasons there are so many humanoids in game is because there's a lot of interior quest locations. It just doesn't make much sense to put animals in a factory, unless it's an animal lab.

 

Astonishingly similar to every book, comic book, and movie tied to the lore of SW.

 

This is not an Elven fantasy lore in the wilderness game you know. You need to choose a different lore MMO if ganking critters in the wilderness is your prime directive.

 

Adapt to your MMOs lore, or choose a different MMO IMO. The MMO should not distort it's lore because a few players would rather kill critters in the wilds instead of humanoids and droids inside settled and populated planets.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Andryah

[Dako]

Personally, I would have preferred if they scrapped all sidequests and put their entire focus on class arcs, that is to say your personal storyline, world arcs, which are the planetary storylines, and galactic arcs, which cover the overarching conflict between Republic and Empire, Jedi and Sith, Light and Dark.

 

We'd more than likely have much more in-depth, longer and more epic storytelling if all the resources went towards developing those story arcs.

[Balrizangor]

with 2 50's a 45, and a 43, one thing I've noticed is that there are no spiders in this galaxy.

 

Also my bigest pet peeve with this game is: bonus stage 1; kill 20 of x mob. bonus stage 2; kill 40 of the same flipping mob.

 

 

And no elves, orcs, goblins, faerie dragons, big dragons, etc ... Spiders?? really?

 

 

It is a war, wars are body counts .. I am not sure what you are saying? Are you saying we should be off skinning dogs and carrying hooves back to the quest guys?

[Seravie]

Why kill animals when you can kill your enemy?

It's a war you know, I doubt we would be seeing armies fighting boars, or wolves.

Some animals want to be left alone, lets see the planets that have animals

Voss

Belsavis

Correllia

Taris

Balmorra

Hoth

Ilum

Tython,

Ord Mantell

Korribon

Coruscant

Alderaan

Quesh

Tatoonie...

(Dunno bout hutta or dromund kaas never been there)

[Andryah]

(Dunno bout hutta or dromund kaas never been there)

 

Well let me just say that on Dromund, bioanalysis is the easiest skill to level because there are so many strong/elite creatures there to kill and harvest, just moving from place to place to do your quests. I have leveled up bioanalysis almost exclusively on creature kills alone on that one planet.

 

So, in reality, the OP is exaggerating to make a personal bias to soap box IMO.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Andryah

[Nindoriel]

Astonishingly similar to every book, comic book, and movie tied to the lore of SW.

 

This is not an Elven fantasy lore in the wilderness game you know. You need to choose a different lore MMO if ganking critters in the wilderness is your prime directive.

 

Adapt to your MMOs lore, or choose a different MMO IMO. The MMO should not distort it's lore because a few players would rather kill critters in the wilds instead of humanoids and droids inside settled and populated planets.

 

There are enough different creatures in the Star Wars universe, they just didn't do much with them in SWTOR. And they very easily could have.

[Seravie]

While there are literally hundred of different animals in the sw universe

They have quite a fraction of them.

[Nindoriel]

Well let me just say that on Dromund, bioanalysis is the easiest skill to level because there are so many strong/elite creatures there to kill and harvest, just moving from place to place to do your quests. I have leveled up bioanalysis almost exclusively on creature kills alone on that one planet.

 

So, in reality, the OP is exaggerating to make a personal bias to soap box IMO.

 

There are planets, where the quests almost exclusively require you to kill humanoids and droids. I don't know what soap box means, maybe you mean sandbox MMOs? But this is not a Sandbox vs. Themepark issue - I like quests - there's just not enough variety.

 

Of course there's exceptions, Korriban was very well done, there were lots of different creatures. Dromund Kaas had some animals, but so far no quest required me to kill them. Again, this is about variety and diversity. After 3 or 4 planets you will realize, that you are basically always fighting the same kind of mobs, just with different names.

[Seravie]

you are basically always fighting the same kind of mobs, just with different names.

 

That's mmos/prgs for you.

[Kendaric]

Well, this is Star Wars after all... it's to be expected that your opponents are mostly humanoids and droids. Count all the scenes in the Star Wars movies where the heroes are fighting wild or trained beasts, then count the scenes where they fight humanoids/droids. Compare the numbers and you'll realize why BioWare designed it this way.

 

And let's face it, fighting a group of mercenaries armed with blasters or a Sith lord on board a starship feels a lot more heroic than killing a pack of womp rats. If beasts are used to convey such heroic fights, then it needs to be something that's as memorable as Luke fighting (or rather trying to avoid) the rancor in Jabba's palace.

 

I definitely agree on the quests though, there needs to be more variety to make alts more interesting.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Kendaric

[Nindoriel]

That's mmos/prgs for you.

 

No, in other MMOs you don't have humanoids as roughly 90% of your quest objectives.

If you take a look at Wow, they have a large variety of different creatures and they throw them at you right from the beginning. Sure at some point you'll meet reskinned versions of them, but that's not what I mean. This is about having a variety of different creatures to fight against. They dont all have to look unique. It just needs to be more diverse than having 90% humanoids. Even most of the humanoids in WoW have their own skeleton. An orc looks nothing like a tauren, or a blood elf or a draenei. They don't just have different skin color. They walk differently and they have a completely different posture. In SWTOR aliens are just humans with a different head/skin color.

 

Well, this is Star Wars after all... it's to be expected that your opponents are mostly humanoids and droids. Count all the scenes in the Star Wars movies where the heroes are fighting wild or trained beasts, then count the scenes where they fight humanoids/droids. Compare the numbers and you'll realize why BioWare designed it this way.

 

And let's face it, fighting a group of mercenaries armed with blasters or a Sith lord on board a starship feels a lot more heroic than killing a pack of womp rats. If beasts are used to convey such heroic fights, then it needs to be something that's as memorable as Luke fighting (or rather trying to avoid) the rancor in Jabba's palace.

 

 

Of course the movies focus more on characters, but an MMO is supposed to represent the whole Star Wars universe. With all creatures living in it. It's not an accurate representation if 90-99% of the inhabitants you meet are imp's/rep's/bandits.

 

Again, look at Korriban. They did a great job there.

The problem here is that most of the locations are places, where animals don't fit in. If they'd throw in more temples or tombs like on Korriban it would give an opportunity to add more different kinds of creatures.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Nindoriel