Blacklynx Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 First something about me, I started playing mmo's around 9 years ago, and the one that popped my cherry was Anarchy Online. It was also the only one so far where i spent 4 years playing, haven't broken a year in the others i played (and i played alot of them). SWtor however caters to me quite alot so i would like it to break my record, unfortunately it has issues and designs i fell are lacking (all do to an extent, there's always goods and bads in any game). I rarely post in the forums, even tho i read them alot. I already posted here wich is more than i usually do, wich means that i really want this game to became better and better as it grows. Therefore i tried to summarise the things i feel are lacking as well as some thouhts in some areas. Also tried to give some suggestions where i could. Hopefully i didn't come too strong (couldn't do much about character creator tho, sorry). Some subjects i simply can't understand why they're lacking. I also only going to mention my biggest pet peeves in SWtor. It's only my opinion of course, and opinions are diverse, but i'm posting these for two reasons. One to get this out of my chest and Two to see what other players think of my suggestions, maybe some are not feaseble others can be improved, i would really like to see your thoughts here. And yes, it's a wall of text, i hope you can bare with it, and please forgive any typos, english is not my main language. Character Creator This is the weakest and most pitiful character creator i have seen in a mmo in the past 5 years, and i'm counting the few asian mmo's i tried. How is it possible in a 2011 mmo to have so little choice in creating your character especially since you'll be seeing his/her face in all the conversations (unless you hide it with a helmet). There sould be more face models, alot more hair styles (especially longer hair) and as for the face itself there should be different choices for eye shadow, lip design, lip color, cheek color, tattoos, stripes, scars, markings, etc., as well as race specific styles (i'm looking at you twilleks and their one lekk style) There should also be an ingame barbershop where you could change everything, except gender, race and bodytype, for a fee. Also get rid of the dumb companion customization ans leat us use the barbershop for them. Because of voice acting and it's probable costs (no idea how much but can't be cheap) i would have loved to be able to choose the voice of my character, because choosing the gender of my character based on the voice of the actors doesn't feel right with me. For example i want to make a female twillek smuggler, but i cant find a decent variation on the little choices we have in the character creator, basically can't find a combination of markings and makeup that doesn't make me annoyed. Story/Quests Class story is the one thing new in this mmo and it has achieved a decent sucess rate (depends on personal taste really, i dilsiked most of my SI story but i met ppl that liked it). Only thing i would have liked is different choices in quests (different quests would have been really awesome) depending on your advanced class. Quests with meaningfull choices, other than class quests and some planet quests, would also improve the story overall (for example saving someone opens a different quest than killing that person, that way on a second run i could kill the person and go through a different experience). IMHO for a game to not be a boring repeat of content i should be able to level at least 2 alts, on the same side, without repeating more than 10% of the quests, wich is difficult on a pure themepark game but still, our choices should have some meaning (it was advertised as such at least) As a side note it would also be great if choices really matter, most choice are just aid/don't aid, kill/let live and most of the times nothing else happens (but when a character you helped before appears again later on is actually good to notice, haven't seen much tho and only on class quests). Also as a side note there sould have been a third faction, maybe the hutt cartel or something. Companions Companions are one of the best things in this mmo and one of the worst. They add alot to your character wich is why it's really annoying that you can't choose who you want as a companion, you're basically stuck with whoever is given to you, wich is fine in a single rpg, but feels detached in a mmo. The SI last companion is the proof of this, if it's an aprentice for me why can't i get involved in the choice (like zash did with me), choosing what they'll do for me (maybe aiding one that i liked more),etc. In a mmo where your choices matter, you really don't have that many, do you? As for companion customization see above in the character creator One other thing that irks me is that you're only really involved in the first companion quests, all other companions just say "i need to go do ...."and black screen to when they get back from whatever they went to do, i find this really annoying. Besides getting involved i the quests off all your companions i would suggest a full quest arc of 6 or 7 quests when you eached 10k affection with a companion where the loot would be the best pve armor set (or orange armor) where you could choose different looking sets (could only choose one) not just different colors please, and a weapon. In the case you are romancing or are married with that companion a couple extra quests about it. In the ship companions feel as stale as the gameworld, i would like to see them moving aroung doing things. chating with one another, asking my opinion in whatever they where talking about. Also would love more interaction during quests, like giving their opinion before a choice or complaining/agreeing with your choices or simple chitchat about the area or the quest giver, it does happen sometimes but feels to few. Also i can't understand why i can't hide their head slots or in 1.2 use the match to chest, it's really a no brainer why that should be in the game already. Immersion The world seems stale, all the npcs are in the same spot doing the same thing, having the same conversations, always, they should at least move around, more npcs at certain times, less in others, different ppl dancing/drinking in the cantinas, different conversations, etc. The chance of entering a conversation between npc's and gaining a sidequest could also be interesting, especially if it would be random (meaning i could pass several times in that area, by those npc's and nothing happening, then out of the blue they call for me for a question leadibg to a sidequest) Day/night cycles would have been great but i heard they weren't going to do it, anyone can post why or link me to where they said it? Thanks Live events, when they come, should bring some life back in, if they make it right. Fluff As silly as it is fluff can keep players happy for a long time, and can be used as something to take the mind of the boredom everyone eventually reaches. Housing - housing is always requested in most decent mmo's, altho here many can claim that we have the ships. Well ships are bland, you can't buy better ones/improve the one you have, can't decorate them nor can you show off the work you did. Hopefully it's something on the works here. Pets/Mounts - nothing would please me more then getting a pet and groom it this adulthood where i could choose to turn him into a mount (roaming around in a Nexus would be great). Collections - hunting down old armor sets/weapons/artifacts/etc through different worlds. Having the ability to show them in your house/ship. Some ppl like it. Legacy The legacy system, as it grows, might become something really interesting, however being introduced at this time as it is, will probably annoy more ppl then please. For me the biggest annoyance is the species unlock, i don't agre with it, as it is. I'm on a rp server so i really hope not to see a flood of purebloods and chiss on the republic side, these should be extremely rare. Add the fact that ppl will have to remake some of their alts (on a completely boring 100% repeat of content) if they want to change the race or remake with the new unlocked options. Replayability As far as i know only class story are the only specific/different quests in this game. Planet quests are the other ones where different choices seem to do something but sidequests/heroics are always the same, wich is what i consider the biggest flaw in themepark games. Basically if you level an imperial to 50 going through all the quests, if you start an imperial alt 80 to 90% of the content you already done it. As a side note i despise dailies, repeating the same quests every single day over and over is just boring and dumb, i consider it a complete lack of inovation and a bad design. I already consider repeating ops/hm fp's boring as hell, dailies are even worst. It's bad enough repeating content on alts but reaching endgame and only have the same dailies/ops/fp to do over and over it's disheartening (to me at least). Seen some good suggestions in the forums, for example someone suggested dailies with branching decisions where you could actually paly completely differents stories depending on choices. My suggestion would be simply random quests using the mission terminals for a better undesrstanding of the idea the devs only need to check out a 10 year old mmo colled Anarchy Online and see their mission terminal system. Other ideas on the story/quest area above. Community In all the mmo's i played one of the biggest reasons a game suceeded or failed where boiled down of how good the community was and how good the community tools in the game where. SWtor is lacking in this area, from a clunky (and annoying) chat system, no guild functions, no areas for communitys to thrive, no events tools, no guild search function, no mentor system, etc. Hopefully they are working on it and the only advise i can give is to check other games where there is a strong community, see what they have and adapt to SWtor. Final thoughts I know this game is starting, but i also know that simple things that should have been in at launch are still being made (ui customization, robust lfg tool, guild tools) some i can't understand how are they not there, they're basic for all mmo's nowdays, 5 yeas ago maybe not but there's little excuse for a 2011 game. A character creator that might have been fine 10 years ago but definitely not in 2011, i'm sorry but it's ridiculous how pitiful the one in this game is. Some of these things are on a bare minimum, almost like just to say "we have it ingame". I see alot of potencial here, if BW wants to work on it (and if EA allows it). Some bad, or poorly implemented, designs but that happens and can be made better, but sometimes it feels like outside of the class and planet story things were a bit rushed or with a "we'll add it later" mentality. I, unfortunately, believe that it it wasn't a SW game it wouldn't have as many subscribbers as it currently has. As a final note, i know it's the first mmo from BW (still they should have researched several good mmo's to decide on what was needed at launch) and even with the flop that was DA2 and the ending in ME3 i still belive they are te best storytellers today, therefore i have big hopes for SWtor. Thanks for reading all this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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