RolyartNala Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 (edited) Mea culpa. I have been incessantly negative on these forums since SWTOR arrived. I have had reasons for this, which largely boil down to parts of the game not being what I would have designed. In particular, I have been extremely critical of the legacy system, labeling it “useless fluff” and a waste of developer manhours. After a few weeks of criticizing the system at every opportunity, I realized that I had no alternative in mind, no helpful suggestions. Beyond hoping for new species (rather than unlocking current species for new classes), I literally had no conception of what I preferred the system to be. I was just complaining to complain. Enough of that. Here are ten things that I think SWTOR is doing well, followed by my crazy wish list. COMBAT I know that for some, TERA-style twitch combat is all the rage, but I like the WoW-style combat in SWTOR. It’s visceral, it has great animations, and it encourages and at times requires tight resource management and smart use of cooldowns to survive. PVP Caveat: I know Ilum sucked, the devs know Ilum sucked, and they are working on it. Better, they are working on expanding the open-world PVP game. But that said, fighting other players is pretty exciting in SWTOR, in large part because of smart combat design and excellent class balance. CLASS BALANCE Yes, yes, I know, Operatives/Scoundrels are OP, Sages/Sorcerers are OP, etc. But their OP-ness is a mirrored phenomenon, meaning at that least both sides have access to the OP (plus they are getting re-tuned.) Overall, though, the classes are pretty well-balanced while remaining interesting enough in their own right despite the mirroring, such that playing a Bounty Hunter feels different enough from a Trooper that I can do both without it feeling too repetitive. Furthermore, there is no “red-headed stepchild” among the game’s advanced classes. All are valuable. This is a feat. ENVIRONMENTAL AESTHETICS I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, give the environment art team a raise, because they deserve it. While the character art struggles with weird glitches (Jedi robe butt) and non-genre MMO boilerplate (WoW-style endgame armor that does not evoke the Star Wars aesthetic), the environment art team nailed it. Visually, the game looks very Star Wars-y. CLASS STORYLINES While the general quest stories begin to feel tired around the time one arrives on Hoth (like a real war, the Imperial conflict seems to drag on forever), the class stories remain interesting throughout, with some genuinely surprising twists. MUSIC The music in the game is pretty good overall. I love that activating your heroic moment likewise activates appropriately heroic Star Wars music. CRAFTING I am not typically the sort of player that enjoys crafting in an MMO. I usually avoid it, in fact. In SWTOR, however, I am happy to click buttons and send minions off on tasks. I’m looking forward to the crafting enhancements in 1.2 quite a bit. RAIDING Normal-mode operations are just hard enough for the average player, in my experience, and hopefully the new “story mode” will continue this trend. In contrast, I think serious raiders deserve obscene levels of difficulty in Nightmare mode if they don’t already have it, with commiserate rewards. FLASHPOINTS In terms of instanced, WoW-style linear content, flashpoints are, on the balance, highly polished and quite enjoyable. SPACE COMBAT It’s a nice mini-game, a fun occasional diversion from other modes of play. It’s cool to watch your ship fly. These are the things I feel SWTOR does well. Looking forward, here is my wish list , which I hope mirrors some of the things on the famed Wall of Crazy. ~~~~~~~~ MY WISH LIST OPEN SPACE PVP/SPACE OPERATIONS I would love to be able to PVP enemy players in space, as well as coordinate operations that have both space and ground components. Wouldn’t that be cool! OPEN WORLD PVP/VEHICLE PVP As James Ohlen mentioned recently on his Twitter feed, big improvements to open-world PVP are in the pipe. Likewise, I would love to be able to drive an AT-AT or speeder bike in PVP combat. Think SWTOR meets Planetside. Why not? SGRAs Same-Gender Romance Arcs. It’s time. ROBUST LFG TOOL I’ve written on this before. It need not be cross-server, but we need a strong UI element that allows us to effortlessly locate and coordinate with like-minded players so that we can tackle group content. Make sure you include story mode operations, hard mode flashpoints and heroic missions in this UI. MORE MINI-GAMES Pazaak. Sabacc. Swoop races on Tatooine. Gladiatorial arenas on Nar Shaddaa. Stuff to do in cantinas during downtime. Make sure we can do it with other players cooperatively or competitively. LOOP MUSIC 6 hours of awesome music in this game. I’d like the option to loop the tunes. MORE FLASHPOINTS I know more are in the queue, but as well, I’d like some of the lower level FPs to have hard mode versions. MAKE EVERYTHING ORANGE All gear should be orange, or have an orange version. Customization should rule the gear game. Rare schematics should primarily provide rare looks (such as the Jedi Battlelord set). FILM-INSPIRED SOCIAL GEAR There are a lot of great outfits in the Star Wars films, and I want to see more of them in the game beyond Leia’s slave girl outfit. How about Anankin’s Jedi robes from Revenge of the Sith, or Luke’s black suit from Return of the Jedi (complete with single black glove), or Queen Amidala’s robes of state from The Phantom Menace? MORE COMPANION CUSTOMIZATION Why does Zenith have to be a sniper? Couldn’t he tank? Why can’t Nadia Grell be a heal-specced sage instead of a melee DPS shadow? Can’t T7 carry around medpacs? Allow us to re-role our favorite companions. Also, I sure would like a gray Wookie. All the Bowdarr customization options are still brown! NEW SPECIES Yes, I know, this is the sort of thing that typically comes with a new expansion. But a guy can dream, especially with all the Togruta, Kel Dor, Nautolans, Rodians, Duros, Gand, Jawas and Wookies staring him in the face everywhere he goes in SWTOR. What is your wish list for SWTOR? Edited April 10, 2012 by RolyartNala Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pokerface Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I wish *quotes the sith warrior* that all the elitist snobs would simply disappear. -Speeder / Vehicle Racing a la Death Race -Space Battles like we have seen them in the movies -Space Battles the way Han and Luke did in Episode 4 while Leia and Chewbacca were flying the Millenium Falcon -PvP completely separated from PvE -E - Sports should NEVER MAKE IT into the game -Within Server Flashpoint Finder -Class Story Continuation -Every Crew Skill should have unique assets. Of course usable in end game -Challenging Hard Mode / Nightmare Operations. -Grand Moff Kilran as my personal servant -Darth Malgus' Armor as a Trophy on my Ship -Mentor's Main CPU as a Trophy on my Ship -Revan's Mask as a Trophy on my Ship -Yadira Ban's Lightsaber as a Trophy on my Ship -HK - 47's Sniper Rifle as a Trophy on my Ship -The Planet of Naboo -Onderon and D'Xun -Title "The Grey" for neutral players like me -Kashyyyk -Dantooine -Title "the Mandalorian" for Bounty Hunters -Title "The Ghost Agent" for Imperial Agents -a restored and newly formed Imperial Intelligence -the possibility to use the "Darth Name" for Inquisitors and Warriors. Example: Darth Mortem (not Darth Max Morris) -Jekk Jekk Tar Bar -The Spirit of Vengeance as a new base of operations for bounty hunters Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parali Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Hello everyone, While we do appreciate anyone who takes the time to compile constructive feedback for us, we're closing this thread, as we do have a forum for suggestions and many subforums for specific topics. If you have a specific suggestion or individual piece of feedback, we encourage you to post in the Suggestion Box forum or to make a thread regarding your issue in the relevant subforum. We'd like to remind our members that suggestions are best when directed to the correct subforum. Compilation lists are not usually the best way to give feedback since the conversation tends to be unfocused. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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