A Thousand Papercuts

[Vespassian]

Companions always having you fixated with their gaze. It looks very unnatural in a lot of cases, such as when you stand on an elevation and they bend their backs and necks looking like something straight out of the exorcist.

 

Just have them look straight ahead.

 

LMAO!! You just made my day

[Izzaak]

Two completely arbatrary yet closely numbered item modification scales. Why is a mod on a different scale in my bag as it is in an item??? Hover over a mod in inventory, it's 23. Put it in a gun, it's 50-something. Completely confusing and pointless...

 

Space missions that are in the quest log are not easily identifiable on the galaxy map. For the love of god, why not???

 

Need to pick two unique names!!! Character name and legacy. Just make everyone identifiable by their legacy. Make the friends list work with legacy while you're at it. This is supposed to be the crown jewel of the game, make it such.

 

Right click to search items on GTN. Would make listing said items way easier.

[Tempos]

The trooper ability stockstrike costs 2 ammo but has no real reason to. It would be cool of this abilities animation could produce some sort of energy field on the butt of the weapon to show how its costs energy to use and also explain why it does so much damage.

 

The trooper abilities animations for gut and fire pulse don't match their descriptions very well. Either the descriptions or animations need some work.

 

The companion unit frame likes to move all the way tot he left of my screen when I join groups. This messes up my UI. Would love if it would just stay in place.

 

For infil shadows, spinning strikes generate circling shadow charges but no clairvoyant strike charges, leaving us with some weird situations after using spinning strike.

[cultofcargo]

Key bindings being associated with the UI if that makes sense

[XavierTeatime]

I have a few that would make communication and roleplaying easier and more visually pleasing: usable chairs, chat bubbles, opposite faction being able to see custom emotes, etc.

 

That said, those are all fairly minor and I can certainly live without them.

 

The *big* ones that I think affect a lot more people than just roleplayers mostly revolve around exploring. Now, my main comparison for this is WoW, but I think their system is very well put together - four major 'continents' contain 99% of all non-dungeon areas. Only going from one continent to another causes a load screen, and even then they're pretty quick. You can spontaneously decide to go just about anywhere at any time with little to no hassle.

 

In TOR, you have to travel from your current location on the planet to the spaceport, board your ship (load screen), run to the front, choose your destination, exit ship (load screen) then go from the spaceport to your destination. It's so much more of a hassle that sometimes I think "Maybe I'll go do something on Belsavis...eh...not worth it."

 

I'm not sure how you'd fix this, as I understand that the setting demands multiple planets, and a ship to get between those planets. Perhaps a quick-travel-onto-ship option, as was brought up.

 

Oh, I'd also like the map to be more comprehensive. You can't really 'zoom in' to other zones than the one you're in. You also can't see anything from other planets. I say, include the entire explorable galaxy in your map that you can access whenever you want (again, like WoW).

[KPureblade]

Some sort of inventory sorting feature would be great.

 

For bounty hunters, when you zone into your ship, you're facing the exit door. This is counter intuitive to me. I just entered the ship, I should be facing inwards!!

Edited August 16, 2012 by KPureblade

[Izzaak]

Oh yeah. Keybind profiles!!!

[neilthegreat]

When walking around the grass just grows in front of you. It would look better if it slowly grew instead of so abruptly. looks bad

 

also arena

[TheUnsavoryHFS]

Oh yeah. Keybind profiles!!!

 

Yes, this would be awesome. Maybe if keybinds were tied to UI profiles?

 

The one thing bugging me right now is with the Sith Marauder Battlemaster chestpiece. Battlemaster Weaponmaster's Vest

 

It clips through itself in the back. There's a small kama type thing over the buttocks that clips trough the bottom of the cloak. Here's a good example.

[Autechron]

Needed Quality of Life Changes/Improvements

 

• please add more quickslots (at least 3) including a special quickslot that can pop up when I use heroic moment - with all the character specific and legacy wide abilities now available there is not enough space for all the abilities on the current quickslot setup
  
• 
  
• please provide indicators (illuminated/colored icon frame would be nice) that indicate which buffs, healing over time abilities, and damage over time abilities are yours
  
• 
  
• please change the way buffs modify health - when you reapply buffs or buff people at full health with the bounty hunter / trooper buff the health should stay at 100% - currently players lose some health even if they already had the buff and were at full health.
  
• 
  
• buffs shouldn't use the global cool down or they should persist through death
  
• 
  
• please allow me to right click on my mini map and send out a pulse visible to everyone in my group - this would be helpful for PVE and especially PVP as typing "incoming grass" requires me to sacrifice mobility and ability with my current mouse/keyboard setup.
  
• 
  
• operations leaders should have the ability to dismiss all vanity pets or there should be an option to disable the ability to target vanity pets
  
• 
  
• please allow me to modify / change combat warning text (Ball of lightning has targeted...) as well as add a louder audio cue when my name appears in the chat log
  
• 
  
• please provide a visible indicator for where the pylons will land in the final phase of the Soa encounter
  

 

Suggested additions to future legacy features or purchasable options

 

• provide a legacy tab in the player bank that is accessible to everyone in the legacy
  
• 
  
• allow me to trade up commendations or let me use them to purchase legacy items or aesthetic items or let me consolidate them across my legacy
  
• 
  
• allow all mounts to travel at the fastest speed, once the highest level of training is available or (possible money sink) add an upgrade item that can be applied to existing mounts to raise them to 100 and 110% speed
  
• 
  
• 
  
• provide a rolodex or some other storage mechanism for companion customizations that does not occupy actual inventory space
  
• 
  
• provide a closet or additional storage unit for social gear so that it doesn't fill up bank space - mannequin in the ship would be great
  

Edited August 16, 2012 by Autechron

[Kendiara]

Companion characters hoods/hats. I want to see their faces, and the game allows me to turn off mine so I want to turn off theirs. Silly yes, but I've taken to just losing the stats so I can see their faces.

 

A "hairstylist" where you could drop credits on changing hair/makeup/beard. I like my hair but I want to mix it up once in a while.

 

Dye. It increases the individuality ten-fold. Yes you will have people who turn out like a day glow clown, that may break some immersion, but as a whole I think its an asset.

[tlwynn]

For lower end machines, mounting and unmounting speeders cause a small graphical lag due to the game summoning and unsummoning the companion (it doesn't happen if the companion is away on crew skill tasks) I would think this is an easy fix

[brainpsyk]

Things that bug me the most

• 9-second AOE stuns in PvP - those are game breakers
  
• the sheer amount of stuns in this game
  
• non-channelled AOE that breaks capping a node.
  
• lack of Dual Spec
  
• The ridiculous amount of stuns in this game
  
• The ridiculous amount of stuns in this game
  
• The ridiculous amount of stuns in this game
  
• The ridiculous amount of stuns in this game
  
• The ridiculous amount of stuns in this game
  
• The ridiculous amount of stuns in this game
  

[ProsaicProse]

An easier way to see ones own ability procs and monitor ones HoT's on fellow targets would be nice. Maybe some way to isolate them, and/or bring them into the forefront visually or audibly?

[Jtobias]

On the issue of remodding a piece of gear. When I level alts I typically go through 5 or 6 sets of custom gear until I find the one I like. While very doable with low level modifications, it can get quite expensive to accomplish at level 50 when you have Campaign pieces that drain the bank when you want to switch the mods out.

 

Solution: Allow the transfer of mods to a new piece of gear at the cost of destroying the old piece (and the old mods).

Or: Reduce the cost of removing mods at mod stations.

 

LOFTY IDEA

 

Custom Companions. Why not add a new companion that can be customized by the player? To cut down on data, they could be confined to several options, while allowing species customization, class options (maybe even choose their abilities and add a small skill tree), gift appreciation (limited to 1 Favorite, 2 Really likes, etc.), Some basic social options (such as LS, DS, Likes killing people, hates bullies, etc.), and Gear Type (restrictions such as: No healers with strength or tanks with cunning could take place).

 

This would certainly fill the niche some people are complaining about what with not having any force using healers, or not having that ONE type of gear requirement. Of course this isn't exactly a paper cut, more like a hemorrhoid (treatable but not necessary), but I felt it was something that could be a drastic improvement to the game. Maybe add a small story line such as: The Hero busts a slave trading operation, but one prisoner (the custom companion) is causing trouble with the other freed slaves as they are shipped off-world to be ingratiated into society. The Hero is sent to investigate, and the companion (ever grateful for being freed) agrees to stick with the hero after a customization process.

 

Of course, that is just one option for a story, and the appearance option could be limited to 5 or 6 presets to reduce data consumption (think, it would be like the population of the game doubling in a matter of days if they were fully customizable. Imagine that lag....)

 

Obviously a very lofty idea, but I hope someone open to suggestions sees this and passes it along. I'm still with ya Bioware, we haven't lost hope.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Jtobias
Added Information

[AdamLKvist]

I'm posting only to congratulate you, OP, on a very well written post. I support this message and would like to thank you for the time you put into this!

[scottwc]

No health percentage on focus target

[JPLaro]

What does it mean, “A Thousand Papercuts?”

 

In late 2010, there was a thread created on the EVE Online forums with the same title. The players organized to civilly and thoughtfully outline their issues with the game, sticking almost exclusively to small, quality of life issues, or very simplistic suggestions to improve their gameplay experience. Game developers at CCP, the makers of EVE, quickly took notice of the thread and kept their eye on it for a while, eventually organizing a small team within the company to get together in their spare time to look into “the small things.” Their efforts were rolled into the summer 2011 expansion, Incarna.

 

After EVE’s Noble Exchange debacle in the summer of 2011, in which there was a sudden focus on exorbitantly overpriced vanity items that sent the community in an uproar, CCP was forced to call an emergency meeting of the CSM (a player-elected group of representatives that meet with developers in Iceland biannually to discuss and address the concerns of player constituents) and plot a new direction for development.

 

After many meetings, public apologies, and internal restructuring, CCP pivoted towards seriously addressing the concerns of players. The Thousand Papercuts Project quickly turned from an erstwhile hope into a very prominent development plan, and the small team working in their spare time became an officially recognized group with the resources necessary to bring that plan to fruition. The Crucible expansion, released in the winter of 2011, was the realization of all their efforts, and focused mainly on the Thousand Papercuts idea, as well a large contingent of bug fixes, balancing, and other quality of life stuff.

 

Crucible was welcomed by the community with open arms, and CCP made it a point to emphasize that the spirit of the expansion, the Thousand Papercuts idea, would remain a significant part of every subsequent release that followed. Indeed, CCP kept good on their word, and in the expansion that followed (and the one currently in development for winter 2012), a significant portion of the content released has included a focus on “the little things.”

 

As an aside, it should be noted that CCP is very close with their community of players and fans, and there is much that Bioware can learn from their example--both from their successes and from their failures (like the NeX incident).

 

I’d also like to point out that I have been playing EVE Online since early 2005, and I enjoy it and SWTOR very much.

 

 

Overview

 

With this thread I aim to gather the papercuts--the little things that don’t necessarily break gameplay, but add up to lessen our experience with the game as a whole--and list them in detail, along with some possible solutions to increase the quality of life for all players. The focus will primarily be on small things (annoyances, quirks, and the like), but I’d also like to include a couple of larger feature requests just to round things out.

 

The goal is to get the community organized and put all of the feasible, well thought-out ideas into a single thread. To keep things as focused as possible, the intervention of moderators and community leaders may become necessary to keep things tidy.

 

I’d ask anyone who wants to contribute to the thread to limit their suggestions to the small, quality of life stuff (examples will be outlined below), and to also limit discussion in the thread to coming up with and working out creative solutions that others may not have considered. Don’t judge or criticize anyone’s post, instead try to be constructive and offer solutions or feedback. Repeating complaints or ideas outright also isn’t helpful, but do feel free to offer a unique solution that has not yet been presented on a certain issue. Brainstorm!

 

Please, don’t post unless you want to contribute to the discussion; remain on topic and, above all, be civil.

 

 

Contributing

 

Try to focus on small things, i.e. things that seem too insignificant to file bug reports, or things that most people don’t openly view as an inconvenience; the things that you get used to after a while and find workarounds for, or simply put up with, but they still bother you to some degree; the little things that--by themselves--don’t account for much, but all of them in concert cause frustration or decrease the quality of your gameplay experience.

 

Some examples:

 

• Mailing currency between characters on my account, despite the fact that they’re connected through the Legacy system, is cumbersome and annoying.
   
  
• What do I do with all of my planetary commendations now that I’m level 50? I have no real use for them besides buying armor mods and selling them on the GTN.
   
  
• When on my speeder, or running with my saber drawn, I can see the back of my Inquisitor’s head clipping through the mesh for the hood of my chest piece.
   
  
• The sounds used by vibroswords are nearly identical to that used by lightsabers. This makes no sense given prior context (KOTOR).
   
  
• Font options in the UI would be nice. I can barely read the chat window unless I’m in a dark area. Hoth is hard enough on one’s eyes, but reading chat text while playing there is a nightmare.
   
  
• The /r reply system for whispers is annoying and sometimes broken. In some instances, it will display one character’s name, but will reply to another if you have had more than one recent private conversation.
   
  
• It’s also hard to differentiate at a glance whom it is that’s whispering you because all the names are the same color.
  

 

Try to keep your posts clean and well organized. The use of bullets and indentations will help immensely to that end. The easier they are to read and comprehend, the more likely it will get a community manager’s attention, and just maybe they’ll forward the thread to a developer.

 

 

The Little Things

 

Here are some of my own “papercuts.” Feel free to expound upon and contribute to them if you have ideas or solutions other than the ones I’ve presented.

 

 

Appearance / Art

 

Inquisitor head mesh clips through hood mesh under certain circumstances.

 

When on my speeder or running with my saber drawn, I can see the back of my Sith Pureblood Inquisitor’s head clipping through the mesh for the hood of my chest piece. I do not have this issue on my Miralukan Jedi Knight.

 

I don’t really know of a solution, other than perhaps someone in the art department looking at the issue and changing how hoods hang on player meshes. I know that the hood up/down feature is being looked into and worked on (it’s on the backburner, I think (?)), so perhaps this issue is also being addressed therein. Also, I personally know of someone who has already submitted this issue in a bug report.

 

 

Inquisitor and Consular hoods don’t stay up with any non-circlet style headgear.

 

The hood of the chest armor on my Inquisitor disappears when wearing helmets like [Kallig’s Countenance], as well as in the preview window. However, I have noticed that some helmets do actually work with hoods, like the [santhe Corps Light Exoskeletal Headgear] or the [Force Sentinel Headgear] (which looks really cool), but they only seem available to wearers of medium armor.

 

A solution seems pretty simple, but if there’s anyone with direct knowledge of how the underlying mechanics work (like a developer), please feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken. My guess is that it’s simply a flag that’s set in whatever database entry that exists for the medium armor pieces in question.

 

 

Many styles of armor, especially level 50+ pieces, are too elaborate or unrealistic for the purposes of combat. Some seem difficult to move around in while wearing.

 

Again, this is another matter of personal taste and an issue with art direction. While not as gaudy or garish as the much derided clown suits in the World of Warcraft, it’s something that annoys me, and perhaps creates a semi-conscious link to the WoW aesthetic that leads many players to place SWTOR in the same (tired) concept box.

 

Star Wars has a particular look associated with it--one that is simple, if not practical, and without too much flash or gimcrackery. Simplicity is a good thing! I like the simple-yet-elegant design of the [saber Marshal’s Robe], for example.

 

 

As an Inquisitor (or Consular), I am tired of wearing robes and dresses!

 

This is just a personal preference, honestly, but I would love to see more variety in the options availed light armor wearers. More access to pants and matching tops would be wonderful. Let’s face it, the Formal and Ulgo Noble social/adaptive armor sets are gaudy, and are essentially two of a small handful of style options.

 

 

Limiting armor pieces and styles to certain classes or factions often seems pointless and can be limiting to the point of frustration.

 

It’s just frustrating to find that, even though the armor class requirements are met, I can’t dress a particular character in a style befitting the character or my personal desire for its appearance. Worse still is that--especially in the case of custom (orange) armor pieces--it limits my options for gearing my companions. Finding a really cool-looking medium armor piece that would help keep Mako up to date with my Bounty Hunter is pointless if it’s restricted to Imperial Agents or Marauders. True also is the frustration with which I’m met when--in the case of perhaps wanting to roleplay a fallen Jedi, or a neutral Sith, or maybe a former Republic Trooper-turned-Bounty Hunter--I’m limited to whatever so-called ‘neutral’ armor looks like depending on which faction I’m playing, or that I can’t have a Dark Side Consular wearing a [Dark Acolyte’s Robe].

 

Removing class and faction requirements could be an excellent start, although with the latter I would think it necessary to allow the appearance of certain armor styles of various factions to appear the same for an opposing faction (i.e. a class-agnostic [Guardian’s Exalted Body Armor] looks the same for Empire characters as it already does for Republic characters). Perhaps I picked it up off a Jedi I just ran through; why let his armor go to waste now that I’ve killed him when I could use it as a disguise, or simply wear it as a trophy or a display of my dominance? Or maybe it just looks bleeding cool and I want to wear it, consarnit!

 

 

Even though it’s been 300 years, I’m sure there have to be some Sith Trooper armor pieces from KOTOR floating around the galaxy.

 

Sith Trooper armor (image link) is not to be confused with the Imperial Trooper armor set. I’d love to see this in the game, especially the chrome set--I wore it for quite a long time in KOTOR. It just looks so boss!

 

Perhaps it could be included as adaptive/social gear, or an armor style (see “Lofty Ideas” below). Considering its age and (perceived) rarity, maybe one might purchase it from the upcoming cash store when the game goes free-to-play in winter 2012. For a reasonable fee, of course (please, Bioware, learn from EVE Online’s NeX folly).

 

 

Some lightsaber handle models look awfully brittle or unwieldy, and not very practical.

 

This is simply a matter of personal taste and an art style issue. The one thing I really love about the Star Wars universe is that, even at its most fantastical, things operate with a certain sense of practicality and realism within the context of the setting.

 

 

Lightsaber beam meshes can disappear when viewed head-on (i.e. from the top down).

 

I realize this is a limitation of the lightsaber mesh itself, and the part for the beam is constructed of intersecting polygons with a (seemingly) animated (probably through script) texture that features an alpha channel. I seem to recall the shader used in KOTOR for the lightsabers not behaving in this fashion (correct me if I’m wrong), and would like to see an improvement in their appearance if possible, including the light that is cast from the saber (which sometimes appears on walls in a weird fashion, looking like a cone spotlight from a flashlight with a dark center for some reason).

 

 

The textures of planets in the ship approach cutscenes are blurry, no matter how high graphics settings are set.

 

Obviously, it’s a texture resolution problem. The texture size is fine for the smaller planetary view, like when viewing the data before making a jump to the location. But when viewed up close during the approach of your ship, it looks atrocious; as though it belongs in a game from the early oughts, rather than 2012. Nar Shaddaa is perhaps the most glaring example of this.

 

 

Legacy

 

A Legacy Wallet would be awesome and of immense help.

 

My brief time with the Diablo 3 beta introduced me to the concepts of shared currency between all characters on my account, and also a centralized place to store items all my characters could access. Say what you will about the shallowness of a game like Diablo (which is sometimes fun to just veg out and play, don’t get me wrong), but these are brilliant ideas that I’m surprised haven’t made it into MMOs yet.

 

Shared currency between the characters seems pretty straightforward, so I shan’t expound upon that too much.

 

A legacy bank tab would operate much in the same way as the current mechanics for ship cargo holds and guild banks, especially the latter due to how the item binding system works currently. Obviously, it would only be able to hold unbound and Legacy-bound items. The most practical method of acquisition would be to connect it with a legacy unlock; Legacy 1 and a reasonable amount of credits for the first tab for example.

 

This is the only Legacy idea that I have off the top of my head. I’m really interested in hearing more ideas from other players because I feel that the Legacy concept has a lot of untapped potential.

 

 

UI

 

Sending my companion out to sell all my grey junk is fine and well, but clicking through every single item at a vendor is tedious at best.

 

I’m sure you’ve all been there: You’ve just finished about an hour of grinding or running heroics with a friend, but have forgotten to send Khem Val off to sell your junk, and you’ve just come to a vendor. Only being able to click one thing at a time is, indeed, monotonous and annoying.

 

There could be a couple different solutions to this dilemma. One way would be to allow the selection of multiple items before selling, but existing hot keys might have to be changed (CTRL+Click previews an item and Shift+Click links an item in chat). Another option is a Sell All Junk type button in the item or vendor windows.

 

 

It’s not easy to determine the level of a given item’s augment slot.

 

The item modification window does not show what level an augment slot is unless the slot is empty. Since augment slots are backwards compatible with augments from lower levels, guessing what level the slot is can be difficult without removing the augment. Aside from the annoyance at the cost involved in doing this, it is just poor design.

 

 

Game text is sometimes illegible.

 

I can barely read the chat window unless I’m in a dark area. Hoth is hard enough on one’s eyes, but reading chat text while playing there is a nightmare. Text colors can be changed, and the ability to change text colors is limited solely to chat text, but legibility in changing environments is difficult at best without sacrificing valuable screen real estate. Furthermore, whatever smoothing/scaling algorithm is being used can sometimes make all text on the screen quite blurry, though that could depend on certain display resolutions and aspect ratios (I operate at 1280x1024).

 

Expanding font color options elsewhere would be helpful, as would having more options for varying the size and typeface used for various independent UI elements. Tweaks to the smoothing/scaling algorithm to improve legibility could also be beneficial.

 

 

The /r reply system for whispers is annoying, confusing, and sometimes broken.

 

In some instances, the text entry bar will display one character’s name--presumably the last person to whom you’ve replied--but will reply to another if you have had more than one recent private conversation.

 

Character chat tabs could be a solution, though I have long enjoyed EVE Online’s implementation of chat windows. Coming from windowed IRC (and later IM) clients where each person had a dedicated window, it just feels intuitive to me.

 

And on that thread, chat logging would be nice--for private conversations, certainly, and also to assist in code of conduct/end-user violations cases for any player or GM that’s monitoring general chat.

 

 

It’s hard to differentiate at a glance whom it is that’s whispering you because all the names are the same color.

 

Let’s be honest, all the text in that chat window is smashed together pretty tightly, and it’s pretty hard to distinguish any one person without giving it your full attention. And even then, the text can sort of...run together after a while. Changing text colors for various chat messages only changes the color for the message type and does little to address legibility and the discernment between other players.

 

A possible solution would be to alternate the shade of a particular color every other line. Highlighting messages that you send out to differentiate them from the chaff, as well as those messages which mention your name, would also be good. The adjustment of line spacing, indentation, character name spacing--it’s all important for increasing legibility.

 

 

Economy

 

Mailing items and currency between characters in my legacy is cumbersome and annoying.

 

Shortly after 1.3 was released, the mail system buckled under heavy load, and there have been occasional glitches even before that. I can imagine that a very significant portion of mail traffic involves the transfer of items and currency between other characters within a player’s legacy.

 

The aforementioned Legacy Wallet solution should remedy everything quite nicely.

 

 

What do I do with all of my planetary commendations now that I’m level 50?

 

As our class storyline takes us through all the available planets, we acquire many planetary commendations along the way. And sometimes, even after we’ve hit 50, we like to go back and help some of our lower-leveled friends with heroics and other difficult content, for which we are rewarded with yet more commendations. By the time we’re in the end game, however, these forms of currency are essentially useless to us, unless we sell them on the GTN or use them to equip our other characters.

 

Allowing all the collected commendations to coalesce into the Legacy Wallet mentioned above would bring new purpose to commendations. And do consider the future: planetary commendations become useless while we’re focused on acquiring Black Hole or Rakata gear. As new content emerges and the level cap is raised, the commendations used to purchase end game armor will eventually fall to the wayside, too, but would be useful for other legacy characters.

 

Another potential use for outmoded commendations would be the option to redeem them for hard currency. This would be especially useful for those who have all their character slots filled with high level characters.

 

 

Loot

 

NPCs (Sith, Jedi, Troopers, etc.) should drop items associated with their appearance or class/faction.

 

In KOTOR, you were able to take the black clothes or robes off fallen Sith acolytes and wear them on your character or party members (you could use the aforementioned Sith Trooper armor, too). They also could drop lightsabers containing red and purple crystals that you could use or remove and place in the lightsaber you were using.

 

I’d like to be able to wear what that Jedi was wearing, or use that Marauder’s interesting looking lightsaber handle. Maybe, as a roleplayer, I like collecting trophies from my victories (and putting them in a rectangular wooden box...lol). In any case, it makes more sense for you to get from a particular NPC an item or items that are likely to be carried by that NPC.

 

Just as an example, the ships of a particular NPC pirate faction in EVE Online drop the modules, ammo, tags, etc. that’s associated with those groups as well as the ship’s class.

 

Addressing this would involve one of my aforementioned solutions (removing class/faction limitations on gear), as well as changing up loot tables and the distribution of loot amongst mob types.

 

 

Ambience

 

Vibroblades should not sound like lightsabers.

 

The sounds used by vibroswords are nearly identical to those used by lightsabers, despite the fact that, in KOTOR, vibroblades and Echani weaponry clearly use metal sounds, except when clashing with a lightsaber. It’s a distinctive characteristic that doesn’t make sense for the weapon and kind of breaks immersion. Vibroblade-type weapons should sound like a piece of metal cutting through the air, and should clang like metal when hitting armor or another metal weapon; they should not sound like lightsabers.

 

 

Miscellany

 

Why does the entire website, including the index page and forums, need to be unavailable during a patch deployment, server-side hotfix, or rolling server restart?

 

Indeed, this seems...a bit unusual, if not archaic. There’s not much sense for the basic face of the game--the main index page--to be unavailable at any time (save those rare 0.0005% moments). And for those players that are curious or chatty during downtime, there’s nothing for them to do as it relates to the official website; no patch notes to read, no forum in which to participate to pass the time.

 

Not everyone knows that there’s an official SWTOR Twitter account, and even that can be extremely vague at times. Worse still, the Tweets from the official twitter account will, during downtime, often link to things on the site that readers can’t get to because every page on swtor.com is unavailable.

 

 

Even when active in using the GTN terminal, I still go idle if that’s all I’m doing.

 

Changes were made to reset the idle timer for chat and engaging in crew skills, so that clicking around and searching the GTN still doesn’t count against your idle timer is a bit baffling.

 

 

Lofty Ideas

 

A more advanced and gear-independent character styling system.

 

As a casual player of DC Universe Online, I’m greatly impressed by their implementation of, and the depth of configuration for, character appearances. It’s amazingly straightforward and offers a degree of customization I haven’t seen since EVE Online’s character creator (while there aren’t yet many clothing options for EVE's character creator, its facial and body customization options are absolutely peerless).

 

Armor, weapon, and skin styles are acquired through equipping gear pieces for the various character sheet slots. They are also bestowed by special one-use items whose sole purpose is unlocking a particular style for a given slot. The appearance style for that particular slot (chest, head, face, main hand, etc.) is then saved to a list. This list of styles is available as an appearance tab on the character sheet, and a given style can be selected for each slot independently of the gear actually used by the character.

 

Coloring of the character and the armor is handled interestingly, as well. When creating a character, players select the primary palette to be used by the character’s armor, consisting of 3 colors, as well as the colors and appearance of the character’s skin, hair, and eyes. Players can later change these colors after character creation. The combination of the 3 colors, and their order as used by the armor, are configurable for each armor slot, and can be altered in such a fashion that the armor can use all three colors or just one.

 

The implementation of such inspired features would go a long way to affording players the freedom to render their characters’ appearances precisely the way they want, and to do so without the headache and difficulty involved with hunting for new gear with precisely the kind of style they want, in the color that they want, every time they progress a few levels.

 

Crafters need not be left out of the opportunity for the monetization of gear styles. Synthweavers and Armormechs could have a single set of orange custom armor for each of the armor classes that has a very basic or unitarian style, and schematics would allow the learning of styles for crafting.

 

To facilitate the transition and to keep crafters from feeling snubbed for all the work and money spent previously in the acquisition of schematics, converting all the armor schematics they’ve already learned into said style-only schematics would be a good idea. This would also help to mitigate the frustration many players feel when the dreaded armor/gear hunt (that keeps their stats up to date as levels progress) clashes with their desire to have their characters appear as they envision.

 

Like DCUO’s own cash store, a handful of unique or whimsical armor styles could be purchased with Cartel Coins. It would add another incentive for free-to-play and subscription players alike to spend the currency they acquire through subscription rewards or direct purchases.

 

 

An NPC and player-driven contracts system; NPC and player bounties organized and issued through the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, and acquisition/delivery contracts issued through a black market system.

 

The lauded Bounty Hunter’s Guild from Star Wars fiction has the potential to add interesting gameplay options and storylines to the game. Weekly and/or monthly NPC bounties could be issued by Guild NPCs to players, and players could be able to issue bounties on other PVP-flagged players. This would add a very interesting dimension to PVP gameplay, as well as open the door to the galaxy-wide PVP some players (not myself, mind you) are clamoring for.

 

It seems unfair for this concept to be limited only to the Bounty Hunter class, but it does make sense within the context of the universe and, indeed, the storylines surrounding the Bounty Hunter’s Guild (read K.W. Jeter’s Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, seriously). Smugglers need not be left out completely, however; the acquisition, transportation, and delivery of rare and volatile goods would give them a similar gameplay experience.

 

Regardless of either side, Bounty Hunter or Smuggler, players of other classes could join in for a piece of the action, partake in the risk, and split the rewards. This could add another layer, and a very interesting aspect, of cooperative play.

 

 

Where’s the API? Like spice, the data must flow.

 

A game API that’s accessible to independent developers of mobile and web apps, as well as PC applications, is achingly absent. I’m not much of an expert on API development, but in the case of EVE Online (and World of Warcraft way back in the day), it’s something I’m used to using to glean important information to utilize in making various aspects of gameplay less imperative or time consuming.

 

As an example, I’d like to cite the incompleteness of Torhead in comparison to the other ZAM Network sites and tools, like Wowhead. Determining drop rates and loot tables, or culling useful statistics from other game mechanics, is extremely difficult without access to more data. A site like Torhead or As Mr. Robot should be much more useful and contain much more information than is currently available.

 

 

Visually, the game looks a bit long in the tooth. The periodic implementation of graphical improvements would be welcome.

 

SWTOR has been in development a very long time (since 2005, according to an article I read, but haven’t been able to verify), and even with the updates and improvements to the Hero Engine, its age is beginning to show. Again, this is partly due to the length of the development cycle, but I understand that the limitations of the Hero Engine itself are also a factor. Another reason would be that the bulk of game development has been focused on story elements and gameplay mechanics (and from what I understand, updating the underlying mechanics of the Hero Engine).

 

Bear in mind that the focus on story and gameplay elements over keeping the graphics up to date is not to SWTOR’s detriment--I’d go so far as to say that it’s paramount over how the game looks. But now that the game is here and content development pipelines have been streamlined, it’s a good idea to address game visuals in the near future so as to keep the game fresh and to take advantage of the graphics hardware many of us have.

 

I’ve mentioned it a few times so far, but I must give credit where it is due: EVE Online is a distinctive representation of a game that refuses to stagnate or remain dated in the visual sense. Since its release in 2003, EVE has always looked visually striking through each iteration, and periodically improves upon that beauty--from the massive Trinity expansion to

, and into the

. And somehow, in spite of the push to create new visuals that rival the old and take advantage of the newest and best in graphics hardware, it remains a game that is accessible to wide range of hardware.

 

Does SWTOR need to be as visually jaw-dropping as EVE? No. But sincerely, Bioware, don’t sit idle.

 

I approve of this post

[JPLaro]

What does it mean, “A Thousand Papercuts?”

 

In late 2010, there was a thread created on the EVE Online forums with the same title. The players organized to civilly and thoughtfully outline their issues with the game, sticking almost exclusively to small, quality of life issues, or very simplistic suggestions to improve their gameplay experience. Game developers at CCP, the makers of EVE, quickly took notice of the thread and kept their eye on it for a while, eventually organizing a small team within the company to get together in their spare time to look into “the small things.” Their efforts were rolled into the summer 2011 expansion, Incarna.

 

After EVE’s Noble Exchange debacle in the summer of 2011, in which there was a sudden focus on exorbitantly overpriced vanity items that sent the community in an uproar, CCP was forced to call an emergency meeting of the CSM (a player-elected group of representatives that meet with developers in Iceland biannually to discuss and address the concerns of player constituents) and plot a new direction for development.

 

After many meetings, public apologies, and internal restructuring, CCP pivoted towards seriously addressing the concerns of players. The Thousand Papercuts Project quickly turned from an erstwhile hope into a very prominent development plan, and the small team working in their spare time became an officially recognized group with the resources necessary to bring that plan to fruition. The Crucible expansion, released in the winter of 2011, was the realization of all their efforts, and focused mainly on the Thousand Papercuts idea, as well a large contingent of bug fixes, balancing, and other quality of life stuff.

 

Crucible was welcomed by the community with open arms, and CCP made it a point to emphasize that the spirit of the expansion, the Thousand Papercuts idea, would remain a significant part of every subsequent release that followed. Indeed, CCP kept good on their word, and in the expansion that followed (and the one currently in development for winter 2012), a significant portion of the content released has included a focus on “the little things.”

 

As an aside, it should be noted that CCP is very close with their community of players and fans, and there is much that Bioware can learn from their example--both from their successes and from their failures (like the NeX incident).

 

I’d also like to point out that I have been playing EVE Online since early 2005, and I enjoy it and SWTOR very much.

 

 

Overview

 

With this thread I aim to gather the papercuts--the little things that don’t necessarily break gameplay, but add up to lessen our experience with the game as a whole--and list them in detail, along with some possible solutions to increase the quality of life for all players. The focus will primarily be on small things (annoyances, quirks, and the like), but I’d also like to include a couple of larger feature requests just to round things out.

 

The goal is to get the community organized and put all of the feasible, well thought-out ideas into a single thread. To keep things as focused as possible, the intervention of moderators and community leaders may become necessary to keep things tidy.

 

I’d ask anyone who wants to contribute to the thread to limit their suggestions to the small, quality of life stuff (examples will be outlined below), and to also limit discussion in the thread to coming up with and working out creative solutions that others may not have considered. Don’t judge or criticize anyone’s post, instead try to be constructive and offer solutions or feedback. Repeating complaints or ideas outright also isn’t helpful, but do feel free to offer a unique solution that has not yet been presented on a certain issue. Brainstorm!

 

Please, don’t post unless you want to contribute to the discussion; remain on topic and, above all, be civil.

 

 

Contributing

 

Try to focus on small things, i.e. things that seem too insignificant to file bug reports, or things that most people don’t openly view as an inconvenience; the things that you get used to after a while and find workarounds for, or simply put up with, but they still bother you to some degree; the little things that--by themselves--don’t account for much, but all of them in concert cause frustration or decrease the quality of your gameplay experience.

 

Some examples:

 

• Mailing currency between characters on my account, despite the fact that they’re connected through the Legacy system, is cumbersome and annoying.
   
  
• What do I do with all of my planetary commendations now that I’m level 50? I have no real use for them besides buying armor mods and selling them on the GTN.
   
  
• When on my speeder, or running with my saber drawn, I can see the back of my Inquisitor’s head clipping through the mesh for the hood of my chest piece.
   
  
• The sounds used by vibroswords are nearly identical to that used by lightsabers. This makes no sense given prior context (KOTOR).
   
  
• Font options in the UI would be nice. I can barely read the chat window unless I’m in a dark area. Hoth is hard enough on one’s eyes, but reading chat text while playing there is a nightmare.
   
  
• The /r reply system for whispers is annoying and sometimes broken. In some instances, it will display one character’s name, but will reply to another if you have had more than one recent private conversation.
   
  
• It’s also hard to differentiate at a glance whom it is that’s whispering you because all the names are the same color.
  

 

Try to keep your posts clean and well organized. The use of bullets and indentations will help immensely to that end. The easier they are to read and comprehend, the more likely it will get a community manager’s attention, and just maybe they’ll forward the thread to a developer.

 

 

The Little Things

 

Here are some of my own “papercuts.” Feel free to expound upon and contribute to them if you have ideas or solutions other than the ones I’ve presented.

 

 

Appearance / Art

 

Inquisitor head mesh clips through hood mesh under certain circumstances.

 

When on my speeder or running with my saber drawn, I can see the back of my Sith Pureblood Inquisitor’s head clipping through the mesh for the hood of my chest piece. I do not have this issue on my Miralukan Jedi Knight.

 

I don’t really know of a solution, other than perhaps someone in the art department looking at the issue and changing how hoods hang on player meshes. I know that the hood up/down feature is being looked into and worked on (it’s on the backburner, I think (?)), so perhaps this issue is also being addressed therein. Also, I personally know of someone who has already submitted this issue in a bug report.

 

 

Inquisitor and Consular hoods don’t stay up with any non-circlet style headgear.

 

The hood of the chest armor on my Inquisitor disappears when wearing helmets like [Kallig’s Countenance], as well as in the preview window. However, I have noticed that some helmets do actually work with hoods, like the [santhe Corps Light Exoskeletal Headgear] or the [Force Sentinel Headgear] (which looks really cool), but they only seem available to wearers of medium armor.

 

A solution seems pretty simple, but if there’s anyone with direct knowledge of how the underlying mechanics work (like a developer), please feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken. My guess is that it’s simply a flag that’s set in whatever database entry that exists for the medium armor pieces in question.

 

 

Many styles of armor, especially level 50+ pieces, are too elaborate or unrealistic for the purposes of combat. Some seem difficult to move around in while wearing.

 

Again, this is another matter of personal taste and an issue with art direction. While not as gaudy or garish as the much derided clown suits in the World of Warcraft, it’s something that annoys me, and perhaps creates a semi-conscious link to the WoW aesthetic that leads many players to place SWTOR in the same (tired) concept box.

 

Star Wars has a particular look associated with it--one that is simple, if not practical, and without too much flash or gimcrackery. Simplicity is a good thing! I like the simple-yet-elegant design of the [saber Marshal’s Robe], for example.

 

 

As an Inquisitor (or Consular), I am tired of wearing robes and dresses!

 

This is just a personal preference, honestly, but I would love to see more variety in the options availed light armor wearers. More access to pants and matching tops would be wonderful. Let’s face it, the Formal and Ulgo Noble social/adaptive armor sets are gaudy, and are essentially two of a small handful of style options.

 

 

Limiting armor pieces and styles to certain classes or factions often seems pointless and can be limiting to the point of frustration.

 

It’s just frustrating to find that, even though the armor class requirements are met, I can’t dress a particular character in a style befitting the character or my personal desire for its appearance. Worse still is that--especially in the case of custom (orange) armor pieces--it limits my options for gearing my companions. Finding a really cool-looking medium armor piece that would help keep Mako up to date with my Bounty Hunter is pointless if it’s restricted to Imperial Agents or Marauders. True also is the frustration with which I’m met when--in the case of perhaps wanting to roleplay a fallen Jedi, or a neutral Sith, or maybe a former Republic Trooper-turned-Bounty Hunter--I’m limited to whatever so-called ‘neutral’ armor looks like depending on which faction I’m playing, or that I can’t have a Dark Side Consular wearing a [Dark Acolyte’s Robe].

 

Removing class and faction requirements could be an excellent start, although with the latter I would think it necessary to allow the appearance of certain armor styles of various factions to appear the same for an opposing faction (i.e. a class-agnostic [Guardian’s Exalted Body Armor] looks the same for Empire characters as it already does for Republic characters). Perhaps I picked it up off a Jedi I just ran through; why let his armor go to waste now that I’ve killed him when I could use it as a disguise, or simply wear it as a trophy or a display of my dominance? Or maybe it just looks bleeding cool and I want to wear it, consarnit!

 

 

Even though it’s been 300 years, I’m sure there have to be some Sith Trooper armor pieces from KOTOR floating around the galaxy.

 

Sith Trooper armor (image link) is not to be confused with the Imperial Trooper armor set. I’d love to see this in the game, especially the chrome set--I wore it for quite a long time in KOTOR. It just looks so boss!

 

Perhaps it could be included as adaptive/social gear, or an armor style (see “Lofty Ideas” below). Considering its age and (perceived) rarity, maybe one might purchase it from the upcoming cash store when the game goes free-to-play in winter 2012. For a reasonable fee, of course (please, Bioware, learn from EVE Online’s NeX folly).

 

 

Some lightsaber handle models look awfully brittle or unwieldy, and not very practical.

 

This is simply a matter of personal taste and an art style issue. The one thing I really love about the Star Wars universe is that, even at its most fantastical, things operate with a certain sense of practicality and realism within the context of the setting.

 

 

Lightsaber beam meshes can disappear when viewed head-on (i.e. from the top down).

 

I realize this is a limitation of the lightsaber mesh itself, and the part for the beam is constructed of intersecting polygons with a (seemingly) animated (probably through script) texture that features an alpha channel. I seem to recall the shader used in KOTOR for the lightsabers not behaving in this fashion (correct me if I’m wrong), and would like to see an improvement in their appearance if possible, including the light that is cast from the saber (which sometimes appears on walls in a weird fashion, looking like a cone spotlight from a flashlight with a dark center for some reason).

 

 

The textures of planets in the ship approach cutscenes are blurry, no matter how high graphics settings are set.

 

Obviously, it’s a texture resolution problem. The texture size is fine for the smaller planetary view, like when viewing the data before making a jump to the location. But when viewed up close during the approach of your ship, it looks atrocious; as though it belongs in a game from the early oughts, rather than 2012. Nar Shaddaa is perhaps the most glaring example of this.

 

 

Legacy

 

A Legacy Wallet would be awesome and of immense help.

 

My brief time with the Diablo 3 beta introduced me to the concepts of shared currency between all characters on my account, and also a centralized place to store items all my characters could access. Say what you will about the shallowness of a game like Diablo (which is sometimes fun to just veg out and play, don’t get me wrong), but these are brilliant ideas that I’m surprised haven’t made it into MMOs yet.

 

Shared currency between the characters seems pretty straightforward, so I shan’t expound upon that too much.

 

A legacy bank tab would operate much in the same way as the current mechanics for ship cargo holds and guild banks, especially the latter due to how the item binding system works currently. Obviously, it would only be able to hold unbound and Legacy-bound items. The most practical method of acquisition would be to connect it with a legacy unlock; Legacy 1 and a reasonable amount of credits for the first tab for example.

 

This is the only Legacy idea that I have off the top of my head. I’m really interested in hearing more ideas from other players because I feel that the Legacy concept has a lot of untapped potential.

 

 

UI

 

Sending my companion out to sell all my grey junk is fine and well, but clicking through every single item at a vendor is tedious at best.

 

I’m sure you’ve all been there: You’ve just finished about an hour of grinding or running heroics with a friend, but have forgotten to send Khem Val off to sell your junk, and you’ve just come to a vendor. Only being able to click one thing at a time is, indeed, monotonous and annoying.

 

There could be a couple different solutions to this dilemma. One way would be to allow the selection of multiple items before selling, but existing hot keys might have to be changed (CTRL+Click previews an item and Shift+Click links an item in chat). Another option is a Sell All Junk type button in the item or vendor windows.

 

 

It’s not easy to determine the level of a given item’s augment slot.

 

The item modification window does not show what level an augment slot is unless the slot is empty. Since augment slots are backwards compatible with augments from lower levels, guessing what level the slot is can be difficult without removing the augment. Aside from the annoyance at the cost involved in doing this, it is just poor design.

 

 

Game text is sometimes illegible.

 

I can barely read the chat window unless I’m in a dark area. Hoth is hard enough on one’s eyes, but reading chat text while playing there is a nightmare. Text colors can be changed, and the ability to change text colors is limited solely to chat text, but legibility in changing environments is difficult at best without sacrificing valuable screen real estate. Furthermore, whatever smoothing/scaling algorithm is being used can sometimes make all text on the screen quite blurry, though that could depend on certain display resolutions and aspect ratios (I operate at 1280x1024).

 

Expanding font color options elsewhere would be helpful, as would having more options for varying the size and typeface used for various independent UI elements. Tweaks to the smoothing/scaling algorithm to improve legibility could also be beneficial.

 

 

The /r reply system for whispers is annoying, confusing, and sometimes broken.

 

In some instances, the text entry bar will display one character’s name--presumably the last person to whom you’ve replied--but will reply to another if you have had more than one recent private conversation.

 

Character chat tabs could be a solution, though I have long enjoyed EVE Online’s implementation of chat windows. Coming from windowed IRC (and later IM) clients where each person had a dedicated window, it just feels intuitive to me.

 

And on that thread, chat logging would be nice--for private conversations, certainly, and also to assist in code of conduct/end-user violations cases for any player or GM that’s monitoring general chat.

 

 

It’s hard to differentiate at a glance whom it is that’s whispering you because all the names are the same color.

 

Let’s be honest, all the text in that chat window is smashed together pretty tightly, and it’s pretty hard to distinguish any one person without giving it your full attention. And even then, the text can sort of...run together after a while. Changing text colors for various chat messages only changes the color for the message type and does little to address legibility and the discernment between other players.

 

A possible solution would be to alternate the shade of a particular color every other line. Highlighting messages that you send out to differentiate them from the chaff, as well as those messages which mention your name, would also be good. The adjustment of line spacing, indentation, character name spacing--it’s all important for increasing legibility.

 

 

Economy

 

Mailing items and currency between characters in my legacy is cumbersome and annoying.

 

Shortly after 1.3 was released, the mail system buckled under heavy load, and there have been occasional glitches even before that. I can imagine that a very significant portion of mail traffic involves the transfer of items and currency between other characters within a player’s legacy.

 

The aforementioned Legacy Wallet solution should remedy everything quite nicely.

 

 

What do I do with all of my planetary commendations now that I’m level 50?

 

As our class storyline takes us through all the available planets, we acquire many planetary commendations along the way. And sometimes, even after we’ve hit 50, we like to go back and help some of our lower-leveled friends with heroics and other difficult content, for which we are rewarded with yet more commendations. By the time we’re in the end game, however, these forms of currency are essentially useless to us, unless we sell them on the GTN or use them to equip our other characters.

 

Allowing all the collected commendations to coalesce into the Legacy Wallet mentioned above would bring new purpose to commendations. And do consider the future: planetary commendations become useless while we’re focused on acquiring Black Hole or Rakata gear. As new content emerges and the level cap is raised, the commendations used to purchase end game armor will eventually fall to the wayside, too, but would be useful for other legacy characters.

 

Another potential use for outmoded commendations would be the option to redeem them for hard currency. This would be especially useful for those who have all their character slots filled with high level characters.

 

 

Loot

 

NPCs (Sith, Jedi, Troopers, etc.) should drop items associated with their appearance or class/faction.

 

In KOTOR, you were able to take the black clothes or robes off fallen Sith acolytes and wear them on your character or party members (you could use the aforementioned Sith Trooper armor, too). They also could drop lightsabers containing red and purple crystals that you could use or remove and place in the lightsaber you were using.

 

I’d like to be able to wear what that Jedi was wearing, or use that Marauder’s interesting looking lightsaber handle. Maybe, as a roleplayer, I like collecting trophies from my victories (and putting them in a rectangular wooden box...lol). In any case, it makes more sense for you to get from a particular NPC an item or items that are likely to be carried by that NPC.

 

Just as an example, the ships of a particular NPC pirate faction in EVE Online drop the modules, ammo, tags, etc. that’s associated with those groups as well as the ship’s class.

 

Addressing this would involve one of my aforementioned solutions (removing class/faction limitations on gear), as well as changing up loot tables and the distribution of loot amongst mob types.

 

 

Ambience

 

Vibroblades should not sound like lightsabers.

 

The sounds used by vibroswords are nearly identical to those used by lightsabers, despite the fact that, in KOTOR, vibroblades and Echani weaponry clearly use metal sounds, except when clashing with a lightsaber. It’s a distinctive characteristic that doesn’t make sense for the weapon and kind of breaks immersion. Vibroblade-type weapons should sound like a piece of metal cutting through the air, and should clang like metal when hitting armor or another metal weapon; they should not sound like lightsabers.

 

 

Miscellany

 

Why does the entire website, including the index page and forums, need to be unavailable during a patch deployment, server-side hotfix, or rolling server restart?

 

Indeed, this seems...a bit unusual, if not archaic. There’s not much sense for the basic face of the game--the main index page--to be unavailable at any time (save those rare 0.0005% moments). And for those players that are curious or chatty during downtime, there’s nothing for them to do as it relates to the official website; no patch notes to read, no forum in which to participate to pass the time.

 

Not everyone knows that there’s an official SWTOR Twitter account, and even that can be extremely vague at times. Worse still, the Tweets from the official twitter account will, during downtime, often link to things on the site that readers can’t get to because every page on swtor.com is unavailable.

 

 

Even when active in using the GTN terminal, I still go idle if that’s all I’m doing.

 

Changes were made to reset the idle timer for chat and engaging in crew skills, so that clicking around and searching the GTN still doesn’t count against your idle timer is a bit baffling.

 

 

Lofty Ideas

 

A more advanced and gear-independent character styling system.

 

As a casual player of DC Universe Online, I’m greatly impressed by their implementation of, and the depth of configuration for, character appearances. It’s amazingly straightforward and offers a degree of customization I haven’t seen since EVE Online’s character creator (while there aren’t yet many clothing options for EVE's character creator, its facial and body customization options are absolutely peerless).

 

Armor, weapon, and skin styles are acquired through equipping gear pieces for the various character sheet slots. They are also bestowed by special one-use items whose sole purpose is unlocking a particular style for a given slot. The appearance style for that particular slot (chest, head, face, main hand, etc.) is then saved to a list. This list of styles is available as an appearance tab on the character sheet, and a given style can be selected for each slot independently of the gear actually used by the character.

 

Coloring of the character and the armor is handled interestingly, as well. When creating a character, players select the primary palette to be used by the character’s armor, consisting of 3 colors, as well as the colors and appearance of the character’s skin, hair, and eyes. Players can later change these colors after character creation. The combination of the 3 colors, and their order as used by the armor, are configurable for each armor slot, and can be altered in such a fashion that the armor can use all three colors or just one.

 

The implementation of such inspired features would go a long way to affording players the freedom to render their characters’ appearances precisely the way they want, and to do so without the headache and difficulty involved with hunting for new gear with precisely the kind of style they want, in the color that they want, every time they progress a few levels.

 

Crafters need not be left out of the opportunity for the monetization of gear styles. Synthweavers and Armormechs could have a single set of orange custom armor for each of the armor classes that has a very basic or unitarian style, and schematics would allow the learning of styles for crafting.

 

To facilitate the transition and to keep crafters from feeling snubbed for all the work and money spent previously in the acquisition of schematics, converting all the armor schematics they’ve already learned into said style-only schematics would be a good idea. This would also help to mitigate the frustration many players feel when the dreaded armor/gear hunt (that keeps their stats up to date as levels progress) clashes with their desire to have their characters appear as they envision.

 

Like DCUO’s own cash store, a handful of unique or whimsical armor styles could be purchased with Cartel Coins. It would add another incentive for free-to-play and subscription players alike to spend the currency they acquire through subscription rewards or direct purchases.

 

 

An NPC and player-driven contracts system; NPC and player bounties organized and issued through the Bounty Hunter’s Guild, and acquisition/delivery contracts issued through a black market system.

 

The lauded Bounty Hunter’s Guild from Star Wars fiction has the potential to add interesting gameplay options and storylines to the game. Weekly and/or monthly NPC bounties could be issued by Guild NPCs to players, and players could be able to issue bounties on other PVP-flagged players. This would add a very interesting dimension to PVP gameplay, as well as open the door to the galaxy-wide PVP some players (not myself, mind you) are clamoring for.

 

It seems unfair for this concept to be limited only to the Bounty Hunter class, but it does make sense within the context of the universe and, indeed, the storylines surrounding the Bounty Hunter’s Guild (read K.W. Jeter’s Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, seriously). Smugglers need not be left out completely, however; the acquisition, transportation, and delivery of rare and volatile goods would give them a similar gameplay experience.

 

Regardless of either side, Bounty Hunter or Smuggler, players of other classes could join in for a piece of the action, partake in the risk, and split the rewards. This could add another layer, and a very interesting aspect, of cooperative play.

 

 

Where’s the API? Like spice, the data must flow.

 

A game API that’s accessible to independent developers of mobile and web apps, as well as PC applications, is achingly absent. I’m not much of an expert on API development, but in the case of EVE Online (and World of Warcraft way back in the day), it’s something I’m used to using to glean important information to utilize in making various aspects of gameplay less imperative or time consuming.

 

As an example, I’d like to cite the incompleteness of Torhead in comparison to the other ZAM Network sites and tools, like Wowhead. Determining drop rates and loot tables, or culling useful statistics from other game mechanics, is extremely difficult without access to more data. A site like Torhead or As Mr. Robot should be much more useful and contain much more information than is currently available.

 

 

Visually, the game looks a bit long in the tooth. The periodic implementation of graphical improvements would be welcome.

 

SWTOR has been in development a very long time (since 2005, according to an article I read, but haven’t been able to verify), and even with the updates and improvements to the Hero Engine, its age is beginning to show. Again, this is partly due to the length of the development cycle, but I understand that the limitations of the Hero Engine itself are also a factor. Another reason would be that the bulk of game development has been focused on story elements and gameplay mechanics (and from what I understand, updating the underlying mechanics of the Hero Engine).

 

Bear in mind that the focus on story and gameplay elements over keeping the graphics up to date is not to SWTOR’s detriment--I’d go so far as to say that it’s paramount over how the game looks. But now that the game is here and content development pipelines have been streamlined, it’s a good idea to address game visuals in the near future so as to keep the game fresh and to take advantage of the graphics hardware many of us have.

 

I’ve mentioned it a few times so far, but I must give credit where it is due: EVE Online is a distinctive representation of a game that refuses to stagnate or remain dated in the visual sense. Since its release in 2003, EVE has always looked visually striking through each iteration, and periodically improves upon that beauty--from the massive Trinity expansion to

, and into the

. And somehow, in spite of the push to create new visuals that rival the old and take advantage of the newest and best in graphics hardware, it remains a game that is accessible to wide range of hardware.

 

Does SWTOR need to be as visually jaw-dropping as EVE? No. But sincerely, Bioware, don’t sit idle.

 

Spot on, Spot on I shall say my dear good sir.

[Jandoon]

The over-abundance of knockbacks on mobs really gets to you as a melee player sometimes. Either tune this down a bit or give me some sort of plastic coating to let me fully immerse myself in the idea of being a happy ball while my ranged friends do the soldier stuff.

[Armandeus]

1. Light sabers and vibro swords (weapons with an animated glowing portion) remain visible after a companion is dismissed.

2. In some cut scenes where your ship is leaving a planet, the ship clips buildings and scenery.

3. When you jump to the fleet in your ship, the animation of the fleet approaching after hyperspace appears, and then there is a huge jerk where the fleet is repositioned backward.

4. In Voidstar, where you are on a ship and you have to go through stages of attacking and defending, the cutscene where your frigate arrives is odd in that the frigate is shown in position, and then another frigate comes from behind it to merge with it.

5. There are several more similar immersion-breaking cutscene glitches in the game, but I will stop here.

6. In addition to a legacy bank, I want to see the gear, schematics, bank inventory, and companion gear of all of my characters without having to log out and log in to each and every one of them. (For WoW veterans, I'm talking about something like the addon Altoholic.) If I could see this, it would be easy to decide what items to craft for my other toons, and whether or not to send them a piece of loot.

7. I want PvP ship battles.

8. Allow us to name our ships.

9. I second the need for dye. Dye could be made with biochem. The developers could keep the garishness of the game down by limiting the dye colors available to ones they find tasteful.

10. I second the need for a barber in the game.

11. There are too many flavor NPCs standing around in the jedi temple who look exactly the same (the jedi guy with the dark hair and beard.)

12. Please allow us to toggle nameplates for NPCs we cannot interact with. They just get in the way.

13. Caps make you (or NPCs) look bald. Wearing a cap removes all hair below the cap line. This looks especially weird on females.

14. More player races, please. Especially ones that were featured in the movies. I had never heard of a Miraluka or Mirialan. The cyborg needs to be more cybernetic-looking, I think. When you introduce new races, please allow race changes for a fee. It's not like race has any effect on character statistics.

15. If you have a legacy, "bound" should mean bound to legacy and not bound to character.

Edited August 17, 2012 by Armandeus

[Rybry]

Finally an appropriate place to voice this minor, yet annoying issue.

 

This small complaint is to all the Miraluka players out there who may feel my pain about not being able to wear certain Head gear. What I would give to actually be able to see my War Hero helmet on my characters head, but because of the Miraluka's eye-wear, any head gear that does not mask the face completely will not be displayable. I for one chose very nonabrasive eye-wear, which would not clip into certain Head Gear pieces if they were displayed. If I would have known about this issue before investing hours into my character I may have chosen a different species because I really enjoy customizing my characters look (which is a highly promoted aspect of this game). I really hope it's possible to create a quick fix, such as allowing Miraluka to wear all the Head Gear available to their class and level by adding a new eye-wear model that cooperates with all Head Gear when equipped.

It's not like Miraluka have tentacles coming out of their heads like Twi’lek do, they merely need something to cover their eyeless faces. Otherwise their completely humanoid...

 

Fantastic Thread Btw

[Monterone]

What an awesome thread... props to you sir.

 

- I've always had an issue with my mouse movement, not all the time but a consistent issue since closed beta. I have bugged it before and I have also experienced it on three different mice from three different manufacturers and sets of drivers. The problem I speak of is that the mouse sometimes goes into super sensitive mode (usually at a most inopportune moment) and I end up looking at the sky, straight up, or at the ground below me. Sometimes I'm walking across the ramps in Huttball and end up falling off because the camera angle shifted straight up. This has caused numerous deaths for me and countless curse words to come out my mouth -- I would love to see this fixed!

 

- Recently, as in for a few months now I've had sound issues when exiting Warzones. It all started when sound got messed up in warzones in 1.2 I think. At that time, Alderaan and Voidstar used to create these lightning crackling noises that just used to increase and play over each other until it got unbearable. They fixed that a few patches later but I still get some remnants of this bug it seems. A few times a day when exiting warzones some parts of my sound go quiet. Not off, but much more quiet. Things like certain ambient sounds, or getting on a speeder and driving around. This hasn't happened in any other part of the game and is exclusively caused when leaving warzones. Wish this were fixed too. Sometimes after zoning or doing an NPC conversation, the sound will snap back to its normal volume, but most of the time it requires a client restart.

 

I hope this thread does what it's intended to do, I hope we see some bug fixes that have been around for a while now.

Edited August 16, 2012 by Monterone

[albeva]

Excellent post and many great ides. I apologize if any of mine are already mentioned:

 

Chat

One of my bigger gripes with the game is the chat. I have few ideas and suggestions on how to improve it:

- permanent background option - sometimes chat text is difficult to read. If I could toggle the background it would help a lot.

- every tab to have a separate channel: Perhaps I am missing something, but it is very frustrating having to change the channel manually (group, general, guild, ...). All too often I send message to the wrong party.

- quick keys to quickly navigate between chat tabs

- highlight the tab that has new unread messages

- option to chat with opposite faction (imperial to republic and vice versa). With a quick option to ignore incoming messages from a player.

- filter options for separating out system messages about xp, credit etc gains. They clutter the UI, but I do want to keep more important messages.

 

Repetitive fights

One of the most annoying things for me as I cruise around are constant repetitive fights. I have seen (and used myself) countless times when players take absurd routes just to avoid nearby npcs. At times it is interesting and fun to just go around and fight everything in sight, but as I progress in levels these fights are becoming a major annoyance and contribute too little to my XP score. Especially if I go back to a previous planet like Dromund Kaas for instance.

 

My suggestion is that every character would have a rating that would grow over time like legacy and experience. This rating would determine if nearby npc would willingly attack the player or prefer not to - basically become like yellow npc. If I attack them then obviously they would return fire and draw nearby characters into the fight, otherwise (unless relevant to the current mission / task) they would prefer not to deal with me. For jedi this could be called "Aura of Calmness", for sith "Field of Fear" and so on.

 

Secondly based on the same idea - npcs in the area that I have defeated already would automatically ignore me as long as I am in the immediate vicinity. This would avoid having to fight the same group all over again.

 

Travel

Traveling around is way too cumbersome.

- For an advanced society they sure seem to lack maps! How about a possibility to buy world maps from vendors? These maps could open the general areas and travel points except story, heroic and secret areas.

- travel by taxi to any location on the map for a (large?) fee with few restrictions: outside of story areas, active battle areas, inaccessible locations, heroic locations and such.

- increase speeder speeds to more realistic speeds: this is super advanced space faring civilization and their speeders do barely 20miles an hour? I think there could be more speeder levels each opening at every 10 levels with speed increase by 25%. So starting at level 10: 100%, 125%, 150%, 175%, 200%

- option to return from flashpoint to the previous location like with warzone queues.

 

Misc

- sometimes on higher level planets it is difficult to find a group to do a heroic mission. Especially if this mission cannot be shared. I was wondering - how about possibility to hire a strike team for a (huge?) fee that would be capable of doing the heroic mission with me? Or simply help me fight though a tough spots. Could cost something like a million credits for 10 minutes or something. They would not attack other players and other faction players. Only npc that are part of the mission you hire them for.

[cyrus_krell]

Before I address the roundup of postings since my last reading of the thread, I wanted to address something. I started writing it in the middle of said roundup post, but it got me on a train of thought that I could not deter from, and I think it very relevant to the overall discussion.

 

I'd also like to note that I've actually been meaning to write the original post for the last couple of months, but have just been too busy to do so.

 

Before I go any further, I want to say that this thread is amazing in its intent and execution. I wish that this had been done sooner as it may have helped things out before things have gotten to this point. But this also demonstrates that there are fans who still want to see this game continue.

 

Thanks.

 

Absolutely, I want to see this game continue. SWTOR has immense potential, and every time I hear a developer talk about the game, a 5- to 10-year plan is almost always mentioned in passing. I want it to realize that potential. And I know it's possible, because EVE has been around for almost a decade now; they have a net gain of subscribers every year, and they aren't slowing down.

 

What it comes down to, though, is that EA needs to have faith in the concept and let Bioware do their job independently of their ominous cloud. If you, like me, read the minutes from the recent earnings call, it was almost as if they regarded SWTOR as a cancer. The push for Free to Play will ultimately be a good thing, but let's call a spade a spade, here--this is entirely a profit-driven motive (i.e. greed) on the part of Electronic Arts, a company beholden to its shareholders (whose only interest, ironically enough, is to make money, regardless of the methods chosen to do so).

 

True, too, Bioware also has a lot of work to do, and it needs to stay energized and focused on realizing their vision while (reasonably) catering to and (definitely) answering the needs of their players. I keep drawing parallels and comparisons to CCP, the makers of EVE Online, for a reason: CCP developers are active in the community, be it in very regular blog posts, YouTube videos, or on the forums (yes, the developers themselves even make posts on the forums and respond to criticisms).

 

Furthermore, we as players cannot sit in mild discontent, or in quiet apathy, and must instead hold Bioware to a higher standard. CCP, for its mistakes and faults, is ahead of the game with the power of its community, and liken them to shareholders in the game's promise (solidified through the CSM). I like that idea. And you know what? It's true. We are shareholders, and we do have a voice--both in the written word and through our dollars. It need not descend into declarations or accusations of fanboyism, or ichor-laced postings of pure hate and vitriol.

 

And now I shall get off my soapbox and return to writing my roundup post.