A Thousand Gaping Wounds

[mourasantos]

I have a dream! That one day SWTOR will look something like this:

 

ADAPTIVE CONVERSATION SYSTEM

Guys, please...get it right. It's not about adding MORE story, it's about making the existing story more immersive, enthralling. Quality over quantity, always.

 

But how...?

 

Here's one way: program a mechanism that can learn your personality according to your conversation choices. Example. When an alien approaches your character with yet another meaningless and monotonous task (aka side-quests) the conversation wheel gives you, as always, three options to choose from.

 

1. Sure, I may be interested.

2. What's in it for me?

3. Stay away from me, alien.

 

Let's assume you chose the third option. Now that the system has learned of your xenophobic proclivities, your next conversation will adapt accordingly and ensure you're given a set of suitably disparaging options to choose from the next time an alien approaches you.

 

1. What do you want.

2. Oh great, a T'wilek.

3. Die, you alien scum!

 

The greatest benefit of implementing a system of this sort would be the immense contribution it would provide in terms of building a sense of individuality for players, to the notion that their characters have their own personalities, unique to themselves and no one else. This added appeal would likely draw the curiosity of new players, the kind of players this game failed to captivate so resoundingly—the non-MMO'ers, the casuals, the devout KOTOR fans who gave it a shot, but ultimately backed out because they felt it didn't live up to its franchise—in short, the guys Bioware should really be gunning for. Of course I realize this would require an enormous expenditure, both in terms of resources and finances, but in my opinion it would be a much more sound investment than the alternative, which is to continue saturating players with additional story content that, regardless of how captivating and well-written it may be, will ultimately feel increasingly derivative and even preposterous in the long-run.

 

Stay tuned, I'll flesh out this idea some more in the future.

 

CANTINAS

What if there were an instanced area inside all cantinas where you could hang out with the rest of the characters in your Legacy? You might even exchange a few words with them, the tone of their responses would be determined by their respective alignments, as well as the relationship you chose to assign them with: son, sibling, etc... Perhaps a barroom brawl might even break out between you and whoever you've assigned as your rival. Think of the possibilities.

 

CLASSES

Apart from combat based abilities there is no distinction between all of the different available classes to differentiate them from each other.

 

SOLUTION: obvious really, though pretty hard to implement: make each class unique unto itself. I've already discussed how to do this, in part, by proposing the interrupt system to be available from the get-go for the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor class, but I think the time has come to elaborate on more of these class distinctions (this could take a while though, so brace yourselves).

 

I'll start with the BOUNTY HUNTER class.

 

You go to Nar Shadaa to place a a bounty on a rival player. The cost for doing this should be prohibitive enough to avoid tomfoolery (read: everyone and their mother has a bounty placed on their heads). As soon as the BH picks it up the target in question is flagged, a fact to which he will remain oblivious to just so long as he remains in a safe zone (the fleet). However, the moment the target lands on a contested planet a "kill clock" is initiated. Once this clock is triggered, the target is grounded to the planet and now has a set amount of time to avoid almost certain doom at the hands of his relentless pursuer, who has also been alerted to his target's unfortunate galactic meanderings: "Warning! Target spotted on Coruscant!"...or something to that effect...

 

But LucasRox (hardcore pvp'er, still a virgin at 27) says: Ridiculous idea. It will never work. For one, what makes you think I want to take part in such a thing? And frankly I resent you for coming up with the idea, for trying to to flesh out something that would be truly fun for most people, when the best I've been able to come up with so far was demanding the Inquisitor class to be nerfed.

 

I understand your concern. I think the solution lies in adding an incentive for the player who's been marked with a Bounty to want to engage in the old cat-and-mouse game with the creation of an achievement system of sorts. You people seem to like gear, so lets keep it simple and stay along those lines.

 

Say the targeted player manages to avoid the bounty hunter long enough for the kill clock to run out; he is then attributed with a title—"wily", for instance—that allows him to unlock access to a certain type of gear. Now consider he manages to escape yet again; now he's been attributed with the title of "sneaky", which in turn will allow him to buy tier 2 gear of the same achievement ladder. And so on...

 

WILY (escaped 1 Bounty)

 

The tier 1 gear this title unlocks includes a full armor set. Nothing fancy of course (more like rags, really), but unique-looking enough to be coveted by most players. What's really gonna steal the show though are the frag mines which will be made available to the player, the first of what will be a long-list of items used as counter-measures to Bounty Hunters. These babies can be real show-stealers If used intelligently (in other words, if you place them correctly and at the right time), often catching overzealous BH unawares.

 

Tier 2: "Sneaky"

Tier 3: "Illusive"

Tier 4: "Stealth Master"

Tier 5: "Escape Artist"

... Something along these lines. Get ready for some cool ***, ninja-style gear!

 

Timmverse (30, balding, thinks Mark Hammil's interpretation of the Joker was, and shall forever remain, unparalleled) argues:Here's your basic fallacy -- the "kill clock". What's preventing me from logging off the moment I learn i'm being hunted? And what if I have an emergency and HAVE to log off?

 

Good point, sir. The solution, I think, lies in reverting the previous proposition, where instead of being awarded with a positive title (and the gear it gives you access to) you're penalized with a loss of experience points and tagged with increasingly negative-sounding titles—"Coward", for instance—the more often you do it.

 

- Witless

- Coward

- Chicken

- Spineless

 

...and so on...

 

In an ideal (mmo)world the attribution of each of these negative titles would be clearly reflected in your character somehow. For instance, for the Coward title, whenever one crossed paths with another player of higher level and stats an emote would be automatically triggered, forcing one to shiver and cower in front of everyone. Ambitious, I know, but potentially fun as all hell...

 

PaulieShore21 (married with kids, civil engineer) asks:I don't dislike the idea, there's something to it. Could you pls elaborate on how the system would work on the Bounty Hunter end of things? Namely, how does he track down his target?

 

Sure. Good question, by the way. The manner in which Bounty Hunters track you down would depend on a number of variables, chiefly amongst which would be the gear they have gained access to. Regardless, all BH's would have at their disposal the same baseline equipment to start with—a tracking device that allows them to pinpoint your general location on a broad radius.

 

What I didn't mention before was that, like his prey, the Bounty Hunter has his own achievement ladder, too. I'm not going to get into what it would look like just yet, but suffice it to say the higher up the BH crawls up this ladder, the more precise his hunting tools become. In the early stages his tracking device has a very broad radius, making his job that much harder. At higher levels, however, the BH is able to gain access to gear with a much better, tighter scope, a tracking device that's able to pinpoint his target's location with much more precision. This is of course affected by his prey's own position in the achievement ladder. For instance, if his target has achieved the rank of "Escape Artist", he will have plenty of counter-measures at his disposal to throw off the Bounty Hunter from his path. I'll get into all of this later....

 

*whew*

 

Alright, this is a work in progress. I'll come back to this and the other classes later.

 

COMPANIONS

Companions have many faults at the moment. Every time you click on them they have no more than couple of stock-phrases that quickly grow stale, at times even outright annoying. There is also a lack of interaction between them.

 

SOLUTION: Give companions more speaking lines, and make sure these are appropriate to the surrounding environment. You don't have to go too crazy, keep it simple; if on Tatooine, have them comment on the blistering heat. Also, give us sporadic cut-scene on-ship where the companions are seen interacting with each other. Take companion affection into account in these scenarios. For instance, if your affection with Risha is high enough, and if Akavii Spaar's is equally high, then perhaps a "lover's feud" could be triggered the next time you step into your ship.

 

EMOTES

The emote system is archaic. Sound is practically non-existent, the range of emotions available to our characters severely limited and, worse still, there are several emote commands which often repeat, making them interchangeable with one another despite their descriptive distinction.

 

SOLUTION: The Mayan Apocalypse is around the corner, how about taking advantage of some of the tools modern technology affords us? I heard something called Kinect is around... I trust you to connect the dots. SOE seems to have already done it with EVERQUEST II.

 

JEDI TEMPLE

So there's a cool little feature available right here on this website, a series of videos in which Jedi Master Marka Ragnos, or whatever, provides a brief summary of the major galactic events that took place during a wide stretch of time. Now, why isn't this integrated into the game proper? It seems as if it would fit right at home in the Jedi Archives on Tython. Just a fun little feature to keep players entertained, and help give the planet itself some character.

 

FLASHPOINTS

Because their story elements are static right now FP's eventually become stale once you've completed them several times, and it doesn't take very long for experienced players to lose patience with newbies running it for the first time ever. This has been the cause for an increasingly wide-spread phenomenon, the SPACEBAR-feud. There are several ways to circumvent this problem, the easiest of which involves churning out MORE flashpoints. However, this not only the costliest of the solutions, it's also the most short-sighted one. The real key is to make the cutscenes found in EXISTING flashpoints as dynamic as possible. How, you ask?¹

 

Consider a scenario where, after reaching a certain amount of social points, you're able to unlock a new ability that allowsyou to interrupt the normal flow of conversation by performing a suitably show-stopping action—something similar to the Paragon/Renegade system Bioware introduced in Mass Effect 2 (for the sake of convenience, we'll call this ability the SHOW-STOPPER from now on).

 

PeeweeGerman (young, strong, stout Aryan with fascist proclivities) has had his curiosity roused:"Okay, I'm listening. Would this SHOW-STOPPER ability be available to all classes? And would it be executed differently depending on the respective classes?"

 

The answer is yes in both cases. Consulars would have FORCE PERSUATION, Smugglers would use SMUGGLER'S CHARM, Sith Inquisitors would rely on MIND DOMINATION, Jedi Knights would rock their JEDI MIND TRICKS, Troopers might use, say, SOLDIER'S RESOLVE, and so on...The only caveat is that by virtue of their lore, the Jedi Consular and Sith Inquisitor classes are not required to reach a certain level of Social Points in order to unlock the SHOW-STOPPER, they have it available to them always, and from the get-go.

 

SkepticalJoe (22, voted In N' Out Burger's most valuable employee for June 2010) expresses some doubts: "That'll never work. Offering those two an exclusive benefit like that would mean a massive, game-breaking disruption of the balance the developers were so careful to establish between classes. The next day you'd see a massive surge of players rolling those two classes."

 

Not if other classes are also given their own exclusive attributes, not if you provide players with similarly enticing reasons for rolling them. You know the spiel: Smugglers would Smuggle, Bounty Hunters would Bounty Hunt, Imperial Agents would infiltrate the opposite faction in disguise, and so on...The possibilities are numerous, and I address them in detail in my later posts. For now though, lets try to focus on laying out what this Show-Stopper system would look like. The idea would be for it to be developed as a sort of mini-game. By choosing either the Light-side (Paragon) or Dark-side (Renegade) options the system would be rolling the dice – just the same as it would do for the other, standard conversation rolls – except that in this case, if the roll is lost, you would then not only lose a (very) small amount of Social Points, but also be locked out from all future interactions for that particular flashpoint, unable to take part in any of the conversations. The upshot is that if you manage to win the roll you would then receive a substantial social points bonus in return, in addition to performining the aforementioned kick-*** feat. The higher your social points level, the more likely you are to win these rolls.

 

TorLane (53, **** aficionado) has this to say: "Sounds moderately intriguing. Could you elaborate on how exactly this so-called conversation system of yours would work in-game by giving us a specific example?"

 

Sure. Since it's the first and most widely-known Flashpoint in Swtor, I'll be using the Esseles Flashpoint to illustrate my point. Suppose you rolled a Jedi Consular. After tearing through a horde of maladjusted Imperials, you've finally arrived at that infamous point of the instance in which an (exceedingly rare) moral quagmire is presented to you and the rest of your player-companions. Normally everyone would be given two choices here, either 1.) pay heed to the straight-to-business T'wilek Ambassador's advice to sacrifice a small crew of ship operators in order to expedite your fight against the Imperial incursion, or 2.) ignore the venomous words spewing out from pretentious ******'s mouth and decide to spare them instead. Now, if this system I'm proposing were to be implemented, you would be given two additional choices to choose from beyond the three-branched limit which is currently set for us.

 

But Impatient Sam (14, afflicted with Progeria) is having none of it: "You already told us that you idiot, get to the freakin' point already!"

 

Alright, alright, I'm about to! The thing is, there are two ways in which the whole thing could play out, so make sure to keep up, as it might get a little complicated from this point onwards.

 

OPTION #1

So in this scenario your ability to win a roll is tied to a number of factors, the first among which are your reflexes.

You see, in order for you to even have a chance of rolling succesfully on these aditional Light-Side and Dark-Side options you would have be fast enough to click on them in the first place. Here's how it would work: two pulsating orbs of light, one red, one blue, would suddenly flash on screen, providing the player with only a fraction of a moment to click on them. If he succeeds clicking them on time he has a chance to win the roll, but if he fails, he's bound to regret it.

This time-constricted, ticking-clock variation of the system should be familiar to players of Mass Effect 2, as it was lifted directly from it. However, contrary to that game, the difference here is that the appearance of these two options aren't a done deal – the rate at which they appear being mostly erratic so that players are kept continually on their toes, never knowing, or able to predict, the exact moment in which these orbs will decide to rear their heads.

 

SagaciousMike (22 years old, philosophy undergrad with Marxist leanings) ponders: "It's all fine and good to discuss the technical permutations of this system, but what does any of it mean in terms of narrative? How would these "feats", these extra social interactions, allow players take more enjoyment from the game?"

 

To answer this question, allow me to return to the Esseles scenario I've been using as an example. Assuming the player managed to be quick (and lucky) enough to win the Light-side Roll, what would happen is that an action specific to his Consular class would then be triggered (in this case, FORCE PERSUATION) so that, instead of having to talk his way out of sacrificing the workmen as he would otherwise he can instead induce an hypnotic state upon the Ambassador, thereby forcing her to revise the ruthlessness of her beliefs. Alternatively, if the player had won the Dark-Side roll, he would perform a similar action, though with a considerably more mischievous outcome, the kind which would surely be relished by writers, as it would present them with a vast number of opportunties to concoct humorous situations—an aspect which, presently, this game's narrative sorely lacks.

 

Speaking of humor, you know what else writers would love? The BACKFIRES.

 

What are the backfires, you ask? Well it's fairly self-explanatory, really: it's what happens when cruel fate conspires against you so that, even if you manage to click on either of the two intervention options on time when they pop up, your roll is still somehow lost. In these (not so infrequent) circumstances, rather than performing an heroic deed or terrific show of power, you're essentially reduced, much to everyone else's amusement, to making buffoon of yourself. Not only that, you're blocked out from any and all future conversations for that particular flashpoint.

 

Here's how the situation might develop: Your Jedi Consular attempts to hypnotize the Ambassador, yet, to his surprise and disappointment, the Ambassador simply shurgs it off, as if she were completely immune to its grasp. For a moment it seems as if that's that. But then, suddenly, something kooky and expected! A strange moan, an incoherent babbling is heard. Turn around to discover, to everyone's great shock, that the Consular's spell has somehow backfired and taken hold of another player instead of its intended target. Eventually this player manages to break free from this spell and comes to. Except that now, he's furious. How dare anyone meddle with his mind, the audacity...Boom! He or she strikes your Consular with a beeatch-slap straight to the face. You promptly drop to your knees, humiliated and locked out from all further conversation rolls.

 

OPTION #2 (THE MMO-FRIENDLY ONE)

Okay, so here's my second take on how the conversation interrupt system might work. You guys tell me which you'd prefer to see implemented (though personally, I'm partial to this one). Instead of having a system that's reliant on twitch-reflexes in order to work (which, according to the feedback I've received, seems to be a no-no in MMO's) it would be set up as follows: As the player accumulates social points a meter is gradually filled which, upon reaching its limit, allows for the aforementioned SHOW-STOPPER to be unlocked. Now you might be wondering, quite rightly, how all of this might work from a visual standpoint. Fortuitously enough though, it's as if all the groundwork has already been put in place in order for this to be seamlessly implemented, and no additional work would be required from Bioware apart form some slight tinkering. To prove this, lets take a look at what the conversation U.I. currently looks like:http://pikigeek.com/2012/01/21/star-wars-the-old-republic-review-a-tale-of-galactic-conquest/ Notice how there's an outline running half the blue circle's perimeter, before it gets cut off by the three yellow bars that indicate the conversation options? Imagine that it would it slowly fill up with a red meter according to to the gradual build-up of social points you accumulate. See where I'm going with this…?

 

ObviousJones (43, salesman, IQ: 99): "So if I'm understanding this correctly this meter would represent the amount of social points obtained by the player, right? So what happens when the meter is filled?"

 

What else? Once the red meter reached the apex of the the circle's contour, the blue core at the center would begin to pulsate, indicating to the the player that he's finally unlocked the SHOWSTOPPER. All he need do now is click the circle to replace the three standard dialogue options with the two new Light-Side and Dark-side options which have been made available to him. Of course, as I mentioned before, the player must be judicious about his use of the SHOWSTOPPER, for his chances of either striking gold or striking out are always, irrespective of class, 50-50.

 

Well, that pretty much covers it.

 

I'm sure a lot of you have yet to be convinced this system is really the most effective way of countering the general sense of staleness which has settled into Flashpoints, that churning out more of them with additional (and more importantly, NEW) story content is the only sensible solution to the problem, but I disagree with this whole-heartedly. Not only as it relates to Flashpoints, but to any and all story-centric endeavors Bioware decide to lay their hands on in the future, as well. Because, no matter how perfectly structured, paced and well executed, a story is bound to grow stale sooner or later. We have an infinite variety of books, films, television series and other such mediums of entertainment (of which video-games are also a part) to prove this, that a story is only able to capture an audience's attention for so long before its characters become stale and one-note, for the events surrounding them to start feeling increasingly implausible and contrived (see: soap-operas). SWTOR is no exception. I'll address this problem in more detail in a future separate entry, but the crux of what I'm trying to say here is that, rather than piling on additional story elements it'd be much more intelligent, not to mention fruitful, for Bioware to perfect the ones which are already existent. Finally, the development of further Flashpoints pose a functional problem as well, which sooner or later would have to be addressed: the LFG tool. I mean, think about it — players already have a hard enough time grouping up of a handful of flashpoints as it is, imagine what that queue would look like if you had twenty-five of them to queue up for.

 

¹ Actually, the answer to this addresses several other problems, namely the lack of differentiation between classes and the seemingly superfluous social levels system, both of which I'll tackle in more detail later on.

 

PLAYER HOUSING

I take spaceship housing as a given, so I won't be addressing it as I'm sure it's bound to be implemented in the game sooner or later. However there is talk amongst some of the more zealous players of an entire planet dedicated simply to player housing. Instead of creating an entire planet exclusively for the purpose of player housing—which is dumb—try adding a Mega-Skyscraper or two to some new area on Coruscant. The planet needs something like this badly anyway: for a capital planet, it's revolting how bare and...lifeless it is. Oh, make sure to reflect the real world intricasies of real estate -- the higher the floor, the more expensive it'd beb (with the penthouse taking the cake of course). Great way to make a boatload of cash too now that F2p is coming out.

 

SPRINT ABILITY

Unlock sprint ability at Legacy Level 1 instead of having it available for new players from the onset, immediately after character creation.

 

HOLOTERMINAL

The holo-terminal on our ships used to communicate with our respective faction's leadership is constantly glowing blue, as if signaling it wants to be interacted with, even when it doesn't.

 

SOLUTION: Get rid of this. Yesterday. It should only glow blue when inter-stellar communications are warranted. At this stage, 90% of the time it does f-all beyond resetting my U.I.

 

FLEET

Scrap the faction fleet as the main base of operations. From a narrative perspective it makes little sense, the capital worlds should be the central gathering points for each of the respective factions.¹

Imagine you're a new player. Not just a new player, but new to MMO's in general. Apart from a few hiccups along the way, your leveling experience is a fairly smooth one up until you reach level 10. But then as soon as you hit fleet you're inundated by a flood of new, sensory overloading game-systems: vendors peddling wares you won't be able to gain access to for another 40 levels, level 50 players parading high-tech gadgets of the kind which you, at such an early stage of your adventure, can only dream of obtaining (even though every NPC and their mother is treating you as the galaxy's last ray of hope), the chat box is swarming with befuddling, MMO-specific terminology you can't make any sense of, etc...For these reasons and more, and as a newbie to MMO's myself, I was this close to unsubbing the moment I hit fleet. Of course most folks here won't be able to sympathize with this problem of new game systems being unlocked at too early a stage, given that they're veterans of MMO's, and consequently at least somewhat familiar with all of them already. Problem is, the issue isn't merely functional, it is narrative as well. For instance, the sense of heroism Bioware supposedly went to such great lengths to provide SWTOR's players with is instantly shattered the moment he discovers even the FREAKING VENDOR standing behind the counter on fleet is 40 levels more powerful than him.

 

That's right, the fleet is broken. Remember, for instance, those holo-terminals located below the main level, where people would gather around to do flashpoints, the ones in which you'd get a sit-rep, an intro, essentially a narrative purpose for doing them in the first place? Well, that's all gone now, made null and avoid by the introduction of group finder, left to simply gather dust. This is actually another huge problem in itself, but I mention it here only as means to highlight just how senseless the fleet map has become -- you've got a whole floor, even entire separate ships, meant to teleport you to flashpoints that are now completely useless. But anyway, I digress. On to the --

 

SOLUTION: Okay, so we've already agreed that flooding a new player with too much information as early as level 10 is not the ideal approach, right? And if we've agreed that walking around on fleet surrounded by level 50's who look meaner, faster, cooler, than your measly-leveled toon is a highly deflating experience, then we'll also agree on the need to avoid these emasculating encounters while at the same time figuring out a way to space out the rate at which players are exposed to new game systems at a measured pace. But how to do this? Well, try this...

 

Create a copy of the capital world that is only accessible at level 50. Imagine you're playing SWTOR for the very first time. Having reached the capital planet, Coruscant, you're feeling understandably underwhelmed by its lack of scope, its corridor structure… In short, its lack of ambition. But! There's an area closed off to you, for whatever reason. A bridge of some sort, like what they did with the GTA series. You wonder what it's all about. But then, you reach level 50 and you receive a HOLOVID update informing you this area is now freely accessible to you and every single other level 50, PLUS anyone with a Legacy level above a certain point (Legacy 3 sounds fair, I think). Oh, I'm not suggesting the fleets should be scrapped entirely. Nay, I think they should be kept, only not as a galactic epicenter. So far there are three ships -- one used as an all-purpose hub, a gathering point for all players above 10 (Carrick Station, on the Republic side) and two more (gav daragon and another one whose name escapes me at the moment) for flashpoint teleporting purposes. Keep them, but make them restricted to players in 10 level increments. In other words, levels 10 to 20 you gain access to Gav Daragon. There, you'll encounter players who may, potentially, be slightly more advanced than you, but are still within the same realm of experience. There, vendors will sell you things you can actually gain access to, understand, and, more importantly, afford. There, the conversations rolling down on the chatbox won't be pertaining to things that you, as a novice, aren't quite ready to grok yet, etc...

 

Gav Daragon: 10 to 20

The other one I forget: 20 to 30

Some new space station made for: 30's to 40

Carrick Station: 40 to 49

LEVEL 50's and their ALTS (Legacy level 2 and beyond): CORUSCANT and Drommund Kaas.

 

The idea of streamlining the leveling experience so as to restrict encounters with maxed characters, to make it a much rarer prospect for first-time players, is bound to meet its fair share of detractors, especially amongst the hardcore crowd. These people are more likely to have little to no empathy with the first-time user because they've already gone through the grind, worked for ceaseless hours to obtain their much-prized gear, and so they'll be damned if anyone tries to take away their hard-earned right to show off their uber-cool characters decked out in resplendent regalia to the rest of the world. The thing is, though, this wouldn't be detracting at all from that sense of validation they so hunger for. In fact on the contrary, the end result of making level 50 encounters rarer would be that in those few times in which the newbie DOES run into a maxed character (say, for example, on a datacron hunt or as part of a world-event), he or she would then stand in awe of them, as if they just spotted an Elvis apparition. What's more, this way you wouldn't be just another level 50 lost in a sea of level 50's competing for attention on a fleet.

 

¹ Problem is, both capital worlds are highly underdeveloped at this stage; they just don't feel very "capital" at all..

 

HUTTBALL

Remove Huttball from the Warzone queue. Thematically, it doesn't make any sense for them to be included. I mean, they're called WARzones for christ's sake, not Hutt Games. Instead, make them a place. Yes, a place! Some kind of Arena venue, preferably located on Nar Shadaa (which by rights should be the capital of fun and games, but right now is the capital of zilch). Allow bets to be placed.

 

WORLD BOSSES

Nothing wrong with the bosses themselves, per se; the problem is the complete lack of narrative impetus to defeat them.

 

SOLUTION: Write an in-depth description of them in the codex. Provide a backstory, a reason for us to care. If those overgrown gerbils out on Tatooine are deemed worthy of three paragraphs, why the Force would a ten-ton cyclopean reptile be given a pass?

 

GROUP FINDER

I used to be nothing less than revolted with group finder. Not only due to the sheer amount of problems it brought to the fore, but also in part (or is it mostly?) because of its positive reception. I must have become jaded at some point though, because nowadays I seem to be practically immune to the spectacular show of ignorance SWTOR's player-base so often exhibits. It's the kind of ignorance best typified by those of you still scratching your heads, wondering what the hell I'm going on about, and it's you who I now address:

 

Do any of you remember how Flashpoints were run before the LFG tool was introduced? Do you recall the way in which the grouping up process was different back then?

 

"Uh…people would swarm the chat box with LFG invites?"

 

Yes, but no. The real answer is this: once you found enough people to group up, you would then all gather at the terminals on fleet to get a sit-rep from your respective faction's leaders (Satele Shan on the Republic side, Darth Malgus on Imperial) before heading to the instance proper.

 

"Oh yeah! I remember that. Weird, I haven't done those in a while…"

 

Of course you haven't! And the reason why you haven't is because they were made completely devoid of meaning with the introduction of the LGF tool. And while I'm sure this is far from being an issue to those players who've already hit level cap with at least one character and have run each and every one of the currently available Flashpoints multiple times (which, given the static subscriptions rate in SWTOR, are likely to be the vast majority), but for those who are new to SWTOR it poses a problem of nearly game-breaking proportions. Why? Because the purpose of those conversations wasn't just so that players could stack up on social points, it was to offer them a motive for wanting to run the FP's in the first place, a narrative incentive, a purpose. So what happens now instead? Well, what happens is that players are thrown into these Flashpoints without so much as a clue as to how and why they got there, what's happening, or what they're supposed to do. And as if this wasn't bad enough, even those players who are savy enough to realize the tool is broken, and so take it upon themselves to group up in the traditional manner, are bound to have hugely important plot threads spoilt for them sooner or later, since Bioware actually incentivates us to run Flashpoints randomly (by offering daily commendations in exchange), thus negating all our attempts to run them chronologically, as they should be. This is especially vexing considering we're talking about a developer that prides itself for its supposedly singular-minded focus on story.

 

But wait, I'm not done yet! There's yet another game system that was left broken by the introduction of the LFG tool. Remember all of those transport ships strewn across the surface of each planet? You know, the ones with the Robot quest-givers (aka flashpoint couriers)? Yup, that's right, those too are now bereft of any purpose whatsoever, and I can only imagine the amount of head scratching their continued existence has incited on new players.

 

In conclusion, given that two whole game-system were sapped of all functionality by the LFG tool, and considering too, that I've yet to hear even the slightest peep from the community about this problem (on the contrary, group finder has been been hailed, against all reason, as a much needed improvement to the game, one of the few things SWTOR's team has gotten right thus far), I think you'll find all the frustration and anger I once directed at this matter to be somewhat justified, or at the very least not entirely misplaced.

 

SOLUTION: From a functional standpoint the most quick-fire, least expensive, and easiest of solutions would be to revert the game back to its pre-Group Finder state. The only issue is that from a marketing and financial perspective this would be tantamount to suicide. I've devised a few potential workarounds to this problem, but after giving it some thought, I've decided this one would be the most practical: keep new players from using the Group Finder tool to run Flashpoints until they've completed them at least once in the traditional way.

 

There. Simple, right?

 

TRAVEL

There's a lack of incentive to travel. Why? Well, take a look at the real world for a clue. What's our own primary incentive to travel, beyond exploring different sights? The answer is exploring different cultures. What is a culture? A system. What is a system, in SWTOR's case? A mini-game. And right now, there is a total absence of systems unique to a particular planet to help differentiate them from each other, to set them apart. The sole exception is some crystal- making machine on Coruscant, and sorry to say, that's far from cutting it. Implement a system that's unique to a particular planet and you get a rudimentary form of culture. Implement a culture and you create a reason to travel.

 

There, fixed.

 

But how to do this? Look to the real world for inspiration: want to get the best suits in the world, a special custom-made dose of sartorial sprezzatura? Go to Italy. Specifically, Napoli. Want exposure to that special, filthy-rich sort of decadence? Go to Monaco during the Grand-prix. Looking for the low-brow variant? Buy yourself a ticket to Vegas, where the Ed Hardy crowd like to congregate. And finally, if you're looking for the the best and worst of everything the world has to offer, then New York's your place (by the way this what Coruscant should be). Now think along Star Wars lines. The creme-de-la creme of swoop races, the final shebang, where all the top-end pilots go to prove their worth, would be on Alderaan. The best and rarest Jedi Gear should be found on Dantooine. Want to hunt for exotic animals, then Tatooine is the best (and only) place for you! You get the point, I could go on and on…

 

PLAYER ROLE

Players lack the sense that their decisions have any real effect on the game. It's true, too. None of our decisions really mean anything at the moment, regardless of how evil or goody goody two-shoes our respective paths end up being. The solution for this lies in that metrics program Bioware likes to brag about so much, that proprietary system they came up with to collate every single shred of data in SWTOR down to the last 01 bit. Instead of limiting its use for finding out where players die the most, or to determine class imbalances, use it for this: gather up intel on every single player's light side/dark side choice, every pro-republic or pro-imperial decision, every single warzone outcome, and make them all count. How? Server specific events. Rather than wasting time brainstorming what the next world event should look like, you should tie them directly to the results of said findings. Publish the results of these findings so players can keep up.

 

In other words, imagine you've determined that, on balance, more light-side choices have been on a specific server overall, than dark side ones. Change the world accordingly. Have it shift gradually to a chirpier, more festive kind of place. Conversely, if more dark side options were taken overall, perhaps vegetation begins to rot away, infrastructure begins to crumble...a darker, more foreboding ambiance in general begins seeping in.

That's one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is pro-republic vs pro-imperial player options. I'd include PVP and Warzone results as a factor in this, but the end result would be something like... I don't know, say more pro-Imperial decisions were made on one server... instead of having "Rakghouls Return" as the next event, have Carrick Station be attacked. Players will then have to deal with repairs for the foreseeable future until they turn the tide.

Say too, that more Warzones were also won by Imperials than defenders of the Republic. Have the territory on a contested planet shift toward the Empire's favor as a reflection. Again, these results would be published for all to see, either in the holovid network on swtor.com. Preferably the first.

Sorry, I have this idea very clearly laid out on my mind but have to refine more it in writing.

 

It's feasible, trust me. Er, I think…

 

SOUND

So this section will be far more detailed in the future, but for now I only want to address a couple of minor issues. Lets start with jumping. Maybe I'm spoiled, but practically every other single game I've played has had some form of audio cue attached to a jump, usually in the form of a grunt, or squirm to indicate some kind of effort on the character's part. SWTOR should have this too.

 

My other gripe pertains to the background audio track, the ambient sound so to speak. It's dismal in this game, a real wreck. Its faults do not lie so much with its execution, but rather with the lack of diversity offered. Have you noticed, for instance, that practically all of the indoor locations in SWTOR use the exact same sound track between? You know what I'm talking about: those sounds of grinding machine parts, iron clanging, etc..

In short, the kind of soundscape that would fit a steel-mill or factory perfectly (both of which there are no shortage of in SWTOR), but stands out like a sore thumb in, for instance, a cave. The problem is, like I already said, the game uses this same soundtrack irrespective of the setting. The philisophy seems to be, if it's indoors, then we use it.

 

(To be continued)

 

SOLUTION: Self-explanatory.

 

U.I. DESIGN

It looks atrocious ever since the 1.2 update. I'm not against allowing player customization per se, but this new one makes a mockery of even the most basic principles of design. I'm shocked it even made it past quality control in the first place, to think it's persisted as is for this long is... i don't even know what it is.

 

SOLUTION: Revert the standard U.I. Appearance back to how it originally looked. asap.

 

VOICES

When players of the same class group together it's jarring to have to listen to two or more people with the exact same voice.

 

SOLUTION: Voice alterations, like EAX, are only part of the solution. The key is to add new voice work, period. Benefit? You sell them. Only 19. 99 for a new male/female voice pack! Easy money. Not all players will buy it, of course, but all will be able to hear these new voices. Everyone wins.

 

And as for EAX, I'd repurpose it for something else entirely. I'd use it as another indicator for moral alignment, so that the more Dark Side points you have, the more cold, gravelly and generally menacing your character's voice becomes.

Edited September 10, 2012 by mourasantos

[Legonick]

I really like some of your ideas, however we all know Bioware/EA would not change their game this drastically this far into it. This is the game now, Like it or go away and make your own.

[mourasantos]

I really like some of your ideas, however we all know Bioware/EA would not change their game this drastically this far into it. This is the game now, Like it or go away and make your own.

 

Whoa. Talk about harsh...

[LordAragore]

Your idea about the Bounty Hunter Boards would be really cool and probably not so hard to implement...

[Kazjan]

Going to Bump! Very nice idea's but the big reason this game is bad because how can you make a game were you have not seat in chairs?

[MaximusRex]

How many new posts are you going to make with 99% the same content in them?

[Timias]

Bounty Boards? Bounties placed on other players ... when it happens, I'm gone .. why? I'm not here to be someone else's entertainment. (Which is why I play on a PvE Server, and don't participate in PvP).

 

"And frankly I resent you for coming up with the idea, or trying to to flesh out something that would be truly fun for most people, when the best I've been able to come up with so far was demanding the Inquisitor class to be nerfed."

Nice way of making "us" look like we don't have a valid reason to not want it, and how all we want is someone nerfed. It's all these "ideas" that wind up getting classes nerfed because someone got their ego bruised in PvP to begin with.

 

If you want it, ask for it to be 100% voluntary to participate hunter/hunted. Here's an idea, play on a PvP Server, and go hunting people on your own. Reward yourself with a nice cold drink when you win.

 

Player X gets his ego shattered in a PvP Match by Player Y. Solution? I'll get 500 people hunting down Player Y so he can't do anything except defend himself, and if he doesn't, he loses experience, so he drops to level 49, and I can own him in PvP. No chance this would ever be abused.

 

You can have all the fun in this game you want. But not at my expense, and not interfering with my gaming experience.

[mourasantos]

This whole PVP-PVE business has to stop. There's absolutely no reason why there should be made a distinction between the two, their separation is artificial and counterintuitive.

 

If you're so sensitive and thin-skinned you can't stomach the possibility of running the risk of being, as you put it, "someone else's entertainment" every now and then, then you probably shouldn't be playing an MMO in the first place. The problem is the target audience MMO's are currently designed to appeal to aren't at all interested in "playing" the game, in having fun with it; they're interested in using it as a platform to attain the kind of social validation they could never really find in their real lives. Consequently, anything which might compromise their status is met with severe aggression.

Edited August 18, 2012 by mourasantos

[mourasantos]

You can have all the fun in this game you want. But not at my expense, and not interfering with my gaming experience.

 

Hate to break it to you but not only is my ability to interfere with your gaming experience what gives meaning to the term "multiplayer", it's also what makes it appealing for most people. Don't like it? There's always Solitaire.

[Timias]

Hate to break it to you but not only is my ability to interfere with your gaming experience what gives meaning to the term "multiplayer", it's also what makes it appealing for most people. Don't like it? There's always Solitaire.

 

Touch a nerve did I?

Stating your opinion isn't proof of a fact. Why are there twice as many PvE Servers than PvP Servers? Why exclude my suggestion that you make participation voluntary on the part of the hunter and the hunted? Or do you enjoy Griefing others in the game? Interfering with my game, is NOT the MMO Experience, it's the play-ground bully experience.

 

This whole PVP-PVE business has to stop. There's absolutely no reason why there should be made a distinction between the two, their separation is artificial and counterintuitive.

 

If you're so sensitive and thin-skinned you can't stomach the possibility of running the risk of being, as you put it, "someone else's entertainment" every now and then, then you probably shouldn't be playing an MMO in the first place. The problem is the target audience MMO's are currently designed to appeal to aren't at all interested in "playing" the game, in having fun with it; they're interested in using it as a platform to attain the kind of social validation they could never really find in their real lives. Consequently, anything which might compromise their status is met with severe aggression.

 

Validation? I'm not here to validate you either. Being sensitive and "thin skinned" has nothing to do with not wanting to be harrassed by other players while trying to enjoy the game I pay for. Once again, I gave a valid compromise of making it voluntary participation, which you completely rejected, again, the tell-tell sign of a griefer and a play-ground bully. Are you so "thin skinned and sensative" that you can't even accept a reasoned and rational compromise to include what you'd like to see in the game?

 

How about couple other suggestions. Create the Bounty Board, and have the players search for random NPC's on Random planets that they have to collect on. Do it as a daily quest, and build your "rep" as you go. Toss in a goody for the PvP Players, and put in a couple random bounties in PvP Zones, that BOTH Factions can collect, winner takes the Bounty.

 

I'm not opposed to you having fun, I'm opposed to you interfering with my fun. And if your fun IS interefering with my fun, then you're admitting you are a griefer and a play-ground bully, and would be better served by playing Eve Online. Join a Corporation, Declair War on another Corporation (which they don't have to agree to), and have your fun.

[kirorx]

Problem #520: FLEET

- Scrap the faction fleet as the main base of operations. From a narrative perspective it makes little sense, the capital worlds should be the central gathering points for each of the respective factions.¹

 

Agree here 100%.

 

All they really need to do is add all the same vendors available on fleet to the capital worlds. This way if people want to go to feel they can but the options for hanging on dromund kaas will be there, this also could divide the people a bit so we dont have 2 isntances of the same area.

[mourasantos]

EDIT: added some text to the SOUND section

[mourasantos]

EDIT: changed the arrangement of sections.

[Deewe]

Problem # 332: FLASHPOINTS

FP's eventually become stale once you've completed them several times. **snip**

 

Imagine after reaching a certain amount of social points you unlock a new ability that allows you to interrupt the normal flow of conversation by performing a suitably show-stopping action,

Everybody, (devs included) would love that. Still the new Austin General Manager already stated V.O. stuff like that will be moved to long term. So don't expect such things anytime soon

 

 

Problem # 31: SPRINT ABILITY

- Unlock sprint ability at Legacy Level 1 instead of having it available for new players from the onset, immediately after character creation.

Why not, would make players feel they are rewarded of having already played and alt.

 

Problem # 412: HOLOTERMINAL

- The holo-terminal on our ships used to communicate with our respective faction's leadership is constantly glowing blue, as if signaling it wants to be interacted with, even when it doesn't.

 

Solution: Get rid of this. Yesterday. It should only glow blue when inter-stellar communications are warranted. At this stage, 90% of the time it does f-all beyond resetting my U.I.

Not big deal but why not.

 

Problem #520: FLEET

- Scrap the faction fleet as the main base of operations. From a narrative perspective it makes little sense, the capital worlds should be the central gathering points for each of the respective factions.¹

May scrap the fleet but disagree with separating players depending on their level.

 

You want social center where level doesn't matter but maybe to drool at each other gear/pet/vehicles/companions

 

 

Problem # 70: HUTTBALL

- Remove Huttball from the Warzone queue.

Better: allow players to choose to which WZ to queue. Which they don't want and well make some of us immediately /leave WZ as soon as entering them (BTW I love HuttBall, it's the only one in which my gunnery commando has a a use with KB and stuns.)

 

PROBLEM # 06: WORLD BOSSES

- Nothing wrong with the bosses themselves, per se; the problem is the complete lack of narrative impetus to defeat them.

Most people don't even read the codex, so more or less a waste of time(sadly).

 

Problem # 3258: TRAVEL

Too much effort for very few results.

 

You want players to go to the planets then add actual content in them or bettter, add sandbox elements.

 

Problem # 5789302: PLAYER ROLE

You're asking for changing world in a game that doesn't even have day/night cycles.

There's a long way to ride before eventually seeing this

 

 

Problem #11: SOUND

Sound isn't that bad with my 7.1 headset. I can hear plenty world sound but they are way to low to notice if you don't have top notch headsets.

 

Problem # 312: U.I. DESIGN

Which original you are speaking about, the beta one?

 

Problem #999: VOICES

Way too expansive and time consuming. Client side voice morphing sounds a good mitigation process.

 

Problem #14: CLASSES

You're asking for a class revamp. Would love that but at this point BioWare doesn't have the budget nor the resources to do that. It would also create much more balance isues.

 

Adaptive conversation system.

Same as above and for now conversations and story mode aren't BioWare Priority.

[mourasantos]

Everybody, (devs included) would love that. Still the new Austin General Manager already stated V.O. stuff like that will be moved to long term. So don't expect such things anytime soon

 

Why not, would make players feel they are rewarded of having already played and alt.

 

 

Not big deal but why not.

 

 

May scrap the fleet but disagree with separating players depending on their level.

 

You want social center where level doesn't matter but maybe to drool at each other gear/pet/vehicles/companions

 

 

 

Better: allow players to choose to which WZ to queue. Which they don't want and well make some of us immediately /leave WZ as soon as entering them (BTW I love HuttBall, it's the only one in which my gunnery commando has a a use with KB and stuns.)

 

 

Most people don't even read the codex, so more or less a waste of time(sadly).

 

 

Too much effort for very few results.

 

You want players to go to the planets then add actual content in them or bettter, add sandbox elements.

 

 

You're asking for changing world in a game that doesn't even have day/night cycles.

There's a long way to ride before eventually seeing this

 

 

Sound isn't that bad with my 7.1 headset. I can hear plenty world sound but they are way to low to notice if you don't have top notch headsets.

 

 

Which original you are speaking about, the beta one?

 

 

Way too expansive and time consuming. Client side voice morphing sounds a good mitigation process.

 

You're asking for a class revamp. Would love that but at this point BioWare doesn't have the budget nor the resources to do that. It would also create much more balance isues.

 

 

Same as above and for now conversations and story mode aren't BioWare Priority.

Thank you for the constructive comments. I realize some of these ideas are underdeveloped, perhaps a little overly ambitious and costly, but if you think about it, no more so than Makeb, or the revamped pvp space game currently in the works. My intention is to get the ball rolling on the kind of game I think this has the potential to become, which is nothing less than the apotheosis of George Lucas' original vision.

[MaximusRex]

This whole PVP-PVE business has to stop. There's absolutely no reason why there should be made a distinction between the two, their separation is artificial and counterintuitive.

 

If you're so sensitive and thin-skinned you can't stomach the possibility of running the risk of being, as you put it, "someone else's entertainment" every now and then, then you probably shouldn't be playing an MMO in the first place. The problem is the target audience MMO's are currently designed to appeal to aren't at all interested in "playing" the game, in having fun with it; they're interested in using it as a platform to attain the kind of social validation they could never really find in their real lives. Consequently, anything which might compromise their status is met with severe aggression.

 

There is a reason, the vast majority of people don't want to be harassed while they are participating in their leisure activity. If forced into PvP they will quit playing totally and the game will be in much worse shape.

[mourasantos]

There is a reason, the vast majority of people don't want to be harassed while they are participating in their leisure activity. If forced into PvP they will quit playing totally and the game will be in much worse shape.

I have my doubts of this. The only people I'd see quitting because of griefing, as it's called, are people who don't perceive MMO's as a videogame, a form of entertainment, but rather as a genuine social outlet, an actual way of life. In other words, hardcore MMOers.

Edited August 24, 2012 by mourasantos

[Deewe]

Thank you for the constructive comments. I realize some of these ideas are underdeveloped, perhaps a little overly ambitious and costly, but if you think about it, no more so than Makeb, or the revamped pvp space game currently in the works. My intention is to get the ball rolling on the kind of game I think this has the potential to become, which is nothing less than the apotheosis of George Lucas' original vision.

From the few we saw Makeb looks like reusing world assets quite a lot and as such might not feel that much different from the other planets. Hope I'm wrong though. So maybe far from a good reference (wait and see)

 

Until I see the supposedly revamped space game I'll reserve my opninion. Still I can predict if it's not a X-Wing like people will be disappointed and even a Battlefront system will get some hype first but pretty soon will became old as way too simple.

 

Regarding how GL butchered the SW lore since the episodes 1-3 I don't expect that much apart a kind of milking people wallets.

 

There is a reason, the vast majority of people don't want to be harassed while they are participating in their leisure activity. If forced into PvP they will quit playing totally and the game will be in much worse shape.

Remember how pissed off were some people being forced into PvP on non PvP servers during the Rackgoul event.

 

Simply put never oblige players to be involved in specific type of content they don't want to.

Edited August 24, 2012 by Deewe

[mourasantos]

From the few we saw Makeb looks like reusing world assets quite a lot and as such might not feel that much different from the other planets. Hope I'm wrong though. So maybe far from a good reference (wait and see)

 

Until I see the supposedly revvamped space game I'll reserve my opninion. Still I can predict if it's not a X-Wing like people will be disappointed and even a Battlefront system will get some hype first but pretty soon will became old as way too simple.

 

Regarding how GL butchered the SW lore since the episodes 1-3 I don't expect that much apart a kind of milking people wallets.

 

 

Remember how pissed off were some people being forced into PvP on non PvP servers during the Rackgoul event.

 

Simply put never oblige players to be involved in specific type of content they don't want to.

Word on the street is Makeb will be the single largest map in all of MMO history.

As for George Lucas, trust me, I'm no fan of his. In fact I'm not even that much of a fan of the original trilogy; I was left more impressed with KOTOR than by any of his films. That said I mention him because, irrespective of my feelings, he was first vessel for this idea, this most expansive of properties.

 

Finally, the Rakghoul event. I'm sure there were people complaining, but at the same time I think it's also telling that at it was far and away the most well received of all of Bioware's contributions to the this game thus far.

Edited August 24, 2012 by mourasantos

[Deewe]

Word on the street is Makeb will be the single largest map in all of MMO history.

As for George Lucas, trust me, I'm no fan of his. In fact I'm not even that much of a fan of the original trilogy; I was left more impressed with KOTOR than by any of his films. That said I mention him because, irrespective of my feelings, he was first vessel for this idea, this most expansive of properties.

 

Finally, the Rakghoul event. I'm sure there were people complaining, but at the same time I think it's also telling that at it was far and away the most well received of all of Bioware's contributions to the this game thus far.

Makeb can be huge it won't mean that it won't suck...

 

 

Kotor was fine but Kotor II was better, even if it was rushed out by LA and obliged the devs to cut it when they begged for more time.

 

For the Rakghoul event it had lots of complaints and was really badly set.

[mourasantos]

Makeb can be huge it won't mean that it won't suck...

 

 

Kotor was fine but Kotor II was better, even if it was rushed out by LA and obliged the devs to cut it when they begged for more time.

 

For the Rakghoul event it had lots of complaints and was really badly set.

 

Makeb: true dat...

 

Kotor: Really? I never got how people could think this. I'm not trying to be disparaging or anything, I'm seriously confused. I mean, for me the first is so much better than the sequel, it's not even a contest. I remember actually being angry at the game, I felt it was such a dud.

 

Rakghoul event: duly noted

[MightyVittey]

Thank you for the constructive comments. I realize some of these ideas are underdeveloped, perhaps a little overly ambitious and costly, but if you think about it, no more so than Makeb, or the revamped pvp space game currently in the works. My intention is to get the ball rolling on the kind of game I think this has the potential to become, which is nothing less than the apotheosis of George Lucas' original vision.

 

Taking away fleets woudlnt work as it would clog up the planet and make level 10-16'ers lag

[mourasantos]

Taking away fleets woudlnt work as it would clog up the planet and make level 10-16'ers lag

That was not what I was proposing. Please read the before commenting.

[mourasantos]

Correction: read the posts.

[HoloTweed]

reasonable answers to "wounds":

 

 

problem # 332: flashpoints

imagine after reaching a certain amount of social points you unlock a new ability that allows you to interrupt the normal flow of conversation by performing a suitably show-stopping action...

Except that in this case if the roll is lost, you would then not only lose a (very) small amount of social points, but also be locked out from all future conversations for that particular flashpoint...

 

See, in order for you to even have a chance of rolling succesfully on these aditional light-side and dark-side options you would have be fast enough to click on them in the first place....

 

Hmmmm. No. There is no reason to ever lose social points, turn a fun cinematic into a reflex game.

 

problem # 31: sprint ability

- unlock sprint ability at legacy level 1 instead of having it available for new players from the onset, immediately after character creation.

 

Hmmmmm. No. No reason to do this at all.

 

problem # 412: holoterminal

the holo-terminal on our ships used to communicate with our respective faction's leadership is constantly glowing blue, as if signaling it wants to be interacted with, even when it doesn't.

 

Sure. Fine.

 

problem #520: fleet

- scrap the faction fleet as the main base of operations.

 

Hmmmmm. No. Social functionality should be added to capital worlds and other major hubs (nar shadaa, corellia) but just scrapping the fleet altogether makes no sense. In fact, there should be more tutorial on the fleet to explain the areas, pvp, planetary comms, etc. Dividing the fleet by player level is an unnecessary segregation

 

problem # 70: huttball

- remove huttball from the warzone queue.

 

Hmmmm. No. While the idea of betting on a match is interesting, it doesn't require huttball to be removed from warzone queues nor require potential players to travel way out of their way to participate. There should in fact be more huttball arena configurations.

 

problem # 3258: travel

now think along star wars lines. The creme-de-la creme of swoop races, the final shebang, where all the top-end pilots go to prove their worth, would be on alderaan. The best and rarest jedi gear should be found on dantooine. Want to hunt for exotic animals, then tatooine is the best (and only) place for you! You get the point, i could go on and on…

 

Hmmmmm. No. There are already too few gtn's available (it's fleet, homeworld, nar shadaa or just wait). Shouldn't need to travel to a particular planet just to get a particular item. There is no inter-planetary commerce going on (or else the smugglers would have something else to do!) so no point in piece-mealing something that's only half-baked.

 

Having additional events like racing could be planet-specific, but nothing like "best Bounty Hunter items on planet XYZ"

 

problem # 5789302: player role

players lack the sense that their decisions have any real effect on the game.

 

Hmmmmm. Having EVERY player's actions change something in the real world would require a complete rehauling of the game. The player Jedi behind you might undo the action you just did, resulting in a yoyo schizophrenic world. I would suggest that future expansions might have this, but not the levels 1 - 50 as they are now.

 

problem #11: sound

maybe i'm spoiled, but practically every other single game i've played has had some form of audio cue attached to a jump, usually in the form of a grunt, or squirm to indicate some kind of effort on the character's part. Swtor should have this too.

 

Hmmmmm. No. Every other single game DOESN'T have a jump audio cue. We certainly don't need a mario "wa hoo" attached to a jump. The jump mechanism itself could use a tweak - too many times half-jumps/skip jumps, etc. Occur when trying to get to a pesky datacron. But an "ooomph!" just for a jump? Hardly a paper cut, much less a "gaping wound." But then again, this pretty much goes for most of your points.

 

problem # 312: u.i. Design

- it looks atrocious ever since the 1.2 update. I'm not against allowing player customization per se, but this new one makes a mockery of even the most basic principles of design. I'm shocked it even made it past quality control in the first place, to think it's persisted as is for this long is... I don't even know what it is.

 

Solution: Revert the standard u.i. Appearance back to how it originally looked. Asap.

 

Hmmmm. Definitely not. You get to resize/move the ui as you want and the appearance hasn't really changed. I like being able to create the ui i want... I believe you can click a button to make it look like the pre 1.2 version. Don't take that away from everyone else.

 

problem #999: voices

- when players of the same class group together it's jarring to have to listen to two or more people with the exact same voice.

 

Solution: The answer isn't in voice alterations, like eax, has some people have suggested. The key is to add new voice work, period.

 

Hmmmmm. Definitely no, period. That is a lot of extra work and expense with only minimal benefit. The time, effort, and money would be much better spent on new content and voice work, not rehashing what is already there because you think it is "jarring."

 

problem #14: classes

- apart from combat based abilities there is no distinction between all of the different available classes to differentiate them from each other.

 

Hmmmmmm. Nothing needed here. Classes are basically the sum of their combat abilities and armor limitations. Nothing else is needed that takes away from creating new content.

 

adaptive conversation system.

 

Basically, a mechanism that can learn your personality. Next level roleplaying.

 

Hmmmm. Again, no, let's not suggest totally changing what is already in place and instead guide towards new content. It would be a waste of resources (and take sooooooooooo much time) just to change around the current content so we can replay it AGAIN with just a little different twist of lime.

 

All said and done, these weren't "gaping wounds" they were "Look, I want to be a game designer, see?" suggestions.