My first real complaint... and it's a BAD one

[Lu-Wan]

Well BioWare I have managed to go this long without any real issues or complaints about this game, but unfortunately , tonight that changes.

 

I just spent three hours doing the most mind numbingly stupid task imaginable with no payoff wahtsoever! Three hours that I could of spent doing dailies, PvP or running operations with my guild. Instead I'm running around Hoth and Taris, sticking a scanner in the ground that can only scan a 25 meter radius search for HK parts! That's right, another HK parts quest complaint! And to make matters worse, to find the first piece I had to spend 125,000 credits! ON ONE PIECE!!! I'm sure this worked great when the HK first came out. I mean a bunch of people probing the dirt to find pieces probably worked out well, but there isn't an abundance of players searching anymore. All my guild members have it which means they can't help me, most of the regular player base can't help me and new players who actually stick around until 50 are so few and far between, that they end up in the same predicament as I do!

 

I am insulted, not only as a gamer, but as a SUBSCRIBER to be reduced to running around, planting a probe in the ground and coming up with nothing! I had to drop 125,000 credits just to get the first piece!!!! SERIOUSLY!?! 125,000 CREDITS FOR ONE PIECE!?!??!?!! You need to fix this and you need to fix it now! There is not, nor will there be an abundance of people trying to find the HK parts, therefore you either need to set up a special event for it or make it available in the Cartel Market. There is nothing to be gained by running around for hours, sticking a probe in the ground only to come up empty handed! Not to mention that I could get picked off at anytime by someone on the open PvP worlds! Where is the challenge in this!?! There is none!!!!

 

Before anyone tells me to look it up on Google, I did that. This quest is designed to subvert any helpful posts or hints! This needs to be fixed, otherwise, the next person to come after me might just give up and cancel their sub altogether. I came VERY close to doing so tonight! Fix It!

[SnoggyMack]

It's a timesink. For more information on how those work in MMORPGs, google search "Everquest, Monk Epic, Raster camp."

 

Enjoy!

[TheBBP]

It's a timesink. For more information on how those work in MMORPGs, google search "Everquest, Monk Epic, Raster camp."

 

Enjoy!

 

Good times brother. Good times.

[Moza]

They won't 'fix it' because it's not broken. The quest requires patience and strategy. It's not unusually hard or time-consuming if you have both.

[Moza]

Well, guess what, I did what you did, for hours on end...I did all the other crap I could solo too. And the group stuff? couldn't get anyone to accept me, so no HK...time wasted? Probably, but I enjoyed what I could solo. Pity I can't get the rest of the bits I need on my own. Oh well.

 

Did you try using the Group Finder for the two required Flashpoints? It should be easy enough, and people will be nice enough if you let them know you're questing for HK parts.

[ElitehunterDS]

Get some friend and do it in group.

[BrianDavion]

dude 125k credits at level 50 is pretty minor. if you do some dalies you'll realize you can make that much money in an hour.

[Raila]

Last character I did the HK quest on I was solo and no one was out there working on it. Still only took a couple hours to get the whole quest done.

 

Edit* Incidentally. No one is forcing you to get HK. That is your choice. If you don't like the quest, don't do it. If you want HK, deal with doing the quest.

Edited January 26, 2013 by Raila

[DrewFromPhilly]

Meh, I did it the first day and there was a huge group of ppl looking and helping each other out. Also some pubs but we killed them.

[Chiramu]

It is fun to do things like that, put your music on while you do it or put a television program on to play as you do it.

 

When you're buggered from work slow things like that is fun to do.

[Jeweledleah]

I'm not entirely sure why people are actually defending a tedious unfun activity... its not challenging to scan the ground untill you luck out and hit the 25 feet area. its tedious. tedium is NOT a good thing for a game. tedium is what drives players away.

 

and no, don't bother repeating the whole spiel about HK being optional. I'm fully aware that he's optional. all I'm saying is that adding tedious activities into your game as a "time sink" is counter productive, it makes the game less fun and it actually drives people away.

I'd rather there was a puzzle I had to solve, or an actual scavenger hunt with clues, or something actually engaging. or at the very least, have the scan show a direction of where you should be moving, like a compass. so that you are tracking the part , not blindly poking around.

 

"meh, I did it the first day so I don't care anymore" also pisses me off. its bad design and people have been pointing out the issue with it FROM the day one. and what are we seeing now? exactly what we predicted would happen. initial rush wore off and so called "easy quest became annoyingly difficult for all the wrong reasons.

 

and yes, I have HK unlocked already, did it the first week. doesn't change the issue any

Edited January 26, 2013 by Jeweledleah

[EpicBloood]

Deal with it. I had to find every single piece myself, and only had help for the very last quest. The point is to make HK a companion that shows you are dedicated, if everyone had him, it wouldn't be as special.

[chuixupu]

I did it on 3 characters.

[Jeweledleah]

Deal with it. I had to find every single piece myself, and only had help for the very last quest. The point is to make HK a companion that shows you are dedicated, if everyone had him, it wouldn't be as special.

 

right. and the only way to do it is through boring tedium?

 

as much as I dislike jumping mechanics of datacron hunt, I STILL think they are a better idea for "showing dedication" then practically mindless rng-based tedium.

 

not to mention... other then tedious parts hunt, he's pretty easy to get (and can be unlocked on every character after doing the quest once) so plenty of people do anyways. he's not all that special.

[Kayin]

I do not understand. I loved that questline. Besides 125k is nothing. Imagine if you needed cartel coins. That would require REAL money instead of game credits.

[KariTalRathe]

I did the scanning myself, including rolling up a character on the 'other side' who has now become my main in all but name. I didn't find it that tedious despite doing it alone a couple of months after the mission was added to game; it was nice to go back to planets I hadnt visited for a while and enjoy the crack with some of the lower level players there - Taris in particular comes to mind. Other parts of the quest - The Theoretika and introducing the player to Hard Mode flashpoints - are excellently designed.

 

I think the key is just to do it as the mood takes you. If you're in the mood for dailies and FPs and will resent time away from playing them, then it seems a bit stupid to force yourself to do just that. You're not on a timer, no need to rush.

 

Quite apart from anything else, how many HK-51 companions do you see now? I suspect, like myself, many players still use their better equipped main companion and leave HK on the ship to do some crafting. And if you're baulking at 125k to buy one if his parts, you do know that to buy him on an alt via the legacy costs 1m credits right?

 

In short, if you don't like it don't do it. Make the game fit your tastes and style, not the other way around. Me? I don't do space missions.

[HaLeX]

This is a perfect cartel item. I have no problem with it being listed there as an item to buy. Its not like having an HK is going to make any difference, its just a cosmetic item really. Of course EA will probably charge 50 dollars for it lol.

[Knockerz]

I haven't done any of those quest, but couldn't you just scan and do pvp at the same time? Usually when I queue for pvp I can do dailies while I wait for queue to finish.

[Chugster]

good lord, if this is your only complaint with TOR then you must be blind or unfamiliar with MMOs, at least you know that part is there....somewhere, imagine if the part was a random drop....some would never get it.

 

So basically, suck it up Nancy....there are worst things out there....damn impatient children

Edited January 26, 2013 by Chugster

[KariTalRathe]

I haven't done any of those quest, but couldn't you just scan and do pvp at the same time? Usually when I queue for pvp I can do dailies while I wait for queue to finish.

 

When a piece is found it can respawn anywhere in the designated area. If a player scans half the area and leaves to play a WZ, who know if someone else has come along and found the piece he was looking for. If you leave before finding, you will have to basically start over when you return.

Edited January 26, 2013 by KariTalRathe

[Urantia]

I concur with the majority here. While it is true that if there are more people about {and actually communicating} it can {note the word "can"} be faster. Like many I did run it on one of my 50s on day one and ther were a lot of players about...I was also grouped with a long time conjugate of mine {they have since left the game :-( leaving me alone}.

 

Sadly I was one of the unlucky players on day one that got a naked HK {we did not get the second set like we do now....lol and when we they mail the kit not long after, it was missing offhand "Dicer"}....so halted doing it on my embarrassingly long list of other lvl 50s due to this. Naked HK was a valid complaint....not scanning imo.

 

Once they finally resolved the issue a month later I began doing it on the rest and any toons that reached 50 after that and they all did the scanning at early hours in the Eastern time zone....so I was all by myself. And you know what? I found the parts just as fast...if not faster by myself. Humorously I even got lucky a couple times and got it on the first scan {set up within 2m of it on the first try}.

 

Was I lucky {not including the literal one scan finds}? No...no I was not. Why? Because even on the first Day I saw a pattern. I will not deeply elaborate on the pattern here, but I will say that more time than not I found the parts in almost the same spots {or near by} each time.

 

When going back on a different toon I would start by scanning areas I had found it on previous toons {I am willing to bet others noticed this also}....suffice to say it never took me more than 10-15 mins on the planet.....lol more often it took longer on Hoth to travel to the site than it did to find the part {long taxi ride if you saved your QT to leave after}.

 

Do not get me wrong...if that is your first time trying I can see it taking a bit longer as you may have no insight and/or the ability to abstract based on your surroundings....totally understandable if not used to thinking for yourself or used to follwing the formulae of others.

 

My hint to you would be to start by scanning near resource nodes {withing the correct area/site}....on Hoth there are a lot of NPC at that site animated such that they are literally digging at the ground. While not always meaningful....it did give me the idea to scan near mobs....do this and you will find it...I promise.

 

Scan near them and nodes and you will find it {stay close to the wreckage...even scan in the 2 allys that seperate the ship fragments}. Heck if you are super lazy I am wuilling to bet there is a website out there listing coords people found it {it can appear in identical spots more than once}....people have wasted text on many things over the last several thousand years {the internet is not unique to this}

 

3 hours though...really now? You sure you did not stray from the valid search zone....or inch along in effect overlaping the null zones? {null spaces being the regions between 25m radii}'

 

There is bad luck...then there is just self sabotage. I am willing to be you let your emotions get the better of you and lost focus. This mission is literally one of the only missions in the game that does not hold your hand with a specific waypoint to drive to....please do not ruin it. This game has already been dumbed down so much since beta it is rediculous. Same goes for the other worlds...scan near mobs and nodes....be systematic in your approach {requires a fuctional memory and an attention span longer than 30 seconds [unless super lucky lol]}.

 

Best of luck.

[nysis]

Do black prince quest line in wow...takes 6 weeks of capping valor

 

MMO's= time sink

[Pytviper]

MMO's= time sink

 

QFT

 

If you don't want time sink. Single player games are for you.

[lasstn]

QFT

 

If you don't want time sink. Single player games are for you.

 

Single player games arent time sinks?

[Cylnael]

Go do cleric epic weapon quest in Everquest 1 there's a 1 week spawn in it. That's time consuming.

 

No one put a gun to your head to do it, you don't want to "lose your precious time" then don't do it ...

 

There are 2 types of players : the winners and the whiners. Know where you fall.