What would you think of an Open Space Galaxy?

[Julius_Caesar]

In case your unclear just what Open Space means, it basically means that you have to take your ship and personally fly it to every destination, as opposed to just clicking on a map, and getting there after a short animation. An example of a game with open space would be Star Trek Online. (However it should be noted that STO has very dull and unexciting planets, and is essentially a Space Game).

 

Obviously, Open Space would mean that it would take longer to get from place to place. An idea of the travel time would be that getting from Illum to Tatooine, would take a maximum of an hour, Illum and Tatooine are on opposite sides of the Galaxy. When traveling, you could put a companion in charge of pioleting, telling him where to take you. The ships would also need to be upgraded and given more stuff for the player to do while aboard, perhaps Pazak games, the travel time could also encourage groups to travel together.

 

You could also have the possibility of an encounter in space, where you need to escape or fight off pirates or an enemy which would otherwise damage your ship. You could also incorporate Guild Ships into this, by making guild ships pioletable, allowing you to take your ship to where ever you need it to be, and could even engage and damage the ships of other Guilds, allowing for your guilds to have rank based on Naval Skill. You could also add in some space stations in space, which guilds could claim and fight over.

 

You could even make a Dynamic Naval war, where Imperial Guild Ships join together to make the Imperial Fleet and Republic Guilds join together to make the Republic Fleet. Each Guild having one ship (Battleship), which they can name and upgrade. This would also encourage guilds to group together, and for more, larger guilds to form.

 

The current Galactic Map which you see on your ship would probably have to be updated, to give more realistic spacing .

 

Open Space and Naval Aspects of the game would obviously take a long time to develop and put into the game, especially because it needs to be very good in order for it to be worth the added travel time. But it would add a more realist and engaging part to the game.

 

What do you think of the Open Space Proposal? Please comment.

[Icebergy]

Making it take an hour to travel between planets would be just about the fastest way Bioware could kill this game.

[branmakmuffin]

Lame, unless it were optional. If it were optional, could not care less.

[Julius_Caesar]

Making it take an hour to travel between planets would be just about the fastest way Bioware could kill this game.

 

It would take an hour to cross the whole Galaxy

[branmakmuffin]

It would take an hour to cross the whole Galaxy

if you want it to take an hour to cross the galaxy, you can impose that on yourself now.

[PLynkes]

Seems to me from watching Star Wars that inter-system flight happens pretty much instantaneously (or at least very quickly) via "hyperspace" (whatever the hell that is). Galaxies are BIG. If you are flying at sub-light speeds it will take you millions of years to get anywhere. Hyperspace travel seems to consist of punching in some co-ordinates and arriving at your destination, which is pretty much what we have now.

 

Now sub-light travel within a system, a system that had different planetary bodies, asteroid fields and such, that would be fun. I'd love to be able to actually fly from Hutta to Nar Shaddaa like that. But I think getting from system to system shouldn't be a matter of "driving" your ship there. We don't see that in Star Wars.

Edited July 11, 2013 by PLynkes

[mistformsquirrel]

I like and dislike this idea at the same time.

 

Personally:

 

I love the idea of being able to actually fly my ship around and fight in it. I hope that's what they're working on with the super secret space project. (My ideal would be to divide space into small craft and fighters, and have that work like the old Jump to Lightspeed expansion from SWG, while having larger ships available, and handle those like STO)

 

On the other hand I'm not so keen on having to wait while I cross the vast distances of space. It's one thing if I go looking for trouble in space on my own, it's quite another if I want to get stuck in on Hoth but have to wait while my ship travels from the Fleet to get there. That's one of my big annoyances in STO actually, and one they partially remedied with the ability to Transwarp - so I don't think that's a good idea.

[Krsnik]

I think it's a great idea to be honest, however the travel time could be fixed a bit? Tho, technically, if you look at WoW, when you travel on your own, it takes around the same time. There could be "travel on your own" and "travel thru hyperspace" options. However, in any case, open-space was something I hoped forever from a SW game!

[MillionsKNives]

I think there should be free-flying stuff to do in space that's optional, that would be a really great addition, but to force a long travel time plus space missions just to switch planets would be awful. This is primarily a ground based game, and mixing that so heavily with a space game is a very quick way to frustrate players and cause them to leave.

 

For the same reasons that PVE and PVP is separate, so too should these two types of gameplay. If I love doing the ground play in SWTOR and only want to dedicate my time to that then the game should accommodate that. Forcing space into that, which would be all but an entirely different game, is just forcing a square peg into a round hole, because you're basically making that player learn an entirely separate rule set and gameplay to be able to continue with the current gameplay that he loves, even if he doesn't particularly like that space gameplay.

 

BioWare has decided it's better to do one game and do it well, than do two at once and have them both suffer for it. You can argue with how well the game we have turned out all you want, but making two at once could have only gone worse.

Edited July 11, 2013 by MillionsKNives

[Darth_Moonshadow]

It would take an hour to cross the whole Galaxy

 

That would require FTL technology that only species like the Gree were only ever able to achieve and would require a massive energy source that is unavailable at this point in time. Plus, moving at those speeds would completely tear the vessel apart without a B.C.E to "catch" the ship safely.

[Chim-Lou]

This will never work. When Jump to Lightspeed (the space expansion) launched for Star Wars: Galaxies, you actually had to launch into space to travel to other planets via hyperspace.

People didn't like even that, so it was changed and you could travel directly from the ship terminal in the space port without launching first.

 

Edit: typo

Edited July 11, 2013 by Chim-Lou

[Koolthulu]

This isn't Star Trek. Nothing happens in hyperspace, so why make it take any time?

[ELRunninW]

I wish I did not have to use my ship at all, it takes too long to travel anywhere as it is already.

[MSchuyler]

I could go with Quick Travel between all planets, not just on them. Kind of like a Fleet pass to anywhere you wanted.

[Caelrie]

Game would be dead in two months. Imagine needing an hour for everyone to get to your flashpoint group.

 

I think it's a great idea to be honest, however the travel time could be fixed a bit? Tho, technically, if you look at WoW, when you travel on your own, it takes around the same time. There could be "travel on your own" and "travel thru hyperspace" options. However, in any case, open-space was something I hoped forever from a SW game!

 

WoW has summoning stones, portals and summon rituals to mitigate the travel time when grouping.

Edited July 11, 2013 by Caelrie

[TUXs]

Dreaming is always productive.

 

I think what you're asking for is impossible for this game.

[Niklarus]

Ugh. That kind of thing is why I left Earth & Beyond back in the day even though I otherwise loved my Terran Tradesman. Set a course, pick up a book and read for however the hell long it took me to get from where I started to where I was going. Boooooooooooring. I'm gonna say that I am in no way whatsoever interested in something like this for TOR.

[Sandros]

Here's the quickest solution-

 

Step 1: Install X-Wing vs Tie Fighter.

Step 2: Walk your character onto your ship.

Step 3: Alt Tab into X-Wing vs Tie Fighter.

Step 4: Profit.

[nosmos]

I think it's a great idea - would give you something to do aside from being on the fleet while your waiting for a GF pop Edited July 11, 2013 by nosmos

[branmakmuffin]

I wish I did not have to use my ship at all, it takes too long to travel anywhere as it is already.

I agree. The first several dozen times, it's fun. After that, it starts to lose it's sting.

[CosmicKat]

The babies who play MMO's today complain when they have to pay a few hundred credits as a "dying tax". You think they'll put up with any delays or penalties in game play?

 

They won't. It will interrupt the hours they spend driving in circles on the fleet while waiting for queues to pop.

[branmakmuffin]

The babies who play MMO's today complain when they have to pay a few hundred credits as a "dying tax". You think they'll put up with any delays or penalties in game play?

Hey, if you want to voluntarily be less of a "baby" when your character gets defeated, go for it. Come up with some suitable penalty and impose it on your characters. That way you get what you want and the "babies" get what they want. Everyone''s happy.

 

Except you. What you really want is for everyone to have to conform to your idea of how an MMO should work.

[Grendel_Prime]

I think there's a few things that could make the space aspects of the game more interesting.

 

1) Actual pilot your ship, both on Space Missions and while traveling in a system. It certainly doesn't have to be "real time" but if you want to go from one planet to another in the same system then you fly there. Just like riding your speeder from location to location on world.

2) Along with the above...space "mobs". Pirates, enemy blockades etc. So travel from planet to planet has things to encounter. This relegates Space Missions to, essentially, instances.

3) Heroic space areas where you group into small fleets to obtain objectives.

4) Ship Modification. Not just guns and missiles, but better hyperdrives, sublight drives and nav computers to make travel faster. Sublights work like the different level of speeder piloting, hyperdrives could increase the number of system you could jump at once (thus speeding up overall travel time) and navcomputers could reduce the cost because you're more effective.

 

That's just off the top of my head. I think a real Star Wars space game needs to have options for both hyperdrive and sublight travel.

[branmakmuffin]

I think there's a few things that could make the space aspects of the game more interesting.

 

1) Actual pilot your ship, both on Space Missions and while traveling in a system. It certainly doesn't have to be "real time" but if you want to go from one planet to another in the same system then you fly there. Just like riding your speeder from location to location on world.

Is there a single example of two planets in the same system (i.e, they orbit the same star) in the game?

[Niklarus]

Is there a single example of two planets in the same system (i.e, they orbit the same star) in the game?

 

I think maybe Nar Shadaa and Hutta.