Please improve the roleplaying support.

[Agrana]

Hello.

 

I’m a roleplayer and I must say I was quite surprised (and disappointed) how poorly it is designed in SWTOR. Especially since Bioware has a reputation of making games which _excel_ at character immersion. While SWTOR offers decent amount of RP clothing and items it misses _essential_ features for roleplayers which I’ll try to list now in order of (my personal) priority:

 

1) Allow the chat window log or at least add the ability to copy it into a clipboard.

- We roleplayers are something like wanna-be-our-character-story-writers. When there was a great roleplaying event, we want to keep it preserved, copied to our local hard drive and maybe reread after. Not lose forever. So please, add us the feature to log chat window or at least copy it by ctrl+c (and survive lost connection).

 

2) Allow us to save the currently equipped items as a named button and then quickly reequip by pressing such button(s).

- Roleplayers collect items for their rp-sets and spend a decent amount of time to find the right combination to make them visually fitting and look appropriate for various situations their character can end in (for example a combat briefing, a wedding or imprisonment, just to name few). So they want to be able to have a way to _remember_ those sets by game and allow them to switch between them comfortably and quickly. Not having to write every piece on a paper and then search for it through their huge inventory.

 

3) No graphical representation of “/lie” or “/sleep” emote.

- Oh come on! How could you omit such a basic thing? Please allow the character to indeed _visually_ lie down.

 

4) Make companions controllable.

- Since companions are very essential for SW universe, please at least you could understand (what for example Blizzard surely does not :-P) that they are _completely useless_ for rp if you cannot control them. So please add commands like “/companion_say” and “/companion_emote” to allow us to to make them emote something of their own or say. Being able to position them where the player wants them to stand would be also a (very) welcomed feature.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Agrana Tarquin, The Roleplayer.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Agrana

[NatashaTerenzio]

A most excellent post.

[Slightrider]

signed

[Andryah]

Not to be a buzz kill or anything..

 

...but if Rpers were to get any of these suggestions before the Pod_Racer/Pazzak_Junkies get theirs.. the forum would explode like Krakatoa.

[Caelrie]

I'll throw in my support for 1 and 2. Those are useful for any kind of MMO gamer, not just RPers.

[Suromir]

4) Make companions controllable.

- Since companions are very essential for SW universe, please at least you could understand (what for example Blizzard surely does not :-P) that they are _completely useless_ for rp if you cannot control them. So please add commands like “/companion_say” and “/companion_emote” to allow us to to make them emote something of their own or say. Being able to position them where the player wants them to stand would be also a (very) welcomed feature.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Agrana Tarquin, The Roleplayer.

 

first, KUDOS for not bringing up Chat Bubbles. We've been told they cause too much lag...they're not going to come. But seems every "make RP better" thread still harps on it. It isn't happening. So great on you for avoiding it altogether.

 

second, the quote. I like everything you've suggested..and generally as long as something is optional..I'm all for it. Do whatever. I also love to RP. But, no offense....if you're using a companion during your RP....that's pretty terrible RP...because there's SO MANY of the same companion around.....Seriously. It's just..dumb....every JK out there has Kira....so how do you explain thousands of Kira's ? It's kinda the same if you're RP'ing the class story.....there's also thousands that have done the same thing you have.....I wish it wasn't so because I'd love to RP my Guardian exactly as the JK story played out for him. But it's just terrible RP..because there's so many people who did the EXACT same thing.

 

In order for RP to be good in SWTOR (or any MMO really) you really have to seperate your RP toon from your SWTOR-Storyline toon, even though they're the same person....

 

it'd be like walking into the cantina in A New Hope and seeing dozens of guys in Robes with a lightsaber talking about how they just saved their friend (companion) Luke from two thugs after one threw Luke to the ground and how one had the death sentence in 12 systems...really? no..seriously?

 

see my point? Sorry to ramble and really not meant as any kind of personal attack...just think it needs to be stressed that RPing your character, unfortunately, following SWTOR's class-story for that character and/or using a companion (except perhaps HK or the ship droid) is just bad..bad..RP.

[DustomaticGXC]

first, KUDOS for not bringing up Chat Bubbles. We've been told they cause too much lag...they're not going to come. But seems every "make RP better" thread still harps on it. It isn't happening. So great on you for avoiding it altogether.

 

I can't believe "it causes too much lag" is a good enough answer for people on chat bubbles, personally. But whatever.

[Suromir]

I can't believe "it causes too much lag" is a good enough answer for people on chat bubbles, personally. But whatever.

 

Well it's going to have to be unless/until BioWare finds a way to fix it.

 

face it the engine is garbage.

 

it's the same reason we can only have 25 quests in our journals....more causes too much performance degradation...they've said so more than once.

 

so whether you buy it or not...you're still going to have to accept it as an answer...if they can fix that...they will...but it's doubtful without an engine overhaul..and good luck with that. It's what happens when you slap an unfinished $5 game-engine on a $80+ million dollar game.

[chuixupu]

I am not an RP'er but I completely agree the first 3 suggestions really need to be in the game. The ability to save outfits in particular is extremely helpful to most players.

 

The companion control is probably too much programming work, it would be an interesting feature, though.

[Basreia]

I agree. There should be more things for us to do. Possibly put more of the seats places that we are able to sit in. I loved when you guys added sitting in chairs in the spaceships. Now let's bring it to the game!

 

Also, make places available where more rooms in buildings are empty so roleplayers can use it as a house or their "base". Little stuff like that makes a big difference. On Alderaan, there is a building that has a cantina on the second floor. There is one bartender, 4 rooms and NOBODY is in them. Just like that. Make more things out in the open, empty buildings with roleplay elements in them. You can put the sittable chairs in here

 

Let's not forget the mmoRPg in the mmo I am also a full time roleplayer and would like to see more stuff to do inside the game for us. Maybe some minigames, simple little things like that make a whole difference in the rp world.

 

Also, it's not always up to BIoWare to make role play fun. Ourselves, the role players and the community must pull together and make our own events that are great for the game. Because in that respect, if we make our own stuff to roleplay, we will feel better about ourselves because WE did it ourselves and came together as a whole and completed it

[Agrana]

But, no offense....if you're using a companion during your RP....that's pretty terrible RP...because there's SO MANY of the same companion around.....Seriously. It's just..dumb....

 

It is not. ;-) It depends on a RP you do. Actually, I only very rarely RP on public places with lot of strangers. I prefer to RP privately in instances or on a ship with my friends. It allows lot more flexibility to the story we build, characters we build, it allows you to choose partner(s) whose style/rp-themes you like and - it also allows you to use companions without having them the same. ;-) That is - if they were usable since right now they are not. ;-)

[Suromir]

It is not. ;-) It depends on a RP you do. Actually, I only very rarely RP on public places with lot of strangers. I prefer to RP privately in instances or on a ship with my friends. It allows lot more flexibility to the story we build, characters we build, it allows you to choose partner(s) whose style/rp-themes you like and - it also allows you to use companions without having them the same. ;-) That is - if they were usable since right now they are not. ;-)

 

Well yah, in a small group or with people you know. Sure. I more meant "in public"..like you're sitting in a group at the Fleet Station Bar and there's 3-4+ Kira's out..etc. But I see what you're sayin.

[JPryde]

Well yah, in a small group or with people you know. Sure. I more meant "in public"..like you're sitting in a group at the Fleet Station Bar and there's 3-4+ Kira's out..etc. But I see what you're sayin.

She doesn't need to be "kira", just like Corso doesn't need to be Corso, he could be just some bodyguard of the smuggler. Bowdaar could just be any wild animal just released from the zoo... etc...

 

Obviously the class stories are not useful for roleplay between multiple players, as they do not fit... but companions can be utilized in certain situations...

 

Oh and @Adryah... the OPs suggestion seem to me as a lot easier to implement than pod racing or pazaak and since roleplayers did not get anything from the start other than "keep on waiting" and "we do not enforce anything, not even on your RP-servers!", I personally wouldn't mind to see a full patch dedicated to roleplay.

Edited July 26, 2013 by JPryde

[TechbotAlpha]

Personal gripes;

 

- No sitting on chairs, benches or varied sit emotes. I mean, what the heck? The 'sit' emote might sort of work for smugglers or...I dunno. It doesn't fit with most of my characters, I know that much. I dunno, maybe I'm just spoiled when it comes to sit emotes, from my last MMO.

 

-Emotes showing up in chat. I mean, seriously...who WROTE these damn things? They are terrible. Like, actually terrible. If someone is using an emote two rooms over...I can't see it. Ergo, I really do not need to know about it. I really, really wish this wasn't a thing. It also makes testing out what animated emotes actually do kind of hard, without spamming chat with junk...

 

-Lack of idle emotes. When idle characters just stand their so rigidly. No shifting from foot to foot, hand on a hip, folding the arms, little things to suggest they are a character and not some random automaton. Hell, the NPCs get a ton of these. This sort of ties in to the lack of sit emotes, but also things like not being able to hold a salute, or stand at ease (that's a massive let down. I mean, one of the classes is even TROOPER for crying out loud, I would have though that was a no brainer). Just being able to activate an emote and let it run, or let the character animate when idle on their own, would be great.

 

Of course, call me jaded if you like, but I don't see ANY RP support being added, really. You can't make a profit off it, can you? And, even if TOR is much better than I expected it to be, it's still EA/Bioware; if they can't profit off it, I don't see it happening. Not to the level of RP friendliness that my first and former MMO had, City of Heroes (May it Rest in Peace...)

[AlaricSevGirl]

I agree with not liking the companion RP, companions are merely to help you level. What I want is to be able to sit on my damned ship. That is huge, to not clip through the seats. To actually sleep, why can't I. I can in GW2 and bloody get rid of that flap hanging down on the dancer and lounge wear sets. It's really ugly. Oh and one more thing, custom emotes should be seen by both factions on a combined faction planet. Edited July 26, 2013 by AlaricSevGirl

[branmakmuffin]

While fine suggestions in and of themselves, none of them are even remotely needed for RP.

[CosmicKat]

The chat system is the killer of RP in TOR.

 

/say and /e range are way too far. Shrink it by at least half and you'd greatly reduce the need for chat bubbles. As it is now, it's near impossible to follow chat in any area that is an "RP area".

 

Bizarre auto-reply switching rules that make no sense. If you are talking to "Han", hit r to reply, and while typing, "Luke" sends you a tell, your reply will go to Luke, even though the string says "/w Han...".

 

No private cross faction chat is the dumbest idea to come down the pipe in years. Especially so in areas that are, you know, designed as places for cross faction RP.

 

Putting cantinas in the center of the circular fleets is also a terrible idea. Combined with the enormous /say ranges, it makes the areas most likely to see RP also the worst possible place to RP.

[Lunafox]

Not to be a buzz kill or anything..

 

...but if Rpers were to get any of these suggestions before the Pod_Racer/Pazzak_Junkies get theirs.. the forum would explode like Krakatoa.

 

What do I care if the forums explode because the minigame crowd doesn't like it. Roleplayers have had to endure all kinds of nonsense, and wait patiently while other interest groups get what they want. There are some things roleplayers will never get, and I think it's ridiculous. People wait and wait and wait, and their solution never comes.

 

There will always be that segment on these forums that freak out about every little thing. As soon as one group gets their way, everyone else freaks out. People want dark crystals, they get them and ppl freak, people want new companions they get one, people freak out. People want to customize their toons, and the option is given, people freak out. These people are never happy. There is no way to please all the people all the time. (and I admit, that on some counts, I'm guilty as charged too.)

 

I support the OP's suggestions, I think they're wonderful, and wholeheartedly hope that these things are implemented. I'd like to be able to control my companion toon. I'd love to be able to take a nice screen shot of my toon with them, without them moving around and taking up some awkward stance.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Lunafox

[Suromir]

She doesn't need to be "kira", just like Corso doesn't need to be Corso, he could be just some bodyguard of the smuggler. Bowdaar could just be any wild animal just released from the zoo... etc...

 

Obviously the class stories are not useful for roleplay between multiple players, as they do not fit... but companions can be utilized in certain situations...

 

Oh and @Adryah... the OPs suggestion seem to me as a lot easier to implement than pod racing or pazaak and since roleplayers did not get anything from the start other than "keep on waiting" and "we do not enforce anything, not even on your RP-servers!", I personally wouldn't mind to see a full patch dedicated to roleplay.

 

except for that whole name thing being on the companion when they're selected

[MSchuyler]

I can't believe "it causes too much lag" is a good enough answer for people on chat bubbles, personally. But whatever.

 

Then think of it this way. Every single pixel you put on a screen creates a "demand to place, transmit and render." Every single MOVING pixel means multiple pixels at once demanding to place, transmit and render. This is especially apparent in places like Warzones where there is a whole lot happening at once. The most subjective manifestation of this is in "lag." The most objective manifestation of this is "fps." In fact you can even hear this happening when your GPU's fan notches up to higher revs trying to cool itself off in intensive graphical areas. Quit the game and the GPU calms down almost immediately.

 

The choke point here is not Bioware's servers nor its feed. If it were we would all be incapable of downloading 100MB of patches on patch day all at once. The choke point is the transmission infrastructure, the extent to which large pipe ISPs throttle their traffic, your own router and Wi-Fi capabilities, and ultimately, your rig's ability to render and display this moving content.

 

Now, if you want to place chat bubbles in the middle of an already intensively moving graphical environment that tend to overwhelm existing systems, then you have introduced another layer of moving graphical content over and above everything else that needs to be placed, transmitted, and rendered.

 

But the fact is that few of us have an alienware clone system with truly high-end GPUs, and even if we did, the ISPs of the world, who throttle us often intentionally, could not keep up. If we had desktop to desktop fiber optic, that would be cool and a whole new ballgame. But we don't. Some of us are dealing with "lowly" T-1 speeds* of DSL circuits.

 

So, no bubbles for you!

 

* When I first installed T-1 lines on my WAN, they were over $700 per month apiece and considered very very fast. Now, of course, they are a small trickling stream compared to the Mississippi. N American T-1 is 1,544 Mbps. EU T-1 is 2.0 Mbps.

 

As to what they could do to make RP more interesting? Take out the black screens and let it happen. But, then, they'd lose their wimpy esrb rating.

Edited July 27, 2013 by MSchuyler

[InsaneBase]

I think for BW it's always been about the player experiencing their stories with their characters (more or less influenced by the player) and not about enabling the player to create his or her own story. With the exception of NWN, maybe.

 

So I really have given up hoping for any support for the community that would like to do that (especially since it's just a small fraction of the playerbase). That also means that should there come anything, I'm going to be positively suprised!

[branmakmuffin]

except for that whole name thing being on the companion when they're selected

Name plates have nothing to do with RP, either for companions or player characters.

 

/say and /e range are way too far.

This I agree with. It also reduces the clutter in chat windows if you choose to have /say, /emote and General output to the same window.

Edited July 27, 2013 by branmakmuffin

[Kaisernick]

it still mystifies me how u still can only sit in chairs on your ship, hell more than RPers would use it and i think after the pvp update we should have a RP update or at least have them thrown in.

[Inflicktion]

it still mystifies me how u still can only sit in chairs on your ship, hell more than RPers would use it and i think after the pvp update we should have a RP update or at least have them thrown in.

 

As much as I would love to see it an update devoted to RPers would not go down well at all. Maybe if they marketed it as a social update or something. Otherwise I can't even begin to imagine the QQ. They almost certainly have to give us bits and pieces with other updates. Unfortunately, those bits and pieces haven't been very filling this far.

 

They've done right by RPers as far as adding new outfits and other fluff, but yeah, there is more to be desired. BW actually hinted not too long ago that Chat Bubbles are still being worked on, and if I heard correctly there was actually a bit of RP going on at the last 'Cantina Tour' stop. So I don't think we've been forgotten about completely just yet.

[Suromir]

it still mystifies me how u still can only sit in chairs on your ship, hell more than RPers would use it and i think after the pvp update we should have a RP update or at least have them thrown in.

 

what's mystifying about it? They cut corners during development (shocking I know) with the placements...that chair/couch/etc is just a static object placed in the world.

 

In order to change it they'd have to go in and modify EVERY SINGLE couch/chair/etc to allow sitting. That's a lof of time and effort for no return. For a very VERY small portion of your playerbase.

 

Of course I'd like to see it. But what mystifies me is how people don't understand how and why it's not a simple thing to do.