Individual Items in the Collection interface

[ODST-Parker]

I am tired of having to track down pieces of an armor set that I don't want just to have to ability to duplicate the one piece that I do want for my companions or other characters.

 

The way the Collection interface should work is on an individual item basis. Every time you get a piece of an armor set, you should be able to duplicate that one piece, and not have to wait until you unlock the entire set. Since most people only have the opportunity to buy one of two packs at a time every month, it takes a LONG time to obtain entire sets among other items, including repeats, that you get from opening packs.

[JediRelentless]

... it takes a LONG time to obtain entire sets among other items, including repeats, that you get from opening packs.

 

The GTN helps.

 

A while ago I recall someone from BW saying that keeping track of individual items in the Collections feature would be too complicated for the system to handle. Some kind of technical issue with too much info for the database to keep track of.

[SW_display_name]

A while ago I recall someone from BW saying that keeping track of individual items in the Collections feature would be too complicated for the system to handle. Some kind of technical issue with too much info for the database to keep track of.

That's depressing, but unsurprising, since this is SWTOR.

 

However, some part of me wonders if they're dragging their feet about this because the mini-game of "Gotta catch 'em all!" is extra motivation to buy stuff from CM you would never touch otherwise.

 

Even if you use Credits to get it, that moves more inventory from Pack buyers, who then are more motivated to buy more Packs.

 

Basically, forcing us to collect entire sets benefits BioWare significantly.

 

And, honestly? It's kind of fun. It's annoying, but there's a sense of OCD satisfaction to putting a whole set together and watching it light up in Collections. It really is a mini-game.

 

And and? It helps move stuff — like stupid Bracers, Belts, etc. that are ugly and crappy — that would otherwise just never freaking sell.

 

And! It also helps sell craptastic filler sets from Packs since seeing grayed-out holes in your Collection just bothers you, y'know? So I buy horrible garbage like Underwater Explorer just to see my Collection feel complete.

 

I just wish you could reclaim one item at a time from Collections. It gets sooooo annoying having to Reclaim for 1 item (looking at you, Adept Scout) and then delete 5-6 pieces. Over and over. All the time.

[Magnusheart]

You want over 50 pages per cartel pack for one specific piece of data? F--k that. They did this to sage pounds and pounds of data and space. wont ever happen. Shouldn't either.

[SW_display_name]

You want over 50 pages per cartel pack for one specific piece of data? F--k that. They did this to sage pounds and pounds of data and space. wont ever happen. Shouldn't either.

Or, y'know, just have Collections exactly like they are now, but fill in each slot in the popup armor window as you bind it individually.

[ODST-Parker]

Or, y'know, just have Collections exactly like they are now, but fill in each slot in the popup armor window as you bind it individually.

 

Couldn't have said it better. The list would remain the same, but when you click on a set, it would split into the list of individual pieces, from which you could copy the ones you've found.

[JediRelentless]

That doesn't solve the problem of the database having to keep track of so many individual items. Edited May 11, 2014 by JediRelentless

[SW_display_name]

That doesn't solve the problem of the database having to keep track of so many individual items.

I find this excuse extremely dubious. I mean, I know SWTOR is kind of on a tin can + string budget from EA, but if they honestly can't figure out a way to database something this simplistic I think "We're doomed" is a good response.

 

Like yes, for me, as a completely ignorant non-programmer that gets a migraine just looking at a "Hello World" script, it seems like the only solution is:

• Create giant matrix or whatever smart people call this
  
• Create 50 billion entry slots representing all possible unlockable armor pieces
  
• Put "1" on pieces you've collected, put "0" on pieces you haven't
  

 

However that's kind of the point, I'm not paid to program big-name MMOs because I'm bad at this. However the people actually handling this, are paid to do it, and are hypothetically capable of coming up with much more creative solutions — like most of the non-brute-force solutions that coding wizards come up with to solve things like this.

 

Notwithstanding that Collections itself is expanding infinitely, and also stores individual items in every single other category, like your sixty billion Pets, Weapons, Emotes, Color Crystals, etc.

 

I just don't really accept "Technical limitation" as a serious explanation for this. Some more likely ones include:

• Motivation limitation. They have better things to do than 'fix' this.
  
• Time limitation. There's simply no time to take away from doing higher-priority things to go back and tweak how they store Collections data.
  
• Incentive limitation. The current system creates a minigame which is both sort-of fun for players, and also motivates more CM purchases in a roundabout way. There's no real reason to 'fix' it in their eyes.
  
• etc.
  

 

In other words, they could do this. But they're probably not going to, because why bother with the hassle of re-organizing and re-testing and re-buggifying the Collections system when it's functional 'enough' as-is?

[MadDutchman]

That doesn't solve the problem of the database having to keep track of so many individual items.

 

As a programmer, the database excuse is a load of BS.

 

All the components are already in a database, they have to be, there is no other way. If they weren't, you wouldn't be able to store these components individually in your inventory, or put them on the GTN or do anything with them that requires them to still be in your possession every time you log on.

 

Every single piece of anything you can collect has a database entry for it.

 

Claiming an individual component would be as easy as adding a "copy to inventory" button right beside the preview button in the pack preview window.

 

 

The reason this isn't done was already stated above, moving crap items in the GTN and CM encourages more purchases of stuff in the CM. Frankly I don't have much of a problem with this, I just don't want anyone to think that there is any legitimate technical reason for this. It is purely profit related.