This game is really fun except for the datacron jumpy jumpy game

[Tenor]

You can't be good at everything, unfortunately.

 

No you can't, which is why I don't complain about not getting any PvP content or gear, but when more than half, heck at least three quarters of the datacrons require Swiss timing and moves that should only be attempted on a console game, then something is seriously wrong. If the concern is that the puzzles will become pointless once solved then randomize it a bit. Take Zelda Ocarina of Time for example. One of the puzzles in the Forest temple required you to put together four picture blocks to make a single picture. If you didn't make it in the time allotted, the puzzle reoriented itself and you had to start over. That puzzle was more a speed trial than anything and didn't require any jumping. A speed trial would probably be acceptable for some of the datacrons, but give us more cerebral-oriented players some love, too.

[dark_]

Personally, I love it because it suddenly becomes a platformer. Also when i find a holocron i look at it like a puzzle and that is where the fun begins. Also you should think outside the box sometimes. Thats what a friend and I did for one and we had a blast the entire time we were trying to figure out how to get to the holocron.

[cdzander]

The only one I hate so far is on Alderaan, because my character is too big to fit through the door and get to it, while smaller body types can. That just seems wrong. I like to think it's a bug that will get fixed, eventually.

[ChrisJSY]

I don't mind them.

 

The one I do hate is the Tatooine one where you have to wait and ride for a baloon ride for about an HOUR. That's just unreasonable to ask of someones time for this compared to the rest. Everything else can be done on your own time, this is on their time.

Edited December 31, 2011 by ChrisJSY

[TCorvin]

I do find this whole thread pretty amusing. There was someone saying how long it takes to get the datacrons. The only one that takes a lot of time is the balloon ride in Tatooine. There is no way Bioware should place alternative datacrons for people that have poor coordination. The datacrons are there to award players that can handle the various tasks required. I guess perhaps the alternative datacrons should just be placed in a single line so you can just go down the line and get the bonuses.

[Tenor]

Personally, I love it because it suddenly becomes a platformer. Also when i find a holocron i look at it like a puzzle and that is where the fun begins. Also you should think outside the box sometimes. Thats what a friend and I did for one and we had a blast the entire time we were trying to figure out how to get to the holocron.

 

How does jumping around indicate outside-the-box thinking? To find the path? Sure I can see that to some extent, but then you have to have neurosurgeon-like coordination to get it. To get about three quarters of them. That's ludicrous.

[Erian]

I'm trying to get all the datacrons I can while I level, but it's not been any fun at all. I abjectly hate the jumping. It's an MMO, not a twitch game or an 80s platform jump 'n run. So full agreement with those who wish for, at the very least, a little more variety in what is required to get to them.

 

And then there's this:

 

It's not even the difficulty. It's that, well... MMO controls are not in any way, shape, or form designed for jumping puzzles. It's awkward, it's clunky, it's imprecise, and it's not fun.

 

And this:

 

I really hate those Jump'n'Run episodes with the datacrons. Mostly because it focuses on the player's skill rather than the supposed skill of the character you are playing.

 

Quoted for full agreement with both statements. In combination, this creates an extremely frustrating and immersion-breaking experience. We don't have to wrestle imprecise controls in order to aim our guns, nor to perfectly execute each aspect of a lightsaber swing. We don't have to understand advanced technology from a galaxy far, far away in order to slice into or operate all the computers and machines in the game. We don't have to know how to fly a spaceship.

 

So what the frack is it with the sudden need for ultra-precision jumping on the player's part? And don't get me started on the occasions in which invisible walls, bumps or slopes can make you plummet to your doom even when it looks like your character landed in the right spot. Ugh.

[RikiWataru]

It should be said this isn't a matter of coordination.

 

I'm coordinated. I play platformers. I even play some on PC.

 

When I miss a jump or fall off a ledge in one of these games I can be fairly certain it's my fault and work on it.

 

The mindlessly frustrating fact of the datacron hunt in swtor is that most of the time it is not my fault. It is bad design and the realities of online gaming.

 

For the level of precision much of these jumps require a seconds discrepancy between where I am and where the server thinks I am is too long.

 

Moreover the jumping mechanic simply doesn't work very well. It's laggy and eratic. You can press the space bar the same way and get a power jump vaulting farther than I thought possible, a stuttering hop even with a running start, or more often than I care to think about nothing and you simply run straight off an edge to plummet back down to have to start the whole process over again. It's mind numbingly frustrating and completely outside player control.

 

If it doesn't happen to you then count yourself lucky as with any big or issue that happily skips over certain players leaving them happily content and wondering what your composing about, great.

 

The big issue here I think is how ridiculously and painfully punishing a failed jump is. Usually at least you have to start all over but in the ones that require more than one ridiculously precise and finicky leap your almost talking about winning the lottery a few times in a row.

 

My biggest problem is I can get most jumps if I have space to run that's big enough for the game to acknowledge I've started moving and then hit jump. If I have that space I have little fear. If I don't I'm largely boned. Because it doesn't seem to be a matter of reflexes, I've got those, it's a matter of not having jump register if it just noticed I started moving forward. It just doesn't do it and if I'm on a tiny crate trying to jump to another then I'm likely walking into that space between the two and falling no matter how many times I hit jump.

 

This could really be solved simply for me by pressing more of the crates or pipes together that look so easy and should be so easy if not for the limitations enforced on controls and doing all this over an Internet connection.

 

All in all I like the exploration datacrons. The hidden datacrons. The out of the way datacrons. I don't even mind pipe walking and the occasional leaping. Don't stack things against me behind things I can't control though like latency or server load.

[Bhigtimm]

really 75% require crazy jumpy? really?

 

+ Cunning on Dk

+ Aim on Balmorra buts really more of can you drop in the right place than jumping

+ Aim on Nar Shaada for IMP

+ Presnce on Nar Shadda for Imp

yellow matrix shard on Nar Shadda

+cunning on Tatooine for Imp

+aim on Alderaan

+willpower on taris for Imp

+cunning on taris for Imp

+ aim on Belsavis because its bugged

All of the non matrix shards on Corellia

 

= 15/66

 

and of those only 5 or so are real backbreakers, but if its too hard, well I hear Hello Kitty has an adventure Island.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Bhigtimm

[Yoggs]

Personally, I like the Datacron hunting. I like the challenge, and it brought back a feeling of nostalgia from both my platform gaming days, and the days when I'd try to get to unreachable areas in WoW using crazy jumps in the pre-flying mount days.

 

The only one that really pisses me off is the one on Belsavis with the random spawn locations for the Rakata energy cubes in several different sections of the map. I still haven't completed that one or the ones on Illum yet, but I've gotten all the others up to Illum. And the +10 stats datacron run was amazingly challenging, but still doable.

 

That said, I'm not so sure BW should have gone with stat bonuses as rewards for them. It does make it a bit difficult for the min/maxers to do their thing, and it does give an edge stat wise to the tenacious few who can stick out the crazy jumping and dropping.

[SithZigg]

There are only a few that are "jumpy jumpy", i.e. where precision jumping is required. Most of the time, it is fairly straight forward.

[SpookyDaInsane]

After collecting all the datacrons aside from the super secret and bugged +10 stats; I loved doing each and every one of them minus three:

 

Tattooine Blimp and the Belsavis power cores.

And it was more due to a time sink of an hour (tattooine) and a time sink of three people searching for four power cores (about 2 hours each person).

 

The jumpy jumpy ones were the most enjoyable for me personally.

Edited January 9, 2012 by SpookyDaInsane

[Ramurdyne]

I really enjoyed this myself, it felt like I was on a treasure hunt, its a nice change of pace from getting grinded into dust in pvp. I mean its basically free buffs I dont see the problem unless you have the coordination of a five year old.

[Madelle]

I generally enjoy platformers.

 

I loved Mirror's Edge, the Super Mario games, Donkey Kong Country, Prince of Persia, etc., etc.

 

I absolutely hate the datacron jumping in this game. These segments reek of really poor game design and the main problem lies with the horrendous controls. There is no precision in the jumping at all. Often, I end up overshooting a jump because my character jumps much farther than I intended. If he even jumps at all and doesn't just run over the ledge, as someone else noted. Then there are the times when I seem to hit an invisible wall.

 

The datacron segments so far respresent the least enjoyable part of the game for me. I honestly cannot fathom who thought this would be a good idea. They are poorly implemented and given the relative polish of the rest of the game they stand out all the more.

[VoidGlider]

I tried to do the Jawa Baloon thing in Tatooine twice last night. First time I got within a couple of yards of the jump point on the Northern Sandcrawler and fell through the floor of the baloon to the ground. Looked up and the baloon had gone all together. Mounted up and set off back to the boarding point only to see it departing and missed it. /facepalm

 

Waited 40 mins for it to do its route when 3 Republic players arrived and jumped on with me. We get only a short distance away from the boarding point when I am kicked to the server selection screen. Log back in to find one of the Republic players standing beside me on the ground and his mates floating away from us. Not amussed

 

oh well, will try in a couple of days time when I can be bothered again.

 

30 mins for the initial wait

20 mins baloon travel before being dropped the first time

40 min wait for it too arrive the second time

 

= not a happy bunny

Edited January 9, 2012 by VoidGlider

[Yoggs]

After collecting all the datacrons aside from the super secret and bugged +10 stats; I loved doing each and every one of them minus three:

 

Tattooine Blimp and the Belsavis power cores.

And it was more due to a time sink of an hour (tattooine) and a time sink of three people searching for four power cores (about 2 hours each person).

 

The jumpy jumpy ones were the most enjoyable for me personally.

 

The +10 stats one isn't bugged. I did it with a group of guild mates last night.

Also, WTB more energy cube spawns on Belsavis.

[Jilla]

I stink at jumping too, but I've gotten all the datacons I've set out to get because I am also stubborn as a Missouri mule and won't give up, lol. I often end up curing the developer who placed the datacrons, but eventually I get them.

 

One thing I learned (from another player) if you quickly hit the "w" key and the spacebar at the same time--just a "tap", you can make a kind of broad-jump (as opposed to a running jump). It made jumping those pipes in the Justicar area (for example) a whole, lot easier since I didn't have to run and time the jumps. I still missed a few times, but no where near as much when I was trying the spacebar alone.

 

For what it's worth, I wish there was more variety too with random puzzles and riddles along with the coordination game. It would make it a little more interesting and challenging.

[aharris]

I'm the sort that gets frustrated by puzzles like this really easily. If I don't make it in the first four or five tries, I'm usually angry enough that I have to put it down and walk away, or in this case, go somewhere else and do something other than try to jump from point A to point B.

 

I agree with the others who have said that they can't get their characters to jump when they tell them to jump. It's more than a little annoying to discover that rather than leaping across to the next pile of whatever, you're character is instead face-planting in to the wall because she apparently didn't get the memo to jump and ran straight off the edge.

[Cythereal]

Between lag and a computer that has to chug a bit to run this game, and the incredibly imprecise jumping, datacron hunting has been much more of a chore than something fun to do - a targeted jump where we can explicitly choose where we land would be a great improvement for predictable movement.

 

And island datacron on Alderaan where you have to jump onto a very narrow moving platform and have to wait a good five minutes or so before trying again, I'm looking at you in annoyance.

[Pravis]

If my wife can get them then anyone can.

 

And best of all...you don't NEED to get them if you think it's a pain. Wookiepedia has more information than the Codex on every subject, and the MARGINAL at best stat icnrease for getting ALL DAtacrons for your primary Stats is exactly that...marginal.

 

They are there for people who like to explore the world.

[TOBY_FLENDERSON]

There are a bunch i can't get because of FPS issues, that and not owning a fancy keyboard. And don't even get me started on the ones I'm too fat to get to.

[Jedlosson]

I can understand why you don't want jumping minigame in an MMO, but why moan about it when it is so easily bypassed... I don't see what is your point.

 

This is MMO game, all you need is a friend bounty hunter who will pull you up, or you being a sith warrior who will jump to his friend or something like that.

 

I personally love the jumping minigame - I do not like when optional content of a game is given freely to everybody without any effort. If you want it, work for it (or bypass it by playing in group in this case).

Edited January 10, 2012 by Jedlosson

[SnowBlister]

The datacrons are meant to be "hard" to find/get to.. kinda the whole point of them being "hidden". Just be thankful that someone took the time to find them all and give use clues via websites.

[KoenigNord]

When my friends and me don't like to quest/PvP we go hunting datacrons. If you are not spoiled, it is much more intense and very funny.

I spent hours on Tarins i.E. just to find 2 of them at all. Still thats what we wanted.

I still have some Datacrons that seem to need more brain thn I have right now instead of just jumping.