Dyes and Strongholds...A rant.

[Felkroth]

I first want to say that I am simply happy to have these things in my MMO (albeit its practically expected in MMOs nowdays that these things are apart of the ground floor initial design of an MMO)

 

What I want to rant about is the complete weirdness of the dyes and strongholds implementation.

 

First off. I was taken a back by dyes when they were first introduced. You gave us the wonderful option to dye our clothing, but then you did something super weird by assigning colors as either primary or secondary. Had you just introduced a color palette for us to play with and no restrictions on these arbitrary primary/secondary things then in my mind that sounds normal and easier to manage. What was the purpose of such weird arbitrary restrictions?

 

 

Secondly we were given Strongholds. Player housing! I love player housing!

 

But then you do ANOTHER thing weird! Hooks...Games like EQ2, SWG which are the primary games I came from people could just place their crap in their home wherever it floated their boat. Really put a unique stamp on how they designed their home! So you give us strongholds, tell us to go wild with really making a unique home for ourselves to make this game feel more personal, but you limit our item count, or npc limit, and introduce a restrictive mode of doing that through HOOKs

 

I really don't understand the SWTOR design team. You coulda just given us a color palette of dyes, and free reign over our home design, but then you take it one or two steps further by adding weird restrictions that don't seem to make sense.

 

Arbitrary restrictions such as these two examples drive me nuts.

 

Thanks for reading

[Calsetes]

While I would greatly prefer a simple "selection system" for primary and secondary colors - a la Guild Wars 2, Champions Online, or other such games - I actually have more of an issue where, in certain cutscenes, your companions don't use the options checked off in their "armor menus" on the character sheets. For example, if I'm having a conversation with Companion A, Companion B, and Companion C on my ship, I should see them using the options set in the armor portion of their sheets - if their helmets are shown or hidden, and if their armor is matched to their chest piece or not. What's more odd is that it seems to be random - one time, they're wearing helmets and sounding like they don't have them on, while other times everything's working out just fine and color-coordinated.

 

I'd really like to see that stuff be consistent 100% of the time, much like when you use a companion customization - they always have it on, with the only exception being the new "hologram" in the strongholds when you have them placed, but summoned out with you. Cutscenes, or just milling about your ship? They're a black guy, cyborg, Asian dude, zombie, or whatever your customization says they are, period.

[hallucigenocide]

i agree with the dye system it's pretty borked they way it is atm least they could do is let us combine our primary and secondary they way we want.. would probably grant them more cash in the long run if people could just buy the ones they want to combine.

 

as for the hooks i have no real issue with it so far.. we'll see when theres more decoration options available in the future how that works out i guess.

[AERHAE]

I first want to say that I am simply happy to have these things in my MMO (albeit its practically expected in MMOs nowdays that these things are apart of the ground floor initial design of an MMO)

 

What I want to rant about is the complete weirdness of the dyes and strongholds implementation.

 

First off. I was taken a back by dyes when they were first introduced. You gave us the wonderful option to dye our clothing, but then you did something super weird by assigning colors as either primary or secondary. Had you just introduced a color palette for us to play with and no restrictions on these arbitrary primary/secondary things then in my mind that sounds normal and easier to manage. What was the purpose of such weird arbitrary restrictions?

 

 

Secondly we were given Strongholds. Player housing! I love player housing!

 

But then you do ANOTHER thing weird! Hooks...Games like EQ2, SWG which are the primary games I came from people could just place their crap in their home wherever it floated their boat. Really put a unique stamp on how they designed their home! So you give us strongholds, tell us to go wild with really making a unique home for ourselves to make this game feel more personal, but you limit our item count, or npc limit, and introduce a restrictive mode of doing that through HOOKs

 

I really don't understand the SWTOR design team. You coulda just given us a color palette of dyes, and free reign over our home design, but then you take it one or two steps further by adding weird restrictions that don't seem to make sense.

 

Arbitrary restrictions such as these two examples drive me nuts.

 

Thanks for reading

 

agreed

[Arkerus]

I first want to say that I am simply happy to have these things in my MMO (albeit its practically expected in MMOs nowdays that these things are apart of the ground floor initial design of an MMO)

 

What I want to rant about is the complete weirdness of the dyes and strongholds implementation.

 

First off. I was taken a back by dyes when they were first introduced. You gave us the wonderful option to dye our clothing, but then you did something super weird by assigning colors as either primary or secondary. Had you just introduced a color palette for us to play with and no restrictions on these arbitrary primary/secondary things then in my mind that sounds normal and easier to manage. What was the purpose of such weird arbitrary restrictions?

 

Secondly we were given Strongholds. Player housing! I love player housing!

 

But then you do ANOTHER thing weird! Hooks...Games like EQ2, SWG which are the primary games I came from people could just place their crap in their home wherever it floated their boat. Really put a unique stamp on how they designed their home! So you give us strongholds, tell us to go wild with really making a unique home for ourselves to make this game feel more personal, but you limit our item count, or npc limit, and introduce a restrictive mode of doing that through HOOKs

 

I really don't understand the SWTOR design team. You coulda just given us a color palette of dyes, and free reign over our home design, but then you take it one or two steps further by adding weird restrictions that don't seem to make sense.

 

Arbitrary restrictions such as these two examples drive me nuts.

 

Thanks for reading

 

Different engines and server architecture lend themselves to different advantages and disadvantages. The design team also made it apparent they want a bit of "pick up and play" with predetermined hook locations. It IS a bit easier for people to grasp out of the box (based on the fallacy that more choice is better, which its not, that just leads to choice regret).

 

Anyway...

The "hooks" you see in the housing editor are most likely a dumbed down version of the design team's internal design system. In most games, when they allow players to design things, set up quests, etc, they are external versions of the internal systems. The hero engine was specifically made to allow setup and design in real time which plays into exactly what you are seeing here. You can lay down an object and the server immediately sends a signal to render it based on location.

Free hand placement leads to a variety of other issues that are mitigated by hooking objects. I'm not saying its better or worse, its just a different approach.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Arkerus