LordArtemis Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) Massively recently posted an article on the idea that it might be time to consider a character bio revival. http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/30/the-daily-grind-are-character-bios-due-for-revival/ I have mentioned in the past that I found it odd that this game did not have some kind of personal bio mechanic in place. I always felt it would have been a nice addition to SWTOR, I enjoyed reading the bios for characters in other MMOs that had them. I would like to see something like this added to SWTOR in the future. Edited October 2, 2014 by LordArtemis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Wicked Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Too technical and challenging, plus extra load on the engine and its infrastructure or whatever. As such... No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kilikaa Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Character bios, like so many other things, should have been a launch feature. I enjoyed them in SWG and other games. Why SWTOR doesn't have them is very strange. I believe they would be a very good addition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suromir Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Too technical and challenging, plus extra load on the engine and its infrastructure or whatever. As such... No. yah..such a challenge that even EverQuest 1 had a part you could put a small bio for your toons. it wouldn't load unless someone rightclicked>viewbio on you..it wouldn't be much of a strain at all...and if it really is "challenging" to implement..then BioWare should get competent programmers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LyraineAlei Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 "Orphaned at a young age, grew up on the street, selling her body or stealing to make ends meet, who is <character>. Oh, and she's Revan's long-lost great-great-great-great-grandchild." That would be very common, but hey, I would have fun with it. "Trying to avoid matchmaking happy family, she went into bounty hunting and found her talent. She's happily staying away from her family while becoming a name the galaxy could fear." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callaron Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) Character bios, like so many other things, should have been a launch feature. I enjoyed them in SWG and other games. Why SWTOR doesn't have them is very strange. I believe they would be a very good addition. SWG, EQ1, CoH, DDO and even Neverwinter Online. WoW's got it through add-ons, as do some of the other games that support add-ons. Edited October 2, 2014 by Callaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedip_enguin Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 The world would see a sharp increase in orphans who are unusually strong in the force... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callaron Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 "Orphaned at a young age, grew up on the street, selling her body or stealing to make ends meet, who is <character>. Oh, and she's Revan's long-lost great-great-great-great-grandchild." That would be very common, but hey, I would have fun with it. "Trying to avoid matchmaking happy family, she went into bounty hunting and found her talent. She's happily staying away from her family while becoming a name the galaxy could fear." No doubt some of them would be very eyeroll worthy. But that's part of the fun too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth_Wicked Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 The world would see a sharp increase in orphans who are unusually strong in the force... Their parents experiencing the most horrible and painful deaths one can imagine, shortly before their children became orphans... Thana Vesh anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Rather than Character Bios, I'd like them to revisit the family tree. Seriously, it's untouched since April 2012. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beranzen Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Would love a character bio feature, as well as a update to the family tree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshlaBoga Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Would love a character bio feature, as well as a update to the family tree. Yes. I want an updated tree, perhaps one with vines that stab my enemies and drink their blood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urantia Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I am sure some would love it...and would be as much a fit as all the other nonsense we currently have. Though as aluded to in humor above it probably is too much for them to handle. They cannot even do a patch without breaking legacy features or erasing people achievements and so on...so you may find yourself retyping your bio often lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiltoftheDragon Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I would fully agree to a character bio. It brings more immersion to the game as a whole. When i played SWG years ago....reading other peoples bio was a part of my daily affairs. There were so many people with incredible imaginations. The family tree would be another great update for BW to work on in the future. Theres a vast number of routes they could go with it. All we can do is hope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommanderKeeva Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) yah..such a challenge that even EverQuest 1 had a part you could put a small bio for your toons. it wouldn't load unless someone rightclicked>viewbio on you..it wouldn't be much of a strain at all...and if it really is "challenging" to implement..then BioWare should get competent programmers. The problem is that even without previewing it, the data is still there and has to be tracked by the server. Increasing the load doesn't primary mean that it increases the time it takes for individual characters to preview it, rather than generating a burden on server that it wasn't built to handle, which in turn drops performance for everyone connected to it. This can lead to an actual increase in load times as well as more lag or subpar graphical rendering. Individual characters generate a TON of data including but not limited to: gear, companion gear, ship components, quests, conquest objectives, codex entries, operation lockouts, crafting schematics, achievements and the entire Collections menu. Due to the bad choice and design of the engine, this already puts undue strain on the servers, most noticably in places where lots of people stand together, such as the fleet. There load times can increase and characters can start lagging due to the servers suddenly having to track an inordinate amount of data, such that they weren't designed to handle. Considering that Bioware is constantly adding new Codex entries, achievements and items in the Collections, they have to severely restrict what other type of data is being tracked per character. They made a capital error when choosing the unoptimized Hero engine as the foundation of the game and this mistake comes back around to haunt them whenever they want to add something new. This is why GSF and GSH weren't as successful as they could have been, they were missing important features due to technical limitations. This is also why Bioware will likely never add a Character Biography page, not that they wouldn't like to do it, but because they simply can't. They are modding, tweaking and optimizing the engine whenever they can, freeing up more available data space but all of it is probably being used up by the ever-expanding Codex, Achievements and Collections and the occasional new addition, like Conquests. Edited October 2, 2014 by CommanderKeeva Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pscyon Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Would they be a good fit for TOR? Well it would be great for roleplayers and it could be a useful tool for others as well to list alts, flashpoint/operations experience, crafting lists and tons of types of info really. Implementation is important though. Give people too many editing tools and it becomes a buggy and clunky mess. Have no way of easily reporting unsuitable biographies and people will use them for harassment (naming/shaming etc.). Allow too much text and there's sure to be performance issues. I think a text box roughly the size of the inventory/stat/character screen should suffice with no special editing tools neccessary. It's allready possible to attach a "note" to your character in the LFG list so I don't think having a bunch of text tethered to our characters is a major technical hurdle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JattaGin Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 +1 for family tree rework and bios. I wrote bios for my chars back in the days on swtor-rpg.com or whatever the site was. But it's not the same if you don't have them available in-game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertthebard Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I'd love one, so I could put "Get off my lawn" in them, like I do everywhere else they're available. Oh, on one I did say "None of your business". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halinalle Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 (edited) Not really. Notes or something could be more useful. Other players could write comments about you. For example: "L2T noob" written by "I'm going to heal you with Rapid Shots" Merc Also, player of that character couldn't edit it at all. Edited October 2, 2014 by Halinalle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordArtemis Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 Thanks for the responses, interesting read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaedelyia Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Rather than Character Bios, I'd like them to revisit the family tree. Seriously, it's untouched since April 2012. Agreed. They are really, completely half-assed. Lack of non-familly option, first (employer, competitor, brother-in-arms, commercial relationship, whatever) and lack of verticality after... Seriously ? You can have two non-familial relationship (left/right), rest have to be adopted child or some other things that can be difficult to fit RP-wise (No, My BH doesn't have an adopted Sage Jedi who look the same age as him) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
branmakmuffin Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 They would be as good a fit for TOR as they are for any other MMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I'm fine if they add them, but...when I think about the things that might improve SWTOR, Character Bios have never ever been on that list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordArtemis Posted October 11, 2014 Author Share Posted October 11, 2014 Fair enough, and I do think that revisiting the family trees would be a good idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Excise Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 Agree completely! This should be standard on all MMO's. Not just for RP, either. EVE has 'em and you can put in whatever you want. PvP achievos you're proud of, PvE successes, your schedule... anything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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