Elfa Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy but I just thought it would be a funny title. But truthfully, I found out first hand today in my leveling that what really makes it all drag on isn't grind for XP at all but travel. I made it from 1 to 30 in less than two hours and it took me the next 3 to make it 7 more levels. Why? I hit Alderaan. On a new character with the fog of war still in place and no travel points, it was back and forth, over and over. Please Bioware, figure out some way to make the travel less painful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnAskham Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 (edited) Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy but I just thought it would be a funny title. But truthfully, I found out first hand today in my leveling that what really makes it all drag on isn't grind for XP at all but travel. I made it from 1 to 30 in less than two hours and it took me the next 3 to make it 7 more levels. Why? I hit Alderaan. On a new character with the fog of war still in place and no travel points, it was back and forth, over and over. Please Bioware, figure out some way to make the travel less painful. Clearly wasting as much time as possible with travel was a core design principle for the launch game, at least now we do have options to alleviate some of the annoying travel time sinks. For comparison, at launch large portions of the game would not allow speeders, level requirements to get Sprint and speeders were higher than now, QT had a 30 minute CD, Fleet Pass was a once a day CD, missions that ended with 'travel to Fleet' or 'travel to homeworld' did not include a travel pass, there were no quick travel boxes on Fleet or daily areas, and of course none of the stronghold related travel perks existed. It still is a huge time sink though, and leveling through story does show how much leveling time was padded in with no content - just traveling from place to place. Which is one of the reasons things like PVP and KDY became so popular - good XP with little to no downtime in between for travel. Edited October 8, 2014 by DawnAskham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gofortheko Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Im shedding a tear for you! (not really) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rankyn Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 In a "leveling as designed" scenario, you'd be naturally moving through the world picking up multiple quests as you went and exploring the map instead of the out-back-out-back type thing that's happens when you only do the class quests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthTHC Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yes, games are sometimes designed with things like travel delays to slow leveling in mind. It definitely works as you say. I just ran through the Chapter 2 completion on my latest Trooper. The back-and-forth travel was maddening. Well maybe not maddening. But enough of a time-waster that I decided I didn't really want to do it any more, even with 24x experience (the CM xp buffs do double it) so I logged. It was especially laughable because they told me I had to travel to Coruscant on my ship, but they gave me a travel pass to Coruscant. Really? Which one's not going to break my quest line? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerba Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 (edited) When designing a planet, you always have to find the right balance between a large open world, and closely tied mission hubs. There has been a lot of criticism that the planets are too small, and that only planets like Tatooine and Corellia feel like a real planet, which once again shows that it's impossible to please everyone. IMO, SWTOR found the right balance when the game launched. If you are doing all the planet side quests, you spend much more time with doing quests and less time is spent driving around. But now that they added so much new content for leveling (KDY, GSF, Bounty event, XP boosts) where it's not fun to do all the quests because you'll overlevel the content, this has become a problem. I don't see an easy way to fix this except by redesigning the planets and removing all the side quests so that the class quests are not so spread out, so I fear we'll have to live with it. Edited October 8, 2014 by Jerba Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rankyn Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 What they should do is add more QT points. Possibly even make them a subscriber perk. Or instead, make them a Legacy perk so they'd only be available to players that had experienced a certain amount of the game already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZionHalcyon Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy but I just thought it would be a funny title. But truthfully, I found out first hand today in my leveling that what really makes it all drag on isn't grind for XP at all but travel. I made it from 1 to 30 in less than two hours and it took me the next 3 to make it 7 more levels. Why? I hit Alderaan. On a new character with the fog of war still in place and no travel points, it was back and forth, over and over. Please Bioware, figure out some way to make the travel less painful. And now you know why I hate Alderaan. Seriously, of all the planets, I hate Alderaan the most and with a passion because the place is a travel nightmare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujeo-finell Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 If you were doing every quest you would be spending less time traveling and more time questing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBBP Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy but I just thought it would be a funny title. But truthfully, I found out first hand today in my leveling that what really makes it all drag on isn't grind for XP at all but travel. I made it from 1 to 30 in less than two hours and it took me the next 3 to make it 7 more levels. Why? I hit Alderaan. On a new character with the fog of war still in place and no travel points, it was back and forth, over and over. Please Bioware, figure out some way to make the travel less painful. It is a give and take. The bonus isn't meant to be a magical and quick trip to 55 with all comforts provided. You still have to work out travel and gear on your own. How folks can still complain is beyond me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrutchCricket Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yeah if it wasn't obvious before, this really brings out the walking in the game. Still I prefer 30 min of walking to 3 hours of the same "kill x mooks, collect y bear asses" that I've already done several times over. Not that the grind is ever completely over. I suspect I'll need to do a few dailies/FPs on my existing 55s to provide the gear for these new ones. But still, small price to pay to enjoy and actually remember the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fujeo-finell Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 This is the easiest leveling has ever been in the history of the game and you still find something to complain about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddballEasyEight Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yeah, what I usually do when I hit alderaan, tatooine and hoth is to go all the way around the travel points to unlock all of those... then I'll do the story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PorkdishSWOR Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 If I could just press spacebar to skip the vehicle pad travel stuff, everywhere... Makeb ruined me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodneyMcNeely Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 How folks can still complain is beyond me. For real. Lots of failed parenting flying around this forum. And I'm not even joking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daekarus Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Another hating Alderaan here. I actually have abandoned toons before because they got to Alderaan and I couldn't bear to go through the planet again. The fact that you're skipping planetary quests with the 12X bonus makes it feel like travelling is worse than it really is, but it's still awful regardless. I don't know what it is about that place... Hoth is huge and it never bothers me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grue_Hunter Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yes, it sounds like a conspiracy but I just thought it would be a funny title. But truthfully, I found out first hand today in my leveling that what really makes it all drag on isn't grind for XP at all but travel. I made it from 1 to 30 in less than two hours and it took me the next 3 to make it 7 more levels. Why? I hit Alderaan. On a new character with the fog of war still in place and no travel points, it was back and forth, over and over. Please Bioware, figure out some way to make the travel less painful. People forget that long travel is a part of mmos - name the mmo and you will always find that travel is an annoyance (especially when you start new toons). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grue_Hunter Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Yeah, what I usually do when I hit alderaan, tatooine and hoth is to go all the way around the travel points to unlock all of those... then I'll do the story. I just hit make sure that I detour towards nearby Quick Travel nodes and speeder pads and get them unlocked quickly as I travel through. If you are smart and plan ahead, then you can get most of the major nodes in Alderaan done within the first 30-45 minutes of play on that planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadwe Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Another hating Alderaan here. I actually have abandoned toons before because they got to Alderaan and I couldn't bear to go through the planet again. The fact that you're skipping planetary quests with the 12X bonus makes it feel like travelling is worse than it really is, but it's still awful regardless. I don't know what it is about that place... Hoth is huge and it never bothers me. It's the flying whales and their songs of woe!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedip_enguin Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 But truthfully, I found out first hand today in my leveling that what really makes it all drag on isn't grind for XP at all but travel. I made it from 1 to 30 in less than two hours and it took me the next 3 to make it 7 more levels. The horror... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabakla Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 I think that if Bioware gave you the possibility of buying fresh level 55s and gave you a youtube video of all the story in a row like a movie .. you would still find ways to complain .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfa Posted October 8, 2014 Author Share Posted October 8, 2014 I think that if Bioware gave you the possibility of buying fresh level 55s and gave you a youtube video of all the story in a row like a movie .. you would still find ways to complain .... I'm not complaining, I'm trying to point out that the Boost makes it over apparent that the game is too much empty travel and it needs some work, its a criticism, not a complaint. Now what you're doing is complaining, complaining about some complaining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arodtwelve Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 Those of you complaining would have never made it through 1 day of Everquest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordArtemis Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 I have noticed the slowdown myself. The pace is definitely off. This becomes really apparent on Corellia, but I can feel it back to around the end of Alderaan. A bit of XP adjustment here and there might fix this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandoforlife Posted October 8, 2014 Share Posted October 8, 2014 I thought this was already known. Alderaan is one of the worst offenders, Hoth and Taris being quite similar. While the quest flow could have been better designed, reducing the side of the planets would have bern detrimental to the overall atmosphere in my opinion. But yes, travelling around is a major pain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts