DataBeaver Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 (edited) Edit: Since a lot of replies are talking only about dailies: this concerns mostly one-time, non-repeatable quests. As you can see in the second paragraph below, I'm fine with how dailies work, in SoR and otherwise. Side quests in 3.0 are given through a simple popup, not a conversation cutscene. This is the first thing I'm genuinely disappointed with in the patch. I hope it's not a sign of a new direction for SW:TOR, as immersive storytelling was what originally got me hooked to the game. For dailies quick pickups are approprriate, as the conversations do get old after a dozen repetitions. I really liked what was done with Oricon: the first time around you get the quests from an NPC through conversation, and subsequently they can be picked up from the terminal. As a curious contrast, there is an NPC for the flashpoint on Rishi with some actual conversation. Somehow I think flashpoint NPCs get talked to a lot less than quest NPCs, and in fact many of them just give a single choice between storymode and hardmode. Edited December 3, 2014 by DataBeaver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddballEasyEight Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Yeah, I'm not a big fan of this change. I hope it's just a budget thing and that the success (I HOPE!) of this expansion will show the big-wigs at the budgeting department that investing a bit more in VO is worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthOvertone Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Side quests in 3.0 are given through a simple popup, not a conversation cutscene. This is the first thing I'm genuinely disappointed with in the patch. Smart move by BW imo. In fact, I think the game would have been better off without the cutscene side quests. They just became tedious after the first couple planets and slowed down the leveling process. Most people I know just space-barred through them, especially after one time through. Keep the cutscenes in class and planetary storyline quests. I'm all for keeping them out of the side quests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aries_cz Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 There is a conversation, but it doesn't take place in the regular "conversation mode". I think it is an interesting take, but I do miss my character not responding. However, given the fact it is only for sidequests and dailies, it is fine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VanderII Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 (edited) I think there are two reasons for this choise: 1 - we are talking about quests for both sides (empire and republic) and I think it's hard customize dialogs based on the faction Player when the quest giver is tha same for each other; 2- I've noticed the quality of cinematics main story is increase, it's really beautiful and epic, so I think Bioware focused on quality cinematics. Why does it waste resources for typical MMO secondary quests? it's better concentrate for the main story. Edited December 3, 2014 by VanderII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karkais Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Conversations during daily quests was just an annoyance, imo. Very immersionbreaking to have the same conversation the umpteenth time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menofhorror Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Putting money to make some boring fetch quest givers talk is unnessecary and a good move by Bioware. It doesn`t matter if it`s only text or a person with voice actor talking to you. A fetch quest is boring. no matter if it has a cutscene or not. This is one of the smarter moves in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DataBeaver Posted December 3, 2014 Author Share Posted December 3, 2014 Smart move by BW imo. In fact, I think the game would have been better off without the cutscene side quests. They just became tedious after the first couple planets and slowed down the leveling process. Most people I know just space-barred through them, especially after one time through. With cutscenes you could spam spacebar and 1 to get past them in a few seconds, and I could spend a minute or two to watch each. Now you still get what you like but I don't. How is that fair? Most people I know watch every cutscene at least the first time they encounter it. I watch every cutscene at least once on every character. There is a conversation, but it doesn't take place in the regular "conversation mode". I think it is an interesting take, but I do miss my character not responding. However, given the fact it is only for sidequests and dailies, it is fine... A single line of dialogue from the NPC is not much of a conversation. As you said, there isn't any chance for me to decide how my character will respond, other than accepting or declining the quest. I loved being able to give different personalities to my characters and respond appropriately, and now that possibility is gone from these quests. Conversations during daily quests was just an annoyance, imo. Very immersionbreaking to have the same conversation the umpteenth time. Which is why I support quick pickups for dailies, at least after the first time. But SoR extends it to one-time quests as well. There were some side quests without conversations before as well, but they were all of the type "you found a lost datapad with this message on it." That's fine, I don't expect a datapad to speak. I do, however, expect a living being to speak rather than just hand a flyer to me with a quest on it. It doesn`t matter if it`s only text or a person with voice actor talking to you. A fetch quest is boring. no matter if it has a cutscene or not. Once you remove the cutscene, it truly becomes just another fetch quest. What made SW:TOR different before was that the conversations gave the quests depth. I wasn't just clicking things because the quest said so, I was helping this soldier to get back their supplies, or collecting schematics necessary to escape a doomed planet. At least the new quest dialogs still have some backstory, but it feels less personal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerba Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 I am happy that the side quests are no longer in the conversation mode and I hope they'll keep this system for all future dailies. We get a full storyline with good cinematics to enjoy, but when I do dailies, I don't want to have to watch the same scene over and over. The way they implemented is much nicer than just picking up all the quests at the terminal, and it is just as fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aries_cz Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 A single line of dialogue from the NPC is not much of a conversation. As you said, there isn't any chance for me to decide how my character will respond, other than accepting or declining the quest. I loved being able to give different personalities to my characters and respond appropriately, and now that possibility is gone from these quests. it is more than a single line, it usually is several sentences spread across two or three messages. And to be honest, most of daily quests that have conversations are usually just accept or refuse anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DataBeaver Posted December 3, 2014 Author Share Posted December 3, 2014 it is more than a single line, it usually is several sentences spread across two or three messages. And to be honest, most of daily quests that have conversations are usually just accept or refuse anyway. Okay, maybe it's just the first few that are one-liners then. I'll keep my ears open while playing further through the story. Why does everyone seem to be equating one-time side quests with dailies though? I'm fully aware of how annoying it is to pick up dailies through conversation, but it would still be nice for the option to be available. Maybe Bioware should implement a setting for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwence Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 This isn't a new change, there has never been cutscenes for daily quests except maybe oricon as one time scenes because they were part of the storyline Czerka, section x, black hole, little to no cutscenes, 99% terminal. And thank god for it quite frankly. Having long voice dialogue for everything is a major reason why there won't ever be new classes in this game among many other things. Last time they had cut scenes for dailies was belsavis and ilum and the last time people actually did those was probably pre 2.0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DataBeaver Posted December 3, 2014 Author Share Posted December 3, 2014 we are talking about quests for both sides (empire and republic) and I think it's hard customize dialogs based on the faction Player when the quest giver is tha same for each other I doubt that, since many conversations are already customized per class. Certainly they are able to tell the difference between a smuggler and an agent and provide appropriate lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarian Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Side quests in 3.0 are given through a simple popup, not a conversation cutscene. This is the first thing I'm genuinely disappointed with in the patch. I hope it's not a sign of a new direction for SW:TOR, as immersive storytelling was what originally got me hooked to the game. That's not good to hear. And after they said they were going to double down on cinematic storytelling at the press event... There's some very worthwhile story content in the original sidequests. Ones I've done recently, off the top of my head - "The Corpse Counters" on Republic Taris or "Coms Away" on Imperial Balmorra. They never get tedious to me, since every time it's with a new character who has a new vocal performance, and/or alignment and gender, and different responses to choose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSStember Posted December 3, 2014 Share Posted December 3, 2014 Voice acted quest scenes with character interaction are what "raised the bar" and set SWTOR above the many other MMOs I play. I'd hate for them to stop giving us that extra quality that made them special. For those that don't like the cut scenes...that's why you can space through them. I, for one, love them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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