Companions Underutilized - Story/Quests a Grind - Common Theme/Opportunity to Improve

[Verdan]

I’ve tested a number of builds, which probably gave me a head start on the

generic quest burn out. There are only so many times that you can talk to

another stranger/NPC and have them give you a task to go fetch, blow up, or kill

something, and along the way, have a bonus quest pop up to kill 15-50 more mobs.

That is already getting so old, it’s a mind-numbing grind. I had full hopes of

never hitting a space bar, and now I’m hitting space bar a lot. There’s some things

contributing to the quest burn out that are unnecessary.

 

Consider the following, each contributing to the problem or solution:

 

* There’s almost no soundtrack. You buzz along or schlepp along (if you don’t

have the speeder yet) all over the themepark planets and there’s no sound but a

buzzing from the speeder, or the perpetual schlop-schlop of your footfalls. The

music component of TOR is almost non-existent. Occasionally some music would

flare up and its so unexpected it makes me almost jump awake from the numbing

grind. Just recently, I turned off Music in-game so it wouldn’t conflict every

so often, and loaded up the (quality) space-based Homeworld game soundtrack and

have it playing constantly, and it helps the TOR grind. Frankly, I listened to

the TOR CD soundtrack that came with the CE and promptly threw it away after one

listen - its trite, nothing stands out, as commercial as you can get. It’s in a

landfill somewhere. Homeworld and quality ftw.

 

* Every MMO seems to take months to realize that grinding levels is boring

gameplay, and inevitably, they ramp up the XP awards to get players to endgame

more quickly. Please, Bioware, don’t take months or years of evolving

adjustments to do this. I told you this during testing that the late teens

through level 20’s were a horrible grind, and nothing’s changed. When it comes

to “leveling”, you should only be playing a level long enough to become

proficient with a new skill, then move on to the next level and the next skill.

The pace should be brisk. There’s nothing wrong with themeparks, let us go back

and visit them to explore rich stories and rich worlds (ahem) in themeparks at

our leisure. Don’t make us grind through all of them all at once without end in

sight. Let us off the ride sometimes to explore other aspects of the TOR

universe as avatars. Assuming there is more than one themepark after another...

 

* Every MMO seems to take months and years of evolution to realize that grinding

and schlepping on foot, or other travel gates, just make for bad gameplay, and

inevitably, they provide robust travel options through months and years of

evolving adjustments - giving players the horse at level 5, or vehicles/pets at

start. Please, Bioware, making us wait to 14 for Sprint and 25 for even

a beater speeder is nothing short of torture. From a story standpoint, we’re

heroes, we get an uber starship at 16, but we have to schlepp on foot till 25 as

we go carry out Galaxy-breaking business?

 

The most important factor:

 

* All Star Wars stories (any story really) had their magic and charm based on an

ensemble cast. However, the so-called stories of TOR are almost exclusively one

avatar going from one stranger to another in an endless series of tasks – it

reads like the worst of the worst Conan book. There’s no ensemble, no Chewie or

Leia equivalents, no cast of characters. The Companions are an unleveraged or

underleveraged opportunity to bring depth, an ensemble and progression to the

avatar’s evolving story. They could be utilized 1,000% more to make your ship

(another underleveraged element) a rich home, and a player as part of rich story

experience. The rare times when the Companion’s pipe in to dialogue is

immensely powerful, too bad it’s only once in a blue moon. If they had cut

1/3rd of the voice content from the generic “do this, and kill 15 mobs for

bonus” missions, and deployed those missions from the mission drop box like some

other existing quests, and took that development time to more fully develop

Companion dialogues in the ship and in the Companion’s joining in remaining

general quest dialogues, wow, this game would have a real strength in gameplay

and design – a wonderful evolving story of ensemble characters and avatar

progression. But the Companions remain vastly underutilized, and quests remain

monotonous bores of repetitious strangers giving some task.

 

In summary, more Companion dialogue and their content adding to the feel of a

rich ensemble cast, and less grinding generic themepark quests by way of

increased XP pacing. Let us go back to themepark worlds on our terms when we

want to see something different on a different world, and when we do, make it

more interesting and utilize the ensemble cast better.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Verdan

[Prophetic]

I couldn't agree with you more as it pertains to Companions. I love companion characters and their random quips during conversations. It's what brings them to life in other Bioware games. Here, they're just glorified pets that only jump in rarely during your class quest, but have nothing to offer during other quests besides a portrait with a + or - affection rating every so often. The companions usually have a lot more depth and character immediately BEFORE you recruit them. After you recruit them, they're kind of just dead weight. Of course, this could just be my hatred of Corso shining through.

 

The leveling speed I'm fine with, really. I played Rift at launch and dropped it after 2 months 'cause the progression was entirely too quick. I had a character of each class at max level within that time and I wasn't even playing 'hardcore.' I mean, I played consistently (about 2-4 hours a night), but leveling was waaaay too quick. I just didn't have the desire to play anymore after that, especially with the repetitive raiding and rift grinding.

 

For bonus quests...I find myself skipping those quite often, actually, unless the bonus pertains to what I'm immediately doing. I ESPECIALLY skip these if I'm a higher level than the quest I'm on. No use wasting time for minimum returns. I have enjoyed a few of the bonus quests, though. The ones I hate the most are the multi-stage bonuses that go like: Stage 1 - Kill 30 enemies, Stage 2 - Kill 50 more enemies, Stage 3 - Ummmm...kill even more enemies!!! Stage 4 - MOAR ENEMIES MUHAHAHAHA, Stage 5 - Put a gun in your mouth and blow off your head, deposit remains in mission dropbox.

 

Music I agree with completely. I wish there was at least SOMETHING playing while randomly running around, or that the music at least played consistently when I attacked something. At the moment, the only music that I get is when I'm fighting an Elite enemy or higher, or a boss in my storyline, and even that music cuts out a quarter of the way through the battle, leaving me with just the empty sounds of my blaster fire.

 

Sprinting...yeah, I could go for that coming up at lower levels. It's really not too big of a deal, though. The levels for the speeder seems appropriate to me, also, but I'm not going to complain if they dropped the level for it.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Prophetic

[Verdan]

We agree there. More cow bells, er... meant More Companion interaction, dialogue... Edited December 28, 2011 by Verdan

[windezz]

Couple massive walls of text later...I have to ask - why is this in the crewskill section?

[Xybrik]

I agree with you on the companion interaction and the speeder issues. I don't find the pacing of the game to be that bad though considering the nature of the quests. Companion interaction I can deal with, but I find no reason not to have speeders available from very early on. I really find this to just be a gimmick to waste your time in MMO's that do this and it is a practice that should be ended.

[Fashioned]

SPeeders at a later level give people an "exciting goal" keeping them playing to achieve it!

[hulduet]

Damn straight about the lack of music. The world is silent. Where is the loop music option?! Oh yeah, there is none! Maybe that is because there isn't even any music to begin with. Guess they got lazy or the music samples only lasted 10-15 seconds. Epic /sigh.

[SilentKyram]

Dude not to be a complete a#$ but they developed this game the way they thought it should be played, while I agree with everything your saying I don't see them changing it so what we all have to do is grit our teeth and push on, and grinding is a way to have a consistent cash flow.Crew skills are decent money, but sometimes they don't produce profits (i.e. Treasure hunting, and now slicing)

[Verdan]

Couple massive walls of text later...I have to ask - why is this in the crewskill section?

 

Because "crew" is the closest thing to "companion" topic on Bioware's amateur selection of forums, which is the subject of another thread I started yesterday. They should have a feedback/suggestions forum (where this thread would apply), a technical assistance forum, and a website feedback forum.

 

For lack of proper forums, Windezz, thread Titles are your friend.

[Verdan]

Damn straight about the lack of music. The world is silent. Where is the loop music option?! Oh yeah, there is none! Maybe that is because there isn't even any music to begin with. Guess they got lazy or the music samples only lasted 10-15 seconds. Epic /sigh.

 

Truly.

 

Golden opportunity to have had a theme score unique to each planet, that set the tone for each world/culture, and plays while moving through the landscape. Thematic to the Royal Houses of Alderaan, the tribal or underworld nature of Tatooine, the ruins of Taris, the mystical nature of Korriban, the Empirical capital of Dromund Kaas, the ruckus and din of Nar Shaddaa... what a colossal miss, Team Bioware. The good news, is that like everything in the OP, it can be remedied, some more easily than others.

 

Suggest putting our dollars to work by developing planetary themed music scores, sets of, and by developing more companion dialogue opportunities that follow choices and alignment progression as well as crew character back-stories and side adventures. Also, more immediately, provide Sprint at 8, Speeders at 12, and leave the ship where it is.

 

Then, ramp up XP to make sets of planets optional and available at our leisure, so we can choose between Nar Shaddaa and Balmorra, or other pairings at our preference, that instead of doing both, we can do one and move on with XP equivalent of doing both, and come back to the one we skipped whenever we feel like it.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Verdan

[Giondi]

Couple massive walls of text later...I have to ask - why is this in the crewskill section?

 

Because it has companions in the list of things he's wrong about and companions are the "crew" in "crew skills". Duh.

 

Edit:

 

Because "crew" is the closest thing to "companion" topic on Bioware's amateur selection of forums, which is the subject of another thread I started yesterday.

 

Oh my god, I was right. I honestly stopped reading as soon as I got to the first post about what I was going to say. This should be in General along with the other "This game isn't exactly what I want so I'm gonna troll the forum" threads.

Edited December 28, 2011 by Giondi

[Verdan]

Oh my god, I was right. I honestly stopped reading as soon as I got to the first post about what I was going to say. This should be in General along with the other "This game isn't exactly what I want so I'm gonna troll the forum" threads.

 

If you consider feedback and suggestions as trolling, then the only thing I can say to you, other than point a mirror in your direction for lack of value added to a topic (ie. Trolling), and maybe a little chuckle at your behavior, is to thank you for a bump; the latter being the only constructive thing you can be accused of offering. Perhaps capable of offering.