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Why SWTOR feels Lifeless

Robbathehutt

By Robbathehutt
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Robbathehutt

Robbathehutt

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First off before I explain my opinion on why I feel (and many others feel) that the worlds of SWTOR feel lifeless and dead I want to say a few things up front.

 

1. I like SWTOR I am playing SWTOR and I'm enjoying the game. I'm currently a level 26 Jedi Sage and I feel it is a a good game. Is it the best game ever no....but it is a good game and worth playing.

 

2. I have played many other MMOs including World of Warcraft from 2005 to 2010, City of Heroes, Champions Online, and DC Universe Online.

 

So now that I have that out of the way the reason why I believe SWTOR feels lifeless and dead is not because of the lack of players or sharding/instancing of the planets I've seen plenty of other players when I play and I've had no problem putting groups together for Heroic quests. Why it feels dead to me is because of the NPCs.

 

Let me explain, the NPCs in other MMOs like WoW & DCUO don't just stand in one spot moving only their arms or hands from time to time. This goes for the enemy NPCS as well. In WoW and DUCO enemies walk around sometimes run some seem like their on a journey of their own even the giraffes in WoW move around. In SWTOR the enemies just sit in groups of 4 or 5 standing in 1 spot occasionally moving their arms like their all huddled around playing a dice game or something. Sure there are patrols or "pats" in SWTOR but they are few and far between like 1 enemy NPC might walk in between the groups of frozen NPCs that do nothing until you attack them or get to close.

 

This doesn't give the impression of life or a living breathing world, it gives the impression that everything is frozen in place until you interact with it. Like the world has been "Paused" until you either attack it or get to close. It's no different with friendly NPCs, guards just stand there, random NPCs just stand frozen in place, and customers at the cantinas for the most part simply do their small animations over and over. You never see anyone walking anywhere. Have you ever seen a single NPCs casually walk around a cantina? They react like robot stuffed animals at Chuck-E-Cheese they may move their arm or hand or turn their head but it looks so....lifeless.

 

I don't remember much about City of Heroes of Champions Online but in WoW & DCUO the NPCs both friendly and enemies are always on the move. Guards patrol the cities, random NPCS walk around from place to place, cars drive down the street, Pedestrians run away from enemies, enemies walk and run around, the police chase after the bad guys, etc. etc. For the most part the only NPCs that just stand there and do nothing in WoW or DCUO are quest givers and vendors.

 

This is not the case with SWTOR and gives the game a feeling of being dead not because it's a bad game and not because it's not fun and not because there aren't other players around it's because the NPCs & the enemies are stagnant. I leveled several alts in WoW and the world never felt lifeless even though there were hardly ever any other players around. It still felt like a living breathing world that would continue on whether I passed thru or not, SWTOR feels like it's just waiting for me to come along to actually do anything.

 

For those of you that have played Skyrim try to imagine playing that game going to Whiterun and finding all the NPCs just standing around not moving, not talking to you, not talking to each other just frozen until you interact with them. You would probably think the game was broken.

 

I'm not sure why Bioware made the NPCS this way (friendly & Enemies) but it takes away from the game IMO and makes it feel dead. I'm still enjoying the story though and I have no problem playing a game the way it is but if they could improve the NPC animations and actually make them do things it would be great.

 

Just my opinion. :cool:

Edited by Robbathehutt
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Canarith

Canarith

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I don't know where to begin.....

 

Yes, the NPCs may move around. Although, most of the quest npcs do not move around. However, the quest interaction is non existent in WoW, unlike this game. WoW doesn't offer multiple choices based on an option you choose generally speaking. The NPC interaction is so much richer in this game than it ever has been in WoW.

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IMatricksI

IMatricksI

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Honestly one of my largest peeves about the game world, and now that I think about it, its a pretty common trait amongst Bioware games. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and even the original KOTOR never had much NPC movement going on. I was hoping they'd buck the trend with SWTOR, but to be honest its even worse.
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Jeweledleah

Jeweledleah

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there are a few ambient dialogues here and there, but your post is the first one on a subject that I can actually nod and say "you know, you have a point" hopefully, they'll borrow a few more animations from Dragon age and Mass Effect collection they have (what? Bioware reuses quite a few animations and I cannot blame them for it) and add them to more npc's not sure how long it may take, but hey - its a good idea and would be worth implementing methinks.
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XaviourEQ

XaviourEQ

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Well i agree.As with any linear game, it feels lifeless.Ontop of that, it's really easy to pickup and play.I like games(mmos) with a broad learning curve, that my 4 year old cant pickup and play with ease.Atleast it doesn't look like one big cartoon game though.
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archifikoss

archifikoss

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Just your opinion... Which is correct IMO.

 

I agree with you bud. I love this game, it's addictive, enjoyable to play and FUN... But the world does feel kind of lifeless. Lack of interactivity, of character schedules, it's a lot of things that give that feeling. I'm not saying the game should be Gothic or Skyrim (single player games), where each character has their own schedule and reacts exactly to what you do, or where you can interact in some way with just about any object you see, but a little more is required to make the worlds feel more alive.

 

It's one of the game's flaws, and something I was afraid of pre-launch as Bioware's track record in this department is not good. It does not hamper my personal enjoyment, but more "life" in the game would seriously increase it :)

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Grrl

Grrl

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What they plan to do about what?

What is the plan to bring more "life" to the game world? Here we discuss obviously NPC and mob movements...

 

 

Please read everything before you reply, thank you

Edited by Grrl
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Caldric

Caldric

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It is lifeless and no need to interact with other players. Most interaction (yeah my fault) is teaming up to kill bosses or whatever, then it debands because people have things to do. Maybe because of the grind to 50 but whatever maybe then there will be more interaction.

 

 

Gear is too easy to get and no need to go to machines to buy stuff.

 

No reason for crafting but end game.

 

No reason to group but end game (besides the bosses)

 

Unless they have missions there is no reason to talk to NPC they are all dead to me. Just standing around. Although they look cool no reason to be there.

 

Half the time the worlds I have been on have few people they are just passing through no reason to talk to them.

 

Yeah it is a lifeless game but a cool game otherwise. Just not sure how long that coolness will last.

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Robbathehutt

Robbathehutt

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Did you seriously play WoW? NPCs were rare that weren't quest npcs or vendors. TOR, however, has npcs scattered all about that give an area population. Towns actually feel like towns, for the most part.

 

Guards don't walk around the cities? Or how about the callers? They don't walk around yelling things? You could literally be going up to the flight master and bump into an NPC coming down. There are even vendors in Orgrimmar that walk around and sell things instead of just standing in one place. There are even NPCs that travel from city to city. That's only the beginning though that's just the friendly NPCs. What about the enemies? How many wolves just sat in one spot? How many Kodos? How many Gnolls? How many of any enemy just sat there like a statue until you interacted with it in WoW?

 

The question is did "you" seriously play WoW....?

 

If SWTOR's NPCs did more than just stand in one spot it might feel more like a living breathing world is all I'm saying.

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LoL-K-Noob

LoL-K-Noob

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WoW didn't feel dead in cities BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS IN THE CITY WAITING FOR QUES OR AFKING BECAUSE THEY WERE BORED! seriously. people complain about swtor being too instanced make me laugh so hard.

 

Protip: There wasnt a single complaint about instances in this thread.

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tiszack

tiszack

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Guards don't walk around the cities? Or how about the callers? They don't walk around yelling things? You could literally be going up to the flight master and bump into an NPC coming down. There are even vendors in Orgrimmar that walk around and sell things instead of just standing in one place. There are even NPCs that travel from city to city. That's only the beginning though that's just the friendly NPCs. What about the enemies? How many wolves just sat in one spot? How many Kodos? How many Gnolls? How many of any enemy just sat there like a statue until you interacted with it in WoW?

 

The question is did "you" seriously play WoW....?

 

If SWTOR's NPCs did more than just stand in one spot it might feel more like a living breathing world is all I'm saying.

 

Yeah, and I think they had that in there from the beginning too, plus, you could interract with every single NPC. Maybe not talk, but you could select them and hear them make a grunting noise or whatever. lol. Plus, they had Gamon!

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CheesecakeCzar

CheesecakeCzar

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Guards don't walk around the cities? Or how about the callers? They don't walk around yelling things? You could literally be going up to the flight master and bump into an NPC coming down. There are even vendors in Orgrimmar that walk around and sell things instead of just standing in one place. There are even NPCs that travel from city to city. That's only the beginning though that's just the friendly NPCs. What about the enemies? How many wolves just sat in one spot? How many Kodos? How many Gnolls? How many of any enemy just sat there like a statue until you interacted with it in WoW?

 

The question is did "you" seriously play WoW....?

 

If SWTOR's NPCs did more than just stand in one spot it might feel more like a living breathing world is all I'm saying.

 

So you'd rather mobs pointlessly pace back and forth? Okay. I don't consider that life. And the npcs that actually moved with purpose were incredibly rare. For the most part, WoW was bare bones when it came to immersion. Just go to crossroads, for example. A bunch of npcs are just standing there... doing absolutely nothing. It's rather creepy without players, actually.

 

TOR actually has NPCs everywhere that are not needed beyond immersion. Some provide humor, some add to story with their conversations. You wouldn't see npcs that were simply villagers in WoW.

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