Next Star Wars MMO Suggestions

[Eshvara]

I'd like to see Arcann being carried over.

[Paulsutherland]

I'd like to see Arcann being carried over.

 

As they drop his body into a blender?

[LordFell]

I'd like to see Arcann being carried over.

Would you settle for a male force-user with the same voice actor?

...cause for me, everything about the Zakuul expansions needs to die.

 

EVERYTHING.

 

He might be a good character, he might not be... but he's tainted by association. I can't support this one tiny bit.

[LamiaKan]

I'd like to see Arcann being carried over.

I can get behind this. In fact this is the only way to get me to play another MMO, Star Wars or not.

[Holocron]

Ability for players to make content similar to STO or just sandbox like SWG?

 

Like both. In fact, in the final years of SWG players had the ability to create their own content. The devs built and gave the players a framework for creating missions/stories, where players could drop and place npcs and art assets anywhere in the game they wanted, set their difficulty, and add whatever dialog and loot to them that they wanted. They could then invite anyone who wanted to participate in these custom missions, or set-up story npcs to do it when they weren't around. The story npcs/content would expire after a set amount of time etc. Some player made stories were very good, and broke up the monotony. It's neat ideas like that, that added to the richness of the game.

 

I basically want all of SWG and all of SWTOR blended into one game.

Edited January 27, 2018 by Holocron

[Khelekin]

- Every NPC can be killable. If you are a Republic Trooper and you want to start murdering Republic Senators for credits, you can. Except, there is a consequence for that decision. With each and every one you kill, your faction with the Republic erodes, until Republic Troopers and guards and whatnot react to you as kill-on-sight. You become a wanted murderer. Your "Republic" faction rating ends up like -1000.

 

How would that work? Should they respawn a few minutes after you kill them? Should they become premanently phased out for you but present for everyone else? Should they stay dead for everyone with the game world empty of NPCs a week after launch? Who would kill you on sight if there were no Troopers left alive? How do you create a quest narrative in such conditions? If its phased how do you group up and complete content with someone who's killed different NPCs than you?

Edited January 27, 2018 by Khelekin

[LordFell]

Oh... yeah. No.

 

....I think a two-faction system is kind of a must for a Star Wars property. I mean... It makes no sense to me that a player's Sith Lord is gonna chill on Coruscant and maybe visit the Jedi Temple and make some friends.

[drug_cartel]

Oh... yeah. No.

 

....I think a two-faction system is kind of a must for a Star Wars property. I mean... It makes no sense to me that a player's Sith Lord is gonna chill on Coruscant and maybe visit the Jedi Temple and make some friends.

 

You mean like... Lord Scourge? A Sith Lord in the game already who can literally go and chill on Coruscant or visit a Jedi Temple.

 

Star Wars is a property with a rich lore of hundreds of characters who have, through the results of their actions, ultimately turned their back on one group of people to join someone that was previously their enemy. This is a mainstay of the Star Wars universe.

 

It doesn't mean that EVERY Sith Lord gets to walk around as openly welcomed on Coruscant. It means that the ones who have done a ton of work mending bridges and building trust with the Republic can eventually be accepted. That a character like Scourge, or Finn, or Revan, or Sajar, or Lord Praven, or Galen Marek, or Lando Calrissian, or even HAN FREAKING SOLO, who's origins had him as an Imperial Trooper who ultimately went AWOL before becoming the Smuggler with a heart of gold that we've all grown to recognize as a huge hero of the Rebellion.

 

And that is just a handful of the bad guys who went good. If you need a list of good guys who went bad in order to believe that people can, over time, earn the trust of another faction by doing loyal work to them, I can give you one of those too.

 

The two faction system is a dinosaur created by poorly crafted games to play on the us-versus-them mentality of internet trolls and encourage a playerbase that wants to grief each other. That is why early WoW did not allow you to play characters on both sides. In Star Wars, essentially EVERYONE plays characters on both sides. If you have not completed all 8 stories, then you are lacking on some key achievements and heroic moment abilities. It is a gameplay experience that is designed to be all encompassing.

 

Instead of trying to shoehorn in two different stories as to why both sides want to run the exact same flashpoint, you only have to make it once. Players decide what they want to do, based on the place they want to have in the galaxy. If you want to be an Imperial, then kill Republic stuff and do Imperial quests. If you want to be Republic, then kill Imperials and do Republic quests. If you want to be a smuggler, or a bounty hunter, or a crime lord, or any other number of essentially unaligned roles, then pick and choose who you want to tick off and who you want to keep happy, and walk the line.

 

But you cannot convince me that Star Wars, the biggest faction hopping franchise in all film and print, is not an environment where characters should be allowed to fall or redeem based on their actions. The faction system is both dumb and ridiculously inappropriate.

[drug_cartel]

How would that work? Should they respawn a few minutes after you kill them? Should they become premanently phased out for you but present for everyone else? Should they stay dead for everyone with the game world empty of NPCs a week after launch? Who would kill you on sight if there were no Troopers left alive? How do you create a quest narrative in such conditions? If its phased how do you group up and complete content with someone who's killed different NPCs than you?

 

Pretty much the same way that Flashpoints and World Spawns currently work. Things that get killed eventually respawn, and instanced content resets each new time you enter.

 

As for how the quest lines work, it was a system that was already handled back in Everquest in the 90s. Choose an NPC, such as General Garza for example.

 

- If your current "Republic Military" faction is less than 0, you are 'Kill On Sight'. In order to even get to Garza's office, you would be walking through the exact same building, with all those patrolling Republic Trooper guards all around, and because your "Republic Military" faction is less than 0, each and every one of them would be aggressive to you. If you successfully kill your way through them all and storm her office, it will be no shock that the Garza you find is one that wants to fight you.

 

- If your current "Republic Military" faction is between 1 and [arbitrary number], you are 'Indifferent'. Guards don't kill you, because you are not an openly wanted enemy. You can walk right through the base. But if you come face to face with Garza, and you've not really done much for the "Republic Military" faction and haven't earned that higher ranking, then she will not be giving you those important and prestigious missions. It doesn't matter if you're level 1 or level 70, if your 'Republic Military' faction is low, then in her eyes you're a civilian, or maybe some low grade Private, and that's not who she's sending after General Rakton.

 

- But if your current "Republic Military" faction is greater than X [arbitrary number], then she begins to treat you Amicably, Friendly, Allied, etc. And with these higher tiers of reputation, you would open the door to more important quests, better rewards, etc.

 

It's honestly not that hard. You attach a positive rep hit for Group A, and a negative rep hit for Group B, onto every single NPC you kill and mission you do. Everything you do earns trust with somebody, while also ticking off somebody else. And it's not just Republic and Empire who have factions, you can include it for things like different Hutt Cartels, Mandalorian Tribes, Resistance Groups, Jedi Temples, etc. You start to see more unique stories take shape because if you can actually be an Imperial Agent who faithfully serves the Empire as a government, but has an intense hatred of the Sith and their constant self-sabotage based on their Dark Counsel politics, so you can be welcome on Imperial Fleet (at least outside of the Sith quarter of the ship), but Kill On Sight on Drommand Kaas for the constant killing of Sith Lords who are covertly working against the Empire.

 

You can be a Jedi who the Republic Military does not trust, because of your non-violence ways and refusal to conscript into the military. You can be a Bounty Hunter who is regarded as a wanted murderer on both the Republic AND Imperial Fleet, but is regaled as a hero on Hutta as the most celebrated and effective Bounty Hunter at taking down any target. Instead of just two factions, you have dozens, and they are constantly in flux, based on what you actually are doing. Every decision starts to have weight, and your story can become truly unique.

[Khelekin]

Im asking specifically about handling the 'all NPCs are killable' part. What if I spawn camp a quest giver? Wont that screw up content for everyone else?

[drug_cartel]

Im asking specifically about handling the 'all NPCs are killable' part. What if I spawn camp a quest giver? Wont that screw up content for everyone else?

 

Most major quest givers in the game (Garza, Darmas, Baras, Zash, etc) only exist inside of instanced content. It's that way for basically all of the main story quest givers. So we run through the same Galactic Senate building, but when it comes to Garza's office, I'm in there talking while you're in there fighting. Essentially, it's a non-issue.

 

For the handful of open world area quest-givers, the 'side-quest' guys essentially, if you want to spawn camp them, I'd say go for it. They just keep respawning like everything else. It's not really any different than having to wait for 30 seconds for one of the million "Destroy the Rocket Turrent" style missions to respawn the destroyed objective back into the interactable one so that you can progress.

[LordFell]

You mean like... Lord Scourge? A Sith Lord in the game already who can literally go and chill on Coruscant or visit a Jedi Temple.

...well, Lord Scourge is an apostate. That means that, while sure, he can hang out on Coruscant and visit the Jedi Temple... he can NO LONGER hang out on Dromund Kaas.

 

oh... funny thing as well. Virtually every character you cite who goes rogue and joins the other side... CAN'T GO HOME. Sure, Han Solo is rumoured to have Imperial roots (I always thought he was a former officer, in fact I thought Director Krennic looked a LOT like Harrison Ford, and that they should tie that in some how) but he turned Rebel, and would NOT be welcome in Imperial Space.

 

To be honest, the two-faction system so many online games use might seem tired or trite, but it's a standby because it serves so much purpose. Two Teams are going to PvP in this battleground... for what reason? How do you fight "for your side" if there isn't a "their side" to fight against?

[Rogan_Lysis]

All I want to do it be able to hunt Jedi again like a proper Bounty Hunter.

[Nozybidajj]

No. No "next Star Wars MMO". This should be THE Star Wars MMO. This game should be updated, developed and become successful once more. Nothing new. Nothing shiny. THIS should be the Star Wars MMO.

 

I agree, though some of the OP's points could be taken into consideration for improvements. TOR isn't a bad game, it just needs a proper development budget to let them fix the problems with the game. I played the game at release and left soon after and coming back a few weeks ago is the first I've touched the game since. It amazes me how few problems the game had at launch have actually been addressed. I assume it comes down to EA just pulling all the dev budget after the rocky start and making the game sustain itself off Cartel Market profits.

 

Its a shame, the game has potential but without proper backing it will never be realized. If EA funded a "rebuild" where the game could be fixed up properly and have a second "launch" with an updated game I think TOR could still become a money maker for them without need of relying on a cash shop.

 

This is EA though, so of course that won't happen. Nice to dream though.

[Omecrion]

Hope im not late to the party. Personally, many of the systems and ideas presented are fantastic sounding. Many of which reminded me of a simple thought collection project i started a few years ago when SWTOR started slipping into being a more single player focused game(looking at you Alliance flashpoints/SoR). Now granted, what ive worked up is quite frankly: a)mainly just thoughts and ideas and b) very much an early, if not pre starting development stage of concept, but if anyone is interested in looking it over here is the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X9c1mYF7a-_HnqSDdRMB2xaEctDjwbCXxo2yzCvPIu4/edit?usp=sharing. For the record, i approached this from the perspective of it being in the original cannon, so there was no thought of it being set in the new cannon. While i made this just for fun and as a way to dream, the few people that i showed it too stated that there is promise. "Will it ever be used?", I highly doubt it, but its just a neat little fun exercise to dream about what could be. Also, i turned comments on so be free to nit-pick to your hearts content.

[drug_cartel]

...well, Lord Scourge is an apostate. That means that, while sure, he can hang out on Coruscant and visit the Jedi Temple... he can NO LONGER hang out on Dromund Kaas.

 

oh... funny thing as well. Virtually every character you cite who goes rogue and joins the other side... CAN'T GO HOME. Sure, Han Solo is rumoured to have Imperial roots (I always thought he was a former officer, in fact I thought Director Krennic looked a LOT like Harrison Ford, and that they should tie that in some how) but he turned Rebel, and would NOT be welcome in Imperial Space.

 

Exactly! That is how a faction system is supposed to work! If you do work for one side, you increase in faction with them, and DECREASE with their opposition. If a Sith wants to faction up with the Jedi, unsurprisingly the Sith will hate them. The Sith will probably reject them far more quickly than the Jedi will accept them, and they'll have to even deal with the transition period of being the whole 'man without a country' thing.

 

A real, dynamic faction system is not anything like their current, terrible "Reputation" system. It's not just earning points with absolutely no negative impact, so that you can be allied everywhere. Factions are opposed, and building one will damage another.

 

Supporting one Hutt might damage your reputation with his Hutt enemies. Supporting the Jedi will cause animosity from the Sith. Supporting the Empire will invite the wrath of the Republic Military. A dynamic faction system does not mean that everybody is allies everywhere. It means that everybody has the choice of what they want to do, and everybody lives with the consequences of that choice.

 

It also means that the game can have dozens of different groups that you can be allied or enemies with, from the Separatists on Ord Mantell to the Mandalorians to the Hutts to the Sand People. It might be something as simple as helping the Sand People get water results in Sand People ambushing Jawas, so helping Sand People makes the Jawas aggressive towards you. But helping the Jawas causes the Tuskan Raiders to be more aggressive towards you. There would be choices and options with consequences at every step of the way.

 

It worked perfectly in the original Everquest, but ever since WoW, the "two rigid teams" system has just been a result of lazy programming. PvP is only an excuse. It could work just as well with a dynamic faction system. Huttball, for example, would separate players not by Republic and Empire, but by two rival Hutt factions, and whatever side you're choosing to work with in the game's story would be the PvP team you get assigned. If Broga is hiring both Imperials and Rebels, and you're working for Broga playing Huttball, you're going to have some of both on your team because Broga doesn't care: Broga brings on whoever works for Broga.

 

A dynamic faction system is not that hard. It comes down to a couple of simple programming tags on each mission and enemy. And it vastly improves gameplay experience by allowing you to do what you want within the world, and shape a life for your character that is truly unique. You can actually become the Republic Trooper that the Jedi don't trust because he's too violent and bloodthirsty. Or the powerful Sith Lord who is actually exiled from the Empire due to acts of treason, from sacrificing the Empire's interests for personal gain. You can be loved or hated by any group, based on the choices that you make, so every decision of what you do actually has meaning and purpose.