Bonus Mission 'Warning', Cutscene 'Warnings' and Lost Loot Mail

[Jazulfi]

Hi there

 

I'm a returning player so I'm still finding my feet story-wise, and playing a lot of content for the first time, even though it's probably a few years old.

 

A couple of things are starting to get to me. For one, the game doesn't signal when Bonus Missions will close down because the Main Mission they are attached to ends. This has happened to me a few times now, and because the game isn't consistent with how Bonus Missions work, sometimes they carry over, sometimes they don't. I would really love a tooltip or message - or something - just to warn me that the Bonus Mission currently in my list will be lost if I complete the relevant Main Mission.

 

The game also lacks consistency when it comes to what cutscenes are going to do. Sometimes you can escape out of one, and the game will plant you exactly where you were, and you just need to click on the NPC offering you the next stage. However, sometimes it pushes you forwards in the story and you miss looting or exploring in the area you're currently in. This has happened to me a couple of times - just now in Nathema Conspiracy, I lost both caches of end boss loot because I couldn't find the loot hit box, and thought I needed to click on Theron in order to make the loot available. Sadly, the game kicked me out of the FP, and I lost the loot. I realise a warning message is a bit jarring. The pop-up messages you get about romances are AWFUL! Talk about killing the mood and immersion.! So I understand if people aren't keen on this idea, but it would be nice to have something - a message in chat or at the side of the screen. I'm open to ideas.

 

And finally, as a result of the above and other confusion in the game, I've missed quite a few loot caches. I'm probably asking the impossible, but I'd love it if loot we've lost, missed or whatever, could be sent to us via the in game mail. Another MMO, which shall remain nameless, does this, but I realise SWTOR is not built in the same way, and so I'm very probably asking too much.

 

Apologies for the long post.

 

Many thanks. o/

[SteveTheCynic]

A couple of things are starting to get to me. For one, the game doesn't signal when Bonus Missions will close down because the Main Mission they are attached to ends. This has happened to me a few times now, and because the game isn't consistent with how Bonus Missions work, sometimes they carry over, sometimes they don't. I would really love a tooltip or message - or something - just to warn me that the Bonus Mission currently in my list will be lost if I complete the relevant Main Mission.

It hasn't *ever* warned about this, and it *is* consistent:

* A bonus mission indented under the main mission and in slightly smaller type will drop off if you finish the main mission.

* A bonus mission that is in normal-sized text and not indented will stick around. (They are also usually of the "turn in the doodad you looted at the drop box" type.)

 

That is, you can predict what will happen from their appearance on the on-screen mission log.

The game also lacks consistency when it comes to what cutscenes are going to do. Sometimes you can escape out of one, and the game will plant you exactly where you were, and you just need to click on the NPC offering you the next stage. However, sometimes it pushes you forwards in the story and you miss looting or exploring in the area you're currently in.

Close, but not quite. The ones that look like they push you forward *don't* do that. Instead, you go forward normally and the cutscene is triggered by your arrival in the new area.

 

And yes, it would be nice if they were more consistent about this.

This has happened to me a couple of times - just now in Nathema Conspiracy, I lost both caches of end boss loot because I couldn't find the loot hit box, and thought I needed to click on Theron in order to make the loot available. Sadly, the game kicked me out of the FP, and I lost the loot.

In that particular case, the loot for Zildrog itself is up top, and yeah, it's a bit of a (...) to reach. (Jump up on the centre console.)

I realise a warning message is a bit jarring. The pop-up messages you get about romances are AWFUL! Talk about killing the mood and immersion.! So I understand if people aren't keen on this idea, but it would be nice to have something - a message in chat or at the side of the screen. I'm open to ideas.

Unfortunately, the pop-up is asking you a question, so a message in chat wouldn't be a good replacement.

And finally, as a result of the above and other confusion in the game, I've missed quite a few loot caches. I'm probably asking the impossible, but I'd love it if loot we've lost, missed or whatever, could be sent to us via the in game mail. Another MMO, which shall remain nameless, does this, but I realise SWTOR is not built in the same way, and so I'm very probably asking too much./

It's a good idea, since it would also resolve a different problem, where the boss area isn't reachable from the dead-player respawn point. It's not problem-free because of loot rolls, but it's a good idea all the same.

[Jazulfi]

It hasn't *ever* warned about this, and it *is* consistent:

* A bonus mission indented under the main mission and in slightly smaller type will drop off if you finish the main mission.

* A bonus mission that is in normal-sized text and not indented will stick around. (They are also usually of the "turn in the doodad you looted at the drop box" type.)

 

That is, you can predict what will happen from their appearance on the on-screen mission log.

 

I was competely unaware of this distinction - it's not made *that* obvious, I don't think? I bet I'm not the only person who hadn't noticed the difference in text, and I bet new players aren't made aware of it at any point. I'll obviously be on the look out now but I think it could be explained / telegraphed more clearly.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated.

[Tofu_Shark]

There are nothing long with long posts, OP, as long as they are easy to read, which means use of paragraphs, line breaks, bullets, numbering, etc., where needed. Not everything can be explained in 250 characters.

 

 

 

I didn't know about this either. I did learn over time that the turn-in ones usually stuck around even after the main mission was completed, but I always got up to the turn-in part before finishing as a precaution.

 

A couple of things are starting to get to me. For one, the game doesn't signal when Bonus Missions will close down because the Main Mission they are attached to ends. This has happened to me a few times now, and because the game isn't consistent with how Bonus Missions work, sometimes they carry over, sometimes they don't. I would really love a tooltip or message - or something - just to warn me that the Bonus Mission currently in my list will be lost if I complete the relevant Main Mission.

It hasn't *ever* warned about this, and it *is* consistent:

* A bonus mission indented under the main mission and in slightly smaller type will drop off if you finish the main mission.

* A bonus mission that is in normal-sized text and not indented will stick around. (They are also usually of the "turn in the doodad you looted at the drop box" type.)

 

That is, you can predict what will happen from their appearance on the on-screen mission log.

 

The game also lacks consistency when it comes to what cutscenes are going to do. Sometimes you can escape out of one, and the game will plant you exactly where you were, and you just need to click on the NPC offering you the next stage. However, sometimes it pushes you forwards in the story and you miss looting or exploring in the area you're currently in.

Close, but not quite. The ones that look like they push you forward *don't* do that. Instead, you go forward normally and the cutscene is triggered by your arrival in the new area.

 

And yes, it would be nice if they were more consistent about this.

 

This has happened to me a couple of times - just now in Nathema Conspiracy, I lost both caches of end boss loot because I couldn't find the loot hit box, and thought I needed to click on Theron in order to make the loot available. Sadly, the game kicked me out of the FP, and I lost the loot.

In that particular case, the loot for Zildrog itself is up top, and yeah, it's a bit of a (...) to reach. (Jump up on the centre console.)

I realise a warning message is a bit jarring. The pop-up messages you get about romances are AWFUL! Talk about killing the mood and immersion.! So I understand if people aren't keen on this idea, but it would be nice to have something - a message in chat or at the side of the screen. I'm open to ideas.

Unfortunately, the pop-up is asking you a question, so a message in chat wouldn't be a good replacement.

 

And finally, as a result of the above and other confusion in the game, I've missed quite a few loot caches. I'm probably asking the impossible, but I'd love it if loot we've lost, missed or whatever, could be sent to us via the in game mail. Another MMO, which shall remain nameless, does this, but I realise SWTOR is not built in the same way, and so I'm very probably asking too much.

It's a good idea, since it would also resolve a different problem, where the boss area isn't reachable from the dead-player respawn point. It's not problem-free because of loot rolls, but it's a good idea all the same.

No, I think OP's talking about certain cutscenes, which when aborted with ESC, don't send you back to the point prior to the cutscene to talk to the NPC again. They move you forward as if you Spacebarred through it or actually watched it to the end. The best example of this is the starting cutscene of RotHC. If you abort it, that's it, you can't go back, which really sucks for people recording their playthrough or screenshotters. There are a few others, most of them don't have any dialogue.

 

The pop up is quite immersion breaking. They could've put it in the same place as the conversation dialogue text and used the response wheel. That would've been a much more elegant presentation, but then you'd have people complaining it wasn't obvious enough. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

 

For the spawning problem, they could also set a new spawn point once the boss has been defeated. Then you could still have these "locked-in" fights.

[hof_th]

It hasn't *ever* warned about this, and it *is* consistent:

* A bonus mission indented under the main mission and in slightly smaller type will drop off if you finish the main mission.

* A bonus mission that is in normal-sized text and not indented will stick around. (They are also usually of the "turn in the doodad you looted at the drop box" type.)

 

That is, you can predict what will happen from their appearance on the on-screen mission log.

 

There is a rare 3rd posibility where the 1st Type of Bonus Mission gets removed if you advance the main Mission. For example at the Face Merchants Heroic Mission on Coruscant the "Kill 15 dudes" Bonus gets removed once you advance the main mission from "Access the Clinic" to "Destroy 4 Surgery Droids".

[SteveTheCynic]

No, I think OP's talking about certain cutscenes, which when aborted with ESC, don't send you back to the point prior to the cutscene to talk to the NPC again. They move you forward as if you Spacebarred through it or actually watched it to the end. The best example of this is the starting cutscene of RotHC. If you abort it, that's it, you can't go back, which really sucks for people recording their playthrough or screenshotters. There are a few others, most of them don't have any dialogue.

Yes, and I was talking about exactly those cutscenes. You know, where you click on a door and you see a cutscene and you're in a new area afterwards (presumably the other side of the door). I believe that what happens is that you are pushed through the door by clicking on it, and what triggers the cutscene is your arrival rather than the click on the door. If you Esc out of the scene, you are still on the "after" side of the door, so you can't arrive again to trigger the cutscene.

 

And yes, they should move the cutscene to be triggered by the door rather than by arriving on the other side of it (so that when the scene is up on your screen, you are still on the "near" side of the door), or they should put a blue clicky on the far side that allows you to re-trigger the cutscene. (The second option is probably easier to do, but the first also covers cases where you bounce straight into a fight, arriving already in-combat, as you exit from the cutscene.)

[Tofu_Shark]

Yes, and I was talking about exactly those cutscenes. You know, where you click on a door and you see a cutscene and you're in a new area afterwards (presumably the other side of the door). I believe that what happens is that you are pushed through the door by clicking on it, and what triggers the cutscene is your arrival rather than the click on the door. If you Esc out of the scene, you are still on the "after" side of the door, so you can't arrive again to trigger the cutscene.

 

And yes, they should move the cutscene to be triggered by the door rather than by arriving on the other side of it (so that when the scene is up on your screen, you are still on the "near" side of the door), or they should put a blue clicky on the far side that allows you to re-trigger the cutscene. (The second option is probably easier to do, but the first also covers cases where you bounce straight into a fight, arriving already in-combat, as you exit from the cutscene.)

OK, it wasn't clear that's what you meant.

 

The other option is to have you talk to an NPC like most fights start or interact with an object if there is no NPC to talk to. Even if there's no dialogue, clicking on an NPC should work and is pretty straightforward.

[JediQuaker]

By now, you should be aware that most 'bonuses' need to be completed before the main mission objective is reached.

Although there are exceptions, this can suffice as a general rule. You no longer need to be warned. 🙂

[DarkTergon]

By now, you should be aware that most 'bonuses' need to be completed before the main mission objective is reached.

Although there are exceptions, this can suffice as a general rule. You no longer need to be warned. 🙂

 

As I said, it's a pain in the backside with some heroics, when you have to pick up stuff, which completes the heroic, but you haven't killed x amount. Most of the time, I remember not to loot, but there are times, I do it automatically, and then it's NSFW comments...lol

[SteveTheCynic]

The other option is to have you talk to an NPC like most fights start or interact with an object if there is no NPC to talk to. Even if there's no dialogue, clicking on an NPC should work and is pretty straightforward.

Agreed. That's what I meant by "put a blue clicky", by the way.