How to improve Ilum: A Constructive Criticism with Solutions

[MetalT]

I wanted to expand upon a reply that I made to another Ilum thread and hop that this thread might be a constructive way to make suggestions for improving ilum:

 

 

The Problem(s) with Ilum itself:

 

 

Ilum itself is a great idea but I honestly feel like it is poorly implemented in its current form. As it stands there is nothing at stake in Ilum. There is no reward (other than a valor buff) to controlling all the nodes in Ilum so there is really no incentive to "win" or to fight to maintain control of a node. the Warzone buff that you get from Ilum is nice but the problem is that it requires you to take a node in order to get it. If you arrive in Ilum and your faction controls all the nodes you have to let the opposing faction take something just so that you can take it back to get the buff.

 

Secondly, since it is completely open, there is the issue of faction imbalance. If there were an incentive to actually hold all of the nodes, the minority faction would have a very hard time trying to retake a node. Without something to aid the minority faction, the majority could theoretically control Ilum indefinitely.

 

Third, Ilum is way too big. Even if both factions had over 100 people fighting it is still too big. When I go to Ilum (for whatever reason) I spend about 95% of my time there traveling between nodes and the other 5% actually doing the objectives. The current size of Ilum is simply not conducive to world pvp. It needs to be smaller so that people can actually respond to attacks on nodes and so that if a node is being attacked it doesn't take 4 minutes just to get there and respond. As far as the overall feel is concerned, it does not feel like an open world warzone, but rather a huge wasteland with 2 bases and 3 small pockets of fighting in it. I get that the size is supposed to make it feel epic but it actually does the opposite.

 

Lastly, mercenary commendations are nonexistent in Ilum. This is not so much a problem with Ilum as it is with the PVP rewards system as a whole. The whole point of mercenary commendations is to be a reward for participating in world pvp and since pvp rewards require them you are supposed to participate in world pvp to get them. Unless I am mistaken the only real source of mercenary commendations is from lockboxes in Outlaw's den. For Merenary commendations to be a meaningful reward they need to be added to Ilum and to more places in world pvp as a whole. As it stands now converting them from warzone commendations is the only real way of obtaining them and that sort of defeats the whole purpose of having them in the first place.

 

 

The Problem with Dailies/Weeklies in Ilum:

 

 

The other problem is the daily/weekly quests. The dailies require you to help the war effort by converting a node in Ilum. If your faction currently controls every node on the map then you have no way of completing your daily/weekly unless you intentionally let the other faction convert the nodes just so that you can convert them back for credit.

Since there is no daily/weekly that asks you to actually kill members of the opposing faction it is actually counter productive to kill the opposing faction in order to complete the quest.

 

 

 

Ideas for a Solution:

 

 

1. Give us an incentive to defend nodes.

This can be achieved by rewarding people with mercenary commendations and bonus valor for killing players of the opposing faction near a node that your faction controls. Bonus commendations and valor are awarded for kills when you control all the nodes in the zone. Killing a player at a node that your faction controls will also give the warzone valor/commendation buff that we currently have for converting a node.

 

2. Give us an incentive to control all the nodes.

Controlling all the nodes could possibly award bonus valor/commendations for killing enemy players as mentioned above. For example: killing an enemy player near a node you control awards 50 valor and 10 mercenary commendations; Killing the same player while you control all the nodes would award 70 valor and 15 mercenary commendations.

 

3. Add commendations/valor to all kills regardless of proximity to a node.

To prevent people from only attacking the enemy if they are near a node, allow people to earn valor/commendations for kills that are away from a node, though obviously less than you would earn if they were near one.

 

4. Add in additional incentive to participate in the battle.

Make winning a warzone give a buff similar to the one that you get from converting a node in Ilum but for world pvp.

 

5. Reduce the overall size of Ilum.

I elaborated on the reasons for this in the problems section, but Ilum will be much more exciting if people are spending more time PVPing than riding their speeders.

 

6. Add in measures to prevent the dominating faction from always holding Ilum.

It has become clear that there are some major faction imbalances on some servers. This creates a problem due to the open nature of Ilum. In order to prevent indefinite control of Ilum I think that there needs to be measures put in to place to prevent this. A good way of achieveing this would be to give attackers a stacking buff that lasts through death each time they kill an enemy near a node that is under enemy control. This buff would reduce the cast time of the rocket launcher that is needed to take down walkers. Once a node has been taken the buff is lost. This allows attackers to be able to take a node through persistence.

 

7. Use the Daily/Weekly quests to promote PVP.

We cannot simply just make the quests require you to kill other players otherwise it makes the objectives less valuable, so the current quests that we have need to stay. But I think we should have an additional daily/weekly that requires you to kill other players near nodes that you control. This would give us 2 dailies that would include: Convert 5 Nodes, as well as Kill 10(or some other number) players near a node that you control. Since you have two quests that require conflicting objectives you will create a constant war over the objectives which I feel is probably what the devs intended. You have the people trying to complete the "convert the nodes" quest fighting against the people that are trying to complete the "kill X players" quest. The rewards for each quest would need to be reduced to balance out what we currently get from completing one quest.

 

 

In Summary:

 

 

I feel like all of these changes would help to bring Ilum in line with the vision that the devs originally had and could make Ilum a much loved open world warzone.

Edited December 30, 2011 by MetalT

[MetalT]

no one has anything to add?

[anedorivan]

You have all my ideas already so I will just post to say I support this thread.

[ShenLong]

How I see it is the description of Ilum is that it is a primary source of lightsaber crystals. So, winner should be able to go hunting for them in the caves. I don't mean archaeological digs either for artificing crafting mats. I mean actually acquiring a crystal.

 

Hell maybe a personalized crystal.

[Nostredamus]

Excellent thread. I agree with most of your points. I am not sure if that alone is enough to deal with the faction imbalance though. It is always a huge problem in these games and I kind of feel that only a combination of mechanics can overcome the problem. Any number of these ideas may help.

 

1. A buff to in hp and endurance to the under populated faction.

2. NPCs to help defend nodes for the under populated faction.

3. The longer 1 faction holds a node the more reward the opposing faction will get for taking the node.

4. The longer a faction holds a node the easier it becomes for the other faction to take the node.

5. Rewards scale in proportion to how populated the victor was. i.e. the more populated the less rewards, the less populated the more rewards. Hopefully this will incentive Sith to reroll Republic alts on the same server.

[warkat]

Add cool mounts/maybe some PvE gear to get the pves out there something multicolored lightsaber crystal something.

[calebWilliams]

signed. I see too many kids trading capture points and it makes me lose faith for compelling gigantic war brawls.

[DarthVirgil]

Bump! A very thorough critique! Definitely worth a read!

[Rayvonuk]

I have always been a firm believer that if a game is good then no incentives are needed.

However, there is not much pvp going down here, i think it will improve when more people reach max level, but if there is no improvement in the near future then i think these ideas may work well.

[Wythern]

*edit*

nm didnt read whole thing

Edited December 31, 2011 by Wythern

[Jooji]

Great post OP.

[Sheneria]

reduce the size of the map? so killing an enemy is even more meaningless since hes back in 10 sec flat .

 

really terrible idea

[GeLopez]

Making Ilum smaller would be a horrible idea.

 

Good ideas otherwise.

[Asomak]

Excellent thread. I agree with most of your points. I am not sure if that alone is enough to deal with the faction imbalance though. It is always a huge problem in these games and I kind of feel that only a combination of mechanics can overcome the problem. Any number of these ideas may help.

 

1. A buff to in hp and endurance to the under populated faction.

2. NPCs to help defend nodes for the under populated faction.

3. The longer 1 faction holds a node the more reward the opposing faction will get for taking the node.

4. The longer a faction holds a node the easier it becomes for the other faction to take the node.

5. Rewards scale in proportion to how populated the victor was. i.e. the more populated the less rewards, the less populated the more rewards. Hopefully this will incentive Sith to reroll Republic alts on the same server.

 

 

 

Bolded ideas no way. Tenacity was and still is a dumb idea Stop trying to bring idiot WOW ideas into other games.

 

 

If the other side is to lazy to get a force together they don't deserve anything end of story.

[MetalT]

reduce the size of the map? so killing an enemy is even more meaningless since hes back in 10 sec flat .

 

really terrible idea

 

I am not saying to make it tiny, I am saying it needs to be smaller than it is because it is too big right now. The current size just makes it a pain to get from node to node. Also ... your way over exaggerating here...even if you die at your own base it would take you longer than 10 seconds to get back to your killer, much less central assault.

[Andylicious]

+1 for thread Edited December 31, 2011 by Andylicious

[Tamernator]

Again a "give this , give that, reward this reward that" thread. In your mind, all of you here are experts in Game design.

Earlier or later all will get enought of gear and nobody will need to capture illum. Its no solution unless you give the best gear from World Bosses or Raids, and give a possibility to go to that raid only to tose who win Illum. there is no way to do PVP for PVP gear, becuz people will be rich in no time. Its too easy to get PVP gear through PVP.

Edited December 31, 2011 by Tamernator

[WLpride]

All good suggestions by the OP.

 

The thing that 'sold' me was hearing about the "Bases" on Ilum that could be take/raided. I think that doesn't really happen except for random fighting taking place in the area?

 

I would like to see that as well, fighting right at each factions Bases on Ilum or anywhere else.

[FtenEQ]

Now possibly we might want to wait a few weeks until the majority of the playerbase is able to compete in Ilium.

 

However I can definitely see your standpoint and while only 15% of the population is level 50 you might need to get from node to node quite a bit. However when we have 50% of the population level 50 we may not have to go from node to node as much in the gameplay?

 

Though I could be completely off of course. I appreciate the great write-up and look forward to competing in there once I can level more. Just wanted to add my food for thought.

[Drato]

+1 I support this thread

[Bullsith]

Seeing how dull illum is, I think it needs a total overhaul.

[VonFoxFire]

Ilum is dismal by any measure it was nothing like the video. Instead of an active battle ground it's more like a carnival theme park. The walker just stand there and do nothing they don't even shoot at you. There's nothing for miles around other than snow and the only objective is to run around clicking things. Bioware needs to realize people don't want a cheap amusement park with clickies they want to experience battles like Hoth and Endor in all their glory.

[Orrick]

Bioware please fix Illum this is heartbreaking.. it's one of the main reasons I've looked forward to your game. Do something!

[MetalT]

Again a "give this , give that, reward this reward that" thread. In your mind, all of you here are experts in Game design.

Earlier or later all will get enought of gear and nobody will need to capture illum. Its no solution unless you give the best gear from World Bosses or Raids, and give a possibility to go to that raid only to tose who win Illum. there is no way to do PVP for PVP gear, becuz people will be rich in no time. Its too easy to get PVP gear through PVP.

 

Just because I don't work for bioware does not mean that I and anyone else that has participated in Ilum cannot spot how poorly designed it currently is. I don't have to be an auto mechanic to know that a car with no engine cannot run.

 

People will do Ilum if it is fun and conducive to PVP.

[DarthNemis]

I disagree with what you say about the size of illum. I think it should become something like dota with waves of npcs that we need to helop push