Dynamic Encounters PTS Feedback

[lordoftransform]

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters? (1)
• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime? (2)
• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives? (3)
• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters? (4)
• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable? (5)
• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters? (6)
• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why? (7)
• What was your favorite Encounter and why? (8)
• What was your least favorite Encounter and why? (9)
• Please mention any bugs you encountered. (10)

1.) Locating Dynamic Encounters was simple. The only time I ever had even a slight issue was when the encounter took place under a cliff, and the map did not clearly show the elevation. But that is a minor inconvenience at worst.

2.) On Tatooine pubside, yes. For imperial Tatooine players, some objectives are very far north on the map, meaning these objectives were much more convenient for republic players to reach than imperials. For example, missions by the Geonosian encampment on Tatooine are a 3-5 minute drive for Imperial, even from the closest quick travel point. For both factions on Hoth, some encounters were tedious to drive to, but they had more to do with the actual structure of the map than the dynamic encounters themselves. This may be an excellent time to add new quick travel points to these maps, especially by the starship graveyard on Hoth.

3.) The amount of variety is serviceable, but there could be more variety. This could be an opportunity to revive previously abandoned content, such as the Queen of Sands on Tatooine or specific missions from the original Rakghoul event on Tatooine. 

4.) Some encounters were reasonable, and others were very tedious. There is one mission on Tatooine by a bunch of Gamorreans where your only objective is to click 13 items. In addition to the cast times being overly long, when someone in your group clicked on another item in the area, it did not count up progress for the whole group. The best encounters in terms of time were those where killing NPCs counted for the entire group, saving you time. Another mission that could take forever is one on Hoth, where you must go into an exhaustion zone and click ten flowers. While I applaud the creativity of the mission objective, it does not count for group members when you get one of the plants, and if you die, there is a long drive back. I also experienced other encounters where you have to loot an item, and everyone in your group has to get into a line and loot the same object to get credit. This was very tedious and significantly slowed us down. Even when playing solo, the respawn rate for clickable items is too slow, as when this goes live, everyone will be competing for the same 30-second to 1-minute respawning clickable items, creating gridlock.

5.) Refer to 2.

6.) Yes, but I find it odd that objective completion is marked by a percentage out of 100 rather than out of the raw number of objectives needed to be completed. While I am capable of fourth-grade math, I feel the old system of just giving the raw number is better.

7.) Yes.

8.) I enjoyed base defense missions. They do not feel too tedious to do, they're right by a quick travel point, and the NPCs are tuned correctly.

9.) All encounters that require clicking items that take over thirty seconds to respawn. This will be hell on live unless this is changed to a much faster respawn timer. 

10.) Sometimes, the walker would not count for some group members when doing base defense missions on imperial Tatooine. I am not sure how to replicate this bug.

***Also, many of these encounters overlap with heroic missions, which could inconvenience people trying to do heroics. Rapidly decreasing NPC and object respawn times would remedy this situation, as otherwise, these encounters will be inconvenient for people trying to do separate missions.

[RadarOMalley]

Possibly pertinent contextual information: I've completed 25 Dynamic Encounters for each faction, on each planet, so 100 DEs. Hope this is helpful and happy to answer any additional or follow-up questions if needed. 

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?
  • Yes, very easy. 

• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?
  • For the most part. I would look at the larger world map to determine where there were multiple ongoing encounters in a specific area and try to chain them together when possible. 

• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?
  • I was satisfied with the variety. 

• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?
  • Most of the time. It was largely dependent on the number of other players working on an encounter at the same time. Sometimes the respawn time for objectives was longer than on others it seemed and people were fighting over those nodes. For example, I think it was on Dust to Dust, the Illegal Spice Stockpiles took a bit to respawn. 

• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?
  • Yes.

• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?
  • Most of the time. On some it was not intuitive and it took awhile for me to find the items needed. Once I figured it out I was able to knock it out, but those few were frustrating. One that was driving me nuts was one in the Hoth Starship Graveyard area where you and to take control of a mouse droid. I went around that area with a fine tooth comb trying to find the droid and couldn't find it. Then finally I found it and the consoles didn't match up to the required action description. I finally gave up on that in frustration and not wanting to waste time. 

• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?
  • In general, yes. 

• What was your favorite Encounter and why?
  • I liked Tawn Fawn Fun and Wire You So Cute missions. It seemed pretty simple just plain cute. The tawn fawns just enjoyed sliding on the ice. And the Wire mission at the base encouraged adopting at risk cats, which I am a proponent of. 

• What was your least favorite Encounter and why?
  • The Hoth Starship Graveyard mission I described above. Not intuitive and when you have limited time, you gotta make choices. I wouldn't do that one again unless there was a specific achievement for completing it. 
  • It also annoyed me when there'd be a long respawn on a specific boss. The V'tash Kolk mission for instance--a few of us were just standing around waiting for the guy to respawn and it seemed like a long time. In the open world, 3-5 minutes on a respawn isn't alot, but when the DEs are already timed, those minutes count.

• Please mention any bugs you encountered.
  • On Hoth, there were a few points where I'd run into an Imperial Walker in the open, along a path. I figure it was a remnant of the base attack DE, but that DE wasn't active at the time. 
  • Not a bug but I'd caution you to beware of multiple things spawning in the same area as a DE. For example, the Spent Fuel mission is near where a DvL boss spawns some weeks (and I assume there'll be overlap given the extended season). Separately, for the Top Shelf Ice mission, that's the same area where the special mission Gree droids spawn. It just adds variables that can make for a less than ideal experience. 
  • On Hoth, at certain points I would hear random invisible NPCs making statements about something seemingly going on in the area. It always seemed out of place though. 
  • On Hoth, I was getting the mission White Maw Assault at Outpost Zerek. I would enter the DE mission area, get the mission, but no mission goals would populate. 
  • On Hoth, for the Ice Fishing mission, the fish wouldn't auto-pick up. I had to physically click on the Take All button for it to count. There were some where the seeker droid would indicate green and bring me something, but it would just auto-accept and not count. Finally, if I had a Take All button option and moved, the item would disappear. 
  • Not a bug per se, but for the Snow Capped Delicacies mission, I was initially confused and thought I had entered an exhaustion zone and took me a minute to figure out I was just building stacks and not in danger of being killed quickly for going off map.
  • On Hoth, for the Scout's Honor mission, there was a spy I encountered that I could not click on to set free. 
  • For Hidden Chain Invasion, I would get to the last point to defeat the lieutenant and he/she would never spawn. This happened on the missions on both Hoth and Tatooine. On Tatooine, I got the sense from world chat that I was not alone in this. 
  • On Hoth, for Talz Order mission, the credit for killing Dootu Mu Bacha is only given to the first person to attack. I assisted on multiple spawns and never got credit. This seems to be incongruent with how credit for other similar missions are coded, where tagging it gives credit for the kill. 
  • For some missions, it seems like I'd start to accrue credit for kills when other people were in the area, but they'd sometimes reset randomly. For example, this happened on the Pirate Problem mission.
  • On Hoth, the Unnecessary Repairs mission, I could not figure out how to repair the damaged pressure regulators. I couldn't click anything. 
  • In multiple places, specifically noted on the Republic Attack mission at Outpost Rennar, I would enter the area and it would have me defeat the Republic Walker and not progress at all. In other similar missions, I'd enter the DE area and be told to defeat the walker, then it'd swap to kill imperials/republic troops, then defeat the walker again for progress. '
  • On Tatooine, I'll note that for the Gamorrean Taskmaster mission, the mission text says "Defeat the Gamorrean Taskmaster" and the NPC you need to kill is named Crunglor, which is fine and I'm a proponent of calling people by their name, but it's confusing from a clear mission objective perspective. 
  • On Tatooine, for the Scavengers Tale 3 mission, the clickable barrels don't seem to do anything, so it just becomes a slog to kill the boss. It took me almost 10 minutes to kill it solo. 
  • On Tatooine, on the Maintaining Order mission, there was only one outlaw I could walk up to where the action button would prop up properly. On the other 4 outlaws I found in the area, the action button would pop up when I was around 25-30m away from them, or at random points in the area, but not near enough for me to be able to progress the mission in a reasonable amount of time. 

[HobbesToo]

On 10/18/2024 at 10:15 AM, JackieKo said:

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?
• The Dynamic Encounters were easy to locate but difficult to understand what the icons are supposed to represent.
• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?
• The travel time was minimal for most Encounters.
• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?
• I would like to see more creativity with Encounters.
• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?
• I feel that the variety of Encounters, some are very quick and others take 5-7 minutes.
• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?
• It felt reasonable, there were only a few Encounters that had longer travel times.
• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?
• Yes it was clear what I need to do in each Encounter.
• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?
• Yes the Encounters were descriptive enough that I understood what to do.
• What was your favorite Encounter and why?
• I liked the fishing and mouse droid missions on Hoth so far, these missions break up the monotony of traveling to a place and killing x number of NPCs.
• What was your least favorite Encounter and why?
• The Hidden Chain Encounter I didn't like because it didn't work.
• Please mention any bugs you encountered.
• There was a mission on the Imperial side in Mos Ila where the player needs to intimidate a few people but the temporary icon keeps disappearing when getting close to the target NPCs.

The mission I had issue with in Mos Ila was "Maintaining Order" on the imperial side. I logged in today and now the mission seems to be working better since there are no other players around. 

Edited Monday at 06:44 PM by HobbesToo
Additional Information

[SeanGil]

i'm having a great time playing these new dynamic missions, ive been doing Hoth today.
i think the variety is fun, the fact that you can chose which one to go to is great so ppl who dont want to carry fauns up a hill will just go battle bosses (while i'll feed ice kittens and carry those sweet fauns!!! xD). its also a nice way to go around the map outside of the regular place and really explore and see everything, with a reason to walk to the end of the map not just to say hey ive been here cheers.

my thought during some missions were:
1. orletan treasure mission - the first attempt i didnt get the promt on the screen after buying those treasure seeker items, was very confusing there was no other explanation other then find the treasure and it was a bit frustrating that i had no idea what to do. on the second attempt (hours later) i got all the 5 i used one had a ice thing spawn search found nothing and im guessing the other guy that was actually pretty far from me used his, to spawn another one right next to me which at the time i still thought was due to my treasure seeker thing so i searched it and found the treasure with 4 more that i bought and no more reason to use them. im guessing the different type are as in every time just 1 type finds the treasure? anyway the third time i was doing this mission there were about 5 ppl around which made it a whole mess of stuff spawning and ppl searching and i barely could press "search" before someone else did, especially when it spawned a bit away from me, i expect the first few days on live server missions like this would have a lot of ppl around so maybe making the thing you spawn personal and not clickable by every one would be a good idea.

2. Sensor tower scan and repair mission - when i did this mission i was grouped with a friend, she was away for a min and i went on to do the mission. i scanned and fixed a tower she arrived at where i was when i was killing the mob that spawned after i fixed the tower (it was a wampa this time). the mission didnt end for me it updated to scan again, but upon arriving at the location to scan on the map i couldnt press the binoculars, my friend did and we both went on the fix another tower which then we both got the mission. not sure if i need to fix 1 tower or 2 to get the mission but its either wont let you scan a second time, or buggy in a group when person is not near you when you scan first time.

3. both White Maw Attack On Zerek Outpost / Hidden Chain Munitions Mission - those two are about the same idea, a group is attack and you need to stop them. so for the White Maw  the mission was stop them and optional was pick up fire grenade, which not me or anyone on the server at the time found. also we ended up killing adds including the commander that spawns as a full star tier mob for 6 mins until the timer ran out and nothing happened. on the Hidden Chain mission was to kill the lieutanant. there were munition boxes which were not clickable and in the mdl of the area was a beacon which was not clickable, we killed all mob groups 5-6 or 7 times and when nothing new happened we just left. also the ship that land there is walk-through-able, as in i went up the ramp and fell through the other side.
also about the white maw attack we had several ppl at different times asking if anyone got progress on that or if its bugged.
EDIT: White Maw Attack on Zerek i think this time i was the first there, i got a progress bar, got to 50% when another player arrived and a moment later i noticed my bar was gone. i don't know if its do to another playing arriving / another player killing mobs and instead of sharing progress bar (like with imperial attack on another outpost), it just disappearing or what other reason there was but it was gone and no way to complete.
---Hidden Chain  - i was thinking maybe the lieutanant is not there because someone already killed him and he doesnt respawn? anyway alot of ppl were asking about this mission as well.

i will at a later time answer the questions posted as well with a new reply for now i'll say - the Republic Gammorean mission on tattoine is so far from any quick travel i didnt even try to get there.



Thank you for giving us more content, im excited to do more ill check tatootine next https://content.invisioncic.com/l323375/emoticons/smile.png.c98a6243eee217ad3472860a506f0f80.png

[wursta]

So I did not get as many dynamic encounters in as I wanted to (hope I can still before PTS ends for it and lair boss starts) but here is my written feedback from the dozen or so missions on Hoth as a BH PT Impside:

 

Icetromper Incursion:

1. I noticed my attacks where not hitting.  Not a miss just not engaging?  No CD would start, and I was clearly in range being right next to the Icetrompers.  Not sure what was happening but it took a lot longer because I'd hit with only my AOE

 

2. So I love this idea and honestly love the feel of attackers attacking your base and random events happening that makes you feel more immersed.  Thank you for this type of content.  With that said, are these global missions?  I joined one and got credit for all the work they did (were not in a group together) but then Brother Grul I killed with someone else who got him down to ~50% and no credit.  A little confused on how these are laid out and supposed to be operated/engaged with (ie are they global missions or is this a bug and they supposed to be solo quests?) 

 

3. Tatoonine did not have the same icon that Hoth did to indicate a Dynamic Encounter.  See image attached.

 

4. I just noticed Shoulder cannons new animation.  Is this new to PTS or in game?  Either way, I like the change.

 

5. Mining Incident:

I personally liked the difficulty of this one.  But I could quickly see someone getting very frustrated with how slow you have to walk to find mines and not hit them as simple sprint walking is fast enough that as soon as you can see it your in range to click but also in range for it to blow up.  Maybe make is visible a bit sooner than when it is clickable?  Either way, I like that level of "slow down or die" but other players may not.

 

6. Under fire it took 20 minutes to try and figure out.  Still unsolved to me.  I killed the snipers, try to right click or talk to Imperial NPCs (they are not clickable to talk to), the entire 20 minutes it just said "Assist the Imperial Squad" and nothing changed no matter what I did or tried.  Eventual left and did Relic Race.

 

7. Speaking of Relic Race, it was difficult for me to see the relics from the ice.  Not colorblind and no colorblind setting on.  Just blue on blue action I could not tell what was an ice formation and what was a relic.

 

To more directly answer your questions @JackieKo, here we go:

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?
  • Extremely easy.  Was just like quests on the planet. From my limited XP, it was a typical SWTOR mission search.
• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?
  • Sort of.  Some were easy to make it from one to the other, some felt like I was going on a long hike.  Either way, traveling like that I think was more due to the fact I did not have all my old legacy buffs I was used to than it was the type of content.  But if you've heard it elsewhere, I definitely think adding more time to the encounters would help some.  Not sure how these will role out LIVE, but if I have 30 minutes to complete an encounter at the Starship graveyard, but then need to be on the other side of Dorn Base, I don't think I'll be able to complete as many as I'd like to (with my buffs or not).
• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?
  • I'd say so.  Some are fights, some involving activating, deactivating, etc.  I think there's some variety there to build upon later.
• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?
  • They were soloable so yes.
• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?
  • I'll defer to my little or no downtime answer as I believe you're asking the same question.  If I am not, please advise.
• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?
  • For 90% of them I ran, yes.  For "Under Fire", Relic Race, etc.  No.  I'll refer to my comments on 6. and 7.
• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?
  • Generally, yes.  Very straightforward.
• What was your favorite Encounter and why?
  • I forget what it was called but the sensor dish repair one.  Felt real.  Animals attacking an installation in their territory and you have to clear them out + repair the damage.  Felt very Hoth and Star Wars mini-moment.
  • Although I did not have a chance to play it, the attacking X (whatever your base is) looks like that WILL be my favorite to play live as it is something I had hoped and originally thought would be a part of the game.  It makes the war feel like a war.
• What was your least favorite Encounter and why?
  • Under fire as I could not complete it. 
  • The mission name slips my mind, but the blade droids activating to kill white maw in the starship graveyard was another.  Not because of the mission per se, but more because there was no warning time that I had one minute left.  I was so ingrained in the mission, I was killing the last guy and the timer expired, resetting the mission.  Also, not sure if this point is helpful, but when it reset I still had the droid I activated.  I tried reactivating another and it attacked me.  I had to right click the droid ability next to my buffs to get rid of him, and reactivate another droid before I could kill White Maw again.
  • Relic race as it was hard to see the relics and it took MUCH longer than I expected.
• Please mention any bugs you encountered.
  • Refer to my pints 1, 2, 3, and 6

 

This was my first time using the PTS but I have to say, I hope this feedback helps even a little bit.  Been playing since 2013 and have never really made the time to do much in regards to PTS but SWTORCentral made a video recently that resonated with me.  I can complain or be part of the solution and offer feedback.  I'll be part of the solution.

 

Thank you for the whole SWTOR team too for all the hard work you put into this game.  It's been the only one I play for such a long period of time.  You have a gold mine here and a core memory for me.  Thank you and I hope things can only improve!

[Cretesh]

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters? Very easy.
•  
• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime? certainly.
•  
• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives? sort of.
•  
• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters? yes.
•  
• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable? there are some that feel like going from your pinky to your thumb via your elbow.
•  
• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters? mostly yes.
•  
• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why? yes. its pretty clear.
•  
• What was your favorite Encounter and why? picking plants on hoth. easy and cathartic.
•  
• What was your least favorite Encounter and why? the hidden chain attack on Hoth , wouldnt complete.
•  
• Please mention any bugs you encountered. see above.

[Dirtnose]

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?
  • For the most part yes, they were clearly labelled on the map, although they tended to be rather large for the world map vs other icons. A few of the missions also trigger, but the actual objective is quite far away from the initial map icon.
• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?
  • Yes, with legacy perks and quick travel, it's easy to just go to each area and then mount travel to the missions.
• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?
  • Yes, a good mixture of standard kill and pickups with some more funny, misc and silly ones sprinkled in.
• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?
  • Yes, most can be done in 5 minutes or so. A few of them need some balancing when it comes to multi objectives. An example being the Empire Hoth mission "Dud Droids". The droids you need are always surrounded by mobs, so you end up killing way more mobs in that mission before finishing the droid part, which feels quite bad. A few of the boss missions also should maybe display which ones are clearly intended for more than 1–2 people, like The Wolf mission on Hoth.
• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?
  • I would say so, Hoth and Tat are two of the larger planets in the game, so there was quite a bit of riding on a mount, but that's part of the game on large planets.
• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?
  • Mostly, yes. I enjoyed having to work it out, and most of them were clear enough you could work it out after a minute or two at most. The little mission descriptions give you a good general idea of what you'll be doing before you get there.
• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?
  • Most missions, yes (see above). There were some specific missions where even knowing the general idea of what I needed to do before I arrived, I couldn't work out the specifics once I was there. On Hoth Empire side, for the mission "Snipers!" I couldn't work out how to get the snipers out of cover regularly, as the ability given to me to take them away from cover wouldn't work or function, even being right next to them. I also couldn't work out how the Shield ability helped me or when to time it properly. "Unnecessary Repairs" was also a frustrating one, where the smoke you have to avoid on the pipe was hard to see, and it wasn't really clear when or how it turned off or if it even did at all. I ended up just glitching around the side of the pipe to avoid the smoke, or running through it and hoping it didn't knock me off, which wasn't fun.
• What was your favorite Encounter and why?
  • I liked the more sillier ones, as they stand out in my head. The one on Hoth where you have to carry the Tauntaun Fawns up the little ledge was a fun one. I also liked the band/music themed ones on Tatooine, especially the one where you become the GONK droid and have to advertise for them.
• What was your least favorite Encounter and why?
  • Any encounters with a collection element and not enough of the item in the world, e.g. the Relics on Tatooine or the egg sacs on Tatooine. Those were frustrating, as if there were more than 3–4 people doing the encounter, you would have to wait around to fight for tags on the items. I ended up having to transfer to the PvP instance multiple times just to be able to finish the mission in a reasonable time. Some of those missions need more of the item in the world for players to be able to grab, or it's going to be very frustrating once it's live with way more players in the area compared to the test server.
• Please mention any bugs you encountered.
  • For the Tatooine encounter "Tread Lightly" it's way quicker to just run over the mines than disable them, they barely do any damage when they explode.
  • A few encounters are completely bugged, like The Hidden Path, as no Lieutenant can be found.
  • Some missions like "Imperial/Republic Attack!" can be buggy if you join in after the event has started, the event won't count for you once finished, and you'll have to do it all over again, which doesn't feel good as a player.
  • Not a bug per se, but the Ancient Womp Rat mission (I forget the name sorry) looks like a standard Womp Rat, should make him bigger or something to make him stand out and look more like a boss mob.
  • The map icon for the encounters has a light blue outline to indicate how much time is left on the mission (which is a good design idea), but it tends to be quite inaccurate sometimes. I saw cases of the bar being half empty despite it being a new mission.
  • On the Empire Hoth dynamic encounter "Scouts Honor". When you free the Imperial Spy Prisoner's they run off, but their hitbox/collsion remains behind, so you get stuck on nothing where they were kneeled down as prisoners.

Edited Monday at 10:26 AM by Dirtnose
Added a few more bugs.

[DarkLordyd]

"The Wolf" on Hoth resets himself, even when you stay in a 20 Meter radius from his spawn position

[DeadlyLordZach]

For reference, I completed both Imp side and Pub side achievements, here are my notes below.  These details are from me mostly playing solo.

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?
  • Yes, it was easy to locate them, however the distance travelled between were a little difficult.  I'm sure it'll be fine at launch with people doing their main story and "Stumbling" across these encounters on the way.
• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?
  • Yes and no.  Sometimes I'd finish an encounter, then spend 5 mins traveling to the next one, only to have missed the timer.  Then there were times I finished all the encounters on the map and had to wait around 15 mins for it to populate on tatooine, which then it only populated 2 more encounters.
• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?
  • I believe so, about as much variety as I expected.  The lava missions on hoth were extremely fun, especially the suit mission (we'll come back to this in the bug section).  The difference between Hoth and Tatooine were also massive in terms of variety.  Tatooine didn't really have much aside from "Help the band, stop the exchange in the spaceport and kill this champion." There were a few that were sprinkled in to the objectives that were fun, but it did feel like a grind doing the same thing like killing sand people and recovering the relics and then killing the sand worms and crushing the eggs.  The exact same mission just with a different font.
• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?
  • Reasonable, sometimes.  Some encounters, like the White Maw pirates on Hoth, takes a long time to do all 3 OBJs and still be able to do another encounter before reset.  The TaunTaun encounter was perfect regarding the amount of time to complete for what it is, however it would be better with the fixes to the bugs I'll post down below.
• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?
  • For just doing Encounters, no.  It's just an aimless straight line after quick travelling.  As I mentioned above, when people are doing their heroics, the story mission, it will be a reasonable amount of distance solely based on the encounter being "fillers" for the planet.
• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?
  • Most of the time, yes.  The only time it isn't is when you go to an encounter for the first time, and someone just came through and picked the whole area clean, so you aren't really sure what to look for.
• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?
  • Yes, and even if you didn't, you could understand what you were doing based on context clues around the name of the encounter.
• What was your favorite Encounter and why?
  • Testing the lava suit.  It's my favorite because it's a time based minigame and I believe it is the ONLY encounter that has a bonus OBJ.
• What was your least favorite Encounter and why?
  • The white maw pirate one that you need to kill like 30 pirates and do 2 other OBJs.  I would recommend having "Heroic 4 Encounters" as that will actually be fun to get more rewards and require a small fireteam to complete.
• Please mention any bugs you encountered.
  • Sorry in advance team, this is going to be a list and I can't remember the names of all the encounters.  I'll at least break it up by planet:
    • Tatooine:
      • Pubside imp attack!:
        • When picking up the grenades to assist, if you leave the area, you will be able to use the grenades until you leave the planet.
        • Sometimes wouldn't progress, saying you need to do the optional obj (picking up the grenades) but then still wouldn't progress even if you grabbed them.
      • Hidden Chain Invasion:
        • LT doesn't spawn but once, doesn't stop the encounter until the timer runs out.  Sometimes the LT will spawn before the prior objs are complete, so if someone isn't paying attention and then kills the LT, the encounter is done for everyone without reward.
      • Womp Rat one with Water Collection:
        • These Womp Rats respawn extremely quickly.  You'll collect one box of water and then the next thing you know, you have about 30 Womp Rats scratching you up.
      • Helping the injured, starving and parched:
        • Only the water has a range on it, the medicine and food has no range.  So as soon as you pick up the boxes, you can remain there and just "throw the materials" to them, but you have to be within 5m to give them water.  Not really a bug, just an oversight.
      • Sand People Trio Champs:
        • This is the first of many of the champions, but if you are the first one to hit it, you'll get credit, but if you show up right as someone starts and you help them kill it from 99% health, you will not get credit.  This fight does it as does most of the champion encounters on tatooine, I didn't see and issue with Champions fights on Hoth, they worked as intended.
      • No credits on rewards
    • Hoth
      • Helping the cold kittens:
        • I know this is RNG for if you can calm them, but if they run off, you have a slight moment to be able to grab them to put them in the box.  I don't know if it's intended for them to run off at all, or what but you are able to grab them.  
        • You can also use a speeder/movement abilities/rocketboost to speed these deliveries along.
      • TaunTaun Ridge:
        • Like above, you can use a speeder/movement abilities/rocketboost to speed this along.
        • If you click fast enough when the prompt comes up, it'll lag and give you two prompts to drop off the tauntauns, resulting in a 1:2 ratios for grabbed but dropped.
        • Sometimes it will not let you drop the tauntaun and will give you an error saying there is already one on the slide, when there is not.  you have to move out of the area then back in to fix.
      • Burst Pipes:
        • I enjoy the parkour of this, however the vents shut off for .5 seconds and gives little time to react, so my workaround was using an operative roll to move past the hot air without damage or impact.
        • The broken vents do not reset once fixed.  Someone can do their 6, and then someone can do the remainder but that's it, no one else can do it after until the mission resets fully.
      •  Lava Test Readings:
        • The only bug is that there are areas where the blue clickables are not able to be clicked as your character cannot get within range due to the steepness of the volcano.
      • Lava Suit Testing:
        • The bonus OBJ is there, but you cannot complete it even if you calibrate/charge/activate the drill.  I do also think a small "tips" for the suit should be located when you hover over the box to start the encounter.
      • The Cathar Champion (I can't remember his name):
        • His health grows once fighting starts, and has an insane healthbar for the area.
      • Hidden Chain Invasion:
        • Same as Tatooine.
      • 3 Wampa Kills (talons):
        • I didn't take a picture of it, but I believe if you approach from the south to get to this encounter, there is a strong visual bug on the ice platform itself.  Seems like the texture got stretched and made it look skewed.
• Additional Comments:
  • Broadsword, I will say as someone who has been a member and follower of this game before launch, I've been subbed for the majority of the time since Launch, I really look forward to this update and hope that it only expands in the future.  I know MMOs will make spins of ideas of other MMOs and that's just how the business is, however I would recommend if something like a fast travel to a "World Event" like how Fallout 76 did it.  Everyone who is there gets rewards for it, even if they barely contributed but once it's over and done, then it won't be back for either a day, week, etc.  Fallout 76 does do it around once every hour when the event is live but it's just a suggestion.  There also could be encounters that grow into something that will require a giant group of players to come together to topple, and could affect how the planet/area is affected for the time to come.  I would also recommend adding a bit more exp from each one.  I did all 50 on my pubside toon who was level 61 when started and I only leveled up 2 or 3 times after doing all 50.  While people don't need to grind these to do levels, doing 50 should at least get you somewhere more than 2-3 levels.  I can go from level 75-80 by playing PvP in half the amount of time it took me to do 50 encounters.
    
    I really enjoyed this, I'm happy to see the incentives, but perhaps make a requirement to have at least one bug report sent in for them to get the rewards.  I noticed a lot of people complaining about the "100 Encounters" for a single pet, which helps no one because there are people who actually enjoy testing the new systems and making sure it's done right for when it launches for the rest of the community.
    
    Thank you for all the fun, see you again next week!

[Quendorite]

On 10/18/2024 at 5:15 PM, JackieKo said:

Hi everyone!

Please answer the following questions about Dynamic Encounters. Feel free to also leave overall general feedback. 

Reiterating from the original PTS post, if you are streaming or recording your gameplay while on PTS, we would love to check out the VODs. Seeing players experience the content in real time is incredibly helpful, so feel free to post them here or DM them to me.

Additionally, players will be getting a very early look into 7.6 content at this stage. To set expectations, know that the content that will be released at this time is still a work in progress and not polished. You will run into unfinished work: placeholder art for interactables and NPCs or UI elements, encounters that are functional but have few "polish" touches like special enemy abilities, and even potentially bugs with encounters that prevent them from being completed. That doesn't mean you shouldn't report issues you see--please do!--but it does mean that you will see many improvements to these encounters as we continue development. We're looking forward to your feedback on the system itself and on individual encounters!

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?
• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?
• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?
• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?
• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?
• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?
• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?
• What was your favorite Encounter and why?
• What was your least favorite Encounter and why?
• Please mention any bugs you encountered.

If you are reporting a bug, please clearly state that and if necessary, include steps that would allow us to reproduce said bug.
Please provide any additional comments you have about the system.

Thanks! 
 

As I am doing them - Are they supposed to be cross-faction? Like, the same missions for both Empire and Republic? Because I was playing with a Republic character and I got this anti-Republic mission on Hoth, where I had to kill Jedi and was thanked by an Imperial.

 

Is this normal? Is possible saboteur role being taken into consideration? It's a bug that is actually a feature?

 

https://imgur.com/a/C6gNRt3

[LadyAdmiral]

I am confused because Hoth and Tatooine seem different.

Hoth quests seem to rotate actually every half hour, and there is a lot of them, all 30 minutes long.

But then on Tatooine, some are 15 minutes and some are 45 minutes. I think. And then :15 after the hour a bunch flipped and some half hour ones started.

Can't figure out if this is just for the test server / testing or if its supposed to be like that.

[DarkLordyd]

The "Hidden Chain Lieutnant" doesn't seem to spawn 

Edit: Only the case on PvE instance, not PvP instance

Edited Monday at 07:42 PM by DarkLordyd

[AlanaSP]

46 minutes ago, DarkLordyd said:

The "Hidden Chain Lieutnant" doesn't seem to spawn 

The Lieutenant spawns too early so if anyone kills the champion enemy prior to the objective appearing it breaks for everyone as it doesnt seem to re-spawn

[JattaGin]

On 10/20/2024 at 6:18 PM, DarkLordyd said:

The Whitefang Blood Samples don't drop on the imp-side

They don't drop from whitefangs. They are stored in blue glimmering boxes around the area.

Edit: I also tried fighting whitefangs first, but then saw a blue box by luck. Maybe this text could be clearer phrased. Like "Find Whitefang Blood Sample Storage boxes".

Edited Monday at 07:39 PM by JattaGin

[ceciltaru]

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?

Yes, 

• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?

Yes

• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?

Yes, although since it appears you have removed the exploration missions and turned them into these dynamic ones, some of the objectives could take a long time to complete, such as the medical supplies one on Hoth since its also in a HEROIC area.  Same thing with the Gammorean guards near the Sarlacc Pit and the repulsor guns, first time I had that one, there were no guards around, and they were not respawning quick enough it seemed.

• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?

Reasonable for some, where it did not have you needing to kill hundreds of mobs

• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?

Yes

• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?

Yes

• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?

Yes

• What was your favorite Encounter and why?

I did not have a favorite

• What was your least favorite Encounter and why?

Medical Supplies one on Hoth for Imp side, mountain frost Flower one on Hoth for Pub side, since that stupid snow storm was draining my life in just a few seconds.

• Please mention any bugs you encountered.

Like others I was locked out of the Hidden Chain encounters.  

 

Suggestions:  

If you are going to be getting rid of the exploration missions on every planet and turning them into these dynamic events, then adjust objectives accordingly.  Killing hundreds of mobs in an area just to get to 100% on an objective is silly, but also don't turn it so far down so that it ends up being kill 5 mobs.  There is a sweet spot there that doesn't fill grindy.

 

[phalczen]

19 hours ago, AnimatedCallum said:

• Please mention any bugs you encountered: T On Hoth, Republic toons were getting Imperial specific encounters. As a Republic Jedi Knight, the encounter 'Shadows in the snow' was avaliable to me with the quest giver being an Imperial officer and requiring me to kill Jedi Shadows. I was also given Scout's honor however did not attempt this encounter as it ran out before I got there. 

 

 

As a point of feedback, it would be very interesting if the Dynamic Encounter system could recognize that a post-Ossus character is a Loyalist or Saboteur, and offer opposite faction DEs in that scenario.  However this behavior is probably a bug rather than design foresight.

[JattaGin]

Additional feedback after playing imp side Hoth missions today:

1. Suggestion

I strongly suggest that you tone down all fighting missions on Hoth. They are way too grindy and not fun, compared to Tatooine. It's way too high numbers players need to achieve. Lower all fighting missions -25%. And "Icy Invention" -50%! This mission sends the player in a heroic area which players are avoiding for good reasons. You need to kill 50 mobs in this area for the encounter and all groups have silver and golden mobs there. NO ONE will play this mission on live after maximum one try. You basically do a hard heroic for 50 tech fragments.

2. Praisal

I love all of the NON-FIGHTING missions on Hoth! Repairing the valves is great. Catching fish is greater. Picking flowers on a high mountain ("Snow Capped Delicacies") is the greatest. I like that one so much that I don't even mind the very long drive up there.

Edited Monday at 07:40 PM by JattaGin

[Berenices]

No-one seems to be able to find the "hidden chain Lieutenant" in either the Hoth or Tatooine map. Well maybe someone has but to best of my knowledge this seems bugged, or lieutenant is just living pu to his name.

[phalczen]

Bug report

Tatooine Imperial

Outpost Rennar

Republic Attack!

defeated Walker does not complete the DE.

[phalczen]

Bug report

Maintaining Order, Tatooine Imperial

I get the pop up with first icon when running through the area.  However, when I approach (yellow) attackable NPCs with "Outlaw" in the name, the temporary ability bar goes away.  When it is present, there is nothing around so nothing can be intimidated.

[phalczen]

Bug Report

Republic Attack! (Tatooine Imperial)

Mos Ila

Nothing advances in the mission log.  Picking up grenades, nor killing republic npc's

 

[Shorinjin]

The percent for enemies would be so much better if it was based on the strength of the enemy. example: normal is 2%, strong 4%, elite 8%, champ 16%. or whatever might balance it more than every enemy being 2%. May as well just say 1/50 at that point.

[kgaydos]

On 10/20/2024 at 8:51 PM, RadarOMalley said:

On Tatooine, for the Scavengers Tale 3 mission, the clickable barrels don't seem to do anything, so it just becomes a slog to kill the boss. It took me almost 10 minutes to kill it solo. 

For this one, you pick up a barrel and take it to a dimly visible green arrow (there are three of them) and pull the Droid towards it.  The Droid will 'detonate" the barrel and disable it's shield and you can do more damage.

[SeanGil]

On 10/18/2024 at 6:15 PM, JackieKo said:

Ok this is my second comment here while the first one dealt with first impressions and some rep-side hoth bugs, this will do with the questions asked, rep side tatooine and imp side hoth.

• Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?
  Finding the Dynamic Encounters while on the planet was easy. with that said first time i logged in i thought you only had Hoth ready because there was a big icon on Hoth in the galaxy map and not on tatooine. it was the hidden chain mission which is also different map icon while on the planet but i didnt know that, and it took me a second to see the difference other than the side of it and realize its a sort of something else mission, especially considering there are other similar missions (white maw, imperial/republic attacks).

 

• Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?
  On Hoth - yes, on tatooine, less so. it seems like hoth has alot more missions spread out across, which considering the amount of ppl playing on live server - is good. On tatooine i was at some point able to finish all active missions and had to wait for more to spawn on map. i afked for about 10 mins and when i got back there were 3 or 4 more. which is still considerably less then Hoth.

 

• Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?
  Yes. there are all fight missions, there are missions with some fighting and some other objectives and there are missions that require 0 fighting, alot of mission were very fun to discover, kitty missions for example one to shoo and fix cables one to comfort and take them to a warm place.... on Tatooine the Sun Burns trilogy was awesome i really went through an advanture with them and i love it. with that said some missions felt point less the treasure seeker in hot for example or the "traps on the road" in tatooine that were basically disarm 15 mines and the whole thing has 13 mines so im lucky i was there alone.

 

• Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?
  No, and Yes. if i got somewhere alone then yes definitely, but for example i did the imp side relic on hoth got there with 4 mins left on the clock and 3 more ppl were around. killing the mobs was not a problem but there were just not enough relics, or their spawn time was no fast enough and i ended up not finishing it before time ran out.
  it was same with releasing prisoners from sand people. 3 more players were around and the mobs respawned 2 times before the cages reset and i was there just waiting to get more prisoners released.
  the seeker missions is just very short and feels pointless.
  the white maw defector was pretty short couldve spawned more or higher tier as well.
  most missions are somewhere between too short to just the right amount of time, but i believe on live servers with the amount of ppl who will do those the missions will take much longer and it wont be for the good reason of because you have to do a bunch of stuff to get through, it'll just be wait and fight others to "who clicked faster"

 

• Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?
  i think so, they were mostly close to spawn point or at least close to one that was close to a spawn point
  there was one that was kind of far on rep side tattoine gammorean something on the south side of the map and i just never went there

 

• Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?
  For some yes, for some not at all, but i think it was mostly due to bugs that i believe will be fixed before release. treasure seeker at first attempt didnt give me the clickable icons after i bought from vendor and i ended up running around leaving area going back running the other side not knowing what to do. second time i did get them and although nothing said "search the newly created snow" i figured it out - on live servers with 10s of ppl doing it some might miss the clickable snow if others will just click it before they even notice it spawned.
  one more missions that was a problem to understand and i still dont really know if what i did was right is the imp side where you have stealth snipers and you get stealth distruptor and shield. i used shield walk to where sniper was and used the disruptor and nothing happened walked away it shot me again tried using it from another angle didnt work then when i was right on it, it dropped stealth and attacked me without me using the distuptor.
  

 

• Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?
  if this question, unlike the last one, deals with "the story of the missions" then yes it was understood the voice-overs helped, the text on the mission icon did too.

 

• What was your favorite Encounter and why?
  I think i'll give this one to the Sun Burns trilogy, that felt like some kind of storyline unfolding in those encounters through quick fun missions.
  i like the tatooine czerka driod boss too because it wasnt just smash smash but had a small tactics to it with the shield and barrels.
  and then the snow kittens missions were fun for me as well, i didnt even know there was a pet you can get from those missions (it doesnt mention it as possible reward on mission icon) and i also didnt get it my friend did

 

• What was your least favorite Encounter and why?
  The Hoth treasure seeker is just spend 300-1500 credits and good luck clicking before other ppl in the area so i didnt enjoy it much.
  The 1 Boss encounters can become a real mess if they won't be shared between imps and reps like WBs for seasons.
  (considering the taunt-to-reset party we had today on DvL bosses between imp groups and rep groups

 

• Please mention any bugs you encountered.
  1. copy pasting from one of the questions -  the imp side where you have stealth snipers and you get stealth distruptor and shield. i used shield walk to where sniper was and used the disruptor and nothing happened walked away it shot me again tried using it from another angle didnt work then when i was right on it, it dropped stealth and attacked me without me using the distuptor. not sure if it was a bug or i did something wrong.
  2. both imp side and rep side hidden chain - lieutanant doesnt spawn. missions cant be finished.
  3. rep side white maw - losing progress bar other when hitting 50% or maybe it was when some other player killed some white maw pirates and instead of sharing kills and going up in % it just disappeared.
  
  
  
  I know you wrote the amounts are not finite but i want to point out that whatever we experience on PTS will triple on live especially and the first week or two when everybody will be doing them and farming them.
  if for example imp group decides to farm a boss for the armor drop which is a chance. no rep player will be able to finish this mission unless the kills will be shared.
  and for alot of the missions the clickables amount has to go up significantly. even if for the first 2 months only make the release of these new missions be a fun thing everyone can experience without fighting for each click as the timer runs out. i wouldn't enjoy it or has a positive reaction to this update if i spend 20 mins on a mission fighting for every clickable thing with 10-15 more players just to get 1 mission done and 50 frags.
  
  One more thing  - CONQUEST - ive been playing on planet conquering guilds for a long time, i just wanna say i hope the "eternal" for 5 missions completed will not be a permanent thing and will get its own week, with that said a weekly of 20-25 missions that can be completed once a day or 3 times a week and gives about 100-150k points will be a nice addition similar to uprisings for example.
  
  

 

[Quendorite]

On 10/18/2024 at 5:15 PM, JackieKo said:

Please answer the following questions about Dynamic Encounters. Feel free to also leave overall general feedback. 

Preface

• I grinded them. I did all 100 events in three evenings, mostly because I wanted the mounts - I am not the average player, nor the average tester.
• I have finished the game. I will not be "doing dynamic events as I level up on planets", so I am not the target player for them.
• Even though I play Sin/Shadow because I love the fight style, I have absolutely no shame and I have stealthed through hordes of enemies, so I have not played everything as intended, probably.

 

Tl;dr

I loved them. Give us more. Give us more variety on Tatooine. Give us more planets with these. PLEASE.

 

> Was it easy to locate Dynamic Encounters?

Indeed. Some individual bosses required a bit of search, mostly on Hoth because caves/glaciers, but the markers on the map are more than clear.

> Were you able to spend your play session going from Encounter to Encounter with little or no downtime?

Yes on Hoth, no on Tatooine. On Hoth I could barely get out of one map before more and more Encounters popped up, on Tatooine I found myself just waiting around for the next round of them to spawn.

> Was there enough variety in Encounter objectives?

Yes, but. There was a lot of variety, but the random nature of them made repetitions obvious. More than once (three times, iirc), I finished an Encounter near the time limit and when the time ran out, the same one spawned once again right where I was, so I completed it again.

> Did it take a reasonable amount of time to complete Encounters?

Yes. Again, I am insane and did 100 in three days; but one is like... a couple of minutes? Some bosses are long, especially if alone, but that's it.

> Did the travel time between Encounters feel reasonable?

Yes in Hoth, not on Tatooine. On Hoth I simply walked/drove to where the Encounters were, on Tatooine I QTed because there were way fewer so travelling sometimes meant crossing half the map.

> Was it clear what you needed to do in Encounters?

Generally yes, but there are some that were tricky. The droid fight on Tatooine didn't explain the mechanics (thankfully I did it in a group, where they told me to kite the boss; but then I read complaints in chat from someone who soloed it without knowing that the fuel canisters break the shield!). The fishing minigame on Hoth is a bit bugged and the shadows are not visible from all angles, so at first I didn't know what 'Follow the shadows' meant.
Kitting the Droid boss on Tatooine was a pain: I am a melee and it's a ranged enemy, so I had to move 15+ meters to make it move, making it almost impossible for me to hit it consistently enough to keep aggro.

> Did you generally understand what your character was being asked to do and why?

Generally, yes. Especially the why - except for the L.A.V.A suit testing. That one for me is reduced to just clicking buttons and fuelling the shields, because as I am burning to death I cannot hover over the buffs and actions to see what they do.
I had problems, though, on the Thermic Plant on Hoth. I am still not sure how to get to the pipes without tanking damage that almost killed me.

> What was your favorite Encounter and why?

Republic advertising the Twin Sunburn's gig. It's just so different from everything else in the game: Neither a fetching quest nor a "Kill this thing". Honestly, all those that aren't any of these two get a special place in my heart.

> What was your least favorite Encounter and why?

Twin Suns/Geonosian killing. Basically a "Kill X enemies from this type, Y from this type, Z from this type." The sprites, though, aren distinctive enough and if I have time pressure I will not be reading the red tags against orange background, so it's hard to be efficient.

> Please mention any bugs you encountered.

All known ones: Hidden Chain Lieutenant not spawning, Shadows are not visible from all angles in the fishing minigame, Bosses cannot be shared unless in a group, Maintaining Order on Imperial Tatooine didn't spawn the Outlaws, Republic player can get Encounter against Jedi Shadows on Hoth, Fishing minigame doesn't always give you the fished fish...

Edited 5 hours ago by Quendorite
I remember more things!