Most needed: remove shuttle bays!

[Phenomolee]

I can't wait for the day we can cut off our legs and just be moved around instantly with the press of a button. Just create a bunch of boxes we can teleport into, and drop the stuff that leads to them. All this "environmental" design is a dead end! Laziness must be the true standard to build a game on!

 

---

 

This made me think of the movie Idiocracy. =0)

[shannonrc]

What people are saying in the initial argument: Less loading time when traveling in space pls

What 'immersion' advocates hear: FREE EPX NAOW

 

LOL, I don't get that jump in logic. The ship was really cool for about 5 levels, then the mindless running and loading made me want to blow my own ship up so I could take a 1-click shuttle to my destination.

[karcyon]

Agreed! This is very annoying!

 

I agree that it is annoying to travel and watch loading screen, however it contributes toward immersion.

What? How does watching a loading screen contribute towards immersion?

Edited January 1, 2012 by karcyon

[DarthWoad]

Removing an extra 30 seconds to your precious time to travel to zones is not the most pressing issue this game has. ****.

 

30 seconds? rofl yeah okay

 

Clearly they included this for immersion or role players, but it just gets annoying after a while

[Ventru]

And WHY do I have to level!?

I should start a char at 50, with all gear, and I should instant teleport anywhere I wanna go!

Also, be invincible!

Because doing anything that requires time is boring!

[ominator]

Why are some loading screens black, like the one where you get resurrected by the probe? It's black, so are the hangar screens. I don't understand the purpose of the black loading screens?

[Belogard]

I have a high end PC and the loading screens do not take long at all. I'd say the longest I see them is for 5 seconds, most of the time they just flash on and then flash off.

 

I don't think they should change anything, I like that there are repercussions for my decisions, you have to consider the costs and benefits. Nothing is too easy or too convenient but also not too time intensive and cumbersome.

 

I'm in agreement here. Being able to hop/bop planet to planet on a whim trivializes the terrain requirements, assumes a personal possession of technology that doesn't "exist", and just plain would make it all too easy. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. Whimsy should be costly.

[Forkrul]

I'm in agreement here. Being able to hop/bop planet to planet on a whim trivializes the terrain requirements, assumes a personal possession of technology that doesn't "exist", and just plain would make it all too easy. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. Whimsy should be costly.

 

My ship is provided by the Jedi council to use exactly how I see fit in pursuing my duties as a Jedi. I have full control of my ship and can take it anywhere at any time only having to worry about fuel costs; so yes, that level of personal possession of technology exists withing the SW universe. It would not make it too easy either, if would make it less annoying to travel between planets.

[fwloehr]

For me, it's not as much about immersion as it is keeping some bit of realistic limitations. It should take time to travel between planets. Enough time that it causes you to stop and think ahead about your schedule. We are playing a MMORPG in a universe where space travel could take days! I think 10-15 minutes is an acceptable travel time to imitate that limitation in the Star Wars universe.

 

I do understand the complaint about loading screens, however! I would be fine with an overhaul of the system so that there were fewer loading screens but still took the same amount of time to travel.

[Solohani]

And WHY do I have to level!?

I should start a char at 50, with all gear, and I should instant teleport anywhere I wanna go!

Also, be invincible!

Because doing anything that requires time is boring!

 

 

You are comparing loading screens to levelling. Why you do that. It looks like you are just trolling. Not very good for the community. One of the things you compared is needed for mmos in my opinion. I mean levelling. The other one is not so much, that is loading screens. There probably needs to be some loading screens in the game but lesser amount would be nice. My computer isn't very fast so it's not a very immersive moment to travel from imperial fleet to questing area. Lots of loading screens in a short time.

[Bruticuss]

100% agree with OP and like the suggestions. Hopefully BIO will consider.

[KrelosDarksky]

Learn a little patience and don't be so freaking lazy.

 

The ADD crowd will strip this game down to nothing if they have their way.

 

And YES .. travel is immersion and removing it would hurt the game.

 

Your all-important 40 seconds of time is not gamebreaking.

[HelluvaJedi]

For me, it's not as much about immersion as it is keeping some bit of realistic limitations. It should take time to travel between planets. Enough time that it causes you to stop and think ahead about your schedule. We are playing a MMORPG in a universe where space travel could take days! I think 10-15 minutes is an acceptable travel time to imitate that limitation in the Star Wars universe.

 

I do understand the complaint about loading screens, however! I would be fine with an overhaul of the system so that there were fewer loading screens but still took the same amount of time to travel.

 

I absolutely agree that travel should take some time (perhaps not 10-15 minutes), but not when you have to walk through boring corridors, click on elevator, enter instanced hangar, enter instanced ship, choose planet, wait to load planet, exit instanced ship, exit instanced hangar, and click on elevator just to get to the next planet.

 

It's empty content. It has no purpose except to sometime spawn story content in the hangar. I really love how travel was done in the Game Which Must Not Be Named, where you can either walk someplace (and risk going through high level areas or enemy territory) or you can spend some money and some time to bypass those risks with a zeppelin/subway/boat ride and save some time in the end. SWTOR in its current form cannot do this because there is no real-time space travel and many planets have areas walled off so that taxis are the only route.

 

The problem is that there is only one way to go anywhere in this game. You want to get to the next planet you have to take your ship. You want to get to your next quest you have to take the taxi (on some planets). Time sinks should not be required to move around - put planet to planet shuttles in certain cities and make them periodic. That's a good start.

[Sanchpanza]

I seem to be lucky and have quite fast loading screens compared to the times that other people are posting here.

 

There is obviously a split between those that think that having to run to your ship is immersion, and those that want to be able to zone quicker. I happen to stand on the immersion side of the argument, although my ship taking off whenever I just want to use the holoterminal is a little annoying, but that can be solved with a couple of taps of the spacebar.

 

But that's not really what I'm posting about. The main reason I'm posting a reply is to point out how a) Naive and b) offensive some people are being in this thread.

 

For those of you who have quick loading screens and are wailing on people for wanting "instant gratification", just look at it from the perspective of people that might have to sit there for a minute every time there's a loading screen (or more). I doubt that if you were experiencing the same thing with EVERY loading screen that you would belittle these people's arguments. Nor do I think that if you were experiencing those levels of loading screens that you would want someone belittling that fact just because they didn't have the same issue.

 

And for those of you that say that no loading screens are necessary. I just want to point out that while, yes, the devil game (I mean WoW if you couldn't tell) did have very few loading screens, it did still take time to get from one place to another, but rather than there being a loading screen involved, you just sat on the back of the flying mount and had to wait to arrive at the destination, which gave the game plenty of time to load up. Also, while WoW was/is a very big game, the actual intensity of what you're loading is quite low compared to more modern games (or atleast used to be in vanilla and...damnit can't remember the first content patch). Where the intensity and content of what you're loading for this game has increased by a large amount, the actual technology dictating the speed that you can load those resources hasn't increased in the same proportion (I'm talking specifically hard drive speeds here).

 

Back to the point at hand... I think in the lower levels the run to hangar > elevator > ship and back again isn't really an issue, unless you're someone who's experiencing very long loading screens for small planets (and I'm sorry to say that if you are, you might be in the quite small minority here - I'm not saying your point is any less valid, but I'm sure you can understand how they prioritize for a standard spec), but when you select a planet and go to a space station, where you then need to run to another elevator and then a shuttle and then another loading screen... yeah.. that's a bit excessive to me. If the space stations get bulked up at later stages with NPCs to interact with, I think that would alleviate a lot of peoples stress on the subject, but at the moment it does seem to add unwanted extra loading screens.

 

Maybe a solution could be that they introduce an 'interplanetary shuttle service' or something of the kind, something where you can go to a different hangar (yes, there would most likely be an elevator I'm afraid), but once you're in that hangar you can run up to a ship, or an NPC, and select another planet as your destination (for a nominal fee) and be transported straight to the corresponding hangar on the planet you selected. I feel this would appeal to both those that want to cut out the excessive loading screens to travel between planets, but still keeps the immersion factor for those that want to go to their own ship and don't mind putting up with the extra running and loading screens.

[Belogard]

My ship is provided by the Jedi council to use exactly how I see fit in pursuing my duties as a Jedi. I have full control of my ship and can take it anywhere at any time only having to worry about fuel costs; so yes, that level of personal possession of technology exists withing the SW universe. It would not make it too easy either, if would make it less annoying to travel between planets.

I was referring to you clicking your heels together and suddenly appearing where ever you want. OBVIOUSLY we all have ships. They're in the hangar...at the spaceport...ta da ta da

[Serenator]

Another +1 for the OP here.

 

I enjoy immersion and RP in games, the problem I have with all this is that I find all the loading screens / elevators etc actually break the immersion. Ultimately taking your ship to another planet just becomes a 15 minute chore. At least in WoW even if a flight path took 15 minutes you could get on it, go make a cup of coffee and so on and then come back to the game. Here you have to spend those 15 minutes running and clicking on things.

 

The fact that you land directly on some planets while others have space-stations would seem to be just for variety, since rarely do the space stations actually add anything to the game (how about fitting them out with Auctions and crafting trainers at the very least?). At the moment they are just empty shells you run through (or in my case run, stop, have to look at the map to check which is my hangar, then carry on).

 

I also have a bit of an issue with quests that send you to a planet just to have a conversation and then you get sent off somewhere else! Fair enough, from a story point of view, there may be a good reason to recall you to 'base'. But at least give us something more to do when we get there than watch a cut-scene!

[Uben]

No thanks, it adds to the immersion imo. maybe they can add purchaseable ports to planets in the vip room. ones that are reusable with a Cooldown. That way the immersion remains but there is a workaround for those in a hurry.

 

Explain the immersion. Past the fast travel in each of those instances to get to the planet. I mean, they ARE halfway there already. Just where is the line on yer immersion?

[Clova]

I would like 2 things, otherwise the loading screens are ok.

 

alt tabbing shouldnt trigger a loading screen

 

a bind to ship option, or make the quick pass to fleet non consumable.

 

Those 2 things bother me to no end, esp the alt tab thing.

[Jaghatai_Khan]

The screen after alt-tabbing is so much a loading screen as it is a blind to keep you from seeing the game-world being rebuilt. One of the beta-tests I was in didn't have that screen and you could watch all of the terrain being constructed. That said, other games I play don't do that, or not to that extent. It's probably an optimization issue and is on the low-priority list.

[Chromiie]

I've just started questing on Alderaan and when I log in it actually takes somewhere around 3-5 minutes for me to get in the game. I'm worried about higher level planets.

[Jonzar]

What a bunch of impatient whiners.

I like the immersion of having to actually travel a bit to get around.

[Morrighane]

I also think it sucks I have to get on a plane for 5 hours every time I have to fly to washington d.c., plus the drive to and from the airport.

 

Can't we just make this **** instant people? sigh!!!

 

Maybe you should try walking for the sake of "immersion.'

 

Making things more intelligent and user-friendly is a worthy goal. Why so many here fail to see this is beyond me. If you want to take the long way do so, but make a shorter way available for those who value their time. Simple.

[Morrighane]

For me, it's not as much about immersion as it is keeping some bit of realistic limitations. It should take time to travel between planets. Enough time that it causes you to stop and think ahead about your schedule. We are playing a MMORPG in a universe where space travel could take days! I think 10-15 minutes is an acceptable travel time to imitate that limitation in the Star Wars universe.

 

I do understand the complaint about loading screens, however! I would be fine with an overhaul of the system so that there were fewer loading screens but still took the same amount of time to travel.

 

What purpose would that serve other than to waste 15 minutes?

[Forkrul]

I was referring to you clicking your heels together and suddenly appearing where ever you want. OBVIOUSLY we all have ships. They're in the hangar...at the spaceport...ta da ta da

 

Then they should make the actual traveling TO a planet longer, not the getting from the ship down to the surface, which is a fraction of the total traveling time if we look at it "realistically".

[Tiaa]

I like how everytime you go to a loading bay or orbital station, there is some guy standing in the same spot as the last planet waiting to give you a mission.