Artisan Archive
Thread: To whip a one-year dead horse a bit more
JansosHosphe wrote:
It would be SOO cool if the theme parks gave you stuff to do based on what skill tree you had chosen. Like a marksman gets a shooting mission, but an artisan gets something like that deadeye decoder thing from act II, where he has to go hunt for the components. A dancer has to go dance for some minor character, a medic has to craft a special drug, a... well you get the idea. All these missions should come from the same mission giver. And which one you get depends on which skill tree you have developed farthest.
Thats not locked out, they still get to do the quest. Turn it around, imagine they couldn't even accept the quest without Tailor skills, that sums up the crafter adventure game.
Combatants can't use the new Tailor schematics that the theme parks give out.
Development should really be focused on creating a rich and vibrant trade and political environment. I got in on the latter portion of the beta, and one thing I noticed was that the most advanced players spent a lot of time away from the major cities, as the wilderness was the only place to put a house. Up and coming players seemed to be looking for a way to get out to the "burbs" as well. The community was forced to spread out. If people were allowed to hold real estate, setup shops, and run for office in the pre-made cities, Theed, Mos Eisley, Coronet, etc.., there would be opportunities for a more dynamic experience for the non-combat professions. Missions dealing with political intrigue, industrial espionage, trade between factions, not just Rebel and Imperial, could be centered around this.
I enjoy being a tailor and merchant. It's what I did in beta and what I still wanted to do when the game went live. I didn't grind to Master; I took my sweet time and explored as much as I could, spending almost all I made on tickets to the next place to see. But I always wished I could go see the places the warriors came back to town talking about. The danger, the sights, the glories. Ruins and temples and caves and dungeons... I have seen none of them. Epic quests against Epic foes... I have done none of them.
My weak combat skills kept me from surviving so much as a glance at the foothills, much less the entrance to the adventure. 128m radar and burst run were my best friends. I surrendered Polearm 4 in favor of Novice Pistoleer. My friend and in-game Husband has helped me learn to equip for battle, and to make it home alive. I have learned the joys of shooping sprees on guns and armors. I have a loyal Crimson Guardsman who watches my back and dies in my stead When I leave the edges of Serenity Valley, I have my boon companions beside me... for I cannot survive alone.
And after all this time, successful in my trade, I still yearn to see all these places and do allthese things. I have dared to reach for a few.
I have stood in awe at the edge of the Sarlaac pit. Then had a nice visit at the cloning center. But I could not get past the first room of Jabba's Palace. I was in full fright and flight mode in my X34, as a kimogilla chased me out of Kimogilla Village. Cloning center. Huurtons and Pikets are my mortal enemies. Tusk cats know when I have bought a ticket from Tatooine to Naboo and await me on the edges of Theed. I hate Ben Kringal. AT-ST helmet. I wanted it. I died over and over and over. Mos Taike cloning centerwas my home away from home for two whole days. I left without the helmet. I ended up buying it off the bazaar. That just was not the same at all. I wanted to earn it!
And I think that is the pearl in this oyster. I don't want to hear about the adventures and glories. I don't want to barter with mercenaries for the spoils of war. I want to participate. I want to be a part of the story.
Exactly. Beautifully summed up, a pleasure to read your entire experience.
EvilHairy wrote:
booo freaking hoo
Non-combat players, pure artisan professions /whatnot are WEAK, The content they choose is tehre own and if they want to seek a audiance with the Hutt, then they better learn how to use a pistol. Its not like you need to be skilled in using a pistol either.
Flash25 wrote:
This whole thread points to one of the problems that MMORPGs have had up to this point. They all gear themselves around the combatants, and how to get equipment to them. SWG has gone toward fostering other professions, but combatants are still the focus.
Incredible 2nd post. Which gets me to thinking about the concept of morality in MOGs...
Why is all conflict resolution handled at the point of a sword?
Does is say something about the maturity of the industry that there are few tools for non-violent conflict resolutions? Currently SWG doesn’t offer any better options for adventure than Grand Theft Auto. When all a player has is a hammer (blaster) then the whole world becomes a nail (victim). This rigidity in the missions sets up a singular answer to all problems, blast ‘em. Don’t be bothered trying to talk to the NPCs about other means of getting around a problem. Don’t bother trying to solve problems.
Back in Beta the devs made a video about game play where the hero of the clip was tasked with saving some farmers from pirates. In the video the hero and a helper blast the pirates and save the farmers. As a joke a behind the scenes making-of screen shot was released showing one of the pirates exclaiming, “What’s my motivation here? Can’t we just solve this by dancing?” Yeah that’s funny, its absurd. And a video can only show one option unlike a game which can have many. But is it absurd that the hero couldn’t have tried intimidating the pirates, or slicing the locks to release the farmers, or bribing them to go away, or even calling the authorities to come in and take care of the mess? Its kind of sad to see that the joke of that video has been carried out to its extreme. Its also insulting to entertainers, or anyone that wants to explore facets of gameplay other than just killing everything in sight.
One of my biggest fear is that the path to Jedi, which will soon be mission based, will just be yet another series of ‘kill everything in sight’ missions.
This was thepost I enjoyed reading, how that other tripe got mixed in is a testament to my handle...
Mystyrys wrote:
And I think that is the pearl in this oyster. I don't want to hear about the adventures and glories. I don't want to barter with mercenaries for the spoils of war. I want to participate. I want to be a part of the story.
Yeah, my character is a master chef but he has some skill in rifle, for hunting. I am just not interested in quests that involve running around and shooting stuff. I think that in the end this would not be such a difficult thing to implement?
About furniture just taking space in the houses and people not caring what their character's clothes look like... I don't know, when playing with the role-playing oriented gamers, people spend a great deal of money and effort in furnishing their apartments and getting their characters decent wardrobes.
janoshon wrote:
Oh, and LadyGray, why should a crafter have to be a part of a hunting group? Everybody can't do everything, it would just be nice to have some quest-type game content for crafters that the combat-types can't do
Well, I am often somewhat incoherent, and my comment about hunting groups wasan attempt to illustrate that crafters don't often group for anything, but that we especially just don't fit in with what is a common activity in this game, which is combat-oriented (whether hunting, combat missions, caves, etc). And, in general (which means you can find lots of specific examples of it being wrong), many of the combat types do not care about wardrobes or furniture, unless they are paired (either in-game or RL) with someone who does care about that. I have had a number of women telling me exactly what their husband/boyfriend liked to wear, as to color and style, when the husband/boyfriend was sending me private tells saying that they really didn't care themselves, but pretended to have a preference just to get the wife/girlfriend to quit bugging them about it.
But I will agree with your point, that there are some people in the game who take great care, time, and credits with furniture and clothing. I would simply be happier if there were more point to having the furniture, clothing, jewelry. The fact that there is such a wide disparity between the prices of loot items, and what crafters can make, illustrates that. Crafters really have no source of anything that is even vaguely unique or rare, whereas the combat types do have that. I'm not even sure how you could implement something like that in the game, unless you have some sort of quests just for crafters (totally non-combat) that are rather difficult and convoluted, and end up with having something that is genuinely worth going to the trouble of doing the quest for.