Development Cycle Archive

Hopefully the devs are still watching this post. The ideas for rewards I had are new schematics. for various crafting professions (ex. style 2 comp armor, style 3 small naboo house, ... , etc.) nothing better or worse then what already there just more choices so we could add a personal touch to our toons. or even an item that would allow for applying a texture to existing craftable items like a high gloss composite armor or a flat finish.

Just my 2 cents

I am happy to see that someone agrees that there should be proper reward/risk ratio.

Personally. Keep it simple. Dont know what to give for a christmas or birthay present. Give cash. Let them get what they want.

Same pricipal. Im not saying give a million credits to the person who completes a theme park or dungeon. But enough to let them get ahead after decay, travel, cloning, insurance, stims, ect..ect..

Well Badges are always a great reward. But over time they could flood our character examine page if enough of them are added. So probly save those for major dungeons like the warren. Maybe have one dungeon like the warren on each planet that gives a badge. Other dungeons wont give badges but can still be fun.

Now the problem with loot is that its junk. Why would I even want to loot junk? Its just aggrivation for me to have to destroy it. Every looted object needs to be of use to someone or something in the game. Otherwise its junk. So whether you give rare schematics/unique wearables/rare components then its not going to entice us to look for it.

A prime example is the Holocron. This item is incredibly useful to every player except the few who dont desire Jedi. So naturally people spend alot of thier time in search of them. That's the key Devs. Guide the playerbase in the right direction by making it worth thier while to do the quests. I would be much more willing to kill an uber mob if my reward was a unique weapon or house decoration that if nothing else looked really cool. Example would be the Krayt Skull and that one sword from the Jabba quests.

1. Additional property lots

2. Additional storage space

3. Additional biography space

4. Unique skills

5. Languages only learnable from npc's

6. Non-faction humanoid/pets

7. Perminant attribute gain (say... 1-5 points)

Random knick knacks

e.g. the ATST pilot's helmet I got yesterday is pretty cool.

1 For Lucasarts to get a clue and realize that they made a mistake with using SOE to make this game.

Ok, here’s an idea I had last night before reading this thread. I was playing in Bestine, the lady bartender in the cantina where she is looking for her lost husband. Well in the last “quest” she finds out that her husband is alive and I thought wouldn’t it be cool if you had one of the classic movie/story things where the person runs off to meet their long lost whoever and leaves you the title to the cantina. Well I know that specifically can’t be done but what if they give you a pseudo “Title”, a special building. Maybe a player city cantina or a unique house, something like that, yeah I know it’s a huge reward and that may not be it exactly but you get what I’m talking about. Some cool place you can call yours. Think about it, you didn’t know you wanted to be a cantina owner until you got one. And of course it would have to be one of those one time quests with the non-transferable rewards so you wouldn’t have the farming going on but wouldn’t it be cool?

How about an option to "Skin" currently existing weapons, crafted just like all others by crafters. This item would allow the appearance of your weapon to change, perhaps to something appropriate to your enemy. That guy could get his scythe!

I think this would keep crafters in the game. Even weapon components take crafters out of the game to a large degree - they make the standard weapons undesirable. This would allow a player to get a cool, unique weapon, even if it was just in appearance. I don't know all the details, but it seems like it would be easier to code than an entire new weapon. Maybe it could work like a powerup, but last until the weapon is destroyed.

Milk

It would be cool for an NPC to drop a wireless internet device... I hate alt-tabing out of the game to check out a waypoint I found online.... Or anything for that matter... It would make the game more immersive to be able to whip out your wireless device from your inventory and use an in game internet browser.

For that matter public internet terminals would be a cool addition to the game.

Give them notoriety, stature, recognition, FAME!

Badges and titles are good motivators but they only get seen by those in the wannabe hero's vicinity but an epic quest should be more widely heralded. How about emailling files with 'certificates of achievement' in glorious multihued brilliance to the off-line address of the hero for display on his or his PAs website (or to get printed onto a T-shirt!?)

I recommend that you start an Imperial Times broadsheet and a Whispers From the Rebellion underground newsletter. Perhaps you could canibalise the code for the Holocron to present it in game and have a copy emailled to the player for off-line perusal once it has been purchased (Dont make it free or it'll be ignored)
For content there is plenty of raw material in these forums and plenty of talent. Customer services have to wade through vast reams of messages anyway and could copy and paste articles along with plot back stories from the GMs and assemble an imperial-slanted and a rebel-aligned 'press kit'. This gets passed to each galaxy Correspondent to add and subtract things revelant to their own galaxy (player generated events, new cities, advertising of products and services, political messages etc) and passed back to CS to add sections on known bugs, updates, special offers from SOE and DISPATCHES (tailored for each galaxy)
In previous centuries the newspapers of the day would have daily reports, casualty lists, promotions and awards and stories of particular derring-do; to be mentioned in dispatches was an honour in itself and more for the glory shared with the folks back home.
The allure of having ones name, possibly with a line or two about the feat of endeavour, read by the majority of players must appeal to the egos of those who would reach those dizzy heights of gameplay.
Such heroes should perhaps also receive some form of bonus to their Political skills (they get to have a strapline under their name on the ballots? 'Hero of the Rebellion' or some such.) Or one free use of the Morale Boost squad leader ability by typing "/gsay Hah! call this risky? Now, when I was at the Imperial Palace/DeathStar/Leias boudoir..."

Special endeavour in other professions could also be lauded: reviews of shows by Master Dancers, Through-the-keyhole/Hello magazine style reports on beautifully furnished homes etc.

I should think that fortnightly editions should be enough, leaving people impatient for the next issue. With a smooth system, help from the player-base including player-editors and not-too-pernickity copy editing it might take the time of one CSR for one day per edition over and above the usual liaising, forum haunting and plot writing. (you could undoubtedly get players enough to do the whole thing for free - look at some of the web sites that get produced - but you'd need to retain strict editorial control and give the copy enough interest and amusement to get the papers going. Then people will hang on to them for the useful update/bug info/events calender)

For the truly momentous quest (killing Darth Vader etc) how about programming up an entire spontaneous ticker-tape parade and celebration (cf. end of ROTJ) for when that player or group strolls into the city. (You would probably need to prepare generic celebrations at various sites that get set off if the hero approaches within a short period and then follows him around for a few minutes shouting his name in unison.)

A good idea would be to have good loot items that are used as componets to already exisiting schematics. For example a componet to a ore mine that lets you get that 1 additional ber, or a certian spices(non smuggler)that can be added to food or smuggler spice to increase various stats. And of'course the are the weapon and armor componets, but thoes are basicly covered. This will your keep the crafters in the game and give people good loot to find. And you keep the all imporatnt buyer seller relation ship going.

So... your mom tells you to mow the lawn, and you run over some sticks, and on the other side of the tree, you find some UBER ARMOR!

Or, in game, you're a bounty hunter, and you're tracking some guy, and then you kill him, and get some UBER ARMOR!

Negative soldier! If there are to be long and difficult quests, the reward should not be X or Y. Every game out there has linear rewards. Do something, get something. Everyone does something, everyone gets something.

I suggest that whichever loot or reward system is used, it be random. This is probably extremely difficult to pull off, because you'd have to consider the different professions when making the reward. For example, crafters should be able to go on a mission and, like someone stated earlier, have a unique, single time use draft schematic. The schematic should allow the creation of one exceptional item, yet, it should also be dependant on the crafter's skill. If he's a master or novice, that should effect the object in some way. Being a novice, however, shouldn't make the item useless. Different skills should play a part in each object. If a Novice Weaponsmith finishes the crafting quest, his item should be primarily dependant on his crafting skill. On the other hand, if he's a Master Pistoleer, certain secondary aspects of the item should be dependant on combat skill, or medic/entertainer skill.

Basically, if a Master Pistoleer, Novice Weaponsmith, Master Creature Handler completes a crafting quest, his reward should be, for example, due to his Novice Weaponsmith experience, a weapon which is not extremely durable, and the HAM costs are somewhat high, and the wound chance is low.Because of his experience as a Pistoleer, however, he knows how to tweek that item, and it may have a great damage range. At the same time, his experience with controlling multiple creatures has given him the ability to lower the HAM costs, because he better understands how to multi-task. The end result is a high damage, not-so-durable, not-too-fast firing pistol, with a below-average HAM cost.

In other words, the skills should be broken down into categories which effect the object. Let's say there arethree different categories - Combat, Crafting,Support. These are easy to define, and already exist, basically. When an item is rewarded for a quest, it will be unique depending on the skills the person has, and at the same time, different skills, when completing different quests, will yield unique items. Combat skills would modify damage for a weapon, crafting skills would modify the HAM, durability, speed, wound %, maybe minimum damage, and utility skills would modify special attributes (CH would get lower speed/HAM costs with weapons, while a Doctor might get a poison DOT, and a Master Dancer might receive an area-of-effect damage type). These type of modifications would have to change depending on what type of mission is taken (primary category), yet it would all lead to interesting, unique, very rewarding items.

If yourelate each category with a item modifier, and throw in a random number in the mix, you'll have very unique items that each individual gets to craft and name. That way, there is a feeling of accomplishment as you have something that no one else has. I could go on, but I'll leave the rest up to whomever cares.