Development Cycle Archive

Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (7-5-04)

dlewis1234
Wed Jun 30, 2004 12:00 am
#131

Here are the things I'd like to see.

Meaning -- Some reason for being in SWG world. Right now nothing I do affects the world around me.




IACEIFOC
Master Bounty Hunter - Master Carbineer
Please Deliver loot to the vendor below:
Bar Wench - Cantina Pirate's Cove Lok
dlewis1234
Wed Jun 30, 2004 12:40 am
#132

Here are the things I'd like to see.
Meaning -- Some reason for being in SWG world. Right now nothing I do effects the world around me.
The story arcs were great becuase they had an effect.
Usefulness -- I am a bounty hunter. The NPC missions are not challenging enough at master. The Jedi
Missions are currently unrewarding. GCW makes no real difference not that my gimped toon
can particiapte anyway.
Challenge -- I 400k ham chuba isnt a challenge it is a time sink. Please design encounters which require
some brains to solve. Also dont punish ingenunity. Why was it wrong to solo the Corvette.
Star Wars is all about individuals making a difference. A single shadowy figure sneeks aboard
the vessel does the tasks blows it up and goes home. Why did you have to ruin the story you
yourselves created.
Time Sinks -- Making people sit at a star port for hours during a session my look like immersion but they're
just waiting their turn at the free clinic. I havent seen a doc in a med center in months. They need
to be sued for malpratice.
Crafting -- I'd like to see the I have to be a 12 pt master to sell my product changed. How can an entry level
crafter make any money while climbing the ladder to Master. If my alt didnt have a support system
he'd never make it to the top. Also a wider array of things to craft would be welcome.
Combat -- In what movie or book (i havent read them all) did some one chuck poision and wipe out an entire base.
This is Star Wars why in the world should people fear the police batton (LA not included) more than the
ranged blaster.

Finally why is it common practice to squelch the uproar about unpopular additons to this game.
You have spent months catering to a small portion of the player base. Now I agree hologrinding
nearly killed this game so something had to change, but the appearance of contants coddling of any one
profession is going to generate negativity.

Interestingly I was cruising the other SOE game boards and all the gamers are complaining about the same things.
Unbalanced combat, Time sinks, Lack of in game purpose. Coincidence I think not.



IACEIFOC
Master Bounty Hunter - Master Carbineer
Please Deliver loot to the vendor below:
Bar Wench - Cantina Pirate's Cove Lok
Pemphigus
Wed Jun 30, 2004 1:12 am
#133

1) As a commando:

Grenades need to be more usefull. The range is so crappy that we can only blow ourselves up. The accuracy also needs to improve. (Why can't the BH's and the smugglers blow themselves up with their boom droids?)
A grenade launcher on the other hand would also be very nice to have.
The only weapon that is usefull atm is a FT. It would be great to have more diversity.


2) As a WS:

Would be great to have more meelee weapons craftable. We have a lot of marksmans weapons but only very few melee weapons.

3) As a DE:

Improve the usability of the Survey droid, its completely useless atm (since there is SWGcraft.com)
Or make them a lot easier to craft so we can sell them cheaper.


General Remark: Make BH's and perhaps also smugglers be able to use some kind of grenades, perhaps not all of them. But I think BH's would work a lot more with grenades than commando's in the "real" SW universe

Just my 2 cents.
sirkillalot11
Wed Jun 30, 2004 1:19 am
#134

YA thats a good idea bro
Nytewaulker
Wed Jun 30, 2004 1:45 am
#135

I would like to see a turret added to speeder bikes like in ROTJ for PvP.

Make them weak(CDEF?) if you have to but every since vehicles have been launched I keep thinking how neat it would be to chase down other players/joust on speeders with lasers.



-Tzo Tarinik, Tarquinas
-=Efoshe Veze (The Ithorian Bad-Arse), Test Center
Owen-Lars
Wed Jun 30, 2004 4:27 am
#136


Ok here you go TH


Maybe this can be a feature in the next expansion: SWG: New Worlds


Its just copied from the ranger forums (Which on another note you may want to check out some of the ideas in the ranger forumsometime, and maybe even pass them onto the design team


Ok enough with the cheek, here it is compile from two seperate posts as i wrote it.



PROFESSION SPECIFIC ZONES (Ranger Orientated for this one)








There are two possible implementations for profession specific areas (Adventure Zones and Pleasure Zones). The first of which i will cover briefly now, the next 2mora.

The adventure zones (as in confinded area of planet maps)


Introduction:


In this type of set up you could expect to travel to long forgotton and dangerous valleys or back water moons.

I wouldnt expect these areas to be massive in size, but more restricting in travel meaning the player is subterly forced down a selection of content rich routes. Rather than have large maps that are randomly generated and content scattered about, why not create certain areas that can be found and taken on?Also i would much prefer a selection of habbitats that are medium sized rather than 1 or 2 largeones lacking in content.


The zones would be effectively a totaly new zone and not part of existing planets but made to apear like they are simply another area of certain planets. Obvioulsy you wont have these problems when you shuttle to astoriod quests hehe


Access to these zones are only availble with a ranger as a 'guide' in your group. He must be the leader to take the mission then maybe pass leadership onto another if he/she wishes after.


The ranger acts as a guide (being the ultimate hunter he is) to the group, second in command to any squad leaders in group (of course hehe)


Structure:


I think a very interesting and challanging way to implement these adventure missions would be through the use ofquests obtained from npcs in the profession specific pleasure zones (Detailed in the pleasure zone section). Each area within the zones would be effectivelya quest the group will undertake with a startpoint, finish point and mission objective.

Each planet would have a series of 4 zones to go to from the main menu. Thegroup leader (ranger) selects the planet andarea the groupwants and they wait for their personal shuttle to arive to take themthere.A badge will be given for each quest and rewards.If the group leader has all 4 badges to a planet, indicating he has great experience as a guide and a huntera new zone becomes available to him. A secret zone, a more challanging zone, a zone that gives much greater reward and ultimatly another badge to the members and theMaster Hunter badge for that planetto the leader.

This (secret) area would be some extra added end game content for the players to get. Once a player gets all the badges for each planet (5 for each) he gains the Legendary Hunter Title and other reward (possibly a massive trophy or the ability to use a hunting lodge)


In summery the basic points are as follows:


Start:


  • Player goes to pleasure zone withthe group

  • Leader talks tp quest giver npc

  • Leader selects what planet

  • Leader selects what area on planet

  • Given ten minute preperation time until the shuttle arives on the roof

  • They all get on the shuttle and head to the area

In The Area:



  • Players are dropped off at the start of the area

  • Players complete their mission objective at the end of the area

  • Players recieve rewards and badges for thatarea

  • Extraction shuttle is called in (squad leader perhaps?)

  • Players arive back in the pleasure zone

Secret Areas:



  • Leader talks to npc

  • Selects planet

  • Asks about an ultimate hunt instead of picking area

  • NPC gives player verbal/writen clue and gives the leader permission to enter the ultimate area

  • Leader pick an area where he thinks the opening is

  • Group makes its way from the start point, to the opening where the leader uses the terminal to open the access door

  • Team loads up in new ultimate zone with a mission objective told by the npc in the pleasure zone (The objective could be something that uses info from your previous 4 hunts in it.

  • Team completes mission and recieves rewards and badge for the zone

  • Team leader also gets a Master Hunter badge for that planet

Other:



  • Team leaders with all the Master Hunter Badges will need to talk to the npc quest giver again where he will recieve a legendary hunter title, a legendary hunter trophy and the ability to place a hunting lodge.



A couple of ideas about the possible planets and zone names and objectives:


Planet Name: Endor

Area Quest Names and Details:


  • The Rabbid Gurrek Pass:

Notes: The area is filled with vicious rabbit gurreks and many other vicious beasts. Themap is based ona pass through 2 mountains (unclimable).


Mission Objective: Eliminate Rabbid Gurrek PackLeader




  • Wetlands:

Notes: Imagine Endor knee deep in water, more sparse but filled with water snakes, leaches and giant agressive lantern birds. Map is based on a endor/rori swamp area.


Mission Objective: Recover a water crystal snake baby as a sample from the queen's lair.




  • Contact Lost:

Notes: You are shipped into recue an overun outpost from the evil (place name here of those little brown npcs on endor hehe).


Mission Objective: Rescue the survivors and bring back the black box




  • Monsoon:

Notes: A hilly area well known for its monsoon like whether. You've seen the monsoons on dant sometimes, well imagine that all the time in rori like settings but resembling endor.


Mission Objectives:Startoffon a simple hunt in some old flooded ruins. Then your mission changes.Youlearn this is a staging ground for bothanspies and terrorists who are planning on whipping out millions of people from corellia with a biogenic weapon. You have to stop theterrorists and dispose of theweapon corectly before the timer runs out and they leave.




  • The Fabled Enraged Gorax: (SECRET MISSION LOCATED IN THE MOUNTAINS OF THE FIRST MISSION)

Notes:You enter a hilly zone similarto what you would find on endor near the smuggler outpost. Through tips and hints from the various hunters you encounters you are guided towardsa mountain.On top is the fabbled enraged gorax of endor.


Mission Objectives:FIght your way through the jungleand track down 2 hunters who will give you clues that will ultimatly spawn an enraged gorax on the mountain sumit.




Ok im realy sorry guys im too tired and i need a pint soi could only cover little detailt inthis post.


Once i get around to it illsuggest more info and postthe pleasurezone info needed.


Once again sorry



Next Bit







Ok as promised here is the second part, the pleasure zone details.







The Pleasure Zones:


Introduction:


This zone acts like a meeting ground and base of operations for rangers. Rangers can meet here, chat, trade and help each other out with training etc in the confines of a comfortable yet profession related environment.


Structure:


There are a few options available to how the zone will be set up and how groupings will be handled. It is obviously a massive undertaking to make a specific zone for each profession, so I propose a zone is made for a collection of similar professions then within the zone there is some separate areas related to each profession.

These pleasure zones could be made to look like asteroids where access is only by shuttle or some outposts on adventure planets, however for most professions including us I think the best option would be to have the pleasure zones situated in existing structures within the large cities we have already. This way it would bring a bit of life back to these ghost towns as well as make the cities seem like players can interact with them more.
The cities I have on my shortlist are:
Mos Entha, Tatooine
Keren, Naboo
Bela Vistal, Corellia


These cities are attractive to look at, not laggy as some of the main cities and you could imagine a hunting group based in these cities. Obviously places such as Wayfar and Deeja Peak are idealistic places for us to have our hunting lodge pleasure zone, but it all depends if you are willing to sacrifice accessibility for perfection. I’m very open to this discussion point and I am happy either way, I would still spend a lot of time in the zone no matter were it where to be placed.



Inside The Pleasure Zones:


Once you enter the pleasure zone there would be a main area that has seats, maybe a bar and some nice art pieces lying around. This area is open and accessible to all the profession allowed into the building and functions as a reception type area where you can meet up and talk if you want. The visuals and art work is related to the professions who use this zone and reflect the nature of that community.


Advancing on the basic appearances and functionality im going to concentrate on the ranger, CH and scout areas that would be grouped with us.

Access rights to the building for us would be ranger, scout, CH, OR any profession grouped with one of these. So a ranger can take his group into the pleasure zone if he/she wishes so they can take on the Adventure Zones together and chat with other groups and rangers around.



Profession Specific Areas:


If you explored the building you would realise there is a corridor at the end of which is a lift and a set of stairs leading down to the basement. Access is restricted in both.
The basement will act as the CH area and the lift will lead down to the ranger habitat. You are required to have novice or above in the elite professions of ranger or creature handler to pass down the stairway or use the lift, or be in group with on of these.


The specific areas are rewards for players that move onto elite status in their respective professions so scouts and all other starting professions will only have the reception area and its features available to it.



The Ranger Habitat:


Those rangers who choose to move down to the ranger habitat via the lift will move down into the underground habitat cavern.

This cavern is a very beautiful place, not a massive place but large enough to feature a waterfall, lots of trees, overgrown plants and a small pond with a beach. The cavern has large lights on the roof providing the plants with light and they illuminate the cavern greatly. It is sort of an overgrown hydroponics dome built into the rocks that provides a paradise like setting with a range of points of interest in a smallish area. There are various seats and tables scattered around the cavern by the sides of the pios for rangers to rest or chat in a comfortable setting. To the side of the cavern there is a gantry ramp leading onto an overhead walkway that takes you around the cavern and ultimately to an open-air cantina (ranger style hehe). This cantina has seats and a nice wooden bar making for an idealistic setting for rangers to meet up. The bar overlooks the waterfall and pond and is a sight to enjoy.



Features:


Within this bar area there are various features to use if you wish. There is a player database allowing experienced rangers to input tickets to answer frequently asked questions that other new players may consult via a search mechanism. Rangers are allowed to input a unit of meat/hide/bone/fish/egg/milk into the database that will store its stats in the resource database. The Organics Database is accessible to all rangers (rangers only) and depending on the planet and resource type selected displays the most recently inputted resource, which with careful and a good amount of effort by the community could develop into a very concise and up to date database that rangers will find useful.


There is also a bazaar that allows rangers to sell items that other rangers may want to purchase.
The biggest feature though is the quest giver npc. This npc allows you to take yourself or your group to the Adventure Zones highlighted in the previous section and gain the rewards and badges.



Player Accommodation:


Another possible feature could be to access a player owned apartment via the radial menu on the lift. Apartments are very costly but provide the elite players with accommodation in a major city if they wish. The rooms are smallish but can be decorated and store a reasonable amount of items however there is no point having vendors in these apartments as only you can enter this room. They should take 4 lots and only 1 apartment per player is allowed.

Do you have any more points or interest in this feature?






Ok that’s the pleasure zones covered in basic detail now to get back to searching for the moisture farmer hehe

Later on ill add some more added details and maybe compile both posts into one large section.

Thanks for reading and sorry again for missing out the details, ill get back on it after ive found some of the hermit quest guys



THORTAC BALCOR
The Lost Ranger
RANGER
Cambylobacter
Wed Jun 30, 2004 4:36 am
#137

As a player proud to be a Master Ranger, it would be nice to have some working skills:


- We have forage.... er... okay

- We have camps.... I'm not convinced they do anything

- We have traps.... that by and large are useless (that's specifically the Ranger ones, not Scout)

- We have rescue.... Move along, move along

- We have tracking.... except most spawn doesn't even appear until you're within 50 metres, or more commonly, till you've already found nothing and gone past them

- We have mask scent.... that's just about okay

- We can harvest.... barely more than a scout can

- We can camouflage.... that from my experience ends up attracting mobs rather than concealing us from them


A lot of us are resigned to not getting any kind of revamp for "many" months, and it is a real shame. Can we get news of when we can have something that justifies 63 skill points, and bearing in mind that we will get no revamp in 2004, can we have something for now, even if it's just a harvest % boost.







Can we have some content that has nothing to do with PvP. This game is rapidly turning into Unreal Tournament. It's meant to be a roleplaying game but there is more and more support for PvP and the roleplayers in this game are getting swamped.







Anywhere of remote questing excitement requires you to be in a large group of awesomely equipped and trained characters just to stay alive. Is it the intention to make PvE (other than mission terminals or training POIs) purely for large groups or the combat stacked uber templates? If we had questing areas that were 10 or 20 times larger than now, with levels that got gradually harder as you progessed in them, it would have far more scope than now.







Loot needs a serious look at. The issue of not wanting to have loot better than things craftable by players is clear - you make plenty of loot that isn't craftable. So players can still craft the best weapons, armour etc, but there are still many things that players can find as loot that aren't continually the purest rubbish.



Oh my Gawsh!
Thar's gonna be a baby leezard Rangah!.
o_O
Ibexguy
Wed Jun 30, 2004 4:56 am
#138

My Idea


The Battlegrounds sound be PLANETSIDE, but in SWG cloths. Fight for planets instead of continents. Your certs are your certs. While in the battlegrounds you cant craft, you must bring your equipment with you. You don't gain exp, but you can hold bases/lock planets, etc.

Smugglers can base hack, Rifleman can SNIPE, You can drive vehicles, etc, just like Planetside. Its a first person shooter, but your skills give you a damage/defense/hacking bonus, etc. So its both twitch and skill based.

You have 2 parts of the puzzle, this is the 3rd to complete the triangle and would make SWG the best game ever.

Land Based-Roleplaying, crafting, dueling, 3rd person combat and base raids.

Space based-Space exp.-Twitch based goodness. Classic Xwing/TieFighter.

Battlegrounds- ONE battleground per server ( a server within a server) based on Planetside.

Just my 2 credits

Isn't the code written for this already.

LaoTzu-Smuggler,TKA Master, Former Merchant and Former GALAXY/Reaver Pilot
Gavvot
Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:03 am
#139

In the movies, Jedi train themselves with small droids.
Maybe we could build those.

Now that we'll have loads of public Jedi all around, there will be a market.

Dunno really how to use them, or what they could do, but I think there is something to make here.

And a BH meeting a Jedi in a DE shop where they both buy droids would be really fun to see



--
How to make a link in those forums
Look sir, droids. -4689 3336, Naboo, Theed
Ieshedi
Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:30 am
#140

I wholeheartedly agree with the crafting droids needing to be useful. I don't know of anyone that uses them. It's cheaper to grab a spaceport ticket out, survey and head back.



The droids should have three functions:

1) The one we've seen. But to make it useful...

2) Add ability to send a second droid loaded with the surveying device and the report from the first droid to find the resource value of a selected resouce from the report.


What would make them useful is to add a feature that once you've used the droid and have a report, you call another one, load in the correct survey device and the report, select the resource from the report and send the droid to the planet. It lands at random, surveys for the selected item then heads for the highest reported spot from the survey, surveys again and heads the that spot, continuing until it's found the highest spot for that resouce in that
Ieshedi
Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:40 am
#141



I wholeheartedly agree with thesurveying droids needing to be useful. I don't know of anyone that uses them. It's cheaper to grab a spaceport ticket out, survey and head back.



The droids should have three functions:

1) The one we've seen. But to make it useful...

2) Add ability to send a second droid loaded with the surveying device and the report from the first droid to find the resource value of a selected resouce from the report.

In other words... I'd send a droid to a planet surveying for minerals. I reports back with all minerals, three are steel. I send three more droids each one looking for the specifics of the three steels.

3) I should also be ableto load a previous report, a survey device, select the resource from the report and send the droid to the planet to find and report the coords and % it found.

How that would work is that the droid landsAT RANDOM on the planet, surveys for the selected item (if it doesn't find it moves at random and tries again). Once it finds the resource it then heads for the highest reported spot from the survey, surveys again and heads the that spot, continuing until it's found the highest spot for that resouce. With that ability, I'd send 4 or 5 to a planet looking for them to try and find good areas for my extractors.


Sorry for the multiple partial posts of this message, hit the wrong key.

06-30-200406:30 AM
Ieshedi
Wed Jun 30, 2004 6:54 am
#142






Lagon_Flood wrote:

I accept the fact now that there are going to be hundreds of Jedi, kicking and screaming but I accept. But now I plead before you, make it so that the Jedi are actually a littel weary of being so publicyl noticed. I've already seen 10 jedi lightsabers out in the coronet starport. Since they can't be TEF'd now, how about some kind of trigger that would cause Stormtrooper commando's or even Vader to come out after them if say, so many people turn them in after sighting them.


With all these public Jedi, showing off their stuff in the Starports, it kind of detracts away from Luke's importance of the jedi, since "that boy is our last hope" (-ObiWan to Yoda) ..."no, there is another" (Yoda to Obi-wan, refering to Leia). Why doesnt Yoda say something like to Obi-Wan along the lines of "no, there are several hundred Jedi's yet".


As Grand Moff Tarkin says to Vader "their fire has gone out of the universe....you my friend are all that's left of thier religion".


I accept now that people want to be Jedi, as did I once. But i wanted to be a Jedi within the Star Wars trilogy, knowing that Vader would come to kill me, that I would have to hide and live in solitude, as Obi-wan and Yoda did.


Please, I beg you SOE, please try to conform to some kind of continuity with the movies. My passion for this game comes from the passion I have for the movies. Each update seems to push more and more away from the movies, and it leaves me very sad, knowing what this game could be still.





Unfortunately, I believe the game is moving too far towards "everyone gets to be a jedi". I don't care to be a jedi, nor do I care for a lot of combat (Ok. some combat's cool, I'm not that far gone.)


But if all I wanted was a first person shooter, well, there are plenty of them. As a master Artisan/Architect, I'm interested in crafting and marketing. Give me meaningful quests for my profession. And how about a market that supports my profession? Now there's a concept! Get the NPC involved in the market aspect to move goods. They give out combat missions for money. How about non-combat missions for badges or rewards to complete crafting quests and projects, ie craft City Buildings (City Hall and PA) for a fictitional new secret Rebel city on planet yayaya, gives a reward of a limited use house schematic. <sigh> But, no. Guess I'll have to figure out how to use a lightsaber if I want to continue in the game.



Taeggas
Wed Jun 30, 2004 9:05 am
#143


(Wow! This thread went to7 pages real quick! Doubt anything written here will be seen...)


Interface:

You should go peek over the SOE wallsto the Everquest camp to see how they implemented a customizable interface about two years ago. All the boxes, buttons, and windows are based on fully customizable XML files.


The EQ community (Like http://www.eqinterface.com/downloads/index.php wasquick to provide hundreds and thousands of variations of interface files so that you could chose exactly how you wanted the screen to look.


Would be very nice.


Speeder Maintenance:

Could this be changed to work like house maintenance?

It would be nice to be able to pre-pay for your speeder on nights when you know you'll be far from a garage. Or, allow ushow much money we want to pay (up to the full amount). I'm probably not the only one who would keep their speeder just below the 'starts to smoke' threshold.



Loot:

I think adding high level foods and spices to the drop table would benefit everyone! First... it'd be nice to loot something that's actually useful for a change. Second... it would introduce a lot of players to the joys of food/spices who would normally have never bothered thereby creating new consumers to keep the economy rolling!


It took just one swig of Brandy for me to know that I'll probably never hunt without it again! That stuff is as bad as KEI was for Everquest!



House Status:

The house status window should indicate the max number of items allowed like all the other containers. (For example "96/150")



A real chat filter:

'nuff said


/report

Please allow this to also report harassment in tells as well as /say. I was scammed by another player and was quite clever in getting him to admit it all in tells only to have a CSR tell me "nope... you have to get him to admit it again in /say for me to do anything".


Message Boards/Kiosks for Player Cities:

I'm picturing something that looks like a vendor tent with bills posted on it. Examining it could bring up messages like the in-game email interface.

Link it to the city residents list for the ability to post and allow for public and city-only posts.

Would be a great way for mayors or PA leaders to get the word out about city issues etc.



Message Edited by Taeggas on 06-30-2004 12:22 PM

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