Development Cycle Archive
Thread: IC4: Path of the Jedi
Imperio59 wrote:
Every character in SWg is FS, to a certain degree. You are weak with the force, you are not attuned with it, your mind is not clear...
Here's how i envision your path to "enlightment": "quoted" passages are RP, Un quoted are Game actions...
"It was a late night in the bestine cantina. After days of trying to find information about the force, he had finally found it. The imperial army had tried to destroy every possible datapad with information on it, they had decimated the jedis, they bombed the old jedi archives, but he had finally found it: a shiny blue holocron. It had taken him some time to understand the mechanics of it, but once he got it to work, it emitted a slow blue pulse, and suddenly his datapad had sprang to life. a new waypoint had been added, to this very cantina. The description was brief, it said "To begin his journey towards enlightement, a jedi must first learn the ways of the force..." He had ended up in the cantina, and to his surprise, standing nearby the waypoint, was an old-looking Twi'lek male in a dark Shirt sitting at a table sipping some Single malt Firewhysky... "This holocron is fantastic", he thought, "like if it had sensed the presence of this old man...." He approached him carefully, and before he could sit down, the twi'lek started:
"I know why you have come, young one. your mind is full of chaos and your soul is much too filled with hatred, anger, passion, love... If you wish for me to teach you what i know, you must first clear your mind... Once you have done so, come back, and i start you on your journey" "
Imperia used her holocron. Her screen flickered as a new waypoint was added to the WP monitor. she rushed onto a shuttle and ended up in bestine cantina. Before she could click the NPc he said : "(the above text
)" She wondered what she had to do next to open her FSCS...
"And so she tried, she cleared her mind, every day, she practiced, sitting down, medidtating, tryng to clear her mind. One week passed, and she felt she was ready. She went back to the cantina and spoke once more to the old Twi'lek:
"I sense you have cleared your mind, that is well. The force is strong in you, i can sense it now. I will tell you what i know of the force..." "
She triedto click the NPc again but he told her to come back when she was ready.. she decided to wait, and she came back every day for a week until one day, the NC talked to her and explained to her what the force was, midichlorians and such. The NPC then gave her another quest. She would have to go to another NPC on another planet, an NPC deep in the wild, who would help her advance through her journey.
She traveled to the NPc, and when she arrived, 10 red con mobs aggroed the NPc, and he cried for help:
" "Help me! Help me!" She quickly pulled out her trusty Vibro Knucklers and started slashing left and right. One after the other, the attackers fell down as she striked, until they were none... she helped the zabrak female back up and introduced herself. She said she was sent by the old Twi'lek from the bestine cantina. The zabrak female suddenly seemed more alert and she asked imperia to prove to her that she was worthy of her teachings by doing a quest for her."
The NPc gave her a waypoint, and she was given no other form of directions as to what might be at the coordinates... she decided to try it anyways, and she went there... There stood another NPC, seemingly waiting for her. He introduced himself and she clicked him to talk to him. The NPc explained to her that the Zabrak female NPc was wrong, that the only true force there ever was was the dark side, and that she should let her anger flow through her. She paused and thought quickly. If she agreed, she would fall to the dark side. On the other hand, if she slayed the NPC, it would show that she was full of anger and the other NPc might not talk to her again. she decided to refuse the NPCs offer. The NPC pulled out a redpolearm saber andattacked her but she fled back to the Zabrak Female:
""You are back, i have felt a disturbance in the force, what happened?"
"the person at the coordinates tried to get me to fall to the dark sie, he tried to take me down when i refused, but i managed to escape..."
"Verry good, my young one, you learn fast. a jedi never kills un necessarily, and in this case, it was not necessary... You have made progress, and i foresee great things for your future... I am afraid that i cannot teach ou any further. You must walk the rest of the path without me, but who knows, maybe someone else will help you..."
This ends this small "thing" here
I forgot to mention, the holocron dissapears when she uses it, like the current holos. Had she used a sith holo, the quest would have been backwards, she would have found a dark trainer and have been given the opporutnity to go light thereafter...
If she uses another holocron, she will get another one of these quests, up to 4 of them. She could of course find these npcs randomly, by talking to any NPc anywhere. Each person would have 5 NPCs they need to talk to and do quests for to completion. Then they will have another thing to do (i am unsure as to what yet) and they will unlock. It could be a random spawn quest (a life changing random event, for luke it was buying R2, for anakin it was saving jar jar from watto, etc...). If you have already used holos and completed their professions, you only have X numbers of quests left to go... If you go fully light side on your quests, you can still "fall" to the dark side when you have your slot open, but it will require quests... If you are dark when you open FSCS, you can still change, but it will require another set of quests, whereby you must prove that you have "changed your ways".
The Jedi skill trees need not change, the decision of light or dark side (and wether you want to go thru quests to switch sides) is made when you reach master padawan and want to train novice knight...
The random NPC-finding thing: This would be coded in rather 'easily', i think: Each NPC already has an ID number (well, hopefully, for Database management!!!) When you activate a holo, a random number is picked from that list, a Waypoint is given, etc... When you activate your 4th holo, and finish those quests, another Id number is randomly assigned to you. (or it is assigned based on character creation info, doesnt matter, it's "pseudo-random"...) If you then click that NPC on occasion, it will override that NPC's default chat list, and it will act like an FS quest giver... Once that quest is done, you are ALMOSt there. I think there should then be a random spawn involved, a "life altering" event. Maybe you have become so attuned with the force that you get a system message if you are on the right planet, telling you you sense a strong feeling in the force in the nearby area, and you get to search the area until you find your NPC. That NPc will then give you a last quest, and a last chance to fall to dark, (or maybe switch back to light), and once completed, you open.
That means that, to sum it up and make it clearer (it's late, i'll edit this tomorrow for clarity
Open 4 holos, (or find the 4 npcs assigned to you): do each of their quest sets to full completion.
Find your 5th random NPc, this could be ANY static NPC, of ANY faction, of ANY affiliation, in ANY city, on ANY planet, ANYWHERE... (see it's pretty random...) Find him, click him, get a system message and music saying you feel the force is strong with that NPC (as you should get will all 4 other NPCs...)
Then you have to travel on all planets, search each area, until you get a "the force is strong within this area" message... In a 2Km X 2Km radius, your NPC is there. Find him, do a last quest or two, and boom, you've opened.
Comments: I know this would probably be a headache to implement, but you want to to things properly (no more GRINDING!!!) and this comes close. You could have survey missions, as well as ent and medic, and combat missions gven by these NPCs... But there should be at least: One healer type mission, one crafter type mission, one combat type. Someone opening FSCS should have at least explored these 3 aspects of the game... You may have to change your skill set to complete some of these missions, or at least get your friend's cooperation...
Holocrons are still in, and still a major part of this system. I feel it is needed, if it is totally clueless and there are no hints, it's not fun, it's like searching a needle in a 10 000 cubic meter haystack. SWG world is HUGE, it encompases hundreds of quests and hundreds if not thousands of NPCs! There need to be hints at the beggining, and some mystery in the end as well
I know this is not perfect, but this is a discussion, I'm giving my ideas, and as long as it contributes to this, i'm glad... Even if you only pick one tiny small insignificant idea from this thread, i'm glad!
Feel free to expand on this, or even comment on how changes could be made to make this better. I apologize for the typos. and remember, if you read a sentence that is not logical up there, it's probably me, so don't stress over it
Good night and good grinding!
I would love to see more dynamism in the quests themselves, as opposed tot he quest-givers. I would like to have quest options that can be failed or screwed up, or even lead to a different set of options with a different NPC. If I fail in one of these quests, I should be able to go back to that NPC, or perhaps at least not for quite some time. So I will be forced to go in search of another trainer.
Perhaps I screw up so many times with the Lightside NPC that I have no recourse but to go to the Darkside NPC for training.
I would love to see more dynamism in the quests themselves, as opposed tot he quest-givers. I would like to have quest options that can be failed or screwed up, or even lead to a different set of options with a different NPC. If I fail in one of these quests, I should be able to go back to that NPC, or perhaps at least not for quite some time. So I will be forced to go in search of another trainer.
Perhaps I screw up so many times with the Lightside NPC that I have no recourse but to go to the Darkside NPC for training.
Imperio59 wrote:
I just thought up of something crazy, but it just might be good: If you use holocrons (assuming thye still are a part of the equation) or if you take on FSCS quests, etc, your MAIN character gets player bounties on him. Kind of like a small taste of a real jdi's life. Vader doesnt want people to become padawans or even touch a lightsaber, so he tries to stop them before they even open their slot....
I know alot of these crafter types and socialiser types wil get pissed, but i must ask you, you realise that a jedi in this game is 24/7 constant PvP? or almost? it is just fighting. You say that 'oh but we like crafting, we are socialisers, but we still want to play jedis"... isn't that just contradicting the essence of what a jedi is: a fighting class? "Nuff said...
Many people have mentioned their desire to havy dynamic quest content, and I think community concensus is that this would be the ideal environment for such. Instead of static NPC missions and boring fetch jobs for hours on end, build in quests that reflect the philosophies and detail of the books and movies. Enough with the "kill the krayt and get your FS slot" crap. That has nothing to do with becoming a Jedi of either order.
Make a plethora of quest options, with varied and dynamic content, so that if someone should fail in one respect they might still succeed in another.
I very stronlgy believe, as many do, that the components for the lightsabres should be quest-based. One does not simply walk into a bazarre and buy themselves a Force crystal for a BILLION credits, though the asenine method that these components have been included has ensure that is what happens time and time again.
The completion of the Padawan's training involves the construction of their own lightsabre, as is expressed in ALL of the Star Wars continuity as well as every approved Star Wars supplement and game since the dawn of the epic. It should NOT be possible for someone to loot a Force-crystal and KNOW that it is a Force-crystal, unless they are themselves attuned to the Force. Did the Devs in charge of this aspect of the game base it on Nintendo? Did they have no concept of content?
When a character successfully gets Padawan they should be given a training lightsabre that the trainer can repair (assuming lightsabres should even have ite, decay given that they are Force-attuned objects not unlike Holocrons). As they get better with their lightsabre skills, whichever one it might be, they should receive new training sabres to reflect their mastery, thus improving the capabilities of the weapon which "is your life."
When the time comes to complete the Knight trials, they should have to undergo a significant series of quests to assemble to the rare components of their lightsabre AND have to acquire the common components from the appropriate crafter: "Yes, I am the DE, and I can make you a power converter that size, but why would you want one?" At this point the burgeoning Jedi Knight is able also to seek out their own additions, such as a krayt pearl (though why in the hell that has anything to do with the Force is beyond me), and any other possibilities open at the time.
Once the components are assembled, they should return to the trainer and if they have at least all the basic components the trainer should provide them with the proper crafting tool, which they will then keep for future use. They then sit down and craft their first lightsabre of their own, and once it is complete they get a +10 lightsabre accuracy whenever using a lightsabre of their own design (or some other appropriate bonus).
This is an integral component to all Padawan growth and training and SHOULD NOT BE LEFT OUT!
Thank you.
I'd like players to be somewhat hand picked by the devs for force sensitivity...hear me out:
Players who have been around a while, done the theme parks, got 75 badges, done a couple different professions, joined a guild, made some cash, etc - basically seen the majority of the game, should be shortlisted for sensitivity. These are the guys who deserve it, as they need a new challenge.
Once the devs pick a couple of these guys from this short list, they make them force sensitive without them knowing. Then through NPC dialogue, perhaps random spawns like the hermit quests, these people are tested via different quests; through combat, puzzle solving, and morality. As they do the right thing and pass these tests, voices come to them like Obi-Wan used to speak to Luke telling them they are following the correct path, or falling to the dark side. This process continues over several weeks of play with more such tests appearing every now and then during this time, until they get so far as to be greeted by a blue glowy, who officially makes them padawans, at which point they progress as they are on TC2 right now.
All jedi a server my arse! The devs WANT to limit the number of Jedi in the game not increase them. Take a look at the system now. With hard play you can grind out a jedi in 3-4 months IF you happen to have to master the MAJORITY, if you get lucky it may be much quicker.
Now lets look at the number of HOLO grinders currently in the game. I would submitt that its a very HUGE amount and the devs are starting to panic. Plus the way to become a jedi is kinda lame and needed a change to make it more interesting then just grinding out proffessions.
The change in the system the way the devs have describe it has so much potential and I for one am looking forward to it, however, I want to open my fs before then. I will still go thrugh the quest with my other slot to enjoy that part of the game.
Now do you think for one second that the Devs are gonna make his as fast as holo grinding. I would wager to bet NOT. I imagine opening your FS the quest way will take much longer and the number of Jedi poping up will be more evenly dispursed and heck some people may just give up.
Also they are making your main Force Senstive there is nothing being said you have to start down that road to becoming a JEDI and I am sure many people wont!.
My hats off to the new changes in the FS unlock system, that also includes the new Jedi Quests they are implenting along witht he PVP councils. Not sure I like all there ideas but definetly one of thier better nerfs.