Development Cycle Archive
Thread: In-Concept Open Discussion (6-21-04)
Munter
Sun Jun 20, 2004 7:06 pm
#144
They say SWG is about the Galactic Civil War and Jedi. Me thinks it is about much more...it is about actually living in a different Universe..one born of fantasy.
As such, whilest the umbreller theme is war there are many more other aspects (other then fighting) which could be developed. I mean, be honest right now almost everything is geared toward clubbering each other.
A few thoughts to the none war aspects of SWG
Nice places where players can meet and chat. Really beaut places of which many of the 1950th and 1960th writers dreamed and wrote about likebeautiful Gardens, Parks, lakes and river systems. The graphic quality of SWG isso capable that they ought to be used to the fullest. Bella Vista is just one Example of this.
There are a few Universities where on entering pleasing music can be heard. I like to sit there and listen and just wished that there were more places like this. Just imagine a Theatre where there is a NPC band playing classical (Starwars classical ) music, or a group of NPC's actually putting on a show.
I also miss libraries where one actually can sit down and read Starwars Stories. I miss all the little nick-knacks which make life so much more pleasing. I played Morrowind quite a bit and always did like the in game richness of culture found there and also all the little short-stories pertaining to the games history and peoples. There are books about all kind of skills and amusing tales galore. This is really nice entertainment and I spend hours reading, sitting under a tree next to a pretty lake.
Ok, all this just slows down the game you say. My answer is simply I don't mind zoning if the results are worth it and Luke did more then swing a light-sabre. I really would like to walk into a Starwars restaurant one day, having the waiter come up and presenting the menue of the day to me 
Do I hear you say I am a dreamer...you are right,I am most certainly..but then..that is what Starwars is all about.. A Dream. Don't get me wrong here, but I am one of those oldies who were in their teens when the first ever Starwars film was released. Starwars is more then War, much more.. it is a Dream about the future of humanity, it is a Vision about the Good found in humanity winning over the Evil which is so readily found everywhere. SWG is not about fighting only...but it is about fighting for a goal..something which much of the present generation seems to miss out on.
For this Dream to concentrate only on a few who wish to kill their opponents as quickly and efficianly as possible misses in my opinion the mark be miles. There is more fun in living then in dieing.
Riis
Sun Jun 20, 2004 9:25 pm
#145
My TOP Issues:
- Backpacks are very un-immersive as storage devices in a building. At FanFest, I was led to believe that converting chests, armoires and bookcases into storage devices was not an overly hard thing. Please do this.
- Now that we have secured word of the "bacta" instead of "cloning" change, I would like to present a new Star Wars continuity issue, which is: Lack of Imperial Control. We need an Imperial Crackdown, one which puts terror in Rebels' hearts, one which pushes people into the Imperial camp out of fear.
- We need more holograms in the game. Holoart, holograms attached to signs, holograms displaying when you take a mission. Holograms are VERY immersive, and VERY Star Wars thematic.
RbT
obsydian13
Sun Jun 20, 2004 11:18 pm
#146
Solo groups are a recent irritant that prevent real player interaction, which is especially irritating since I'm a creature handler who can't get decent experience due to the lack of groups available. One potential way to discourage solo grouping is to make mission payouts distribute to every group member, regardless of distance (even to other planets). Also require that the mission owner be in the vicinity of the lair for the payout to happen at all.
White-Thunder
Mon Jun 21, 2004 1:06 am
#147
This idea regards Jedi, and I'm sorry to dredge up the Jedi discussion again. But this is my idea.
Make a Jedi padawan able to choose a Master, and a Master agree to tutelage this Padawan. Binding the two characters together would encourage an RP aspect (I know I'd roleplay the part!), but more specifically when the apprentice is hunting with his master, he gets a percentage increase to his experience gain, like 20%. When the apprentice reaches knighthood (E.G. Facing the trials), the Master recieves a large boost to hiss force ranking. Bringing a Jedi to knighthood speaks well of your skills as a Jedi yourself. The restrictions neccessary for this system are listed below. (at least the ones i've come up with.)
2 Week delay in between uses... this prevents instant switching so a person could hunt with any jedi and get the bonus.
Master must have attained knighthood himself, and have a certain number of skill points immersed in Jedi-ish skills.
Master can only have one apprentice, and the apprentice only one master... subject to the two week limitation listed above.
A limitation must be put where a Jedi can only give Force Ranking to a Master for his FIRST attainment of knighthood. No dropping and getting it right back (got to avoid those exploits)
I'm sure there are other exploits that could be done even with the limitations I've described, but this is all I could think of at this moment.
BB
Make a Jedi padawan able to choose a Master, and a Master agree to tutelage this Padawan. Binding the two characters together would encourage an RP aspect (I know I'd roleplay the part!), but more specifically when the apprentice is hunting with his master, he gets a percentage increase to his experience gain, like 20%. When the apprentice reaches knighthood (E.G. Facing the trials), the Master recieves a large boost to hiss force ranking. Bringing a Jedi to knighthood speaks well of your skills as a Jedi yourself. The restrictions neccessary for this system are listed below. (at least the ones i've come up with.)
2 Week delay in between uses... this prevents instant switching so a person could hunt with any jedi and get the bonus.
Master must have attained knighthood himself, and have a certain number of skill points immersed in Jedi-ish skills.
Master can only have one apprentice, and the apprentice only one master... subject to the two week limitation listed above.
A limitation must be put where a Jedi can only give Force Ranking to a Master for his FIRST attainment of knighthood. No dropping and getting it right back (got to avoid those exploits)
I'm sure there are other exploits that could be done even with the limitations I've described, but this is all I could think of at this moment.
BB
Kaira
Mon Jun 21, 2004 2:39 am
#148
Hello SWG - Team,
me and my guildmates do not feel very satisfied with the challenges offered on the planets for our Team(PvE).
Well, there are Krayt Dragons (perma camped, and they dont do specials anymore as it seems. i can remember times when a dragon breath killed 3 teammates at once)
Nightsisters
Kimogilas
Gorax
perhaps you can talk to your team and find out if its possible to set up one GUILD MISSION TERMINAL per planet.
it should work like this:
- to open the terminal you may only be grouped with guildmates. (at least 10)
- the missions offered will pop up the highest level mobs/NPCs of the current Planet.
- the mission payout should be signifficantly low (like 10k) and be directly transferred to the guildhalls treasury.
- pack it into a nice story like: the moisture farmer on tatooine gets terrorised by a krayt that made his nest near his farm. We show up the farmer and his son are alredy fighting the krayt. we save their butts and if both survive we get an extra donation ( broken datapad ? 
)
) - no one else except the guild may attack the target.
- the target will only spawn if allguildmates who took the mission show up within a certain range of the waypoint.
the same with overt groups give some big factional missions. Challenging and rewarding. Doesnt matter if its something forthe guild-crafter or directly useable but dont forget a reward.
Perhaps this little content for guild only makes a guild more attractive
greets
Rypht
Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:53 am
#149
First off, one thing that has peeved me off for a very long time, and its a small thing. Make belts and bandoliers fit properly!! My Zabrak used to wear a belt when the game first launched, and it form fit properly then, then a patch came and suddenly I was wearing a hula hoop. Its an article of clothing I flat out refuse to wear until its fixed. Sorry if that's not the point of this thread but I had to get it off my chest.
Another issue that's been brought up a number of times, storage. Storage in houses, storage in banks, there simply isn't enough of it. I would venture to guess that 3 out of 4 houses are nothing more than storage dumps that the player spends time in. If you would just increase the storage limits on these structures, you could unclutter half the wilderness out there by removing the necessity for it. I imagine this would greatly reduce lag and burden on the servers as well if you wouldn't have to loada ton ofunnecessary houses. Makechests, amoires, andbookshelves working containers, increase the storage capacity for houses and banks, and lets make things easier on all of us.
I know its been said that the JTL plans for professions haven't been finalized, but I really think it would be a good time to consider either offering some additional skill points, or reworking the skill program. When you introduced the holocrons (yes, I'm aware this is changing), you pretty much threw out the idea that what your character did mattered. To me, and probably others, unlocking the force slot wasn't originallyabout how many of the various professions you have powered through, but what actions your character took part in, or avoided in their career. If you must make it that players are to traverse the spectrum of the various professions, why not make a system where players can continue to learn, ALL professions and skills, without having to surrender that hard work, yet allow players to then choose which of their wide variety of accumulated knowledge to have active and what to keep available for another time. Of course keep the tree system, but just have simple toggle switch letting the player arrange the character that they want to play (within the 250 skill point limit and including all necessary prerequisite skills), any way they want it. The players after all have put the time in, why punish them by making them give up the progress they've made? This really would free people up from the grinding, and allow them to get back to actually playingwhat should be an incredibly socialgame.
GCW related idea, rather than have players spend ungodly amounts of faction points to purchase armor that wears out, consider giving the schematics to armorsmiths as part of their ordinary skill package but throw a twist in there. The armor can only be created by the armorsmith while he is overt, also, make the armor require a unique component item that can only be obtained as a faction perk (note: should be significantly cheaper thanwhat already made faction armor costs to promote interaction between trades)available only to overt player. Similar methods could be used to integrate faction related crafts into all trade professions. By doing this, you are nudging people into participating more for their faction, improving the feel that there are actually two sides out there, giving new jobs to tradesmen, and making a much needed aspect of the game more accessible to all.
Rypht
Mon Jun 21, 2004 3:54 am
#150
First off, one thing that has peeved me off for a very long time, and its a small thing. Make belts and bandoliers fit properly!! My Zabrak used to wear a belt when the game first launched, and it form fit properly then, then a patch came and suddenly I was wearing a hula hoop. Its an article of clothing I flat out refuse to wear until its fixed. Sorry if that's not the point of this thread but I had to get it off my chest.
Another issue that's been brought up a number of times, storage. Storage in houses, storage in banks, there simply isn't enough of it. I would venture to guess that 3 out of 4 houses are nothing more than storage dumps that the player spends time in. If you would just increase the storage limits on these structures, you could unclutter half the wilderness out there by removing the necessity for it. I imagine this would greatly reduce lag and burden on the servers as well if you wouldn't have to loada ton ofunnecessary houses. Makechests, amoires, andbookshelves working containers, increase the storage capacity for houses and banks, and lets make things easier on all of us.
I know its been said that the JTL plans for professions haven't been finalized, but I really think it would be a good time to consider either offering some additional skill points, or reworking the skill program. When you introduced the holocrons (yes, I'm aware this is changing), you pretty much threw out the idea that what your character did mattered. To me, and probably others, unlocking the force slot wasn't originallyabout how many of the various professions you have powered through, but what actions your character took part in, or avoided in their career. If you must make it that players are to traverse the spectrum of the various professions, why not make a system where players can continue to learn, ALL professions and skills, without having to surrender that hard work, yet allow players to then choose which of their wide variety of accumulated knowledge to have active and what to keep available for another time. Of course keep the tree system, but just have simple toggle switch letting the player arrange the character that they want to play (within the 250 skill point limit and including all necessary prerequisite skills), any way they want it. The players after all have put the time in, why punish them by making them give up the progress they've made? This really would free people up from the grinding, and allow them to get back to actually playingwhat should be an incredibly socialgame.
GCW related idea, rather than have players spend ungodly amounts of faction points to purchase armor that wears out, consider giving the schematics to armorsmiths as part of their ordinary skill package but throw a twist in there. The armor can only be created by the armorsmith while he is overt, also, make the armor require a unique component item that can only be obtained as a faction perk (note: should be significantly cheaper thanwhat already made faction armor costs to promote interaction between trades)available only to overt player. Similar methods could be used to integrate faction related crafts into all trade professions. By doing this, you are nudging people into participating more for their faction, improving the feel that there are actually two sides out there, giving new jobs to tradesmen, and making a much needed aspect of the game more accessible to all.
Neige
Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:10 am
#151
More stupid ideas by Neige:
Roads
Yes many things are flying in SWG, but you added vehicles and mounts a while ago. Adding roads between static cities and tracks branching to player cities and POI would add a great deal of immersion (and a bit of a bonus to terrain negotiation).
Caps
Stop making things harder to achieve, make them plain impossible. This is the only way casual players (the game's audience of choice, remember ?) will stop being trampled over by 24/7 online hardcore players. cap money, cap dayly XP gain (woops this WILL be impopular), cap money (imperial taxes), Cap buffs, cap armors, cap damage. Somethings are possible, something clearly shouldnt be, as soloing a rancor or a lair of nightsisters. Caping stuff would make the game enjoyable again. What ? ... yes i know, every issues will be adressed in combat balance.
Ticket collector
The 3PO model is a very render intensive model (high ploy count, reflexions and bump)... maybe we could add a bit of atmosphere by having different collectors , shuttleport getting some fat bellied humans, richest starport magnificent twilek hostesses, remote outpost sturdy R5 units
XionVii
Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:16 am
#152
Player Citys NEED AN UPGRADE!
Like i mean adding a texture to ground, adding possable wals like in cornet and that.
And maybe add Decerative Buildings, like skyscrappers and that, maybe have people be able to enter them or just have them for show.
-Civil War-
Allow people to get at-sts! maybe have at-ats only accsessable to top ranked players or somthin and cost a ton of fp, like maybe 30k-60k for an at-at
Take off turret control or improve it. Improve as in maybe give the player the ability to see a view outside of turret! Its a pain clicking on targets and saying out of range or cannon attack! i would like 2 c why it cant or somthin.
Instead of bases coming with extra troopers, allow the person to order them instead. It would cost more fp to maintain a base yes but it could make the base stronger maybe, like Imp base has i think 2 at-sts and 15-20 troops, But if i called them in i could call maybe up to 5-10 at-sts or somthin, and maybe allow us to set Patrole points for them and that... Somone was attacking our base and the at-st was on the other side of the base and just sat there...
This is a wish thing but maybe u could put somthin like this in: When you grow a rank in ur base you get like 1-2 points to distribute on a command Tree (like a profession) like there could be, Troop Controll: how many troops you can have out at once - Max level of troops u can have out at once
Base controll
Turret controll
and a skill do delagate faction points or somthin, u get where im going? it would be more interestesting to see somthing like that for ranks.
I know alot of this is far fetched and will prob never hit the game,.
Trezier
Mon Jun 21, 2004 7:55 am
#153
Thunder,
I don't know if this was brought up but here it goes anyways.
I was playing Jabba's theme park and you sort of get that "I'm one of Jabba's cronies" feeling. Like your a part of something as a whole. Sure, others may have their views on this, but since I roleplay a bunch... I sort of put myself into it. Then I got to thinking, why not put some sort of title for these themes, and better yet, factions?
IE: Imagine the Jabba Theme Park as a layout. As it is. Reelo, Ree-Yees, Ephant Mon, etc etc. Levels in a way. Is it possible, to "gain" a title option when completing their set of missions? A title just like if you completed one branch of a profession. Like "Dead-Eye" for Accuracy Pistoleer. Say if you complete Reelo's set, you gain the ability to put "Jabba's Worrt", and then Ree-Yees you gain "Jabba's Thug", Ephant Mon... "Jabba's Hired Merc"... so on and so forth. Bib-"Jabba's Assassin", And finally Jabba "Jabba's Favored Henchman"
It's a small thing, and who knows if it's possible to program into the game easily, but it would add a nice detailed layer onto a roleplaying/fun aspect. And if it worked for the theme parks, perhaps a way to apply it to major factions as well, say Tuskens, Jawas, Trade Federation, etc etc.
Just a random idea as I was playing. Anyways, what does everyone else think?
I was playing Jabba's theme park and you sort of get that "I'm one of Jabba's cronies" feeling. Like your a part of something as a whole. Sure, others may have their views on this, but since I roleplay a bunch... I sort of put myself into it. Then I got to thinking, why not put some sort of title for these themes, and better yet, factions?
IE: Imagine the Jabba Theme Park as a layout. As it is. Reelo, Ree-Yees, Ephant Mon, etc etc. Levels in a way. Is it possible, to "gain" a title option when completing their set of missions? A title just like if you completed one branch of a profession. Like "Dead-Eye" for Accuracy Pistoleer. Say if you complete Reelo's set, you gain the ability to put "Jabba's Worrt", and then Ree-Yees you gain "Jabba's Thug", Ephant Mon... "Jabba's Hired Merc"... so on and so forth. Bib-"Jabba's Assassin", And finally Jabba "Jabba's Favored Henchman"
It's a small thing, and who knows if it's possible to program into the game easily, but it would add a nice detailed layer onto a roleplaying/fun aspect. And if it worked for the theme parks, perhaps a way to apply it to major factions as well, say Tuskens, Jawas, Trade Federation, etc etc.
Just a random idea as I was playing. Anyways, what does everyone else think?
Timithos-Chau
Mon Jun 21, 2004 8:34 am
#154
Some more poor ideas:
Armor:
Putting time delays on either attacking or donning composite pieces of armor is a bad idea.Nerfing composite armor isnot a complete solution.What needs to happen is that the entire armor system needs a revamp. All armor needs to be more versatile. For example, the stun vulnerability on the composite armor is causing people to design character templatesjust for theoffensive stun capabilities.
Each armor type should be "king" in some resistant area. For instance, ubese should be made "king of kinetic". As it stands now, primo ubese is 79% kinetic, but composite can blow that and everything away (except stun) with 90%. Each armor type should be the undefeated champion in 1 or 2 damage resistance areas. Also, each armor type should have only 1 or 2 vulnerabilites built in. Ubese could be made "king" of kinetic, Composite could be made "king" of Energy, Bone could be "king" of electrical, Chitin could be "king" of acid, Mabari could be made "king" of blast, etc. There should be no more useless armor types like Bone which only covers 3 damage areas. Every armor type should haveALL the damage type resistances. A vulnerability should not mean that a piece of armor has zero protection in an area, but it should mean that it is very weak in that area (such as 10%).
In for this to work better, every weapon profession needs a choice of 4-5 damage type weapons to utilize. A TK with just a vibro knuckler is unacceptable and leads to a profession that is weak against all kinetc armor.
Aside from the couple, built-in strengths and vulnerabilities, armorsmiths should be able to pick and choose where they want to build in strengths and/or weakness on the other damage types to a greater degree then they do now.Armorsmiths need more versatility in designing armor, basicly. Also, there should be a greater variety of rare components to help tweak their armor up into unique pieces.
*******
Money caps are a bad idea. If you want to tweak money sinks here, or mission payouts there, than fine, but don't cap the money. When it comes to money and the economy, please don't listen to a bunch ofpublic-school-system indoctrinated socialists screaming for money caps.One player quoted their real life disgustingmantra of "the filthy rich andthe poor." Don't let thesetype players redistribute the wealth in this game to takefrom the producers and go-getters togive to the non-producers. This isn't communist Russia. I don't want socialism in my game.. thank you very much.
*******
Poeple have been requesting outdoor items for their porches and patios. That's fine with one caveat: Don't allow these item to load or be seen by passer-by's. We don't need the extra lag. Turn their porches/patios into "indoor" areas only.
*********
obsydian13 wrote:
Solo groups are a recent irritant that prevent real player interaction, which is especially irritating since I'm a creature handler who can't get decent experience due to the lack of groups available. One potential way to discourage solo grouping is to make mission payouts distribute to every group member, regardless of distance (even to other planets). Also require that the mission owner be in the vicinity of the lair for the payout to happen at all.
I'm a big proponent of player interaction, but this idea is not sound. Mission payout distribution is the very reason why players don't group together in the first place. If you instituted a system where missions paid out at unlimited distances, players would stop grouping and all. They would move on to real solo groups by themselves and just whip out droids/creatures and get by the best they could. Grouping/camping needs a total revamp. Players need more incentive to group together including higher xp share, higher credit chare, higher harvesting share etc. Camping needs to be very lucrative for all the medical and entertaining professions. Even crafters need better item use xp when their items are being used and they are present in a group/camp. Then, and only then, can you make creatures harder to kill - when grouping/camping is worthwhile!
Before you do any "discourage solo grouping", you need to actually encourage grouping to begin with!
Bobafett34
Mon Jun 21, 2004 9:10 am
#155
Thunder, PLZ LOOK.
For all of the people who decorate thier homes in SWG, I think the lack of paintings on the walls disapoint many players. Ioffer a solution that I dont think would be to hard.
1. Small picture frames. These small picture frames would go on tables, desks, bookshelves, etc. But the difference would be, that people would put thier own screenshots into the pictures. So, whenever somebody /examined the picture, it would show the screenshot in greater detail. The problem with this is people putting unsuitable material into there picture frames, but we could have a screening system of some kind. I mean, all it takes is somebody to see if the picture is a screenshot of something star wars galaxies related. The same would be for larger pictures. They would just upload there own image, and have it on thier wall. So they could show there own achievements. Also, crafters could use them to decorate thier house, by making custom signs in photoshop, or any other image editing program they wanted.
Bobafett34
Mon Jun 21, 2004 9:13 am
#156
one more thing. I think holograms are a big part of SWG and would like to see them on houses, and vendor tents. They also would be helpful in places like coronet. Instead of people being able to spam thier slogans, you would see a scrolling text holo message above thier heads. I would also like to see some kind of customizable outter banner for guild halls so you can personalize them for your guild.