Development Cycle Archive

Thread: IC4: Path of the Jedi

loomis001
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:05 pm
#209

heres what i force slot quest i want



1. diffrent quest depending on your professon like explorer,social etc


2. non campable mobs or any eq epic type mobs


3. unique quest giver per player that only that person can activate


4. can be done solo



Member of the inqusitor of the Imperial Navy, imperial dark jedi
Sl1cerOne
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:05 pm
#210





I think the quest method of FSCS is a must. Thank you for changing.


I am not trying to be negative, but I think these are things that should not be a part of the quest system:



  • Not part of the quest should require me to destroy my character. If I am a master bounty hunter, I need to be able to complete all parts of the quest without dropping skills and changing my character at all. If not, then this quest system is no better than the current system of grinding professions.

  • As a former EQ-er, please do not put ultra-rare spawns as part of the quest. If there are 2000 players camping a mob that spawns once ever 2 days, you might as well not bothering.

  • Combat profession should not be required to craft, and crafting professions should not be forced to fight.

Things that should (or can) be included:



  • Loot or components that are rare drops. I rather have the guranteed ability to access a mob, with the opportunity for loot/component drop. What I dont want is (see above), rare access to a mob (due to camping and spawn rates) and guranteed access to loot/componet. Or worse case scenario, rare access to mob with rare opportunity for loot...why bother at that point?

  • It should be very time intensive...but achievable if I put in the time. I dont mind the current system, because I know that I can do it, but its just a matter of me putting in the time.

  • I don't think quests should be relavant to path of Jedi. In other words, I think that missions for combat profession should including killing mobs in massive quanities. Some will say that mass murder is not the way of the Jedi, but so what. Look at it this, if I become so proficient in my abilities that I reach a trance like state (or the zone), maybe that will cause me to tap into the Force unexpectedly.

That is my general feeling, as for specifics of what the quests should include...not picky. Surprise me.


Possibilites of quests and general ideas:



  • Combine bounty hunter and explorer missions: "You need to eliminate 45 of Jabba's Henchman to continue the path to the of enlightenment."

  • As part of the above option, maybe combat classes, upon getting the mission, receive a waypoint to first mob. After locating and engaging combat, just before target dies, give up info to next NPC in line. Example: "You have defeated me, but I am just the courier of the gang. The man you should really be after is..." and the he dies.

  • Other ideas: instead of waypoints, give loot. "Vile of Dathomir Sarlaac Bile" would clue you in that the target is on Dathomir "somewhere" near the Sarlaac.

  • Have other loot that have puzzles that must be deciphered to reach next step of quest. Ever play Final Fantasy X...remember where you had that book that when you got differnt piece you learned different letters to "understand" that language. Do something like that...have the message slowly decipher as you receive additional clues to the language used in quest.

I dont know...I just throwing these out off the top of my head. I am at work and feeling lousy, so flame away. I just dont want this to turn into Ever Camp....




Yaztro Jettsin
Master Explorer/Bounty Hunter
Thrush
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:17 pm
#211

There is a theme that is CONSTANTin every Star Wars movie that was left out of this game for reasons involving Grief, and that theme is "Capture and Rescue".


ANH: Rescue Princess Leia


ESB: Han Rescues Luke from the Wompa. Luke Goes to Rescue Han and Leia. Lando Rescues Leia (sorta). Leia and Lando Rescue Luke. Vader (not that bungler Boba Fett) Captures Han.


RotJ: Leia and Chewie fail to Rescue Han. Luke Rescues Everybody from Jabba. Boba Fett gets eaten by the Sarlacc (bungler). On Endor the rebels are captured by Imperials only to be rescued by a line of highly marketable teddy bears wielding stone weapons and some very well placed traps.


OKAY, NOW I'LL GET TO THE POINT


Create a rescue scenario that means more than conversing with a guy in the wild and then leaving him there while zipping off to complete the mission, while never truely escorting him back to safety.


Try this. I'll use Talus as an example because I have poked around the extensive underground bases on Talus.



1. The Mission sends the PC to rescue an NPC from the cells of a hostile base.


2. The character can fight his way in, or sneak his way in.





-----
Who me? I just fly the ship.
loomis001
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:17 pm
#212






Sl1cerOne wrote:





I think the quest method of FSCS is a must. Thank you for changing.


I am not trying to be negative, but I think these are things that should not be a part of the quest system:



  • Not part of the quest should require me to destroy my character. If I am a master bounty hunter, I need to be able to complete all parts of the quest without dropping skills and changing my character at all. If not, then this quest system is no better than the current system of grinding professions.

  • As a former EQ-er, please do not put ultra-rare spawns as part of the quest. If there are 2000 players camping a mob that spawns once ever 2 days, you might as well not bothering.

  • Combat profession should not be required to craft, and crafting professions should not be forced to fight.

Things that should (or can) be included:



  • Loot or components that are rare drops. I rather have the guranteed ability to access a mob, with the opportunity for loot/component drop. What I dont want is (see above), rare access to a mob (due to camping and spawn rates) and guranteed access to loot/componet. Or worse case scenario, rare access to mob with rare opportunity for loot...why bother at that point?

  • It should be very time intensive...but achievable if I put in the time. I dont mind the current system, because I know that I can do it, but its just a matter of me putting in the time.

  • I don't think quests should be relavant to path of Jedi. In other words, I think that missions for combat profession should including killing mobs in massive quanities. Some will say that mass murder is not the way of the Jedi, but so what. Look at it this, if I become so proficient in my abilities that I reach a trance like state (or the zone), maybe that will cause me to tap into the Force unexpectedly.

That is my general feeling, as for specifics of what the quests should include...not picky. Surprise me.


Possibilites of quests and general ideas:



  • Combine bounty hunter and explorer missions: "You need to eliminate 45 of Jabba's Henchman to continue the path to the of enlightenment."

  • As part of the above option, maybe combat classes, upon getting the mission, receive a waypoint to first mob. After locating and engaging combat, just before target dies, give up info to next NPC in line. Example: "You have defeated me, but I am just the courier of the gang. The man you should really be after is..." and the he dies.

  • Other ideas: instead of waypoints, give loot. "Vile of Dathomir Sarlaac Bile" would clue you in that the target is on Dathomir "somewhere" near the Sarlaac.

  • Have other loot that have puzzles that must be deciphered to reach next step of quest. Ever play Final Fantasy X...remember where you had that book that when you got differnt piece you learned different letters to "understand" that language. Do something like that...have the message slowly decipher as you receive additional clues to the language used in quest.

I dont know...I just throwing these out off the top of my head. I am at work and feeling lousy, so flame away. I just dont want this to turn into Ever Camp....





trust me dont want it to be evercamp also




Member of the inqusitor of the Imperial Navy, imperial dark jedi
Fat_Man_Stu
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:20 pm
#213

I like a lot of these puzzle ideas. Not so much complete mystery ideas but ones that give hints and such are very good ideas in my opinion.


My biggest worry is that whatever changes are made will present the same problem I have with the current system:


It disappoints me when I have held my account since almost launch, and persons who bought their account only recently, read about the holo craze and grinded like crazy, afk mostly, and using many methods against the game rules have unlocked their Jedi whilst I have mastered 3 elite professions by the same time. Truthfully, I didn't think I'd have as good a chance as power players to unlock a Force Sensitive account. But when you say "power players" I assume you mean someone who plays every minute of the day that they can spare. (BUT WAIT!) I play every minute of the day that I can spare, and I don't master professions anywhere near that quickly. Its not cause I'm slow, its cause I don't like to set my character up with a macro and go do something else while the game unlocks FS by itself.


Whatever the new system is, I'd like it to take into account YOUR ACCOUNT. THen right about now I feel like some of the suggestions I've read that obviously have been proposed to help the person who said it get FS faster, heh.Truthfully though, I think it wrong that persons who have invested time and money and playing the game as intended (for fun) get jipped when players with electronic knowledge can grind out that FS slot in a week or two and who haven't even been on the game in person for more than an hour.


My overall suggestion is PLEASE BE CAREFUL with time--intensiveness of the path to unlocking. perhaps it should require time that your character was NOT (afk)



___________
Chilastra - Ori BKB
Valcyn - Croc Niloticus
Miqmac
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:20 pm
#214

Here is my quest idea.. I already completed it once but i would be willing to do it again. First you must go to the bank and withdraw 50 credits. Then On to a retail location where you must search to find the black box that says Star Wars Galaxies and further read that box to insure that you were correct the first time when you read the description that stated that you could play as a jedi. Once you have confirmed that Sony said you could indeed play as a jedi then you must proceed to the check out counter and pay the man the extra 50 credits for him to unlock your force sensitve slot.



I guess what im getting at is that this false advertising on sony's part is what led me to pay them 50 to start with and 15 monthly since september of 03... lets see that makes (counting the free month) $125 ($140 in the next week). how much more do I have to spend to get to do what i bought this game to do. Dont we have some consumer rights isnt false advertising illegal?



ErrikksonFLask
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:22 pm
#215

I have 2 suggestions off of the top of my head.



  1. Make the guest very long, and difficult. Like the Paladins quest from Everquest to get their sword ( I don't remember it's name, but it was a big 2-handed sword with flame surrounding the blade).

  2. To keep with the movies and books, recreate something like when Luke fought "Darth Vader" on Dagobah, and found out it was his face under the mask.





:::Errikkson Flask:::
Rifleman - Bounty Hunter - Jedi hopefull
Rebel Rank: Staff Seargent

silesian
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:22 pm
#216

I am providing the following suggestiongs from the perspective of a great gameplay experience and not taking into consideration any programming or art constraints.

For all Jedi/FS quests in general.

1. NO CAMPING.
The quests should be made difficult and rewarding in other ways than making players wait around for either a specific spawn to appear or having to compete directly with other players for looting/killing rights.

We all saw what happened with the Caves on Dantooine with the Force Sensative NPCs when word got out that they dropped holocrons. I forsee the same happining for if there is a common encounter required for any part of the process.

Any for those who played Everquest or still do....I need not say more...

2. SPECIFIC POIs PER PC
Make the POIs specific to the inidividual. Much in the same way that POIs dont become active from Mission Terminals until you actually take the mission, make it the same for Jedi/FS quests. If possible, make it so the POI does only becomes active for a specific PC when they get within a certain distance, like 500m to prevent others from accidentally wandering across it and disrupting the encounter.

3. NON TRADABLE ITEMS.
Make any specific items required as part of the process non tradable.

First, limit the options for income to normal gameplay means available to "regular" classes...Teerminal missions, killing NPCs and crafting. This should be a gating factor for players deciding whether or not to pursue the Path of Jedi. There is no money in Jedi.

Second, Jedi are not supposed to crave material items and money. As such, aspiring Jedi should not be searching for the Path to make credits.

Third, players should not be able to "jump" up the Path quicker than others because they have a larger wallet. As evidenced by many people numbingly grinding away professions at the moment, players are willing to do whatever it takes to attain Jedi. Make the playing field even for all.

4. MAKE SOME REQUIRE HELP

Some of the quests should involved help from other player for combat or specific resources...I.e I need a Master Doctor to heal the sickness of this NPC etc.

5. VARY THEIR DELIVERY
I forsee some NPCs giving players quests on the actual Jedi path, but I would also recommend making some of them drivin by the player's developing ties to the force.

I.e You feel the power of the force calling you to Endor OR you feel a disturbance of the force in the southern desert of Tatooine.

6. LET PLAYERS KNOW THEY ARE SCREWING UP
If the devs are going to change the system that a players actions can steer them off the path to FS, please give them a hint....I.e you begin to feel your ties to the force diminishing....etc.

It would make for unfun gameplay to find out, as Raph Koster stated 2 years down the road, that you did not make FS or Jedi because you killed that group of Jawas and receved no hints.

Thats it for now

-Lor Raiku
Chilastra
Playing since beta 3
13 professions down and counting....
MikelVector
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:23 pm
#217

You know, TH, one thing that has occurred to me while I think about FS and Jedi quests is the difficulty of finding competent and knowledgable trainers. Gettingtraining should be more difficult in the historical era we are playing in, and were I a FSCS and I really found myself in dire straights, I might be forced to seek out the force witches of Dathomir to gain certain knowledge. Of course, they come in relatively light and dark varieties as well, and as xenophobic as they arethey might desire me to prove myself with a series of quests in order to prove worthy of the training I needed. That could be a whole campaign of quests in itself, with endless potential for story.
catsync
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:25 pm
#218



catsync wrote:
Please, whatever you do, do not make it gated by a random spawning npc/camp/whatever, like the Mark of Intellect/Altruism. Getting those badges was not fun at all.




I should probably clarify this by saying that the quests themselves were interesting (the Bounty Hunter puzzle, and saving the farmers...) but spending weeks just trying to find the spawn (running around in the same patch of desert over and over again), and then having other people try to rush up and steal them out from under you when you did finally find it... THAT was the part that wasn't fun.



--
Ajah
valblood
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:31 pm
#219

Maybe there could be a monthly jedi quest that would be emailed to them or put directly into the data pad. The reward once completed would be a pearl or a crystal. This would at least assure jedi of one new lightsaber per month....that is if they complete the mission.....it shouldnt be easy but be tailored to the jedis level.


Once a jedi reaches padawan they get weekly missions sent to them from their trainer/Master same way as above...these could be scavenger hunts, protection, settling a dispute , etc.


Would be cool to have a place where only jedi could go , a secret place to train like in jedi outcast. where you have to figure out a puzzle to solve in each room to get to the next ....this could take weeks or months to get through and have a nice juicy reward at the end or gain xp as you go or both.....this could be accessable through any starport terminal which only jedi could select or see....that way no BH camping...also there could be a time limit as to how long per day you could stay there maybe an hour or two then you get booted out and have to return the next day to continue.


If a jedi uses a holo they get a mission assigned to them to complete....reward...um a pearl..hehe


mission to save an npc jedi would be cool....where you get clues to the location that you have to figure out on your own no waypoints just hints and if you save or find them they give you a reward...maybe an uber lightsaber or some special skill tapes only for jedi....say + to terrain negotiation, crystals , pearls, xp even.


All of this would lower the prices of crystals and pearls and allow jedi to get xp in other ways then just mass killing creatures.





++}}===MITHRANDIR====
~Pre Publish 9 Light Jedi Guardian~
~~~YES THERE ARE SOME OF US ACTUALLY STILL PLAYING~~~
MarkAStewart
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:31 pm
#220

As far as the quests for unlocking your FSCS, I think the quests should be such that they should be able to be completed by any player, regardless of their profession. There should be no requirement that they be able to fight or that they be able to craft. Furthermore, there should be no requirement that they have to switch their professions at any time. Hologrinding professions was just awful.



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"The devil's just a man with a plan. Real evil is a conspiracy of men."
-Fox Mulder, The X-Files
ArchFirehaven
Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:34 pm
#221

This all depends on what you folks are willing to code. Of course it always is.


So lets break it up shall we...


So to become force sensitive...


I think really this breaks down to two types of people. Some people want their FS character to be a seperate entity and others (like myself) play them as the same character. This can easily be accomodated in a quest based system. So first a character would need to be assigned an NPC in the game. This would be taken from a pool of NPC's that have names but no titles and everyone from Lorne Prestar to Luke Skywalker can give the "start" of the quest. Attackable NPCs would have to be excluded from the list and the devs should put new undocumented NPCs in on all the planets out in the wilderness. So once someone is ready they can search their NPC out...or they can stumble upon them as "fate" would have it. The first mission from this person would tell of a person who the force is with but they dont know it and direct them to one of the multiple Force NPCs in the game (back to Luke, the Force User in the cave on Dantooine, the oracle on Naboo etc etc). They would get a holocron (it would not have to do anything other than be a symbol of what was to come for them...thus no new Holo Market). Here is where it becomes hard as you want to make this difficult but if you just make a list of quests that have to be randomly done then eventually people will just grind quests instead of professions which is slightly better but still not the answer. Also remember that the quests can be done much faster now due to the vehicles. So what I would do (and this takes a lot of coding I am sure) is take three different variables...first would be faction....discount Rebel/Imperial faction....but the other factions would make a difference. Thus once you brought your faction alignments (again not Rebel or Imperial) into a prespecified range (the range would be randomly determined so you would needto be positivein x,y,z and negative ina,b,c etc etc)(the hermit on Tatooine could confirm this for you). Then maybe the hermit would assign you thehero badgequests. Once done you would then beassigned (whetherthis was told to the player or not is up to you but I would doubt it should be) someone who can'see' your path and in the background you areassigned x (you decide how many) amount of quests/theme parks/etc etc that must be done. The assigned NPC does not tell you where to go but hints at it"I see a fat slugin your future" (yeah I know horrible clue please dont use that one) but it does leave open not only Jabba but Borvo also. After they do that their NPC goes silent so to speak and they must seek out one final string of quests that should be built dynamically, so say 40 intricate hard indepth missions that can be split into 4's and run dynamically together if that makes any sense. Then here is the twist when done with all of that....you have x amount of things done in game on their list that are not quest related. So the list would be as long as you want it (which the longer the better) and they have to achieve x amount of the items (dependent on the Devs). An example list would be...


Master any three professions (thus using all or most of their skill points)


Declaring Residence


Becoming Colonel in a faction


Killinga Dark Jedi (or in a group that has killed one)


Killing a NightSister (or in a group that has killed one)


Gone to every POI


etc etc you can literally think up of hundreds of these.


Thus you have a quest system that is partially random and partially not. People would know that they have to go to the hermit on Tatooine but the badge quests are not easy to find gimmee's for example as they randomly spawn. The system would give direction but require putting two and two together and have other random factors outside quests. People would have to play the game...and that is the point right. This would take a lot of coding and quest generation...lets be honest it would take a new level of design from the developers (which you are capable of no doubt but it takes time) and the text would have to be perfect (is Timothy Zahn available?). Now I am going to write another post for after you have found your FS slot.






8Firehaven7
Chilastra Born . Day One


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