Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Desired Rewards
Q-3PO wrote:
What reward would motivate you to do a long, hard quest or dungeon?
I want something that improves my character. If loot will be less then what can be made by a craftsman, then its worthless. Don't even bother dropping it.
Not sure what is left really. Perhaps...
- More GCW type activitiesthat will give everyone in the group faction points instead of credits.
- Perhaps PA faction points that can be exchanged for PA type faction perks (To make thier city stronger, turrets, etc..). That would rock!
- Raid Experience Points to be allocated to raid level skill point progressions (TKM with specialized tank skills, or speciality medium armor capabilities)
- Elite Profession based armor components that... Doh nm!
Thats all I can think of. Hope it helps! 
Q,
You can do a little uber-loot without upsetting crafters. Just make the loot drops item parts that can be crafted into useful items. This would be something like Krayt Tissue.
We do need a few additional tools for this to work well. (I know more Dev coding time, but these are features that were going to be in the game at some point anyway).
1) In order for combat types to be able to trust crafters with making their super gun with that awesome power handler they got from Jabba, we need player created missions. The combat player sets up a mission paying X credits for Y gun with the new Z uberloot they just attained that must be completed in a certain amount of time. A crafter takes the mission, makes weapon and sends it back toa terminal to be picked up. Checks are made that minimum stats were attained and the credits are transfered to the crafter. Everything could be held in esgro like they are now on the bazaar (reuse some of that code). A failure would generate a bounty on the player failing to me their end of the bargain, with promised money going to a bounty hunter instead of the crafter. You'd need one new art object (player mission terminal), reuse some code from the bazaar, write new code for handling the stat checker, the interface for the players at the terminal, and codeto create a bounty on failure (either tme or stats).
2) We need a few levels of uberloot - taken from Diablo II. We could have "pretty good" loot that can be added into various enhancement slots of crafted items for various cool effects (such as better damage or speed, or poison damage) and uber loot that rarely drops but adds killer stats to an item if properly crafted into that item. For pretty good loot we need that to drop by mob levelinstead of just creature type. That way you can have more levels (with lower level drops being more frequent anda variety of different things could be possible from the same creature).Each "type" of itemcould be called different things on different creatures, but should have the same functionality regardless of the critter it drops from - only the level matters. This will help the Krayt population from being hunted to extinction. 
Uber loot should be something you get fromfinishing major quests successfully. They should be very rareand their stats additions based on quest difficulty. I envision these items as I had hoped Diablo II uniques would have been - things so incredible that you rarelyif everuse them because they were so hard to obtain. Blizz couldn't do it, are you guys up for this task?
I know what I'm suggesting is a lot of work for you guys, but to me this would make these items mean something to combat types and still allow crafters to bethe thrust of the economy.
Well i have some ideas for rewards:
Rebels Only:
1.Rebel Helm (the one used in yavin 4 and in the first movie when darth vader entered lea's ship)
2.X-Wing Helm (the one used by luke when he piloted the x-wing)
3.Naboo Police Uniform (The one used by the naboo troops in Episode 1)
Imperials Only:
Scout Trooper armor (it would be like abit weaker than stormtrooper armor but with less encumbrence)
Clone Trooper Armor (This should also be weaker than ST armor but it should have a worn out/rusted look since its so old)
Everyone:
Bryar Pistol (The one used by Kyle Katarn in the Jedi Knight games)
Clone Carbine (The one used by theclones,It should have cold damage since it fires blue bolts)
I understand you want to make the crafters happy .. but what about the other classes.. rewards have to be out there for us too.
Even if you put hte skill mod items back in to where we have to apply them to crafted armor/clothing.
Putting random loot drops of different types of weapons will not kill crafters.. as items do decay and rare items will not flood the market.
Random loot 20-30% of the time off creatures and NPC's wont kill crafters .. it will just give us non-crafters a reason to hunt after mastering and while mastering.. i hate hunting right now.. its just grinding and isnt rewarding enough in its present state. even if some missions give an item reward from terminals (skill mod items, power up, weapon add on to add damage type (charges). these things would not hurt crafters at all.
You could always make the specail loot drops have a lower integrity like half of what a crafter makes.. so it burns out faster then most weapons do.
I have a feeling your worry is more about the database and using the crafters as a excuse (although its known your intent is to make it crafter driven.. i think your putting to much on crafters and not enough on other classes... the drops we currently see and can solo or do with a normal group do not drop any of the rare things i hear that the night sisters and such drop.. i can not personally take on a nightsister.. or even find a group to take on nightsisters (I am melee currently and without pets your dead).
Loot is the topic so i will stick to that. Loot is good and can be made good.. it doesnt have to be camping type loot but completely random at a hgiher rate then it currently is.. take out those weak componants i get that crafters laugh at when i offer it to them.
man i alway get to these posts when there 9-15 pages long
Anyway, I ventured to a npc quest the other day and recived 25 credits for my reward. Granted I ran 1200m total but thats still time put into playing, and was expecting atleast 100-300cr.
THAT ASIDE, I have yet to find epic quests. The only epic things I know about are themeparks. Im very happy the bardtender thing is comming, (at least i think it is). Some rewards for epic long quests are easy. You dont want phat loot, so here are some alternatives.
Titles: Players love a good title. Manytimes I see players I know choose a specialized title, rather than Master anything becuase its a better title. Ive already seen people with the Dead-Eye title, although a little bland, its on the right track.
Pets: a pet that can not be attained through any means other than the quest.
Skill bonuses: Ex. 3% decrease to maintence fees, ect.
Animations: Just a thought, but giving players special emotes only obtained through said quest. Would be nice for Dancers and entertainers.
Damage heal: One time only 100% damage restoration to 1 chosen item.
And as always more credits.
These are just a few random thoughts. 
A I M E S Lets try the schematic route for loot on a hard quest. the schematic could change the look of a piece of armor or weapon and make it only useableby the owner of the schematic.
Owner of the schematic and crafter only 2 that can touch it. once it is handeled by 2 PC`s it becomes no-drop. another variable could be when starting the quest have a option where a PC can chose what to quest for. armor, weapon, item, decoration, etc, etc.
By no means make any of the loot better than what is player made just make it different looking and make it worthless to everyone other than the owner of the schematic.
You can also add in time limits on the quests such as being able to talk to the NPC once a week or just give it a 1 shot deal on each item oncequest is finished.
Everyone i talk to wants to look different from everyone else this may be a away to accomplish it.
just my 2 credits worth
I'd like to see Master Mission Terminals, where a Master in an Elite profession could go and start on a long mission. It would involve inter-planetary travel, talking to several NPC's, and other profession-specific tasks. The results would be uber-loot for that profession. For instance: Pistoleer could get a powerful weapon powerup, or a clothing/armor attachment bonus, crafting professions could get new schematics, entertainers could get new songs/dances/instruments (I know, lots of work there), and completely several of these could be worthy of a badge. As people would not be doing these missions a lot, maybe a terminal is over kill, an NPC might be better. An NPC in the middle of BFE wouldn't been good though, because a Master Tailor might not have the combat skills to survive the wild.
For me, what I would most want is an appropriate status symbol. Pictures that I can hang in my home, a holographic statue I can set up in my PA Hall, titles I can have, even unique (but perhaps weak) pet like an Imperial Dignitary that I could hang out with in the cantina.
The patch system needs work-- when I got my first patch I was very excited to see what it looked like, and then I found out it was just a line of text. I want to be able to *SEE* a graphical representation of my accomplishments.
Back when I used to play the TIE FIGHTER CD-ROM game, I got very excited about earning the tatoos on my arm for the secret order of the Emperor. I really hope that same system gets worked into the space expansion-- I hope that I will see a mysterious robed figure off to the side when I grab a mission to fly with my TIE craft come 2004. This tatoo status system is probably the best example of what I would like to see in SWG, and I hope to see it brought over to this game in a nearly identical manner when we get the expansion.
What about the option to convert a player-made item to something else? Like maybe we could exchange a suit of padded armor for a suit of scout trooper armor after we complete a quest?
Big Faction Point rewards would be nice, or even a modifier that would grant +10% to all exp earned in the next 24 hours spent online or something.
In summary, the reward does not have to be an uber item. What I want most is something I can look at with a sense of accomplishment. I want it to be the kind of thing I can show to a friend who does not play SWG and say "look how cool this thing is-- I have a holograpic thank you note from Luke Skywalker in my apartment"
Of course, if you implement "graphical" patches, it won't hurt my feelings if I can then BUY actual patch replicas from the SOE online store so that I can frame and display them in my real-life home.
new kinda schematics. for instance as stated above.
e new chair looks a little diffrent.
diffrent components for crafting that matters. Would like quests that are abit longer also all the ones i seen can be made relativly fast. Id like one or a couple that span over months and of course got a reward that matches that.
what put me of in missions was the missions on dathomir singing mountain clan.
1 being checking a mutant rancor cave and other checking a sister that went lost at nightsister cave. Both of theese i get a finish quest icon for but when returned nothing happens. I can choose to do it again but no progress no reward its like i never did the mission.
1.)Decorative and interesting but essentially useless items that can act as a sort of trophy...the more variety the better, so that everyone doesnt have the same items. If we can ever raise/lower items in houses these willbe very popular.
2.)Badges.
3.)One-use or one-factory run schematics for actually useful items. Unique versions of anything useful should be in rewarded in the form of schematics, so that the player has to go to a crafter to have the item produced. This has the added element of possibly producing its own "crafter quest" in which the rare required resources are acquired.
Whatever loot system you come up with, it can't be just for dungeons/dragons (already monopolizedby a select few)and quests. There has to be a reason forfolks withmaxed professions to hunt. There has to be a chance for nice drops off of common spawns, and not so rare the average person never sees it. There also has to be a reason for crafters to stick around, because right now the masters lose interest fast, when they have nothing to spend their money on and waste 2-4 hours a days on boring harvestor servicing (your lands are too big to have travel so slow) and putting stock back up for sale on personal vendors that gets auto moved to stockroom ala bazaar (a ridiculous time sink). My guild closed it's doors last week. We're not cancelling, but we've moved back to other games. Give us a reason to come back here.
Tedra