Development Cycle Archive

Here is my take on this. I feel that loot drops should not have schematics (I thinks it's lame it you can take it and put it into a fac and mass produce it). I think the best drop could be a skill enhancer that u choose the skill that can be enhanced by a pre determined amount. I feel that the should not be frequent, but happen enough that individuels will take such a quest.

Loot i would like to find some schematic. The stats of the items could be the same but i should have an other look.

Quests. I would implement something like Quest point . these points you can trade for some special socials, additional skills , or skill points ??? some realy cool schematics ...

Content.

Give me an unforgettable, grippingstoryline and I'll follow it anywhere it goes, even if I get nothing tangible in return.

OK you wanted to know,

1- trophies- (heads of animals) not 1/2 the body stickin out of the wall

2- ability to make something that is out. IE- pottery-.. not just 1 please like 2-5 would be cool

3- maybee not knew armor because i know how hard it is to make, but how about some color that is not available. Ie ability to make 9 use die (1 set) or 9 chests (PA team). Works on any armor and can make it one of the base colors. IE BLUE/Green/Red. a team of people who all had red helms (9) would be cool.

4- shrunken animals. IE a krate pet, a rat pet.. but very small. to go on a shelf.

5- weapon scmatic that is colored. same as armor above.

6- badge they are neat, but i would prefer something above.

7- something that can be put on the outside of a house (on the porch/front stoup) it can be tiny and only go in one place. but something differnt.

8- house paint.. (I know im realy reaching here)..

wall all i can think of

a MMO game without loot is boring, like SWG.

I dont know why you want to kill the whole game cause loot CAN destroy crafters.

anyway here are my ideas:

- New, with limited use and very powerful schematics.

- Skill enhancements.not like the ones that are already in game. I meant something more 'uber'...

I like the schematic Idea, but I don't want the ultimate quest drop to be dependent upon an honest crafter to make it... Plus the chance for critical failure and I can see alot of pain and suffering coming from this idea...

If anything make the multi-quest quests (like the theme park ones) tie in together... Instead of broken jumk and a few cred.s... I believe Factoin points would be a good reward for the faction based quests and something along the lines of a title that allows other people to see your accomplishment... for the faction quests some faction armor or other things that you would normally have to purchase via FP...

I would like to see some house furnishings and a way to place items on walls when your hase doesn't have stairs... Thats for another thread though...

Instead of having "Uber" loot, just make it decent... I mean questing for a broken hand held veiw screen and 100 creds is absolutely lame....

Im easy how about something that works......................Still don't understand why you guys at SOE don't stay focused. The main issues isn't quest geared rewards, but Fixing the stuff in the game IE armor addons and BE add ons that actually do something. Every coder, intern, boss, and mail clerk should be fixing the game as it stands right know. I don't think another thing should be done, add to, or addressed until every profession is working. I have a armor add on of +4 pistol acc while moving i can't get anyone to touch because add ons are broke. So just fix what you got and then let us move on to something new.

Collectables

Decorative items

An item that can form part of a weapon or armour or clothing or food, which leads to...

Something new that Wookies can wear/use i.e. a race/profession specific item when you complete a quest i.e. you get to choose what you want from a list. NPC item giver says "Well done, you have XXXX, we can't thank you enough! Please choose your reward."

Just drop things that can be added to weapons (like scopes) and are worth the trouble to get them. Since weapons still decay, it won't unbalance seemingly and you need a crafter to craft the weapon still. Also clothing enhancements (WHEN THEY WORK) would also be useful, or armor etc. Something that is good, even though you need someone else to make it good. People also seem to like badges, though they aren't that attractive to all.

Just an idea for a long and hard quest is epic quest for each profession (a little like in EQ). And the reward could be a badge (or tatoo, dont know if it is possible), and why not this badge could give permanent bonuses. And to reward a profession, we first need to master it. And during this long and hard quest, there could be some specific unique items for each prof.

How :
Each class would have to recover (or craft) several items (for example) related to the skills they have, and then give all the items to a Master of the profession to get the reward.

Advantages :
- need to explore the galaxy ;
- possibility to add contents in dungeon (and they really need it) ;
- it can help for grouping situations ;
- interaction between players ;
- etc ...

Some examples :
- a master BE could have to go in the last room of a dungeon to get sample from a particular dangerous creature ; and this is only one of the numbrous steps toward the final reward.
- a master ranger could have to find a specific place where he'll have to forage a rare root on several planets and then see a chief to have them combine into something special ; and the ranger should have to harvest a rare particular hide from a dangerous creature guarded by something ; AND etc etc ....
- a fighting class could have to retrieve the componants for a unique weapon and then have them combine (in order not to interfere with crafters, this weapon can for example have a low starting condition ... ) ; and then defeat a npc etc etc

And why not extend the epics :
- if a player achieves in the Badge of Pistol, Rifle and Carbine, it could open the quest of THE badge of THE Marksman. Same for Melee.
- same for crafting or artistic professions. if a player achieves in 3 (for example) crafting badges, it could open to THE badge of THE artisan, etc

Some ideas for items during the quests :
- Specific crafting tools giving special bonuses (ex : + x Experiment points ; high effectiveness ; ... )

These quests must of course be long and hard to achieve.

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I just change topic now and will give a little feedback on the titleless npc giving missions.
I made really a lot of these missions, and considering the money reward, they should all be like the ones on Corellia. Wining 500, 1000 or 2000 credits is the reward these missions should all give.
On the other planets, the rewards are really ridiculous (like earning 30 or 40 credits ....). We could earn far more in less time in doing the delivery missions inside the same town.
Just a quick example : i just made the marauder missions on Endor, and the 3rd mission of the scholar is a 350 credits reward for killing a level 300 creature ....

Same comment for the faction points reward. Why just give 5 or 10 faction points ?!
Example : on Yavin, got a mission (rebel mission) in which we have to kill an Imperial Inquisitor (19k Ham if i remember well) and guarded by some dark troopers. And the reward for completing this mission was 10 or 15 faction points only. I suggest we receive 100 or 150 faction points, this is rewarding !

And anyway, all these missions can only be done ONE TIME. So i dont think there is a danger in giving a decent reward of money and/or faction points.

On Bria, Krayt tissue is all the rage. More rewards similar to that: things that make items ub3r, but still require the crafter in the process...

I certainly understand the prevailing objective of not upsetting the economy and the crafting profession. My character is not a crafter, I'm a combatant, so in that sense I could offer my opinion in the matter as a non-crafter player.

I agree that the better items SHOULD be created by player crafters, this will help keep the balance of the game from their point of view. However, I think it is important NOT to take this to the extreme, where the 'normal' loot/reward of a quest is often so ridiculously worthless that it beats the whole point of doing the quest, thus defeating the purpose of questing, exploring, etc. (i.e. 300 credits reward, a knife, a pair of gloves, etc).

Now, looking at this from the perspective of a combatant, it may seem to me that you are focusing MOST of your attention on the crafting professions. You want us combatants to spend our credits on items created by crafters, which certainly provides an incentive to these crafters to... well... keep crafting (at least until they become filthy rich and bored). This is all fine, however you have to understand that by doing so you could potentially alienate the other side of the coin: non-crafters, combatants, explorers, etc. What incentive will there be for us? Who will take care of the prevailing needs we have? Those of exploring, questing, etc.

Another thing you have to understand is that, they way the game is functioning now, I would say a very small percentage of new players do NPC quests. New players want to go up in skills fast, so they do terminal missions or grind experience outside of cities. What this leads to is that, more often than not, quests will be more attractive to advance players, those that are skilled, have done their share of terminal missions and are not interested in PvP.

This last point is crucial, looking at the results from one of your very own polls, the vast majority of player are interested in PvE, NOT PvP. This is indicative, again, that quests NEED to be more interesting and rewarding.

But how do we go about doing this without upsetting the crafters too much? Well, I think there will have to be concessions from BOTH sides. If quests are to function, and if non-crafters are to remain in the game, crafters have to realize that they simply CAN NOT be the SOLE providers of items in the game. Sure they can make them, and they can even specialize through experimentation, but there has to be more interesting and unique items out there BESIDES the ones made by crafters.

A few suggestions:

1. Make rewards/loot more INTERESTING and UNIQUE. This is key, I am NOT talking about looting an 'Uber' LLC with 2000-3500 damage, nor receiving a 60% composite armor as a reward. But how about receiving a 'unique', normal LLC which has a unique model? Perhaps it could be slightly bigger, or maybe a different color?

2. Same goes for clothing/armor. How about quests that give a slightly modified chitin armor? Probably same stats that what you can get from a decent armorsmith, but with a different color, or a slightly different design? Variation is the key to uniqueness.

3. Make available normal items which are not made by crafters, but which are not uber-items either. I would go through the gates of hell and back to get some really cool looking shades for example. I've seen a few around but apparently they are only available as perks for people who bought the 'special edition' of the game.

4. How about profession-specific quests/rewards? Say I'm a marksman and I can get a personalized pistol, or maybe I'm a creature handler and I can get a pet as a reward?

5. Or how about status/title quests? Say you do a series of arduous quests and in the end you get a nifty cool title you can set on your character... something like 'Overseer', 'Inducer of Dreams', etc... you get the point. New players will come and ask, 'wow, how did you get that??' You in turn would feel proud of your accomplishment by telling the poor little n00b about your adventures.

I don't know, there are a LOT of things which can be implemented, I guess it's really up to you, the devs. But as I said, I think everyone needs to realize that BOTH sides (crafters and non-crafters) will have to make some concessions if you expect everyone to have fun. Yes, crafters should make the really good items, but we need more unique and interesting rewards to keep us going.

F

I havent read through all of the posts here, so perhaps I'm just repeating someone elses idea, but here it goes:

I'd like to see schematic-fragments that is a part of a schematic for some kick-*ss weapon/armor or whatever.
Example: Schematic for t-21a rifle consists of 8 different pieces that are rare loot. When all 8 pieces are retrieved, you assemble it (like the discs) and then either craft it yourself (if you can) or hand it to a crafter. This schematic allows only for ONE weapon/armor to me made.

This way we could see very rare weapons/armor sets that would be whispered about in the cantina and also provide that little carrot, that so many of us are missing.

Why not make the certification for the weapons only availible for masters (riflemen, pistooler etc), to make it even more rare (to see).