Development Cycle Archive

I know this has probobly stated a million times (I don't have time to read all these replies :smileywink

I think the simpilist solution is to give the majority of "uber loot" in the form of schematics that you must seek the appropriate artisan to craft. Here is a breif rundown of the system, I will use a weapon in this example but this could work for any type of item you can come up with.

1.) Player kills mob x or finishes quest y. They recieve a scematic for a new FWG5 that is slightly better than a normaly crafted one (These rewards will NOT be able to be experimented on, the schematic is "what you see is what you get").

2.) Schematic Details: The schematic would list a certain number of resources required differing from the standard FWG5 (possibly planetary specific resources). It would also list a commision price say 10k credits.

3.) Player hunts down a weaponsmith. He trades a DUPLICATE of the schematic to the weaponsmith. He can do this with as many weaponsmiths as he would like.He must have the commission cost in his bank or on his person. The comission amount would have to be locked out from use to avoid exploits. (this is the only tricky part, i am not sure if you could impliment this)

4.) The first weaponsmith to complete the comission would get the reward of 10k and the Player would automaticly recieve the item in their inventory.

With this solution you kill two birds with one stone. You give players "pHat lewTz" to seek. And you also HELP the crafting community but giving everyone the potential for long term income, something that certain crafting proffessions *cough* *cough* Architects, *cough* *cough* Tailors are really lacking atm. It also breaths a fresh breath of competion into the crafting community aside from price gouging.

Another vote from me on the tissue and/or schematic ideas.

Additionally, consider factional rewards for factional high end quests. All of the current faction rewards could be implimented as NPC rewards, and it would certainly make risking that horrible TEF business a little more worthwhile. Completing a long series of high difficulty quests could even give rewards like low end faction pets or bases. Obviously there would have to be limits in place.. quests like this should only pay out big once per person, for instance, and I'm sure there are dozens of exploits I've not thought of.

I go to Las Vegas to play games and have a chance to win big prizes, not to visit the shoping malls and look for bargin items!!

Droped Items should depend on monster difficulty. Crafted Items depend on crafter Mastery. Low level monsters should drop loot like low level crafters can make items. Low level fighters cant kill high level monsters and should not be able to use Uber items from High level Crafters.

To sum this up. If you are low level you can only use low level items, wether crafted or found. the items found should be on par with what that same level crafter can make. (maybe just make them cosmetic or description changes instead of functional changes.)

if you are high level you should be able to find high level loot and use high level crafted items.

I like to hunt monsters, i want to find loot not run though every house just to peek at their vendor to see what they have.

Loot is a reward just like playing a slot machine. if it never pays out it wont get played.

maybe give out a schematic to certain races for completing a certain quest to get a special unique racial item, don't have to be something spectacular, maybe something like pair of goggles or piece of clothing or something to that extent.

I think the idea of Higher level quests dropping nice to specialized gear is a great thing for the game. I understand wanting to make sure crafters are happy. But rare and unique items are part of the universal appeal of the Fantasy / Adventure MMORPG. Its clear and understandable that if SWG doesn't meet this expectation you might have happy crafters but the game will lack the feel it needs to be fullfilling in the long term.

maybe even if you felt like you were getting something done would be nice. like "destroy imperial base with stolen X-wings" would it be so hard to get a a X-wing to spawn at the mission?

also it would be nice if ou were rescuing someone if they were actually there. like save rebel pilot. after you complete the mission he says thank you and disappears.

anything to break up the routine of killing the same static objects.

Working skill enhancement 'power-ups'. (perhaps equipped lifespan of 30 days or something)

Perhaps they could be consumable food items, perhaps standard weapon powerups, or standard skill enhancing attachments which expire after a time... (to prevent the eventual uberness of the entire player population)

Fix the armor skill attachments and that opens a world of loot drops you can add for armorsmiths as they can now create armor with uber drop skill attachments.

For other crafters same thing, super drop weapon components, Droid parts, Schematics, DNA samples, basically to keep crafting at the heart of the economy. you drop Super crafting components that crafters want to make. As for fighting classes? well if there is a Schem for a super gun or DNA for a evil pet.. you know the fighting classes will be right there trying to get the best items for their best crafters so they can in turn have the best of the best.

Miners will be right there if you have rare drop minerals in lots of 500 or something that offermagical qualities like Damage over time, Heals over time, Damage Shields, Procs, which they can sell for amazing profit.

Add drops like Tattoo Pens schematics, that allow IDs to make custom tattoos for people or schems that give instruments and or schems for shoes that allow entertainers to entertain out in the wild for groups offering group mind buffs and heals while out in the wild even cure BF.

Hell you can even add vendor drops for classes like merchants where maybe a Dark Jedi vendor is dropped or a yoda type vendor is dropped which they can place in their stores.

With the addition of mounts you can add drop schems saddles that people must have if they want to ride a dewback.

Ultimately, you dont have to hurt the crafting arts by adding uber loot. you just have toCraftersto distribute the uber loot. via schematics, add ins, specialty resources etc etc. As for those classes that dont primarily need crafted goods like Image Designers and Merchants,bring them into the crafting community. ie drop vendor schems or even dna samples for creature vendors like a paralope vendor that a Bio Engineer can only make and for IDs create image design tools schems.. like hair blowers, coloring pens tattoo tools and ear piercing guns, that allow them to have a greater ability of customization, (possibly a schematic for an item that allows them to change peoples sex, or even race.)

Good Luck

I'm not going to read 22 pages of respones, i'm just going to throw in my opinion: the crafters that you're trying to keep happy are THE reason that people like me have canceled their accounts and are just hanging around until our time runs out. Professions that do nothing but craft have ruined this game, without a reward for my troubles why the heck to I want to try to kill a tough npc? If it's all based on buying items from other players then what's the motivation for me to ever leave Mos Espa? There's missions terminals there and I make more than enough money to keep myself geared up. I want to have to go to the middle of nowhere on a far off planet with a big group and kill tons of npcs in hopes that i'll find a 'Super Helmet of Blaster Deflection' or what ever. You guys just don't get it...look at the games that have been successful, take their model and use it, why did you feel the need to try to come up with an entirely new way of doing things? UGH! I just can't take it anymore, you've designed a game that's fun as hell for about a month then there's just nothing to do!

Rare schematics for the crafters in the game . . . centering the schematic around the each individual crafting professions.

Or rare resources that will allow the crafter to create some strong items with some very rare traits.

Dropping uber skematics is too close to dropping uber loot in my opinion. Rewards need to be either 1) unique items like neat furniture (I see lots of statues in the game for instance) or 2) things that are powerful but don't last for too long, such as specialized powerups that add a Fire DoT or something.

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What reward would motivate you to do a long, hard quest or dungeon?

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• Unique items


• Badges (I know, these are supposed to be rare achievements that require lots of work, etc.)


• Unique resources (see my signature for more info )


• Selectable titles upon completion of quest(s) (i.e. in addition to my character's list of titles, I can also select "Friend of the Darklighters" for completing a huge string of missions.


• One thing I've always loved is complex storylines. I think it woudl be beyond cool to see the end of one quest lead directly into another. The reward is still given, but a "clue" is also found.

What reward would motivate you to do a long, hard quest or dungeon?

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For me, it doesn't have to be uber. It doesn't even have to be useful. It has to be unique. Not another, better, pistol, armor, house, fleshwrap or whatever. A Badge. Or a Medallion. How about a medallion of "this guy is a hero of the rebellion for completing dungeon X". That would be perfect. No change in the economy whatsoever. No risk for crafters. Great reward.

Do you remember UO and the snow globes ? If I remember right, each player was given one at christmas for free. It was a set of 12 I think and each player got one of them. So to have a full set of twelve, you needed 11 players to sell theirs. That made them kind of rare. I got mine when I didn't know it was rare. Met some guy who was buying them. Asked himif he would trade it for a horse... "I would trade it for a f*cking farm !". They were totally useless, just rare and cool looking. That's what would motivate me. Not another uber FWG5 of 1337ness. I have a dozen already. Give me something unique. Badges are a good start. Proceed in that direction. Maybe medals of honor for your faction or something...