Development Cycle Archive

Cash is always a good incentive on any type of mission. (especially Treasure Maps) I would suggest datapads prehaps broken, yet repairable with portions of schematics that would need to be assembled to get the true prize, a new schematic prehaps introduced every three months. I would aslo suggest that they not be shareable (owner specific, ie, the schematic would indicate droid, weapon, etc, then the person assembling the schematic DE, WE would have sole use and possesion of that schematic, also the shematic would be faction specific, neutral being unable to assemble the item. They would have there own, sometimes private enterprise does lead development of products, militaries sometimes refine them? And vice versa.) Weapons are good possibly experimental, short durablity, not reparible, since they are experimental. Not uber, but good with unusual effcts and high HAM costs? Keeping it interesting is the main objective.

Anything that is Unique. Good eye candy. Something you know when someone else sees your item, that they drool that you have it. It can be in a form of a scmadic so that the crafters don't lose there jobs. Or a item add on like armor attachments that would give the armor a differnt look(or funiture, exc) also good state add ons are good to. But I personally like the looks of things

Have more looted components that crafters can use to improve items, like Krayt tissue, etc. Instead of just having these items on the most powerful creatures only, have weaker versions of them drop from weaker enemies. For instance, an overkreetle's gland could be used in the same manner as a kliknik gland, but with only half the effect. NPCs should also drop loot of a type that crafters can use in optional slots on schematics, but make it technological.For example, a FieldInducercould be a little electronic widget that could beput in an optional slot on a crafting stationto give a smallfunctionality boost.

I really lovethe idea ofloot that is useful only tocrafters...itrewards more than one player and encourages interaction. It just needs to be further developed so that it is a common occurance, rather than a rare exception.

Loot doesn't have tobe uber to make it great. Drops that go into crafts are great, and I suppose sometimes schematics for more rare items would be very cool (5 use schematic for a very rare weapon that normally can't be made, etc).

IMHO, just make drops like the tissue, scales, etc, only to a lesser extent. Like some of the vibro mods I've seen, low mobs, but still worth the drop to collect and sell to weaponsmiths, armorsmiths, etc. Crafters aren't turned off by this, in fact, its a bonus. Of course, non-crafters want something too -- so why not drop things like household nicknaks, 1 C12 Grenade (1 use, not 5 uses), a used up pistol (say, 50/500 durability) that's actually worth using. You see the point: Even if those items are repaired or horded, they still aren't going to be "UBER" compared to what a smith can craft.

Thisprobably won't be read by any SOE-coworkers anymore but the thing I'd like for loot is:

- faction furniture/clothing - it would we cool if there was a long imperial quest which had a large statue of Darth Vader as a reward, that would look nice in my house

It would also be cool if high level faction npc's ( Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader, Leia Organa etc) gave you a free rank (promotion) from time to time.

I think maybe a good reward for faction based missions is that perhaps if you could give the NPC's the full set of ranking that we can achieve and if we take a mission from an NPC that is two levels higher than we are then and we do their mission within a certain amount of time they'll promote us to the next level. Or give us access to cool new titles, Rebel/Imperial Spy, Infiltrator, Emperor's Right Hand Man (hey we can dream right )

BADGES!

EQ (Equipment-quest) was bad enough to deal with the "I have this because I'm in a cool-guy guild";

Time and time again my "raids" were over-run by large guilds because they found out I had been timing a spawn (Bristlebane server). Since equipment wears out, accomplishments would be more valuable...

1. You reach the end of the quest and you find Yoda. Just to see him and get a photo would be worth it.

2. A cloak that you could actually pull the hood up on, would totally be worth it.

Class and level specific quests should be in the game, just like class and level specific 'missions'.

The easiest loot to put in would be credits. Getting a large sum of cash for along questwould help all players. It allows the player to buy what ever type of item they wanted as a reward, all of which are sold by other players. Considering some of the prices that crafters are charging, it would be worth it to do a quest for credits. You might be asking how that is different from a 'mission', here is how. A quest should have a story line, it should involve exploration and conversation. The purpose of a quest isn't just to have a menthod of obtaining a different kind of reward, but to entertain the player with a story arc that they are personally participating in and having an impact on its outcome.Participating in the quest should bepart of the reward itself, and that seperates it from 'missions'. The amount of credits should also be substantial.

You should only be able todo the big 'quests' once, this would prevent camping similar to the dragon runs that people are complaining about.

Considering the above suggestion, there have to be enough quests in the game to satisfy players until they become a Master Elite profession. Once players reach that level, it will be hard to keep interest in quests alone because at that point all they are really doing is replacing worn items since there are to be no 'new' items kicking around by the sounds of it. That is unless the good idea of schematic drops is implimented. At the Elitelevel, the focus should shift to the Galactic Civil War anyway. I wont elaborate on that since you don't want us to change topics.

Just a point about the schematic drops, there is one flaw in the process. Having them drop in the game is great, but why should crafters who don't go on the quests, thereby who don't risk anything or had nothing to do with the completion of the quest be rewarded for someone elses work?Having gone through the process of completing the quest should be allyou need toobtain the reward. Having players pay crafters tothen make their itemseems, well, insane. Crafters get exp from making the items, and then could possibly charge for them? That isn't right. I'm 100% behind keeping crafters an integral part of the game and economy, but allowing other players to benifit from your hard work isn't fair either.

Having class specific quests with class specific rewards is necessary if you are going to introduce new items into the game. Or at the least, have class specific loot drop only for the classes that are in the group. If there is no weapon smith, then no weapon schematic.

The whole idea of loot for quests is getting something you can't normally get elsewhere, this is a slippery slope because then you have to create new objects in the game which could introduce class imbalance.

Just give large sums of credits/decorative objects/titlesand avoid having to rewrite the entire game.

Schematics would be an amazing reason to do a dungeon, for the top master elite profession items. Another way to do it would be to have resources be in that EXACT spot at the end of the dungeon and that you would have to survey them, and these would be high end resources of some sort.

I'd prefer schematics myself, so much you could do.

I know how about cool tropheys such as a piece of an x-wing or tie fighter or the engine off a y-wing something to add to your house, We have 2 at-st helmets in our shop and get constent request from ppl wanting to buy them People Like Star War looking stuff... We have a locked container in our shop that we will never open i mean whats the point in opening it it probably has a CDEF pistol in it anyway so it more fun to joke about whats really in it then it is toacutally look in side Just like the Pack on that movie Castaway

Rewards

A lot of these have been mentioned, I'm sure, so consider these 'votes'.

a)A new skill, ability, or emote which no one who has not completed the quest can get/do. (But not one which is so good everyone feels they 'have' to complete the quest'. Indeed, it would be best if quests which granted abilities forced you to pick one of, say, three, so that not everyone who completes the quest would have the same one.)

b)A one-use schematic to create an 'uber' item. Note I said *schematic*, not item. Hell, a long quest could involve getting multiple schematics for sub-assemblies before the uber-item could be made.

c)'uber' resources. >1000 in some stats, *in useful quantities*.

d)Recognition. Let my completion of the quest cause NPCs to actually react to me and say something relevant. "Aren't you the guy who rescued Boba Fett from the sarlacc pit?"

e)Something useful that would be game-breaking if everyone add it, such as 50 extra items sotrable in my house.

f)Some unique 'pet' or companion NPC -- a butler for my house who could move around and say things to guests.

g)bonus skill points? (Be really careful with this, it could be a gambreaker if the quest is too easy) Perhaps reward apprenticeship points instead.

Heres one I havn't seen...

How about a way-point tothe crafters vendor, who has the highest quality/stats and cheapest price of a random product.Even if the vendor is not on the global map. SPAM baby!...but I don't knowhow much time I spent looking for the best and cheapest of something and the travel costs of said search. Would be cool to be out hunting, take out an npc and find this information in his datapad. It would also be cool for the crafters to find out that loot is being dropped telling people they have the best stuff around at the best price. I would also give crafters another reason to compete instead of all of them sticking with 50K for something.