Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Should Force Sensitivity be a known path or a mysterious one? (II)
tman5219
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:20 am
#547
To hell with this. Why don't you guys just make Jedi a starter profession and be done with all this bull**edit**?
Come on. You know you want to.
Wagadodo
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:24 am
#548
I think it should be mysteriuos but no diffucult to reach. Or maybe diffculty should come from the puzzles or the interaction that you wish to do. People should not be forced to ruin their crafter characters just to try to be come a Force Sensitive character. During this time frame there where many people that a sensitivity to the force, but where not strong enough or dedicated enough to be come jedi.
So my opinion keep it simple as in combat wise if there is any at all. Remember you have a decent size segment of the playing community in pure crafters and entertainers. But make it hard how to figure out? Truthfully it is something that we should have been born with. So it really should be something as easy as flipping a switch. Make it diffcult becoming a true Jedi. Force Sensitivity easy to reach, make getting to Jedi the hard road.
capodan76
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:27 am
#549
The devs should go back to the early Jedi boards, before anyone ever unlocked, before holocrons...and read the theories that people had for getting a Jedi slot.
Many of the ideas were very enlightened and creative.
I think there should be an element of mystery to the whole process, my favorite theories were always the checklists, i.e. there are 100 possible things you can do in game to gain force sensitivity, a player needs to complete 40 of those (or 50, or whatever) in order to unlock.
Things on this list can vary from "craft this item" to "kill this creature," and since you don't need to finish the entire list, anyone can complete it regardless of class.
hobieone
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:32 am
#551
Creepoh wrote:Known, if only because the idea of rare Jedi has been completely thrown out the window, and it's not fair to those who simply didn't have the time or desire to grind professions to have to flail around looking for some "mysterious way".
i agree with you on this one
serqet
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:35 am
#552
FillieForbes wrote:Perhaps I am the minority but I believe that teh path to sensitivity should be known. My whole reason for playing this game is to wield a lightsaber and remove the arm of the too aggressive Rhodian in the local cantina. To all those who say it sould be a chore to become force-sensitive and even more so for Jedi, I have one thing to say: "This is a game. It is not real life, I have enough chores to do and during downtime (i.e. playing SWG) I should not have to spend months grinding a quest or grinding professions to be able to play as a Jedi."To satisfy all those who would like it to be a chore, let the player decide on their own path. Let them make the choice ingame whether to have the path revealed to them or have it mysterious. It can be implemented in this means in a number of ways. The Ruined Jedi Temple on Dantooine, the badge reads, "...has discovered the mysteries of the Ruined Jedi Temple"--well make the mystery of the Ruined Jedi Temple be your path to sensitivity. There are other Landmarks both as POI's and not that can be utilized like this. For those who like a difficult challenge, let them chose to find an unmarked shrine such as the one on Dantooine further north.But for those of us who are "casual" gamers the idea of spending months to become force-sensitive then more months to become a Jedi Initiate makes us want to give up on the game. If I hadn't made such good friends who keep my spirits up and push me to pursue Jedi, I would have quit at the idea of holo grinding.But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.Fillie ForbesFlurry ServerWorking on Mastering Bounty Hunter to hunt my husband when he becomes a Jedi
I've seen "casual" players spending up to 10 month to attain their jedi in old system, why should it be changed to 1 week now ?
VoodooExtreme
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:41 am
#553
You devs are really damned humorous, you all really made me laugh a lot!
Did you all know that the original way of unlocking was damn good? Nobody knew, nobody had a freaking clue that all itrequiredwas mastering a bunch of professions.
But then you guys had to open your yap and say that you expected an unlock 3 months after the game, what the hell? Give it a year even. The biggest mistake were the holocrons. That was the downfall.
The secrets, the intrigue into unlocking a Jedi slot was blown apart for all to see. If all of you had just closed your yaps and sat still, I think the true goal of the system would have truly worked and that only a handful would have unlocked today. Maybe 20 or 30. After all, I wouldn't even think TWICE that mastering X professions was it, I would still have been nowwhat I was then, a Master Musician and Master Carbineer.
But no, after the Holocrons I had learned to make a pair of hotpants, learned how to headshot a bloke, learned how to throw a blue orb of disease and poison, learned how to play a guitar, learned how to wield a stun baton, learned how to use brass knuckles, wielded a sharp spoke and swung Thor's Hammer. Tada, Jedi unlocked.
Have you seen what marketing does? Take a look at Nvidia. They are so focused on marketing that they've lost their focus on the real thing. I think all of you have lost it just by reading the title of the post.
A little too late now I think.
Thrasia
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:52 am
#554
The path should definitely be known.
You should be going on a sort of epic quest to enlightenment with full knowledge of your goal. How you get there is obviously up to the Devs. But having be secret to "force sensitivity" would be wrong. Since we're not automatically becoming jedi it should be known.
ChrisElstone
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:53 am
#555
I think it should be a mixture. Maybe keep the holocrons, but only have them tell you 2/5 profs you need
Keteck_Toch
Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:55 am
#556
NOTE: I am not bashing, I realize it's hard to get something right first time around, just giving feedback on what I do and don't like.
I'll be honest, I would like to be a jedi.
I recognize the problems with this whole idea, because this isn't a single player game, it's hard to hand out power such as a jedi to only a few people without getting someone angry,
Heres my reasoning,
The mystery should be different for almost every single person, (and by different I don't mean the same thing done different ways), for example, one person kills stuff.. another has to explore something, another has to talk to certain people (not that I suggest these methods, but that is what i mean by different). If it is not this way, then there is not much point to it being mysterious, because once it is discovered, as one person above me mentioned, it becomes too narrow of a search field, and there really is no longer a mystery.
Basically if it is similar to before, then it's only a mystery for a matter of time.. a delay in the jedi population growth, not a jedipopulation controller.
I know I am only one voice, but the part which I have bolded is not just one person's opinion, it is logic, and I hope it is taken into consideration.
So, that being said, here are some ideas which are just opinion, but none the less I still hope to see them 
Despite the fact I wish to be a jedi, I would like a little mystery,but only if this mystery is like that you would expect.
IDEAS: Really fun ideas (IMHO)
-Maybe searching caves that have a strange sense of force powers, or possiblyfinding massassi ruins with weird objects that empower you...
-Maybe someone will be empowered with the force instantly, and others have to work a bit, or they find an NPC that is only around sometimes and chooses people to undergo training, and be their master possibly?
-Maybe CSRs could pick people in a similar way that they pick people for special badges.
This way someone who acts like a Jedi could be noticed (seeing as this would be tricky to do with code)
-My favourite idea I think that could really work is sort of like instanced quests... like the corellian corvette one, except, this is in a old lost temple, where you accidentally find the door (maybe you can only find it after certain amount of things have been fullfilled). Then you can do some really interesting things in an instanced dungeon.
-Hardly ever see the same path to Jedi twice.
Something I would like to suggest as well, is that you can make how to become a jedi partially known, but have it so that the person would do the best to become one by continuing on with their every day game play (this is where CSRs would be useful, but I don't think this is feasable to do is it devs?)
I'd like to see a little of both worlds,
Here is a story from when I started this game.
We were told it was mysterious, so I went looking for mystery.
I found some houses inside Mos Eisley I think it was, maybe Mos Espa, cannot remember. They were littered with bones, and had an elevator. At this time I didnt' know lots of houses were like this, but I was almost afraid to go down the elevator, but I wanted to see what was down there, I thought I had found something!
When I got down there, I didn't see anything, was disapointed for a moment, but went on exploring!
This is why I suggestusing an instanced quest for this. If THAT house had something to do with it, there would be hundreds of people in it everyday, but we don't want that, we want it to be different. So maybe I could have gone down that elevator and stumbled into an instanced dungeon that no one else would find at that location.
That would be sweet in my opinion.
And this is where it could also get hard!
You now know where to go, but the monsters could be hard.. or there could be mind puzzles that take days to figure out..
I REALLY want to see this now that I thought of it, haha.
Message Edited by Keteck_Toch on 07-12-2004 09:58 AM
Cryzitul
Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:14 am
#557
There should be a mostly mysterious element to discovering your force-sensitivity. Perhaps creating a series of quest-sets which are individualized in a similar manner to how holocron professions were individualized: i.e. each character will have thier own path to force sensitivity which is determined at character creation. There can be as many differentsets of quests, or better still, there can be 'X' number of quests, each with an assigned level of relative (to each other) difficulty. That is to say that the developers would write as many quests for each level as they wished (let's use the number 3), and that instead of having your path totally predetermined, the computer randomly picks a quest from the set of next-level quests. This will randomize the process to gaining force sensitivity, and lessen the "Online-guide" phenomenon. While eventually every quest will be mapped out, it will still require each player to take an active role in discovering their own path, because they WON'T know which quest is next.
In this system, the first quest would be something that took the form of a vision, triggered by a specific event. Perhaps the player went to a certain POI or gathered a certain number of specific badges (certain badges could be assigned Force Sensitivity Points, and a player would recieve his or her 'vision' when he or she recieved enough points). The player wouldn't know which ones gave how many points, nor which POI to go to, as it could be keyed to that individual character. But in any event, something causes the player to get a system message and some cool music and gives them some direction as to how to proceed toward force sensitivity. An e-mail could also be sent, or a new tab created in the datapad to track the individuals progress toward force sensitivity, as many people miss system messages for various reasons.
ex. Level 1 quests: Discovering Force Sensitivity (triggered by specific events)
1.) Investigate <insert POI here>, talk to so and so and complete a mission of relative ease.
2.) Travel to <random city> and investigate rumors of a mysterious person who is there.
3.) Perform a function related to your chosen (or some otherwise determined) profession for a certain NPC.
After completion of the visions objective, the player could be approached by a (probably NPC) jedi, who informs them that the force is strong with them, and that they can learn to use it with help. The player will gain access to all of the force sensitive disciplines, but only the level one skills in each. This jedi can then give the player a mission to unlock the second level of skills, and so on. Each level of quests will be harder than the last, although they won't all entail combat. The specific quest from each level can be something that is randomly chosen based on some attribute of the character at chreation (species, starting profession, the second letter of the first name, whatever), and will remain a mystery to the player. They will proceed through the quests, spending time between each to train so that they will qualify to learn a skill from the next rank as soon as they unlock it (perhaps jedi XP should be a requirement for taking the next level of quest, or maybe the player needs to first train in 'X' number of force sensitive skills before being eligible for the next level of quest). When the player attains the prerequisites, they recieve notification (another system message/e-mail).
Finally the quests themselves should involve some use of the force powers that the player is gaining. I feel as though it would detract from the whole experience if the way to become a jedi was to use your flamethrower as much as possible. You are supposed to be becoming an experienced force user, sothe quests should bewritten accordingly. If this system is instituted, it will greatly enhance the accomplishment and role-playing aspects of the path toward force-sensitivity, and greatly reduce the ability to know what's coming next, leaving it a mystery for the players to discover themselves.
Challykazza
Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:17 am
#558
To me it seems the biggest factor is that we don't want jedi galaxies. Im not sure at what stage the 2nd slot opens but I think the journey up until that point should be rather easy to figure out. Not saying it should be easy in difficulty but easy to see what needs to be done next in order to progress towards the slot being opened. I say this because I believe Im not the only one that JUST WANTS A 2ND CHARACTER SLOT! Most likely I won't even touch the jedi proffesion, too hard to grind. I also believe Im not the only one with 2 accounts that will want to do these quests twice. Again not all of us are looking to have a jedi through these quests just a 2nd char, devs should keep that in mind.
FajitaPita
Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:20 am
#559
Here are mythoughts on this subject. I assume that the majority of the people who want the path the force sensitivity to be known want it that way because of the way some of the quests in the game now are working. Path to Jedi should be hard. Hard not being you have to wander around for countless hours looking for a spawn or grinding X number of professions. Thats not hard.. its just stupid. I voted for the path to be known only because I fear that the quests will be like the ones that are in the game currently. Go deliever something completly useless to someone over there, escort someone back to here, or go kill something thats weaker than a nuna. This is not fun. Mysterious is not wandering from city to city looking for whatever... and I fear this is what SOE thinks mysterious is. There are pros and cons to both sides. As i said before. I voted for it to be a known path. However... I feel it will just be like the hologrinders. All they do is grind and the GCW is left dead.
I would rather the path be unknown but there has got to be a better way to make something mysterious besides making someone hunt for hours trying to find a spawn. Besides im guessing in the end the path will ultimatley be a mysterious one. This would give SOE all the time they need to develope the path. With the path being known, it all has to be worked out when pub 10 rolls out...