Development Cycle Archive
Thread: Desired Rewards
Personally, I'd like to see badges, rare armors/weapons, or their schematics. Getting something like a piece of Mandalorian Armor (or a schematic for a piece, maybe with limited uses, this way it's rare, and it allows for customization of you're rare find so you can color coordinate things as you get the full suitover time) would be awesome, and make for a challenging, lengthy quuest with a worthwhile reward that you'll both treasure and get some practical use out of.
This benefits pretty much everyone (if some rare finds are schematics) because crafters will still be needed to make the armor/weapon you need. The only problemI see with making it too schematic reliant though, is that the potential for grief-theft of a rare object that you just spent a decent chunk of time trying to get.
I don't know if this has been mentioned, but I'd go about loot drops this way:
Have at least some mobs drop some things that couldbe added to existing weapons or armor to make them more powerful, but don't require a crafter to put them on. Allow the player himself to do it. You might need a crafter or smuggler to prepare your equipment for such an add-on, but once you get it you can put it in yourself. But it would require an existing weapon or piece of armor first. It would be like powerups, but powerups you could put in yourself unaided. That solves the problem of having to trust a crafter to make it and keeps the crafters in business because you need existing equipment to use it. Additionally, the powerup gained this way may make the weapon degrade faster (for instance, acid added to a weapon might eat through the weapon eventually,) thus increasing the market for weapons and armor. These powerups could exist from the most newbie mobs onward, and some might only be able to work with certain types of weapons and certain levels (like some that might not work with CDEF versions, or special weapons designed specifically for that type of powerup).
Furthermore, other types of loot drops could exist, like the aforementioned schematics and special resources. These could be found by multi-classed artisans or sold by those who can't craft the items. All of these things I think would go toward making a more robust economy and a more rewarding combat experience.
Cash... cold hard cash and lots of it. I'll buy what I want.
Zaine'
Master Medic
Sunrunner
Q, here are somr of the suggestions through page 13 that I thought were really cool. They really began repeating after that and I couldn't bring myself to read all 38 pages! I can only hope that someone reads this post based on my "street cred" haha.
The idea of unique/presteige items seems like the top of the list. That is not exactly crafter friendly, unless the unique item is a limited use schematic or a broken, but repairable, item. The next most common idea was basically uber crafring components.
Some of the most unique ideas have to do with extending the quests/dungeons to be more in depth and to contain more content. The idea of dropping unique "treasure maps" to other quests or placing unique, missio ngiving NPCs at the bottom of the dungeons seem very cool. Plus, it is just an extension of your current programming model!
So, here is my top 26 list:
Knives10
And like special clothing or badge or title. like a shirt with the rebal, impiral, or jabba symbol on them are a helm somthing like that and look very cool or a badge that says you have completed so and so or a special title that says "Jabba's Assason" or "Jabba's Familar" or "The Rebal's Spy" or "The Rebal's Weapon", I would be happy with stuff like that especialy the title since it's most noticeable.
LordValadon
I'd like to see more UNUSABLE loot, like rare items you can use to decorate a house with, or just drop down to be a really cool decoration.
Paintings, furniture, art, carpets, sculptures, etc.
Dinian
Drop special resources. Like 1000 conductivity copper in 100 resource containers for instance.
Asheesh
An armor schematic or armor components that allows an armorsmith to build armor that's actually usable or at least not so punishing.
Philosopher1976
6) A Unique Pet (NOT a powerful pet, just a cool low level one that is cute looking and unique)
7) An extra skill point or two (I bet players would spend weeks to earn that. Probably the most valuable thing on this list.)
8) Access to an area that is part of the movies or the EU.
9) Rare ingredients for the Chefs [and Bio-engineers] to use in their food.
Dumog
How about Adding Schematics to the Trade Classes that require resources that can only be looted. Make it so that the schematics need 3-4 components that are dropped from various mobs and can then be combined by a crafter into a unique item.
SanthaFix
Awards of data would be cool - eg, a Dark Jedi drops a Holocron with the waypoints to some cool stuff included, or some text with legends, rumors etc.
Droid-S128
I want missions that are based on Race. Like say only a Wookiee can go on this mission. When they get done with it they get a Wookiee Reward. Something that screams Wookiee.
_1ranger
Make things to do in the caves, give me people to talk to: ie, NPC1 is mad at NPC2, so you go to NPC2 and on the way there you find out that a brigde you need to cross is down, so you find a guy to fix the bridge... whatever it is, just make it more than "hack and slash" like it is now.
JezabelleSWG
It's a quest that requires you to have a group composed of characters of varying specialties (much like the base takeovers). But the BEST things about that were:
1) A great setting. An opportunity for some of the games BEST animation work and graphic detail.
2) Traps that challenge the PLAYER not just the character...you have to think your way through it and some of the action is based on your PLAY not just your statistics.
3) A CUSTOM loot drop....at the end of Gaerlan you get to raid his treasurey....which automatically generates a loot item SPECIFIC to that player. And the best part.....a graduated loot drop system where the second time you get a better drop also specific to you. (a timer of course)
4) Something you can wear that shows "I completed the such-and-such quest"....in AC for Gaerlan you got his robe.
Van_de_Fanel
an addon to a crafted item. For example, a poison addon when placed onto any gun will give the gun the ability to poison? Call it Poison nozzle or something.
NBScoop
Tie em to the GCW...faction points ..faction perks (special armor types for example) or structures etc...
ArchFirehaven
I think it is more important that more advanced and interlocked puzzles and quests be put into the game. [...] maybe the Jabba missions have a catch all (the current quests) but if you happen to be a bounty hunter he sends you on unique detailed bounty hunter missions.
Lastly please please please please make the Theme Parks by and large possible to do as a group.
Waste93
I would like to see some kind of "passes". These would decrease the chance of certain gangs or such aggroing on you. Even if you have -5k Thug faction. The pass would give you say a 50/50 chance of them ignoring you.
Telerios
Rare [or unique] outfits without any special stats on them.
Nasock
Begin adding elite-elite crafting professions, that require profession-specific quests to get components for their products. For instance, an armorsmith would require 5 krayt pannels to make a Krayt Helmet, and these panels would not be craftable.
Frothno
You could introduce new skills to the game. These wouldn't be unique to any profession, but rather anyone could acquire them if they meet the requirements. This could require people to contact a certain NPC and perform a task like killing the boss of a unique-skill dungeon. The NPCs could give people skills upon completion of a task that are useful or interesting yet not worthy of a whole profession, like firework manufacturing (take this away from artisans), fishing, Player Association ownership/leadership, ect. All players could have a seperate amount of skill points for generic skills. People would gain proficiency in these skills by doing more tasks for their trainer.
Nasock
Another interesting idea would be to add "Broken Legendaries" that would require crafters to fix them. For instance, you could have an "ancient beam repeater" that, when used, brings up a crafting window and requests specific components to fix it. In my beam repeater's case, I would say it would need 5 Advanced Blaster Power Handlers, a new adv blaster rifle barrel and adv projectile feed mech to repair general admage, and a few units of a rare resource to finish the weapon off. This would require players to have crafters around if they wanted working rare weapons. The system could be made more general(which would lead back to the schematic idea) or much more specific(one key part is missing from the otherwise functional E-Web blaster turret).
CColdsmoke
Mini-games. Anything to provide further depth to the game beyond just eye candy or combat assistance. This doesn't even have to be something like the holo-chess game from the original movie - it could be as simple as a Rubik's Cube or a logic puzzle.
VahnDroider
Maybe even maps that lead to special missions. Have them give detailed information of what the missions are about (whether detroy or delivery). Assign them a diffivulty level with a wide range that will promote both travelling to other planets and grouping. These missions are only obtainable through loot and should provde further good loot and the placed mission.
Dando
In a Dungeon: A spot on the wall to scribble (soandso was here)
Treguard
[...] how about the following:
X number of {hours, or hours_logged_on} receive E-Mail from NPC along the lines of:
"I heard about your exploits in {dungeon_name}, would you be willing to help me with the following: " (which may or may not use an item from the dungeon itself). Attach a waypoint [mission data] to the E-Mail.
saber1
puzzle pieces or critical artifacts generally one of a kind part of a larget theme
special starwars galaxy perk like a special question directly answered by a developer or comment replied to directly i know many people that would give an arm for this kind of quest
more skill points or special skills outside of existing trees
Jarvel
Another conceptual idea is pieces.. If each month a specific set of npc's gave out a specific piece of an overall prize, people could work towards a goal. (not to mention have to play long enough to attain it, trade to get ones they don't have, etc..
Webster
1. Create components that can only be aquired by warrior types, with the best components being found on creatures and NPC's that no Master Crafter would have a chance of defeating on their own. This would make the warrior classes incredibly useful to craftsmen as we would be the sole providers of the best crafting materials in the game.
7. Crystals and such that can change the color of blaster bolts.
Terinath
This could make finding disks more fun too. Now I gotta go find disks 1-4 of the Star Destroyer plans so I can see a Holoprojection of it. There is a lot of potential in there. You could have cool Sith Holocrons with teachings on the Dark Side, a imperial general's last conversation with Vader, a garbled communication from a pilot trying to escape Dantooine. You could even make this something useful in the game. Someone wants a home and wants to know what it looks like, BLEEP R2 shows off the holo of it and the floorplan. CHs could have datafiles of pets and see their animations. You could drop in new disks to collect to preview new content. Wanna see the new generic large house the architects will have in the next update, find the disk and see a holo of it in game(small size of course).
What reward would motivate you to do a long, hard quest or dungeon?
Clues to opening the FS slot
after skimming the 38 pages of this thred im surprized that very few people have mentioned this. After all every one has been screeming about it for the last 2 months.
What is needed is a way to get more skill points. Not alot mind you, 1 or 2 per mission or even 1 or 2 per chain of missions. This reward in itself will get the more advanced players fighting to be the first to compleat them. Oreven on certian battle fields being able to earn skill points after surviving so long. After all in real battle if you are lucky enough to live through it it makes you smarter.
We seen so far that you can loot extra components for weapon, armor and medic crafting. (how ever, the medic crafting component seem kinda silly because its 'worthless' unless its a schematic loot with at least 50 count.)
These loot component have been good fun to find and get.
Like others have writting, something rare is fun too, doesnt have to be anything you can use, can be furniture or special clothing.
There could/should be rare and semi rare loot. Both in furniture and component loot, where the weapon component would be more powerfull the more rare it is. Also there could be rare rescource loot, at stacks of 100+ or so, some with awsome stats.
Some of these extra items people want could also be obtained by quests.
In general people just like some unique and rare items.
My idea is probably NOT like most other folk on this thread. SWG is becoming more and more like EQ every month, but as soon as we have to start camping mobs (biggest problem with the huge Story/BadgeMission failure), I'd say we pretty much crossed the line and it's time to re-evaluate whether or not we want to continue playing.
To avoid this EQ Conundrum, how about these loot ideas.
-Anything but Broken Items. Giving us a CDEF would be better than that slap in the face. Who's idea was that anyway? You really must slap that person instead. A full bag of broken items is worth about30 credits at a Junk Dealer. Get rid of these vendors to save server capacity please...it's much more rewarding to destroy these insults! And no one, and I do mean NO ONE goes out of their way to sell their junk at a Junk Dealer. In the time it takes to find and sell you could do 2 delivery missions and make 200 times the money.
-Nice Clothes. Possibly Unique to the Quest and (wouldn't this be cool) gender and race. How cool would it be to be wearing 4 socket jacket that tells everyone that you completed the Emperors Retreat? I don't think a single set of Unique Clothes would be a threat to tailors. We're SWG Players. We like variety
-Jewelry. Unique things like those beautiful pieces dropped by Nightsisters (or so I'm told. I've killed 37 so far and haven't seen one yet...hehe). Jewelry items would either be worn proudly or sold in vendors. And they'd sell.
-Decorations and Nick Nacks. I personally like the Bantha Statues, Lightsabers, and inedible food dishes. The only use for these items are Decoration. As a Home Owner, I particularly like things like that and are always searching for more. Since there are no Jedi in the game (and we really believe that there is a way...no really...we do...), force crystals and other useless force items are PURE bragging rights and are proudly displayed in many a home. Decorations are NO threat to artisans since that is the one thing they sadly cannot make. How cool would it be for the completer of the Emperors Retreat to have a floating model of...say the Deathstar or a TIE Fighter about half the size of a probot? I'll bet you that would be one of the most desired objects in the game. A toy AT-AT anyone?
-More Decorations. NPC buildings in towns have cool paintings and rugs and other beautiful stuff. Players have nothing of the sort. A scenic painting of various planets. Some NPC in Mos Boondocs which gives a painting of a Krayt Dragon at the end...
-Some useful items. At the start of the Rebel Hideout Theme Park, C3P0 gave me a (one) droid battery. This raised my eyebrows because it was useful and simple. This elevated my expectations. Imagine my surprise when the next thing I got was a broken set of binoculars! A stack of Stim B's...droid batteries (a stack this time)...some fair to good powerups...a stack of good food (not melons please). Such items would be no threat to an artisan because they are so commonplace that it would be easier and far more productive to get by going to some players vendor. Just a pleasant perk to continue the mission chain...
-Faction. I think out of pure logic that Completing a long series of missions for Princess Leia would earn you alot of faction with the Rebelion. I got a total of 260 faction points for the whole Rebel Hideout. That's about 20 minutes worth of faction work at a mission terminal. Drop a 0 at the end of that and make it 2600 and that would almost be worthwhile doing theHideout (remember...these things can only be done once per character). At least I earned about 1800 doing the Emperor's Retreat. So while the rewards were a huge joke, I was able to buy a dark trooper. Still I could have earned 3 times that just doing Imperial Mission terminal work for the same amount of time so in my opinion the reward did not match the accomplishment. An interesting mission would be a Commoner who pretty much just gives out varying levels of Townsperson Faction. Useful I'd say. Brief Note: I had neg Jabba Faction going into Jabbas Palace. I expected my faction to rise enough to start gaining rewards. However, I didn't get a single point of faction for Jabba...I got Hutt faction !?!
-Money. Typically a hard paying mission at a Theme Park pays 100 credits. 100 credits is what you earn at a mission terminal in 1 minute and 45 seconds (two 50 to 80 cr delivery missions in Anchorhead or Bela Vistal). For Darth Vader to pay me that after spending 15 min on a hard mission is horrible. A newbie mission ofmuch easierdifficulty level on any starter world pays about 1200. Missions on the outter worlds with similar or slightly harder difficulty pays from 10 to 200 times the amount of Vaders wallet...Remember...these missions can only be done once...so give us a great deal more money. Otherwise there is no reason to talk to Vader when the Mission Terminal in the next room pays 100 times what he does, and you can do those as often as you like. Bottom line is that an NPC Mission should pay more than a Terminal Mission, not the reverse (or equal at the Very Least).
-Gear. I am personally leery about geer being handed out (I'll die if I hear someone tell me there's Phat L33t on Lok). But that which is given Ieither cannot use (the sword from Jabbas for example (although I feel this was a good reward...if I was a Brawler)), or they don't match the risk(nothing else is remotely as good as the sword from Jabba), or simply sucks. So the idea of a schematic for a nice weapon or armor (with flashy colors please) might be cool since we then have to hire or be an artisan to make it. If this is the case it should be top of the line but NOT better than what a Master can make otherwise it's EQ all over again. Before you panic thinking this would steal from Artisans, remember, Theme Parks are One Time Only...and items decay...
-Deeds. You guys probably won't like this one. Deeds to harvesters, factories, HOMES (small or medium only), Droids, and...OMG should I say it...Bio creatures (it's okay...no one buys bio'd pets other than for furniture anyway...wild beasts are better and more fun to get).
-Furniture. I like this one as long as they are infrequent. Things like lights (that work please...it's silly for an advanced society to be forced to use torches to illuminate their homes...), chairs, or how about unique plants! Too much however would just excercise the destroy button.
-The Ultimate Prize: Resources. Most of us search for days and weeks looking for High Quality resources (and I don't mean 700 rated stuff). How about a stack of 1000 steel with a 999 rating across the board? Oooo! A stack of 1000 wind energy! Remember...we can only do Theme Park Missions once so make it Big!
None of the items I mentioned would make this EQ Hell, and most of them would motivate me to Want to do these Theme Parks or search for particular NPC's or just randomly do missions from obscure guys with blue I's over there heads because there may be something interesting to be gained, or worth my time. Soon as it pays out LESS than a boring Terminal Mission, I move on. No point.
In closing I'd like to list what I earned doing the three big Theme Parks (note that anything that was useless, ie broken binoculars or a newbie Wooden Staff I did not bother to list because these were summarily destroyed as they are unusable for the skill level needed to complete the missions and unsellable in any bazaar...I tried with the Emperor's Retreat stuff then gave up)
-Jabbas Palace: A Sword I gave away, after being unable to sell it.I got to see Boba Fett. Nothing else. I started with negative Jabba faction so didn't get a single item the entire Theme Park. I have yet to see any benefit for the 600 or so Hutt faction I got.
-Emperor's Retreat: Approximately 1400 credits total. 27 credits in junk. Approximately 1800 Imperial Faction. Cool Boots and Gloves, and a Robe of Honor (which I pretend is unique), a slave colar. Nothing else was useful or sellable and were destroyed except for the Flame Thrower which I hung on my Museum wall because it was sopoor qualityI couldn't sell it.
-Rebel Hideout/Han Solo: Approximately 3200 credits (although I had to spend 4500 to get to Lok and back so I ended up in the hole). Approximately 260 Rebel faction. Destroyed all junk this time, and all useless items. Got to see Princess Leia (she's so short). Got to Talk to Han. No other benefit.
Final Comment. The restriction of Faction is too severe for Theme Parks. With negative Jabba Faction (and no Jabba Faction being rewarded during the Mission Chain (how odd is that?) I gotnothing. Then there's the Thug Faction silliness with the Emperor's Retreat. I don't know if this was fixed, but if not, I remind you that the Emperor includes several missions to kill Thugs. How about if faction is too low then you Can't do the Theme Park? It's better than wasting doing rewardless missions.
Sorry for the length, but this has been on my mind for some time. Now I just hope you read it...
Astria Starsong, Master Creature Handler/Scout, Musuem Curator (-4500,-1400 Corellia, Bria Server)
Q-3PO wrote:
One of the concerns I've seen raised is if we make a better reward, does that mean that players who already completed the themepark won't ever have the opportunity to get that new reward. We're not sure what the exact solution is, but we definitely are looking intoways so you can. We agree that you should not be punished for finishing the task before we increased the reward. We will probably have an NPC who you can talk to who will allow you to restart the adventure from the beginning.
One option is you could just add one NPC (a Quartermaster or some such, if you don't want to use a name from the continuity) to the end of the quest chain. Then, the people that have already done it will just have to go talk to this person, while the new people doing it will naturally get to the point where they have to talk to him.
-Mohenjo