This post is going to be a long one, but it'll be well worth the read, especially for any SOE staff.
I'll start off by saying this. SWG is the greatest MMORPG ever. Before you flame me, here's why. I've played all of SOE's other MMORPGs as well as guild wars and auto assault, along with many not well known MMOs. SWG is the greatest MMORPG because it's the only one I've played that seamlessly forces me to interact with other players. The entire time I played EQ and EQ2, I only ever soloed or grouped with my brother, except for the occasional raid. Why didn't I socialize? Because I didn't have to. Same with guildwars. I think I only ever grouped with other people on the few missions it made me and in PvP, every other time I used henchmen because they're just more reliable. Also, in SWG, you can change your profession without losing the reputation that goes with your character's name, or the wealth that you may have aquired along the way.
Now, I've been a gamer since I was five, playing Jumpman on my Commodore 64, and since grade school, I had decided that I was going to design games for a living. Since then, I have always focussed on trying to find out what exactly makes a game "game of the year" material. Aside from inginuity, I still haven't pinpointed it. But I digress. Recently, I've been asking myself "If SOE could do one large publish to bring the game back to full light, what would it be like?" and here's what I came up with:
"RSF Detention Facility A-4"
You and your party are sent on a bounty after a high ranking RSF officer by one of Jabba's thugs. When you reach the outpost he's stationed in, your party is overpowered by the officer's body guards, but instead of killing you, they send you to a detention station orbiting naboo.
Alright, so that quest idea is really vague, mainly because I didn't concentrate on it, because how you get their isn't important. Why a space station? Well, when I first logged into star wars galaxies over 2 years ago, the first thing I saw was a window overlooking a docking bay with rows and rows of stormtroopers standing at attention. This is one of the few times I actually felt in the star wars universe. That whole space station felt like Star Wars to me. Anyway, back to the description.
When your party wakes up (AKA loads in), you're in a fairly nice sized detention cell withplenty of bunks for the group and more. Your group realizes that any weapons they were carrying are missing. Also, you find a shady gray-hairedsmuggler with a cybernetic arm sharing yourparty's cell.After conversing withhim past hissarcastic smuggler attitude, you find out he is Kerse Callidan, leaderof the Callidan Mining Corporation. Apparently he's been their a few days and is also awaiting execution, but he doesn't seem to be worried. After exclaiming that he was waiting for an army just like you and your party, he reveals a hidden blaster built into his cybernetic arm and blasts open a panel next to the door. aftera few minutes of fiddling with the circuitry, the door slides open.
This part is important because never in this game have I been taken prisoner. And why not? There were many, manyscenes involving prisoners in the orginal trilogy, and to be missing my weapons? Holy crap! I've never gone anywhere without my weapons! Also, we have an NPC that actually helps us instead of just talking to us telling us to go here, kill that, deliver this, escort that, but DOING something! From here on, Kerse will actually lead the group through the dungeon, but your group has to keep him alive. Why do we need Kerse? 2 reasons. First, Quests have never been enjoyable to me, just teadious grinds to get the end reward. That isn't how it should be! The quest should be equally exciting as the reward. Having an NPC help you and talk to you on the waywill give you the feel that you're actually in the star wars universe and make the quest enjoyable, I know I love it when a freighter I'm escorting says "You really saved me, thanks!" Second, it'll keep people from just going to camp loot, because if he dies, you get executed. Why? You don't know your way around the station like this guy does, and can't slice the stuff he slices, even if you're a smuggler, because this guy is a seasoned smuggler.
Kerse runs out the door and blasts the guard, walks over and takes the keys off of the guard (use the foraging animation here, because animations add to the feel, even if it's already used for something else). From here, Kerse leads the party towards the armoryso youcan get your weapons back. On the way there, you have to sneak past the guards (you know, actually waiting till they pass a hallway and their back is turned before continuing, Also, giveKerse somenew animations of stuff like hiding against a wall and peeking around corners, because it'll really bring the game to life). After you getyour weapons, the alarm sounds. From here, troops of RSF continually come fromelevators place throughout the station that playersdon't have access to (blocked by a red forcefield to players only). To stop the elevators, the players have to shoot the controls to the door and lock it shut. after 15 minutes, the doors will repair themselves and start the assault of troopers again until the controls are shot shut again.From here, Kerse willcontinuously slice lockdown doors while your party holds off the troops. If your party has a smuggler, he can choose to assist kerse and speed up the slicing process. along the way, thereare puzzles similar tothe water pressure valves in the DWB, because puzzles are fun.
Shoot the door shut? using the environment at it's best with a star wars feel! Puzzles? It's always nice to have something other than enemies blocking your way.
Your end goal is to reach the shuttle in the docking bay. Unfortunately for you, the only shuttle in the the bay has been damaged. However, if you have a shipwright in your group, he can repair it. Otherwise, you're going to have to go to the droid control room and activate the repair droids before you can leave.
Using a profession as a bonus to the group will give the player the feel of being useful to the group in more ways than just damage and support. Just like how smugglers on the corvette can override obtaining the operations disk #4 to get the codes to the bridge.
Alright, that mission sounds like a blast! But what do we get for helping a leader of a corperation survive certain death?! I bet it'll be huge! This is where the Publish hits it's strongpoint. First of all, to do this mission, everyone in your party has to be a master of at leastone profession. With that said, think about this. Instead of a tangable reward like a new gun orvehicle, what if I get something to enhance my gameplay and increase my options. Kinda like unlocking jedi! You get a wholenew playstyleto mess around with. Support and Crafting professions will benefit the most from the rewards, because these are the heart of SWG, and need some lovins. However, Combat professions will definately benefit because if crafters get help, combat professions get help.
Here's my list of rewards for each profession.
Architect: gains the ability to build fortification structures for player cities. The first structure introduced would be the sniper tower. This will be a raised structure with a wraparound ramp leading to the top in which a ranged profession can shoot from with incredible defense against melee professions. Is this fair? for the most part, yes. If a melee profession gets upinto the tower, thesniper will have a hard time getting distance fromhim because he'll have to retreat down the ramp. The idea is to give the defending team ofthe fortified city and advantange, because defending teams need advantages.
Armorsmith: Grants the ability to use faction armor paint kits while crafting them. We've all wanted green scout trooper armor or black stormtrooper armor, and we've seen NPCs in vibrantly colored marine armor, but we've never been able to get them. Using paint kits rarely dropped from high end NPCs, the armorsmith will be able to alter the armor to preset color templates to give some variation and sense of pride to factional armor.
Chef: I honestly haven't thought of something for chef, suggestions?
Creature Handler: teaches the CH a relatively strong attack to teach their pets. I'm not sure what all attacks there are currently, so I can't go into detail.
Dancer: Grants the ability to build and place Jubilee Wheels and Slot machines in cantinas, perhaps other games as they come along.
Doctor: Gains the ability to use looted buff enhancers to increase their buffs to 15-20%. Will this unbalance PvP? No way, the buff enhancers will be loot from high end mobs and doctors will either charge an arm and a leg for them or only use them when they absolutely have to.
Droid Engineer: BATTLE DROID CHASSIS, COME ON!!!
Musician: Same as Dancer
Ranger: Grants the ranger the use of an "Ambush" skill. This skill acts as "take cover" for the entire group, however the players don't need to be prone to stay beneath radar, they just can't move.
Tailor: IMPERIAL GUNNER AND REBEL INSIGN HELMETS!!!!
Weaponsmith: Grants the ability to use weapon paint kits. These only work on light/metalliccolored weapons and tint the color of the weapon to the color listed on the paint kit. These are VERY RARE drops from high end mobs.
Bio-Engineer: hmmmm...... Taun-Taun?
Bounty Hunter: This is a good one. Completing this dungeon will give a BH the ability to hunt smuggler players that have ticked off Kerse (see Smuggler).
Combat Medic: I'm not quite sure, suggestions?
Commando: Grants the ability to use a new lightweight, high explosive grenade with a really low reuse timer. Lets face it, grenades are cool, but they're just not worth throwing at the current attack speed. However, these grenades are looted off of high end mobs and are relatively uncommon.
Smuggler: You've gained the respect of Kerse and he's decided to personally invite you to work for him. He wants you to run his illegal weapons component and resources from contact to contact like a true smuggler. When you are carrying these components and try to board a shuttle, yourisk the chance of beingattacked by security. If you defeat the security, you can use the shuttle, but the security is set to be one combat level above yours. If you choose totransport it in your own ship, youare at a lower risk of being scanned and attacked byimperial or other security forces.If you choose to keep the resources or components yourself (these components and resources are required in crafting fortification structures, jubilee wheels, and some more new entities added later in the game.), you'll get lowered respect from Kerse. If it gets low enough, he won't hesitate to put a bounty on your head. Now, if you defeat the bounty hunter, Kerse will recognize your l33t sk1llz and forgive and forget, but if you are defeated, you must do the Detention Station mission over again.
Squad Leader: Gives you +10 leadership. Every 10 points of leadership a squadleader has, an additional person can join a group. A Squad Leader maxes out his leadership at +40, when he canlead a group of 12 members. Later quests in the game will allow additional leadership points.
Lastly, we have pure combat professions. If a character has a master combat profession, Kerse has decided to make you a personal bodyguard andgivesyou a "Freelance Comlink" for their datapad. This will unlock a whole new aspect of the game. From time to time, A faction leader will call you on the comlink to do a quest. At first, there is only one faction leader, Kerse. As time goes on, SOE can add more leaders to unlock the use of the comlink for. If you accept and complete the quest given over the comlink, your faction with the leader increases. When your faction gets higher, you'll start getting material rewards, whether it be new clothing to show your affiliation with the faction, or new weapon schematics. The higher your faction is, the better the reward might be.
I beg anyone in SOE to forward this thread to the dev team, because I truely, TRUELY believe it can help the game. Thank you for taking the time to read it, I know it's long.
(from a guy named ridick on intrepid)
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