Pilot Archive
Thread: POLL: Will JTL Keep You Playing Until The Combat Upgrade?
I know that I b1tch and complain here on a regular basis but it's mainly because I know that I'll be here no matter what. No matter how bad the ground game gets I'm here for the long haul.
I had a horrible experience this weekend with a tier 3 Imperial mission for Storm Squadron but I joined an awesome guild on Corbantis and was able to finally get past it.
Right now the ground game is dead to me. I worked for over a year to get to Master BH and then Master BH/Master Pistoleer only to get ruled by some guy with a loin cloth and a stick. The economy on most servers is completely borked. Everyone is running around with the same armor. The only way for my profession can make any money is by somehow winning the 'loot lottery', or by doing Janta missions, etc., etc., etc.
Do I think JTL is perfect? Not even close.
The training is borked. I love (and hate) having the tiers and the missions setup the way they are, but not being able to train within your tier is a little messed up. You shouldn't be able to progress until you finish all of the missions in your tier but you should be able to train within your tier if you have the XP.
Five titles at once? You should get a new title every time you finish a tier not 5 titles all at once for ACE. Also, you should be able to display your faction rank along with your name. Such as "Captain Anzel Vincir <Imp Captain Symbol Here>. This is something that we talked about in beta that wasn't ever even addressed.
Two new species for noob's only? Veteran players should be allowed to change their species... period. Especially when new ones are introduced to the game.
Starship Terminals. The larger player cities should have private starship terminals that can only be used by citizens of that particular city. This would discourage people from living out in the wild like animals.
All space stations should be like the noob tutorial where you can walk around and gaze through the windows down at Tatooine or Yavin. Sorta an homage to Stanley Kubrick. Stations should have banking terminals, bazaar terminals, cantina's, medical centers, etc., etc., etc. Again, something we talked about in Beta that was pretty much ignored.
Killscores and Rankings. Not sure how old everyone out there is but the very first 3D space simulation for me was Elite on the Commodore64. Since then there have been many copy-cats such as Privateer, I-War 2, and X-Tension/X2 by egosoft. In Elite you start off as a 'Novice' and as you kill more and more NPCs your rank progresses up to 'Dangerous', then 'Deadly', and finally 'Elite'. It would also be cool to have a badge that displays your kill stats like "...Has 234 confirmed kills" and titles like "Imperial Pilot - Deadly" instead of just "Ace".
No Cargo holds! How can a DE put a storage module into a mouse droid but my TIE Bomber holds squat? Maybe just restrict it to looted items or maybe you have to choose between a weapon and a cargo hold. Again, this was brought up in Beta but for the most part it was just disregarded/ignored.
Ship Classes. One of the coolest things about SWG is that there is more to do besides combat. There are Medics, Scouts, Chefs, etc. There should also be different classes of ships. Like repair ships, transports, mining ships, etc.
Profession Specific Missions. As a Bounty Hunter I was really looking forward to rolling up on a BH Terminal and hunting my marks in space. I'm sure that smugglers had similar fantasies. This one really disappointed me...
Veteran Reward. It takes up a lot? It takes up a slot in the datapad? Hmmm. Maybe we should consider dropping the word 'Reward' from this one... Seriously. Call it something else. Also, you should be able to enable auto-pilot and then walk around. That would rule!
Grouping is still cheese. There is much debate and complaint over the 'space instance' bug where you end up in a different/random instance of space. Also, you should be able to see the direction AND distance of other members in your group like in the ground game.
RADAR. The RADAR is something that many people complained about in Beta as well. Going back to my other favorite game, Elite, which had a much better RADAR where you could get a visual representation of whether the targets where above/behind, in front of/in back of you. Elite was written in the early 80's by two college students in England. The computer they had at the time had like 4 bits of memory. Come on devs. Let's work a bit on the RADAR huh?
Non-JTL Players Can't Board Multi-Passenger Ships. JTL should give you access to the Pilot Profession. The ability to own and pilot ships. Yes. Agreed. But I should be able to invite friends up into space on my Yacht! Or hire some poor shmuck who doesn't have JTL to be a gunner for me in my Aggressor. Maybe when they see how cool JTL is they'll consider buying it. Also, a lot of us have alts and aren't going to fork over the extra $30 just to be a passenger...
No helmets for Rebels? I almost p'd my pants the first time I booted up my Imp helmet. As a kid Stormtroopers were always my favorite. I always favored the Imperials because their armor was the shiz, especially the TIE Pilots. The Rebel pilot helmet was the only cool piece of anything that the Rebels had. I am amazed that all of you poor Rebels are forced to get into your inferior little space-boats without anything on your heads...
PvP for master? Yeah, there are 12's of posts on this one. PvP for Master = Bad... Very Bad...
Hyperspace to a WP. Why on Tatooine can I not jump to a waypoint? I know that, "Jumping through hyperspace ain't like dusting crops" but come on! We really need this. Especially for grouping. Last night a few of my guild mates were going to help me with a mission that was already in progress. I gave them a WP to where I was and it took forever for them to reach me. They should have just been able to jump right to me.
Capital Ships. Anyone remember the opening scene to Ep IV? Or the ending scene to ROTJ? Come on. Even Wing Commander back in the 80's had capital ships. One of the disappointing things for me about SWG is the whole GCW piece. I was really hoping to zip around in my ATAT or ATST and blast rebels. With JTL I thought for sure that I would be able to dock with an Imp SD and run around in it with my new guild mates.
Imperial Ships Fly Backwards! Is it just me or should the Oppressor and Aggressor be facing the other way? See how pimp the Interceptor looks? Yeah. That's what I'm talking about.
Mass and Chassis. I really don't like having mass tied to the chassis. I like having the idea of mass but we're going to end up with 'space composite'. A Rebel should be able to pimp his X-Wing even if he is an ACE and Imps should be able to pimp their Interceptors. I like the certs the way they are but there should be different variants of each chassis. Like 'X-Wing Advanced' or 'Heavy Interceptor'. That way every Imp Ace won't be flying an Oppressor and every Rebel Ace won't be in whatever their 'composite' is. Maybe put it in the equipment line. Along with "Level II Equipment" you could also have "Level II Spaceframe". Each chassis could be built with a different level 'frame' to produce a wider array of ships next week when we're all aces...
Space Should Be VAST. The sectors/quadrants seem cramped to me. Again, remember Elite? Another good example would be Independence War II. Basically you could use a jump-drive to get around but if you didn't have one you could literally fly all the way from point A to point B. I know there are performance and bandwidth issues. I'm just saying that I feel cramped...
Mining in Spaaaaaace. Wouldn't it be cool if there were resources you could only harvest in space? In Elite you could purchase a "Mining Laser" and collect ore to sell for profit. In X2 by egosoft you can buy mining installations to do the same. SWG is so resource-centric that the idea seems to fit right in.
Cash in Spaaaaaace. I do make some good cash doing the Imp story line but again as a BH I would really like to make some cash in space. Smugglers should be able to do the same. Tier 4 and 5 ship chassis alone are going for over (little finger to mouth) one meeelion credits. Ships and parts cost money yo, and you know Frietek (Master Shipwright on Corbantis) can't cook without that dough...
New Species Are Cheese. I don't want to offend any of my new Sullustan or Ithorian friends out there but jeeeeeez. With all that we had to choose from this is what we came up with? I know there is nothing that can be done but hey... had to say it.
Bugged Missions. This is especially painful since advancement is directly tied to the new mission system. They need to be careful here. This is where they can really start to lose people.
Maybe you agree with some the above and maybe you don't. However I'm sure we all agree that JTL is not perfect. I'm also just as sure that JTL is probably the best game of this kind ever. JTL reminds me of a famous quote by Winston Churchill. "Democracy is the worst form of government known to man... Except for all the others". The same goes for JTL. "JTL is the worst MMPORPG space sim ever... Except for all the others".
No, JTL is not perfect but it will definitely keep me playing SWG 'till the CU.
JTL for me has put the Star Wars in SWG. Last night I was zipping around in my Interceptor with a few of my guild mates attacking a captured shuttle. There were X’s and Y's all over the sector. Space was lit up with the red (and green) hot glow of laser fire. The John Williams soundtrack was playing in my ear... and I thought, "Wow, this feels like Star Wars!” I can count on one hand how many times I've had that same feeling in the past 16 months. Up until now it's just been EQ in Space for me, except we weren't actually in space so I guess it would be more like Alien Karate Bounty Hunters vs. Jedi.
Faction Gear. Man I feel so cool running around in my Imperial Pilot outfit and helmet. No, it doesn't provide any kind of protection on its own but who cares? My new armor has Twin Ion Engines! I really hope that after the CU they seriously consider revamping the GCW next. No more Composite...
Excellent System Performance. I was really worried how a game with so much action would perform over the wire. I am very very surprised at how smooth game play is. I'm constantly getting 30fps especially since there is no terrain in space. Excellent job.
Faster Load Times. I thought that by adding so much code that the game would take forever to load but for some reason mine loads way faster. Not sure how they did this.
Wide Array of Ships. Personally I would rather there have been more Imp and Rebel ships and NO privateer tree but hey that's just me. Aside from that I am really impressed with how many ships there are at launch. Do I want more? You bet your bofu I do but there are more than enough to get us started. Very well done.
Ship Names and Customization. For the love of all that is HOLY I am so glad I can name my ship! I'm an Imp so I really can't customize it but it's so cool to fly by an X-Wing with green flames all over it. Now if we could only name our vehicles...
The Shipwright Profession Rules. I did this for a day or so on Beta and had a great time. I was seriously worried that ships would end up being like vehicles. I'm really happy with how I can customize my ship to make it faster, more deadly, etc. Now only if we had a Vehicle Engineer...
The Yacht! Yes it takes up a lot. Yes it takes up a slot in your datapad. But to quote that annoying chick from Friends (hey I'm married I was forced to watch it), "OH. MY. Gaaawd!” I almost wept the first time I stood up in my ship and walked around in it as I flew though space looking out the window. I had a post about this in beta as well. I'm a developer by trade and I'm way impressed with the multi-passenger ships in general. Again, you should be able to enable auto-pilot and then walk around. Again, that would rule!
Grouping. Yes there is a lot about grouping that needs to be fixed but wow is it fun. As mentioned before I was having a real problem with my first Tier 3 mission. Doing that mission by myself was truly miserable... but doing it with my guild mates was awesome. Still way too long of a mission, but awesome.
Incredible Music and Sound. This is almost cheating for the Devs. You're making a space sim and you just happen to have the musical stylings of John Williams and sound effects of Ben Burt? Yeah, that's not even fair... but it's awesome regardless.
Travel is a Dream! In my first few days back at launch I remember being chased (and killed) by a pack of wild kreetles while doing a delivery mission for like 300 credits. I remember how pumped I was the first time I booted up a Carrion Spat... then a Swoop. Now I'm hopping around the galaxy in my Interceptor like some kind of yahoo. Way cool.
Combat is actually fun. No more running around spamming stopping shot while some guy punches me and does more damage than my pistol does to him. No more causing more damage to myself than to my enemy by just shooting my weapon. Combat is really really fun. Here's one for all of you. When you get to tier 3 go back to your original trainer and take a duty mission. There's nothing like blasting Tier 1 ships out of space with one shot. Gets old real quick but super-fun for a few minutes.
Tiers and Content. Yeah, I know some of the missions are bugged. I know that some people hate the tier system. Heck, I hate the tier system at times... but it is good for the game. After I maxed out my template and did the majority of the quests I became really, really bored with the ground game. I all but stopped playing. JTL has given me a reason to join a guild and has given me a reason to actually log into and play a game that I'm paying for each and every month.
SOE made a huge gamble by focusing on JTL rather than fixing the problems that they already had. I know that a lot of people were really upset by it including myself. Obviously they were betting that JTL would occupy everyone long enough to give them more time with the CU.
So I guess my question is this. What do you like/dislike about JTL and is it something that will keep you playing until the Combat Upgrade?
Message Edited by SWG-Swede on 11-01-2004 06:35 PM
Message Edited by EV500 on 11-01-2004 07:41 PM
EV500 wrote:
Nope, the beta was the straw the brole the camels back.
Your missing out. The beta is just that, a beta. The final game is very nice.
rexan wrote:
EV500 wrote:
Nope, the beta was the straw the brole the camels back.
Your missing out. The beta is just that, a beta. The final game is very nice.
Hell I had fun in the beta and more of a blast in the final version 
To the original poster, that had to be the most thought out and well written post I have seen on these boards in along time and I have to agree with you.
EV500 wrote:
Nope, the beta was the straw the brole the camels back.
woohoo. finally we are back to where we were 6 months... ago... :/
Before
After
excelent post... one slight other thing to add under vet ships... 75 items? You give us a huge guild hall sized ship, and expect us to make it the best ship in the galaxy? I could never decorate a guildhall fully with their 250 items... how am i supposed to do my ship with 75?
Jedi Padawan
Rebel Colonel