Anyone have a good reason for why the fleet stations are exactly the same besides pure laziness on Bioware's part?

Originally posted by holdenhamlet

Anyone have a good reason for why the fleet stations are exactly the same besides pure laziness on Bioware's part?

That's all I got and the only reason I can think of. Seems like everything about the game screams lackluster. if it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and looks like a duck it's probably a duck. The game is what it is.

In my head, I've come up with a couple story related things.
* They both contracted with the same company to get space stations.
* The Empire didn't build their station, they took it.
* Everything is a couple thousand years old and was built when everything was built by the same people, so it all looks the same.
* The circular space station is just how people build things in the SWToR universe. They've had thousands of years to develop different stuff and have settled on a circular space station as the default design.

It would be more interesting if the stations (and other structures) were different depending on which faction you were in. Empire stuff would be more angular and industrial and the Republic stuff would be more curved and organic.

Laziness or lack of time

They had the money

Because it was kind of a last moment decision to give players a shopping mall from which they can access all instanced content and all special vendors without a hassle I guess. They were added very late in beta so they didn't give themselves the time to make them really awesome I reckon.

So yeah, you could say it is catering for the instant-gratification crowd but sadly at a steep cost of immersion and diversity.

Hated them myself eventually. V_V

Originally posted by dinams

Laziness or <b>lack of time</b>

They had the money

Most likely culprit, if you've ever done 3D modeling of that scale and detail you would understand lol

I agree with Pony, I don't like them.

Would have much rather seen Coruscant and Dromand Kaas used as the central hubs.

All I could come up with is: Lessens the costs to create distinct areas. Remember the pics showing the reflections of the Imps in the Repub's station. Quick texture changes is cheaper than coming up with a new layout.

The fact that there are 100,000 of the exact same companion running around is ok, but 2 similar-looking stations is lazy?   People pick on the oddest things.  /shrug.

That's what bugs me most about this game--it "feels" cheap, like they cut every corner and took every possible shortcut. I wanted to blame it on the engine (without knowing anything about such things lol)...like maybe they had to, but more and more it's looking like they simply didn't put much effort into anything but the story. I just expected a higher quality, with attention to detail, type of experience.

Originally posted by lizardbones

In my head, I've come up with a couple story related things.
* They both contracted with the same company to get space stations.
* The Empire didn't build their station, they took it.
* Everything is a couple thousand years old and was built when everything was built by the same people, so it all looks the same.
* The circular space station is just how people build things in the SWToR universe. They've had thousands of years to develop different stuff and have settled on a circular space station as the default design.

It would be more interesting if the stations (and other structures) were different depending on which faction you were in. Empire stuff would be more angular and industrial and the Republic stuff would be more curved and organic.

It's laziness man. Just look at all the space ports on every planet! They are ALL the exact same too. Nothing different at all.

Is that where the stationary "fighting" NPCs roam...er um stand?

Originally posted by JeroKane

Originally posted by lizardbones

In my head, I've come up with a couple story related things.
* They both contracted with the same company to get space stations.
* The Empire didn't build their station, they took it.
* Everything is a couple thousand years old and was built when everything was built by the same people, so it all looks the same.
* The circular space station is just how people build things in the SWToR universe. They've had thousands of years to develop different stuff and have settled on a circular space station as the default design.

It would be more interesting if the stations (and other structures) were different depending on which faction you were in. Empire stuff would be more angular and industrial and the Republic stuff would be more curved and organic.

It's laziness man. Just look at all the space ports on every planet! They are ALL the exact same too. Nothing different at all.

Agreed. If airports in our world doesn´t look the same why would they look the same on different planets?

The only possible reason would be if Mc Donalds owned them all and that is just not likely. ;)

Originally posted by DarkPony

Because it was kind of a last moment decision to give players a shopping mall from which they can access all instanced content and all special vendors without a hassle I guess. They were added very late in beta so they didn't give themselves the time to make them really awesome I reckon.

So yeah, you could say it is catering for the instant-gratification crowd but sadly at a steep cost of immersion and diversity.

Hated them myself eventually. V_V

 

 If adding an MMORPG's only social hub is a last minute decision then....

Originally posted by arieste

The fact that there are 100,000 of the exact same companion running around is ok, but 2 similar-looking stations is lazy?   People pick on the oddest things.  /shrug.

Lol...I was thinking the same thing.

Originally posted by DarkPony

Because it was kind of a last moment decision to give players a shopping mall from which they can access all instanced content and all special vendors without a hassle I guess. They were added very late in beta so they didn't give themselves the time to make them really awesome I reckon.

So yeah, you could say it is catering for the instant-gratification crowd but sadly at a steep cost of immersion and diversity.

Hated them myself eventually. V_V

 

Interesting, I had no idea about them being added later. 

I remember getting to Corusant and thinking "this makes a nice capital city". I didn't get that feeling from the space stations. Although, on my server, Corusant is being used as the "social hub" it sounds like it was originally intended to be.

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Originally posted by WhiteLantern

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Originally posted by DarkPony
Because it was kind of a last moment decision to give players a shopping mall from which they can access all instanced content and all special vendors without a hassle I guess. They were added very late in beta so they didn't give themselves the time to make them really awesome I reckon.
So yeah, you could say it is catering for the instant-gratification crowd but sadly at a steep cost of immersion and diversity.
Hated them myself eventually. V_V
 

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Interesting, I had no idea about them being added later. 
I remember getting to Corusant and thinking "this makes a nice capital city". I didn't get that feeling from the space stations. Although, on my server, Corusant is being used as the "social hub" it sounds like it was originally intended to be.

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Originally posted by holdenhamlet
Anyone have a good reason for why the fleet stations are exactly the same besides pure laziness on Bioware's part?

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Cost effective.

just further proof of lazy world design. every planet is designed the same aswell with different skins, they just fip the map to make the layout seem different.

Like much of the game, it felt cheap and poorly designed to me.