Come on mmorpg.com. You don't write an article without some *information.*

Originally posted by Almuderas

Come on mmorpg.com. You don't write an article without some *information.*

I second that. As well as a whole bunch of the other comments above that go in the same direction. I am dissapointed not to have any more answers then before reading (partially reading) this.

I like the idea of putting a lot of valid questions that most gamers would ask in one place.  So instead of bashing the author without even reading the sub-title, I'm going to try to list what I'd like to see as the answer to some of these questions. 

After I go through all the great stories and epic quests you'll have, then what?

First and foremost:  Lots of end-game raid content with challenging encounters and sick gear and lots of strat to work out and NO EASY MODE.  We spend our lives at end game and it would be a HUGE mistake to not put in at least one decent raid dungeon at launch.  Even if it takes guilds 3 months from launch to get leveled and geared you HAVE to have something for the hardcore guilds to set their sights on.

And also hopefully more great stories and epic quests.

Having some sort of "Story Mode" you can go back to at different points of leveling would be good to break up the grind and give you ways to develop your character. 

Ultimately, though, I would have lots of end game epic quests that took you to different areas and yielded some kind of epic reward/title/trophy upon completion. 

Some could be easy and solo-able and focus just on your characters story. 

Some should have challenging group encounters and take  time (I'm talking multiple steps that you really have to put time into) but give better rewards.  Make it a way to introduce people into any end-game group dungeons that may be in the game. 

Let's face it...we spend WAY more time at end-game than leveling so I'd hate to see all the good quest/story content be confined to lower tiers.

How are you going to handle death in your MMO?

PvE deaths should have some kind of consequence.  It shouldn't kill an hour's worth of work though.  A small amount of XP loss and/or temporary debuff that can be cancelled out by retrieving your tombstone.

PvP deaths shouldn't have any penalty beyond possibly having to repair your gear every so often.

How much emphasis will the player run economy have?

I guess a lot of this will depend on the depth of the crafting system.  In my perfect MMO:

NPC merchants would be there to provide any basic neccesities and basic (read crappy) armor and weapons.

Players should be able to craft top tier gear.  This would require some kind of in-depth harvesting system as well.  Crafting quests for item upgrades perhaps.  Player-crafted-items should be the biggest source of readily available gear.

There has to be an Auction house.  Banks with upgradeable storage space.  Crafting stations in major towns.

How are you going to handle PvP?

This is a BIG one.  I love FFA PvP.  A lot of people don't.  If it were up to me there wouldn't be many safe zones.  Keep crafting areas safe.  Make respawn points and binds safe.  That's about it.  Everyone's red.  Jedi vs. Sith (Faction vs. Faction) would probably be more appealing to the masses.

You can cater to most by having different servers with different rulesets.  Faction PvP: Jedi vs Sith.  FFA PvP.  I suppose you could put a level cap on certain zones so lowbies would have a place to enjoy the game with out getting ganked by max-level players.  There shouldn't be a PvE server in a Jedi vs Sith game.

Putting in instanced PvP like WAR's scenario system would be good.  Some kind of sieging for larger scale PvP.

Contested PvE raid content FTW.

Thoughts?

Yeah, I know when I think "Star Wars", I think about "sick gear" and "raid dungeons". They go hand-in-hand.

It's an MMO.  If there's no end game raiding then what do you suggest they do instead? 

Originally posted by Quickblades

It's an MMO.  If there's no end game raiding then what do you suggest they do instead? 

Well, they could have a story. A plot that unfolds as the character progresses. Finally, it can culminate into some kind of epic adventure which can lead to an epic reward. And by "epic adventure" I don't mean 40 people versus 1 monster. To me, that's not very epic.

What you're describing sounds exactly like any single-player RPG ever made.  Maybe the MMO part just isn't for you?

Go play KOTOR or KOTOR 2 if that's what you want.

Originally posted by Niccolado

I got a question, and I guess it wont be answered, but Ill ask it anyway:

 

I played SWG for 3 years. In the time before the devestating NGE the gane was fairly well. Will this game be like SWG: Nge from the start? I am then thikning about the new stupid controlsettings the NGE ruined for the game. The limitations of the classes, making jedi standard, absolutely ruining the playerrun market etc etc etc etc et.........

Will we be able to have a merchant class? and fullblown crafter class? Can we have our own shops we can decorate? What about the social aspect? I would like to remind you that Age of Conan was a superb game graphic wise, but it still fell from its height. Mainly because of the shallowness of gameplay!

Got more questions too, but these are the most important atm. Hope you can answer them fully!

 

Thx.

 

 

I can answer your questions easily, no SW:TOR will be absolutely NOTHING like SWG.

People are expecting too much from Bioware imo.

I'm expecting a solid themepark.

If you think TOR will have crafting classes and Open Ended type ffa pvp your going to be very, very upset when this game releases.

Also if you think people won't just burn through TOR's content and be sitting on their hands waiting for a another buyable game pack you're kidding yourself.

Not one MMO themepark has been able to keep players entertained at Endgame unless they added a major gear trend mill.

I would rather the content just end so I can play through a totally new story with a new class than be stuck in a required pve grind.

I have no problems unsubbing for a couple months and coming back for the new content.

Originally posted by Niccolado

I got a question, and I guess it wont be answered, but Ill ask it anyway:

 

I played SWG for 3 years. In the time before the devestating NGE the gane was fairly well. Will this game be like SWG: Nge from the start? I am then thikning about the new stupid controlsettings the NGE ruined for the game. The limitations of the classes, making jedi standard, absolutely ruining the playerrun market etc etc etc etc et.........

Will we be able to have a merchant class? and fullblown crafter class? Can we have our own shops we can decorate? What about the social aspect? I would like to remind you that Age of Conan was a superb game graphic wise, but it still fell from its height. Mainly because of the shallowness of gameplay!

Got more questions too, but these are the most important atm. Hope you can answer them fully!

 

Thx.

 

 Graphics don't make gameplay, although they can enhance it. Anyways I played SWG from launch (day 2 cause of server crash) up basically to the NGE with a few breaks in between. The NGE was a complete abomination and here is why:

SOE lied to their customers - I was a Squad Leader and was promised a revamp for 2 years, got one and then got destroyed.

NGE Systems were very alpha - It's been said that the NGE started shortly after the bad receiving of the CU. The FPS type of combat COULD have worked if there was proper physics. They said it was going to be hiding behind things and have jumping which never happened because SWG's engine doesn't have a Z axis, and it's too shitty of an engine to make that work.

New Player Experience - This is where I will say the NGE at least attempted something right. In the original versions, you were left with a weapon and a melon. A lot of players were lost and probably quit because the learning curve was hard. Although I think it was a bit cheesy at least it was a bit better then the original tutorial.

Community - This is the #1 best thing about SWG. If it wasn't for the community, I would have left many times and never returned. I still game or talk with a lot of friends on met on my server. Hopefully SWTOR will do this with having cantinas in the game where you can gamble and other social activities.

They reduced professions to cookie cutter, everyone of a class was the same, a lot of classes even had identical abilities - Probably SOE's poor attempt at balancing, yes it helps, but no class is unique and boring combat.

About the Merchant / Full Crafting class - A very cool aspect of SWG I will add, however, in SWTOR this isn't happening, and it's been stated that this isn't SWG2 and it is a very combat focused game. IF you don't like that go back to SWG.