We take a look at BioWare's "bonus series" questlines and whether or not they can really be considered a "bonus" in this week's Star Wars: The Old Republic column.

Imagine this: you've spent significant hours completing all the content on a particular planet, including your class story, the sidequests, the heroics, and you've just finished out the planet's "world arc" and feel pretty good about the conclusion. You've enjoyed the planet thus far, but you're really feeling that urge to just get off and move on at this point, especially to find out what happens in the next leg of your story. So, you head to the spaceport, satisfied with yourself and ready to go, only to be ambushed by what I can only describe is a troll of an NPC who surprises you with more (and supposedly urgent) stuff to do. The first time this happens you won't think anything of it at first. Oh, one final quest to finish things off here, right? No big deal.

Wrong.

Read more of Michael Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic: Bonus Series? Troll Series? You Decide!

On my main I haven't done any of these Bonus series of quests. As I've found that with doing the daily space combat and the occasional flashpoint I'm already outleveling the normal content at a significant pace without spending my time on these bonus quests.

At some point in the future I will go back and do these things ... but right now I'm handling these quests lines exactly as they are: A Bonus you can choose to do or not to do.

Bonus quests are optional.  If you're going to have OCD and finish EVERY SINGLE QUEST it's going to feel like this.

I'd agree with Rhaycen, if you do space missions or PvP even on a casual basis you really don't have to do the bonus quests if you don't want to. If they would just give you the "bonus" quests BEFORE you went all the way back to the spaceport it wouldn't be so bad. Another tedious travel time-sink in TOR I guess. But apparently useless running around is fun to some people.

I rather enjoy the Bonus Quests , or should I say , I rather enjoy the Story behind them. I was surprised to see a Bonus Series pop up on Nar Shadda at lvl 31 , which took me through parts of the Planet that I had not been to while I was leveling.

On top of that they tend to give pretty good Rewards.

Originally posted by Quesa

Bonus quests are optional.  If you're going to have OCD and finish EVERY SINGLE QUEST it's going to feel like this.

Aren't all quests optional? 

Hehe, I see what you mean.

It takes some effort to get over your "must complete everything" mind set, there's the NPC reminders but also your log reminding you of stuff you "need" to do. I had this mind set too at the start, but I ditched it. I have to clean my questlog of grey entries all the time now.

I simply decide how much commendations I want out of a planet through generic quests, finish up the personal storyline part and move on once I have those fancy orange pants I wanted and get pointed elsewhere, provided my level is high enough.

I found that completing everything makes you outlevel the content of the next planet by up to 5 levels which makes questing less challenging and less rewarding, xp and upgrade wise.

Personally I'd be damned to do the bonus series on taris, to give an example. I only went back to that gloomy maze for datacrons.

edit: also most initial conversations with quest givers have very satisfying options for refusing the quest, try it :)

problem?

If you do the heroics you get better gear than the bonus series offers.

Bonus series quest lines are for the people that don't / couldn't group. If you grouped for said heroics on said planet, you wont need to do the bonus series. Unless of course you're a completionist. In which case, my condolences.

Don't see the problem here, they are optional. I skipped most of the bonus quests and still hit 50 without doing most of the last world.

if there is no more content, then "why is there no more content?"

if there is more content, then "why is there more content?"

/facepalm

Originally posted by wormywyrm

Originally posted by Quesa

Bonus quests are optional.  If you're going to have OCD and finish EVERY SINGLE QUEST it's going to feel like this.

Aren't all quests optional? 

 

Not really. Class story quests are pretty much mandatory, or you'll be missing a lot of things (like companions) and gimping yourself.

Though, yeah, you can really just ignore those bonus quests. I'm even ignoring most of the world quests right now, because the world arcs are starting to go grey. If you're doing warzones and space combat on a regular basis, your class story plus a few world arc chains  on each planet might just cut it.

Would be fine if a ton of codex unlocks weren't wrapped up in finishing certain quests, hehe.  I got used to the bonus lines and came to expect them.  I skipped a few, especially Nar Shadaa, I hate that planet.  They actually came in very handy when I hit 49 and finished my class story and Corellia and I still needed 4 bars to level.  So I hit up Hoth's bonus series and boom, 3 to 4 quests later, I dinged.  I just left the planet after that.

On my alts however, I will probably do them since I won't be rushing as much just to see each new planet.  I just wish they would name them better, I find "Bonus Series" ruins immersion a bit.  Let's give these mini arc's a star wars oriented title or something.

Oh they are trolls indeed, theres this one quest during a bonus serie (and a other normal one that does the same) that lest you kill 50 or npc's  then when youre finaly done it gives a bonus sub-quest named  "kill oneeeee moree"

Yeah. I just focus on my class quests now. I just do that and if I still need levels, then I have the option to go for it. But I think the class quests are enough, especially if you throw warfronts in.

If you do too many warfronts, though, you will outlevel the content, so I've been holding back, even on running heroic stuff. I just do the class quests because I want to make sure I get all my crew and any other essential stuff I will need from that.

I'd have to agree with the OCD comment, it's BONUS material, not compulsory. Chill and give it a miss. If it's not worth it due to being low level, again, give it a miss. If it's too high level .... COME BACK LATER. It's just a game ..... chill the f**k out, man!

I mean seriously? You think this deserves a column?

If this is what you have to complain about I can guess how the main review is going to look.

There are some quests that can't be dropped once you pick them up. You either have to do them or keep them forever in your quest log.

Originally posted by HighMarshal

There are some quests that can't be dropped once you pick them up. You either have to do them or keep them forever in your quest log.

And this is just one of the many annoying bugs SWTOR has right now. At one point you feel the need to go back to those planets and do what are now grey quests just to open up some space on your quest log.

They are called bonus for a reason, if you liked the planet and want to spend more time in there, that's the bonus stuff for. I havent done any of it because otherwise I would be too high level eventually for my "main stuff" if I did it all - it's more like something to do if you dont like the next/some place and want to gain XP by questing and not close the gap by space game or PvP if you want to skip a whole planet sidequest wise.

This game does not have reputation grind, or similar mechanics that in many other games kind of compels you to complete everything in an area to leave with max rep gained, all you get is XP, creds + commendations from the bonus series so they really are not neccessary.

I dont see this as a problem at all, because it's not, it's a bonus, it makes a game that I thought was a lot more linear not so much linear since there's now extra option for me to do while leveling.

It doesn't bother me but it is a bit odd. If you gain too much affecction with some of your companions too soon they will kick off a set of wildly level inappropriate quests.