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Adding SWG "like" features to SWTOR.

I've been checking comparisons people have done between SWG and SWTOR and there has been debate about why one is better then the other and It got me thinking that if some similar features to what existed in SWG were added to SWTOR they could work well together and only help to enhance the game, especially when it comes to what players can do once they've finished playing through all the story content. I know exactly the same versions of SWG feature wouldn't work with how SWTOR is but there could be potential options. For example SWG had vast land maps on planets where players could build houses and even player run cities. SWTOR isn't designed for vast stretches on land on planets but there could be colony zones where players can build houses and city on and that are open to any faction so they would also be good for pvp. A colony zone would at most take up as much area as a plantets story content area and might at first just have a little trading outpost that players can take a shuttle to until eventually the players who are developing a colony there build a starport and give the colony a name. Once that is done when a player goes to land on the planet in question they can select to land in the standard story content zone or can choose to land at the starport of a named colony. The land and terrain feature of all colony zones on the same planet could be identical even to save having to create an entirely new look for every one (and thus each colony could be essentially an individual instance of the colony zone assigned to that planet that players with buildings etc) and there could be several clearings scattered about the colony zone where players from the opposing faction of the colony members could land so that there can be pvp and raids etc.

There could also be system space around a planet extending off to a distance from the planet so that players could fly around a planets solar system, interact with other player and npc ships and even have their own pvp battles with other ships.

I do have some other ideas that I will post in this threat at a later time but I would like to know what people think of this first. I do think it would be possible to implement something like this in SWTOR with the way the game is structured.

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Comments

  • NomadMorlockNomadMorlock Member UncommonPosts: 815

    Many players asked for these features while SWTOR was still in development.  Asked, begged, demanded...etc.

     

    Bioware feels it knows best and decided that they were not worth the time or expense to develop.  Don't live in a fantasy (or scifi) world here.  You will never see these things. 

     

    Really...they can't even handle programming chat bubbles.  It's true..

  • MukeMuke Member RarePosts: 2,614
    Originally posted by NomadMorlock

    Many players asked for these features while SWTOR was still in development.  Asked, begged, demanded...etc.

     

    Bioware feels it knows best and decided that they were not worth the time or expense to develop.  Don't live in a fantasy (or scifi) world here.  You will never see these things. 

     

    Really...they can't even handle programming chat bubbles.  It's true..

    Player bounties, PVE bounties *with droid seekers* and a playable engine when more then 20 players are in 1 spot is all I wanted. :P

    "going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"

  • NomadMorlockNomadMorlock Member UncommonPosts: 815
    Originally posted by Muke
    Originally posted by NomadMorlock

    Many players asked for these features while SWTOR was still in development.  Asked, begged, demanded...etc.

     

    Bioware feels it knows best and decided that they were not worth the time or expense to develop.  Don't live in a fantasy (or scifi) world here.  You will never see these things. 

     

    Really...they can't even handle programming chat bubbles.  It's true..

    Player bounties, PVE bounties *with droid seekers* and a playable engine when more then 20 players are in 1 spot is all I wanted. :P

     

    Preach on my brother!    These, chat bubbles, and space off rails and it would have kept me longer.

  • simpliussimplius Member UncommonPosts: 1,134

    sandbox is much harder to develop, than themepark,,so good luck with that

    specially , if they go full sandbox,,,destructible objects, cover mechanics etc.

    player housing sounds good to me, but i dont think they have resources left , to do it

  • LoverNoFighterLoverNoFighter Member Posts: 294
    Open world and speech bubbles are a must for a MMO.
  • KazaraKazara Member UncommonPosts: 1,086
    Originally posted by simplius

    sandbox is much harder to develop, than themepark,,so good luck with that

    specially , if they go full sandbox,,,destructible objects, cover mechanics etc.

    player housing sounds good to me, but i dont think they have resources left , to do it


    A sandbox (or adding some sandbox elements) may be harder to develop, but you must consider that Boware had the resources to do so! Over $200 million was invested in the development of SWTOR, and this content shallow "bird bath" is what was delivered.

    The only way players will see any sandbox-y goodness is if Bioware believes it can successfully hang a price tag on it in the Cartel Market. image

    image

  • ThorkuneThorkune Member UncommonPosts: 1,969
    Originally posted by LoverNoFighter
    Open world and speech bubbles are a must for a MMO.

    I agree with the open world, but I hated chat bubbles in SWG. You would go outside MI and there were tons of barkers spamming chat with their wares and it looked ridiculous.

  • SabasSabas Member UncommonPosts: 217

    ha!

     

    I remember being banned from the official forum for bringing up space flight one to many times.

    I didn't start threads about it, only participated in debates about the space on rails as it was called.

    That was pre-release when such a feature would have been "easy" to implement.

    The hero engine is perfectly able to do those things but Bioware knew best.

     

    Its fine to enjoy ToR but don't expect anything like what you propose to ever be implemented.

     

  • HarafnirHarafnir Member UncommonPosts: 1,350
    Originally posted by loopback1199
    [mod edit]

    Actually started again. left first month at release. Now I started knowing what it is, no rosetinted glasses, and... yeah, it's still bad. But I am played out on the rest. So I switch between SWToR and Blood Bowl right now. It is sooo depressing.

    "This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
    It should be thrown with great force"

  • simpliussimplius Member UncommonPosts: 1,134
    Originally posted by Kazara
    Originally posted by simplius

    sandbox is much harder to develop, than themepark,,so good luck with that

    specially , if they go full sandbox,,,destructible objects, cover mechanics etc.

    player housing sounds good to me, but i dont think they have resources left , to do it


    A sandbox (or adding some sandbox elements) may be harder to develop, but you must consider that Boware had the resources to do so! Over $200 million was invested in the development of SWTOR, and this content shallow "bird bath" is what was delivered.

    The only way players will see any sandbox-y goodness is if Bioware believes it can successfully hang a price tag on it in the Cartel Market. image

    yup,, but they chose themepark , because all the big mmos are in that category

    and their focus on story didnt help much either

    a good product will sell, a bad product will gather dust on the shelves

    im still recovering from my last panda infection, only 3 weeks this time

    maybe im clean, when im 60

  • JRVthatsMEJRVthatsME Member Posts: 17

    I know that SWTOR is not designed to have planets where you can run for hours in one direction and still be able to keep on going and I'm not suggesting that. A simple example of the kind of colony zone I'm thinking of would be an island like on Ord Mantel (or any similar sized area of land that players can not walk beyond its borders). When player choose to take a shuttle or land on such an island they will see the appropriate launching and landing movie sequence and would either appear at the spaceport there (if a spaceport has been built and the character is of the same faction as the colony) or on one of the clearings there randomly decided by the game.

    Perhaps being able to place buildings where ever you want (within reason) like in SWG may not be possible in SWTOR but that would not automatically mean that player owned colonies and outpost would be impossible. At the very least something similar to how the housing system in LOTRO should be able to work. "If" this could could be combined with a mechanic similar to cities are developed in so many strategy game where the required resources are spent, there's a construction time that much pass and then a specific building appears in a specific location once the construction is finished (granted this may not be possible either). Of the houses that would exist in such a colony players that are members of that colony would set which house door would act as a transition point to their own personal house interior so more then one player could have the same house set in the colony but when they transition into their house they would each be sent to their own house interior instead of the exact same interior as the other players. Merchants in a colony could work as a location specific variation of a player auction that has an npc merchant to interact with in order to access it. I know such a colony would be more restrictive then what was in SWG but it would still be useful for RP, pvp etc.

    As for Bioware not listening to it players I think that is more accurately EA doing since before EA got their hooks into Bioware they were always supporting all their games as far back as Baldur's Gate and adding updates to Neverwinter Nights to make it easier for players to create the kind of custom content they wanted for the modules and persistent worlds the players had created. EA put a stop to that when they took over and are likely insisting that demands they have for SWTOR must be met regardless of what players say. Bioware itself has never been that kinda of gaming company. Something players have been asking for is coming in August which is a bounty hunting system as stated by Bioware staff in the link below.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVevWDdgt40&feature=c4-overview&list=UUBGBXQmTRZ0uwfxvcCMfz_A

  • DocBrodyDocBrody Member UncommonPosts: 1,926

    nothing of this will ever happen.

    I've read countless similiar suggestions in the official forums since beta. If you still think BW will ever listen you will wait until hell freezes. I've no more hope for this game, I just wait if the new Battlefront will have some good multiplayer modes, or maybe there will be another SW MMO one day which is not based on WoW.

     

  • simpliussimplius Member UncommonPosts: 1,134

    they already tried one, remember?

    that certain game didnt do so well either

    no elves= no Money

  • NagilumSadowNagilumSadow Member UncommonPosts: 318

    Guild Wars 2 is still selling boxes like a coveted treasure, and by contrast SWTOR couldn't give away boxes. Generally corporate entities do not invest in major  future development unless there is promise of serious prodigality.

     

    Besides the game engine was never designed for that level of dynamism, it was designed as a one trick pony.

  • KinadoKinado Member Posts: 198

    I had HIGH hopes for SWTOR but since they said their main feature was story....Story is cool but it can t be the main feature of a MMO. Other key features will be overlooked this way, and they were. SWTOR has fun combat though but they seem to ignore pvp players so eventually I had to quit also.

     

    Chill people, WILDSTAR its on its way. Carbine are the first dev's I ve read about that actually say all the things a veteran WoW player wants to hear.

    At first I didn't like Wildstar one bit, immediatly said "another flop". Couldn t be more wrong as I read more and more information and looked at the videos and beta feedback.

     

    If carbine released SWTOR it would have been epic. Instead we ll have to manage with Rock people, furry dragon people, squirl people, octopus people? And my favorite, humans. Maybe the lore isn't as deep and epic as Star Wars but it looks fun and that's what games are all about, fun.

  • RydesonRydeson Member UncommonPosts: 3,852
         Bioware wanted to do a style they know best..   The entire game plays on rails like their other games KoTOR and Dragon Age.. There really isn't much difference.. I really enjoyed SWG, but it did have some glaring flaws that drove me and many others away.. And most of those flaws were pre-CU..  Many of the crafting professions were broke, and the holocron thing for Jedi was just crazy stupid.. The player cities needed tweaked, and missions need fixed as well.. 
  • SwaneaSwanea Member UncommonPosts: 2,401

    If only you knew about the FnF beta.  The stuff they had.  Three factions was the biggest.  Skills, abilities.

     

    But it still comes down to the TERRIBLE engine.  If this game was sandbox, it would be even WORSE off because people would get together a LOT more causing even more stress on the bad job of an engine they tried to make.

  • klagmireklagmire Member UncommonPosts: 95
    Originally posted by Rydeson
         Bioware wanted to do a style they know best..   The entire game plays on rails like their other games KoTOR and Dragon Age.. There really isn't much difference.. I really enjoyed SWG, but it did have some glaring flaws that drove me and many others away.. And most of those flaws were pre-CU..  Many of the crafting professions were broke, and the holocron thing for Jedi was just crazy stupid.. The player cities needed tweaked, and missions need fixed as well.. 

    I agree, pre-CU sucked. They put in alot of awsome stuff after the Combat upgrade. It was soo much better Anyone who quit SWG because of the upgrade MISSED OUT!.  But they would know that, if they would have played it. Instead they did the "You made me Mad, so I quit" childish tantrum.

    Played:SWG(pre NGE/CU sucked)Yep its true, anyone who quit SWG because of the NGE/CU missed out on a much better combat system. DCUO, Fallen Earth, STO, The Secret World. Battlefield series. Planetside 2. Still playing SWG.

  • TeknoBugTeknoBug Member UncommonPosts: 2,156

    PVE bounties would've been damn nice as a sidemission for BH and even smuggler.


    And yes game performance when multiple players are in one area.

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  • ChieftanChieftan Member UncommonPosts: 1,188

    SWG tanked big time.  That's why they kept making radical changes to the gameplay.  First it was the CU, then it was the NGE.  You ever heard of the term, if it ain't broke don't fix it?  SWG was broke and they tried to fix it.  Didn't work so they pulled the plug.

    End of story.

    It's sounds cold but it's a dollars and cents world.  If it's not making dollars, it doesn't make any sense to keep it open.

    My youtube MMO gaming channel



  • DocBrodyDocBrody Member UncommonPosts: 1,926
    Originally posted by Chieftan

    SWG tanked big time.  That's why they kept making radical changes to the gameplay.  First it was the CU, then it was the NGE.  You ever heard of the term, if it ain't broke don't fix it?  SWG was broke and they tried to fix it.  Didn't work so they pulled the plug.

    End of story.

    It's sounds cold but it's a dollars and cents world.  If it's not making dollars, it doesn't make any sense to keep it open.

    Since SWTOR, the definition of "tanked" has a new name in the history of SW MMOs.

    Let's see if TOR survives 9 years and gets several fan server projects after shut down like SWG.

  • superniceguysuperniceguy Member UncommonPosts: 2,278
    Originally posted by Chieftan

    SWG tanked big time.  That's why they kept making radical changes to the gameplay.  First it was the CU, then it was the NGE.  You ever heard of the term, if it ain't broke don't fix it?  SWG was broke and they tried to fix it.  Didn't work so they pulled the plug.

    End of story.

    It's sounds cold but it's a dollars and cents world.  If it's not making dollars, it doesn't make any sense to keep it open.

    SWG did not tank, it had a steady amount players, and the game design gave people plenty to do with crafting, player housing / cities as well as the usual combat. It was a very social MMO where players were dependent on each, to train skills, cure battle fatigue / wounds, apply buffs, player cities etc. It was a cyber living world at its best.

    SWG peaked on Xfire in 2004, 1 year after launch. It started off low, and then built up. The game design kept people playing long term. SWTOR started of HUGE, and then tanked big time, as the game design could not keep people playing long term.

    The CU and NGE only happened after they saw the success of WOW and thought the game needed to be like that, a theme park to survive. SWG was doing well against the other MMOs (eg EQ) at the time, before the WOW phenomenon

  • TeknoBugTeknoBug Member UncommonPosts: 2,156


    Originally posted by Chieftan
    SWG tanked big time.  That's why they kept making radical changes to the gameplay.  First it was the CU, then it was the NGE.  You ever heard of the term, if it ain't broke don't fix it?  SWG was broke and they tried to fix it.  Didn't work so they pulled the plug.

    End of story.

    It's sounds cold but it's a dollars and cents world.  If it's not making dollars, it doesn't make any sense to keep it open.


    SWG didn't tank, the NGE caused it to tank. Devs talked about the CU 2 months after SWG went live because they felt the game wasn't completed when it went gold but their idea of the CU changed completely when CU went live (and that's not a bad thing, CU was actually decent). It was the pressure from WoW that caused Smedley to decide on pushing the NGE 5 months after the CU went live, dumbest thing ever.


    SWG had a concurrent playerbase of 250-300K before the CU, after the NGE it dropped to ~50K. Because WoW was growing at a rapid rate and hitting in the million players range, Smedley thought he could gain more than 250K with the new changes.

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  • DavynelordDavynelord Member Posts: 122

    For those that think CU made SWG better....REALLY?  CU and NGE made SWG fail.  I was a sub to SWG since day one and continued to play after CU and NGE.   I played heavy hours (more than most) and what I saw on a day by day basis was a fast decline in players once CU went live and even more when NGE went live.  Towns became ghost towns after the game went CU/NGE, not before...so again, why change the game when it clearly wasn't failing before CU.   So the reason SWG tanked was because they totally changed the game from what it originally was..not because it was a bad game or a worse game pre-CU.  

    Also I recall a discussion before CU and NGE  (including SOE devs) where the SOE Dev team was losing devs to other games...they confirmed it on the forums but not in so many words.   The main devs who developed the sandbox SWG weren't there anymore and the new devs couldn't manage to keep up with how difficult the sandbox game was to develop.   The creator of SWG sandbox game was no longer there to guide the new dev team eiher.  So with the combination of difficulty to develop, the creator of the whole system gone and wanting to compete with WoW income potential, SOE decided to try and change SWG from sandbox style to a WOW clone.    The conversion worked, but the game lost all the dedicated players because it was no longer SWG, it was SWG-WOW.   Anytime you change a product from the ground up to something totally different than what it was at launch, the game is bound to fail.

     

    Then there are today's games, SWTOR included, which are just very small bits and pieces of what SWG was....SWG was massive and incorporated a vast combination of many different types of things that today's MMO's seem to only specialize in one or two areas....SWTOR is a good game only if you see it for what it is and not what everyone wanted it to be (a SWG replacement).   People who saw it as a potential replacement will always say SWTOR sucks and is full of fail...but the players who play the game for what it is (especially if you loved the KOTOR games) will and still do enjoy SWTOR.   That's all that matters...it's never gonna be SWG, so if you have expectations that it will scratch your old SWG itch, get over it..it's not that type of game...

  • JRVthatsMEJRVthatsME Member Posts: 17

    @ Davynelord Well said.

    I really don't wont this thread to turn into yet another what was better then what thread and just get full up of arguments. For the record I personally have enjoyed playing SWTOR and I really enjoyed playing the KOTOR games and have played both many times. The main reason I play games is to get caught up in a good story and there are many MMO's I won't bother with including WoW because the quality of the story is just not worth mentioning. I was not part of the SWG community and have only played a little on SWGEMU but I can relate to how many from the SWG feel since I was a City of Heroes player and I also played on a Neverwinter Nights role-playing persistent world for several years so I understand what it is the SWG players enjoyed about the rp and player interaction they had in SWG. The real problem as is with SWTOR is what's there when you have played through all the story content. Now there is bounty hunting being added in August and something that has not been detail for pvp players in October. Whenever they finally get the guild capitol ships (which was a player suggestion and "apparently" they have the designs for them ready at least) it should make a fair difference to the game since it will provide a means for players to interact with and play against each other more as well as providing more facility for rp so players can create their own stories and such a bit more. I know what I have suggested in this thread may never be added to the game and even if it does it would most likely be years down the line but doesn't mean it's not worth suggesting. From demos I've seen on youtube of the hero engine it is capable of such things and how I suggested what I have would be easier to manage then the vast open worlds that existed in SWG but I do think it would be useful enough for having player made communities if by some chance it someday was added to the game and I'd like to know what some of the SWG veterans think of the colony system as I have suggested it. Not is relation to how unlikely it is to even be added to the game but more what they would think of using it if hypothetically it was added to the game.

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