As some of you know, the main focus of my modding & developing efforts has been to build a fun, yet challenging single player version of SWG. I have had a few individuals show some interest, so I know it's not just me being odd & weird, although I certainly fit that bill.
anyway, I'm getting really close to releasing a 1.0 version for testing. What I'm currently missing is subject matter for quests, a background process / bot that will troll vendors and the bazaar and randomly buy and sell loot & crafted items, and some general game play balances to enhance fun.
All my other systems and improvements are implemented and have been play tested by me, and appear to be working well. Including the Jedi system, a reworking of skills.iff to be more inline with single play, xp boosts to take the tediousness out of the grind, quest scripting to allow for skill checking for doling out rewards, +14.1 content including all the windowed houses, NPC's, etc that MTG has compiled (along with whatever I had in my old projects), and a few extra client mods are included in my custom .tre file.
I plan to use this thread to bounce some idea's around and see if I can get some feedback.
So for my first few Q's, and keeping in mind that this is for a single play server, not a public MMO style server.
Currently I'm looking for input on Credits, availability, and necessity. Right now my biggest gameplay issue is that I don't have the credits I need to train. I have one Jedi character that happens to be strong enough to run 10K missions, but even so that's a TON of missions if you're trying to develop multiple toons in parallel... While this was "Normal" on a live MMO server, this is single play, and nobody will spend a whole day running missions just to pick up 500K to train up architect & weaponsmith (or doctor / dancer), or any two masters... (The intial intent here is that a player should be able to completely respec a toon from zero to master in a day of hardcore playtime, or in 2-3 days of casual play)
XP has been boosted to help take the tediousness out of grinding, but you're left with a new grind which is cash to train...
1) Should training be free? Thus taking the Burdon of gathering credits out of the mix. (currently 135K for an advanced class)
2) OR should training costs be reduced & still required?
3) or should missions payout more, and / or be more accessible to novice level players?
4) do we need credits at all in a single play game? or would removing them hurt the RP aspects?
I don't think credits need to be removed... they are an important character development throttle by requiring maintenance for structures and installations. Speeder repairs, travel, and eventually a robust (if not fake) vendor & bazaar system.
I think mission payouts are fine, 10K credits for killing a lair on naboo seems appropriate, and 10K goes a long way with small houses, speeder repair, and personal extractors.
Which basically leaves the cost for training (135K for each advanced class)... I really don't think this ought to be removed. But it HAS to be adjusted. As an example, I used all my $ to get novice TK. I ran 2 missions, and had capped my xp before I finished the 2nd mission, yet had only earned about 8K credits. which is enough to train 1 box, but I'm capped and could have trained 3. go back out, and cap before I finish the 1st mission. I spend more time @ capped xp while I'm trying to earn credits to train with.
so obviously, I can lower my xp boost so that I don't stay capped as often. I could also reduce the cost of training, and maybe the two of them would balance it out. but even so there's still the bit of crafters needing the same 135K to train their skills and most won't have a viable combat prof to get them through it. so you'll have to spend your time leveling a combat toon, to run missions, to get credits so your artisan can make weapons, so that your combat toon can make money quicker running missions... rince... repeat...
Anyone have any bright idea's for making this a bit less teadious and a bit more random and fun? Keep in mind that I can create quests to do a bunch of stuff you normally see in RPG's and thempark games... but I don't want to make it quest heavy, and I don't know if we have a quest marker or icon for an NPC yet. (I haven't looked into that yet.)
-Duff
anyway, I'm getting really close to releasing a 1.0 version for testing. What I'm currently missing is subject matter for quests, a background process / bot that will troll vendors and the bazaar and randomly buy and sell loot & crafted items, and some general game play balances to enhance fun.
All my other systems and improvements are implemented and have been play tested by me, and appear to be working well. Including the Jedi system, a reworking of skills.iff to be more inline with single play, xp boosts to take the tediousness out of the grind, quest scripting to allow for skill checking for doling out rewards, +14.1 content including all the windowed houses, NPC's, etc that MTG has compiled (along with whatever I had in my old projects), and a few extra client mods are included in my custom .tre file.
I plan to use this thread to bounce some idea's around and see if I can get some feedback.
So for my first few Q's, and keeping in mind that this is for a single play server, not a public MMO style server.
Currently I'm looking for input on Credits, availability, and necessity. Right now my biggest gameplay issue is that I don't have the credits I need to train. I have one Jedi character that happens to be strong enough to run 10K missions, but even so that's a TON of missions if you're trying to develop multiple toons in parallel... While this was "Normal" on a live MMO server, this is single play, and nobody will spend a whole day running missions just to pick up 500K to train up architect & weaponsmith (or doctor / dancer), or any two masters... (The intial intent here is that a player should be able to completely respec a toon from zero to master in a day of hardcore playtime, or in 2-3 days of casual play)
XP has been boosted to help take the tediousness out of grinding, but you're left with a new grind which is cash to train...
1) Should training be free? Thus taking the Burdon of gathering credits out of the mix. (currently 135K for an advanced class)
2) OR should training costs be reduced & still required?
3) or should missions payout more, and / or be more accessible to novice level players?
4) do we need credits at all in a single play game? or would removing them hurt the RP aspects?
I don't think credits need to be removed... they are an important character development throttle by requiring maintenance for structures and installations. Speeder repairs, travel, and eventually a robust (if not fake) vendor & bazaar system.
I think mission payouts are fine, 10K credits for killing a lair on naboo seems appropriate, and 10K goes a long way with small houses, speeder repair, and personal extractors.
Which basically leaves the cost for training (135K for each advanced class)... I really don't think this ought to be removed. But it HAS to be adjusted. As an example, I used all my $ to get novice TK. I ran 2 missions, and had capped my xp before I finished the 2nd mission, yet had only earned about 8K credits. which is enough to train 1 box, but I'm capped and could have trained 3. go back out, and cap before I finish the 1st mission. I spend more time @ capped xp while I'm trying to earn credits to train with.
so obviously, I can lower my xp boost so that I don't stay capped as often. I could also reduce the cost of training, and maybe the two of them would balance it out. but even so there's still the bit of crafters needing the same 135K to train their skills and most won't have a viable combat prof to get them through it. so you'll have to spend your time leveling a combat toon, to run missions, to get credits so your artisan can make weapons, so that your combat toon can make money quicker running missions... rince... repeat...
Anyone have any bright idea's for making this a bit less teadious and a bit more random and fun? Keep in mind that I can create quests to do a bunch of stuff you normally see in RPG's and thempark games... but I don't want to make it quest heavy, and I don't know if we have a quest marker or icon for an NPC yet. (I haven't looked into that yet.)
-Duff