Feeling Alive

I was reading Hunter's entry on his first impressions of the GW2 beta and he commented on how "Cities feel more alive than SWTOR.." I want to understand that; most capital cities are seen mostly as a hub for people to meet up but doesn't do very much more. You don't go because you want to, but because you have to.


I'm going to brainstorm on some reasons to make a city feel more alive because currently in more mmo's imho is for:


- skill trainers & crafting trainers; possibly making them have special skills/recipes/discounts at certain times


- capital city leaders; normally infrequently used, even at high levels


- pvp npcs that teleport you to the battlegrounds


- show off your gear/mounts


- banks and auction houses; probably 95% of the reason why you're there


So what other activities can make a player want to go a city and make it feel more alive?

- public quests built into the city; similar to WAR's system, Mythic had quests and public questing areas (arena) built into the city. Making them accessible at all levels is sometimes hard, possibly making it a daily activity with fluff rewards can work here


- a relatively cheap money sink via mini game/luck-based game. I know WoW had the bejewelled game built into the fast travel, this could be implemented into future mmos as well but only installed in the city instead, kind of like WoW's Darkmoon Faire, but year round within the city.


- I believe a 'more alive' feel for the city was partially b/c of your personal story area in GW2. If only there was a way to be able to affect more of the city and see an actual effect; now that would be engaging.


- more puzzles, easter eggs and special achievements for exploring the city. From the looks of GW2, the city looks huge; there ought to be many different places to explore for background lore.


- guild housing; GW2 takes care of personal housing via the personal story instanced area, but guild housing would be a nice touch too, preferably farther away; what benefits would guild housing be? Possibly fast travel to dungeons, other cities, or pvp areas.

Status: SW TOR

Gone fishing gaming

TOR - All Caught Up

See: found some time to write ;)

Some things i've noticed today while playing TOR:
- my computer plays the game, encounters little lag, but chugs.. I need an upgrade to my pc

- I love crew skills and sending my companions out on missions while i'm doing other things (handing in quests, organizing); its like a little mini game and very satisfying

- I panic when my sniper is overwhelmed by melee enemies... dunno if this is my class..

- I like the idea of a lightning magic caster.. but I don't do as much damage as i'd like.. maybe its the drawback when you can heal as well

- why can't I craft myself? I'm too good to sully my own hands with crafting!

- I miss public quests; even with Heroic areas, people don't really group or work together.. i'd really like some better gear

- Sith Sorcerer at lvl 14, while my Sniper is lvl 12..

- Slicing (stealing & thievery it seems), is really cool; getting stuff for my future ship; though Cybertech (the making of modifications for equipment) isn't that interesting b/c not many gear can be modded so far

Its a bit hard to see, but I looooove Biochem.. a REUSEABLE health pack!
BUT. You can only use it IF you have the Biochem skill...
Totally didn't read that part :(

Merry Christmas everyone! =)

Catching Up - TOR Day 2

SW:TOR Day 2 Impressions


Had my bro run my Sith Inquisitor through the two Heroic instances.. the loot was good, but not outstanding. The cutscenes when handing in each quest makes you feel like you're part of something really important. Its a double-bladed sword b/c it makes me think that there is something special I may be missing out on if I don't do the heroic instances. It was unfortunately not the case and just some blue loot. I'm guessing at higher levels, these heroic quests will be chained and lead to better rewards.


Got my first follower, a tank, which I can equip with gear. I love that; the ability to equip my companion. I got to customize him too by picking a custom skin for him... unfortunately.. I picked red and the game gave me green instead. RED MEANS STOP! I guess alot of people will pick red anyways... so my guy will still be unique.


I found my Inquisitor would run out of mana/Force after fighting 2-3 enemies at a time.. so when I picked my advanced class of Sorcerer, I was surprised that somehow my mana/Force had increased 5fold. So it was a bit disappointing when I realized I may have wasted my initial talent point in getting 50 more force (can't find the screen/area that tells me what my total force was).


Travelled to and got lost in the capital city of Kaas City. An initial quest sends you to each corner so you know where certain things are (cantina, vendors, trainers etc).


Picked up crew skills of bioanalysis, biochem and diplomacy. My tank failed at his diplomacy quest, but brought back some nice biological compounds that I used to make medpacs. Reverse engineered one (to get mats back and to get something special).. just got mats back.. dunno if i want to spend the time to reverse engineer it. BUT this is the best time in the game: when you don't know whether reverse engineering the medpacs will yield something special. Most people don't know that answer without them trying it!


I found.. that once you left the starter planet, there was very little direction as to what you're supposed to do and where you're supposed to be. I knew I had to get to my Sith Lord in the capital city.. but there was a space station, a town and a heroic area between there. I got so lost, I just took a speeder to the capital city when I hit the heroic area b/c it was too dangerous there!

Revanite

My Twi'lek Sith Inquisitor confuses me. 

He's supposed to be evil but is nice to mostly everyone. He normally doesn't provoke people, but does lose his anger and kills without thought. He's supposed to be on the Empires side... but actively does things that undermines it (ie. telling a brainwashed jedi that its a trap).

I can only imagine he does this because the Sith treats him badly, always calling him a slave. What they don't know is while one hand is entended in friendship, the hand behind his back holds a dagger.

The game at first seems pretty linear and doesn't reward you for exploring; I decided to prove them wrong and investigated an elevator in the dig site of Korriban. As it climbed, I was disappointed to not see any people on the platform, but THEN excited to see an openable chest. Inside the chest, a magic item. Nice.

When you "hearth" in TOR, you actually pick from any save point that you've located in the area. VERY useful. No longer do you have to go to the original 'inn' to save.

An acolyte was spared force lightning interrogation with kind words.

Somehow got Lightside points by sabotaging the research of a Sith lord.


This Inquisitor helps everyone.. even if the task can be considered 'evil'. Because of his past, he'll normally try to minimize any pain inflicted on others.


Realized mid boss-battle that this was a Heroic quest requiring more than one member and saved myself by putting a medpac in my hotbar. Ressed a player that was trying to run in and out of the instance instead of getting help.


Helped a new player discover the way to collect artifacts is by right-clicking on them.


My Sith Overseer has it in for me; so while his pet sith apprentice is sent to the library in the next room to translate a manuscript, I'm sent to a deathtrap. Even when I bring the holocron back to him, he insults me, suggesting that I stole it from somewhere else.


He's on my naughtly list.

SW: TOR Catch up 1

My SW:TOR Day 1 Experience

My brother picked the game up for me while I was at work (thank you thank you).

Came home.. took an hour to install the game; the problem stemmed while talking to my girlfriend on msn, RIGHT when I pressed enter to send a message to her, the pop-up screen came up telling me to enter disc 2. By pressing enter, it made the pc think I just put the disc in and it forever reason couldn't proceed further. Had to turn off the pc fully. 

No problems making my TOR account.

Tried to log into the Launcher... annnd it kept giving me an error that I wasn't in a registered country... I know some Americans don't like us, but come'on we have Canadian bacon! 2 beavers are better than one!

When I finally got that working (somehow), it went to the opening trailer, which i've seen a few times, so I pressed the Escape button.. wrong move. The game crashed.

Ok. Lets reload, but no skipping the opening cutscene.

Crashed before it even got there.

Crash.Crash.Crash.Crash.Crash.Crash.Crash.

GRRRRRRRRRRR

My skin was turning the same color as the pureblood Sith.

Ok. Canyourunit.com

Tested it... and its all the way to the right. Thats a good thing.

 
Run as administrator?
Crash.


Repair button/function?
none.
Crash.


Turn off anti-virus temporarily?
Crash. Crash.


Turn off need for pc to notify when doing updates?
Crash.Crash.Crash.


Install newest version of Quicktime?
Requires a restart...ok.
...
About.. to .. crash..
wait!
EULA and Terms of Service in the launcher.. well thats new.
Crash?
nooooooo...


And thats how you fix a crashing Launcher!


Oh wait... there is my server...


Annnnnd i'm in queue... with 990 people infront of me. WoW


Over an hour later i'm still in queue, but I eventually get in, get ALL my names for my characters with no funny spelling (actually, I won't make a character with an altered name). Happiness meter is filling up.


Playing. Taking Screenshots, because everyone likes screenshots.
Enjoying zero lag, no crashes.


I stop when I tell myself to stop (playing)... instead of when I tell myself to stop when I'm playing Skyrim.


Dreams of SW:TOR.

Three Days of TOR

I have tons of entries saved up and it would be nice if I could post them, but its that, or finish off the gifts for my co-workers for Christmas...

Coworkers win.

But I know you're all too busy playing the game anyways. Entries to come today after work!