Crafting and PvP in SWTOR

[Tbone]

This article was released today talking about crafting and PvP. To sum it up...

Crafting sounds a lot like what EVE does. Your companions make up your "crew". You can queue up tasks for your crew to do, and after a certain amount of time, it is done. The progress continues even when you are offline (a la EVE). The article points out that you don't have to "skin rats" and the like - your crew will be doing all of that. I don't know how "hardcore" crafters are going to react to this. I suppose in theory it will allow people to hardcore craft while still freeing you up to do other things, but could this turn into a FarmVille thing where I have to check on my crafting queues ever 3 hours or they will fail?

PvP sounds like the instances I experienced in DCUO. As you level, you unlock instances. In DCUO, it was "play as Robin in Arkham" or something like that. You choose your scenario, and then wait for the game to tell you the match is ready. SWTOR seems to be working the same way - you can queue up PvP matches from anywhere in the game universe and then it just spawns you in when it is ready. I don't really like this method, as it really breaks the immersion. How did I get on Alderon? What's beyond these walls? I guess it makes life easier, but it doesn't seem as rewarding as getting your team together and flying to the planet and adventuring to the PvP area.

[ArchNemesis]

This article was released today talking about crafting and PvP. To sum it up...

you can queue up PvP matches from anywhere in the game universe and then it just spawns you in when it is ready.

Ew... I'm a little sad after reading this part. I'm definitely with you on the idea of traveling as a group for a massive battle kinda like with MxO or, Hell, even Darkfall.

The feeling of all us getting ready and storming off in a massive force is part of the feeling. Being dropped into a random area ready for battle sounds too much like most FPS games these days.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but i wouldn't want that in an MMO.

[Ragnarok]

I hope they include some other type of pvp besides battlegrounds.

[Manic Velocity]

I hope they include some other type of pvp besides battlegrounds.

Agreed.  I'm not all about constant hardcore pvp, but I like the feeling of open-world pvp.  The danger of not always knowing what's around the corner.

[Paitryn]

I dont see full open pvp in the future, but I can forsee pvp zones that you can walk right into.

Problem games have seen is getting enough players to fulfill those zones without one faction being stronger than another. hence instancing for balance and challenge. plus they can go multiserver so it fills up faster.

the crafting i know will make the crafting community sad. though I like the idea of being able to grind while im away from the keyboard.

Also jedi Wizard name change voting is up. looks like we're gonna be jedi Sages instead.

[Da6onet]

I just don't like the idea of napoleanic style stand off, two "armies" standing on either side, fighting until dead to the last man. it makes the focus purely on frontal assault. I always enjoyed guerrilla style warfare in MMO's so that a lone person could wreak havoc on a group of people. I also enjoy having attacks and counterattacks so that you can have hit and run battles, adapt to changing scenarios and ultimately call on your reserves to join the fight. Battleground pvp should just be called what it is, tps (third person shooter).

[Shirokumo]

Nobody's really mentioned it, and I don't know if thats because it goes without saying or nobody plays, but the PvP system is exactly the same as WoW's battleground PvP system in it's current state. It was changed some time during this expansion from having to talk to battle masters who would put you in the queue. Now you can queue for Battlegrounds and instanced dungeons from anywhere, it teleports you in when ready, and sticks you right back where you were when its over.

This completely destroyed the process you had to go through to find a group for either BGs or dungeons, but few people complained about the loss of nostalgia because instead of spamming trade chat for other group members, now you let the ui do it for you. Another way Blizzard has nerfed the game and made it easier for casuals. Hopefully this is as far as bioware takes it because if they're really gunning for WoW's spot, I think we're going to see a lot more catering to the carebears. Meh.

I like that you called crafting farmville, T-Bone. I hope its a little bit more immersive than (again...) WoW's system of, "Oh you have the required materials, click this button........ yay!" I will admit that it sounds like some mini-game I'm going to have to check occasionally, but I've never been a huge fan of farming, and if its almost a civilization-type twist where I'm more managing the time of each of my crew, even for harvesting basic materials, it could be interesting.

[Paitryn]

Everyone overlooks WoW bgs can still be done in groups, they just did what they could to cut the wait times down. In vanilla WoW you would wait up to 4 hours for some battlegrounds to have enough people ready to play. and that was on an rppvp server. At least the pvp has a purpose to an extent, vs a lot of games making pvp zones that have no bearing on what your doing, just a backdrop.

I love battleground for the fact it makes me feel like im on a mission, not just ganking noobs unsuspecting. I do want some open pvp zones where we get to Missions or objectives and possibly take them over, the RVR system i think its called in WAR. I expect that to come around as well since mythic is working pvp.

[Tbone]

Yeah I've never played WoW. I like PvP with a purpose, but battlegrounds sounds like when you go back to the main menu and click "multiplayer" and then choose a map, rather than it being a seamless part of the "campaign". Instead of it being like a high level loot area or other incentive, it seems like it might be a completely different game with its own goals and gameplay.

Hopefully at the very least they will have a bounty hunter system.

In terms of crafting, if they are going that route, I think they should also have a mobile app so I can just do my crafting while I am not at home. Lol.

[LAZARUS]

I personally don't mind the idea of battlegrounds. I think if they want to add some diversity to it, other than just frontal assault types, they could have objective type battlegrounds, which I don't think is too far fetched.

I've played WoW's battlegrounds, and there's a lot more to it than just two groups of people going to kill each other. The maps are pretty big, and if you play things right, environment has a lot to do with it. And considering the fact that there's classes in SWTOR that have the ability to take cover and what not, I assume environment will play an even bigger role.

Regardless of what it's like NOW (as far as what's announced), does it really matter? The game can dramatically change within months. The game is going to be nowhere near perfect at the start, and I hope no one is going in with that mentality.

Crafting, is meh to me. I always felt like it was something that should go right along side you leveling up, and not something you have to go out of your way and spend another extra 50 hours just so you can get a +1 to a stat.

Don't set your expectations too high guys. It's not going to be a perfect game, I don't think. But really, no MMO is.

[Da6onet]

I hate the cop out of "it's an MMO, we'll fix/add it later". I have hopes that SWTOR will not be released as a paid beta. That said, I don't not expect them to stop development of expansions, updates or other new content, but I certainly do expect them to release a game that can support it's own weight.

[Phienyx]

This new information is really disappointing.  I played WOW for about 4 or 5 months and really began to hate if after a while.  The "battlegrounds" type of PvP is part of what turned me off.  I don't know if any of you recall DAoC (Dark Age of Camelot), but they had a similar PvP system and I did not like it at all there either.  

DAoC was the second MMO I played when I discovered them back in the day.

[Ragnarok]

What DAoC's pvp kicked ass! RvR for the win.

[Paitryn]

I never played DAoC or WAR but i've only heard good things about their PVP system. was it perfect? of course not. but if thats what they are trying to go for, awesome.

While I dont like the instancing in terms of Immersiveness, I have come to realize from the WoW crowd of players that immersion comes second to gameplay convienences. something I dont approve of, but unfortunately a market neccessary evil.

One thing I hope they dont implement is the Dungeon finder, that thing was a good idea on paper, but the outcome was horrible. I'll use my guildies for pvp and instances as much as possible, and friends I pick up otherwise before I resort to that thing.

as long as we can still group up for PVP before queuing and we get some open pvp areas that have the same or better objectives, I think we will be good.

[Tbone]

They talked about how in PvP you'd earn tokens that you can use to buy "PvP gear" that lets people know you are cool. I just don't know...PvP being reduced to token gathering. I really liked in MxO how anybody could go into the PvP zones, and if you got your ass handed to you, you called in your friends. It made for some epic, high-scale battles that make 8v8 seem like a yawn fest.

On the other side of the fence, I'm not sure about FFA PvP either. In Darkfall it was handled so poorly that it was probably the main reason a majority of the player base left, and that player base was known for being hardcore PvPers. I think it only worked in MxO's hostile server because of hyperjump and multiple phone booth spawns, and you didn't lose all of your loot - you just lost your pride, which, believe me, for most is enough.

I'd really like to see a system where guilds can opt into open PvP with other participating guilds in the "wilderness" areas and also incorporate some sort of bounty system against other players and other guilds. Something that would allow for spontaneous PvP battles, but not allow for choke point gank fests.