Singular Thoughts - World Firsts

A friend had brought up the idea of writing about World Firsts, and while I don't think I ever had any, and if I did I don't know about them, I generally think they are worthy of recognition and I guess to an extent, respect, but at the same time I don't think they should be something that people should go seek out. People generally do very unethical things when it comes to popularity, world firsts in games aren't really an exception either. For example, I know certain people in World of Warcraft have done things that exploits the game play mechanics to get things such as a abnormal amount of experience, or boosted arena ratings. I've also seen people win trading to get more honor when the honor system was the main source of endgame PvP rewards, while that doesn't exactly directly aim for a world first it still attempts to get things quicker than other people usually a abnormal means.

While some can argue that the same thing has been done on a smaller scale for things like achievements, doing things like finding out where the highest concentration of a single mob type to grind out to speed up the progress on the achievement, or even organizing ways for multiple people to get an achievement still stays within the boundries of the game by using game mechanics. Doing things such as killing bosses and having 1 person get all of the xp is not exactly normal because one person is getting credit for the work of a lot of people, while that's probably what they have in mind and that's what they're trying to aim for for one reason or another, the game was not designed with that kind of play intended, and so acts such as those fall into the category of unethical, or more commonly, cheating.

So while I don't mind world firsts in the grand scheme of things, I do mind that people would essentially “do anything” to get them, this usually puts the whole term on a bad reputation, and it isn't seen too positively by others for a number of reasons from not liking the way they possibly got it, to wishing they got it before them to begin with.

Trial of the Endless Trial - Part Four (Final on Choppa)

Today I logged into my Choppa and grinded out the rest of the way to the 10^th renown level, RvR combat remained quite fun, actually going back to the main base camp was the unpleasant part.

I withheld on training from level 8 to 10 to grow out the suspense but I wasn't exactly impressed by the skills I had ended up getting, the level 9 skills however still made up for that. I'm still not entirely sure if using a “great weapon” is better than dual wielding, or what stats to exactly go for, but I had done a few public quests again to gain some magical salvaging components, which let me upgrade all of my items to have a talisman that I wanted in them. As of right now, I believe strength to be my best stat which increases damage directly as well as increasing parries, followed by weapon skill which allows me to penetrate armor. A lot of the jewelry items didn't have offensive stats on them, so I had decided to stack wounds which just increased my health by noticeable amount, that or initiative seemed like the best defensive stats to have. I was able to get new boots, chest, level 8 weapons, and jewelry overall, however that seems like where the endless trial ends in terms of character progression, which disappointed me greatly, as there are even blue weapons on one of the merchants that are within all of the set restrictions of the endless trial, but it doesn't let you buy them unless you have a active subscription, at which point if you did you probably wouldn't really want to stick around in tier 1 anyway.

So in the end while the endless trial does a great demo of WAR I think it almost gives you too much, leaving you ending up wanting to fully experience the first tier of RvR completely, but at the same time, if you want to upgrade that much, like I said before, you probably won't be staying around in the first tier of combat, making the endless trial almost seem unfair, as it does provide advantages to the minority of players who do actually stick around in the first tier of RvR over the endless trial players. For example, every player who seemed neigh invincible were usually level 15s which is the maximum level in tier 1 I believe, it's also the level that the game system sets you at when you enter a scenario or RvR zone, however that player will always have the advantage over trial players since they can only get to level 10. Overall I don't fault the developers for going with this system, as it's not entirely free to play, nor does it ever state that it is, however at the same time, I don't think they would lose much by making the first tier of combat more balanced for the trial players, as it would truly provide a possible “endless” experience rather than having a clear end to it, although in the end, “endless trial” pretty much sums up the experience, there is no end to the trial, however it is a trial.

As for me, I plan on doing some more experimenting with the trial that I'll write about afterward, I want to take another DPS class up for a spin to see if it's experience is similar or completely different than the Choppa.

7 things I would like to see in Star Wars : The Old Republic

-Group size and level scaled instances (from Lord of the Rings Online)

-Achievement system

-Great deal of ship interior customization

-Instances with random events

-No preorder bonuses

-Pazaak

-PvP system that focuses on PuG fighting

1.)Group Size and Level Scaled Instances

I first saw this feature in Lord of the Rings Online and thought it was super neat. It basically allows the player to scale the instance by choosing the group size, the level of enemies, and then finally the difficulty. To me this allows for a lot of re-playability of the instances. The counter to that however is that the instances do become repetitive eventually, so while it's a neat feature I wouldn't be traumatized if it wasn't around, maybe limiting it to a level that you can enter it while leveling, and then making a higher level version of it like in WoW, would be a better way to go about it.

2.)Achievement System

I personally enjoyed playing WoW before achievements came out, but I only really started to like it again after the system was implemented. I also really liked the gamer point system that the Xbox 360 came with except for the fact that maintaining a high game score required a lot of money, and playing games that you normally wouldn't have fun playing. In any case, I think achievements really are a selling point for a lot of people including myself in that they expand the game's life span as well as adding extra things to do.

3.)Ship Interior Customization

I know that ship interiors are basically confirmed after looking at the screenshots on swtor.com however I don't believe I've heard much about how many features a ship will actually have. If a ship has one feature I would like to be able to add things such as furniture to it, or trophies, rather than being able to completely change the ship interior layout around.

4.)Instances with Random Events

Everyone who has played most games in their life has experienced some form of repetition, RPGs especially suffer from this in the form of dungeons or instances. While instances are usually a blast to go through the first time, the third, or possibly even the second time around never actually feels the same. In ToR I know that there's a story emphasis on flashpoints as well as outside of them, however I do think that further imposes on the problem of repetition, as stories don't change often, unless the developers allow them to change anyway. That's why I think instances with certain random events that can happen while a group goes about completing them can greatly expand the instancing experience. It's true that there could only be a finite amount of events, but even one slight change to the instance can make a whole new experience.

5.)No Pre-order Bonuses

This is probably one of the smallest complaints I have about anything, however I generally don't like games that give bonuses of any kind that players get simply for buying the game before price reductions occur. Due to popularity alone a large amount of players will have no problem paying full price, however I don't think the players who join late should be penalized in anyway even if it is like not having a unique light saber color or a similarly minor benefit.

6.)Pazaak

A lot of people didn't exactly enjoy Pazaak in Knights of the Old Republic 1 or 2, however I think if it's implemented in ToR it will be quite a new experience as long as it remains primarily a multiplayer one. It would be great to be able to collect a deck of Pazaak cards and be able to play Pazaak with other players for fun or maybe with a wager of a few credits. My main point being that unlike the Pazaak AI in KOTOR 1 or 2, players can't really accuse another player of cheating unless the system allows for cheating, unlike the before mentioned games. Maybe modify or limit the types of cards players can get, and then I believe Pazaak can be quite a hit for just hanging around, or relaxing after a day of instance grinding, or questing.

7.)Player versus Player system that focuses on “Pick up Groups”

While this opinion is definitely not shared by everyone, I believe that one of the best ways to balance PvP is to limit how many players one party can join with. The reason for this is because with too many players that join together, one side loses any sort of balance set by the game in favor of people coordinating on a third party voice program, and with both sides being completely equal in that regard the game turns more into competition rather than fun.

I don't necessarily think all of that is a bad thing, but I generally didn't like the PvP in WoW when it became more of a sport than an activity to do. I believe an ideal PvP system would sort the people who join in groups and put them against other people who join as groups. I also don't mind WoW's BG system of limiting 5 people in a group to join other “PuG” members or other groups, this way does allow players to join together somewhat, but not in a great enough number that would drastically affect the battle.

All in all, I don't think there's anything wrong with people PvPing in a group, I think a system needs to sort them accordingly however, to allow people who don't join as a group, a fair chance in battle, as well as keeping all of the rewards accessible reasonably.