I resubscribed to Star Wars Galaxies to try the new content that has been added since I last played. I remember reading the press release about one of the features which had been added called “Chronicle Master”. Apparently, it was like the mission creator system they used to talk about having in 2003. The press release claimed that over three million quests were made the first month. Considering SWG’s last reported subscriber numbers, that’s a lot of quests! One individual even created over 6,000 quests that month.
So now that I’ve had a chance actually try this system, I can say that SOE didn’t make anything worth bragging about. The reason an individual would create thousands of quests in a month is because everyone who wants to make cool quests has to grind for hours before they’re allowed to make anything worth doing. Almost all of the quests I’ve made have been made using a mouse recording program while I was asleep. Anyone that made six thousand quests in four weeks probably did the same thing. Every single one of those quests is as engaging as you imagine.
Why is that developers put in massive grinds into these things? I know they want me to play longer, but the ability to find well written player content would keep me playing a lot longer than a massive grind.
Can you clarify this a little for those of us who have no idea how it works?
You need to create simple quests in order to earn the ability to make complex quests? And thus people are creating these simple quests (kill 10 womprats?) using macros?
That does sound like a dubious design.
Yes, if I want to make a longer quest, I need to make hundreds if not thousands of low-level quests. If I want to make quests to kill level 90 rats, I’m going to have to make tons of quests involving killing things below level 10 thugs.
In order to make the quests you also have to kill NPCs all night and loot the “chronicle relics” they have. If you’re looking for something like, Kill 10 rancors, you have to loot mobs and hope you get the right relic. Then you use that relic as a material in crafting your quest.
Some people use macros which randomly toss together relics, create quests, and then destroy said quests immediately.
rofl
Wow, just…wow. The City of X Mission Architect – the user-generated quest tool – has flaws, mostly centred around people finding XPloits, but you have essentially everything you need to create content right off the bat (a few extras – some optional enemy groups and maps – need to be unlocked, but an hour or two of running Architect missions will easily unlock everything).
So, basically: the farce is strong in this one.
Sounds like the same problem a lot of games have. So many new things and standard systems in the games are long and boring for just about no reason. I can bore myself if it makes sense, but when the only clear sense made is that they want me to do this for multiple months so I can spend multiple more months doing the thing I wanted to do in the first place, it just seems like greed.
You hear about a patch that is “finally” going to allow your playstyle to do equivalent activities that these other playstyles can do only to find out that you’ve got to pay for at least 2 more months to even get to that point after it is released. MEH!
I’m curious about the quests though as I am a pre and post SWG fan. First off, has the legacy quest been extended post 50? Secondly, if not, are these new quests a viable path for leveling after the legacy? XP rewards are there? If so, do they increase by difficulty level? Any item rewards? Can the creator also create the reward? Questions questions! I should probably check the official website huh? Heh.
The legacy quest line has been extended to 50.
I don’t know anyone that’s done one that wasn’t already level 90 on all their alts, so I don’t know if they give xp. I haven’t heard of anyone ever doing these for XP.
In terms of credits or other rewards, the quest give would actually have to put their own credits or items into the quest in order for the quest to give a reward. So if a quest has a 10,000 credit reward, the quest-maker lost 10,000 credits.
Completing player-made quests grants you tokens you can use to spend on some new rugs and vehicles. Having players complete your quests and rate them also grants the quest-maker tokens for those same items.
The market is flooded with low level (level 10 and less) quests to kill/loot/craft random things because that’s all you can make at first. They do not scale to the quest-doer’s level.
Yeah I’m going to echo what Ravious said below. Seems like a big waste.
That is too bad. Never played SWG myself. Its sad to see something with such grand possibilities ruined by a lack of thought. Fun, interactive, player made questing has so much potential. Really disappointing to hear its nothing more than a “Kill Ten Rats” result. From what I have read over the years about SWG, I wonder if they ever make a good decision for the game…
This sounds like an absolute waste of dev time.
And player time. And everything else.