It is podcast time this week, and as always, we're looking for questions from the community. If you have any Star Wars: The Old Republic or website related questions you would like to have answered on the podcast, then feel free to ask them in the comment section of this post. This week's podcast will be a community focused one so we will try to include as many as possible on the podcast.
This week's community poll/discussion after the jump.
Should death have a penalty? (Ex - armor/item degradation, exp loss, corpse runs, etc)
Total Voters: 315
We are also taking voicemail questions and comments for those that would like to.
Click the voicemail button above to leave a voicemail; this method requires you to have Skype installed. If you do not have Skype and would still like to leave a voicemail, then you can call us with your phone at (954)990-0144. Please wait for the tone and leave your voicemail afterward if you are using this traditional method. No profanity please, and try to keep the length of your voicemail question or comment to at most 30 seconds.
In your comment, please include your explanation of your poll choice plus any additional questions you may have, as we may feature your comment or question on the podcast.
This week's community poll/discussion after the jump.
- Yes (81%, 254 Votes)
- No (19%, 61 Votes)
We are also taking voicemail questions and comments for those that would like to.
Click the voicemail button above to leave a voicemail; this method requires you to have Skype installed. If you do not have Skype and would still like to leave a voicemail, then you can call us with your phone at (954)990-0144. Please wait for the tone and leave your voicemail afterward if you are using this traditional method. No profanity please, and try to keep the length of your voicemail question or comment to at most 30 seconds.
In your comment, please include your explanation of your poll choice plus any additional questions you may have, as we may feature your comment or question on the podcast.
Comments
Regarding Permadeath Damion Schubert has already confirmed that its not in TOR.
XP loss can also be reduced. For example City of Heroes has an XP loss system (more accurately an XP slowing system). But you are back to normal XP in 5-20 minutes (depending on what you're doing) .
Their system has it so the penalty is you make XP at half the speed for X amount. As opposed to say in SWG where if you were a jedi and you died you could lost days if not weeks worth of XP.
I wouldn't advocate XP Loss, but I'm not saying it's the worst thing that could be done. For that, I'd say Permadeath would be the WORST thing that could be done with death in TOR. :P
Time, to me, is precious. I want to feel like my time is spent in a meaningful (fun) way. I do not want to feel as though I'm being forced to jump through mundane hoops.
That would make me feel like I am wasting my time. & time is valuable. Time is money (figuratively & literally in a mmo).
Time is also a finite resource in real life. More time spent playing the game is less time spent accomplishing tasks that allow us the free time to play the game.
If someone hits a rough patch they could very well spend the majority of play time during a session 'commuting' to a mission. That sounds like a major killjoy imho.
PvP should have no penalty, however if you spawn far away at a med center the time taken to get back into the fight might be penalty enough for the rest of the group.
My second question is more about STO. I know, I know... It's a bad word when it comes to star wars. I lean WAY more towards the Star Wars line, but I'm so craving something other than a fantasy MMO, that I'll play just about anything. Have you guys spent any time in STO yet? I think there are some additional lessons to be learned here and I hope Bioware is paying attention. This mmo doesn't have the "story driven" content, but it does have both space/ground combat and companion characters. There are definitely things about this game I do not like, but there are some things they do well. It's the first space mmo that I feel actually made space combat fun without being overly complex and gave you enough to do in order not to be overly simplistic..... I think there's more to say here about it, but it may make for some interesting analysis.
Keep up the good work, I always enjoy your podcast and look forward to listening to you guys up to and through game release.
Josh aka Arcana
To get rid of DP, you just keep killing things. As you earn XP, the DP dwindles away.
So if you're careless and you die a lot... the game becomes harder until you pull yourself together.
LotrO (open-world!) uses a system similar to this, except your DP goes away after 10 minutes. Personally, I like the GW way because in LotrO I find myself leaving the game to get a snack while my DP goes away *yawn*.
There has to be some fear of failure as motivation for not losing... without it, it trivializes gaming in general.
It doesn't have to be harsh, but I feel more than a simple corpse run.