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Daniel Erickson on Questing

BioWare's Daniel Erickson took the time to respond to a poster's comment on the Official Forum about the Questing System in Star Wars: The Old Republic. In what could have been a small post with the standard tag line about Questing/Story in The Old Republic ended up being a lengthy explanation of the system in depth.

--"What are all the different types of multiplayer quests?"

Whew, that one's a big list but I can hit the major stuff. 1) World Quests: One-offs or short chains built for easy pick up and play. Grab a PUG or your friends and have a short adventure together. 2) World Arcs: Epic quest arcs that go from four to ten quests or more and follow a storyline across an entire planet. Big decisions and branching questlines you may have to play multiple times (in different playthroughs, they're not repeatable) to see all the content. Built for long play sessions or a series of short sessions where you and your group want a huge adventure that may stretch over tens of hours. Also very PUGable as long as you're grabbing like minded folks. 3) Flashpoints: Instanced, heavily scripted major story and action pieces built for groups to go in and get the very best of BioWare's multiplayer storytelling. Built to be played in a single sitting.

Find the full DevTracker post after the jump or in the source link below.
Challenge accepted!

This one can get confusing as there is a great deal of content in the game, all geared for slightly different experiences. So let's get to it, yes?

--There is no repeated content across factions. Easy enough.

--Every Class has a completely unique storyline with their own companion characters and quests that takes them from the very first level through the very last and leads them naturally into the end game content. We call these Class Quests.

Now the questions and ideas that can be harder to get your head around if you haven't yet been one of the few lucky ones to actually play the game.

--"Is all your faction specific content Class Quests?"

Absolutely not. It's a multiplayer game, built for multiplayer storytelling. Which means all classes in a faction will have access to all of the same content except the Class Quests.

--"What is the breakdown between Class Quests and multiplayer quests?"

On the Origin worlds it's about 60% Class Quests, dropping to about 40% on the Capital worlds and then even lower for the rest of the game. The whole idea is to get you into the game, teach you about your class and your story, then get you out there playing with other people. We need to meet Obi-Wan, get our lightsaber and learn about the rest of the galaxy, but then it's time to get the gang together and go to war. We're still going to take breaks and run off to Dagobah but that's now the minority of our story. So the game very purposefully starts with more single player content and then moves strongly towards content that can be played multiplayer.

--"What are all the different types of multiplayer quests?"

Whew, that one's a big list but I can hit the major stuff. 1) World Quests: One-offs or short chains built for easy pick up and play. Grab a PUG or your friends and have a short adventure together. 2) World Arcs: Epic quest arcs that go from four to ten quests or more and follow a storyline across an entire planet. Big decisions and branching questlines you may have to play multiple times (in different playthroughs, they're not repeatable) to see all the content. Built for long play sessions or a series of short sessions where you and your group want a huge adventure that may stretch over tens of hours. Also very PUGable as long as you're grabbing like minded folks. 3) Flashpoints: Instanced, heavily scripted major story and action pieces built for groups to go in and get the very best of BioWare's multiplayer storytelling. Built to be played in a single sitting.

Now here's the fun part. Our multiplayer content has lines, choices and content that is specific to each class and content that is only there if you're in a group. Did the Jedi Consular really just convince the Sith boss to stand down and not fight us? Did the Bounty Hunter really just shake down the Moff for more money? Did the Smuggler just leave the group with that attractive quest giver? Um...are they coming back? It's fun to replay the game and see all the different content but it's also a blast to play with friends and be completely surprised by what they say. Often you'll find yourself saying "Okay, that clearly was not one of my dialogue options!"

Hope that helps!

Hehe. One more time!

Multiplayer quests can still be played solo! Though a few really challenging ones are really better with friends or you'll have to wait a few levels...

The vast majority of your Class content can still be done with friends! There may be a time you turn to your group and say "I need to talk to my crazy, world-destroying dad alone. Give us a minute?" but that's the exception to the rule.

Hope that helps!

Comments

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  • MrHotter's avatar
    Gamorrean Thug
    • Posts: 41
    #42 MrHotter Posted 10/12/2010 7:19:38 PM
    I didn't know that most of the class quest would be done before leaving the second planet. That makes sense however. At some point they need to focus more on the group stories. I'm not worried about a 'Tortage' end to interesting quests.
  • PlayLoud's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #43 PlayLoud Posted 10/20/2010 3:03:39 AM
    He didn't say that most of the class quests would be done before leaving the second planet. He said that while on the first planet, 60% of your quests on that planet would be class quests. That's still only a small fraction of the class quests for your class in the game.
  • chronium's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1583
    #33 chronium Posted 10/8/2010 2:50:01 AM
    Update: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4415725#edit4415725

    "Hehe. One more time!

    Multiplayer quests can still be played solo! Though a few really challenging ones are really better with friends or you'll have to wait a few levels...

    The vast majority of your Class content can still be done with friends! There may be a time you turn to your group and say "I need to talk to my crazy, world-destroying dad alone. Give us a minute?" but that's the exception to the rule.

    Hope that helps!"
  • JediCosmin's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #38 JediCosmin Posted 10/8/2010 5:02:06 AM
    WOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

    I'm sorry, but that reply from Daniel made my day :D
    I admit I am more of a solo player, so it's nice to find out that I will have this option available :)
  • Kennerish's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #37 Kennerish Posted 10/8/2010 3:53:06 AM
    Cool beans! even if you can't find a group for step 3 of 10 for Kill Malak's apprentice you can out-lvl it and solo it for the content. :)
  • Pagan's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #27 Pagan Posted 10/7/2010 9:50:09 PM
    I (heart) Daniel Erickson. Great info!
  • Eslates's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 107
    #25 Eslates Posted 10/7/2010 9:22:32 PM
    HE MENTIONS DAGOBAH BOYS(AND GIRLS) :D
  • chronium's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 1583
    #26 chronium Posted 10/7/2010 9:33:38 PM
    He was using the original trilogy movies as his example for story. Nothing to get excited about.
  • Eslates's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 107
    #34 Eslates Posted 10/8/2010 3:22:19 AM
    u never know.afterall yoda comes from dagobah right? its not a completely meaningless planet.
  • Ive_Defected's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 86
    #35 Ive_Defected Posted 10/8/2010 3:31:56 AM
    Yoda is not from Dagobah he went into hiding there after the clone wars.
  • Xavier's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 497
    #24 Xavier Posted 10/7/2010 9:12:46 PM
    I always liked this site for the information, now I'm just grateful it's a haven for sane TOR fans who haven't gone bat shit crazy over one part of the game they don't like. The official forums drive me insane, thanks everyone for helping the DH crew create an island of sanity in the ocean of bs that is the TOR community.

    Needed to get that off my chest, and no, it's not sarcastic. I'm quite sincere.

    Loved the post from Daniel and yes, I'm that Smuggler. Looking forward to tomorrow.
  • GoHann's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 289
    #30 GoHann Posted 10/7/2010 10:40:26 PM
    I agree 110%, I only visit SWTOR on Friday afternoons ;). DH is where I come every day till then.

    Wound in the Force::GoHann (lvl 35 Maurader)

  • Kennerish's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #21 Kennerish Posted 10/7/2010 8:49:04 PM
    I'll be curious to see how the world arc lines work out. That's a lot of content (10's of hours) do to in single sitting with a group of friends...or multiple sittings, but sounds like it'll have to be the same group meeting up and continuing at the same point since "they're not repeatable". Does not repeatable mean you don't get access to the dialogue and decisions only, but can help in the quest? (ala many quests in dungeons in WoW) If not it'll be tricky to "LFG for part 3 of Kill Malak's apprentice....we'll do parts 3-5".

    Great questing update on a thursday. :)
  • Mako's avatar
    • Posts: 0
    #23 Mako Posted 10/7/2010 8:54:57 PM
    I'm liking this un-official Thursday update trend. ;)
  • heybarn's avatar
    Jawa Trader
    • Posts: 240
    #18 heybarn Posted 10/7/2010 8:12:28 PM
    Am I right (from memory) did they say Flashpoints aka "Instances" are repeatable and the last run through is where your story stands? Wonder how LS/GS/DS pts will work each time with those? World Arcs your group and decisions are one off and very final (so PUG beware I guess!). Great yellow post though! :-)
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