Posted by Lethality in Blue Milk & Cereal | 28 Comments
Blue Milk & Cereal: Do You Miss Having A Reputation System In TOR?
No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal. Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!
Editor’s Note: Today we take another stroll back in time, and re-ask a question that we asked long before Star Wars: The Old Republic was in the hands of players. This time, it’s all about reputation systems.
Learning that there wasn’t going to be any sort of reputation system in Star Wars: The Old Republic was sort of a let down for me. This revelation came as a bit of a surprise, since this type of system has been an MMO staple almost since the beginning of time. The ability to gain (or lose) favor with a given group of NPCs to unlock content or rewards presents an opportunity for interesting dynamics, especially in the Star Wars galaxy where political undertones play such a big part in the story. As a matter of fact, this page has been on the Holonet since the site launched in 2008. It looked ripe for expansion, but nothing ever came of it. That page sure made it look like a reputation system in waiting!
On the down side of these systems, the implementation of these reputations or factions in other games tended to lean toward the “grindy” side of available activities, and we know BioWare is interested in removing that aspect of the genre as much as possible. Now, you might be able to make the argument that the companion system is a type of “reputation” system, but I think that is a stretch.
Still, I think with a little creativity and ingenuity, a reputation system could work in a game like The Old Republic. What if it were called “diplomacy” as opposed to reputation? It suddenly takes on a whole new life. Perhaps this is something that BioWare would add to the game through an expansion, or maybe we’ll never see it at all.
How about you? What do you think of the absence of a reputation system in TOR? Do you miss it? What ideas do you have to make one that isn’t so “grindy”? Let’s hear ’em!
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52 WoW reputations later, and I’m definately not upset. Perhaps if it were something fairly easily gained while adventuring, but anything along the lines of Old Wintersaber or Timbermaw would just be a turn off.
While I don’t like the punishing nature of some of those things, I do think that is one of those things that can set players apart from one another… not many people will go through the steps necessary, making the value of doing it higher. What I don’t like about the mindset of today’s MMO systems is that everyone should have everything. There should also be some opt-ins that only dedicated players can achieve.
I never did WoW reputations, and I probably wouldn’t here either. I’m not into the whole ‘grind my ass off for little-to-no payoff.’
The companion system feels like a faction rep grind to me sometimes. Spending thousands of credits on gifts to bump up their affection a little bit to unlock “rewards” like more conversations and possbile quests. Do you need to have a Corso tabard in order for it to feel like a true reputation grind to you?
Yeah, same here. It’s enough to have to collect reputation with your companion.
SWTOR doesn’t need that kind of grind.
No way do I miss them! I always thought the rep system was flawed, especially since some only could be increased through raiding and not everyone raids.
There is sooooo much more that can be done though. As you point out, there were flaws. But I think having an in-game reputation affiliation with certain factions could be used in Star Wars to great effect. Just like, for example, with different Crew Skills, they make some Flashpoints a bit different or give shortcuts. With certain faction reputations they could give access to certain content or deny access. And again, it should be a rare thing. Not something that everyone should expect to be able to achieve without extreme dedication.
Well, they rep grinds kinda are in this game, just not faction based. Companion rep, zone/fleet commendations and most grindy and long winded, Social points. Sure they dont give tabbards or what have you, but soon as Bioware realise we need some reason to go back to, say, Taris, at level 50, they may include pets or something to buy with the tokens. Social gear ofc already has a system in place.
Personally, I dont miss it in this game, I ground enough of them in WoW.
I’m with Brian on that one. I also feel like companions are a kind of rep to farm with diplomacy gifts, and even refer to it as such with my husband.
They are, except it’s an closed-ended system… and most importantly it’s not a multiplayer system. It’s a single player system.
I’m alright without having another grind. Gear rewards that you outgrow after 1 tier are rarely worth it to me.
Now if you could achieve something long term like unlocking a character creation option for each faction you get exalted with, like the Voss for example, I would go totally get behind that.
I don’t see why BW would want to push players into that grinding direction. You call it dedication, I call it insane. I don’t see the value in turning a fun game into serious work. And it absolutely goes against what BW is trying to achieve with SWTOR as far as I can tell.
There are huge grinds in this game without any context. At least reputation/faction would give the context and meaning about why you’re doing it. Seemed like a natural for BioWare’s story-driven approach. It sure looks like that was their original plan if you look at the allegiances page I linked.
I always did like the entry questchain for the Sons of Hodir rep. I think some factionrep should be Nice as a reward of following a long quest chain. Just don’t want any daily or dungeon required for em.
I don’t miss WoW reputation system but I would like a new system just to make it easier to keep track of the choices I made besides the light and dark meter. So an actual reputation not just a bar and numbers.
I could see something along the lines of a server-wide reputation being interesting. I’m working through Voss right now and it’s somewhat sad knowing that regardless of how many Gormakk leaders I kill, planes destroyed, or bombs deactivated, the Voss won’t become Empire allies. Same thing with Alderan, though that would be sketchy lore-wise.
I’d like to see some sort of in-game, cooperative & server-wide process that truly makes Voss move into one faction or the other (and possibly back and forth?) It might go Republic on one server, Imp another, and stay frustratingly neutral on a third.
The leadup to a future xpac would be a push on these planets because who ever ‘owns’ them when the xpac is released gets to make toons with that race.
Hell no. I hated that grindy crap.
Companion affection is not a grind at all, it’s a money sink. You either buy or send out companions on missions to get gifts. It sucks up your money. If that’s a grind, waiting a half hour for them to come back with something to give them, then I’m fine with that. But it’s just a big money sink.
I’d like some way to get a discount on shit though… maybe Legacy could be used for this. That way I could get a discount on mount training and mounts for my alts? Or better yet, legacy increases mount speed more than 110% pls!
p.s. Let us ride in the damn space ports!
The game STUCKS all the time with new update.
Never happened before… It jsut STUCKS for 1min for 10 seconds or till forever. Already stucked 3 times in 2 hours… REALLY BIOWARE? REALLY do you know what testing is … WELL NO IT IS NOT JUST TO START THE GAME AND SUCCESSFULLY JUST TO RUN IT.
Really I think Bioware becomes my Ideal for BAD QUALITY company.
I have not had any of these issue, and neither have my friends. Maybe it’s an issue with the way you have your PC set up? Maybe BioWare doesn’t have a test rig with the exact setup that your PC has. That would make it impossible to test to ensure that the game will work on your PC.
Just a thought.
We do have a reputation system in this game. It is legacy system, social points, lightside/darkside points, and companion affection. Reputation system is alive and well in this game.
I agree, unlimited potential with the systems they currently have. They can just keep raising the cap and adding more rewards for each level. Light side/dark side points to me is the ultimate reputation, I hope they raise the cap and add more rewards for it in the long run. Also add something for staying neutral and having raised both dark side and light side points up equally to stay neutral would be interesting to.
I voted No ‘cos i don’t like the grind aspect of it all. And also I feel like the comendations are a form of reputation and can very well be extended to factions as such.
So “Faction Commendations” might be something. Right?
I would *love* to have a reputation system in the game. something that provides rewards that are interesting, but in no way necessary for end game content. I am certain you could design a reputation system that isn’t as grindy as Timbermaw. They already have the commendation system, so I think they could expand on that a bit more. They could have special titles, pets, mounts, etc for a certain amount of commendations. They would just need to add a few more ways to get them. I’m in no way a game designer, but with this system already in game I don’t think it would be that hard to do (and thus wouldn’t take many resources away from things some think are more important).
Sadly this type of thing is still in the game just in different form like the Affection with companions and we have to grind dailies to get gear from Illum Vendors. Even though it is in these forms it is not gone in any fashion.
This is the first revisit where my vote changed. Pre launch in thought I would miss this mechanic, but now after leveling one character to 50 and starting and alt I realized I don’t miss it. Story give factions in it and you can choose to help or not. I still would mind a rep system but there are more pressing systems for me like legacy and a true acheivement system.
I miss the lack of a true reputation system. In WoW I never really tried to level reps, it just happened naturally. Maybe i’m in the minority of people who don’t feel the pressure to do EVERYTHING in the game. Nor do I get upset when the amount of time required to do something does not correlate with the value of the reward. I always research before I start a grind process to make sure that when I’m grinding for will be useful.
I, personally miss a reputation system from this game. It would make for more content to play through, more things to do with my level 50 character, and if I can get some nice rewards (not necessarily talking about gear, but maybe something…. creative), then why the hell not?
People can’t expect an MMO to give a lot of content without it being a grind, that’s impossible. There has to be some grind included, otherwise people will run out of content soon, and creaing a third or fourth alt is sometimes no less of a grind than actually collecting x thousand pieces of something.
Some more daily quests with faction rep (maybe with faction choice like at Shattrath City in WoW) would also further deepen the experience and immersion as well… like some dialogues not being available below a certain point, or something.