Let's all brainstorm...

[Zannon]

Let's all brainstorm here and then put one big post from all of us here...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/boar ... 804#M54804

and here...

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/boar ... 803#M54803

[Jabe Adaks]

My main response to the empty cities is this:

Reduce the cap on player cities significantly. Do not keep new players from building new cities but simply establish a planetary authoritiy to control this. Make players who want a city to sign on to a waiting list. This list should require the player check in weekly to keep their place on the list. When a slot opens up for a city they will be granted zoning rights for a week to drop a city hall on that planet.

Fill the skyscrapers on Corellia and other empty buildings with real rooms and apartments. Let players rent or pay maint on them. This feeds in to immersion of the game also. Giving these buildings substance is significant. Some buildings should be zoned for commerce or vendors only. The requirement will be that one vendor should be in each rented room in buildings zoned this way. That way it can not be made private or converted in to a living situation. This will also be a great way of cleaning up the "mess of houses" filled with vendors and tents that are butt up against city limits.

In response to immersion:

Allow some form of group vs group dueling. Maybe this could be something that only squad leaders can do - I don't know. The interface that is used to invite groups to board a ship should be the same for involving your group friends in to a group vs group PvP.

Jabe

[TramelRaggs]

I've already written in on both of those threads. I must admit, I don't expect much to come out of them.

[Curse]

You can allready do "group vs group" duels. You just need to have say A1, A2 and A3 duel with B1, B2 and B3 and then you can all fight. You can be in multiple duels at once. (Which makes for some fun free for all events)

[Jabe Adaks]

You can allready do "group vs group" duels. You just need to have say A1, A2 and A3 duel with B1, B2 and B3 and then you can all fight. You can be in multiple duels at once. (Which makes for some fun free for all events)

Its not quite the same as group1 can fight everyone in group2. We tried this at the end of my event and it kinda worked out, but I found that even with a duel macro some people didn't get challenged properly.

Jabe

[Dwilah]

--More art/architecture unique to locations. We see some, I'd like to see more.

--At the same time...less city lag, if there's any way to help fix it.

--They keep minimizing shuttle wait times and the JtL became the ultimate instant gratification for travelling. I don't want that gone...but flat out, unless the lag is gone and there's a reason for people to go, they're not interested. They want to hunt and they like to play alone for the most part (I don't get it). If there were reasons to go to cities, or hang out in starports...I dunno, quests for information where you have to seek out informants in the cities, some sort of bonus to certain things while in NPC cities... /shrug

[Ekade]

NPC Cities:

Q: Why do people go to cities today?

A: Because other people are there.


Let's examine the topic.. Why is Coronet populated and not Tyrena? They both have the same crap. It is because.. somehow.. Coronet became known as the place to go for services provided by other players and commerce. The theory of critical mass applies here. Coronet is a self sustaining fusion reaction.


Now the devs are asking how to make cities come alive? Here are my ideas..

1) Commerce. People go to cities to shop. People often go to dozens of cities to shop. WHAT A PAIN IN THE ASS!!!

Solution: Develop a more robust bazaar system. Perhaps even gank the auction house idea from WoW. Screw the trade forums. A quality mechanism for auctions needs to be IN GAME.


2) Services. Perhpas Entertainer and Doc buffs get a bonus when administered from particular locations.


3) Adventures. Have the launch points for quests start in cities. You want to encourage players to go to specific meeting points before embarking on an adventure. A player should think.. I want to do quest X, I should go to this location because that is where people who are doing quest X tend to congregate. This encourages group play, which is key in a MMOG.


4) Stories. Something should be happinging in cities to make them feel alive. Give people the ability to feel like their actions have meaning. Like a good D&D campaign, the players need to feel they have an impact on the world. Such is also true with cities.


THE BIG PROBLEM:
You cant have NPC cities and Player cities thrive at the same time.

[Zannon]

Truth be told, I recently sent a 20 page idea proposal to SOE along the lines of adding life to player and NPC cities. I'll work on a less formal version of it to throw into the mix here for discussion. I sent it directly to a few e-mail addys I had. I doubt it will get read, but I had to try.