Alternatives to "jedi" grind...

shirlnt

When I first started playing SWG, I had no desire to be jedi.  The first time I started the path to unlocking jedi, it was in response to "what do I do now?" once my character had mastered all her professions/used up all her skill points.  Although it has been said by some that it does not work to have a single  "uber" profession that outranks all others (plus all the other reasons people have said for not having jedi in the game), I liked that there was a reason to keep earning xp after one had finished one's "template."  Even back then there were some other things I said I would have done a jedi-type grind in order to unlock.  The main one I thought of back then was the ability to unlock enough skill points to master another profession...meaning go through the same type of grind one went through to unlock jedi, getting those extra skill points, then grinding the skill boxes one wanted to use those skill points on.  Lately I thought if there was a game that was going to replace pre-cu, what would I be willing to go through a major grind to "unlock" upon completing my professions?  Some things I came up with were(just as a brainstorming, know there would be positives and negatives to them once thought out):

-- special skills associated with one's professions (attacks for combat professions, heals/buffs or bonuses to heals/buffs for medics and entertainers, special items to craft or extra choices for specializing items such as designs/patterns on clothing rather than just solid colors for crafters, increase in max number of pets for CH.....to encourage grouping or to prevent becoming too strong to want to group, special skills could even be something that benefitted the group in the case of combat/heal/buff skills earned)

-- increase in number of lots or in inventory

-- access to new areas/planets (something like the force sensitive city on dath but without the purpose of grinding jedi...just to have access to new quests or new scenery with perhaps some new animals to kill/tame, some high end content as access to the area means one would have not only mastered professions but would have also done a lot of grinding beyond that)

-- slot toon (the ability to have 2 toons from a single account on the same server)

-- extra skill points (as mentioned in beginning paragraph)

 

What would you be willing to go though a long grind to earn? Anything you would add to the list?

Suvroc

I too had no desire to be a Jedi, but I did the grind anyway simply to unlock a second character slot. So, I do agree with you that it is a good option.

The only problem with this as I see it is having a secondary toon on the same server reduces the interdependany that should be maintained in an MMO.

Another idea may be to gain schematics for rare structures, droids, furniture, foods.....etc

Or perhaps an unlockable player race, rather then a profession.

shirlnt

Originally posted by Suvroc
The only problem with this as I see it is having a secondary toon on the same server reduces the interdependany that should be maintained in an MMO.
 

One of the cool things about pre-cu was the amount of interdependency was so high.  While having one alt may have reduced the level of interdependency but it would have taken many alts to totally do away with it.  I guess if all someone wanted to do in the game was kill things that one could survive with a weapon and some armor then one alt would have alleviated the need for others but to experience all the game had to offer one needed at the very minimum:

1.  weaponsmith -- to provide the weapon (TKM didn't require a weapon but I think most usually got the knucklers to increase the amount of damage they did)

2. armorsmith -- to provide armor (even if one didn't wear armor, unless one wanted to spend their entire time in the noob outfit, one would at least need a tailor)

3. doctor/medic -- to heal wounds at least, to buff if one wanted to equip an entire set of comp armor and/or increased HAM

4. entertainer (dancer/musician) -- (see doc/medic)

5. architect -- could play the game without ever owning a building but this is part of that "all the game had to offer" basics, a home to provide extra storage and to show off all the rewards one had earned (note: I've played other games with rewards but I thought "what good do they do if all I can do with them is keep them in inventory where no one else can see them and they are taking up limited inventory space?")

6. master artisan -- unless one wanted to walk everywhere that couldn't be shuttled to or ride a mount (in which case they would need a CH), one needed a master artisan as they were only one who could make vehicle

 

The other things one might want along the way:

7. tailor -- provided other clothing, I don't recall meeting many people in SWG that went around in armor ALL the time, SWG was designed in such a way that most people I met engaged in at least minor rping and having "regular" clothing was a part of this

8.  creature handler/bioengineer -- even if people weren't CH, many people went around with pets which they either got off a vendor from a BE or traded in person for with a CH...if they were going to use either they needed a CH to train/name the thing, some people bought BE pets to use as decoration in buildings

9. droid engineer -- many reasons for wanting a droid depending on what the droid was equipped with...decoration, roleplaying, combat, special effects for ents, extra inventory slots, portable crafting station, bonus givers (some docs used them to improve buffs and some people used them to increase skin/meat/bone harvest)

10. IDer -- to change looks being as they had options not available in character creation, to get holoemotes, to change the HAM bars for those who were a bit more "hardcore"

11. shipwrights (post JTL) -- one could use the yacht reward to pop freely from starport to starport if one had earned that reward but a person needed a deed and parts from a shipwright in order to engage in space combat

 

There were also other reasons to need people....to start a guild, to build a town, to train/get training (person getting training saved credits and time; person doing the training was one step closer to being able to get a master box back when master boxes required having trained a certain amount of times), to group with for those things one could not solo....

Eichenkatze

Like everyone else who loves Star Wars, i loved the idea of Jedi.. and loved to play the games where you were a Jedi. Jedi Academy, the NES games, Jedi Academy 2, etc etc...

But Star Wars Galaxies... had me avoiding Jedi. Sure, i loved to sit around and watch them duel once they craze had started... but i didn't want to become a jedi. At the end of the installation, and i've restated this many times before to use against SOE... it gave you "Now its time to live the greatest Star Wars saga ever told...[next install slide] YOURS!!!" and i *lived* by that in SWG. I was Keys' Kumorrow. Son to the lost Keys Kumorrow(deleted character!), Master Doctor by day and a Ranger by night. I loved playing Keys. I wasn't anyone special in the eyes of the community. I did as i pleased, and played where and when i wanted to. I made my friends and didn't have to run from Bounty Hunters. Sure i touched the jedi grind when it came out.., but also realized it wasn't worth it the day i tried.. I had so much fun avoiding the Jedi Grind, and frankly i'm happy I didn't do it.. all those people who used up months of the game's limited time to make their jedi character. That just wasn't it for me. I instead, avoiding it and enjoyed that time i had. I hung out in the busy cantina's with a perverted womanizer who oggled over Twi'leks and got himself in trouble with GMs more than once for flirting. I had a sort of... closed relationship with a girl i found online who had a heart as solid as stone.. but somehow new all the right spots hehe.. i lived in a village owned by a tailor and her real-world husband who was a cook, shared business with the server's most successful droid engineer, and had my very own Chewbacca Wookiee friend.

I miss the game. I really do... but i'm glad i didn't do the jedi grind.. because i would have missed out on the above and so much more.

 

In sort... for me... nothing would make the Jedi grind worth-while.. as its a grind.. and i enjoy(ed) the freedom of not having to grind day-after-day to achieve the qualification for one small weapon that made my character iconic in the Star Wars universe... He wasn't meant to be iconic.. and i wouldn't have anything change that.