An Interview with Jesse Sky, Lead Operations & Flashpoint Designer

[Wugan]

Hi Everyone,

Methodical recently had the chance to meet with Jesse Sky, Lead Flashpoints and Operations Designer. We were able to gain some great insight into the details and thought-process that goes into designing the content that we enjoy so much.

"Thanks for talking with us Jesse. Can you talk about what you learned from each of the three Operations currently out? How has that influenced future Operations?"

Our first two Operations, Eternity Vault and Karagga’s Palace, were built without a lot of player data or feedback to use as a frame of reference. By 1.2, we had a lot more data to work with, and a much-improved picture of how our player abilities differentiate SW:TOR’s end game from other MMOs.

Out of all the Operations, Denova had the longest QA / iteration cycle, and that’s become a core part of our development process. I think it really shows. When a mechanic doesn’t work, we do what we can to adjust it, but we’re not afraid to scrap it altogether.

"Can you discuss your design philosophy regarding the relative difficulty of bosses within the same Operation? For example, is it a design goal that each boss in an Operation be tougher than the previous ones? Do you intend for the last boss of an Operation be a large step up from all the other bosses, or do you prefer a more gradual difficulty curve?"

We generally balance bosses to be progressively more difficult over the course of a single Operation. However, our balance sheets are not always the best indicator of difficulty, especially as we increase our focus on mechanics. Some bosses require strict coordination checks, and that may pose a greater challenge to certain players than gear checks. We were surprised, for example, at how long it took players to down Toth and Zorn on PTS.

That said, we do want the final boss in a hard mode Operation to pose a greater challenge than the rest – we want to give progression guilds something to chew on for a while. It’s a delicate balance, because you don’t want ham-fisted gear checks artificially slowing your progression, but on the other hand, any pure coordination check can be overcome with enough practice.

"So far, all of the Operations have been linear in that you have to kill all of the bosses in a precise order. Do you have any plans for Operations with multiple branching paths or "wings" to allow players more control over the order in which they tackle bosses?"

It’s definitely something we’re interested in. Thus far, our Operations have been structured like traditional dungeon crawls in the interest of storytelling and communicating progression. It’s worked well, but at some point, we’ll have to change things up to keep it fresh.

You can read the full interview & article at http://methodical.enjin.com/devfiles

[Masterkiller]

Great interview, I love how they are putting emphasis on mechanics. Hopefully they will continue ramping up the difficulty and continue to have the encounters primarily mechanics based instead of gear check based.

[Sith_Happens]

Really good interview. No question about the relative extent to which melee vs. ranged have to deal with mechanics, though?

[Wugan]

Which one do you think has to deal with more mechanics? Things seem pretty even to me, but I'm guessing you don't agree.

[Sith_Happens]

(06-22-2012 03:31 AM)Wugan Wrote:  Which one do you think has to deal with more mechanics? Things seem pretty even to me, but I'm guessing you don't agree.

Well, a lot of people seem to complain that the current bosses tend to be melee-unfriendly, I can't really say for myself whether that's true though.

[Evel]

WoW-like dungeons are one of the primary reasons I quit the game. I expected something different since they explicitly said they were aiming for different end game and not just beating on "one large boss". I expected story driven end game content with choices to be made that could provide different experiences based on those choices. I firmly believe they got lazy and/or ran out of time to do these types of operations. I'd hate to think they lack the brains to come up with a good operation design based around this... though it is possible.

[Masterkiller]

(06-26-2012 11:49 PM)Evel Wrote:  WoW-like dungeons are one of the primary reasons I quit the game. I expected something different since they explicitly said they were aiming for different end game and not just beating on "one large boss". I expected story driven end game content with choices to be made that could provide different experiences based on those choices. I firmly believe they got lazy and/or ran out of time to do these types of operations. I'd hate to think they lack the brains to come up with a good operation design based around this... though it is possible.

That sparks an important part of what I have been repeating in our IRC channel. The ability to change the difficulty and/or mechanics of a fight. Like the bosses in Ulduar, you would trigger certain mechanics during the fight to change the fight itself. SWTOR can do some really fun things with fight mechanics and the storyline. Make one choice and you fight one boss that has certain mechanics (easy), make another choice and fight another boss with other mechanics (hard).