Darth_Halford
-
Posts
475 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Blogs
Events
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Posts posted by Darth_Halford
-
-
Never, with any luck
-
Esseles/BT do take about 15 minutes when everybody skips.
When someone doesn't they take about one hour
/signed
That's also the exception to the rule. Esselles has more talky bits than probably the next 4 or 5 flashpoints smashed together.
-
Bioware's been doing SGR as far back as the original Knights of the Old Republic game that came out ten years ago.
Juhani, the Cathar Jedi Knight, would eventually confess her love to the player character. While in the game it was either male/female, that was a bug and it was supposed to be only if the main character was a lady.
SGR's have been a Bioware mainstay as early as Mass Effect, which came out back in 2007. Every game that they've made since than has had an SGR of some kind.
If it bothers you that much, here's the lesson learned going forward.
Don't buy Bioware.
-
the space game in Battlefront II was probably the most boring part of any Star Wars Game I recall playing.
Yes, even more boring than this.
-
They rise and they fall. When they drop, its due to a problem 99% of the time. However not all stocks are the same. If we were discussing Frozen Orange Juice here, the stocks could drop because maybe Florida had a bad year of frost? When a gaming company invests 300 million into a MMO and people start leaving in droves, then the stocks drop hardcore, its obvious why its happening.
Except that 300 Million was never confirmed by anybody within the company. The only person to use that 300 number was a tweet from a "former Bioware employee" that he was never able to prove and that nobody in the development team was able or willing to confirm.
Even if only 10% of the profit earned from Online Revenue came from the Old Republic, the pre-development cost of the Old Republic is paid off by now.
-
I tried that logic with City of Heroes. I loved the game, but the customer support was non exsistant. I promised myself that id never do that again, and I ment it. Glad you like the game though, and just to make it clear, I like the game too, but almost 3 weeks of waiting to have a issue resolved was the straw that broke the Camel's back for me. If I do play this game it will be as f2p, and i,ll never shop on the Cartel Market anymore, not till I see some improvement and dedication to the player base.
Rhetorical Questions:
A) Is this is even a real "issue" that CS can adress, let alone fix? There are only so many parameters that team can handle.
B) What are the real chances that this "issue" is going to happen again, or that you're going to have another nightmare scenario with CS?
-
Please whatever.
We are customers and we have a right to a fun game. And if we are not being given something fun and worth our money we should make it well known that we are unhappy. And have the Dev's done anything we have wanted to make TOR a better game? No rather then come out with more CM stuff every day and then wonder why EVE and TSW are growing.
That all depends on who you clump into the category of "we", because there's been some very different perspective as to what "we" think would make the game "better".
I don't want to get into the weeds here, but you have no "right" to a fun game. EA paid Bioware to make a game that they would than sell to you to make more money. Nobody up or down the game development really cares whether you enjoy the game you've bought.
-
Game Developer 1: I was on the forums today, and the players were upset because of the bugs and poor customer service, what should we do?
Game Developer 2: Lets not introduce Chat Bubbles, Sittable Chairs, Guild Capitol Ships and that Barbershop NPC we was working on, that will show'em!!
I think I made my point...
No. What you made was a straw-man.
In a gaming company, good gameplay isn't the first thing that matters, it's the ONLY thing that matters. Somebody who doesn't like the The Old Republic, or MMO's in general, is not going to suddenly jump off the fence because they hear about this wonderful CS that is provided for a game they still won't like.
Conversely, if a game is seriously good fun, players will overlook poor CS, or story, or graphics, or any of the flaws that may come with the product.
-
EA made $4 Billion Dollars profit in fiscal year 2012, about a quarter of which (1 billion) is from online revenue.
To say that they aren't making money or that The Old Republic hasn't been profitable simply is ignoring basic facts.
Customer Service is nice, but I'm not going to buy or invest in a company that has good CS but doesn't have a product I want. Conversely, a good product but average or even mediocre service will still get my money.
-
Still, there are enough possibilities that you can find a good one without having to take from another player.
If your characters name is taken from or derived from a dictionary, you've done it wrong (in my opinion)
-
with just the alphabetic characters, there are nearly 12 Million combinations for a five-letter name. You cannot tell me that there aren't any good names left.
-
Try again...use the same 8 classes and set it up so you can leave the current faction. If youre a Republic class you leave the Rebulic and go the Hutt or w/e but can only go back to Pub because of your class. Also, Ilum is FFA in the PvP area during the Gree Event.
The only thing they would have to do is set up a mission terminal and that activates the bounty, it's how a same faction bounty worked in SWG. THe only thing to work out would be who could do Bounties on the pub side.
LMFAO @those QQing about player housing. It's not like you're paying for a new paint job on your shiny new Cartel speeder...
That is FAR from the "only thing" that they would need to do. They would have to present a story-based reason for defecting from your faction and joining the other. Since the class stories do function exclusivly on trying to destroy the other faction, to simply talk to an NPC and than transit to the other fleet is not just a half assed job, it absolutely destroys everything that the game's strengths are based on.
That essentially creates 16 stories where there were once 8, which all must have continuity in any and all future updates to class-stories.
If you want to be part of the Sith Empire than roll that character. It's that simple.
-
Why are they worried about stepping on Biowares time period then I wonder . Hmmm
Because allthough the Old Republic Era is an incredibly wide area to cover, Bioware has made the most (and most highly visible) entries. It could be argued that if not for Bioware and Knights, few if any other Old Republic entries would exist.
It would be hard to make any kind of an Old Republic game without having to skirt around or work with Bioware. Better to just use the III-IV gap where very little has been told or created and set their own path.
-
Note that most of their articles are not directly sourced either.
Kotaku is far from a reliable source, and even they say three different thigns about the same game at the same time. First Assault was never even confirmed to be in development, only that rights to the name were acquired.
This is one big looming cesspool of post hoc ergo proctor hoc. Something happens after another thing therefore it was caused by it.
That is almost never the case and it certainly cannot be proven.
-
You have this in Mass Effect as well. Doubt it cost millions or had a significant impact on the resources available. True but a lot of the dialogue in this game is of a much lower quality than in the other series. It just seems like the budget could have been spent on a more refined and streamlined experience with higher focus on quality. Instead, they just went for massive quantity to the point that much of it is tedious. If you put together KOTOR I and II I'm sure you'd end up with a similar amount of dialogue. Or ME 1-3. Maybe the combined budget of the ME series was a similar amount but look at how much better the dialogue scenes are. They're light-years apart. Also, is it just me or is there a massive excess of teenage voice actors in this game?
MMO's are meant to have alot of quests, and that's offset by and large by it being optional. Where-as in The Old Republic you may only have 5-6 class quests to a given zone and 2-3 dozen general quests or quest-lines, the majority of the content in both the Mass Effect and Knights games was the main story narrative, and the ammount of dialogue reflected that.
I'm not sure if you're talking about the quality of the writing or the quality of the sound. If it's the latter I would say it's the nature of the beast in that the game has to be able to process so much at the same time for so many different players. If you're talking about quality of the writing, I think it's about par with Knights.
-
Well this kinda makes you wonder where the millions of dollars went. Sure, voice acting's expensive but guess what, KOTOR I & II had voice acting. The Mass Effect series has voice acting. Do you really need 150 million dollars for that? What's the deal, yo?
.
Simply put, it costs more because there's more of it.
Long story, The ammount of dialogue Is alot less in those other games. Both KOTOR games followed around the same framing. 2-3 introductory planets, 4 main objective planets to be done in any order, and than 2-3 "final conflict" planets. You have more planets than that just for one faction, and alot more content in each planet. Factor in class specific content for each of the 8 classes, and that you have to have 16 voice actors for the protaganist (male/female for each class) rather than no voice acting at all, and it becomes very easy to see why it costs so much more, even just looking at the Story aspects of those games.
-
TOR cost so much to make due to voice acting, world building and the art, not due to the complexity of the game. You could easily make a "good" MMO for far less than Bioware spent IF you have a good design philosophy and dont waste money on fluff.
Partially agreed, but if you're going to do so much of both worlds, your cost is still going to essentially be double what a normal MMO would be.
Those two trains of thought don't add up.You can have it both ways. Original SWG did it.Whilst SWG was primarily sandbox, it did have a few themepark elements. It had two primary quest arcs (rebel and empire) which, at the time, were actually refered to as the Rebel Themepark and the Empire Themepark! It also had a few other quest arcs that you could complete. It also had endgame PvE raids! When I was playing, it had Geonosian Bunker, Corellian Corvette and Death Watch Bunker. Raiding is a themepark activity, i.e. structured and tightly controlled experience.
You can't have it both ways AND at the same time be primarly Sandbox. if it's primarily sandbox, that's not having it both ways. That's having it one way with concessions to the other made.
It's either a sandbox game with bits of themepark, or a themepark game with bits of sandbox. It cannot be equal parts of both. No game has ever done that and I don't think any game ever will.
Now, imagine a game similar to SWG (pre-cu). Increase the amount of themepark content (questlines, instances, raids) and "dumb-down" the themepark elements to make them easier to understand for the general public, specifically the crafting and professions.What you end up with is the structure and progression of a themepark (quests, instances, raids) combined with the freedom and community features of a sandbox (character freedom, player cities, strong crafting economy etc).
What you end up with is a sandbox game with themepark sprinkles on top. SWG is still an open ended skill based (instead of class based), non-progression game. Adding instances and some questlines doesn't change the fact that the foundation of it is still sandbox.
It can be done and it shouldn't be that hard. The ONLY truely challenging part of merging sandbox and themepark features is balance of endgame PvE. If people have complete freedom of character progression then it makes balancing bosses quite hard as the potential range of power is massive. This is where intelligent design comes in: you can still control maximum / minimum potential of character builds through clever profession design.If was that easy somebody would have already done it by now.
That does take care of one part sure, but the real challenge is getting the average gamer invested enough that they even want to spend the necessary ammount of time and energy to learn the system, let alone actually get good at it.Whilst I agree that a sandbox MMO will always be more complex, the key terminology I used was "accessability".You can have extremely complex systems whilst still making the game accessable to the average gamer. You just need to be able to easily and concisely provide the information to the end user in order for your game to be playable.
Proper tutorials, excellent tooltips, clear explanations, intuitive UI etc are all essential when introducing new concepts to players. Not many games do this well, so the developer of a hybrid MMO needs to ensure it is done properly if they want to succeed.
Exactly. At it's core every mmo is either one or the other. There is no Hybrid here.And addressing your point of sandbox and themepark not being able to work together, I would like to point you at every single MMO in existance. Every single MMO in existance has features of both, it is just that most MMOs focus on one design philosophy over the other.However, if you want an example of a proper hybrid, look at the Eldar Scrolls Online.Assuming the devs follow through on their promises, that game is going to have complete character freedom (sandbox), large focus on player driven world pvp (sandbox), large focus on player crafting (sandbox) but is also going to have loads and loads of questing (themepark), instances and endgame raids (themepark). It can be done!
I actually trust pre-launch hype even less than I trust political campaigns. This is all just a bunch of unvalidated nonsense that every other developer likes to spout so you give them your money, and by the time you realize it was a bunch of crap, it's too late.
-
False analysis of the situation. The gaming generation has changed from 10+ years ago, to the extent that those of my generation who's staple diet was based on games that relied on a touch of intelligence (D+D et al) are now moving out of the market place. Those replacing us are the console generation, fed on simplistic systems and flashy graphics. They are also less inclined to commit long term to a single product or franchise as there is always something new coming. This has lead to the decline in developers willingness to commit to long term/heavy player investment games in favor of quick and shallow games that allow for a high turnover (relative to previous MMO's) of clients. The problem then becomes one of a ponzi scheme, to fund the themepark new people have to be drawn in to keep the revenue flowing. This is the genius of WoW in that it has grown into this new market place and made its home there. Developers and marketeers of new MMO's are simply following the lowest common denominator in hopes of poaching those who are cycling out of WoW. They care little for the long term, the focus is on constant generation of new client, not retention.
D&D and other d20 games still exists and they are still making video games based on D&D playstyles.
Any company or industry that creates mass media does so based on where they think the demand is and what they think people will buy. If there was enough apparent demand for that kind of game, they would make them. Problem is it's just not there. Look at what happened with APB.
Every MMO follows that "ponzi scheme" of trying to get as many new players in to replace the old ones that left. That's how business works. If you don't keep getting new customers, your business dies. Retention does help and every MMO also tries to do that (that's why nearly all MMO expansions provide new content at the end of the game rather than the beginning)
The game was designed to be focussed around storytelling, as all Bioware games are. To add Sandbox elements of the game detract from that goal and water down the product.Again ad homiinem because despite numerous attempts you still have yet to come up with a coherent reason NOT to expand the game.I will willingly admit that for a single player game with some coop elements SWTOR is a nice product. Graphically I am happy, playwise it is on a par with other offerings in the themepark genre, some of the storylines are interesting if not excellent at times. It IS KOTOR with a few bells added. What it is not however is a long term proposition. There is precious little beyond the hack and slash, it is so one dimensional that those of us who love the IP have to at least register with EA/Bioware our discomfort. There is nothing new in this, SWTOR has been a critical failure since launch, akin to the disaster that was and is STO (Lifetimer ... please let the pain end.) You cannot hide the fact that there is so much potential in the franchise to just shrug your shoulders and walk away. I am unsure of your allegiance but welcome to being a Star Wars geek. We have slightly higher expectations of those who are producing content based on Star Wars.That's also a complete 180 from your statement just a few days ago about how you thought the storyline was taken from a milk carton and had more bugs than a vegetable garden.
The Old Republic had the largest initial response in MMO history of getting nearly 2 Million players in just a few short months.
When Bioware announced that they had a ten year plan for the game, they also said that they didn't need a 7 digit playerbase and in fact weren't shooting for it.
They aimed to make a game that provided strong storytelling elements to a genre that never had it before and even you admitted that they had done well in that regard.
I am curious than as to what makes this game a failure in your eyes. Is it just so simple that "it's themepark, therefore it fails"?
Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but basically what you're saying is that if I was as big of a Star Wars fan as you are, than there would be no possible way that I could enjoy this game as it is.
That is complete illogical garbage, and you know it. Yes there is alot of potential for other things in the franchise. Bioware chose to focus on the potential of story that the era provides.
As they always have. Bioware has been story first since the first game they ever put out. It's the mission statement on the company website. If you think (or thought) they would deviate from that for this game, that's on you.
And you are free to have those doubts. And voice them in a reasonable and reasoned manner as we all have that ability. The bottom line is you are attacking those who want to push the game beyond what it is to where it can and should be. The finances are an issue for EA/BW, and I am certain with enough encouragement they will get teh message.You have no position talk about attacking. Between saying that all people who like themepark games are idiots (lowest common denominator) that people who like this game are not true fans of the franchise, that the developers are crooks (ponzi scheme), and any of the other countless nasty things that you have said, for you to call me out on "attacking" people is simply preposterous.
The game ""Should" be about storytelling. That's what Bioware said the game was about when it was first announced several years ago. For it to be anything else would be disingenuous.
EA made 1 Billion dollars profit from Online Revenue alone in fiscal year 2012. Even if only 10% of that is from The Old Republic, that's still enough to have completely paid off the initial 150 Million dollar development cost by now.
The finances are not an issue, no matter how many times you factlessly try to say otherwhise.
You are correct, I do describe this game that way, however you have misquoted. SWTOR is a direct clone of WoW, with flashy sticks. You yourself are open is admitting that. I also again refer you to the reply at the top of this post as to why Sandbox mmo's have fallen out of fashion, apart of course from the last bastion of the sandbox which I might add has been running for close on a decade and has just broken its own subscriber record without resorting to fremium or freetopaytowin. When SWTOR reaches a decade, then you can crow about sucesses. If it reaches 3 I would be amazed. Welcome to the disposable recycle generation of Mmo's.If there even is such a thing as a "last bastion" of Sandbox MMO's, could it be that just maybe, what I said is right and that there aren't as many people who want those games anymore, rather than your implications that developers are just shoving them down our throats and people comply because they have no other choice?
The Old Republic is nearly half way there already. Galaxies on the other hand didn't even last 18 months before it had to be corrected.
-
The problem with your first argument is that SWTOR does not have any planet that is open sandbox. So its impossible to determine whether SWTOR players prefer a more open sandbox to amusement style planet. If you read the threads on these boards, many players talk about more open environments. I have yet to see any player saying that there should be more "amusement style". This is once again purely anecdotal. I have been out of the MMO game for a long time, I stopped playing right after the switch from EQ1 to EQ2. But to me it seems like they have gone to far away from open adventures. I dont need it to be nonsensically hard, but I do think it would be nice if there were a few quests, etc that you actually had to think and figure out on your own.
Yes and no. Thempark games have done well in recent years and sandbox games have nearly all but disappeared, so you at least have a trend that says more people are likely to want themepark content than sandbox.
You are right that many players are asking for different kinds of content. that's actually rather par for MMO boards that I've delved into, or how people are in general. The majority of people won't go out of their to publicly say how much they enjoy something or for a job well done, but will quickly call out when something is missing or not done well.
The end question is "is there enough demand to see a return on investment" I personally have my doubts.
The second question, it depends on the planet and loot, fun, etc. Back in the day when Kunark came out, everyone jammed to those zones just because they were new. When Velious came out, same deal. People were rerolling new characters to be lizard monks, they were doing all sorts of new things, because there was new content. I expect that when Makeb releases you will also get an increase in subscribers in general. Whenever something is new, whenever there is media hype, more people show. The trick is actually keeping them. If Makeb is just the same old same old, why would anyone who unsubbed stay subbed?Some players quit not because they stopped enjoying the game but because there wasn't anything left to do. Bringing in new content will get them back, even if its the same.
The last part is simple, nothing ventured nothing gained. Life is about risks. You argue that there is more established return on investment, I ask where is the proof. Arguably the 2 most successful MMO's are EQ and WOW. Ive never played WOW, but SWTOR is nothing like EQ. Based on this alone, you would think that SWTOR creators would at least consider modeling 1 planet after EQ play style..
The Old Republic is however very much like World of Warcraft. Many contractors of that style of play call it a "WoW clone with shiny sticks". Some have even pointed out how much similar the abilities and class breakdowns are to between the two games. While WoW and similar games of late have done quite well, no EQ-style or sandbox MMO's have really prospered. The last AAA title to be made in the sandbox style was APB, and that tanked after less than a year.
-
It may not get new people, but it could possibly keep old people.
The one thing about this game is that it really isnt hard to level a 50. On my first try, not even grinding hard (basically 2 hours a day, solo) it took less than 45 real days to hit 50, that is with no other characters, no money, just a fresh subscriber.
If there was great end game content, I think plenty of people would consider investing 45 days to get there. Who knows, its just a guess. That being said, I cant really see the negative of trying it.
but the difference is that the end-game content is similar to the rest of the content that you play as you level: it's just slightly greater complexity and with more players involved. One can reasonaly approximate that implementing more content of a vareity that players already like, it will keep them involved and paying.
Again, how many people do you really think are going to be interested in `45 days of play just to access one planet? Especially if the content on the way there is not that appealing to them?
The negative is opportunity cost. By developing content that is riskier and very different, that money and manhours cannot be spent on something that is a more established return on investment.
-
Well not 100% no, but still seems way to fishy for them to unload at certain times in certain amount of days/months. Cause there hasn't been alot of anything of what they are selling last month when I came back to the game, and now all of a sudden there's unlimited amounts of them.
Just because they unload at a certain time of the month doesn't mean they were all acquired just before-hand.
It is theoretically possible to spend a month "gathering" items that players put on the market for low values, and than "harvest" them all at once. By controlling the entire supply you also get to control the price.
-
With accounts that keep recreating lvl 7s with the same exact gear and no stats whatsoever, have been hoarding them all this time since the cartel came out?
can you prove otherwhise?
-
You can't prove that. All this shows that those are all in one persons possession. How they were acquired and how long it took is yet to be proven.
-
Yeah a legitimate way of spending over 5,000 $ in 2 days? You really think someone would do that.
what's the proof that is in fact how much they are spending?
The one in a million questgiver. Any games doing it?
in Suggestion Box
Posted
The reason you don't see in other games is twofold.
One being it's hard to properly implement truely "random" events like that while still making sure the NPC doesn't spawn in unreachable areas, especially in a completely dynamic world.
Second being that it's not a very good idea from a gameplay perspective. Being able to find the questgiver NPC will inevitably rely more upon sheer dumb luck and being able to play 24/7 while conducting galactic "where's waldo", than it will on any kind of skill.
Than there's the matter of what the quest actually does. While the location may change the quest must remain the same, so high chance of going offworld, and than there's the matter of where do you go in order to complete the quest and gain the rewards?