I realize that this is an old, mostly defunct thread, but I still believe in the idea of adding new game modes to SWTOR. Now, however, with the release of 6.X, we're going to have to come up with a new name. Perhaps "Incursion" or "Swarm"...

As a supporter of the petition to Bring the Old Republic era of Star Wars to Netflix, a contributor to the #TORonNetflix campaign, and one of the admins of the "official" Facebook page for The Old Republic on Netflix, I wanted to take a minute to try to communicate a bit of perspective regarding the petition, and explain some of what drives those of us that continue to actively support it. First of all, as a point of clarification, the petition is expressly directed at Disney & Lucasfilm. Netflix is just the proposed delivery vehicle for the series due to a number of factors, not the least of which being the fact that Disney already has an active relationship with them to release Marvel stories such as Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. I don't think any of us would be terribly upset if Disney chose to release an Old Republic-based series on another streaming provider like Amazon or Hulu, a premium network like HBO or Starz, or even a "regular" network like ABC (which they own anyway). The fact that Netflix is such a well-known brand at this point, however, is another major factor in the decision to name them in the petition explicitly. The petition recently surpassed the 175,000 signature mark and is still gaining momentum. While we are excited that a fan started petition has garnered so much support and has even caught the eye of Star Wars Story Group Guru Pablo Hidalgo, we are not delusional enough to believe that Disney is going to produce a series just because we stomp our feet and cry. On the same token, we do not believe that this petition is going to "force" Disney and Lucasfilm to do anything that they aren't already interested in doing. Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation, and, if an Old Republic series is produced, it will be because the powers that be have chosen it as a worthy project. We are well aware that we still need a lot more support behind us before The Mouse even bats an eye in our direction. What those of us who are involved in the #TORonNetflix movement DO believe is that this petition is a sort of rallying point for Star Wars fans who are interested in The Old Republic era. If nothing else, it has served to bring groups of Star Wars fans together from literally all around the world. Petitions in and of themselves can never be an accurate gauge of interest on a topic, just by their very nature. There are fans out there that don't know about the petition, there are those that aren't interested, and there are those who refuse to "waste their time". Honestly, the latter are the only ones that I don't understand. In my opinion, if the idea of an Old Republic series on Netflix interests you at all, what's a few minutes of your time to add your name to the petition? Regardless, those of us who are actively supporting the petition on social media do so because we are truly excited about the possibility that it represents. Whether Disney eventually gives us an Old Republic series or not is almost beside the point. We have a community of like-minded fans with whom we enjoy discussing all of the ways that such a series could come to be. From production style (animated or live-action) to potential storylines and characters, and even what people could/should be involved. If the idea behind the petition interests you at all, please join us and take a moment to add your name in support. SIGN & SHARE THE PETITION (Change.org): Bring the Old Republic era of Star Wars to Netflix Short Link for Sharing (Case-Sensitive) - bit.ly/TORonNetflix GET THE LATEST UPDATES (Facebook): The Old Republic on Netflix JOIN THE DISCUSSION (Facebook): TORonNetflix FOLLOW OUR TWEETS (Twitter): @TORonNetflix EXPRESS YOUR OPINIONS (SurveyMonkey): Star Wars: The Old Republic on Subscription Services REVIEW THE SURVEY RESULTS (Diary of a Sith Chick): TORonNetflix - Survey Results (With Editorial Commentary)

Thanks again, Lecto, for bringing this idea back to the top of the heap. I haven't been in-game much of late, but ideas like this and the other ones I've linked in my signature could potentially draw me back in. As I've stated many times, bringing in more diverse game styles like these could really help SWTOR appeal to a much wider player base. I really hope that these ideas haven't gone completely unnoticed. ...and according to Musco in this post, the Suggestion Box forum is more than just a sounding board for players to vent: Let's just hope that's true.

Thanks for the vote of support, Vhaegrant! I've been following this thread for quite a while, and still hope to see an implementation of this make it into the game some day, no matter what they call it. I believe I found your thread Wave Attack Mechanic, and I think you'll find in my outline post that we have many of the same ideas surrounding the implementation. While I tend to lean more towards the solo version of this, I believe many of the people in this thread are looking for a multi-player environment for implementation. Luckily, I believe that there are already several instances of "scaling" in-place throughout SWTOR that should make either scenario possible. This is pretty much exactly the kind of thing I was envisioning myself. While it may make the idea a bit more complex than necessary, I think it would be awesome to tailor the encounters to the class/role make-up of the party currently playing.... No healer/tank/DPS on your team? Certain objective waves are excluded from the rotation. Like I said, though, this could potentially add a few too many variables into the mix for what should be a relatively simple "survive until you die" mechanic. Another benefit in this case is that players will actually want better gear in order to compete in this area. This can drive players to some of the other end-game content that seems to go languishing because so many players have already "been there, done that". Getting a group of players that are newly driven to improve their gear could very well re-invigorate the Flashpoints and Operations afresh.

Ahh, you're probably right. It's been so long since I've played either of the KotOR games I had totally forgotten about that element. It's definitely more reminiscent of that concept than this one. But, with the addition of something along those lines, there's always hope that other new game modes like this could be added.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but based on the descriptions I've heard so far, it sounds like the Eternal Championship is the Devs' take on how to implement this idea. I'd still like to see this idea implemented as something separate from the Eternal Championship, though. I think this is something that could appeal to both solo and group players of just about any caliber.

Not sure if that was directed at me, but I'm going to say "thank you" anyway, if for no other reason than to "bump" the thread. While I truly appreciate the effort the Devs put in to KotFE to really make the game more "story-centric", and while I'm ever a fan of pretty much anything Star Wars (Jar-Jar being the obvious exception) I have to admit that the game does feel very "dumbed-down" lately. There just doesn't seem to be much of a challenge or feel of real progression for my characters. I love the story lines that they've created and can't wait to see more, but it almost feels like more of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book where I am just watching the effects of my decisions, instead of challenging me to accomplish some "real" goals to get ahead and become the awe-inspiring character I'm supposed to be. At this point, I'm sure that a crafting revamp isn't going to provide those players with similar feelings what it is they "need", but I'm a believer in the axiom: "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Perhaps other areas of the game should be addressed first, but I firmly believe that crafting is something that needs to be given a thorough review as a part of any changes they have planned for the future.

Thank you, LordArtemis. I appreciate your support of the idea. I would love to see crafting become a much more meaningful part of this game, even adding something like what was suggested by Fevee in his Dungeoneering thread to give crafters a way to be "important".

Once again, I'm glad this thread has come back from the "trash heap" of forgotten topics. Just because a thread has lost momentum and slipped down the list absolutely does not mean that it's no longer relevant, and this thread is a prime example. The topic of conversation here is definitely relevant. With the release of 4.0 and all of the changes they've been making to companions and "core" game mechanics, crafting could certainly use another review. Once again, I refer back to my wall of "SWG fanboi" text for my personal opinions on the matter. They haven't really changed since I posted them, so I'll just leave it at that.

Absolutely, which is why I link to "dead" threads all over the place.

Not to be a forum nazi, but this is another one of those ideas that has been brought up over and over again due to the overabundance of different crafting materials and the limited amount of storage/stack size available in game. Check out my post (#3 with a follow-up in #7) in this thread for a design idea for how to implement a "workable" solution.

I definitely like the idea of making crafting really useful in SWTOR. In a "wall of text" rant I posted in another thread, I discussed my ideas for a total revamp of the entire crafting system a la SWG ("SWG fanboi" flames incoming). While I'd still like to see crafting get a complete overhaul, something like this suggestion that takes the crafting system out of the dull and lifeless void in which it is currently stuck would be tremendously welcome. I will say, however, that I agree with those against the idea of starting the experience with no gear whatsoever. To take from another game, I imagine this something like the original Kael'Thas Sunstrider encounter in The Eye from World of Warcraft. You go in with all of your normal gear, but you need to acquire and equip the instance-specific weapons he summons in order to defeat him (if you're not grossly over-leveled). Applying this concept to your idea, in order to defeat whatever creature is defending the super-secret relic (or whatever) you must craft a very specific set of armor and weaponry to defend yourself from and defeat the horror that awaits you. This new set of gear provides bonuses that offset some of the boss's unique abilities that, without the custom-crafted gear, would occur with too much frequency and/or intensity to be able to successfully complete the encounter. Since this gear is crafted with materials from the tainted planet, they cannot be removed from the surface without the very real potential of rapidly spreading whatever horrible disease is affecting the entire planet across the galaxy in a pandemic with no cure. In addition to making crafting somewhat relevant, I'm always up for adding content to this game that caters to different play-styles (as is evident by the links in my signature). As I've said in pretty much all of the game mode suggestion threads in which I've participated, the more options a player has regarding what they do (and how they do it) in-game, the more likely it is that they will find something that appeals to their play-style.

Much appreciated, Falensawino. With all of the changes that are coming to crafting, I think now is the perfect time to try to implement this type of change.

Thank you for your support, Calypso! I'm so glad this suggestion is getting some new life! I'd also like to hear any feedback you have on my Field Commander suggestion and Firelieutenant's Capture & Command idea, as well as my latest idea, Personal/Guild Armies. I'm still mulling over some other ideas, but these are the ones I'm most interested in right now. Of course, the credit for this suggestion goes to the OP, DrewFromPhilly. I just added some structure and specificity.

Right there with you, Lecto. By adding something like this to conquest objectives, it could make participating much more engaging and interesting. I don't do much PvP, and my guild is so tiny that most of the other options just aren't really viable.

No, this isn't a PvP idea, per se. It's certainly not the "traditional" PvP that we're all used to in SWTOR, and doesn't require much intervention by the player. I probably should have actually looked for something more descriptive, but I just wanted to post something quick. For those of you who haven't ever played the game, here's a description from Wikipedia: And, here's a site (Inside Game of War) with a bunch of tutorials and guides for how to play the game. It's a fun diversion, and free to download to your mobile device and play, but you can easily get sucked into spending a lot of time (and potentially money on their in-game market) researching, training, upgrading, etc. While I was playing, I chatted with several experienced players who actually maintained multiple accounts to help them maximize their production and armies (I didn't get quite that deep into the game, but I could imagine how that would all work). I keep flip-flopping back and forth on whether this should be a "guild vs. guild" type of thing, or an individual thing. I can certainly see benefits and pitfalls in both implementations. As an individual character game, you've pretty much nailed the gist of it. I like the idea of a listing. Possibly something like the existing stronghold listing terminals. Game of War gives players a map of the "Kingdom" in which the player's city exists (I'm guessing this is their way of identifying servers/shards, although I don't know that for sure). From this map, the player can see all of the surrounding cities and resource nodes to which they can send their army. The map also shows the equivalent of NPC enemies that the player can send their army to attack for rewards. My original vision was to possibly use a modified galaxy map like in your personal starship, but I absolutely like the idea of listings as well. I think I'd leave this part as a design choice for the developers to make. Yes! I really like this idea. Additionally, the companion selected could have an influence on the army's morale. There would definitely need to be some sort of ranking system that factors in all of the stats for a particular character's army, including size and composition of that army (troops, vehicles, defenses, etc.), as well as historical logging of all battles a player has been involved in and their results. Similar to the diminishing amounts of XP you earn as you out-level an area, this is a great way to help fight the griefers. Sure there will still be some of them around that don't care about the rewards as much as they just want to go around breaking things, but we want to discourage players from ROFLSTOMPing players that are brand new to the system, while at the same time encouraging players to build bigger and better armies and continue to research and improve the army's capabilities. You sure you haven't seen this game before? This is pretty much how I would describe what happens in Game of War. When an opposing army comes to attack your city, or vice versa, your troops are injured/killed during the battle while your defenses are being damaged/destroyed. You can repair and heal up if you have time before another attacker swoops in, but anything that has been lost will need to be replaced. I'd like to see a bunch of new types of rewards for this. I like the idea of free troops/defenses as a potential reward for defeating your opponent. Perhaps this could even be an entry point for the more traditional PvP, so it actually rewards the character with PvP gear that they can use in the other modes. Anyway, it's getting late and I gotta go to work in the morning. Thank you so much for the feedback! Maybe I can actually start working on a full-fledged outline for this mode, I can just imagine something like this as a great diversion to pass the time if you're bored with the existing content.

I'm going to take that as a vote of support! Thanks Mahrdol! I could certainly see Flashpoint and Operations gear being a possible reward of this game mode. Of course, it would probably be limited to games played with a team, and that team must make it through more than just a couple of waves. Perhaps this could be an alternative method for characters to gear up for Flashpoints and Operations. If you like the Galactic Battlegrounds (RTS) mini-game idea, I'd love for you to post your thoughts on my Field Commander suggestion. The outline I put together is really based on HALO Wars because I wanted to "simplify" the concept to make it easier to both implement and play, but Galactic Battlegrounds was my initial inspiration.

Thanks for your support, JacenK! I can't express strongly enough how much it warms my heart to see this thread resurrected. Of course, I readily admit that this was kinda one of my goals for posting my latest suggestion (Personal/Guild Armies - New Game Mode/Content Suggestion) Thanks for the suggestion, Muljo_Stpho! I think it would be great to add this to the available options for those PvE-centric players that don't do much in the way of Flashpoints and Operations, but would still like to participate in the Conquest system (like myself).

You're absolutely right. I guess I kinda assumed that this would be inherent in the idea, but it should definitely be an "opt-in" type of thing. I imagine a terminal in your stronghold/flagship that could be used to toggle your participation on or off. Of course, it would have to have some restrictions that wouldn't allow you to just disable it every time you log off (or whatever). Perhaps there's a 24-hour timer on a status change, with a grace period of something like 10 minutes in case you accidentally toggled yourself on/off and wanted to toggle it back.

Okay, so I accidentally posted this whole description over in the Galactic Strongholds section instead of here in the Suggestion Box. I don't like cross-posting, but here's a link to the original post: Personal Armies - Another New Game Mode Suggestion (sort of) And, here's the actual content of the post (in a spoiler block): For those of you who don't want to follow the link and/or read my wall of text, imagine a SWTOR version of Game of War: Fire Age. I still have a lot to flesh out in the idea, and I'm processing possible implementation options even as I write this post, but I think this, like the other game mode suggestions linked in my signature, could provide yet another entry point for players who may not normally be interested in SWTOR (or even MMORPG's, for that matter) to become a part of this community (read: potentially increase the revenue stream generated by SWTOR through CC and subscriptions). One of the ideas that I added at the very end of the above referenced post is something I'm beginning to think is a better implementation than my original concept. That is, make this more of a guild-based system instead of a single-player experience, as is more what I described in the main body of the post. Regardless, I would appreciate any feedback on the idea. Please feel free to let me know in either this or the original thread.

Dangit, I meant to post this in the Suggestion Box forum, not Galactic Strongholds. Guess I'll have to post a link to this topic over there now.

I haven't been as active playing SWTOR lately due to a number of RL situations and such, but I still really enjoy jumping in-game periodically to check on the state of the galaxy. I'm truly excited by the upcoming changes for KotFE, and can't wait to play my "Outlander". However, as I've posted in a few other threads (see the links in my signature), one thing I still feel could make a substantial impact on the overall "playability" (and player retention) of this game is the addition of new game modes. I've put together some rough but detailed outlines for two such game modes (Onslaught Arenas and Field Commander). The third one (Capture & Command) could probably use some fleshing out, but is another good example of an interesting new game mode I would be excited to see added. All that being said, I've come up with yet another suggestion to throw on the pile. This one (which I'm calling "Personal Armies" for now) stems from my brief engagement with the mobile game, Game of War: Fire Age. Perhaps it's not as much a "new game mode" as it is an upgrade to some of the existing framework used for Galactic Strongholds and such, but I can envision this as being tremendously engaging for players of just about any skill level. While I haven't worked through all of the details in my head yet, the general idea is this: Your character is already a "well-respected" member of their faction (or, at the very least, an infamous figure in the galaxy), and has considerable influence. Capitalizing on this influence, your character uses their Galactic Stronghold as a base of operations, and has started building a personal army to defend themselves/solidify their power base. They will recruit/train this military force to increase its size. Additionally, they will be researching new training methods and such to improve the army's effectiveness. On top of this, the character will also be researching and building defenses and fortifications for their Galactic Stronghold to withstand enemy attacks. Periodically, the character can embark on quests that will provide additional resources to improve their army and/or stronghold. They may also choose to send their army on quests that give them an opportunity to gain combat experience, which may be beneficial in the event of an enemy army attacking. In addition to quests, the character may choose to invade/attack another character's Galactic Stronghold. The attacking character would send a set number of troops from their army to the other character's stronghold, at which time, whatever army the latter character has encamped there (and whatever defenses the character has built) will attempt to repel the attack. This could happen at any time (including times when the player is offline), so each player/character would want to spend time and credits (and possibly CC) building and bolstering their army and defenses to withstand as much as possible. One thing I would prefer not to translate from Game of War would be the "speed ups", unless they were severely restricted. There may be ways to reduce the amount of time it takes to accomplish certain tasks, but these would be in the form of "research" that your character can perform to enhance certain areas of production - i.e., you can research Cloning to reduce the amount of time it takes to train new units for the army, or you can research Improved Fabrication to produce defensive structures more quickly. Perhaps you could research Jedi/Sith Archives to improve your ability to research other such upgrades. These research options would be an overall improvement to the specific area of production, and would apply equally to everything produced in that area. Another thing that doesn't need to come over would be the "hero" concept. My thought is that YOU are the hero of your army. There may be things from that element of the game that could be implemented (such as specific abilities/upgrades to be used by your character in this game mode only), but this idea just doesn't seem to be necessary in SWTOR. Now, I can already hear some of the arguments against parts of my proposal - most specifically the part where your character's army can be attacked at any time, regardless of whether or not you're logged on. I know that Game of War provides push notifications to your phone, as well as in-game mail notifications to let you know when an attack is incoming. Since SWTOR doesn't currently have a smartphone app that can communicate with the game world, the former option is pretty much out the window unless EA/BW decides to invest time in developing something of that nature (which would be awesome - especially if it had additional features like Crew Skill management, character viewers and such). That leaves us strictly with in-game notifications of some sort. Like I said, I haven't thought through everything yet, but there's got to be a way to make this work. Some alternate ideas for this "game mode" would be to make it more of a guild thing than a character-centered thing. Also, instead of tying it into the Galactic Strongholds system, there could be planets pretty much devoted to this, or even (in the case of it being a guild-based system) tie it to the guild flagships. In fact, perhaps making it a guild-based system with flagships as the base of operations would actually be a better way to go overall. Regardless, I'd love to hear any feedback you may have on the idea. As I've stated so many times before, I firmly believe that the addition of new game modes such as this and the others in my signature (if decently executed) would be a tremendous way to reach out to a huge new player-base and get them interested and excited to join the SWTOR community.

See the links in my signature for a few ideas for additional content in the form of new game modes (and please feel free to post feedback ). Here's a very brief summary: Onslaught Arenas: Think Gears of War (Microsoft) Horde Mode Field Commander: Think HALO Wars (Microsoft) Capture & Command: Think Battlefront (EA) * Obligatory Disclaimer: All property names, copyrights, trademarks, service marks, etc. are the property of their respective owners and are used here solely for reference purposes. I'm also trying to come up with a new one that I think would be a ton of fun as well, but I'm still not sure about the details yet. I'm going to have to get kinda creative with my signature to add a new one, but I'll get it in there once it's been posted.

I love this idea. I suggested something similar in the Add Alts as Decorations please! thread, but using your ALTS as "training dummies", able to fight back with all of the abilities of their class (scaled to the level of the character that's currently logged in). This would provide some variety in the actual combat. I think the idea of being able to spawn a "boss" would be great too. Here's a crazy thought: What if they basically created a sort of Flashpoint/Operation that was tied to the specific stronghold so you would have to invite people in to complete it? I'm thinking specifically of the Yavin IV stronghold, especially in the "super-secret" cave, but it could possibly work in some of the others.

And I certainly agree that it is the player's responsibility to learn how play their class/role. I certainly do not consider myself an expert healer, and I could definitely stand to learn some things about end-game healing, even though that's the class I play almost exclusively. I don't engage in much end-game group play primarily because I don't know some of the more intricate elements of high-level healing, and don't want the group to suffer for my deficiencies. I would love to get myself into some Operations, but I don't want to burden the other players with teaching me the best rotations and such. This is where something like the above "Proving Grounds"/"Battle Training Simulator" would come in useful for someone like me.