Of course, I can't assess whether massive layoffs have been part of the plan all the way. My impression is: The big list of people fired means less to no focus on implementing our growing wish list here. It's time to make a buck now. Not to do further core work. Hence, my statement.

^ EVERYONE loved KOTOR back then. With SWTOR this doesn't seem to be quite the case. Though SWTOR has 100 times the size and more advanced technology of 10 years under the hood. Write new solo content that is bound to a companion. ( = that is, give sense to companions apart from being combat add ons.) Activate sound / music !!!!!!!!! (That silent environment is a game breaker. For instance, the speeder's sound is like a silent vacuum cleaner. For instance, there is absolutely no combat music. For instance, ...*endless list*) Make a lot more NPCs say something when clicked. (Just a little bit. They just stand around - silently, of course. Use bubbles, if this is too much to ask for.) Introduce some kind of customization / sandbox. (Also concerning ship interior) Redesign outfit. (Nearly completely, I might add. Do it in a way that is not aiming to copy WoW, but deliver a style that is rather modest instead of screaming.) Introduce dual spec at absolutely no costs and instantly available via switch. Introduce a "casual mode" (easy mode) to operations / FPs for casual gamers. Find a way to open up the linear game design. (You did it in KoTOR, where folks freely picked the next planet to explore, for instance.) (BTW, this is not a random point, this is a real issue.) Add fluffs and gadgets such as mini-games. (Social meeting points to play Pazaak, classical chess, poker, have dance competitions, whatever...) Introduce more intense interaction with the environment. (Sitting on chairs, doors to open, emos....) Last not least: Additionally to abbreviations on the dialog wheel offer actual text lines as an option to RP minded players. (Way too often I am merely guessing what's behind an abbreviation and sometimes choose wrongly. This creates distance between me and the char / and so creates distance to the game.) Massive layoffs are a clear signal to me: All this stuff will not happen! Never. Period. This led to: Canceled my sub and am not going to re-sub. But nethertheless, I regard it a great game and had a lot of fun. It's just not as gripping as expected. Too schema driven; bonus quests are an insult to my intellect in particular; too little story based, that is, story is too meaningless to me ("Why am I fighting this guy? Who IS this guy actually??" - Compare that to the final encounter with Calo Nord in KOTOR !! Everyone got their blood pumped back then. Because it was meaningful.) This may sound hard, because BW did a phantastic job of introducing story-telling to an MMO. I just can't help it, it feels too shallow compared to other experiences. Implementing my list above would help, I am sure. But this is not going to happen.

I decided to completely ignore bonus quests after I finally couldn't take these insults to my intellect anymore.

Auch ich bin tief geschockt, was die Gelben so schreiben. Du kannst dir zu 100% sicher sein das SWTOR in naher Zukunft nicht Free2Play wird. Du kannst dir zu 100% sicher sein das SWTOR niemals Free2Play wird. Und das kontinuierlich falsch. Es muss doch heißen: Du kannst dir zu 100% sicher sein, dass SWTOR in naher Zukunft nicht Free2Play wird. Du kannst dir zu 100% sicher sein, dass SWTOR niemals Free2Play wird. Leute, draußen scheint die Sonne!

Irgendwie hat die Frage in diesem Forum ungefähr die gleiche Wirkung, als ob man zu McDonald's ginge und sich an der Theke nach einem guten Restaurant erkundigen würde. Sei's drum. Battlefront 3 innerhalb von SWTOR wär's natürlich !!! Battlefront 2 hatte mich nach einigen Wochen gelangweilt, weil ohne wirkliche Story.

Played a Smuggler scoundrel (50) and have a Jedi Guardian (25) right now. For me I very much prefer my current Jedi Guardian over my first main, the scoundrel. Fighting and surviving as a scoundrel was hard work for me. Plus he was producing too much western like shot noises directly hitting my hears. (No joke - if it was SW like phew-phew, alright.) With the Jedi Guardian I am blazing through enemies in about a fifth of the time compared to the scoundrel.

One thing I miss from KoTOR is the more talkative non-quest NPC environment. Nearly every non-quest NPC had something to say either verbally or via text bubbles. That made it a vivid experience. SWTOR is said to have a stiff environment and I guarantuee this is due to that missing feature. Since SWTOR is 100x the size of KoTOR you might think this is not feasible. How we could give a hand making SWTOR like that is explained here.

Hi HeavensAgent. Thanks. But you didn't get the idea. Have you played the KoTOR series? Whenever you click on a random NPC he/she could say something to you or to the group he/she is interacting with at the scenery. Again, whenever you click on an NPC. Regarding disk demand. Yes, lots of small MP3 files (each having a running time varying from 3 to 30 seconds) will increase the game's volume. By? 1 G? 1.5 G? Or just 500 M? Yeah, could be 2 G. But honestly, where is the problem? If sparing space of 1 addtional G is an issue for some folks, let this feature be an optional setting to be activated by hand.

Great game! Still unsubbed due to various factors. I'd love to come back bringing some friends in 6 or 12 months from now. For the right incentive to return I'd love to see a more engrossing RPG experience. (The MMO issues will surely be dealt with.) I just mention one RPG immersion breaker here: the silent NPCs standing around. Most of random NPCs are great in their gestures, but nearly only quest related NPC folks actually talk. But hey, why shouldn't we as the community give a hand here? Creating and writing text lines for hundreds (or thousands?) of nameless passing by NPCs is a huge amount of work. BW staff is surely very busy fixing the issues the community complains about loudest. What if every player that passes by a group of NPCs can come up with a line for them and put it on a public message board for BW staff to simply pick up? These lines could also be rated before being granted access to the game. (Only lines with at least 9 stars out of 10 will make it... or whatever.) Just imagine that YOUR text line of an NPC will be in the game one day! BW, give the community something to do. It's fun!!! Nobody would look down at Bioware for putative lack of own fantasy. You (BW) claim that it's our game. What about employing the players even more than this feedback section? That would be the introduction of a tighter BW & community co-operation.

Schneller, höher, weiter, größer, baby-blauererer Dir sei verziehen und LOOOOOOOOL !!!!!!! (Stellen markiert) Und völlig recht haste! Gab zu viel kostenloses LSD in den Design-Zimmern. EDIT: Ich pack mich weg..... Treffender geht's nimmer.

Regarding the title "What SWTOR is", here is my subjective perception of the game, which I understood as an MMO and RPG combination game. First, I like the game! But unsubbed due to... RPG Bevor release it's been announced, they are creating KotOR 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ,9 ,10, 11, 12 and so on. Was excited as hell about that - only to find 8 times KotOR 2.5. The claim that "you will not experience one quest or situation twice when rerolling a new character was, well, a lie or abandoned and never mentioned again. Since class quests are very marginalized, I found only two stories (Empire and Republic). - And then: The stories don't really grip me for being too meaningless, and companions being too shallow. So it's 8x KoTOR 2.5 to me. MMO Hardly find / found people. And from the three dozend I grouped with in total, half of it were really not my kind. But now it got a lot better on the RP server I spend my last weeks on. So here I see an MMORPG that doesn't excel in each sector. (Off topic) - My take: all MMO features can be fixed in the long run; the RPG quality can not. The poor grouping experience (frequence and quality) added to my dissapointment of the story depth - so: I wasn't engrossed as anticipated.

There is only one kind of response to other's opinions that makes sense to me: "Oh, you see it this way. Alright." That is: respecting others perceptions that can't be argued about. What's the point in denying personal and subjective views? Personal feelings are fact. In this case you either like the game or don't.

You have veterans and you have newbies. (But I guess, changing perspective is not in everyone's character specs. After all I learned and admit MMOs are not my kind of games.)

Agree. If it would be masses wandering the valleys I could see merit in this quick respawning. But as it is right now, it just spoils the experience way more often than it does help. (Actually, what I would have proposed during development: As soon as at least one new gamer approaches, respawning is triggered just before he/she hits the scene. Not a second earlier.)

Well, I wouldn't equal "before entering a flashpoint" with "during a match". But obviously I am doing something wrong if you can manage to work around it with respeccing. I did this once for zero bucks but don't consider it a feasible solution when adjusting to a concrete group. So I guess, I either have to be patient and wait for a chance to play higher FPs have to twink an attractive role have to search for a tank and healer which I jealously defend as my buddies against others. Maybe by bribing them? You guys have a good one.

Öööhh.... *ganz-dicke-Backen-mach* Kleine Gleiter? Von denen man vorher absteigt? Oder auch die fetten Block-Buster?

LOL Dass mir immer Briefkästen, etc. mit den Luden-Karren anmutenden "Gleitern" zugeparkt werden, ist unter anderem ein Grund, warum ich jetzt auf einen RP Server wechsel: die Hoffnung auf einen geringeren Proll-Faktor. Ich besuche für's geschäftliche deshalb auch nur noch Coruscant. Da gibt's auch alles bis auf die Kuratorin.

Thank you guys for your input. This has been a real eye opener for me. I have to face MMO reality and make my choice. So if I want to invite my friends to SWTOR I better tell them to best spend all spec points to healing or none of them. I see. I have the impression that the playful and inncocent time of naturally joining random passer-bys who happen to leave the start planet at the same time to embark on an adventure at the Esseles comes to an end the higher you level. I think the soccer analogy is perfect. As kids at some point we realized one bulk chasing the ball isn't a good strategy. Assigning different tasks is fine. The difference with MMO role assignment is: It's immutable. Instead of agreeing upon who will take what role at the entrance of a flashpoint, I am stuck with doing damage for all my 3,786 hours of total SWTOR play time. Means, the kids in the backyard teaming up for soccer demand Joe, Jack and Jim to be defenders during all their childhood. -- And oh, what if our keeper, Johnny, is sick? Nobody can replace him, for he is the keeper and Jack isn't. Period. And since Harry will be a striker forever, he may has to stroll beyond his neighbourhood to finally play some minutes of soccer before returning home for dinner. This is the situation I am in with SWTOR right now at level 50 due to permanent role assignment. Simple maths tells me, the sticky role assignments by the current trinity notion naturally limits the number of possible combinations of actual players on a given server. And that logically limits the number of suitable players I can join for a flashpoint. I don't mind accepting a role when teaming up -- I think this invention of strategy is challenging and fun. But I regard being stuck to solely firing arms at foes is way less interesting then having the option of exploring healing style too during the career of my character. Which role to take could be agreed upon before entering a certain flashpoint. Just as Jimmy agrees to be the keeper in case Johnny is sick in bed. This flexibility would ease the scarceness of players I see every evening on my fleet. Well, these conclusions might be logical and nice. But after all they won't change the actual game implementation and the question is if I can deal with it. I reached level cap and there's no way to deny this is a classical sticky-role-MMO. This one-char-one-role restriction wouldn't affect my game experience since I like being a DD. But it severely cuts in all my group based actions for it makes it harder to find people -- and therefore makes flashpoints a rare opportunity. (2 weeks of search for Rock-Spider, see above.) In the end you are right, I have to make my choice.

Okay, your insights have been valuable elucidation to me! From what I've read I try to derive some logical conclusions (in a Mr.Spock-kind of way). The game design demands that in the long run I must comply to the trinity formula. (To work around this only works during leveling.) Right? Means, at least in respect to successful FP questing with others, I can absolutely make false decisions when setting spec points. Hybrids won't get anywhere in the long run. Right? Means, when speccing up your char you have to be aware of this and make conscious choices, opting for one way only. Right? Means, step by step the number of persons I can successfully join with will be naturally filtered and limited by their chosen role. Right? Means, in order to continueously find poeple to group with the ratio of chosen roles of all players must fit more or less the trinity formula of the game mechanics. (50% DDs, 25% Healers, 25% Tanks.) Right? Means, since it's already hard to find any people using LFG tooling - let alone role filtering - I have to find a guild of actually at least 20 persons or more to cover my need for healers and tanks. Right? Bundling all players of a given server into separate guilds does not increase the total number of healers and tanks. Right? Means, the actual ratio of folks (usually DDs) desparately in need for other roles (usually tanks and healers) has not altered, but improved for those lucky guys in guilds with a beneficial ratio, and of course naturally declined for those guys not being in such a guild. Right? Means, grouping in guilds is a win situation for some gamers by naturally depleting human resources at the other end of the server. Right? So, in terms of successfully finding fitting groups guilds are win-loose bundling devises. (From an overall mathematical kind of view. But enough funny sidenotes.) I've had one experience with a guild which was rather gruesome - a few bad apples spoiled the cake of solidarity. What if mass guilds are not my kind? What if I stick to my approach of giving spec points according to what was fun and used by me during combat more often? Anyway, I have to thank you guys for truly have pointed me to the fact this is the genre of MMO with a well known formula. Right now, I cannot image to convince my buddies to learn and comply to this as it is a little too complicated and restrictive for the casual gamers they are. For me I have to find a way to deal with the shortcomings (namely running short of poeple to join with) that this trinity distinction involves. Troll - disclaimer! I learned (and still learn) MMO functioning by SWTOR (only). Again, I don't try to bring people to rage. Nor do I intend to have a discussion on fundamental pro and cons of this approach - as this leads nowhere. But if I can figure out how this works, and works best for me, this thread might have some merits for others.

Hi SvnStrSlm ! Well, you are right in that at least Directive 7 works heavily like that. I think, some aspects of this design like searching for a long time to find a perfect fit suiting the role formula isn't for everyone, but surely (or obviously) does please a lot of players. And I respect that. I guess, we can agree upon the fact SWTOR seems to offer different options for various folks, including me (as a non 100% pure DD). I can imagine there are various quest designs that require a handful of possible strategies. Right now, it's just one (2DD/T/H) for Directive 7. So I have to skip this one until I run into a "fitting" group by chance (more or less). My feedback will unlikely have any influence at all. It's a report on actual game experience that might be of interest or not and that might echo likewise experience made by others (or not, as with you guys). (Hope this eliminates further troll - suspicions ;-) Once again, thanks for your thoughts. In fact they made me think.)

Hi Eddar. I admit, if SWTOR is designed to strictly follow the trinity path, as you say it does - this wouldn't be my game. In that case I should (and would) agree, that the genre of MMO isn't mine. Up to this point I never experienced FPs being that restricted however. And up to this point I had fun with the rest of the game and most other flashpoints. So I cannot support your view here. But thanks for your input.

Yesterday I grouped with 3 guys targeting FP Directive 7. I was looking forward to experiencing a new unknown flashpoint. So I was really grateful that finally a buddy and me were able to team up with two other guys to take this challenge. First, I must say, I enjoy playing the smuggler (scoundrel) a lot more than anticipated. I put most spec points to damage dealing, but the option of healing buddies every now and then became an unexpected addon that made the overall smuggler experience really flexible to me. - I truly enjoy playing the smuggler. Second, though I am not an achiever type of gamer, but more of the casual guys, I don't say everything has to be easy to be enjoyable. If stuff is too easy you start being pampered, and fun does not come from that. - So I do welcome challenges. Now comes the story of my encounter yesterday at FP Directive 7. Four guys: 3 DDs, and me (90% DD, 10% Healing). We fought our way to the first gang of droid bosses who put us to coma within a matter of 30 seconds. One guy in our group did this before and he mentioned the shield trick. I surfed the internet and the second time we came prepared with two or three more tricks in our sleeves - only to be demolished even quicker. Being slaped in our faces pretty hard we tried to adjust our tactics. To no avail. So after a while of making no progress at all we abandoned this flashpoint altogether - even though each of us has reached level 50 for some time already. During a little aftermath the guy, who had done this before, claimed, our group hadn't had the right setup, which should take 2 DDs, 1 Tank and 1 fully-fledged healer. (I mentioned right from the start I can supply just a little bit of healing, so no one was mad at me - we discussed things in a rational tone.) Conclusion: Four guys, excited to play SWTOR and ready to have fun, ended that evening completely frustrated. Instead of cheering over achievements and being totally in awe over a fabulous story experienced, all of us went home a lot earlier shaking our heads in disbelieve. It could have been fun. But the flashpoint is designed to be conquered only with "correct" role setup. The fact it took days to even complete a gang of four adds tremendously to the ridiculous notion behind the design decision of the quest. Funnily, I never experienced other flashpoints being so restricted and conservative. A clear thumbs down here, Bioware, for sticking to a rigid formula that hardly makes sense. Things can be tactical, things can be challenging. But this narrow corridor of how to overcome foes is ridiculous and sends players home early and frustrated.

Es kann zwar sein, daß ich Hallus habe, aber ich meine mich zu erinnern, daß das in einer ganz frühen Version drin war. Am Anfang habe ich meinen Begleiter immer mit Helm sehen wollen, weil er mir sehr glich. Dann wollte ich das Monate später wieder umstellen und fand die Option nicht mehr. Hoffe, das entspringt jetzt nicht damaligen Umnachtungszuständen, aber ich hätte Stein und Bein drauf geschworen, daß ich damals diese Option benutzt habe, weil ich anfangs immer gehadert hatte: Helm auf? Oder Helm ab? (Hab die Checkbox quasi noch vor Augen...)

^

Eerr... but you guys did notice that you simply need to replace, say, "Tatooine" by "lfg" and press enter to see all folks looking for groups? (This game needs tutorials.)