Nope I said the budget was increased for 2022. Apologies if I wasn't clear. And there is no way anyone that isn't a Bioware employee can provide that...I'm looking at outliers and a lot of things point to that.

All you really need to do is to filter Austin in their careers...I mean they aren't trying to hire 250 new faces like Blizzard is...but the numbers they are asking for in the positions they are asking is significant.

Strained staff? Where the hell did you get that? Are you talking numbers, or some sort of collective mental break down? Either way it's sort of laughable, give the directors retention and hiring numbers they past few years. Personally I like what they have produced so far (ymmv)..I mean yeah they could produce like Blizzard or Zenimax and give us yearly piles crap...but who wants that

I've been on both sides of the fence dev and Consumer, Hiring a new development director, nine new programmers, five new animators, four artist and three game designers just for the SWTOR team pretty much tells that story...games that keep the same budget or less usually doesn't hire new people and living in Austin I know Bioware pays as much or more than most game developers in the area, and the praise EA gave SWTOR at the last investors meeting...it's not a far leap to figure out there is a budget increase But I can't provide you Bank records or Budgetary perspectives bro.

I don't buy that this was done because of population drop...I see more people than ever playing the game...just not favored demographics by traditional MMO players EA just wouldn't hand Bioware a substantial budget increase if the game wasn't healthy. Bioware is developing for the demographic that plays the game and Bioware has done everything possible to appease them, and why shouldn't they...that's the revenue stream....I don't see them going back to a demographic that gave them the finger. They tried catering to raiders when the game launched...Raiders were the only people they invited to the disastrous player summit, they went home and still screamed "TORTANIC" because the devs didn't cater only to them The people that liked what Bioware did stayed, they supported the devs and the business model, oh sure there are some folks that stayed since launch and they trash the game everyday on the forums...the devs stopped listening to that noise long ago. SWTOR has it's audience, the difference than most MMO's is why the game is still here and being supported.

We must have played different games, what I remember at launch were the Star Wars Galaxy nutjobs screaming TORTANIC and doing everything in their power to ruin other players game sessions. Then there was the huge Bioware fumble of inviting only leet raiding guild leaders to a meeting where they pretty much said the game was all about raiding. That caused a large amount of non raiders to exit the game, and despite all the butt kissing raiding guilds eventually went back to WoW.. which made the SWG nutters screamed TORTANIC even louder . ANYWAY.....for those of you having issues Suddenlink, Charter and Time Warner are all having connectivity issues. It should eventually be adressed.

God I hate necro threads

Your'e right they did used a Beta version of the engine, but they also adopted all the updates that Hero has had so far, and honestly it wouldn't take a overhaul, texture improvements, animation and effects refinements would go a long way, as for performance, quite a bit can be done with C# scripting using super and socket awaitable scripting on the backend. This is basically what ESO is currently doing and it's much more improved than before.

Maybe we should make this thread about Waffles now?

After my last post I got to thinking about what all has transpired in the last couple years and I looked back into the old Treasure chest of development updates and just last year they announced a update to the placeable objects or DYN's as well as the Preview windows....this would be a logical first step to upgrade of the engine, also Idea Fabrik is in the middle of the 7th engine update which started last year, it seems as if the developer is moving the engine into a 64 bit platform, but it will probably happen with the 8th or 9th update. Also remember the Hero Engine is written in c# the same platform as the new Unreal engine, that means that the devs can tear it down and rebuild it. And for those who are saying that a engine rebuild would be too costly and complicated... EvE Online Ultima Online DC Universe Online FFXIV Would like to have a word with you. Don't give up hope folks...the entire IP as well as Bioware is going through major growing pains.

Peoples notion of success is odd... SWTOR is still a money maker for EA as was revealed in the last BOD meeting. I do think they could update the graphics with the engine they have...because you can do some amazing things with SWTOR just by using reshade. My pet peeves have always been the terrible space game the odd graphic bugs and the hateful community that every Star Wars game is plagued with. Not to mention the even more odd music choices (play SWTOR with TPM sound track in the back ground it's night and day,) and the needlessly convoluted mechanics of damn near everything. The game will keep on chugging along though

I mentioned this many times over the years, but hey I don't mind repeating myself. The issue with the game in particular and the Community in general is simple...Star Wars fandom is mostly made up of Sociopaths, and Douchenozzles, from the actors and directors that made the movies to the craven crap stains that show up to the fan celebrations just to Troll other people and cause misery. There is no other reason and no it will never get any better, your best bet is to either find a more worthy fandom, or gather like-minded people, and navigate the privilege as best you can...that's what my guild has done and it has worked out good since launch. Remember no one hates Star Wars as much as Star Wars fans

Thinking more about minor things I have always wanted to see. Companions accompanying you while you're traveling in your vehicle dependent on which companion either in your transport or their own. More ambient music from the films...if the Mandilorian has taught us anything Star Wars without the John Williams scores detracts heavily from the experience. The elimination of orbital space ports on planets. Your ship should land directly on the planet, traveling through a giant space station is a unnecessary waste of time. The ability to customize the interior and exterior of your ship...while it doesn't add anything to game play it would be extremely popular for those of us who wants an extension of strongholds. A free flight space game...The star fox on rails game just isn't fun, at least give us a Xwing Vs Tie Fighter type game. I get that none of this will ever happen, but I think it would make the game more engaging.

Awesome...I was hoping they would do this.

Right on! there is so much content already made that just sits there, I would kill of they brought us back to Tanaris or Ord Mantell.

I know I'm in the minority but I really don't have an issue with the graphics, I use reshade, turn everything up to high and play in 3840X2160. I'm more concerned with the flow and quality of content going forward.

My guild mates and I were discussing this last night, the general consensus was something that added class story lines back and really pushed the galaxy forward...so I thought I would start a thread, without being flippant or snarky...what would you like to see in the next major expansion?

Idea Fabrik and Hero still support SWTOR the game is listed on their homepage,(not that there is that much support needed other than upgrading to version 2.1 in 2020 which will give D3D11 support) if the company washed its hands it would no longer be listed, also no developer would ever modify a engine so much that it couldn't be expanded upon or upgraded, there have been several graphic updates over the years, and custom tools to more easily create quest and story line content as was discussed before Rise of the Hutt cartel was released.

Nonsense...Disney and EA are perfectly happy with SWTOR, they have a MMO that is already complete with a engine that can be easily upgraded, even the major events have become Canon. The games expansions have also become much cheaper to produce due to the sheer amount of voice over work that has already been done. I personally see the game continuing at least another decade. And like I have said before the day the servers sunset a emulator will take it's place and there is no way EA will lose that potential capitol.

The game will exist in some shape or form for the foreseeable future. The moment it shuts down a Emulator will take it's place.

Looks at past content droughts..... Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha!

And.... The hair pulling and angst for a game that is nearly Ten years old is pretty Fing silly, especially considering that you have to shell out 15 clams a month to Screech how much the game sucks. Maybe I should have lead with that.

Honest question... Decent compared to what other MMO? ESO latest expansion is a boring snooze fest with a much more predatory cash shop, WoW's BFA is a jumbled mess, with plot holes so big I can Drive Jiana Pourmoores ship through them, GW2 story continues to beat the slow SJW drum while it's cash shop will sell anything at any price to make you look Fabu. FFXIV is just a weirdass collection of Anime memes and strict rotation rules I can talk about most other MMo's, but it's just a variation on the issues Iv'e seen before in the games Iv'e listed. I just don't think SWTOR is any worse than other MMO's, and you either understand that or you go play single player RPG's. /shrug

A wise decision, but with Deep Fakes who knows what is real or the Matrix?

You will now be inundated with how 1 Billion isn't that much, and it isn't really 1 Billion and the ever popular the game is dying dead or even undead. Throw a Few Rhee's in there and you have a typical day on the SWTOR forums....