Sure, but I don't know what more there is to ask. You have asked them to advertise in the APAC and to send out e-mails to previous APAC players. That's about all they can do. I mean you could offer incentives to players geo-located in the region, a month free "sub benefits" would seem like a reasonable approach since they aren't getting any sub money from those ex-players as it is. I would only caution you not to get too wrapped up in this because there is no guarantee that anything they do will be successful and I'd hate to see you become as negative about the game as some players posting here have which is what I am afraid will happen if the results don't meet your expectations.

Because you can play 90% of the game at 200 ms ping with no problem (Since its <200 ms for me from the US Midwest its probably well below 150 for the US west coast and probably even comparable to what they are getting to the east coast servers). Only elite PVPers and Nightmare raiders are impacted by it. I have been playing on the APAC server since it opened from the Midwest of the US and it plays just fine.

I think this is a fatal mistake for the APAC server to believe this.

I don't think Broadsword "bought them out". More like EA hired Broadsword to run the game. EA is still the publisher.

One of the big problems you are going to have in advertising the game to the APAC region is that SWTOR is predominantly an English language game. Once you get outside Australia and New Zealand the number of proficient english speakers drops off quickly (and the languages spoken are very different so translation is not particularly easy). While that may not impact PVP (which is basically a button pushing exercise with little need for coordination beyond the basics), all of the PVE content either is delivered heavily in English or communication between players needs to be in a common language. If the game had a Chinese (or even Japanese or Korean) language version, I think it would have been much more successful in the APAC region than it was. I'm not sure the APAC server can survive without US players playing on it.

I think keeping the APAC server as a "fresh start" server has a lot of potential to draw in players who gave up on the exploit driven economy (not to mention the damage to the economy that server mergers had by concentrating all the credits in the game to a few servers). It also provides a way for older players to experience the excitement of gaining all those achievements over (the "achievement completed" popup is very satisfying - it makes it feel like you are still accomplishing something when running decade old content). It also lets those "game is easy" people experience how different things are when you don't have all the benefits of your legacy boosting the power of your character. On a grander scale, a new more expansive cohesive expansion (or at least some insight into what is planned for the entirety of next year) would help drum up interest. This was being discussed in a different thread so I won't detail it here. Advertising is the key. Without it, no one is going to pay any attention to whatever occurs behind the scenes. You have to have something to advertise though, and saying "look at our new "expansion, we have new UIs and some character balance, and oh yeah, 30 minutes of new story" isn't going to cut it. At this point, the game needs big bold ideas not "more of the same".

It will be interesting to see who posts in the "snowball griefing" threads once the Life Day event starts and snowballs start to fly. How many common posters will there be complaining about snowballs but "supportive" of griefing RPers

These are things they likely wanted to look at with a "fresh start" server since they can't be objectively assessed on the current servers due to the massive numbers of credits already in circulation.

I can see how skipping would be a benefit but it should have some restrictions. I'd vote for a legacy based system where you could skip content you had already completed. For example, if you had completed the vanilla storyline on a Jedi Knight, you could skip to RotHC with a Jedi Knight but not a Sith Warrior (until you had completed it once on a Sith Warrior). The skip points should also be to the start of the expansion (2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc) and not sub-releases (7.1, 7.2, 7.3, etc). As far as content padding goes, that is why we get 30 minutes of story every 6 months (one extremely linear and very short storyline add-on). There needs to be some padding to extend the play time and make an expansion feel like more than a one-trick pony. More variation on the types of missions would be preferred but the content does indeed need some padding.

Exactly, that is why you need to shout it from the rooftops for all to hear

I tend to agree with Trixie on this. They should of made a bigger deal out of it. Adding a server is a big deal to a game that has been cutting servers and only a few months ago, was all hot and bothered about needing mergers of the existing 5 servers. Whether it is a permanent change or only going to be short lived (like if they merge other servers), it is the kind of thing that can generate interest in the gaming community. "SWTOR is adding a server? What are they up to?"

I agree. Though I see what is now being spent on "expansions" being spent on maintaining the game's systems (essentially no cost to anyone playing all the previous content) while the new content is a purchased expansion. That approach gives so much more flexibility. I guess I see the game's budget as two different "buckets". An expansion budget which is new content (and a paid upgrade) and a maintenance budget that comes out of things like monthly subs and CM sales. Someone posted earlier that they went away from the paid expansion model a long time ago but really they didn't. Each "expansion" costs you $15 because you have to be subbed to gain access to it (that's exactly the same as a paid expansion because a paid expansion also gives you 1 month's game time). When we hit 7.3 you had to have been subbed for 4 months ($60). There hasn't been much new content for that $60.

That is certainly a legitimate position. I liked KotFE/KotET and wish they had been completed to their potential and I hated Onslaught. Yet, I can see how someone would feel the opposite. The issue with Onslaught and on really for me is there is too little meat to them. I'm a grand story sort of person and the Onslaught arc feels very linear and at times forced (7.0 is worse in that regard). I think you could have an invasion themed expansion that covers all the bases so to speak. As I stated in an earlier post, if you divided up the expansion into three parts, you could have both an invasion "working together" arc and an at "empires at odds" arc. That also allows for a lot more variation for the light sided Sith and the Dark Jedi. I played a Light sided Sith Warrior through to the end of the current content and it always felt kind of wrong (probably would have felt better if at some point they could switch sides, but there are all kinds of problems there - the ability to switch to light side powers helps but the Imperial missions are all pretty "dark".) Thanks for posting your thoughts though.

And my point was that the poster I quoted said the APAC players had been waiting for an APAC server since launch, which was not true

Well, this topic has wandered all over the place so let me take a shot at summarizing some of the major points: 1) A lot of people would be happy to pay for an expansion if it was significant in size and brought in new content for everyone. 2) We need a new storyline. The Malgus storyline has become worn out (and is just another take on the Emperor storyline) 3) more extensive and involved storylines based on missions and judicious use of VA (particularly PCVA) 4) Two ideas for a new storyline have been offered up: a) an extra-galactic invasion where both sides are initially attacked independently. (sort of like the Yuuzhan Vong invasion) b) a resource rush type storyline perhaps along the lines of the Outbound Flight novel Any other thoughts on other storyline directions?

That pretty much is the same that it is now. People in green conquest gear against people in purple operations gear (PVP uses a modified Level Sync so better gear is always better performance for the same "skill level"). Making it more like GSF also would make it easier to balance since there aren't literally thousands of gear combinations to try and match up. It also wouldn't need to be re-balanced when new gear tiers came out. As far as Spikanor's comment on pay-to-win, just don't put in a Cartel Coin mechanic in the PVP version. Your "PVP ship" or gear set would be based on your role. Tanks would have one starting set, DPS another, and Healer a third (you could make it more complex than that but you risk creating balance issues - though if it is all self contained, that is easier to control).

I'd expect Star Forge to be more affected since most of the people sensitive to lag already moved to Star Forge from Satele Shan for the better "pop" times.

A grand total of 3 months later and certainly not something APAC players were "waiting for since launch" for in 2023. Which was the point as you well know.

PVP has lots of problems and is due for a major rethink (which there is no way the game can currently provide so tying that into a paid story expansion is critical). Here's a radical thought: Make warzone/arena PVP more like GSF. Where everybody starts from the same statistics or even capabilities (essentially a PVP "ship") where as you play you earn currency to upgrade your "ship". Pull all gearing out of both GSF and PVP and make their rewards specific to GSF/PVP and separate from PVE so that there is no advantage to "gearing" from one mode or the other. This pulls out all the people who are only there for gearing. Right now you have lots of people playing GSF to gear their PVE characters (and some of these people don't care about those game modes, only the rewards they get from it). With a coherent storyline, there are lots of places PVP warzones/arenas can be fit in with almost no additional assets (really no different for Operations or Flashpoints) and still have some draw to players whose primary focus isn't PVP.

There were APAC servers at launch. They were removed some time later. Having an APAC server brings SWTOR back to being a global game, which is a good thing.

Well at least we are reaching some sort of common ground here. The idea that story in and of itself is not really expensive. While VA can be expensive it could be deployed in a manner that provides better bang for the buck. An interesting way to deploy more story could be to add more planetary stories. Those add play time but don't necessarily require PCVA. To go back to what I suggested as a potential storyline in an earlier part of the thread, you could start the expansion with a short cut-scene with you on your ship receiving a distress call from a nearby civilian craft (say a passenger liner). This could have or not have PC lines depending on how much you wanted to budget for VA. You might even be able to reuse one of the previous ship cut-scenes but change the "voice-over". You head to the location of the distress call and find a severely damaged ship. On boarding, you encounter a hostile ships security crew (mind controlled by the invaders) and have to free several groups of passengers holed up in secure areas of the ship or repair failing life support systems to keep them alive (which are of course guarded by more mind controlled passengers/crew - you could add a Dark/Light aspect to this by either slaughtering your opponents or finding a different way to neutralize them). You finally fight your way to the bridge and come face to face with one of the invaders (a species you have never encountered before - a good place to introduce the Tech/Force user mechanics I mentioned). Examining the ship's log you find it originated from an Outer Rim planet controlled by your faction. Following missions have you going to that planet and running missions to rescue civilians, come to the aid of a military faction trying to fight back against the invaders, several missions to weaken the invaders position, and finally taking out their "command post" on the planet. You can then wrap this section with another cut-scene, this one where the PC interacts with the military leadership to find out where these invaders came from and setting up the second phase. There isn't really a need for there to be many PC lines and you could probably have this be a dozen or more "missions" For group content, you could have flashpoint(s) for specific "difficult" missions. Perhaps invading a military outpost that has been mind controlled and now sees the general populace as the enemy (perhaps the resistance forces need supplies and you go there to get them). It's maybe too early to add in an operation in the storyline but I suppose you could set it up so the taking out the the enemy "command post" is either mission based or an operation (like Shadow of Revan). A lot of assets could be shared between these two paths saving budget for other things Here we have added potentially hours of play time with a minimal use of PCVA. Phases 2 and 3 would proceed similarly. Obviously anything this expansive would have to be a paid expansion, but it offers a lot more content that you would get for years with the current content strategy.

This whole argument about the cost of voice acting is being used as a proxy for not wanting the Devs to provide substantial story content. Voice Acting isn't story content. Missions are story content. Creating single player missions is about the cheapest content you can create in the game (it uses existing mechanics, doesn't use gimmicks, doesn't need a lot of balance since you are expected to win, and doesn't require special rewards). The VA only enhances what you have in the story. For that matter, how many thousand lines of voice acting have already been recorded. There has to be a significant amount of it that could be re-used (perhaps there is an additional payment to the voice actors but it has to be a lot less expensive than recording new lines). How many times in the story have we had an NPC give the PC a mission to which the PC says "I'll get right on it" in one form or another. You could create tens of hours of play time with missions without needing any voice acting at all. You use the voice acting to end major sections of the story and enhance the impact of important aspects. The biggest problem with the Traitor Arc was that they were all cutscenes and no missions. How much more content could there have been there by making them Mission based as opposed to Flashpoint with cutscene based. As far as group content has gone in this game there has been an incredible resistance to re-using assets (making all new assets for every Operation is very expensive). The fights with Arcann, Valkorian and Vaylin could easily have been turned into Operations and the end of each of those storylines could have been just like the one in Shadow of Revan (do the operation or do the missions to complete the storyline). Then you have 3 more operations to repeat to your hearts content that required few new assets saving a lot of money. We talk about saving money by cutting voice acting but suggesting re-using assets is the third rail for "MMO" players.

I can respect that opinion, but they aren't exactly employees on retainer or anything. That said. I would prefer to keep them which means it definitely has to be a DLC and as a DLC, the VA is part of the story (a DLC without VA isn't acceptable - we're paying for the "original" SWTOR experience). I was looking for a middle ground between "get rid of VA" and "I'd quit the game if they dropped VA". Not every idea is golden, this one seems like it goes nowhere.

It's the part that ties all of the pieces together, otherwise it's just a collection of mini-games.

Movies change actors all the time. How many people have "voiced" Batman or Superman. Are there people that will never watch another Batman film because their favorite actor isn't in the role. There probably are some but I'm confident you are massively overestimating any "blowback" from changing the current "A-list" VA for the second tier (which is likely almost as good but costs substantially less because they don't have an established name yet) Again, there is a difference between launching a "WOW-killer" and propping up a game struggling to survive. When you launch the game, you want the best of the best and tout it. When you are dying you are more willing to be economical