Coming Up in STAR WARS: The Old Republic

[Robbygoof]

Well its simple why they dont do down time at night.... More people ploay at night than in the day there for take it down when it will effect the least number of people.

[Robbygoof]

They don't care. The mature ones know it's a brand new game that is fresh off the line that will take time to iron out all the kinks. The patient ones know that.

 

Again..it's the glass half empty people and little kiddies or immature people that are yellin about every, single, blasted thing. They don't let people work on anything. They want it NOW and they will do anything for it. They don't care for waiting, to them, waiting a day for anything is torture. Let them leave this game, I don't want complainers around. I like constructive criticism, but I do not care for moaners or QQers. I care about the nature of the game and how well it is doing and will keep on doing for as long as BioWare is a company.

 

This game will keep getting updates and content. The expansions are probably going to have a HUGE amount of content with it. With like 20 plus more planets and more starships!! I would bet on it the super secret space project is the expansion and you will get to do battlefront 2 style space pvp battlegrounds and stuff! THATS what I think it is.

 

Your totally right Sarfux, but there is one thing that you neglected to mention and that is for all of us patient people out there that understands those things we still need to speak up and be heard, because else the lil kiddies and impatient QQers will win because they are the only ones being heard. I am sure that Bioware can see through most of their crap when they are QQin but it seems that they are the majority that is posting because they are not playing the game and enjoying it as much as some of the rest of us that will be more tolerant with the small things that we know they are working on to some extent no matter how small the matter is.

 

Just make sure WE as the group of good, constructive, patient type people try and take the time just even once a week or even two weeks to GET ON THE FORUMS AND SPEAK UP because if we dont we will be buried in a bunch of (quick lets give them something weak and sheesey) crap that the QQers want because they want more more more now now now and not end up with what even those QQers really want like the rest of us and taht is more QUALITY content and as slow but eventual ironing of all the bugs.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Robbygoof
reword/spelling

[Icestar]

Well its simple why they dont do down time at night.... More people ploay at night than in the day there for take it down when it will effect the least number of people.

 

I think you are refering to some other timezone. I am talking about the EU downtime.

 

It starts in the morning and it is usually not up until sometime later afternoon so a entire day has gone by there.

 

If the servers were to go offline with a start around 3AM instead of 8AM-9AM it would be alot better and ALOT more player would be able to play. Usually the majority of mankind sleeps during the night and is awake during the day so your statement kind of falls there

[Dalwhat]

They say they are listening to the players.....well.....

 

What is the feedback regarding downtime?

 

Every week we are stuck with a offline server for several hours during the day, why can´t this be done during the night like several other games do.

 

It's always nightime somewhere in the world.

[Icestar]

It's always nightime somewhere in the world.

 

There is actully not that that much of a difference of nighttime in the EU region, check for yourself.

 

My point is Bioware said that they would look into this and I want to know what they decided. Since they havent changed anything I suppose they think it is fine that a ToR week consists of 6 gameplay days instead of 7.

 

It is so easy, they have alot of money they could hire someone to make the updates with start 3PM and when the players wake up and want to play it will be finished and playable

 

For instance, today is my day off from work and I wanted to play some but I cant since it is already 4PM here in Sweden and servers are still offline.......

Edited February 22, 2012 by Icestar

[Icestar]

And now the downtime is "extended", who knows when we get to play.......

 

Lets say that the downtime started a few hours earlier 3AM is a good start. then the regular maintanance would have been complete 10AM, and now it is extended. We ould atleast have played after lunch and enjoyed a afternoon with this great game.

 

Instead we look at a server page that screams offline, offline, offline......

 

Please look into this Bioware once more, for some of us this is unacceptable that you remove a day of gametime. Not all of us can be online everyday and have to enjoy the times we are able to

 

It is great that you have good support of the game but please do it when most of us are offline

Edited February 22, 2012 by Icestar

[Robbygoof]

There is actully not that that much of a difference of nighttime in the EU region, check for yourself.

 

My point is Bioware said that they would look into this and I want to know what they decided. Since they havent changed anything I suppose they think it is fine that a ToR week consists of 6 gameplay days instead of 7.

 

It is so easy, they have alot of money they could hire someone to make the updates with start 3PM and when the players wake up and want to play it will be finished and playable

 

For instance, today is my day off from work and I wanted to play some but I cant since it is already 4PM here in Sweden and servers are still offline.......

 

I think you rdefiniton of day/night may be a little different than most, yes optimal time to have down time would be somewhere between say 2-3am and 9-10am because typically that is when there are the least number of ppl on the servers which is the morning/day time that way when everyone get home from work/school about 2-4pm it is available to play. Plus Bioware will not act on something like this fast because I am sure they are studying your region as for the population of the servers around the clock for a decent amount of time, possibly a month before they even have enough data to make a decision or discuss a change. So just be patient and if you really need to play that badly change your sleeping pattern.... goto sleep right after work then get up play tor then go to work rather than what I assume you and most people do which would be wake up go to work come home then play tor

[LizardSF]

Yes I understand those points you brought up and some of them are good however in the video for upcoming features it distinctively says under News Articles - Coming up in STAR WARS: The Old Republic ---- in the video and I quote "Unlock abilities and powers you normally would not have access to!"

 

From the corpospeak to English dictionary:"You'll be able to make pretty sparkles in the air!" (In other words, cosmetic/social effects. They may be fun, cool, and worth the fuss, but I don't think they'll be combat powers of any sort.)

 

Of course, I could be totally, completely, 100% wrong, and Legacy characters will be cooler than a polar bear's balls, but I am keeping my expectations low until there are specifics announced. This is why I'm enjoying SWTOR -- I didn't make up, in my head, a perfect game; I based my expectations on concrete features and how the beta played, and didn't expect things not officially listed as being there at launch.

 

Rule of life: Keep expectations low. If you're right, you're not disappointed. If you're wrong, you're pleasantly surprised. Win/win for pessimism!

[Icestar]

I think you rdefiniton of day/night may be a little different than most, yes optimal time to have down time would be somewhere between say 2-3am and 9-10am because typically that is when there are the least number of ppl on the servers which is the morning/day time that way when everyone get home from work/school about 2-4pm it is available to play. Plus Bioware will not act on something like this fast because I am sure they are studying your region as for the population of the servers around the clock for a decent amount of time, possibly a month before they even have enough data to make a decision or discuss a change. So just be patient and if you really need to play that badly change your sleeping pattern.... goto sleep right after work then get up play tor then go to work rather than what I assume you and most people do which would be wake up go to work come home then play tor

 

No I do not play ToR that badly that I have to change sleeping patterns, do people really do that for these kind of games

 

I have played several other good MMOs with europeean departments that handles downtime and that is basicly what I ask for here aswell.

 

Why shut down the planet? (heh Snake Plissken reference here, for you guys old enough to remember)

 

Let different departments handle downtime and it will be all fine, this thing you write about studying when players are online is not that relevant but feel free to check for yourself pick any day 3AM GMT and compare it to 1PM and you will see what time has the most players......

Edited February 22, 2012 by Icestar

[Dirrkk]

aight....I've been playing this game since launch, and went through 2 beta tests. while I highly doubt ANY of my feedback or suggestions will make it anywhere near a developer's ear ( and judging by the amount of comments I see bashing the kiddies & the QQ-ing ), I still feel the need to cut loose SOMEWHERE and just vent....so here it is:

 

1. Bioware has made a very pretty game. It looks nice, plays smooth, and from a visual perspective is completely 1st class.

 

2. The voice acting is outstanding.

 

and that's about all I can say that's really positive after accumulating (as of today)1,032 hours of gameplay.

 

 

- The storyline & quests are entertaining, HOWEVER, they do entail a seemingly redundant amount of running back & forth between 2 points....like a galactic pizza delivery guy.

 

- The entire concept of space & space combat is a joke. Total, absolute, and utter ridiculousness from start to finish. Space combat as a linear arcade-style mission? No ship customizing or shipwrighting? No open exploration of space or sectors?!? No asteroid mining?....WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT....................................

 

The space aspect was the main reason I got into SWG...( and I played that from launch, and when they finally put out "jump to lightspeed", they did it RIGHT.

 

5. no guild cities? no player houses? come ON.....

 

6. taking a planetary shuttle to each area?......what good is shelling out 40k for a speeder & having to BUY the skill to use it if you can only use it in certain circumstances & certain areas?

 

 

I have played virtually every MMO out there, and this one is the only one that leaves me so conflicted. Visually brilliant, but lacking SO much in terms of user-definable content....

 

Bioware should have taken a SERIOUS look at the mechanics & dynamics of SWG and incorporated that platinum-caliber sandbox dynamic into this game. The complaint I hear the most often from other players is "Why didn't they follow SWG's lead?"...Surely the developers MUST be aware that a huge percentage of TOR players are former SWG players who got burned when Sony & Lucas pulled the rug out from under them. These players came to TOR because of the void left by Sony....and the hope of a Star Wars Game that would be equal to ( if not better than) the Platinum level of development of the SWG MMO... ( CU & NGE notwithstanding! )

 

"sigh"...."deep breath".....ok....I feel much better now....."whew!"...I just had to get it out....."shrug"...and of course I'll continue to play TOR, to get my Star Wars fix.....and I'll continue to hope against hope that some developer somewhere will realize what a colossally lop-sided game it is, will fire the dumb shmuck who thought "Meh...let's throw in the most appealing aspects of the game as an afterthought..or not at all......just make it look pretty"...and will whip the proverbial slaves into shape to fix the stunted Starship & Space dynamic of the game..( it IS Star Wars, you know....epic space battles & decent space content is kind of a cornerstone of the mythos...be it during the Galactic Civil War or 4,000 years earlier....)....

 

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand done.

[APhantasm]

No offense Dirrkk, but this isn't SWG. There will likely never ever be a sandbox environment added to this game. Very few MMO even have player housing, I have only played 2 MMO that had any player housing. This is a Themepark MMO, everything Pre-CU SWG fans hated after NGE was released is what SWTOR is.

[releena]

1. Bioware has made a very pretty game. It looks nice, plays smooth, and from a visual perspective is completely 1st class.

 

It surely isn't smooth for me with constant FPS drops whenever assets are (constantly) being loaded. I don't recall the framerate being so jerky in beta. I don't even know how anyone could play this game with "minimum" specs.

 

Bioware should have taken a SERIOUS look at the mechanics & dynamics of SWG and incorporated that platinum-caliber sandbox dynamic into this game. The complaint I hear the most often from other players is "Why didn't they follow SWG's lead?"...Surely the developers MUST be aware that a huge percentage of TOR players are former SWG players

 

I agree that real time space combat/exploration would be amazing, and something that could set TOR apart from standard MMOs. Really though, "a huge percentage" of former SWG players? SWG was hardly a hit, I doubt they comprise anything close to a majority, compared to people who are looking for a standard MMO or KOTOR3.

[WarlordJim]

@Dirrkk.

 

Mate the first thing I would point out is that the percentage of the SWToR player base that is ex SWG is probably tiny. SWG itself wasn't very successful or popular and only appealed to a very niche market.

 

After reading your post, my question to you would be, why don't you try out EvE? Thats essentially a sandbox space combat game with tonnes of depth.

 

The thing is, although "Star Wars" is all about galactic battles, it's not necessarily all about "space battles". In fact the majority of the fighting in the movies happens *on world*, whichever planet they happen to be on at the time, or from the perspective of the people *on ship* The reason for this? Combat is much more interesting when it's human v human (or alien) as it were.

 

Unfortunately, to do what you're asking, Bioware would have needed a MUCH bigger development cycle, because on top of focusing on storylines, the *on world* visuals and what have you, they would have also had to essentially make an entirely separate game on top of that, to allow you to fly around in space / engage in ship to ship combat / resourcing etc. Ultimately, the people who expected such features to be in a single game at launch are indeed quite ignorant. Is it something that could happen in the future? Possibly. Is it something *most* people care about? Probably not.

 

Also, the vast majority of mmo's do not have player or guild housing. The reason? Well, they're kinda pointless. Also, if you want to get technical, SWToR *DOES* have player housing... It's called your ship. You have your own quarters, quarters for your crew, access to your bank etc.

 

So mate, I honestly think that your expectations are a little too high for any single game to have achieved this early on in its life cycle. I hope for your sake they do implement those features, but i guess my main point here is, don't hold your breath. Because just as you came from SWG (a niche market) the features you want in game are also only cared about by a niche group.

 

Best of luck.

[Dirrkk]

look around the forums....plenty of ex-swg gamers floating around. And for a game that lasted almost 10 years I'd say SWG was pretty successful.

 

here's a couple of threads from the forums expanding on my own rant, and supplementing my case for an overhaul of the space combat engine, etc etc:

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=279670

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=317428&highlight=Galaxies

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=68255&highlight=Galaxies

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=320587&highlight=Galaxies

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=249998&highlight=Galaxies

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=224036&highlight=Galaxies

 

 

and the list goes on and on.....

 

And while I want to make it ABUNDANTLY clear that I am not knocking the opinions of players who think the game is great..( Everyone's opinions are valid...that why the forums exist to begin with! ).........and it is true that SWG had many shortcomings, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of opinions & concerns for TOR are the space, crafting, & social aspects of the game.....and even the most novice of players can see the validity in those statements.

 

I appreciate and welcome all replies, and points of view, and respect them all. I just feel that as a career MMO player ( right from SW: the role playing game 1st edition with dice & paper back in 1987 ), and one among many who play this game and others like it, should have their opinions heard & acted upon by the developers who depend on players to keep their children fed.

 

I've played EVE.....it's got great mechanics...and it's truly a 1st class game...but it's not Star Wars.

 

TOR truly is WOW with a different skin...and that's sad....I gave it a serious go...and it just wasn't my game ( Turns out Age of Conan is everything WOW should have been....and waay more fun).....but I also respect the opinion of the WOW crowd, and I can appreciate the excellent way it has been marketed & the following it has achieved. ( Chuck Norris with a lightsaber, anyone? HECK YEAH!...I'd buy that game...lol..)

 

In any event, my whole point was to illustrate that I'm not alone in my longing for aspects of SWG that kept players coming back again and again through all of SOE's ridiculousness...mainly the tremendous sense of COMMUNITY......( and free-space flying! )

[celebhorn]

The idea of expanded space content is nice, but I'd rather Bioware focus on the game as it is and not adding in massive amounts of content to suit the needs of a very small group of people. I want more story. I want more races. I want more instances.

 

If they should decide to mess around with expanding space content, I wouldn't have a problem, but it would likely not be the first thing on my mind when logging in.

[ExiledinElysium]

The idea of expanded space content is nice, but I'd rather Bioware focus on the game as it is and not adding in massive amounts of content to suit the needs of a very small group of people. I want more story. I want more races. I want more instances.

 

If they should decide to mess around with expanding space content, I wouldn't have a problem, but it would likely not be the first thing on my mind when logging in.

 

Agreed. I hear a lot of complaints about how stupid space combat is, but I think you (the general ephemeral you, not you specifically) are kidding yourself if you think Bioware isn't already working on a huge overhaul of that part of the game. Still, I think if they're smart they'll save it for the first true expansion. They should spend the rest of their efforts patching bugs and giving us more main-game content. To be honest I don't even care about playable species. I would much prefer more story options, some major cosmetic changes to items and crafting, and a larger variety of flashpoints at all level ranges. I fully expect that we'll eventually get a very robust space mission system, including at least one space combat warzone option.

[Feydz]

Sorry for this....but, when the very, very very awaited patch, comes?

 

In EU the game is losing players, and its frustrating, we need more, at least UI customization and guild bank! please!

[VaultWorker]

Im a ex-SWG player as well and yes... I miss that space combat and this game would be sooooo much better if it had it. Yes I want more races, classes, story ect. But the game is still young so it might be added onto the game later on. Its been out for a short time and we all expect it to be as good as previous MMOs that have been out for years, Give it time and it shall prevail.

[ExactDose]

lets do this

[Dirrkk]

I agree with vault worker that it is still a game in its infancy, and i can only hope they revamp space with an expansion, whenever that may be....and having instances & flashpoints for all levels is a great suggestion too...I mean...really, they're ALL good suggestions, one way or the other...

 

In a way i guess I set myself up for disappointment, being such a hardcore SWG-er along with other MMO's, and the hype that preceded the launch...it feels like they promoted one kind of game, and released another..."shrug"...but hey...I'm still gonna play...lol....and keep my fingers crossed for being able to customize the UI, my ship, my clothes, see more community-oriented stuff, fly my ship around in realspace & fly against whomever I choose..or craft anything & everything in the universe....and own a house I can put up art in.

 

back to the grind...lol...

[MontySniper]

I would Love to see a Button that groups you with other players for flashpoints to save all of this faffing around in general chat

[pnuk]

Well I was made very sad how so many important characters were murdered by yourself. Darth Malgus, Revan etc. were all good people and they were just murdered. Like in the class quests you should have the option if you will murder them or let them live, because if it were up to me I would make Darth Malgus the new emperor and listen to Revan's preachings.

[madmatt]

At what point are they going to make this game feel more like a mmo than a single player.

I like the game buts its scary how bad the guild ui is and fact u cant make a recuriment macro . no server fourms so u cant even tell what guildsn are on your server. the game realy needs a group finder badly. I just dont want to see this game tank which it will if they dont start puting some very basic mmo features in soon.

[Assaultrooper]

At what point are they going to make this game feel more like a mmo than a single player.

I like the game buts its scary how bad the guild ui is and fact u cant make a recuriment macro . no server fourms so u cant even tell what guildsn are on your server. the game realy needs a group finder badly. I just dont want to see this game tank which it will if they dont start puting some very basic mmo features in soon.

 

I don't know why people think like you (in that Group Finder = MMMO, I agree with all else) as far as the finder goes its actually part of what makes an MMO less an MMO. Why? In a grp finder u are queued and play with people chances are you will never play again. The whole point of not implementing a Group Finder at launch is not lack of programming, or lack of time, but rather as they have stated a conscious effort to bring about server community.

 

A.K.A. In a way forcing you to talk to other people, and do "adventures" with something more than meaningless faces.

 

Conclusion: This isn't a basic MMO feature, it's a basic feature of an FPS, or a single player game with multiplayer capabilities. In an MMO you are not supposed to Queue and Pop to the instance, nor are you supposed to silently /votekick the noob tank.

[Aussiedroid]

So ... its been over a month since this thread was started and I havent seen any new updates, new videos other than a few updates in Dev Thread & News. You guys are really keeping things to yourself it feels like. Not that I want to you take resources away from fixing things, but it doesnt take much to communicate well with your customer base.

 

Give us some real updates, consistent updates, regular & detailed updates that dont feel like they are pre-approved propaganda scripts from your legal and marketing departments please.