Five things you need to know about The Old Republic's Future [ARTICLE]

[Heith]

giving force choke and races and all the lore breaking crap is a really stupid idea that they should be coming out with a few years from now when the game is in dire straights. wow didnt have to break lore for several years until after its release.. im really disappointed in 1.2 Edited March 10, 2012 by Heith

[RickRedOne]

So what have they been doing for the last 5 years? not working their butts off, with limited content, instanced worlds missing basic features I would say they haven't done much in 5 years besides copy and paste what WOW did when it started.

Right this game has the same terrain and layout as WOW. Also the same scripts for quests.

 

Do you think all this artwork is just something that can be download and installed in the engine?

[Tenceriker]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/09/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-old-republics-future/

 

I thought you guys would be interested in knowing what's going on in the minds of BW, for example, in the article, they actually admit the mistakes they made with the game and how they're going to fix it.

 

If this article isn't evidence enough that they are working their butts off, I don't know what will.

 

For a development team that knows so much about their many faults why the hell would u launch such a broken and unpolished game? Good intentions and knowing your mistakes mean nothing in this business without action.

[Darka]

Nice to see acknowledgement

[LeonBraun]

This is the keystone of all the issues. In theMMO industry, a publisher must allow the developer time to develop. This did not happen with TOR. Read the article I posted in this thread. While it's common for MMOs to cut things out of launch to put into the game later, this happened to an extreme with TOR.

 

EA is a cancer inthe gaming industry. There are articles covering the detrimental impacts they have had as a publisher on the industry as a whole and on developers in particular. They decided that an acceptable form of this game could be packaged for the holidays and ride the Star Wars name to huge box sales. They were right. 2 million units sold off the bat? They don't care that the game's first impression was so poor. They're already on the way to the bank laughing their asses off.

 

Unfortunately the Christmas season is the absolute worst time for a game like this to launch unless it is completely 100% polished in the way Blizzard's stuff has been during the holidays.

 

Because unless your game is 100% solid, there is nothing it can expect to have except a drop in activity unless word of mouth is so strong it keeps the activity of the busy holiday season going by bringing many more players to the game.

 

Unless this happens, there is nothing else anyone can expect except for a drop in activity when people go back to school and work for January, when there isn't significant subscription increases continuing to happen.

[Daekarus]

Wow. Those two articles make me want to go hug some BW devs and tell them it's OK, and get a group of Troopers together and launch a collective mortar volley into the EA boardroom. Those people are scum.

[Fardarter]

Yeah, I don't buy the whole we made mistakes crap. They were told through feedback throughout beta. The game never should have been allowed out the door, if it was a car it would have been recalled. I guess quality is not job one over at BW. There is a reason Blizzard sells a ton of games and makes a ton of money, they don't release games until they are ready. Anyone over at BW who can say this game was ready at launch is either A: Lying or B: Clueless. For the games sake I hope they are liars.

[Deewe]

Nice to see acknowledgement

You have been deceived!

 

More seriously though, speaking is easy, let's see what they deliver. Only time will tell.

For now, in my book, they have the burden of the proof.

[RavenDB]

I really believe BW will "fix" this game also, it is already good, but it has potential to be EPIC!!!

[Baldness]

2. BioWare knows it made mistakes

 

The developers weren’t shy of admitting areas of the game that they dropped the ball. It was refreshing to hear their candor about problems in the game, rather than pretending they didn’t exist. Here are some of the big problems they acknowledged.

 

1. Operations are buggy, and are not as difficult as they’d hoped.
   
2. Open World PvP, especially Ilum, is completely broken.
   
3. Worlds need to be more interactive.
   
4. Guild features in-game are “bare bones.”
   
5. While they didn’t say that they disliked the UI, they listed a ton of changes coming to the UI
   
6. in patch 1.2 and said that was “only 5% of what we want to do.”
   

 

2. Brought up in beta, we knew Illum was broken.

3. Brought up by testers over a year ago.

4. Brought up by testers over a year ago.

5. Brought up by testers over a year ago.

 

Point is they knew these things and more were of concern by testers over a year ago, but did nothing. These are the types of "polish" the game should have had before release. These are things that should have been of concern to BW before release.

 

Instead they chose to ignore these things and bring them in a patch as if they are listening to players when they didn't listen to testers. People will be fooled though, I'm sure. Plenty of fanbois about.

 

I agree.

 

I think the article is very poor and lacks any kind of balanced analysis.

 

If you level alts why exactly do you need to use a set of skills / spells designed for one of your other character types on all your others ? It is a bit of fun but at what cost ?

 

 

Operations are already easy mode on normal for any vaguely capable level 50 with the brains to have a bit of level 48- 50 kit on. Players that aren't capable now .. are not capable because they don't listen to and act on the advice of people that do know what to do, they cba to research some basic information, they dont turn up or put themselves out for more than a fleeting moment.

 

They are selfish inept solo players and so how so we imagine they are suddenly going to get better with an even easier 8 man Op ?

 

 

Server population isn't mentioned at all.. New content is all very well but if there is noone to play with isnt that an issue ?

 

A huge % of players dont use the mvp system at all. Medals are a joke. A level 10 operative can rack up a reasonable stack of medals and do almost nothing to help their team win.

 

Ranked PVP will be a joke mostly but it will keep subs rolling in for a while.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Baldness

[Vecke]

Yeah, I don't buy the whole we made mistakes crap. They were told through feedback throughout beta. The game never should have been allowed out the door, if it was a car it would have been recalled. I guess quality is not job one over at BW. There is a reason Blizzard sells a ton of games and makes a ton of money, they don't release games until they are ready. Anyone over at BW who can say this game was ready at launch is either A: Lying or B: Clueless. For the games sake I hope they are liars.

 

So you're saying it was a mistake that they released these features in that state...

 

And Bioware is saying that it was a mistake that they released these features in that state...

 

And you're saying that we shouldn't "buy the whole we made mistakes" crap.

 

I'm confused.

 

Would you prefer they deny that it was mistake?

 

They've admitted they screwed up and laid out a very specific plan to address these issues.

 

Assuming they haven't developed time travel, what would you suggest they do that's better than what they're doing now?

[Baldness]

^^

He is saying that they can't reasonably be regarded as "mistakes" in the game at launch if they were pointed out to Bioware around a year before launch.

 

Bioware should be saying we didn't listen to our testers or we ran out of time, we thought this wouldn't be a problem because ... otherwise it comes over as dishonest and inept.

[sheethead]

" The usual detailed controls for money and tab security will be there, including the option of requiring authenticators on accounts that have full bank access."

 

That's cool!

[Zannis]

" The usual detailed controls for money and tab security will be there, including the option of requiring authenticators on accounts that have full bank access."

 

That's cool!

 

More than cool, it's a life saver when it comes to ensuring the integrity of your bank. Shortly before Warcraft implemented this feature, we had a bank officer get hacked. Cleaned the whole bank out. Fortunately, Blizz restored everything. Still, that event caused most of the entire guild to start using authenticators.

 

I'm very happy that Bioware has made this an early priority.

[Darka]

You have been deceived!

 

More seriously though, speaking is easy, let's see what they deliver. Only time will tell.

For now, in my book, they have the burden of the proof.

 

Well first step is to acknowledge it, which they have done where they go from there who knows, but coming out like that and saying you didnt do well is a hard ting to do for any company, while we may not hear the inner details of every specific idea least we know from this they intend to do something

[Vecke]

^^

He is saying that they can't reasonably be regarded as "mistakes" in the game at launch if they were pointed out to Bioware around a year before launch.

 

Bioware should be saying we didn't listen to our testers or we ran out of time, we thought this wouldn't be a problem because ... otherwise it comes over as dishonest and inept.

 

Really, I think demanding anything more specific than a general apology is just focusing on the wrong things. We have no idea where the "not listening" originated from. I don't expect Bioware to say, "Well, we wanted to wait another month, but EA wouldn't let us." Or "Well, the developers said this isn't ready, but Bob in accounting said we're out of money." Even just saying, "We didn't listen. We know you said to fix it, but we ignored you," just isn't helpful. It adds fuel the fire instead of puts it out.

 

In my humble opinion, a simple, "We screwed up and this is how we'll fix it" is the best approach. It acknowledges the mistake and puts the focus where it should be: on fixing the problems.

 

I'm not saying you're wrong. You're not. It's your opinion. I'm just saying, moving forward, I really could not care less about an apology. I don't feel I'm owed anything from them beyond fixing the things that will keep my sub.

[Ozzone]

The only mistakes they admitted to are the ones that 100% of the community know is obvious.

 

But if there's disagreement in the community they don't admit making a mistake. PvP lag is not mentioned because there is disagreement that it's a problem. Of course I laugh at those that claim they have no problem with lag in Ilum. Sorry, but even getting 25 fps is a problem.

 

I have an I5-2500K, Asus Pro-Gen3 board, 16g Corsair Vengence Ram, EVGA 560TI, and a 128g Corsair Performance Pro SSD with both Windows 7 Home and the entire game installed on it. I even set up a 5 gig ramdrive and moved the diskcachearena file and the main asset files on it and the best I can get is around 15-20 fps during large battles and it's very choppy. It is barely playable. I can only imagine how bad it is for people with less.

 

Everyone should know by know that the engine design, in conjuction with the crappy cache system and rendering freezing (which you can see every time an objective is capped or just by jumping in the air and opening your character window) is not something that is going to get fixed any time soon because of the massive amount of redesign that would be needed.

 

Until that issue is resolved, they can throw in content all they want but it's not going to be enough for a lot of people because large scale pvp is not going to happen.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Ozzone

[Wookieluva]

Yeah, I don't buy the whole we made mistakes crap. They were told through feedback throughout beta. The game never should have been allowed out the door, if it was a car it would have been recalled. I guess quality is not job one over at BW. There is a reason Blizzard sells a ton of games and makes a ton of money, they don't release games until they are ready. Anyone over at BW who can say this game was ready at launch is either A: Lying or B: Clueless. For the games sake I hope they are liars.

 

does noone remember the ppl that posted on the wow forums about "all these bugs" and such, in fact i saw those posts until i quit wow.... around cataclysm release..... seriously does Blizz pay your sub? they need to compensate you for the Advertizing you do for em... although if they pay you they would be open to false advertizing suits.....

 

The fact is that all games that are released have bugs... i have played 5 different mmos from release including this one every single one had bugs, and do you know why? because you cant write billions of lines of code and predict how all those codes meshing will react. if you put 1000 monkeys in a room with typewriters they will eventually produce shakespere... but will it be in the same font?

 

people who claim a MMO should be finished b4 release must have never played an mmo before because if they had they would know that an mmo is never finished and constantly gets updated and upgraded.... MMORPGs will always have bugs even WoW still has bugs or are the players of wow who post about bugs either A:Lying or B:Clueless?

[Arkerus]

For a development team that knows so much about their many faults why the hell would u launch such a broken and unpolished game? Good intentions and knowing your mistakes mean nothing in this business without action.

 

ALL things considered the game launch was fine. Once millions of people got into it the bugs were more exposed than in testing.

 

Don't pretend like you or anyone else knows more than bioware does. They coded the game, they are well aware of the problems.

 

Considering I have seen MMO launches from OTHER companies pan out much worse I think bioware did just fine. WoW's launch was just as buggy and broken. Don't pretend it doesn't happen. That doesn;t make it right, it just makes it real life.

 

If some whiney people couldn't put up with some bug fixes it was their right to leave. However, I suspect many of us didn't want them here anyway.

[PostalTwinkie]

This right here will kill this game in mine, and many other's, eyes.....

 

"......but the biggest game-changer is lined up for patch 1.3. That patch will allow you to use the legacy system to purchase permanent XP boosts for each of your characters that emphasizes a single area of gameplay. If you want to roll a new Sniper character and only PvP with her, you’ll be able to buy a massive XP boost for PvP content and be able to level super quickly that way. The big thing here is that doing this will let you skip the redundant planet quests that you’ve done before. The developers said that with these boosts, you’ll have no problem just doing your class quests and PvP or Flashpoints to level up at a normal rate."

 

Awesome, why don't they just let this game play itself? You just log in name a character and off it goes, coming back when it is fully geared and level 50. The game is already easy enough! I am on my 4th character taking it to 50 because of the lack of end game, and how easy it is. I don't play every day, I have a family and my career....

 

I guess I just want an MMO that doesn't have that PvP gear grind, because PvP should be about the PvP. I also want a game that isn't My Little Pony hold my hand Care Bear easy...

 

/rant

Edited March 10, 2012 by PostalTwinkie

[TKMaster]

no kidding. it has been said over and over and over again, yet people keep saying that same old crap. you would think they would read one or two of the posts, or at least what the devs said in the stickies at top before continuoulsy spouting that spamming crap.

 

You think the majority of the MMO community has reasoning skills and reading comprehension?

 

Welcome to the genre.

[GalacticKegger]

I agree.

 

I think the article is very poor and lacks any kind of balanced analysis.

 

If you level alts why exactly do you need to use a set of skills / spells designed for one of your other character types on all your others ? It is a bit of fun but at what cost ?

 

 

Operations are already easy mode on normal for any vaguely capable level 50 with the brains to have a bit of level 48- 50 kit on. Players that aren't capable now .. are not capable because they don't listen to and act on the advice of people that do know what to do, they cba to research some basic information, they dont turn up or put themselves out for more than a fleeting moment.

 

They are selfish inept solo players and so how so we imagine they are suddenly going to get better with an even easier 8 man Op ?

 

 

Server population isn't mentioned at all.. New content is all very well but if there is noone to play with isnt that an issue ?

 

A huge % of players dont use the mvp system at all. Medals are a joke. A level 10 operative can rack up a reasonable stack of medals and do almost nothing to help their team win.

 

Ranked PVP will be a joke mostly but it will keep subs rolling in for a while.

So everything about the game is a joke. Easy fix - find a cartoon world that's more serious. Edited March 10, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[Vember]

You think the majority of the MMO community has reasoning skills and reading comprehension?

 

Welcome to the genre.

 

Welcome to what WoW gave us.

[Game-Hermit]

2. BioWare knows it made mistakes

 

The developers weren’t shy of admitting areas of the game that they dropped the ball. It was refreshing to hear their candor about problems in the game, rather than pretending they didn’t exist. Here are some of the big problems they acknowledged.

 

1. Operations are buggy, and are not as difficult as they’d hoped.
   
2. Open World PvP, especially Ilum, is completely broken.
   
3. Worlds need to be more interactive.
   
4. Guild features in-game are “bare bones.”
   
5. While they didn’t say that they disliked the UI, they listed a ton of changes coming to the UI
   
6. in patch 1.2 and said that was “only 5% of what we want to do.”
   

 

2. Brought up in beta, we knew Illum was broken.

3. Brought up by testers over a year ago.

4. Brought up by testers over a year ago.

5. Brought up by testers over a year ago.

 

Point is they knew these things and more were of concern by testers over a year ago, but did nothing. These are the types of "polish" the game should have had before release. These are things that should have been of concern to BW before release.

 

Instead they chose to ignore these things and bring them in a patch as if they are listening to players when they didn't listen to testers. People will be fooled though, I'm sure. Plenty of fanbois about.

 

I reported several bugs in beta that would literally take 5 minutes to fix. Stuff like typos and such. None of them have been fixed. Not a single one. You really expected them to fix the stuff on that list when they didn't even fix a couple of typos?

[WhiskeyGrin]

So good to see that the UI overhaul is underway. That is the only serious complaint I have with what is otherwise in my opinion an amazing game.

 

The Old Republic has the potential of easily becoming the greatest MMO experience of all time.