What can be done to keep SWTOR strong?

[Kywan]

I feel the answer unltimately to the dwindling subs is endgame, a term that is foreign to sandbox games. Although everyone gets there in there own time, the results once there seem to be predictable.....they quit.

This is sadly where themepark style games are weak, it is fair to argue Sandbox games never attain a real large base to begin with, but a merge of the two may be the ballance we need.

I would urge Bioware to consider more content inline with the freedom, exploration and creativity a sandbox has to offer as they have already put forth an amazing themepark.

This may seem confusing to players who pvp to 50, but anyone who spent the time to playout the stories on each planet to level would agree. Alot of work has been done to create vibrant, living worlds, now we need ideas and suggestions for us to visit them, repeatable missions aren't enough.

Those who have played other games long term please feel free to offer your insight into what kept you there.

I used to spend hours in SWG looking for starship parts, farming parts for my saber, decorating my homes and ships, engaging in open world pvp, ect.

[mothermonterr]

give out more free time to add the subscription numbers.

[Kywan]

give out more free time to add the subscription numbers.

 

I was thinking more in terms of keeping the existing player base, adding new ones is always ongoing.

Any game additions or changes you would like to keep people playing at 50 and interested in the bulk of content already ingame?

[mothermonterr]

Rateds and being able to customize the skin of your gear whilst keeping stats.

[Nyoro]

give out more free time to add the subscription numbers.

 

I'm willing to bet the majority of the players aren't level 50 or legacy rank 6,(so didn't get the free month) you can keep spewing that garbage though if it makes you feel better.

 

Only on the internet is the act of giving people something for free considered a bad thing.

[Seerr]

These are not in the order of importance, just in what order they came into my mind:

 

1. Stop destroying things people have spent time on. A lot of time had been spent to get centurion gear, now not even worth what you get from vendors. Lot of people spent time to get battlemaster title only to see everyone get war hero after Ilum failures. PvP commendations is exactly same story. Maybe it is just me, but this sort of things make me lose interest very quickly.

 

2. I listen to the podcast and I hear them giggling while implementing totally useless stuff like rocket boots or the whole legacy system. Prioritize "things to do that lead to rewards" in the game over novelty features. To be fair, some good stuff have been done like responsiveness fixes and probably some of the pve content (I dont know about ops, I dont do them). Also legacy might become something cool, but right now you could delete it from the game and it would not have any effect on my playing.

 

3. SWTOR is a direct competitor for WoW so atleast compare your features against theirs when you implement them. Ilum type "outdoor" pvp has been done in WoW and there has been much of the same problems and solutions. I'm not saying wow is the perfect implementation of everything, but there are lessons to be learned.

 

4. Accept the declining interest in the game and merge servers or something. My server seems very quiet.

 

5. Open up an API for addons. People like different things and the basic UI will always be lacking for some players. Addons also offer change when you get bored of the UI so even if the default UI would be great, it is always the same.

 

6. Make dueling something people can do. Good example is wow, where do you go if you want to duel or watch duels? Outside of orgrimmar (atleast this was the case when I played years ago, dunno if it is anymore). If I am at the fleet, I have no idea where to go duel. Should I go to some arbitrary planet and bring a friend?

 

7. Remove fleets and replace them with planets. I want to see the other side killing me in my own capital! This would also fix the issue 6 if you could just go outside to duel.

[ConradLionhart]

give out more free time to add the subscription numbers.

 

Wouldn't forcing players to sign up for a 1 year deal to get SimCity 5 and a mount for free, be a more legitimate way to add to subscription numbers?

[MaverikB]

more sandbox relate content.

[Mezla]

Fire every single person on an existing development team and get someone who is not brain dead instead.

[ConradLionhart]

more sandbox relate content.

 

The undeveloped space content would be your best bet. I don't know how they can add sandbox elements to currently existing planets.

[ConradLionhart]

I'm willing to bet the majority of the players aren't level 50 or legacy rank 6,(so didn't get the free month) you can keep spewing that garbage though if it makes you feel better.

 

Only on the internet is the act of giving people something for free considered a bad thing.

 

Anyone with an ounce of intelligence can see that the free 30 days are more of an appreciation than desperation.

 

Initially it only covered people who are level 50s.

People then complained that it is not fair for people who like creating alts. So the devs quickly responded to this (fact: the devs care) and included people who have legacy level 6.

If we go by forum posters, this is proof that the majority of players are still playing that they start complaining on the forums about missing out on free 30 days.

 

There is more evidence to suggest that free 30 days are more appreciation and less about inflating sub numbers. It won't inflate sub numbers that much, because the people who got the free 30 days will still play anyway. Take me for example, my free 30 days haven't kicked in yet because my next sub payment is in May. I used a 60-day time card.

[Toweleeeie]

DaoC style RvR on Ilum.

Armor that looks like its from the Star Wars universe.

Something the hardcore can strive for, optional grinds, things that take months or even years to achieve.

Make an all melee dps Ops group viable in EC HM.

Stop fukin up so bad on patches.

Stop completely catering to the casuals bc you already lost a lot of them.

Stop adding fluff: pets, emotes, pointless legacy stuff, and so on.

Give us a reason to run flash points again. Like a nightmare mode or something.

Fix ability delay

[Ethice]

2 times lvl 50 and 6 chars over 30. I noticed a large gap after solo content. I quest myself to lvl 50, kill the last boss and than get to the Battle of Ilum. After months of solo play, I suddenly am forced to team up, since The Battle of Ilum is not meant to do solo. Wipe after wipe, because the last boss of that mission is not alone, there are two. One of them has almost 200K health, stealth ability, does insane damage and can reach you through walls. As you have been able to play solo through all the game, because you loved your story, you hardily have learned anything about teamplay. Especially against such a strong boss, easily comparable with a world boss.

I mean, this learning curve is to steep. Oh yes, I could have done Flashpoints and Heroics, but I was so fond of my soloplay and the storyline, that I couldn't be bothered to spam "LFG" all the time.

For casual players there is a large gap after endgame, which is almost impossible to cross for many players. The learning curve becomes very steep after endgame. It would be nice if BW stopped adding more content and did smooth out the learning curve a bit.

Edited May 9, 2012 by Ethice

[Ignicity]

2 times lvl 50 and 6 chars over 30. I noticed a large gap after solo content. I quest myself to lvl 50, kill the last boss and than get to the Battle of Ilum. After months of solo play, I suddenly am forced to team up, since The Battle of Ilum is not meant to do solo. Wipe after wipe, because the last boss of that mission is not alone, there are two. One of them has almost 200K health, stealth ability, does insane damage and can reach you through walls. As you have been able to play solo through all the game, because you loved your story, you hardily have learned anything about teamplay. Especially against such a strong boss, easily comparable with a world boss.

I mean, this learning curve is to steep. Oh yes, I could have done Flashpoints and Heroics, but I was so fond of my soloplay and the storyline, that I couldn't be bothered to spam "LFG" all the time.

For casual players there is a large gap after endgame, which is almost impossible to cross for many players. The learning curve becomes very steep after endgame. It would be nice if BW stopped adding more content and did smooth out the learning curve a bit.

 

It was your choice to ignore the Flashpoint system while leveling up. The learning curve is not too steep. You made your own personal learning curve steep by making that choice.

[Cowpies]

Fixing Bugs

Adding standard MMO content- Group finder, guild mail, etc

MERGING SERVERS

More personalization- ships, clothes, customization

Structured Open world pvp

Sandbox features- Houses, guild towns/ships

[Goretzu]

 

1. RvR content - put at least an RvR basin in (something much better than Ilum was)
   
2. Space content - both better of what we've got, and frankly a JTL style expansion
   
3. 16 character slots per server - Legacy requires this
   
4. Server merges - Light servers are zombie servers
   

 

[rjkishida]

replace the dev team with people who have a clue

[allexkramer]

There is a lot of things that they could do and probably will do but the most important thing is end game content. Swtor is a very raw and fresh game which means it has LOADS of potential. They need to make it their top priority to add time consuming things for end game. If they focus on that then it will keep players attached and most likely draw back players that left. The legacy system also opens up anothe box that is full of potential. If they play their cards right then this system can be a sort of persuasion to players to create another character.

[APNTerra]

Content Deleted Edited May 10, 2012 by APNTerra

[Nyteblades]

Fire all the code monkeys and hire some pandas. Like it or hate it can't deny the fact wows devs seem to atleast know how to implement things. It may have took them alittle while to learn but thats why its called exsperince.

[Blazenor]

There are only two things that are hurting the game subs right now:

 

1. Lack of a good LFG matchmaking system

2. Lack of endgame content

 

The good news here is both of these things are very fixable.

[Nyteblades]

There are only two things that are hurting the game subs right now:

 

1. Lack of a good LFG matchmaking system

2. Lack of endgame content

 

The good news here is both of these things are very fixable.

 

The bad new is im not sure they have anyone who can fix them.

[BJWyler]

An MMO is never "complete" as we think of the term, and the problem comes from how to keep players who prefer many different types of things entertained in their game while the next batch of content is ready for release.

 

Some people want sandbox features - but that leaves out the whole slew of people who detest sandbox - still no endgame for them.

Some people want hardcore raids for epeen items - but that leaves out the casual and sandbox player

Some people want nothing but PvP - but that leaves out the PvEer.

 

Unfortunately, a game can only offer so much within the time and budget constraints it has. SWTOR's design direction was such that PvP and End Game were secondary features to the class quests and overarching story line. In all reality, for a game like this - there is no end game, the ongoing story is the neverending end game. Problem is, a lot of people completed the first part of the story before the next part is ready and the current end game (Raid type missions) don't suit everyone.

 

Ultimately, I think having a full-fledged space component in the game can work to be the ultimate end game. We can keep the rail-shooter now to satisfy the mini-game people, add some missions and quests for the PvEers, and naturally have some awesome PvP space battle action. Unfortunately, that's going to take a long time before it can be implemented.

 

BJ

[DarthTHC]

The answer for you may not be the answer for me. There are a lot of different people who play this game, and for a lot of different reasons.

 

I was about to type that the one constant that drives people away is poor quality in releases. You know, the sort of stuff that's had them re-patching patches the last 2 weeks in a row? But I don't know if that's a constant either. Some rabid fanboys might overlook even that.

 

But as I was saying, we're all different and that's a beautiful thing.

 

What it means is that BioWare needs to provide a variety of things for us all to enjoy in the game. It doesn't necessarily have to be everything for everyone, but it should be and could be something compelling for many.

 

For some of us the answers are as you wrote. For others, they may be something different. It's our job to tell BioWare what we want in a clear, concise, and constructive manner. It's BioWare's job (hopefully) to take that constructive feedback, analyze it, put a great deal of thought tempered by experience and common sense into it, and create the best game they can.

[Stukoke]

I find myself thinking of leaving. SWTOR is a great game for a little while, but it just does not have the environmental immersion to keep me interested. I was hoping to find a game to leave WoW, but I find myself missing being able to just sit with my friends and RP at an Inn, or just have that feeling of just walking around a living city like Stormwind was. I'll finish my toon up to lvl 50 but then unless something changes I'll be leaving.