An Open Letter to Bioware...with suggestions.

[Kakgumu]

Your game is dying.

 

I know that you can’t openly admit this to the public and even in the upper levels of management you can’t say it amongst yourselves, but from a player’s perspective, it’s the unadulterated truth nonetheless. Let me also say that I LOVE the game. No…seriously. I am having an absolute BLAST playing your $200 Million MMO. But, regardless of that single data point, you are on the verge of losing an even larger percentage of your player base than you already have unless you collectively get your head out of your ***! By your own earnings statement that was just released, you’ve had a 25% drop in subscriptions in the past 2-3 months. What do you think is going to happen when Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2 hit the shelves??? If you want your game to live and thrive in the MMO landscape you have to take significant action and do it NOW!! What follows is a summary of what is good and bad, what you got right and wrong, and areas that need to be addressed immediately.

Missing Features. Like it or not, EVERY new MMO is going to be compared to the EXISTING state of WoW. Yes, I know that’s not fair and it makes it nearly impossible for anyone else to break into the genre and compete with that behemoth, but, such is life. You either accept that and rise to the challenge, or you get crushed under the Blizzard boot and resign yourself to a 250,000 subscriber base. Yes, they have a 6+ year development lead on you…and the player base doesn’t care. You HAVE to provide those same desired features that WoW, and others, already have up and running. Allow me to discuss a few of them in some detail as well as some existing features that need modification and/or greater utilization.

 

LFG system. Please don’t take offense, but this is one of those features that needed to be supported from Day 1. Seriously. Just take a look at the WoW implementation, it’s very good with only 1 missing feature that I can recall...a good gear check mechanism that was both fair AND stopped people from queuing for instances that they clearly weren't ready for. Select the instance(s) (Flashpoints AND Operations) you want to queue for, select your role(s) and go on about your business. When your groups “makes” you get ported to the instance. You simply HAVE to have this..and you needed to have it from Day 1. A solid LFG system bring the individual players together EASILY to do content that they all want to do anyway! Without it, you just have people spamming chat channels as if it was a game from 1996. And no, adding a comment to a listing of players in a zone does NOT a LFG system make.

 

The one enhancement you can make on this is to make it cross-server functional to further reduce queue times. This was a HUGE win in WoW as much as I hate to say it. A Cross-Server LFG system that enabled the player base to run both operations and flashpoints?!? That would be the definition of taking a weakness and turning it into a strength. You all need to make this happen at or before the 1.3 patch.

 

PvP Arenas. This is another feature that should have been in from Day 1. I myself am not a big PvP fan. But…a LOT of people are. Being a former Professional Gamer back in my Counter-Strike days, I still keep tabs on the Pro scene. In North America and Europe now, WoW 3v3 is still very popular. Can you name ANY other MMO that has a Professional footprint??? Obviously, the Pro scene in Asia is still dominated by RTS games (Starcraft, Starcraft 2, etc.) but even there they have a very large WoW PvP Pro scene. And then there are other games like LoL and DoTa that also have significant footholds/ Point being, If you want PvP to take root in your game in a truly meaningful way, Professional play has to be supported and nurtured. And, that means Arenas. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. That sub-market has already shown you EXACTLY what they like, want, and crave. Just give it to them. This will, in turn, begin to drive world PvP and Battlegrounds. And, if you're REALLY creative, you'll find a mechanism by which you can capture the purity of PvP Battlegrounds for Professional play, which sadly hasn't been really successful yet, despite their popularity The reverse will most certainly not hold true. Additionally, reach out to the Pro Gaming scene and give some money out for SWTOR Tournaments. A $250,000 Tourney every quarter will get people's attention in a REAL way very quickly. But for it to do anything, you have to have this line item completed and solid as well as the next...

 

Rated PvP. This ties into the previous entry, but, it also applies to Battlegrounds as well. Rated PvP works as a benefit to BOTH the grizzled PvP veteran as well as the n00b by actively working to keep them apart. I have personal insight into both of these areas…as a former Pro CS player, jumping into a random pub server was fun for a few minutes before thrashing random players simply got boring. On the flip side of that coin, I suck terribly at MMO PvP. Jumping into an arena or battleground and just getting curb-stomped and not having the slightest clue *** was going on is equally NOT FUN. You have to have controls in place (read: a rating system) to ensure that each of these player groups is having FUN with their PvP experience or they’re simply going to stop doing it…or worse, they move to a game that’s already doing it well.

 

End-Game Characterization. This topic needs some elaboration, so please bear with me. It is my contention that once players reach the level cap of ANY MMO they need another “hook” to keep them playing and interested in the game. If there are MULTIPLE hooks, then all the better imho. As a reference, WoW really only has a single end-game hook…the “gear hunt”. You raid primarily, if not exclusively, to get better gear to raid harder content to get even better gear. This is a perfectly valid hook and it exists in one state or another in every MMO that I’ve ever played. But gear is only one way to continue to improve your character once you hit the level cap, and thus one one way to hook players into your end-game.

 

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could continue to add capabilities and stats and strengths to your character even after you hit the level cap?? The benefits to this work on both sides of the end-game equation. On one hand you have another valid reason to play that character and continue to improve him/her in addition to gear. On the other hand, you have an additional mechanism at your hands to help make your character “stronger” to give you a little bit of a push to get over a raid mob that may be giving your guild fits.

 

Other games such as Eq1, Eq2, and Rift have had mechanisms like this already. And, to be fair, BioWare has implemented a very limited form of this in the existing Legacy system, which I like very much so far. I propose that you VASTLY expand on this immediately and make one fundamental change. Currently, many abilities can be bought with credits. Don't do this. Tie them to experience! Call them Legacy Points or something similar. The benefits to such a system are multiplicative. You now have a base with which you can add content for very few development resources. And, keeping a running tally of a character's “Legacy Points”, or whatever term you’d like to coin, on the main character page gives the player base an additional mechanism besides just gear to value a potential player for a FP, Operation, or joining a guild. This, in turn, is a self-reinforcing feedback loop keeping the end-game player base engaged and active outside of just raid time. Some players will see this as a “time sink” or a “grind” to which there is some truth. However, I would counter that argument by saying that the entirety of ALL MMOs is just a succession of various grinds and time sinks and that you’re really just arguing semantics. At the end of the day, the person who expends the greatest amount of effort AND skill should garner the most and greatest rewards. An extensive expansion to the Legacy System would do exactly that. I will expand on this idea in a separate post in an effort to keep this post from becoming “tldr” material.

 

(more continued below...)

Edited May 20, 2012 by Artthen
language

[Kakgumu]

Server Merges. First, let me say that I completely understand the position you're in. Announcing server merges is like advertising that your game has already hit its peak and is on the way down. Unfortunately, you've brought this upon yourself in two ways. First, as stupefying as it is, you did the EXACT SAME THING that Warhammer did when it fell on its face. You launched the game with WAY TOO MANY SERVERS. In Warhammer, this was a fatal flaw due to the heavy dependence on PvP. But, in a more traditional, or WoW-like MMO the effect is still profound. Community and everything that is in an MMO is what drives long-term longevity. Simply look at Eq1. No MMO that i've ever played has as tightly knit a community as that game. As a result, it's STILL going strong with a moderate, but respectable number of subscribers. The second error was not correcting the first IMMEDIATELY. Franklly, what you call "Low Population" the rest of the gaming world calls a "Ghost Town". And, what you call "Standard Population", we all call "Low Pop". So...it's important that you understand the re-definition of terms. Let me put it to you in real terms...having 40-50 people at Fleet is not enough to reach a critical mass where anybody is able to actually get anything done (FPs, Ops, PvP). If there was a strong LFG tool in place, then it wouldn't matter as much. But, as there's not, it matters a GREAT DEAL. In my experience in the game, it takes about 100 people (roughly) on Fleet to really get a decent number and variety of FPs going....and it's not until about 125-150 that Ops start to get Pug'd. Last night at midnight (PST), there were LITERALLY 4 people at Fleet. Yes...4.

 

Like it or not, you are at a critical junction in this game's evolution. If you hold out ANY hope of this being a 1,000,000+ Subscriber game you HAVE to make this your #1 priority RIGHT NOW. Otherwise, the hard-core players, like me will still be around, but your subscriber numbers will continue to decline this Spring and Summer as D3, GW2, Tera, the WoW expansion, the DDO expansion, and MechWarrion Online among other all battle to steal your subscribers from you. Bite the bullet now before your subscribers numbers drop to the ~500,000 range and the sh*t REALLY hits the fan.

 

Space Combat. I know this is an area that you’ve gotten some criticism on, but, I think it’s a HUGE win. I absolutely LOVE the space combat mini-game! I think some of the people that are complaining about this have lost perspective on the fact that this is a MINI-GAME you’re getting for FREE! Well…not exactly free, but you get my point I hope. The reason I bring it up here is that YOU NEED TO ADD MORE CONTENT! In the 1.2 patch there was absolutely NOTHING added to the space combat. NADA. Talk about an epic whiff. Right now, each of the actual missions is duplicated in a slightly harder, and thus higher level, mode. Cartel Listening Station has Ezran Outpost. Jabiim Escort has Taspan Ambush, etc. It would have been EASY to just add a “Nightmare Difficulty” as a third option like you’ve already done for Operations. Allow these NM mode space mission to yield a few Daily Commendations as well as some decent Credits (~15k each) and I could easily spend hours happily running space missions. And here’s a twist…how about creating “Heroic 2” or “Heroic 4” Space Missions and allow 2 or 4 players to fly missions together at the same time in the same way we have quests?!?! Hell, do that as a trial for Space Combat FLASHPOINTS and OPERATIONS!!! This seems like such an easy, slam-dunk piece of low-hanging content. HOLY F*CK this would be BEYOND awesome!

 

The second thing about space combat is…equipment. Right now there simply are no choices. When you reach a certain level, you simply upgrade to the next “tier”. There NEED to be options available to the player on how they want to “trick out” their ship. Perhaps one shield generator can absorb 10% more damage than another, but, it takes 10% longer to charge a fixed amount? Or…one type of blasters does slightly more damage per bolt, but fires slower? Or…one missile launcher holds slightly more missiles, but they do slightly less damage each? The number of variables here is quite extensive. Now, if you want to make ship combat and tricking out your ship really EPIC, make each one of those pieces a customizable “Orange” piece of gear/equipment and split up the individual item modifications among the various crew skills like we have for player gear now! This would take the space combat mini-game to the next level imho. I would LOVE the ability to min-max my ship the way I do my character. And, if you also then added onto this pieces of the Legacy Point system I discussed above, I could see people who logged on just to play Space Missions.

 

The last thing I want to discuss regarding space missions is…ADD MORE MISSIONS. In addition to the NM diff addition I discussed earlier, you also need to add brand new missions. I know this requires the most development resources, but, if you can simply pump out ONE new mission with each major content patch and then scale it into 3 difficulties as I previously discussed and viola! I know you have a sub-team dedicated to just working on the space mission/combat system…so crack the whip and make this stuff happen!!

 

The GTN. You made some huge strides forward with this in the 1.2 patch. But, you’re still not where you need to be. Let me give you the Cliff’s Notes version on what you need to do to take this from a liability and make it into a major strength. Are you listening?? Take the WoW Auction House model and copy that core functionality, then take a long, hard look at the Auctioneer UI mod and add in the most useful features and you WILL take your Auction House from being one of the absolute worst in the MMO genre to the absolute BEST. The fact that I can’t just shift+click on an item and have the name pop up into the search bar and hit enter to find all those items is almost criminal. Also, when I mouse over a pattern/schematic it should tell me RIGHT THERE if I already know that schematic or not. Lastly, why on earth do you have a deposit if that deposit is refunded to you 100% if the item doesn’t sell?? If you’re going to charge a 5% “broker fee” when it sells, then just take it out when it sells. You’re creating an artificial mechanic that doesn’t actually do anything. There’s such a LACK of materials in the GTN right now as it is, you need to be implementing measures to ENCOURAGE people to use it. A deposit, however illusionary or transparent, dissuades people from doing that exact thing.

 

Oh…one other thing that annoys people like me who love to tradeskill and get into the server economy on the AH/GTN…you’ve GOT to let us post stuff for more than 2 days. That’s a ridiculous limitation. In Eq1 you could set up your vendor and as long as you were logged in, your stuff was up for sale. This helped to create a wonderfully exotic and diverse Bazaar. Obviously, this model isn’t nearly as sustainable with the kind of subscriber numbers that SWTOR has currently. And, I understand the need to limit the database footprint as a performance metric. But, 2 days of dwell time in the marketplace is WAY too short. I would lobby for 7 days. And, if you felt the need to limit/balance this additional time with a non-refundable deposit in the ballpark of 0.5%/day posted, I think that would be a fair and balanced middle-ground. Along a similar line is Buy-Orders. Other MMOs have implemented this and it's almost magical. Give players a mechanism by which they can enter a quantity and price per unit of something they want to buy. Other players can then view these "buy-orders" and sell to them via the GTN. Take your 5% cut if you like as a standard credit-sink, and players will coo with delight.

 

Trust me, a well-oiled and multi-functional Auction House/Bazaar will create a dedicated sub-group of your player base out of thin air...the AH Junkie. Yes, for some people, playing the AH/GTN is a sub-game in and of itself. And, it's yet another "hook" at the end game for your player base that you're NOT taking advantage of right now.

 

(more below...)

Edited May 14, 2012 by Kakgumu

[Kakgumu]

Crewskills. This is a big one. An immersive and complex crafting system that returns usable products at all levels of the game is a VERY powerful motivator and another excellent “hook” for an MMO. Unfortunately, it seems this was one area where you have taken ideas from WoW when you really shouldn’t have. Yes, the concept of using companions is new and different. But, here I am specifically talking about the acquisition of “patterns” or schematic and the nature of tradeskill materials and how easy/hard it is to level a given tradeskill. First let me start with the good.

 

There’s a very good balance between the number and type of schematic offered directly at the trainers and those dropped. I would REALLY prefer that only the most generic (read: green quality) schematics be learned directly from the trainers and that the more exotic and powerful schematics be drops with the absolute top-end schematics being raid-drop only. This is already implemented to some effect. I would urge you to take this a step further. Having level 50 “rakata level” schematics available at the trainer is short-sighted and a missed opportunity. Allow these to be as powerful as the original incarnations…just make the schematics drop only from raid bosses…perfect solution to a troublesome problem. One idea I had that would make the hard-core crafters out there very happy is to enable a Reverse Engineering tier “above” epic/purple. For example, let’s say I reverse engineer a Wynz-Tek Firestorm grenade on my Cybertech and make the RE roll. That successful RE roll would, instead of destroying the item and giving me a “discovery”, take the Bind on PickUp OFF the item in question and allow ANYONE to use it. This would create a VERY active end-game crewskill market for a wide variety of items. You have now created a risk vs. reward system for crafters to really push their skills. There is a potential downside that the demand is very limited and once sated, the economy for many products completely dries up. So, perhaps a middle-ground option is better suited…

 

Allow players to learn more crew skills! And, you can easily tie this into the legacy system. Give players 1, 2 or even 3 purchasable or achievable unlocks for adding a crewskill of their choice. Personally, I have always MUCH preferred the Eq1 model where I can learn and max ALL of the tradeskills on a single character if I wanted to devote the time and energy to do so rather than the WoW approach of artificially limiting my choices so I have to create alts to cover all the tradeskills.

 

The second major win is the reverse Engineering mechanic. This is a brushstroke of pure genius. Well played gentlemen…well played. Now, let’s take it to the next level. First, give us the ability to RE the new oranges we can create…even if it doesn’t give us any opportunity to learn anything new. Just give us the ability to tear these back down and give us some of our mats back. Speaking of Orange gear…for the love of all that is good and holy can you give Synthweavers and Armormechs schematics for Orange hands, feet, waists, and wrists?!?! You DO realize that the only way for us to get Orange Feet and Hands with aug slots is via the PvP schematic bundle packs from the vendors, right?? There are NO Orange, craftable Feet and Hands outside of these at all! Which means, of course, that if I want the additional aug slot on my feet and hands I now HAVE to play PvP and reach Valor level 60 as a minimum. HUGE OVERSIGHT. I shouldn’t be forced to PvP at all, let alone all the way up to Valor level 60 just to get BiS gear for my PvE characters. And make no mistake, having that aug slot IS a big deal. All you have to do is add a few schematics to the 3-piece PvE craftable sets already in play and this problem is solved.

 

Now for a few other things that really need to get fixed with crewskills. First, for “mission” oriented crewskills like Scavenging, Investigation, and Underworld Trading…is it too much to ask that we be allowed to pick which type of mission(s) to send our companions on rather than pick from a list of 5 random selections. Too many times have I needed some crafting materials to make something for a guildie or an alt only to have absolutely zero options for that mission type available at all. This is beyond frustrating! If you absolutely, positively feel the need to make this list random, then give us more than 5 selections at a time please?!? Make it 8, or 10…so that IF I want/need to send 3 or 4 companions out on the same TYPE of mission to farm a particular mat, I can without having to sit on the character and farm companion missions all night rather than actually playing. Perhaps, you can scale the number of mission selections to the number of companions you have unlocked? 5 selections for a character that only has 2 companions actually works just fine. But, for my level 50 characters, this is FAR too restrictive and annoying. Again, perhaps this could be something to "earn" with the expanded Legacy System? *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

 

In a related vein, giving us a piece of equipment to add to our ship droid to “specialize” him for certain crewskills was another master-stroke! Let’s expand this! Allow us to add multiple pieces of gear like this to him AND the other companions. You could set it up in much the same way as “magic find” gear in Diablo 2. You could easily balance the numbers such that it wasn’t totally over-powered. We could then set up our companions with a set of “crafting gear” that suits the specific crewskill selections we made with that character. And, leaving the existing crewskill bonuses adds some role-play flavor and detail as well as a point to min-max, so please leave those in.

The last point I want to discuss on tradeskills is another characteristic the SWTOR shares with WoW. Crafting success. Right now, when you begin to make something, you’re 100% successful. The result is that the only benefit to maxing out a tradeskill is that it gives you access to all the schematics. I propose that you take the Eq1 approach and directly tie your success rate/percentage to your current skill value. For example, if I have an Artifice level of 300 and you have an Artifice level of 100 and we both try to make the same item, I should have a much better chance of success than you. This instantly adds value to people who expend the effort to max out tradeskills.

 

OK, I lied…there IS one more crewskill specific topic I wanted to discuss. Max tradeskill difficulty. This is linked at the hip to the paragraph above. You should ONLY be able to earn a skill point from a successful craft or gather. AND…it should be harder and harder to get a success the higher and higher the skill level of the crafted item is. For example, if I am a level 400 Cybertech and you are a level 300 Cybertech and with both try to make a Custom-Built Speeder Bike (at 300 skill it’s orange, 325 it’s yellow, 355 it’s green, and 365 it’s grey), I should have a MUCH higher percentage of successfully crafting it than you do. It is my opinion that these things would instantly add even more value to the entire crewskill system and properly reward those who make the time and effort to get their crewskills maxed.

 

Cargo Hold. This is simple…add two more tabs…MINIMUM. People who tradeskill heavily have MUCH higher storage requirements than even hard-core raiding players. If you still want to add a credit cost as a money sink, that’s perfectly fine. You could even hook this into the expanded Legacy System that I keep harping on. Just give us the options please. I’ve already maxed out the cargo hold area on two characters and am rapidly approaching a third.

 

(yes, even more below...)

Edited May 14, 2012 by Kakgumu

[Kakgumu]

Reputations. Obviously, this is a mechanic that you have decided to completely avoid. This is one of the things that WoW got VERY VERY right. Eq1 was the first game where I really experienced this and it wasn’t implemented very well. WoW, for all the things it does wrong, got this one almost perfectly right. Reputations matter in WoW. Reputations yield tangible benefits…gear and patterns that are unique to that faction. And, THAT is the key! You HAVE to tie real, usable, tangible benefits to each and every reputation. Otherwise it really is just an Achievement grind that isn't much fun.

 

This could be used as a HUGE tie-in to the crewskills system to make both even MORE appealing and beneficial. Schematics that are unique to a given faction would be perfect. Also having multiple tiers or level for each reputation that unlock any benefits with each tier is also a requirement. But, make these meaningful for the entire level range and not just then level cap chars. It's important that characters of all level get value from the system which it turn helps to cement its positively viewed perception in the player base.

 

I think this also dovetails perfectly into the heavy story-telling aspects of SWTOR that you’re already doing so beautifully. Again, this is another avenue for character development outside of the standard “gear hunt” as I previously alluded to.

 

GM and World Events. I would consider the recent “Rakghoul Outbreak” to be a GM Event…and it was OUTSTANDING! Please, Please, PLEASE do more of these! These are the things that add “flavor” to the MMO universe you have created. And again in the theme of this letter, I urge you to take it to the next level. Look back to your roots and take a page from the Eq1 playbook. GM events there turned into a HUGE badge of honor in addition to the fun and excitement they generated. Even if you continued in the same vein of the “Rakghoul Outbreak” where it’s hands off and runs its course, I would still lobby you to do more of these…a LOT more.

 

Companions. I'll be perfectly honest, I didn't think I was going to be a fan of this at launch. I've never really enjoyed pet classes in any MMO i've played. BUT...your implementation has changed my mind. You've really done an exceptional job in this area. Bravo Zulu! Now, let's take this to the next step!

 

I LOVE being able to min-max my compaion's gear based on the role i need him/her to fulfill. Let's ALSO do that with crew-skill specific gear that adds bonuses for successful crafting (based upon the non-100% success model I mentioned in the trade-skill section), bonuses for crew-skill crits, and bonuses for completion time. I only ever have 1 companion out with me when I'm question or doing dailies. Let me gear the other 5 for crew-skills!

 

Or...how about giving us a Legacy Unlockable ability to have 2 companions out at the same time?!? I know it's a bit of a stretch and would render some content as "face roll", but it might be a topic worth entertaining in the creative halls of BW design.

 

Macros. Was it a conscious design decision to exclude this or something that was left out to make the ship date? Regardless, this is a MUST HAVE feature in a modern MMO. Yes, perhaps WoW’s LUA-based model opens things up too much, so…don’t go that far. The Eq model is perfectly acceptable imho.

If, on the other hand, this is an effort to curb gold farmers then all I can say is that your efforts were horribly misguided. Anti-farmer policies take effect in quantum stages…not incrementally and continuously as most people think. Personally, while I certainly don’t condone it, I think the actual impact of gold farming is grossly over-exaggerated, but, that’s a rant for another time. Bottom line, you need to have a macro system in place ASAP.

 

Zone transitions. Moving from the fleet to a planet to do my dailies shouldn't REQUIRE 4 different zone transitions. This is so silly it's almost punitive. Streamline this ASAP! I know you already took out 1 step in getting back from a planet to your ship. That's good...but you need to do more. Hell, even as far back as Eq1 we have ports directly from the central hub zone (PoK) to nearly every zone. Just call it an "Inter-Fleet Transport Service Expansion" and have easily accessible shuttles to each planet. This seems to be pretty easy to fix. But, I think underneath the hood is the fact that zone transitions aren't very fast AND the engine really needs smaller sub-zones to perform well. That's my impression at least, which leads me to my next point...

 

The Hero Engine. How involved were the folks from Mythic? Within the confines of the EA brand, it seems that leveraging these folks as much as possible would have been exceptionally useful. Instead, you spent over $200 million and decided to go with an off-the-shelf engine?!?! Seriously ***?! Frankly, the Hero Engine is such an odd selection for a game of this caliber and budget that it brings up other questions. I sincerely don’t mean to sound condescending here, but, was this selection politically driven in some way? Or, was it really was just a matter of inexperience. The acquisition of Mythic brought with it BOTH DAoC and Warhammer, right? Even a lower-expectation game like Tera broke out the UT3 engine and did a helluva good job. Consequently, the client-side performance is a LOT better there than in SWTOR.

 

The impression in the player base is that you spent SOOO much money on voice acting that you didn't have the funds or dev time to create a new engine or even revamp an existing engine that EA already owned the rights to. I would LOVE to see this game run under a well-written and designed UT3-based engine.

 

 

Voice Acting. (coming soon)

 

 

Raid Content. Let me start by saying that I LOVE to raid. I'm pretty competitive by nature, so I like to be on the leading edge of progression raiding. 6+ years in a server-first minded EQ1 guild...then 6+ more years with a lot of those same people in a more casual WoW guild, with brief distractions for a wide variety of different MMO's has shown me a pretty good profile of MMO raiding. I don't mean to start this as an argument from authority, but, in this specific case I think it's important that I lay my credentials on the table.

 

That being the case, I really like the raiding in SWTOR. EV was quite well done imho. A nice variety of raid mechanics, good loot distribution, and it didn't take 6 hours to clear. KP was also pretty good. Perhaps a bit heavy on the trash, but, there were a couple trash pulls that actually required thought and coordination. Bravo Zulu! Far too often the player's expectation is to just faceroll the trash. It was refreshing to me that there were just a couple points where planning and tactics were required. The down side of KP was that boss difficulty wasn't very straight forward and some of the mechanics were almost punitive.

 

Allow me to go off on a quick tangent for a moment. I've seen this happen on several different raid bosses now. The time between when a player gets targeted for a single-target effect and when that effect (read: damage) happens is FAR too variable. As an example, in KP, Foreman Crusher and the Jarg and Sorno fights both have these where the timers between when the player SEES the marker under them on the ground under them and when the effect actually HITS is about 1 second too short. I ping ~75ms to the Lord Praven server and even when I'm expecting these effect and move immediately, I will sometimes still get hit. This is beyond frustrating to know that despite being prepared and ready, AND knowing exactly what to do, you still get hit with the effect about 75% of the time. Then, for the Annihilation Droid XRR-3 fight in EV, there's a similar mechanic that begins to occur about 1/2 way into the fight and from there until he's dead...and it's tuned PERFECTLY for timing. Not too long and not too short. Please use this value on ALL similar raid mechanics.

 

Back to KP. The odd thing was that Foreman Crusher and the Heavy Fabricator are by FAR the hardest mobs while Karagga himself is actually one of the easiest. I would de-tune the former 2 just a tad and beef up Karagga a tiny bit. Otherwise, very very good job on both these zones.

 

Then the 1.2 patch hit. EC/Denova. The "jump" in difficulty between KP and EC is HUUUGE. Seriously and this is NOT an exaggeration in ANY way...Nightmare EV and Nightmare KP might be easier front to back than Story mode EC. DEFINITELY easier than Hard Mode EC. Surely this can't be by design can it? Now don't get me wrong, I LIKE a challenge. But, there are just too many raid mechanics flying around at the same time. I.E. The raid difficulty "curve" between different content levels is too steep, WAAY too steep.

 

It's one thing to know you're simply not geared enough as a team to take on the content. Your healers and tanks, for obvious reasons, will be able to tell you very quickly. But, when you're well versed with the mechanics and you simply can't do damage because you're running and jumping and dodging for your life, that's not raiding anymore, that's an obstacle course. Just because you CAN turn the knob to 11 doesn't mean you should. De-tune EC a notch or two guys. Please?

 

Raid Content point #2. Stop with the dual mob raid encounters already. This is getting silly at this point guys. Forcing a raid to split into 2 - 4 man groups is novel and cool...ONCE IN A WHILE. But, 2 of these fights in EC?!?! Really?!?! Come on devs and designers...space this out a bit better. Maybe one of these kinds of fights per raid...MAYBE. Jarg and Sorno was hectic and interesting. Zorn and Toth with the tank switches and range requirements IS simply punitive. Then Firebrand and Stormcaller after that?!?! It's overkill guys. I was in an end-game EQ1 guild that literally spent 6 months banging our heads again one zone (Uqua) trying to kill one mob (Barxt) to get our flags to progress further into the GoD expansion...and I've NEVER heard this kind of frustration and despair. The point being, you need to tune your raid content a bit better and get rid of the dual-boss raid encounters for a while.

 

While I'm on the topic, as a general guideline when you're constructing raid zones, I recommend the following:

 

Boss #1 : nearly a tank-n-spank, but puts out a solid amount of dps. This is your entry gear-check raid boss.

Bosses #2 - #4 : 1 "puzzle" boss max, each of these should have 2-4 raid mechanics that are progressively more difficult to navigate. Focus should be on stressing one particular raid element (tanks, heals, or DPS) and not ALL of them simultaneously.

Boss #5 (final boss) : Should be the most difficult boss in the zone and have perhaps 1 more raid mechanic than the previous 3. He/She/It should also drop the best AND most gear/items/rewards. Right now the amount of loot you drop on the final boss IS the best, but there should be 2 or 3 more drops as well.

 

Now, let me take a moment to give you another Bravo Zulu on the 3-tiers approach you're using. Some players in the community call this lazy development. I do not. I REALLY like this re-use of existing raid material. AND...not to be overlooked, you've balanced them pretty d@mn well in EV and HP. Just go back and de-tune EC now a bit and that model is back to working well.

 

With the kudos out of the way, let me illustrate something you've gotten TERRIBLY wrong. One of the most basic concepts that everyone, I think, understands is that as raid size goes up, so does the difficulty. Now, on the surface there's an immediately obvious piece. You guys, as developers and creators, TUNE it that way. I'm not talking about that. What I'm talking about is the logistics, planning, preparing and everything ELSE that makes larger raids more difficult. In SWTOR, this is no different...YET, the loot is. This is simply criminal. You should all be thrown into MMO jail. The 16-man content is an order of magnitude more difficult than the 8-man content. Dropping them more gear in linear proportion to having more people in the raid means they get NO added benefit.

 

My contention is that the harder the raid "level", the BETTER the gear. Bottom line, 16-man raids should drop THE best gear. PERIOD. 8-man raids should drop a tier below that and this relationship should be kept as you move forward. For example, if you had done this for the 1.2 patch, then the ilevel 146 gear would only be dropped in 16-man with the ilevel 140 gear dropped from 8-mans. BUT...when the 1.3 patch arrives, the 8-man content there would now drop ilevel 146 gear while the 16-man content drops the next ilevel of gear (152??). This provides a nice tiered system for gear to flow to the player base, AND allows each guild to determine their own level of commitment. The benefit to you as the developer is that you don't have to create huge chunks of new gear with each patch and content release. You simply add a new tier to the top and the loot tables almost populate themselves!

 

My last raid point that I want to address is raid size. Please consider a 32-man or 40-man raid size. Smaller and more casually oriented players and guilds will flinch at this, but, in the long terms I think it's the right thing to do. For me personally, the most memorable raid experiences I recall are for the large-scale raids we did in EQ1. I honestly don't recall any of the individual triumphs in WoW...not 1. When we had 72-man raids and took on Gods, it was simply EPIC. The raid size FORCED the community to come together. Sure, we might only have 5 raiding guilds on a server, but it built the community, fostered personal interaction and had a profoundly positive effect on the entire game experience.

 

BUT...Blizzard also go something right in this regard. While the raid sizes there were too small to achieve a truly meaningful "critical mass", the raid size variability was a HUGE game changer. This allowed smaller and more casual guilds to still experience content, even if the drops and gear weren't quite as good. Obviously, you're already doing this with 8 and 16 man content. Take it to the next level! Give us a 32 or 40 man option...and carve out your own EPIC raiding history!

 

 

Dev Focus. (coming soon)

 

 

Achievements. (coming soon)

Edited May 14, 2012 by Kakgumu

[Kakgumu]

Reserved for my final thoughts and summary.

 

As an open invitation, if any of your Bioware Austin folks would like to spit on me, chew me a new *******, or just sit down over a nice IPA at a local brewery, I live about 5 miles from your office and work down south at a noteworthy CPU/Video card manufacturer. So...I'd be happy to hear your side of the story or just allow you to vent at me if you like.

Edited May 20, 2012 by Artthen
language

[Zocat]

Being a former Professional Gamer back in my Counter-Strike days, I still keep tabs on the Pro scene. In North America and Europe now, WoW 3v3 is THE game. Obviously, the Pro scene in Asia is still dominated by RTS games (Starcraft, Starcraft 2, etc.) but even there they have a very large WoW PvP Pro scene.

 

This is just wrong.

Almost every big tournament moved WoW to a niche (or removed it completely). IEM, MLG, DH, Assembly, and others. Which tournaments do massively support WoW (maybe I just dont know them).

 

Big game is LoL, then probably followed by SC2. Dota2 will probably have a big influence in the (near) future.

Halo / CoD are the leaders for shooter in the American scene, CS & a really small QL is it for the Europe one.

Then you have your fighter games with a huge fanbase in the US.

Edited May 13, 2012 by Zocat

[RachelAnne]

LFG system. Please don’t take offense, but this is one of those features that needed to be supported from Day 1. Seriously. Just take a look at the WoW implementation, it’s nearly perfect.

 

The wow tool suxx, is horrible coded and does favor elitist´s. To call such a tool "perfect" is ....

 

It happens way to often that you end up in a group that have a totally different gear, skill or manner ratio than you. There is just no fun at that tool, there is a reason why Blizz added deserter, free epics etc. to force people into it.

 

Lots of subs were lost since the LFG came into wow, perfect is something else.

 

BW should code themselfs an LFG, that does not have the mistakes of wow´s tool.

 

PvP Arenas. This is another feature that should have been in from Day 1. I myself am not a big PvP fan. But…a LOT of people are. Being a former Professional Gamer back in my Counter-Strike days, I still keep tabs on the Pro scene. In North America and Europe now, WoW 3v3 is THE game.

 

Arena is only "popular" because its easy to broadcast, good pvp is something else.

 

Blizz failed adding a HL-TV like feature for Warsong, we played Warsong at tournaments and it was awesome. This is real pvp, arena is kindergarden.

Objective based pvp is a lot more intresting for the viewer than a silly deathmatch. Blizz just couldnt manage to give it a real go, the first Warsong tournaments were a start but they failed pvp with TBC...

 

The Arena tournaments do also mainly happen at Blizz sponsored events at the WCG it was a big fail and lots of high decorated E-sports stars do not see Arena as a pvp with skill involved.

Edited May 13, 2012 by RachelAnne

[Kakgumu]

Fair points both...I'm edited my word choice and added the valid points you both make.

 

Thx for the input.

[Bogdanzeborsky]

lol, I think people forget that this game was a great business move for BW. Copy something that worked ( WoW ) with a cheaper knock off. Step 1, steal underpants, Step 2, ???? Step 3, PROFIT! Dont get me wrong tho, the game is nice and there is fun to be had.

 

On the other hand, I would say BW is budgeting more money back into SWTOR than they thought they would, due to opening popularity. The problem is now that SWTOR has been out for a while and the 1st real patch has come out people are experiencing the downfalls of a cheap copy (lip stick on a pig, if you will). BW copied a lot, but missed all the features, like UI add-ons, PVP bracketing and matching making, and various other things that Blizzard has honed over their course of WoW. as to why BW didn't start with some of these features or add them already, I do not know.

 

I already canceled my sub. Only reason I actually played the game to start with was because I was fortunate enough to receive a free copy.

 

We all knew this game copied wow we just wanted to believe it would be better or at least not pandas.

[Kakgumu]

lol, I think people forget that this game was a great business move for BW. Copy something that worked ( WoW ) with a cheaper knock off. Step 1, steal underpants, Step 2, ???? Step 3, PROFIT! Dont get me wrong tho, the game is nice and there is fun to be had.

 

I don't know that I agree with that. It's been well reported that Bioware spent $200+ Million dollars on SWTOR and that they NEED to maintain about 3,000,000 subscribers for the first year to recoup their money let alone turn a profit. At this point, I think the accountants at EA are in a near panic. There's blood in the water and everyone knows it. There are entire guilds...successful guilds, who just picked up and left wholesale in the past 2 weeks for Tera. Must folks are just not re-subbing because the things they've come to EXPECT in a polished MMO are simply either not there or non-functional.

 

Kak

[Bielduwyn]

Remember kids, 1.3 million three subscribers means your game is dying. This means most MMOs never lived to begin with. Only WoW is alive. The benchmark for being an alive MMO equals having more subscribers than Belgium has inhabitants.

 

(Now I'm sure some of your suggestions have merit, but proclaiming in big red text the game is dying is just silly and won't make any of your suggestions better)

Edited May 14, 2012 by Bielduwyn

[Kakgumu]

I think you've missed the point entirely. If the current subscriber base is ~1.3 million as stated in the latest EA quarterly earnings report, and we have no reason to doubt those numbers, and there are ~270 servers at my last count...that means on average there are about 4815 people per server. Even at peek hours, how many of those are logged in across the various zones and planets? Hell, just look at the numbers of people in the Fleet...it's obvious that people are jumping ship. If, however, there were only say 100 servers, then the 1.3 million number would be perfectly fine as there were plenty of people on each server to foster activity and community.

 

The point is...what has been the population TREND over the past 3 months?!? Is the population trending UP or trending DOWN. And, to what degree is that trend??? By EA's own admission they went from 1.8 million to 1.3 million in the last quarter. What big game releases occurred over the past 3 months?? Tera? ehhh...maybe.

 

Now take a look at the NEXT 3 months. D3, GW2, WoW expansion, DDO expansion, new Mechwarrior MMO, Torchlight 2...etc. If the trend in the PAST 3 months, without significant new releases was to lose 500,000 subscribers...then what's going to happen when the 16" Naval Guns begin to fire show-stopping releases like previously mentioned???

 

The tone of your reply is that I'm somehow off base. This is a game that spent OVER $200 Million in development and needs a solid subscriber base of 3,000,000 for the first year JUST TO BREAK EVEN. No, I think my remarks are right on point.

 

Frankly, I'm a bit shocked that anyone who is actually out there playing the game now doesn't feel and see what I've described. Perhaps your game experience is going along smoothly. Grats, enjoy your time in game. My experience is that the player base is wilting away on a DAILY basis. I wouldn't be surprised at all if at EA's next earnings report they announced that subs for SWTOR were under 1,000,000. And, from someone who works as a software developer in the tech industry, this kind of business trend evokes outright PANIC in companies.

 

Kak

[Monave]

Excellent post OP!

Well said! Bravo!

 

I pretty much agree with most of your post and hopefully some of these types of changes will be implemented by EAware but I wonder if the suits will listen...

 

As for myself, I have about 45 days or so left on my sub and I will not be re-subbing since my RL friends are quitting. My 2 RL friends whom I play with have not logged onto TOR for a week and we have all been playing different single player games or other older MMOs (no not that one we left 2 years ago) as we BS on Vent.

 

That is 3 subs right there they are losing and we are big SW fans and vet MMOers. When I see tons of people who see the same problems, it isn't hard to imagine the player base falling to 500K or less within the next 3 months. I wonder how many of the 1.3 mil subs are just waiting for their time to run out like myself.

 

That being said, my friends and I are leaving for the reason that the game is just not conducive to grouping as you level BECAUSE, ironically, of it's biggest strength...the deep class story lines. When you have to skip from one class story arc to another, and then another, it affects the overall immersion as you get taken off track of your story and makes the leveling in group feel clumsy and disjointed. It's too bad because we were absolutely looking forward to the heavy story telling and LOVE that aspect. It looked great on paper but it just didn't work out for us in actual game play and I doubt that this is not something that can be realistically changed.

 

Also, the regular world content is just way too easy with a group of TWO let alone three which makes for boring adventuring to say the least. We literally pull 3 camps at a time just out of sheer boredom...

 

In the meantime, we will be checking in from time to time in the hopes that much needed improvements are made and will return if we think that it's worth giving it another shot. We've been here since launch (and one of my friends since closed Beta) but as the game stands right now, we feel that we are being charged $15/mo to play a single player RPG with multiplayer elements that do not even quite work well and not the MMO that it is supposed to be.

 

We really want to see this game work out so that we will be inclined to return so that we can have a fun immersion filled Star Wars experience we were expecting.

[AbakZet]

All I have to say is "HERE, HERE" .... Nicely written. Well done, WELL done.

[RKLimes]

Nicely done.

 

Thanks for your effort!

[DarthVitrial]

I agree with all the points made by the OP. *applauds*

I sincerely hope BW is reading this.

[Monave]

I agree with all the points made by the OP. *applauds*

I sincerely hope BW is reading this.

 

According to some other people on another post, this would be considered QQing and the OP should just shut the hell up and enjoy the game....no really.

 

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=448846

[netskink]

reserved to read some more.

[Zxae]

It is nice to see someone put a lot of time and thought into a game that has a lot of worth. If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have written all that great input. I agree with the vast majority of what you wrote. It was a bit verbose for the average forums head bobber; most responders get their kick out of tearing you a new one without any of their own original input. Thanks to most responders for keeping it real.

 

Q SELECTION: Big agreement that we need a Q system for Flashpoints and other in game events like War Zones that allows you to pick your event or Zone.

 

WAR ZONES: We have to have a tier system. (You promised!) Right now a new DPS 50 consistently earns Zero points across the board after fighting his brains out because he is out geared. SWTOR, you have to deliver. People are quitting over this or just building alts in hope it will change by the time they make 50.

 

OPEN PVP: I like the OPEN PVP Tatooine concept, but the incentive to come there and fight is simply not there. We need to get VALOR, EXPERIENCE and Drops or COIN for open PVP kills. Boxes on Tat need to consistently drop 20 Warzone Commendations or more! not one commendation.

OPEN PVP RECOMMENDATION: . Make more OPEN PVP Zones and Tier the Open PVP zones based on VALOR Level. If the boxes are there and they have 20 or more warzone commendations THEY WILL COME! iLUM would then have some use... and it's an easy fix. My buddies constantly say I just want to find someone out there and kill them. DUH! That’s what PVPers want! Give me an adreline pumping moment!

 

CROSS-SERVER: To fix Q selection for Flash Points, War Zones and Open PVP, guys we do either need fewer servers or Cross Server Q’s. This is rapidly becoming a necessity. I know it is a departure from the original plan, and will stress some servers more, but please most are here for fun PVP. No one likes to wait hours just to have their Tail handed to them.

 

ECONOMY: I need an item. I go to the Galactic Trading Center. It is not there. As a matter of fact there is hardly anything there. OUCH! There is little or no trade economy. I have checked 12 Servers and it is the same… little or no trade economy. I have a Master’s in Business with a focus in Economics. I know SWTOR wants it… but remember all Government can do is create the conditions for a free economy. We need those conditions. Allow us to make more stuff that has actual in game value!

ECONOMY RECOMMENDATION: Patterns for all levels of PVP gear. All of them! All of it. Here’s how:

1) Drop the patterns in OPEN PVP Kills or in War Zone Kills. Random, not every time. Say one drop every 100 kills. The body lays there for one minute or until it is looted.

2) Require a Hard Mode or Nightmare Flash Point Final Boss Drop that gives a unique component to make the gear or a weapon. Nightmare for the best. Hard Mode for the rest.

3) There is a lot of gear out there and a lot of required pieces this is a slow stimulus but it would be effective. Think game maker not game breaker. This would make crafting awesome! And, give hope to the zero rewards low gear PVPers are now burdened with.

 

WORLD EVENTS: Yes please more please.

 

SPACE COMBAT RECOMMENDATION:: Guild Ships that fight other guild ships.

1) Ship should require a crew of four, e.g. a pilot, an engineer and two gunners.

2) Ship drops loot when destroyed! There might even be a battle over the loot!

3) Allow us to outfit our ship based on Combat participation (just like 1 point, 2 point rewards for PVP. Quests.)

4) Give us something to fight for in space!

5) this would work for Walkers in a PVP Zone as well... You can do it!

 

I will play this game for a long time, if my friends continue to play. As it stands four of my gaming buddies have left. That leaves about half of us still here. I applaud all your hard work and the improvements you continue to make. The fixes the original poster made and my recommendations are for the most part possible positive fixes for a very good game. You captured our imagination. You hit on a need that Star Wars fans have! Now is the time for a few more bold steps! Take us to the Stars!

Edited May 14, 2012 by Zxae

[TheBBP]

No offense OP, but none of these suggestions are new. It seems like you c/p, then reformatted other posts on this site into a giant thread.

[LordMathys]

I just want to point out, that you don't speak for all of us. To your points about raiding - I most certainly do NOT want 32 or 40 man raid content. It's hard enough to get 8 people together (I don't do PUG ops, I'm not that kind of player) to do a raid, let another 4 or 5 times that amount.

 

A game I'm paying for, I should be able to see the content the devs have created for me. What you are suggesting is that certain content should be gated and practically inaccessible for the casual/small guild player.

 

We all have opinions, but don't act like you are the definitive source of what absolutely has to be done to SWTOR to ensure its continued success. So far, I'm enjoying the Star Wars MMO. However, I wouldn't enjoy YOUR Star Wars MMO.

[mhsiao]

I dunno why you use 200 million when it was suppose to be fake information. Is TOR dying? I dunno but I do know a lot of problem are created by player them-selves but them blame game company.

 

It is always the same circle for mmo now. New game (expansion) release, players went nut and consume all the content in 2 months. Than they will complain how bad that game is and they have nothing to do and quit. They will come back when next content patch (expansion) hit and burn out again. It is endless circle.

 

There are also players whom would take a 3 or 4 days off from their work / school, so them can be the first one to hit max level. (Seriously those people need help if they take a vacation to just play video games. They are also the people who complain everything on forum.)

 

I lost several "friends" when Cata release . They would stay awake 48 hrs to hit 85, than they will the first one to chain run heroic with that small group of players. However they will not help others to gear up later on because they are sick of those heroic already and mad at others whom just hit 85 for not having have enough gear to raid. Players whom can't take their time off from their work/school felt betrayed than quit. Those "hardcore" players can't find consist raid memeber will either quit or transfer to another server to find a raid spot. Heavy server become med, med server become light than light server become dead.

 

Anyway...

 

LFG system:

 

It is players' fault ( Ninja, elitist and bully..etc) but WOW lfg system aloen with their paid service did destroyed wow community.

 

I enjoy my playing at rep side as 99% of people are friendly and helpful while IMP side were just brute. (Since majority of ex-wow player are playing imp side.

 

BTW, Blizzard is doing cross-server zone in Panda beta. I suppose player will want cross-server planet in tor as well. If that is the case why not just merge all the servers as one.

 

PvP Arenas

 

God.. Please no.. It will no longer about player but about the class combo. 3 v 3 you say? Does pally, warrior and death knight combo ring a bell?

 

Reputations

 

Terrible idea. You can't be serious that you want Reputation grid in TOR. Rep grid and daily is the only way blizzard can keep casual play the game.

Edited May 14, 2012 by mhsiao

[Monave]

No offense OP, but none of these suggestions are new. It seems like you c/p, then reformatted other posts on this site into a giant thread.

 

Even if that is what the OP essentially did, I think it's great to have it all in one single thread so it makes it easier for all to see.

[Kakgumu]

I honestly don't read these forums much at all. I am quite sure that many, if not all, of the ideas and/or points I've raised may also have been raised by others. I am equally sure that there are 10x more issues and ideas on these forums that I don't think are pressing, critical issues and are not included in my letter.

 

And, as LordMathys pointed out, I most certainly am NOT speaking for anyone other than myself. I thought that being a forum post by an individual that this fact was self-evident. Trust me, I'm not speaking for you or anyone other than myself. I suspect that most folks will agree with some of my points, and disagree with others. But, my opinions are my own and these posts are a reflection of what I feel are the most critical areas of the game right now.

 

Kak

Edited May 14, 2012 by Kakgumu

[Jebei]

I don't know that I agree with that. It's been well reported that Bioware spent $200+ Million dollars on SWTOR and that they NEED to maintain about 3,000,000 subscribers for the first year to recoup their money let alone turn a profit. At this point, I think the accountants at EA are in a near panic. There's blood in the water and everyone knows it. There are entire guilds...successful guilds, who just picked up and left wholesale in the past 2 weeks for Tera. Must folks are just not re-subbing because the things they've come to EXPECT in a polished MMO are simply either not there or non-functional.

 

Kak

 

I think your numbers are way off. The box price of the game was $60 at launch and with 2.4 million sold and most people subscribed for a few months I bet they've paid off most of their initial investment. I'd bet the break even on monthly operating costs is close to 500-750k subscriptions and when they approach that level they will save money by closing servers. If subscriptions continue to fall, the real savings will happen when they start firing developers and when/if that happens this game is past the point of saving. I do agree with much of your sentiment though.

 

I honestly am starting to think they launched early because they knew last summer they had a dog and with little competition in December they launched only to recoup their investment. They couldn't do that this summer vs Diablo/Tera/Secret World or this fall vs Pandaria. It's too bad EA did this as they've tarnished one of the best brands names in gaming history. I know I will never give my blind faith to either company again.

Edited May 14, 2012 by Jebei