It's Been Over a Year Now and It Feels Like This Game Still Lacks Direction

[Talon_strikes]

I was having a discussion about this with two of my buddies in-game. What the title says is what it feels like to me. I mean, sure FTP has definitely improved this game by a lot but there are still areas that are lackluster; that this game has missed the mark in some areas, and by a long shot in others. I'm really not sure how to structure this thread, but I'll try my best and see what constructive criticism I can put in.

 

Since EA are the publishers here, they're the ones making many of the calls in terms of profitability, and I believe that's really all they focus on. I feel like they're coercing BioWare to make all these Cartel Market patches, while BioWare could be giving some more love to PvP and maybe even PvE. Hell, story definitely needs to be added in there! As much as I dislike PvE and don't bother with leveling other characters, they should really focus on a lot of the stuff they said they were going to deliver during pre-launch—like the part about feeling "Heroic", and not this... especially not any of

. Please—look at both those links. It's worth it. It'll explain a lot.

 

There are still players to this day that feel like they're not getting that "Heroic" content that BioWare said they'd deliver—and I agree with them too. These "[Heroic]" missions aren't really heroic, either. Played them many times while leveling my two main characters. Found them tolerable with my first character, and found them absolutely boring and grindy the second time. Also, you can make more credits and obtain more items to vendor by doing many of the solo missions instead of waiting to try and create a group (especially if it's a 4-man), then head off to the area, clear the mission, and then return back to the quest-giver. Okay—I know it doesn't sound that long but trust me, it really does and it was excruciatingly painful for those PvE players trying to do this back in the day in the dead servers. These [Heroic] missions are just completely unnecessary, and to some of us, grindy and boring.

 

Previously, I did say I'm not a PvE player and I don't level my other alts. Well that's because I'm a PvP player. PvP really isn't getting the love it needs. There are so many definitive issues about PvP EAWare is not addressing, and it's sickening to let the smash monkeys and uber bursting PTs/VGs run around while all the other classes get slaughtered. I'm a smash monkey, and the TTK it takes me to kill players of many classes is absolutely ridiculous. Too fast and too easy. The class itself is way too easy to play, too.

 

But also, PvE isn't really getting that much love either. Still—the pace of the content that is being delivered is pretty slow considering you guys—EAWare—said that content would be released every 6 weeks(?). Correct me if I'm wrong, but yeah. The Ops (from what I've heard) are too easy and there's no challenge in them after 2 or 3 tries, and doing the HM FPs and Ops that have been out for several months gets repetitive and grindy. The PvP is a lot more lackluster, in my opinion. Only 5 Warzones? That's like, almost 2 map packs for First-Person Shooters (3 for each one), and I should mention that Novare Coast was released in April (4 months after release) while Ancient Hypergate was released in December (8 months after Novare and a year after the game came out). OPvP hasn't been meaningful since the Rakghoul Plague event, and I don't even want to rant about how useless the Outlaw's Den is or the Western Ice Shelf on Ilum. That last event for Ilum didn't even improve OPvP. Just a bunch of PvE dailies in a PvP area. Section X 2.0.

 

Additionally, looking at the Unsubscriber's Thread lets me see that the game isn't losing as many players as it used to, especially now since the "FTP hype" has ended and the game has found its niche. But look—EAWare shouldn't have been trying to gain new players because they should have been trying to keep their old ones in the first place. By keeping their old players, they'd be helping themselves because these players they'd try to retain would be telling their friends to come join the game, and their friends would be doing the same thing, and so-on and so-forth. The game is pretty stable now, but I always wonder if we're going to have a dip in players again. And I shall elaborate on this.

 

Really, all I feel that is getting the TLC is the Cartel Market. I've been gifted items from there, but I have my Cartel Coins sitting there. They aren't being used... for nothing in the CM. Even though I'm a subber getting these "free" Cartel Coins, I refused to be milked. The items in the CM aren't even worth it anyways. Now something like this would probably be one of the ONLY few things I'd be happy to buy, but as for everything else, it can all burn in... well, you get it already.

 

Yes, I do like the game. I will gladly continue to support it for $77.94 every six months, but please EAWare, start listening to the community more and pave some path for this game already. I'm sick and tired of the CM updates. I could care less for something that sells trinkets I'd never use, and I believe that the extreme prioritization of the CM could be something that will make this game lose players in the future (me elaborating on the CM).

 

Tl;dr – Go to the top of this thread and read this sh... bantha poodoo.

Edited March 8, 2013 by HomicidalWhales

[DarthTHC]

Every promise they ever made went out the window with the f2p announcement, then a few while they were figuring out f2p went out the window too.

 

But the most interesting thing about your post, to me, anyway, is that you seem to equate "heroic" with "getting a crapton of credits and stuff to vendor". LOL?

[Kubernetic]

It should be quite clear to most anyone actually investigating this that the Rise of the Hutt Cartel storyline was in process way before this game launched in December 2011.

 

Seems to me they're still following the same basic direction, although it's taken a minor detour with the Cartel Market.

[Talon_strikes]

Every promise they ever made went out the window with the f2p announcement, then a few while they were figuring out f2p went out the window too.

It's what it seems to be. Pretty sad, really. I just wonder how many players will leave after all they see is just CM updates.

 

But the most interesting thing about your post, to me, anyway, is that you seem to equate "heroic" with "getting a crapton of credits and stuff to vendor". LOL?

It's not. It's just a poor transition in my writing! The credits and gray items to vendor is just to show how completely unnecessary the [Heroic] missions are to this game. I have not done them in forever (except the Black Hole and SecX ones).

[Talon_strikes]

It should be quite clear to most anyone actually investigating this that the Rise of the Hutt Cartel storyline was in process way before this game launched in December 2011.

 

Seems to me they're still following the same basic direction, although it's taken a minor detour with the Cartel Market.

Not sure. Didn't really occur to me. I mean, EAWare still has a lot more things to deliver other than some random planet that they really haven't been releasing lots of info on. I would have pre-ordered it, but couldn't during the time.

 

And saying they've taken a "minor detour" is an understatement.

[TUXs]

It should be quite clear to most anyone actually investigating this that the Rise of the Hutt Cartel storyline was in process way before this game launched in December 2011.

 

Seems to me they're still following the same basic direction, although it's taken a minor detour with the Cartel Market.

 

I agree, I too think RotHC was well underway long before launch...which makes me wonder - how many programmers do they actually have working on "projects"? I'd really like to know how many "teams" they have - Events, PvP, Ops, FPs, Daily's, Space (...), SSP. Do they share the same art department? Does the Cartel Market take time away from the art department or is there a separate CM team?

 

As far as direction, I don't know how you can claim it's still the same?! We started off with story story story...that's certainly not the direction the game has continued in, as we've gone over a year with no additional class story at all, nor will there be one in RotHC.

 

I love this game, but I tend to agree that there's a massive lack of direction, lack of focus and a lack of coordination amongst teams.

[Urael]

Additionally, looking at the Unsubscriber's Thread let's me see that the game isn't losing as many players as it used to, especially now since the "FTP hype" has ended and the game has found its niche. But look—EAWare shouldn't have been trying to gain new players because they should have been trying to keep their old ones in the first place. By keeping their old players, they'd be helping themselves because these players they'd try to retain would be telling their friends to come join the game, and their friends would be doing the same thing, and so-on and so-forth. The game is pretty stable now, but I always wonder if we're going to have a dip in players again. And I shall elaborate on this.

 

They lost me. CE owner, 1st day of early access, and Star Wars Fan since 1977. This game is a PoS period. Lack luster and unchallenging. So broken in so many ways ( as I have detailed elsewhere ). It "had so much potential" but, it was rushed to market by a greedy holding company that is only concerned with short term profits. Sure it will continue to get the casuals and "non-gamers" of today that pose as gamers but, anyone worth their salt will stay away from SWTOR and play a game that is more challenging, less bug ridden, and has a company that actually cares about their product enough to put out a quality product and not just something to suck in the newbs and posers and fleece them of their cash.

 

 

I've been gifted items from there, but I have my Cartel Coins sitting there. They aren't being used... for nothing in the CM. Even though I'm a subber getting these "free" Cartel Coins, I refused to be milked. The items in the CM aren't even with it anyways.

 

Indeed. I haven't spent a single cartel coin and never will.

 

5 more days ...

 

[Talon_strikes]

They lost me. CE owner, 1st day of early access, and Star Wars Fan since 1977. This game is a PoS period. Lack luster and unchallenging. So broken in so many ways ( as I have detailed elsewhere ). It "had so much potential" but, it was rushed to market by a greedy holding company that is only concerned with short term profits. Sure it will continue to get the casuals and "non-gamers" of today that pose as gamers but, anyone worth their salt will stay away from SWTOR and play a game that is more challenging, less bug ridden, and has a company that actually cares about their product enough to put out a quality product and not just something to suck in the newbs and posers and fleece them of their cash.

 

Come back now some day, okay? Maybe when 2.1 or 2.2 releases? I know for me, 1.4 was a patch I dreaded not only because of the Resolve changes, but because my graphical performance dropped for PvP.

[Jack_Deth]

They lost me. CE owner, 1st day of early access, and Star Wars Fan since 1977. This game is a PoS period. Lack luster and unchallenging. So broken in so many ways ( as I have detailed elsewhere ). It "had so much potential" but, it was rushed to market by a greedy holding company that is only concerned with short term profits. Sure it will continue to get the casuals and "non-gamers" of today that pose as gamers but, anyone worth their salt will stay away from SWTOR and play a game that is more challenging, less bug ridden, and has a company that actually cares about their product enough to put out a quality product and not just something to suck in the newbs and posers and fleece them of their cash.

 

 

 

 

Indeed. I haven't spent a single cartel coin and never will.

 

5 more days ...

 

 

It took your 15 months to realize the game wasn't for you?

[Talon_strikes]

It took your 15 months to realize the game wasn't for you?

It's not that "the game wasn't for him". He really liked the game pre-1.4, and trust me that I can vouch for that. TUXs and I used to have some quarrels with him concerning the state of the game back in the day. He was a lot more positive than the both of us. 1.4 and beyond changed a lot of things for him. I can relate to that too, on a performance- and content-based level.

Edited March 8, 2013 by HomicidalWhales

[Jacen_Starsolo]

They lost me. CE owner, 1st day of early access, and Star Wars Fan since 1977. This game is a PoS period. Lack luster and unchallenging. So broken in so many ways ( as I have detailed elsewhere ). It "had so much potential" but, it was rushed to market by a greedy holding company that is only concerned with short term profits. Sure it will continue to get the casuals and "non-gamers" of today that pose as gamers but, anyone worth their salt will stay away from SWTOR and play a game that is more challenging, less bug ridden, and has a company that actually cares about their product enough to put out a quality product and not just something to suck in the newbs and posers and fleece them of their cash.

 

 

 

 

Indeed. I haven't spent a single cartel coin and never will.

 

5 more days ...

 

 

Can I have your stuff?

[DarthTHC]

It's not that "the game wasn't for him". He really liked the game pre-1.4, and trust me that I can vouch for that. TUXs and I used to have some quarrels with him concerning the state of the game back in the day. He was a lot more positive than the both of us. 1.4 and beyond changed a lot of things for him. I can relate to that too, on a performance- and content-based level.

 

Hehe, yeah, Urael was a hardcore fanboy. Now he's gone.

 

He didn't do that to himself; the game did it to him. Definitely an indictment of what's happened to the game in the last year.

[Jacen_Starsolo]

Hehe, yeah, Urael was a hardcore fanboy. Now he's gone.

 

He didn't do that to himself; the game did it to him. Definitely an indictment of what's happened to the game in the last year.

 

Seriously. That's why it's such news to me that he's going that I asked for his stuff. He probably has some good stuff since he was once a huge fan of the game and not some guy who just played for a weekend and rage quit.

[Zsavooz]

Can I have your stuff?

 

wow! seriously?

[Talon_strikes]

wow! seriously?

Think about it. It was about to come up eventually.

 

[Rabenschwinge]

Hm. When I first saw the title I thought: Yet another complaint thread.

Unfortunately, the OP is perfectly right, even though my preference is much less the end game content... I've just stopped thinking about it and accepted it as a given. But I was deeply disappointed when I was invited in the last few betas and saw what their heroic combat truly was. When I first tried out end game PvE and started fighting SOAs legs it didn't make it much better. It's a shame. Unfortunately it's also the only Star Wars MMO out there as well.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Rabenschwinge

[Talon_strikes]

Hehe, yeah, Urael was a hardcore fanboy. Now he's gone.

 

He didn't do that to himself; the game did it to him. Definitely an indictment of what's happened to the game in the last year.

I tried not using the term "fanboy" as in the past I've gotten in trouble for using it. Wish I could delve more into it but I can't. But yeah, sad to see a player that was really dedicated to the growth of this game now move on to greener pastures.

[Talon_strikes]

Hm. When I first saw the title I thought: Yet another complaint thread.

Unfortunately, the OP is perfectly right. I've just stopped thinking about it and accepted it as a given. But I was deeply disappointed when I was invited in the last few betas and saw what their heroic combat truly was. When I first tried out end game PvE and started fighting SOAs legs it didn't make it much better. It's a shame. Unfortunately it's also the only Star Wars MMO out there as well.

One of the few reasons why I play this game is because it's Star Wars, despite it feeling like "WoW in space". It's also the closest thing I can get to Battlefront III.

 

But back on-topic—just look at what TUXs said. The BioWare devs went on zealously about the Story and how that was going to be their biggest focus. That "fourth pillar" really has been ignored, and won't see the light of day for a long, long time.

 

And oh god, don't get me started with the Operations! I did raid a while back with an old guild I used to GM, and I really didn't feel any sense of "heroicness" fighting many of the boss encounters. (LOL about the comment of Soa's legs )

Edited March 8, 2013 by HomicidalWhales

[Illyean]

I suspect that there was content for up to level 60 more or less coded well before launch, but they hit a point of no end in sight for the money sink that badly managed development turns into and cut things short at a reasonable 50 levels, those they had voiced and could more or less tie off neatly with chapter 3. This wouldn't be unusual for any game development at all imo. The post launch plan would be to add more patch content, FP's, OP's and WZ's with events while finishing off the 10 levels they had almost in the bag.

 

Then EA pulled the money away based on the sales and retention and they were left with nowhere near enough resource to continue with the plan, of what was left I think a lot would have been put onto F2P very soon after launch, something its likely was always on the cards but probably 18 months out from launch, not 11. I think there is a chapter 4 class story but its not done, voicing is missing, so they have bundled up 5 levels of it as RotHC and they are pushing it out for £$20 where as I think the original plan would have been 2 planets, story, voice, 10 levels, Q4 2013 for $50

 

all pure speculation of course and not to say that what we have now is not good, it is, of course its lacking hugely in many areas and the pace of development has visibly been very slow, but that may appear to improve over the next 12 months as they become more focussed on being a smaller scale endeavour than they started out trying to be and now that they are rid of some of the lunatics who almost wrecked the train at the start.

 

I'm having some fun, I like the sound of 2.0, I hate the bugs, I think the lack of content is poor but it will improve and I'm hopeful they will keep things going for it to be fun, if not well, its a game, it wont be the last one to use this IP and with new movies coming out (IMo a huge risk for EAWare using the IP) there are a lot of possibilities for the future.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Illyean

[Urael]

It's not that "the game wasn't for him". He really liked the game pre-1.4, and trust me that I can vouch for that. TUXs and I used to have some quarrels with him concerning the state of the game back in the day. He was a lot more positive than the both of us. 1.4 and beyond changed a lot of things for him. I can relate to that too, on a performance- and content-based level.

 

I LOVED this game. I LOVED the potential. I waited for this game since it was first announced. I plunked down my $150 the first day the CE was available. I talked this game up to everyone I knew. I took off work for early access. Heck, I stayed home the first year instead of going on any Christmas Vacation to play that first month. I next to never slept those first few months of the game. I was hooked. You can not know how angy I am that this game has turned into the POS that it is today. 1.4 was the beginning of the end for me and each subsequent month yielded more disapointment. I. LOVED. This. Game. No longer.

[AlaricSevGirl]

Sure it will continue to get the casuals and "non-gamers" of today that pose as gamers but, anyone worth their salt will stay away from SWTOR

 

You just insulted me and a whole entire set of gamers. I am no where near casual and was on my way to getting all my war hero gear before I took a break and lost my security key and my account. Not to mention, what the hell is a non gamer. If you play a game, you are a gamer. I say good bye to you, don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out.

[maxetius]

what the hell is a non gamer.

 

Just some pretentious garbage 'insult' that has absolutely no real meaning.

Edited March 8, 2013 by maxetius

[Urael]

Just some pretentious garbage 'insult' that has absolutely no real meaning.

 

A non-gamer is someone that plays games because it's the current trend or fad. That is what "gaming" is like today. This form of entertainment has become mainstreamed and "acceptable". There was a time when gaming was not acceptable and one was looked down upon for gaming. The upside of the mainstreamining is that gamers are nolonger ostracized; the down side is that games have become too easy for gamers. Games have been dumbed down to the common demoninator. So non-gamers are fad players because "gaming is the current in thing". After the lot of these type of "gamers" leaves hopefully games will improve again. Most people are lazy imnsho, they will seek the easy path. If presented with a challenge they will complain because "it's too hard" instead of trying to figure a way around the challenge. We are seeing this reflected in how trivial games are today ( especially SWTOR ). If you are "good at SWTOR" that doesn't mean you are "good at gaming". You are just good a SWTOR, a game with is trivial by comparison to many of it's competitors.

Edited March 8, 2013 by Urael

[translucentwolf]

the mainstreamining

 

Yes, the Mainstreamining. Much like the De-Subbing of some members, it is something that will be remembered. Always.

[Urael]

Yes, the Mainstreamining. Much like the De-Subbing of some members, it is something that will be remembered. Always.

 

Reported. Stalking in the forums is against the rules. Purposely going into other threads just in an attempt to engage in a flame war. Again, enjoy your ban.