Makeb shows why continuing class stories are necessary

[SilentKitty]

/signed. Agree we need more class stories and COMPANION interactions of a meaningful quality, not just the odd 'tour guide' comment.

 

Jupp, this is what i need the most from the game right now. Keeping all my fingers crossed for something new with classes and companions.

[SW_display_name]

Agreed. I'd be Ok with class stories being completely fluff, no leveling, no XP, no gear (maybe some cosmetic oranges) and entirely paid DLC. I'd be fine with that. Of course, it'd be against what they've promised in the past, but I'd rather pay money than never get any more class quests.

I just don't care. I think this company has made brazenly clear what our relationship with them is — we like the setting and presentation of their product and find it fun to play; they see us as delicious juicy roast hams ripe for consumption. It's like a "strictly sex" relationship where neither person has any illusions about the deeper feelings of the other.

 

Given that, I'm really not concerned about violated promises or whatever. Give me more class stories and I'm happy, because right now this is the most entertaining twist on the MMO formula I've come across.

 

You want me to pay $20 per chapter per class from now on? FINE. I hate you, but fine. Just let me see what happens next, instead of teasing all these threads 1-50 and then just dropping it with an "oh, well, we downsized."

 

What I'm trying to make clear here, is that there's a market for continued Class Stories, even if that has to be a "market" and not something provided as part of the default game package from 50 forward. They should think about that, before throwing that potential away completely.

Edited May 20, 2013 by SW_display_name

[Feztonio]

Yes, class stories will be necessary to continue this game for years to come. This expansion took most people less than a week to do the main storyline. That will not suffice for keeping people engaged for years like an MMO is supposed to.

 

agreed.

the story took myself a few days the first time through. for my 5th time through it the other day I met a guy right upon landing on makeb and we did that first heroic-4 mission (savage skies) and got on well enough, so we just 2 man'd the Makeb content start to finish and it took us maybe between 3 and 4 hours or so over 2 nights. we hard charged 50 to 55 between our makeb co-op, and a few WZ's and a FP' or 2.

 

I really missed the variation in the class stories and how it didn't feel like a leveling grind. not sure what they can do, but the 1-50 experience is amazing compared to any other mmo out there, or the 50 to 55 generic thing on makeb

[Pompeia]

I completely agree with this

 

/signed

[Copperheadr]

Makeb was probably the last content that was done with the team they fired.

The skeleton crew they have now will just churn Cartel stuff and maybe another corridor DLC with another 5 levels to make all grinded gear irrelevant again and restart the carrot hunt.

[chuuuuucky]

Well i could probably live without class storys as long as they decide to put the extra work into the game and make it less linear.

So for example we have a main string that has severel sidequests which are activated by dark or bright side, or who you are. (both combined)

It doesn't have to be that much but enough so you feel the story goes in a totally other direction because of who you are and how you behave.

To be honest i was hoping that they do something like that with Makeb when they talked about a new leveling experience so it was kind of a let down for me. I now have my imp char on the way to 55 and somehow i managed to bring 2 reps thru makeb. But whatever will come after, my guess is that it's better to do leveleing thru pvp, fps and ops.

Class story however would be the best solution to this after all.

[Zuntrios]

Class Story, and decent PvP were the only things that made this game better than WoW for me. Well, now I've run all the class stories on Imp side, some of them twice, from the viewpoint of both a Dark Side, and Light Side character. I completely ignored the planet quests, because, let's be honest... A quest is a quest is a quest. Go here, kill that, collect this, return to me. When you make one unified impersonal quest line, I just don't care. The exciting thing about personal story lines is that it affected my character personally. The entire universe revolved around my individual actions. That's something you don't get in a generic quest. You're just a dog. Go fetch THIS, because we're too incompetent/lazy/stupid to do it ourselves.

 

But that's really what Makeb is. Nothing feels special. There's no little nooks and crannies that only your class can enter, everyone gets the same group phases, and there's nothing actually important to YOUR CHARACTER. Oh, your the Emperor's Wrath? That's nice. Do the same job we hired this Bounty Hunter for. Or "Darth Nox! Please assist this Agent in destroying three of these hovertanks that are just standing around in a field." It's not engaging in the least.

 

I won't go into how I feel about PvP. A single look at the PvP forums is all it takes to see what's going on there. Nor will I go into details about all the other things that have just made this expansion a disappointment to me personally. We all have our own opinions, and I'll respect those of everyone around me. If you're having fun, that's great. Keep having fun. But for me? I'm not. And unless 2.2 has something that completely knocks my socks off? Well... It was fun while it lasted.

[Rashanda]

Well its marketed as a "Story driven" MMORPG. It would be sad if they were to completely abandon the class stories as they did in Rise of the Hutt Cartel. BRING IT BACK!

[OwnerJord]

I'm hoping they're going to announce direct class story expansions at E3. I'll pay ful game price if it means a good amount of extensions for all classes (and then bring in new planets via patch before the expansion is released)

 

Makeb was enjoyable on my Sith Juggernaut, I was disappointed I couldn't put Darth Marr (If that's spelt right) in his place. Definitely deserved it with all the attitude he was giving. I'm doing it for the first time on republic side, but I think once I've done it one time republic side, I'm just going to bypass it in the future.

 

But I'll be holding out for an announce concerning class story expansion. I want to see my Jedi Knight travel with Revan to places of the past. I want to see my Sith Juggernaut battle Satele Shan. Not to kill her, just perhaps a battle where it demoralizes her and we see more of the humanity in Satele, and less Jedi. With the money they're no doubt making from Cartel Market, here's hoping they announce something soon.

[MickyJuulke]

Agreed.

 

I'm a reasonably new player, have finished 4 class stories so far and only, a juggernaut, is at lvl 55. I love that class, but there is little to nothing left I want to do on that class. I did the group and raiding thing to death in other games, it holds little appeal to me now.

So, 4 more class stories and I'll prolly go look somewhere else.

 

Also, the very concept of dailies was imho the worst concept ever added to MMOs.

[Sziroten]

The biggest flaw in their advertising was that they said... here look, we've got an amazing story arc for either side but they somehow "missed" the planet arc which we have for EVERY other planet next to our class story. So while the story itself is not bad... they cut off class stories completely and just made a more interesting "planet arc". Way to advertise when you actually cut a hugh part away. I'm not holding my breath for the future... latest when I finished leveling all my 14 characters to lvl 14 I may just not bother to play anymore because just new flashpoints/ operations which add another level of grind each time isn't going to cut it. I did it for years in EQ2, won't do it again.

[Kontraz]

/signed

 

class stories are pretty much all I do in terms of PVE, apart from flashpoints. I did the imp/rep planetaries once all the way through, so I know the overarching story from both sides. Nothing new to discover except some tedious side quests I skipped (oh, you need more help retrieving x items of y type from mob z? okay!) I am in the middle of my 4th character, and I have to say - that is what I love about this game above all. Eseentially now, I do my class quests, all the while siting in both a group finder queue and a warzone queue. Doing both of those usually keeps me around the proper level, and if I ever lag behind, I can pick up a few random quests to get me back on track.

 

but yes, in short, class quests are the heart of this game. they've made that clear from early development. We want/need more if this game is going to continue to survive.

[Master-Nala]

If it weren't for PvP, I would sadly probably already be gone. I'm in the process of leveling all 16 ACs and I only have 5 left who haven't completed their class story. Like a poster above stated, I will never get back into the boring PvE grind. I would rather play solitaire on my phone. While I hope for new class stories, my fear is that they will never be forthcoming.

 

A faction-specific story is realistically all I hope for. But what bothers me more than that is that realistically, the stories that Makeb offers are too small for our characters. These characters are the strongest folks in the galaxy. Makeb felt like an arc for someone in Chapter 2, established but not yet a mover and shaker. Take the Inquisitor. She has entire fleets at her disposal, an entire arm of the Imperial apparatus at her beck and call. The Makeb story-line is plainly beneath her. This is something that she would have sent Ashara or Xalek to handle while she did something more important.

 

I think that's the joy and the failure of the class stories. By the end of Chapter 3, these characters are people of monumental importance. It's why raiding seems particularly silly to me in this game. Most of the bosses should be soloable by lore. And it's also why creating a class story that competes with:

 

 

Destroying the Emperor

Become the Emperor's personal assassin and foiling a plot by your former Master to take control of the Empire

Defeating a network of sleeper agents and their Jedi Council leader

Stop the Space Illuminati...

 

 

It's going to be difficult.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Master-Nala

[Sejdr]

As totally new to this game with a lvl 20 and a lvl 13 toon i sign aswell - the storyline is equal to immersion and what got me hooked on this game!

 

Instead build on your strength - evolve the storyline!

[Lesaberisa]

Agreed completely with this.

 

I wasn't a fan of the Republic-side of the story, while I liked the Imperial side just fine, but wasn't overly impressed. The problem is that, without the class story to get immersed in, the story experience is (as people have said) basically the exact same. I don't consider having my knight and trooper being referred to slightly differently only once in a while to be a difference worth noting, and at this point I'm not sure when I'll build up the interest to do it all again.

 

Or take my friend who I got to resub in preparation for Rise....we leveled new characters together, but he actively disliked the Republic story, which killed off a lot of his interest in leveling Republic toons in general.

 

If I'd liked the planet story more, maybe it could have stretched things out a bit, but without the more 'personal level' you get with class stories/companion quests/companion interactions, this game increasingly feels like "WoW only in the Star Wars universe", and I play this game specifically because I want a different experience than that.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Lesaberisa

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

/signed

 

Makeb story was good, but it really wasn't that much different than a normal planet arc except for the fact that you didn't have class story to go with it. It also makes alt running more tedious.

[DARTHOSIRUS]

well if they take that route i know they will lose my money. i won't even bother with going to prefered i will just walk away from the game altogether.

 

Considering no other mmorpg out there offers individual class stories with voiceover I'd say 8 class stories lvl 1-50 is not a bad deal. I actually tried going back to WoW and level a monk but it was tedious. Back in the day it was the only kind of leveling I knew but with swtor the leveling is much more immersive experience even repeating a lot of the planet quests is fine to. It would be nice if they continued the individual class stories but that probably is unlikely now especially since swtor went f2p. I don't mind the faction stories. Not a dealbreaker for me. Makeb was fun and if you play each faction story once it does somewhat feel like an individual class story, but no so much if you have several alts. They should release these mini expansion at least every 6 months. Hopefully they will expand with more planets from the kotor series like Dantoine, Manaan, Kashyk, etc. I still suspect they will continue class stories at least one more time, but probably won't be for years to come.

Edited May 20, 2013 by DARTHOSIRUS

[DARTHOSIRUS]

Well its marketed as a "Story driven" MMORPG. It would be sad if they were to completely abandon the class stories as they did in Rise of the Hutt Cartel. BRING IT BACK!

I suspect they will in time. If they are serious about a 10 year + run then its imperative they continue the stories. If subscription numbers stay healthy and the cartel market continues to rake in the dough. In theory lets say Bioware release a full expansion by Christmas that continues individual class stories and companion ones. That would be awesome but there would still be hella complaining on these forums. A lot of people with no lives will burn through the content in a week and say "Ok that's great what now?" It's so true. I remember all the hate in the forums jan. 2012 from bored lvl 50s ************ about not enough content. Edited May 20, 2013 by DARTHOSIRUS

[NeoElite]

I totally agree with this thread. First ever post on the forums just to say /signed!

 

I brought TOR for the story, for the intrigue, for the immersion and having my character go from a hated and scorned slave to one of the strongest Sith in the galaxy. It pulled me in and I never looked back.

Bioware = Good story.

 

TOR is the first MMO I've played where I felt like what I did actually mattered. I MADE that happen, or caused 'this' to happen, ect ect. Story content is a must! More story content needed! Let's see the further rise of Nox, or Cipher Nine or the Barsen'thor.

[Machine-Elf]

Really? I found it way under par than even most of the other planet stories. Correllia? better planet story. Voss? MUCH better planet story. Most planets had better planet stories than Makeb, while Makeb wasn't bad it doesn't even reach the top 5 for me in planet faction stories. The stories fit Trooper and Agent best... but that still doesn't make them agent or trooper class stories, but for those 2 classes it's at least satisfactory.. consular...knight...bounty hunter...not at all.

Did you love the Karate Kid growing up? Is Jade Empire close to being your favorite BioWare game? Did you actually like KOTOR 2 more than its predecessor? Is Yoda your favorite Star Wars character? Sorry, I'm trying to establish a link here.

Edited May 20, 2013 by Machine-Elf

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

/not signed

 

The not-class story in Makeb was better than any of the class-stories we got before.

 

I don't see how anyone can say that. Makeb's story was OK. Maybe a little above par, but certainly not better than any of the class stories. It probably beats a few of the bad ones: Bounty Hunter & Consular for example, but it's not even in the same weight class as Jedi Knight, Sith Warrior, Imperial Agent, Trooper, even Smuggler.

 

I also think a few of the pre-50 planet stories from launch were better than Makeb at the very least Imperial Taris.

[GiladXD]

/signed

[CommanderKeeva]

Class stories is the one redeeming quality this game has, the one thing that sets apart this MMO from all others on the market. Yeah, there is a fair amount of repetitiveness even with class stories (in fact I'd wager you have to repeat 99,99% of the quests) but still, everyone agrees that without class stories, replay appeal and initiative would fall faster than your subs after lunch. And no amount of VO is going to change that.

 

Speaking of which, I'd like to file an official complaint for the general lack of voiceovers and dialogues on Makeb. On previous planets, you could find 3-4 NPCs in each outpost you could talk to and receive 2-3 normal and usually 1 heroic quest. Now it's only a terminal at every outpost that offers 1 daily quest every day. Terminals for GSI missions. Terminals for staged weekly missions. WHERE ARE THE gosh darn NPCS YOU CAN CONVERSE WITH!?

 

Makeb is probably 10 times bigger than Ilum or Quesh, yet has tenth the dialogues and conversations available on those tiny planets. Not to mention starting planets. On Makeb, it's literally 30-40 minutes of mob grinding with 2 minutes of dialogues imposed in between here and there. I'd say that Makeb has the least replay value of all planets.

 

Do you know how many quests each faction got that has dialogue and is not part of the storyline (a.k.a you pick up from NPCs instead of automatically being given)? 4! Two normal quests and two heroics for each side. Jeez! Please don't exhaust yourselves recording so much dialogue....

 

So yeah where are the class stories? Where are the dialogues? I have to say, if other planets had been like Makeb, without class stories and 4 quest giving NPCs, the game would not have survived past it's first month...

Edited May 20, 2013 by CommanderKeeva

[Machine-Elf]

I don't see how anyone can say that. Makeb's story was OK. Maybe a little above par, but certainly not better than any of the class stories. It probably beats a few of the bad ones: Bounty Hunter & Consular for example, but it's not even in the same weight class as Jedi Knight, Sith Warrior, Imperial Agent, Trooper, even Smuggler.

 

I also think a few of the pre-50 planet stories from launch were better than Makeb at the very least Imperial Taris.

It's much better paced, for one. More focused. The way you're sent from place to place feels like a natural extension of the events taking place around you, making exploration tauter and seamlessly integrated into the story. Side-quests don't detract from the general experience by veering you off the central narrative: they're fewer, more condensed, and the ones that do exist are even careful to refer to the main story, so as to keep everything nice and centered.

Characters feel richer, more layered, their dialogue hinting at intriguing backstories which leave us curious to know more. The illusion of choice and consequence is better executed than in any of the preceding stories...

 

Need I go on...?

Edited May 20, 2013 by Machine-Elf

[Coldyce]

Regularly updating eight class stories across two factions with voiceover for player characters, key NPCs AND the total 40 companions just isn't scalable. We may get that once every three years (assuming the game lasts that long).

 

Faction-based stories on a single planet are more realistic but also repetitive after one playthrough on each side.

 

A potential middle ground: Future expansions split each faction story between Force users and non-Force users.

 

Jedi get their own story on the Rep side. Commandos and Smugglers get their own unique intro but then share a story,

 

Same goes for Sith and Agents/Bounty Hunters.

 

You could also get around the issue of adding dialogue for 40 companion characters by adding one new character for each of those four new stories.

 

This character would have a fixed personality but be adaptive for gameplay. Players could choose a Tank/DPS/Heal spec. Respeccing could be free first time, cost a large amount of credits thereafter, or a small amount of Cartel Coins. So BioWare have a chance to make money too.

 

TL;DR: Two new character arcs on each side of the conflict (one for Force users, one for non-Force users). Plus one new adaptive companion for each of those four stories; each with a choice of tank, DPS or heal specs. More work than Makeb, but much less than continuing each class arc individually.

 

Thoughts?

Edited May 20, 2013 by Coldyce