Summer of SWTOR

[Jandi]

Off-topic of course, but modern life absolutely depends on the financial and energy sector. Sure we could go back to life several thousand years ago...but...let's not.

 

Considering that roughly a quarter of the entire worlds population lives without electricity, that statement is a bit funny. By that I mean you don't have to go to life in the past, just far enough in regular miles.

[OmenQ]

I love SWTOR, but it's pretty clear their staff doesn't love it as much as the fans do. It should be something they can't wait to get home to play after work. Their staff should love the game and more or less be obsessed with it, LOVE IT. Yet, their staff treats the game like it's a 9-5 job and they can't WAIT to leave the office.

 

You're absolutely wrong about this statement. The staff, especially the community team, live and breathe this game. If you'd ever met any of them, this would be so plainly obvious to you that you'd reach back and slap yourself for even thinking otherwise.

[Master-Nala]

Considering that roughly a quarter of the entire worlds population lives without electricity, that statement is a bit funny. By that I mean you don't have to go to life in the past, just far enough in regular miles.

 

Darn it, I live in America. We make a habit of ignoring the suffering of others. I'll not have you reminding me of it!

[Jandi]

Darn it, I live in America. We make a habit of ignoring the suffering of others. I'll not have you reminding me of it!

 

It's a passion of mine, making Americans realize just how ignorant they are. It's nothing personal.

 

EDIT: Before someone gets angry, I'm JOKING.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Jandi

[BradTheImpaler]

"Significant graphical updates" as in increasing system requirements?

Otherwise looks good!

[CommanderKeeva]

Thanks for the post and I appreciate the effort but unfortunately I feel compelled to join the majority of the posters here who complain about the lackluster nature of the upcoming content. (Admittedly, I haven't read 57 pages of posts, but I did read the first 15 or so to get a general feel for the people here and I got a distinctly negative one.)

Let me share my opinion (about which you don't give a **** probably) of why the upcoming patches are disappointing.

 

First up, Game Update 2.2, which is currently targeted for launch on June 11th:

• Nightmare Mode Terror From Beyond. It’s got vicious new mechanics and is definitely not for the faint of heart. I’m very excited for you to see the new gear that comes with this, which uses a new appearance system we’ve developed for armor and weapons called ‘Scrolling UVs’.
  
• New Guild Bonuses! Players in guilds currently receive a +5% experience bonus, but now every 5 active players in the guild will add an additional 1% bonus to XP and reputation, up to a maximum bonus of 10% each.
  
• Crafters can now craft Underworld gear! But don’t RE that piece if you are still using it…
  
• Unified fleet chat channel for each faction, for easier group finding without having to hop between instances.
  

 

- A Nightmare Mode of the top end Operations might be fun and challenging content for 0.1% of the players who are lucky enough to be in top end raiding guilds. I would hazard a guess that less than 1% of all players have ever stepped foot in a Nightmare Mode Op. So you're dumping a ton of money and effort to create "content" that only an extreme minority of the players will ever experience (and even they might get sick of doing this rehashed instance over and over again). This will naturally upset 99% of the players who want something more accessible. Not to mention that these new Nightmare Modes still suffer from the same old glaring issues:

 

1. Having looked at the stats on Dulfy, I have to say that Kell Dragon armor is as ****tily itemized as every single previous tier. You know as well as we do that no self-respecting raider would ever wear the baseline mods that come in stock armor.

2. There is no commendation equivalent for Kell Dragon gear, making itemization virtually impossible. It's not craftable, so raiders will have to rely on random numbers to get gear. Since this tier cannot be crafted, min/maxing will be likely impossible.

3. Armor uses the same models, it's just recolored. Why can't you design at least different looking armor for each tier? And what's up with the ugly models? No self-respecting Consular would wear the Kell Dragon set.

 

- More XP for active people in the guild sounds like a good idea on paper. But there is a better idea that is accessible to smaller guilds as well! Maybe a 0,5% cumulative experience boost after each legacy level for a total of 25%? Maybe make those legacy levels actually worth something?

 

- Craftable 72 gear is a logical move if you're introducing a new tier. But for God's sake we need a set bonus-less, commendation based peer-tier for each gear set for itemization purposes.

 

- Global chat? Hope we can read fast...

 

- Seems you deliberately missed the new Cartel pack for 2.2. Probably to avoid the ensuing *****torm considering the otherwise epicly lackluster "content".

 

So yeah, all in all, 2.2 is a huge disappointment for me as well. When you teased "content-packed" I was expecting at least 1 new flashpoint for PvE. I believe Titans of Industry is about 14 months overdue. On a particularly happy day, I was actually thinking about getting the Imperial Warlord flashpoint as well in 2.2, which is close to a year overdue as well now. And at least a new warzone for PvP. But nothing new until August.

 

Perhaps you don't seem to understand that people want NEW content. That is, NOT Cartel Market, NOT reused old Operations, NOT recolored old gear designs etc. Or perhaps you just don't care.

Edited May 25, 2013 by CommanderKeeva

[justandulas]

You're absolutely wrong about this statement. The staff, especially the community team, live and breathe this game. If you'd ever met any of them, this would be so plainly obvious to you that you'd reach back and slap yourself for even thinking otherwise.

 

The PVP team needs to show a heck of a lot more love for SWTOR, and sooner than 2.4.

[Avicii]

The PVP team needs to show a heck of a lot more love for SWTOR, and sooner than 2.4.

 

Exactly, I am sure it's important to them and they love the game but the way they drop teases inparticular the comment in Dallas, then to hear there is nothing till at least Fall coming it sure doesn't feel that way to the player base.

[OmenQ]

Exactly, I am sure it's important to them and they love the game but the way they drop teases inparticular the comment in Dallas, then to hear there is nothing till at least Fall coming it sure doesn't feel that way to the player base.

 

The exact quote in Dallas was "In the next few patches".

So far, that quote is not inaccurate.

[infedele]

@Bioware

(my feedback) i dont see any new content on 2.2, and i'm realy disappointed about that, nightmare mode is not a new content, it's a joke, it's and old content a new mechanic it's not a new content ..thx for your time,

i hope you do better next time

[Darth_Precursor]

The lack of PvP in this thread disturbs me.

[Woetoo]

Please don't take the negativity as a sign that improved communication is bad.

We're disappointed with the contents of the message, that's all.

 

Personally, I think you've shot yourselves in the foot by letting us know that there is nothing of significance coming until at least August. But even so, that's better than trying to hide the reality behind smoke, mirrors and silence. Rock and a hard place. I'd say you've made the right choice and if you can continue to follow up on it, may even earn back some of the customer's respect and eventually our money. Maybe you (as a company) have turned a corner. I hope so.

 

Shame you didn't have any good news.

 

And no, I don't regard NiM content as new. Any more than I would the difference between SM and HM as being in anyway significant. TFB went live on the 26th of September last year... and we'll finally getting a 3rd opportunity to play through the same content we'll have already been playing for 9 months and 14 days on the 9th of July. Woohoo.

 

New Flashpoints?

 

[cynicmode]

Hardmode Colicoid Wargame

Hardmode The Red Reaper

[/cynicmode]

 

Jeez, I hope you're putting more effort than that.

 

This line intentionally left blank

Edited May 26, 2013 by Woetoo

[KillaDeuce]

Hello everyone,

 

My name is Bruce Maclean and I am a Senior Producer here at BioWare Austin. I know there have been a lot of questions around the forums about what kind of content you can expect from us this year and so I’m here today to give you all a bit of information about what we’re working on bringing to you this summer!

 

First up, Game Update 2.2, which is currently targeted for launch on June 11th:

• Nightmare Mode Terror From Beyond. It’s got vicious new mechanics and is definitely not for the faint of heart. I’m very excited for you to see the new gear that comes with this, which uses a new appearance system we’ve developed for armor and weapons called ‘Scrolling UVs’.
  
• New Guild Bonuses! Players in guilds currently receive a +5% experience bonus, but now every 5 active players in the guild will add an additional 1% bonus to XP and reputation, up to a maximum bonus of 10% each.
  
• Crafters can now craft Underworld gear! But don’t RE that piece if you are still using it…
  
• Unified fleet chat channel for each faction, for easier group finding without having to hop between instances.
  

 

We’ve seen a lot of requests for a rerun of our Double XP weekends. Well, okay! We’d like to help you stay cool in the heat of the summer with three weekends starting June 22nd and continuing through July 7th. The third and last weekend will actually start early on Thursday the 4th of July, in case you are enjoying a long Independence Day weekend.

 

By July 9th Ops groups will have had four weeks to cut their teeth on Nightmare Mode Terror From Beyond. That’s when we will launch Nightmare Mode Scum and Villainy as a part of Game Update 2.2.2! New mechanics and unique loot for you.

 

July 23rd look for a return of the Relics of the Gree Event for a nice two week long run. Per community request the Event will scaled up to level 55 on this next run!

 

August 6th is our target date for Game Update 2.3, which we are working on right now and will be our biggest update since 2.0. Some of the bigger parts of this update are:

• New Flashpoints
  
• New Daily Area
  
• New Recurring Event
  
• Significant graphical upgrades
  

 

This isn’t an exhaustive list, and we are also working on some longer term stuff. Sometimes we have been averse to discussing specific dates well in advance, because we aren’t going to release anything unless we feel it is ready to go live and we don’t want to upset folks if we move a date back. Well I think we should just tell you what date the teams are shooting for, and if we don’t hit them we’ll just tell you why. Radical thinking, I know. As we get closer we’ll have a lot more juicy details on these - keep your eyes peeled to the forums and SWTOR.com for more information. Also, for those who are curious about the next updates to PvP, I will just say… apart from minor tweaks (like stunbreak abilities cooldown being reset on death in 2.2) you should look forward to Game Update 2.4. /rubshands

 

So... no server transfers or even new warzones mentioned. It's like they want us to stop playing -,-

Edited May 26, 2013 by KillaDeuce

[LordArtemis]

No, I understood your post perfectly. I guess my point is that the award should be named "Angered the most internet nerds in America". Then it would be an accurate representation of their behavior.

 

Sorry LA.... but they did not earn it per se in any objective sense in the silly internet determination of worst company.

 

Worse then the big 5 banks (who spawned a world economic meltdown)??

 

Worse then oil companies causing billions and billions of dollars in real, measurable environmental damage to the planet... while continuing to pocket record profits (under an umbrella of continued tax subsidies)??

 

Seriously?? Is that what objectivity in the internet has become? A game company is the baddest, evilist, most dispicable company on the planet??

 

Sorry.. but the voters priorities in the worst company poll were clearly skewed by immature gaming of the poll.

 

Your both correct of course. Perhaps it was poor wording on my part. For that I apologize. I do not think they are the worse company naturally.

 

At any rate point taken.

[Sziroten]

Thanks for the post and I appreciate the effort but unfortunately I feel compelled to join the majority of the posters here who complain about the lackluster nature of the upcoming content. (Admittedly, I haven't read 57 pages of posts, but I did read the first 15 or so to get a general feel for the people here and I got a distinctly negative one.)

Let me share my opinion (about which you don't give a **** probably) of why the upcoming patches are disappointing.

 

 

 

- A Nightmare Mode of the top end Operations might be fun and challenging content for 0.1% of the players who are lucky enough to be in top end raiding guilds. I would hazard a guess that less than 1% of all players have ever stepped foot in a Nightmare Mode Op. So you're dumping a ton of money and effort to create "content" that only an extreme minority of the players will ever experience (and even they might get sick of doing this rehashed instance over and over again). This will naturally upset 99% of the players who want something more accessible. Not to mention that these new Nightmare Modes still suffer from the same old glaring issues:

 

1. Having looked at the stats on Dulfy, I have to say that Kell Dragon armor is as ****tily itemized as every single previous tier. You know as well as we do that no self-respecting raider would ever wear the baseline mods that come in stock armor.

2. There is no commendation equivalent for Kell Dragon gear, making itemization virtually impossible. It's not craftable, so raiders will have to rely on random numbers to get gear. Since this tier cannot be crafted, min/maxing will be likely impossible.

3. Armor uses the same models, it's just recolored. Why can't you design at least different looking armor for each tier? And what's up with the ugly models? No self-respecting Consular would wear the Kell Dragon set.

 

- More XP for active people in the guild sounds like a good idea on paper. But there is a better idea that is accessible to smaller guilds as well! Maybe a 0,5% cumulative experience boost after each legacy level for a total of 25%? Maybe make those legacy levels actually worth something?

 

- Craftable 72 gear is a logical move if you're introducing a new tier. But for God's sake we need a set bonus-less, commendation based peer-tier for each gear set for itemization purposes.

 

- Global chat? Hope we can read fast...

 

- Seems you deliberately missed the new Cartel pack for 2.2. Probably to avoid the ensuing *****torm considering the otherwise epicly lackluster "content".

 

So yeah, all in all, 2.2 is a huge disappointment for me as well. When you teased "content-packed" I was expecting at least 1 new flashpoint for PvE. I believe Titans of Industry is about 14 months overdue. On a particularly happy day, I was actually thinking about getting the Imperial Warlord flashpoint as well in 2.2, which is close to a year overdue as well now. And at least a new warzone for PvP. But nothing new until August.

 

Perhaps you don't seem to understand that people want NEW content. That is, NOT Cartel Market, NOT reused old Operations, NOT recolored old gear designs etc. Or perhaps you just don't care.

 

this...

 

+ no pvp content (content is not fixes) until 2.4 is not enough. If people really do work aside from each other, we need to have at least a new warzone or something to keep us playing....

 

+ no casual update content (pazaak, swoop races.... ) which has been asked forever and it's on the wall of crazy before we knew this game would even exist

 

+ no subscriber love (yeah I don't see it, rehashed content doesn't verify my subcription, especially since this is the only content we get until the end of the year because 2.4 in late september/ early october and we are done for this year.

[schmel]

So... no server transfers or even new warzones mentioned. It's like they want us to stop playing -,-

Actually, they are planning on including server transfers in 2.2.

[Darthflowmotion]

Actually, they are planning on including server transfers in 2.2.

 

they are planning but it is not official for 2.2

[Nyaara]

Hello everyone,

 

First up, Game Update 2.2, which is currently targeted for launch on June 11th:

• Recycled content
  

 

By July 9th, more Recycled content again

 

July 23rd look for a new recycled content again and again.

 

August 6th is our target date for Game Update 2.3, which we are working on right now and will be our biggest update since 2.0. Some of the bigger parts of this update are:

• New Flashpoints
  
• New Daily Area
  
• New Recurring Event
  
• Significant graphical upgrades
  

 

I´d like to know what means NEW to BW. If NEW is Colicoid or Red Reaper or Black Hole tuned at 55 or NEW is NEW and is content they never released.

Edited May 26, 2013 by Nyaara

[schmel]

they are planning but it is not official for 2.2

very true.

[DoctorWhoTardis]

Thanks for the post and I appreciate the effort but unfortunately I feel compelled to join the majority of the posters here who complain about the lackluster nature of the upcoming content. (Admittedly, I haven't read 57 pages of posts, but I did read the first 15 or so to get a general feel for the people here and I got a distinctly negative one.)

Let me share my opinion (about which you don't give a **** probably) of why the upcoming patches are disappointing.

 

 

 

- A Nightmare Mode of the top end Operations might be fun and challenging content for 0.1% of the players who are lucky enough to be in top end raiding guilds. I would hazard a guess that less than 1% of all players have ever stepped foot in a Nightmare Mode Op. So you're dumping a ton of money and effort to create "content" that only an extreme minority of the players will ever experience (and even they might get sick of doing this rehashed instance over and over again). This will naturally upset 99% of the players who want something more accessible. Not to mention that these new Nightmare Modes still suffer from the same old glaring issues:

 

1. Having looked at the stats on Dulfy, I have to say that Kell Dragon armor is as ****tily itemized as every single previous tier. You know as well as we do that no self-respecting raider would ever wear the baseline mods that come in stock armor.

2. There is no commendation equivalent for Kell Dragon gear, making itemization virtually impossible. It's not craftable, so raiders will have to rely on random numbers to get gear. Since this tier cannot be crafted, min/maxing will be likely impossible.

3. Armor uses the same models, it's just recolored. Why can't you design at least different looking armor for each tier? And what's up with the ugly models? No self-respecting Consular would wear the Kell Dragon set.

 

- More XP for active people in the guild sounds like a good idea on paper. But there is a better idea that is accessible to smaller guilds as well! Maybe a 0,5% cumulative experience boost after each legacy level for a total of 25%? Maybe make those legacy levels actually worth something?

 

- Craftable 72 gear is a logical move if you're introducing a new tier. But for God's sake we need a set bonus-less, commendation based peer-tier for each gear set for itemization purposes.

 

- Global chat? Hope we can read fast...

 

- Seems you deliberately missed the new Cartel pack for 2.2. Probably to avoid the ensuing *****torm considering the otherwise epicly lackluster "content".

 

So yeah, all in all, 2.2 is a huge disappointment for me as well. When you teased "content-packed" I was expecting at least 1 new flashpoint for PvE. I believe Titans of Industry is about 14 months overdue. On a particularly happy day, I was actually thinking about getting the Imperial Warlord flashpoint as well in 2.2, which is close to a year overdue as well now. And at least a new warzone for PvP. But nothing new until August.

 

Perhaps you don't seem to understand that people want NEW content. That is, NOT Cartel Market, NOT reused old Operations, NOT recolored old gear designs etc. Or perhaps you just don't care.

 

Totaly agree, for each damned point.

This led me to unsubscribe at this time, and I would also point out : for some classes alacrity is useless, why they continue to put in all set ? This makes min-maxing heavier.

[Vaerah]

well you obviously havent tried ranked since at least 2.0.

 

1)Ranked wzs pop on a regular basis. people want cross so that new teams dont have to face people that have been queing together for months and elite teams from different servers want it so that they can que against each other.

 

Well, I don't like to PUG a RWZ (usually it's not fun) and I know nobody taking someone who's not close to full Conqueror plus augmentations.

Considering there are about 6-7 hours in the day (I am not talking of 3am) where WZ hardly pop at all, I may just imagine how frequent the RWZ pops are.

 

2)Min/Maxed Partisan is all you need to be competitive in ranked WZs and that only takes about a 7-10 for the average person to get if they have a plan. conq is nice but the difference isnt large enough to exclude a person from a ranked match.

 

I know that, now how to explain it in game to those who do the invites...

 

 

3) people are upset at you because you arent playing your roll of guarding the node. You can do that in infiltration now. heck, some teams prefer that so that you can put pressure on their node when they need it. your problem is you say you are going to guard the node and then leaving it. who wants to que up ranked with someone like that?

 

In a RWZ (and 8+ men PvE) I do everything I am told to do, I am talking about regular WZs with randoms.

Pray tell me, why should I take all of 2 medals and 45 WZ coms for boringly sitting at a node? It's not like I don't do it, I just want to spend half of the time actually *doing something* that brings me fun, medals and 140+ WZ coms.

Conqueror gear is slow to grind as is, why shall I take 4 times as long to get it?

Last match I have played, I actually had a tank spec shadow command me to go guard pylon, while he went to the middle bunker...

 

 

anyway, i said my peice even though i doubt you will ever read it (lets be honest, i know i wont come back to see if you replied lol)

 

I always reply to those who spend their time to reply me. It's just good education.

[Vaerah]

Not a single cent of profit is put back into the game, It's how EA operates. You can find the evidence to support this claim easy enough if you choose to. It's how every single game under EA works, don't delude yourself into thinking SWTOR is somehow a special case. They operate the gaem at a bare minimum with no plans whatsoever in place to increase it's funding, ever.

 

I can confirm this. I have played other titles including MMOs and not a single time EA re-invested any of the revenue, the just sit on stuff till it slowly dies.

[Leoness]

Where is the NEW content again?

 

All this nonsense you are putting out should be in addition to new content not masquerading as it.

 

Completely underwhelming.

[justandulas]

I can confirm this. I have played other titles including MMOs and not a single time EA re-invested any of the revenue, the just sit on stuff till it slowly dies.

 

I wanted to believe differently, that SWTOR would be the exception to the EA rule. I should have known though. Even in their console games, they never put money back into it. Dynasty mode stayed broken in NCAA football afew years back, completely broke the game. I love SWTOR, but the PVP devs don't love the game or we'd see an influx of about 500% content. We should see a new warzone every 90 days or so, not one every 18 months. We bought an expansion with not a bread crumb of content for PVP players like myself, not even new valor ranks. Makeb had zilch world pvp despite the big promises. The staff at SWTOR may love the game, but it's clear EA isn't investing heavily into the game to make it all it could be.

[Longman]

After Makeb I hoped the game development would turn into a better direction with more player-wanted contend. As I see now, I was wrong. Who wants a nightmare-mode for our OP's when even most of the ppl will never clear the hardmodes? The sad thing is that it is very possible that the "new" FPs in aufust will be the HMs of the existing low lvl FPs and there won't be any really new contend planed so far.

 

I guess the only reason why someone is still playing SWTOR is that there is now better alternative. At least in my case. I love Star wars but that joker won't turn a bad into a good game just because it has some star wars contend.