Since Class stories are "over" why not try this?

[RatPoison]

Bioware has already admitted that class stories are a thing of the past. Hoping for something as developed and catered to your individual character is going to leave you with a sad face. As folks have already cited, Hickman made these statements for the recent expansion to the game.

 

So no big deal... each faction now gets one basic story line in which they have to link all classes to.

 

What I'd like to see, is Bioware take advantage of the differences in each classes story line and then create their basic faction quest line off of details from those original stories. To give an example, instead of walking onto Makeb and getting into the first quests of the main story line where the conversation by the NPC and your dialoge choices are virtually the same, I'd like to see different conversations than end with each class having to accomplish the same thing.

 

The biggest complaint I had with Makeb is while Bioware folks said that while the story line was the same, it "felt" as if each class experienced the story differently, I felt otherwise. The story was the same, the outcomes were the same, the experience was the same.

 

I don't think we need whole individual class storylines, but different conversations, and options in them coupled goes a long way to improving the experience.

 

And if we're really feeling frisky, adding in one or two deviations in the quests themselves based on conversation choices or based on each class would promote more of that unique and individualized experience that this game was supposedly going to bring.

 

...

 

They can't please everybody... but small compromises would help. They have a story based, casual player community to look towards, a raiding community, and a pvp community... all of which are begging for new content. I don't envy them and the position they're in, but I would love for Bioware to do better than they did with Makeb. I hope they will... after all, they installed a unique series of weekly quests on Makeb that required a progression through the quests in certain orders doing certain things to unlock other quests. Perhaps this is some foreshadowing to a different approach to the game.

Edited June 18, 2013 by RatPoison

[gunnerjoe]

Bioware has already admitted that class stories are a thing of the past. Hoping for something as developed and catered to your individual character is going to leave you with a sad face. As folks have already cited, Hickman made these statements for the recent expansion to the game.

 

So no big deal... each faction now gets one basic story line in which they have to link all classes to.

 

What I'd like to see, is Bioware take advantage of the differences in each classes story line and then create their basic faction quest line off of details from those original stories. To give an example, instead of walking onto Makeb and getting into the first quests of the main story line where the conversation by the NPC and your dialoge choices are virtually the same, I'd like to see different conversations than end with each class having to accomplish the same thing.

 

The biggest complaint I had with Makeb is while Bioware folks said that while the story line was the same, it "felt" as if each class experienced the story differently, I felt otherwise. The story was the same, the outcomes were the same, the experience was the same.

 

I don't think we need whole individual class storylines, but different conversations, and options in them coupled goes a long way to improving the experience.

 

And if we're really feeling frisky, adding in one or two deviations in the quests themselves based on conversation choices or based on each class would promote more of that unique and individualized experience that this game was supposedly going to bring.

 

...

 

They can't please everybody... but small compromises would help. They have a story based, casual player community to look towards, a raiding community, and a pvp community... all of which are begging for new content. I don't envy them and the position they're in, but I would love for Bioware to do better than they did with Makeb. I hope they will... after all, they installed a unique series of weekly quests on Makeb that required a progression through the quests in certain orders doing certain things to unlock other quests. Perhaps this is some foreshadowing to a different approach to the game.

 

Yea I agree, they said in a recent press conference that their would be 2 stories but it would feel like a class story because of the way the NPC'S treated your class which was complete bull crap. I played the republic side twice and I really don't want to do it over again because it just feels stale and boring

[Tmanarl]

At the Dallas community Cantina tour, Eric commented that we should expect more expansions like makeb in the future, as it is Immensely cost prohibitive to continue the class stories as they originally were. Edited June 20, 2013 by Tmanarl

[Pietrastor]

Regardless of future class story content, having the ability to replay Chapters 1-3 would be great in itself.

 

That being said, recent leaks show that despite what we thought, Bioware actually IS going to continue class stories. I for one am shocked, very positively though. Simply cannot wait.

[Jenzali]

Regardless of future class story content, having the ability to replay Chapters 1-3 would be great in itself.

 

That being said, recent leaks show that despite what we thought, Bioware actually IS going to continue class stories. I for one am shocked, very positively though. Simply cannot wait.

 

Source please.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Jenzali

[Nickious]

Regardless of future class story content, having the ability to replay Chapters 1-3 would be great in itself.

 

That being said, recent leaks show that despite what we thought, Bioware actually IS going to continue class stories. I for one am shocked, very positively though. Simply cannot wait.

 

Source? In this thread I see all over the place them saying they won't be continuing class stories.

[Tfranco]

I know there's no way any class stories are coming any time soon, but have they really said "over?" The game is recovering financially. They already have more chapters written.

 

What's to say a year or more from now there won't be a real expansion? Space + 10 levels of class story?

 

I swear someone posted a quote saying they are moving to more "avengers" style faction stories now, it may have been a trolololol statement though.

 

I would LOVE to redo class stories, I only see one issue though...well two but on is Sith warrior specific.

 

The issue is companions, for example it wouldn't make sense for my inquisitor to be using Xalec (gotten at voss) during ch 1, though there are probably a lot of solutions for that.

 

*****SPOILER*****

 

And for Sith warriors specifically, there is the issue of jaesa Wilsam who is technically 2 seperate companions. If I currently have the dark jaesa, and lets say romanced her, and replay my class story with light jaesa what would happen with affection? And the romance, would I be forced to romance Vette (as light side jaesa is not romance able)?

 

I love the idea though. I'd love to keep my 50+ chars and make different choices.

[Pietrastor]

Source? In this thread I see all over the place them saying they won't be continuing class stories.

Source please.

There was a thread here on this (think it got deleted) and on SWTOR reddit

[SithKoriandr]

Id be more than happy to buy a higher priced expansion if they included class stories and new class companions

 

And this is why subs don't get new things. Everyone saying "I'm willing to pay extra"

[Darth_Wicked]

And this is why subs don't get new things. Everyone saying "I'm willing to pay extra"

 

Fail to see what's wrong with it. Never played WoW but I do remember these special CE's coming out every so often, like Cataclysm. I assume you actually had to pay for them, so you could take them out of the shop?

[Sziroten]

I am assuming that the class stories are finished forever now because if I was a guessing man, I would guess that it is too expensive and just takes too much time for them to continue therefore the developers are just making 1 story per faction for any further planets. Because of this it got me to thinking. Many of the stories did not feel finished even ones with very dramatic endings **The Jedi Knight story** and it seemed like they would continue and the choices we made in the past would carry over to the future of the game. But since this is looking like it wont happen, why not let us go back and replay the class missions with the level scale matched to the current level of our characters? Its not like this is such a big deal because all of our decisions we made really don't matter all that much and since class story wont be returning it shouldn't be a confusing feature for them to add. I've always wondered what a Dark Side Jedi Knight character would be like, I even went to the extent of making a new character just to see this. I have 5 level 55's and I want to play all of their class stories again without going through the entire leveling process again. This shouldn't be very confusing at al because there are games out there that after you finish the main story it gives you an option to run it again with all your skills and such. This is just an idea Bioware but this would be a great way to kill time, find an alternative way to level up, and just flat out enjoy the game more.

 

What is your opinion on this idea? any ways to build on to it? do you think it should be implemented?

 

Not entirely sure what the purpose would be to re-level the same story... as someone who likes to play alts, there are 3 different spec for any class so why not try something different and use it to replay the story line as you already did?

[Mercurial_Harpy]

I think the problem here is, it's impossible to trust EAWare at their word, no matter what they say. Their devs and execs constantly make promises they don't keep, and then they wonder why their player base is distrustful of anything they say.

 

I don't doubt that once the game started floundering last summer, someone made the decision to shelve class stories, at least for the time being, to make some higher up at EA happy. I've said this before in other threads and I'll say it again. Without the story, TOR is nothing more than a second-rate, F2P MMO. The story is what keeps its head above water, whether or not EA wants to admit it. Other MMOs out there are better at the MMO part, period. Players stay here because it's Star Wars, and because of the story.

 

I remember the "Avengers" quote. Basically, Hickman said something to the effect that once you complete your personal story (and that assumes the class stories are "completed," which I disagree with), the 4 faction classes will "come together" to face challenges. Well, that's not really what happened. Don't get me wrong, it would be hella cool if going forward, cut scenes required a group that contained a Smuggler, Knight, Consular and Trooper. That way, everyone would have an opportunity to have a class-personal dialogue response, but you are all fighting as a unit. But that's not what we got. What Makeb was, was the same exact story for everyone with little deviation, where ~some~ of the dialogue options ~could~ fit your class, but a lot of times, it didn't. I've run Makeb on my Agent and Inquisitor, and it kept me interested for the most part. However, I started taking my Bounty Hunter through last night, and my god, I had to escape out of some of the dialogue several times because it just didn't fit my toon.

 

That's bad.

 

So, what's the fix? I try not to b*tch without offering a fix, and I believe Bioware has the fix. They just have to decide to implement it. Since last year, not a week has gone by without at least one player-created thread asking "where's the rest of the story?" So they must know that shelving class story all together won't work in the long run. And several sources have cited that future chapters are already written (the author of the Agent story, who left last year, indicated this on Twitter before he left). And if I recall correctly, the big money problem came came from the decision trees; having so many options was the killer, although (sigh) again, this was the big selling point of the game; YOUR personal saga. That's kind of why (I assume anyway) Makeb kind of leveled the stories out; not matter what your class story end was, you all end up at Makeb answering to Leader X.

 

So, Bioware has the opportunity to do a few things:

 

* add Companion quests and dialogue. EA has already stated that the "silent companion" issue is a problem, was unintended and will be rectified. I'd actually be fine with Bioware focusing on one or two companions to expand (especially the romanced companion), rather than all 5. But that's another thread.

 

* Stop thinking that players will accept the Cartel Market with re-skinned speeders and gear as a substitute for story. The blowback from 2.1 is evidence of that; subscribed players are demanding more than the opportunity to spend more $ in addition to their sub.

 

*Even if the future class story is scaled back, they could and should throw the players a bone. I don't think anyone is expecting full chapters like we saw at 1-3, but a mission here and there would help player morale a lot. For instance, the Inquisitor deserves at least ONE Dark Council meeting. After Makeb, the Wrath has quite a few loose ends, etc.

 

Or (and I hate to even toss this out, but it's a possibility), EA decided months ago to cut its losses and jump ship. Makeb is all we're realistically going to get. We'll see the CM being pushed above all else, and Bioware will just rehash the Gree Event when players complain. In that scenario, we'll really start seeing players leave, and TOR will be in pure maintenance mode after another year or two.

 

I sincerely hope that's not the case. But I don't expect EA to comment either way. We can only wait and see.

 

* * *

[errant_knight]

Things are only over until they aren't. They aren't going to say they're bringing them back until not only are they certain, but things are underway. Likewise, while they'll say whatever they need to to diminish expectation that class stories might be made again, They're not going to say 'never.' We simply don't know when and if stories will return--they might not either--but I suspect that with subscriptions rising again the chance of that occurring has increased. The healthier the game is, the more likely we are to see class stories come back. It's not like Bioware doesn't like making stories. If they can, they will.

[Icebergy]

I know there's no way any class stories are coming any time soon, but have they really said "over?" The game is recovering financially. They already have more chapters written.

 

What's to say a year or more from now there won't be a real expansion? Space + 10 levels of class story?

 

LOL@Recover. Do you seriously believe that this game hasn't more than recouped its development cost by now? I would guess that they have doubled or tripled it already.

 

Problem is it just isn't enough for EA so they are always under pressure to make more while spending less.

[DraonaiMimnov]

I think making the class story quests repeatable is a horrible idea. It's bad enough that many of the repeatable missions don't really seem like they should be, from a story perspective (like getting a mission from malgus, for example). If I make an opposite decision on the replay, how does that make any sense for my back story? And there would likely be some sort of incentive to replaying it, essentially making it something players would need to do to advance, even if they have problems with the story conflict.

 

If you want to play the story again, start a new character?

 

You can go ahead and make a new character. I rather not have to go through the grinding process and watching the same old boring side quests. I rather just enjoy the class story.

[doubleOdoh]

Class stories are most certainly not over if this article is to be believed

http://www.vg247.com/2012/03/16/swtor-class-stories-to-continue-sooner-rather-than-later/

[Suromir]

Class stories are most certainly not over if this article is to be believed

http://www.vg247.com/2012/03/16/swtor-class-stories-to-continue-sooner-rather-than-later/

 

that article is over a year old. Class stories are done. get over it.

 

and check your facts before you post

[Damask_Rose]

If they are going to rely on faction chapters to advance the story they are going to have to do a hell of a lot better than Makeb. Makeb had no more class individuality than any other planet arc, and less than some. And it sure didn't feel any more heroic in scope than the other planets either. Too much of the characters' character got sacrificed in the writing of generic quest lines.

[Marb]

There have been a lot of mixed messages from Bioware on this topic. I think its clear since F2P there has been a trend with the few comments from devs that we have had on the topic: Makeb is a model of how the story will evolve in the future. Class exclusive chapters are expensive.

 

I don't think leaked content that has been dug up from the client files is any proof that they are actually planning on class stories. The entire road map of this game changed when they went to F2P and moved to the "smaller patches more frequently format". There was a lot of stuff in their pipeline from development, as with all mmos. The plans changed when the game bombed with 1.3.

 

If Makeb is how the stories will progress, I am ok with that. However, considering they will still have to record VO from the class actors anyway, I don't see how including more class exclusive content in the world arc would be prohibitive from a cost point of view. Also, I hope to god that the level designers understand that fighting through waves of superfluous mobs to simply get to a location is not fun. The level design of Makeb feels cramped and the mob density is out of proportion with the small explore-able spaces.

 

Lets not even mention the performance issues that many people have on Makeb, even with decent rigs.