Petition: We Want MORE INDIVIDUAL CLASS STORIES AND COMPANION STORIES,

[BloodyHarry]

/edited Edited January 8, 2014 by BloodyHarry

[Bugattiboy]

If you think creating a petition thread in all caps will yield a change or response of any kind from EA...

 

...you're going to have a bad time.

[Glorthox]

We needed more class and companion story. Makeb was an epic failure. Story is what made swtor unique, not the lame cartel market. EA has lost touch with their remaining sub base. I guess they really just don't care anymore. The game seriously needs more individual class and companion story. I think most would be happy with 3 more chapters and 10 more new levels.

[arunav]

We needed more class and companion story. Makeb was an epic failure. Story is what made swtor unique, not the lame cartel market. EA has lost touch with their remaining sub base. I guess they really just don't care anymore. The game seriously needs more individual class and companion story. I think most would be happy with 3 more chapters and 10 more new levels.

 

It's unlikely anytime soon. Hopefully, 2014 will see more story content, since 2013 was a good year for the game financially, but it won't be class stories.

 

If 2014 continues the trend financially, maybe EA will let BW start developing more class story content for a future release. There's less of a ROI, but the vast majority of their subs, who buy the most packs I believe, would purchase the new stories, and this would keep them playing as well.

 

At 2 years, many folks are getting to the point where they've played all 8 class stories. We made lots of alts, and played SWTOR as the original design was intended I think. Though that design has been abandoned for the most part, the story component still may be in the works for the future, for the reason stated above. There won't be nearly as many players to sell CM items to if long-term subs quit.

[SilentKitty]

Currently subbing again. Having fun with the guild and levling two new alts with class stories I have not seen before. Feel quite lucky that I only have three lvl 55's so there are still five stories for me to explore. Praying that there will be more class stories and companion stories before I run out of content.

 

/signed

 

Honestly, I would do pretty much anything to see more story in the game. And I am very insensitive to price as well. Would throw money at them for that pretty much.

[ZionHalcyon]

Class stories are dead

 

So I unsubbed and will no longer support the cartel market.

 

Ugh.

[Ulfrik_Wulfgar]

/Signed

 

FPs don't have much replay value, especially once geared and PvP in this game is so bad, Bioware should hang their heads in shame.

[The_Grand_Nagus]

/clears throat to prepare to do Andryah impression...

 

No we dont. Everything is completely perfect as is. Let the actual professionals decide how to develop the game instead of trying to be an armchair dev.

 

I think that covers it

[Solo-Jo]

The reason I play the game is for the story. I'm not really much of a "farm endgame instances to I can get good enough gear to farm the next set of endgame instances when they release" type of MMO player. I'll take each class to 50 to experience their class stories, then 2 (one from each side) to 55. It took me about a month to get my Guardian to 50 and it looks like my Bounty Hunter is on the same track, so all together the class stories will have me subbed for 8 months total (spread out across a longer amount of time for when/if I take breaks between each character). Assuming 50-55 takes me a month per character, that'll be 2 months total, and if what I've heard is any indication it'll end up being more like 1 month total. As far as I'm concerned, class stories gets a lot more money out of me than "planetary stories" do. And I don't think I'm unique in how I approach this game.

 

But I'm not going to make a big deal about it. I'm sure Bioware knows what's better for them from a business perspective than I do. If the content that keeps me around doesn't keep getting made then eventually I'll just stop playing the game, no fuss necessary. Maybe by then Dragon Age 3 will be out (and hopefully better than the second was).

 

Pretty much this.

[arunav]

Pretty much this.

 

Maybe BW is okay with players coming and going as class stories are finished off, and there is a constant segment that will never leave because it's Star Wars. Between the two, enough CM stuff to sell to, and they make a hefty profit with minimal staff effort.

 

EA could be on board with that model.

 

That said, I finally finished all 8 class stories last month, and there definitely is not an "end" feel to enough of them. For the ones that are (basically the force users), did Jedi and Sith just call it a day when they became Masters or a Darth?

 

Don't recall that from the films...

Edited April 6, 2014 by arunav

[NobleSpec]

/signed

[The_Grand_Nagus]

Maybe BW is okay with players coming and going as class stories are finished off, and there is a constant segment that will never leave because it's Star Wars. Between the two, enough CM stuff to sell to, and they make a hefty profit with minimal staff effort.

 

EA could be on board with that model.

 

That said, I finally finished all 8 class stories last month, and there definitely is not an "end" feel to enough of them. For the ones that are (basically the force users), did Jedi and Sith just call it a day when they became Masters or a Darth?

 

Don't recall that from the films...

 

Class stories only matter if you play more than one class. If you only play one character, then its all just your own story, and you dont realize its the same for every class. I would wager a guess that the majority of players of this game as well as most MMOs are fairly casual, and probably dont have dozens of alts. Thats not to say that there arent lots of hard core players who do have dozens of alts, but percentage wise they are probably much less than the causal players. Therefore, it probably makes Bioware more money focusing on the casual group and churning out generic content at a steady pace than doing something else.

Edited April 6, 2014 by The_Grand_Nagus

[Solo-Jo]

If they use the voice actors and writers of KOTOR, sure.

 

I find both the story and voice acting to be a lot weaker in TOR.

 

Even the most minor characters in KOTOR where voiced very well, you could really feel their emotional state.

It tends to be rather flat in TOR, some sound more like placeholders. A Sith with a flying pet at mealstrom prison being the worst example of this.

 

And for god's sake, start putting in cutscenes. Some of KOTOR's best moments where the cutscenes where you werent there. Like Malak ordering the destruction of Taris. Through this you actually got involved with the villains, it made you eager to face them.

 

As it is pretty much all villains in KOTOR are simple cardboard characters with a few exeptions here and there. Pretty much any interaction could be summed up as:

"you cant defeat me, now die!"

*player defeats enemy*

"argh! how could you beat me!"

*light side or dark side dialogue option for player.*

 

I know its a big game, but I simply expect better from Bioware. It's the company that made Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate series, Dragon Age 1 and mass effect after all.

 

They can do better, but they kept it all rather simple. Start giving us some real villains again like Malak, Saren, Gao the Lesser, Sun Li, Sun Hai, Desther, Loghain, etc, instead of all these throwaway cartoon villains.

 

While i agree with you, it is not really the bioware that brought us all those great games, it is a development studio that EA slapped Bio's name on.

[DarkLordIceman]

/signed

[Trintric]

I honestly don't believe this thread will make a D bit of difference, but ok ... I would like to see class and companion story expansion to be a true focus in future expansions.

 

I for one, play this game as much as I do solely because of the stories. They're what make the game different. Nothing else. Nothing else. It's the stories. I've played at least two of everything so I can even enjoy different romance stories.

 

Once I get all my characters to 50 though, as things are now there's only one planetary story. So instead of leveling all my characters post 50, I'll just be choosing my favorite Empire and favorite Republic and then SWTOR will be over and done for me.

 

Unless you add more stories. And not single planetary stories, but class and companion stories.

 

You know ... the HARD stuff to do, not just a fuzzy loose and SHORT planetary story on a planet, that btw, is the size of a closet compared to previous planets.

 

I shake my head as I write this knowing no employee of the company will read this.

[Styxx]

While i agree with you, it is not really the bioware that brought us all those great games, it is a development studio that EA slapped Bio's name on.

 

KoToR launched in 2003. BW was bought by EA in 2007.

 

Also, a fun fact - Bioware Austin was formed in 2006 and it worked on this game for a full year previous to being bought by EA. Even after, they were given pretty much full freedom on how the game will be made.

 

So, yes, Bioware DID bring you all those games, at least up to 2007 - 2008.

___________________________

 

In other news, you don`t know what you`re asking for.

 

What does a character story look like? 4 to 5 instances on one planet. So, de facto, you are asking 4 - 5 to 8 - 10 new missions per class, that cannot be repeated. I`d rather get 2 new flashpoints that I can run to gear in, or repeat. One more question: How much is the story class from a full planet`s worth of content? 4-5 missions vs what? 25? 30? I`d rather get 25 or 30 than 4 or 5.

 

I want to play, ideally with more players, in an MMO (shocking, I know!), not find out why my BH grew a 3rd bewb, or my Agent is now a Cipher Eleven. I actually want to play them as they are, IN A GROUP CONTENT, that has nothing to do with an individual.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Styxx

[ReiKai]

I myself would indeed love to see the Class stories expanded and more worked on. But I also understand the difficulty of the task. I feel a lot of people have forgotten that BioWare's budget for SWTOR updates has been slashed. Not just financially, but staffing as well. The SWTOR writing staff has been cut deeply, starting with about 20 Writers around the time of launch, down to about 2-3 people by the end of 2013. That is a HUGE loss. And right now, thanks to F2P and such, there just isn't enough revenue coming in to support any detailed and deep expansion on the game that would involve Voice Actors, new animations and scenes, and so much more. There just isn't a budget for it right now.

 

I do feel the same as all the fans. We need to expand on the Class stories and now Planet storylines. But I understand the difficulty of it. With a limited staff and limited budget, it's all they can do to give the players fluff items and some of the things we've been hounding them for since Launch. Many of us still looking for full on SGRA's (Same Gender Romance Arcs). We got teased with such things in the last few releases with Makeb and CZ-198, but no new Companion with a storyline that would allow players to seek out and enjoy their Male/Male and Female/Female romances.

 

That alone is hard enough to do, never mind fully expanded class stories. Still I hope to see both in the coming future.

Edited April 6, 2014 by ReiKai

[Solo-Jo]

KoToR launched in 2003. BW was bought by EA in 2007.

 

Also, a fun fact - Bioware Austin was formed in 2006 and it worked on this game for a full year previous to being bought by EA. Even after, they were given pretty much full freedom on how the game will be made.

 

So, yes, Bioware DID bring you all those games, at least up to 2007 - 2008.

___________________________

 

In other news, you don`t know what you`re asking for.

 

What does a character story look like? 4 to 5 instances on one planet. So, de facto, you are asking 4 - 5 to 8 - 10 new missions per class, that cannot be repeated. I`d rather get 2 new flashpoints that I can run to gear in, or repeat. One more question: How much is the story class from a full planet`s worth of content? 4-5 missions vs what? 25? 30? I`d rather get 25 or 30 than 4 or 5.

 

I want to play, ideally with more players, in an MMO (shocking, I know!), not find out why my BH grew a 3rd bewb, or my Agent is now a Cipher Eleven. I actually want to play them as they are, IN A GROUP CONTENT, that has nothing to do with an individual.

 

Yes I know bio brought us all those games that is what i said, Bioware austin is not however!

[arunav]

Class stories only matter if you play more than one class. If you only play one character, then its all just your own story, and you dont realize its the same for every class.

 

If you played through or started Makeb on multiple classes, some don't make sense at all being there.

 

Even if a player only plays one character in this game, which very much encourages alt rolling, the faction-based stories don't necessarily make sense for their class. The dialogue on Makeb was very odd at times, and certain classes really did not belong there for their faction.

 

This may change with new expansion planets, but is still not in the best interest of the game, in my opinion, to completely ignore all class-specific questing. Perhaps scale it down if necessary, but the argument that all our classes have finished their stories by the end of Chapter 3 simply doesn't hold up. Some of them clearly weren't finished yet. Even ones that were arguably (the force-based classes) don't stop working for the Jedi or Sith's endeavors once at that level.

 

But, integrity of the game aside, again, it's in EA's interest. I'm as sure as someone without access to the raw data can be that long-time subscribers are the ones who spend the most on the CM. Without a good game to play, these folks won't stick around. If 2014 is as profitable or more so than 2013, they should strongly consider adding better and more content to the game.

 

In my opinion, some of that should be class-specific.

Edited April 6, 2014 by arunav

[cymonguk]

Not going to happen, end of story. There is literally no benefit to EA to do class stories. From an ROI perspective it is a dead duck and no manager or director is going to suggest spending 2,5,10,20 million on class development when they will never recover it.

 

If you can find a way to either monetize the class stories or to guarantee EA that the additional class stories will bring in money then great it will get done. Otherwise you genuinely need to get over it. Corporations do not work in this way. Want new class stories go play another game, you are only kidding yourself otherwise.

[Styxx]

Yes I know bio brought us all those games that is what i said, Bioware austin is not however!

 

Bioware Austin was founded in 2006. That`s one full year before they were bought by EA. Which EA has given them FULL FREEDOM on their own IP up until it launched. ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123200-EA-Gave-BioWare-Complete-Creative-Control )

 

This game is 100% Bioware`s - even the darn Makeb, which was rumored since early 2013.

 

The ONLY thing EA got to say is about moving from a sub based game to this ****. Saved the game alright, but it has most of the things asked for since the game launched as money exclusive and that`s just a slap in the face.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Styxx

[lironBD]

In truth I was big fan of class stories but I understand why they wanted to add activities which are not single player oriented.

 

But lately the "Terminal - No Dialogs" missions are big no no in my book.

 

Compare illum or belsavis to oricon >

Transformed into mob fest

Small base

Al missions from 1 terminal

turned into credit farmer wet dream.

 

Czerka is worst.

[DarthDymond]

In truth I was big fan of class stories but I understand why they wanted to add activities which are not single player oriented.

 

But lately the "Terminal - No Dialogs" missions are big no no in my book.

 

Compare illum or belsavis to oricon >

Transformed into mob fest

Small base

Al missions from 1 terminal

turned into credit farmer wet dream.

 

Czerka is worst.

I don't mind that Oricon quests became terminal quests after the first play-through, but I agree that the CZ-198 approach felt really weak on the story front.

 

After how long Makeb dailies took, and even Sec X. before them, they just overcompensated with CZ-198 to cater to people who are fans of "I just want to get in and get my dailies done as quickly as possible". (I am not complaining about those players who like fast dailies, that's a very understandable approach to them - I'm just saying BW let the pendulum swing too far in that direction with CZ-198.)

 

I think Oricon is actually the best of both worlds and a really solid approach to the issue of daily areas, since it had a full-blown progression storyline the first time you play through and then turns into a fairly quick and convenient area (especially since the enemies' aggro range was decreased). I really hope they stick to that implementation in future daily areas.

 

And if non-expansion patches like 2.4 periodically have the level of story content as we saw on Oricon, I think we'll be in a good place with keeping the "Fourth Pillar" alive in this game, just as long as the future "RotHC-sized" expansions also contain the same degree of new story content we saw on Makeb, or preferably even more.

[cymonguk]

Bioware Austin was founded in 2006. That`s one full year before they were bought by EA. Which EA has given them FULL FREEDOM on their own IP up until it launched. ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123200-EA-Gave-BioWare-Complete-Creative-Control )

 

This game is 100% Bioware`s - even the darn Makeb, which was rumored since early 2013.

 

The ONLY thing EA got to say is about moving from a sub based game to this ****. Saved the game alright, but it has most of the things asked for since the game launched as money exclusive and that`s just a slap in the face.

 

Sorry what content is cash only? I honestly can't think of anything that you are forced to pay cc coins for other than character appearance? Even thing on the CM can be bought a couple of days later off the GTN? TBH I haven't gone to end game because I have enjoyed levelling up my characters stories, but haven't found anything I couldn't get off the GTN including titles.

[Styxx]

Sorry what content is cash only? I honestly can't think of anything that you are forced to pay cc coins for other than character appearance? Even thing on the CM can be bought a couple of days later off the GTN? TBH I haven't gone to end game because I have enjoyed levelling up my characters stories, but haven't found anything I couldn't get off the GTN including titles.

 

Can you direct me to a raid boss that drops white black dyes? I can`t seem to find it. I can`t find many things, but one would suffice, I`d think.

 

And just in case you get argumentative - where does the white / black dye originate from? Or purple / black or black / purple, now that they are on sale?

 

Are you also aware that people asked for an Appearance Changer for a long time? Can I change my chars on it without spending REAL CASH?

 

And if you STILL don`t get it = it`s GAME CONTENT. I can`t access part of the GAME CONTENT without spending real cash.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Styxx