AlexDougherty Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I've played this game for a while now, it has it's flaws, but they are for the most part ignorable, but I've finished the eight class stories, and found I hate the Makeb and Oricon Planets. Well, to be fair I found out I hated the Republicside Makeb when it was released, but now I now the Imperialside is just as bad. I have had a blast playing this game, but I really can't enjoy the end game, so Goodbye, may all those still playing continue to have a blast. But before I go, I'm going to make four recommendations to fix the end game (well the third is about the whole game tbh) 1. Make Makeb and Oricon less of a slogfest!!! They simply are not enjoyable, Makeb is bad, with mobs two or three levels higher than the missions, and wandering guards that wipe you out just as you finish defeating a group. But oricon starts at this unejoyable level, and gets worse. Yes I know some people enjoy the difficulty levels, but those of us who don't are leaving. 2. Continue the Class stories!! The main part of the charm is the stories, it gets us through tough planets, and without it the game looses two thirds of the charm, and it needs this back. I know Devs have said it's not happening, bad decision, it really needs to happen, and happen now 3. Make Crafting more relevant to the Game!!! Artifice make crystals that are useless, Armormech and Synthweaving make a few barelly sellable armours, and the others have taken a few hits for the Cartel Market. Yes I know they are never going to threaten the CM but they need updating and making more relevant to the game in it's current form, please do this. 4. Add more than one planet to a storyline Ilium, Makeb, and Oricon, you keep adding new content one planet at a time, meaning people can skip huge parts of the story, if you add any more planets, add areas to existing planets for extra content, make the stories multidimensional. Thanks for reading my suggestions, and may you continue to have fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OwenBrooks Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Best Wishes Alex Drop this in the suggestion box as well - http://www.swtor.com/community/forumdisplay.php?f=349 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reno_Tarshil Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Farewell Alex! May you return soon! We will miss your presence! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddballEasyEight Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Goodbye Alex, gonna miss ya! All good suggestions too. Hope you come back soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarian Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I've played this game for a while now, it has it's flaws, but they are for the most part ignorable, but I've finished the eight class stories, and found I hate the Makeb and Oricon Planets. That's always been my plan...play through the stories, then I'm done with the game. (I intend to try Makeb, but the reviews from fellow class-story lovers haven't been stellar.) I don't regard it as a failure on the part of the game that I won't play it indefinitely. After all, I don't keep on eating breakfast after I'm "done with the content." I don't keep on watching a movie after I'm "done with the content." When it's over, it's over...and that's perfectly natural. Having said that... The main part of the charm is the stories, it gets us through tough planets, and without it the game looses two thirds of the charm, and it needs this back. I know Devs have said it's not happening, bad decision, it really needs to happen, and happen now Yeah, if they continue the class stories, I'll stay/come back for them. No doubt they're expensive to produce, but are they more expensive than anything else Bioware could do to get my money? Which is more expensive, making new story content for an existing game, or making new story content for a whole new game with a new engine, new game design, new IP and everything? In other words, they can leverage the core of this game, or...not. (On top of which, all IPs aren't created equal, and good luck coming up with one as awesome as Star Wars...although I suppose they could make an entirely new Star Wars game.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callaron Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) Take care, Alex! I've been in your position for quite a while myself now; although I don't "dislike" Makeb, it just isn't the same. I'm hoping the tweet about recording new VO's ends up leading to something good. Edited January 31, 2014 by Callaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machshoot Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) While Makeb can be a pain, I definitely preferred it over a lot of other planets. The 50-55 grind on Makeb is an absolute breeze, not to mention the infinite number of dailies it provides. There are a tonnnn of things that BW needs to work on in order to win back a lot of fans, however I still find the game quite playable and have no plans no quitting any time soon. P.S. I love you. Edited January 31, 2014 by Machshoot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alphazoolou Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 bye. hey man can I have your stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sentinel-Jordal Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 bye. hey man can I have your stuff? No give it to me I will use your stuff to protect the galaxy from sith scums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icestar Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 and may you continue to have fun. We will, have fun whatever you do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reno_Tarshil Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 No give it to me I will use your stuff to protect the galaxy from sith scums. Typical jedi response Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callaron Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 No give it to me I will use your stuff to protect the galaxy from sith scums. AKA spend it all on booze and women on Nar Shaddaa. You know those Jedi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadoken Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Was there an exit survey when you cancelled? I can't recall last time I did. Just have a feeling while your suggestions are good, they won't actually reach anyone that can do anything with them like this. Pretty sure they close down goodbye posts in these parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callaron Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Was there an exit survey when you cancelled? I can't recall last time I did. Just have a feeling while your suggestions are good, they won't actually reach anyone that can do anything with them like this. Pretty sure they close down goodbye posts in these parts. It's still there, and there's a very clear category about story content to pick as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthTHC Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) Just because counter-pointing is fun... 1. Make Makeb and Oricon less of a slogfest!!! They simply are not enjoyable, Makeb is bad, with mobs two or three levels higher than the missions, and wandering guards that wipe you out just as you finish defeating a group. But oricon starts at this unejoyable level, and gets worse. Yes I know some people enjoy the difficulty levels, but those of us who don't are leaving. Perhaps you should have tried playing beyond the class stories or maybe even learning how to play... better. I'll use Oricon as an example. The only quest I found challenging on Oricon is the Heroic-2 and then only because at first I didn't know what I needed to do to beat the Champion level opponents. Now that I've figured them all out, I find that I (finally!) need to pay attention to a fight if I want to win it. That's a first for me in solo(ish) content in this game. None of the other quests on Oricon is challenging. At all. Not even close. It's not a "slog-fest". It's no different than any of the other content. Perhaps if you use the gear you should have received the first time you did the Oricon quests, chose the right companion with the right skills enabled, and used your lower-tier commendations to upgrade that companion's gear, you might find Oricon challenging or fun instead of "slogging". 2. Continue the Class stories!! The main part of the charm is the stories, it gets us through tough planets, and without it the game looses two thirds of the charm, and it needs this back. I know Devs have said it's not happening, bad decision, it really needs to happen, and happen now This is a common thread and one I can appreciate even though I disagree with it. The truth of the matter is that development resources for the stories are fixed. There are only so many of them and that's all there are. Given that simple truth, the developers have to choose how to do stories. They can do 8 class stories as they did for the 1-50 run or they can do 2 faction stories as they did for Makeb and Oricon. Since development resources are fixed, the math becomes pretty simple and straightforward. If they did 8 class stories, each would be 25% of the scope of either of the faction stories they could alternatively do. Me? I prefer two longer, more intricate faction stories over 8 short, simplistic class stories. The thing I would ask BioWare to do WRT stories, if I could ask for and be granted just one thing, is to have Alexander Freed always responsible for at least one of the stories. 3. Make Crafting more relevant to the Game!!! Artifice make crystals that are useless, Armormech and Synthweaving make a few barelly sellable armours, and the others have taken a few hits for the Cartel Market. Yes I know they are never going to threaten the CM but they need updating and making more relevant to the game in it's current form, please do this. As a crafter, I have to say that crafting is relevant to the game. It's certainly relevant to my credit balance. You just have to learn to roll with the changes. Crystals and Armors and Weapons have been usurped by the Cartel Market, yes. Now you might consider making things like dyes and augments and augmentation kits. I hear some of the stuff Cybertechs make is in demand too, but I haven't gotten around to messing with that so I can't confirm. Maybe in a year, things will change again and we'll have to find something else to make. Oh well. That part of the game should be treated like a business, and like any business if you can't figure out how to adapt, you should fail. 4. Add more than one planet to a storyline Ilium, Makeb, and Oricon, you keep adding new content one planet at a time, meaning people can skip huge parts of the story, if you add any more planets, add areas to existing planets for extra content, make the stories multidimensional. This goes right back to the truth I discussed under the class story desire. Their resources they use to develop story are fixed. In software development, we often speak of a "triangle" of factors we can control. The sides of that triangle are resources, features, and time. As a Project Manager, I need to control one of those factors in order to manage the project successfully. So let's look at where BioWare is on that triangle, shall we? Resources are fixed. That's controlled by EA management and is unlikely to change significantly unless the game all of a sudden gets a massive influx of cash that they also expect to keep coming in. That seems unlikely so let's say that resources are simply fixed. Features, in the context of SWTOR, are UI, stories, missions, class mechanics / new levels, planets, etc. Time equates to release date. Typically management is going to specify a release date along with telling you how many resources you get. They want the next product to ship at a certain point in time in order to get the revenue when they want it. That leaves only features for PM's to control. It seems fair to say that manager and developer level staff are the only people within EA who give two sh...akes about the games and gamers. (Management just cares about money, screw the gamers, right?) So they're going to produce everything they possibly can, feature-wise, within the constraints of resources and schedule management imposes on them. But buried deep inside that is the burning necessity to prioritize well. They probably have thousands of things they'd like to get into the game. But given the time and resource constraints for the next release, they know they can only do a tiny fraction of that. As the only people who actually give two sh...akes about the players, how do they prioritize? They do the best they can to make the most players happy. And that has meant faction stories, one planet at a time. Understanding the constraints they're operating under, and with my current inability to donate tens of millions of dollars to EA to fund additional SWTOR development, I'm good with that. Edited January 31, 2014 by DarthTHC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlrikFassbauer Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) None of the other quests on Oricon is challenging. At all. Not even close. It's not a "slog-fest". It's no different than any of the other content. You are just too good for SWTOR - you behave like Sebastian Vettel towards an Cart racing. Or like Einstein compared to Joe Public. Seen it from this perspective, your replies are irrelevand, because they are posted by someone with too much knowledge about the game and with too much skill as well. You just cannot compare to anyone below you if you have too much of everything. So just give it up. I, however, can agree to points 1-4. Because I'm not so high, or, as you might put it, I'm a "bad". Edited January 31, 2014 by AlrikFassbauer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hadoken Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 It's still there, and there's a very clear category about story content to pick as well. Good, at least they're aware that people want it even if they're ignoring them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callaron Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Good, at least they're aware that people want it even if they're ignoring them Oh yeah, I'm sure they've seen their share of story content related unsubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I'm sorry to see you go Alex. I hope you return soon (not a Bioware soon®...like a normal person soon). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JattaGin Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) Goodbye, Alec. You have been here like always, if I recall correctly. You could also read and write. With more and more good ones leaving, I will soon end up with only people on my ignore list (on which I just finally put DarthCannabis, because it's unbearable). I also agree to all 4 points mentioned in the OP. Enjoy the next game! Edited February 1, 2014 by JattaGin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlienEyeTX Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Bye, then. Hope to see you back at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Never_Hesitate Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Seen it from this perspective, your replies are irrelevand, because they are posted by someone with too much knowledge about the game and with too much skill as well. I'm a "bad". lol, why should you be the judge over whose responses are relevant and whose aren't? You said you are bad yourself, why should anyone of us take you serious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
branmakmuffin Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 He's not going anywhere. People who actually leave just leave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reno_Tarshil Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 He's not going anywhere. People who actually leave just leave. Way to be consistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) He's not going anywhere. People who actually leave just leave. Hey now. Alex has a good rep here IMO. He's not the prototypical whiny "I'm Quitting" attention seeker by any means. He's had a lot of fun with the game, and is taking a break. Kind of him to let us know, IMO. The nice thing about SWTOR is he can continue to dabble as preferred and come back any time. Hey Alex..... you will be missed.... and..... I predict.... "you'll be back" (rendered in T-100 Arnold S voice modulation) Edited January 31, 2014 by Andryah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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