Revenge of the Class Story. ^_^

[ashikagaoda]

Hi Team SWTOR!

 

I have been thinking about some of the responses to my return to SWTOR thread over the last few days and some of the stuff I read across the web about the reluctance on the part of Bioware/EA to develop more Class Story for SWTOR.

 

Now, I wrote that I made the decision to resubscribe based on the news that Bioware was adding to the Class Story content after some years of neglect. It was the single most advertised feature of SWTOR. That it would KOTOR on into infinity and also be a great MMO experience too.

 

When SWTOR was first released it was an incredibly rich single player experience but not such a great MMO experience. Since then the development team has done an amazing job at strengthening the group experience of SWTOR in both PvP and PvE but the most defining trait of the game, Class Story, has suffered.

 

The main refrain I have read from both players and developers has along the lines of "Class story was great but... way at this point it is way too expensive and time consuming for the current development and Bioware/EA will never go for something like it again."

 

They are not wrong.

 

I am not here to argue with that statement. While the VO and cinematic cutscenes don't break the bank, as James Ohlen himself pointed out during a 2013 GDC talk: "Don't be scared about adding voice over and cool cinematic content," he advised his audience, "but do be careful about adding lots of choice with consequence because that adds to QA cost and development cost and makes it hard to design everything."

 

The writing, VO and cinematic cutscene costs are not insurmountable challenges but the complexity of designing, implementing and testing 8 separate class stories would be extremely demanding on the development team and costly.

 

But SWTOR was sold to us on the strength of dramatic Bioware-type storytelling. How do we find ourselves going back to the heart of what makes SWTOR a unique MMO? While looking up the ongoing issues surrounding Class Story I think stumbled across this recommendation:

 

Reddit post by CommunistLibertarian:

 

Alternatively, an effective means of bringing back "class stories" may be to give all the classes the same goal but to vary the means by which that mission is carried out.

 

For example - and this is just off-the-cuff - Act V starts with Darth Marr informing the Imperial player-character than his Isotope-5 research lab has been captured. The Warrior bashes in the front door - straightforward assault mission. The Inquisitor has to find and use a Rakata transporter to bypass outer security. The Agent uses a backdoor to sneak inside and assassinate the Republic commander. The Bounty Hunter slices local terminals to turn the base security against the Republic troops and then jet-packs onto the roof.

 

Ultimately, all four classes get their own flavor, but the overall plot can remain the same. That is, the story varies based on the class type and not based on past story choices...I think that would add some variety and flavor to the classes without requiring an excessive amount of additional work and/or finagling with past story-choices.

 

 

... And I mulled over his recommendation and realized that he'd hit on something... Watch the SWTOR - 'Deceived' Cinematic Trailer again:

 

STAR WARS™: The Old Republic™ - 'Deceived' Cinematic Trailer

 

What do you notice?

 

That's right. Several classes from the Empire, striving towards a shared goal of sacking the Jedi temple but with each class going about this goal in very different ways. It's ironic how closely the trailer captures the Reddit poster's recommendation; the Sith Warrior bashes in the door, the Bounty Hunter uses her technology to evade and destroy guards, etcetera.

 

This strategy could work. Bioware could build several mission areas shared among the various Class Stories and then allow the players to experience these missions from the unique prospective of their class. This reduces the pressure to generate 8 unique class stories, addressing in part some of the concerns James Ohlen and Co. have about the problem of ever expanding complexity with the original Class Stories.

 

I hope that Shadows of Revan is a step in this direction and eventually, to new entire chapters for the iconic Class Stories of SWTOR. If release SWTOR was a new hope, I want 2015 to be Revenge of the SWTOR and I still believe that story - and the continuation of Class Story will play an important part in this resurgence.

 

Go Team SWTOR! <3

[Jduensing]

As I stated on your other post, people (whom I would rather not name as my account would probably be banned) have already acquired audio from the class quests. They're just short little one minute or so warm ups where your companions banter and so on, but the end result is the same I had a vision/received a message/heard about rishii, let's go there captain/sir/master. And off you go. It's a nice touch, but best as we can tell now, these class mission aren't really any longer than your dialogue with Marr at the beginning of rise of the hutt cartel.

[Codedrago]

As I stated on your other post, people (whom I would rather not name as my account would probably be banned) have already acquired audio from the class quests. They're just short little one minute or so warm ups where your companions banter and so on, but the end result is the same I had a vision/received a message/heard about rishii, let's go there captain/sir/master. And off you go. It's a nice touch, but best as we can tell now, these class mission aren't really any longer than your dialogue with Marr at the beginning of rise of the hutt cartel.

 

Best as we can tell? So, you hear audio of the intro......and that means that the intro conversation is the quest?

[Jduensing]

Best as we can tell? So, you hear audio of the intro......and that means that the intro conversation is the quest?

 

said intro conversation ends with "fire up the engines we're headed to rishii. Even if there is added content on rishii, I imagine most people wanted to see their characters on the job. Hunting targets, in a dark council meeting, that kind of thing.

[ashikagaoda]

said intro conversation ends with "fire up the engines we're headed to rishii. Even if there is added content on rishii, I imagine most people wanted to see their characters on the job. Hunting targets, in a dark council meeting, that kind of thing.

 

Gawd. I hope your source is wrong Jduensing. I really don't think that'll be the case though. I don't think they would risk the PR blowback with a Class Mission as limited as that - or bring back Alexander Freed to just write several lines of dialog for all the classes. Your sources information doesn't make much sense TBH.

[Mellosa]

SWTOR without its story lines is empty. It is the greatest feature that make people come back to SWTOR again and again because no one among developers of other games could make something more interesting. Gamers are fed with simple standard mobs killing, increasing their stats endlessly. Its just boring and monotonous. SWTOR brought mmo to another level that no one still could remake.

 

But if swtor team wont be able to continue story lines, the game will be converted to one more usual uninteresting mmo.

[Jduensing]

Gawd. I hope your source is wrong Jduensing. I really don't think that'll be the case though. I don't think they would risk the PR blowback with a Class Mission as limited as that - or bring back Alexander Freed to just write several lines of dialog for all the classes. Your sources information doesn't make much sense TBH.

 

I hoped it was fake at first too. I can't provide links for the same reason I can't say who, but anyone could look it up.