What are BioWare's Plans for Space in SWTOR?

[RaiderMid]

It is what it is. A massive failure as far as the space game. I don't see them doing much of anything with it.

[Storm-Cutter]

But the Rebels didn't win by having better decorated bases, or better dressed troops.

 

Going back to the topic though, (OP &c) the space parts and PvP parts aren't a big money spinner - meaning it won't get a lot of developer time - if at all.

[DuckKing]

But then again, 90% of Star Wars (the movies) takes place on planets. There's very few space battles - even the Death Star sequences are closer to planetary battles.

 

Some of the best battles and confrontations happened in space in my opinion. What makes Star Wars so special is the conflicts that were always happening in space and on the ground simultaneously. There was always a nice balance of space and on the ground in the movies. Bioware must not lose sight on what makes Star Wars... "Star" Wars.

Edited May 22, 2015 by DuckKing

[TUXs]

QoL update is the plan:

link

[Jerba]

SWTOR wants to appease a broad customer base but doesn't have the resources to develop more than one feature at a time. Yes, there are players who like GSF but there are even more players who like ground-based PvP and PvE. Unless they quadruple the team size, I don't see GSF or the on-rails missions being anything more than a minigame, and I hope that they rather focus on ground PvE content. Edited May 22, 2015 by Jerba

[Costello]

I think space is being ignored.

 

In a backward logic kind of way it wasn't much fun so not many people played it. People don't play it so there is no point to put resources into it.

 

I am amazed how many people without gunships keep playing GSF. Even if it wasn't a little basic when I play on my rep pilot more often than not half our team role out gunships and 2 shot new pilots. See a strike fighter and its an easy 10 kills. Poor guy ends up with 0 kills 1 assist 10 deaths. Even if he gets close feedback shields screw him up. That they keep coming and giving free kills amazes me, I'm amazed they find that fun.

[branmakmuffin]

Sad because the basis of Star Wars is the epic conflict between good and evil, law and chaos, Space opera on a galactic scale, the struggle to make moral choices, action, battle, spaceships, lasers and heroism.....Not who has the nicest house and plushest robes.

Whatever the alleged "basis" of Star Wars, this game is about whatever each player wants to make of it. If you don't like playing dress-up Barbie, don't. If others do, who cares? If you find the game is focusing too much on stuff you don't like, go find another game or put up with the stuff you don't like.

 

See a strike fighter and its an easy 10 kills. Poor guy ends up with 0 kills 1 assist 10 deaths. Even if he gets close feedback shields screw him up. That they keep coming and giving free kills amazes me, I'm amazed they find that fun.

I'm amazed you find it fun.

Edited May 22, 2015 by branmakmuffin

[TravelersWay]

Star Wars or Ground Wars? I think there is a lot more happening on the ground than in the stars in my opinion

Have you even seen any of the 6 movies? 95% of them take place on land....

Where did you pull this fact from genius?

From people who actually timed it. This argument has come up time and again over the course of the last 3 years. Very little screen time is actually given to "space" in Star Wars.

 

Actually, pretty large (and important) parts of all the movies take place in space.

 

Sure, it may not all be space battles, but take Ep IV for example... they leave tatooine after less than half the movie. They then spend alot of time in the falcon (a spaceship) and on the death star (a space station) and attacking the death star in spaceships.

In Ep V they start off on hoth, then on bespin and dagobah, but alot of the time they are actually traveling through space. Or in space battles.

Ep VI takes place on endor for the most part... but a very large chunk of the movie takes place in space (on the death star, in the death star and around the death star).

 

Oh and then there's some senate discussions or something that lasts for almost 6 hours, but I don't watch those movies, and don't really consider them "star wars".

But I hear there's quite alot of space fighting there as well... albeit not as much as there is political discussions.

 

Maby we should start lobbying for the inclusion of many hours of political discussion and senate hearings in the game?

I mean... it was pretty common in those 3 movies.

 

Actually, there was more "space" dedicated to the screen in the prequels than there was in the OT. Regardless. If you are talking about actual space scenes and battles, then the 90%+ figure is pretty accurate in terms of "ground" scenes versus actual space scenes. You can't really count the interior of the Death Star or Space Ships because that is as good as ground action. You might as well say that since a planet is in space, then all ground scenes actually count as "space" as well.

 

Also, Ep. V's one major battle took place on the ground. The only significant space action in the movie was the Asteroid Field scene.

In Ep. IV, again, one major space battle with two minor ones. Obviously the ending battle was the major one, but the opening one and the pursuit of the falcon were minor battles, and the opening only had the first minute or so of actual space battle on screen - everything else was interior shots with a "ground"-like battle.

Episode VI was not much different - one major space battle at the end. Everything else essentially took place on a planet's surface.

 

If one wants to nitpick and consider the traveling in space ships a part of space, well we already do have that in game as well - we travel from planet to planet in our own ships, and in guild ships, so that pretty much cancels each other out.

 

Some of the best battles and confrontations happened in space in my opinion. What makes Star Wars so special is the conflicts that were always happening in space and on the ground simultaneously. There was always a nice balance of space and on the ground in the movies. Bioware must not lose sight on what makes Star Wars... "Star" Wars.

If you think that what makes Star Wars "Star Wars" are the space scenes, then you don't really understand the underlying themes of the movies. Star Wars really isn't about space ships pew pewing one another, I am glad to say.

[bdatt]

I personally hope they do nothing new with space. Haven't done an on rails space mission since 2012 amd have only entered the GF tutorial to clear pvp flags.

 

Personal opinion obviously with the assumption there is a direct opportunity cost of developer resources working on "ground" vs space content.

Edited May 22, 2015 by bdatt

[Papazmurf]

The problem with space is this game and particularly GSF is that they aren't tied to the games story in any meaningful way and for GSF there aren't any rewards you can get for your actual toon. Sure you can use the comms to buy a limited amount of the decorations, but it just isn't worth it.

 

Even with PVP and ranked you get cool gear and rewards for your toon that you can use outside of PVP. That brings players who don't even like PVP to at least attempt it.

 

Either make space vital to the story or have awesome rewards from it. Space itself isn't good enough for to people to just do it for fun.

[branmakmuffin]

Either make space vital to the story or have awesome rewards from it. Space itself isn't good enough for to people to just do it for fun.

The entire game is "just for fun." I think GSF has more to do with the learning curve than the lack of swag.

[ulfaubel]

But then again, 90% of Star Wars (the movies) takes place on planets. There's very few space battles - even the Death Star sequences are closer to planetary battles.

 

How was the Death Star even close to a planetary battle? It shifted between a lightsaber duel and a naval battle for Episode IV. For Episode VI it was that and a ground battle portion. Regardless of what happens a majority of the time (in the movies) Star Wars is interesting as a setting specifically because of space. You didn't come here to wave axes and magic around with some orcs and elves, you came here for Sci-Fi space opera. Space is intrinsically tied in with almost all of the plots for all of the Star Wars movies, and if it wasn't there, you wouldn't have Star Wars. So I don't agree with the argument that space plays a minor role in the SW universe at all.

 

That said, I don't care if Bioware adds more space expansions or not. At this point, we all need to realize that with EA overseeing everything what the player wants doesn't matter. EA will repeat the same formula it has been repeating, and will more or less force Bioware to follow that formula. I don't even know why the forums even try to have discussions on it when it's clear Bioware and EA both don't give much of a rat's arse about the unwashed masses. You should just post pictures of your female companion in lewd clothing instead. I think that would be a better investiture of time.

[Bachannal]

umm GSF isn't designed for a joystick, it's a mouse driven game

 

 

This! ^ It's also pretty easy to figure out after a few flights....not "difficult to master" at all, lol.

[MaximilianPower]

I could not care less. Both space things hold no appeal whatsoever for me and there is nothing they could do to make them more appealing. GSF was a complete waste of a "free" expansion, IMO. I wonder how many players actually do GSF (maybe it's way more than I think: it certainly could not be less).

 

GSF has a fairly dedicated core of players. I also wonder how many of us there are; my guess is it's more than you think, though granted, not a lot. I play on three servers and generally don't have to wait long for a pop, outside of "normal" hours (i.e.. I'm unlikely to get a pop on Bastion at 11AM ET). But you could say that for any group/queue content.

 

It really is a great game, deep and addictive, but all of us that play regularly fully realize its shortcomings: first and foremost, the fact that it's gated by a preposterously steep learning curve. The controls are a non-issue (you do need to get used to them but they're perfectly viable)...the gear grind is a deterrent for some folks but isn't really the core problem. A real tutorial (something much more in-depth than the nearly useless one that exists) would go a long way towards making GSF more accessible.

[branmakmuffin]

GSF has a fairly dedicated core of players. I also wonder how many of us there are; my guess is it's more than you think, though granted, not a lot. I play on three servers and generally don't have to wait long for a pop, outside of "normal" hours (i.e.. I'm unlikely to get a pop on Bastion at 11AM ET). But you could say that for any group/queue content.

I'm not dogging out folks who like GSF. I like GSH but I have no doubt others consider that a complete waste of time and development resources.

[ALaggyGrunt]

Going between a mouse/Xbox 360 controller to a proper joystick in Xwing meant the TIE Advanced pests went from a real pain in the neck to... a lot easier. Now, if you want to do that to players with this mismatchmaking system we have now... bad idea, unless the game were designed so a mouse would be very much preferable in some kinds of fight.

[Loomi]

From people who actually timed it. This argument has come up time and again over the course of the last 3 years. Very little screen time is actually given to "space" in Star Wars.

 

Kind of hard to make a space opera if you don't focus on the people in it.

 

And for the record: as much space as was in the first 3 movies was only as much as could be done with the technology at a time - And there shouldn't have even been as much in the second 3 movies.

 

Video games aren't bound by the limitations of movies, and space combat has always been a viable game archetype for Star Wars:

X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, X-Wing Alliance, Rogue Squadron, Rogue Squadron II, Rogue Squadron III, Starfighter, Battlefront, Battlefront II, Battlefront Renegade, Battlefront Elite Squadron, and yes, Star Wars The Old Republic.