Feel like I want something "New" from the Developers, like a new vision for the game

[MaximusRex]

Agreed. But it seems that everyone demanding a new engine thinks its as simple as copying text scrips to an entirely new graphics system.

 

It's not only just that, a lot of people who want a new engine doesn't even know what the engine does, and think it will magically make graphics "better" or reduce load times.

[Ghisallo]

To the OP... I think your Cata analogy only makes sense IF you want the game to die. Look at what happened....Cata launches and since then WoW has been hemorrhaging subs. If we were to apply simply the % of loss to this game it would become a COMPLETE ghost town. Going for something very "newish" in a game that is a few years old is a HUGE gamble. At this point the majority of people still here are here because of what SWTOR is atm. I too want changes and improvements BUT a paradigm shift (which you seem to be suggesting) has hurt/out right killed far more games than it has ever saved.

 

I am not saying that you have a bad dream for a perfect world...but in my experience I have yet to see such an action prove anything but damaging.

Edited June 5, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Ghisallo]

I do wish people would get off of the new engine bandwagon. Its not going to happen. It would require a rewrite of the entire game to do that, because of how heavily modified it is. The company that makes the hero engine doesn't even support bioware anymore because the engine doesn't even resemble what they had. Its not as simple as just swapping engines.

 

And if you are going to make a new engine, really for the work involved, you may as well make an entirely new game.

 

Heck even if it was 100% stock HeroEngine, HeroEngine2 (aka sapphire) is so substantially different that it would require a rewrite.

 

Most of the people asking for engine changes to improve graphics performance really have NO clue about the graphics performance of MMOs. They compare the performance when they are playing a Shooter on XBOX live, or when they are playing DA:I. Even in co-op mode the way a DA:I operates and interacts with your hardware is SIGNIFICANTLY different than an PC Based MMORPG. As such they use false benchmarks for performance and do little but display ignorance.

[K_osss]

Zion,

I am not expecting anything major in the way of an announcement but it would be a pleasant surprise if i'm wrong.

[ZionHalcyon]

To the OP... I think your Cata analogy only makes sense IF you want the game to die. Look at what happened....Cata launches and since then WoW has been hemorrhaging subs. If we were to apply simply the % of loss to this game it would become a COMPLETE ghost town. Going for something very "newish" in a game that is a few years old is a HUGE gamble. At this point the majority of people still here are here because of what SWTOR is atm. I too want changes and improvements BUT a paradigm shift (which you seem to be suggesting) has hurt/out right killed far more games than it has ever saved.

 

I am not saying that you have a bad dream for a perfect world...but in my experience I have yet to see such an action prove anything but damaging.

 

Fair enough, but Cata at the time and a few years after was credited with Retention and giving WoW a boost - really, although they had a slow decline from an astronomical number, Cata really did help improve numbers there in the short term. In fact, you could say that Wow's doom was based off of Mists of Panderia, trying to capitalize on the Kung Fu Panda craze and failing. It really hasn't quite recovered from that.

 

 

Anyway, I am not saying the game should be fundamentally changed in terms of combat, or that BioWare even needs to go to the level WoW did with Cata.

 

But what I am saying, is if they ever decided to do something major and radical, so long as they kept the class stories intact and the way we interact with those stories, then I am all good.

 

For instance - what if they essentially redid where missions were on the 1-50 planets so that the pacing was better, but they added even MORE story to it? What if those pointless side quests were removed and replaced with another epic story?

 

What if you were given 3 options to level via story per planet? Class Story, an overall faction story that carries from planet to planet where you basically are in the service of the empire/republic that would replace the side quests, or planetary quests that begin and end on that planet?

 

What if you have options on how you wanted to experience the story? And always had the option of going back and doing the other two for kicks at a later date (admittedly overlevelled by that point)?

 

Being bold enough to either do something productive with the side quests, or nuke them in favor of a new, planet-spanning story you can do in lieu of your class story would be something major in my eyes. Hell, for fun, since Makeb fits more into a faction quest anyway, you can add some class story there to even it out, and then just let everything feed as it normally does into SoR.

 

To me, that would be something on the level of epic. It would be something that is worthwhile and give people a reason to re-roll characters and keep things fresh when they do have to grind up again. That is what I mean by a Cata level event for BioWare.

 

And I know its asking for the moon. But hey, since this is fantasy land, why not ask?

[Monumenta]

So many 'I work in IT, nobody believes me but I will still argue with the other "I'm in IT" guys nobody believes on these forums.

[CaptRogue]

In fact, you could say that Wow's doom was based off of Mists of Panderia, trying to capitalize on the Kung Fu Panda craze and failing. It really hasn't quite recovered from that.

 

Learn you WoW facts before you misquote them. *smh*

Panda's have been in WoW back before WoW was WoW. Pandas were in Warcraft, the pc game that WoW is based on/created from.

They weren't banking on a Kung Fu Panda craze. Like what they want a bunch of 8-12yr olds playing their game, when it's geared for Teens/Adult with a T rating?!

It may have hurt them because people just didn't want to go that route, but it was not a Dreamworks movie craze.

[Ghisallo]

Fair enough, but Cata at the time and a few years after was credited with Retention and giving WoW a boost - really, although they had a slow decline from an astronomical number, Cata really did help improve numbers there in the short term. ..

 

Sorry but this is a complete mess of the reality. By "mess" I mean you are taking different statements, dynamics and, I assume, unintentionally switching them all around.

 

The PLAN was what you said. Blizz was spending INSANE amounts on marketing. By the time Cata launched it was actually a break even game(barely) between dev and marketing costs. The HOPE was this...

 

They had not grown in the EA and EU since TBC. All of the growth past that first "wowzer" 6 million subs was from expanding into new markets (China, the rest of Asia and Russia). So their hope was a return to a TBC type game would return a growth in existing markets rather than constantly having to expand to a new market. BTW this was from their own earnings call before Cata dropped...the reason they gave for such a large, expensive and drastic change/expansion. Makes some sense. If the last time you grew in existing markets was with a pre-easy mode WoTLK and competitors are benefiting from the players who want this game... lets go back to this kinda game.

 

And yes as soon as Cata dropped subs increased. This happens with almost EVERY MMO... Expac drops, players come and check it out. Problem is the changes with Cata resulted in them dropping from a self reported 12 million subscribers to 9.1 million BEFORE Pandaria launched. Pandas had nothing to do with the loss. The lost 1/4 of their subscribers because they did to drastic a change too quickly (compounded by the fact the market was simply saturated with alternatives, as it is now.)

 

They were trapped. They had relied on being abole to say 10 million... no 11 million... no 12 million subscribers to keep investors happy BUT at the same time had investors scratching their heads saying "you had 12 million subs... where is my dividend check?" So they tried to use a 2007 solution (TBC launch) for a 2011 problem. In doing so they forgot the 2007 player was GONE and the 2011 player was there because they did not want a 2007 game, they liked the 2011 game.

 

I know people "pooh pooh" on anti-blizz talking but what I note above are simple facts. WoW was a white elephant before Cata. Cata was the HOPE of making it viable again. It failed...as a matter of fact it made matters worse. Panda Land was a hope to turn it around. Problem is instead of 3-4 alternatives, as when the game launched, A) there were a plethora of MMO alternatives AND B) the gaming market simply had a MUCH larger variety of genre's to chose from. So Panda Land, the attempted surgery to stop the hemorrhage simply turned it into a "simple" bleed, it did not "cure" the patient."

 

Heck the issue is such a mess in the MMO market Blizz killed TITAN and is relying simply on their smaller, more streamlined and (perhaps most importantly) cheaper games as their future. The real innovation is dead at Blizzard and is with the rest of Activision....and in neither case are they focusing on MMOs. WoW is there for the same reason GM kept Buick. It is a marque brand with an upscale cache that does well is a VERY valuable market (China), the same market where the majority of WoW subs are atm. Welcome to globalization.

Edited June 7, 2015 by Ghisallo

[Ghisallo]

So many 'I work in IT, nobody believes me but I will still argue with the other "I'm in IT" guys nobody believes on these forums.

 

What's funny is IT has little to do with understanding how a game engine works.

[tmwfte]

A shiny new hat.

[ZETA_SCORPII]

I just hope the big announcement is another Cartel Market flash sale. Anything other than a CM announcement will prompt me to unsub for the 100th time, (only to resub the next day cause crack is addicting).

 

On a serious note, I just want to see more endgame content. An arena "Horde Mode", (a la Destiny House of Wolves), would be freakin awesome IMO! More raids too.

[Aries_cz]

Nothing beats dragons falling from the sky in Skyrim, though. Or mammoths flying into the sky. And that's before mods.

 

I want more hints before I try and guess what is coming at E3. All the rumor mill nonsense is bad for the soul.

 

Bethsoft's GameBryo engine (which they have been using for past decade) always had horrendous physics. Which is why people are a bit annoyed that fallout 4 is going to use it...

[lironBD]

hmm second part of ziost. nope... I don't feel any hype.

[Kaisernick]

Y

[*]MEGA SERVER - Everything is merged "Boom"... that is epic big worthy of this hype

A mega server would not work because of the naming restrictions bioware has.

star trek online which is one that does use a mega server uses character name@acounthandle for mail invites ect Bioware doesn't which would mean 1000s would loose there name and making a new one would be much harder, the back lash would be huge.

 

Unless Bioware could implement a system like STO a mega server is highly unlikely

[Banthabreeder]

Hmmm... Just hit me. Wouldn't it be great if the big announcement was they were allowing addons in the game? We would finally get something as great as Auctioneer was for World of Warcraft (WoW) for our Global Trade Network (GTN). Or Gatherer for finding and remembering where resources were. Or Random pet/mount addons. Or something to actually clean up the emotes pull down menu and make it more easy to utilize. An addon to customize the Collections window to make it more easy to navigate. So many other things to make life better for the average SWTOR player.

 

Yeah, that would knock my socks off if that was the announcement. Instead, It will probably just be a new pet they're giving away for free for being a loyal subscriber.

[dscount]

A mega server would not work because of the naming restrictions bioware has.

 

True that. The last round of mergers didn't exactly make people happy with losing names. Until they fix how to do that without so many losing out on names it's a show stopper I suspect for them. Was lots of negative feedback.

[stridemachine]

Drewlik's podcast entitled, SWTOR - Is it worth playiing (

) has some great insights on the current state of the game, as well as some innovative ideas for it's future. He posits that SWTOR needs a new class to inject much needed life into the game, and proposes a great method that Bioware can easily implement:

Add an extra Discipline to each Class.

As an example: in addition to Sniper and Operative, introduce "x" (droid builder, for instance). No new story quests, equipment/gear, voice actors are needed. In short, this is the easiest, most cost effective way to inject new life into SWTOR.

 

While some of you may not agree with Drewliks point of view or his opinions, I believe this proposition is exactly what SWTOR needs to flourish, and it's the easiest, most cost effective thing Bioware can implement that would yeild the greatest return - plus it would make an excellent splash in E3.

[Muljo_Stpho]

Add an extra Discipline to each Class.

As an example: in addition to Sniper and Operative, introduce "x" (droid builder, for instance). No new story quests, equipment/gear, voice actors are needed. In short, this is the easiest, most cost effective way to inject new life into SWTOR.

 

I've been saying since the switch to disciplines that it had a lot of potential for additions like that. They've got a pretty clear checklist for what they need for any new discipline:

 

1) Generally speaking, they need to define its intended purpose / role (both as a concept like your suggestion of "droid builder" and as a goal for how it will fit into the gameplay). What will this version of the advanced class do different from / better than the other versions of the advanced class that we already have with the other disciplines? (adding a tank or healer role to a class that doesn't have one, adding a new type of tank or healer role that performs different from the current one, focusing on a style of DPS that the class hasn't typically been strong at before, or even recreating a concept similar to a hybrid build that people used when we had skill trees)

 

2) They need 4 signature abilities only available in this new discipline. (earned at levels 10, 26, 41, and 57) This will be a large part of the work since they need to create distinctive new animations for the moves.

 

3) They need 13 passives affecting class, advanced class, and discipline abilities / passives as necessary to build the class up around the core concept defined in point 1. (earned at levels 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, and 59) There's a fair bit of work involved here to get the discipline's performance within reasonable margins for "class balance". Although that will also be an ongoing effort after the discipline gets added to the game.

 

4) Cap it off with the allotment of 7 utility points. (earned at levels 11, 19, 27, 35, 43, 51, and 60) Zero work involved here. Just matching the format of other disciplines.

 

Once the discipline is created, all of the abilities and passives in points 2 and 3 can be tinkered with for "balance issues" independently from any other disciplines.

 

And then it gives us new ways to play the classes.

Edited June 8, 2015 by Muljo_Stpho

[annabethchase]

True that. The last round of mergers didn't exactly make people happy with losing names. Until they fix how to do that without so many losing out on names it's a show stopper I suspect for them. Was lots of negative feedback.

 

They sold re-names for real money. Therefore they shouldn't go back now and force you to change one you specifically paid for. That would be the lowest class move ever.

[Muljo_Stpho]

Add an extra Discipline to each Class.

As an example: in addition to Sniper and Operative, introduce "x" (droid builder, for instance)

 

Wait, I just re-read that and it sounds more like you're asking for each class to get a new advanced class, not for each advanced class to get a new discipline.

[Toweleeeie]

The problem with the engine is that it is CPU heavy and doesn't use the GPU at all, which was ok in 2000. Now all these new games utilize the GPU very well. You can pretty much spend $500 on a new computer, $250 being the GPU and run games better then the current generation of consoles.

I upgraded from gen 1 i7 to the newest one last month and it made a huge difference, like 30 fps gain. I have 2 gtx 780 ti in sli.

 

I do realize that MMOs need more CPU power because of all the players in the same instance.

Edited June 8, 2015 by Toweleeeie

[Rafaman]

I feel I want... chicken and waffles.

[tmwfte]

I feel I want... chicken and waffles.

 

Now I want chicken and waffles...

[curulz]

Now I want chicken and waffles...

 

I want chicken, but not waffles. We must be given options!

[Ghisallo]

The problem with the engine is that it is CPU heavy and doesn't use the GPU at all, which was ok in 2000. Now all these new games utilize the GPU very well. You can pretty much spend $500 on a new computer, $250 being the GPU and run games better then the current generation of consoles.

I upgraded from gen 1 i7 to the newest one last month and it made a huge difference, like 30 fps gain. I have 2 gtx 780 ti in sli.

 

I do realize that MMOs need more CPU power because of all the players in the same instance.

 

Sort. It does use the GPU. The "problem" SWTOR has is really a problem many games running on DX9-11 have to one degree or another. All DX versions (prior to DX12) send a fair amount of graphics libraries to the CPU.

What makes DX-12 so much better is finally all of this is off loaded. So really this is simply a matter of the engine operating the way DX requires.

 

The two issues with the MMOs are, primarily, as follows. You have A LOT more stuff going on. Yes other people in a zone, chat, data base checking, PvP flag checking, who is doing what to which player or NPC etc AND graphics libraries all getting sent to the CPU. Then you look at the fact that the games typically have poor multi-threading. As an example SWTOR only sends two threads at a tme and one of them is fairly bloated. Not because of the graphics but all the other crap. Heck one of the biggest headaches in some MMOs has to do with character databases (EQ2 was a nightmare for that.)

Edited June 8, 2015 by Ghisallo