You think one hour of Story Content per month is too little?

[translucentwolf]

agree

 

if it turns out 1 hour of content every month the buzz will fade and die fast and EA better understand that

 

Look at Ziost, more then 1 hour but widely called way to short and disposable as a expansion

 

It that's what they plan to put out each month, it will not go over well and you will see large subscription cancellations very quickly

 

 

And yet, you're still here. I'm still here. The subscriber base is still here.

 

You people that keep saying 'if this, they'll quit' and 'if that, they'll quit' have been proven wrong many times.

 

Get a life.

[Oyranos]

its not little if they give other things along with it... its little if its just that.

 

EA is a fast-food, fish and chips... its not an elegant restaurant, with little of that, little of this, beautiful looks...

Edited July 17, 2015 by Oyranos

[Pagy]

First, let's set a few things straight.

 

1: it was clarified that story content meant cutscenes. So we're just talking pure cutscene length here, not playtime killing mobs or running from A to B.

2: it was a minimum of 1 hour per chapter. So it's not going to be one hour per chapter no matter what. There will be chapters longer than one hour. There will be no chapters shorter than 1 hour, though.

 

Now, let's compare this to the Bounty Hunter storyline which I just played through without any companion cutscenes at all (so those aren't adding to the time here, this is just pure cutscenes from the main storyline).

 

(these are rough numbers since I haven't edited the files yet, but the variance will be a minute at most, and the time is from the planet landing cutscene until the next planet landing cutscene)

 

Trying to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers and time rounded down to nearest minute:

 

Hutta + Dromund Kaas = 1hour 10 minutes

Balmorra = 19 minutes.

Nar Shaddaa = 23 minutes.

Hutta detour = 8 minutes.

Tatooine = 17 minutes.

Alderaan = 22 minutes.

Nar Shaddaa detour + The Aurora (final chapter 1 mission) = 11 minutes

Ceremony + Meet Mandalore + do the Dromund Kaas task = 15 minutes

Taris = 18 minutes

Quesh = 3 minutes

Hoth = 26 minutes

Chapter 2 ending on Nar Shaddaa + The Tyrant = 10 minutes

Belsavis = 18 minutes

Torian side-mission + Voss = 21 minutes

Back to Tyrant + Corellia = 22 minutes

Chapter 3 ending = 6 minutes.

That's a total of 5 hours and change (roughly)

 

So 1 hour of new story content (cutscenes only) per month sure doesn't sound like a little to me.

 

And 9 chapters of at least 1 hour each is definately not too little in my opinion (which is what we'll be getting when the expansion launches.)

 

We're basically getting 3-4 planets worth of storyline per expansion (only counting class stories, obviously, not side quests and planetary quests).

you're comparing actual gameplay to dev claims for gameplay.

 

if you think this new quest line will take an hour each then you might be the most gullible person on the internet. devs always inflate and exaggerate hours of gameplay. its almost always half as long. they not only exaggerate, but conflate it by including all possible conversation permutations, assumed pauses, travel times...etc etc.

 

its utterly naive to believe that this is anything more than a glorified quest line

[ThorgrimLutgen]

you're comparing actual gameplay to dev claims for gameplay.

 

if you think this new quest line will take an hour each then you might be the most gullible person on the internet. devs always inflate and exaggerate hours of gameplay. its almost always half as long. they not only exaggerate, but conflate it by including all possible conversation permutations, assumed pauses, travel times...etc etc.

 

its utterly naive to believe that this is anything more than a glorified quest line

 

Agreed, not to mention, some have even been known not just to exaggerate, but to get it totally wrong, or even worse......lie!! *gasp*

[Themanthatisi]

First, let's set a few things straight.

 

1: it was clarified that story content meant cutscenes. So we're just talking pure cutscene length here, not playtime killing mobs or running from A to B.

2: it was a minimum of 1 hour per chapter. So it's not going to be one hour per chapter no matter what. There will be chapters longer than one hour. There will be no chapters shorter than 1 hour, though.

 

Now, let's compare this to the Bounty Hunter storyline which I just played through without any companion cutscenes at all (so those aren't adding to the time here, this is just pure cutscenes from the main storyline).

 

(these are rough numbers since I haven't edited the files yet, but the variance will be a minute at most, and the time is from the planet landing cutscene until the next planet landing cutscene)

 

Trying to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers and time rounded down to nearest minute:

 

Hutta + Dromund Kaas = 1hour 10 minutes

Balmorra = 19 minutes.

Nar Shaddaa = 23 minutes.

Hutta detour = 8 minutes.

Tatooine = 17 minutes.

Alderaan = 22 minutes.

Nar Shaddaa detour + The Aurora (final chapter 1 mission) = 11 minutes

Ceremony + Meet Mandalore + do the Dromund Kaas task = 15 minutes

Taris = 18 minutes

Quesh = 3 minutes

Hoth = 26 minutes

Chapter 2 ending on Nar Shaddaa + The Tyrant = 10 minutes

Belsavis = 18 minutes

Torian side-mission + Voss = 21 minutes

Back to Tyrant + Corellia = 22 minutes

Chapter 3 ending = 6 minutes.

That's a total of 5 hours and change (roughly)

 

So 1 hour of new story content (cutscenes only) per month sure doesn't sound like a little to me.

 

And 9 chapters of at least 1 hour each is definately not too little in my opinion (which is what we'll be getting when the expansion launches.)

 

We're basically getting 3-4 planets worth of storyline per expansion (only counting class stories, obviously, not side quests and planetary quests).

 

Excellent work on the breakdown!

 

If that is true and we are getting 1 hour of story, not just 1 hour of total content, then I have to think we are getting quite much and this will be a very exciting time for the game...

[Jadescythe]

Look at launch. Think of how long it took to get to 50 on the first character you ever played. There were 8 completely unique storylines. 2 complete faction specific storylines per planet. A host of side quests, some of which are actually worth doing multiple times (looking at you black bisector).

 

And many players were bored in a month. Even the initial release of 9 chapters won't come anywhere close to that scale and it's intended to tide players over until January. These are players who have legacy perks, XP buffs, and already understand how to play the game. And just like with launch, there will be minimal new end game content.

 

I honestly predict quite a few players playing through the story a few times and then cancelling subs if nothing comes out for endgame. Then resubbing to do more story next year or whenever new endgame comes along.

[MisterPepssi]

And yet, you're still here. I'm still here. The subscriber base is still here.

 

You people that keep saying 'if this, they'll quit' and 'if that, they'll quit' have been proven wrong many times.

 

Get a life.

 

I think this expansion is retarded and lacking in MMO content. I didn't come here to play a single player game.

[Rafaman]

lol. This is a fun thread.

 

The bottom line is this IMO, one hour, two hours or 3 hours, it doesn't matter. The content locusts will eat that up fast. Some will stay up days if they have too while others will take time off work and plan it as a vacation.

 

Soon, there will be a cry resonating from the fleet that it was too short. Others will be back to the we need new Ops argument.

 

While those extremes will be vocal, the more average player will meander through the content, and at the same time be introduced to Ops, FPs, and all of the other things this game has to offer.

 

The net will get a bunch of new fish, some old fish will finally leave, but ultimately the game will continue. This game has much to offer now as opposed to launch, and subs will increase because of it.

[DarthDymond]

I'd hold off a bit before shouting "one hour of just cut-scenes each episode!" from the rooftops based off of Lady I.'s video. There are a hundred ways that it could be getting taken out of context. Especially if you're comparing it to the cut-scene time of a single playthrough in other instances.

 

Just one example: A dev could have touted that "we recorded at least an hour of new content for every episode" - where that would mean that all the various dialogue choices added together reach 1 hour each episode. If "choice matters" as much as they are saying, then that could easily mean that the dialogue will play out drastically different based on your choices, which would make the total recording time drastically longer than any single play-through. (Not to mention adding up all the little differences they'd be recording to give a dash of 'class flavor' or adding nods to past choices to some of the interactions - "Lord Wrath! We need the samoflange" vs "Master Jedi! We need the samoflange" etc.)

 

I think an episode a month, with nine episodes kicking the whole thing off, sounds fantastic. If each episode ends up being a decent sized chunk of story, then that's awesome - but I still wouldn't necessarily go in expecting that each one will be three times the length of a Voss class-story run just yet.

[wangxiuming]

I'd hold off a bit before shouting "one hour of just cut-scenes each episode!" from the rooftops based off of Lady I.'s video. There are a hundred ways that it could be getting taken out of context. Especially if you're comparing it to the cut-scene time of a single playthrough in other instances.

 

Just one example: A dev could have touted that "we recorded at least an hour of new content for every episode" - where that would mean that all the various dialogue choices added together reach 1 hour each episode. If "choice matters" as much as they are saying, then that could easily mean that the dialogue will play out drastically different based on your choices, which would make the total recording time drastically longer than any single play-through. (Not to mention adding up all the little differences they'd be recording to give a dash of 'class flavor' or adding nods to past choices to some of the interactions - "Lord Wrath! We need the samoflange" vs "Master Jedi! We need the samoflange" etc.)

 

I think an episode a month, with nine episodes kicking the whole thing off, sounds fantastic. If each episode ends up being a decent sized chunk of story, then that's awesome - but I still wouldn't necessarily go in expecting that each one will be three times the length of a Voss class-story run just yet.

 

Yeah, gotta agree with this. Until a developer comes out and actually says it'll take us 1 hour just to watch the cutscenes in a single chapter, I'm kinda hesitant to believe it would be that much. My gut instinct tells me 1 hour for cutscenes alone is very ambitious and may not be realistic ... though maybe that's just the pessimist in me.

 

Whatever it turns out to be, still looking forward to this expansion though!

[Pagy]

hey does everyone remember when eaware said there would be 200 hours of gameplay per class?

 

or my personal, recent favourite, the order 1886 having 8-10 hours hahaha

[AshenK]

I think this expansion is retarded and lacking in MMO content. I didn't come here to play a single player game.

This is what everyone other then some of the drones are saying.

 

If the Devs are smart they should come out in the next month and say they are going to add more raids, more dungeons and more PvP maps to the game. The whole 'story' idea is great for a single player game, but this is an mmo and mmo things should be worked on.

[DarkSaberMaster]

Another thread to bookmark to come back to when EAware proves the OP wrong. You would think people would learn by now about this game lol.

[bdatt]

At first glance this is better than I expected. I'd be interested in the mean length of cutscenes. The extreme would be one mission, then a 1 hour cutscene. But an assumption of 5 min per scene and you're looking at 12+ quests per scene. Probably 3-5 hours first playthrough is my guess, more if you loiter a bit.

 

I still want a timeline on new operations though.

Edited July 17, 2015 by bdatt

[DarkSaberMaster]

hey does everyone remember when eaware said there would be 200 hours of gameplay per class?

 

or my personal, recent favourite, the order 1886 having 8-10 hours hahaha

 

Yep. Pretty much.

[GoldenHornet]

One hour of a generic single story per month (which apparently is what they're planning) is equivalent to three vanilla-scale planets per year (with all eight class stories and both faction stories).

 

I wonder which one people would rather have?

 

Having 19 alts covering all advanced classes I'd take option B every time.

 

With the single storyline content like Rishi/Yavin it gets old after the first few runs through. It's suicidally boring after 10 characters. I've only managed to drag 12 through to 60 since SoR launched

 

Until I see different I'm expecting class differences in the expansion to be limited to a couple of changed dialog lines in the cut scenes. That's not enough for proper levels of replayability.

[tmwfte]

The expansion could be a full new set of 600 hours of gameplay, 2 faction storylines, 8 class quests, side and planetary quests, new mechanics exploration quests like Macro/Seeker chains, repeatable daily areas, new OPs, FPs, WZs, GSF maps, interstitial space missions, companion quests, etc. and some people will still complain that it is too little.

[Neglience]

This is what everyone other then some of the drones are saying.

 

If the Devs are smart they should come out in the next month and say they are going to add more raids, more dungeons and more PvP maps to the game. The whole 'story' idea is great for a single player game, but this is an mmo and mmo things should be worked on.

 

I think EA is planning with a bunch of new players coming to the game with the SW-Movie. For that reason they did all the FPs and OPs adaptions (and the cinematic advertise). Those players will have big and new endgame open to them once they hit level 60.

Edited July 17, 2015 by Neglience

[DarthDymond]

People really have stuck in their head that the only way for [Play-through A] to be meaningfully different from [Play-through B] is if there are Class differences, and that's understandable given its what we've seen before. But while it certainly may end up being pure marketing-speak when they talk about "making choice matter", if it does end up being more than pure PR bull, then it opens the possibility that we'll a good amount of variety.

 

Obviously, the unified "Outlander" plot is still going to have you always going from Point A to Point B, but that was true with the Class Stories too - you'd always go from Belsavis, to Voss, to Corellia, etc (and take the same progression through the areas on each planet).

 

Some released details of Chapter 3 mentioned choosing to save a city or make a run for it at one point – if that's just another case of getting different Alignment points and one different line of dialogue at the end of the mission, then no big deal. But if decisions like that which you make at Point A actually impact what you're doing at Point B, then this Outlander Story may have the sort of variety that we haven't seen since the Class Stories.

 

Put another way: If KotFE has a Chapter 12 where my individual choices from the past Chapters mean that on [Play-through A] Lana Beniko is sending my Juggernaut to Bothawui with a crew made up of Lord Scourge, Dark Side Jaesa, and Skadge, in order to burn the whole place down, while on [Play-through B] I have Koth Vorenta sending my Marauder to that same planet with Vette, Ashara, and Doc on a relief and rescue mission... well then it starts to look a lot more like the same level of variety I saw back when my Mercenary went to Belsavis at level 41 to hunt down a Republic privateer while my Sentinel went to that same planet at about the same level to stop an Imperial suicide pact from blowing up the planet.

Edited July 17, 2015 by DarthDymond

[Reno_Tarshil]

People really have stuck in their head that the only way for [Play-through A] to be meaningfully different from [Play-through B] is if there are Class differences, and that's understandable given its what we've seen before. But while it certainly may end up being pure marketing-speak when they talk about "making choice matter", if it does end up being more than pure PR bull, then it opens the possibility that we'll a good amount of variety.

 

Obviously, the unified "Outlander" plot is still going to have you always going from Point A to Point B, but that was true with the Class Stories too - you'd always go from Belsavis, to Voss, to Corellia, etc (and take the same progression through the areas on each planet).

 

Some released details of Chapter 3 mentioned choosing to save a city or make a run for it at one point – if that's just another case of getting different Alignment points and one different line of dialogue at the end of the mission, then no big deal. But if decisions like that which you make at Point A actually impact what you're doing at Point B, then this Outlander Story may have the sort of variety that we haven't seen since the Class Stories.

 

Put another way: If KotFE has a Chapter 12 where my individual choices from the past Chapters mean that on [Play-through A] Lana Beniko is sending my Juggernaut to Bothawui with a crew made up of Lord Scourge, Dark Side Jaesa, and Skadge, in order to burn the whole place down, while on [Play-through B] I have Koth Vorenta sending my Marauder to that same planet with Vette, Ashara, and Doc on a relief and rescue mission... well then it starts to look a lot more like the same level of variety I saw back when my Mercenary went to Belsavis at level 41 to hunt down a Republic privateer while my Sentinel went to that same planet at about the same level to stop an Imperial suicide pact from blowing up the planet.

 

they mentioned for example one choice locking off a whole section of content for not picking it.

[AshenK]

I think EA is planning with a bunch of new players coming to the game with the SW-Movie. For that reason they did all the FPs and OPs adaptions (and the cinematic advertise). Those players will have big and new endgame open to them once they hit level 60.

Thats not going to happen.

 

Look at Star Trek Online have people been flocking to that game due to the new movies? No it's one of the smallest sub reddits for mmos. BioWare needs to look at the forums and see that people want new ops, new dungeons and new pvp maps. Not a short single player story.

[ikinai]

Thats not going to happen.

 

Look at Star Trek Online have people been flocking to that game due to the new movies? No it's one of the smallest sub reddits for mmos. BioWare needs to look at the forums and see that people want new ops, new dungeons and new pvp maps. Not a short single player story.

 

And they are going to add those things, just not this fall. This fall they are adding the story and redoing the way FPs and Ops work, then they are going to add the new stuff later.

[TheSeventhJedi]

Thats not going to happen.

 

Look at Star Trek Online have people been flocking to that game due to the new movies? No it's one of the smallest sub reddits for mmos. BioWare needs to look at the forums and see that some people want new ops, new dungeons and new pvp maps. Not a short single player story.

 

Fixed that for you.

[JeKoCZ]

Thats not going to happen.

 

Look at Star Trek Online have people been flocking to that game due to the new movies? No it's one of the smallest sub reddits for mmos. BioWare needs to look at the forums and see that some people want new ops, new dungeons and new pvp maps. Not only a 16 hours long single player story.

 

 

Fixed that for you.

 

He still needed a second fix tho.

Edited July 17, 2015 by JeKoCZ

[TheSeventhJedi]

He still needed a second fix tho.

 

Aw, good call. Missed that.