Producer Letter Livestream Wrap-up

[DarthDymond]

Or, you could go play another game, or just not waste the money at all for a year.

 

Then sub, and finish the "story" that was drawn out over a year in a few weeks (if you take your time).

By that logic one could refrain from buying any game until it is down to $5 on Steam or in a bargain bin at Walmart.

 

Yet games still sell millions of dollars worth at the full $60+ retail price point when they launch, even though you could get the same product by waiting a while so as not to "waste your money". Same principle at work here - you want the chapters when they come out, you pay the premium price-point for them.

[Rockyies]

A simple question. When are we getting a information on new PVE, Ops, PVP, and class balances? It seemed a lot of stream chat was wondering about any information on these topic. If we knew that there is blog post or a stream in the pipelines would help calm the tensions that others and I are having.

 

Thanks for your time and keep up the good work.

[wingchaps]

A fun question for a change...

 

Sooo, when we're playing HK-55 in his campaign, is SCORPIO a romanceable companion?

 

Lol, somebody had to ask it, I can't believe it hasn't come up...

[countdemons]

Level 50 wz's are so out of sync with level 65 abilities

 

Are there any plans for pvp comming soon?

 

If not, why do i pay a sub for no new content..

 

Sorc heal and pt burst. I dont have to say more

 

Open world pvp plans?

 

Any mention of pvp at all this year?

[_NovaBlast_]

(Check your blood sugar - or reduce your caffeine level.)

 

How many players do you group with while you play the story? This is a MMORPG. They story part covers the RPG portion of the game type... but the MMO part is NOT being addressed.

 

is this some kind of troll... ?! they are selling a mmorpg, not a rpg, if they are making false advertising someone should sue xD

 

Ohh look other people who think MMO means you have to have ops pvp op and other such grouping activities

 

**double facepalm**

 

Here is a re-post although i doubt its even worth my time to put even this much effort into responding to either of you.

 

The sheer number of assumptions in this post is staggering.

 

A shorter version could simply read: "I firmly believe that Massively Multiplayer means grouping or PvP, and BioWare doesn't focus on those. I don't find any replay value in KoTFE, so no one else will, and players who play for story, quit, only PvPers and Raiders stick around."

 

... All of which are false.

 

I totally agree with this ^^^^^^^^

 

"MMO" is not a TYPE of game its an ENVIRONMENT. LOL

 

RPG , Moba, FPS, RTS are types of games

 

As long as more than one person can connect to the same environment at the same time its a MMO regardless of the content. meaning a MMO does not REQUIRE group or PVP content to be considered a "MMO"

 

You could have a completely solo able game and it would still be a "MMO"

 

As for replayablility... I am planning on multiple Kofe runs and as for the OLD wolrds.i have not done any raids or pvp ..yet i don't seem to run out of things to do .... I completed ALL planets multiple times , lost track of the daily and weekly and many other random things... reached Legacy Level 50

 

Really my personal opinion as well as a stat that's been floating in the forums from somewhere ( 10 % pvp and raid) I believe you are on the minority side of the opinion.

Edited December 2, 2015 by _NovaBlast_

[James_Mcturney]

By that logic one could refrain from buying any game until it is down to $5 on Steam or in a bargain bin at Walmart.

 

Yet games still sell millions of dollars worth at the full $60+ retail price point when they launch, even though you could get the same product by waiting a while so as not to "waste your money". Same principle at work here - you want the chapters when they come out, you pay the premium price-point for them.

 

No thank you, 5$ is ok for me, i have tons of other older games to play also. I also know that lots of smart people do the same.

[Lord_Sleepy]

Yeah, if all I am getting is a chapter a month with no other new content, I'll just let my sub run out and resub for a month once Chapter 16 is done.

 

I have no interest playing as HK and while I liked him fine in the story, it disappoints me they are bringing him back.

 

He was a droid, his personality matrix was data, scorpio was selling and collecting data, she had probably already downloaded his personality matrix just from habit in case he had some potentially useful data. She does not seem like the type to not download data because someone may not want you to.

[WiththeForc]

Repeated because this deserves to be repeated OVER AND OVER AGAIN, because truer words have never been spoken...

 

At least I have something else go add to my sig

[kmpat]

[*]There will also be additional monthly subscriber rewards throughout Season 1, most of which will be themed around HK-55.

 

I like reward for subscriber that you show us today. However, about this themed around HK-55 in the future you should have these themed around another companions as well like Lana or Senya.

Edited December 2, 2015 by kmpat

[Dark_Fantasm]

If they are spending their development time on stuff like this, then they are downright ignoring More Ops, PvP, Flash Points, etc...

 

I'm going to guess that they are doing that intentionally. I don't think it is to be mean to the customers who prefer group content, but rather to reach out to a different customer type. Apparently BioWare Austin is gambling on the fact that their largest [potential?] customer base prefers cinematic story content over traditional MMO content. They've made their choice, and we will see the repurcussions over the next 6 months.

 

Personally, I love the choice they made. I'm one of the potential customers their new scheme has brought back. I, personally, love GSF PVP; but I love KOTFE more.

[Tarkashae]

you want the chapters when they come out, you pay the premium price-point for them.

 

Ok? But there isn't MORE content for those who pay, it's just a matter of when you can access it. Which is...meh?

[Praetorian_jedi]

I'll make this brief…

 

Story is not content. To be clear, I started playing this game in the first place because of story. However, even with that enthusiasm and focus, I wasn't planning on playing for very long. Because story doesn't last. I played KOTOR I probably over 30 times, and ME1 almost that much, but that is dwarfed by the amount of time I've spent in SWTOR.

 

The time I've spent in SWTOR has not been because of its story. I've certainly played all of the story content, and I've enjoyed it… the first time through. But now it's over. I have no desire to re-play even the KotFE storyline, despite its excellence. Story doesn't retain ongoing activity in the game.

 

Story is flavor. Content is substance. Content is something that you do in groups, because people are what give meaning and variety to repetitive actions. PvP and GSF are the embodiment of this philosophy, but PvE (especially operations) are as well. Operations, GSF and warzone maps. These are content. These are what players have poured endless hours into repeating, despite the unchanging nature of the boss fights or objectives or terrain. Nobody is pouring that amount of time into any story.

 

SWTOR needs new content. Desperately. There hasn't been a single piece of new PvE content since 3.0. There hasn't been a single piece of new PvP or GSF content for even longer. Without content, communities have nothing to do. Guilds die and players leave. All you have left are solo players who log in for a few hours every week, trickle-consuming the story.

 

I'm not even sure there's a question in here, other than the obvious "when will you release any new content?" And don't say story, because story isn't content.

 

Very well put. I will add to this by saying story as KBN mention adds flavor to the content making it more engaging and more meaningful but is not content on it's own!

[Mercediz]

Completely disagree with you and your entire post.

 

IMO The only thing i liked about the live stream was they Didn't announce any new pvp ops or FP.

 

I am glad they are focusing on story and tryingto make this a better MMORPG. that is solo-able and does not have content locked behind forced grouping.

 

Also IMO its the Fp pvp and ops are NOT CONTENT to me just minor side dishes filler .

 

The more resources they put into story and companion the better for this *** RPG .****

 

Something that takes a less then an hour to complete is content to you ?

 

Where as an ops that can literally take months upon months, grouping with friends, witty banter, raging, interaction, exploring, long boring afk's, working out strats, fighting to complete higher difficulty, getting new gear.

[James_Mcturney]

Ohh look another person who think MMO means you have to have ops pvp op and other such grouping activities

 

Here is a re post although i doubt its even worth my time to put this much effort into it.

 

Oh i get it, following the ruling to the letter xD or trolling, funny troll if it is.

It's like a paradox... like having a big pool where everyone get around and talk about swimming and playing togheter but no more than 1 person can enter the pool at once or some disaster will happen.

[damonskye]

I'd argue that in a small way, the community could be pinned for part of the fault, but not the entire community.

 

There is no way -- NO WAY -- that they are designing content based upon the feedback from the forums.

 

The only time they ever seem to do anything that has any bearing on what's been discussed on the forums is, by their own admission, when they notice certain metrics in their own data. Anyone who believes it was the feedback on the forum that made them change direction on companions isn't looking at the bigger picture... it was almost certainly the increase in subscriber cancellations that raised the red flags.

 

BioWare has made no indication that they care what we have to say here. If they did, they would not have hyped up a developer event today full of such tone-deaf nonsense and a complete disdain for the ACTUAL complaints people have about this game: very little return on your investment. People subscribe to actually PLAY THE GAME, not to get stronghold trinkets and extra companions.

 

I won't blame the players for the lack of content... not even the people who argue in BioWare's favor. We are the consumers. And if BioWare was listening, really listening, we'd have planets to explore and operations to run through and wariness to play. That is what people want: stuff to play, with a variety of ways to play it.

Edited December 2, 2015 by damonskye

[DarthDymond]

No thank you, 5$ is ok for me, i have tons of other older games to play also. I also know that lots of smart people do the same.

For 90% of games I own, I do the same. For games I particularly enjoy / am looking forward to - I'll play the premium. Over the past 12 months that's been SWTOR, Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void, and Battlefront.

 

I'm lukewarm on one of those premium choices - and it ain't SWTOR.

[Joefjr]

Hey folks,

 

Here is a wrap-up of the things we talked about on the Producer Letter Livestream…

 

Chapter 10 – Anarchy in Paradise will be launching on February 11th. Along with Chapter 10, will be Game Update 4.1 which will include Fighting for the Eternal Championship, Bowdaar as an unlockable Companion through Alliance, and updates to Crafting. We will have more details on those changes in January.

 

We have a whole host of new subscriber rewards for you as well:

• Be a subscriber on January 11th and receive HK-55 as a playable Companion when 4.1 launches on 2/9.
  
• Be a subscriber continuously from January 11th through the launch of Chapter 16, and receive an entire bonus Chapter where you will play as HK-55!
  
• Be a subscriber on the 1st of each month, and receive 2 days of early access to any Chapter which launches that month. This includes Chapter 10 in February.
  
• There will also be additional monthly subscriber rewards throughout Season 1, most of which will be themed around HK-55.

 

Throughout the month of December, we will have plenty of things going on as well. The Gree, Rakghoul, and Bounty Contract events will each run for a week. Log in any time from 12/8 to 1/5 to receive our 4th anniversary rewards, including an HK-51 Stronghold Decoration, more information later this week! We will also be running Life Day and Double XP, more info on those tomorrow.

 

We hope you enjoyed the stream and want to thank you all for tuning in. If you have any questions about the stream or anything else, throw them in this thread and I will work with Ben on getting them answered. Thanks!

 

-eric

 

Can you make it so HK-55 can equip either blaster or a tech blade/staff, right now every droid companion in game is range except pre-KOTFE SCORPIO. I was planning to use SCORPIO as my main combat companion, till i saw she was range now.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Sadly, I see this too. I'll likely go back to GW2 once i get bored of replaying the 1-50 stories.

 

Or Albion Online? I hear that might be fun.

 

See I like story solo games, fallout 4, witcher 3, pillars of eternity to name a few I've recently played/completed.

 

Where this game falls down now is it's just too easy for the fun solo content ... there is no real game there anymore. Companions are WAY to OP for story content now ( queue "dismiss companion" comment ) to the point it's more a pick a path movie.

I would be forgiving of that if there was enough incoming story/solo content but at barely 1 hour per month ... it's just not going to cut it.

 

I'll continue to sub and play until I get truly bored or everything I enjoy doing but I see this time coming sooner rather than later as it currently stands because even the fun of working my way through heroics etc. is null and void now because it's just too easy. Luckily I have a goal to make a billion credits but beyond that *shrug*.

 

I'm subscribing for a new story chapter each month starting in February.

.

 

Well at least someone is in favour of this model and hopefully more get on board because I would like to think if I came back in 6+ months to play through all the content there would still be a game on the horizon ( new conteont incoming from that point to keep me occupied beyond that 1 month period to pell off the 6 motnhs worth of story ).

 

However I feel more are going to take the direction I have in mind and just return when there is enough content and know you've only got to sub for 1 month to get access to it all.

 

The only other thing I see keeping people constantly subbed now is the relationships they've formed with others in game ( guild etc. ). Beyond that solo players can leave, go do something fun and come back later.

 

They probably gambled on being able to attract the new players to sticking around with the 1-50 content but that backfired I believe as soon as they made start @ 60 ( huge mistake imo ) - many will do the current content, get bored, go play something else because often players don't want to do content they consider old or if they already know what's going to happen.

[dscount]

I'll make this brief…

 

Story is not content. To be clear, I started playing this game in the first place because of story. However, even with that enthusiasm and focus, I wasn't planning on playing for very long. Because story doesn't last. I played KOTOR I probably over 30 times, and ME1 almost that much, but that is dwarfed by the amount of time I've spent in SWTOR.

 

The time I've spent in SWTOR has not been because of its story. I've certainly played all of the story content, and I've enjoyed it… the first time through. But now it's over. I have no desire to re-play even the KotFE storyline, despite its excellence. Story doesn't retain ongoing activity in the game.

 

Story is flavor. Content is substance. Content is something that you do in groups, because people are what give meaning and variety to repetitive actions. PvP and GSF are the embodiment of this philosophy, but PvE (especially operations) are as well. Operations, GSF and warzone maps. These are content. These are what players have poured endless hours into repeating, despite the unchanging nature of the boss fights or objectives or terrain. Nobody is pouring that amount of time into any story.

 

SWTOR needs new content. Desperately. There hasn't been a single piece of new PvE content since 3.0. There hasn't been a single piece of new PvP or GSF content for even longer. Without content, communities have nothing to do. Guilds die and players leave. All you have left are solo players who log in for a few hours every week, trickle-consuming the story.

 

I'm not even sure there's a question in here, other than the obvious "when will you release any new content?" And don't say story, because story isn't content.

 

Totally agree with all the above. Well said KBN!

[Nepthen]

Story isn't content... and I can't defend any of these choices. The story is good, yes... but it's one and done. And don't say "choices matter" because no matter what I did, the KOTFE story as a whole didn't change.

 

You're slowly bleeding away all of the end game in this game because of your unwillingness to give us anything to get excited about. HK-55 isn't exciting. He's just another companion. I have too many of those now.

 

The rewards aren't rewards. You're asking me to fork over more than $100 for a chance to play as a different character.... more than likely for about 30 minutes of actual gameplay.

 

 

Where is the new group content? Where is ANYTHING to even give us veterans (who waited out the last 6 months knowing we wouldn't get anything new for us this year) any kind of hope for the future of PvE and PvP end game? It's not there. I've seen it in my guild and throughout social media... people are taking a step back from this game because story isn't enough to keep them invested in an MMO. They want ops. They want new PvP maps. They want to actually GROUP up and enjoy the content together.

 

I was slightly hopeful for 2016... now it's just a long wait for my ops team to get bored with the refurbished ops and slowly lose all faith and interest in the future of this game.

 

If you want to kill grouping with this game, just come out and say it. Put me out of my misery.

 

Yes, I'm cranky.

[Zharik]

Ohh look other people who think MMO means you have to have ops pvp op and other such grouping activities

 

**double facepalm**

 

Here is a re-post although i doubt its even worth my time to put even this much effort into responding to either of you.

 

You may note that I *do* like the fact that we're getting more story. That is one heckuva good thing, but not at the expense of other aspects of the game, that's all.

[chiefsnjet]

I'll make this brief…

 

Story is not content. To be clear, I started playing this game in the first place because of story. However, even with that enthusiasm and focus, I wasn't planning on playing for very long. Because story doesn't last. I played KOTOR I probably over 30 times, and ME1 almost that much, but that is dwarfed by the amount of time I've spent in SWTOR.

 

The time I've spent in SWTOR has not been because of its story. I've certainly played all of the story content, and I've enjoyed it… the first time through. But now it's over. I have no desire to re-play even the KotFE storyline, despite its excellence. Story doesn't retain ongoing activity in the game.

 

Story is flavor. Content is substance. Content is something that you do in groups, because people are what give meaning and variety to repetitive actions. PvP and GSF are the embodiment of this philosophy, but PvE (especially operations) are as well. Operations, GSF and warzone maps. These are content. These are what players have poured endless hours into repeating, despite the unchanging nature of the boss fights or objectives or terrain. Nobody is pouring that amount of time into any story.

 

SWTOR needs new content. Desperately. There hasn't been a single piece of new PvE content since 3.0. There hasn't been a single piece of new PvP or GSF content for even longer. Without content, communities have nothing to do. Guilds die and players leave. All you have left are solo players who log in for a few hours every week, trickle-consuming the story.

 

I'm not even sure there's a question in here, other than the obvious "when will you release any new content?" And don't say story, because story isn't content.

 

This.

[Verridian]

When will I be able to put outfits on my new companions?

[Kiesu]

Question, or more like a wish really:

So, if on alt, I dont want Lizardman, or Raghoulgrandpa, but I do want Wookie... Please dont tell me I dont need to get Scaly and Plagues to get Furry. Thank you.

[XiamaraSimi]

Statement: This is going to be fun.

 

Bets on how full of those zones genchat will be scrolling with HK speak?;