An open letter to our players

[Max_Killjoy]

Well from my limited understanding expertise effects how hard you hit or how hard something hits you, do in effect expertise should act as a multiplier in a sense on all abilities used. Now I don't have any actual details on how it works or the numbers but assume:-

 

A typical sage heal currently has expertise multiplying its ability at a rate of say 1.5 time the normal rate, isn't it possible that you could reduce the multiplier on the 'errant' abilities to say 1.1 times the normal rate etc.

 

That way you are not affecting the abilities themselves just how they work in a warzone or in PvP open world combat.

 

Something along those lines has also been TUX's solution -- it does something USEFUL with Expertise, and provides a way for PvP balance to not cause constant aggravation for PvE.

[Jedi_riches]

Something along those lines has also been TUX's solution -- it does something USEFUL with Expertise, and provides a way for PvP balance to not cause constant aggravation for PvE.

 

I know I had that thought before and posted something along those lines when the last PTS thread was up when they were talking about balance, I don't know if we just both had the same idea or if I saw TUX mention something before or not but it does seem to be a decent way of solving it.

[casirabit]

Problem is, PvE balance already screwed up PvP. Big time. You just have no idea how much frustrated people are there. How much sense is lost in playing ANY other class than Healer Sorc.

 

Going to disagree with you. Most of the nerfs that have happened have messed up pve. The orbital strike for one. There was no reason to nerf that to the ground where they actually made it useless in pve just because of people in pvp complaining about it.

 

There has never been a time in the game (and I been here since launch) that some pvprs have constantly wanted something nerf because someone was losing a match.

 

I have played pvp on my smugger scoundrel and have not had that much trouble healing if your team does it job. The team cannot expect a healer to heal them when they are getting pounded by someone. The teams I played on guarded my healer where I could heal and in those fights you could see the difference. The problem is people forget they are on a team and run off and do things without remembering they are on a team.

Edited April 21, 2016 by casirabit

[JennyFlynn]

They need to separate the PVE skills/talent trees from PVP ones entirely. One of the most recurring debates I see on any MMO forum is always "Balance PVP!" "PVE messed up our PVP skills" "PVP messed up our PVE skills!".

[TUXs]

Something along those lines has also been TUX's solution -- it does something USEFUL with Expertise, and provides a way for PvP balance to not cause constant aggravation for PvE.

I know I had that thought before and posted something along those lines when the last PTS thread was up when they were talking about balance, I don't know if we just both had the same idea or if I saw TUX mention something before or not but it does seem to be a decent way of solving it.

Exactly!!! Expertise is the ideal way to balance PvP, without impacting PvE in any way.

 

Adjust Expertise values PER Advanced Class. Make it per skill tree if needed. Expertise impacts 3 things:

• PvP Damage Boost
  
• PvP Damage Reduction
  
• PvP Healing Boost
  

 

For classes that are doing too much/too little healing, adjust the healing boost %. For classes with poor defenses, increase damage reduction. For classes struggling with DPS, increase damage boost. It's really quite simple to achieve far better PvP balance without touching PvE in any way at all...if this isn't why we have Expertise, why the hell do we have it at all??

[Laurreth]

My name is Ben Irving, Producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Then I think you're doing a horrible job and that EA should investigate your continued employment or at least involvement with that particular project.

 

You're heading a product with a horrible technical debt, miserable community management, and also lackluster and slapdash off-genre "content" additions with the outward appearance of no capable or interested staff left.

 

You've had your chance to show "cool stuff", but most of all, repair the game and keep it a viable platform for content delivery and community interaction, for almost five years now, and most of the time, you failed miserably. The game was developed while Windows XP and dual-core CPUs (if that) were still a thing, and nobody ever bothered to make things fit for what's now next-, "cur-", or even last-gen systems. It looks terrible and runs terrible by standards from years ago (total inability to even have 8v8 combat run at playable framerates? check.). You'd need to spearhead the replacement of the game's engine (which is now what, 8 years old?), and in fact should have mandated keeping that possibility open in the first place; instead you're now stuck with a technical debt that makes your average bank a shining beacon of forward-thinking innovation in comparison. You should maybe have made fixing the myriad long-standing bugs (talking about things that have been there since beta) a priority over shoehorning ever less appealing moving faces storytelling into an MMO.You would have needed to face realities about server populations long ago instead of screwing up communities that got stuck on servers with dwindling populations, and instead your product now goes full sociopath, tells us to suck it, and by the way, transfers off your personal hellholes are now 1000 coins a pop. That's Dungeon Keeper Mobile grade rear-end love.

 

You, as a producer, have failed the game and the players in so many ways it's not even funny.

 

If you follow Charles Boyd or Paul Marino on social media you may have seen some hints of this.

Those are two really painful accounts to follow, nothing but marketing **** flows out of them. I've also followed other EA employees which all seem to follow the same (contractually obliged?) scheme of spewing propaganda and no original or independent thought even though some are genuinely nice and interesting people.

 

BioWare supports this game. EA supports this game. Lucasfilm supports this game. Disney supports this game. In fact, for a game that has been live for almost 5 years, […]

Yeah of course they do. A fully written off product that's maintained with absolute minimum effort, so every bit of revenue that exceeds heating costs for the office is pure profit.

 

Is this game still supported? Yes, as a delivery mechanism for linear single-player content that would have looked—but not necessarily played—decent as a sequel to the KotOR series in 2008.

[Jedi_riches]

if this isn't why we have Expertise, why the hell do we have it at all??

 

Exactly, what is the point of expertise? unless it was just a new stat for gear grinding. But either way it makes a sensible option to balance PvP.

 

Sorry for pinching your idea (I think)

[DieAlteHexe]

They need to separate the PVE skills/talent trees from PVP ones entirely. One of the most recurring debates I see on any MMO forum is always "Balance PVP!" "PVE messed up our PVP skills" "PVP messed up our PVE skills!".

 

I have wondered over many years (and many MMOs) just why this hasn't been done. Of course it's easy to sit here and say: Hey guys, do this! Everyone'd be happy(er) then.

 

I think it would help a great deal.

[TheSeventhJedi]

Then I think you're doing a horrible job and that EA should investigate your continued employment or at least involvement with that particular project.

 

You're heading a product with a horrible technical debt, miserable community management, and also lackluster and slapdash off-genre "content" additions with the outward appearance of no capable or interested staff left.

 

You've had your chance to show "cool stuff", but most of all, repair the game and keep it a viable platform for content delivery and community interaction, for almost five years now, and most of the time, you failed miserably. The game was developed while Windows XP and dual-core CPUs (if that) were still a thing, and nobody ever bothered to make things fit for what's now next-, "cur-", or even last-gen systems. It looks terrible and runs terrible by standards from years ago (total inability to even have 8v8 combat run at playable framerates? check.). You'd need to spearhead the replacement of the game's engine (which is now what, 8 years old?), and in fact should have mandated keeping that possibility open in the first place; instead you're now stuck with a technical debt that makes your average bank a shining beacon of forward-thinking innovation in comparison. You should maybe have made fixing the myriad long-standing bugs (talking about things that have been there since beta) a priority over shoehorning ever less appealing moving faces storytelling into an MMO.You would have needed to face realities about server populations long ago instead of screwing up communities that got stuck on servers with dwindling populations, and instead your product now goes full sociopath, tells us to suck it, and by the way, transfers off your personal hellholes are now 1000 coins a pop. That's Dungeon Keeper Mobile grade rear-end love.

 

You, as a producer, have failed the game and the players in so many ways it's not even funny.

 

 

Those are two really painful accounts to follow, nothing but marketing **** flows out of them. I've also followed other EA employees which all seem to follow the same (contractually obliged?) scheme of spewing propaganda and no original or independent thought even though some are genuinely nice and interesting people.

 

 

Yeah of course they do. A fully written off product that's maintained with absolute minimum effort, so every bit of revenue that exceeds heating costs for the office is pure profit.

 

Is this game still supported? Yes, as a delivery mechanism for linear single-player content that would have looked—but not necessarily played—decent as a sequel to the KotOR series in 2008.

 

Harsh, and yet I'm having a hard time disagreeing.

[TUXs]

Exactly, what is the point of expertise? unless it was just a new stat for gear grinding. But either way it makes a sensible option to balance PvP.

 

Sorry for pinching your idea (I think)

Pinch away You can have full credit for it for all I care...I just think it's common sense design.

[Tsetso]

Exactly, what is the point of expertise? unless it was just a new stat for gear grinding. But either way it makes a sensible option to balance PvP.

 

Sorry for pinching your idea (I think)

 

Expertise was a hack (borrowed from WoW) to keep the gear relevant in pvp, but to make sure that pve progression guild won't have advantage in pvp( since they get the best gear). Then we got bolster which was another hack supposed to help new characters in pvp.

 

Now maybe both these hacks work to some extent but i personally think that GW2 implemented the better solution by equalizing the stats in instanced pvp, thus keeping it entirely separate from the rest of the game.

[Isnogut]

Hi there!

 

My name is Ben Irving, Producer for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I don’t often make posts in the forums, in fact, this may be my first ever post. Despite that, our whole team, myself included try to digest all of the internet for SWTOR information – The forums, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, etc. Recently there have been questions and concerns around the quality of our releases and the ongoing support for SWTOR and I wanted to stop by to address those concerns.

 

First off, I want to apologize for some of the issues you have experienced in the last couple of months. The monthly chapter release schedule is new and it has come with some unexpected bugs. It has caused problems for some of you and I want to say I am sorry. At our core, the SWTOR team are all gamers, just like you. We empathize with the excitement of wanting to play a great game only to be blocked by a problem. We spend all of our energy striving to make SWTOR the best game possible and when bugs and other issues get in the way of your player experience, we take it to heart. We are committed to doing better and I think Chapter XII: Visions in the Dark shows we are serious about listening to your concerns and making meaningful changes to address them - a high quality chapter, released on time that we hope has met the expectations of our players.

 

Onto the future. Is SWTOR going to receive ongoing support? The answer is absolutely yes.

 

It's worth starting with the things we have already announced, we talk about them on the monthly Producer Live Stream but I think they are still worth mentioning. We had the launch of Knights of the Fallen Empire – 9 incredible story driven chapters, 14 companion recruitment missions, Star Fortress, 5 new player levels, 30 flashpoints upgraded to be challenging again, 50 operation bosses upgraded to be challenging again, too many heroic quests to count, a revamp of the 1-60 levelling experience and a huge number of quality of life improvements. More recently we have kicked off our monthly chapter cadence and our third installment – Chapter XII: Visions in the Dark – was just released. That cadence will take us through most of the year ending with Chapter XVI, our story finale for Knights of the Fallen Empire. In addition to all the monthly chapters we have built great supporting content – Recruitment missions to explore the galaxy with some of your favorite companions, the Odessen Proving Grounds Warzone, the Rishi Cove Arena, the Eternal Championship and new levels for crafting. That’s actually more content following a major expansion than we have ever released and the team is really excited for all of you to play it.

 

The harder part to address, because you have to take my word for it, are all the features and content we are working on that we haven’t yet announced. If you follow Charles Boyd or Paul Marino on social media you may have seen some hints of this. The team recently visited our MoCap studio to create new animations. Charles Boyd spent a week at our VO studio recording more lines of dialogue for future story content. The two most exciting things to share are that our writers are deep into the plot summaries for the next season's worth of chapters and we have started the early design phase for new, non-chapter, content. You all know the drill here, I can’t talk about any of the specifics (yet) but what I can say is that we have some REALLY cool stuff to talk about later this year and the whole SWTOR team can’t wait to announce it. Soon. TM.

 

Knights of the Fallen Empire is the most successful expansion we have ever produced. It received critical acclaim from press and fan sites but most importantly, it has been successful because all of you have supported us through the expansion launch and the release of the monthly Chapters. In the eyes of all of our partners, SWTOR is a huge success. BioWare supports this game. EA supports this game. Lucasfilm supports this game. Disney supports this game. In fact, for a game that has been live for almost 5 years, we are receiving an incredible amount of support from all of our partners. It’s both amazing and humbling.

 

If there is anything I would like people reading this to take away it’s this: SWTOR is absolutely being supported into the future. We have a lot of content coming over the next few months and even more exciting things to talk about later this year. All of us here at BioWare appreciate your ongoing support and we are committed to providing the best experience possible.

 

It’s because of you, our players, that this game continues to thrive. Thank you for playing Star Wars: The Old Republic.

 

Ben Irving

I think the most prominent spires for the game were not even mentioned, MULTIplayability, PVP, ongoing CLASS story, balaced CRAFTING vs lvl. Those are in any way some concernes any of us here have. Those are sadly the elements BioWare is cleary neglecting. Thatfore do not wonder the bigger part of the forum threads are mostly negative in some way.

 

Or to translate, you are neglecting the MMO playerbase of this very game.

[TUXs]

Then I think you're doing a horrible job and that EA should investigate your continued employment or at least involvement with that particular project.

 

You're heading a product with a horrible technical debt, miserable community management, and also lackluster and slapdash off-genre "content" additions with the outward appearance of no capable or interested staff left.

 

You've had your chance to show "cool stuff", but most of all, repair the game and keep it a viable platform for content delivery and community interaction, for almost five years now, and most of the time, you failed miserably. The game was developed while Windows XP and dual-core CPUs (if that) were still a thing, and nobody ever bothered to make things fit for what's now next-, "cur-", or even last-gen systems. It looks terrible and runs terrible by standards from years ago (total inability to even have 8v8 combat run at playable framerates? check.). You'd need to spearhead the replacement of the game's engine (which is now what, 8 years old?), and in fact should have mandated keeping that possibility open in the first place; instead you're now stuck with a technical debt that makes your average bank a shining beacon of forward-thinking innovation in comparison. You should maybe have made fixing the myriad long-standing bugs (talking about things that have been there since beta) a priority over shoehorning ever less appealing moving faces storytelling into an MMO.You would have needed to face realities about server populations long ago instead of screwing up communities that got stuck on servers with dwindling populations, and instead your product now goes full sociopath, tells us to suck it, and by the way, transfers off your personal hellholes are now 1000 coins a pop. That's Dungeon Keeper Mobile grade rear-end love.

 

You, as a producer, have failed the game and the players in so many ways it's not even funny.

 

Those are two really painful accounts to follow, nothing but marketing **** flows out of them. I've also followed other EA employees which all seem to follow the same (contractually obliged?) scheme of spewing propaganda and no original or independent thought even though some are genuinely nice and interesting people.

 

Yeah of course they do. A fully written off product that's maintained with absolute minimum effort, so every bit of revenue that exceeds heating costs for the office is pure profit.

 

Is this game still supported? Yes, as a delivery mechanism for linear single-player content that would have looked—but not necessarily played—decent as a sequel to the KotOR series in 2008.

Well said. Critical...but accurate.

[roadez]

Thanks for the update and continued great experience!

[Eanelinea]

I can just as easily say I think many folks WANT those complaints so they have something to try to belittle.

 

Reality is this:

 

There are a number of players who have seen dozens of their friends leave over the past year, seen their guilds fall apart, and the number of engaging things to do in this game dwindle down to almost nothing.

 

It may not bother a number of people. That's terrific, for them.

 

But for those who are in that situation - people who've played this game for a while and watched it morph from something we love into a single-player game - Ben's post is a mock.

 

While I agree many of the posts going both ways are petty, the fundamental underlying issue exists. Players who focus on guild/team based group play are being ignored.

 

Not "told things we don't want to hear". We are told nothing. The devs literally won't even say the word "Operations".

 

There has been exactly zero posts about group content since George's post last summer aside from an acknowledgement of the telegraph bug. This is where the frustration comes from, and from where I sit, it seems warranted. Operations have been a pillar of this game since launch. They have been a major part of most major expansions. Zorz got a nice trophy a year or so ago. There was a time when Operations mattered.

 

I see so many replies that attack the idea of Operations being worth developing. That's not the issue. I can assure you, total abandonment of Operations is not going to be the end of my world. However it will be the end of my subscription, and I think it's fair to ask where this game plans to go.

 

If Operations are truly not going to be created because, as many players love to parrot "They aren't worth creating" - then doesn't it make sense that BW should be able to come right out and say so, and not feel it in their wallets?

 

But they aren't saying this. They aren't saying anything. They're saying we'll know something "Soon TM" as if that joke is still in the same realm as funny. And - note that nowhere around that "Soon TM" is the word "Operations".

 

An "Open" letter would address Operations. This did not. This was a spin-control piece. An obfuscation. A mock.

 

People can claim all day that Operations are dead. I don't concern myself with those posts. I do concern myself with the fact that we are given zero clarification on whether or not the complete and utter paradigm shift in this game is temporary or permanent, and the devs clearly know we are asking for this information.

 

Perhaps on 5/4 we'll get news of a new Operation in the works for sometime in 2017. That'd be fantastic. But I see zero value in sitting on that information if I was BW.

 

And for what it's worth - there is no possible way this post is not indicative of some subscriber/financial metrics they do not like. Trust me, EA has never once cared if people bashed them on forums or Reddit. For this thread to exist, there is money being lost. Anyone claiming otherwise needs to open the window of their dorm room and sniff the world.

 

This is SWTOR and Bioware, their operations always have SOME connection to the most recent expansion.

 

Vanilla it was EV, KP and EC.

RotHC it was TFB, SnV, and TC.

SoR it was Rav and ToS.

Oricon it was DF and DP.

 

KotFE is a different animal from the above expansions/original content. We got a reboot by having the rug removed from under us. We have nothing at the moment. So chapters 1-9 there's no reason to HAVE an operation, who are we going after? What is the point of going after them/it? Chapters 10-12 so far, no reason to have an operation. Who are we going after? Arcann? Vaylin? Valkorian? Neither we, our companions, nor our fellow KotFE players are ready story-wise to go up against the big bad three, so what operation could they possibly make?

 

In THIS game there is a reason for the operations. They aren't just there to be there. There's a reason for them, whether a main reason or a side reason, there's a reason. What if they could make operations, but you have to take each character you have through KotFE?

 

It sucks there aren't any new operations. It does. I'd like to do some new ones myself, but in THIS GAME the operations/raids go along with the story. There's no reason to do an operation right now. The CLOSEST thing we're getting is the Eternal Championship.

 

Think about it, there is absolutely no story related reason for an operation at the moment, and unless you can come up with a damn good reason to make an operation that goes with this expansion, we're not going to get any at the moment.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Eanelinea

[TheSeventhJedi]

This is SWTOR and Bioware, their operations always have SOME connection to the most recent expansion.

 

Vanilla it was EV, KP and EC.

RotHC it was TFB, SnV, and TC.

SoR it was Rav and ToS.

Oricon it was DF and DP.

 

KotFE is a different animal from the above expansions/original content. We got a reboot by having the rug removed from under us. We have nothing at the moment. So chapters 1-9 there's no reason to HAVE an operation, who are we going after? What is the point of going after them/it? Chapters 10-12 so far, no reason to have an operation. Who are we going after? Arcann? Vaylin? Valkorian? Neither we, our companions, nor our fellow KotFE players are ready story-wise to go up against the big bad three, so what operation could they possibly make?

 

In THIS game there is a reason for the operations. They aren't just there to be there. There's a reason for them, whether a main reason or a side reason, there's a reason. What if they could make operations, but you have to take each character you have through KotFE?

 

It sucks there aren't any new operations. It does. I'd like to do some new ones myself, but in THIS GAME the operations/raids go along with the story. There's no reason to do an operation right now. The CLOSEST thing we're getting is the Eternal Championship.

 

Think about it, there is absolutely no story related reason for an operation at the moment, and unless you can come up with a damn good reason to make an operation that goes with this expansion, we're not going to get any at the moment.

 

Yup. You're right. Ravagers was TOTALLY relevant to the SOR story. I don't understand how people deal with not completing it, the story is so central.

 

Oh wait - were you serious? Just because you personally can't come up with some kind of 8 player threat to face that isn't Arcann or Vaylinn, doesn't mean the writers shouldn't have to.

[Eanelinea]

Yup. You're right. Ravagers was TOTALLY relevant to the SOR story. I don't understand how people deal with not completing it, the story is so central.

 

Oh wait - were you serious? Just because you personally can't come up with some kind of 8 player threat to face that isn't Arcann or Vaylinn, doesn't mean the writers shouldn't have to.

 

Then what would you suggest? Going against one boss like the Monolith or TC? So who or what exactly should we face that requires 8 or 16 people to down? Go ahead.

[Batwer]

I am always looking forward to new content . But it would not be clever only times the existing 1,000,000,000 bugs to repair rather than a pile to produce new?

Just as on the edge ...

[Max_Killjoy]

Then I think you're doing a horrible job and that EA should investigate your continued employment or at least involvement with that particular project..

 

Your comments could have been delivered without the personal attacks.

[TX_Angel]

Thanks for the update and continued great experience!

 

Side note, regarding your sig...

 

For those who believe no proof is necessary, For those who do not believe no proof is possible.

 

I'll just quote HK-55 here... (from Chapter 5: From the Grave, KotFE)

 

---

Koth: They're doing it. They're actually doing it! Can you believe it?

HK-55: Observation: The ship is rising. Conclusion: Belief is not required.

---

[DarkSaberMaster]

I just want to know one thing. When are you going to announce Season 7 rewards?

[UberSamoyed]

Then what would you suggest? Going against one boss like the Monolith or TC? So who or what exactly should we face that requires 8 or 16 people to down? Go ahead.

 

It's not that difficult to generate a thematic-based Operation for the current content. It would be easy to create a rival faction of Jedi-Sith who oppose the Eternal Empire...or even have allied with it...who serve to destroy the Outlander's power base. Valkorian could also create a much grander test of the Outlander's abilities. There's also the infinite possibilities that the two new planets have created to orchestrate some sort of opposition. And if that were not enough, you could always go with the Eternal Empire itself. I'm sure with an empire as old as this that it has more than just one villain and his sister.

 

You see? Easy.

 

The hard part is devoting resources to it...not creating it.

Edited April 21, 2016 by UberSamoyed

[TheSeventhJedi]

Then what would you suggest? Going against one boss like the Monolith or TC? So who or what exactly should we face that requires 8 or 16 people to down? Go ahead.

 

Okay, I'm not a professional writer or boss encounter designer, but I'll give it an armchair go.

 

#1 Obvious idea - a Super Star Fortress. One that rules all the other ones and has Arcann's chosen warriors as the bosses.

#2 Another obvious idea - a Super Eternal Championship. Script the bosses for 8 and 16 man encounters.

#3 Less obvious - Imperial/Republic Remnants. Diehards that refuse to let the war die in spite of the fact that they have a much bigger problem. They pose a problem for the alliance and have to be taken down.

#4 A new Mandalorian-style faction (or hell, the mandos themselves) that won't side with your alliance unless you can defeat them in combat. It's similar to Blood Hunt, but all the Dread Masters ops have at least a little in common.

#5 It's a trap! The alliance receives intel that Arcann or Vaylin are vulnerable somehow, but when they get there, it's a trap and they have to fight their way through baddies (think Princess Bride's Zoo of Death) to get to a ship and retreat to safety. - Added bonus, we'd get to say "It's a trap!" every time it was the highlighted op of the week.

#6 The Heralds of Zildrog. Holy crap - Zildrog is real! Oh wait, no he's not. It's a bunch of zealots dressed up Scooby-Doo style, but you won't find that out until you've beaten down their weird apocalypse cult.

#7 Scorpio has gone rogue! That weird thing on the Gravestone came to life and took over her programming! Now she's turned all of -whichever planet, it doesn't matter- against you. Fight your way back to the Gravestone to shut down the dare I say... Phantom Menace?

#8 Master of Puppets - Saresh is getting too zealous in her political views, and she's going to drag the Republic down with her before Zakuul has a chance. Defeat her loyal bodyguards and then knock some sense into her or permanently solve the Republic's problem. - Added bonus, who doesn't want a chance to shoot Saresh?

 

Well now, there are eight ideas that I think would fit within the story (or at least not make any stretches more ridiculous than some of the parts of KotFE itself,) that I literally came up with as I typed. Either I'm amazing and BW needs to hire me SOONTM, or coming up with an idea for a basic op encounter isn't as impossible as you make it out to be.

[devincor]

Then what would you suggest? Going against one boss like the Monolith or TC? So who or what exactly should we face that requires 8 or 16 people to down? Go ahead.

 

Ideas i came up with in 5 mins:

 

1) Rescue operation - Zakuul didn't wipe out all the Jedi/Sith council but took them hostage. You can lead your alliance to break them out of whatever planet/facility they are in.

 

2) Star Fortress - Zakuul is building a Alpha star fortress is to head to Coruscant /Dromund Kaas, it is up to your alliance to stop it.

 

3) Outpost - Zakuul has set up outpost on the planets that they have deemed unnecessary for star fortresses. Your Alliance goes and liberates that planet.

 

4) City under siege - (one I have wanted for a long time since it was just empire/republic) - Zakuul forces are invading one of our known cities (Coruscant/Voss/Dromund Kaas/Tatootine cities/Nar Shaddaa/etc) Your forces are sent to help liberate it. (Use instances of the already set cities - just add encounters)

 

We don't know the direction of the storyline so it is harder for us as players to know exactly what would work. But it doesn't take that much imagination to come up with a few scenarios for operations that could of been done that do not affect the overall story. Unless the creative team lack imagination....

[DrewFromPhilly]

I gotta say this is a very stupid letter.

 

For a company/dev to come out and defend their support of a game and proclaim it's support for the foreseeable future - it looks bad. If that was true it would be self-evident, and by doing this they're acknowledging that it looks as though the opposite has been true, at least to the extent that it is a legitimate concern worth addressing.

 

And then, to proclaim in no uncertain terms that we will not even be told details about non-kotfe content (ops etc) until the end of 2016 - that means that content will not go live until at least 1.5 years from now based on past timelines.

 

And if that wasn't bad enough, this whole thing about kotfe being widely praised and well-received and lauding it - stupid. It means BioWare is proud of their repetitive and badly written crap and is likely to continue with similar "expansions" in the future. They did not acknowledge that many players do not like paying MMO sub fees for solo content while actual MMO content is placed on the backburner (beyond telling us we wont hear more about such content for 6 months at least). That is apparently the future of this game, now.

 

KOTOR 3 with $15/month ~hour long dlc.

 

And they even counted operations and heroics as new content. I mean all in all this letter did nothing other than confirm what I already knew. They are a completely inept company, and this game will only ever get worse.

Edited April 21, 2016 by DrewFromPhilly