ChillingFear Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 (edited) Been giving this a lot of thought and I get I'm not the first to bring up the thought of SWTOR on console and probably wont be the last. But seeing the trend of numerous MMO's recently making the jump to consoles (Neverwinter, Star Trek Online etc) and seeing a revenue jump to boot curious if Bioware & EA have explored realistic options to make it happen or maybe its even in the works (better than cross server). It would certainly cause a population increase and there's definitely some profit to be made on console. I've been playing SWTOR since closed beta so yes I get the game is ran on a heavily modified early Hero Engine build and yes they would have to restructure the way the game utilizes hardware resources, more specifically, split the current single thread into four to more efficiently use the quad-core AMD APUs the current-gen consoles use, as these APUs have a pretty weak single-core performance and would make playing PVP and Operations a challenge on console. It's already been shown through xpadder and other similiar applications that with the current amount of skills in-game, that they can be mapped to the XBOX/PS4 controllers so it really boils down to whether Bioware/EA see the effort and resources to restructure the current game vs the revenue kickback they would get from consoles in return. With all the technical mumbo jumbo out of the way curious if this is their "solution" to better than cross server. It was brought up at a cantina by Bioware over a year and a half ago and has been virtual silence on the topic since. The restructure would take a couple years easily especially with the idea that they would continue supporting the current version on PC. What are your thoughts peeps? Is cross server a console port? Something else? Even in existance still? Lets hear it Edited September 14, 2016 by ChillingFear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GorkieX Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 No, Cross Server is not a Console Port. Cross Server would be Shadowlands players being allowed to do flashpoints with Ebonhawk players. Were as Console just means if your playing on Ebonhawk your grouping with Ebonhawk.. Cross Server & Console Ports are 2 different things. On the subject of Consoles, and I hate to even say this but there are times they can barley seem to handle this Graphics Engine on PC let alone have to remodify it in many different ways to work on a Console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChillingFear Posted September 14, 2016 Author Share Posted September 14, 2016 Either your new here or you misread the post, heck misread the title. "Better than cross server". I know what cross server is, if you have played SWTOR for more than a year you'd know Bioware stated they won't do cross server and they are working on something "better than cross server". Now back on topic lulz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XiamaraSimi Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Why yes, Star Trek Online did just open for console, but heres something you might not know. Accounts start from scratch. You dont get to port in and play your existing pc characters. You start as a lowly level 1 ensign. No existing account bells or whistles. Such fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleonora Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Why yes, Star Trek Online did just open for console, but heres something you might not know. Accounts start from scratch. You dont get to port in and play your existing pc characters. You start as a lowly level 1 ensign. No existing account bells or whistles. Such fun That has nothing to do with the OP's point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rion_Starkiller Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 (edited) No, Cross Server is not a Console Port. Cross Server would be Shadowlands players being allowed to do flashpoints with Ebonhawk players. Were as Console just means if your playing on Ebonhawk your grouping with Ebonhawk.. Cross Server & Console Ports are 2 different things. On the subject of Consoles, and I hate to even say this but there are times they can barley seem to handle this Graphics Engine on PC let alone have to remodify it in many different ways to work on a Console. I agree with your points, except that I think it would be easy to make on XB1 or PS4. Consoles are static, except for the occasional OS update. Whereas PC's are vastly differentiated. Generally speaking, "graphics engine" problems are usually user-end (overheating, out of date drivers, bloat-ware, system bottleknecks, etc). Edited September 15, 2016 by Rion_Starkiller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 The idea of this has been becoming more and more interesting. But before they did that, they'd need to trim skills down and eliminate things like stances - we have too many "buttons" to push for a console game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing_Shines Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 First of all, BW doesn't have the manpower, budget or will to fix what they currently have, but you think they're going to suddenly port their entire game (built on the rickety foundation of a jerry-rigged engine) onto the latest gen consoles? Come on. Second, how would a console port, with no carryover of all the money, time and effort players have invested there, be "better than cross sever" for those players? Better for who? To do what? Those games you mentioned have no cross-platform interaction. Expecting BW's effort would be cross platform is dreaming pretty big. So some PC players with little invested in the PC version switch to console to start over and some number of new console players join them ... on a server dedicated to Xbone or PS4, doing nothing to queues on the PC, except make them worse than they are now by syphoning away players from the PC base. "Better than cross sever" is probably BW phasing out 8 and 16 man content and making everything 4 man tactical, even the "hardmodes". That, I could see happening. Rebuilding the game from scratch to port into two different consoles? Yeah, no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holocron Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 The idea of this has been becoming more and more interesting. But before they did that, they'd need to trim skills down and eliminate things like stances - we have too many "buttons" to push for a console game. So kinda like what is happening to skills/classes in 5.0 according to mining. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rion_Starkiller Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 (edited) So kinda like what is happening to skills/classes in 5.0 according to mining. You fell into tux's trap. BOOM! ban-stick Edited September 15, 2016 by Rion_Starkiller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 You fell into tux's trap. BOOM! ban-stick OMG no...no trap intended at all. I have no idea what to expect in 5.0...we were just discussing this the other night though, trying to justify the extreme 2-year content drought we've been having, and a console port was discussed at length (as were other MMOs). My argument against that was the sheer number of abilities toons have - I didn't think there was any chance this was being ported to consoles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UmbralSpirit Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 You fell into tux's trap. BOOM! ban-stick Ban for what? He was just talking about mining which is an important profession how else would we get our hands on those valuable minerals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midianlord Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 Console-level hardware would be going "urp" the instant you had more than 10 players in the same place at once. (Unless things have changed a lot for consoles recently?) Hell, even pretty beastly PCs have been known to "chug" on occasion due to this game's piss-poor optimisation and engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midianlord Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 OMG no...no trap intended at all. I have no idea what to expect in 5.0...we were just discussing this the other night though, trying to justify the extreme 2-year content drought we've been having, and a console port was discussed at length (as were other MMOs). My argument against that was the sheer number of abilities toons have - I didn't think there was any chance this was being ported to consoles. Final Fantasy XIV is console-ported and the hotbar/HUD is customisable around a controller --with button-bloat almost as bad as SW: tOR, even. (My main job, Black Mage, has like 35+ abilities, all of which might need to be used in some content.) By the same token, though, it's always seemed a bit half-assed to me. PC 5 lyfe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rion_Starkiller Posted September 15, 2016 Share Posted September 15, 2016 (edited) Ban for what? He was just talking about mining which is an important profession how else would we get our hands on those valuable minerals? This iso-5 isn't going to mine itself. Git back to work! If this were in-game, i would be using the pickaxe emote so hard right now Edited September 15, 2016 by Rion_Starkiller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icykill_ Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 The only way I can see they can ledgitmately make something that seems better than cross server is to turn all the servers into "realms" and put them all on one server. I've see this done in other games and is technically easier than trying to build a cross server setup. Especially as this games engine can't do cross server. The Devs explored it and came back and said it can't be done. So, better than cross server would need all "realms" to be on the one server. Then it's not cross server in reality, just cross realms like extra instances. It's exactly how blizzard do it. APAC and European located servers cannot cross server with US ones, only ones in their own region. This suggests that the "servers" are probably all in the same hardware setup or server farm and the so called servers are in reality "realms" They could do this per region. It would probably have worked if they had done it while the population was higher. Now it would be futile as there aren't enough people to warrant having cross server per region. Probably the best "business/cost" solution would be server merges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klokothejawa Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 The only way I can see they can ledgitmately make something that seems better than cross server is to turn all the servers into "realms" and put them all on one server. I've see this done in other games and is technically easier than trying to build a cross server setup. Especially as this games engine can't do cross server. The Devs explored it and came back and said it can't be done. So, better than cross server would need all "realms" to be on the one server. Then it's not cross server in reality, just cross realms like extra instances. It's exactly how blizzard do it. APAC and European located servers cannot cross server with US ones, only ones in their own region. This suggests that the "servers" are probably all in the same hardware setup or server farm and the so called servers are in reality "realms" They could do this per region. It would probably have worked if they had done it while the population was higher. Now it would be futile as there aren't enough people to warrant having cross server per region. Probably the best "business/cost" solution would be server merges. Ah that sounds perfect... I don't the population is that low. If you consider that many fans of the game have actually left it because of the lack of a megaserver (or multi-realm as you describe it). Long queues will drive you away, other games will drive you away... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedip_enguin Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 The game will never be on console, and even if it was, you wouldnt be playing with the console population (Just like PC Overwatch players dont play with console players) Better than cross server is just a meme at this point, something even BW regrets ever saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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