What I expect from the NYCC-announcement

[Andryah]

I still think it's most likely that KotET will launch in December but i don't think it will be such a big deal as was SoR. For the most part apart from the chapters, which there is no possible way to break, i just don't expect there will be anything worth doing to break.

 

Well, they did say "this Fall" so that means anytime between Sept 22 and Dec 22. I think we will get a release date when they talk on the 7th as that is what they usually do.

 

On the topic of "what I expect", I learned years ago to NOT set personal expectations as to what will/will-not be announced by an MMO studio at any given point in time. It just sets yourself up for disappointment. Best to just stay personally neutral and wait and see what comes. Once something comes, you can then decide if it meets your expectations or not, and what (if anything) you choose to do about it.

[Thoronmir]

Well, they did say "this Fall" so that means anytime between Sept 22 and Dec 22. I think we will get a release date when they talk on the 7th as that is what they usually do.

 

On the topic of "what I expect", I learned years ago to NOT set personal expectations as to what will/will-not be announced by an MMO studio at any given point in time. It just sets yourself up for disappointment. Best to just stay personally neutral and wait and see what comes. Once something comes, you can then decide if it meets your expectations or not, and what (if anything) you choose to do about it.

I have stumbled headlong into a steaming pile of deja vu. I swear I remember a post almost identical to this by someone this time last year ... using the actual start/end dates of a season ... making the point that we long ago learned not to set expectations ... remaining "neutral" until the new content releases before losing our collective shi ... minds.

 

So, either Andryah cites a common theme or is a dirty, dirty plagiarist.

[Andryah]

I have stumbled headlong into a steaming pile of deja vu. I swear I remember a post almost identical to this by someone this time last year ... using the actual start/end dates of a season ... making the point that we long ago learned not to set expectations ... remaining "neutral" until the new content releases before losing our collective shi ... minds.

 

So, either Andryah cites a common theme or is a dirty, dirty plagiarist.

 

LOL... you are on a roll today Thoronmir.

[LyraineAlei]

I have stumbled headlong into a steaming pile of deja vu. I swear I remember a post almost identical to this by someone this time last year ... using the actual start/end dates of a season ... making the point that we long ago learned not to set expectations ... remaining "neutral" until the new content releases before losing our collective shi ... minds.

 

So, either Andryah cites a common theme or is a dirty, dirty plagiarist.

 

Common theme. Pops up often enough throughout the year to not expect things, and then the "Fall" season doesn't actually change dates on the calendars (unless you're southern hemisphere, in which "Fall" is actually "Spring").

 

*ducks under the ball named "The Point"*

Edited September 28, 2016 by LyraineAlei

[Transcendent]

you always should have a towel with you.

 

Why do I get this reference. I've turned into a geek.

[eriksarcasm]

Why do I get this reference. I've turned into a geek.

 

Achievement Granted: Got a HHGTTG reference. Only 4 more to achieve Valiant Level in the Nerd vs. Geek event!

[Jamtas]

Achievement Granted: Got a HHGTTG reference. Only 4 more to achieve Valiant Level in the Nerd vs. Geek event!

 

One of us, one of us...

[LyraineAlei]

Why do I get this reference. I've turned into a geek.

 

I'm sorry, I think my Babelfish failed in operation just now. Did you say that with the intents of the word "geek" to mean a bad thing? Whyever would someone do such a thing? That's it! Where's my towel? What do you mean it's falling into a black hole? Well, go get it! Stop telling me the odds and just get the engine working so we can go get my towel back!

[Rolodome]

Speaking of Babelfish, am I the only one who finds it odd how every character in SWTOR seems to conveniently know any language they need to know for the situation, no matter what it is?

 

In KOTOR, I remember there was lore about Revan pulling a language from an alien's mind so he could understand them and pushing his own inside of theirs (re: the Rakata). And there was a situation where you literally just couldn't understand what was being said and needed a translator (Sand People).

[LyraineAlei]

Speaking of Babelfish, am I the only one who finds it odd how every character in SWTOR seems to conveniently know any language they need to know for the situation, no matter what it is?

 

In KOTOR, I remember there was lore about Revan pulling a language from an alien's mind so he could understand them and pushing his own inside of theirs (re: the Rakata). And there was a situation where you literally just couldn't understand what was being said and needed a translator (Sand People).

 

In SoR Depths of Manaan, Smuggler comments to Deefour by saying that s/he travels with a wookiee and knows Jakaaro (however the name is, too lazy right now) didn't say what Deefour said he said. Trooper says that a lot of people really underestimate the thoroughness of SpecForce training and says something about knowing what Jakaaro actually said. I don't think Impside gets the same lines, been a long time since I ran Depths on a non-Forceuser, so my BH and Agent lines aren't being recalled offhand.

 

I think Revan's ability is a common one for Force Users.

 

Sandpeople are still untranslated.

 

I personally suspect everyone gets a Babelfish device if they aren't a Sith/Jedi, and if too poor, they have to learn the languages the hard way, and languages have to updated on a regular basis, so the cheap ones are horrible and the expensive ones are better (so Smugglers and Bounty Hunters get what they can and understand a bunch of languages in Han Solo style of not necessarily speaking them). Imptelligence wouldn't (logically from my naive PoV) skimp out if it meant getting back intel, so Agents would have them put in. SpecForce also can't afford bad intell, but those guys are soldiers, so they don't get top-of-the-line translators, but still really good ones and language courses in training that continues into active service.

 

Sith and Jedi have the Force to translate for them sort of. Or also have decent translators (depending on Master, better ones, if Sith, Jedi all get really good ones).

[Rolodome]

In SoR Depths of Manaan, Smuggler comments to Deefour by saying that s/he travels with a wookiee and knows Jakaaro (however the name is, too lazy right now) didn't say what Deefour said he said. Trooper says that a lot of people really underestimate the thoroughness of SpecForce training and says something about knowing what Jakaaro actually said. I don't think Impside gets the same lines, been a long time since I ran Depths on a non-Forceuser, so my BH and Agent lines aren't being recalled offhand.

 

I think Revan's ability is a common one for Force Users.

 

Sandpeople are still untranslated.

 

I personally suspect everyone gets a Babelfish device if they aren't a Sith/Jedi, and if too poor, they have to learn the languages the hard way, and languages have to updated on a regular basis, so the cheap ones are horrible and the expensive ones are better (so Smugglers and Bounty Hunters get what they can and understand a bunch of languages in Han Solo style of not necessarily speaking them). Imptelligence wouldn't (logically from my naive PoV) skimp out if it meant getting back intel, so Agents would have them put in. SpecForce also can't afford bad intell, but those guys are soldiers, so they don't get top-of-the-line translators, but still really good ones and language courses in training that continues into active service.

 

Sith and Jedi have the Force to translate for them sort of. Or also have decent translators (depending on Master, better ones, if Sith, Jedi all get really good ones).

Hum. I guess I hadn't noticed those comments from the characters. I did think about the class stuff and how all of them are potentially roles that would learn a lot of languages... that is a fair point.

 

I was thinking it largely wasn't addressed in-game, but maybe I've just missed it.

[LyraineAlei]

Hum. I guess I hadn't noticed those comments from the characters. I did think about the class stuff and how all of them are potentially roles that would learn a lot of languages... that is a fair point.

 

I was thinking it largely wasn't addressed in-game, but maybe I've just missed it.

 

Only two had the comments, and only if you picked the "correct" dialogue option in one Flashpoint, as far as I remember. An easily missed bit.

 

With the Voss being "newly discovered" within the last few decades or something, I'm more surprised Garza/Agent's Mission Giver Person didn't demand Trooper/Agent to return to Coruscant/DK or Somewhere to get the implants updated with a language they're likely still working on.

 

I kept hoping that BH/Smuggler would wind up with a moment or more where languages were an obvious barrier, but that might have messed with some people's immersion.

 

Oh! And I figured Cyborgs would just have a Translator implant of some kind put in while they were doing stuff anyway, or a person in-eye HUD with a text translation.

 

EDIT: Oh, sorry about hijacking the thread.

Edited September 29, 2016 by LyraineAlei

[Damask_Rose]

Speaking of Babelfish... http://www.boredpanda.com/real-time-translator-ear-waverly-labs/

[UberSamoyed]

Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was "Oh no, not again."

[Toraak]

For me, what I expect and what I want are 2 completely different things from the announcement.

 

I expect little more then the release date for the expansion, and maybe a small clip from it.

 

What I want out of it however is.

 

1) New Operations in Expansion, and if not when.

 

2) New GSF content, and if not, then when

 

3) New Flashpoints

 

4) New PvP Maps

 

5) Class balances during the expansion?

 

These things to me need to be answered if not on the 7th, Shortly there after. and need to be specific. Not just working on new group content. They need to say what new group content.

[mfourcustom]

I think its far past the point where its safe to say expect nothing from this game Other than more solo play content and cartel market pack/sales...

 

I find myself slipping often in to day dreams recalling the first time my sorry *** ever set foot on the main floor of republic fleet back during launch week and before me as I gazed up that huge stair way that leads to the inner circle of fleet I saw a living sea of players... That moment I realized I was standing at the threshold of a game with unlimited potential...Than two weeks past we all know what happens next.

 

 

My point being? Two words sum up SWTOR as a whole these two words define this game and what it has and will become.

 

Those words are?

 

Lost Potential.

Edited September 29, 2016 by mfourcustom

[nepochop]

Well I guess Bioware had enough time to read what the players want and expect, however as everyone knows this forum is being visited by 100-500 players so far form the swtor population (which they claim to be millions, but i doubt it).

 

So i cant wait to see that cantina in 8 days.

[Tsillah]

Well I guess Bioware had enough time to read what the players want and expect, however as everyone knows this forum is being visited by 100-500 players so far form the swtor population (which they claim to be millions, but i doubt it).

 

So i cant wait to see that cantina in 8 days.

 

I don't believe they said there are millions of players currently as such. The language was a bit sneaky but the more correct interpretation of what they were claiming would be more in the area of "millions of people have played this game". So when they say "join the millions of players" they actually just meant "the millions of players that have played this game so far".

 

That aside, I do agree with your assessment that these forums are only visited by a few hundred people with any regularity. That would make the forum a place for alerts and ideas but not as a representation for the player base. Not by itself anyway. As a general rule therefore I consider it unwise to quote any majorities or large player groups based on what happens here or the anecdotal evidence people bring from their personal experience in game.

 

At the same time though, it probably is a safe bet that if some people complain about it here, they are probably not the only ones who feel this way. And as such it's something that can alert BW to a topic and look into it.

 

They use a lot of metrics but I also worry about that because what do numbers mean without context? Nothing much in my experience. So I worry that they see changes in behaviour but do not understand why these changes happen, just that they happen. The fact that some issues like pvp imbalances can take over a year to get any sort of attention in the game updates, means that they are also lacking momentum and decisiveness. That's a very paralysing position to be in and I can only imagine that the actual developers of the game can have a really hard time working around those limitations. But I digress...

 

I want new group content in some form that's better than 2 man FPs like Starforge but I am not requiring it to be operations but it has to be fun AND rewarding enough to do more than a couple of times.

 

I want pvp to get a complete overhaul and gets more variety and more queues. I think the approach to hang on to the two queues (ranked and unranked) to desperately try to hold pvp together is a mistake. I think there should be a solo only queue for example and a split in warzone groups so people can do things like huttbal, voidstar and odessen in one q and the others that are more about cap and hold objectives in separate queues. I want guild ships to have a room that is a guild warzone so guilds can do internal pvp matches for fun and to practice. And I would want a PvP Stronghold where people can collect warzone building blocks and build their own warzones they can invite people to. They could even make a listing like for strongholds where people can choose which ones they want to try, just for fun. BW might learn what people enjoy most. That's what I would like. I expect zero of it.

 

Strongholds themselves, well I want a new one at release and another next year summer. I want them to overhaul the decoration system and give people access to more what I would call basic decorations so they can use themes more easily in different colour patterns. In fact I want skins for all Strongholds that give different colour patterns to the strongholds themselves. I want that and I expect that maybe they will give us a new stronghold and decorations will still be kept too difficult to collect in the numbers required unless you spend hundreds of bucks of real money monthly which is ridiculously unfair.

 

Guilds should have more amenities overall and I want legacy credit storage for people who have been subbed for a minimum amount of time to weed out gold sellers. I want the leveling to not be as easy as it's now to keep it interesting. I want better tools to keep track of my many alts. I deleted half my toons because I just became unmanageable. I don't think it's right that people just have to make spreadsheets outside the game to do that.

 

And there's more.

 

What do I expect? Not much of it, probably close to nothing. So I'll see, but once they finally open their mouths on October 7th, I'll be interested to find out whether I need to consider resubbing to the game. It's what I want, but I do not expect it.

[nepochop]

"Do to lack of development teams and qualified personnel (excluding Eric Musco since he can read and write) we have to announce server shutdowns in 1 month!"

[nepochop]

I don't believe they said there are millions of players currently .....

 

Well writen and some very good points and ideas. As you can see the game has HUGE potential to get better. There are many other good ideas which are doable and handleable by the engine. I really wonder what will the next steps be as like Tsillah stated Bioware looks at statistics, which we dont see.

 

We come here to say what we want but we are only a small fraction of the game population. The Golden Era is long gone and the game is no being finnaced by Cartel Market and apparently even goldsellers. I really wonder what the future brings.

[LyraineAlei]

I don't believe they said there are millions of players currently as such. The language was a bit sneaky but the more correct interpretation of what they were claiming would be more in the area of "millions of people have played this game". So when they say "join the millions of players" they actually just meant "the millions of players that have played this game so far".

 

I keep seeing this pop up and then someone else points to their infographic chart thing that stats that "millions of characters have been made".

 

</nitpick and slight confusion>

 

The rest of the post I understand and if not agree, I'm aligned with your stance enough to not be opposing it.

[Thoronmir]

I keep seeing this pop up and then someone else points to their infographic chart thing that stats that "millions of characters have been made".

 

</nitpick and slight confusion>

 

The rest of the post I understand and if not agree, I'm aligned with your stance enough to not be opposing it.

Not sure I understand your point ...

 

When I stare at the chimichanga on my plate, and I cause its resolve against being eaten to whither by importuning it to "join millions of chimichangas," it's okay that I mean the millions of chimichangas I've eaten in the last five years, and not necessarily that I'm currently eating millions of chimichangas?

Edited September 29, 2016 by Thoronmir

[Tsillah]

I keep seeing this pop up and then someone else points to their infographic chart thing that stats that "millions of characters have been made".

 

</nitpick and slight confusion>

 

The rest of the post I understand and if not agree, I'm aligned with your stance enough to not be opposing it.

 

You do understand the diffence between characters and players right? How many of the 87 million characters that have been created are still actively played and how many actual players are there?

 

When the game started 5 years ago, how many of those characters were made in the first months and completely abandoned soon after? Cause I remember the two server merges that came and f2p being introduced to save the game.

 

How do you think that this means that today there are millions of players still playing? Over time millions have played or at least tried, but most of those are clearly gone. We only have a few servers left and even some of those are low population.

 

So yes millions have played this game at some point or another but no, I really don't think that at this moment there are millions of players actively playing SWTOR.

[LyraineAlei]

You do understand the diffence between characters and players right? How many of the 87 million characters that have been created are still actively played and how many actual players are there?

 

When the game started 5 years ago, how many of those characters were made in the first months and completely abandoned soon after? Cause I remember the two server merges that came and f2p being introduced to save the game.

 

How do you think that this means that today there are millions of players still playing? Over time millions have played or at least tried, but most of those are clearly gone. We only have a few servers left and even some of those are low population.

 

So yes millions have played this game at some point or another but no, I really don't think that at this moment there are millions of players actively playing SWTOR.

 

Yes, but the claim that millions of characters have been made doesn't necessary mean millions of players are playing right now, which is what I've been confused about by people saying "millions of players" and then pointing to that graph thing saying millions of characters.

 

I'm not saying there are millions of players, I'm asking how millions of characters means millions of players when one million characters divided across accounts who have made a total of twenty characters is only 50,000 accounts. And twenty is a high-midling range, based on the forums here where people have said they only have between 12-26 characters total, and others (like me) have over sixty made total. Heck, one million characters divided into groups of sixty to represent altoholics like myself (who might not be as extreme as others) is only 16,666 and two-thirds of an account.

 

87 million characters made, I'm not even sure if that means millions of players have touched the game.

 

I hope that clarifies my confusion, which is over exactly what you were stating and what some people have said.

[Andryah]

87 million characters made, I'm not even sure if that means millions of players have touched the game.

 

Absolutely no way to tell from characters made. Some players roll with only one main and maybe an alt or two, and then there are others that are pushing the character cap on a server (with extra unlocks paid).

 

That said... if you were to create a brand new account for SWTOR... you would be issued a forum number somewhere in the 19 millions. That is 19 million unique accounts, and of course some of them are spoof accounts, but probably not that many. But if toss half of them in the dead bin and take only half of that as players that actually bothered to play (it's probably higher to be honest)... that puts you in the 9+ million players having played SWTOR since launch. So yeah... millions have played SWTOR. It fairly common knowledge that close to 2.5 Million played at launch and in the immediate months afterwards.

 

Not that any of this navel gazing matters at all really. What matters is what the surge populations levels are from an expac release to around 3-4 months post release. That represents a general view of real peak active players that play SWTOR. Why does peak active players matter? Because it goes to what the correct sizing of the server farms needs to be. Looking at active players playing close to a year after the previous expac makes for great catnip for the negative cats in the forum, but it in no way represents what population are active on the servers, and what server sizing should be evaluated with.

Edited September 30, 2016 by Andryah