Does this game feel kind of lifeless?

[Lium]

Or is it just me? I really do hate to ask that because I love this game and it's my main MMO. But it just seems like there's a lack of enthusiasm and passion on the part of the devs, and the population on most servers seems to be really light.

 

It feels like an MMO that's on borrowed time, and I say that as someone who played WAR and AoC. AoC is still around but Funcom just recently announced that there would be no further development on that game. It's officially on maintenance mode. SWTOR is starting to feel the same. Just a lack of activity other then CM stuff.

 

Things like new playable species or a new class seem far-fetched. I don't think they will ever happen. I know there's a new ops coming out and that's great! But new PvP maps don't seem to be in the works.

 

Of course, the sliver lining in all this is I could be (and hopefully am) completely wrong about everything. There could be a lot of new stuff in development that they just can't talk about yet. I see they are still doing the cantina stops so that's a good sign.

 

But do you think this game feels kind of lifeless?

[Theeko]

It has been down in population they really just need to merge all servers into mega servers tbh

 

IE: US West / East / Europe / Asia

[ZeroTypeR]

I decided last week to sub for the duration of the exp boost, but tbh, I've only been playing once or twice per week. I'm really more semi-active than anything at the moment, just haven't felt the urge to play.

 

Nothing against this game, it's a great game, but right now, for whatever reason, it just feels like it's in a bad place.

[Damask_Rose]

Or is it just me? I really do hate to ask that because I love this game and it's my main MMO. But it just seems like there's a lack of enthusiasm and passion on the part of the devs, and the population on most servers seems to be really light.

 

It feels like an MMO that's on borrowed time, and I say that as someone who played WAR and AoC. AoC is still around but Funcom just recently announced that there would be no further development on that game. It's officially on maintenance mode. SWTOR is starting to feel the same. Just a lack of activity other then CM stuff.

 

Things like new playable species or a new class seem far-fetched. I don't think they will ever happen. I know there's a new ops coming out and that's great! But new PvP maps don't seem to be in the works.

 

Of course, the sliver lining in all this is I could be (and hopefully am) completely wrong about everything. There could be a lot of new stuff in development that they just can't talk about yet. I see they are still doing the cantina stops so that's a good sign.

 

But do you think this game feels kind of lifeless?

 

5.2 should be out in less than a month which brings not only the first of the new ops bosses, but also a storyline that will convert into a daily area complete with reputation. There are "rumors" of a very big stronghold in the works and "rumors" of a new flashpoint as well. The population is thin and the content might not be to your liking, but this baby hasn't been abandoned yet.

[vingmotor]

Not lifeless. more like soulless. it has become very antisocial and rude. atleast on the progenitor eu.

[Severith]

Imagine for a moment that SWTOR wasn't a Star Wars IP. That it was a custom made IP just for the game.

 

It would have shut down 3 years ago.

 

The people that have stuck with SWTOR all these years are getting pretty fed up with all the BS they need to put up with to love this game. Simply being a Star Wars game isn't going to cut it anymore.

 

Hopefully Bioware will look very carefully at how good mmo's age over time, so they can turn things around. 5.2 is either going to make or break a lot of subs, one way or the other.

[Darkside]

I decided last week to sub for the duration of the exp boost, but tbh, I've only been playing once or twice per week. I'm really more semi-active than anything at the moment, just haven't felt the urge to play.

 

Nothing against this game, it's a great game, but right now, for whatever reason, it just feels like it's in a bad place.

 

It is in a bad place, and it sadly won't be changing. It's in a slow death spiral. Where very little content will be stretched out to keep people subbing, but the heyday of this game is long gone, and the current dev team is not capable or staffed enough to change that. They will cartel market us to death until they eventually announce a shutter date 2 to 3 years from now.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Darkside

[Nightblazer]

It has been down in population they really just need to merge all servers into mega servers tbh

 

IE: US West / East / Europe / Asia

 

Yep, then all players have to fight for the character names and legacy names by erasing all those with the same exact name, reset everyone's stronghold and guild flagships because those are reset and all the rooms locked like on a server transfer.

 

Create instances for PvE, PvP and RP and then just dump everyone into PvE since there isn't a setting to default your account or characters individually to a specific one. For EU, create instances for English, German, French PvE, PvP and RP and again just dump all players into the same one because there is no setting to choose a specific one.

 

I'm sure there is more I forgot that is lost, removed or problems arise but can't think of them atm.

[Cuiwe]

It doesn't feel lifeless to me, but it does feel like BW doesn't know what to really do with it. I derive this line of thinking from the fact that they just hop around the various ways to play too damn much. Always tunnel visioning one thing while forgetting about all the other things.

 

First it was a bunch of group activity(RoTHC), then weird semi solo things(SoR) then full on solo(Zakuul)...make up your mind?

[bdatt]

Compared to 1.5-2 years ago, yes. 4.0 and on killed the community I interacted with.

[DarthWoad]

Id say it's pretty souless. I mean theres only so much you can do with a themepark MMO, where the rules and tasks are set for you and you just complete those tasks. if it were sandbox however there could have been player driven factions (take eve for example) and cities etc...

[JattaGin]

It does seem a bit lifeless at the moment on The Progenitor. It's even a bit hard to motivate myself to log in right now.

[Raphael_diSanto]

Imagine for a moment that SWTOR wasn't a Star Wars IP. That it was a custom made IP just for the game.

 

It would have shut down 3 years ago.

 

The people that have stuck with SWTOR all these years are getting pretty fed up with all the BS they need to put up with to love this game. Simply being a Star Wars game isn't going to cut it anymore.

 

Hopefully Bioware will look very carefully at how good mmo's age over time, so they can turn things around. 5.2 is either going to make or break a lot of subs, one way or the other.

 

Not all of us are here for the IP. Sometimes I think I'd prefer it if it -wasn't- a Star Wars game. Then there'd be less whining about canon "authentic" Jedi outfits and stuff like that.

 

However, I will agree with the OP that a new class is unlikely. But then a new class was always going to be unlikely with TOR. A new class would necessitate an entirely new 1-50 story, and reworking of all of the NPC lines that reference your class when you talk to an NPC and that was just never going to happen.

 

By integrating the classes into the fabric of the game the way that they did, BioWare basically locked themselves out of creating any new ones. Opening up class/race combos that weren't originally intended and added the new races gives rise to some hilarious goofs (Like Aric explaining to a Cathar trooper how Cathar marriages work, etc etc), but those are things that can be overlooked and BioWare can get away with it because there's a "default" line for those race-based situations.

 

There is no "default" line for a class-specific response, so they'd have to go back and re-record brand new lines for all of those NPCs that have lines like "Ah, yes, I know a Hunter like you is only interested in the credits" or "Thank the stars, a soldier!"

Edited March 14, 2017 by Raphael_diSanto

[forestguard]

However, I will agree with the OP that a new class is unlikely. But then a new class was always going to be unlikely with TOR. A new class would necessitate an entirely new 1-50 story, and reworking of all of the NPC lines that reference your class when you talk to an NPC and that was just never going to happen.

 

By integrating the classes into the fabric of the game the way that they did, BioWare basically locked themselves out of creating any new ones. Opening up class/race combos that weren't originally intended and added the new races gives rise to some hilarious goofs (Like Aric explaining to a Cathar trooper how Cathar marriages work, etc etc), but those are things that can be overlooked and BioWare can get away with it because there's a "default" line for those race-based situations.

 

There is no "default" line for a class-specific response, so they'd have to go back and re-record brand new lines for all of those NPCs that have lines like "Ah, yes, I know a Hunter like you is only interested in the credits" or "Thank the stars, a soldier!"

 

The only way they could add a new "class" is if it's a new advanced class. I once saw it described as the base class is more like race in other games that determines your story, or at least how it starts, whereas our ACs are more like the actual classes of other games. A new advanced class could be interesting though and take a lot less work than a new base class.

[Severith]

Not all of us are here for the IP. Sometimes I think I'd prefer it if it -wasn't- a Star Wars game. Then there'd be less whining about canon "authentic" Jedi outfits and stuff like that.

 

 

It would have been healthier for the development of the game itself if it wasn't a Star Wars IP. Personally, I liked the pvp and saw it as an extension of the Warhammer Online MMO, since it copied over many of the same mechanics.

 

However, if it wasn't a Star Wars game, it wouldn't be running right now. Bioware leaned so heavily on the IP they forgot to evolve it much beyond it's vanilla state. It would be another dead Wow clone.

[HuaRya]

OP

 

Dunno if this helps but I returned to the game in January after a year hiatus to get back with my old guild. It was great for a couple of weeks but then I realized things were different. If they did anything it was a closed progression group. The server pops were pretty lacking compared to a year ago and to confirm that I started checking server population. I remembered I had a few pvp toons on Harbinger and decided to re-visit them. Rather than drone on about Harbinger I'll just say that here I'm getting that similar experience I was getting back in 2014.

 

I don't think the devs realize how detrimental divided populations are to the intended MMO experience quite yet. In an MMO people need to feel 'this is where it's at' and the second they don't you get that vibe posts appear on the forums like this. Of course we need new pvp maps/fp's/GSF maps/planets but if you log into a game with a high population doing the old content and showing enthusiasm it's perfectly okay.

[SteveTheCynic]

By integrating the classes into the fabric of the game the way that they did, BioWare basically locked themselves out of creating any new ones. Opening up class/race combos that weren't originally intended and added the new races gives rise to some hilarious goofs (Like Aric explaining to a Cathar trooper how Cathar marriages work, etc etc), but those are things that can be overlooked and BioWare can get away with it because there's a "default" line for those race-based situations.

 

There is no "default" line for a class-specific response, so they'd have to go back and re-record brand new lines for all of those NPCs that have lines like "Ah, yes, I know a Hunter like you is only interested in the credits" or "Thank the stars, a soldier!"

Sometimes the class-specific lines they already have are ... entertaining. Like Troopers all over Ord Mantell, telling their fellow soldiers that, "Looks like you could use a soldier". W T F? That guy *is* a soldier!

 

And at least Aric has an excuse for not realising the player is a Cathar like him - when the game opened, there were no Cathar player characters. Kaliyo tells a Rattataki Agent all about what life on Rattatak was like, and there's never a line that suggests he has an accent from somewhere else... (And that's not the only hilarity for Rattataki Agents. "The Rattataki must wait outside" from a guard cannot be answered "Which one?" or "Both of us?" or "OK, I'll wait. Kaliyo, you go ahead and find out what they want.")

[GalacticKegger]

It feels like the movie Tomorrowland. Everything started out shiny and hugely promising until the doers, visionaries and early adopters were banished because some Governor Nix type on top decided to withdraw the promise of evolution and replace it with a tachyon marketing machine designed to brainwash his people into accepting the change and stifle MMO enthusiasts who might interfere with the governor's self-centered vision of a scaled-down and low-maintenance SWTOR future.

 

We're still waiting for the Governor to get crushed by his own machine in the climax so BWA's decision makers can start feeding the right wolf.

Edited March 15, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[TUXs]

Compared to 1.5-2 years ago, yes. 4.0 and on killed the community I interacted with.

 

Yup. 4.0 was the games downfall. Even 3.0 had its issues.

[kodrac]

Yup. 4.0 was the games downfall. Even 3.0 had its issues.

 

They keep jerking us around. We've had different setups/systems in three straight expansions. It's like a loser football team that changes head coaches every season. The team sucks because the players have to learn a new system and then it all changes again and the players have to learn a different system and the team still sucks. So the fans stop coming to the games.

Edited March 15, 2017 by kodrac

[TUXs]

They keep jerking us around. We've had different setups/systems in three straight expansions. It's like a loser football team that changes head coaches every season. The team sucks because the players have to learn a new system and then it all changes again and the players have to learn a different system and the team still sucks. So the fans stop coming to the games.

Good analogy. It's like we're stuck in a "rebuilding phase" that they keep repeating without any actual development.

[GalacticKegger]

They keep jerking us around. We've had different setups/systems in three straight expansions. It's like a loser football team that changes head coaches every season. The team sucks because the players have to learn a new system and then it all changes again and the players have to learn a different system and the team still sucks.

Those new system challenges you refer to are what they want us to accept in lieu of new playable content challenges. We've been getting gypped now for two straight expansions because of it. It's a character issue that starts at the top.

 

BWA has made it abundantly clear that they want out of the MMO business. After 4 emergency PR livestreams within the first 8 weeks of 5.0's release in an attempt to quell one of the biggest veteran player rebellions since SWG's NGE update, they were forced into making Iokath a priority. Hurriedly announcing a-boss-every-2-months release schedule (really?) in an effort to string MMO subscribers along the same way the story chapters did is almost contemptuous.

 

What they are oblivious to is maintaining the precept for every legit MMO's survival: player investment retention value. 4.0 utterly destroyed years of it. And the only way for them to recoup any semblance of that player base's loyalty is to give back what they took away. Anything less is an insult.

Edited March 15, 2017 by GalacticKegger

[IshtarScorpio]

The only way they could add a new "class" is if it's a new advanced class. I once saw it described as the base class is more like race in other games that determines your story, or at least how it starts, whereas our ACs are more like the actual classes of other games. A new advanced class could be interesting though and take a lot less work than a new base class.

 

Sorc Trooper for the win!

[scardera]

CXP system killed the fun to play alts people like me that usually play alts a lot have to play only one char and we are burned down. I cam back for the 350% cxp and will test the new drop in OPS but for me the CXP system is too much of a grind to enjoy its sad really that Devs dont understand that player hate to grinds they want to play not feel the urge to play only one character to get CXP ranks etc

[BJWyler]

Or is it just me? I really do hate to ask that because I love this game and it's my main MMO. But it just seems like there's a lack of enthusiasm and passion on the part of the devs, and the population on most servers seems to be really light.

 

It feels like an MMO that's on borrowed time, and I say that as someone who played WAR and AoC. AoC is still around but Funcom just recently announced that there would be no further development on that game. It's officially on maintenance mode. SWTOR is starting to feel the same. Just a lack of activity other then CM stuff.

 

Things like new playable species or a new class seem far-fetched. I don't think they will ever happen. I know there's a new ops coming out and that's great! But new PvP maps don't seem to be in the works.

 

Of course, the sliver lining in all this is I could be (and hopefully am) completely wrong about everything. There could be a lot of new stuff in development that they just can't talk about yet. I see they are still doing the cantina stops so that's a good sign.

 

But do you think this game feels kind of lifeless?

 

I wouldn't say lifeless, but the game suffers from several core problems. The two biggest are the craptastic engine the game was built upon and the lack of ability to properly manage and maintain an MMO from the development team.

 

Truth be told, a lot has gone into this game, and it's one of the most content rich, especially in the leveling part of the game. The unfortunate part is that there is also a lot of very badly implemented systems and ideas on top of everything that kind of quash what is really good about the game. This issue is that BioWare is currently developing the game under the philosophy of trying to meet certain goals set out by EA and the upper echelon managment, so everything in the last 2 years or so has been geared towards maintaining the bottom line in profitability instead of making content that is engaging, fun, and replayable/lasting and allowing gamers to take care of the bottom line by playing an enjoyable and engaging game. Unfortunately 5.2 seems to be more of the same.