Update on Roadmap

[Savej]

Now that the Roadmap is out... If you are interested in it's contents there is still a chance the item your after is not going in game for awhile.

 

In my case once my Sub is up in a week or so I plan to maybe come back this Fall to take a look.... Beyond that No plans for this game.

 

I'm sure a few others that have been hanging around just to see the Roadmap have also now decided to go away. It seems logical to go away for awhile until something of interest to them is scheduled to drop...

 

Seems possible that the Forums will die down quite a bit until some of the promises are put in game... Minus a plethora of request threads.

 

I can only agree that I've stopped as well - I was hanging in there for the Roadmap: but still no mention of dead servers and population issues means nothing good about a changes in direction regarding communication or real pvp support in this game. Ranked needs x-faction and server populations for elo to matter. Regs needs server populations for non-stale, repetitive qs that aren't dominated by premades.

[Rheshalea]

Well, to be fair, we are still waiting for a GOOD story. FE/ET sure wasn't that. So any story people still here after the massive waste of time and effort that was FE/ET, have indeed been patient.

 

This.

If they'd put more effort into the actual character's story and less into Whaa-whaa-Vaylin-moans-again cutscenes, KotFEET wouldn't abuse my spacebar so much. And if they'd had a proper plan on how to bring back all companions before deciding to take them away... blergh, KotFEET was just a huge mess, with some few pearls strewn out among the dreck.

 

Still, I'm very happy that PvPers and OPs players finally get some love. It takes all kinds!

 

And still, I'm also hoping eventually we'll get Story Mode for all the remaining FPs too, and the Uprisings (what happened to that? When Uprisings were first mentioned, I thought that was supposed to be a thing?)

[Glocko]

This.

If they'd put more effort into the actual character's story and less into Whaa-whaa-Vaylin-moans-again cutscenes, KotFEET wouldn't abuse my spacebar so much. And if they'd had a proper plan on how to bring back all companions before deciding to take them away... blergh, KotFEET was just a huge mess, with some few pearls strewn out among the dreck.

 

Still, I'm very happy that PvPers and OPs players finally get some love. It takes all kinds!

 

And still, I'm also hoping eventually we'll get Story Mode for all the remaining FPs too, and the Uprisings (what happened to that? When Uprisings were first mentioned, I thought that was supposed to be a thing?)

 

PVP love? 2 new maps in the past 6 years...... Proving grounds was just somebody's way of further punishing PVPers

8 months of class imbalance where we basically have spent 90 percent of our WZ time either stunned or slowed by 70% but hey just stick around for 2-3 months and we may adjust this a tad...... (They should turn off sprint for all PVE content for a year to make things even)

Juggernauts get practically globalled in arena/ranked but no plan for buff

We have been falling thru the map when we leap since launch

Asking for cross server queues since launch

 

I would not characterize this as PVPers are getting some love more like let's do as little as possible for them so we hide our disdain for that population a little better

Edited June 2, 2017 by Glocko

[BraverDre]

Swtor can only survive if

1. Balance classes (buff sorc dps, pt tank, nerf mercs in pvp)

2. Open world pvp

3. Merge dead servers

4. Weapon designer slot, tunnings and dye modules in collections

[Soljin]

Swtor can only survive if

1. Balance classes (buff sorc dps, pt tank, nerf mercs in pvp)

2. Open world pvp

3. Merge dead servers

4. Weapon designer slot, tunnings and dye modules in collections

 

Class balance is a major point no doubt.

 

Open World PvP is just not going to happen.... The community is split on what that even looks like and Bioware has never been able to give the time and resources to put WPVP in place that does not turn into exploit city.... I would love to see it also however super unlikely it is.

 

Once again as others have said this is really important but would cause a major subscription bleed if they force merges without making sure players kept all their Guild and stronghold assets intact.

 

The last one is hardly a deal breaker but it sounds like you will be getting both these things sometime this year possibly if I recall correctly.

 

My biggest beef with SWToR is that it has no depth. So many systems in place with so much potential that have been left in mediocrity.

 

Crafting is shallow with no diversity or room to make "exceptional" items.

 

Creature companions and companions in general have no personality and are all the same with different skins...Boring.

 

Characters forced to use only one weapon variation....Boring.

 

The list goes on of wasted opportunities that would have gave people a reason to invest much more time into each aspect of the game... This is how you keep players not only occupied and paying but happy...

 

Gear treadmills happen...its in every MMO to some variation....But if the game has no depth surrounding that gear treadmill... The motivation does not exist to engage the grind.

[vadess]

Ok, but that was 4 days ago.

I mean in just the last 24-36 hours the amount of people logged in seems to have dropped.

 

Summer lasts longer than 4 days in North America...

[EzioMessi]

Summer lasts longer than 4 days in North America...

 

Wait what? **** I did not know. Gonna go out and start barbecuing right now, I genuinely didn't know summer was a thing here.

 

~Silently misses his high school days when summer actually meant no work~

[vadess]

This.

If they'd put more effort into the actual character's story and less into Whaa-whaa-Vaylin-moans-again cutscenes, KotFEET wouldn't abuse my spacebar so much. And if they'd had a proper plan on how to bring back all companions before deciding to take them away... blergh, KotFEET was just a huge mess, with some few pearls strewn out among the dreck.

 

Actually, I liked the storyline...

 

I finally got a locked in SGR with Theron Shan; I liked the characters, especially Valkorian; and I like the direction Iokath's story went.

[AscendingSky]

Swtor can only survive if

1. Balance classes (buff sorc dps, pt tank, nerf mercs in pvp)

2. Open world pvp

3. Merge dead servers

4. Weapon designer slot, tunnings and dye modules in collections

 

Class balancing I agree should be a priority for the devs right now. There's some pretty major issues with that at present in both PvP and PvE which should be addressed--and fortunately addressing those is on the roadmap, hooray!

 

This engine turns any kind of large group PvP in the open world into a slideshow even on decent computers. There's a reason the PvP servers turned into ghost towns. So no, #2 is definitely not a 'SWTOR can only survive if' point. Same thing with #4--don't get me wrong, getting #4 would be awesome! I'd be totally on board with getting #4! But I don't think it's a make or break point for the game.

 

I'm not even going to touch the merging "dead" servers argument because there's already enough threads addressing that issue and the arguments never go anywhere anyways...

[EzioMessi]

This engine turns any kind of large group PvP in the open world into a slideshow even on decent computers. There's a reason the PvP servers turned into ghost towns. So no, #2 is definitely not a 'SWTOR can only survive if' point. Same thing with #4--don't get me wrong, getting #4 would be awesome! I'd be totally on board with getting #4! But I don't think it's a make or break point for the game.

 

There are several reasons why PvP servers turned into ghost towns, but the OWPvP slideshow is not one of them. OWPvP was never really common on any server after Ilum PvP was removed. Aside from organized events, RPPvP (Jung Ma) and Rakghoul/Gree events, there was rarely any OWPvP anyways.

 

The thing that killed PvP servers was the addition of PvP-immune instances to ALL servers, which made PvP servers redundant, and made many PvPers use the 90CC migrate to Harb because instanced PvP only cares about population, and OWPvP will literally never happen if people can choose to be immune when it is inconvenient. These reasons basically meant that there was 0 incentive to stay on the PvP servers, since OWPvP is in-effect never gonna happen, and Ranked requires a sizeable population that the PvP servers lacked.

 

For as long PvP servers were still a thing, OWPvP still happened, slideshow or not, and if they had remained a thing, then conquest would have made OWPvP so much more common. The slideshow didn't kill those servers, the sh*tshow did.

[dscount]

+1 on dropping $60 on a REAL Expansion. Stagger the content with TWO Operations over a six month window.

 

Stagger the SM / HM levels like other MMO's do and that helps with burn out. Releasing 1 every 3 months is great for status quo w/o additional funding, but paid SUB up front for BIG chunk of content is worth it.

 

Those "Story Line" lovers... yea whomever coined the term "Sit down - shut up and it's RAIDERS Turn" +1 from me. I don't mind story, but after doing it 1-2 times it's just filler content. Like me leveling another character I've got 3 of already.

[vadess]

Wait what? **** I did not know. Gonna go out and start barbecuing right now, I genuinely didn't know summer was a thing here.

 

~Silently misses his high school days when summer actually meant no work~

 

You and I both... :/

[Nightblazer]

+1 on dropping $60 on a REAL Expansion. Stagger the content with TWO Operations over a six month window.

 

Stagger the SM / HM levels like other MMO's do and that helps with burn out. Releasing 1 every 3 months is great for status quo w/o additional funding, but paid SUB up front for BIG chunk of content is worth it.

 

Those "Story Line" lovers... yea whomever coined the term "Sit down - shut up and it's RAIDERS Turn" +1 from me. I don't mind story, but after doing it 1-2 times it's just filler content. Like me leveling another character I've got 3 of already.

 

I dont think getting free expansions vs $60 would make any difference other then giving money and still not seeing ROI from it. Not sure how players forking over $60 for an expac helps if they still make the same decisions.

[Andryah]

I dont think getting free expansions vs $60 would make any difference other then giving money and still not seeing ROI from it. Not sure how players forking over $60 for an expac helps if they still make the same decisions.

 

I agree, particularly when the average in the MMO market for paid expansions of that size is a 3 year wait between expacs. It makes for more to gobble up as fast as possible for sure, followed by 2.5 years of grousing about nothing to do and unsubbing and rolling to their next MMO in their nomadic list of games to hop.

[DarthSpuds]

I agree, particularly when the average in the MMO market for paid expansions of that size is a 3 year wait between expacs. .

 

So by average you mean "only referencing WoW".

 

ESO has had three content drops that would qualify as an expac in three years - Orsinium, One Tamriel, Morrowind.

 

Now, please don't think I believe ESO is all sunshine and puppies, it isn't.

 

LOTRO has had 6, arguably more, in 10 years.

 

All The Best

[Icykill_]

Class balancing I agree should be a priority for the devs right now. There's some pretty major issues with that at present in both PvP and PvE which should be addressed--and fortunately addressing those is on the roadmap, hooray!

 

This engine turns any kind of large group PvP in the open world into a slideshow even on decent computers. There's a reason the PvP servers turned into ghost towns. So no, #2 is definitely not a 'SWTOR can only survive if' point. Same thing with #4--don't get me wrong, getting #4 would be awesome! I'd be totally on board with getting #4! But I don't think it's a make or break point for the game.

 

I'm not even going to touch the merging "dead" servers argument because there's already enough threads addressing that issue and the arguments never go anywhere anyways...

 

I was just thinking tonight when playing how the game lags more in pvp at lvl 70 than in lowbies or mids. I'm sure it's got something to do with amount of abilities that have slowly crept in over the years. IMO we could do without so many as I think we have ability bloat.

When you have everyone at lvl 70 with max amount of abilities and they are using them all, it seems to affect the games performance. But if you go into lowbies or mids where people don't have as many abilities, those performance issues disappear.

If culling or combining some abilities would help improve performance, then it's something they should consider.

[AscendingSky]

So by average you mean "only referencing WoW".

 

ESO has had three content drops that would qualify as an expac in three years - Orsinium, One Tamriel, Morrowind.

 

Now, please don't think I believe ESO is all sunshine and puppies, it isn't.

 

LOTRO has had 6, arguably more, in 10 years.

 

All The Best

 

More data: FFXIV:ARR will as of this month have dropped two paid major expansions within a 4 year time span, with several MASSIVE content patches for free in between.

[Icykill_]

More data: FFXIV:ARR will as of this month have dropped two paid major expansions within a 4 year time span, with several MASSIVE content patches for free in between.

 

I maybe mistaken because I don't play FFXIV.. But didn't they also go back and start from scratch with somethings after the game started to fail and they decided to actually listen to what the players wanted instead of what they wanted to give them.

[AscendingSky]

I maybe mistaken because I don't play FFXIV.. But didn't they also go back and start from scratch with somethings after the game started to fail and they decided to actually listen to what the players wanted instead of what they wanted to give them.

 

They did! The first version of FFXIV was a big flop full of terrible design decisions... and instead of just ignoring their playerbase and doubling down on the terrible design decisions like EAWare has liked to do in the past, Square Enix put someone new in charge of the game who outright APOLOGIZED for the poor quality of the game. Then they rebuilt the game from the ground up on an entirely new engine and released that as FFXIV: A Realm Reborn. People who had existing characters on the first version of the game got character data carried over and some perks (like a special tattoo on their toons) to mark them as legacy players. ARR is leagues and bounds better, and the game has been a huge success as a result.

 

Imagine that... listening to your player base's complaints and actually INVESTING in a game to make it better instead of slashing its budget and firing most of your employees working on it and trying to coerce more nickle and dime cash payments out of your customers can actually make your game a success instead of a failure? Who would've thunk it?

 

(Also: while FFXIV: ARR does have a cash shop, EVERYTHING on there is direct buy. No gamble packs or RNG. You get exactly what you pay for, and the prices are--in my opinion--quite reasonable.)

Edited June 2, 2017 by AscendingSky

[Icykill_]

They did! The first version of FFXIV was a big flop full of terrible design decisions... and instead of just ignoring their playerbase and doubling down on the terrible design decisions like EAWare has liked to do in the past, Square Enix put someone new in charge of the game who outright APOLOGIZED for the poor quality of the game. Then they rebuilt the game from the ground up on an entirely new engine and released that as FFXIV: A Realm Reborn. People who had existing characters on the first version of the game got character data carried over and some perks (like a special tattoo on their toons) to mark them as legacy players. ARR is leagues and bounds better, and the game has been a huge success as a result.

 

Imagine that... listening to your player base's complaints and actually INVESTING in a game to make it better instead of slashing its budget and firing most of your employees working on it and trying to coerce more nickle and dime cash payments out of your customers can actually make your game a success instead of a failure? Who would've thunk it?

 

(Also: while FFXIV: ARR does have a cash shop, EVERYTHING on there is direct buy. No gamble packs or RNG. You get exactly what you pay for, and the prices are--in my opinion--quite reasonable.)

 

Thats pretty much what they need to do here. Even a small step backwards to a similar system to pre 5.0, instead of trying to fix it with bandaids while the patient is dying from massive haemorrhaging.

 

I love this game and it deserves so much better.

 

This is one of the biggest IPs on the planet. Imagine how much of a money maker it would be if it was handled correctly and not nickelled and dimed. This could have had the potential of another WoW type phenomenon. If they had only continued to pump money into it instead of taking it away. Especially because now Star Wars has had a rebirth with the new movies and this should be one of the Crown Jewels of the SW hype.

 

A few years ago (2013-14) there was an unsubstantiated rumour that apparently leaked out of Bioware. It was about plans for swtor 2.

The funny thing is that a lot of the content in that rumour has turned out to be true, except the actual swtor 2 part. (I've tried to find a link to the info, but it's disappeared into the internet ether.)

If I remember correctly they wanted to use a new engine that was 64bit and they wanted people who currently played swtor to be able to keep their characters and items. They were going to do this by porting over the legacy and to make the game fresh they were going to make it into the future. The idea was your character was somehow frozen in carbonate or some life/time preserving situation. When you woke up things would be different.

So all of that, except the new engine and the game being called swtor 2 has come true, it's possible the leak was about ideas for the future expansions we now have, but the leak seemed to have come from a pretty reliable source and they had a firm belief the game would be ported to a new engine.

If I was to speculate, I would say they did indeed have plans for a swtor 2 and porting it to a new engine, but EA pulled the plug and said "just" make it an expansion and reduce the content you want to add so we can save money.

[Deewe]

I'd be happy to lay down cash for an expansion if it meant we got a REAL expansion instead of a dozen cutscenes and a gaggle of boring trash mobs masquerading as an expansion.

All for a $50-$79 X-pack for sure!

[Deewe]

So by average you mean "only referencing WoW".

 

ESO has had three content drops that would qualify as an expac in three years - Orsinium, One Tamriel, Morrowind.

 

Now, please don't think I believe ESO is all sunshine and puppies, it isn't.

 

LOTRO has had 6, arguably more, in 10 years.

 

All The Best

Lotro... memories. Imagine if it had like 1/4 of the budget SWTOR had.