Discussion Topic: Discussion Topics!

[aethell]

I vote for the following suggestions made in this thread:

 

• How to improve the cartel market so we have incentive to support the game financially
  
• Story direction for the game.
  
• Player interest in paying for content expansions
  
• Companions. We miss them.
  

 

I surprised myself with CXP not being on this list. I think with the latest changes to CXP/ boss drops I am reasonably ok with the system finally, although it is super confusing due to fix upon fix, and it seems questionable how it survives future level increases, since adding more ranks is not the answer. But I'm more interested in the items above.

Edited July 14, 2017 by aethell

[Lunafox]

I would like to discuss the possibility of us getting more one on one conversations with our romanceable companions, and if we can get some adventures with them as part of the main story, or even as side adventures like we had in 1-50. I'd like to see the relationships evolve more, including wedding cutscenes between characters and their chosen companion, or even break up scenes where you can break it off and get with another companion, that sort of thing.

 

I suppose I'd just like to see more interaction with our romanced companions, and that includes the vanilla companions as well as the newer ones. Thanks.

[Ylliarus]

I think a worthy discussion topic would be what already is being discussed to some extent in this thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=926123

 

How would you like to see your original class story reflected in the future narrative?

 

As it stands now the Outlander/Commander is almost a tabula rasa with little to no depth and backstory. We get a few small references here and there but it is significantly underwhelming at the moment. While I am not talking about each class getting their own unique story (which was one of the best things about the original game pre-RoTHC) I would want to see a significant amount of class story flavour poured over the narrative, so that various moments will have a different meaning for mutliple classes. Now you can play the story 4 times in a row, for example Imp Dark side, Imp Light Side, Rep Light Side, Rep Dark Side + a different class with each playthrough and you still get a near identical playthrough. That was not the case with RotHC or with SoR. Especially with the latter you even got a class specific sidequest which was such a welcome thing. From what I see in the thread I linked earlier a lot of players agree with what I am talking about and feel the same, so it should in my opinion, be a topic discussed at further length in a discussion thread.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Ylliarus

[TinaLovesHan]

Companions

 

How to get back to the meaningful interactions we had with them in Chapters 1-3 (vanilla)

 

LIs with more in-depth conversations

 

Putting companions back onto our empty ships (maybe let us pick 5-10 or something from the list to put in our ships at a time, or better yet, let us interact with them in our strongholds (we could have a similar limit on "active" vs. hologram, but with the option to toggle at any time))

 

Episodic conversations similar to conversation unlocks through vanilla story progression. For example: have 1-4 new conversations for a block of companions available from each patch.

 

Let us talk back to our companions, don't use the style you've been using for alliance alerts. Our own characters' interactions are just as important as what our companions are saying. Our VAs are amazing and I want to hear them.

 

Add some new flavors to companion comments in the open world. Let them say new stuff, reference old missions, give us little tidbits on what they were doing for the five years and after that they were gone (depending on when they came back to us), new catchphrases (more innuendo from Kira )

 

Anything as listed above would be doable regardless of what BW has done or will do to bring them back. If the nature of the business going forward is to give us companions like Quinn and Elara back VERY perfunctorily and unsatisfactorily (to most people) through story, that's fine. But with the above ideas you could flesh them out by letting them back onto your ship, and they will have much more to say with each patch. More time to spend with our LIs outside of a couple sentences. Maybe allow for NEW love interests to happen. We're not birds, you know

 

We could hear from Vette/Torian about *that choice* and how they feel afterwards and how it affects them going forward.

 

We could hear more about how Vette and Gault came together, see interactions with Vette/Risha (when she comes back) and Quizen/Mako (when she comes back), etc.

 

We could hear what Ashara/Jaesa/Kira/Scourge/etc etc etc were doing while we were gone and how they came back to us through it all.

 

We could hear comments about what each companion thinks of our decisions through KOTFE/KOTET and going forward.

 

I see so many possibilities, and I'm short shrifting all the companions I didn't mention. Every companion you've given us is special to us for a plethora of reasons, and from outright hatred all the way to marriage and BFFs, our feelings run the gamut, and I believe there is incredibly rich grounds for engaging us again with the game through our companions.

 

And I didn't even mention the new companions, of course bring them in on it. I'd love to hear more about Veeroa Denz's background, as well as the others. They're just placeholders right now.

 

Finally, allow us to fire Theron and Lana for their lip service and incompetence in "finding" our companions for us, something we wanted from them since we woke up!

 

So much all of this. I want so much more from our companions and I do NOT more new ones introduced. I miss my original companions and how we were able to interact with them in the vanilla game.

 

I'd also add that I would like class story discussions to be had and flashpoints that fit into the current expansion/story of the time.

[VladThePada]

Maybe make a topic about old ranked season rewards? My idea is to bring all the rewards with a rename (like "Remnant Gladiatorial saber), a rarity change for the old rewards that were obtained in their original season to legendary so you can distinguish them from the new remnant items, a description change that it was obtained in s8, and that titles should remain unique. There are lots of players who would want them back, and it would be nice to hear their ideas aswell!

[ZionHalcyon]

Hey, in the Friction Point thread, Bret Hoffman let everyone know he was reading the posts. You are right that there hasn't been a back-and-forth discussion, but the team wanted to get everyone's feedback and formulate an action plan moving forward. Here's the message from Bret:

 

Keith, I think the point is people are looking for that back and forth discussion in order to feel heard.

[Dilemmas]

Discuss the free to play model, the re-implementation of passes, and/or the addition of something akin to the WoWToken.

[Kurj]

I would like to see a discussion of new WZ types, with a focus on mechanics that reduce the impact of gear and faction imbalance, increase the need for strategy, and may potentially motivate new players to *want* to play PVP. OPG is a good example of what I am thinking of. The random factors in that WZ make for exciting gameplay, while the cross-faction queue reduces the impact of faction imbalance.

 

I would also like to see a discussion of cosmetic PVP rewards for regs that would appeal to all types of players, as well as mechanics for their implementation.

[crobeast]

Maybe make a topic about old ranked season rewards? My idea is to bring all the rewards with a rename (like "Remnant Gladiatorial saber), a rarity change for the old rewards that were obtained in their original season to legendary so you can distinguish them from the new remnant items, a description change that it was obtained in s8, and that titles should remain unique. There are lots of players who would want them back, and it would be nice to hear their ideas aswell!

 

I agree on this, if development team won´t add new armors and weapons, I would at least like to see old furious sets and weapons for people who put effort into their ranked status.

Also gladiatorial weapons, they are cool.

I believe most of the old ranked players have left, only new remain. Would be nice for them to see old sets and armors from ranked because developers have put more than usual amount of effort into making those.

Edited July 14, 2017 by crobeast

[djhicks]

Maybe make a topic about old ranked season rewards? My idea is to bring all the rewards with a rename (like "Remnant Gladiatorial saber), a rarity change for the old rewards that were obtained in their original season to legendary so you can distinguish them from the new remnant items, a description change that it was obtained in s8, and that titles should remain unique. There are lots of players who would want them back, and it would be nice to hear their ideas aswell!

 

 

I completely agree. Old rewards would really encourage people to play ranked seasons and get the rewards they wished they could but were unable to gain! I would surely play more ranked if this idea got put into place and I'm sure it would be the same for the others.

Edited July 14, 2017 by djhicks

[Tisaren]

I would like to discuss the possibility of us getting more one on one conversations with our romanceable companions, and if we can get some adventures with them as part of the main story, or even as side adventures like we had in 1-50. I'd like to see the relationships evolve more, including wedding cutscenes between characters and their chosen companion, or even break up scenes where you can break it off and get with another companion, that sort of thing.

 

I suppose I'd just like to see more interaction with our romanced companions, and that includes the vanilla companions as well as the newer ones. Thanks.

^^^This, especially the vanilla companions.

[IntegrationArch]

Keith, I think the point is people are looking for that back and forth discussion in order to feel heard.

So true even to confirm what is not happening, what is possible in the future, and what is possible immediately. a normal interactive dialog, not just taking at someone. Conversations with us. Even explain what constraints Disney licensing and EA's buyout have impacted BW and how did we get here.

Edited July 14, 2017 by IntegrationArch

[Damask_Rose]

I would really like to see some serious discussion about the future of the story and how it will be told. The general tenor for the feedback I've seen is that a large chunk of the player base is unhappy with the stripping of our characters of their pasts and personalities to become one homogenized "Outlander". Similarly a large chunk of the player base is unhappy with the state of companions, be they returned and forgotten or still lost in space. More interaction is highly desired with all of them, especially the romance interests. We all know the game has severe financial constraints, so feedback from the devs on what is possible to aim for and what is completely out the window would be appreciated.

 

Another area I'd like to see discussed is itemization. Where are we on getting a hood toggle? Weapons in the appearance designer? A companion appearance designer? Could the class restrictions on armor be overlooked in the appearance designer? Is anything being looked at to bring cartel certificates back or to phase them out without screwing the people that still have them? Can we get older reputation & event vendors updated with new stuff? Can the vendors that were stripped of gear prior to 5.0 get restocked perhaps with the gear sets that were removed from flashpoints?

 

And finally, I think there needs to be further discussion about operations. I don't raid myself, but from what I'm reading on the forums, Reddit & Facebook, there is a lot of dissatisfaction with having the bosses spread out over time rather than released all at once. Would people prefer to wait longer for a complete operation? There are also a lot of requests to have raid passes brought back. It is presumed they were removed to push raiders into subing, but the continuing dwindling of the raider population suggests that backfired. What steps can or should be done to shore up the raiding community?

[BenduKundalini]

I would really like to see some serious discussion about the future of the story and how it will be told. The general tenor for the feedback I've seen is that a large chunk of the player base is unhappy with the stripping of our characters of their pasts and personalities to become one homogenized "Outlander". Similarly a large chunk of the player base is unhappy with the state of companions, be they returned and forgotten or still lost in space. More interaction is highly desired with all of them, especially the romance interests. We all know the game has severe financial constraints, so feedback from the devs on what is possible to aim for and what is completely out the window would be appreciated.

 

This.

 

I'd take a voiceless conversation any day of the week over a generic convo which is 50% like a passive movie...

 

Besides, out of the hundreds of existing Voice Acting, surely some can be recycled. "Your name... now!", that sort of thing.

[kopalame]

Server populations

Keith mentioned in the bad feeling podcast that you're planning on having a discussion topic on this before moving forward. So I'd like to see that happen as soon as possible. It would be nice to get some closure on what's going to happen.

 

Group PVE content difficulties

There's some extreme variations in the difficulties of PVE group content, and by that I mean within the same difficulty tier. For example MM uprisings, some bosses are a walk in the park, while others are being done with 2 healers just to stay alive. Or Veteran s&v you can have groups hitting enrage on last boss with 5 dps while having no issues with 4 dps on the rest. In the new ops there seem to be a big step up from story mode to veteran. There's many things like that, would be nice to talk about what people are interesting in and hearing from the devs on wether this is intended.

[DuchessKristania]

I would like reeturning companions to be a topic sometime. We don't nee dspecific spoilers, but it would be nice to know that there is a plan in place or being formed. Also, there seems to be a lot of dissatisfaction with how they've been returned thus far, and concern over how the remaining companions will come back.

 

I've also seen a lot of complaints about the companions after they return, and how they stop making comments on planets during gameplay, and don't return to the player's ship. I can't actually speak to this myself because my two favorites, Vector and Doc, have yet to return, but if that is the case it will be kind of sad when they finally do come back.

 

I know it is a topic a lot of players care about.

Edited July 14, 2017 by DuchessKristania

[zerglord]

I would like PVP arenas for 1v1

 

i know we have duel option but finding different and willing people to duel is not that easy.

-ranked and unranked mode or at least unranked.

-healers not allowed, because its pointless.

-tanks only against tanks

-DPS vs DPS

 

I would like to hear are others people interested in this or not.

Shouldn't be too hard to implement.

[Stellarcrusade]

TOPIC: How to improve conquest.

1.) Suggestions for new conquest weekly events.

- People could suggest new conquest weeks that would better incorporate our new features like CXP.

- I would love 1 or 2 conquest weeks that actually favor less active guilds. Not smaller, just less active. Something like point bonus averaged out based on number of average players online. Currently all conquest weeks favor big guilds but some are very good for big guilds, how about a couple very good for small guilds.

2.) How to better inform people about the conquest system, most people do not know anything about it and it takes too long to describe it to people.

- The new intro quest fails. A tutorial should be required to finish in order to finish that quest. That means adding a tutorial. People will have good ideas.

3.) How to better include small and less active guilds in conquest. Why should it only be a big guild feature.

[IntegrationArch]

FYI On your topic no 3 below, back in v 3.x SWTOR was discussing having the game build a tab view of coalitions of imp(s) & rep(s) guilds to fix this issue with the game showing you a federation super group directory model. Therefore when building a op run the leader could pull them in coalition chat. They would be more trusted than pugs, better geared and know mechanics etc. Then a means to post to the coalition an event schedule.

 

Never happened obviously.

Edited July 14, 2017 by IntegrationArch

[AlrikFassbauer]

Personally, I'd like to see Q&A Sessions in the forumm.

[IntegrationArch]

M a k e t h i s a s t i c k y

[Applejacxs]

Space PvE and its future in this game. It's not a pressing issue but I would think some of want to know the dev teams take on it.

[Sazigirl]

I think there are so many aspects of Strongholds, yet discussions are sometimes a mix of different SH related topics.

• Discussion: Decorations Variety -- Too few rugs? Lights? More couches? Fewer chairs?
  
• Discussion: Decorations Availability -- Credit and Rep vendors; Cartel Market decos.
  
• Discussions: Hook Layout and Placement -- what works, what doesn't, what's wanted and why.
  

 

As someone who has been playing since the game came out and spent 90% of the time role-playing and decorating themed strongholds for role-playing I second this. There are some things that I think aren't big but could really improve the QOL for SH decorating and make those of us that spend most of our time in the game focused on this happy and willing to spend more money on packs.

 

There are also some very big problems I see with the recently released Manaan SH that I haven't really encountered much in the other SHs so please let's do have a discussion on Strongholds and decorations!

 

Thank you

Edited July 14, 2017 by Sazigirl

[Corlan]

Our guild would like to see a discussion on guild quality of life improvements and the suggestions I mailed to Tait when he was around when he asked for direct feedback from all guild masters included:

 

 

 

• Guild officers or leader having the ability to email rank groups (officers) in the guild and the whole guild.
  
• Guild activity calendar in game to organise operations etc. (I know you are considering this)
  
• Guild in game notice board. To post information to members.
  
• The ability to see when someone joined, who joined them and get notified if someone leaves.
  
• More ranks available in the guild.
  
• More characters allowed in the space for the MOTD or an in game notice board.
  
• More characters in the member notes and the officer notes.
  
• Is it possible to make the guild ship more useful?
  
• Have operation instance access doors on the guild ship.
  
• A guild specific operation perhaps held on the guild ship eg invasion on the guild ship.
  
• ]Individual Crew Quarters on the guild ship that you can decorate.
  
• Perhaps operations where you can get guild ship specific items.
  
• New races available to those who are part of a guild?
  
• Guild heraldry/colours.
  
• Guild CXP Bonus.
  
• Guild crafting bonus.
  

 

That was all thanks.

 

Corlan

Edited July 14, 2017 by Corlan

[pottymouth]

I would like to have the option to re-play all the original story and quests in hard mode of course!