An Ode to 3.0, the Last True Swtor Expansion...

[BorisKarloffe]

As we stand on the precipice of...waiting for....more waiting or nothing at all, Friends...Gamers...lend me your ears, and I shall tell you a tale....

 

Of a time in the year of our Lord two thousand and fourteen...on the first of December when the glorious 3.0 expansion was released out in the Wild, allowing us to first partake of its marvels.

 

Few can now recall a time when there was no Demon of Galactic Command, sucking our souls and fingertips out through the constant torture of repetition, but oh there was.

 

Few can recall a time when a full Operation was released, much less TWO of them, ready to play. Such a thing has not been heard of in so long. They are so endangered, some speculate they may already be extinct. There have only been a few whispers of sightings in the Wild.

 

We saw new planets, new flashpoints, new dailies, new enemies, new utilities and abilities.....the riches practically didn't stop!

 

There are some wizened older ones still among us who remember that time when our characters were still important, forging their destinies alongside friends and loved ones they had bonded with through vast adventures across a diverse Galaxy of Planets and Events.

 

The Rookies and younglings these days know only of Clone companions, and plot caboose characters called the "Outlander", eagerly awaiting their next chance to be betrayed by anyone and everyone so that someone else can have a cutscene.

 

It was in 3.0 when we were given our last taste of our own selves and choices in a cutscene with companions before Rishi, and then a full fledged side quest Mission that acknowledged our characters and their pasts. Much like a delicious morsel from a tray of samples at a grocer, it was delicious, if short, and everyone looks at you like a fool for wanting to grab another off the tray.

 

Not everything was so glorious, initially.

 

The Rishi Meat Tree grumpily refused its services to players. Revan could not be beaten. Cora was too generous with her loot. Filthy Peasants took advantage. We do not speak of them.

 

We did not all appreciate the grandeur of 3.0. We did not like Revan playing the role of Gollum...until we saw him in his new role as "Tool of the Emperor". Gollum didn't seem so bad, then. We didn't like being pushed into one plot line with only a side class mission, until everything in the game became one plot line. We didn't like not having alone time with our companions...until our companions got taken from us and our characters developed amnesia about them.

 

Hearken ye back to a time when Bioware had marquee characters of their own making that people flocked to the game to see like Revan, Satele Shan, and Darth Marr, who were all alive and acting somewhat logically at least!

 

Oh for the days when it took an ancient temple built into Yavin IV to even think about raising an Immortal Emperor! Such was an Emperor to be feared, not the ones slain by secret datacrons, vague mind powers, and special pew pew guns.

 

Remember those days of yore, and consider, whether such was not the pinnacle of Swtor Expansions!

[BlackSilverRoar]

As we stand on the precipice of...waiting for....more waiting or nothing at all, Friends...Gamers...lend me your ears, and I shall tell you a tale....

 

Of a time in the year of our Lord two thousand and fourteen...on the first of December when the glorious 3.0 expansion was released out in the Wild, allowing us to first partake of its marvels.

 

Few can now recall a time when there was no Demon of Galactic Command, sucking our souls and fingertips out through the constant torture of repetition, but oh there was.

 

Few can recall a time when a full Operation was released, much less TWO of them, ready to play. Such a thing has not been heard of in so long. They are so endangered, some speculate they may already be extinct. There have only been a few whispers of sightings in the Wild.

 

We saw new planets, new flashpoints, new dailies, new enemies, new utilities and abilities.....the riches practically didn't stop!

 

There are some wizened older ones still among us who remember that time when our characters were still important, forging their destinies alongside friends and loved ones they had bonded with through vast adventures across a diverse Galaxy of Planets and Events.

 

The Rookies and younglings these days know only of Clone companions, and plot caboose characters called the "Outlander", eagerly awaiting their next chance to be betrayed by anyone and everyone so that someone else can have a cutscene.

 

It was in 3.0 when we were given our last taste of our own selves and choices in a cutscene with companions before Rishi, and then a full fledged side quest Mission that acknowledged our characters and their pasts. Much like a delicious morsel from a tray of samples at a grocer, it was delicious, if short, and everyone looks at you like a fool for wanting to grab another off the tray.

 

Not everything was so glorious, initially.

 

The Rishi Meat Tree grumpily refused its services to players. Revan could not be beaten. Cora was too generous with her loot. Filthy Peasants took advantage. We do not speak of them.

 

We did not all appreciate the grandeur of 3.0. We did not like Revan playing the role of Gollum...until we saw him in his new role as "Tool of the Emperor". Gollum didn't seem so bad, then. We didn't like being pushed into one plot line with only a side class mission, until everything in the game became one plot line. We didn't like not having alone time with our companions...until our companions got taken from us and our characters developed amnesia about them.

 

Hearken ye back to a time when Bioware had marquee characters of their own making that people flocked to the game to see like Revan, Satele Shan, and Darth Marr, who were all alive and acting somewhat logically at least!

 

Oh for the days when it took an ancient temple built into Yavin IV to even think about raising an Immortal Emperor! Such was an Emperor to be feared, not the ones slain by secret datacrons, vague mind powers, and special pew pew guns.

 

Remember those days of yore, and consider, whether such was not the pinnacle of Swtor Expansions!

^Pretty much sums it up

[JattaGin]

I 'member.

[Kingsbount]

Yeah. I remember the times, when tanks couldn't be replaced with some overgeared dps...

Brings a tear to my eye...

[DarthSpuds]

I 'member.

 

I 'member too.

 

All The Best

[grania]

That was depressing, especially

 

The Rookies and younglings these days know only of Clone companions, and plot caboose characters called the "Outlander", eagerly awaiting their next chance to be betrayed by anyone and everyone so that someone else can have a cutscene.

 

and

 

We didn't like not having alone time with our companions...until our companions got taken from us and our characters developed amnesia about them.

 

To think I left originally because the hutt cartel expansion wasn't good enough for me, uhggg

Edited September 19, 2017 by grania

[Andryah]

Do you also remember all the issues with 3.0 and the studios slow response to addressing them? Because as expacs go.. from a quality and attention to detail standpoint.... 3.0 was their worst expac. It also propagated a number of serious exploits that were in the live servers for many weeks before being addressed.

 

I do agree that 3.0 was a more full bodied expac in terms of range of content....

 

......but people seem to forget the terribad way the studio was slow to address exploits, bugs, and the way they flip flopped big time on things like that pesky old cartel slot machine that dropped junk, certs, etc.

 

2.0 was the only really well done expac since launch in my view. That said.. I still enjoyed most of what has been offered in the form of expacs for SWTOR.... but I did take a break a few months after 3.0 because the studio was being just incredibly inept at dealing with a range of issues in 3.0.

Edited September 19, 2017 by Andryah

[TUXs]

As great as 3.0 was, it also killed casual raiding. ToS and Rav were the only 2 Ops worth doing (prior to level sync), but they were tuned for FAR better than average players, and the lack of refining them, helped kill raiding as much as 4.0 and 5.0 did.

 

Bioware should have known then that they were listening to the wrong people...

[bdatt]

Do you also remember all the issues with 3.0 and the studios slow response to addressing them? Because as expacs go.. from a quality and attention to detail standpoint.... 3.0 was their worst expac. It also propagated a number of serious exploits that were in the live servers for many weeks before being addressed.

 

I do agree that 3.0 was a more full bodied expac in terms of range of content....

 

......but people seem to forget the terribad way the studio was slow to address exploits, bugs, and the way they flip flopped big time on things like that pesky old cartel slot machine that dropped junk, certs, etc.

 

2.0 was the only really well done expac since launch in my view. That said.. I still enjoyed most of what has been offered in the form of expacs for SWTOR.... but I did take a break a few months after 3.0 because the studio was being just incredibly inept at dealing with a range of issues in 3.0.

 

I don't think anyone has forgotten about all the randoms with like 8% Ops achievements running around with 198 set bonus chest pieces and 16M HM Coratanni cheevos. And agree 2.0 was the peak. 3.0 could have been even better had they not thrown in the towel on MMO content in favor of single-player instances in an MMO engine on a subscription model.

[MasterRev]

Thanks for the post!

ah, the good old days....

let's not leave out 2.0 when SNV was just a newborn.

How I miss those days

[Tsillah]

2.0 was arguably better than 3.0 but the op is right that 3.0 is the last expansion that is worth calling an expansion. It certainly had issues, but it was a proper expansion in SWTOR terms.

 

Both 4.0 and 5.0 got less and less content, aside from story which people are very divided over as it is. With 4.0 we got the new age of recycling old content and 5.0 additionally gave us the expansion of badly executed ideas that could've been good.

 

So yeah, with all of its problems, 3.0 was still more of an expansion than what followed. I kinda hope that 6.0 will be a return to sense and I even don't mind if we don't see it launch this year anymore.

 

I really want them to fix some issues with existing content like GSF, SH Decorating, Conquest, FPs and Uprisings alike and clean up the mess that is Galactic Command. This all really should get some help along with bringing out new stuff in my view.

 

So yeah, it'd be nice if 6.0 was a step up again from 5.0 and not another step down.

[BorisKarloffe]

Do you also remember all the issues with 3.0 and the studios slow response to addressing them? Because as expacs go.. from a quality and attention to detail standpoint.... 3.0 was their worst expac. It also propagated a number of serious exploits that were in the live servers for many weeks before being addressed.

 

I do agree that 3.0 was a more full bodied expac in terms of range of content....

 

......but people seem to forget the terribad way the studio was slow to address exploits, bugs, and the way they flip flopped big time on things like that pesky old cartel slot machine that dropped junk, certs, etc.

 

2.0 was the only really well done expac since launch in my view. That said.. I still enjoyed most of what has been offered in the form of expacs for SWTOR.... but I did take a break a few months after 3.0 because the studio was being just incredibly inept at dealing with a range of issues in 3.0.

 

I did mention that not all was glorious initially and some of the reasons why.

 

As far as the Studio having poor QA practices, not punishing cheaters for months, listening to the wrong people, letting credit exploits into the game, and making bad decisions with CM items,....well, it's kind of been that way for awhile now, not just 3.0.

[FerkWork]

For all the schenagians and blunders of 3.0 at least there was 2 full raids. And more people did play then.

[SolarSaenz]

So yeah, it'd be nice if 6.0 was a step up again from 5.0 and not another step down.

 

5.0 is about as low as it goes in terms of quality of and quantity of content.. A game studio would have to intentionally try really hard to make an expansion worse than 5.0.

 

How could any expansion be a step down from 5.0? BW/EA better not answer that question.

[Tsillah]

5.0 is about as low as it goes in terms of quality of and quantity of content.. A game studio would have to intentionally try really hard to make an expansion worse than 5.0.

 

How could any expansion be a step down from 5.0? BW/EA better not answer that question.

 

Yeah, don't ask questions unless you want the answer.

[Storm-Cutter]

" Your fire has truly gone out of the galaxy. "

[RandomNobody]

Ah, the good old days of 3.0. It had serious problems (and the only thing they rushed to fix were those credit boxes on Rishi, I think?), but it was the last expansion that felt like old SWTOR... before the dark times, before KotFE.

 

What I especially miss about 3.0 were the class missions. Remember those, when the eight player classes had those supporting characters that called them by their own class title (Smuggler, Jedi, Agent) rather than just "Outlander"? That was the last gasp of the original class stories. Now we barely get five minutes of unique lines (less sometimes actually) if an old companion shows up. "Hey, its you! Was wondering where you went for five years. Now, back to Zakuul."

 

The era of 2.0 was probably higher quality (when new ops and strongholds were added), but I still (mostly) fondly remember 3.0.

 

4.0 was mediocre at best, and 5.0 was just bad. I hope they don't rush out 6.0, as I doubt it would turn out good, but after this month I'm going back to unsubbed, 5.0 definitely isn't worth keeping this account active.

[stalkerofthesith]

2.0 was arguably better than 3.0 but the op is right that 3.0 is the last expansion that is worth calling an expansion. It certainly had issues, but it was a proper expansion in SWTOR terms.

 

Both 4.0 and 5.0 got less and less content, aside from story which people are very divided over as it is. With 4.0 we got the new age of recycling old content and 5.0 additionally gave us the expansion of badly executed ideas that could've been good.

 

So yeah, with all of its problems, 3.0 was still more of an expansion than what followed. I kinda hope that 6.0 will be a return to sense and I even don't mind if we don't see it launch this year anymore.

 

I really want them to fix some issues with existing content like GSF, SH Decorating, Conquest, FPs and Uprisings alike and clean up the mess that is Galactic Command. This all really should get some help along with bringing out new stuff in my view.

 

So yeah, it'd be nice if 6.0 was a step up again from 5.0 and not another step down.

 

COMPLETELY agree. I remember purchasing my subscription again after a few months break and was extremely excited for 2.0. Makeb story, Oricon, the new ops, we still had PvP gear, good stuff. 3.0 was almost equally great IMO, but 4.0 and 5.0 was the downward trend. I completely agree though where you said you hope that 6.0 will be a return to sense. Yes, they need to make SWTOR great again with this expansion and take extra time to make it happen. Not rush it. Hoping that buy sometime early next year we'll get what we've all been hoping for.

[MikeCobalt]

I do remember the game at that time. It was fun and definitely "Star Wars". Those truly were "Expansions" they expanded on the game adding a new Adventure everytime; what we're getting now are Snippets tacked onto the backside of the Zakuul story. SWTOR was very Rich then, Interesting stories, Various companions with their unique personalities and our choices that dictated the story.

[jedimasterkyle__]

I miss these days so much, I remember this time tdue to all the experienced players still playing at that time like me.... I fought the hateful entity 22 times during this patch (didnt win but whatevs) and killed dreadful entity, Participated in many many NIM runs (and deco loot was worth it at da time) AND HAD FUN! it didnt feel like i was GRINDING stories but rather pretending I was the character....I wish swtor fixes what they become, grindy rushed content, with new players that dont know the game well trying to explain something COMPLETELY wrong to a new player,,,,,then I HAVE to reexplain it correctly....(ops are what i refering to) a vicious cycle..... 3.0 was the BEST EXPANSION thus far in my personal opinion,,,,,,more then 95% of people i known back then are gone now sadly I remember the good ol days,......

[xordevoreaux]

If I remember right, 3.0 made sorcs FOTM and ticked off the PVPr's because lightning storm snared for 6 seconds.

I wouldn't worship 3.0. A lot of good things came after it, like hot and sexy Theron, so no, not longing for the days of old code.

[menofhorror]

Ah yes, I remember the time when there was a proper balance between story and MMO content and the game didn't try to simulate Telltale.

 

I remember when there was tension between the republic and the empire, when characters like Satele and Marr where proud leaders of their faction and didn't smoke too much weed in the woods of Odessen.

I remember when our characters were still adressed propely and we weren't all the faceless outlander. I remember when we had actual zones with reputation and DECENT rewards.

 

Though honestly, the story's quality dropped immensely with Forged ALliances. So many conveniences and rushed plot points. Lana and Theron working together should have been treated like a big thing, a SIS agent working together with a sith lord? This should be a *** moment but we don't even get to know how they both even met. Revan working with some lowly pirates was dumb. Revan trying to divert the attention of republic and the empire on Rishi was dumb because there was no need to do that in the first place. Revan could have just gone to Yavin and execute his plan and neither the republic nor the empire would have found out.

 

Also the end reveal of there being actual two Revan's was really bad, like worse than most plot points in Fallen Empire. Also who can forget the bugs and ability delays there were left over a month.

 

There were some good times but also bad times. Sadly the good has diminished to a small drop while the bad has taken over most updates since 4.0.

[KendraP]

Yeah. I remember the times, when tanks couldn't be replaced with some overgeared dps...

Brings a tear to my eye...

 

LOL as a guardian tank .main I'm seriously laughing now. You're right. Provided yoiu have a decent healer (mines a god) you can face tank in dps spec. I do it on my mostly-246 guardian in vigi all the time.

[DanNV]

Nice post. 3.0 was better than 4.0 and 4.0 was better than 5.0 but 2.0 surpassed them all.

 

Unfortunately, they'll never get back to those days, so other games now benefit as SWTOR players look for greener pastures and dev teams with a clue. It's sad, but it is how it is.

[kukumburr]

3.0 was pretty good. I also liked 4.0 and 5.0 though.

 

2.0 was a MASSIVE disappointment to me. Makeb was mediocre at best and I think it's funny that people get upset about losing companions in 4.0 but 2.0 was the expansion where they truly died. If anything 4.0 actually gave them a little bit of life again (obviously some more than others). I remember before it came out getting excited about how the class stories were going to continue and instead all I got was a planet story and your companions had no relevance whatsoever.

 

And then there was Oricon that let you do the planet storyline solo until the very end where now you had to find a raid group to go and see the conclusion. I don't think I ended up finishing that until sometime in 4.0.

 

Not to mention the death of 8v8 ranked warzones in 2.4.

 

So yeah I get the love for 3.0 for the most part but I think 2.0 was the worst expansion.