Livestream - 3/13 @ 2PM PT

[JattaGin]

I don't know why I even bother to post... Two comments:

 

1. To the ones who claim the stream was underwhelming: I'm not sure what you mean. They have talked and shown everything they got. The stream was spot-on. Don't complain about the stream. The issue is BEHIND the stream. If you would stop denying that and instead open your eyes, things get clear pretty quickly. You want that they tell you what is to come? They did. What, they didn't say anything specific? Exactly. What more does have to happen before you get it? They are not even overly subtle in showing that there is nothing to show.

 

2. For the devs and producers, I have one question: Who is the target group for this new OP-boss?

 

If even the most dedicated, hardcore, min-maxed premade raiders on the PTS aren't able to down this beast, then who exactly will ever (want to) be able to do that without a nerf? I fail to see the benefit of this update. I even lower my guess. Not 1% will be doing it. 0,001%. The idea for this boss is great and in theory having a murderous boss like that is a massive challenge that can be intriguing to some.

 

But (an exaggerated) 99% of the players (on this forum; let's not argue whether this is an indication or not; the Twitter looks similar anyway) discuss about mouth movements of companions and meaningful romances with villains. I just don't see how spending a whole year of resources on developing a super hardcore raid was a good business idea.

 

My suggestion: Make a story mode version of this operation in which you cannot die. Mechanics remain the same, but the damage is as low as in, let's say, the second boss in the Umbara FP storymode (almost 0). Also, add a buff that adds HP every 3 seconds or so. I guarantee that THIS will make players play Izax. That would be content delivery for the main Swtor target group in 2018. I don't mean that badly. That's just the type of players playing this game these days. Even I play this game like this nowadays. And others won't come back. A hardcore raider who left the game before doesn't have the gear needed for this OP. Who thinks that (s)he will grind to command level 300 and then some? Highly unlikely. Without an easy-peasy storymode, Izax will get dusty very quickly. Or rusty. Or both.

 

Sigh. Why do I even bother. BW knows that themselves or they don't care. Doesn't matter.

 

I just feel utterly disappointed about this game by now. I should make a Disqus account and start posting on Dulfy's. I think that's where I belong now.

[DuchessKristania]

Bit of a wall of text coming in to share my thoughts, apologies in advance for the read.

 

I'm a little disappointed with the streams of late. There seems to be so much "This is coming but we can't tell you more than that!". In fact, the majority of the stream consists of "We can't say" when personally, I tune in to hear about those things that cannot be said yet. I tune in with the hope we'll finally get some really wonderful news or at the very least some decent and good questions and concerns answered.

 

 

I'm not going to quote your entire response because it's been quoted repeatedly, and for good reason. You beautifully articulated how I think many of us feel about this and other recent streams. The playbase wants to get excited again. We want to LOVE the new content. We want to jump in head first and enjoy it. The complaints, criticisms, and despair are not because people hate SWTOR, it's because we love the game and want to feel enthusiastic about it.

 

I think at this point most people realize that resources and developers are getting eaten up by Anthem, but there are so many little things that could be done to greatly improve the current mood of players. Maybe the team should consider doing some polls on some of the requests players have been making. Then work on the one that receives the most votes. You could do this once a month, or one poll for every patch. Not many people expect the moon from the team right now, we'd be happy with a few little twinkling stars.

[Darevsool]

I watched expecting to hear what the changes to conquest were going to be. Not just the broad strokes, which we got via the forum, but specific details.

Which activities were going to be worth how many points.

Which planets were going to be paired with a specific difficulty level.

Any of the other questions that have been popping up in the forums in the last two weeks about conquest.

 

Instead we got "nifty new GUI"

"Separate Tabs for personal/guild"

 

and the aforementioned "I won't go into the specific details..."

 

We WANT the specific details.

And with the conquest changes, they come out, supposedly, next week. The livestream would have been a great spot to go over at least SOME of the details.

[MrJunay]

I see that there is nothing of interest for solo players. I will wait for information about the new FP.

[KendraP]

I watched expecting to hear what the changes to conquest were going to be. Not just the broad strokes, which we got via the forum, but specific details.

Which activities were going to be worth how many points.

Which planets were going to be paired with a specific difficulty level.

Any of the other questions that have been popping up in the forums in the last two weeks about conquest.

 

Instead we got "nifty new GUI"

"Separate Tabs for personal/guild"

 

and the aforementioned "I won't go into the specific details..."

 

We WANT the specific details.

And with the conquest changes, they come out, supposedly, next week. The livestream would have been a great spot to go over at least SOME of the details.

 

I just hope they do a better job explaining how they're going to "fix" skanking in 5.9. If they go over as little as they did for conquest changes before it goes live I'm not going ro be happy.

[MishaCantu]

I don't know why I even bother to post... Two comments:

 

1. To the ones who claim the stream was underwhelming: I'm not sure what you mean. They have talked and shown everything they got. The stream was spot-on. Don't complain about the stream. The issue is BEHIND the stream. If you would stop denying that and instead open your eyes, things get clear pretty quickly. You want that they tell you what is to come? They did. What, they didn't say anything specific? Exactly. What more does have to happen before you get it? They are not even overly subtle in showing that there is nothing to show.

 

2. For the devs and producers, I have one question: Who is the target group for this new OP-boss?

 

If even the most dedicated, hardcore, min-maxed premade raiders on the PTS aren't able to down this beast, then who exactly will ever (want to) be able to do that without a nerf? I fail to see the benefit of this update. I even lower my guess. Not 1% will be doing it. 0,001%. The idea for this boss is great and in theory having a murderous boss like that is a massive challenge that can be intriguing to some.

 

But (an exaggerated) 99% of the players (on this forum; let's not argue whether this is an indication or not; the Twitter looks similar anyway) discuss about mouth movements of companions and meaningful romances with villains. I just don't see how spending a whole year of resources on developing a super hardcore raid was a good business idea.

 

My suggestion: Make a story mode version of this operation in which you cannot die. Mechanics remain the same, but the damage is as low as in, let's say, the second boss in the Umbara FP storymode (almost 0). Also, add a buff that adds HP every 3 seconds or so. I guarantee that THIS will make players play Izax. That would be content delivery for the main Swtor target group in 2018. I don't mean that badly. That's just the type of players playing this game these days. Even I play this game like this nowadays. And others won't come back. A hardcore raider who left the game before doesn't have the gear needed for this OP. Who thinks that (s)he will grind to command level 300 and then some? Highly unlikely. Without an easy-peasy storymode, Izax will get dusty very quickly. Or rusty. Or both.

 

Sigh. Why do I even bother. BW knows that themselves or they don't care. Doesn't matter.

 

I just feel utterly disappointed about this game by now. I should make a Disqus account and start posting on Dulfy's. I think that's where I belong now.

 

This is very well said. The only reason I found the Livestream underwhelming is that it came off more as a meeting at a frat house rather than anything informative, a few inside jokes, giggle-giggle, guess we're done. But you are correct in that there really is nothing new to report, so expectations should have been low from the beginning.

 

I also heartily agree about a boss that so few, if any, will ever defeat. It almost seems that Keith and crew have drunk deeply of that Kool-Aid that EVERYONE wants challenging, impossible content. You are correct that the indicators point more toward other interests and wishful thinking by the Dev team is not going to make that reality anything else.

 

I've never quite understood why MMO companies waste time and resources on content that so few people will ever see. A new PVP map would see more traffic, and, of course, the other story stuff as well. You would think that an MMO would create modes of play that everyone can enjoy, and not have their work shuffled off to a dusty corner. A true story mode would be more inclusive than an OP that only a few will ever attempt.

 

Perhaps BW does not know the demographics of their game as well as they think they do and listening only to a select few is not going to change anything.

[Jedi_riches]

2. For the devs and producers, I have one question: Who is the target group for this new OP-boss?

 

If even the most dedicated, hardcore, min-maxed premade raiders on the PTS aren't able to down this beast, then who exactly will ever (want to) be able to do that without a nerf? I fail to see the benefit of this update. I even lower my guess. Not 1% will be doing it. 0,001%. The idea for this boss is great and in theory having a murderous boss like that is a massive challenge that can be intriguing to some.

 

But (an exaggerated) 99% of the players (on this forum; let's not argue whether this is an indication or not; the Twitter looks similar anyway) discuss about mouth movements of companions and meaningful romances with villains. I just don't see how spending a whole year of resources on developing a super hardcore raid was a good business idea.

 

Honestly, this is the same as I have felt since I first heard that they were making it he last boss nim quality, I know some players do relish the challenge but given the dev team is obviously light on the ground I think it's a monumental waste of resources for something so few will achieve let alone try out.

[dipstik]

just wanted to say how much i appreciated matt being there. im a numbers guy, and he had numbers at the ready. I would love a nerdy stream with combat lead and op design lead, and maybe a pvp person (or just eric lol), just talking about numbers and rotation and odd things they have noticed in the field. or a stream with the analytics people, since it is often argued about if there are more pvp or pve centric, when people get on, what they buy, how that info is used... nerdy stuff like that.

 

anyway... moar matt.

Edited March 14, 2018 by dipstik

[Lium]

I don't know why I even bother to post... Two comments:

 

1. To the ones who claim the stream was underwhelming: I'm not sure what you mean. They have talked and shown everything they got. The stream was spot-on. Don't complain about the stream. The issue is BEHIND the stream. If you would stop denying that and instead open your eyes, things get clear pretty quickly. You want that they tell you what is to come? They did. What, they didn't say anything specific? Exactly. What more does have to happen before you get it? They are not even overly subtle in showing that there is nothing to show.

 

2. For the devs and producers, I have one question: Who is the target group for this new OP-boss?

 

If even the most dedicated, hardcore, min-maxed premade raiders on the PTS aren't able to down this beast, then who exactly will ever (want to) be able to do that without a nerf? I fail to see the benefit of this update. I even lower my guess. Not 1% will be doing it. 0,001%. The idea for this boss is great and in theory having a murderous boss like that is a massive challenge that can be intriguing to some.

 

But (an exaggerated) 99% of the players (on this forum; let's not argue whether this is an indication or not; the Twitter looks similar anyway) discuss about mouth movements of companions and meaningful romances with villains. I just don't see how spending a whole year of resources on developing a super hardcore raid was a good business idea.

 

My suggestion: Make a story mode version of this operation in which you cannot die. Mechanics remain the same, but the damage is as low as in, let's say, the second boss in the Umbara FP storymode (almost 0). Also, add a buff that adds HP every 3 seconds or so. I guarantee that THIS will make players play Izax. That would be content delivery for the main Swtor target group in 2018. I don't mean that badly. That's just the type of players playing this game these days. Even I play this game like this nowadays. And others won't come back. A hardcore raider who left the game before doesn't have the gear needed for this OP. Who thinks that (s)he will grind to command level 300 and then some? Highly unlikely. Without an easy-peasy storymode, Izax will get dusty very quickly. Or rusty. Or both.

 

Sigh. Why do I even bother. BW knows that themselves or they don't care. Doesn't matter.

 

I just feel utterly disappointed about this game by now. I should make a Disqus account and start posting on Dulfy's. I think that's where I belong now.

This is spot-on for me.

 

1) Players need to tamp down their expectations. It has been said repeatedly they have a limited staff right now. Everything in the company is going towards Anthem.

 

2) I've been making this point for a while now. The majority of this playerbase doesn't even like to group up to do flashpoints, let alone an ops. Remember the Darth Hexid promotion? The requirement was to run three flashpoints or warzones on any difficulty through the group finder in order to get her. You would have thought BW said to run every single ops on nightmare mode, or have a 2k+ group rating in ranked warzones because of the amount of protest you saw on the forums.

 

Everyone has been playing solo since around SOR. So, yeah, not sure who this ops boss is actually for.

[DarthSpuds]

But (an exaggerated) 99% of the players (on this forum; let's not argue whether this is an indication or not; the Twitter looks similar anyway) discuss about mouth movements of companions and meaningful romances with villains. I just don't see how spending a whole year of resources on developing a super hardcore raid was a good business idea..

 

Because Keith likes Ops, so we get Ops.

Ben liked "exciting RNG", so that was all we got under his lead.

 

If Bioware has just spent the best part of a year developing content that less than 10% of the playerbase will ever engage with then everyone at Bioware, and whoever green-lit it at EA, deserves to be fired.

 

I know KotFE/ET was a massive content drought to Ops Players and PvP, and we lost a lot of those types of player because of it.

 

But to repeat the mistake and give the Story and Social players a content drought is stupid beyond belief, because they make up the majority of the players that are left.

 

In each and every content drop there should be "something for everyone".

Because THAT is the only way to retain the interests of all types of players.

 

During a week where I am really enjoying SWTOR I can play 20-30 hours a week; even given some significant gaps in my play I would estimate that my average Hours/Week playtime since the game was launched is close to 15-18 hours a week.

 

I have NEVER once done an Op.

I've done less than 100 Flashpoints.

 

Story progression, and Strongholds are my passion in this game. Now, OK, there's been some Post Story content over the last couple of years - most of it rubbish - and I haven't touched any of the post Fallen Empire "story" content because I don't consider 5 mins of "story" in 50 mins of grinding trash in a mono-rail flashpoint to actually be genuine Story Content.

 

There's hasn't been an even close to half decent designed Stronghold since Yavin. Manaan is laughable, and Umbara is appalling.

 

Whatever content is being planned needs to a) engage as many players as possible and b) be a lot better quality than we have seen for the last 20 months.

 

I don't see how a badly balanced Op that maybe 5% of players will ever see meets that requirement.

 

 

All The Best

Edited March 14, 2018 by DarthSpuds

[casirabit]

Bit of a wall of text coming in to share my thoughts, apologies in advance for the read.

 

I'm a little disappointed with the streams of late. There seems to be so much "This is coming but we can't tell you more than that!". In fact, the majority of the stream consists of "We can't say" when personally, I tune in to hear about those things that cannot be said yet. I tune in with the hope we'll finally get some really wonderful news or at the very least some decent and good questions and concerns answered.

 

Take Vector and Ashara--they were discussed yes, to the extent of "They're coming back but we won't spoil more than that!" which, okay, fair but we already knew that. I didn't need to watch the Livestream for that.

 

I don't care about Charles' beard, no offense. I don't care about anyone's obsession with Eric and Kai Zykken which is a running gag that got old over a year ago. Again, no offense but that's not what I tune in for. Jokes and funning are fine and well, I love a good chuckle, but there's a place and time for it and it shouldn't become a constant overshadowing aspect to having an informative and well-organized stream.

 

Try and have a look at the streams Ion Hazzikostas and Josh Allen do for Warcraft, their Q&A's. Yes, I'm aware, it's a different game and a different company but that doesn't mean their good example couldn't or shouldn't be followed. No, they're not perfect and flawless either but those streams are a whole lot more informative and at times even humbling when it comes to discussing implemented changes/new features that didn't pan out quite as well as they'd hoped.

 

I feel revived after watching those streams, I feel player questions and concerns are answered, that the community is being heard. But after watching a SWTOR stream? I rarely feel I learned anything new I didn't already know, I feel frustrated that certain things are not being addressed, I hate seeing so many questions posed in chat and only the simplest, usually unrelated, ones get cherry-picked to answer. Which I understand, you want to control the narrative and you don't want to cross any lines discussing subjects any higher-ups may not want discussed yet but I hope you can understand how frustrating that becomes for people who are literally thirsting for genuine good news, something to be excited about, something to go ga-ga over for the next weeks/months until it's implemented.

 

Thing is, I want to feel like this game and its state matters to you guys. That our concerns, our questions, our feedback, that the community matters to you guys. In the recent months, the overall vibe (at least as I've experienced within my circles) toward this game hasn't been good. I'm not even talking about throwaway blog/article posts but vocal dissent and disappointment on the forums, on other social media, in-game itself when talking to players, even when I hear SWTOR discussed in other games/platforms. That is not the time to sit around for thirty minutes of lols and giggles on a stream, which only further fans frustration because that makes it feel you don't even care or think it's all just a laughing matter. It's the time to get real for once.

 

I'm not hating. I do hope, and in ways believe, you guys are doing the best you can, I try to hold on to that even when disappointment sets in but I also feel criticism is needed at times when there's room for improvement. I get it may not be as simple as that, there may be other factors at play that we're unaware of but I would really like to see a proper, good, even semi-serious stream again.

 

Answer questions, even the hard ones. Get real with the player base, down to earth, cop to bad decisions if there were any rather than speak of them as treasures, give us something tangible, something good. Something that's actually news to leave us with the feeling afterward of "Oh my God that was so cool, wow, I'm so excited I can't wait until this goes live!". I personally love that feeling and in the past year, I've unfortunately not really experienced it. Which is said out of love and passion for the game, not out of hatred toward the Dev team and company.

 

And, as a side note, perhaps for once drive your attention toward the players who are NOT avid podcasters, Youtubers, Livestreamers and whatever special title you hold for a couple of those folks. No disrespect to them, of course, but every other player is just as valid. The questions from those other players deserve answers as much as those of some podcaster do--be it here on the forums, on Reddit or during a stream. Be more inclusive. Heck, if you want to share the awesomeness of your playerbase, perhaps step out to Deviantart for once and pick a bunch of art at random to showcast, give those people some love as well. Fan-orientated tumblrs about companions, story aspects, the game itself. Those guys, and us, we're fans too even if we've chosen not to, or can't, podcast/livestream/youtube the game at every turn. Your community is bigger than the Ops teams and streamers.

 

Sorry for the wall of text, just some things I needed to get off my chest because they bothered me and I do want to see more and better. I love this game, of course I appreciate every grain of communication we do happen to get but that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement either.

 

I agree with this.

[kukumburr]

Eh I'm not an ops person but I think it's fine that they're spending some time making a new one. I don't like the argument that just because a small percentage of players do that content that they shouldn't waste time making stuff for them. You could use the same argument for that being the reason Arcann shouldn't be a LI, ranked PvP should be left untouched (it needs some love!!), etc. I've also seen that argument used for a lot of BioWare games as for why there should be less romance options for female players or why there doesn't need to be a playable female character. Since there are fewer female players they should spend less time making content for them right?

 

But some ops player might be the most loyal subscriber ever who spends a ton of money on the game and gets their friends to play and that person might be worth courting more than many casual players who spend as little as possible but just like whatever the most popular content is. And when you update an existing system whether it's ops, pvp, gsf, whatever some people might give those things another try and find they really like it and since it's not something they do all the time it feels new and keeps them hooked a bit longer. So I think it's worth adding new things to all the different content occasionally.

 

I think the real problem is that it feels like they have so few resources that they can barely manage to get out the little bits of content in an amount of time that feels acceptable to people.

[Asmodesu]

I don't mind them doing an ops, they're very out of practise when it comes to making Operations and you can see it. I hope they got the hang of it by now however and if they do another in the near future that it comes out faster rather then sucking resources up and everyone getting next to nothing over an entire year. By now they finally finished an Op, and should know what was taking them far too long to get the fights done and hopefully instead of one boss every few months (and one fp every few months) they can do story (not fp, story), fp and a few ops bosses in that time instead of one tiny fraction at a time.

 

This is the problem I see at the moment. Yes many people getting different things, but it's taking too long for each group/type of content and it's making almost all players frustrated. We don't need a huge one big expansion, we just need more content every 3-4 months instead of the the tiny "one tiny group of players get something at a time" sliver we are getting currently. 2 ops bosses, a flashpoint, a story piece every 3 months (not 6 months anymore that we have now, bring it in closer). and a brand new warzone every 6 months would be nice, and gsf map. I also would like more solo spaceship missions, the space shooter on rails is an interesting little challenge if they could bring out a few more, that one doesn't have to be regular just a couple more now that 6 years have passed.

 

Just my few thoughts on if we continue the dripped out bits of content at a time standard, it just needs to be a bit more then what we are getting, or rather the same amount but squished into every 3 months instead of every 5-6 months. As they get more used to making content this way I am optimistic that the teams will get better at getting the content done well, in a shorter time space. We've given them a year now, 2018 will be the big question on if this type of content release will work to keep players or not. The bar is set, the challenge has begun. We're in month 3 and it's not looking good however, but there's still time.

[Eshvara]

Eh I'm not an ops person but I think it's fine that they're spending some time making a new one. I don't like the argument that just because a small percentage of players do that content that they shouldn't waste time making stuff for them. You could use the same argument for that being the reason Arcann shouldn't be a LI, ranked PvP should be left untouched (it needs some love!!), etc. I've also seen that argument used for a lot of BioWare games as for why there should be less romance options for female players or why there doesn't need to be a playable female character. Since there are fewer female players they should spend less time making content for them right?

 

But some ops player might be the most loyal subscriber ever who spends a ton of money on the game and gets their friends to play and that person might be worth courting more than many casual players who spend as little as possible but just like whatever the most popular content is. And when you update an existing system whether it's ops, pvp, gsf, whatever some people might give those things another try and find they really like it and since it's not something they do all the time it feels new and keeps them hooked a bit longer. So I think it's worth adding new things to all the different content occasionally.

 

I think the real problem is that it feels like they have so few resources that they can barely manage to get out the little bits of content in an amount of time that feels acceptable to people.

 

Nicely said and reasonable! Changed some of my views. Thank you!

[casirabit]

Eh I'm not an ops person but I think it's fine that they're spending some time making a new one. I don't like the argument that just because a small percentage of players do that content that they shouldn't waste time making stuff for them. You could use the same argument for that being the reason Arcann shouldn't be a LI, ranked PvP should be left untouched (it needs some love!!), etc. I've also seen that argument used for a lot of BioWare games as for why there should be less romance options for female players or why there doesn't need to be a playable female character. Since there are fewer female players they should spend less time making content for them right?

 

But some ops player might be the most loyal subscriber ever who spends a ton of money on the game and gets their friends to play and that person might be worth courting more than many casual players who spend as little as possible but just like whatever the most popular content is. And when you update an existing system whether it's ops, pvp, gsf, whatever some people might give those things another try and find they really like it and since it's not something they do all the time it feels new and keeps them hooked a bit longer. So I think it's worth adding new things to all the different content occasionally.

 

I think the real problem is that it feels like they have so few resources that they can barely manage to get out the little bits of content in an amount of time that feels acceptable to people.

 

I honestly don't think most story players have a problem with them doing content for ops or pvp or even flashpoints, it just the way they have handled certain aspects lately. 5 minutes for companion returns is not cutting it. Putting story on flashpoints for most just don't do it and then the comments about oh yea there is story coming, like it is an afterthought. Yes most know they can't comment on the story, but doing it the way they did on the podcast doesn't work either.

 

They need to learn to communicate better to everyone and listen to everyone. I have seen posts that even wonder if their opinions matter if they don't do the things that Keith seems to think are important and most of the influencers seem to mimic what he thinks is important.

 

I was always under the impression that all subscribers matter, whether you are an ops player (I used to be) pvp (nope) story player (like those) or a variety (which I believe I fall into) but that isn't the impression that has been shown lately and that is really what needs to change. They need to realize they need to communicate better and make sure everyone opinion matters and not dismiss them as they seem to do as of late.

 

I love this game, been here since launch, but the communication I have seen makes me sad to see people wondering where they fit in with the scheme of things in the game and honestly we cannot afford to lose more players.

[DuchessKristania]

 

I was always under the impression that all subscribers matter, whether you are an ops player (I used to be) pvp (nope) story player (like those) or a variety (which I believe I fall into) but that isn't the impression that has been shown lately and that is really what needs to change. They need to realize they need to communicate better and make sure everyone opinion matters and not dismiss them as they seem to do as of late.

 

I love this game, been here since launch, but the communication I have seen makes me sad to see people wondering where they fit in with the scheme of things in the game and honestly we cannot afford to lose more players.

 

This, right here, is how we need to start thinking. MMOs bring in a wide variety of players and all of the types are important, thus making all content important. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that they are trying to give a little bit to everyone, but the execution is just not working. I am a story player for the most part, but I do PvP here and there, I've jumped in on a few world bosses, and enjoy running stuff with smaller groups, I want to try some ops at some point as well. Even with my varied interest it just seems like there isn't much to do. I actually love Copero and running around there, but to call that story is not being very realistic. Personally, if they're going to continue to release things in smaller drips, I'd rather see it done on a rotation of content types. Sure, it might mean waiting longer for story, but I'd happily do that if it meant more than two minutes of story that ends just as it starts to get somewhere. It's just not satisfying.

Edited March 15, 2018 by DuchessKristania

[Andferne]

So once again nothing to get excited for or to raise my personal hopes for this game.

[Dewlmenow]

It is hilarious for me to see story players act like they are being victimized when BWA's clear goal is giving every group some content rather than focusing exclusively on story like they did to the game's detriment for a couple of years. While no one is going to be happy because they clearly don't have the resources to deliver the content that would require, they are giving everybody a little piece which is far, far healthier than what they did with KotFE in giving pretty much exclusively solo story content.

 

Story players need to chill out and realize that even though they aren't getting the same amount of content they are used to, they are still getting the majority of the content. Since 5.0 which was pretty much the second expansion made up of only story, they got an entire storyline which consisted of 1 new planet and a couple of flashpoints, and a ton of companion returns, while operations players got 1 operation which when it is finished will have beenr over 39 months since their last complete operation, and PVP players got 1 new warzone which is just a reskin of a previous map. They aren't focusing on ops to the detriment of story otherwise it wouldn't have taken them an entire year to deliver 1 operation while abandoning the master mode that they initially promised.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Dewlmenow

[Estelindis]

It is hilarious for me to see story players act like they are being victimized when BWA's clear goal is giving every group some content rather than focusing exclusively on story like they did to the game's detriment for a couple of years. While no one is going to be happy because they clearly don't have the resources to deliver the content that would require, they are giving everybody a little piece which is far, far healthier than what they did with KotFE in giving pretty much exclusively solo story content.

 

Story players need to chill out and realize that even though they aren't getting the same amount of content they are used to, they are still getting the majority of the content.

From my point of view, the trouble with this is that different classes have received different levels of story focus. In terms of companion returns, for instance, the Consular is only 1/5 so far, and that was an alliance alert that contained no new voice-acting (Qyzen's lines being the usual repeated alien VO). No Consular companions have actually been part of the main story - unlike, for instance, Bounty Hunter and Agent, who had two companions each receive significant story focus in KotFE chapters. Recent companion returns have only been snippets of content, which I think is really unfair considering that we've waited much longer to get them compared with companions who returned in chapters (and chapters are replayable too). When I ask for parity with KotFE, I don't actually want it to be at the expense of Ops or PvP players. I just want those of us who love classes neglected by story so far to be rewarded for waiting so long rather than being further neglected. It's not really reasonable to say "look, you got all the content for a while" when, even at the time of release, that content left some of us in the cold. If every class had one companion who received story focus in KotFE, now, that would be a different situation.

Edited March 15, 2018 by Estelindis

[Dewlmenow]

From my point of view, the trouble with this is that different classes have received different levels of story focus. In terms of companion returns, for instance, the Consular is only 1/5 so far, and that was an alliance alert that contained no new voice-acting (Qyzen's lines being the usual repeated alien VO). No Consular companions have actually been part of the main story - unlike, for instance, Bounty Hunter and Agent, who had two companions each receive significant story focus in KotFE chapters. Recent companion returns have only been snippets of content, which I think is really unfair considering that we've waited much longer to get them compared with companions who returned in chapters (and chapters are replayable too). When I ask for parity with KotFE, I don't actually want it to be at the expense of Ops or PvP players. I just want those of us who love classes neglected by story so far to be rewarded for waiting so long rather than being further neglected. It's not really reasonable to say "look, you got all the content for a while" when, even at the time of release, that content left some of us in the cold. If every class had one companion who received story focus in KotFE, now, that would be a different situation.

 

That's fair, I agree they've done a poor job with the returning companions, but they've kind of wrote themselves into a corner with how long it's been, and how many more still have to return. The only class I've gone all the way through the story on is my sage, so I completely agree with you about their poor state with companions.

 

I agree that the classes like the consular and to a lesser extent, the knight and smuggler, have had it rough with most of their companions yet to return, but the unfortunate truth is that with the amount of content getting released, nobody is going to be super happy, and I think they are doing the best they realistically can with a couple of companions returning each patch for the next couple of patches at least.

 

The point I was trying to make is that there isn't really a good option for BWA to take with the amount of content they have been releasing, and I think giving everybody a little bit of something was the best option out of all the ones they had left. Along with stopping all the nonsense talk about how releasing 1 operation over the course of the year was operations players getting all the content, and the story players being left with scraps.

[Damask_Rose]

It is hilarious for me to see story players act like they are being victimized when BWA's clear goal is giving every group some content rather than focusing exclusively on story like they did to the game's detriment for a couple of years. While no one is going to be happy because they clearly don't have the resources to deliver the content that would require, they are giving everybody a little piece which is far, far healthier than what they did with KotFE in giving pretty much exclusively solo story content.

 

Story players need to chill out and realize that even though they aren't getting the same amount of content they are used to, they are still getting the majority of the content. Since 5.0 which was pretty much the second expansion made up of only story, they got an entire storyline which consisted of 1 new planet and a couple of flashpoints, and a ton of companion returns, while operations players got 1 operation which when it is finished will have beenr over 39 months since their last complete operation, and PVP players got 1 new warzone which is just a reskin of a previous map. They aren't focusing on ops to the detriment of story otherwise it wouldn't have taken them an entire year to deliver 1 operation while abandoning the master mode that they initially promised.

 

What happened when raiding was neglected for 2 years? Raiders complained bitterly and left. What happened with all of the screw ups with pvp over the years? Pvpers complained bitterly then left. Why should it be any different with story players? The quantity we got was only a tiny fraction of any previous year, so we are complaining and many are leaving. Saying it's our turn to suffer doesn't work. Aside from two wrongs not making a right, this game isn't in a place where it can afford to slough off another major portion of it's player base.

 

And I don't think 35-45 minutes of non-repeatable story content in a year is more content than a full raid in two difficulty levels. Story is not created equally and the little bit of story we got was extremely shallow. It's more like bullet points of a story outline instead of the story itself. Think of the story content we got in the past year as being the story equivalent of the 18 DvL world bosses that require a raid to take down. They were technically raid content and wow there were a lot of them, but they weren't at all what raiders wanted.

 

I am happy raiders finally got a raid and will be getting another one. Pvp & GSF desperately need more love too. I fully support raiders complaining that they aren't getting NiM. I fully support pvpers complaining about their new maps being nothing but re-skins. And I also believe it's just as acceptable for story people to complain that the small amount of content we've gotten this past year has been very low quality with no assurance that we will get anything better in the future. Bioware needs to understand that a cheap substitute isn't acceptable for any group. DvL bosses couldn't take the place of instanced raids. Re-skinned maps can't take the place of fresh, new maps. Shallow snippets don't take the place of fully fleshed out chapters, hell, or even side quests.

[xordevoreaux]

 

Story players need to chill out

 

Thank God B/W has story players like me who just keep creating new toons, eh? Had 124, but got disciplined, now I've like...90? Across 4 accounts (1 sub + 3 pref)? Doing better.

[PennyAnn]

There wasn't really much about Conquest other than what the new tabs look like (solo Conquest vs Guild Invasion tabs) and the invaded planets with their planetary yield (large, medium, small).

 

What I'd like to know is if the planets will always be the same for a given conquest week or will they alternate? Say Alderaan is Large yield on a current conquest week. The next time the same conquest comes around will it still be Large yield or is it possible it could be Medium or Small yield?

 

I asked this question in chat 16x over the course of the short livestream, and it was not answered.

[PennyAnn]

The last 2 livestreams have had the feel that an adult left their camera on the computer turned on by accident and the kids decided to play pretend broadcast.

 

I was glad Matt was there, but got the impression that he fully enjoys potentially putting a boss in the game that not only will no one beat, hardly anyone will even bother to touch. That's helpful...

 

You have NOT explained the changes coming up in Conquest really at all. What does "large yield" planet even mean? How is that determined? Will it remain that way? Will you only ever get galaxy conqueror by joining a mega guild capable of going after mega planets because those will never rotate? Did you just increase the rewards that were already given out for conquest, or are there new ones for completing your personal and/or getting in the top 10. Is the top 10 even still a thing? It looked like from the bare screen shot that Eric linked that there was a top 10 listing, but he didn't explain any of the parts of the UI, and part of it was hidden by their on-camera picture/name frame.

 

It's just a really poor showing lately in all regards, livestreams included.

[DarthSpuds]

The last 2 livestreams have had the feel that an adult left their camera on the computer turned on by accident and the kids decided to play pretend broadcast.

 

I was glad Matt was there, but got the impression that he fully enjoys potentially putting a boss in the game that not only will no one beat, hardly anyone will even bother to touch. That's helpful...

 

You have NOT explained the changes coming up in Conquest really at all. What does "large yield" planet even mean? How is that determined? Will it remain that way? Will you only ever get galaxy conqueror by joining a mega guild capable of going after mega planets because those will never rotate? Did you just increase the rewards that were already given out for conquest, or are there new ones for completing your personal and/or getting in the top 10. Is the top 10 even still a thing? It looked like from the bare screen shot that Eric linked that there was a top 10 listing, but he didn't explain any of the parts of the UI, and part of it was hidden by their on-camera picture/name frame.

 

It's just a really poor showing lately in all regards, livestreams included.

 

All of this, time 10.

 

I walked away from the livestream convinced that Bioware are now eve further divorced from the desires of their paying customers than they were under Ben Irving's leadership - and he was so bad for the game he got moved on.

 

It does not bode well that almost a year's worth of Development time has gone in to ONE Ops Boss that maybe 5% of players will ever seem and less than 1% of players will ever beat. I fail to see how that fixes the issues of a) Player Retention, b) Player Satisfaction, c) Improved FP and Ops participation.

 

These should have been the priorities. How does throwing in an Ops Boss so few people will ever see increase Ops participation?

 

All The Best