What I have learned from not playing the game for a couple months

[TrixxieTriss]

IMO... that is one good reason to have a place to let off some steam.. A little in game R & R if you will. All work and no play ... !!

 

:eek:

 

But if we don't get stuff fixed that needs fixed first the in game R & R wont amount to much ... will it ?

 

 

Correct.

 

Gaming is supposed to be the R & R. You shouldn’t need to stop playing because it’s not fun. When the game becomes to onerous that it feels like a second job, then the fun balance is out of tilter and needs adjusting.

 

Balanced Gaming = fun.

Grind = job

Bugs = frustration

Bad systems = equal boredom

When the bottom 3 outweigh the top 1 = quit game.

 

This is something Bioware don’t understand, especially with regards to excessive grind for the sake of grinding and not content.

[LeMage]

WOW ! This has to be one of the most honest evaluations I've seen. You've done it without a lot of BW bashing (so to speak) .. and have presented a good clean resport without a "wall of text overload".

 

I personally don't do a l;ot of PvP .. mostly due to my age. I can tell everytime I come up against someone in their 20- 30's. I left that land mark behind a long, long time ago.

 

I don't PVP b/c I suck. I started out on a PVP server here and by Alderaan I couldn't finish a quest in a hour for dying. I know doing it right is an art (I had fun PVPing in MxO and to a lesser extend in WoW), right or wrong to me, its not NEWB 'friendly' more than its an age thing.

 

The PvE grind for gear and stuff to get gear parts has been a real drag ! I'm hoping that some of this can be "cleared up" and somewhat "streamlined".

 

Yeah This. it seems new day; same grind, different location.

 

Also a lot of PvE players use to enjoy a lot more time with companions. While there have been some small improvements in that area the take aways have largely overshadowed the gains.

 

Overall I still love the game better than WoW. I also left that game at or about the same time you did and came here. I also left here about the time I ran into some issues with Chapter IX ( think that's right). I kept my subscription going for the most part (I might have missed a month in there somewhere)... And only logged in long enough to up date stuff. I played WoW for about 1-1/2 to 2 years.

 

I'm just back from an 8 month break; we lost power in a tornado and when power was restored some days later, I just didn't get back to it to now. A good friend that I played with in Beta doesn't play anymore, she also made the game fun. Sometimes I like a social aspect even if I use the game as an expensive chat service. We'd sometimes spend hours chatting around Mara C until something broke out. I like TOR but sometimes its just idk...

 

Bottom line: You are right. While I don't expect EVERYTHING to show up in one massive update ... I do believe that it is absolutely necessary that BW gets some things right this time. And as much as I love the PvE ... I really do believe that BW needs to work on PvP concerns first. It jsut needs the most work right now !

 

I'd like for them to get somethings right, add some important things, fix things we've mentioned often. I don't want a PvP update, nor do I want a PvE update; but it would be nice if everyone got something they are very happy with.

 

What does worry me is we've stuck around during lean times, does that mean we've taught them it doesn't much matter what BW gives we'll be happy for any scraps.

 

(all of this is just my opinion)

 

The editor didn't like the way I commented. Too used to doing this in emails. Here's the at least 5 characters it demanded

Edited May 25, 2019 by LeMage

[OlBuzzard]

Correct.

 

Gaming is supposed to be the R & R. You shouldn’t need to stop playing because it’s not fun. When the game becomes to onerous that it feels like a second job, then the fun balance is out of tilter and needs adjusting.

 

Balanced Gaming = fun.

Grind = job

Bugs = frustration

Bad systems = equal boredom

When the bottom 3 outweigh the top 1 = quit game.

 

This is something Bioware don’t understand, especially with regards to excessive grind for the sake of grinding and not content.

 

Well said !

I don't mind doing a little grinding (although I'm probably a little more flexable in that area than most)... but the latest grind to get scrap parts to get something else.. YIKES ! I'm already white haired .. I'd like to think I could earn enough stuff to outfit at least one character with 248 in each Republic class character I have ( 1 Smuggler / 1 JK / 1 Trooper) .. you get the idea !

[OlBuzzard]

The editor didn't like the way I commented. Too used to doing this in emails. Here's the at least 5 characters it demanded

 

I've read all of your comments... and I agree. One item of particular interest. Have we indeed taught BW with our "faithfulness" or perhaps with our willingness to speak with respect to others and or BW representatives in a calm demeanor that's it's "OK" to ignore use as long as we keep "writting the checks" so to speak?

 

Trust me.. in the line if work I retired from I prefer not to use a tone that is agressive or angry. It seldom accomplishes that much. Can I go there ? Go thermal? Yes !

 

I don't like it though. And I like it even less being placed into a position where I think it becomes necessary to become a loud noise that needs that sort of attention. You know: " the squeaky wheel gets the grease" syndrome.

 

For now I will wait paitently and see what takes place. I really do believe that most of the people who are employed doing the job that BW has hired them to do are folks just like us ( well considerably younger ) .. The last thing I want is to display disrespect to them. Yet ... there is also someone at the top end of the food chain inside BW that really needs to help us .. help THEM .... help each other: get back up on our feet again.

 

"There are always possibilities"

 

Best Regards

Edited May 25, 2019 by OlBuzzard

[Costello]

I want to love this game. Hell its Bioware (or as close as you get these days) the guys that made Dragon Age Origins, its Star Wars, its the game that 7 years ago had my Sith Warrior raising from an apprentice, forming a group of unlikely companions and raising to the position of Emperors Wrath.

 

But I take a break, play other games do other things, come back and find, well little reason to log in. Other games do it better. Other games offer more content and other activities are a lot less grindy.

 

Now fair play if it was just me, but of my guild from what I can tell no one has logged in over a year. Not one person has ever been listed on the conquest score board, there is no activity on the log even to say someone has logged into leave the dead guild. While my friend list is always 0 active players, though in either case it could be we are missing each other, its definitely a vast difference from how things once were.

 

Even with the new guy coming into polish up the forums, they are pretty dead. An event gets delayed and no one cares; there appears to be very little anticipation for it so when its delayed, obviously the announcement is late on a Friday, its thanks for the announcement but appears to have made very little difference to any plans people had for next week.

 

So you have to worry if when 6.0 does drop, the funding for it and anticipated player base is going to be so low, while those that are around so uninterested when it drops, that its going to have almost no impact on the game other than to add 4 hours of story and 400 hours of grinding for that one piece of gear you want, only knowing full well if there ever is any new content it will turn that 400 hour gear grind into a waste before there is anything new to use that gear on.

[Scinald]

Just want to +1 the OPs point. That is pretty much my impression after being gone from the game for 12 months or so.

[Lhancelot]

After not actually playing, I have discovered a few things. First, SWTOR is a second job for a player with little reward.

 

Agreed. Soon as they brought out their plans for 5.0 or whatever the Ossus patch was, I started to disengage from the game. I had come back from a 2 year break at that point, and was knee-deep in gearing ALL my toons which I used to love gearing and running through PVP. When it was announced a new grind would be added, I mentally checked out the game then because I already was so focused on gearing toons that, there was no way I was entering a new gear grind for so little to gain. I was already burned out worrying about trying to get BiS on all my PVP toons, so the idea I had to start a new grind for new BiS gears wasn't appealing.

 

 

Now there is one bug that we are all aware of: ...really? It's been broken for how long and we're looking at sometime between September and the end of 2019 to fix this?

 

Agreed. Sometimes when we as people make errors, we must dig deep and do uncomfortable things to make things right with others, and BW seems incapable of understanding this. Sure, they got deadlines to make, sure they are on a schedule, but the fact is some of these very bad bugs were accidentally introduced by BW, to no fault of the players. This should be fixed on BW time, not the player's time! A little show of gratitude and appreciation from BW to the customers here would go a long way imo.

 

 

 

I hate using this argument, but should there be a situation to use it again, it'll just be an unsub, but I've been around since BETA. The updates that have been pushed out have been lackluster, but there appears to be a continual flow of Cartel Market items that requires real world money to purchase.

 

I noticed this too, I just came back again and been logging in, dressing up my toons, have not gone to Ossus not once yet, but they have done well with some of the newer outfits I never seen since being gone for a short bit!

 

That being said, heck, I can't criticize this part because at least they did something pleasant and nice which is create some neat outfits recently. I like that "Remote Outcast" set a lot.

 

So, although I'd rather have gameplay improved upon, or big bugs fixed over aesthetic outfits, the fact is I admit it, I enjoy their outfits and if they stopped this part of their dev work, I fear there'd be even less good to talk about.

 

I also think things are more complicated than simply taking funds from here, and using them for here, or this dev could stop this work and do this work etc. I mean, maybe the devs who excel at creating outfits know nothing about how to fix the bugs in the game.

 

 

 

 

Dantooine is the absolute last chance for not just SWTOR with me, but any future Bioware or EA products as well because I'm just done.

 

I agree. Personally, it took me about 6 months now to stop being angry and resentful towards BW. I really had a heavy, overpowering simmering resentment towards BW like never before, because I feel they squandered one of the most opportune situations in MMO history by putting the Star Wars IP on the back burner. It's STAR WARS for ****s sake!?!? The iron is hot! Movies are out! New Star Wars fans have been born! This is crazy!

 

(Star Wars + MMO = win, I mean this equation has no other alternatives! Why let this opportunity go to waste? WHY???) Sorry, emotions creeping out, UGH!

 

Instead, they decided to develop lesser wanted games for a market that (let's be honest!) had little desire in what BW was creating. It's their choice, I get it, they wanted that other game to succeed and they went off a vision of their own as inspiration to push on with that new game. It was theirs, and obviously someone had passion for that project, but it's time to really pull the heads out the sand and face the music here.

 

I think BW has one more strong chance to regain people's respect, and it hinges on 6.0 with SWTOR. Wake up BW, before the opportunity slips out of your fingers. Unbelievably, people STILL want to believe in you. That includes me, btw.

 

I have played many MMOs for nearly 20 years, and with all of it's design flaws, SWTOR is probably my favorite to date just because of the beautifully created Star Wars environment and the personality it still has even though much of that is being covered up and hidden by many of the bad design changes BW has gone with to try to prolong the gameplay due to a lack of new content.

 

 

 

 

TL;DR

 

I think 6.0 is an immense update, and much of the future of BW hangs on how they manage SWTOR from here on out. They have lost many very loyal customers over the years due to what I believe to be a total mismanagement of riches. The greatest of which would be sitting on the Star Wars IP, and essentially doing very little with it. It's not too late to right the ship, but it's damn close.

[Kaedusz]

And what happens when you do and nothing has changed and you log out and never come back. That isn’t healthy for the games continued future.

 

Then you log out and play something else for a few more months.

 

Honestly this is my favorite game of all time and i take breaks for half a year or more sometimes , because of being burned out.

Edited May 26, 2019 by Kaedusz

[Majestic_Jazz]

Lol while you all are complaining, I'm sitting over here enjoying my time in the game.

 

Mind you I'm a solo player and could careless about the group stuff outside of PvP which I do solo anyways.

 

The way I see it, we should have had a proper KOTOR 3 and not some MMO (at the time they were riding off the WoW hype). So now that the game has essentially gone solo, I could careless about the butthurt group/mmo crowd as this game should have been a KOTOR 3 in the first place.

[Collec]

Convenient as the next time I am scheduled to be billed is June 3rd.

 

Considering my mounting frustrations with the game, I will not be playing the 5.10.3 update and cancelling my subscription.

 

Yeah same. As soon as I read, I went and canceled my sub. Sick and tired of this ******** of "delay by 1 week" and sick and tired that this game is put on hold,while they move people to work on their other failing games. THIS GAME SHOULD BE THEIR PRIORITY # 1 !!!

 

Shame that I was already billed few days ago, but 24 days left and I am fking outta here. I doubt anything will bring me back into game. Maybe in a year or more,if this game is still up and running.

[olagatonjedi]

Keep in mind, this is my perspective on things.

 

The only reason I have logged into the game at all is to make sure I retain GM for my private guild. After that, I lose all motivation to play.

 

After not actually playing, I have discovered a few things. First, SWTOR is a second job for a player with little reward. There is an extreme amount of grind and replayability just isn't there. I have over a dozen level 70's (therefore, yes, I did replay), but to level them individually is an absolute time, money, and sanity waster. Making gear for them is a joke, the crafting professions are essentially useless with the exception of medkits, stims, and augments if you can afford to make them continually. In addition to gear grinding, just looking at general chat, the amount of frustration at getting masterwork crystals is still just as high as when Ossus came out and, quite frankly, I do not blame any of those players, because to fully gear one character, all others must be sacrificed to the heathen gods, including the actual player itself.

 

Second, I return to my mailbox to find an egregious amount of spam mail from unpronounceable character names to match the amount of days I haven't played. Truly horrendous. General chat on fleet has continued to be a mix of credit spammers as well as those who wish to throw as many derogatory things into the void as humanly possible.

 

Now there is one bug that we are all aware of:

 

 

 

...really? It's been broken for how long and we're looking at sometime between September and the end of 2019 to fix this?

 

I hate using this argument, but should there be a situation to use it again, it'll just be an unsub, but I've been around since BETA. The updates that have been pushed out have been lackluster, but there appears to be a continual flow of Cartel Market items that requires real world money to purchase.

 

Dantooine is the absolute last chance for not just SWTOR with me, but any future Bioware or EA products as well because I'm just done.

 

If there's no quality in the work, there will be no subscription to support such lack of quality.

 

Also probably not replying to this thread because I know there are people who just look at threads to tear them apart, so have fun I guess?

I originally thought your post was in reference to SWTOR, but as i continued to read, I realized it is describing nearly ever MMO ive played in the past 20+ years. Everything you mentioned is not unique to SWTOR, but widely seen in most MMORPG games due to the inherent nature of this genre, the constant need to update them, and the dynamic aspect of the game-play and coding involved. One is likely to conclude not that SWTOR is of poor quality, but that your expectations for an MMORPG are simply beyond the current resources available to live up to those expectations. It sounds as though MMOs are simply not able to give you the experience you desire.

[Suzsi]

It really does depend on how you play. I don't play all the time mind you, I do keep my sub though.

When I play new characters its because I want to see that class story again and for no other reason really. Just for the story. The same for the rest as well.

 

I don't find it a grind simply because I don't chase stat gear, I just play for the stories when I want to see them again. The only grinding I've really done was a bunch of heroics for the credits to get the outfits I want - but I have all of those now so even that grind has been eliminated for me and while theres no outfits I want I'm saving up the CC for any new ones that come that I do really want with my monthly sub allowance.

Edited May 26, 2019 by Suzsi

[MikeCobalt]

SWTOR is SWTOR. The Parts you really liked before will still be here when your back, and the parts you didn't like most likely will be here also. This game doesn't add content very often like others but the fun parts will still be here nonetheless.

I'm *Not part of the "Rat Race" here; Just yesterday I did "False Emperor" again, very long, not much "Take Home" but I enjoyed every minute and that's what (for me) counts most. I do the Heroics, Flashpoints and *Sometimes Events "I like", but I'm Not dragging myself out to make whatever Goal they Tell me I should (pfft). Setting SWTOR to *Any "Itinerary" is foolish, they'll never keep up.

Enjoy it for the parts you like.

Edited May 26, 2019 by MikeCobalt

[OlBuzzard]

Let's face it... even many of the larger MMO games use repeatable instance or mission or quests to run through. Some of them take a LONG time to complete. AND the truth of it is even the high end guilds will run those SAME dungeons / raids / or quests ... over and over and over and over and over and over .... Some of them are so difficult that the "better guilds" actually require high end gear AND prep time studying those raids just to make sure you are not a noob causing the rest to "wipe" runing the effort on that particular instance.

 

IMO... that's a bit over the top for me personally.

 

Longer lasting repeatable instance .. longer time table to complete... I get that. But when it gets down to it .. what is the difference between running those types over ... reppeatedly in other games (in order to get gear) .. than doing the same here ?

 

The storys are better here. We can still get good stuff. Well.. until this last gear grind . YIKES .. the amount of scrap parts to get ONE of those crystals ?

 

At any rate. We're still better off here ! IMO !

[Nemmar]

Lol while you all are complaining, I'm sitting over here enjoying my time in the game.

 

Mind you I'm a solo player and could careless about the group stuff outside of PvP which I do solo anyways.

 

The way I see it, we should have had a proper KOTOR 3 and not some MMO (at the time they were riding off the WoW hype). So now that the game has essentially gone solo, I could careless about the butthurt group/mmo crowd as this game should have been a KOTOR 3 in the first place.

 

Yeah... that's what i see tuesdays on Ossus... a lot of solo.

 

I'm afraid the solo story mode you wanted was already tried and failed. We are back to being an mmo. So, i think that maybe you are the butthurt one if i'm honest.

 

Also, i don't get why people ask for a KOTOR3 when that story already happened. You want a new star wars rpg, i suppose. But, it seems like EA doesn't fancy that idea very much as they have blocked all attempts for new ones or remakes. Because they demand everything be a service. So, this is what we got. Maybe if that single player game they are bringing in the fall does well, they might be persuaded... or not. They will just want that + a service.

 

Your best hope is the bill that aims to ban lootboxes. FIFA will take a beating and other EA titles won't have to compare to it to have a chance to be greenlit.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Nemmar

[TrixxieTriss]

Yeah... that's what i see tuesdays on Ossus... a lot of solo.

 

I'm afraid the solo story mode you wanted was already tried and failed. We are back to being an mmo. So, i think that maybe you are the butthurt one if i'm honest.

 

Also, i don't get why people ask for a KOTOR3 when that story already happened. You want a new star wars rpg, i suppose. But, it seems like EA doesn't fancy that idea very much as they have blocked all attempts for new ones or remakes. Because they demand everything be a service. So, this is what we got. Maybe if that single player game they are bringing in the fall does well, they might be persuaded... or not. They will just want that + a service.

 

Your best hope is the bill that aims to ban lootboxes. FIFA will take a beating and other EA titles won't have to compare to it to have a chance to be greenlit.

 

Guess you haven’t heard about this : https://www.ea.com/games/starwars/jedi-fallen-order

[TrixxieTriss]

Lol while you all are complaining, I'm sitting over here enjoying my time in the game.

 

Mind you I'm a solo player and could careless about the group stuff outside of PvP which I do solo anyways.

 

The way I see it, we should have had a proper KOTOR 3 and not some MMO (at the time they were riding off the WoW hype). So now that the game has essentially gone solo, I could careless about the butthurt group/mmo crowd as this game should have been a KOTOR 3 in the first place.

 

That’s just not true. Many of us still playing wouldn’t be here if this wasn’t an MMO and I dare say the game wouldn’t have made as much money if it was RPG aka KOTOR 3. (But that’s just my opinion).

 

I think if they had actually made the game they originally envisaged, then many people who still wanted KOTOR 3 would be more than happy with swtor.

 

Have a read of this reddit article, it is very enlightening.

[DarthCasus]

So many refreshing perspectives here, even those few that voice their satisfaction. I really wish people here would stop dispariging people declaring their subs canceled though, it hasn't boded well for the game in general and every step of the way since launch, the game has been mired in problems.

 

This has to be hands down my favorite MMO of all time and up there with my top 5 games ever, not because it's done something spectacular or just because Star Wars but because through all of its faults, it's managed to create an experience that I'll never experience again. There have been mistakes, and there will be miss-steps but when they continue to step over issues and at least shift some priority toward something for the players every once in a while, they quickly burn out whatever good will they've earned after a sprinkle of content. Ossus should not have to be the only substantive content drop for 6+ months. Galactic Command, becoming a supplemental system in 6.0, should be HEAVILY promoted and rate of rewards increased times over. Crystal drops on Ossus should be upped. Why should any of this have to be said at this point? We're not even a foot into the summer yet and it's already looking DRY.

 

Breaks are healthy. They're important for those who need them and I encourage them but they shouldn't be borderline mandatory for anyone who plays at a faster pace for a year or more. So much content is lying around without incentive to try or do regularly because they piece meal, rotate and outright ignore some things. I just want to see this game thrive and be excitingly fun for longer than a month after content drops, when it does. I'd play long after I finish gearing, but grinding to gear months after the fact just kills it.

[merovejec]

The game is as it is. Even though its an eternal grind the game still has its fun elements. For some its PVP, for some conquest and people even enjoy ammasing credits. Then there is the RP stuff, which includes dress up, that keeps a lot of people busy. Now we even have NiM proggresion again.

 

The game has stuff for all. Sure, there are things that need improvement, change, new stuff, but over the years people got used to the pace of swtor and it people do not like it they can move on. Yet people mostly stay cause "its SW". For me its not easy to do the grindy stuff do to RL, but I know that if I do farm the stuff at start then I have the rest of the year for fun cause I dont need to grind anything for some time.

[DarthSpuds]

I'm on a 6-month rolling sub.

 

Current sub cycle runs out in 157 days (1st Nov ?)

 

Have not logged in for three weeks, will not log in until something new comes along.

 

OP is right, game is too grindy, too repetitive, too boring.

 

Something needs to happen, and soon.

 

 

All The Best

[Lhancelot]

game is too grindy, too repetitive, too boring. Something needs to happen, and soon.

 

 

It's true.

Edited May 27, 2019 by Lhancelot

[Collec]

I'm on a 6-month rolling sub.

 

Current sub cycle runs out in 157 days (1st Nov ?)

 

Have not logged in for three weeks, will not log in until something new comes along.

 

OP is right, game is too grindy, too repetitive, too boring.

 

Something needs to happen, and soon.

 

 

All The Best

 

So you are on 6 months sub qnd not playing the game. You really "are taking a stand" .Why throw 65 euros away, if you are not even playing game? Unsub and when u wanna sub again,then do it....

 

As for somethign new....for us old farts, who''ve been with this game from start on and off...NOTHING...NOTHING will ever please us, because we've done stories,missions,heroics,fp's,operations soooooooooooo many times over and over again. What little new pve content there comes, there isn't enough of it for it to please vets of this game. And what little comes of it, it's pve and you burn through that conent in less than week,even if you not playing all the time.

 

It would've been different,if they introduced new class every year or 2, but this game is put on hold,because it has STAR WARS ip and Bioware sends it's employess to work on their other games, while this game survives on it's loyal and stupid fan base.

 

Everytime I read something bad about Anthem, I just laugh, because i'ts the same way here. And no I never played Anthem ,because I saw writing on the wall for it from get go, being the player of SWTOR has tought me many things But I do love to bring up Anthem whereever I can, because it's just too funny. "oh no anthem fans..devs haven't talked to you in over a month now??"....my God what a shock.

[Lhancelot]

Why throw 65 euros away, if you are not even playing game? Unsub and when u wanna sub again,then do it...

 

When the sub runs out, you can only lurk and that's not much fun. I am pretty sure DarthSpuds likes to post and chat with us. Only way is to have a sub.

[Collec]

Ok fair, I haven't thought about it. Is it really though? You need to be sub to post on forums? What? I thought you just need to log into your swtor account, but whatever.

 

I have 22 days left of sub. Once it runs out, I don't care if I can't post here. I have no plans of resubbing and will just read some stuff about game on forums, watch some YouTube videos and at the moment will most likely skip WHOLE 6.0.

[Lhancelot]

Ok fair, I haven't thought about it. Is it really though? You need to be sub to post on forums? What? I thought you just need to log into your swtor account, but whatever.

 

I have 22 days left of sub. Once it runs out, I don't care if I can't post here. I have no plans of resubbing and will just read some stuff about game on forums, watch some YouTube videos and at the moment will most likely skip WHOLE 6.0.

 

Yeah when the sub dies, you can't post here.