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Am I the only one thinking we have too many abilities ?


Derzelaz

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You stated about combat as if that is the main issue or that is the issue that has been raised in this thread, It's about abilities you could have 4 abilities and theses same people would praise it as if it was the next best thing to sliced bread.

 

I said that combat was a big part of the problem in retaining players but not that it was the biggest part of the problem. I especially didn't flat out state something as ridiculous as Optimization was the game's biggest problem & the thing that lead to many people leaving the game. ;)

 

In laymen terms you have the choice to play with as many QB's or abilities as your heart desires but don't come along and shove your ideas down my throat and tell me it's great when it isn't you're just restricting the choice which in a RPG is the worse thing imaginable.

 

Having more buttons to press doesn't = choice, it just means you have more buttons to press. If you're running an Op & the maximum efficiency for your contribution is for you to press 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, in that order & then repeat the process in order to output the most amount of damage, heals, or threat then where is the choice in that? If you stray from what is mathematically been determined to be the best set up & rotation for your character then you're not contributing to the rest of your team to the best of your ability.

 

If anything SWTOR's design feels restrictive, not like it's full of choices.

 

I'd have every single change such as Active Stances (Skank), Skill Trees (Hybrids), Original Companion Specs/Abilities/Gearing, No Level Sync, Base Classes, All the removed Abilities and Traditional Stats back in a heartbeat if I could.

 

But you don't represent everybody, or what's best for the game.

 

If you believe restriction is best in an RPG than you far from the best person to talk on the subject which is the reason I honestly can not take your points serious.

 

Note that you're the one pushing for restriction by wanting SWTOR's combat to remain as stagnant as it is.

 

If you want combat with choices, SWTOR isn't the game to look to. Why do you think nobody is influenced by SWTOR's combat? If it's as great and full of choices as you claim, and the thing people want it's kind of surprising how many people don't actually want to engage with it & how it's not at all influential on other games.

 

SWTOR Combat is no different to DA:O.

 

Yeah because you can totally pause SWTOR's combat & queue up multiple commands for your character & multiple companions just like in DA:O right?

 

Yes it's a niche idea to make the combat the equivalent of say DA:2 or DA:I but it sounds great on paper but still is only niche since this is based on a traditional RPG style not an ARPG like ESO or Skyforge which are great in their own rights but in my opinion nothing more than say DA:2 is to DA:O. Commercial success isn't only based on simplicity or casual gaming since DA:2 proved it.

 

Except SWTOR's combat isn't even good within the style it's going for. In terms of RPGs that are more traditional, allow for choice, etc, there are games like Divinity Original Sin 2 that completely blow something like SWTOR out of the water.

 

SWTOR's combat isn't about player choice, it's not creative, or inventive, or giving a significant amount of people enough of a reason to try it out or stick with it.

 

Look at this gameplay GIF. No part of SWTOR's combat is that well designed, tightly designed, crafted, etc.

 

https://imgur.com/SjoV010

 

Note I want to be very clear that I'm NOT saying SWTOR should play like what's being shown in the GIF but rather that SWTOR even within the MMO genre or style of combat it's using doesn't execute itself with that level of craft while other MMOs & RPGs do.

 

The other focus should be on introducing more content at a faster pace and converting it from old 32bit to 64bit.

 

No online game or MMO has ever been able to deliver content at the pace that the audience demands it. On top of that converting a game from 32bit to 64bit requires a significant investment of resources. The sky isn't the limit when it comes to game development, it's not a what would you like situation or what you think would be best but instead a would you rather question with no good outcome in terms of the choice(s) you make.

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FFXIV has way more than this and it's probably the biggest growing mmo atm.

 

FF14 when released was one of the worst MMOs on the market. The game then got a massive overhaul with a Realm Reborn which was the thing that put it on the path to where it is today. SWTOR has had no such overhaul even though it could defenitely benefit from one the same way FF14 did.

 

When FF14 wasn't doing well Square decided to double down on it, reinvest more money & completely turn the game around. SWTOR went in the opposite direction. When the game wasn't the WoW like success they planned on it being the studio had a bunch of lay offs, it went Free To Play, Bioware Austin was consantly pulled off the game to work on multiplayer features/content for Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Anthem & the game has never quite recovered from that.

 

And to this game being a failure i reference you to the words of the EA CFO just the other day:

https://i.redd.it/noy1vzfbuxv31.png

 

Note that any game making a billion is impressive, but it's less impressive when you factor in that it's taken 8 years to get to that point. When WoW was at it's most successful it was at around 12 million subscribers. If 12 million people are paying $15, that's a billion right there in just the span of a year from subs alone.

 

Also if they like SWTOR so much how come they're not willing to invest more money in it? how come SWTOR isn't part of EA's press conferences at shows like E3? Why does it constantly feel like SWTOR is this product that EA forgets even exists?

 

The reality of the situation is that they (EA) like SWTOR because it makes them money without them having to invest any significant amount of money & resources into it beyond it's initial development cost.

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Note that any game making a billion is impressive, but it's less impressive when you factor in that it's taken 8 years to get to that point. When WoW was at it's most successful it was at around 12 million subscribers. If 12 million people are paying $15, that's a billion right there in just the span of a year from subs alone.

 

Also if they like SWTOR so much how come they're not willing to invest more money in it? how come SWTOR isn't part of EA's press conferences at shows like E3? Why does it constantly feel like SWTOR is this product that EA forgets even exists?

 

The reality of the situation is that they (EA) like SWTOR because it makes them money without them having to invest any significant amount of money & resources into it beyond it's initial development cost.

 

I knew when I read that $1B thread on Reddit people were going to be quoting it forever as if it truly meant something, when it really doesn't. The game cost upwards of $400M just to produce, and I've seen estimates as high as $500M. Right off the bat that "1 billion dollars" is cut by a good 40%. So right off the game really made $600M in 8 years. But WAIT--how much has it cost to keep the lights on? Pay the employees? How much did that big datacenter move cost them in 2017? Everything adds up and that $600M net gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

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There are way too many abilties not worth using at all. All they do is confuse players and bloat action bars. However if Bioware release 2 hours dlc as new expansion, dealing with bloated abilities and sorting rotations is not something we should expect. Edited by Eanke
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I said that combat was a big part of the problem in retaining players but not that it was the biggest part of the problem. I especially didn't flat out state something as ridiculous as Optimization was the game's biggest problem & the thing that lead to many people leaving the game. ;)

 

So optimization isn't/wasn't the main problem was you in alpha or beta? Optimization wasn't only caused because they chose to go ahead with the launch but because they used an alpha engine and thought they was great at coding which mostly ended up in a broken game full of limits. 32bit was practically dying or considered old tech when Vista arrived since you couldn't even operate it without the need for more resources which is practically what's happening to SWTOR. I got 32gb of Ram and SWTOR touches about 4gb, I got an AMD R9 3900X and SWTOR touches about 2 cores/threads.

 

 

Having more buttons to press doesn't = choice, it just means you have more buttons to press. If you're running an Op & the maximum efficiency for your contribution is for you to press 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, in that order & then repeat the process in order to output the most amount of damage, heals, or threat then where is the choice in that? If you stray from what is mathematically been determined to be the best set up & rotation for your character then you're not contributing to the rest of your team to the best of your ability If anything SWTOR's design feels restrictive, not like it's full of choices.

 

Captain obvious, I applaud you by saying pressing more buttons then less = less choice. You know how silly that is? you do what you feel is necessary, no one is putting a gun to your head saying you got to do a rotation that was in a guide. Especially since with all the gear changes you can now use your rotation different.

 

 

But you don't represent everybody, or what's best for the game.

 

Where did I? I stated "I would have it back in a heart beat." Key letter is "I"

 

 

Note that you're the one pushing for restriction by wanting SWTOR's combat to remain as stagnant as it is.

 

How did you come to that conclusion? Nothing is wrong with the combat, however what is wrong is how bad the game runs in WZ's or OP's or WB's. Remember Ilum open world PVP it was like a slideshow, that isn't because of the combat. The restriction is and always was the Engine.

 

If you want combat with choices, SWTOR isn't the game to look to. Why do you think nobody is influenced by SWTOR's combat? If it's as great and full of choices as you claim, and the thing people want it's kind of surprising how many people don't actually want to engage with it & how it's not at all influential on other games.

 

Well that's a bit obvious because MMO's aren't the trend anymore, BR's are. There's still many MMO's that use Tab Targeting combat but a lot are either dumbing it down or retiring it for a more action combat style which is better for casual gamers or console users. Most of the market is rapidly converting to Mobile/Console.

 

 

 

Yeah because you can totally pause SWTOR's combat & queue up multiple commands for your character & multiple companions just like in DA:O right?

 

Yes DA:O gameplay is RTWP but combat is Tab Targeting like QB's, Holy Trinity, queuing abilities and Stat's determination. DA:2 gameplay is RTWP but the combat is Action Combat which was known to be a style of choice chosen for consoles e.g. dumbing down. Some use a mixture between two combat systems, such as GW2.

But please don't get confused between gameplay and combat.

 

 

Except SWTOR's combat isn't even good within the style it's going for. In terms of RPGs that are more traditional, allow for choice, etc, there are games like Divinity Original Sin 2 that completely blow something like SWTOR out of the water.

 

What are you talking about combat system or gameplay system? because you're blurring the lines between both.

Truthfully I have never played Divinity. The only RPG's I've played is POE, NWN, BG, KOTOR and DA.

 

Note I want to be very clear that I'm NOT saying SWTOR should play like what's being shown in the GIF but rather that SWTOR even within the MMO genre or style of combat it's using doesn't execute itself with that level of craft while other MMOs & RPGs do.

 

I didn't bother looking at is but I can tell you're getting things confused the Combat system relies on the Gameplay system which relies on the Game engine. If the game engine isn't capable or not well optimised then it causes issues for everything down the line.

 

No online game or MMO has ever been able to deliver content at the pace that the audience demands it. On top of that converting a game from 32bit to 64bit requires a significant investment of resources. The sky isn't the limit when it comes to game development, it's not a what would you like situation or what you think would be best but instead a would you rather question with no good outcome in terms of the choice(s) you make.

 

Nor did I state that they could, but they could speed it up, 3 years 6.0 is lacklustre to say the least. Converting from 32bit to 64bit isn't probably the best move depending on the investment since the engine isn't the greatest or the version isn't the best to say the least. The best move would be to either update/change the engine or convert it to 64bit. Nor did I say it was but you defiantly don't know enough when it comes to game development to lecture me on the subject heck you're mixing up Combat and Gameplay mechanics. Which are two different things.

Edited by DarthSealth
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I'm against a combat revamp, because 4 button rotations kill anything that is unique about your characters, and yes 31 abilities is a lot, but there is also four of five different types of rotations you can do, to me that opens up play style a lot.

 

My Jedi has a very unique rotation that is competitive but doesn't use all the abilities...no where else have I gotten that kind of customization.

 

Honestly if Bioware ever does an ability squish a large portion of the player base is going to riot.

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Also if they like SWTOR so much how come they're not willing to invest more money in it? how come SWTOR isn't part of EA's press conferences at shows like E3? Why does it constantly feel like SWTOR is this product that EA forgets even exists?

 

The reality of the situation is that they (EA) like SWTOR because it makes them money without them having to invest any significant amount of money & resources into it beyond it's initial development cost.

 

Even though we disagree on the topic....you sir or madam are spot on with this observation.

 

Why Indeed.

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Okokok, enough with your lies.

 

You obviously don't play WoW.

 

Currently WoW is the mmo you pruning lovers want to play. BfA, the 3-4 button combat xpac. WoW devs listened to you and ended up with the worst received xpac since WoD. Go play BfA while you can cause guess what, they just announced the new xpac and one of the things they are doing is unpruning abilities! Much to the delight of the community.

 

No. No combat revamps, those are guaranteed to kill the game. No pruning. It is not necessary. The number of skills has not gone overboard. FFXIV has way more than this and it's probably the biggest growing mmo atm.

 

And to this game being a failure i reference you to the words of the EA CFO just the other day:

https://i.redd.it/noy1vzfbuxv31.png

I don't care what your personal opinion is. If the EA CFO says SWTOR is a business they like, they are not seeing it as a failure.

 

So, stop. If you don't like the game, you are free to play something else to your liking. Making it a dumb game with only 4 skills will outright KILL IT 100% guaranteed. Cause it alienates the current player base that enjoys it and tourists are not the type of players that stick around.

 

Wow is also going to be doing a level squish when the new expansion Shadowlands is released sometime in 2020. It was announced in blizz con (?)

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What? This game is a failure. Who the heck thinks that billion dollars on this old game is something to brag about?

 

You are crazy, to think this game is on the level of ff14 eso heck even guild wars 2. I'm sorry, but I can't debate someone who thinks this game is doing well.

 

No I can't debate with someone who's mind is set on a train wreck. You just can't do it.

You want to see it as a failure, you see it as a failure instead of it having some failures along the way.

 

BTW don't put words in my mouth, EVER. I never stated it was on the level of FF14 or even GW2...as I have NEVER EVER even played them.

 

But regardless of whether you think it's doing well or not, along with all the other naysayers out there, when the CFO says it's doing good...that's all you get!

 

I knew when I read that $1B thread on Reddit people were going to be quoting it forever as if it truly meant something, when it really doesn't. The game cost upwards of $400M just to produce, and I've seen estimates as high as $500M. Right off the bat that "1 billion dollars" is cut by a good 40%. So right off the game really made $600M in 8 years. But WAIT--how much has it cost to keep the lights on? Pay the employees? How much did that big datacenter move cost them in 2017? Everything adds up and that $600M net gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

 

So you just have estimates?? Not legit factual numbers that state what you're claiming? If so link them. I'd like to see it.

Revenue = gross really yes. But it's still a profit. So a 1B profit, is still decent especially for a game that does NOT have as much financial success as WoW. (Because EA won't give it, I assume.)

Either way I don't see it as a failure. That's not saying it hasn't had failure moments, but over all 1B is a decent number for an ALMOST 8yr game.

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I use on my mains, not including health packs, grenades etc :

 

32 abilities (out of 33) on my engineering/marksman sniper (less shatter shot I’ve removed).

I don’t know where to start here, so many could go that aren’t part of the rotation and rarely used

 

 

Speaking just about snipers, I can tell you that all of their abilities are *highly* useful in PvP

 

Sure, even in NiM raids, there are several abilities I never touch (like shatter shot).

 

But in PvP, they are all situationally vital. Shattershot timed with a ally's elctro net is a powerful ability for burning down healers.

 

I was reading another post today about how mara's and sins are OP, but a 1 v 1, (in general) a good sniper can methodically take apart a decent mara or sin because of their wide array of dcds, knockbacks, roots, & movement abilities. The variety of abilities across the board on classes, IMHO, makes it so that every class is at a disadvantage against *at least* one other class.

 

Speaking just from my experience as a sniper & a sorc, I suspect that *most* abilities people ignore as worthless in PvE, are in fact quite useful (if not outright vital) in PvP.

 

So .. as several others have said. If you *never* use an ability, just take it off your bars.

Just because you find it useless, that doesn't mean it that it actually is, or that it should be pruned.

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So you just have estimates?? Not legit factual numbers that state what you're claiming? If so link them. I'd like to see it.

 

Revenue = gross really yes. But it's still a profit. So a 1B profit, is still decent especially for a game that does NOT have as much financial success as WoW. (Because EA won't give it, I assume.)

Either way I don't see it as a failure. That's not saying it hasn't had failure moments, but over all 1B is a decent number for an ALMOST 8yr game.

 

No. That isn't how it works at all. That $1B is BEFORE expenditures. You are confusing "gross profit" with "net profit" and one of those is far more important than the other. If your operating expenditures slowly cancel out any net profit then the product becomes worthless to continue putting out.

 

The cost of the game is not up for debate. Forbes listed it as between $300M and $400M. Market Watch estimated nearly $500M. At the very least it was $300M+ (EA said $200M but you have to include the marketing budget). You can look up the info just like I did. That is money the company needed to recoup. It didn't magically fall out of the air. The game costs money to maintain every year as well. Again, that money doesn't just fall out of the sky.

 

All such numbers will ALWAYS be just best estimates because these kinds of companies refuse to release real down-to-the-last-penny dollar amounts for production costs. It's the same way with movie studios. The only thing we can ever do is estimate how much they really cost.

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Guys....Guys,

 

The "it's dead" /"no it isn't" angst has been going on since launch.

 

At this point not too many actually care, I'm going to play until the servers sunset, I just don't see it happening in the next few years though and that is all the road I try to see down.

 

There are folks who have been screeching it's dead but haven't missed a single months subscription (I know this because they post daily) and diametrically there are folks who would defend the game even if it became a Hentai Action RPG, neither side is going to change the others mind.

 

I think Disney has as much to say as EA does on the future of the game, but as of now it makes enough to keep the lights on, screaming about what if's are not that productive.

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Speaking just about snipers, I can tell you that all of their abilities are *highly* useful in PvP

 

Sure, even in NiM raids, there are several abilities I never touch (like shatter shot).

 

But in PvP, they are all situationally vital. Shattershot timed with a ally's elctro net is a powerful ability for burning down healers.

 

I was reading another post today about how mara's and sins are OP, but a 1 v 1, (in general) a good sniper can methodically take apart a decent mara or sin because of their wide array of dcds, knockbacks, roots, & movement abilities. The variety of abilities across the board on classes, IMHO, makes it so that every class is at a disadvantage against *at least* one other class.

 

Speaking just from my experience as a sniper & a sorc, I suspect that *most* abilities people ignore as worthless in PvE, are in fact quite useful (if not outright vital) in PvP.

 

So .. as several others have said. If you *never* use an ability, just take it off your bars.

Just because you find it useless, that doesn't mean it that it actually is, or that it should be pruned.

 

I’ve never used shatter shot in those circumstances because you don’t see much coordination in regs or solo queue.

It’s just one more thing taking up room for regs and I certainly wouldn’t use it in pve.

 

When I say they could cull things, it’s not to reduce the utility of useful items, it’s to combine something or redesign a new ability that incorporates some of those features while removing some ability bloat.

 

I also don’t want 3 button rotations because who would, but some DCDs abilities are bloated and could be made passives or utility choices. Some extra utility point would help off set the removed ability(s).

 

And of course this would change the meta and people would have to learn some different uses or tactics to do similar things as before. Which I don’t necessarily think is a bad thing. I certainly would have preferred that and the old set bonuses and not all this new stuff.

 

We certainly didn’t need a new ability for the sake of adding another for an expansion. Especially when they didn’t remove another or even make some of the new ones useful, ie, that new Sin ability is a massive joke. It’s only useful if you wear a specific set bonus, otherwise it’s useless.

 

I have removed the one or two items I don’t use very often and can do without in 90% of pvp situations (I’ve small hands and Keybinding everything is impossible).

 

Where did you see a post saying Maras are OP? Please dontt tell me people are already saying they need a nerf :rolleyes:

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There are way too many abilties not worth using at all. All they do is confuse players and bloat action bars. However if Bioware release 2 hours dlc as new expansion, dealing with bloated abilities and sorting rotations is not something we should expect.

 

Your snark is well deserved :D

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I knew when I read that $1B thread on Reddit people were going to be quoting it forever as if it truly meant something, when it really doesn't. The game cost upwards of $400M just to produce, and I've seen estimates as high as $500M. Right off the bat that "1 billion dollars" is cut by a good 40%. So right off the game really made $600M in 8 years. But WAIT--how much has it cost to keep the lights on? Pay the employees? How much did that big datacenter move cost them in 2017? Everything adds up and that $600M net gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

 

I like the other point in that reddit article that said WoW was earning a Billion dollars a year in revenue during its hey day. Even with the decrease, I would still think they make a couple 100 mill a year. On top of that, Blizzard make you pay for expansions. With WoW just reaching its 15th year, one would think they’ve probably made over 10+ billion dollars in revenue (which also doesn’t include costs)

 

Also, it does clearly state that swtor cost $200 million to make, not $400 or $500.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/huge-mmo-star-wars-the-old-republic-has-made-close/1100-6471011/

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What’s a lvl squish?

 

I believe they're going to reduce the total amount of levels. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the level cap raises we get here each expansion either because it makes the leveling experience a drag in my view. We don't need more than 50 levels really. All other levels that have been added now up to 75 are superfluous and just add to a stretched out leveling experience for new characters, or to use a LotR quote "like butter scraped over too much bread". WoW seems to be addressing that finally.

 

I much prefer how Guild Wars 1 did it, with only 20 levels and then new content added new story but not new levels. There was no need for it.

 

Now I know SWTOR has a gear treadmill but you can easily solve that by adding a quest chain each expansion which unlocks access to the newest tiers of gear. Doesn't have to be a big deal but something that unlocks that because I know BW want to be able to restrict gearing to subs and it doesn't have to be new levels.

 

As for new abilities, we haven't really gotten that many new abilities since vanilla and this is part of the reason why adding more levels is bad in my view because it doesn't add a reason for new levels other than to just add new levels. Not all classes got a new one as it is. My merc just got an extra charge on an existing ability for example.

 

But as far as the OP is concerned, if you think we have too many abilities then you probably do not understand them very well. There are very few skills that I rarely use and the ones that I don't use much are for example a slow ability on my sorc healer cause I don't PvP much.

 

Of course there are those who prefer a small skill set and more action oriented combat. I don't and that's why I play this game and not others. I prefer a bit more complexity and learning how to do it right or at least trying to ;)

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And to this game being a failure i reference you to the words of the EA CFO just the other day:

https://i.redd.it/noy1vzfbuxv31.png

I don't care what your personal opinion is. If the EA CFO says SWTOR is a business they like, they are not seeing it as a failure.

 

You mean like when football club owners say "we have complete faith in the manager", and two weeks later he gets fired?

 

All The Best

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I'm against a combat revamp, because 4 button rotations kill anything that is unique about your characters, and yes 31 abilities is a lot,

 

^ This argument is spurious.

 

It assumes we either have 30ish abilities or 4; and then makes stupid arguments from that false premise.

 

How about we had 16-20 abilities?

 

The people who want a prune get it; the people who want more than a 4-button-mash get it.

 

And let's be honest, the game would be a LOT better for it, a 33% reduction in skills to "rebalance" every time new content, levels, or gear tiers are added would save development funds for other, much needed, improvements.

 

All The Best

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With the addition of the new ability for every class, I came to realise that I'm running out of keybinds. And I think that the problem is that we have too many abilities that, more or less, do the same thing. For example, why do tank Juggs and Guardians have 2 identical stuns ? Why do Vanguards and PTs have 4 aoe abilities ?

I like the idea of having a different version of one ability that changes with the spec you're in, and I want to see more of that.

 

we have.. 90% of them are not needed.but this only showes how incompetent the devs are. even the passive skills.. what for they are needed ?!?!? 80% area just plain ******** to simulate some kind of specc tree....

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^ This argument is spurious.

 

It assumes we either have 30ish abilities or 4; and then makes stupid arguments from that false premise.

 

How about we had 16-20 abilities?

 

The people who want a prune get it; the people who want more than a 4-button-mash get it.

 

And let's be honest, the game would be a LOT better for it, a 33% reduction in skills to "rebalance" every time new content, levels, or gear tiers are added would save development funds for other, much needed, improvements.

 

All The Best

 

Well if they wanted to prune them down they can without the devs wasting time and money doing it.

 

However what the devs should do is for example make the class buffs passives instead of another ability, they could utilse the new charge system, some class dcd's could be merged (however I do like separate ones) scrap the 3 sec invincibility or as I call it cheesing dcd. but in general most are useful as is, like the charge system would work with classes that have more than one hard stun like Jugg Tank just make one hardstun have two charges and remove the other.(as much as I like Backhand, I would rather two charges of Force Chokes.) The problem with the charges system they need to implement it to only use one stack per press.

Edited by DarthSealth
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