Your suggestions for SWTOR's complete overhaul

[DaZeeZee]

What would you suggest they do in a complete overhaul of the game?

 

BURN IT! BUUUUUUUUURN IT!!!

 

Then, first step, rip the Star Wars licenscing away from EA.

 

Sell the rights to a better company with more forward thinking, passionate, and intelligent devs, open to feedback but smart enough to know which feedback to listen to.

 

Make sure the new engine and combat system is NOTHING like the SWTOR one we have now. get rid of the obsolete nonsense like tab targeting, give us something fun and dynamic to feel actually star wars. maybe something akin to how PSo2 handles combat with soft lock ons and free aim options one can freely switch.

 

Abandon the idea of "Ranged" and "Melee" classes, and embrace the fact that its never that simple in fiction, least of all sci fi-fantasy. ONE customizable jedi class, ONE customizable Sith class, Smuggler, Bounty hunter, and so on, pick which storyline to play on each character.

 

Introduce some of the most well loved and suitable SWG mechanics to the new game, make sure the TOR setting remains.

 

Make sure the player feels POWERFUL in solo and more casual group content. nothing worse than leveling up feeling like a nothing without your healer companion to save you. I'd list more but out of room.

[Hadsil]

Get rid of unnecessary graphics. Make them optional for the players who want them, i.e. which Guild controls a planet, Conquest victory progress.

 

Redo planet maps so that it doesn't take forever to reach quest entrances. Remove the Fog of War so that you don't go down the wrong trench or pathway because you haven't a clue where you are when the Fog doesn't lift.

 

Tag the Flashing Quest Objects to the player not the environment. In areas where multiple players congregate to complete planets quests, when a player clicks the flashing object don't have it disabled for another player to click it, needing to wait forever to be flashing clickable again.

 

Redo Iokath storyline so that the traitor is randomized among your companions. Realistically impossible to do everyone, of course, but allow Lana, Koth, and one of your Class Companions be the traitor.

 

Have new class stories.

 

Allow for Heroic and Operation missions to have story mode level so you can do them solo for the fun of playing. It's fine for the rewards not be so extravagant as those who play them in their normal mode.

[Desless]

The word is that not only is SWTOR's use of Hero highly customised, but it's a highly customised version of a very early beta or maybe even an alpha release, and there's no way to upgrade to a production release of Hero without basically throwing everything away and starting again.

 

"Possible" isn't interesting. What's interesting is "feasible", which in context means "possible at a reasonable cost in time and money". In this statement, of course, "reasonable" is difficult to define as it's at least 437.2% subjective, but it does involve discussions of ROI.

 

Disclaimer of Authority: I have been working as a full-time software developer for more than 30 years. If we include time spent writing software for summer jobs at university, I'm a few weeks past 35 years. Most of my colleagues are younger than my career.

 

I am not native English speaker, so yes, agree with wording. Feasible is the one I should have used.

 

I was guessing it used a highly customized version of Hero, but not from Beta version and then branched out to something more or less "in-house" version of it.

However that's also a good thing if they wanted to go back and look at older code and change things. Granted Biowares documentation process is in order.

 

Else my top list of things I wished they addressed:

 

1) 64-bit client to address memory usage

2) Multithreading

3) DX11 and 12 support

4) Update in-game movie clips with higher res on textures

[DaZeeZee]

There are so many fundamental issues holding this game back all the way from day 1 alpha that the only solution is a total re imagining of how the mechanics and engine and gameplay work. Same setting, maybe set a bit after Onslaught?

[MingusPho]

1. Combat pets

2. custom animations for every companion

3. combine gsf with class ships and make starship fps and ops

4. let blaster classes use any ranged weapon albeit with penalties based on class, same for force sensitive classes with lightsabers

5. allow all classes to use techblades and techstaves

6. make randomized or evolving dungeons

7. Add a design your own lightsaber station or forge so we can design our own hilts

8. Allow 2 comps in solo fps so we can have trinity

9. Let force sensitive classes choose their own lightsaber style (soresu, ataru, etc.) and add custom animations for each style

Edited July 28, 2020 by MingusPho

[MingusPho]

BURN IT! BUUUUUUUUURN IT!!!

 

Then, first step, rip the Star Wars licenscing away from EA.

 

Sell the rights to a better company with more forward thinking, passionate, and intelligent devs, open to feedback but smart enough to know which feedback to listen to.

 

Make sure the new engine and combat system is NOTHING like the SWTOR one we have now. get rid of the obsolete nonsense like tab targeting, give us something fun and dynamic to feel actually star wars. maybe something akin to how PSo2 handles combat with soft lock ons and free aim options one can freely switch.

 

Abandon the idea of "Ranged" and "Melee" classes, and embrace the fact that its never that simple in fiction, least of all sci fi-fantasy. ONE customizable jedi class, ONE customizable Sith class, Smuggler, Bounty hunter, and so on, pick which storyline to play on each character.

 

Introduce some of the most well loved and suitable SWG mechanics to the new game, make sure the TOR setting remains.

 

Make sure the player feels POWERFUL in solo and more casual group content. nothing worse than leveling up feeling like a nothing without your healer companion to save you. I'd list more but out of room.

 

Mmhm. Yup. The all of this too lol. I don't like to insult EA but they really need to Star Wars it up when it comes to this games feel in terms of gameplay. As a decades long fan what always stood out to me in Star Wars was that you coukd do anything. Everybody was a customized and unique character with varied skills. Here, you get forced down a narrow path of playing a rotation and using specific gear instead of being your own character. Prime example Kyle Katarn.

[SteveTheCynic]

Tbh, I laughed when I heard that. Like he str8 up went on defending the game engine.

He wasn't *defending* the engine. All he was saying was that it wasn't responsible for *that* problem. (If he had said something like, "No, the engine is just fine," along with, "the engine doesn't cause this particular instance of bad performance," *then* he would be defending it.)

[SteveTheCynic]

Then, first step, rip the Star Wars licenscing away from EA.

That would kill SWTOR deader than dead, and there's no way it would happen before 2023 (the renewal time) anyway, because Disney isn't going to want to pay the penalty clauses that EA is big enough to have negotiated, given that EA is still making money for Disney on the Star Wars licensing.

Introduce some of the most well loved and suitable SWG mechanics to the new game, make sure the TOR setting remains.

Since the TOR setting essentially belongs to EA/BioWare, how would this hypothetical perfect company be able to *legally* set its game there?

 

Also, how do you define "suitable" in this context. SWTOR is a themepark MMORPG, and SWG was a sandbox type. Sandbox MMORPGs don't interest me (I've played them in the past, which is how I know I'm not a fan), so I'd be off in search of something else.

[DaZeeZee]

SWG had some good things which could be adapted to a story oriented game. not to mention sandbox MMOs have a lot other games can implement and become better off for.

 

Sandbox is a mostly superior design really, and it's entirely possible to combine the best aspects of story based and sandbox just by embedding deep storylines to find as you explore.

 

If we cant talk about the ideal overhaul, why is this thread even a thing? why would we limit our ideas when not even a minor overhaul is a possibility?

 

this thread is asking, and I'm answering. you dont have to like it but my suggestions are better than the "fix a few bugs and do a couple minor fixes" becuase we all know nothing like that will happen- so why not think big? none of it will happen anyway.

 

Mmhm. Yup. The all of this too lol. I don't like to insult EA but they really need to Star Wars it up when it comes to this games feel in terms of gameplay. As a decades long fan what always stood out to me in Star Wars was that you coukd do anything. Everybody was a customized and unique character with varied skills. Here, you get forced down a narrow path of playing a rotation and using specific gear instead of being your own character. Prime example Kyle Katarn.

 

Someone here isn't a mindless drone! fantastic.

Edited July 28, 2020 by DaZeeZee

[TonyTricicolo]

SWG classless system, crafting, social aspects and housing combined with Swtor story telling, voice acting, and cut scenes plus Battlefront 2 graphics and GTA style open world=best game ever! Full control over customization and personalization. No forced factions if i want a certain weapon or ability. Visible shotguns in main hand. Jees, i can go on and on all day. World traversal mechanics like in Uncharted. A more fleshed out companion system like DA: Inquisition. JTL space. Edited July 28, 2020 by TonyTricicolo

[ZionHalcyon]

I know some have gone for the pie-in-the-sky approach but I prefer to keep my idea more grounded.

 

If they got that much funds to overhaul the game, very first thing I would do is higher a team that's contracted out to go in and overhaul the game engine. Keep in mind that because of the marketing and everything you aren't going to completely replace the hero engine but there have been better adaptations of it since. Also the thing is a Frankenstein right now so even the vanilla hero support wouldn't be able to help.

 

So what I would suggest if they had the funds, would be to have a very large team who is contracted simply to work on either updating or replacing the hero engine. In doing so, what I would do is have them build from the ground up a hero engine-based graphical engine that fully supports high-res textures and Vulkan. That way moving the game to Vulkan opens up the possibility for the game to be ported to Mac and also consoles, bringing in more people and more players and more revenue.

 

As much as the hero engine has been panned it's important to maintain some familiarity with the original game, not to mention there should be some similarities in development and the overhaul.

 

I would do that and get higher-res textures into the game and all the bells and whistles that people expect from a top tier game so that way even if the art style remains the same there is a greater visual fidelity as the game gets a face lift.

 

Also on the back end since this team will only be a temporary team, I would have it division working closely with them to develop tools to make story and level development as turn key and simple as possible. That way when the staffs complete their work and the contract is up, the remaining smaller staff will be able to put out content faster.

 

That is where I would spend my money. Putting everything into refreshing the graphics engine to bring it up to 64-bit standards and getting it on Vulkan, and giving the development staff as many TurnKey tools as possible to speed content creation so that way when Steph size is now reduced which eventually happens in any MMO they can still put out content at a much faster clip. I would also have the people updating the graphics engine have plenty of notes so that way the people who are left behind and still working on the game when they are gone understand how to work with the engine and manipulate it if need be.

[Devolvio]

Deleted Edited April 15, 2021 by Devolvio

[Devolvio]

Deleted Edited April 15, 2021 by Devolvio

[Oreget]

I will quit pvp entirely.block it for me I dont care.Just give me back old ravage animation.

Im here for the story not your pvp.

[Suzsi]

Make SWTOR 2.

 

As much as I adore this game and the characters, it's getting dated. Theyll never put mass funds back into it because it just won't hold up long enough. Its time to move forwards, new class stories, new protagonists, new companions.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Suzsi