Is SWTOR Not Even on EA/BW's Backburner Any Longer?

[arunav]

Sometimes it feels like the game has been taken off the stove completely, and is occasionally placed on it for a few moments, only to be taken off again.

 

If the lack of meaningful content updates in 6.x is from covid-19, wouldn't it be better to at least let players know? Or is new content simply not being funded well?

 

It's been roughly 1.5 years since 6.0 launched, and there's been no real continuation of its story. The "MMO bits" haven't been updated in its place much either, though.

 

I think subscribers should at least be able to count on an Ossus-like addition on non-expansion years, with a continuation of the main story, and an explorable small planet and repeatable content included on it. This might include dailies, heroics, an instanced single Operation boss, datacrons, and a few fun achievements (Don the Exiled Knight comes to mind).

 

With many folks staying indoors for almost a year now due to the pandemic, you'd think EA would want to fund projects, including a game like SWTOR, as people are spending much more time playing videogames than in the past.

 

Am I missing something? From EA's perspective, why pass up the business? Wouldn't it have been a relatively inexpensive investment into a reliable product/game to fund more meaningful updates for SWTOR?

Edited February 13, 2021 by arunav

[ceryxp]

You mean like this post from Charles Boyd on 10 April 2020?

 

 

Hi folks!

 

I hope everyone is doing well, taking care of themselves, and keeping up the social distancing

 

As Keith alluded to a few weeks back, EA, Bioware, and the SWTOR team have shifted to working entirely from home to ensure the ongoing safety of our team members. Like us, the voiceover studios where we record dialogue around the world are also eager to ensure the health and safety of their staff and actors, and have postponed all in-studio recording activities. As y'all know, our cast is pretty huge; some actors do have in-home recording capability, but unfortunately, many others understandably do not.

 

In order to adapt to these unexpected changes and challenges, we've made some updates to our upcoming releases. I've put together a run-down of the changes as we see them currently below. Naturally, this is very much subject to change as circumstances unfold; we will keep you all updated in the coming weeks if any additional changes become necessary.

 

Update 6.1.1 is moving out one week to Tuesday, April 21:

• 6.1.1 will include a number of improvements to Conquests, adjustments to class balance and end-game items, and other quality-of-life improvements.
  
• We will also begin a Double XP event with this update, running from April 21st until May 19th.
  
• However, we have made the difficult decision to delay Master Mode of the Dxun operation out of this update. Based on our testing on PTS, we believe that holding this portion of the content back for further iteration and improvement will lead to a higher quality experience for all of you to enjoy a bit later, in update 6.1.2 (see below).

 

Update 6.2, currently targeting June, has become Update 6.1.2:

• Update 6.1.2 will introduce a unique new in-game event that will join the weekly rotating schedule alongside Dantooine, Gree, etc. The event will be themed around the ultimate Swoop biker rally spread across multiple planets in the SWTOR galaxy. We'll share more info about the insane obstacle courses these daredevil riders are setting up very soon
  
• As mentioned above, Master Mode of the Dxun operation will also be released with this update!
  
• In addition to more quality-of-life updates, we're also targeting some fun additions to Nar Shaddaa Night Life, which will return this summer!
  
• So why is this update changing numbers? Because it was originally intended to include the conclusion of the Kira/Scourge/Satele storyline introduced in Onslaught's finale. Unfortunately, the dialogue has not yet been recorded for that storyline, so we will have to wait to release it until recording operations are back in full swing. Rest assured, getting that story out is our top priority, so as soon as we can get it back on the schedule we will. Based on our current information, our (very) tentative release target for that is late summer/early fall - that patch will become the "new" 6.2.
   
  

 

We really appreciate everyone's patience as we work through these challenging times, and look forward to sharing more concrete details as we get them.

 

Stay safe out there!

 

 

As you can see, they did tell us that the pandemic was going to affect content releases.

 

And then there was the Cantina Live Stream on 13 November 2020.

https://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=9893389#edit9893389

 

Update 6.2 released on 9 December 2020. We are two months out from that. What is it you are expecting? They are still releasing fixes for 6.2. Update 6.2.1 is coming on 16 February. X.X.X releases are system updates. X.X updates are story updates. X.0 releases are expansions. We will not receive more story until update 6.3. Until then all 6.2.X releases will be system updates. 6.2.1 includes updates to PVP, amplifiers, and a few other things. Release notes will be posted on Monday.

Edited February 13, 2021 by ceryxp

[arunav]

That post is from 10 months ago.

 

I was wondering what is going on with the game currently (as are many players).

 

6.2 did not continue the story that started on Ossus and was the focus of the 6.0 expansion. It gave the KotXX story a more conclusive ending, and the new FP started a new Mandalorian one.

 

The OP also wasn't only about story. The only multiplayer content we've seen since 6.0 has been MM Dxun, which exceptionally few players even try or are capable of completing, and the Spirit of Vengeance FP.

 

Again, it's a reasonable question to wonder why EA isn't doing more with SWTOR, when so many folks are staying home due to the pandemic. We can intuit from the 6.2 release that BW-A has adapted to working remotely on the game, and problems associated with recording voice actors' parts have been addressed.

 

In other words, the post from Charles is quite dated at this point, and folks are wondering what is going on with SWTOR these days.

Edited February 13, 2021 by arunav

[xordevoreaux]

and folks are wondering what is going on with SWTOR these days.

Don't count me among those folks. I play the game regardless of the rate of release of content because there's hundreds if not thousands of hours of existing content and with 170+ toons and more on the way I've plenty of things to keep me busy.

Edited February 13, 2021 by xordevoreaux

[SteveTheCynic]

6.2 did not continue the story that started on Ossus and was the focus of the 6.0 expansion. It gave the KotXX story a more conclusive ending, and the new FP started a new Mandalorian one.

6.2 continued (and concluded) one part of the Onslaught story. OK, one that was, indeed, a conclusion for KotFE/ET, but it was part of the Onslaught story.

In other words, the post from Charles is quite dated at this point, and folks are wondering what is going on with SWTOR these days.

That's a fair point, although the impact of Covid is still around - people are still getting sick from it, and so on.

[ceryxp]

If the lack of meaningful content updates in 6.x is from covid-19, wouldn't it be better to at least let players know? Or is new content simply not being funded well?

 

They did inform us that the pandemic was going to impact content releases. Charles Boyd made a post about it. You complain that the post is old. Uh, yeah, because it was about the pandemic impacting content releases in 2020.

 

 

It's been roughly 1.5 years since 6.0 launched, and there's been no real continuation of its story. The "MMO bits" haven't been updated in its place much either, though.

 

No, it has been 1 year, 3 months, and 22 days. Onslaught released on 22 October 2019. As per the post by Charles Boyd, content releases in 2020 were going to be impacted by the pandemic. Deduct those 12 months and we are left with 3 months and 22 days. Update 6.2 released on 15 December 2020. It has been 2 months and 4 days since then.

 

Criticize BW for not doing more about the bugs in 6.2 in those two months. Criticize BW for doing what they always do, which is release content in December and then let it fester with bugs for two to three months into the next year. 6.2.1 is set to be released on 16 February, which is Tuesday of next week. Criticize BW if 6.2.1 does not include any fixes for 6.2 bugs. Criticize BW for their atrocious communication (did anyone really think that bringing on a new CM would make any difference?). But that was not your complaint. Your complaint is that there has been a "lack of meaningful content updates in 6.x." That is entirely explained by Charles' post, which also outlined a release schedule for the rest of 2020, which they met.

Edited February 13, 2021 by ceryxp

[ThePlayerOne]

You are right, the game needs 2 new zones every year, 1 large and 1 small (with weekly and dailys), plus 3-4 fp and at least one operation every year.

I don't know the EA/Bioware organization and what they want to do in the near future but sure to concentrate solely on the gtn will not bring big profits to this game/company, maybe one day they will understand!

[meddani]

this game hasn't been on backburner for EA/BW for a while now, not just recently lol.

[aeterno]

A lot is riding on the decision EA reportedly soon makes regarding the efforts to revive Anthem.

 

As bas as it may sound, we better hope they kill that game off.

 

Because if they really push ahead with it and the reported 90ish more people are put on Anthem in Austin, SWTOR likely gets cannibalized of even more devs than it already has. And vice versa, if they shut that effort down, this game likely gets more hands on deck.

[Damask_Rose]

I was hoping to see a mention in this article, but nope.

[vallixas]

Honestly this game solely continues to exist to fund Bioware's other projects lol. I believe without the cartel market EA would have been axed it. Also covid seems like the appropriate excuse to justify the slow content release. Other mmo's are having no issue keeping the content flowing. Some of them already about to drop their next major expansion (XIV). Hell the devs of Baldur's Gate 3, just recently got back to work after a holiday break and already they're on their way to dropping the biggest patch of content yet to the game. Also a much smaller team, also working from home on a game with even more voice and animation work than whatever new additions BW will add to the next content, so yeah.

 

But yeah, if EA decides not to axe Anthem, I could see it taking away more talent from this game since it will require much more work.

Edited February 14, 2021 by vallixas

[Kruday]

 

I think subscribers should at least be able to count on an Ossus-like addition on non-expansion years, with a continuation of the main story, and an explorable small planet and repeatable content included on it. This might include dailies, heroics, an instanced single Operation boss, datacrons, and a few fun achievements (Don the Exiled Knight comes to mind).

 

Lol, if only. I've learned to drastically lower my expectations when it comes to content updates for this game.

[Goreshaga]

Honestly this game solely continues to exist to fund Bioware's other projects lol. I believe without the cartel market EA would have been axed it. Also covid seems like the appropriate excuse to justify the slow content release. Other mmo's are having no issue keeping the content flowing. Some of them already about to drop their next major expansion (XIV). Hell the devs of Baldur's Gate 3, just recently got back to work after a holiday break and already they're on their way to dropping the biggest patch of content yet to the game. Also a much smaller team, also working from home on a game with even more voice and animation work than whatever new additions BW will add to the next content, so yeah.

 

But yeah, if EA decides not to axe Anthem, I could see it taking away more talent from this game since it will require much more work.

Simple question as i don't play these other game, but are they fully voiced in english only or in 3 different languages like SWTOR ?

[vallixas]

Simple question as i don't play these other game, but are they fully voiced in english only or in 3 different languages like SWTOR ?

 

Xiv is voiced in English, German, French and Japanese, yes. Not to mention they never reuse tracks so they have to take into account the score as well. The new maps as well, where as in Swtor all maps have just one unique theme. The maps of Xiv had night and day theme cycles, battle music as well, lots of composing for a single map. Though square certainly pours more resources into Xiv, resources that EA will not allow for Swtor, maybe if it was bigger.

 

Small example, one of my faves from the recent xpac

 

Day

 

Night

Edited February 14, 2021 by vallixas

[supertimtaf]

Honestly this game solely continues to exist to fund Bioware's other projects lol. I believe without the cartel market EA would have been axed it. Also covid seems like the appropriate excuse to justify the slow content release. Other mmo's are having no issue keeping the content flowing. Some of them already about to drop their next major expansion (XIV). Hell the devs of Baldur's Gate 3, just recently got back to work after a holiday break and already they're on their way to dropping the biggest patch of content yet to the game. Also a much smaller team, also working from home on a game with even more voice and animation work than whatever new additions BW will add to the next content, so yeah.

 

But yeah, if EA decides not to axe Anthem, I could see it taking away more talent from this game since it will require much more work.

 

I think that a big part of the issue lies also in the "vision" that BW has for the game. For any MMO you need a considerable amount of planning, as this is a game meant to evolve and get "exploited" really hard by its players. Swtor lacked this from almost the beginnings from what I can recall. As time went on, these issues and lack of planning only made the overall game and its designs more akward, dated and old.

 

Akward "mechanics" given to everything, be it in the form of CCs on trashmobs, unseen or unreliable aoe indicators, bad desync and poor engine handling being more often than not the real challenge in some fights. It's funny to see when they have no idea what to do on a bossfight in flashpoints, because they usually just give the guy either tons of trashmobs or make it spawn an absurd amount of useless aoes that doesn't even hurt most of the time. Or they just make it go invuln. "mEcHaNiCs."

 

PvP unbalance keeps piling up due to how much useless abilities the devs keep giving to classes that don't need it.

 

Raids aren't up to date because of badly thought level sync, poor planning also led to the delayed release of an entire raid (supposed to be released boss per boss to help with the schedule).

 

The lack of thoughts brought to the new set bonuses leading to further imbalance (bonuses who weren't needed as well, but were brought in to compensate for the lack of content).

 

The lack of planning around the credit inflation (due to the lack of in-game earnable items) leading to absurdly high credit sinks as a tentative to remove the excess credits in circulation.

 

I also like that they wanted commendations and token for gearing gone but finally ended putting them back in because they didn't have any better option.

 

There are some hopes left, but they are quickly vanishing due to the slow and strange patch scheduling : was the changes to the amplifier UI really that important compared to class balance, bug fixes, ranked rewards, crafting changes, further adjustment to the unranked PvP system, reworks to the level syncing in raids, or even adding new PvE/PvP content in general ?

I quickly read through the dev blog about upscaling uprisings, and I have been pleasantly surprised to see that they finally understood that mobs using crowd controls aren't a mechanic either fun or challenging. But that's like... Three or four years too late, and this is a change that will apply to only one type of content that not many peoples will play through, and is but one of many things that keep this game from evolving to a place more suited for the current mmos standards.

 

Xiv is voiced in English, German, French and Japanese, yes. Not to mention they never reuse tracks so they have to take into account the score as well. The new maps as well, where as in Swtor all maps have just one unique theme. The maps of Xiv had night and day theme cycles, battle music as well, lots of composing for a single map. Though square certainly pours more resources into Xiv, resources that EA will not allow for Swtor, maybe if it was bigger.

 

Funny difference being that XIV saved Square Enix from a big financial crisis, as the studio kept investing in the game steadily in order for it to improve, whereas BW and EA do not invest in swtor more than the bare minimum to keep it running. One could argue that FF14 is subscription-based and has paid expac, but their cash shop is non-existent compared to the 30$+ for a single lightsaber in Swtor. You have two very different way of earning money, one being a studio like SE investing in a game and gaining in return, the other being swtor with almost non-existent investment in it and as such, improving drastically less than any other MMO on the market in terms of playrate.

Edited February 14, 2021 by supertimtaf

[vallixas]

I think that a big part of the issue lies also in the "vision" that BW has for the game. For any MMO you need a considerable amount of planning, as this is a game meant to evolve and get "exploited" really hard by its players. Swtor lacked this from almost the beginnings from what I can recall. As time went on, these issues and lack of planning only made the overall game and its designs more akward, dated and old.

 

Akward "mechanics" given to everything, be it in the form of CCs on trashmobs, unseen or unreliable aoe indicators, bad desync and poor engine handling being more often than not the real challenge in some fights. It's funny to see when they have no idea what to do on a bossfight in flashpoints, because they usually just give the guy either tons of trashmobs or make it spawn an absurd amount of useless aoes that doesn't even hurt most of the time. Or they just make it go invuln. "mEcHaNiCs."

 

PvP unbalance keeps piling up due to how much useless abilities the devs keep giving to classes that don't need it.

 

Raids aren't up to date because of badly thought level sync, poor planning also led to the delayed release of an entire raid (supposed to be released boss per boss to help with the schedule).

 

The lack of thoughts brought to the new set bonuses leading to further imbalance (bonuses who weren't needed as well, but were brought in to compensate for the lack of content).

 

The lack of planning around the credit inflation (due to the lack of in-game earnable items) leading to absurdly high credit sinks as a tentative to remove the excess credits in circulation.

 

I also like that they wanted commendations and token for gearing gone but finally ended putting them back in because they didn't have any better option.

 

There are some hopes left, but they are quickly vanishing due to the slow and strange patch scheduling : was the changes to the amplifier UI really that important compared to class balance, bug fixes, ranked rewards, crafting changes, further adjustment to the unranked PvP system, reworks to the level syncing in raids, or even adding new PvE/PvP content in general ?

I quickly read through the dev blog about upscaling uprisings, and I have been pleasantly surprised to see that they finally understood that mobs using crowd controls aren't a mechanic either fun or challenging. But that's like... Three or four years too late, and this is a change that will apply to only one type of content that not many peoples will play through, and is but one of many things that keep this game from evolving to a place more suited for the current mmos standards.

 

 

 

Funny difference being that XIV saved Square Enix from a big financial crisis, as the studio kept investing in the game steadily in order for it to improve, whereas BW and EA do not invest in swtor more than the bare minimum to keep it running. One could argue that FF14 is subscription-based and has paid expac, but their cash shop is non-existent compared to the 30$+ for a single lightsaber in Swtor. You have two very different way of earning money, one being a studio like SE investing in a game and gaining in return, the other being swtor with almost non-existent investment in it and as such, improving drastically less than any other MMO on the market in terms of playrate.

 

It helps that they put money into it to flesh out almost every system (except pvp lmao) Crafting and gathering for example in XIV is top tier and the economy is great. Only real reason to use the actual shop in xiv is for aesthetic reasons. In addition they just keep adding more and more to the game. We now have a party system akin to single player FF games. Thing about Swtor though, they've offered us these huge maps, with barely anything to do in them, the interactivity is almost non-existent. They'd honestly save more funds by making more condensed maps, since we barely do anything in them besides finish our quest, and leave to the next area never to return lol

 

EA had enough money to make a similar comeback for SWTOR, they just don't care

Edited February 14, 2021 by vallixas

[Goreshaga]

Xiv is voiced in English, German, French and Japanese, yes. Not to mention they never reuse tracks so they have to take into account the score as well. The new maps as well, where as in Swtor all maps have just one unique theme. The maps of Xiv had night and day theme cycles, battle music as well, lots of composing for a single map. Though square certainly pours more resources into Xiv, resources that EA will not allow for Swtor, maybe if it was bigger.

 

Small example, one of my faves from the recent xpac

 

Day

 

Night

Looks good.

 

I like the second one, the music sounds a bit similar to some musics you have in the Legend of Zelda games.

[Nee-Elder]

Crafting and gathering for example in XIV is top tier and the economy is great. Only real reason to use the actual shop in xiv is for aesthetic reasons.

 

EA had enough money to make a similar comeback for SWTOR, they just don't care

 

...See my post below....

 

You are right, the game needs 2 new zones every year, 1 large and 1 small (with weekly and dailys), plus 3-4 fp and at least one operation every year.

I don't know the EA/Bioware organization and what they want to do in the near future but to concentrate solely on the gtn will not bring big profits to this game/company, maybe one day they will understand!

 

Agreed, but imo, they used to understand. Before the dark times, before the....EMPIRE----errr i mean, Cartel Market!

 

Which is why orignators like me will keep on making posts like this: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=989705 ...until the day SWTOR shuts down.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Nee-Elder

[supertimtaf]

It helps that they put money into it to flesh out almost every system (except pvp lmao) Crafting and gathering for example in XIV is top tier and the economy is great. Only real reason to use the actual shop in xiv is for aesthetic reasons. In addition they just keep adding more and more to the game. We now have a party system akin to single player FF games. Thing about Swtor though, they've offered us these huge maps, with barely anything to do in them, the interactivity is almost non-existent. They'd honestly save more funds by making more condensed maps, since we barely do anything in them besides finish our quest, and leave to the next area never to return lol

 

EA had enough money to make a similar comeback for SWTOR, they just don't care

 

If you really want to get into some game systems, then swtor should :

 

Rework level sync so it concerns every PvE instance, and avoid syncing everything to 70 "just because its easier". This means that Bolster doesn't need to exist in the first place and as such gives player a more bigger incentive to gear up/utilize their current ability kit to the max. To help with players struggling in this, make veteran flashpoints require predefined roles as well. This makes them easier to balance as well and allows for way more flexible/interesting mechanics to be implemented down the road.

 

Map design is fine, the issue being level sync making the fields of mob obnoxious for everybody. A solution would be to disable level sync on these maps, but force it back if you enter a heroïc area (you have to enable level sync in order to progress through a h2+ quest, to keep them relevant and make them give rewards).

 

Remove a lot of obnoxious mechanics used by trashmobs and bosses, mainly stuns and bumps everywhere, or allow players to build a progressive immunity to them. The goal with ccs is to remove control of a character for a specific reason (to build pressure while a mechanic is channeling). If you have an entire instance full of mobs who just stuns you to do nothing afterwards except auto-attacks, then you're completely missing the point.

 

Rework a good chunk of stats and how they work. Accuracy is a neat idea, but only if it works against mobs higher than your level. Having enemies at your level with 10% chance to completely evade any attack is not what I'd call interesting, apart from preventing players from allocating too much stats in crit or alacrity. Defense is a vastly useless stat in PvE or PvP, as there is too much of it already and too many defensive cooldowns to avoid gearing with it. An interesting rework around Defense would be to make it reduce a bit of damage taken passively while increasing damage dealt by a small amount (half or a third of what power gives you).

 

Just like useless stats, there should be less "useless" abilities in game, and more should be tied to your specs. As an example, making taunts be tank-only would help tying more interesting passives around them. Another thing to note is that an overabundance of defensive cooldowns on any spec is bad for the integrity of classes. Instead of adding more new defensive tools to some dps (making them way stronger than others in PvP), you should focus more on adding offensive buffs for you and your allies, as these are more easily monitored and balanced around in either PvP and PvE. This also gives the incentive for tanks to receive new defensive tools to mitigate damage taken to the party. Giving them actual incentive to be more resistant than damage oriented in PvP, and promotes teamplay overall.

 

 

 

This is basic stuff for now, but these could be the beginning of a much bigger swtor overhaul to make it friendlier for everybody. Maybe I should do a really big post about it some day, maybe some peoples could find this interesting. Not that I'd like to work at BW or anything but...!

[vallixas]

Looks good.

 

I like the second one, the music sounds a bit similar to some musics you have in the Legend of Zelda games.

 

Best thing about it's OST is the diversity. There's your usual traditional and recognizable dramatic ff piano. But also more experimental things that draw on different cultures. You go from what sounds like slavic-esque traditional music

to Mongolian-esque chanting complete with eastern/asian flutes lol

 

Definately goes up there with my top 5 video game OST's, but square's always been good with themes

[supertimtaf]

Best thing about it's OST is the diversity. There's your usual traditional and recognizable dramatic ff piano. But also more experimental things that draw on different cultures. You go from what sounds like slavic-esque traditional music

to Mongolian-esque chanting complete with eastern/asian flutes lol

 

Definately goes up there with my top 5 video game OST's, but square's always been good with themes

 

Now don't be making peoples run off to a better game, you ! Even tho it's fully deserved, we're here to ask and advocate for a better star wars mmo, not to make peoples run away to a way better mmo ! Think of all of the Vented Lightsaber EA will never sell because you advertised for a better mmo ! How dare you !

 

If only they could learn, right ?

[vallixas]

Now don't be making peoples run off to a better game, you ! Even tho it's fully deserved, we're here to ask and advocate for a better star wars mmo, not to make peoples run away to a way better mmo ! Think of all of the Vented Lightsaber EA will never sell because you advertised for a better mmo ! How dare you !

 

If only they could learn, right ?

 

I don't think we can. 1. It's EA 2. all the soul bioware once had was stripped from it with so many dropping from the company 3. It's been years of this. At this rate i'm just hoping that Ubisoft SW game (whatever it is) turns out well. Though they should chill out with "It's gonna be groundbreaking" talk, as i'm getting PTSD from Cyberpunk

[MikeCobalt]

Has anybody checked on how much attention Anthem is getting again after bombing twice?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-08/electronic-arts-to-decide-fate-of-anthem-game-this-week

It's by Jason Schreier so people can think what they want but the date is current.

 

Alot of this hesitation in SWTOR's progress may be they're focused on reviving the twice zombie Anthem.

[ThePlayerOne]

A comparison cannot be made with SWTOR and FF14, in my opinion they are 2 mmo different in many aspects, each with its positive and negative characteristics

 

The only thing players ask for SWTOR is a constant update!, updates that come regularly in FF14, ESO , Fallout 76, etc etc.

 

Otherwise if EA/Bioware is unable to give this, is better to turn the game into a total f2p and leave the CM for those who want to buy something, then turn the game to something like GW2

[supertimtaf]

 

Otherwise if EA/Bioware is unable to give this, is better to turn the game into a total f2p and leave the CM for those who want to buy something, then turn the game to something like GW2

 

Difference being that GW2 still releases fully developped expansions and does update content as well. Full-price expansions as well while not making peoples pay anything else, and with far less expensive cash shop items iirc.

 

Funny thing, even side quests seems too hard to develop for BW now. Tells a long story on the state and how they distribute ressources.